Our Lips Must Always Be Sealed [Torry + Dory]

[Predatory Alfred]

He wasn't about to say that this was completely and utterly ridiculous, but this was absolutely, completely, and utterly ridiculous. Ten minutes was all he needed. In these sorts of cases it was all he ever needed. It was plain. It was simple. And he certainly didn't need any help with such a small, tedious task. And yet, for some horrid twist of fate that was just, most certainly, his luck, the shrieking call of the building's, more than likely overly expensive, security system was blaring.

Now, not every day did he have this sort of luck. No, Arthur Kirkland, when simply judged upon the shear amount of luck in his life, would probably be weighed into a more favorable category. He had managed to live this long and if that wasn't luck, there wasn't such a thing. This isn't to say that skill wasn't present here; not by a long shot. The young man was certainly skilled, qualified and adept at most everything he did. But with anything in this world, success and 'happiness' seemed to be mostly dependant on luck. Even the best of plans could be screwed up by the most miniscule of disturbances.

But that's where skill came in and the sandy blond reminded himself why he didn't really believe in such rubbish. A bit of bad luck wouldn't ruin an entire operation if you were competent and Arthur prided himself on this. One didn't work in espionage relying on just luck alone. Such spontaneity happened at a moment's notice and this just happened to be his moment.

Something was wrong. Something definitely had to have gone awry. Arthur would take responsibility for his actions, begrudgingly at times, perhaps, but he would admit to mistakes when such faults and blunders were made. However, such mistakes didn't happen approximately ten metres away from your most practical and planned exit, not for someone with his experience.

This was where his blasted luck came in. With such a simple operation, a basic infiltration and recovery assignment, the organization often found it more than appropriate to send in amateurs and new recruits along with one or two more senior agents for experience.

A few muttered curses were left behind in the corridor as Arthur's lithe form sprinted towards the marked exit, red lights flashing almost in a cliché manner.

Locked

The agent could feel the bolts sliding just as he touched it. Before the audible clicking sound of the bolt shutting the door reached his ears, he was off, sprinting down the next hallway. Spontaneity was always fun, but having multiple back-up exits was common sense. Arthur let out a short, perhaps, even in light of such events, humorous breath hoping whoever messed up such a simple field operation was prepared to be, at best, sitting behind a desk for the rest of their career.

[Gryffindor Alfred]

You know what? Being a spy wasn’t the kind of work that gave you much recognition, even if your life was in danger all of the time. The best ones in this job were the ones who kept a low profile or the most unexpected ones. Usually, only the bosses knew of their people’s achievements. That was the part of the job that sucked for Alfred, not getting proper recognition. Still! He didn’t do it for that, he did it because that way, he could help people, his clients usually, and that was more than enough. He did get his good chunk of recognition though, when his bosses congratulated him for a perfect work.

(It had to be perfect. It was that or getting killed in action, and getting killed wasn’t an option for Alfred.)

So he did the best he could, and little by little, he started paying attention to those tiny details that mattered a lot in his job. Now, don’t misunderstand that. Alfred F. Jones was everything but meticulous. Many times, he just jumped into things without paying attention to anything, and many times he had actually almost ruined a mission for that too. But he was mostly successful, so it was okay. At the end, with his good and bad things, Alfred was one of the best in his agency, and his bosses knew that.

That’s how he ended in that situation. Basically hiding from some of the guards, and trying not to be caught by cameras. He had made a mistake. Seriously, one single mistake was causing that entire problem. A laser alarm he didn’t see, a little trap that was a piece of cake even for the newbies. But he didn’t see it and he unconsciously activated all of the damn security system.

In his defense, he wasn’t given much information. It was hard even getting into the other’s organization system, and it would have been too much of a risk to try to get more (for them and for their clients). They just told him very basic instructions - go, make believe everyone that you’re a newbie, work with them for a while and get the most information you can get while you’re there. Easy enough, right? For someone of his experience, of course.

Or so he had thought.

It should have been easy but he didn’t prevent that mistake. Now he had to fix that and try to help his supposed partners.

Oh right. He had to keep that in mind. They were not his teammates. More like he was working for the other side. It was more common than people would think. Agencies had clients, clients usually had rivals, and those rivals went to another agency to get information for them. That made him sound like the bad guy, but he wasn’t, really! His agency’s client was in the right! He was just being a hero, even if it didn’t seem like! He was like... like Batman! Many people doubted him but he was protecting everyone!

Anyway, he was still stuck in the building, and he needed to get out of it now. He had already got some information from a random computer, (and seriously? Only one password to get into their system?) and now he had to get out. For his luck (or not), he spotted one of his supposedly teammates in the same problem. And no, he didn’t need help to get out, mind you. But two heads were always better than one, right? And they could think of some idea to get out of the building with their job done.

Sneakily, he approached the guy and patted his shoulder. Probably not the best move, not in a situation like that, but when had Alfred thought about something before doing it?

[Predatory Alfred]

The thing about back up plans was, well, that they were back up; just in case. They were made for safety insurance reasons, not only for the agent but for whatever sort of task was actually being done. But with that said, the goal was for such events not to happen. Why need a back up when you're skilled enough to run through such assignments with practiced ease? Back-ups weren't main priority.

And that was Arthur's predicament. It wasn't a large one, and he had more than a relative idea how to solve it from experience, but a problem it was. It was hardly his fault that such a nuisance as a security alarm would go off seconds before task completion. Though, the sandy blond cursed quietly once more to himself, it was for not completely memorizing the building's format and layout.

Was it the third or fourth floor that had a shoot for rubbish?

At this rate he'd be quickly found and captured! And that was absolutely embarrassing to think about. This was what happened, he supposed, when he had a little faith in some of the new recruits. Trust no one. This business was cut throat, sometimes even literally so, relying on another was essential at times as well as unpredictable and outright idiotic. What little control one person had at a time was frustrating enough, and to have something so simple to go wrong because of a silly mistake you didn't make yourself was infuriating.

He sighed, stopping at the junction of three different hallways to read the actual posted map. Resources, resources. His eyes scanned the it quickly. While not worrying about the security cameras (someone should have taken them out temporarily) he was worried about someone finding him just by crossing paths. He shouldn't and wouldn't stay in one spot more than a few necessary moments. It was risky to stop for even a moment. His window of opportunity was closing with every passing second and he knew it.

But luckily his risk yielded pay off rather hindering him greatly. With a grin he spotted the aforementioned rubbish shoot labeled clearly on the map. That would surely make a great escape for him!

Unfortunately, as such a thought ran through his mind a hand was placed on his shoulder not only surprising him, but chilling the agent. Without question, as doing such things in these instances often lead to death, Arthur's own hands clasped onto the other's wrist, gripping it tightly before lifting, flipping and throwing his could-be assailant over his shoulder in front of him, the man's body landing with a loud crack that was audible over the alarms blaring.

He had several decisions to make in a very short amount of time. His eye glided quickly over the young man's body, clearly physically strong and trained apparently because Arthur hadn't even heard him coming. What sort of high grade assassin allowed themself to be flipped so easily though? It didn't matter. Arthur was on guard now and would quickly move to incapacitate this man. But he couldn't help but wonder...

Who exactly was this man?

[Gryffindor Alfred]

Had he known that mission would have been such a huge disaster like it had been, he’d have never accepted it. There were only a few things that he considered more important than his pride as one of the best agents out there, but enough was enough. Not only he was failing as a common newbie (and that was his agency’s fault, nothing would have happened if they had given him more information!), but also one of the people that he thought that could have helped him, had thrown him over his shoulder, and he was suddenly on the ground, with an aching back.

(And no. He wasn’t to blame, even if he thoughtlessly surprised the other agent. Heroes were never to blame!)

Thing is, he was now on the ground, and the noise that was made when he fell must have alerted some guards of their position, and maybe even the whole security system... which wasn’t good, obviously.

“Hey!” Complained Alfred, pouting at the guy. He couldn’t see him well yet, but that was possibly because his head was still spinning a little. “Not cool, man! We’re supposed to be partners!” Huffing and mumbling, he tried to stand up. “So much for teamwork...”

That didn’t work out as planned though, because when he tried to stand up, he fell flat on his backside and realized that he wouldn’t be able to stand up by himself. Now, asking for help was totally not awesome and he didn’t need help at all! But Alfred could hear steps getting closer to the place they were in, and if the guards found them, that’d be the last time they would participate in a mission, so they needed to get out of there fast. Hoping that the other guy would help him, he glanced at him.

“Uh... could you...?” He couldn’t just say that he needed help out loud, but hopefully that guy would understand.

It was then that he finally paid attention to him and tried to recognize him. The professional thing to do would have been recognizing him, and then immediately think of a strategy to make him believe that he was on his side, but oh god-- were those caterpillars on his face? Because they seemed to be alive! Something so big must be alive! He stared at them for quite some period of time, trying to figure out how someone’s eyebrows can be that big. It seemed that the other agent had caught him staring though, and that definitely wasn’t the best way to start a sort of partnership.

Trying to mend his mistake and make him forget that he had been staring, he decided to start the introductions. “Right! I’m Alfred! I don’t know if you know me, but I’m one of the new agents!” He said, going along with the role his agency had given him. Act normal. That was the basic rule of playing a role. From what he remembered, that guy with huge eyebrows must be Arthur Kirkland, one of the best agents, not only in his agency, but pretty well known in the field too. Also, famous for his bad temper and the fact that he usually worked alone by choice.

Well. That left him in a bad situation. From all the people he could have partnered with, he had to work with Arthur. Really? Was his luck that bad that day? Yeah, just like he had thought, he should have refused going on that mission.

[Predatory Alfred]

There was no immediate rebound; no struggle to quickly get to his feet nor the pulling of any weapon whatsoever. He didn't growl or curse or try to knock Arthur's feet from under him, or perhaps even twist his ankle in attempts to break it. Arthur felt no sudden surge of pain and saw no real concerning movement of the flaxen hair young man who now laid at his feet. That's why Arthur hesitated despite all obvious reasons not to. That's why he let the 'poor chap' get out a few words as he seemed completely disoriented from the fall (as he should have been). And to add even more puzzlement to the top of this equation were the his words.

...Partners?... Team work?

What was this boy babbling about? It must have been some sort of distraction technique, but... he still didn't move. He wasn't defensive, his body language spoke of more overall confusion and bafflement rather than anything else. Had he made a mistake? Was this truly a new recruit? But that didn't explain the how he had managed to sneak up on an agent of Arthur's level. Did he admit to letting his guard down that much? No. He was just reading a sign. He's been trained much too much to slip up doing such a simple thing. Reading a sign wouldn't bring him at ease. Could he blame it on the alarms? Even then it was a stretch unless the lad was focused in stealth above all but even such skill for a rookie. Not to mention his build suggested he'd be used as a powerhouse rather than simply sneaking about.

It didn't all add up and that was more than unsettling for the Englishman. And the clock was ticking, his window of opportunity closing once more as he heard the sure fire sound of a half dozen pairs of feet were headed in their direction.

'Alfred...Alfred' he searched his memory thinking back to those file he studied earlier that afternoon over a nice cuppa, but the whole list of names and profiles blurred over. Simply because he was performing the extraction of the files didn't mean he was supposed to be a 'team leader' to all of the new recruits that happened to be on the mission as well. Half of them would be dead within the year regardless. This was their training, not his, and yet... the young man knew him and even more so searched him out apparently; the look of recognition clear on his face after he had caught the younger agent staring at him peculiarly. He knew his face. How had he known his face? Did they give out-- no, they didn't, and none of them were experienced to be in the field long enough to know it.

Arthur's eyes swept over the other once more, disregarding his introduction entirely. No visible weapons and appearing completely half-witted didn't mean he didn't have any intent to harm Arthur, but he'd worry about that if it came down to it. Judging by the way the boy had flopped about a moment before and his lack of attempts of standing after, he needed help up. Arthur's nerves were starting to wear, this one mistake turning out to be more of a nuisance than he could ever ask for.

Quickly Arthur bent down and moved to help the other up, pulling him to his feet in a swift movement and supporting his weight for that time.

"A rubbish shoot is just around the corner," he said, his words clipped, not in the mood to paint an elaborate picture for the lad. "Should be the best way out if we're lucky."

He took a step and noticed the other's slight hesitation, the subtle limp; still shaken from the fall. Arthur had moved to incapacitate his assailant and doing any less would put him in harm's way, but with a potential agent, one of their own agents, actually being a victim it did put a damper on things.

"You're going to have to limp quickly if you don't want to be caught," he turned quickly on his heel and started off. If he was part of his own agency, the lad was going to have to get used to such injuries on his own, and fast.

[Gryffindor Alfred]

Okay, something was really obvious, and that was that Arthur didn’t believe his story. He was only looking at him, as if trying to decipher him and that couldn’t be good. Wasn’t Alfred playing his role good enough? What could he even say to convince him? Maybe it had been a bad idea mentioning that he knew him. Of course, that could be suspicious enough. Now Arthur was doubting him, and will probably leave him there to his own luck, thinking that he’s an enemy (and he was, but not in that precise moment, they were sort of partners).

Truth to be told, he didn’t know that much about Arthur. It was mostly stories he had heard here and then. If all of them were true, he would be slightly impressed, but information couldn’t just be trusted without proof in this field, so most likely Arthur wasn’t as admirable as everyone said. Good, yeah, there were some good agents out there, with lots of experience, but he was good too. When Alfred was a newbie, he had been curious about Arthur Kirkland though. He had even wanted to work with him to prove himself and to prove everyone that he could be a good agent, but after some years in the field, he merely forgot that wish. Ironically, now they were working together. Or more like against each other without knowing it.

By the way he seemed to look for weapons or anything that could be used against him, Alfred noticed that Arthur was experienced, and maybe he didn’t believe him after all. Alfred honestly thought that Arthur would just leave him there, and god that sucked. He would need to get up on his own and look for a way to get out. He quickly glanced at the map Arthur had been staring at before and hoped that would give him a chance to escape. Almost ready to try to get up again, he was surprised when Arthur bent down to help him.

“Oh... yeah, probably the only way to get out at this point” He said, and the footsteps of the guards getting closer just reaffirmed his statement. Well, Arthur wasn’t such a bad guy, or at least he still had a little bit of sympathy for others in him.

(However, if he acted like the enemy he was, he would probably be already dead. But then again, if he had, he wouldn’t have made the mistake to startle Arthur like that.)

He held onto Arthur, thanking that his arms and legs were still working fine, and so he could support himself. He didn’t want to be a burden, after all, and it was only his back what was hurting and causing problems. It was then that he felt thankful for his hard training, and the fact that his body was used to stand any kind of pain. And he had been in more difficult situations, more painful even. Having a backache shouldn’t be a problem.

After hearing what Arthur said, he gave him a winning grin. “Don’t worry! I should feel better in a few” He better be walking normally in a few minutes, unless he wanted to be caught, or even worse, get both of them caught. There would be no escape if the guards got to them. That would be the end of their careers, and that wasn’t something he wouldn’t let happen.

Alfred started walking as fast as he could, trying to be quiet. Arthur had said that the garbage shoot was just around the corner, so they should be able to make it. By the sound of the footsteps, the guards should be on the floor right below them, going upstairs. That should be plenty time for them to escape, right?

It took some seconds, but they got to the garbage shoot. It was easy to open, and wide enough for a person to fit in, but only one. They’d need to take turns to get in, and considering that he had been the cause of the entire problem and Arthur had helped him, he felt that he owed him something. Also heroes always have to do sacrifices! With that thought in mind, he prodded Arthur to go first. “Go first! There’s not much time left!”

[Predatory Alfred]

He didn't want to support the other, but as he took a step the other's weight was still on him and it was apparent that his impromptu 'partner' was relying on him far too much. They walked together, Arthur more pulling them forward as 'Alfred' hobbled along next to him. From what he could tell simply from the way the young man moved, the smallest expression of weakness passing over his features every so often, it wasn't likely he was acting. Such a move would hurt and Arthur had to remind himself that if was very possible that 'Alfred' was really named Alfred and was of his agency and wasn't planning on snapping his neck the minute he turned away.

However, unlike his unexpected company, Arthur wasn't quite as concerned with the guards headed in their direction. The worst the absolute worst , would be the unsuspecting night guards who would be flabbergasted in the first place to find someone idiotic enough to not only break in but trip the alarm as well. This place was secure enough, meaning that there'd be minimal guards on staff at the moment. Sure, if they were around long enough, back up was going to arrive, but the thought was to get out before them. Still, it was best to shuffle.

Finally managing to get them to the rubbish chute, Arthur was quickly relieved to see that it would most definitely accommodate both of them. He wasn't sure what the other was expecting, but Arthur had decided that he'd be going down the chute first before Alfred had even mentioned it or prodded him. But this caused him too frown. The lad was insisting he went first. He didn't want to chance 'Alfred' going down before him in case it was somehow a trap, but now he wasn't completely sure. This was all too curious and if it all turned out fine, well, someone was going to get an earful once he returned to the office.

"Try not to follow me too soon. If both of us get injured because of your--... If both of us are injured our chances of being apprehended are significantly higher." The sandy blond cut himself off. Tact. He needed tact, and to keep the other from possibly messing things up far more than they already were, he'd need to keep him relatively not offended by any snide remarks he was completely deserving of.

With a sigh he opened the door and looked down the it. The smell wasn't pleasant at all but, as he expected, the walls were lined and gritted and would certainly do for slowing down the momentum of his fall. As long as he did this right, it surely wouldn't be bad, brush burn or a bruise, but nothing terrible. He didn't need any broken bones from such a standard tedious mission.

He made quick eye contact with the American. Trust. He needed to trust that the other wasn't going to throw something potentially dangerous down after him. He needed to trust that he was completely new to this and was more than likely freaking out under the composure. First mission runs aren't supposed to be like this. It was probably, Arthur would laugh scornfully at how desensitized he was, scary. This may have not added up completely, but, looking over the other again, he was just a kid. He saw no hard earned battle scars or anything like that. It didn't mean he fully believed the other, not by a long shot, but the lad was definitely convincing enough to be telling the truth. With a silent nod, he hoisted himself up, putting his leg down the chute, ready to make the plunge.

It wasn't a terribly far drop, and by pressing himself against the walls of it he surely slowed his rate down (covering himself in foul smelling rubbish solids and greasy liquid afters as a result). A true breath of relief left him as he reached the bottom, Alfred not having attempted to murder him after all. Quickly observing his surroundings, nothing more than a large waste contain on the outside of the building, Arthur deemed the hardest part nearly over. He whistled up the chute hoping his apparent 'teammate' was still around unscathed and smart enough to come down as well.

[Gryffindor Alfred]

If he had to accept that surprising Arthur was a bad move, he would. Because really, it had been a very bad move, now Arthur didn’t trust a single one of his acts or his words -and maybe, he had the right to- and it didn’t seem like it would get better. That was if he had to admit it, because there was no way he would, and there was no way he was including that in his report (Two mistakes! He could ruin his career if people knew he made two stupid mistakes!), unless someone threatened him to do it.

(And by that he meant someone threatening him with a gun to his head, or the security of the mission being compromised.)

Alfred had no other option than to listen to Arthur, to do everything as he said, because that way it could be believable that he was a newbie, right? A newbie that was just following his "more experienced" teammate instructions, that was a convincing role. He nodded at Arthur when he told him not follow him soon and decided to wait until Arthur reached the bottom of the trash chute. However, waiting while the guards were close by, and with the alarms still making a lot of noise, wasn’t the best thing for Alfred. As someone who was impatient by nature, the couple of minutes that he had to wait were pure torture; he could have sworn that those weren’t two minutes, but at least five.

After he heard a distant noise -a loud ‘thud’ that must have been Arthur reaching the bottom, and then the whistle- he decided it was time for him to follow Arthur. Attempting to be quiet, he got up and into the shoot. It was smelly and dirty (which was expected), but Alfred didn’t care much. He had been in much worse situations that he wouldn’t be affected by the smell of the place. And he had always been an outside person, one of those kids who liked to play in the mud whenever they could, so sliding through a garbage shoot? Piece of cake.

(It was their only chance of escaping too, so complaining wasn’t an option.)

For an instant, Alfred felt like he was a kid again, sliding down through those big tubular shaped pool slides. This wasn’t a game though, but he let himself enjoy it while it lasted. It was better than remembering that Arthur and him were in a bad situation and that his back was still hurting slightly.

It took more or less the same amount of time for him to get to the bottom, and apparently, nobody had followed them, so it was all good... for a while. It would actually be good when they got back to their office, with the information in their hands. Looking around, he noticed that the place they were in wasn’t as bad as he initially thought. He was glad that it was a simple office building. The trash was mostly paper and some rotten food. If it had been a hospital or anything similar, probably the garbage shoot wouldn’t have been an option for them. And had they been infiltrating in another agency, he was pretty sure there would be traps everywhere, even in the garbage shoot. Why, yes, he was talking by experience when he thought of that (alarms in a chute were a normal thing for him).

After a few seconds, he spotted Arthur, seemingly waiting for him. Alfred walked towards him. His back felt better already, and walking wasn't much of a problem. Grinning at him, he wondered if the other agent already believed him or not. He had waited for him, and that had to mean something, right?

“So... how do we get out of here?” He asked, trying to remember the map of the place. “There must be people outside, maybe even the police, and I don’t think we have much time” It was stating the obvious, but they needed to think of a plan soon. “Oh, right… thanks for the help up there…” Alfred wasn’t used to saying thanks, but he was pretty grateful to Arthur, because he could possibly be dead, if the other agent hadn’t helped him. “And uh… I have this…” He took out a memory drive from his pants pocket, containing all the information that he got from the computers. That should make Arthur believe that he was on their side, yeah? “It has mostly everything I could find, I still have their system password, but they must have changed it already” He added, shrugging.

[Predatory Alfred]

The night was chilly and clear, a cloudless sky scattered with stars hung over head, but the Brit barely took a moment to recognize such a thing. Even if they were physically out of the building, they weren't out of this entire mess, not yet. Easily lifting himself up and out of the rubbish, Arthur hopped to the ground, brushing whatever mess he could off of him before scouting the area.

The sound of the building's alarm could be heard just as clearly outside as it was in, making Arthur somewhat nervous. There was a very good chance that there would be a perimeter guard now watching for such persons like himself... and the 'new agent,' he supposed. It wouldn't be hard to take out a guard, no, but it would leave more evidence, more of a trace and more of a chance of recognition. They'd have to move quickly and Arthur was almost more than impatient as it seemed like the other was taking his jolly old time shimmying down the chute.

When he finally heard the inevitable thud of his so-called partner, his ears finally caught the first glimmers of police sirens. They had at least a bit of time before everything started to get somewhat tricky. But what was life without a bit of challenge every now and then? Arthur kept trying to assure himself that things would get dull otherwise if such occurrences didn't happen... although convincing himself of such a matter was an entirely different story.

Luckily he had arranged a pick up point prior to all of these events. Prepared. Careful planning was always a good thing. Really, that's more than likely what they should have been teaching these recruits, not just dropping them into these situation horridly unaware of basic protocol. Perhaps, since it really was just the lad's first mission, he'd allow for the pick up to drop the other off at his designated area. This one, Arthur turned and watched the other move toward him... This one had a lot of potential in him and some mistake by another poor sod shouldn't sour his thoughts of the new agent.

Or, well, that was Arthur's thought before the other began to speak, waving a memory stick in front of his face and shrugging innocently. Green eyes widened just slightly before remaining somewhat stoic. He kept the tremor of anger that was surely boiling through him from his voice. He refrained from calling the boy a twat or even smacking the upside of his head.

No, Arthur's brows only furrowed, giving the other a sharp look as he refrained messaging his temples.

"You..." He let out a small breath, closing his eyes for a moment. "You actually went ahead and extracted information on your own? As in, you went ahead and clearly did something you weren't assigned to do? Not only are you completely new to field work in general but are hardly experienced a no trace extraction method in which takes years of completely different technological training, yet you decided to do this? Brilliant. Absolutely marvelous. "

Arthur clapped his hands in mock joy and started off down the nearest alley, knowing the other would follow him. He really had no business here any longer and his pick-up surely would be getting restless.

"You do realize that new recruits are simply supposed to infiltrate earlier to gather information? As in scouts, not actually performing the assigned task?" Arthur chuckled mirthlessly. "And let me guess, you're the one who tripped the alarm as well? The agency really has recruited themselves a group of elite new minds, haven't they? No matter. That isn't my area. I have a pickup arranged. I suggest you ready an explanations for your keepers, as while such mistakes can not only be deadly in the field, but even more so outside of it."

[Gryffindor Alfred]

It didn’t take him much to get out of the dirt and be on his own feet. Arthur had waited for him, and the American wasn’t sure if they were supposed to go back together, or if they were just going to go, each one taking their own way. For an instant it was like Arthur had thought of going back together, but that was gone as soon as he showed him the memory drive. It just went down from there. He had to stand the whole lecture, and it felt as if he was a kid being told off by his dad.

“Uh... yes?” Scratching the back of his neck, he tried offering him a half grin. He wasn’t sure if his act had been convincing enough. It seemed more like, whenever Arthur started to trust him a little bit, he did something to lose his trust. But he had to keep that newbie act, at least until he was far from Arthur.

Alfred didn’t really care if Arthur was telling him that he shouldn’t have infiltrated in the company’s system. The information was for his agency, anyway, and he wasn’t going to give his supposed agency everything he found. He had two memory drives, one with half of the things he found, important information, yeah, but not everything, and another one, with the whole information, and what their clients had requested specifically. That was his real job, not this silly mission that Arthur’s agency had given him.

(This silly, more difficult than it should have been, mission.)

He felt as if Arthur was mocking him anyway. Mocking him for being inexperienced and clumsy! And he was neither of those (maybe a bit clumsy in his everyday life, but definitely not while he was working). He had made a mistake and he couldn’t really keep denying it, but that wouldn’t have happened, had the agency given him more information. He was infiltrating in a mission of infiltration, and that wasn’t so easy. He hadn’t had enough information to do so, there was minimum information about the place, or about the mission, even. It had been basically jumping into it, hoping that everything would be okay. And well, it went quite decently for him -he was out now, not still safe, but out, and he had what his agency asked him- but a lot of things that shouldn’t have happened, happened.

Pouting, Alfred looked away. It was still embarrassing that he had to do all of those things -keep up with this silly act when he was everything but a newbie- to convince Arthur. The more experienced agent had even made fun of him! Ha! He was so lucky he wasn’t working for Arthur’s agency, because he was sure than in his agency, the bosses valued enthusiasm and being one step ahead of others. That’s why he was working there, after all.

“I-I didn’t notice that alarm-!” Said the American. A half-truth, because he didn’t notice it, but he was usually better than that. “And well, I got to one of the computers and thought I could hack it, and I did!” That had been a perfect job, he made sure that nobody could trace him or even notice that he had extracted some information. Of course, that was something Arthur didn’t need to know.

“Hacking was one of my strongest points back in the academy...” He mumbled, at the end. That was giving a bit too much of personal information, because he was damn good at hacking, if he had to say. Always good at computers, Alfred could be considered a geek, a nerd maybe. It had been like that since he was young, he was always the one who could access his school system without a problem, but he never did anything wrong with that. Some people had mocked him for that, but now it had become something useful. Ha, even now, Arthur was scolding him, but he didn’t expect him to be working for the other side, and thus, giving his team an advantage. So much for a well-known spy!

Now. At first view, Alfred could say that Arthur didn’t give him the best of impressions. It was no wonder why people didn’t like working with him, and viceversa. The guy was clearly a loner -the fact that he wasn’t making any attempt to meet with his team now that the mission was over was enough proof- and a grumpy ass, apparently. He had some sense of good and bad though, he did help Alfred even if he was wary at first, and that was slightly admirable to Alfred, but it wasn’t enough to make it up for his bad personality.

“Anyway... I guess we separate here” And hope we don’t have to work together again. He wanted to add, but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t as he disliked the guy anyway (his attitude, but that was all), but it was clear they weren’t made to work together -their ways of doing things, of dealing with the situation, were too different- and even if they were more similar, they worked for different sides. “See ya around in the agency~” He said, and started walking away.

He had to leave now and try to get back to the agency building before Arthur if it was possible. He’d have to report to his “new” bosses first, give them the memory drive and hope they’d let him stay in the team for as long as his real mission lasted. The American wished that they wouldn’t be so difficult like Arthur, but they seemed to be nice enough when he first met them. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if he had to put such an act like that again.

Sneaking out of the place was easy enough. He didn’t have to fake being a newbie, didn’t have to make intentional mistakes here and then, so he could use his experience in his advantage. In his opinion, avoiding guards and the police was one of the easiest parts of his job, or at least, it was easy enough for him. He still didn’t feel safe though, because the biggest problem wasn’t over yet. Keep deceiving the other agents would be easy. Try to deceive Arthur Kirkland? Probably not.

(( This started as a very short reply, and somehow it turned into this monster :'D I hope you don’t mind all of the details ;u; ))

[Predatory Alfred]

Life always seemed to keep him on his feet. Just when Arthur believed things would be getting overly dull, or perhaps comfortable and routine, something happened. It wasn't always instantly, there were periods of his life that seemed to drag on, but there were also times where it seemed to move quite quickly as well. But that was typical. After all, the sandy blond was hardly what anyone would consider old. Life was at its fullest right now, dull didn't mesh well at his age, nor with his line of work.

But how does one decipher these moments? There's hardly something anyone can really tell. After all. Moments are, well, just that; a moment. Some may lead to other moments which would build up to one collective period in time, but for the most part, they were spaced apart from one another; few and far between.

And that's what Arthur expected from this occurrence. The young agent had stranger things happen to him during his tasks, and a new recruit who happened to be completely idiotic and had messed up part of a mission was hardly anything note-worthy. After all, he heard stories about things like that around the agency, or, closer to home, there were horror stories told to the new recruits back in the training academy when he was just learning the ropes as well. So this certainly wasn't a moment, because if he was going to go about it like that, he'd might as well say that every stain he got on his clothing was a moment as well.

So when he left the trainee without another word, dismissing him from his mind before proceeding to his pick up, Arthur had expected that was the last he'd be seeing the other, save for if, by some miracle, they'd see each other in the agency. Of course he hadn't expected to see the blue-eyed American again...

So this was rather surprising.

Moments before, Arthur was steadily walking down a hall in the agency, the crisp clicking of his heels against the linoleum flooring echoing slightly in his wake. The atmosphere was not exactly tense, certainly sterner, but he was, after all, walking the corridor that lead to the higher-ups' offices. One didn't just run all willy-nilly around here, well not unless you had a good reason or possibly a death wish.

It wasn't completely unusual to arrive to give your final report and assessment of a mission only to find the office of your assigned superior already occupied by another agent there for the same purpose. This was the case in Arthur's situation as he arrived at the large oak doors of his own assessor's office. This, however, wasn't the surprising thing. No, Arthur knew the man inside of the office governed over more than a few of his colleagues besides himself.

What was surprising was the tone of voice coming from the room beyond, the jovial laugh and the words of encouragement, some sort of praise for taking risks and being brave enough to do so, all of this being something that was rarely given out freely by the usually stoned faced man. It was only moments later that the same voice called him in, apparently noting someone's (Arthur's) presence from behind the door, in the same light-hearted tone.

And that's where this moment, began, he supposed. Arthur Kirkland certainly didn't expect to spend the next ten minutes of his life, in this review, standing in front of his superior's desk, next to none other than the same imbecilic American who had caused him all of his hassles of the evening, listening to the slight regard in his superior's voice. No, he certainly didn't. But that's what's so crazy about life's moments.

((You may hit me with things for taking so long after your lovely, long post. Please forgive me ;u;))

[Gryffindor Alfred]

Truth to be told, he expected his bosses to be way harder on him. He had almost ruined that mission after all, because of a newbie mistake, which made everything worse, but they reacted better than he thought. The mistake was practically overlooked after he mentioned he had stolen some information from one of the the company’s computers. Information was always valuable in their area. Sometimes, it was more valuable than the agent service itself. Not only that, but it also had an expensive price in the market (there were agencies that only got information to sell), and some people killed others to get it.

“I’m sure you’ll get to be one of our best agents, Jones” Said one of his “bosses”, and Alfred almost felt guilty for doing what he was doing. He was deceiving them, but they were congratulating him for getting what they needed. He had to remind himself why he was doing all of that. It was for a good cause, and sometimes, bad actions were needed for a greater end. He wouldn’t do it otherwise.

For a sort of independent agent, anyone could say that Alfred didn’t have what was needed. He wasn’t yoru typical bad guy, on the other hand, he had a strong sense of justice. Some of his colleagues had told him again and again that he was material for the FBI, that he could still be a spy, if he enjoyed that so much, but he would be on the “good” side. Alfred knew that wasn’t true though. There were more chances he ended up as the bad guy in the FBI than working for an agency. As an agent, he could at least choose some of his missions (now that he was one of the best), which wasn’t always possible if you worked for the Government. Working for an agency also gave him a sense of independence, he felt free -as free as you could be- and still did what he liked.

“Haha! I’m glad you think so, boss!” Alfred said, laughing and scratching his hair. Things were going too easily for him. He knew he could be charming when needed, but things were still going too smoothly. Surely something bad should happen--.

He couldn’t even finish his trail of thoughts. Of course he had to jinx it! He should have just been glad that things were okay, but no, he had to notice that everything was too easy. Now everything would be too difficult and it was thanks to no one else but himself. From all the people that could have came into the office in that moment, it had to be Arthur Kirkland!

(At least it made things more challenging, and a little bit of adrenaline was always welcomed.)

He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to say something. It was quite obvious that Arthur didn’t trust him much (but at least he trusted him enough to save him in that moment), but he didn’t know if he would bring up everything in front of their bosses. They already knew his mistakes, so there wasn’t much to say, but they would surely trust one of his oldest - he almost snorted at the thought, oldest, yeah, Arthur was old - agents over a newbie. If Arthur told them something, he could be dead in a second. Maybe it’d be better to pull the idiot card, just like he did before. He needed to keep that act.

“Oh hey! Thanks for earlier!” Alfred said, offering Arthur his hand to shake. “I never to got to really thank you” He added, chuckling.

If he was nice enough, he could have a chance. Or so he thought. Arthur was kind of unpredictable in his own way. Alfred didn’t expect a lot of his reactions at certain points, so it was hard to tell. It didn’t help that he was mostly unreadable (except when he was upset). The urban legends about Arthur Kirkland were true then. He was a very good agent. But Alfred needed to be better in that mission. He needed to fool everyone, Arthur included. He had to make everyone think he was the clumsy but hard-working newbie, hoping to get into the agency.

“I guess you know each other already” Said their boss, glancing between Arthur and Alfred. “You have to be careful, Kirkland, or Jones will take your place very soon” He said, joking.

Well. Apparently, his “boss” made Alfred’s job even harder now.

“But.” He made a pause. “I think it’s better if you don’t see each other as enemies, as you’re both part of this agency, after all” And that smile the boss gave them couldn’t mean good. “In fact, I think there are things you could learn from each other. It’s a good chance, hmm? You already know the ropes, Jones, so Mr. Kirkland here could train you, in real missions, of course”.

Oh no. Oh no.

“Yes, it shall be like that. Kirkland, please take care of your new student, if you have to call him like that. I can’t wait to see the things you could achieve together!”

And if Alfred thought things could go wrong after that meeting, now he was sure they would.

(( I could say the same this time :'D I'm sorry for the delay, but I hope this makes it up! ))

[Predatory Alfred]

Arthur wasn’t sure what the angle was here. It was almost... too good of a set up (good being a relative term here). Not only had the kid waltzed right into Arthur’s mission without more than a subtle hello, but now, even after messing up said prior mentioned mission, his, or rather their, superior didn’t seem to give it anymore thought than he would when ordering a sandwich at some sort of agency luncheon. It didn’t add up in his book. No, Arthur had been around long enough to tell when the pieces were falling into place almost a little too perfectly. But what exactly was it?

Kirkland, stony faced and perhaps a tad reluctant, took the rookie agent’s hand and shook it, only not declining as a show of respect to their overseer who seemed to be enjoying himself beautifully at the sight, not the child himself. It was only a moment after that his boss continued to speak, mentioning his succession which almost caused some sort of uproar or protest, but Arthur managed to keep it in. Smiling and pushing his buttons as well... the Brit began wondering if this all had been some sort of test.

Well, Arthur thought briefly, it would account for a lot of things and fill in a few puzzling blanks. The supposed rookie sneaking up on him, his otherwise relatively well performance during the mission, not to mention being able to successfully hack into the system (Arthur wasn’t even sure they taught anything more than minor hacking at the academy, one usually had to be mentored a few years into field work).

So was this a test? Had his superior brought this upon to assess his own skill; to make sure Kirkland himself wasn’t getting rusty? The sandy blond had heard of some rather nasty and secretive assessments in his day, but never planting in another covert agent. And who was this Alfred? Arthur surely had never heard of him, at least not around his line of work and he was sure someone would have mentioned a rather skilled hacker at one point or another to him (assuming hacking was what the other specialized in...). Even the test idea didn’t fully add up to him. Perhaps the younger blond was simply a new recruit and nothing more and this had been his lucky chance into a the field. It didn’t happen often, but sometimes people just took to the job. This explanation still hardly satisfied him.

And if the next words out of his boss’s mouth wasn’t the final nail in his coffin, Arthur didn’t know what it was. It was the perfect set up; test, perhaps, but more along the lines of a wish for an early retirement was more like it. No. Arthur wasn’t going to let some kid even begin to ruin him, even if they were now stuck as partners. He wouldn’t stand for such a mockery of himself. He knew just how to deal with this.

“Understood, sir,” he said, no qualms to be heard in his voice, though, just by the look on his superior’s face, Arthur knew his true feelings were already well known. “It would be my pleasure to assist our agency in such a way. Fledglings must learn to fly somehow, I do suppose.”

The older man behind the desk smiled at them both and requested a typed, full report be handed in to him by the end of the week, before dismissing them both, but not before collecting Arthur’s own information drive. A prompt departure from the office and a few minute walk in a silence that could only be described as tense, and Arthur hoped his refusal to meet his apparent new partner’s gaze made it worse on the lad, Arthur finally turned and spoke.

“I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here as of right, but regardless, you and I have been thrown into these unforseen circumstances. Whether it’s desirable or not is neither my concern, nor yours so wipe that look off your face.”

Arthur stood tall, not letting the other’s size throw off his own intimidation tactics. He was incharge here, as it was named, and the new recruit would listen to him and follow his own way of doing things, or there would certainly be some problems.

“I know it was said that you already ‘know the ropes’ but tonight I’ve failed to be convinced of that. Even a new recruit such as yourself should know how to avoid alarm systems,” Arthur quickly glanced at the watch on his wrist that read a few minutes after midnight. He let a small smile grace his lips as he looked back up at the other. “ Five AM sharp, my office tomorrow. We’ll start your own training before we even consider letting you back into the field work. I expect at least a summary overview of the mission upon your arrival. Lovely to be working with you.”

And with that, Arthur continued his way down the corridor without a second glance back. He had numerous reports to read up on the young man he had been paired with. Perhaps some light would finally be shed on the other.

But for now, a cup of tea sounded splendid.

[Gryffindor Alfred]

Alfred stayed there, standing in front of Arthur without daring to move. He had heard stories, about how Arthur was a very strict agent. It was another reason why Kirkland usually worked alone, because the poor recruits who had the misfortune of going to a mission with him ended transferring to another division, or even transferring to another agency, because Arthur had been too hard on them. The few that didn’t take any of those options, at the end, didn’t work with Arthur again anyway, because Kirkland was Kirkland, and he’d rather work alone.

But there he was now, waiting for Arthur to finish his instructions, and knowing that he’d have to look for a way to get along with him. It annoyed him though. Because Arthur was treating him like a newbie, like someone who had gone to their very first mission, and Alfred Jones was no newbie! He knew what to do, knew everything about the job, and even if he wasn’t as experienced as Kirkland, he was good at what he was told to do - hacking, especially, there wasn’t anything that compared to breaking into those weak security systems - and it wasn’t fair that Arthur was treating him like that.

(It meant that he was doing his job well though, Arthur was believing him - or was he? - but same thing! It still annoyed him.)

“It was just a little mistake...” He said, trying to put aside his annoyance and faking a pout. “But yes, sir! I’ll be there at five, no worries!”

Five AM though? Did Arthur really mean that? Who in their right mind tried to wake up at five? Even less, wake up earlier than five to be wherever he needed to be at five. Alfred guessed that one of the good things of being one of the best of his agency was that he usually did whatever he wanted. His bosses knew him, and even if he looked like a lazy person who would never finish a job, he always finished everything on time, Alfred just liked doing things at his own pace. But Jones didn’t have an option now, he’d have to follow Arthur’s orders and hope that he wasn’t as strict as all of his colleagues once told him.

It was kind of obvious that Arthur didn’t care about his response, because he didn’t turn around, neither told him anything else, so Alfred just left after shortly after Kirkland. He had things to do himself, included that dreadful paper Arthur asked him - no, ordered him - to do. Things like informing his own agency about his progress, and the possible issues that could raise in the future (and he would make sure to mark Arthur Kirkland as a very large and bushy-browed-issue).

But Alfred couldn’t contact his agency from one of their computers, neither from inside of the building, so he had to go outside, to a secluded place. It was fast anyway, he took out a little device, like a phone, and started typing down a quick message, followed by the information he got, which was easy enough. He was good at hacking, but maybe coding was what he did best. Only a few people had managed to decode one of his messages (like that Russian guy he once hated, or the Estonian guy who had worked for the same Russian), so there was a very slight chance that someone would know he was getting on his real agency’s server and sending them all of the information he found.

Right after he finished, he went back inside and to the place that was now his room. He could type what Arthur asked him in the computer they gave him, and it should be easy. It only took him some minutes to finish the summary, making sure there were a couple of things he didn’t include in it. It should be good enough to impress Arthur, but not give himself out.

* * *

It took a couple of alarms to wake up Alfred at four AM, but he managed. With his summary ready and saved in his memory drive, he was ready to face whatever Arthur wanted to put him through. After a shower and changing clothes, he left his room to go to Arthur’s office. He didn’t expect Kirkland to actually be there at five, but he realized that he subestimated the other blonde. It was five minutes to five AM and Arthur was already there, waiting for him. It was obvious, because the lights were on, and there were noises coming from inside the office. Knocking, he stepped inside of the room. Arthur wanted him to be there at five? Fine, he could do it.

“Arthur?” He asked him, trying not to surprise the agent like the last time. “Five AM like you said!” He said later, grinning at him. “Oh, and here’s what you asked, it’s the only file in the memory drive.” Alfred handed him the memory drive and waited for Arthur’s verdict. “So... what do you think?” He asked, after a couple of minutes in which Arthur said nothing. “And what are we going to do today? Are training rooms and that even open at five? Or do you have something else planned?”

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