Chapter Text
"Now what?"
"What do you want to do," Harry asked.
"You mean I ain't got nowhere to be?" Eggsy knew he sounded mildly irritated, but he was tired of bouncing between feeling like he was free and feeling like Harry was going keep Eggsy under his thumb all the time. It was starting to seem like they were going to keep having the same argument over and over again. Maybe it was Eggsy's fault for having expected more freedom than he was actually being given. But Harry was confusing him at every turn.
"No. Eventually we must return to my home, but we have the rest of the day before that. You took less time than I expected to get your things."
"So I could've stayed an' chatted wif me mum, and you didn't tell me?"
Harry looked bewildered. "Need I remind you that you were the one to hurry things along?"
The detective had Eggsy there. He had been pretty eager to get out of there, and he realized now that he had been operating under the assumption that Dean probably would have shown up if Eggsy had stayed too long. The sad part was that it was probably true. "No, 's fine," Eggsy answered, the fight going out of him.
Harry was apparently still waiting to hear where Eggsy wanted to go, seeing as he hadn't yet moved the car. Eggsy mulled over the possibilities. "Can we stop at a pub?"
"A pub," Harry repeated.
"Yeah. I fink maybe we should jus' talk for a bit. Me an' you. We're gonna be livin' together for a while. Might as well get to know each other."
"I think we're fairly well acquainted already, Eggsy."
"Nah. You only know me as a delinquent," Eggsy joked. "There's so much more to me, Harry."
Eggsy could see Harry suppressing a smile. "Which pub?"
"Black Prince. It's down on—"
"I'm familiar with the place," Harry interrupted. "Thank you." Eggsy raised his eyebrows. Black Prince wasn't exactly a rough place, but it wasn't in the part of town that Eggsy pictured Harry spending time in. "You don't remember, do you?" Harry asked.
"Remember what?"
"I'm not surprised. You were completely off your arse that night."
"I haven't a fuckin' clue what you're on about right now."
Harry was smiling. Jesus. "The first time I arrested you was at Black Prince, Eggsy."
"Oh."
"I got a call about a disturbance. You were at the establishment, barely eighteen, I think. You'd gotten entirely too drunk and were terrorizing everyone." Harry looked like he was recalling the memory with fondness. "It was mostly harmless, but you were driving customers away. The bartender couldn't get you to leave."
"Oh, god." Eggsy was starting to feel glad he couldn't remember this particular moment.
"The best part was when you somehow managed to entirely disregard the uniform I was wearing and mistook me for a patron." Eggsy wasn't sure he liked where this was going. "You tried to come on to me."
"You're fuckin wif me."
"I'm not," Harry insisted.
"No way. You fuckin' made that up." Eggsy hoped he wasn't blushing; his face felt hot. The car stopped, and Eggsy looked out the window. They were already at the pub. Was it too late to change his mind? Eggsy wasn't sure he ever wanted to come to this place again.
"Oh, it's completely true," Harry continued. "You didn't stop when I arrested you either." Eggsy covered his face with his hands. This couldn't be happening. "I believe you have quite the handcuff fetish, Eggsy."
"Oi, fuck off!" Eggsy bolted out of his seat and exited the car. He could hear Harry chuckling as Eggsy slammed the door. That fucker. This was so embarrassing.
Harry joined Eggsy at a booth inside the pub a few minutes after Eggsy had settled down. The detective was still smiling, but at least he looked like he was trying to contain himself. After they got their drinks, Harry asked, "Should I not have told you?"
Eggsy sighed and shook his head. He refused to meet Harry's eyes. "Why now, though? It's been four years. You never said anything until today."
"It's just never really come up. And I hardly think it's an appropriate topic to discuss with a detainee."
"Right." A long pause ensured, and Eggsy preoccupied himself by taking long, shallow sips of his beer. He tried to imagine himself hitting on Harry with confidence bolstered by alcohol. He couldn't. Not because Eggsy wasn't attracted to Harry—apparently he always had been—but because the man was so much older. More experienced, more refined. Harry was basically everything Eggsy was not. It was part of what interested Eggsy so much about the man. At least Harry was more amused by Eggsy's past advances than he was put off by them. Disgust would have been so much harder for Eggsy to handle than this.
Did I, y'know. . . any other time?"
"No," Harry answered, staring down into his Guinness. "There was plenty of other misbehavior, but that was the only time you ever attempted to flirt with me."
"Oh, that's. Good."
Harry just hmm'd into his pint.
"So," Eggsy started. He wasn't sure how to move on from this revelation.
"You said you wanted to talk. Did you have anything in particular you wanted to discuss?"
"Honestly? I was gonna ask about my dad."
"I see. You lured me here under the pretense of getting to know each other, and now I find that all you really want to do is learn more about your father.
"No, Harry. I didn't mean—"
"It's quite alright, Eggsy," Harry assured. The detective smiled warmly. "I was joking with you. I would be quite happy to talk to you about him."
Eggsy took that as a sign to go ahead. "So, you were his partner?"
"For a brief time. He was fairly young but quite capable. The chief thought your father and I would make an excellent team. He was right, of course. Lee and I worked very well together for several months."
"So was you friendly? Or were you a bit of an arse to keep him in check like you do wif me?"
Harry snorted into his glass. "Your father, like I said, was excellent at his job. I didn't have to be an arse to him, and I'm hardly one with you, either." Eggsy smiled. His cheeks hurt from it, actually. Hearing about his father was better than he thought it would be. "Did you know he died to save my life?"
"I didn't." Eggsy moved forward until he was sitting on the edge of his seat. "How?"
"It was some nobody with a gun. A dealer that didn't want to get caught. He shot at me multiple times, but your father pushed me out of the way. One of the bullets hit him, actually." Eggsy held his breath. He'd never known any of this. "I would like to say I caught the man, but I'd never had a partner so critically injured before. I was hesitant to leave, and I stayed with him until the end rather than chase the man." After a minute of silence, Harry added quietly, "I'm sorry."
"'s alright," Eggsy said, surreptitiously wiping his eyes. "'m glad you stayed wif him."
Harry reached across the table and squeezed Eggsy's shoulder. The detective's eyes looked wet, like he was on the verge of crying himself. It hit Eggsy then that his father's death had been a loss for Harry too.