AN: Sorry for the delay. Hopefully everyone enjoys this as much as I loved writing it. Thanks again!
Sadly nothing to remarkable happened and once Arthur arrived, Alastair and James were free. For perhaps the first time Alastair wished a bomb needed defusing somewhere or the Queen needed saving. Instead, he was now walking beside a young man who was jumping up and down like a child who thought Christmas had come early.
"God I can't wait! There's so many flavours you should try but don't worry we'll start out simple! First just vanilla and other common flavours. Then we'll get more adventurous, maybe even start mismatching scoops, and after that it's only the toppings we have to conquer!"
"You make it sound like a battle plan," muttered Alastair sullenly. He honestly didn't understand why he was following him. He could turn around at any moment and just walk away but instead each footstep went along with the other's shadow.
Snorting at the comment, James replied, "And you make it sound like a funeral. Now come on, this going to be fun."
"You do realize I'm only indulging you this one time, correct? It's not like I'm going to sit with you for five hours just trying ice cream."
"Well obviously you're only going to try one this time but this is definitely going to be a regular thing."
"You don't even know if I'll like it," growled Alastair. "And besides, there's no such thing as regular in our line of work. It's not like criminals give us a calendar of when they want to muck up the world and we just cross check it with ours to make sure we're not busy that day."
"That would be simpler wouldn't it? But imagine the calls that might come up. I'm sorry, can't have you blowing up Paris tomorrow. I have my niece's birthday I have to attend."
"That wasn't my point!"
"I know but I thought it was a fairly amusing response," replied James with a smirk.
Rolling his eyes, Alastair kept quite as they continued walking. He analyzed the area they were moving through and though he was positive he'd been through every street of London, he could say with quit certainty that it had been forever since his last visit on this street.
A sudden scream had his head swiveling around but it was only a kid running after another on the other side of the road where a playground lay. Turning away, he noticed James had been looking in the same direction. A fond smile played on his face and James commented, "I miss being a kid. God I wish I could just run and jump around and play make believe."
"Well you can if you like. Preferably in traffic."
"Oh, you're to kind," James responded sarcastically though he chuckled afterwards. "So, you ever play on playgrounds or were you to worked up in books to realize there was a world going on around you?"
"I played on playgrounds," muttered Alastair. "I enjoyed the challenge of getting through parts as quickly as possible and the exercise was good enough."
"That sounds like a drill regiment. Not playing."
"I didn't have many friends alright? That kind of lowers the scope of what a kid can do."
"Really? I would have thought you were the most popular kid in class."
"Oh I was fairly popular thank you."
"Seriously?"
"Yes, I was the kid that everyone came to if they didn't want their homework done and I knew exactly what to say to piss off the teacher enough so that they forgot to give us homework or check the day's prior."
"You're joking right? That's not exactly the greatest or most honest way to make friends."
"I wasn't making friends," muttered Alastair. "It was simply the easiest way to get kids to stay away from me. They were just to boring. And besides, I enjoyed messing with the teachers. Some were honestly pretty damn stupid."
James shook his head in wonderment as he asked, "Have you just never wanted to be friends with people?"
"No," Alastair replied slowly, "I just discovered long ago that keeping to myself greatly simplified everything and made completing goals much easier."
"That's rather bleak. Especially for a kid."
"It was how I grew up. No way of changing that now," sighed Alastair with a roll of his eyes. "Is that the shop?"
"Yeah, how'd you know? I didn't tell you the name did I?"
"No but the sign 'ice cream' kind of gave it away."
"Oh yeah!" James grabbed hold of Alastair's hand before he could argue and pulled him into the place. It was rather late and only a family and a clerk were in there. The situation made Alastair feel extremely awkward as he snatched his hand away and it was only made worse when James called out, "Lily, great to see you again!"
Did he honestly know the girl by name? How often did he go here?
"Same goes to you James. Who's the friend?" she asked curiously as she leaned against the counter.
"This is my best friend and yet he has just told me he has never had ice cream. Not once."
"Best friend is a little over the top isn't it," muttered Alastair. "We're colleagues."
"Hmm, seems to be some disagreement in friendship land. Where did you find him James?"
"Underneath a book and behind a permanent scowl," he replied with a grin.
Alastair looked between the two of them like they were crazy. Despite the fact that they looked nothing alike and had different accents, he was convinced that they were related somehow some way.
"Sounds like you had to drag him out here but I don't see any rope," replied Lily with a raised eyebrow.
James laughed in response but Alastair finally growled out, "Alright, that's it. I'm leaving. You two go on and continue flirting for all I care."
"Hey hey hey!" James cried out as he grabbed hold of Alastair and pulled him back. "I'm sorry. I can't help but poke fun and you though. You're like a stone pillar. Come on, I'll start this over again. Alastair, this is Lily. We live in the same apartment building so I've known her for a while."
"Apartment building? But what about—" Before Alastair could finish, James was stepping on his foot hard and rather successfully shutting him up.
"And Lily, this is Alastair. He'd like to believe we're just colleagues but we're really friends. Besties in fact."
Alastair rolled his eyes at that but was to confused about the last statement beforehand to care that much. What about the home that Kingsman supplied each agent? Surely the girl in there couldn't be his neighbor and it seemed much more likely they'd known each other for years and not simply months. He mentally reminded himself to ask later as James continued with, "So, one scoop of vanilla ice cream. We'll start out small this time."
After forcing the cone into Alastair's hands, James got his own which looked like a heart attack. James thanked Lily and quickly walked out, Alastair following him. James had already attacked his cone while Alastair frowned out his own. Finally, he slowly licked it.
"Sooo, what do you think?" asked James, his eyes wide as he awaited the verdict.
"It's…sweet."
"Well yeah, but do you like it?"
"Not sure yet." Alastair would have liked to pretend he hadn't missed anything as a child yet he wasn't sure if he really liked it or not. He tried to really think it all through when suddenly something wet touched his nose.
"Come on, you either like or not," replied James with a smirk.
"Did you seriously just put ice cream on my nose?"
"You're eating it to tentatively. Got to get a little messy."
"I do not and you're disgusting. How am I supposed to clean it off?"
"Just wipe it off with your hand. Or I could lick it off."
Alastair went a deep scarlet as he spit out, "You will do nothing of the sort!" and quickly wiped it away. Not looking to see James' reaction went at the cone instead, focusing on the sweet flavour instead. The silence that followed was much appreciated though he didn't know if James was only being courteous or had a mouth that was to full to talk.
After about ten minutes of just wondering around the streets it was all gone and James finally asked, "So did you like it?"
Looking at James rather uncertainly, he finally muttered, "Yes."
"Really!"
"Well it's not something I would binge myself on but yes, I liked it," muttered Alastair as James' face lit up with happiness. He didn't understand why something so simple would make James so happy. He didn't understand why the burst of happiness didn't really piss him off.
"My job is done here then. Have a good night." James turned on his heels and began heading off in one direction, leaving Alastair confused and rather uncertain.
However, before he could leave, James turned around and yelled back, "See you at work! I'll make sure to bring enough breakfast for the both of us!"
"You don't even know if we'll both be there!" Alastair cried back but James was already gone. Rolling his eyes in response, he also realized he'd failed to talk to James about his housing arrangements, something that still greatly confused him. Sighing, he put that away for later along with any other thoughts of the man. It seemed that anything that went along with James only succeeded in confusing Alastair more.