For prettyballsy

[fucking_gentleman]

The alarm was sounded at eleven in the morning, the day after Eggsy visited.

The alarms should have gone off before then, but Harry had hacked the machines, pulling and stripping wires and looping the feedback back into itself so there was no sign that he was no longer connected.

He had borrowed clothes by picking his way through the hospital, acquiring one item after another, cards and pass codes and by the time he left, he was dressed and had loose cash, a pilfered phone from a wanker who refused to turn it off and said wanker's credit card, which he used to withdraw the maximum he could and then tossed.

With more CCTV than any other city in the world, he then vanished off the grid.

By the time Eggsy was brought in by Merlin at quarter past midday, Merlin was waiting for another ping from a new internet cafe, the various footage of Harry's escape running behind him, being analysed by technicians for any hints.

"He realised he'd been made and vanished from the last internet cafe in under two minutes. He was off the cameras again within five. You're being authorised to locate and bring in Galahad, before he becomes a target or, worse, gives himself a stroke."

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[prettyballsy]

The alarm had Eggsy on his feet and moving in a second. Dressed. Suited. Armed. Ready.

And then he had learned what the mission was.

His heart felt like it wasn't even beating, and his blood felt fucking icy inside his body. Looking over the monitors, considering what and where he would be, and where after all of this he would have gone. All of this work was Harry Hart, and that meant it was where would Harry Hart go.

The car wasn't his, and he didn't give a rat's ass either. Just that he got where he figured Harry would end up. If he was hitting up internet cafes, he was looking into who Harry Hart was. Which was why he came up to the back door of Harry's house, slipping in the back door.

Pistol in hand, glasses in place, waiting for the attack if he hadn't beaten Harry here.

"Harry? You here?" He called out, trying to sound casual. "Thought you were gonna wait for me at the hospital?"

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry had beaten him there.

Harry had had to take a longer way, and had been slowed down by his need to divert whatever forces were following the trail he was leaving. But he also had known what and where he was doing since the evening before.

He was in bedroom, having started at the top of the house to move his way down. He had found several concealed weapons in the bed frame and wardrobe and taken the one from the wardrobe, effortlessly disassembling and reassembling the hand gun.

He carried it in his left hand. His right trembled and he felt just as comfortable left handed as right, meaning he was probably naturally ambidextrous before his head injury.

He came to the doorway, listening to the voice. "Yes, well, I had worked out that my hospital room was bugged the last time you visited me. It seemed like a poor idea to let slip that I might want to do some investigation of my own."

[prettyballsy]

That was not a surprise. On any level. Not that he had planned this, or found his way home. He suspected that Harry was armed and he knew that rushing up there was a mistake.

Which was why Eggsy took the stairs two at a time despite the soles of his oxfords sliding on the carpet and pushed open the door to the bedroom. Because that was smart with someone that was possibly unstable and might not remember him completely in that moment.

"Are you a goddamn fool or what?" Glaring at Harry, pale and looking a bit ashen in his panic. "You could have had a fucking episode and what if I didn't find you until it was too late?"

Because again, scolding the armed man was brilliant.

"What? Did you think I wouldn't fucking find you? Wouldn't be scared out of my everlovin' mind?"

His chest heaved slightly, emotions coursing madly through him. "What the hell were you thinking?"

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry manages not to fire when the door opens, because he knows it's Eggsy, not a threat.

He wearing entirely stolen clothes that don't fit brilliantly. He's lost weight being in hospital, lost condition, and he's ditched the bandaging for an eye patch the shows the scarring around the socket and temple from the bullet and surgeries. His hair is loose, curling across his forehead.

"I was rather relying on the fact you would find me." He lowered the gun, letting out the tension and breath and finding himself buckling as he did so. "I needed to get out from under Merlin's observation. He'd trap me."

[prettyballsy]

If he'd gotten shot, so be it. He was worried sick, scared, and seeing Harry like this, seeing him start to go down, that was all that he had been afraid of.

"Oh bloody hell," he said, rushing in to try and lend Harry a hand. "Who the hell do you think sent me to bring you back?"

Which Harry had to have known as well. And yet...

"No glasses. No phone. Nicked the car I came here in. This is the suit you had tailored for me. I never mentioned I had it when they fitted me for the Kingsman suit to go after Valentine. It's as clean as I can be Harry, but I don't know if it's clean enough."

He sighed, shaking his head. "He's not leaving an agent with your skills and with your memory loss on the street, Harry. I don't report back, and Lancelot is on her way."

[fucking_gentleman]

"Help me to my bed." His right hand had caught Eggsy's shoulder, holding on for balance and support.

"I knew he'd send you after me. But I had to get information. Information without him watching, listening. To find here. Be here without him here." He sank onto his mattress leaning back and looking at Eggsy. "You look magnificent. I could not be prouder of you."

He had been running on pure adrenaline.

"I'm not going back to hospital. I won't be sheltered from my own life like some simpering damsel in distress, and most certainly not by a man who-"

Who what, Harry?

He trailed off, unsure.

His head hurt. A lot.

"Can you close the curtains, please?"

[prettyballsy]

"Course," he said, wrapping his arm around the boy, holding him close as he moved him to the bed.

"I could have brought you things, or helped you. What if you had..." He was hurting so bad, angry because of how scared he was. "Do you know what I would have done if I found you..." He sighed, helping him settle down.

Which was when the words hit him. "Now you're not even playing fair, Harry Hart, and you know it." He was pretty sure he knew it too.

"You're not being sheltered. The first day I came, I thought you were going to die and..."

Oh no. He doesn't get to leave that like that.

Staring down at him a moment, he went over and pulled the curtains closed. "A man who tells me he's your best friend, and you're his only confidante." He turned to face him, standing before the curtain.

"So why don't you trust Merlin?"

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry toed off his stolen sneakers and sank back into the bed. It felt familiar, comfortable, safe in a way the hospital never did.

"I was being sheltered. Not by you. By him. The staff. You were told not to come back and see me, weren't you? 'Leave him alone to recover' or some nonsense." With the pillows piled under him and the curtains closed, he closed his eye and let himself just enjoy for a moment.

"Because he left me there. He didn't give me a choice to know, to remember, he left me. I don't know why I said that, I really wasn't going to. That's probably the frontal lobe damage."

[prettyballsy]

Sighing, he moved over to pick up a blanket folded at the foot of the bed, shaking it out to at least lay over Harry's legs.

"Harry, I caused you to have a break down. You could have bloody well died and it would have been my fault," he said, definitely having taken that away from being lectured after what happened. "So yeah, he told me to stay away to protect you."

He was torn. His loyalties lay first and foremost with Harry. Yet he had been answering to Merlin, as a Kingsman.

"What if you had a break down like that with him and he was scared for you too?"

[fucking_gentleman]

"No, I had a minor set back, which has happened before, and it is the fault of whatever arsehole decided to shoot me in the head during V-Day."

He patted the bed next to him, not looking. He trusted Eggsy would sit down next to him.

"Then I still have the right to make a decision with the available information. He's not my keeper, even if he is often my handler. As a handler, he should know that. I need information to make the best call."

[prettyballsy]

Eggsy didn't say a word, not agreeing with him as he came over to sit down on the edge of the bed. As a Kingsman he should have contacted Merlin immediately. As Eggsy Unwin, he answered to Harry Hart. Plain and simple.

"Merlin is pretty much our Arthur," he pointed out. "We haven't really had time to put Kingsman entirely back together since Valentine happened. So... He kind of is my handler."

Yet he'd made it clear he hadn't told him anything. Not yet. "He thinks he's protecting you, Harry. Which none of us did. I know how often I've replayed that moment in my head. I can't imagine how often Merlin has watched the tape."

[fucking_gentleman]

"A handler is not a keeper."

He stayed where he was, relaxed in the bed and letting his sense tell him that he was home, even if he didn't consciously remember it.

"It wasn't his right to decide to keep my life from me. Or to tell you to help him keep it from me. I don't know what tape you mean, but I am still an adult and he didn't have the right to take that from me. To leave me completely alone."

He had spent over a month awake, alone.

[prettyballsy]

"Then let me take you back to Kingsman and tell him that," he said, meaning it. At least then he'd know where Harry was.

But then he mentioned the tape and he was quiet for a long time, shifting, shoulders curling in slightly.

"We were watching," he said, fighting to keep his voice even, normal, not cracking as much as his throat felt tight and his eyes were stinging. "When Valentine shot you, I was watching."

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry was mostly unconscious in various forms until the next morning. He woke up once, demanded to get up to use the bathroom, came back and declared that the sun was too close before passing out again. He had developed a fever form his exertions, which was brought under control with a few hours of care but caused a bit of concern until that was achieved.

He slept the rest of the night. Eggsy was chased out to go and shower and get changed in the morning, and it was suggested he might want to get some tea or coffee or breakfast.

Suggested strongly if he didn't want to be banned for twenty four hours.

When he'd get back, Merlin was sitting in with Harry, head somewhat bowed as they spoke softly to each other. Merlin must have been in shock or just too thankful to protest that every now and then, Harry would reach out and touch his scalp, patting with his fingertips.

[prettyballsy]

He hadn't wanted to leave. Not for anything. Sleeping uncomfortably in the chair, getting what he could. That suggestion was met with the sullen look of the boy he'd been before the Kingsman, not well slept or well cared for enough to still the look.

So he went and showered, drank enough coffee to make himself feel slightly ill and ate some sausage just for the protein. Not healthy not taking care of himself, but after the fever scare, he didn't care.

When he came to the door he had a tray in hand, a pot and a cup on it, steam rising from the pot. He paused then, not realizing Harry wasn't alone.

"I can come back," he said, turning on heel, dressed somberly in his suit once more.

[fucking_gentleman]

Merlin straightened up immediately. Eggsy and Roxy were closer to him than any agent except Harry, but he was still not ready to show that sort of weakness.

"I have briefings to put together. Try and keep him in the room if not in bed." Merlin left in a hurry, not looking at Eggsy.

Harry looked better. Sharper. A more natural colour. "Please, come in. I hope that's for me and not just some new and terribly torture devised to punish me for yesterday's stunt."

[prettyballsy]

Eggsy worried they were on edge. So close after they lost Harry and saved the world but they had fought and Eggsy wasn't acting like the agent he had been.

So he winced when Merlin hopped up to head out. Especially without making eye contact.

He came closer, glancing back at the door. "How much trouble am I in if he ain't even looking at me?" He asked, sounding uncertain then as he moved to set the tray on the bed, looking to Harry.

"Much as you don't deserve it for yesterday, course it's for you."

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry shuffled to make space for Eggsy next to him on the bed. Having discovered human contact, he had also discovered he was quite missing it and it helped him feel centred.

"He's not angry at you. Merlin doesn't like to be seen at anything less than his polished best." He didn't was to let Merlin's secrets slip, but if it took that to make Eggsy settle, he would. "He was a bit... emotional."

[prettyballsy]

He settled on, careful not to jostle the tray. Nervous, not certain if that was what Harry wanted. Yet he wanted to be near him, and wasn't willing to waste that.

"What was not polished best about that?" He frowned, not seeing Merlin different, not for being with his friend. "He apologize for leavin you?"

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry tilted his bent knees to rest against Eggsy, making it clear he was intended to be sitting there.

"His eyes were notably red rimmed, Eggsy," Harry said softly. That was what Merlin had been hiding. Don't make him say it out loud, Eggsy.

"Amongst other things. But yes, he apologised for leaving me alone at the hospital once he understood my problem with it."

[prettyballsy]

That was... new and comforting and dammit, but Eggsy realized he liked that. His hand curled lightly against the curve of his knee, settling there comfortably.

"As if I'd have noticed," he said, rolling his eyes, not nodding. "Or said a thing. I was distracted visually checking you to see how you was," he pointed out.

"Good. Glad. You two should work on whatcha had before," he said with a nod. "Until then though, drink your tea before I drink it."

[fucking_gentleman]

"He is... vaguely familiar." It was about as close as Harry ever got to remembering at this stage. "I'm sleeping better here, as well. I never slept well in the hospital. I don't think anyone sleeps well in a hospital, in fairness.

"And by all accounts, my eye is still healing and the pins are holding solid. Which is even better."

He picked up his cup with his left hand, sipping it. "Mm. Lady Grey?"

[prettyballsy]

"That's a start. What I am, after all," he said, figuring jokes would be helpful. "Good, and we'll keep you here. Even if I have to fight for that," he said, meaning it. He would. He knew now, he needed Henry here.

"I saw... I saw it, without the pathc. I..." He shook his head, bowing his head as he bit at his lip. Taking a breath, pulling himself back together as he raised his head, lifted his gaze.

"As I recall, it is your morning preference, right?"

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry laid his right hand on Eggsy's knee, squeezing and leaving it there. "It's quite ugly, I know. And rather shocking. But it looks far worse than it is. I even still have the eye, which I've been assured was a small miracle on its own."

He nodded. "I believe it is, yes. We must have been quite close for you to be aware of that."

[prettyballsy]

Oh but that made him smile, unable to help himself at that touch. "Ugly? Where the bloody hell did you get that word?" He rolled his eyes, giving him a look. "Never a word that came to my mind," he said, shaking his head.

"Nope, not like that. It's my job though, right? Watch and observe and learn?" Except that wasn't it. It was him being the stalker that he was about everything Harry liked, because he liked Harry.