He’d also randomly caught sight of worried expressions on the Fate’s face, when the man thought no one was looking. Okay, he more spotted them on the surveillance videos, but it still counted as him ‘catching sight of’ in his mind.
Severo had mentioned to him that the Fate was having a rough time…but based on what the Shadow Dweller had said, it was before even coming here. The question was, with what? Personal life? Professionally? Or was it related to him changing the timeline?
Regardless, the issue at hand was that Cyrus was the opposite of a rule breaker, which was not really the type of personality they tended to have here, as rule breaking was sort of necessary for most of the work they carried out.
Well, rule breaking as in government rules, not Ender’s rules. Ender’s rules were not to be broken, or else.
Killian sighed,his hands slowing as he continued to type. He was settling in well with his new job. He'd hacked a few governments, and some other systems by those on the other side of the law, and yeah, it was working out well.
So far, Ender had kept him away from anything to do with the Bureau. Which was a feat in itself considering how thoroughly intertwined the CEB was with everything, but otherwise, things were good for him. Cyrus, however…
Well, his man was becoming increasingly antsy. His fiancé was struggling. And Killian wasn’t sure why he hadn’t realized it before, but now that he had, the fact that the Fate had quit his job too easily was glaringly obvious, and it should have concerned him at the time. Yeah, he’d had the whole soon-to-be a dad thing going on, but still.
He had known, probably since only a few months after meeting Cyrus, that working for the Bureau had always been what the Fate had wanted in life.
Killian stopped typing as he leaned back in his chair, thinking on when they’d first joined. They’d been in their late twenties at the time, long before they’d dated, and before Severo had joined up.
On hearing a door slam,Killian jerked awake, sitting up in bed. “Wha…?” He stared tiredly up at Cyrus as the Fate practically marched up to his bed.
“I’m going to do it,” Cyrus blurted.
He slowly raised a single brow in question. “Do ‘what’ exactly? Aside from annoyingly waking my ass up from the dead of sleep, after I spent all night studying,” he said stiffly, while at the same time trying to not notice how the man’s muscles seemed to bulge under the tight black T-shirt he had on.
And he didn’t notice…nope, not at all. Because Cyrus was his friend, and Killian had no interest in romantic, or even just sexual, entanglements…none at all.
“You’ve slept enough,” Cyrus chuckled, an annoyingly bright white smile spreading across his stupidly handsome face. “I’m joining the Bureau, do it with me.”
“Finally ready to piss your parents off?”
“I waited this long, so I could learn. I have learned and I have graduated. Now, I am ready.”
Killian eyed the man. Nothing in his expression told him much, but his words held enough determination and stubbornness that he really didn’t need to look further.
While Killian couldn’t say he saw the appeal of government work, they were in fact well-funded, and it had always been a possible direction he could go. Add in that he’d be working near-ish with his friend, and it wouldn’t be too bad. Less annoying than working with complete strangers all the time.
Yep, it had nothing to do with him just wanting to stay near Cyrus in any capacity he could…
“Fine,” Killian huffed, after ignoring his own internal delusions and denials.
“Yes!” Cyrus pumped his fist, laughing, before sheepishly asking, “Does this mean you’ll come with me to tell my parents?”
Killian snorted. “Fuck no. Good luck, now get out.” He waved the Fate away as he laid back down and snuggled into his covers.
“Betrayal!” the man yelled as he leapt onto the bed and on top of him.
Killian squealed, struggling to get away as Cyrus went for his sides and started to tickle him.
“NO—” he cried, the word cutting off as he started to laugh.
With a wide smileon his face, Killian giggled as the memory drifted away. Oh, he’d been in so much denial back then. His smile slowly dropped as reality set in.
It really had always been what the man had wanted and more. And Killian had followed.
Well, at first, he had just done office work while he’d been studying. Despite having been well trained back then, he’d never had any interest in capturing anyone.
Though Cyrus’ job back then had led to a few fights between them, before they’d finally started dating. The arguments had always been about stupid shit. The truth was…Cyrus’ job as an agent had probably helped speed up the breaking of his resolve to never date or be with anyone.
As a field agent, the Fate would be away from him for weeks at a time. Killian would never admit it, and had never admitted it, but he’d felt incredibly lost not having the man near enough to come to him at the drop of a hat. What was worse was, for the first time, and likely the only time, he’d found himself feeling worried…and jealous.
