Work Text:
Eggsy sipped his whiskey and leaned easily against the swanky black-and-chrome bar of the club. This being a spy business wasn’t a bad gig, really. I mean, what other job would pay him to sit in this over-priced, posh nightclub and drink whiskey while he kept an eye on some shady fucker who had connections to the seedy underbelly of the criminal underworld?
Shit, who was he kidding? He fucking loved this job.
“How’s it going?”
“Whiskey’s good,” he answered, voice low enough not to be caught by anything other than the mini mic on his glasses, “Got three phone numbers in the past fifteen minutes, and I can see at least two things I could nick without anyone noticing.”
“They stay where they are,” was Merlin’s dry reply, “The Target?”
Adjusting his position was a natural move, one that brought his gaze sweeping over the booth he’d been keeping his eye on since he arrived. Good looking bloke; handsome, a little rugged, neat black hair, sharp Italian suit. A five o’clock shadow that was a style choice rather than a missed date with a razor. They’d pegged him as mid-to late forties, but his exact age - like his name - was unknown. The information they had to go on was spotty at best, but they knew he had connections to a known terrorist group that was making noise on the grapevine. Eggsy remembered the grainy picture Merlin had shown them; footage from a CCTV camera they’d forgotten to avoid. It was the first and only mistake they knew of, one that gave them an edge and a way in if they played their cards right. But tracking him here was the easy part; the rest was up to them.
“Still here. Drinking with two other blokes.” He tapped his glasses once, made it look like he was adjusting them too, and turned the video feed on, “My guess is security.”
“Good. Lancelot is close-by, you know the plan.”
The plan was simple: get close to their target, find out his connection to the terrorist network and use it as an angle to get to the rest of the Cell. Piss easy, right?
He smelled her before he saw her; some sort of citrus concoction that made his mouth water, and when she came into his line of sight, well. The black dress dripped with class and style, showing off her assets without over-stating them. Her hair was half up, half down in some complicated looking style that defied natural gravity and yet seemed effortlessly put together, and she walked towards the bar in towering heels that put her half and inch above him.
He wanted to smile at her instead of raking her with a leer, but they each had their role to play tonight and he wasn’t going to hold back. His whistle of appreciation was low and genuine as she reached the bar, “Well. Looks like my lucky night.”
She shot him a dirty look, “You wish.”
“I do, actually.”
Roxy rolled her eyes and signalled to the barman, ordered herself a cosmo. He watched her as he sipped his drink, waiting, waiting, until the barman moved away to make her drink and he had opportunity to slide closer.
“The name’s Charlie,” He said, holding out his hand with a smirk. Roxy looked at his hand in disdain and ignored it, but caught the slight tick of her lips as the reference registered, “And you are?”
“Not interested.”
Eggsy made a show of pulling his hand back, wincing, “Well. I’m hurt.”
The barman returned with her drink and she smiled in thanks, “Too bad.”
He put his hands up as a show of peace and then backed off a couple of steps, waited until the bartender had stopped eyeing him warily before speaking again, this time in barely a murmur, “You good?”
Roxy gave a discreet nod as she turned away. He followed her across the room, watched her navigate the floor effortlessly on her way to the target, and he knew that his weren’t the only eyes on her. He counted two women and one man clocking her as she walked by and he was so caught up in her play of the floor that he almost missed it.
“Rox. Wait.”
The short warning was out of his mouth before he could think, refocusing, zeroing in on their target. Did he really just…?
“What?” Came Roxy’s confused voice, followed almost immediately by Merlin’s intense “Galahad?”
“Something’s wrong,” he said, gaze trained on the dark-haired man as he finished his gin and tonic, spoke to his minders. Fuck, he saw it, he knew he saw it. “C’mon. Do it again, c’mon you fucker.”
“Eggsy, what’s wrong?”
“Just… two seconds, alright?”
“We don’t have two seconds,” Roxy hissed, “They’re getting ready to leave.”
Shit. Shit. His heart rate ticked up a notch. Ok, ok, calm the fuck down, you got this. You know you got this.
One of the minders slid out of the booth, adjusted his suit jacket and gave Eggsy a flash of a gun tucked into a holster on his side. “Packin’” he murmured, half to himself.
“What the hell are you playing at?” Merlin’s irritation transmitted loud and clear, “He’s our only lead so far, we can’t let him go.”
“Just fuckin’ wait-”
And there it was. The waiter collected the empty glasses from the table, set them neatly on his black tray, and wandered off to another booth. And there it fucking was, clear as day. His own panic melted away as the plan changed, reformed in his head, and he grinned slow and easy, “There you are, dickhead.”
Merlin grunted in dismissal, “Lancelot, proceed with the plan-”
“Nah,” Eggsy drawled, keeping his eyes on the target while his fingers made light work of the knot in his tie, “I got a better idea. Rox, you got those new contacts in, yeah?”
He glanced at her briefly then, saw her state of indecision as she inspected her drink, heard her confusion when she responded. “Yes, but what are you doing?”
The length of silk came free with a soft hiss as he pulled it from his neck, stuffing it into his inside pocket. “Improvising.”
“Now’s not the time for games, Galahad,” Merlin warned, “We don’t know what he’s cap-”
“How about you let me worry about what he’s capable of, ok?” He cut in, flicking the first two buttons of his shirt open and popping the collar slightly, leaving his suit jacket open and casual, “Just trust me. Rox? You watching?”
“Yes.”
He grinned and plucked off the glasses, slipping them into his pocket along with his tie. They’d be safe there for the time being. The finishing touch was a couple of quick passes through his hair, pulling it from the perfect set into something more appropriate for his sudden role change. He necked the last of his whiskey - more for show than courage because this was game he knew how to play - and pushed away from the bar.
Timing was everything. If he didn’t get this right, they were screwed, and he’d probably be kicked out of Kingsman and told to go back to his shitty life and his shitty flat. Adrenaline fired in his blood as doubt suddenly took hold.
Easy, Eggsy. You got this.
He collided with him just as he stepped out of the booth, body against body, hands on chest and waist. “Shit, god. I’m sorry,” he said hastily, making his apology for his stumble quick and genuine. Large hands steadied his shoulders, helped him right himself, and when he looked up he knew the second he saw those clear grey eyes flare with interest that he’d been right to tell Roxy to hold off.
She was never going to work as bait in this honey trap.
“I’m sorry,” He repeated, slower this time, letting his hands linger a second too long on the firm body under the suit. It was easy enough to pull out his best lazy smile, let his voice keep some of his natural accent when he spoke, “Didn’t see you there.”
Small wrinkles flashed at the corners of sharp eyes when he smiled back, but the look anything but wholesome. “Quite alright,” Crisp English, deep voice, clear and smooth. He motioned quickly to his other minder to back off, “No harm done.”
Eggsy looked him up and down the same way he had Roxy not five minutes before, making a show of it, thickening his voice a little more for effect, “Not sure how I missed you,” he said, tipping him a wink as made to walk away, sliding past the man in a move too close to be called innocent.
Roxy’s raised eyebrow made everything worth it and he couldn’t resist throwing her a sly wink too as he breezed past her on the way to the exit. He paused just briefly at the bottom of the stairs and looked back, caught those eyes following and put enough confidence and self-satisfaction into his smirk to make his intentions clear. The look he got in return told him everything he needed to know.
Eggsy laughed to himself as he started up the stairs. Gotcha.