Seventh Avenue
Once Q returned to his branch, the first thing he did was pull up the data from 005's smart blood nanobots. The agent was only ten minutes away, according to the GPS tracking system, and he had a zero percent blood alcohol content, which was a rather pleasant surprise.
From what Q had read, Double-0s usually turned to one of three things directly after a mission - alcohol, sex, or barfights, and the omega had assumed that Saif would fall into the former category. Given that the alpha was taking him to dinner, however, perhaps he was intended on the latter. God help him if he was only taking Q out for a one-night stand though, because the Quartermaster would sure as fuck not take to that very kindly.
Either way, he only had to wait a few more minutes to find out.
Edie had followed him down to Q-branch, still staring at him with that stunned and slightly fearful look, as if she genuinely thought that he was a long-lost member of the royal family. How that particular story fitted in with his Russian double agent mother being killed by dalmatians, he wasn't sure, but he was definitely enjoying the confused bewilderment on 009's face. Maybe when all of this was over she would actually remember the lessons taught to her.
Lesson number one: don't fuck with people's privacy.
Lesson number two: don't fuck with the vaults of MI6.
Lesson number three - and by far the most important - don't fuck with Q.
For now, however, he was gladly leaving her to figure things out herself, and he subtly kept an eye on the alpha as she draped herself across the lumpy couch in his personal office, somehow managing to make even that look graceful.
Tidying up his desk, he double-checked and then triple-checked that there was nothing needing his immediate attention before he started logging off. Q could hand Saif's equipment over to one of the minions to process after he checked that it was all working correctly, and then, hopefully, they would be good to go.
He was surprisingly hungry, after all, although that probably had something to do with his conversation with M. Telling the Head of MI6 that he had collared the most dangerous creatures alive would work up an appetite on anyone.
Hearing a loud but muffled commotion coming from the main office area below, Q bit back a smile. It would seem that 005 had returned home then, and in one piece, too, if he was capable of scaring Q's minions so easily.
Silently counting down from ten, the Quartermaster listened to the near-silent footsteps on the metal stairs, before there was a light knock on his door, and Saif stepped into the room.
The man's gaze immediately scanned the office, taking in all possible exit points - the door, the window - and all possible threats - a loaded gun, a pair of scissors, 009 - before stepping forwards and letting the door swing close after him.
"005" Q greeted calmly, "You'll have to forgive my unexpected visitor, but I'm afraid she's rather like a stray cat".
"Oh?"
"Entirely ungrateful yet impossible to get rid of. I trust that you had a pleasant flight?"
"That's one word for it" Saif replied, still glancing around the room as if expecting an enemy agent to suddenly jump out at him. There was something… off about his tone. Q couldn't help but frown, watching the alpha warily for any signs of aggression. Edie was keeping an eye on him too, her gaze strangely focused and her body tense despite it's relaxed appearance.
Q suddenly realised that maybe she actually did have a reason for coming back to the office with him, and that the reason in question was to prevent him from being murdered by a trigger-happy alpha.
Saif was… jumpy, for lack of a better term. Jittery, almost, his fingers twitching by his side and his muscular frame braced for an attack. The double-0s were always predators, of course, they couldn't turn that particular aspect of themselves off no matter how many pretty words or charming smiles they used. But here, now, the predator in 005 was a hell of a lot more obvious than Q had ever seen before.
A caged beast lurking close to the surface of his skin, just itching for a reason to pounce.
The Quartermaster swallowed thickly and slowly stood up before walking around to the other side of the desk. 005's gaze tracked him almost intimately, and he was acutely aware of 009 doing the same thing. Two wolves trapped in the same room as a lamb. Q was practically begging for trouble.
But his duty was to his agents - their lives, their safety, their happiness - and more than that, he wanted to help the double-0s, wanted to provide the comfort and care and trust that no one else alive had ever deemed necessary to grant them. Right now, he was standing in front of a post-mission-high alpha, a lion with far too much adrenaline and nothing to aim it at.
But if he couldn't remove the man's killer instinct, then perhaps he could dial it down from high alert to a more manageable level.
Taking a deep breath, he took one step forwards, then another, and another until he had slowly crept forwards well into Saif's personal space. Making sure to keep his scent calm and inviting, Q carefully leant against the man's shoulder, angling his head so that his neck was on show and his pheromones were at their strongest.
005 froze.
The Quartermaster held his breath, hoping beyond all hope that he hadn't misread the situation, that he hadn't fucked this up completely, that he wasn't about to get his neck snapped in two by a trained assassin who was still in kill mode and-
Saif took a deep breath, and let his shoulders fall.
Q couldn't help but smile as the man's arms slowly, carefully, came up to wrap around him, one pulling him closer by the waist and the other just below the row of stitches that his shoulders still had from the whole Nine Eyes fiasco. Saif buried his face in Q's hair and just breathed in his scent until slowly, ever so slowly, his entire body relaxed.
"Are you attempting to chemically manipulate me, Quartermaster?"
His voice was muffled from the omega's curls.
"That depends. Is it working?"
Saif gave a huff of laughter and then turned his head so he could press his face against the omega's neck. Q automatically tensed up, his brain zooming in on 'alpha' and 'throat' but when 005 didn't make any movements after that, he slowly relaxed as well.
He wasn't sure how long they stood there but it was long enough for his laptop to run through its complete security protocols before shutting off and for Q's legs to get slightly stiff from remaining in one standing position for so long. But eventually, 005 straightened up once more and took a careful step back.
"Thank you, Q".
"Anytime".
He gave a brief smile and a nod before handing out the black backpack he'd been sent on mission with.
"Everything I got is in there. I'll just go for a quick shower and change out of non-gun-powder smelling clothes, and then I'll meet you back here. Alright?"
"Alright".
With another nod, the alpha headed back towards the door, his frame remarkably less tense than it had been only a few minutes before.
"Saif" Q called after him, and the man paused, glancing back at him with a question in his eyes.
"I mean it". He kept his voice level and sincere. "Anytime".
005's dark gaze roamed his face for a moment before one side of his lips quirked up into another smile, real, this time, kinder and more genuine, and with that, he was gone.
Q watched him leave through the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the rest of the branch, before taking a deep breath and turning back to his desk.
He almost startled at the sight of Edie, still lounging across his couch like she'd always been there, and he was more than confused at the oddly soft look on her face.
"What?" he asked defensively, but she merely shook her head with a small smile. "Nothing. Don't worry about it".
Oh yeah, because when a double-0 said those words, it was such a relief.
Handing the documents collected on mission to the nearest boffin to scan, Q returned to his office to pack up. He didn't have much to bring with him - phone, wallet, keys, and his coat - so he was ready to go soon enough.
And yet, somehow, magically, within those five minutes not only had Saif covered the distance between Q branch and the locker room, but he had showered, changed into a clean shirt and trousers, and then returned back.
Maybe the double-0s really were supernatural, Q mused, recalling just how quickly 002 had made him tea that first night. It would certainly explain a few things.
"You ready to go?" Saif asked, a small smile on his face and body far less tense than before.
Q nodded and headed for the door, but was stopped halfway there by Edie reaching out to grab his wrist. He only barely refrained himself from flinching in time, but based on the slight shift of 005's posture, it hadn't hidden it quite as well as he thought.
"Something you wish to say, Edie?" the alpha asked, a note of steel underlying his calm tone of voice, and Q mentally cursed and calculated the odds of him stopping a double-0 brawl if it came to it.
Well.
Maybe not him personally, but there was still a loaded gun on his desk that should do the trick.
"Only that our cute little boffin here isn't the only hungry one".
He immediately baulked. "I am not-"
"Cute?" she interrupted, "Or little?"
"Either!"
"Gonna have to disagree with you there, sweetheart".
"What are you thinking?" Saif asked quickly, before Q could start protesting again, and Edie's dark gaze immediately cut back to him. "El Nido".
"El Nido?" the Quartermaster asked, confused, "That's- What is that? That's- That's Spanish, right? "The Nest"? What- What on earth is The Nest?"
"It's our…" he trailed off and 009 smirked. "Our local haunt, if you will. We should go there. All of us".
"All of us?" Saif asked sharply, but she merely shrugged, still holding onto Q's wrist. "Well, we're not all in town, obviously, but Charlie's here, and so's Duncan… It's been a while since we had a bash. Unless, of course, you don't think that our cute little boffin can handle it?"
"I am not-" he abruptly stopped as the rest of that sentence caught up to him. "Hang on- handle it? Handle what? Just what the hell are you two talking about?!"
Neither of them answered, both staring at the other as if silently communicating. Which, given the incredibly odd yet intense relationship between the double-0s that Q had seen so far, was probably entirely possible. After a few tense moments, just when the omega was about to snap at them to either explain or get out, Saif's dark eyes cut across to him, glancing him up and down once, twice, thrice, before giving a sharp nod.
"Let's go. I'll text the others".
And with that, the alpha spun on his heel and- and left?!
Q stared after him, beyond confused.
"... What the fuck just happened?"
Edie laughed and finally let go of his wrist, just long enough to stand up, before her arm snaked around his waist instead.
"What just happened, sweetheart, is that you've gained a few more dinner guests. Unless you have a problem with that, of course".
"A few more-" he paused, recalling her previous conversation. "You mean 002 and 003?"
"And myself, sweetheart" she replied, easily leading him out of the office, "I can't let you boys have all the fun. Alex isn't due back till tomorrow, after all, and god knows when Milli will appear".
Alex - 001 - he knew, but Milli? Milli must be… 008, Q realised, Millicent Osmund, who was currently in the middle of a desert in Kurdistan, if he was not mistaken.
"You don't mind, right, sweetheart?"
Q blinked and quickly zoned back in, only now realising that the alpha was after leading him down the stairs and halfway across the room, and his minions were giving him very worried looks at being dragged somewhere by a double-0. He gave them a reassuring smile and nod before turning back to her.
"Do I mind having dinner with the lot of you instead of just Saif? Of course not. It will be a… bonding experience".
If he managed to survive it first.
Edie's slightly sharper-than-necessary laugh did nothing to soothe his concerns.
They met the others at the main doors of '6 and together, they started walking down the streets of London. Apparently, El Nido was some sort of pub that also served cheap but good food, and the double-0s had been going there for years. That, in itself, was surprising, given how much the agents loathed routine, so Q could only assume that it was seriously good food for them to keep going back.
Either that, or they'd simply been barred from everywhere else.
Both options were just as likely.
It was a strange experience walking through the city with a pack of alphas surrounding him. And they were, in fact, surrounding him, Edie still on his right, Saif taking up the left side, Duncan directly in front of him, and Charlie two steps behind. They were treating him like they'd treat a high-profile target that they had to guard, and Q wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. They didn't pass many people during the ten-minute walk to the pub, both those that they did very quickly moved out of the way, though whether that was simply because Duncan's scowl could freeze fire or because there was just something off about the entire pack, he didn't know.
Q wondered if this was how celebrities always felt.
Either way, none of the alpha's relaxed even marginally until they reached El Nido, a rather homely, squatted building shoved in between two high-rises. It was an old pub, that much was for sure, with fading warm yellow walls and shiny teak beams crisscrossing the ceiling as well as forming supportive poles at different points throughout the room. The tables were scuffed and dented, some of the chairs looked wobbly from here, and Q wasn't quite sure if the place would pass a health inspection, but it was cosy and comfortable and just for a moment he could forget that he was in the heart of London, with pollution and traffic and a high-stress job waiting for him outside.
He could see immediately why the double-0s liked it.
A wave of heat hit them as they stepped into the dimly lit room, and Q was more than surprised to see an open-hearth fireplace against one wall burning actual wood given that it was, you know, kind of illegal.
Next to him, Edie smirked and leaned closer to lower her voice. "Duncan pulled a few strings".
"What?" he asked, baffled, "Seriously?"
The man in question gave him a flat look. "I don't like the cold".
Q stared at him. "I found you in Siberia!"
He shrugged. "I do like Lake Baikal".
"You're insane" he breathed, "The whole lot of you, just… just insane!"
"And yet here you are, Quartermaster, willingly spending time with us" Saif said cheerfully, "So what does that say about you?"
He had the feeling that it was going to be a long night.