Pas de Deux: Part II

[icarus_chained]

Part two of the gay supervillain fic. For oneiriad, who wanted the serious conversation part of the whole 'defecting to be a supervillain's lover' thing. Um. Hope it turned out okay.

Title: Life's Practicalities
Rating: PG
Fandom: Genghis Khan Music Video - Miike Snow
Characters/Pairings: Michael White (Secret Agent), Sphinx (Supervillain), Jeremy Anders (Henchman). Michael/Sphinx
Summary: Dances of romance are all very well, but when you're changing your whole life, some serious conversations have to be had as well. Though, you know. A little romance goes a long way in those as well.
Wordcount: 3730
Warnings/Notes: Supervillains, secret agents, 60s style government/agency homophobia, serious discussions, relationship negotiation, hopeful ending
Disclaimer: Not mine

Life's Practicalities

For a second after the dance stopped, the pair of them just stood there. Chest to chest, panting slightly, their hands still clasped together. Neither of them did anything. Michael thought that maybe they should, that one of them should do something, but he didn't quite know what. If this had been ... if it had been a woman, another pretended seduction, he thought this would be the moment for a kiss. Seal the deal, that sort of thing.

This wasn't a deal, though. Or a pretence. So he didn't ... he didn't quite know what to do about it. He didn't know what he wanted, what was all right. So he didn't do anything. Just stood there, panting and bewildered, and hoped that Sphinx had a better idea. Hoped that the other man wouldn't mind, that he hadn't just ruined things straight out of the gate.

The way his luck had run lately, he wouldn't have been at all surprised. The laser had been dialled down again behind them, but that probably wouldn't take long to fix if Sphinx decided he really wanted it.

But no. No. Sphinx just took a step back, that baffled, delighted smile still on his face, and tugged Michael's hand after him. Kept hold of him, pulled him along behind as Sphinx strode over to the centre of the laser floor to ... to address the troops that had fallen back into expectant stillness around them, apparently. Michael swallowed a little, looking around at the patient ranks surrounding them, and hoped this wasn't about to get ugly yet again.

The thought didn't appear to so much as cross Sphinx' mind. He beamed out at them, even getting a couple of indulgent smiles back, and waved his free hand in a vague dismissive gesture.

"All right, everyone," he said, turning a little in place to address all of them. "Looks like the operation is over for the night. Agent White and I need to have a private discussion. Those of you on night shift, you can get back to your regular duties, and everyone else, late start tomorrow and don't forget to file your overtime with Regina in the afternoon. Thanks for coming in, guys. I appreciate it."

One of the guards snorted. Michael wasn't sure, he'd been focusing rather strongly on something else at the time, but he thought it might be the same one who'd given Sphinx an impromptu backing singer while Sphinx had been debating killing him earlier.

"Wouldn't have missed this for the world, boss," the man said cheerfully, before nodding slightly at Michael. "You sure you want to be alone with him, though? He's still an agent after all, and you've only just hooked up. Could be a trap. I could send a detachment with you, just in case?"

Michael winced, unable to stop the tightening in his shoulders and the automatic sweep of the room for weapons and/or a way out. Sphinx turned to him, though, squeezed his hand and drew him a little closer to Sphinx' side. When Michael dared to look at him, he still had that soft smile on his face, turned a little wry now at the corners.

"I think if we have any further desire to kill each other," he said, looking at Michael and not at the guard, "we'll handle it like gentlemen. In private. I think we've disturbed enough of everyone's evening, don't you?"

Michael wasn't entirely sure which of them that was addressed to, but he nodded anyway. Somewhat fervently, maybe, but he did ... He wanted a private conversation right now. Or even private alone time. There was an itchy feeling at the back of his neck, a sensation of consequences crashing down around him now that they were ... now that they were talking instead of dancing, and dealing with all the little practicalities of life once more. Something must have shown itself. His poker face apparently wasn't even fit for the dogs right now. Sphinx' expression softened, and he turned to grip both of Michael's hands instead of just one, squeezing them both reassuringly as he turned his head to address the guard.

"We'll be in my office, Jeremy. If you want to set up some extra patrols, make yourself feel better, feel free. The office will be privacy locked, though. Mr White and I need to talk."

The guard, Jeremy, just shrugged at that and tossed off a lazy salute. "Suit yourself, boss. I'll just put a couple of people at the door in case of murders then. And an extra patrol on perimeter. I know they're a bit late, but just in case AAE gets their head out of their arse and tries to rescue him, yeah?"

Michael did flinch at that, and had to close his eyes for a second. "I don't think you need to worry about that," he said tiredly, and found Sphinx frowning at him in some concern when he opened his eyes again. He put on his best fake grin, then changed it to a more honest grimace almost immediately as he shrugged. "They'd have come for me yesterday evening if they were coming at all. The amount of time I've been out of contact, I'm well dead by now. Not much point sending anyone at this point, is there?"

Sphinx frowned. a glimmer of something dark and very much beyond Michael's experience in his expression. Above them, Jeremy snorted again, disdainfully this time. "Bastards," he opinioned, giving Michael an almost sympathetic nod. "I'll put the patrol on just in case, though. No offence, Secret Agent, but you lot have been known to lie. Just occasionally."

Michael ducked his head, a small, involuntary smile on his face. "Occasionally," he agreed, abruptly very, very tired indeed. "No offence taken, er. Mr Jeremy, was it?"

Jeremy grinned at him. "Captain Anders to you," he said, but not entirely unkindly. "If you haven't shot the boss or otherwise broken his heart before tomorrow lunch, we'll have a think about anything else. All right by you?"

"Jeremy," Sphinx growled, almost protectively, and Michael laughed suddenly. A bit nonsensically, maybe, but hell with it. He'd just all but declared his love, or at least lust, for a male supervillain. And then had a song and dance number about it. There was just about nothing Captain Anders could say at this point that'd be more pointed that what was in Michael's own head, and if nothing else he had to admire the man's aplomb in dealing with ... all of this. Sphinx, him, everything. Whatever else you could say about him, Sphinx hired good people. And kept them, too, which was more than you could say about many supervillains, or even many agencies either. Might have something to do with the man's apparent happiness to let underlings snark at him to his face.

Or with his willingness to pay overtime, either. How did that even work, anyway?

"... Come on," Sphinx said softly, squeezing Michael's hands again, and Michael blinked a bit to realise that a) everybody, including the redoubtable Captain Anders, had apparently moved off again, and b) he appeared to have been giggling hysterically for a few minutes there. Ah. Oops. God, he just really wasn't the cool, calm secret agent tonight, was he?

Of course, from this point on, it was possible that he wasn't a secret agent at all. That thought sobered him, hit him like a bucket of ice water to the face, and Sphinx tugged him gently but insistently into following him. Up the stairs off the laser floor. Down a corridor, the other way from the door to the outside world. Away from what was either danger or safety, and damned if Michael knew which anymore. It was too late for that, though. He followed his supervillain deeper into the man's lair, and tried not to think too hard about what he was doing. Not yet. Not just yet.

He thought about it when Sphinx' office door clicked shut behind him, though. He couldn't help it, numb and shaking as he dropped into a surprisingly mundane brown office chair, and Sphinx moved quietly past him to the minibar installed to one side of the desk. Michael didn't even glance up at the offer of a drink, and accepted the martini handed to him purely on instinct. He took a sip, and then damn near teared up when he realised it was absolutely perfect. Just exactly to his taste. Oh god.

"You're all right, you know," Sphinx tried, propping himself on the edge of his desk and looking down at Michael carefully. "I'm really not going to shoot you. If, ah. If that was what you were worried about. I don't usually shoot my, uh. Well, my ..."

He trailed off, stammering slightly, and Michael barked out another laugh, harsh and ragged, before more or less inhaling the martini and coughing vindictively at himself for a couple of moments afterwards. Sphinx stared at him, hesitant and alarmed. Michael closed his eyes, and put his glass very carefully on the floor.

"What happens now?" he asked, tiredly and plaintively. "What have I ... Did I just join forces with a supervillain? Is that what I just did?"

Sphinx eyed him warily. "Ah. Possibly?" he said, looking increasingly worried for Michael's sanity. "I mean, you haven't really said anything yet. I don't know. You just ... You didn't leave." He paused, looking down slightly while a very naked emotion crossed his face. "You didn't run away. I'm afraid I don't know anything after that."

Oh god. Michael put a hand to his mouth, wishing desperately for another gulp of a martini. Or just vodka, neat and burning all the way down. He'd ... It had been him, hadn't it. Not Sphinx. All Sphinx had done was let him go. Michael ... Michael had been the one who'd chosen to stay. Now ... if only he knew what he'd decided to stay for.

But he owed the man that, didn't he. He owed Sphinx an explanation.

"... I've never been in love with a man before," he said quietly, after the smallest of moments. Sphinx' head came up, that shocked, hopeful expression on his face once more, and Michael clenched his hands into fists. Strangled the instinctive terror in his chest, the horror at this kind of admission, and made himself keep talking. "It's not ... It's not allowed. It's why I ... My chief knows that I ... Look, there's a reason they're not coming for me tonight, all right? There's a reason it's me, when you've ... When you've killed every other agent who's made it through your doors. I didn't want to ... to let them know they were right. But I ..." He stopped, dropped his chin onto his chest and exhaled raggedly. Waited until he could say it steadily. "I don't want to live a lie anymore. I don't know if you meant it, I don't know what you want, but ... whatever it is, even if it kills me, so long as it's real I'm not sure I care."

There was a long, long pause after that, long enough that Michael's fingernails started coming close to drawing blood, so violently were they pressed into his palms, and then ...

"... They meant for me to kill you?" Sphinx asked, low and soft, and with a tone that reminded very, very viscerally that this was a man who would cheerfully sing about murdering someone before frying them to death with an experimental laser. "You were here to ... They wanted you to die? They sent you here so that I'd kill you?"

Michael lifted his head, managed an old, instinctual shrug, casual in the face of death. He was an agent after all, one of the best. He hadn't entirely lost that.

"You do have a reputation, you know," he said quietly, trying on a little smile. "Given your people's loyalty, how impenetrable your ranks are ... You're a relatively sure bet as far as death sentences go. I mean, if I'd managed to pull it off, somehow inserted myself into your confidence and made off with your plans, I'm sure they'd have patted me on the back before picking something equally lethal to point me at. But, ah. Generally speaking, yes. You are considered something of suicide mission. Something to ... to send the more expendable agents against. If you follow me."

Obviously, Sphinx did. He followed very well indeed, if the slow curl of his lip into a snarl was anything to go by. The edges of the expression curled against the hard edges of his metallic nose, and just for a second he was every inch the supervillain once more.

"I've got a very big laser, you know," the man said softly. "Or I will soon enough. You didn't get as far as those plans. The little one in there, that's just the test module. The big version will be more than capable of taking out the global HQ of my choice. And I think I've just figured out what that choice will be. Ambersley Film Studios, isn't it? AAE headquarters?"

He straightened up, stood to attention with that snarl on his face as if he intended to march outside right then and there to lay in the coordinates, and Michael lunged up without a thought, grabbed hold of the man's arm before he could think to go anywhere.

"Don't you dare!" he growled, while Sphinx darted a startled glance down at his imprisoned arm. "Look, it's just the way it is, all right? There are laws, codes of behaviour. It's just the way things are. And, all right, the high ups might be a bunch of bastards, but there's a lot of agents working there who are just doing their jobs, and if you plan to kill them, to blast them off the face of the earth, then you are not doing it in my name! I may have just fallen in love with a supervillain, but that doesn't mean I've completely lost my moral standards!"

He didn't know what he expected from Sphinx at that. The man might be one of the milder supervillains out there, at least when it came to questions within the ranks, but he was still a supervillain. The laser test module was still right outside if he wanted it. But he didn't ... There was that startled expression again. That soft amazement. It took Michael a second to figure out why, what he'd just said, and then to get to grips, yet again, with how apparently sincere the man really was about it. Whatever it was between them.

Enough to let an enemy agent go free. Enough to just stand aside and ... and let Michael leave if he wanted to, information and all.

Michael swallowed. His hand, which had clenched tight enough around Sphinx' arm to leave rucks in his sleeve, started to let go, to slip free, and Michael only twitched a little bit when Sphinx caught it instead. He only flinched a little, and then he followed it up with a smile, small and tentative.

"... I won't kill them if you don't want me to," Sphinx said quietly, with that little helpless smile as he stepped back into Michael's space once more. "If they don't attack us first, I mean. I won't go after them just for you. If that's what you want."

"... What I want," Michael repeated. He shook his head, his smile going soft and bewildered, and then he looked Sphinx right in the eyes. He looked straight at him, shaking and determined. "What do I want?" he asked. "What do you want? I don't know what I'm doing here. I only turned back because ... because I didn't want to lie anymore. Because I couldn't bear thinking about you with anyone else. I don't know what you want from me, or what I'm supposed to do about it. I'm betraying everything I used to be just standing here. Help me out, Sphinx. I don't know what to do."

Sphinx looked up at him, the scarred skin around those blue eyes creased and hopeful. He stepped in closer again, almost chest to chest, and brought up his other arm to grip Michael's elbow gently. Bracket him, hold him. Maybe keep him safe. Michael stared at him, feeling tears wanting to spring back into his eyes. He fought them down. He did it desperately, deliberately. Sphinx very carefully made no sudden movements.

"We can do whatever you want," he said softly, while Michael only blinked at him. "I just want you. Nothing else. Just you, with nobody else but me. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. I promise."

Michael exhaled raggedly, looking down between their chests at his feet. "I'm beginning to understand that," he said, a little wryly. He'd definitely gotten the 'nobody else but me' part, and the bit where Sphinx had simply let him go did speak rather well for the freedom of choice part as well. But there was still ... "What about your family?" he asked, very, very quietly. "I know you want me, but what about them? Did you want ... What way did you think this would go?"

The man flinched. He looked down, an odd mix of anger and shame and something else on his face. Not despair but ... resignation maybe. An old emotion. Michael remembered the look on his face before, when the klaxon had sounded. Resignation, yes. A man putting his poker face back on, getting ready to back into cover. An ingrained reflex, summoned even by just the mention of the mission. God. What kind of life did the man lead that going home to his family was a mission?

A life built on lies, maybe. One lie, at least. The kind of life Michael had just joined up with a supervillain to escape.

He reached out, wondering even as he did it how he dared, and rested his hands carefully around the man's waist. There was nothing ... nothing sexual in it. He'd meant it mostly to comfort. Sphinx' head snapped towards him anyway, that wide, startled look in his eyes again. And then ... then something else. Something stronger, more determined. Sphinx' shoulders straightened. He drew himself up, his hands tightening on Michael's arms, his body firm and powerful between Michael's hands. Michael's mouth went dry in response. He swallowed that. He put that carefully away for the moment.

Only for the moment. If this went ... if this went all right, he had plans to revisit the sensation later. Mission first, though. Mission first and seduction later.

"... I'd stay here if you wanted," he offered, not meaning it in the slightest but saying it anyway. Giving the man the choice, the way Sphinx had given him the same. "If you need them, I ..." God, he didn't want to say it, but the man should have a choice. "Well, it's a tradition, isn't it? Admittedly the villain's work mistress is usually a woman, but ..."

"Don't be stupid." It was hard, breathless, but there was a little grin on the man's face as he said it. A sort of wild, desperate expression, like a man jumping out of a plane when the parachute had already fallen out ahead. His hands were almost bruising on Michael's arms. "I'm not ... Don't be stupid. I've done enough lying. Well, I mean. On a personal level. Professionally speaking I ... Not the point. You're right. You were, back there. I don't want to lie anymore. Barbara doesn't deserve it, either. I think she's known. She has to have done. We haven't been right for years. I wasn't ... I thought I could pretend. I had kids. I thought it would be ... I thought I could make it work. But I can't. Not like that. Not by lying. Not anymore."

Michael stared at him, barely breathing, an aching, desperate hope building through him. A need, just for one more piece of confirmation. "What ... What do you mean?" he said, everything he was feeling audible in his voice. "Sphinx. What do you mean?"

His villain smiled up at him. The creased, cocky expression of a man who'd made up his mind, the kind of man who could take over worlds once he'd decided to. Sphinx took a step back, trailed his hands down Michael's arms until he could catch his hands and pull them after him. Michael followed helplessly. Trailed after him in his turn.

"I want you," Sphinx told him, hard and quiet and earnest. "If you're going to give up your life for me, I want you. All of you. I want you in my life. I want you in my family, I want you as my family. I don't care about anything else. Any laws, any enemies, anyone who'd try to stop us. I don't care. I've killed people for one hell of a lot less. I want you in my home. I want you beside me. If ... if you want that too."

Oh god, Michael thought, while his knees took that second to threaten to give out from under him. God, what a question. Like there was ever going to be more than one answer, like there had been another answer from the moment he'd had that door in front of him and turned back to the laser floor and the man at the centre of it instead. But all right. All right. If the man needed the answer that badly, Michael could certainly give it to him.

"... Let's get a little bit Genghis Khan, huh?" he said, smiling crookedly, and god, god, he didn't think he'd ever get used to the way Sphinx' face creased in answer, the raw delight and perpetual disbelief in those bright blue eyes.

"... Don't want you to get it on with nobody else but me," his villain agreed, his smile all wide and dazed, and there, there, that was moment for the seal-the-deal kiss. Every instinct Secret Agent Michael White still had told him that it was. If years of experience meant anything at all, this was the moment where he put them to use.

And judging by the sounds the man made, judging by the way his villain all but fell into his arms and tried to climb inside his skin ...

Well. It looked like this time, his instincts were right on the money for a change, didn't it?


A/N: Yes, AAE stands for Agents Against Evil. We're in dancing supervillain land, people. Heh. And, okay, slightly more serious, but I loved that about the vid. I loved that he wanted his agent as his husband, or as close to it as he could get. It wasn't some tawdry supervillain lust thing, the hot secret agent in the back room, he wanted ... a life together. With his husband and his kids, being all domestic together. I do love that. (Though, have to admit, his poor wife got very shafted by it. I mean, there's a pretty good reason she's gone all supervillain-vengeful. But, you know. Divorces can be messy like that).