If you can learn to adapt, you can...

     “You should have been famous,” Harry agreed. “I’m not sure, if I’d known, I may not have recruited you…” And a damned shame that would have been, but truly, Eggsy could have been a singer. “Lucky me, you hid that voice away and now I am never going to let you go.” He nipped at Eggsy’s shoulder. 

     Harry was smiling against Eggsy as the other continued singing through to the end despite an obvious tiredness that washed over him. The bath could do that. Hell, it’d made Harry a bit drowsy as well despite having just woke up. The warmth, the soft scent of the bubbles, Eggsy wrapped up in his arms, it was a perfect moment. He was excited for a day of exploring the area, though. Breakfast in the warm sunlight, a swim in the ocean, perhaps some hiking. Perhaps they’d just fall back into bed together. That was what a honeymoon was for, after all, wasn’t it?

     His eye opened as Eggsy began to speak again, and Harry lifted his head to gaze down at him. “Did you?” He smiled at that, remembering the way he’d seen Eggsy as a handsome young man with so much potential. It’d hurt seeing Eggsy then, though, and thinking of his father, and knowing how different the lad’s life might have been had Harry not messed up that fateful day and gotten him killed. “I would not have dared to think of you then as I do now,” he mused. He scoffed at the idea that he’d not have wanted to be with Eggsy. “I do hope you see yourself more differently now than you did back then, my darling. I saw the potential in you, I knew there was more to you than anyone saw. And as to wanting to be with you… well, I can’t imagine a single reason why I would not.” Not anymore, not now that he was beyond worrying over the age difference between them. Harry trailed a few kisses up his shoulder and nuzzled into his neck. “You never have to let me go.” 

     “No chance, Harry, I wouldn’t trade becoming a Kingsman agent and your husband for anything. All of the fame in the world wouldn’t have made me as happy as this does, as you do.” Eggsy was reduced to laughter as Harry nipped his shoulder, tilting his chin to kiss his cheek. “The life I want is one that I get to share with you...whatever that means. I never needed to be famous or rich, I never needed to save the world, I just...wanted to be happy, and I’ve got that. Everything else just makes it all so much better.” The truth was that Eggsy gave up on the idea of falling in love a long time ago, of living the sort of happy family life he only ever saw on TV. After his dad died and watching the relationship between Dean and his mother unfold, it just did not appear written in the cards for him, not until he met Harry. He would have thought he was more likely to end up in prison, and he nearly did.

       “A lot of things are different about me now, I think I’m starting to see what you did in the beginning.” It did take a bit to build his confidence, to get him out of the mindset of being ‘just a pleb’, but he was there now, had become the gentleman Harry always believed he could become...at least he thought he did. 

     “Understood. Let me know if you’re able to find out anything more. In the meantime, I’ll get to work and see what I can find.” He didn’t know how much the assassin would be willing to tell Eggsy. Hell, they didn’t even know if any of it was the truth. Maybe Duncan was afraid they’d turn him in, so he was covering his own ass, trying to make Eggsy feel sorry for him. Maybe Merlin would have to slip into that room and have a talk with the man himself, just to be sure. It couldn’t hurt to put a threat out there as well, could it?

     Merlin stiffened as Eggsy began to speak. It was an argument they’d had more than once now since Harry had died. He had no excuses to make, no more apologies left to give that would make Eggsy feel any better. Merlin had given the order, had arranged the mission which Harry and Percival had gone on rather than Harry and Eggsy. They’d argued about the mission when Harry had first left, and the lad still blamed him as if the wound in his chest was still bleeding from his husband’s loss.

     Eggsy didn’t need to speak to make that guilt rise within Merlin’s chest again. It was always there, and it always would be. He pushed off his desk, dragging his glass with him and made his way back to where he kept the scotch to pour another. “I don’t know how many more times I can apologize, Eggsy.” Harry wouldn’t have wanted Eggsy to be there with him; he’d have wanted him to live, not to die at his side. But Merlin didn’t say as much. What was the point in continuing to argue a past he couldn’t change? “I know you’re hurting. I know it’ll never stop, but I can’t keep having this argument with you, lad. I can’t take back my decision.”

      “I know, Merlin...I know.” Eggsy could not keep battering him over a situation neither could change. “I also know that if Harry was here then he’d pat you on the back and tell you that you made the right decision not sending me along. I just..miss him so much sometimes that I can’t bear it. I go home and all of his things are there, and I keep waiting for him to come down the stairs to greet me. My bed is too big now, and it feels colder than before, I can’t sleep because I would fall asleep listening to the sound of his heartbeat and my pillow is just too quiet.” The young man took a deep breath, feeling as if he was on the verge of tears again. He was not the sort to cry very often, but Harry was a weak spot.

        “I shouldn’t blame you for what happened to Harry, he would have wanted me to live, but it’s...difficult without him.” Eggsy had never known a love like he had with his husband before his death; it took years for it to develop fully and was gone from him over the course of a single day. He could still feel the pure agony rip through him as he watched Harry die over a screen, unable to reach for him, unable to hold him, unable to say all of the things he would have liked to say to him; he only hoped he told Harry that he loved him enough before that day that there was not a doubt in his mind about it in his final moments.

     Harry pursed his lips. “I’m not? Hm… I’m afraid that is just too bad. I don’t care to hide just who my favorite is.” He smiled after that, for he truly didn’t care to hide it. His council could advise him all they wanted, and Harry would keep their engagement quiet for a time until things had settled with his kingship. But he still planned to marry Eggsy, and he wanted to do so sooner rather than later. He’d learned his lesson about waiting for anything when it came to love. “Agreed, darling. I feel I can do just about anything with you at my side.” 

     He narrowed his eye, considering Eggsy’s attempt to reassure him. He wasn’t wrong, really; losing Eggsy would mean the end of everything for Harry. He wouldn’t be able to be king, he probably wouldn’t function at all. If it was someone from his own country, someone who was supposed to help them… Well, he’d kill them himself before he disappeared. That wouldn’t happen, though. No one would be so insane. “Good. And it’s not just about dealing with all of this, Eggsy, you know that. It’s you. You have my heart.”

     Harry’s face softened at his fiance’s words. He still refused to allow people to treat him with anything but the respect he deserved; he knew being walked all over like that would wear on Eggsy eventually. But to hear him say that warmed his heart and he gave Eggsy a gentle squeeze against his side. “My rare butterfly,” he whispered. He stole a kiss to his lips then sighed, nodding. “I want to get this bloody uniform off.” Harry much preferred his suits, and he would happily wear one to the ball unless everyone else had something to say about it. “Let’s just… get undressed and lay in bed until we have to get ready for the ball.”

      “I’m sure they’ll all know once you marry me...if you still plan to marry me.” Eggsy looked away from Harry and then slowly up to him again. He knew that their relationship was solid, but he did not know if Harry’s council would allow him to go through with the marriage...or if he would regard them at all if they tried to stop it. Eggsy wanted desperately to marry his fiance, but he also knew that things were infinitely more complicated than they were when the proposal was made; the closest he had been to the kingship then was Kingsman’s Arthur. As badly as he wanted it, he did not need Harry’s last name to love the man behind it.

         “And you have my heart, love. Nothing any of these people do could ever change how much I love you, they could never drive me away from you.” Eggsy kissed his partner as he idly stroked his hair, unconcerned with messing it up now that the ceremony was over. From the sound of Harry’s suggestion, they were only going to be getting into bed straight away anyway, they just needed to get safely into the building.

     He smiled against Eggsy’s neck as his head tilted and he couldn’t help himself when his lips drifted to the curve between neck and shoulder; he sucked a mark into his skin then soothed the sting with a flick of his tongue before straightening. Harry met his husband’s gaze. This was what he loved about Eggsy. Harry’s world had been full of death and violence before, working as a Kingsman agent consuming his every moment, whether awake or asleep. But Eggsy had given him a life beyond that. It was like having his butterflies back, but as he’d said back in Kentucky- Eggsy was the rarest butterfly he’d ever find. Despite his rough childhood, growing up without his father, the abuse from his step father, Eggsy’s heart was soft and kind. He was an utter romantic, and Harry felt damned lucky to have that romance turned on him.

     “Alright. Once a month, just you and me. You’re right, Eggsy, that will be important.” It will keep them from just being partners, Kingsman agents working together and living together. It would keep their relationship, their marriage fresh and strong. And Harry wanted to devote that time, more time, really- as much time as was possible to showing Eggsy he was loved and appreciated outside of the incredible work he did as an agent.

     A hand moved to rest against Eggsy’s arm as his husband shifted to lean sideways against him. His fingertips drifted lightly up and down the arm. “Yes. I’d no idea my rare butterfly had the voice of a beautiful bird,” he pointed out, a fond look in his eye as he regarded the younger man. Harry nodded; as if he could ever forget the first time they’d danced, the kiss, Eggsy in his lap. That night was forever ingrained on his mind. Then Eggsy began to sing and the awe he’d felt the first time he’d heard his sweet voice, at their wedding, rose up inside him again. Harry watched his husband for a moment, then leaned his cheek against his head and closed his eyes, letting that voice wash over him. He had little talent for singing himself, but he hummed along anyway, ever so quietly, with a smile on his lips as Eggsy’s song filled the bathroom. He held him a little tighter, so impossibly in love he felt like a young man again himself.

       “I should have been famous, my talents are clearly wasted as a secret agent.” Eggsy laughed, sure that Merlin would find some way to use that skill in his missions now that he knew he had it. He had very few abilities that Kingsman’s quartermaster did not find some way to utilize when they were saving the world.

         With Harry humming along, Eggsy sang until he reached the end of the song, eyes closed and his body in a relaxed lean against his husband. The touch of his hand on his arm made his singing a bit lower, a bit quieter as it lulled him. It appeared that Harry was not the only one that could fall asleep in paradise, but he was finished before he got too terribly close to drifting off. At the end of the day, he would much rather be awake, luxuriating in the hot bath with his husband there beside him. 

             His husband...