Partnership Blueprint
[DAY 12]
Giorgio entered their suite looking around for his partner. After seeing the open living room and kitchen area empty, he checked the bedroom. Amongst a heaped mess of blankets, he spotted Evan lying on his side.
Walking towards the figure slowly he began apologising for his own lack of trying in their partnership, agreeing with Evan's earlier points that day. "I have… personal issues that have nothing to do with you. But you've been dealing with them in a way, and for that. I'm sorry."
"..." The figure said nothing.
He probably isn't too happy with how vague I'm being…
Steeling himself, Giorgio began. "You're probably not in the mood for a sob story, but I… I lost my entire family in one night. I was taken in by an officer at the scene, Giuseppe. He raised me as his own. We were so happy together." He says fondly. "Well, at least I thought we were. He was the one who had to put up with my night terrors though, I'd run to him whenever I had them. I don't think he really knew what he was getting himself into when he adopted a child who had survived a massacre."
Giorgio looked down as he continued, sullen. "One day, months later, I overheard him on the phone. He said that he didn't think he could continue raising me as his own. That I wasn't getting any better, and maybe another family would be able to take care of me."
"That was the day, when I realised that the weak are easy to discard. Giuseppe was probably getting sick of my shit by then- getting woken up in the middle of the night by a crying kid. I don't blame him for it." He smiled sadly. "See? When you get close to someone, they can find out how broken you are. And no one wants someone who is broken."
Silence filled the air.
"...Evan?" Giorgio cautiously stepped forward to prod Evan's arm. "Are you asl-" The sleeve collapsed under the pressure from his fingers. "-a jacket, I was laying my soul bare to a jacket." He groaned and muttered. "I'm such a fucking idiot." As he turned to leave, he jerked in surprise as he spotted Evan leaning on the bedroom door frame.
"If we were bonded really well, you would have been able to tell that I was actually behind you." Evan grinned cheekily.
Giorgio scoffed gently. "Hey… how much of that did you hear?... I can... start from the top if you missed it."
"It's all good, I heard all of it." Evan replied as he closed the distance between them.
The brunette let out a sigh of exasperation, and mostly relief, as he felt himself being hugged again. He didn't realise how high his heart rate had sky rocketed from sharing that part of himself. After all, he had never told a soul about this up until now. Telling Evan, who he barely knew, felt surprisingly therapeutic.
"You know, you really suck at hugs." The younger agent commented.
"..." Giorgio relaxed his posture to sink into the hug. Chin raised up to rest on the other man's shoulder.
"Eh. Getting better." The blonde comments, one arm holding the small of the other man's back and the other gently stroking the back of his head.
After who knows how long, Evan's surprised when Giorgio decides to speak.
"I still get those night terrors." He says, barely a whisper. "Some nights, I dream about that night. Over and over, and over again."
Although Evan doesn't know about the night in complete detail, he understands him now.
[DAY 19]
The pair had spent the entire week training intensively with each other in order to make up for lost time. With a passing team grading by the end of the month, they could be cleared for commencing actual field work together. It was something all newly partnered agents were eagerly gunning for, so to say.
The duo start making their way back to their suite after yet another gruelling day of training. Feeling more comfortable with him, Giorgio decides to tease his partner. "You really can't handle someone not liking you, can you?" He asks referring to Evan's earlier attempts at befriending him. "Bet if the VSSE had a prom night, you'd run for prom king."
"Hey!" Evan laughed. "It's not about the popularity for me, it's just… I grew up watching tonnes of action-cop movies. You know, explosions! Flips! Shooting bad guys with a gun in each hand!" He exclaims, making finger guns with both his hands.
His partner rolls his eyes with a small smile.
"But the good guy doesn't go at it alone, they've always got this equally awesome badass by their side. So, I was so hyped when it was me who got picked for the VSSE. When I finished being a trainee, they gave me my own gun." Evan says drawing it out. "They said it was the sister gun to my new partner's."
Giorgio took his own out his handgun, a Heckler and Koch USP Expert, holding it alongside Evan's. His is completely black, save for the custom white grip. Meanwhile, Evan's gun is bicoloured, black with a silver slider.
"I was happy about the gun, but I was blown away when they told me I was getting a partner on that day. I was really looking forward to you."
Giorgio feels a bit sheepish as he recalls the extra effort he put in to avoiding the younger man. "Oof. Bet I blew your expectations out of the water." He remarks sarcastically.
"Hmmm… I know." Evan thinks. "You can make it up to me by cooking me a five-star banquet. I'm not letting you off easy though, that includes dessert!"
"Fine, done."
"Oh, and let's watch some movies together too. I grew up with lots of Jean Claude Van Damme."
Giorgio smiles softly. "Sure thing, Bambino."
Evan grinned. Though, curious at what Giorgio had just called him however, he pulled out his phone and googles what 'bambino' means. Is this my first genuine compliment? His face falls when he reads the translation 'Bambino: a baby or child'. "HEY! I'M 24!"
Giorgio huffed. "Okay, how about… 'Cucciolo' [baby]?"
Evan taps on his phone again. Looking up, he glares at his teasing partner.
"No? How about... 'Piccino' or 'Bebè?" Giorgio smiled slyly.
"Oh come on! 'Bebè' means the same thing in French too! RAAGH!" Evan growls as he charges at his partner.
Uh oh. Realising that he may have pushed a little too far, Giorgio instinctively starts running away.
Giorgio's regular walk is such a carefree saunter, bordering on lethargic, that Evan doesn't really believe his eyes as his partner is running away with such an impressive speed. Huh! Maybe you walk like that normally, because you're saving energy for moments like this.
The fleeing agent spots some higher ups exit a conference room, and switches to walking. Evan picks up on this and walks as well. Giorgio gives them a respectful nod, and as soon as they all walk past him, it's back to sprinting.
Evan goes for a trot, refusing to settle for walking speed as his target gains distance again. He salutes the higher ups as he jogs past them, appearing as if he is training. As soon as he passes the group, he bursts into full speed.
"Woah!" Says one of the higher ups, as he turns around.
What is it, Paul?" A colleague asks.
"I just felt a massive backdraft… Guess I was just imagining things?"
Giorgio runs through a fire escape door. Bending over the stairwell railing, he reaches the ground on the railings outer side to perform a one-handed handstand. With the other hand holding onto the railing bars, he pushes off to forward flip down a stairwell level.
"Huh!" Evan exclaims. "Please! I eat parkour for BREAKFAST."
"That makes no sense!" Giorgio yells back, still running away.
Evan jumps on top of the stair railing and leaps off, landing on the stair railing of the lower floor. He rolls onto the floor and comes out of it in a sprint, pursuing Giorgio into the new corridor.
There's a corner up ahead as the corridor splits into two at a T-junction.
You have to slow down in order to turn an angle like that! Evan thinks joyfully, as he contemplates launching a tackle as he runs full-speed ahead.
Giorgio keeps his extreme pace however, and lowers his posture as he approaches the end of the hallway. Right as he reaches the corner he grabs onto the edge of the wall with a hand, and drops on to one knee to perform a sliding turn on the smooth hallway floor. He turns the harsh angle without losing any of the speed, and immediately springs up to return to a sprint. I don't intend on getting tackled again 'Piccino'. It felt like getting hit by a bus the first time.
Evan barely makes the turn himself and runs into the wall with a loud thud. However, smile still on his face, he immediately pushes himself off the wall to resume the thunderous chase.
Although curious, onlookers press themselves against the walls, not wanting to be mowed down by either of the field agents.
Giorgio performs another sliding turn manoeuvre again, this time into a smaller corridor.
Learning from his earlier collision, Evan runs at a wider angle at the corner and instead of colliding into the upcoming wall this time- he uses his momentum to run up, and along it before kicking off and landing back on ground to run on.
Suddenly, his sneakers screech to a halt. Huh? Where'd he go? Evan runs out the other side of the narrow corridor, he doesn't hear or see Giorgio anywhere. He continues sprinting, determined to catch up before the other man escapes...
Back in the narrow hallway, Giorgio retracts his arms and legs which are planted on the parallel walls of the corridor, and drops down from the ceiling. Good. Lost him. It seems although he is the faster runner, Evan on the other hand, does not know how to run out of energy. "Huh. What now?" He wonders out loud. "UGH!" He tumbles to the ground from the bus-like impact of a tackle from his blind spot.
Having circled back to the corridor, Evan is on top of him pinning him on the floor with his full weight. Giorgio groans. "Urgh... so heavy! What the hell have you been eating?"
"Oh well, I share a suite with this fancy Italian chef. And he feeds me delicious carbs every day." Evan replies facetiously with a grin.
"Ah. Fair point."
[DAY 20]
The pair spend all morning training with secondary weapons.
Giorgio, as the more experienced one, is a better shot out of the two. Even with the extremely high rate of fire from a machine gun, his bullets seldom hit off-mark.
Evan on the other hand, likes to get nice and close to his targets. Naturally, he gravitates towards using a shotgun to maximise its effectiveness at close range.
The duo are headed out to grab a well-earned lunch together but unfortunately, the hallway they take also contains Santiago.
The antagonistic man takes long strides dead centre to Giorgio's to confront him. "So I see the 'best in Europe' gets an 'E' in the last team exercise. How rich." He spits.
At this point, the brunette is more annoyed than amused at the other agent picking a fight with him every time they walk into each other. "Oh. And I was doing so well in not seeing you for the past few days…" Giorgio comments dryly. "Evan, we're leaving." He says, as he steers to an angle in order to walk past the other man.
Evan nods with a grin as he stretches his arms above his head.
Suddenly, Giorgio's head snaps back as Santiago forcefully grabs a handful of his wavy hair. "I did not say I was done with you!" He spits angrily.
Click.
Giorgio has his gun drawn and pointed up under Santiago's jaw. "Don't. Touch. The. Hair." He says coldly.
Agent Fernandez does as he is told, and notes that the blonde man with Giorgio has circled to his other side, at the ready to lunge at him. "Hmph!" He sneers, stomping off.
Evan frowns. "'Hmph' yourself, tête de nœud."
The offended agent snaps his head back. "What did you say?"
"OH!" Says Evan a lot louder. "I called you a DICKHEAD!"
Santiago makes a disgusted face at the rookie's impudence, although he keeps walking away nonetheless.
"Yeesh." Says Evan. "I'd hate to be his partner."
Giorgio visibly shudders at the thought.
"Ha ha ha!"
With their guns disassembled on the coffee table, the duo clean the parts of their firearms one by one dutifully.
"What's wrong?" The blonde asks his partner as he scrubs his gun barrel with a slim bristled bore-brush to remove debris.
"I'm… just a little weirded out at how invested Santiago is in hating my guts. Seems like a lot of effort." Giorgio comments, as he wets the cotton mop on top of the cleaning rod with gun oil in order to lubricate the barrel.
"How'd ya piss him off?"
"Why are you assuming I'm the one at fault?"
Evan gives Giorgio a look. "You barely knew who he was when I first saw the guy. Maybe you forgot." He shrugs.
Giorgio closes his open mouth. Although it was annoying, his partner may have had a point.
"Did you sleep with his girlfriend?"
"No."
"Did you sleep with his boyfriend?"
Giorgio quietly snorts. "No! The answer does not involve me being a harlot."
Evan laughs, continuing his theories. "There was only one piece of fruit left in the communal fruit bowl, and you cruelly swooped in and took it before he could."
"I have my own supply at home, there's never any damn peaches in that bowl. I'm sick of apples."
"OH! I know! HE HAS A CRUSH ON YOU!" Evan exclaims, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
Giorgio huffs, somehow both offended and amused.
"I mean the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Back in primary school, I'd tug the curls of the prettiest girl in class for her attention." Evan winks.
"Hmph. You damn flirt."
They stare at each other before spontaneously laughing.
"Well that's one way I didn't expect that E grading to haunt us." Evan comments.
Giorgio is about to comment, but a knock on the suite door interrupts him. "Keith, Robert. Good afternoon." He salutes them formally, taking note of the duos' straight postures and serious expressions.
Evan comes to doorway and does the same.
"Agent Giorgio Bruno and Agent Evan Bernard." Robert states.
"In light of your poor grading in your second team exercise." Keith continues as he hands an envelope to Giorgio. "You are both required to attend a remedial team-workshop at seven hundred hours tomorrow at room 9-S. This recommendation is non-negotiable. That is all."
Evan and Giorgio exchange surprised glances. Guess there was another way the E-grading was going to haunt them.
Author's Notes:
-The new chapter has finally ascended from purgatory... Huzzah!