@beakleyappreciationweek 2021
Day 6: Vulnerable
I don't usually write and this is kinda short so hope you like it!
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It had been a pretty regular mission if someone asked Scrooge.
Sure, he had somehow gotten captured this time (in hindsight, maybe all the times Bentina had stressed about NOT putting unknown things in his beak had a slight point. Not that he was going to admit it out loud, even less to her face, any time soon though), so most of the work had fallen into 22's shoulders with the extra task of rescuing him. But still, pretty subpar villains compared to the ones they usually dealt with, paired with pretty common goals and a poorly put-together plan made it so the events of the day were unremarkable at best, and he had almost completely forgotten about them by the time he settled reading in the hotel's shared bed, Beakley diligently finishing touching up the main points of her report before joining him with a book of her own.
Eventually he had been so engrossed in his book, detailing the mysteries that surrounded a certain artifact that had recently caught his eye, that he had lost all sense of the time.
Until a soft, steady, rhythmic sound he had never heard before pulled him out of his trance and made him scan his side of the room startled, book gripped hard in his hand in case he needed a weapon, taking for granted his partner would cover the other side.
But it wasn't until he turned to check with her that he found the source of his alarm and his breath stopped for a moment.
Because Bentina "Agent 22" Beakley looked deceptively defenseless curled under the blankets next to him with her pale hair messily scattered all over the place and shining slightly under the soft combined glow of his night lamp and the crescent moon, long lost to a deep slumber for the first time since they had met all those years ago.
And there he sat, staring at her in bewilderment, trying to remember a single occasion he had seen her like this in their many shared travels.
No matter how tedious the mission had been, how grueling and challenging the fight had gotten nor how many injuries she received from it, Agent 22 had always been awake to see him fall asleep.
Moreover, while Scrooge prided himself on being an early bird, no matter how early he awoke, Bentina was already going about her daily routine, moving silently like a shadow around the room to avoid waking up her partner. He had tried waking up before his regular hour before for a change but somehow she seemed to anticipate when that would be and fix her sleeping schedule accordingly every single time.
Logically he knew she would sleep during the period in-between. After all, common sense was one of her strongest suits, she wasn't reckless enough to enter a battle sleep-deprived, especially not when so much was at stake in every single one of her missions. Plus, she had trusted Scrooge as far as to give him her real name years ago and their bond had only gotten stronger since then.
She simply had never allowed herself to lower her guard to that degree around him during his waking hours.
Of course, he could hardly blame her. After all, old habits die hard, especially if they're the ones keeping you alive.
Until now.
A small whimper suddenly broke his line of thought, making his attention snap back to the spy next to him, who, in a more awake state, would have never been caught dead making that sound in front of anyone.
Whatever dreams plagued her mind surely weren't pleasant as she whimpered again, her breathing speeding up and her body getting more restless by the moment, until he instinctively put a hand on top of her head, stroking her hair gently with a comforting shush, like he would do ever so often for Hortense or Matilda when they were little kids.
And then he froze.
He expected her sharp senses to snap her awake gasping, her fighting response to kick in and her self-defense instincts to take over in order to subdue the perceived threat, and immediately braced himself for the heavy impact of a bruising hit that never came.
Instead, under his astonished eyes, Bentina sighed and her breathing evened out again, burying her face in the pillow and snuggling closer to his warmth, mumbling something incoherently.
He didn't know if she was fully aware of it yet. But whether on purpose or by chance, Bentina Beakley trusted him enough to allow herself to be vulnerable.
And if, much to 22's confusion, his smile was a little bit too smug when the morning came and the sun rised, well, could you really blame him?
