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Ocelot knocked on the door with a sloppy first, one after the other in quick succession. He knew where he lived, of course he did. What kind of a triple agent was he if he didn't?
The door opened, revealing a very impatient face at the assault on the door. John was the name, he didn't forget.
"BIG Boss," Ocelot shouted far too loudly instead, emitting waves of alcoholic breath as he did so, furthering the surprised reaction from his target.
"Ocelot?" His eyes were scrunched, hardly believing it. Especially the drunken stupor part. He didn't grab a weapon, letting Ocelot bumble past him into his apartment.
Which was fortunate, the sane part of Ocelot considered. It satisfied him, only a little, that John didn't immediately try to detain him, still regarding Ocelot as an enemy.
“It’s… three in the morning, Ocelot,” John groaned, wondering if this was a very strange dream.
"That's not my name!" He retorted, swirling around with dizzy eyes, "I called you yours you-you call me mine!"
"You called me Big Boss-"
"John, there I said it!" Ocelot threw his hands up in a sloppy gesture, "Don't you forget it!"
"Uh," John rubbed his neck, very unsure of what to do in this situation. The kid took a shine to him since the Snake Eater mission, he understood that, but to follow him all the way to his apartment back in the US, drunk... Well it was a tough pill to swallow.
Ocelot tossed his hands again, as if expecting an answer.
"Adamska," John teased the name out, recalling their moment in the WIG, "Right?"
"Good, good, good," 'Adamska' smiled, clearly satisfied, John couldn't help but feel amused. He did like the kid, he was full of spunk if anything.
"You," He announced, bowing his head with outstretched arms, "May call me Adam."
"THAT'S RIGHT!" He nearly boomed before John could register the information, "I was the NSA agent you had to meet!"
"You-" This was too much for John to process, and it didn't help that Adam was bumbling about in his living room, analyzing things without permission.
"Yeah hUH!" Adam growled, looking for something, " I know you're here, EVA, come out and fight me!"
"EVA? She's not-" John started, then held his hands out to Adam as he took out a revolver, swirling it still expertly despite the inebriation, "Woah, take it easy, she's not here."
"Oh? Oh good," Adam launched into a smile, holstering his weapon just as if he was sober, then leaned against the wall, clicking his spurs together. He fluttered his long lashes, "How are you, John."
"Kid, you're drunk," John scolded, but still wanted answers, "You're saying you were the agent. How do I know-"
"LA LOO LE," Adam stuttered, coughing, "Le LI LO.. LA LI-"
"Okay, okay, I get it," John could almost chuckle, the kid was an entertaining drunk. Unfortunately Adam could sense that.
"You never take me seriously," Adam pouted, stumbling over. John backed up a bit, awkward at the confrontation.
"It's hard when you're crocked," John raised a brow, "Why didn't you show up back in the mission?"
"EVA got in the way," Adam huffed, analyzing John. He may be drunk, but John was still handsome. Adam patted his chest, thankfully not as hard as the earlier door, "I coulda helped you if she weren't there, then I'd fly home with you in a fancy plane."
"You tried to shoot me," John frowned, "Several times."
"WELL," Adam pouted, turning away, "I just wanted, a little dignity, after you beat me all those times."
"Is that why you're here?" John jumped to a defensive stance, angering Adam even further.
"Noooo," He groaned, waving his hands, "I just wanted you to know EVA was lying' to you!"
"EVA!" He called for her again, hand to his holster.
"She's not here," John grimaced, "Remember?"
"Oh," Adam smiled at him again, hands on his hips again, another flirtatious grin.
"Actually she took the Legacy and left for the Chinese," John grumbled, feeling very foolish, "I think she drugged me, and would have killed me, but instead left a tape explaining everything."
"Oh," Adam frowned, then smiled again, far too largely for his face, "BUT guess what!"
"Huh?"
"The Legacy we gave her was the fake!" Adam laughed, " I took the real one!"
"What?!" John moved closer, nerves on end, "Where?!"
"Here," There was that coy grin again as soon as the two were close. Adam held out a gloved hand to him, empty.
"There's nothing-"
"Oh," Adam looked down at his own hand, then spun it, thinking, "I gave it to uh. Um, the President."
"Damnit," John cursed, infuriated. First EVA, then the revelation of The Boss's whole plan, and now the Legacy teased at his fingers.
"Potty mouth," Adam scolded, slapping John very gently.
"You're weird when you're drunk," John narrowed an eye, his only eye, thanks to Adam. He forgave him though, a little too easily some might think.
"Can't you say something nice to me again?" Adam grumbled, patting his arm, looking it over, squeezing his bicep.
“Hey,” John pulled away from him, looking him over strangely.
“How about a ‘you’re pretty GREAT’, huh?” Adam slurred, flashing his hands at him in a very uncoordinated gesture, “Or a ‘you’re just as cool as I am’, y’know?”
“Maybe if you weren’t spewing alcohol all over my apartment,” John argued, moving out of the direction from the gesture, almost swatting at his face.
“Hmph, I shoulda just came out and said I was the agent,” He turned around, stomping over to a sofa and crashing on it, face down.
John, deciding for himself that he’d tend to the kid’s actions before he hurt himself, sighed over, moving Adam’s head so that he could breathe.
“I wouldn’t steal the Legacy from you,” Adam huffed, face flushed from whatever drink he had gotten a hold of prior to their meeting, “Then maybe we’d be drinkin’ wine, and I wouldn’t have drugged ya. Then we’d make out and- John do you have any food?”
“What?” John quickly withdrew his arm from Adam’s head, letting it plop forward again, “What did you say?”
“Food,” Adam sat up, squinting around the apartment, “Man you’re a mess, any gators? Those I took from your bag were good.”
“Before that,” John didn’t know why he was so interested, this blabbering drunk kid. He wasn’t even a kid, really, “You want to- ‘kiss’ me?”
“Well if you say so,” Adam huffed, leaning forward.
“Woah, wait, no,” John stood up, away from Adam’s groping arms, “Kid, you’re really hammered.”
“So what, you’re still cool,” Adam pouted, swiveling in the sofa, “And you said I was pretty good so we’re even.”
“You’re just, you’re drunk,” John shook his head. He couldn’t take anything Adam said seriously right now, right? He put a hand to his head, covering his eyepatch to scrutinize the man on his sofa.
“Johnnn,” He drolled, face red, “I’m so sorry!”
“Huh?” John dropped his arm, utterly baffled by this entire situation, “Look, it’s okay, you can stay here until you get-”
“Your eye!” He covered his face, “Ugh, you should have just let me shoot her!”
“Oh, that,” John scratched at the eyepatch, already used to it, “It was… an accident. You didn’t mean it, I know that.”
“Why didn’t you just let me shoot her,” Adam mumbled through his gloved fingers, “Now you only have one pretty eye.”
“She did end up helping me,” He hummed, massaging his neck at the compliment, “I needed her alive at that point.”
“I’m sorry,” Adam said softer this time. John almost thought he was going to cry, and that would have been far too much of an embarrassment, for both Adam and himself. Instead, he detached his gloves from his face, eyes still dry. Face still red.
“I just want you to like me,” He whispered, softer than anything John would have imagined the brash Major he knew back in Tselinoyarsk.
“Kid, Adam,” John sighed, he didn’t really like talks like these. He barely managed with EVA, and look how that turned out, “I like you kid, that’s why we’re both still alive.”
“No, not like that,” Adam groaned, turning away from John and settling into the sofa, “UGh, you don’t know.”
“I think I do,” John muttered, surprising himself a little. It was fun when Adam was still the challenging opponent, and quite frankly this Adam in front of him, lying drunk on his sofa, was hardly the same person. Or maybe it was, and John never realized it until a few moments ago when Adam spilled out most of his thoughts.
Realizing Adam had stopped talking, John the self-titled caretaker looked over to see Adam still breathing. Good. Just a little softer this time, sleeping.
With a loud sigh, John got up, walking to his own room and taking off his only blanket, bringing it back to Adam and tucking him in. As he did so, Adam shuffled onto his back, already deep in sleep.
John looked at him for a bit, noticing the sharp cheekbones and long lashes. Fairly pronounced features. He thought over the entire conversation that night, chuckled a bit to himself, and went back to bed.
* * * * *
Adam unstuck his eyes, making an awful face. The sun shone right onto him, through windows he’d never seen before. Groaning, he sat up. On a sofa, with someone else’s blanket, and someone else’s apartment.
“Oh fuck,” He scrambled, tossing up the things laying on him, then gripped his head at the oncoming pangs of a hangover. What did I do?
“Morning,” A gruff voice greeted him, snapping Adam’s head to see the perpetrator.
“John?” Adam was in disbelief, then lifted his hands to his head, “Oh no, what happened last night?”
“You came in,” John explained, sitting next to Adam and handing him a cup of water, to which he grabbed and drank from greedily, “Drunk.”
“I can tell,” Adam blushed a bit, narrowing his eyes over the rim of the cup, looking at John’s amused face. He hadn’t really seen him since the President’s award ceremony for him, but the hangover he was currently experienced dulled his growing panic.
“And you told me everything.”
“Everything?” Adam frowned, Damn, so much for being a good spy.
“Everything,” John smiled knowingly. Adam didn’t get it.
“Okay,” Adam gulped, nervous about what he would think of in regards to his triple agency, “Did I do a good job hiding my affiliation until now then?”
“Oh sure,” John humored him, looking at his watch, “But that was only a part of the surprise.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everything,” John looked at him again, an evil smirk he didn’t think John was capable of. Adam fluttered his eyes, a sudden horrible realization. No, wait. He couldn’t have. Could he?
“Did I-” Adam stopped himself. If he didn’t, he wasn’t going to admit it now, “I mean-”
“Well,” John stood up, not letting him finish, “Pack up. We’re moving out.”
“Huh?” Adam was trapped in his thoughts, trying to recollect himself, trying to recollect what happened.
“You’ve never really explored this city, have you?” John offered, looking down at him still swirling in his head.
“No,” Adam managed to utter, then got up from the sofa, a small smile on his face. He could be a little adventurous. And if John was there…
“I’ll give you 10 minutes to get ready,” John instructed, thinking he could give the kid a chance to have a little fun without a mission in mind, “Just the two of us, sight-seeing, hows that? No fighting.”
Regarding the strange look Adam gave him, John corrected himself, “Maybe a little fighting.”
Adam beamed, then readjusted his outfit, looking at John with a question on his tongue.
“Bathroom is over there,” John pointed around a corner, and Adam hurried over, not before flashing a grin at him. John returned it, only after he had already left.
In the silence aside from the running faucet, John looked about his messy apartment, thinking to clean it up if the two of them might have to share it. He recalled the passed out man on his sofa, checking up on him every now and again to make sure he didn’t throw up on himself, but no, he was always sleeping peacefully. Adam was pretty when he wasn’t trying to kill him.
“Let’s go!” Adam came over excitedly, eyebrows furrowed challengingly in his much more characteristic personality. John nodded, leading him out of the room. Who knows, maybe they’ll hit it off.