Out of the Blue

[DAY 24]

Evan had gotten up in the middle of the night for some water and found Giorgio curled up between the legs of the study table in the open living room.

'I still get those night terrors.'

Evan being Evan, he decided to lie down next to his partner on the floor. As much as he wanted to, he didn't pry, but he still wanted to be nearby. His own show of moral support. They lay in silence there for a while side by side.

Giorgio shifts. "...Evan?"

They share small talk about nothing in particular. After a while, Giorgio builds up his nerves and tells Evan the details of the tragedy he endured nineteen years ago.

He gave a long, tired sigh. "It was so long ago. I'll always miss my birth family, but I've accepted that they've been gone for a long time now. So why the hell does that dream keep haunting me?"

After some reluctance from the other, Evan persuades Giorgio to see the base's psychologist. "It's okay! Think of it like going to the doctor's, but for your head instead of your body. If you're scared I can even come with you." He teases.

Giorgio scoffs. But decided he would.

[DAY 25]

"So, how'd the first session go?" Evan asks his partner as they traverse a quiet hallway together.

"Not too bad, actually." Giorgio answers. It was actually a lot easier to tell the psychologist all the details since he had told Evan the night before. "Oh, and one more thing." He says in a low voice. "Don't tell anyone ok? Even Wesley and Alan don't know about my 'humble roots.'"

"Promise!" Evan says, holding up and flexing his pinky finger with a grin.

Giorgio shakes it with his own pinky after a moment of confusion. "You are such a kid."

"Quoi?! [What?!] Not this again! I'm only four years younger than you!"

"Yeah, a kid." He scoffs.

"Oh yeah? If I'm a kid— that makes you an old fart!"

"I— What?! Take that back, I'm not even thirty yet!"

"Oof. I don't know, it's getting really close."

They both silently shoot glares at each other as they walk side by side.

Giorgio clicks his tongue turning his head away. "...Anyway I'm going to make myself a latte in the break room... You'll be happy to know that the coffee machine also has a babyccino option just for you."

The two explode back into bickering with each other.

The pair begrudgingly drink their coffees with each other. Evan had made himself a bitter long black that he didn't enjoy at all, just to prove a point.

Afterwards, they attend a small compulsory seminar in a meeting room. It's about the political situation of Astigos and Lukano.

The elderly sociology professor, although the best in his field, is quite dry with his lectures. After not even half an hour, Evan's attention span starts waning.

"Now due to the nullification of a non-aggression treaty… and this impacts the socioeconomic status of the current government as it… boring politics stuff… long words put together… marp marp marp marp marp."

Evan cannot remember the last time he was this bored. Maybe at his cousin's fifth wedding?

Giorgio blinks his eyes really hard to stop them from glazing over, and resumes on focusing on the old man who really needs to get to his key points faster. After a while, he feels a light tug on a lock of hair behind him.

Merde alors [Holy shit] this meeting is boring. Evan twirls a lock of the wavy brown hair in front of him around a finger before releasing it. The hair uncoils and springs up. Oh my god. This is fun.

Giorgio rolls his eyes when he realises how his partner has decided to play, but he allows it.

[DAY 26]

There is a late afternoon briefing for a fair amount of the European Division's field agents.

After the senior agent in charge of the briefing leaves, agents begin filing out of the room. Santiago blocks Giorgio's path, before he too can leave.

"I knew there was something off with you." He snarls.

"What? You can sense that I'm not a morning person? Aren't you late to the party." Giorgio deadpanned, unamused that at how unrelentingly annoying the other man has proven himself.

Suddenly the antagonistic agent turns around to the surrounding agents and loudly announces. "Look! Everyone! The VSSE celebrates having criminals in its ranks!"

"What the hell are you blathering abou—"

"The fucking Sicilian Mafia! Is where our esteemed Agent Bruno hails from."

Giorgio freezes, eyes wide.

Santiago turns around to lock eyes with him, knowing smirk on his face.

Giorgio shakes his head slowly at him and mouths. "Don't do this." How does he know?

Snickering, the other agent turns around again. "Yes, THAT Bruno Family. Powerful, ruthless! Had it not wiped itself out, we'd have ourselves a Mafioso instead of an agent!"

His breaths have become quick, and while he strains to maintain a calm facade, Giorgio is frozen in place as he feels as though everyone's stares are condemning him.

"What?! Not going to deny your ties? Not even a witty comeback? Come on now! You're so famous for them!" He goads.

His mouth slightly apart, Giorgio's thoughts are too scattered to say something, anything. All he can do is hear the whispers in the room and the heart beat thump in his chest.

Evan trudges up to Santiago, and the Spaniard doesn't notice until he has come close.

"Bonjour!" Evan waves his hand with a smile. He smashes his fist square on the other man's nose making him fall back and land roughly on his backside.

"Santiago!" Rúben screams as he runs to his bleeding partner.

Evan ignores him and takes Giorgio by the wrist to guide him out of the room, away from all the judging eyes.

Evan sits Giorgio on the couch back at their suite. Holding his partner's shoulders firmly, he looks straight into his hazel eyes. "I swear to you, I did not tell anyone."

Giorgio opens his mouth to talk, but no sound comes out.

"Stay here. I'm going to go sort things out." Evan says as he quickly leaves the room. Shit. He hates me now.

The door to Dr Fine's office flings open harshly.

The psychiatrist and her patient jump in surprise.

"What on earth—"

"Get out." Evan growls at the agent.

"I have a session right now for my fear of robo—"

"Get out now. Before I give you PTSD so bad your grandkids will have it." The calm anger in his voice sends the other agent in the room bolting out.

"Mr Bernard?!" Fine exclaims.

"That's me!" He says flippantly.

"How dare you treat someone who has been badly traumatised with petty threats?! Explain yourself!" She asks angrily.

"Oh that is rich, lady. My partner comes to you for help, and you give his file to the biggest dickhead in the VSSE to share with everyone."

"I did no such thing!" She counters.

"Well neither did I!" Evan says throwing his hands up. "But Giorgio told me about his past in confidence. And now, everyone knows, so it looks like I took a giant shit on his trust. Oh, but let's say with the off chance he does still trust me— it doesn't change the fact that I'm a massive scumbag for delivering him straight into your dirty claws!"

"How dare you question my integrity with such a baseless accusation?!" She yells.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry! That's the problem. I ASSUMED you had integrity!" Evan says with a hand on his forehead mockingly. Becoming serious, he interrogates her. "Why did you give that piece of shit Santiago, Giorgio's file?"

"I've. Told. You. I did not give his file to anyone." She hisses coldly. "It stays in this room, untouched by people who are not me. There is only the physical copy under lock and key in this room, and the electronic copy is under heavily restricted access."

Evan eyebrows un-furrow and his eyes widen with realisation. "Which means your computer needs to be hacked into if someone wanted a copy." He turns to leave. "You've told me all I needed to know, thank you."

"Wha— wait!"

Evan does not wait, and heads out the door to prove his theory.

Knocking on the door, it opens revealing the man he's looking for. "Ted. I need your help."

Evan watches over Ted's shoulder as the IT technician types scripts into his laptop.

"Ok, so I've traced it... Now to bring up the owner of the hacking device." Says Ted, amongst his fingers tapping keys.

A profile loads on his screen. [Agent Rúben Vara. Region: Portugal. European Division Rank 47.]

"Thanks Ted." Evan says, as he pats the man on the back.

"Hey! Wait… what are you going to do?" Ted asks, having noted the oddly cold expression on the other man's face. He turns around to see Evan is already gone. Oh that can't be good.

Giorgio is still on the couch, shell shocked by what had just happened. He was still replaying the whispers he heard and the stares he felt in the briefing room. He remembered the disgusted looks he received, particularly from the other Italian agents. They would be the ones dealing with mafia activity the most after all...

After too long, he realises that there has been an urgent knocking on his door and calling of his name for some time now. So he finally moves.

Rúben walks around a corner, and lets out a surprised gasp as a hand wraps around his neck and flings him back against a wall with a thud.

"You." Evan's voice comes out in an icy anger towards the agent.

Rúben visibly jolts as he recovers himself. "...Agent Bernard." He says quietly.

"I didn't expect Santiago's shit-bag tendencies to have completely rubbed off on you!" Evan says as he readies a fist to swing into Rúben's face.

With a loud bang, Evan has punched a hole in the wall next to the agent's head. "Tell me why?!"

Ruben opens his eyes that he has closed. He had intended on taking the blow full on. "Because..." He says quietly, voice crackly and small. "...it's so hard. When your partner hates you with so much passion. Every time I make a mistake, he rips into me. I doubt myself, I freeze, and I make more mistakes, and he rips into me again and again."

Evan's anger falters, although he barely lets it show.

"So, I thought I'd impress him the only way a weak agent like me could. I showed him how I could hack into complex security systems… and eventually he goaded me into finding 'dirt' on Mr Bruno. I didn't know he planned on telling everyone." Dark, regret-filled eyes look up to meet Evan's with sincerity. "I am so sorry. I deserve all the pain you need to inflict on me, so go ahead."

Evan advances towards Rúben. And walks past him. So you just wanted your partner to like you. Huh. You're just like me. He thought bitterly.

It wasn't fair. It took forever for Giorgio to acknowledge him and they had finally obtained a friendship of sorts. But with this, His partner would hate him forever for the new suffering he'd have to endure with everyone learning his mafia roots.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

And then, he decided. If his partnership was going to go down in flames, he'd take Santiago down with him.

Evan has finally tracked down Santiago to the infirmary. Evan had heard from some other agents, that his earlier punch had broken his nose. And now, for every single other bone. He marches forward like a predator which has caught the smell of prey.

"Evan. Stop."

Sneakers screech across the floor and he turns around. "Giorgio..."

"Ted told me that you were in a 'violent mood'. Figured you'd be where Santiago was, after I saw that Agent Vara was unscathed." He gives a small shrug. "What are you planning to do?"

"I'm going to break blabbermouth's jaw. And when I'm done, it'll be every other bone in his body." The blonde answers with a cold confidence.

"If you do that, you'll be dishonourably discharged at best. So don't."

"But what about you?!" Evan yelled, anger still raw in his veins.

"I'll do what I do best. Survive." Giorgio walks away, and stops to wait for his partner to follow. "Come on Evan. Let's go home."

Both men are lying on the carpet floor of the suite, exhausted by all the drama of the day.

"You… I didn't think you'd even talk to me again…" Evan said, staring at the ceiling.

Giorgio shook his head gently. "I don't blame you for what happened. Sorry I didn't say anything to you earlier. I know Santiago is a dickhead and all, but he manages to outdo himself every time, and it left me in shock." After they share a chuckle, he continues. "I'm actually… going to see Dr Fine next week too. I think it helped a little the first time, and I am more than ready to heal."

Evan turned his head, involuntarily smiling a little at the news. He closed his mouth and the smile fell, when he thought of Santiago escaping the 'justice beating' he was about to give him. "So that's it? He wins? Bad guy gets away?" He asks dejectedly.

"Life isn't fair, Evan. That's why we need to be strong enough to endure it. And hey—" Giorgio turned his head to face him. "—we'll be twice as strong together."

What are you doing Evan? You're meant to be cheering him up, not the other way around. Evan opens his mouth to say something, but closes it as he thinks of an idea. He gets up and playfully drags his partner a short distance across the carpet. "Wait, here. I've got just the thing!" He says as he leans his partner against the couch bottom.

Too surprised to protest at being manhandled, Giorgio decides to humour his partner and patiently wait on the floor, only stretching to turn on a nearby lamp.

After hearing some fumbling and clinking around the partial darkness, Evan returns. He has a large glass bottle in one hand, two wine glasses in the other, and a grin on his face.

"Mmm." Giorgio purrs, sipping more of the golden drink. "What is this? It's sweet and quite fragrant."

"Mead!" Evan beams with pride. "Think of it as a cider, but made with honey instead of apples. In France, it is said that mead was traditionally drunk after weddings, so that's why the event after is called a honeymoon." He winks.

"So this is what you were... holding the other day." Giorgio recalls, speech starting to slow. Due to its sweetness, it was very easy to drink quickly. "We've gone about sixty percent down the bottle... think we can finish it?"

"Ahh but mon ami [my friend], if you remember." Evan holds up a full bottle, grinning. "I was holding two bottles that day."

Author's Note:

-Chouchen: Alcohol made from buckwheat honey, popular in Brittany, France. Apple juice is added in this version of mead.

-Honeymoon: In medieval times, the bride and groom were given enough mead to last a month! Woo lucky!