(no subject)

[fucking_gentleman]

[Continued from here]

Harry was not aware of the fight that happened when Eggsy went back to HQ.

He wasn't aware that Merlin had visited him twice since he woke up from his coma, because both times his brain had struggled with the damage and flood of memories and promptly failed to cope. He never managed to make an actual memory of Merlin's visits, because his memory centres had been too inflamed at that stage.

He may never know how gutted Merlin was to find that Harry was alive, but still just as gone as before and that he had agreed with the treating specialists to give Harry space to heal and recover before they did anything about trying to get his memory recovered.

Harry was not as well recovered as Harry thought he was, or managed to present.

But it was agreed that they wouldn't move him from where he was. The staff there were briefed on his situation, there was security in place and it wasn't worth the fight with both Eggsy AND Harry to get him moved.

Eggsy was told not to visit, to let Harry recover physically.

Harry, on the other hand, got out to the phone and managed to dial the number on the back of the medal and then gave what he assumed was the pass code of Oxfords, not Brogues.

Comments

[prettyballsy]

Eggsy was not handling things well, but he had gone from screaming at Merlin and calling him names every chance he got to pouty, staring at the man and not saying a word. Not at all. He knew Harry would be so angry with him but he just couldn't. He couldn't find it in himself to forgive yet.

Did he understand why? Yeah, he'd seen the results. Did he get that it was for Harry's sake? Yep. Did that make it okay to not fucking tell him? Never. Maybe he would never be Harry Hart, but knowing he had not died that day after what had happened? Maybe it would have made every single day since then easier for Eggsy instead of constantly replaying that day over and over again in his head. Day in and day out.

Yet he had listened to the command not to visit. Only because if Merlin dismissed him from Kingsman, he might never see Harry again. That didn't stop him from charming a nurse to give him updates, or speaking to the operator that he had called that day from lock up and charmed her to call him if anyone called from Harry's area code, used that pass code. Harry had called. That meant he wasn't disobeying orders. He was answering the troubled call of an agent.

He arrived not in the tailored suit he'd worn before. Instead he was wearing a brilliant and eye hurting colors of gold and black with red, and track pants with his cap on backwards.

"You called?"

He asked from the door, nervous he was going to hurt Harry again. This time, the moment he saw the signs, he'd be gone and send in the nurse, but he had to see him after that call came in.

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry had wondered if he'd imagined the young man who had taken him back to his room. He ended up wondering if the man in the garden happened either, or if the whole day was just the product of his brain damage.

If not for the medal.

There was nothing in the paper about a shoot out. There was no signs that he could see of the violence.

So it was almost a relief when the young man, Eggsy was it?, turned up so casual and calm on the outside and clearly a bundle of nerves.

Harry set down his newspaper, smoothing it over his lap. He was being kept in bed officially.

"Yes, I believe I did. Though I wasn't entirely who or what I was calling. Come in, dear boy."

[prettyballsy]

They knew when they made Eggsy official, despite him losing to Roxy, that Eggsy wasn't one to follow orders blindly. It was why he wasn't Lancelot. He hadn't shot JB. So if Merlin had believed he wouldn't come see Harry if he called, then he wasn't paying attention. Which meant, Eggsy knew that Merlin knew he was there.

He'd take his chances.

So when Harry called him dear boy, he smiled. "I guess you've remembered enough to use that," he said, as if Harry needed permission. "Though maybe you use it on everyone including Merlin," he teased, trying to sound normal and streetwise and snarky. The boy he'd been before Harry had started those changes within him.

"You called the people you used to be with. The number, that phrase, it's for time of dire need. Or something. I called you to get my ass out of jail. It worked," he added, watching Harry closely as he moved closer.

"How are you doing? And no dismissals. I left here and saw the look in your eye, on your face. How are you?"

[fucking_gentleman]

It wasn't like Galahad had had a great reputation for following orders. Or being on time. Especially that one.

Well, it was good to confirm that that number was this mysterious organisation and he hadn't imagined that. "Merlin... Every time you say that name, I get the feeling I should know who you mean, but I don't."

He gave a small shrug. "Did you? I have memory problems, not just of my life before, I have some troubles forming new memories, apparently. And occasionally I remember things which haven't happened. Did I kill a man with an umbrella?"

He gestured to the chair next to his bed, for Eggsy to sit.

[prettyballsy]

All that Eggsy knew and he still didn't judge Harry on that, especially not after he had lost him to Valentine.

He smirked then, pulling up a chair, though the smile was fairly hollow. "That's because he's your oldest friend and dearest confidante and you're not the only one that lost someone that day now sit down and shut up," he said, rolling his eyes as he sat. "I might be slightly parapharasing." Even if that was the jist of it.

Yet even as he said it, acting flippant though he was watching Harry closely, watching for him to touch his head, wince, show any of the signs that Eggsy had ignored before.

"Are you sure you're remembering what hasn't happened, or just what you're not sure when it happened?" Because he could imagine that might be it. Unless he was seeing the future now.

"As for the man and the umbrella, offical story is he never existed, no one heard a thing and the hospital never saw you come in bloody, or know why you had a slip that day except for the young man they think might be your son who came to visit." Then he smiled a bit more genuinly. "For the record, I'm not."

[fucking_gentleman]

His oldest friend was a man called Merlin.

Undoubtedly there were stranger names out there, even if he did think it was a bit weird. Still, the man's name was hardly his fault, unless he had changed it to Merlin, but Harry couldn't see himself befriending the sort of person who legally changed their name to Merlin.

"Merlin was not a name, but a title in Arthurian myth. The Merlin." One of those random snippets he seemed to know. "I remember things that didn't happen. I was convinced I was visited by several people while in here. One of them was the president of the United States." Which really had not happened, if only because the man had exploded two months ago.

"I don't need the official story. I need to know if my memory is misleading me or not. And yes, I was fairly sure you weren't my son. You didn't react like a son finding his father."

[prettyballsy]

"Ta-da!" He put his hands out, wriggling his fingers. Jazz Hands. "Look at that. You're remembering mythology too. It's a start. As for who visited you..."

He fell silent a moment, considering. "You don't know the current president. The one you know is dead," he said, shrugging one shoulder. "What other visitors do you remember? I know one, but he stopped coming because the fit or seizure what have you that you had the other day? You had it in moments then he told me."

Eggsy straightened, nodding. "You acted by instinct. Your training showed even if you don't remember. So yes, you killed an assassin about to take out someone you wouldn't want dead. I wouldn't know. I barely knew mine. Dad that is."

[fucking_gentleman]

"As I say, I have moments like that, remembering events that cannot have happened since I came out of the coma. Rarely anything serious."

He was quiet for a little bit. He knew Eggsy wasn't his son because he had been shocked, but reserved, kept his distance, like they weren't overly familiar with one another even if he was who Eggsy thought he was.

"You... gave me a medal. That was you, right?"

[prettyballsy]

"You remember it for reasons," he said, though why the president of the United States, he didn't know. "Probably met him sometime." Given what Harry did, he assumed. Before he went boom and all.

"In fairness, you gave it to me first," he admitted. "But yeah, I gave it to you. Knew Merlin was going to have my hide and wasn't going to let me come back here. He nearly moved you but then we started yelling and now you're still here."

[fucking_gentleman]

"Maybe." His brain was a bit scrambled, he wasn't convinced he could trust it.

"And yet, here you are, despite Merlin. If he and I are so close, why hasn't he visited? He clearly knows where I am."

[prettyballsy]

"Yeah well, I'm goin' to probably find myself grounded," he admitted, snorting as he tried not to smirk. "And by that I figure he's got a cell somewhere I'm gong to find myself in."

And much as he made it sound like a joke, he wasn't sure it was.

"Yeah and he came and you... To hear him talk about it, I think you tried to flatline or something on him. He's a better man than me. He can stay away for your good. I couldn't."

He said it calmly, even if was the truth and hurt, and yet he didn't want Harry to think bad about Merlin.

"Sides, he has to be the grown up. I don't."

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry considered it.

He didn't remember anyone else visiting him. Doctors, nurses, but no one else. It was entirely possible he had just not remembered it. He didn't remember Eggsy leaving last time, just that they were talking and then he woke up in the bed again.

"You said I recruited you. Who am I, to you?"

[prettyballsy]

He considered that, thinking about how he could answer this, what would be the right way to answer it.

"You're the man that gave me that medal the day you told me my dad wasn't coming home. Well, you told my mum and then told me I was the man of the house now," he said, never forgetting Harry's face, even if he hadn't expected him to show up that day when Eggsy used the medal. "You were the one that bailed me out of jail, and sponsored me when everyone else thought you were a fucking idiot for it," he said, knowing that was how it felt.

He felt quiet a minute before answer. "You're my mentor. That's the word Roxe used. For me though? You're the man that changed my life. You ... you had faith in me when I didn't have faith in me. Which sounds cheesy as fuck, I know. True though."

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry, who had no memory, who had a persistent shake in his right hand and foot, had inspired that from this lovely young creature.

Harry, who hadn't been allowed to leave his room since he regain consciousness and had no family and no apparent friends, had this young man staring at him like he could alter the axis of the earth for him and had done it.

He swallowed, not sure what to say in response for a moment.

"The man you knew sounds quite... inspiring when you put it like that."

[prettyballsy]

"Yeah well... "

He fell quiet, thinking about what Merlin had said to him about what might never be. He knew that was true too, but he wasn't sure what he would do about it.

"Way I see it? You could be too. Or maybe not. Merlin might think I can't handle this but you're not dead. Everyone changes. I changed because of you. You taught me to be a gentleman. You taught me to be the man they need me to be," he said, not sure about mentioning the name of things. He was already risking things admitting as much as he did, but this was Harry. No matter what. "I can adapt to who you are." Not who he could be. Who he is.

[fucking_gentleman]

"Adapt, adopt, improve."

That didn't feel right.

"Learn, adapt, transform." That was more familiar. "Why would you do that? You have your own life, I presume, a family, a partner. I may never remember our previous meetings. I may never be close to the person that I was before. Brain damage can make people quite dramatically different and often unpleasant."

[prettyballsy]

He smiled then, nodding. "Learn, adapt, transform. Just what happened." And he had disappointed Harry in the last talk they ever had. He would never let that go. Even now.

"Mum and baby sister. They've got their own life. My life is different now. No partner. Got Roxy but she works more than I do so that doesn't change much," he said, smiling fondly as he talked about her.

"And so I get to know whoever Harry Dewhatchasaid is. You were there for me twice when I needed you, Harry. Why would I not be here for you now? Where I want to be. Also, for the record, so far you're not unpleasant at all. For one, you've not yelled at me once. Most do."

He was making jokes, trying to make him relax. "Do you want me not here?"

[fucking_gentleman]

"DeVere? Goodness, no, that's not me. Harry Hart at least feels familiar, my mouth says it naturally with a life time of experience."

He didn't feel like he was a person who yelled or shouted much. He had, once or twice, at his nurses when he was frustrated, but it had come with an apology and feeling genuinely contrite for his outbursts.

"I am glad you visited. My apologies, I don't seem to mean ungrateful for your company. I am simply trying to understand why a busy young man would choose to spend time with a brain damaged old man, outside of a sense of obligation. Which, if it is, I would sooner not have."

[prettyballsy]

"Good. Don't like it anyway," he said, smirking. "Least I could have just stuck with Harry." And he would have, because yeah, no. It was so... French, and romantic mooshy sounding. Because Hart wasn't.

"This busy young man has two things in his life, and only one since you died. The other is going to be looking for me soon and then there will be texts and more yelling and likely me tracking your ass down," he admitted, being bluntly honest. He suspected Harry would want that, one way or another.

"And no, that ain't it at all, and you're not old. You're Harry." And brain damaged. He couldn't argue that but he was seeing healing. Maybe one day he'd be out of a bed and living whatever life he wanted now. "I'm going to give you my mobile number before I go. Then you can call me and we won't risk Merlin intercepting, though he will. He gave me the damn thing."

[fucking_gentleman]

"From pre-Norman, 'Of Ver', came over to England during the Norman invasion." He really did know a lot of random things. Very random things.

"You'll need to write it on something, I have no phone of my own and they aren't permitted in intensive care." His hand been destroyed on V-Day in whatever had happened to him. "And my dear boy, you're what? Twenty four? Maybe twenty six? If the age in DeVere's passport is something like the truth, I'm twice your age, which makes me old in comparison."

[prettyballsy]

"What the fuck is the Ver you're of?" He put it out there, utterly Eggsy in just having to argue it.

"I can make that happen. Sally out at the station will get me a pen and paper, and bring you a phone," he added, waggling his brows and smirking. "I had her notifying me of your condition." He was trained by Harry to get what he wanted. Well, not quite but it was how he was using his training.

"Your passport lies. Subtract twenty years and I'm nearly forty," he said, entirely deadpan. "Buying that?"

[fucking_gentleman]

"DeVere. Means 'of Ver'. Interesting choice for an assumed name, was all. But also of French origin."

Harry had really been much the same. He used training and charm to get what he wanted, from marks, from other Kingsman agents, even Arthur in his own way. He did it now without really knowing it to get what he wanted from nurses.

"Leave the number with her and I'll recover it once you leave. Less evidence of a transfer taking place." And he'd be able to hide the number somewhere in the room without any possibility of Eggsy being used to spy on him.

"No, not in the slightest. I'm fairly sure I feel every one of my fifty three years and you are not a day over seventy six."

[prettyballsy]

"I just use my given name. No one uses it," he admitted, amused. "And no, I don't, he added quickly in case Harry had a memory moment, or a common sense moment, there. "Never thought of one." He supposed eventually he should.

"You got it. May change it in a couple of days. Pick up a burner than might give Merlin a few days of hacking or whatever he does to track down," he said, knowing he could never fully keep secerts from him, but might as well try.

He chuckled then. "If you meant twenty six, you're wrong. I'm exactly three days over, so there," he said, sounding so very childish. Not that he'd done much for his birthday with worrying about Harry. "And ain't nothing wrong with those fifty three years."

[fucking_gentleman]

"Your suit is bugged, your glasses have remote activation transmission and can pick up signals which are being transmitted within immediate vicinity. Even in your pocket, they can be used by someone with the command codes to intercept a mobile call and then the number it stored for later hacking."

He had no idea how he knew all that, but he did.

"I- sometimes I say the wrong words," he admitted, huffing with soft frustration. "... and Happy Birthday. I have a woeful lack of offerings to celebrate the event."

[prettyballsy]

"I know. I know all of that," he said, shrugging. "He knows I'm here. I know that. I can also buy time. I can set things to get a better chance. I'm not always wearing clothes and my glasses," he pointed out. "Did you really want me to say I would call you naked?"

Now he was being a dick, just because he could, and it was funny. At least to him.

"Nope, you didn't say the wrong thing at all. Say what y'want, Harry. I'm here to listen and talk." He made a face. "Naw. I didn't do anything for it. No big deal." He'd been too busy worrying about Harry.