PSL: For Charles

[fucking_gentleman]

It was a week before they were willing to let Harry be moved.

He had another emergency surgery where they had to concede to losing his left eye to keep the nerve intact. Once they managed to get him stable again, they made him get through five days of no crashing, no unpredicted dips or spikes, just quiet healing and level drug intake.

Then and only then was it agreed that Harry could be transported back to England. It would be with transport staff, a doctor and two nurses and he was kept in light sedation to keep his pain manageable while they moved him.

They were met in the Kingsman hangar by Merlin. He didn't offer any words, just stood by Harry's sleeping form for a while and then left with an instruction to settle him in medical called back over one shoulder.

When Harry did regain consciousness, it was in the blessedly familiar surrounds of Kingsman medical. He actually sighed with the relief, staring at the ceiling and willing his emotions back under control.

Comments

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry relaxed a bit more. Charles as Arthur, he could handle. "It'll be nice to be able to boss Merlin around, at least. You will have to boss him around, just a little. Payback."

[grailknight]

He chuckled. "I never thought Merlin's demands were incorrect."

[fucking_gentleman]

"That is not the point at all." He tried to lift his head and instead his right hand and leg twitched. "And you know it."

[grailknight]

He shrugged a little. "I am the sensible one. You know that."

[fucking_gentleman]

"You are. By far the most sensible of us. I often wonder how you managed passing as an agent, you lack the usual flair for the dramatic and reckless the rest of us thrive on."

[grailknight]

"Initially it was to not disappoint my uncle." His great uncle, Sir Percy Charles Isherwood, Agent Gawain, and the last surviving knight of the first table. Sir Percy survived to retirement before dying in his sleep a few years later. "But then it became force of habit."

[fucking_gentleman]

"Charles, do you want to be with Kingsman anymore? There's no shame in retiring." Because he sounded like a man who was done.

[grailknight]

"Yes, even more so now than before."

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry was quiet for a long moment. Charles said he wanted to be there, he had to trust him, right now. He wasn't in a state to try and pick apart if it was an obfuscation. "So long as you're sure. If you wanted to retire, make a new life without all this chaos and death, no one would blame you. No one worth listening to, anyway."

[grailknight]

He smiled. "I think it is time we return to our original mandate."

[fucking_gentleman]

"The Kingsman Agency, or do you mean the mandate where Merlin yelled at me to get bed rest and told you to keep me out of trouble?"

He was guessing a bit, but it basically covered what he understood of Merlin's instructions.

[grailknight]

"The agency." He gave Harry a smirk. "So far I have managed that."

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry hummed. So far, yes. He wasn't in anything like a fit state to start trying to escape and right now, he had company and a tablet to entertain himself after.

"Do you think they'll offer you Arthur on a more permanent basis?"

[grailknight]

The humming made him smile. It was a good sign.

"Yes, I think the possibility is there. But when more of our members are recovered, I will be taking it to a vote."

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry had seen a couple of Arthurs in his day, but he somehow never thought that he'd end up answering to one of his junior agents as Arthur.

"I never thought of you as Arthur. I probably should have. You'll do a good job."

[grailknight]

"You didn't? I thought perhaps when I am older, but certainly not now." He frowned. "Twenty-one years as Percival, Harry. That is a part of who I am."

[fucking_gentleman]

"I suppose I never thought much of who would be the next Arthur." Not him. He didn't think anyone wanted him as Arthur. "Someone would volunteer. Or get put forward. It's not like Arthur usually dies in a shock like this."

[grailknight]

"I honestly thought that you would be the successor."

[fucking_gentleman]

"I don't think I'd make a good Arthur." He expected to have the decency to die on the job, not be left crippled and desk bound. "And if you want it, you should put yourself forward."

[grailknight]

"You would take us into the 21st century, something that King never would have done." Charles nodded. "I just might."

[fucking_gentleman]

"Well... yes. But you can do that as well as I can." He sighed softly. "Frankly, I need to make vast improvements before they'll consider letting me near paperwork, let alone deciding on whether I can return in any useful capacity."

[grailknight]

He snorted. "While I had to become sn expert at it. We both have a certain loathing for bureauracy." Then Charles glared at him, visably angered. "You never stopped being useful."

[fucking_gentleman]

"Oh yes, I can tell how useful I am to Kingsman right now, being trapped in a bed by my own body with no promise of actually being able to walk or use a knife and fork again!"

[grailknight]

"There are never any promises. Not for anything. But there is adaptation. You find yourself set back, but you won't always be in this position. You worked bloody hard on staying alive. Don't you give up on that."

[fucking_gentleman]

"But what sort of position will be able to do here? Paperwork? Handling? Human guinea pig?" One of the unfortunate side effects of brain injuries. If not outright personality changes, volatile moods and a lack of ability to moderate their outbursts.