Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original ideas and characters. Thank for reading!
Kingsman Shop
So…Harry had never been in the position of giving someone a tour of the tailor shop before. Certainly never a small child who would find nothing in the store that might interest her, save for possibly the more decorative cufflinks and some of the fabrics. She was old enough to know not to put small things she could choke on in her mouth, wasn't she? Surely Eggsy would have mentioned that if it was still a concern. And she knew how to chew things, or at least she'd seemed to at dinner.
And he needed to come up with a plan ASAP, because Daisy and Eggsy were both looking at him expectantly. Shit.
"All right…we'll start with the neckties, I think. Wearing them and bowties are the first article of a suit a child is usually introduced to." Or at least that made the most sense to him. And ties were something Daisy could touch and play with to some degree without damaging them in any way.
Motioning for Eggsy to follow him over to the nearest display of that particularly accessory, Harry asked Eggsy how old he was when he'd gotten his first tie.
"Mum had some pictures of me wearing a bowtie when I was about Daisy's age, maybe a little older. As for regular ties, well I just had a clip on one. I ain't ever had a proper one as such. Weren't required at the schools I went ta."
Whirling around Harry hoped the horror he felt wasn't written all over his face. "If you still have that clip on tie I would ask you to burn it. Such things are…I will buy you one and teach you to tie it."
Surprise and then amusement flashed across Eggsy's face. "Couldn't tell ya what happened ta it, actually. And I can get meself one if I need it. And YouTube probably has some videos I could watch."
"I'd be happy to teach you. And Daisy as well when she gets old enough to wear them too. Can she tie her shoes yet?" If she had that down she might even be old enough to be taught to tie a tie now.
"Uhm…ain't she too young for that? Not that I remember learning to tie mine, neither." Eggsy's brows furrowed as he obviously joined Harry in trying to remember just how old they had been when someone had taught them how to tie their shoes. Harry was fairly sure it had been his father, but for the life of him he couldn't guess at his age.
"I'll look it up on my phone later." Eggsy promised, his hands too full with Daisy at the moment, obviously.
"Excellent. And I do recall a song or rhyme involved a rabbit and a fox that can be used to teach a child how to tie a four in hand. Or at least I think I still remember it. It's been quite some time since I've needed to use it, though I would imagine that Daisy will like it as she has become quite fond of foxes." Or at least the child had brought the stuffed fox to dinner with her the night before, and had gone to sleep clutching it tightly in her arms. "Where is Mr. Fox?"
"He's guarding the car."
Sharing a smile with Eggsy, Harry tried smiling at Daisy, who met his gaze for a moment before looking down, her fingers twisting Eggsy's shirt nervously. Oh well.
"So these are ties, Miss. Daisy, and are often worn by young ladies and gentlemen when they attend schools such as the ones you will be going to in the future. And while many might see them as an uncomfortable but often necessary accessory, I've always liked them." Harry picked out one of the cheaper ties in case she did manage to find a way to wreck it, and then held it out for her inspection.
It took some encouragement from Eggsy, but finally she reached out and took it, studying it with some interest.
Watching her stroke the material Harry smiled even as it belatedly occurred to him that there might still be chocolate or crumbs on her fingers from the biscuit. Oh well. It could be cleaned or bought for Eggsy, since it would complement the boy's coloring well enough.
"Now some people aren't aware that there are many different ways to tie a tie, and that each version has its own…flavor. The four in hand knot is the most standard knot used; an unoriginal but safe choice. I myself general wear a full Windsor, note the dimple, which some might call overdone but I think is never too much. Eggsy, I see you more as the Prince Albert sort, though I will of course teach you all the knots so that you can choose your favorite yourself."
"Sure. Though it aint like I'll have much reason ta wear one." Eggsy's grin remained on his face, though there was a hint of self-consciousness in his stance. "I don't dress fancy like."
The eyes on them weren't being at all subtle, regardless of what the idiots might think.
"I have no intention of telling you how to dress, Eggsy." Which was unfortunately since there were a number of items in the boy's closet that should be burned for the sake of humanity. "Clothes are important, of course, but they do not make a man. Manners do. And learning new skills is always valuable, as one never knows when that skill will come in handy."
"Eggsy." Daisy tugged on Eggsy's shirt for emphasis with one hand, her other holding out the tie. "Wear dis. Then you pretty like Uncle Harry."
She thought he was pretty?
Surprised, but pleased, Harry was game, as was Eggsy apparently, as the boy motioned over to a nearby chair set out for those waiting for someone in the fitting room.
To see her brother look pretty Daisy was willing to let go of her brother and take a seat on one of the brocade chairs, her little legs dangling over the edge as she stared up at them while Eggsy lopped the tie around his neck and then asked what was next.
Moving in closer, the difference in their heights a minor annoyance but easily worked around, Harry looked over at Daisy, who met his gaze this time. "First I'll show you how the rabbit outwits the fox to get safely back in his hole again."
Ignoring Eggsy's snicker over that, Harry demonstrated with the tie how the rabbit runs around the tree, under the bush, and then pops back up again to dive into his hole, safe from the fox once again.
"Again! Again!"
Again proved to be about four times, Daisy loving the very short story as opposed to having any interest in learning to tie a tie.
Thankfully Eggsy saved him from having to do it another time by asking to be shown how to do the fancy Windsor thing, which Harry was happy to do. Though there was a slightly awkward moment partway through when the closeness between them caused their bodies to come into closer contact than Eggsy had apparently been expecting. The shorted breath and sudden, ruler straight posture were rather hard to miss. But the younger man didn't move away, and respecting that Harry just adjusted the problem he'd moved in to fix, it having been ages since he'd tied this knot on someone else.
And while he finished his tutorial and the knot Harry allowed his mind to wander back to the question that had been floating around in the back of his thoughts since Daisy had asked the day before as to whether or not he was Eggsy's boyfriend. There had been no evidence of homosexual behavior mentioned in the report he'd been given on Eggsy, but that didn't mean there hadn't been at some point in the boy's life. One wouldn't advertise that sort of thing in either the army or the estates. Or it could just be that Eggsy had raised Daisy to think it was alright to be gay, and she'd just assumed that her brother might someday have a boyfriend rather than a girlfriend.
He wouldn't ask, regardless, and leave it up to Eggsy to either bring it up or not. He already knew that Eggsy would know that he himself was gay because that would have been in the files the social worker had apparently shown to the younger man.
That he couldn't have a child naturally had been one of her selling points for adopting Daisy.
Daft woman.
"I think that one I'm going to need some practice ta get the hang of." Eggsy's hand came up to fiddle with the tie a little. "And wear a proper dress shirt for it."
"That would help, yes."
Undoing the tie and sliding it off from around Eggsy's neck, Harry held it in his hand, not sure what to do with it now. And so he held it and suggested that they move on to the cufflinks.
)
Thankfully, since he had absolutely no idea how to make cufflinks interesting to a three year old, Thomas chose that moment to make his way over to ask if he was needed. Given that Thomas had worked for them for years in the shop Harry knew that if anyone in the building would know how to make the shop interesting to a child, it would be Thomas. Introductions were required firstly, Eggsy shaking the man's hand while Daisy giggled in delight when Thomas gave her a small bow.
And so Harry left it to Thomas to explain the cufflinks to Daisy, though the man had hardly gotten started explaining all the things cufflinks could be made out of when a knowing chill went up Harry's spine as the door to the shop opened and a man came in.
Not just any man though. And most definitely not human. Not anymore.
Meeting Eggsy's gaze, and seeing that the boy had recognized the creature that had just entered the shop for what he was, too, Harry gave him a look that was meant to reassure him even as he quietly asked him to remain with Daisy in case that needed to be said.
And then Harry turned and put himself between those he was sworn to protect and the vampire striding towards them like he owned the place. He watched and waited, making no move to attack beyond the warning he put into his gaze. Unless provoked he would leave it at that for three very good reasons.
One was that they were in public, and revealing himself for what he truly was wasn't something the vampire would do without cause. Two, Eric Lamont wasn't an idiot. He knew a fight with someone of Harry's skill and training would reduce him to ash before he'd finished baring his fangs at him. Lastly, Eric might be old enough that he could handle being out in weak sunlight, but if he was going to try and kill a Kingsman agent he'd wait until the night, when he was strongest. So odds were this was a peaceful visit, but that didn't mean he was going to let the conniving bastard near Daisy or Eggsy.
The body language of the two humans customers in the shop suggested they knew, on an instinctual level that the pale and somehow unnaturally attractive man now in their midst was a danger to them. Whether they knew what Lamont was, was questionable, but the fact that he was a predator always looking for prey was something the four hundred year old creature had never been good at hiding. If he wanted to at all.
"Harry. It's been far too long." The vampire purred at him, his tone indicating an intimacy that had never been between them as he wound his way towards them. Unless one counted the fact that Harry had singlehandedly dusted half of the last coven Eric had been a part of. Harry supposed that could be seen as a rather personal connection between them.
"Lamont. Here for a new suit?"
"Actually, I came to talk to you about something very important." Stopping with a couple of feet between them Eric smiled at him and then cocked his head thoughtfully to the side, his attention shifting away and beyond him. "And who is this young man you're standing so protectively in front of, hmm? A little young for you, is he not, My Friend?"
"I would say that you, of all people, would have no right to judge were that the case. And he is no one you need to concern yourself with. As for what you've come to tell me, we'll go up to my office. We'll have privacy to talk there." Not taking his eyes off the vampire Harry spoke to Eggsy, knowing that there was no point in lowering his voice since Lamont would hear him regardless. "We'll have to continue the tour another time, I'm afraid. I'll see you both later."
"Want I should call Merlin?" Eggsy asked after moving in closer so that he was all but pressed up against Harry's back, his and Daisy's breath ghosting across his skin. The boy must be holding her in his arms again.
"It's fine."
"You're not even going to introduce us? How unusually rude of you, Harry. Not very gentlemanly of you. Or British, for that matter. But then you and your people have always…" Having drawn closer as he spoke, Eric trailed off and inhaled deeply, his eyes closing briefly before fluttering back open, the sudden darkening of his brown eyes a forewarning even before his lips curved in full predator mode. "I really must insist, I think, on an introduction."
"No."
"Come now, you know I'll find out. And I simply wish to put a name to the scent, as it were."
Oh hell. Eggsy's scent. Or Daisy's, Harry silently corrected, though he'd guess on the former. Children were generally a last resort for food for vampires. Not out of any moral code, but because the sheer innocence of them. Their purity carried over into their blood, and in a final revenge was known to weaken their murderer for weeks, if not months. Eggsy, however, was a young, healthy male who did, at least to Harry's own nose, smell very appealing.
Apparently Eggsy not only recognized a selkie when he saw one, but a vampire as well.
"Who I am is not something you need to know." Was the boy's cool response, Eggsy mimicking Harry's own accent quite convincingly. "Not if you want to keep your fangs in your head. I hear they don't grow back."
"I do like them fiery."
"And I hear your kind don't do well with fire."
Doing his best not to grin, though that response had been the perfect comeback, Harry also knew that the longer Eggsy remained where Eric could scent him, the deeper Eric's interest in the boy would become. Especially since he'd already made it clear that Eggsy was under his protection. That would only heighten Eggsy's appeal to Lamont.
Reaching behind him with one hand, Harry gently placed his hand on Eggsy's hip and nudged him, hoping that Eggsy would take the hint.
Thankfully he did.
"I'll see you later. Nice to meet you, Thomas."
Sliding out from behind Harry, Eggsy deliberately had Daisy perched on his right hip with an arm wrapped around her, his left hand…the boy's fingers were clenched around something, which Harry got the sense was meant or actually was a threat to the vampire who watched Eggsy walk away without moving anything except his head as he tracked the two until they were out the door.
Only when Eggsy was out of sight did Eric turn his attention back to him.
"No."
"No?"
"No." Harry stated firmly. "He is mine. Touch him and I will end you."
"He doesn't smell as though he is claimed by you." Moving closer, Eric pitched his tone low, like they were sharing a secret. "So what is he, exactly? I mean he seems human, but his scent…there's something intriguing about it. Something old and…unusual about his blood." A Cheshire cat smile. "Come now, you can tell me. I promise not to be breath a word."
"The boy is not what we need to discuss. Really the only discussion we can have involving him will be a detailed description of what I will do to your person if you should so much as seek him out, much less place a hand or fang upon his person. Now are we going to my office to speak of why you've come here in the first place, or not?"
"Fine, fine. Your office, then. Though really, Harry. You need to learn to share more."
Pointing in the direction of the stairs, Harry waited until the vampire started walking before following after him.
He wasn't about to trust his back to him.
)
Text Messages
Eggsy: Wotcher, Harry. Just wanted to check in and make sure that you're all right. What did the vamp want with ya, anyway?
Harry: I'm fine, Eggsy. Lamont dropped in to pass along some information in exchange for funds. Despite being centuries old he's never learned to live within his means. He's only gotten worse since certain powers that be have put a stop to his former habit of marring for money before being 'tragically' widowed soon afterward.
Eggsy: A time honored tradition, that.
Harry: True enough. You handled yourself well with him, by the way. Though I am curious as to what you had in your hand as you were leaving.
Eggsy: Ya seriously type out btw? And it was holy water. Vamps like the scent of me for some reason. They've always taken no for an answer, but one suggested I carry some of that around, just in case, so I have a small vial on my keychain.
Harry: Excellent idea. Though I expect you to tell Merlin or I immediately if Lamont approaches you or is even just in your vicinity. He's not stupid, and I've made the fact that you're under my protection clear, but better safe than sorry.
And of course I typed out the full words. I thought we've already established how I feel about your generation's determination to mangle the English language beyond all recognition.
Eggsy: Yeah, yeah. Understood. Still gonna be home for dinner?
Harry: That is the plan. Daisy all right?
Eggsy: She's fine. Playing tea with Mr. Fox and some of the other stuffies.
Harry: Good. Now I have to get this work done if I'm to come home anytime soon, so I'll say goodbye for now.
Eggsy: Later, Harry.
