[Fic] ten years pass
Fandom: James Bond
Characters: Gareth Mallory, Q
Pairing: Mallory/Q
Rating: PG-13
Word count: c.600
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.
A/N: craw101 prompted: “Mallory meets Q when he’s stationed in Ireland."
***
It's after the blindfold is off and Mallory is tied to a chair that he remembers the boy. It's vague, through a haze of blood and pain, that Mallory tries to remember every person he'd met on base, thinking of who could have betrayed him, given him up.
He remembers the boy because it's uncommon to see someone so young at the base in Ireland, an unfamiliar face on someone not older than seventeen. Dark hair flopping over his eyes and lanky limbs, an English orphan found by one of the soldiers and taken in. Mostly Mallory's just seen him from across the room, passed by him in hallways; they've only spoken once. The boy was clever, quick, and their conversation brief, and Mallory never learned his name, only that he's being sent back to England soon.
Mallory passes by the boy in his mind. It wasn't him, and he's of no significance, although he still remembers him throughout the next two months, fleeting thoughts of a boy whose name he doesn't know, wondering what his story is to distract himself from the reality of where he is. He thinks of parents, bodies obliterated in an explosion, and his own, who probably know now that he's missing. He thinks of childhood, an innocence that seems so far away now, and how war can tear the safety and simplicity of youth down so easily.
Years later, when his injuries are healed and is left with scars on his body and scars on his mind, Mallory still dreams of the boy, but that's nothing especial. He dreams of everyone he knew back then, his commanding general and every man in his section, the faces of men he'd killed and the voices of his captors echoing in his head. There are short flashes of the boy, dark curls and wide eyes.
It's ten years later that he meets the boy again, still not knowing his name, and to Mallory he still looks so young. But there's a look in his eyes that doesn't belong on a smooth, youthful face, a look that Mallory sees in the mirror every morning and every night. At first glance, he seems almost naïve, but Mallory is far too familiar with the hollowness that he sometimes sees in Q's eyes to believe that. He wonders what happened to him, if it started with the death of his parents, or if it was whatever happened to him when he was taken back to England.
Mallory doesn't know for a long time if Q remembers him from back then, not until after he finally finds out Q's real name, not until Mallory becomes known as M, until they're past the point of knowing each other only professionally. Until Q is curled around him in bed late one night, and he whispers to Mallory that he remembers when his parents died, when he saw Mallory at the base in Ireland, when he was only seventeen.
Q says that he remembers Mallory going missing, the way the word spread like wildfire and there was a flurry of activity on the base, but Q was shipped off back to England the next day. He traces the thin scar on Mallory's temple, so faint it's hardly even visible, with careful fingers, says that he remembers reading the papers, looking out for any news of his survival. Mallory kisses him then, one hand moving to the back of Q's neck, where there's a scar of Q's own there, one that wasn't there when he was seventeen.
Characters: Gareth Mallory, Q
Pairing: Mallory/Q
Rating: PG-13
Word count: c.600
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.
A/N: craw101 prompted: “Mallory meets Q when he’s stationed in Ireland."
***
It's after the blindfold is off and Mallory is tied to a chair that he remembers the boy. It's vague, through a haze of blood and pain, that Mallory tries to remember every person he'd met on base, thinking of who could have betrayed him, given him up.
He remembers the boy because it's uncommon to see someone so young at the base in Ireland, an unfamiliar face on someone not older than seventeen. Dark hair flopping over his eyes and lanky limbs, an English orphan found by one of the soldiers and taken in. Mostly Mallory's just seen him from across the room, passed by him in hallways; they've only spoken once. The boy was clever, quick, and their conversation brief, and Mallory never learned his name, only that he's being sent back to England soon.
Mallory passes by the boy in his mind. It wasn't him, and he's of no significance, although he still remembers him throughout the next two months, fleeting thoughts of a boy whose name he doesn't know, wondering what his story is to distract himself from the reality of where he is. He thinks of parents, bodies obliterated in an explosion, and his own, who probably know now that he's missing. He thinks of childhood, an innocence that seems so far away now, and how war can tear the safety and simplicity of youth down so easily.
Years later, when his injuries are healed and is left with scars on his body and scars on his mind, Mallory still dreams of the boy, but that's nothing especial. He dreams of everyone he knew back then, his commanding general and every man in his section, the faces of men he'd killed and the voices of his captors echoing in his head. There are short flashes of the boy, dark curls and wide eyes.
It's ten years later that he meets the boy again, still not knowing his name, and to Mallory he still looks so young. But there's a look in his eyes that doesn't belong on a smooth, youthful face, a look that Mallory sees in the mirror every morning and every night. At first glance, he seems almost naïve, but Mallory is far too familiar with the hollowness that he sometimes sees in Q's eyes to believe that. He wonders what happened to him, if it started with the death of his parents, or if it was whatever happened to him when he was taken back to England.
Mallory doesn't know for a long time if Q remembers him from back then, not until after he finally finds out Q's real name, not until Mallory becomes known as M, until they're past the point of knowing each other only professionally. Until Q is curled around him in bed late one night, and he whispers to Mallory that he remembers when his parents died, when he saw Mallory at the base in Ireland, when he was only seventeen.
Q says that he remembers Mallory going missing, the way the word spread like wildfire and there was a flurry of activity on the base, but Q was shipped off back to England the next day. He traces the thin scar on Mallory's temple, so faint it's hardly even visible, with careful fingers, says that he remembers reading the papers, looking out for any news of his survival. Mallory kisses him then, one hand moving to the back of Q's neck, where there's a scar of Q's own there, one that wasn't there when he was seventeen.