#sub!eggsy

@insanereddragon @bouncybrittonie @corabe

Eggsy startles awake when Elizabeth slams the door behind her and scrambles to his feet as soon as he notices how angry she seems, even though every instincts in him screams at him to kneel, to soothe her somehow. But he knows that wouldn’t actually help her and she would be even more angry at him that he had put himself in a vulnerable position when she clearly wasn’t in control.

Before he can leave however, she seems to realise that he’s done nothing to deserve to get the brunt of her anger and she takes a few deep breaths to calm herself. There is something wrong in seeing her almost deflate, the curve of her shoulders becoming defeated, but at least now Eggsy can step closer and wrap her in a hug.

“Hey, what’s the matter?”

“It’s- It’s that, that man! He’ll drive me crazy!” She still sounds angry, but from how she is clinging to his shirt, she needs the physical comfort and Eggsy ain’t about to leave her when all she needs is a hug. “He was doing so good and then Harry had to leave and now he’s moping and not even trying anymore!”

If he had any doubt who she was talking about, he doesn’t anymore. Because beside him and Merlin, there isn’t really anyone to be upset by Harry needing to leave for England and them having to stay behind for the time being.

Well, that’s not entirely true. Eggsy could have followed Harry, but there was no way he would have left Merlin behind when he was still getting used to his prosthetics.

Even if he gives him his space, Eggsy ain’t going home without him. They left London together and that’s how they’re going to return.

“I can’t help him if he doesn’t want to help himself,” Elizabeth is still ranting in his shoulder, but her voice is softer now, her ire all but forgotten. “And it’s not about giving him time or space, it’s been a week now!”

He hums, to let her know he’s still listening, even though now he’s trying to think of a way to shake Merlin out of his funk too. He clearly needs a distraction, something to focus on. He’d suggest tinkering, but Merlin is so used to moving around even when he’s simply sketching his ideas that it’s bound to remind him that he’s got no legs now. No he would need something to focus on that would require to move as little as possible and…

“Oh, of course.” It’s a wonder he’s not thought of it before, but to be honest, the only time he was shown Merlin’s private room at HQ he had still been distraught from Harry’s death and everything he had done in Valentine’s lair. The hours spent in there had helped him greatly in tethering him back down to reality, but it’s not something he really thinks back on, especially not now that he’s got all the people he loves in his life, safe and just as fond of him as he is of them.

“Eggsy?”

“You wouldn’t happen to have any bonsai tree lying around would you?”

*

Finding the tree was unsurprisingly harder than it had been finding the puppy for Harry, but, looking at Merlin’s look of utter concentration as he slowly trims it into perfection is as much a reward as having Harry return his embrace after he got his memories back.

Maybe even a bit better, since he also gets Elizabeth smiling with pride at his side, her hand a warm weight on his neck, grounding him to the moment even more than Harry’s arms around him had done at the time.

They stay like that for a long time, leaning against each other, just watching Merlin slowly settling into his own skin again and Eggsy has a smile when he gets a notification in the corner of his lense that Harry has connected to his feed. He’ll be pleased to see they’re taking great care of their lover during his absence.

And pleased he is because he opens the comms between them just long enough to congratulate him on his idea and for being a good boy, his voice warmed with affection.

It sets off the butterflies in his stomach he always get with Harry and only Elizabeth’s hand keeps him from flying away.

like I can’t imagine him being 100% chill with it at first, even with as much as he trusts harry ‘cause he’s so used to having either no authority figure or the ones that he has abuse their power over him, so it’s not natural for him to let someone have that much power over him. and with him a full-time kingsman agent he thinks it’s not proper for a gentleman to want what he does

so harry starts him off small: ‘come here, darling. just sit with me, shh,’ while wrapping an arm around his shoulders and hand feeding him small bits of treat-food that eggsy normally doesn’t eat. ‘will you wear these for me?’ he’d ask carefully, holding out his red robe and waiting for eggsy’s hesitant nod before wrapping it around him and cuddling him close in reward. ‘do you like them?’ as he hands him a pair of cufflinks with “HH” engraved delicately on them, not quite as ostentatious as a collar but just as claiming

eventually he convinces eggsy to kneel and lay his head in harry’s lap and it took way more time than he thought it would but it’s worth it, seeing the blissed-out glazed expression on his boy’s face

but eggsy messes up and breaks one of harry’s rules accidentally (or maybe a little on purpose, because the longer he waits to disappoint harry the more it’ll hurt so he may as well get it over with) and he waits and waits for harry to punish him and ruin what trust eggsy has in him-

except all harry does is pull one of his hard dining room chairs into his study and put it facing the wall, pushing eggsy into it and saying, ‘don’t move. i’ll be back in an hour.’