Chapter Text

Rubber Band Ball

Chapter 1

Rookie pushed his rubber band ball around his desk numbly, the office job he had was proving to become a dull chore as all office jobs eventually did. He at first thought it was perfect, his love of people and love of making people happy seemed like a perfect fit for a job where people ask for help or complain about the company he worked for. At this point though, Rookie had forgotten what his company even produced, in fact he had forgotten why he had applied in the first place.

The phone rang and he picked it up with a smile, ah he remembered, the people.

"Hello this is Stationary Wise complaints and help desk, this is Rodrigo Rook speaking, how can I help you?" He said, his mind playing on auto mode.

"Yes, hello, I'd like to file a complaint about a help desk member I had previously... They spoke very rudely and failed to help me at all!" An older woman crowned from the line.

"Oh that's terrible! Don't worry madam or miss, I'd be more than happy to put your mind at rest by properly dealing with this issue. Could you tell me the person's name?" He gasped, voice full of sympathy his fellow coworkers had lost.

Once he had finished the call and filed the complaint he sat back with his arms behind his head and feet on his desk. He shut his eyes and sighed. Another successful mission completed by-

"Rookie?"

Rookie's eyes shot open. No one here called him that, no way, they all were way too boring to use nicknames. And he knew that voice. He sat up instantly and scanned the room, his eyes met with a stylish man standing by the water cooler. His mouth dropped open.

"JPG?!" He practically whispered in awe. Even so, the stunning dark-skinned man with a fancy business suit and tie chuckled.

"I can practically hear what you are saying despite you being over there, I told you not to call me that!" He called, walking over to meet Rookie. Rookie scrambled to look presentable, the cubicle having hid some of his shame. He brushed chip crumbs off his shirt and rolled down the sleeves he was so used to pulling up out of spite. He almost forgot to pull his dumb tie off his dumb shoulder, but thankfully he did just in time.

"What on earth are you doing here, Rookie? I haven't seen you since the academy!" Guy chuckled. Rookie couldn't help but marvel at how well he had aged, his clean-shaven face and beautiful red hair that was always brushed and cared for so lovingly. And of course, he still wore his signature sunglasses. 'The window to the soul has to be protected' he had once told Rookie.

Rookie snapped out of it just in time to deliver a normal response within a normal time frame, he rubbed his neck and beamed excitedly "Heh yeah! After the academy, I didn't feel right following through, so I decided to look elsewhere for work and eventually settled with here!"

As he gestured to the workplace he couldn't help but feel ashamed for the lack of colour, it looked as if someone had taken a picture of a bright office then set the filter to black and white and then decided to repaint everything so it fit the picture. He frowned as he remembered the looks his coworkers had given him when he decorated his space with fun toys and gadgets to make it brighter and more exciting. He had hoped this would encourage the others to get creative, it didn't.

"Settle? That doesn't sound good." Guy leaned on the cubicle and glanced at his colourful decor, he sipped from his cup to conceal his delighted smile. "Glad that this place didn't drain your style though," he eyed Rookie's attire and lack of hat "mostly."

Rookie flustered under his unwavering gaze. "It's alright. But what about you? Surely you got so far after the academy testing!"

The testing had been the worst part. Rookie had failed the test 44 times, on the 45th try, Guy was there. They had met whilst training, Guy had said that Rookie's positive attitude and childish antics were funny and well needed in a hard environment. He encouraged Rookie to try the test a final time. "I know you can do it, you may think differently but you aren't stupid." Rookie thought it was a nice gesture but knowing Guy had passed the test first try always made his compliments feel sour and fake. He knew they weren't. But they felt that way.

"Yeah well... After the academy, I decided to go a different route." Guy shrugged, leaving more questions than answers.

"Oh? And what on earth are you doing here? You trained for piloting and stuff in the academy right? I expected to see you again in your jet pack, flying next to planes and saving burning buildings!" Rookie chuckled, pretending to flex non-existent muscles.

Guy laughed heartily. Rookie felt himself blush at the sound. God. Having a crush on the stunning man in the past was embarrassing, but it was way more embarrassing that by simply seeing the man again had only revived and increased that once dead crush. But what was most embarrassing was that Rookie had never ever once confessed to having said crush.

"Actually I'm currently working in the office above, our water cooler broke so I decided to come here and use yours. Glad I did." He smiled.

"Yeah, me too. It's cool to see you again." Rookie murmured, looking down to hide his contagious smile.

"We should hang out! Wanna go to a bar?"

Rookie opened his mouth to reply when Guy held up a hand.

"Ah! Wait, you still don't drink right?" Rookie shut his mouth, Guy smiled. "That's cool! I know a great coffee shop," Rookie opened his mouth "They serve brilliant hot cocoa, you'll love it!" Rookie shut it. He bit his lip to hide his surprise, Guy sure remembered a lot about him.

"Sounds perfect!" Rookie grinned.

"Great! Your boss is coming so I'd better go, pretend to look busy!" Guy said in a hushed tone and winked through his sunglasses.

Rookie squeaked and started typing random notes on his computer, his boss walked by, surveyed his still colourful desk, and rolled his eyes. He kept moving. Rookie froze, wait how was he meant to get in contact with JPG again? He internally corrected himself to saying Guy instead of JPG. He took note of a weird feeling in his pocket, he pulled out a business card that wasn't there before.

He looked down the hall where JPG was, he was watching him with a hand over his mouth as he hid his laughter. Rookie gave him an odd look and gestured from pocket to his hand, which now held the card. Guy shrugged and gave an exaggerated 'idk what you talking about' look. Rookie rolled his eyes and looked at the card.

'Jet Pack Guy
Pilot, wearer of suits, handsomest agent four years in a row, friend.'

His number was printed on the bottom. Rookie giggled and stealthily pulled out his phone to add it in. He was glad he had still kept his name, he wondered if he still had his jet pack...?

'Very modest JPG, you sure have changed.' Rookie texted with a smirk. The reply was instant.

'My new boss made all of his colleagues joke cards, this was mine, thought it would be fun to keep!'

Rookie pouted angrily. 'Aww man, why is your boss so cool?!'

'I just attract cool people I guess, it's how I met you.' Rookie held the phone against his face as he silently screamed. He blushed furiously.

'Thanks bud.' He sent back, he felt like slapping himself for such a terrible reply. Quickly he tried to recover by starting a new topic. 'So what time do you want to catch up?' He bit his lip and waited.

'Whenever you're free, bud.'

Rookie let out a groan, audible for the people around him. A new text came in.

'Stillll at the water cooler.' Rookie blushed and peeked from behind his cubicle, sure enough, he was leaning on the wall and staring down, he was smirking.

'Stop hanging around, your boss is probably worried!' And sure enough, he left. Rookie felt like his boring day got a whole lot more interesting.

Chapter Text

"Well Dot, find anyone?" Gary asked, the scientist curled up at his desk, crumpled paper around him and a blanket over his slouched shoulders showing he had been there overnight.

"I found an old animal carer friend of mine that had applied awhile back, they were going to finish the final stage of testing but an animal emergency came up so they left. Never came back to complete it." Dot informed him, the blonde girl was placing some coffee next to the lab-coated man.

"Great. Jet Pack Guy said he had someone in mind but had to be sure, how do you think it went?" Gary asked whilst taking a sip and nodding in gratitude.

"From the last I saw of him? Good. He has been giggling like a school girl while texting, so I'd say it's been alright." She smirked.

"He's back? Can you ask him to come in? I'm interested in his friend he spoke of. I mean, intelligence apparently isn't their strongest suit but I still want to see why he sees them as a candidate." Dot nodded at his command, leaving the cold and messy room to return shortly with the fine dress man.

"Ah, Jet Pack Guy! You're looking happy, did you meet with your friend?"

"Yeah, I did." He said bluntly, a man of few words. Gary rose an eyebrow, silently begging for him to elaborate. "He's good. He went to the academy with me-"

"For the police force and piloting school?" Gary interrupted, trying to clarify.

"Yeah, he had to retake the test almost fifty times but he technically passed."

"H-He... how do you retake a test, did they change it for him each time or keep it the same or...?"

"Change it up." Guy explained. "Look, he isn't the brightest but he thinks socially and creatively. He's great when considering people and motives, it's what he excelled at in the academy. You said we need someone in communications and I think he would fit it." Guy said, his voice having a layer of pleading in it.

"Alright, but he has to pass our test to get in. No help from you or retakes this time." Gary scolded.

Guy nodded and smiled. "I've got this G, so does he."

~~~

Rookie stared at the empty floor, his eyes in a constant glare and hands clenched. "Oh Guy, what are you planning with me?" He hissed lowly. He had come up to the floor above to see if Guy really worked there, of course, he was greeted with an empty floor waiting to be bought by a company. Rookie was instantly curious and worried for his next meeting with his former friend, he was always a bit mysterious, but lying about where he worked?

Rookie wondered if he should bring this up when they met next Saturday. He bit his lip and slowly took the walk of shame back to his cubicle to start the daily grind yet again. Maybe Jet Pack Guy decided the become a spy like James Bond. He had the suit for it, didn't he? Rookie silently chuckled at the thought but his delight was broken.

"Rodrigo." His boss spat. He looked up quickly, his face expressing a look of pure fear. "Where did you wander off to?"

"Sorry sir, I was just wondering if the company was going to expand to the floor above and checked it out. I'm sorry, I should have told you." He almost bowed to apologise but thankfully stopped the action before it happened. God, he was awkward today.

"Well.. we are looking to expand in town, but we wanted to give more jobs in other areas, not just this single building. But it doesn't concern you, keep dealing with the complaints and get back to work!" His boss commanded.

"Yes sir!" He squeaked, rushing to his desk and praying that Saturday would come quicker.

~~~

"Oh my god, I take all my doubts back you are totally right this is amazing." Rookie almost moaned as he sipped an expertly made hot cocoa.

"See, what did I say? Knew you would love it." Guy chuckled, leaning on a closed fist as he watched his friend enjoy their drink. His eyes sparkled with hidden intentions.

"I hate how you know me so well after all these years..." Rookie grumbled.

"I hate how you aren't wearing your hat anymore, the thing was glued to your head!" Guy exclaimed whilst gesturing to Rookie's empty noggin.

"Yeah, not in the dress code for work so I started wearing it less." Rookie shrugged.

"At least you still are keeping your style outside of work." Guy chuckled, staring at the Hawaiian shirt and shorts Rookie sported.

"Can try to keep me down but can't change me." Rookie beamed.

Guy laughed slightly, another rush of pleasantness flooding Rookie. But he remembered what he had to ask and decided to do it as casually as possible.

"So hey, where do you ACTUALLY work?" He asked with an eyebrow risen. Guy stiffened and gave him a weird look.

"I don't... what? I already told you, the company above you. Oh, do you mean what it makes?" Guy brightened.

Rookie rolled his eyes, he thought his sunglasses would hide the action but apparently not as Guy looked slightly shocked. "No, JPG, I mean where do you ACTUALLY, work?"

"Rookie..." Guy said, looking slightly impressed without pointing out what he was figuring out.

"We both know there is no company above my floor so come on, are you a spy or not?" Rookie blurted.

Guy choked on his coffee and coughed. He honestly didn't expect that leap so soon, and he hated that for once Rookie was partially right!

"Spy?! Rookie, I'm not some action hero..." He looked out the window as he thought of a lie. "I'm on a break from the airforce and piloting committee so I have been just hanging around, didn't want you to think I was unemployed."

Rookie scoffed, once again Guy picked it up. Rookie looked apologetic when he realised Guy had caught him "Sorry... I just, have been lied to a lot these past few years and have learned to pick them up." He then smirked and giggled to himself. "Also, I hope you realised you basically admitted that you went to the company to see me, specifically. Meaning you would have to find my personal information..." Guy paled.

"Meaning you would have access and warrants to do such things. So yeah, spy. What do you want with me, Guy?" He asked with a charismatic smile that suited him far too well, Guy shivered at his proper name being used for once.

"Well you didn't have to make finding you so difficult, these days I can just do a search of your name and find out stuff on your social media. Expect, oh wait, you don't HAVE A SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT." Guy threw his hands up in defeat. "So I had to find old files in the academy to figure out your real name because you never told me! But they didn't, they just told me where you were."

Rookie smiled. "I told them to keep my name private no matter what, I didn't want people to know who I was there other than Sarg. Good to know the Sargent kept his word." Rookie sighed in relief.

"But, I know your name. Because you told one of your customers on the phone who you were." Guy grins smugly.

Rookie shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not allowed to use my nickname..."

"Rodrigo, eh?" Guy pushed across the table proudly. Rookie gulped loudly, trying to push down any feelings that name gave him, especially with Guy saying it.

"Y-Yeah..."

"Heh. Well, anyway as I was-" His phone buzzed loudly, Guy sat down and glared at the screen, cursing under his breath. "Sorry, I have to go." He sighed.

"Spy stuff?" Rookie chuckled. Guy smiled, a warm and loving smile that warmed Rookie's insides faster than the hot cocoa ever could.

"Yeah, spy stuff." He chuckled, he patted Rookie on the back. "See you around Rookie, you have my number." He pulled his hand off Rookie's shoulder, it gracefully fell to his side but not before silently and motionlessly slipping a card into his friend's hand.

"Y-Yeah! See you around!" Rookie beamed as the former friend and ever-present crush left the shop, he sighed dreamily before noticing the card in his hand. "Huh? How does he do that-" He stared, It was blank with a deep blue edge. He squinted at it in confusion. He looked towards the hanging light above his table, he held the card up and his eyes widened.

' You have been selected to be an EPF agent. Complete these tests to pave a way to your destiny.'

"Destiny..." Rookie muttered, his mind muddled with thoughts.

~~~~

"Ah, Jet Pack Guy! Did you deliver the invitation?" Gary asked with a smile, looking slightly less tired as one more agent had been added to his roster and another had been hopefully invited.

"Yep!" Guy chuckled, looking overly excited for such a stoic person. "He has gotten way more intelligent over the years, he straight up called me a spy and asked me what I wanted with him."

Gary stumbled and felt himself laughing "You?! This kid must be very good to be able to read you of all people, my, my are we in for a treat! Well Jet Pack Guy, you'll be pleased to hear that Dot managed to get her friend in. She passed all tests and is currently meeting with the Director."

Guy stared past Gary's shoulder at Dot who looked very pleased with herself. "Never seen anyone make you this happy Agent... Tell me, what is your relation with this guy?" She teased.

Guy rolled his eyes, no sign of embarrassment visible. "Old friends. What about you and your friend huh?" He smirked.

"She was my old girlfriend when I went through an experimental phase in high school." Dot remarked proudly. "Yeah that's right, you can't embarrass me, I already liked her! And now we are friends and co-workers!" He made an odd arm gesture similar to a rapping hip hop star.

Guy shook his head and chuckled at the unusual but skillful agent as she walked away into the next room. Gary sat up suddenly when a text came through. "Good news! Rookie has activated the first clue and messaged the automated phone number, looks like I'll be at the sports shop awaiting his next solve!"

Chapter Text

The first clue was easy, a phone number to message. It automatically gave him a key for codes and a riddle. Rookie stared at it and frowned, logic puzzles were never his strong suit.

'Lives often hit a crossroad, a place where things collide, like bowling balls and referee calls and sports fans from a crowd. But the final path you can't skip to, even if you solved that clue. First, find every clue in our cities park, only then does the adventure truly start. Look in trees and look in rocks, the answer you seek is a number of socks.'

"Poetic." Rookie muttered distastefully. He stared and reread the poem. Okay, so the first part of the clue was simply the location of where he told his answer to the second portion of the clue. He had to go to the main park, that was simple enough. And presumably, he had to find clues, probably in the same code, he was given.

"So many sports references... but there are so many sports places..." Rookie grumbled. He froze. "Crossroad. CROSSROAD! The sports sport on crossroads!" He high-fived himself, which really was just a clap but whatever. He grabbed a bag and slammed his propeller cap on his head, it was time to get back into business.

-----

The clues were fairly easy to find, scratched into trees or as the poem said, on rocks. He had found a few words. 'Four.' 'Socks.' 'Forty' 'Has' and 'G'. Rookie presumed it was meant to say 'G has Forty Four Socks.' Which is a ludicrous amount of socks in Rookie's honest opinion. He took a deep breath as he walked into the sports shop. He first spotted a man with his legs on the checkout desk with no shoes on, only socks. The man wore a lab coat with a cyan top and brown tie. He had blue hair and dark skin that made his comically large and almost white glasses stand out.

Rookie clutched his chest. His life could take a turning point, finally go somewhere interesting. A cool place that people like Jet Pack Guy end up. All he had to do was say the number forty-four. Or he could fail. Like he did at the academy. Forty-four times.

"Can I help you?"

This was obviously the easy part of the test. He couldn't keep pretending to be smart when he actually wasn't, he probably fooled JPG into thinking he had changed. Of course, he hadn't, if he had changed he wouldn't be stuck in a stupid job where no one cared about him or the people they talked to. He bet that the people in that dumb job didn't fail any tests forty four times. In fact, they probably were geniuses that just ended up there because they gave up. They were stuck as well. And Rookie was stuck, there was no way in hell this opportunity would actually work out. He would blow it even if he passed. Or it could suck. This was stupid, he was stupid, he wished JPG didn't have so much faith in him in the academy, it was a fluke he passed on the forty-fifth time. It made Guy think he had potential. He didn't, just look where he was now...

"You okay?" The man asked, concern on his features, his voice finally cutting through Rookie's thoughts. Rookie stared at the man.

"For-" Forty Four. "Forget it..." Rookie whispered, turning and walking away from the no doubt incredible man that held the answer to all his problems. He walked out of the shop, the bell ringing joyfully despite his drop in mood. He slumped and sat on the stairs leading to the door. The cold cement making him feel worse.

He couldn't be at the same level as JPG, his hero, his idol, his friend and his crush. He picked the card out of his pocket and stared at it glumly. He flicked it to the side. He heard the bell ring, a handpicked up the discarded card and held it to him.

"You dropped this." The man previously at the desk said, smiling at Rookie. He sat beside him, waiting for Rookie to take the card.

"You can keep it. It's empty anyway..." Rookie sighed, it wasn't empty, but it was empty of opportunity.

"Things often feel empty you know, but when you stay on the bright side... Things can change." The man smiled, from his poetic nature Rookie deduced he had written the cryptic poem he had to solve.

Rookie chuckled humourlessly and looked away, still not taking the card. "Funny. I love double meanings."

"Me too." The man smiled, looking worried for Rookie, he didn't drop his hand though.

"You know, the answer to the riddle has a double meaning as well."

"Oh? Do tell?" The man asked with a risen eyebrow.

"You're G right?" Rookie clarified. The man nodded. "You know, I thought forty-four was a crazy amount of socks for one person to own. But then again..." His eyes drifted. "Forty-four is a crazy amount of failures to have on one test, yet I still managed it."

G suddenly looked very ashamed and wince. "Ah."

"Yeah." Rookie grumbled. "Listen, thanks for the invitation into your... EPF thing. But I don't think I'm cut out for it after all, if you know JPG, tell him 'thanks but no thanks' and sorry for bothering him with my time." He stood up and stretched.

"JPG... Oh Jet Pack Guy! What a fun little nickname." G giggled.

"Yeah, he hates it." Rookie smiled sadly.

"I don't know why you don't think you're cut out for it, you solved the first test." G moved in front of him, physically stopping him from leaving, he still held the card.

"I'm not the brightest guy, okay? It isn't a smart move-"

"He thinks socially and creatively. He's great when considering people and motives, it's what he excelled at." G recited, as if quoting someone. "Your friend, JPG, he has a lot of faith in you. You'll never know if you're cut out for it if you don't try. Even if you fail, it doesn't matter, we would still consider you an ally simply because you passed this first test and are a friend to one of our agents."

Rookie stared at the card extended to him. He raised his hand, it hovered above it before taking it gently back from him. "Fine... But only because I'm not letting JPG down twice." He tried not to blush at the fact that JPG had not only talked about him at his work, but also complimented him.

"Your next test is at these coordinates. You will be monitored when inside, don't feel alarmed though." G pressed a note into Rookie's hand. "I'm certain you will impress."

The vote of confidence was meant to make Rookie feel better, he just felt worse at the thought of letting this stranger down.

-----

"Hey G, how did meeting Jet Pack Guy's friend go?" Dot asked, spinning in a wheelie chair whilst stitching fabric.

"He tried to back out." Gary sighed, hanging his coat.

"WHAT?!" A cry sounded out from the room over, Guy burst through on his jet pack.

"I said no Jet Pack indoors!" Gary hissed.

"He backed out?!"

"Tried to. I convinced him otherwise." Gary reaffirmed.

"Oh thank god!" Guy sighed with a smile, hovering mid-air.

"He knew the answer, but perhaps the answer didn't help make him feel at all confident..." Gary winced. "My bad."

"Huh?" Guy said with confusion.

"The number this time... was Forty-four."

Guy slapped his forehead and groaned. "Oh obviously! He failed the test that many times, of course, he would start to feel doubts!"

"You told me almost fifty! I didn't know the exact number I just picked randomly!" Gary hissed.

"But it is weird... he is ALWAYS positive and ALWAYS joking."

"What? He was nothing like that." Gary stared quizzically. Guy stared at him, begging for elaboration. "He was so miserable, the only joke I heard was him pointing out the number of socks I own being crazy. The only thing that kept him doing the test was not wanting to let YOU down."

"Aww man... What happened to him..."

Chapter Text

Rookie stared at the door to what looked like a large metal cave covered in grass. He took a gulp and looked at it in confusion, a code was needed to open it. Three digits. He looked at the blank card in his hand, maybe... He inserted 'EPF' the door squeaked and opened with a repressed sigh of relief as its hinges finally moved.

He stared at the darkroom as lights turned on.

"Please, step in." A robotic voice spoke. He hovered his foot in the air before walking in as confident as he could. The first thing he noticed was how cold the floor was, the second was how soft it was. He looked down. Snow. The door slammed shut behind him, making him jump.

"Welcome. Please run across the room twice."

Rookie sprinted as fast as he could, he hated how unfit he had become since starting the office job, but he was thankful for his nightly walks that kept him from gaining weight.

"That was fast! Good work."

Rookie stared at the blue screen that seemed to have the same text to what the voice was saying.

"This is a stealth test."

"Oh no but I'm a total klutz..." Rookie groaned.

"Let's play hide and seek!"

Rookie's started to look around, the room had four pillars and two cameras, both could see him from anywhere! He started to freak out.

"You have twenty seconds to hide, cameras deactivated."

"Crap." He noticed a position that any skilled person could get into. A small spot that was the blind spot of both cameras, but one would have to run over there and try and climb up the pillar, possible but time-consuming. He paced, taking note of the snow. The snow. SNOW! In an instant, he dove behind a pillar and made a snowball, with as much skill as he could he threw the snowball at the camera that would be able to see him.

"Cameras reactivated." Just in time. "Great work! Camera one can't see you, camera two can't see anything!" Rookie watched as the camera shook the snow off.

"Let's see how smart you are."

"Just avoid any physics topics please." Rookie joked to himself. He stared with disbelief as a pillar rose, 'preparing trap' holographic in front of it. "Oh wow."

"Please set into the blue square." The voice said. He stared at the cameras, a 'you kidding?' Look on his face. He made a snowball, and another... and threw one at the blue square and one at some sparking box on a pillar.

The trap broke.

"Nice aim."

"Whyyyy thank you robot voice."

"You got a perfect score."

"What? That was it?" Rookie blinked.

"The next test is an escape room. You have forty minutes in the next room. If you escape, you are in the EPF."

Rookie stared as the screen folded into nothing and a door opened. "Good luck."

"I'll need it..." Rookie muttered, walking shamefully through the door.

---

The escape room had many puzzles, the first one Rookie focused on was a weird level puzzles where you tilted tiles in order to make a slide for a key to fall down, like a fun app game where you collect points by landing balls in multiple coloured holes. Expect in this one there is only one hole and if you fail to land it then you lose. But, Rookie succeeded. Landing the key in his hand.

"Yes." The key opened a wall panel, behind it was a black wall with some white lines and dots painted on it. A white line in the middle of the left side, two dots in the middle of the middle, and one shorter line in the lower corner of the right side. Rookie ignored it and instead sat down and solved some math equations.

He glared at the paper and slammed his head on the desk. "Argh! I'm never going to pass this..." He sat back up and slapped his cheeks lightly. "No, come on, quick being so negative!"

He froze, his eyes lighting up, "Negative... negative space!" He sat up abruptly, causing the chair to fall and trip him up. He stumbled off the floor and looked at the black wall. "If the blackness is the real key then... zero... three... four! The code is zero three four!" He grinned and fist-pumped the air. "Haha yes! Self-five!" He clapped. "Wait no, there is a camera, stop doing dumb things and thinking out loud." He glanced at the camera and waved gingerly.

The camera shook left to right, waving. Rookie winced.

"Ah, so you are actively watching..." the camera nodded. "Heyyy do me a favour and ask the robot lady to tell me how long I got?"

"You have twenty-eight minutes." The robot voice called.

"Thanks." Rookie sighed. He stared at the math paper and ignored it in favour of inputting the code he figured out into a scanner. A complete puzzle fell out of a chute. He stared at it. "Listen, I'm not saying you are wrong... But I don't think in a real spy situation, presuming you guys are weird spies, I don't think a real spy would need to sit down and do a puzzle."

"Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha." The robot voice said.

Rookie glared at the camera, but sat down and did the puzzle anyway.

It formed a picture of 'x = 3' Rookie sat down at the desk again, and finally solved the unsolvable question.

"SUM- body once told me-" Rookie shouted, unaware of the people watching he caught off guard with his pun. He grabbed each of the results to his test and typed the digits into another panel, it gave him a key to unlock a safe which inside had a piece of paper. It had a riddle.

'I'm always in front of you yet you never see me, what am I?'

"The future." Rookie hissed, knowing the classic riddle far too well. A box clicked open behind him, another riddle inside.

'Very good. But how about this:' Rookie was about to ask what when the robotic voice cut it.

"A woman is standing in a kitchen. She is looking at the time yet there are no clocks in the room. The only clock is down the hallway that she is not facing. How can she see the time?"

"Any mirrors?"

"No."

"Oven clock, microwave clock?"

"No."

"Fine!" Rookie cut the voice off. "It's... thyme. T-H-Y-M-E. She's in a kitchen, it's a herb."

"Correct."

"You would have written it down if it wasn't a play on words." Rookie muttered.

"What is the most important part about being a secret agent?"

Rookie froze. This wasn't a riddle, it was a test. The room was empty of puzzles. "I don't know, I don't know what you do." The voice didn't say anything. "Probably protecting people and helping others... That's what I'd want to do... if I was a secret agent. Helping people when in a company always feels forced, like you are not genuine." He fiddled with his shirt. "But hehe, helping people in company is always nice. Hehe... get it?" He shrugged helplessly at the camera.

"Very funny." The voice responded. He frowned and looked down. "What is the most important attribute in a friend to you?"

Rookie stared at the camera. "I always look for a sense of humour. But that isn't what you want to hear. What you want to hear is 'trust' but everyone needs secrets. You can't be honest all the time and can't expect others to be honest all the time, it's human nature." Rookie shrugged. "As long as a friend wants to make others happy and doesn't outright lie to others all the time, then I think they are probably a pretty good person."

"What's your name?"

Rookie felt cold. The name he loved most, or his real name. "Call me Rookie. I'm a rookie to most things." He smiled.

"Welcome to the EPF, agent Rookie."

His eyes widened in shock, he was in? Really? What a weird agency. He stared as a door formed on the wall and opened. Taking a deep breath, he walked through. His eyes adjusted to the dimmer light of the next room, G stood with a clipboard smiling proudly at him.

G was the first person he noticed. The second was a few people he had never seen, and the third was...

JPG flew directly into him, tackling him in a hug. "ROOKIE!" He exclaimed happily.

"W-Woah! Hey JPG..."

"You never should have told G that name because these guys won't stop calling me it." Guy frowned.

"Sorry, Guy..." Rookie shrugged sheepishly.

"Wait, your real name is literally Guy?" A girl piped up. G coughed and extended a hand to Rookie.

"Greetings Rookie, I am Gary the gadget guy. But in the agency, I'm known as G." Rookie broke the hug with Guy and shook Gary's hand.

"I'm Dot the disguise girl, but here I'm known as D." The blonde smiled.

"Hey! I'm almost as new as you!" Said a brunette with an Australian accent. "I'm the pets handler that deals with domesticated animals and helping them help us! But you can call me PH!"

"I'm sensing a pattern here..." Rookie chuckled.

"And I'm Jet Pack Guy, the eye in the sky. I don't have a code name, please don't call me JPG." Guy smirked.

"Uh okay, hi everybody. I'm Rookie..." Rookie waved slightly, feeling awkward.

"Welcome aboard Rookie! Now, Dot is our stealth lead, PH our animal lead, JPG our tactical lead and I'm the equipment lead. Would you like to be our communications lead?"

Rookie looked around in shock, "whaaa-"

"Oh right. We are the EPF! Elite Peaceful Force! We are an agency dedicated to protecting our home and stopping rising evildoers, we may sound fictional and cartoony but we assure you we are real and so is our looming threat."

"Cool?"

"We are, the threat isn't."

"See Rook, we've been up against this guy called Herbert P. Bear." Guy began, "He's from some icy place like Antarctica and he accidentally ended up here, he wants to eradicate all noise, parties, and people. He's pretty smart and has been up against us for about two months. Our agency has many other agents but we are the main leads, we want you to be a lead as well. The agency has been struggling to keep the spirits of our workers up. When G mentioned needed someone to communicate with the lower agents I thought you would be perfect." Guy explained, making things far more clear for Rookie.

"Oh! Oh wow... that is a lot to take in." Rookie muttered.

"I'll send you all details you need to know, income, requirements, etc. You don't need to make your decision right now-"

Gary paused as loud footsteps were heard behind them, everyone turned and spotted a well-dressed agent staring like a deer in headlights.

"Umm, Hi? Is that Rookie? Welcome aboard."

"Oh, almost forgot. That's one of our best agents also, Ace the generalist. They have a vast skill set that makes them very handy in many situations. They work with our leads often but prefer to stay working among the other agents."

"I like their company..." The agent in question explained quietly, they grabbed some gadget off a desk and sprinted out.

"They're in a rush since Herbert has kind of pinned them as their arch-nemesis." Gary explained.

"Cool."

"Come on Rookie, I'll show you around." Guy offered, grabbing his friend's wrist and dragging him around the area.

----

Rookie saw many rooms, a HQ, a comm room full of many other agents, a training room with all sorts of fighting techniques used, a room for gadgets and outfits, honestly the rooms were endless.

"You taking all this in?" Guy asked with concern.

"Uh, yeah... just a lot."

"Fair enough... I'd be glad if you joined us. Working alongside you again would be fun!" Guy chuckled, hiding his sincerity with a laugh.

"Yeah, it would be." Rookie beamed, hiding no sincerity, making Guy shuffle under his excited gaze.

"Well..." Guy cleared his throat. "I'm proud of you for passing, everyone already likes you. The only person left to meet is the director, they run this whole joint." His phone buzzed, pulling it out he read a message. "Speaking of that you will be given a spy phone if you officially join as well. Anyway, G wants us to meet the director. Hold on, I'm going to teleport."

"Tele-what-" Rookie began as Guy grabbed his waist and pressed a button, Rookie felt a surge in his chest, like falling down in a dream, before they were suddenly back in the HQ, Guy's hand removed.

"Oh my god that's amazing."

"Our technology is pretty advanced."

Rookie was about to stammer a question about using this for traveling across countries when Gary stepped forward. "The director wants to speak with you, don't worry, I'll be with you during the meeting."

Rookie gulped as he followed the blue-haired man into a small room with a screen. A silhouette stood before him on said screen, he squinted as he recognised the figure.

"Greetings director, this is our new agent Rookie."

"Welcome, agent."

Despite the distortion effect, Rookie placed the voice instantly. "Aunt-" He slammed a hand over his mouth to muffle his outburst, obviously this no longer mysterious person wanted to stay mysterious.

The shadowed figure seemed to stumble a bit. "Uh..."

"Rookie, you alight?" Gary asked, tilting his head to gauge Rookie's expression.

"Uh... Yeah. Hello... D-Director."

The figure was silent. "Gary I'd like a moment alone with Rookie."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, thank you."

Gary glanced at Rookie with worry and exited slowly, the door slid shut behind him. Rookie stared at the directors figure with excitement.

"I hope I'm not wrong about this, but... Aunty Arctic?"

The lights clicked on and Rookie saw his Aunt, she wore a pink vest and white top with a black jacket over both of them. Her pink hair was in a bun, her glasses held her pencil. She wore dress pants and also an expression of excitement and awe.

"Rodrigo?!" She squealed, distortion removed.

"Oh my god... Aunt Arctic!" Rookie jumped on the spot joyfully. "You're a reporter AND a director of a secret agency?! That's amazing! No wonder you got so busy!"

"And you got in! Who invited you?! Oh, let me guess... Jet Pack Guy?"

"Bingo!" Rookie giggled.

"And he wants you to be communications lead?! Rookie that is PERFECT for you! You always complained how bad your job is but how you still wanted to help people and listen to complaints, this job is perfect for you! Plus we have better pay..." She sniggered the last part.

"It is so good to see you, Aunty! Does anyone else know your identity?!" Rookie leaned forward.

"Well Gary does, he's my best friend!"

"I knew I recognised the name, Gary! So HE'S the guy who blows stuff up a lot, and fails two thousand and ninety-nine times before making an invention!"

"Exactly! Aw man, we have got to get Gary in here, I told him so much about my nephew!" She laughed as she pulled up a spy phone and started to type some message out. "He is going to freak, alright, alright, let's prank him okay? You LOVE pranks."

"Okay, okay, go back into darkness and distortion-" She did as told. "And say uh,"

"I'll say I'm firing you! And when he looks shocked and complains, I'll turn the lights on and shout GOTCHA!"

"Yessss!" Rookie fist pumped.

"Oh I have to watch your escape room test then, I just gotta, and after we- Oh shh, shh, he's coming!"

The door slid open. Gary walked in, from the way his hands fiddled with the hem of his lab coat Rookie could tell he was stressed. "Everything okay Director?"

"I'm afraid that I don't think Rookie is cut out for this job. I'm firing him." She spoke, sounding so serious Rookie almost believed it.

"W-What?!" Gary exclaimed, slight anger in his tone. The lights clicked on as planned and the director was doing finger guns with her tongue stuck out.

"Gotcha!" Rookie and Arctic said in unison. Both dissolving into giggling messes.

"Director! Your identity-" Gary squealed with confusion.

"Gary! Gary! This is my NEPHEW!" She announced proudly.

"That's my Aunt, Arctic!" Rookie added.

"You're joking."

"Nope!" Rookie giggled.

"You don't... you don't look that similar." Gary noted, from her pink hair and freckles and Rookie's green hair and lack of freckles, he couldn't see any family genes.

"We are both natural blondes actually! We just dye our hair!"

"I can't believe this..." Gary muttered.

"Aw man this is amazing! Gary give him his spy phone and send him home to think everything over, he has a lot to consider."

~

Chapter Text

Rookie fiddled with the metallic and blue phone in his hands, he sat on his couch staring at it for as long as the world let him. Of course, he wanted to join, he had to. But god was it daunting. He would have to quit his job, he had never quit, he had always been fired. He stared outside at the dark blue sky and sparkling stars. Maybe a nighttime walk would do him good. Throwing on some shoes and tying his hair back with pins so it didn't get in his face, Rookie took off into the night.

He jogged for about twenty minutes before slowing his pace and simply walking, he felt the cool air on his face and calmed himself down from his racing thoughts. He froze as he spotted a boy on the path, staring at him.

He boy wore an oversized orange hoodie, it draped over short brown pants and brought attention to his lack of footwear. He had a freckled face with large curious eyes. He had bright red hair, where a red beanie loosely sat, the beanie had red baubles dangling from its side and two weird wire suspended googley eyes perched on the hat. He looked like a crab.

Rookie approached the boy as he stared him down. "Hello. Are you lost?" Rookie asked, crouching to his level as to not intimidate him. The boy shook his head. "Can you talk?" He shook his head again.

Rookie held out his hands and used sign language. 'Can you sign?' The boy stared at his hands and replied with sign language too. 'Not good at sign.' Rookie nodded. "How do you communicate?"

The boy started clicking with his tongue. Rookie stared at him for a while but began to see a pattern, it was similar to morse code but not quite the same. He furrowed his eyebrows and finally cracked the code the boy spoke in.

'I speak in crab.'

Rookie started to click his tongue in response. 'Hello, I'm Rookie.' He started with. The boy's eyes lit up with excitement, he looked ecstatic.

'I'm Klutzy.' He replied in his code.

"Do you prefer when I speak to you in your language?" Rookie asked, the boy shrugged.

'I am glad to be understood, my caretaker speaks to me in English though, so it is alright.'

'What are you doing out here?' Rookie asked, sticking with the code now that he had learned it.

'I'm looking for agents.'

'Agents?'

'A secret agency that my caretaker is against. It is called the EPF.' Rookie's eyes widened at the information. Had he befriended an enemy of the agency?

'Are they bad people?' He settled with as a response.

'They are noisy people, loud and nosy. I do not mind them as much as my caretaker does.'

'Are you safe wandering around alone? Who is your caretaker?'

'His name is Herbert. I am safe, I hold weapons.' He lifted his sleeves to reveal sharp scissors in his hands. 'Do not worry, I will not use them without reason.'

Rookie suddenly felt very afraid, but if this kid really did know Herbert, then he could be of great use to Rookie. But oddly, the kid looked cold. And Rookie worried about that the most.

'You look cold, I don't want to sound creepy, but you can visit my house and I'll make you some hot cocoa.'

'Yes please. I believe you won't hurt me, and if you do, I have weapons.' He reiterated. Rookie nodded and lead the child back to his apartment.

----

'Thank you, this is very good and warm.' Klutzy clicked. Rookie smiled.

"No problem Klutzy. I think you should ask for warmer clothing next time your caretaker sends you out." Rookie replied from the kitchen as he washed the dishes.

'I'll do that. You are a nice person.'

"Aww, you're a charming kid Klutzy!" Rookie giggled.

Klutzy eyed the video game cabinet Rookie had, Rookie rose an eyebrow. "Want to play a game?" He asked, from the way Klutzy turned his head in delight, he knew the response was yes.

---

The next morning, after taking care of Klutzy with games, dinner, drinks, dessert, and a goodbye hug. Rookie felt rather inclined to ask the agency if they knew a Klutzy, and if he had just befriended the enemy. He gulped.

"Hey Guy?" He messaged Guy instead.

"Hey Rook, you made your decision?'" Guy asked.

Rookie bit his lip. "Yes and no, I want to join but I have a more pressing question."

"Shoot." Guy said.

"Do you guys know a Kluzty?"

He didn't respond immediately, but when he did, it was a lot of keyboard smashes and finally a single:

"WHAT?! HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?!"

"I might have, sort of, met him last night? I just talked to him for a bit and took him home and made him dinner then let him go... He spoke a lot about that Herbert guy though! Did you know he is a vegetarian? His favourite vegetable is corn!"

"Rookie... You can understand Klutzy? Wait, you took him HOME?!"

"Yes, yes and he is also really good at Mario Kart."

"ROOKIE?!"

"Yes?"

"THAT'S AMAZING!!!"

"Not really a lot of people are good at Mario Kart." He snorted at his own joke.

"You know what I mean! Rookie no one in the agency understands him, once we captured him and tried to translate his language, the machine BLEW UP!"

"No kidding, really? It's a mix of morse code and crab clicking." Rookie described.

"Crab clicking?"

"He describe it as crab."

"You have got to tell me all about this next time you're at the EPF."

----

It turned out to be a lot sooner, Rookie had dropped into the EPF solely to discuss the application process with Aunt Arctic. But instead, he ended up having a long and happy chat with Ace, they were very friendly, but their chat was interrupted when the main HQ screen flickered.

"What's going on?" Rookie asked, Ace shuffled forward, sitting down at the desk in front of the screen.

"Usually means Herbert is trying to contact us." And sure enough, on the screen, a man in a dark grey sweater and light grey scarf with a large fluffy moustache and a white beard that attached to his sideburns stood before them. He wore a smirk and stood in front of a snowy forest backdrop.

"Good evening Enormously persistent failures." He greeted slyly.

Rookie sniggered and muttered to himself "Okay, that was good."

"I see a few new faces today, and to whom do I owe the pleasure of meeting... Argh, I see you are there yet again Agent." His eyes landed on Ace who leant back in their chair confidently.

"Tracking you as we speak Herb, how you been?"

"Well actually I think you'll find-" As Herbert monologued Rookie found his eyes drifting to the background where he eventually found himself locking eyes with a familiar face who looked at him in shock. Rookie gasped loudly and pushed past a few agents who had gathered around to listen to Herbert, including JPG.

"Klutzy?! Is that YOU?!" Rookie grinned, now jumping from his spot and shifting his weight on his feet as he waved wildly at the younger kid in the back. Klutzy with matching eagerness jolted forward and pushed past Herbert to the front of the screen, he clicked wildly in excitement.

"I couldn't believe it either! Man, I was hoping you were talking about ANOTHER secret agency! What are the odds?! It's great to see you again anyway! And now that we are enemies we will be seeing each other a whole lot more often!" Rookie squealed, so much excitement despite the reality of his words.

Herbert looked from Kluzty to Rookie in awe. Klutzy replied with more clicked chatter, he held up a beach ball.

Rookie clapped excited, unaware of the crowd of elite agents all staring him down in shock. "Yes totally! That would be perfect! Then again, I read on Herbert's report that he can't swim, so I don't know if he would like to join." Rookie frowned, tapping his chin.

"What?! Absolutely not! I hate the beach!" Herbert interjected.

"Really?! I thought you didn't like snow, at least your report said so, so I'd guess you would at least like beaches in the warm weather." Rookie shrugged, he turned his attention back to Klutzy. "You know, if we get time, we could even play Mario Kart again! I just unlocked two new characters, the blonde starry girl with a blue dress, I forget the name, and Daisy!"

"Oh that's Rosalina!" Ace blurted, they looked very confused.

Rookie snapped his fingers, "That's it!"

Klutzy hopped excitedly and clicked a response. Rookie laughed. "Only if your uh... sorry I don't get the relationship. You called him your caretaker?" Rookie turned to Herbert, "What are you, his Dad?"

Ace exploded with laughter, falling off their chair.

"Dad?! What?! No!" Herbert spluttered, flushing pink.

"But you are friends right? Wait, don't you hate friendship and stuff? Weird."

"We aren't friends at all! He's my henchman!" Klutzy clicked angrily at Herbert's words.

"No I agree, you two are best friends. Besides, henchmen get paid. I don't think you pay him anything. Sounds like a loyal friend~" Rookie taunted, fully aware of the chaos he was causing.

"No! H-He is a loyal minion!"

"I'm hearing a synonym of henchman~ Sounds like someone doesn't want to admit they have feelings~"

"What?! No! Stop it! Argh! You're almost as bad as... as THEM!" Herbert pointed at Ace who was rolling on the floor in laughter, Gary had now shifted to laughing and leaning on Dot's shoulder. Guy was smiling proudly at Rookie.

"Oh yeah! We haven't met! Gosh, I'm rude, sorry! I got so caught up talking with your son that I forgot to introduce myself!" Rookie chuckled.

Herbert muttered insults and fumed. Rookie put his hands on his hips and smiled. "My name is Rookie! Pleased to meet you, Herbert!"

Herbert's eye twitched. "I look forward to breaking that stupid smile. Don't talk with Klutzy again-"

"Just because you are his best friend doesn't mean he can't make friends of his own!" Rookie scolded.

Guy burst out laughing, he stepped forward with a chuckled and gestured to Rookie. "Introducing... Our public relations communications officer!" He laughed.

Rookie flushed and suddenly felt very shy.

"ARGH!" Herbert hissed, the broadcast shut off, much like Rookie's mind, as multiple agents surrounded him and asked him various questions.

"Could you understand him?!"

"Did you taunt him on purpose?"

"Are you, friends, with the crab kid?"

A hand was placed on his shoulder, breaking him from his daze. "You're fantastic." Guy laughed, Ace rushed to Rookie's side.

"Oh please say you are joining for real, that was priceless, did you see his face?! Please!"

"Rookie!" Gary spoke, he turned to the higher up sheepishly. Gary smiled softly. "Welcome aboard."

----

Unlike what's shown in movies and books, quitting a job is not as dramatic as just shouting "I QUIT!" And never returning, you have to actually send in a form weeks earlier and then after the final weeks, you can leave.

Rookie's boss wasn't surprised by his want to depart, but he did ask a lot of questions about where on earth he would go from here and if he even had other options.

"I've been invited to apply to another agency, actually." Rookie had smiled in response. His boss rolled his eyes and gave him the forms he needed to sign and read over.

Rookie was told that if anyone asked for his job, he would say "I am a communications officer and public relations captain in a government agency." He guessed there was no backing out of those roles they had picked for him, oh well, it sounded fun!

Rookie stared at the barren desk before him, his rubber band ball safety tucked in his box much like his other belongings. The cubicle looked just as dull as the rest of the building. He glanced at his old coworkers and watched them type numbly, boredom in their eyes and regret on their fingertips. They weren't going to say goodbye. Rookie gulped, with the week over, this was his last moment in this godforsaken office. He had to make something of it.

"Hey." Rookie said loudly, some heads turned, "I'm leaving now, quitting, and I just want you guys to ask yourself if you are happy here. Often it isn't as fun to just settle... I know you all never liked me, but I just want you guys to make something of your lives. I hope you make an impact." He watched as they returned to their work, practically none of them fully registering or listening to Rookie's words.

He sighed and left that building, a huge weight off his shoulder as the sun hit his back and encouraged him to keep moving. Good riddance.

Chapter Text

Rookie froze before his front door to his crummy apartment, it was not often he got visitors, but now Rookie realised that perhaps inviting an enemy over to his house was not the best course of action. He stared at the crab boy who clicked a threat to him, the threat had obviously not been his own, Herbert must have put him up to this.

"Listen Klutzy, I really would love to chat and hang out but could you just let me put this stuff away? I just quit my old job." Klutzy stepped aside as Rookie unlocked his door and kicked it open.

'This is not a chat and hang out. Now that we know what you belong to we will kidnap you and hold you hostage.' Klutzy hissed, the action looking odd on such a cute boy.

"No I'm not saying that I'm not threatened, but I am saying that I deeply regret inviting you in before if you are just going to betray my kindness." Rookie narrowed his eyes.

'You betrayed me when you did not tell me of your involvement with the EPF.'

"Well, I wasn't actually a part of it when you visited." Rookie finally placed his box on the counter. Great, now his home was threatened. Where would he go now? He had lived most of his adult life here! Maybe he could live with his aunt? No, no... He didn't want to live with his family again.

'HEY!' Klutzy clicked aggressively, Rookie snapped out of his trance.

"Sorry, just thinking about the future. What were you saying?"

'My caretaker says we can't be friends.' Klutzy looked hurt.

"Sure we can! Just because we're enemies doesn't mean we-" But as Rookie spoke he felt a horrid thought crawl into his mind, he had the enemy in his house, he could trap him and hand him over. But that's so mean, Klutzy was his friend. He couldn't just do something like that to him!

'Rookie?'

"Huh? What? Sorry, listen Klutzy... The longer you are in my home the more I feel like I should be capturing you... I don't actually want to do that. So could you go before I'm held accountable for my actions?"

Klutzy frowned, Rookie was far too nice for him to even try to hate. He nodded and left in a hurry. Rookie collapsed on his couch. Where would he go now? His EPF phone buzzed loudly.

"Hey Rookie. Was this your last day at your old job?" Guy had texted. Rookie smiled.

"Yeah! Finally freeee!"

"Sweet! Glad you're out of that hell hole."

Rookie considered telling Guy his new problem, which was needing to move so he wouldn't be kidnapped. He bit his lip and typed a response.

"Haha yeah, it sucked big time. They didn't even have office parties..."

"No kidding? We have those, but we don't have a proper party planner for them so they are always last minute. That's actually one of your jobs, you need to keep the office in high spirits!"

Rookie jolted upright. "So I get to plan office parties?! Like Christmas and Halloween?!"

"Yep! That's one of the fun sides to your job!"

Rookie smiled and sunk back into his seat, Guy was so happy now. He was so much more chilled then in the past, when they were younger he would always be angry and yelling at him, he supported him but also lost his cool with Rookie more than once. He didn't blame him.

"I'll be putting my full effort in as soon as I'm completely employed!" Rookie texted happily.

----

"You know Rookie, when you said you would put your full effort in, that didn't mean sleeping here overnight." Guy chuckled, watching as Rookie woke up drowsily.

The office space the EPF owned was amazing, it was open planned with cubicles that had sliding metal walls that you could open and rearrange to make the space different or give your cubicle more privacy. Plus, it had a cool colour scheme that wasn't just black and white. Rookie was glad to see his office space was not the only one decked out with fun gadgets.

"Hmm wha- Oh!" Rookie shot upright as he registered where he was. "Oh goodness did I fall asleep?!" He muttered distastefully, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and folded his notes and documents away.

"Yep. What were you doing here so late?" Guy asked with an eyebrow risen.

Rookie threw on a smile, disregarding the real reason he had been staying late. "I was working, I've come up with a bunch of ideas on how to keep everyone happy and I've had to organise meetings with other EPF branches around the place." That wasn't completely a lie, he had been working on that.

"Couldn't you have done some of that at, I don't know, your home? Where you can sleep in a bed?" Guy suggested.

Rookie frowned for a millisecond, hoping Guy didn't catch it. He couldn't stay at home, his home didn't feel safe anymore. He recovered quickly, flashing a brilliant grin "I guess I got distracted. Plus I can never work at home, home is for home stuff not work stuff!"

Guy's expression settled into a stern glare. "What's going on?" He hissed. Rookie knew that tone from their past, he was angry. Rookie shifted away from him slightly, the fear of his strength settling back into the pit of his stomach. He hadn't missed that feature of their friendship...

"What? Nothing's going on, I just don't want to disappoint anyone and need to get a head start." Rookie explained. Guy's expression hardened.

"Rookie you have been working here for about three weeks, everyone loves you. And for those past few weeks, you have almost always been seen here overnight. I'll ask it one more time." Guy leaned forward. "What's. Going. On?"

Rookie felt his happy facade slip as it was replaced with fear, he wasn't SCARED of JPG, oh no he just... Was not comfortable being called out. So he shoved past him and sprinted as fast as he could away from the well-dressed man.

"Rookie I have a JET PACK!" Guy shouted, flying directly after his friend and dodging all desks and chairs in his way.

Rookie burst into the gadget room with Gary and ran into one of his cupboards. "Shh!" He whispered as Gary rose an eyebrow at his antics. Guy flew in seconds later.

"Where's Rookie?" He growled.

"What?" Gary asked, tinkering with some machinery as if he wasn't harbouring a frightened agent.

"He won't tell me why he is staying late and practically sleeping here."

"Well if you are chasing him down I'd presume he is scared of you." Gary chuckled.

".... Oh shit yeah, that makes sense." Guy muttered.

"But I am also worried for Rookie, Rookie! Could you come out and tell us why you haven't been going home since joining us?" Gary called, addressing the cupboard.

Rookie didn't come out. "No thank you!" He called from inside. Shielding himself as Guy approached and swiftly opened the cupboard.

"Come on man, what's going on?"

Rookie sighed. "My home isn't as safe as it was..." He muttered.

"What? Why? What happened?" His voice was laced with worry.

"Well... Klutzy knows where I live, so he said that he would kidnap me and hold me hostage next time he sees me."

"WHAT?!" Gary exclaimed, tossing his machine away in favour of Rookie. "Why didn't you say so?!"

Rookie looked away "I didn't want to be a bother." He whispered.

Guy looked very angry, he turned away from the agent before he could do anything harsh. "Okay. Now I disagree with that very much so, Rookie you could have at least told me. I've got a spare room at my place, just room with me."

Rookie felt like an icy arrow went through his heart, he froze up. He... he could move in with GUY?! With JET PACK GUY?! He felt very flustered and waved his hands around wildly.

"W-WHAT?! No! Are you kidding?! I couldn't do that to you! You already got me this job and-"

"A job that is damaging your health..." Guy muttered under his breath.

"No, no, no! I'm happier than I've ever been, trust me!" Rookie gestured to himself aggressively, praying Guy would not blame himself for his situation.

"Rookie, you should have said something to us. We could have found a place here for you to stay till you found better accommodation!" Gary smiled, holding Rookie's shoulder in support, he was being supported a lot since joining the EPF. Great. More people to let down.

"He won't need to find a place here because he can stay with me!" Guy narrowed his eyes and held his other shoulder. Oh god, this was like one of those animes Rookie had watched!

His eyes widened and he pushed past the two "Nope! No way! I'm not going to pick between two options that will affect my relationships! I'm going to solve this on my own!" Of course, Rookie would love to live with Guy, but god, though that is ideal it is just a horrible idea. He would break EVERYTHING. He would ruin the friendship he had worked hard to bring back!

"Rookie I forbid you from going back to your home alone!" Gary commanded.

"What you gonna do about it?" Rookie pouted, putting his hands on his hips and dramatically turning to face the pair.

Gary glanced at Guy with a humoured expression. Guy nodded and flew right at Rookie, who screamed and flailed wildly when he was slung over the stronger male's shoulders and carried out of the room.

"Okay G! Get his address up and let's go!" Guy chuckled as he steadied the wobbling and squirming agent in his grasp.

"No! No! I haven't cleaned for guests, heck I haven't cleaned since the last time Klutzy visited! Stop! Hey! Put me down!"

----

Rookie frowned with slumped shoulders as he slowly guided his friends to his apartment door, it had scratches all over it from the dogs he used to dog-sit and tearing paint from the countless paint jobs the door had undergone. In all honesty, he needed a new home. Rookie paused as he noted the doorknob was knocked to the side, he had been broken into.

"Huh." He stated dumbly.

"What? Your doorknob doesn't usually go sideways does it?" Guy asked curiously.

"Nah. Uh, that's an issue. But not a surprising one." Rookie pushed the open door in and sighed.

His television screen was on the floor, the game console was stolen as well as the games, books, couch cushions, documents and cutlery were strewn across the floor. It was a complete mess. Many things were missing, he was relieved that his family photos and important items were still in place. He stared at a small note scrawled on the floor, as if in a hurry.

'Sorry.'

"It's okay." He whispered as if replying to the note.

"Holy-" Guy started.

"This isn't what I meant when I said I hadn't cleaned up." Rookie giggled, shrugging and waddling into his home like there was nothing wrong. He bent over and started picking things up.

"What on earth are you doing?" Gary asked in awe.

Rookie stared at him like it was obvious. "Cleaning, I'm guessing they got what they came for so they won't come back. I'd better put things away." He knew better, they would be back, but he didn't want his friends to worry like he internally was.

"Uh, no way. You aren't staying here." Guy growled. Rookie froze at the tone used but continued. "Rookie. Did you hear me? You. Aren't. Staying. Here." Guy stepped forward and Rookie swallowed.

"Please stop speaking like that." He whispered, Guy heard it and stepped back.

"Okay, but you need to reconsider. This place isn't safe and I would feel much better if you slept elsewhere."

"Agreed, Herbert was surely looking for EPF information, thankfully you had none here at any point." Gary explained, studying the room.

Rookie lifted his TV and sighed in defeat at the broken screen. It had taken ages to get that. And now his TV, console, games... All gone. He bet all the money he had in his house was gone too, he had taken as much as he could when Klutzy had first threatened him, he hoped he had taken all of it. Rookie sat on the floor and stared into the nothingness.

"Don't worry Rookie, are you insured?" Gary asked, leaning beside him.

"Yeah. It's fine. I'll work it out." He replied, smiling lightly despite the wave of pain he felt. Guy looked at him, expression unreadable but he knew he was angry and sad. Mad and sad. Smad. He was smad.
"Guy I can see you thinking, I'm fine." Rookie chuckled, Guy looked caught off guard hearing his words repeated back to him.

"You surely aren't." He muttered, crossing his arms and looking away.

"Nah, I know everything will work out eventually. I'll just do what you're meant to do when this stuff happens... I'll write out everything stolen and show them the evidence, then they will help me out as much as they can. Can't do anything more." Rookie shrugged, his smile feeling gross and deceitful the more he wore it.

"We can catch Herbert and find his hideout. We'll get your stuff back as soon as we can. But you do need to stay somewhere Rookie, it isn't safe here." Gary said confidently.

"Yeah... I just need a bit. I've spent a lot of time in this place." Rookie explained, his hand touching the wall and trailing up it affectionately.

"Of course, we'll be outside okay? Take as long as you need, I'll start working on the hard document side of this for you."

"Thank you." Rookie murmured as the door shut slowly behind him. He turned and looked at the closed door with dog scratches and tearing paint. He fell to his knees and covered his mouth as a strangled sob escaped his lips. He put both his hands against his mouth as he heaved sobs and felt his body curl in on itself.
The kitchen he spent mornings in, the bedroom and bathroom he had slept and bathed in. The sick shower bath he slipped in at least twelve times... All gone. He remembered hanging those pictures of his friends and living family. The bookshelf that came with the place now was empty of books.
He held his head and gasped loudly, he heard movement from behind the door and he rushed to his bedroom quickly. He fell onto his bed and clutched the sheets, it was a mess in this room as well, but god would he miss this horribly uncomfortable bed. He sobbed and wept, he tried to calm down but every time he did he felt the wave of grief hitting him hard. He couldn't keep his friends waiting, but god he couldn't keep pretending he was fucking FINE.

He heard the door open and tensed.

"Rookie? Gary is heading back to the agency. Are you okay?" Guys voice called, a tone of care layering his sentence.

Rookie cleared his throat. "Y-Yeah! Just grabbing some things!" He lied, he could hear his own voice wavering. He hugged his pillow tightly and shut his eyes, counting to ten till he could breathe normally again.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight- He fell rigid as arms snaked around his waist and a head leaned against his back and shoulder. He bit his lip and tried to hold back everything but felt the tears whelming in his eyes. "G-God dammit." Rookie laughed weakly. He clutched the pillow tighter, but it wasn't enough, he turned and hugged the beautifully dressed agent who had stolen his heart years ago, but right now it didn't matter that he was his crush, it mattered that he was his friend.

He held onto him and felt himself shaking, he apologised so many times as he cried heavily against his friend, but Guy just held him tighter, shaking his head and telling him repeatedly. "It's okay."

He didn't know when he stopped crying but when he did he pulled away and wiped at his eyes quickly. "I'm so sorry." He said again, he laughed, devoid of joy, "God I'm pathetic."

Guy hugged him again. "Please don't think that of yourself." He whispered to him. "You should never have to hide your feelings from your friends. This sucks man, I know it sucks, you are allowed to feel bad."

Rookie sniffed. "Thank you."

Chapter Text

Rookie had stared in his bathroom mirror before he left, glad to see his red cheeks had slowly faded and now he looked like he was simply blushing. Better than crying, he supposed. Guy helped him take all his belongings out. He didn't have much, mostly weird gizmos, games and momentous. He didn't know where he was taking them though.

"So much to do..." Rookie was muttering to himself, glad his face was no longer red from crying. He nibbled a pen in his lip and tried to make a mental list of all the tasks he had to do, where would he stay? Guy stopped walking beside him, Rookie turned in confusion, the many boxes he was holding wobbling at the movement.

Guy sighed from behind the pile of boxes he held. "Rookie... Please stay with me." He began, the request already making Rookie feel a whole new wave of emotions. "At least let me help you out with that, you've got so much to deal with right now... I want to help, and I'm sorry I can't express myself as I'd like. I normally... just get mad."

Rookie was glad the boxes he held was occupying his hands because he would have been clutching his heart if he could. "Uh..." Rookie muttered.

"Of course, temporarily... Until you find a place you would prefer." Guy clarified as he began walking again.

Rookie held the boxes higher to hide his blush and let his mind logically sort through the positives and negatives of this suggestion. The pros would be he could see Guy more often, the cons would be that he could embarrass himself around Guy more often. He bit his lip harshly, if he kept that habit up he surely would cut his lip.

"Rookie?" Guy's voice cut in, he realised he was still standing in the same spot despite the fact Guy had started walking again.

"Uh, yeah, sorry, was just zoning out..." Rookie apologised, running behind Guy.

"So? You wanna room with me till you find a better place?"

Rookie tasted blood as he bit down in his lip again. Dammit. He called it. Taking a deep breath he made his choice. "Okay. Sure."

----

His eyes sparkled as they scanned Guy's house. It had gym equipment and an office area with a lounge that separated the two differing zones. Guy wandered in and placed some of Rookie's boxes on a kitchen counter with a relieved sigh.

"The spare room is next to mine, down that hall and to the left, opposite it is the bathroom." Guy explained, pointing to a hallway behind the living area. Rookie nodded and wobbly took the boxes to the bedroom, but as he struggled he heard a chuckle and felt the boxes lift from his arms. Guy carried all the boxes to the room with a smile. Rookie was relieved.

"You can get set up, get as comfortable as you'd like." Guy smiled, he put the boxes down on a drawer, said he was going to make some dinner and left Rookie to himself.

Rookie collapsed on the bed as soon as the door clicked shut. He could get used to this.

----

The next day he went to the EPF was his first day going to work with Guy, it didn't surprise anyone when they showed up at the same time, or when they said they were now rooming together. It did surprise quite a few when Rookie explained Herbert had broken into his house. Ace shook his fists and muttered something about 'Herbert going too far...'

But Rookie felt his blood run cold when the screen flicker and said villain appeared on the screen.
"Ah hello you foul fools, it's nice to see you quivering before me again. And you little new agent, it's good to see you have learned your lesson. I hope you felt comfortable In your refurnished home after Klutzy and I paid you a visit, it is sad you failed to have any information worth wild though." He mused with a satisfied smirk.

Rookie stared at the bear of a man on the screen, his taunts cutting deeper into his wounds. His mind filling with nothing but rage. He yearned to curse this beast out and tell him how he really felt, but he paused. He could do that. He spoke crab, a language both the beast and the beast's baby spoke. He could tell them what awful people they are, and no one would know. Rookie stormed forward and slammed his hands on the table, his eyes glaring daggers at Herbert. His tongue moved fluently as he strung together an insult in the unusual tongue.

'You are a pathetic whelp of a man, a disgusting excuse of a life form, I wish I could maintain my happy act around you but dear god I give up! Congratulations, you ruined the little joy I had in my life. I have no family, no one to depend on, and if I didn't have the agency I'd be without a home. You aren't a supervillain, Herbert.' He pointed aggressively at the screen. 'You're just a fucking bad person!' He shouted his clicks, the people around him confused at whatever he was saying.

'And Klutzy...' he begun, the younger child stared at him, fear in his eyes. 'I'm glad you betrayed me.' He hissed in the unusual language. 'Because now I have the perfect excuse to hate you." Klutzy looked hurt beyond belief, Rookie hurt more. 'I hope that I am not the one to stand above your defeated plans, I hope Ace has that honour because I know they annoy you the most.'

He stood proud and shouted his final statement. 'SO GET LOST, FUCK OFF, AND LEARN SOME FUCKING MANNERS!!!' Glad to be censored by the crab language, he pulled the plug on Herbert's transmission and nodded at his efforts.

He turned to the other agents who looked at him in awe and confusion. "What the hell did you say?"

Rookie chuckled, cheeks flushed from embarrassment. He waved his hand and as if to wave their queries away also, "Oh, I just told them off. Said I was disappointed and such."

"I'd have said a hell of a lot more if I were you." Guy muttered, glancing to the side.

Rookie tilted his head and smiled innocently "What's done is done." He was glad he had let out his relentless anger before he burst in a language humans could understand.

Meanwhile, Gary was staring at a machine he had made that translated crab, completely rethinking his coding as the adorable Rookie could NOT have said all that.
----

A hand slammed in front of Rookie's face as he scribbled notes in his book, he looked up in confusion and saw a smirking Dot leaning over him.

"Okay, what's the deal with you and Jet Pack Guy?" Dot asked with a sneaky grin.

"Huh? Nothing..." Rookie muttered, hiding his blush and hoping his crush was not obvious.

"Come on man! He was so stern and serious before you got here, I was convinced he was a robot! I ask G to scan him with an X-ray to see if he was metal!" Dot exclaimed. Rookie chuckled lightly, a brilliant picture painted for him.

"So spill, since you joined he has been smiling, joking, being friendly, he even gets angry now! It's like his metaphorical robot switch has been flicked on to the 'act like a human' setting!" She pressed on.

Rookie scratched his neck and looked at her sheepishly. "No clue. Honestly, this side of him was a blessing in my past. He was just like you described him in the academy, it was rare for me to break down his walls and get him to laugh or show any emotion other than 'work mode'." He made air quotes. "I presumed that this agency had changed him to be how he is now, I didn't know he only just started acting like this."

Dot twirled her hair. "Well... the only difference is you. You made him happy at some parts of his academy life... and now he is happy all the time."

Rookie shrugged in defeat, "Don't know what you want me to say."

She smiled, it dusted her features like a sprinkle of rain on thirsty grass. "Maybe, you are the ying to his yang. Maybe he realised that he only felt truly happy when you were around and decided to get you to join. And now you guys are living together, so I guess he must really enjoy your company!" With a twirl she left, planting a seed in the flustered Rookie's mind.

---

"I'm back from the store." Rookie greeted as he opened Guy's door and set some bags down on his kitchen counter, from the couch Guy rose a hand that previously covered his eyes and smiled lightly at him.

"Welcome back." He said gruffly, he yawned.

"Were you napping or something?" Rookie asked as he put away the groceries, occasionally standing still and staring at items he couldn't quite figure out where to place. "Does bread go in the freezer or in the bread box?"

"Yes I was sleeping and bread goes in the bread box unless it is really hot." Guy said numbly, pointing but not looking where he gestured to. He rolled over on the couch and curled in on himself.

"You okay?" Rookie asked as he placed the bread and came to his side.

"Mmm, yeah." Guy rolled over, his glasses falling off in the movement. The two locked eyes, Rookie didn't look away as he stared at his beautiful swirling eyes. Guy glanced at his lips before placing his glasses back on and clearing his throat, Rookie snapped out of it and turned away.

"Soooo, I uh... Saw a few apartments for sale and was going to check them out tomorrow. You wanna come and be the voice of reason?" Rookie wandered to grab the TV remote whilst chuckling, knowing he got far too excited and overlooked fatal flaws.

Guy didn't respond immediately, he lay staring at the ceiling. "Wow. You sure are good at house hunting." Rookie had visited quite a few in that first week with Guy, he didn't want to go but didn't want to burden his friend.

"Yep!" Rookie collapsed next to Guy with the remote in hand, he held it up to turn it on but a hand cupped his and pulled his arm down slowly. He looked at Guy with worry as the suited man gave him an unreadable expression.

"Can we talk a sec?" Those words made Rookie's heart rate quicken, he thought back to Dot's words and tried to swallow down all possible things Guy could want to tell him.

"Sure." His voice cracked and he cursed himself internally.

Guy straightened and removed his hand from Rookie's arm. "Are you going to be okay, if you move into a place alone again?" Rookie didn't miss the use of 'if' instead of 'when'.

He smiled sheepishly. "Uh, yeah. Sure I will be! I've done it before I'll do it agai-"

"I hear you at night Rookie. I get worried, when I check on you... you aren't fine." Guy cut in. Rookie paled.

It was true he had been having nightmares over the past few nights, he tried to get into a habit of covering himself in pillows to drown out any noises he could make. But he had been having more than nightmares, more like night terrors really. They didn't bother him that much because he knew they weren't real when he woke up, but the fear of going to sleep was becoming a problem.

When Rookie did respond to that statement Guy took it as an invitation to continue. "You thrash in your sleep and it scares me shitless, I need to know you are alright."

Rookie nodded far too rapidly "I'm fine! I really am! It's just little dreams, they don't bother me-"

"You scream."

"I'm sorry if I'm keeping you up and-"

"DAMMIT ROOKIE." Guy slammed a hand on a pillow, he started to breathe heavily. Rookie shuffled backward quickly in fear. Guy held his hands up and calmed down. "PLEAse... please stop putting others before yourself. Just for ONCE think about your own problems, and let. Me. Help. You."

Rookie loved that Guy cared about him, but god it scared him how passionate he got.

"I know how to help myself, I'm working on it. I promise I'll be one hundred percent alright tonight, no screaming or anything!" He gave Guy a thumbs up. Guy rose an eyebrow and sighed.

"I'm sorry... I don't think I said it but I am really sorry about how... explosive I get. I'm working on that as well."

"It's okay! You're a whole lot better than you were at the academy!" Rookie slapped a hand over his mouth, looking shocked by his own words. Guy looked stunned before he laughed uproariously.

"W-Well, that's good to know!" He chuckled.

Rookie smiled in relief. "Hehe yeah..." He bit his lip as he thought of how he viewed him then, still just as lovingly but with a hint, okay maybe not a HINT, more like a sprinkle, of fearfully. "At least I don't fear you as much." He whispered to himself with a smile, unaware he was even saying that aloud.

Guy froze up, Rookie glanced and processed what he had said and flailed miserably. "WAIT, WAIT, NO DON'T-"

"You fear me?" Guy said, he sounded like his heart had shattered.

"NO, NO, NO! Of course not! I used to! But that was back when you got really mad at me a lot, I don't FEAR you I just uh, I just used to get worried that I'd tick you off! I don't any more! You're wonderful!" Rookie tried his best to recover but Guy held up his hand to silence him.

"It's okay. I get it. I can get really angry, and that's a pretty scary feature to have. I'll work on it harder than before, okay?" He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.

Rookie nodded glumly and turned on the TV. No sound could cut the tension between them.

Chapter Text

Rookie gasped as he woke with a start, he felt himself about to scream from his nightmare but bit down on his fist to stop it. He whimpered horribly. He took a few deep breaths as he rocked himself gently.

"Nothing happened. You're alright. Nothing happened. They can't hurt you, you got the EPF to protect you and you got Guy as well! He's right down the hall and if anything went wrong he would know. You're fine, you're safe, Guy's right there you are SAFE." He shakily held himself and lay in his bed. He slipped back into a nightmare, much to his discomfort.

---

'Well, well, well, no one is coming to save you.' The black shape hissed.

Rookie pulled at his restraints 'Wrong!'

'They don't care, why would they? You offer nothing of value to them, how about you just curl up and die.'

Rookie saw blood pour from his lip, a never-ending fountain of red liquid that soon filled the empty void. He crouched and spluttered as he tried to stay afloat, but his restraints prevented him from swimming up. His mouth filled with blood and opening it to gasp only worsened his condition. The black shape remained, it taunted him as it stood just above the waves of blood.

'You're too stupid to ever achieve anything. They keep you around because they pity you, that's all you will ever be, a pity party of pitiful people.'

"Please... stop it. I'm not stupid." Rookie whined, no, pleaded. "I can help, they DO like me, I swear they do..."

'Stop lying to yourself.' The shape laughed, he saw the faces of all his friends from the past and the present in one horrible mess, he vomited blood. 'The only person who could ever love you is yourself, and you can't even manage that!' It cackled.

"S-Shut up! Let me sleep, I'm so tired, I can't breathe." The blood was hurting him so much. "I may not love me but others do, they aren't lying. It isn't because of pity. Leave me alone!"

Suddenly a drain appeared before him and the blood slowly seeped away, he gasped for air as the blood drips from his lip and slowly came to a stop. The shape glanced around, before dissolving into nothing.

---

Rookie whimpered and kicked lightly before he slowly opened his eyes. "Huh?" He muttered hoarsely, his throat felt dry. He reached for his water and took a small sip, he then went to get comfortable before realising he was already incredibly comfy. He sighed and wondered if he should even bother trying to go back to sleep, after all, he could wake Guy and that would be a huge issue. Maybe staying up would be the best course of action.

He sat up and prepared to get off his bed when he was harshly grabbed and pulled back in, he screamed weakly before he felt arms tangle around him, he hadn't even noticed that they were like that when he woke up.

"Stay." A familiar voice commanded.

"Guy?!" He squeaked, going red in the face.

"Go back to sleep, I'm here to protect you." He said gently, Rookie felt himself calm down. He smiled at the hands around him.

"Okay." He replied, snuggling into his pillows and sheets.

"Don't mention this to Dot, okay?"

"Of course." Rookie responded sleepily, he bit his lip "Did I wake you up?"

"No, I couldn't sleep because I was worried you would stay up all night to stop yourself from having nightmares."

Rookie felt himself blush more as he realised that is exactly what he had planned on doing, he passed out accidentally.

"Ah..."

"Yeah. Don't do that shit-head." Guy bonked his head lightly. Rookie couldn't help but smile at how lovingly he had said the swear.

"Okay, I'm sorry." Rookie muttered sadly.

"... You talk in your sleep." Guys arms held him tighter as Rookie tensed fearfully.

"Shit." He whispered to himself.

"Yeah, exactly." Guy responded, Rookie decided to curse internally from now on. "You aren't stupid Rookie, we do love you. I love you."

Rookie felt his entire world collapse at those words, he felt hurt as he knew that he was only saying that by extension of everyone else. "I know." Rookie lied.

Guy held him tighter. "If you can't tell the truth then at least go to sleep."

Rookie did exactly that.

----

Rookie woke up to find himself wrapped around Guys' body, legs tangled with his and head resting on his chest. His eyes widened fearfully, shit, shit, shit- He slowly forced himself to remove his body from the agent, he didn't want to make him embarrassed if he woke up and found Rookie in this position-

"Morning Rookie." The agent in question chuckled, Rookie squeaked and shoved himself from Guy as quick as possible.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" He squealed, looking flustered, Guy propped himself up with an elbow and rose an eyebrow at him.

"It's whatever." He shrugged, Rookie stared at Guy's exposed eyes longer than necessary. Before his eyes trailed down and his cheeks went bright red as he realised that Guy slept shirtless. "Rookie you are also not wearing your glasses, by the way." Guy smirked, a flirty tone Rookie had never heard laced his words.

With a loud shriek Rookie slapped hands over his eyes, oh god he could see where he looked now oh god this is so embarrassing oh god..."S-Sorry!" He stuttered, scrambling off his bed. "I'll make breakfast! D-Do you want pancakes?" He avoided looking at the agent but felt their gaze burn into him.

"Sure."

---------

Rookie flicked through house options on his computer, it had been three days since the 'nightmare incident' as Rookie had called it. He was sleeping better now, simply because he was too embarrassed by the idea that Guy could wind up in his bed again. He lightly blushed at he thought.

"How's house-hunting going?" Dot asked, making Rookie jump and turn to face her. He smiled lightly and shrugged.

"It's going okay I guess... There is a lot on offer but every house I visit that I like seems to have these little problems I overlooked." He sighed. She rose an eyebrow.

"Like what?"

"I can't remember them all... JPG just tells me why it wouldn't work at each location. I trust his judgment." He scratched his neck to occupy his fidgeting hands.

"Huh... sounds like the guy doesn't want you to leave his house or something." She teased. Rookie went red in the face.

"W-What? Nah..." He looked away, pondering the idea. It did make sense, if Rookie never finds a place then he'd never leave. Dot was suddenly leaning in close and grinning. "What?" Rookie asked.

"I knew it!" She leant back "You like him." Rookie could feel his ears and neck burn as he went as red as Guy's hair.

"W-What?! Pfft, No! We're J-Just good friends!" He scrambled to save himself but Dot was already laughing.

"No need to hide it, as a master of facades, disguises and acting I can see through your little ruse." She sat beside Rookie, pulling a chair from seemingly nowhere, she slid his cubical wall shut and grinned at him. "So what are you going to do about it?"

Rookie flushed more but felt a wave of relief that he had SOMEONE he could talk to about this problem. "Try to get over him." He grumbled, looking saddened.

"What?!" Why would you do that?!" Dot squeaked.

"Because... Even if he did eventually like me back, I'd only pull him down. I don't think he could even like me anyway, we're so different." He admitted.

Dot sucked in a breath, her eyes narrowed, she gripped Rookie's shoulders and pulled him to eye level. "Listen Rook, you could never pull anyone down, we all love you for who you are and you don't need to feel like you are holding anyone back. Besides, you are different yet you still like him huh? What's so hard about him liking you?"

"Because... I'm me."

Dot frowned. "Man, you aren't all sunshine huh?" Rookie broke out into loud laughter.

"Nope!" He grinned, making the ok symbol with his fingers.

She chuckled sadly "You might be a better actor then I thought."

Rookie sighed and stared at the ceiling. "I'm so screwed Dot. I had a huge crush on the guy when we were in the academy and now he is so much nicer and even cooler and ARGH!" He covered his face and kicked his legs around slightly, Dot giggled. "What do I do?! How do I get over him?!"

"How about... you confess." She offered with a shrug, she had the expression of someone who knew more than they let on.

"What?!" Rookie laughed. "You kidding? That would make everything so much more awkward! Especially after that one night incident-" He slapped a hand over his mouth.

"What night incident?" Dot grinned.

"Oh no no!" Rookie waved his hands and crossed them sternly "He told me not to tell you."

Dot whistled "And why would he say that if he didn't already know I shipped you guys?"

"Well probably-" Rookie froze "What?"

"Why would he warn you not to tell me unless he was... I don't know, running away from me whenever I asked him about you guys' relationship?" She shrugged sheepishly.

"YOU'VE BEEN DOING WHAT?!" Rookie squealed, covering his mouth and saying a 'sorry' to the cubicles near him.

Rookie leaned in with a glare "Dot! That makes things even worse don't do that!"

"What was the night incident?" She pressed on.

"I'm not telling you! And I never will!" His cubicle door slid open and Gary stood there in confusion.

"What's the night incident?" He asked with an eyebrow risen and a smirk.

"G! It's nothing!" Rookie said, words overlapping with Dot's "That's what I'm trying to figure out!"

"Is this about Rookie's crush on Guy?" Gary asked, pulling another chair and sliding the cubicle door shut as he sat with them.

"DOES EVERYONE KNOW ABOUT THAT?!" Rookie hissed.

"People gossip here, word gets around." Gary explained.

"Hopefully it doesn't get around to Guy..." Rookie felt himself blush more and he groaned "This is soooo embarrassing! You're my boss!"

"Eh, sort of. But I'm also your friend. So, when are you going to tell Guy?" Gary brighten as ideas formed "I could invent something that-"

"No! No inventions!" Rookie grumbled, "Unless you can invent something to take my feelings away." Gary looked thoughtful but Dot slapped him on the arm.

"No. Come on Rookie, you need to face this. He could like you back!" Dot gushed.

"No he couldn't!" Rookie hissed yet again.

"Who could like him back?" Paige the animal handler asked, head popping up over the cubicle wall "Is this about Rookie's crush on Guy?"

Rookie slumped in his chair.

"Yessss. God, who's going to show up next? The direc-"

"You didn't tell me you still had that crush!" Rookie screamed and dashed from his monitor where the director stood. "Jesus you guys! Cut it out! How come you ALL know?!"

They all stared at Dot, she looked around and shrugged sheepishly "I like to gossip." Rookie lightly slapped her shoulder.

"Stop it!" He whined, he got up and went to open his cubicle door "Just cut it out all of you, he's never going to like me and that's FINAL!" He slid it open to see Guy with his fist raised to knock. Rookie shrieked and fell back into the cluster of agents in his cubicle.

Guy rose an eyebrow. "Whose never going to like you?" He glanced at everyone "Why is everyone in here?"

"Some celebrity." Dot replied calmly, the other agents nodding enthusiastically at the lie, the director disappeared from the screen.

"Well I mean it is hard to get a celebrity to notice you, let alone LIKE you." Guy chuckled, he handed some files to Rookie. "Annnyyway, as much as I love debunking office gossip, I've gotta run. I'll be in the tactical fighting simulator if anyone needs me." With a casual salute he left, every around Rookie sighed with relief.

"Man, that adrenaline rush is HORRIBLE." Paige wheezed.

"Tell me about it, imagine that, but every time you hang out with the guy!" Rookie grumbled.

"Geez, I can see why you want to get over him. I'd still confess if I were you but it isn't my business how you go about your crush." She continued.

Rookie looked down glumly. Little bit more of a crush. He thought sadly.

"I hate to ask this of you Rookie, but I actually dropped by so I could ask you to sign these documents and give them to Guy." Gary winced as he held up the documents he had been carrying. "Sorry if that's awkward.

"Trust me, I've dealt with awkward." Rookie sighed, he took the files and started heading to the tactical area as he signed them.

----

Rookie clicked a button in the sliding door and took a deep breath as he reading himself. 'Hey Jet Pack Guy could you please sign this document and take it to the tactical office' Hey Jet Pack Guy-' The door slid open halfway through his internal rehearsal and he froze.

Guy jumped away from a hovering robot and punched its arm before reeling back and grasping it, he tore the arm off the robot in an instant. He huffed and smiled, looking confident he leapt up and flipped off the robot onto one approaching from behind, landing on its shoulders he twisted the head with a satisfying CRACK. He grinned broadly and hopped off to kick and punch a few other robots approaching him.

Rookie gripped the documents as he watched Guy move around and fight with so much strength and ease. GOD it was impressive. And GOD was it hot. Rookie flushed at his thoughts and coughed a little to bring attention to himself.

Guy flew into the air with his jet pack and started to take down the flying robots, he hooked himself onto one and spun in a circle before letting go, making it fly headfirst into the floor. He fist-pumped the air. Man, he must love being a tactical lead. Eventually, he finished off the last of the robots and flew to the floor, he breathed heavily by looked satisfied with his work. He lifted the bottom of his singlet to his forehead and wiped off the sweat.

Rookie hated how his eyes could barely move once he saw his exposed chest. He snapped himself out of his stare. He won't love you. Stop being weird. He scolded himself and approached Guy as confidently as he could.

"Hey Jet Pack Guy!" He called, Guy snapped his attention to Rookie and smiled, he dropped his singlet.

"Hey Rookie! What's up?"

"Just got some documents to hand over to you, need them signed and all." Rookie explained as he handed them to Guy. He stared at the carnage of the robots and tried not to think about what he could do to a HUMAN.

"Alright." Guy took the forms and started to sign them, Rookie waiting silently, praying it could be calm and casual between them. "So, who was the celebrity you wanted to like you? Is it a celebrity crush?"

Rookie felt his face go slightly red, he prayed he could will away blush. Rookie decided he would settle with a half-truth, a celebrity he admired but never saw romantically.

"Eh, sort of. The singer Cadence! Her songs are so upbeat I ADORE them." Rookie started delightedly humming a song by her and Guy chuckled, he looked slightly surprised as well.

"Yeah they're pretty good. Here's the form, by the way, I'll be home late tonight." He didn't explain his reason at all.

"Thanks, and that's okay I need to run some errands anyway." Rookie shrugged. He smiled brightly "It's a race to see who's home first!"

---XoXoX Guy's POV XoXoX---

Guy lay across his couch numbly, he had gotten home early from visiting his brother (a person he did not want others knowing about) and was waiting for Rookie's arrival. The house was so quiet without him and it frustrated him greatly. His mind wandered to a thought that had been plaguing him since it sprouted.

If Rookie had a celebrity crush on Cadence, then was he not into men?

"I really need to stop getting my hopes up." Guy muttered distastefully.

He had been trying to figure out if Rookie could possibly like him back, but from the way he kept trying to keep a distance from him, he presumed he didn't. It annoyed him greatly.
He remembered back when Gary said everyone could invite one person to the agency's top lead, Guy was surprised when he thought of Rookie, but suddenly was very excited to find him again. Heck, he was the happiest he had been in a long time when he got to hang out with him!

Guy smiled fondly at the memory. That was probably when he started to get a pretty heavy crush on him, he was so cute and kind. Always putting himself before others, which often made him angry because he wanted him to take time for himself. He was a positive influence and was working brilliantly as a communications lead, he solved every problem he came across and was already planning parties in advance.

Guy really needed to work on his anger, he didn't want Rookie to fear him. He nodded with determination. He would. For Rookie!

"Honeyyyy I'm home!" Rookie cried, kicking the door open as he carried a few paper bags.

"Welcome back!" Guy greeted, chuckling when Rookie looked startled.

"Oh! I didn't think you would be back by now!" He flushed in embarrassment and bit his lip, a habit that Guy had grown to notice.

"I just was visiting my brother and didn't stay long-" He had started calmly but soon cut himself off as Rookie's excited and intrigued expression appeared on his face.

"You have a brother?!" He squealed, plopping down his bags in favour of this new intel.

"Argh, why did I say that?!" Guy muttered, another habit Rookie had was making him far too comfortable.

"Why have you never said anything about him?! Do you have pictures?! Is he like you???" Rookie was grinned brightly, bouncing to the couch and looking around happily.

Guy sighed and pulled out his phone, Rookie squealed and sat beside him quickly, before fidgeting out of his personal space. Guy took it upon himself to slide closer to Rookie to show him pictures.

"This is him." He pointed to a picture where he stood next to his brother, both wearing jet packs. His brother had board shorts on and sunglasses, a bit different to Guy's. He also had dyed blue hair, he was a little bit shorter than Guy. "He's my younger brother, he's kind of a surfer bro. He is a lifesaver and surf instructor."

Rookie's eyes shone with excitement. "This is the best information I've heard all day." He whispered in awe.

Guy laughed loudly. "Don't tell anyone okay? It's a secret." He winked at Rookie who blushed and nodded furiously.

"Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." Rookie recited, acting the movements.

Guy rolled his eyes "Wanna watch some TV? There is a new show for wannabe singers, I heard Cadence was one of the hosts, as well as the 'penguin band'" He quoted lazily, waiting in anticipation for Rookie to grow excited.

He did. "WHAT?! Oh my gosh!" He clicked on the remote, ignoring how he leaned over Guy and failed to properly move away after he found the right channel. Guy smiled, he was glad he hadn't noticed. He liked him being this close.

The night ended with Rookie falling asleep on Guy's shoulder after the two of them critiqued singers and cheered the judges on.

Chapter Text

This was getting annoying.

Rookie was doing brilliantly in his job, in fact, the Christmas party he had planned was all ready to go and he was already planning for New Years! But now every spare moment from work, he was thinking about a well-dressed agent that had stolen his heart. He groaned dramatically and slammed his head onto his desk before repelling in pain and holding his forehead angrily.

"Care to share your sorrows?" The Australian cooed, head popping up from her neighbouring cubicle.

"Argh." Rookie reiterated, earning a chuckle from Paige the animal handler.

"For real, anything I can help with?" She asked, leaning against the cubicle wall and glancing at the list Rookie had made for New Years. "Isn't it a bit early to plan for New Years?"

"Not for me! I need to make sure everything is PERFECT. And Gary is taking quite a while to tell me roughly how many people can comfortably fit on the rooftop."

"A rooftop party? For Christmas or New Years?" She asked excitedly.

"New Years, I wanted everyone to see the fireworks but unless I can figure out how to fit the whole agency plus a DJ booth and refreshment tables up there... I don't know if I can."

"Man, you really are the man for this job!" Paige hopped down and wandered into his cubicle to stare at the diagrams he had crudely drawn of the rooftop. "Well, what if G shrunk everyone?"

"I'd have to get everyone to sign a waiver." Rookie grumbled, his face down on the desk.

"Extending the roof a possibility?" She suggested, sitting on a spare chair Rookie had added since people loved to come and chat with him.

"I thought about it, but it would take a long time to install, three months at LEAST. And that's from Rory! That guy knows his craft."

"Ouch, yeah nah that doesn't sound like a possibility." Paige bit down on a pen lip and continued suggesting ideas as Rookie debunked them.

"What about we scrap the roof idea for New Years, and book out some other larger rooftop venue?" She said, now also sharing the same position as Rookie, both drained of ideas.

"But it would be a SECRET agent party, now would it?"

"Argh! I can see why this is so hard, my brain hurts." Paige hissed, rolling off the table and onto the floor.

"Why is your nickname PH if you handle animals?" Rookie asked, begging for something different to think about then party planning and Guy.

"My name is Pet Handler. I train domestic animals. But I have tamed a wild wolf before."

"You can do that??? And man, if I chose my nickname based on my job role I'd be... Public Relations officer... PRO. I'D BE PRO!" Rookie asked and squealed, looking stunned.

"Yeah, your agent nickname can be anything mate. That'd be funny, from Rookie, to PRO." She chuckled, she grinned when Rookie joined her on the floor. "How is the Jet Pack Guy situation going?" She said in a hushed tone, as to not alert people passing by.

"Terrible. I'm even more in love with him than I was before." Rookie grumbled, hand whacking itself over his face as he tried to hide from his shame.

"You sure are a hopeless romantic, mate." She whistled.

"Sure am, 'mate'." He mocked her accent. She shoved him lightly.

"You should ask if he is interested in anyone, frame it like you are just talking about office romance or something and then BAM corner him." Paige suggested, shoving a fist into her open palm to illustrate.

"That... is a good idea." Rookie nodded, "But wait, what if he just says 'Really Rookie? Office romances? You should know better than to spread rumours and false information. I hate you never speak to me again!'" Paige laughed loudly at his impression, his pretend deep voice being highly entertaining.

"For one, won't know unless you try. For two, I can guarantee he wouldn't respond that way."

"Yeah but I don't even HAVE any office romance to share!" Rookie pouted.

"What if we try a different route and you tell him that I said I had a crush on you, then we see how he responds." Paige suggested, looking ashamed of her own suggestion, they looked at each other with winces. "Actually no, that is a terrible idea."

"Just tell me the tea girl! Tell me the gossip I can start with!" He threw his arms up desperately. Paige tapped her chin and grinned.

"Ding!" She said, holding up a finger. She leaned over and started to whisper gossip.

----

"Did you hear how Dot and Paige dated?" Rookie said loudly as he walked next to Guy to their, no his, house.

"Yeah, she made that very clear to me." Guy grumbled, looking back on a memory.

"Well, I hear that Paige might not be totally over her." Rookie said, mimicking the tone Paige had used.

"Oh yeah? Who told you that? Did they say it whilst next to a water cooler?" Guy chuckled. Rookie tried to laugh as well but was very worried about well... this conversation. So it came out more as a vibration of the shoulders and a shaking smile.

"Uh... Well, Paige herself told me." Guy whipped around in surprised.

"Dang, are you allowed to tell me that?" Guy asked quietly as he unlocked the door.

"She said it was okay, doesn't mind gossip and all that. Speaking of gossip-" Rookie started, before abruptly stopping to shout "HONEY, WE'RE HOME!" Into the empty house, Guy smiled as he did so. "Sorry, force of habit, anyway speaking of gossip." He bounced on the balls of his feet. "You interested in anyone?"

Guy instantly blushed as Rookie leaned in closer. That was a good sign. Or was it a bad sign?

"Uh, well..."

"Your hesitance means yes~" Rookie grinned, hoping his playful attitude masked his crippling fear.

"Fineeee, yeah I am." He rolled his eyes casually. Rookie felt himself drain away but kept up his act as Guy poured himself a drink from the kitchen.

"Ohhh! Is it someone in the agency?" He grinned, Guy gave him a hesitant nod. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Let me guess!" Rookie rubbed his chin in thought. Who would be someone that could have intelligent, interesting conversations with Guy and would also be strong enough to keep up with his workout routine?

"Is it Dot?" Rookie asked excitedly, Guy spluttered and coughed as he choked on the water he drank, he coughed and laughed before looking at Rookie with a surprised and humoured expression

"Rookie, I am very gay!" He laughed loudly. Rookie felt himself blush.

"Oh! Huh, can't believe I didn't know that." Rookie felt himself genuinely smile, he bit on his lip to hide his excitement, he had a chance, but he also was already interested in someone else.

"I don't try to hide it, but then again I don't just loudly state it whenever an opportunity arises." Guy shrugged, drinking more water.

"Yeah same, huh. That's some new info." Rookie mumbled.

"Wait, same?" Guy paused, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah I am too, very gay." Rookie chuckled, Guy looked stunned before he smiled brightly.

"No kidding, huh?"

"What, could you not tell? I thought I was very obvious." Rookie smirked.

"I thought you had a celebrity crush on Cadence so I presumed you were, bi or pan or something." Guy said, waving his hand about, Rookie could sense the half-lie but ignored it so he could deal with his own half-lie.

"Oh! I more so admire her, ya know?"

"No yeah, that makes sense." Guy nodded.

The two agents glanced away from each other, both very happy with this new information.

"Well, bye!" Rookie said, darting to his room. "Yep, see you later!" Guy responded, running to his own. The two clicked the doors shut, both unaware of the other grinning or screaming into a pillow.

Rookie fumbled with his phone and clicked Paige's name. She answered instantly, Rookie let out a small scream. "Well? What did he say?" She asked with intrigued.

"Well for one, good news is he is 'very gay'" Rookie quoted, biting down his lip "bad news is he is interested in someone." He sighed into the receiver.

"Rookie! That someone could be you!"

"I doubt it." Rookie grumbled, rolling in his bed with frustration.

"Come on Rook, you're a catch! Don't be so hard on yourself!" Paige insisted, growing tired of his lack of self-esteem.

"Heh, yeah. Well, I'll keep my hopes up for just a bit longer. But for now, I need to work out the final preparations for the Christmas party."

----

Rookie took a shaky breath as all the agents milled into the main command room, Christmas lights and decorations were everywhere, including a completely undecorated Christmas tree. He looked at his megaphone fearfully and gulped as he held it up to his mouth.

"Welcome all to the EPF Christmas party!" He began, a cheer arising from the crowd. "We have done a lot of good work and I think we deserve a break, don't you?" Another delighted cheer. "But before we all party so loud that we annoy Herbert," He was glad to hear some chuckling "I'd like to just point out a few things. There is a Christmas tree that is very naked in the center of the room! Each agent may put one decoration on the tree, I hope by the end of the night it is completely dressed and beautiful! Speaking of the end of the night, nearing the parties' end Gary is requesting we all stand around the tree and take a group photo to commemorate the successful missions of the EPF! One last thing, I have hung mistletoe in like, every archway, so beware!" He gave a final excited jump and statement "Have fun! Merry Christmas and happy holidays!" A final applaud sounded out before the gentle wave of casual conversation overtook it.

With a sigh of relief Rookie put the megaphone down and started observing his party. The punch bowl was still full and snacks still out. People were already giving each other pecks on the cheek due to mistletoe. The music was bopping and people were happily dancing. And the games section he set up was still functioning properly.

"Ah, thank goodness." Rookie grinned, leaning tiredly against the wall.

"Pretty great shindig Rookie." Ace commented, suddenly beside him. Rookie jolted upright and grinned at them.

"Thanks! I'll have to be on watch all night so nothing bad happens." He explained, standing tall and sternly glancing around the room.

"I could help if you want?" Ace offered. Rookie knew they would do a great job, but this was something he had to do alone.

"Nah, I got it." Rookie chuckled, waving away the request as Dot and Paige spotted them and ran over to greet the pair. "Hi guys!" Rookie beamed.

"Hey Rookie, nice idea on the mistletoe! You hoping to catch Guy under it?" Dot teased, Rookie blushed and pouted.

"Not everything I do is about Guy." He mumbled, crossing his arms like an angry toddler. The agents around him laughed in delight.

"Soooo, Ace, Dot, what say you about trying to get these two under the mistletoe by the end of tonight?" Paige smirked cheekily. Ace lit up in anticipation as did Dot.

"No no! Don't even try scheming! Especially in front of me!" Rookie scolded.

"I love a challenge." Ace said in retort. Rookie groaned and wandered away from the planning agents in favour of making sure the party went without a hitch.

He carefully went through each archway or walkway when no one stood in them. He was glad to round the corner and see the Christmas tree being decorated, some agents holding shorter agents up so they could place the decoration higher.

He tensed as he saw a few agents wobble fearfully under the weight of their friend, with a squeal Rookie ran over and offered his assistance. "C-Careful now! It's deck the halls, not deck and fall!" Rookie joked, earning a few thankful grins and groans from around him.

He jolted when he saw the snack table starting to become very low on refreshments. "Eep!" He started running to the table but heard a crash behind him, he darted back and saw a fallen Jenga pile. With rushed speed, he set the whole thing back up and ran to get more snacks, when he did refill the table he noticed a lack of punch and grabbed his head in frustration.

"I am so glad I came prepared." He muttered as he ran to the back to get more punch, a person he didn't recognise blocked his path."Excuse me I-" As they turned he frowned. "Dot. No disguises at the party."

She snapped her fingers with a laugh "Aww man! I was so close to steering you back that way!" He turned around and saw Guy wandering over to Gary. Passing by mistletoe completely unfazed.

"Oh dear god." He muttered as he noticed his Christmas sweater that had a suit pattern on it and the words. "Busy all year." Written in jolly letters. His own sweater simply had "Yo ho ho homie!" On it.

"Get over there! It's your chance!" Dot giggled, Rookie shook his head.

"Punch is empty, I think a garland fell down and also-" He heard a crash from the games area "I need to check on that."

"Rookie." Dot rolled her eyes "Go have fun! Let us help you!"

"No, no! I'm having fun! Let me sort this out first." He explained, pushing past her and retrieving more punch. "Could you fill the punch bowl for me?" She happily obliged. He darted to the games area. An agent was covered in Jenga pieces and there were also some people complaining about one of the dance machines being hogged. He groaned in frustration.

This would be a long night.

---

"Rookie! This is a fantastic party!" Gary complimented, walking under Rookie's shaking ladder as he rehung some garland strings. Rookie shot him a thankful look.

"T-Thanks! Hope it meets your standards!"

"It exceeds them! Where did you find the time it rent it a karaoke machine? Paige has been singing Christmas songs all night!"

Rookie felt himself release a bit of tension at the compliment. "Well ya know, I wanted the party to be perfect and all." He shrugged, sliding himself off the ladder. "Did the director come?" Rookie asked, Gary pointed his thumb to his Aunt who was currently stumbling about on the dance machine he had hired. Rookie giggled.

"Are you just about done with your tasks? You need to enjoy yourself as well!" Gary chuckled.

"O-Oh yeah! I just need to hang my decoration on the tree and then I'll be fine." Rookie said, dashing through the room like Santa dashes through the snow. He placed his trinket on the tree, a propeller cap ornament. He pushed himself away from the people and went to the far more isolated entrance doorway.

He let out a happy sigh and let himself lean lazily against the doorframe. "Phew." He mumbled.

"Great job." He heard and he jolted upright in shock. Guy stood next to him, almost as stealthy as Ace, drinking some punch. "This party is amazing, everyone is having a whole lotta fun."

"I-I'm glad!" Rookie beamed, nervousness seeping away from the amount of joy he was feeling.

"Wanna crack a bonbon?" Guy said, holding one out. Rookie giddily nodded, Guy won, of course. But Rookie was more excited for the joke.

"What's the joke?! I wanna guess the punchline!" He squealed. Guy giggled, leaning against the other side of the doorframe as he read it aloud.

"What did the chemist say to his crush on Christmas?" Guy asked, Rookie jumped with glee.

"We have Chemis-tree!" He grinned, Guy smiled and scrunched up the joke, tossing it in the bin.

"You got it." He chuckled, placing the paper crown on Rookie instead of himself. Rookie smiled and looked out among the sea of people. He gasped with worry as Gary and Aunt Arctic wandered under the mistletoe together.

"Oh god." He muttered fearfully, the two looked up, laughed, and kissed each other's cheeks. Rookie sighed with relief. "Thank goodness, I'm starting to think that mistletoe was a bad idea."

"I'm not so sure, look up." Guy mumbled, he seemed to be hiding a smile behind his hand as Rookie looked up and gasped in surprise. He didn't remember hanging mistletoe in the doorway! His eyes scanned the room and he saw Ace with a terrific smirk, spinning some leftover mistletoe in their hand as they mouthed a 'You're welcome.' And disappeared around the corner.

"Argh, I can't believe Ace!" Rookie muttered, with a flustered face. "L-Look Guy, uh if you are uncomfortable you don't-"

He felt his face be tilted and froze when Guy ever so gently kissed his cheek. Rookie blushed furiously as Guy pulled away "Merry Christmas Rodrigo." He said as he walked away from Rookie and into the crowd of agents.

Rookie spluttered and mumbled to himself as he felt his brain break.

"Aw what, not on the lips?" The cheeky agents voiced cooed, Rookie turned and playfully hit Ace a bunch of times. "Hahaha! Come on. You should be thanking me!" They laughed, running from the flailing hands as Rookie chased them around the room.

----

"So, I heard Ace won the bet..." Dot started, Rookie was in a group call with her Paige and Ace.

"Yep! Saw Guy walking over and yeeted some mistletoe on the hook there!"

"Are you even human?" Paige chuckled, Ace respond with nervous laughter.

"I'm never washing my cheek again~" Rookie squealed, rolling around on his bed. He sat up and put a smiley face on the day's date on his calendar. He looked over at his corkboard that hung loosely next to it, a leaf of mistletoe had been pinned on to remember the occasion. As well as the large photo of all the agents in front of the decorated tree.

"Gross. But proud of you! You realise what this means right?" Dot said.

"No?"

"Rookie! It means he probably likes you! He could have kissed your hand but he kissed your cheek-" Paige started.

"He also full-on HELD your face while he did it, romantic as f-heck!" Ace laughed.

"Guys, I think you are missing the point that he could have kissed me on the lips but didn't, so he obviously isn't interested and was doing a friendly kiss." Rookie explained, trying to sound confident and logical despite how much it hurt admitting that.

"Dude." Ace grunted.

"Dude." Sighed Paige.

"Dude!" Groaned Dot.

"What?"

"Could you stop doubting it, he obviously likes you and it is KILLING all of us just waiting for you two to admit it!" Dot grumbled.

"We're spies, we are built to be perceptive. So I can tell he has a thing for you, we are also built to solve puzzles and your relationship is the most annoying puzzle of all." Ace chuckled lightly.

"I know it's annoying guys but I live with him and nothing has changed between us, I don't think anything ever will."

"I'm quoting that at your wedding." Ace muttered.

"Ace!" Rookie shouted, blushing furiously.

Paige and Dot laughed loudly. There was a knock at the door and he "shhhh"-ed the phone. Guy poked his head in.

"I heard Ace's name, what's going on?" He asked curiously.

"Hey Jet Pack Guy!" The three agents chorused.

"Oh! What are you all doing?" He chuckled, walking to the room and staring at the phone.

There was a brief silence before the quick-witted Ace piped up, "Discussing how we could improve the Christmas party for next year! I was suggesting that Rookie ENJOYS himself next year!"

There were sounds of agreement from the two girls. Guy nodded. "Yeah for real, don't think I didn't notice you rushing about and not having a good time. I barely got to talk to you." He reached out and flicked Rookie's nose. He blushed greatly and murmured something incoherent.

"I'll leave you guys to it, try to convince this kid to focus on himself more, god knows I'm not getting through." And he was gone. Rookie squealed as soon as the door shut.

"Dude, he is SO into you!" Paige laughed. Rookie bit his lip harshly.

"Don't get my hopes up."

---

On Christmas morning Rookie heard Guy call him, he excitedly leaped out of bed and ran down the hall into the living room. He froze when he saw six presents under the tree instead of the original three he had left there. He snapped his head to Guy who was hiding his smirk in a coffee mug.

"We said we weren't getting presents!" He hissed. Guy shrugged.

"Yeahhhh but you got me presents so you can't talk." He nodded to the pile of presents. Rookie blushed.

"Yeah but you already have given me a job and a place to stay so-"

"You don't owe me anything." Guy cut him off. "Gifts aren't meant to be repaid. They wouldn't be called gifts then."

Rookie huffed in annoyance before grumbling to himself and taking a seat beside Guy. "Well, go on! Open your presents!" He said, a smirk making its way onto his face.

Guy rolled his eyes and chuckled, he grabbed the smallest box and opened it gently, Rookie was bouncing with excitement, begging him to hurry it up. Guy unwrapped it slower. "Oh come on!" Rookie groaned, Guy laughed before finally unwrapping the box and opening it.

Inside was a very pretty pair of sunglasses, much like his own but with a few buttons on the side and a slight hint of silver shining off the rims. He stared at them in awe and looked at them from every angle.

"I got G to help me with them! Since you're always flying I thought you should have glasses that protect your eyes against wind and won't come off! These do exactly that! The first button transforms them to cover your eyes better so no wind comes through and also stays a bit tighter so they won't fall off!" Rookie explained giddily, Guy pressed the button and watched the glasses convert to a more sensible pair for flying. He could finally go top speeds without covering his glasses.

"And the second button is for underwater!" Guy stared at Rookie in shock. "I was thinking how flying is your thing and how we have a few underwater training things happening, so though, 'Hey, Guy probably needs to swim and he needs to wear his signature cool guy glasses.'"

Guy was staring at Rookie with an open mouth, Rookie didn't seem to care that he wasn't responding as he passed him his next present. "This is related to the swimming thing actually!" Guy opened the gift and stared at the weird gadgets before him. "You attach them to your jet pack and it makes it an underwater jet pack!" Rookie grinned.

"For real?!" Guy gasped, Rookie nodded even more.

"Open the last one!"

"Rookie, this is way too much, you didn't have to-"

"Open it!" He looked more excited for Guy then for his own presents.

With a sigh he opened the present and stared at it, he bit down his lip and burst out laughing. It was a plush toy, it was a red penguin with a suit and tie, sunglasses, and a jet pack. He kept laughing. Rookie was giggling to himself.

"I found this build a penguin workshop and thought it would be really funny so-"

Guy grabbed a present from Rookie's pile, still laughing, and handed it to him. Rookie curiously tore off the wrapping paper. He could see what was so funny. He collapsed in a fit of giggles.

It was a green penguin with a Hawaiian shirt, red glasses, and propeller cap.

"O-Oh my, what are the odds?!" Rookie laughed. Staring at the two penguins with uncanny resemblance.

"Aw man these guys are adorable! We need to put them somewhere!" Guy grinned, Rookie nodded and they looked around. Finally, the two leant them on the kitchen counter, as soon as the door would open you would see two perfect plush penguins politely greeting you.

"Come on then, open your other presents!" Guy said, he looked nervous. Rookie picked another large box, inside was a book of puns and jokes. Rookie beamed brightly and immediately started reciting some of the jokes, Guy groaned at everyone but was glad to see Rookie happy. Rookie picked up the smallest present, he tore the wrapping off and opened a small box. Inside was a golden key. He stared at Guy in confusion.

"Okay... this is going to get a bit sentimental and cheesy." Guy sighed, he sat up a bit straighter. "Since you moved in, I got used to you living here. And honestly... it's been like the best year of my life, the place feels wrong without you in it." Rookie felt himself blush greatly. "So, I was wondering, you can turn it down don't worry, I was wondering if you wanted to stay here, not temporarily."

Rookie's mind zapped to all the apartments he had visited with Guy, everyone Guy had found some weird problem with and had convinced Rookie to keep searching. It made sense now. He didn't want him to leave. Maybe, just maybe, Guy actually liked him back.

"Of course I want to stay here!" Rookie shouted abruptly, Guy jumped then smiled brightly.

"Really?!"

"Uh, yeah! Your place is great and I'd love to be your roommate... for real." He smiled. Guy beamed brighter. "Perfect." He whispered, they hugged each other tightly.

"Merry Christmas." They said in unison before dissolving in a fit of laughter.

Chapter Text

Rookie and Guy came into work one day simply chatting as usual but we're very confused when they were greeted with utter silence in the main HQ, the screens flashed images from around the EPF base but what grabbed their attention was a single screen with some warning written on it.

"What's going on?" Rookie whispered to Dot, she was leaning over Gary's shoulder and trying to add her input to the mysterious situation.

"Herbert sent a message, Gary has been freaking out about it." Dot muttered back. Rookie nodded and waited quietly, it was all they could do."

BAM

They all jumped and whirled around as Ace dashed in quickly. "Sorry I'm late! That one friend I always have to help out lost their glasses and long story short now they look ridiculous but can see and the telescope lens in town has a high chance of melting." They blurted, they leaned on their knees and caught their breath.

Looking up they noticed the concerned and serious expressions of their friends. "What did I miss?"

"Ace I'm afraid we have a big issue that involves you." Gary explained. Ace nodded rapidly for him to continue. "This last week loud disturbances have been localised to one location, so obvious it had to be a trap. But because I chose to ignore these traps, Herbert became direct." He jutted a thumb at the screen.

The agents gathered around it now that they had permission.

'I have gathered information on one of your agents and will leak it if you do not do as follows: Have my arch-nemesis, (the annoying agent with the sassy attitude and annoying quips, always is helping when not necessary, can't miss them) meet me at the location in which warning signs have been emitting from today in two hours. They may bring a plus one of their choosing but no equipment.'

"So of course, obviously a trap. But I don't want to risk the-"

"I CHOOSE ROOKIE!" Ace shouted, cutting the startled Gary off and clutching onto Rookie's arm.

"What?" Rookie blurted in shock.

"What?" Guy glared.

"What?" Gary spluttered.

"Stop saying what, and ask WHY?" Dot corrected them.

"Rookie can speak Klutzy's language, if we run into trouble I think he could convince them to help us out."

Rookie paled. He knew shouting those things at Herbert and Klutzy was a bad idea.

"But Rookie is still new! He doesn't even do fieldwork, what if he got hurt?" Paige interjected.

"That's why we will have Guy flying around just outside of the area, that way if we get captured he can fly in and help us!" Ace explained, they talked like they had done this all before but then again, they always talked like that.

"Okay sure, but Gary has been working on a crab language translator, so really anyone could-" Dot began.

"I-I'm not sure it even works! Last time I tested it, well I was a bit thrown off. I think it's broken." Gary said hastily.

Rookie felt himself go even paler. "W-When exactly did you test it?" He whispered, Gary looked at him with a risen brow.

"When you yelled at Herbert and Klutzy."

Rookie let out a sound like he had been strangled and stumbled back a bit.

"Don't tell me it was right?!" Gary gasped, looking a bit amused as he pulled out his gadget and scrolled over the text with a wide grin.

"O-Of course it isn't!" Rookie blurted, the other agents grew interested at the obvious lie and turned to Gary.

"What did he say?" Guy asked curiously.

Gary snorted. "Let's just say he is definitely not on good terms with Herbert, and may have broken Klutzy's heart."

Rookie shielded his face from their stares. Ace shook their head with a chuckle but still persisted.
"I still want to take him with me. He can SPEAK crab. And that's pretty good in my book."

Rookie thought about seeing Herbert in person, if what he did to his house was a preview, then he did not want the full version. Guy sensed his anxiety and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Ace, you also need to consider Rookie. He's new, got his house invaded by Herbert, and has no self-defense training. Do you really think it is safe for him to go?"

Everyone turned to Rookie as Ace firmly said. "It's their decision." Rookie wished he could look as sure of himself as Ace did. How could they always be so certain they are making the right choice? Rookie glanced at everyone who waited expectantly.

"I'll go." He smiled brightly, his positive attitude a lie. "I'd be nice to see Klutzy again, I want to be friends with him again." That was true at least.

"Great! G, suit him up and let's roll out!" Ace beamed, walking out with so much confidence it made the others feel certain of their choice.

-----

Rookie followed in stumbling steps behind Ace, they talked to him kindly and never made him feel judged or unwanted, which was nice.

"How are you always so certain you are making the right choice?" Rookie asked quietly, Ace turned and rose an eyebrow.

"How are you always so happy?" They smiled, turning back to the snowy path and walking forward.

I'm not. Rookie subconsciously responded, then they saw what Ace meant. Ah. They were faking confidence. He rushed up beside them again.

"It has to be more than that! Hear me out, this may sound crazy. But you act like you have seen this all before."

Ace froze up, they looked at Rookie in fear. "What?"

"Your choices are made so quickly and with such certainty, it makes me think you... Nah never mind." Rookie shook the thought away. It was stupid.

Ace tapped their chin thoughtfully. "So the time said matters as well as the confidence..." They whispered, breath turning to clouds, much like Rookie's brain when he saw the burly man, Herbert standing up ahead.

"Ah! You have arrived!" Herbert grinned. Klutzy stood silently beside him, eyes looking to the side with boredom.

"That we have Herby! So, what's up huh? Who ya got leaked info on? Or is this all a trap." Ace said accusingly.

Herbert rose his hands in surrender. "Calm down Agent. I see you have also brought that green one with you, good. Klutzy needs a playmate." At this Klutzy's eyes lit up and he made eye contact with Rookie.

Rookie was trying to cover his green hair but to no avail. He stared back at the boy.

'I'm sorry.' He clicked.

'It's okay, I'm sorry about your house.' Klutzy replied.

Rookie shrugged 'It was a horrible thing to do and it made me very upset, I can't forgive you for it. But we can still be friends.' He offered with a weak smile. Klutzy smiled and nodded in return.

"No! Klutzy, no friends! Not with one of THEM. Argh. Look, you can take your playmate with you to play video games while I talk with..." They glanced at Ace as they hummed delightfully. "Ace." Herbert said.

Ace froze in their movements, expression dropping to one of complete surprise. They snapped their attention to Herbert with a snarl. "Rookie. Go play with Klutzy. I've got some business to sort out."

Rookie was swiftly taken by the hand by the boy and happily led to another part of the forest, a console was hooked up to a generator. HIS console! The one they STOLE!

'I'm sorry for taking it, you can take it back after this meeting.' Klutzy said, bowing slightly in apology.

"It's okay... I'm glad you are returning it." Rookie said with a smile, he sat on a dog bed with Klutzy and they booted up Mario Kart. Klutzy had unlocked way more characters.

----

Rookie didn't know what was happening, he had befriended Klutzy and was talking about Herbert and his plans. He had actually found out what he was planning next! When he heard a yell from over the trees and a smug laugh.

"What was that?" He sat up abruptly, his character driving off a cliff. Klutzy paused the game and stood with him.

'Herbert wants to capture Ace. He found out their information from the files he stole. Ace has been thwarting his plans ever since EPF and PSA got involved, he thinks that trapping them is the key to winning.' Klutzy explained, as if that wasn't important information.

"What?! I have to help them!" His arm was tugged when he started to run. He looked at Klutzy, the boy looked at him with a neutral expression, but his eyes were pleading.

'Please don't go. I have no one to talk to besides Herbert, he is my best friend, but I really miss other people's company. No one can hear me.'

Rookie's heart broke, he removed the hand and held it gently. "I can hear you, and the EPF is making a machine so that everyone can hear you!" He beamed. "It can translate your language, you can talk to people!" Rookie didn't know why the kid didn't just learn how to speak English from Herbert, but perhaps that was the way Herbert was keeping him with him.

Rookie heard another noise and ran, waving at Klutzy. "Goodbye! I promise the EPF will help you!" He called.
Klutzy fully and truly believed him.

Rookie ran through trees and was relieved to find Herbert glaring at Ace through a cage. The agent spun a key on their finger with a sly grin.

"Who's trapped now?" They smirked.

"Stop with the snark it doesn't suit you." Herbert hissed in response. "Besides..." He lifted the cage up with one arm. "Living in the Arctic with nothing to entertain yourself, leaves one to develop other types of skills." He threw the cage off of him with one swoop. Ace stared up at him in awe.

"That's inhuman." Ace commented dryly, looking frustrated by the fact he had escaped.

"You're inhuman." Herbert spat, Ace curled their hands into fists and begun to charge.

"WOAH WOAH!" Rookie shouted, emerging from the trees. The two snapped their heads to him. "Listen! I don't know much about your history, or the things Herbert wants to do-" That was a lie, he knew his next plan. "-but I don't see why we have to fight! Can't we come to a reasonable conclusion that suits both our needs?"

Herbert rolled his eyes "Argh, communications officers."

"Rookie, this guy is the bad guy. We need to stop him before he destroys our home and makes it a WASTELAND." Ace shouted the last word.

"You're the ones who are trying to deafen the world! I wouldn't be surprised if it became a barren wasteland due to you BLASTING the wildlife with music!"

"Children, children. Let's all calm down and talk this out." Rookie sat down, Ace followed and Herbert stared at the two and huffed. "Let's just talk this out, if you want us to be quiet, why not you go to the people in charge of noise restraints and ask if they can change the time of loud noise starting from 8am till a later time?" Rookie offered.

Herbert rose a brow and looked at Ace "Is this toddler serious?" He asked with a laugh.

"Call him toddler again and I'll break your nose." Ace said darkly.

"Guys!" Rookie huffed. "Just tell me what you want dude- uh, sir, and I'll see what I can do!"

Herbert stared Rookie down. "Can you erase everyone in this godforsaken place from existence and make it an endless summer world? Can you stop this FRIGID COLD?!" He leapt at Ace and Rookie, Rookie scrambled backward. Ace didn't flinch.

"No! How about you move to a sunnier place huh?!" Rookie offered.

"Trust me, this MORON won't listen! He is so petty that he has given up leaving and wants to destroy OUR home for REVENGE!" Ace leaped backward swiftly, they skidded to a halt and looked around, focus darting everywhere as the cogs in their mind whirled. "Rookie, pass me that twig." They commanded, Rookie did as told.

Ace leaped at Herbert but dove under his legs to a pile of chains that rested by the once suspended cage, it had probably held the cage in the air prior to it being destroyed. Ace grabbed the chain and ran at Herbert, circling him like a shark circles prey. With a satisfied chuckle, they jammed the stick in the chains making it lock tightly around the bearded man.

"Oh dear." He muttered, tumbling to the ground.

"Wow! That was amazing Ace!" Rookie gasped.

"Thanks Rookie, now let's call G and let him know-" As the two talked they failed to noticed a small orange coated boy wander past them and undo the stick securing Herbert. They did, however, put that together when Herbert threw the chains at them. Pinning them to the floor.

"This is slightly an issue." Ace commented dryly. Herbert started monologuing his success and whatnot when Rookie shuffled his hand enough to press a button on his EPF spy phone.

"Great job as well Klutzy, your efforts are commendable and-" Herbert stiffened as he heard an engine, "What's that? Oh no... not jet pack George." He groaned.

"THAT'S JET PACK GUY!" Guy yelled, flying by and grabbed both Rookie and Ace from under the chains mid-flight. "And don't go forgetting it!" He hissed. Herbert rubbed his forehead in frustration.

"Just had to be the one agent who actually has strength that matches-" His voice trailed off as Guy flew them away.

"Got any intel?" He asked, Rookie clung to his arm quaking.

"This is terrifying and fun at the same time! But yes, Klutzy told me Herbert's next plan! I don't know if it isn't some kind of trick though." Rookie called up, Guy smiled down at him.

"You did well, I'm proud of you!" Guy grinned, focusing on where he was flying yet again.

"Still don't think he likes you?" Ace murmured next to Rookie. Rookie resisted the urge to throw them to the ground below.

----

Waking up at some point in the night has become a regular occurrence for Rookie, thankfully he had learned not to scream so often as to not wake his now permanent roommate. At this point in the night, Rookie was frustrated he couldn't sleep and was driven by exhaustion and frustration so he decided;

Fuck it. He would go to his favourite bar.

Rookie wasn't a drinker, heck he was the designated driver majority of the time. This was because he knew that when he got drunk, he got emotional, chatty and would often spill his darkest fears and secrets. He hated this trait so often he would avoid drinking and instead find comfort in a hot drink of hot chocolate or a cool can of cream soda.
And the bar, 'The Lighthouse' had the best cream soda ever.

Rookie got up with a new craving for the creamy drink, threw on a shirt and pants and a large hoodie and tiredly headed down to the beach towards the bar. The bar was actually a lighthouse, as the name stated. It was very popular because a ship constantly kept it stocked with drinks and interesting finds. The ship was run by a famous captain that many, including Rookie, adored. The captain's ship was called 'The Migrator' a sturdy ship that had treated him well for years on end, bringing back decorative items for the lighthouse and wine, rum, gin and most importantly, cream soda.

Rookie opened the wooden door with a slight stumble, hopefully not giving off the impression that he was already drunk. The bar was usually crowded all through the night, but oddly, on this day at 2 AM, the bar was bare. Only a few people chattered in cornered tables or drunkenly singing on the stage could be seen. Rookie was glad to see the usual bartender greet him with a grin and gift him a free drink to start him off for being a regular customer.

---

Rookie had lost time. He genuinely could not tell how long it had been, but he was definitely tipsy. He was slurring his words slightly and finding it a bit difficult to control his ADHD, not many people even knew he had that because Aunt Arctic had gotten onto it very quickly when he was a child to help him learn to control it. But now with alcohol in his system, his mind was darting all over the place. He settled with cream soda, the responsible side of his mind deciding he had better cooldown on the drinks. With a loud sigh, he sunk his head into his arm and pondered the New Years' party.

"Are Ye okay lad?" An accented voice said, Rookie glanced up and blinked stupidly at a concerned sailor. He had a bushy black beard and untamed matching hair, he wore a large red sailor's coat and his pirate hat was resting on the bar table along with a red parrot. Rookie knew this guy was familiar, but couldn't place how.

"Eh, not really." Rookie shrugged, honestly being another stupid side effect of getting tipsy.

"May I be of service?" The man asked with a kind smile.

"Not really, unless you can help me find a venue for an entire agency as well as solve my relationship problems." Rookie grumbled, drinking more of the soda.

"Ah, even the waves of the mighty sea can't compare to the pain of a drowning heart." The pirate chuckled.

"You got that right! H-Here, let me buy you a drink, you like cream soda? It's my favourite and this place has the BEST type of cream soda ever! Trust me, you'll love it." He ordered another drink and slid it to the man, clinking their glasses cheerfully. "Cheers!"

"Ay, cheers!" The man laughed, amused by the drunken Rookie's actions.

"I'm super stressed these days dude, uh sir, I need to find this venue for my agency but, but I can't! It was gonna be on the rooftop to see the fireworks, but I can't fit everyone up there. It's super sad, and we are very secret and stuff so we can't know... no wait... we can't have others know we are in a venue so I can't just book a public place and solve the problem. It's all up to me that everyone has a good New Years' party, I mean it probably isn't and they'll be proud of me in any circumstance. I think they pity me, or maybe they think I'm really young cause I act childish. It's dumb." Rookie blubbered on, barely stopping to take a breath.

"Ai, that is a pickle. I'm sure they are proud of you because you try hard lad. You seem to be intent on making this party a good one so I bet they just see how hard you work and feel proud of ya."

Rookie nodded tiredly. "I hope that's the reason. I don't want them to worry about me just because a supervillain was trying to kidnap me and traumatised me."

The pirate stared at him in confusion and worry, Rookie stared back and frowned.

"Aww man, now you're making the same face they always make! Look, sir, I'm fine, really. That thing didn't get to me, actually, I don't think I was meant to say that. Ignore everything I say okay? I get pretty chatter and blabber-mouthy when I drink too much. "

The pirate nodded. "Say lad, what's your name? You go to this bar often?"

Rookie brightened. Those were questions he could answer. "Oh yes sir! This is my favourite bar ever! I only ever go here, even know the bartender! Hey Bambadee!" Rookie waved wildly, the man with the rainbow wrist strap laughed.

"Hey Rookie! Make sure you get someone to take you home, okay?"

"Sure! Oh, I'm Rookie, by the way!" Rookie beamed, before the pirate could respond Rookie kept talking "You know, this bar was funded by this one guy, he is a real captain! He calls himself a pirate, but he doesn't steal so I don't think he actually is one. He sails the seas and now the bar funds his explorations! Isn't that amazing? Wait I think he was a captain and not a pirate... That guy is one of my many idols." Rookie gushed.

The captain blushed ever so slightly and smiled "What's his name! What does he look like?" He asked with a belly laugh.

"Oh... huh. I know, I know, I know somewhere. But I can't remember right now, I'm so sorry! But, hey! He is one of Bambadee's friends and his boss! He can tell you!" Rookie went to shout out to the bartender again but the 'pirate' shook his head.

"Not necessary, don't worry lad, you know Rookie, you seem like a real good man. What is this agency you work for?"

Rookie squinted his eyes, he knew there was something he was meant to say when he was asked this question. Something about the government? "It's a government agency... called the E... Everyday Phoning Facility. Yeah. I am the public relations officer! And the communicates officer but it is really the same thing." Rookie explained.

The bearded man mouthed the name silently before he snapped his head towards Rookie in shock. "E..P...F. By jives! Say, does a man named Gary work there?"

"Oh yeah! He's the smart tech-guy! He's really cool and my aunt's best friend." Rookie explained in detail despite all reasons stating he didn't need to.

"Hah! I know you, you're the lad he was talking about! What a small world we live in." The captain smiled fondly, he put an arm around Rookie and pulled him in close. "Tell ya what, because I really like you kid, how's about you throw your shindig in my ship? It has plenty of room and can be sailed out to see the fireworks!"

Rookie's eyes sparkled. "You have a ship? Wow! That'd awesome!" Rookie grinned. The pirate laughed loudly.

"Brilliant! Here, have my number and send me the details when you're sober! In fact, want to take a picture with me kid?" The pirate grinned slyly.

"Sure, sir!" Rookie grinned, the pirate grinned at his phone and snapped a picture.

"I'll see you in the new year then Rookie!" The pirate waved, running off as if people would chase him.

Rookie waved sleepily before stumbling out of the bar and just managing to navigate his way home.

----

Rookie murmured a "Honey I'm home." Quietly and made a beeline for the couch. He happily fell on it with a smile, glad he for once felt tired.

"You okay?" He opened his eyes and saw Guy leaning over him, he honestly expected him to shout 'Where were you?!' And get mad or something. But this was nice.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine." Rookie smiled brightly, begging his mind to function enough so he didn't spill his feelings to Guy.

"Where did you go? I woke up and your door was wide open and you were gone! I was worried you had gotten kidnapped or something." Guy laughed lightly, and quietly, but it was evident he had been very worried. Rookie appreciated the moment, nothing but the quiet of the night and hushed whispers.

"You don't need to worry about me so much, you're not my dad." Rookie chuckled, he found himself tipping down his glasses to wink at Guy "Daddy."

Guy blinked slowly, he turned away and held a hand over his mouth as if to stifle a laugh. "Okay, for real where did you go?"

"Sorry, I didn't even register I didn't leave a note. I went to the lighthouse, saw the sea, had a cream soda, got tired and left. Also had a lovely conversation with this guy who spoke like a pirate, said he could let me hire out his ship for the New Year's Eve party." Rookie yawned.

"Really? That's great!" Guy smiled, Rookie was glad he didn't seem to notice that he was a bit tipsy. (Spoiler: Rookie was wrong, that assumption was abandoned the moment he called him daddy.)

"Yeah, was better than staring at the ceiling and hoping I would fall back to sleep." Rookie chuckled, rolling over into the couch.

"You do that often?" Guy asked, sitting in the edge of the couch and seeming to pick up that Rookie was sharing something he didn't often share.

"Oh yeah, most nights actually. But I've learnt to not scream during nightmares or after so I don't wake Guy, don't wake... don't wake you." He blinked a lot, trying to will awareness back onto him, Rookie gave up and let his eyes drop.

"Oh, really? What else do you hide from me?" Guy smirked, leaning in a bit more.

"Pfft! A lot, but sober Rookie would kill me if I told you anything dumb. Man, I'm tired. Did you ever notice how the moon looks like a giant street lamp, like it is brighter than most street lamps?" Rookie muttered, words being drowned by the couch he leant further into.

"Sober Rookie, eh? I'll have a word with him later then." Guy rose an eyebrow and gave Rookie a reassuring pat on the back as he stood. "Goodnight Rookie."

Chapter Text

Rookie winced as the morning light flooded his vision, he wasn't completely hungover, but he did have a bad headache. He groaned as the sound of buzzing invaded his ears. With a grumble, he picked up his EPF phone.

"Yo, this is Rookie." He grumbled.

"Rookie?! You met ROCKHOPPER??? At 3:45 in the MORNING?!" Gary's panicked voice squealed.

"Ow, you are very loud. And honestly, no idea what you are talking about. I didn't do that to my knowledge."

"Well, you DID. It is very clear you on his social media." Gary said.

"Rockhopper... I know that guy, he's the one who runs the lighthouse bar and stuff. I think... I think a guy asked me to describe him last night." Rookie furrowed his eyebrows, the memories fuzzy.

"Was the guy you talked to a pirate with a black beard and red coat?"

"Oh yeah! Wait no, that's Rockhopper." Rookie frowned.

"Rookie. Rockhopper asked you if you knew what he looked like. And you said no. You were talking to him."

"WAIT WHAT?! I was talking to him but I was too stupid to realise?!" Rookie gasped, he flailed off the couch. "The fuck- the heck did I do last night?!"

"Oh so you can swear." Gary chuckled.

"Shut it, I'm tired and confused!" Rookie whined.

"I'll send you the post he made." Gary hung up quickly, apparently not aware you could send a text while in a call.

Rookie opened the link and stared in shock.

A delightful picture of Rockhopper and Rookie smiling at the camera with the caption.
'Chattered with a big fan of mine who didn't even register I was the one he was talking to! Nicest lad I have ever met! If you see this Rookie, you have my number!'

Rookie un-scrunched a note from his hoodie and groaned loudly. He had a famous person's number and was going to ask if he could HIRE his SHIP. He dragged a hand over his face.
"I hate and love past me." He groaned.

"So do I! Sure told me a lot." Guy grinned, head popping out of his bedroom, he had a weight in his hand. "Morning! You must be glad it is a Saturday!" He walked out to meet Rookie, still weight lifting.

"Wait... what did I tell you?" Rookie paled, fear creeping in.

"Not much, you simply said that sober you would kill you if you told me anything." His finger jutted about on every 'you' said. "Though, you did say you have taught yourself to stop screaming at night so you don't wake me. Annnddd you also said you wake up almost every night. Not good, you need a therapist. Oh, and you said you keep a bunch of secrets from me." Guy leaned on the couch with a grin. Not fazed by the information.

Rookie groaned even louder and dug his head into his hands disgracefully. "I don't need a therapist. I'm FINE. I obviously was exaggerating because I rarely wake up these days!" Rookie lied, arms flailing about.

"Tell me what you did last night." Guy mused, Rookie saw this as a test and was determined not to fail.

"I... went to the lighthouse." Guy held up a finger, as if checking it off. Rookie gulped. "I..." What lie would he have said, or would he have said the truth? "Went inside." Guy rose an eyebrow.

"Pretty sure that was implied."

"Okay, okay. I talked with Rockhopper, apparently, Gary just told me I did that. And I..." He gulped audibly. Shit. Would he say he...? He's a grown-ass man Jesus Christ, of course, he would say he had drinks. "I had a few shots and some glasses of port, that was nice. And cream soda." Rookie thought back on it, but as he glanced at Guy and saw his horrified expression, he guessed wrong on his reply. "Oh god, what did I say? I just told the truth for no reason didn't I?"

Guy glared at him curiously "You said you had cream soda. Seems even drunk you wants to lie to me." He muttered.

"What?! No, no! I just didn't want you to think that I had been lying to you about you know, not drinking and stuff!"

"Actually, I hadn't even considered that fact. Yeah, you don't drink. So what gives?"

Rookie paled. Great job you moron, you messed things up when your relationship with Guy had been going good. Idiot. Why do you always do this? Why do you go and mess things up? Why do you LIE? You are meant to be an honest sunflower but NO, you have to keep having nightmares and failing at work and being scared and being a compulsive LIAR. Douchebag, what made you think you would even get this far without something going wrong? I bet you subconsciously realised things would go wrong soon and got drunk just to speed that process up. Dick. Douchebag. Moron. Idiot.

"Rookie?" He jumped at his name, Guy looked at him with concern.

"Oh, I yeah. I don't like drinking because when I do I lie and I get overly emotional and blabber mouthy and tell secrets I'm not meant to tell. But I also get tired, so I thought I could finally get some proper sleep. Bad idea I guess." Rookie said, half lying because he didn't lie when he drank, often he was honest. Guy sighed.

"Rookie, are you okay?"

The question drove daggers into his mind, a chain wrapped itself around his mouth as he smiled. "Yeah, of course. Not all the time, obviously. But I am, I'm sorry if I made you feel bad because I went out."

Guy frowned and with a grunt he sat up abruptly. "Rookie, I'm actually frustrated that you keep lying about how you feel."

In more ways than one. Rookie thought, staring at the man he loved and pushing his feelings down.

"I know you don't seem to think this, because despite how much you try, I can see through you. I know you keep lying about your happiness and I beg you to go somewhere about it. I NEED you to understand Rookie, you're wanted." He put a hand on his shoulder. Rookie stared at him, through him.

"Really?" He meant to say internally, but instead, he muttered it out loud.

Guy tensed and shoved himself forward, hugging Rookie tightly. Rookie hugged back.

"I want you to stop pretending you are happy and be happy. Everyone is so glad you joined the agency, they always talk about how you brighten their day and they are glad you are their friends. I'm glad you live here. Why would I ask you to move in if I didn't value you? You're safe. No one is going to get you or turn their back on you, no one would ever lie about caring about you because you are impossible to not love. You. Are. Wanted."

Rookie hugged back. "So are you." Rookie whispered, a blush covering his cheeks.

"Come on, admit you're wanted!" Guy poked him in the cheek, ending the hug.

"Mmmmm." Rookie smiled slightly, he got poked more rapidly and laughed "Fine, fine! I'm wanted!" Oddly, admitting that did wonders for him. He actually felt a whole lot better.

"That's the spirit! Also last night you called me daddy! Okay see you later I'm heading out!" Guy said quickly, a mischievous grin on his face as he darted out the door and discarded the weight he was using.

Rookie stared after him before he felt a deep blush come across his cheeks, he turned and screamed into a couch pillow. "I DID WHAT?!"

----

XoXoXoX

Guy clicked the door shut, a bored expression on his face. He brightened when he saw Rookie sitting at the kitchen counter talking to a phone whilst scribbling notes.

"Uh-huh, no, of course, you're invited! I'm not going to be rude! Oh, dear, did I give you that impression, I am awfully sorry." He winced into the phone that he learnt on his shoulder. He broke into a smile "Oh, well good! I was very worried I'd gone and embarrassed myself. I sure did that to myself with my roommate." He chuckled, Guy found himself smiling fondly.

He knew he was out of it, he didn't need to feel embarrassed.

"Huh? Relationship problems...? I said that? Oh geez, I sure am a blabbermouth! Oh no don't worry, let's keep this at least a BIT professional shall we?" He laughed, pulling at his collar. He paused, listening in close. "Well that's true, I'm glad I had some self-control- wait how did you know it was my roommate?!" He jerked up. Guy was suddenly VERY interested.

Rookie groaned, he started to scribble on his notes. "Everyone can read me so well, it is very frustrating. Anyway, thanks again. This helps me out a LOT... Yeah, I was pretty stressed. But this helps me way more than you know! Yeah... obviously! Okay, yeah... Cool! Bye!" He hung up the phone and let out a sigh of relief.

"Rockhopper, I'm guessing?"

Rookie jolted upright, looking startled. "Y-Yeah. Just finished booking the ship for the party! Heh..." He fiddled with his hair.

"Great job! Now you can take the rest of the weekend easy." Guy insisted, constantly having to talk Rookie into not working overtime.

"Mhmm..." His hair fiddling was more insistent. Guy had the feeling he had heard something he wasn't meant to, how did Rockhopper know WHAT was about his roommate? Him? What did he guess? What did they say? Relationship problems maybe?

Guy let a little bit of hope meter his system, maybe, just maybe, Rookie like him back.

XoXoXoX
---

"And this where I be thinking a DJ booth would fit best." Rockhopper suggested, Rookie scribbled notes furiously nodded along.

"Definitely! Good choice! Is the below deck going to be available?" Rookie was trying to keep it professional, it was hard when we was aware he had gotten drunk to this pirate and had blabbered on. But hey, at least he looked good. Rookie was wearing a simple blue button-up shirt with a black tie, his pants weren't full dress pants and were a bit more colourful than a regular business suit but it was an improvement.

"I don't see why not laddie! Yarr and I would be happy to share our ship. The migrator isn't new to parties!" Rockhopper laughed, a warm edge to every word he spoke. His parrot squawked excitedly.

"Excellent! Thanks so much for this RH, now all I need to do is find the entertainment! And all the decorations and stuff but that is easy." He waved his hand as if waving his worries away.

"No problem Rookie, you're a good young lad and I'd be glad to help you in any way possible. In fact, I have a few buddies I could contact to see if they are willing to be entertainment...?"

Rookie looked startled "Oh no! I don't want you to worry at all! You've done enough already! Besides, I need to find people willing to work on the holiday which is a struggle in itself." Rookie chuckled lightly.

"Arr, alright matey. If you say so!"

Rookie was about to say something when his phone beeped, he glanced at the message and gasped. "Is that the time?! Oh my goodness! I am so sorry Mr Rockhopper sir but I have to run! I've got a very important recon meeting to attend!"

Rockhopper found himself chuckling and muttering "Mr Rockhopper sir" with a giggle. "All good lad! We sorted most things out! I'd be happy to meet up again if you need to know anything else, perhaps for a drink?" He smirked.

Rookie lightly punched his arm as he gathered his things "Don't you start!" He dashed off the boat with an excited wave, Rockhopper laughed in response and watched him run.

Rookie ran through the seaside boulevard passing countless fish and chip shops that he had to pull himself from stopping to grab a bite at. As he ran past, tie waving gracefully in the wind, a frightened and large fluffy black cat with purple-dyed hair ran past with a yowl. He stuttered to a stop at what he just saw and blinked to process. Did someone dye a cat? He hoped they were okay with that. Then again, he knew that one of his favourite celebrities had a dyed cat who was very happy and-

"HELP! MY CAT!" A female voice cried, with zero hesitation he sprinted faster than ever before and chased the cat down, he ran to an alleyway, kicking off the wall to maintain his speed. He rounded the corner and found himself at a dead-end, the cat hissing and scampering at the wall as it tried to crawl away.

"Hey, shh, it's okay, okay?" Rookie soothed, he pursed his lips and made a squeaking sound, it caught the cat's attention and they curiously glanced at him. Rookie stared in confusion, this cat looked identical to... Cadence's cat! "Lol?" He said, the cat perked up slightly. He beamed brighter. "Come here Lolz, here kitty, kitty! It's okay, you're safe now!" The cat seemed delighted by the calls and literally leapt into Rookie's arms.

He smiled and slowly stroked its fur, feeling its heart rate slow. "I wonder what got you so scared?" Rookie said, he heard a skidding sound behind him and a pant. He hadn't even registered how tired he was from running.

"D-Do you have my, my cat?" The familiar female voice asked with concern.

"Don't worry mam I've got your cat right her-" He froze as he turned and saw her.

Black leggings with purple stripes down the sides and bright neon leg warmers. Pink and purple sneakers. Black slightly see-through top with a pink singlet underneath. Headphones and vibrant pink and purple-dyed hair. Wrist bands and a yellow and peach scarf.

"Oh thank god, I was SO worried. Thank you SO much." Cadence breathed, pure relief on her face.

"Huh." Rookie said dumbly, "I mean I shouldn't really be surprised, who else owns a dyed cat?" He said, meaning to internally think that. Cadence burst out in laughter.

"You've heard of me then?" She beamed brightly, approaching Rookie and cooing at her cat who seemed intent of never leaving his arms.

"Oh yes! I'm a massive fan!" Rookie managed to say, confused on what statement he could say that was original, "But I presume you get fans falling all over you a whole lot and have heard every spiel they say. Not saying they are not genuine. Argh, I'm trying to say that I love your work and appreciate you as a person." Rookie praised himself internally for remaining so calm.

Cadence actually looked really delighted and he could see some of her energy returning to her body. "I'm really glad to hear that! I can't thank you enough for catching Lolz, we were playing on the beach when Bob's dog got off its leash and decided to start chasing Lolz." She explained.

"We? Bob?" Rookie repeated, as soon as he did a few very well dressed men rounded the corner. Holy shit it was the penguin band. "Oh." He breathed, Cadence smiled to see him become very flustered at seeing many of his idols at once.

"Cadence! Phew! How did you run that fast?! Did you find Lolz and Comet?" The palest blonde-haired guy asked, wearing a hoodie, headphones and bright sneakers. Rookie identified them instantly, Franky.

"Well this guy managed to catch Lolz, who seems to not want to let go but I'm just happy they are safe!" Cadence explained.

"Wow! Thanks a bunch, dude!" A darker-skinned tanned brown-haired member of the band grinned, Rookie recognised him as Stompin' Bob. He soon glanced at the other members and registered them as the other members of the band.

"I'm honestly surprised you guys are swamped with fans right now." Rookie chuckled, slowly dropping to his knees and persuading the cat to return to its owner, it happily obliged.

"The beach was nice and empty! Plus we were running so fast I doubt anyone saw us." Petey K said, his blonde hair had green-dyed tips. "Haha! Nice hair!" He laughed, Rookie felt himself become a bit more nervous.

"Thanks, hey... is your dog still missing?" He asked Bob, he nodded with a frown. Rookie felt an urge to help whelm up inside him.

"One sec." he knew Guy was patrolling this region, he flipped out his spy phone.

"Report." Guy's voice called from the other line, heard by the cluster of people around Rookie. They seemed curious.

"Missing dog along this region, last seen up-" He glanced behind the famous band members. "FatefulSea avenue. Was chasing a cat but now the cat is safe. It's black, has a red-dyed tail, and is a German shepherd." Rookie said, his agent voice seeping out. The band members looked fascinated as this well-dressed man talked sternly.

"What's the region code?" Guy's voice asked, jet engines in the background.

"4-2-5-1" Rookie said automatically, glad he had taken region training seriously.

"Roger. Target in view, I'll drop by your location in a min over and out." He hung up the phone.

Rookie nodded and stared at the sky. "He'll be here in a second." He said dully, like this was a normal everyday thing for him, and so far, it was.

The band all looked it in awe as a well-suited man in a jet pack flew overhead carrying a dog and descended beside Rookie, the dog looked around excitedly.

"This the dog?" He asked with a risen eyebrow behind his glasses.

"Yes! Holy crap!" Bob said, rushing forward to take and leash his dog.

"T-That was awesome! Straight out of a spy film! Who are you guys?!" Cadence squealed.

"We are members of the EPF, a government-run agency built on protecting and helping others where the police fail. Not that the police fail often. We also are a phoning facility." Guy informed them.

Rookie looked at him quizzically. "Gary heard from Rockhopper that you called us the Everyday Phoning Facility, he was impressed with the acronym you made on the fly and made it our cover," Guy whispered. He directed his attention to the band before him.
"Oh hey, these are the band members you idolise. That's pretty lucky for you Rookie, anyway, I'm getting another call. Jet Pack Guy out." He said calmly, flying into the sky.

"Your name is Rookie?" Cadence asked with admiration.

"It's a nickname." He shrugged with a sheepish smile. "Well, I'm glad you got your pets back! I actually have a recon- I mean normal, not secretive meeting to go to! So I'll be off!" He stammered.

The band members' eyes lit up. "You're like a secret agent!" Franky grinned.

"Hahahahaha..." Rookie laughed nervously, pulling at his collar. "Well! I'd better be off!"

"Wait! We have to repay you, if you're a fan of ours then why don't we give you an autograph? A picture? Something?" Cadence said, clutching his wrist and looking pleadingly at him, her cat mimicked the look.

Rookie's eyes darted to the side, "While that offer sounds awesome I'm afraid I really don't have time, argh, future me will kick me for turning you down." Rookie chuckled, rubbing his neck.

"Can we give you a ticket to our New Years' show- Aw wait." Franky and the rest of the band groaned.

"Something wrong?" Rookie asked in confusion.

"We wanted to do a New Years' show somewhere different but every venue we look into is so boring and BLEH. We want to kick off the new year somewhere cool! And so many people don't even contact us because they assume we wouldn't want to do a gig on New Years'." Billy G explained sourly.

Rookie's eyes lit up. He paused, glancing at the exit that would lead to his meeting. He turned back to the frowning members, eh, he was already late. "How would you like to play on Rockhopper ship?"

Their eyes lit up.

Chapter Text

"Perfect! And if we hook that around all the other posts at that height, I'd say we would be golden, Rory!" Rookie shouted to the tanned ginger on the ladder, Rory hung fairy lights around the ship's mast and grinned.

"Golden as a pirates treasure!" Rory chuckled, Rookie shook his head with a smile. He heard a grunt and quickly ran to direct a few other workers Rory had brought along to help set up the New Years party, Rookie being Rookie had said they were all invited for helping out. Rory was the only one who actually really wanted to come, and that was without mentioning Rockhopper or the penguin band.

"Tables go next to the- Oh I'll just lead you, follow me, thank you!" Rookie instructed, the workers followed him and placed a long table. "Great! Thanks, guys, that's all the moving done! I hope you all have a wonderful New Years!" Rookie called, sending the workers off with a smile and their payment.

"Always a pleasure Rookie!" They called, making him feel warm and prideful.

He turned his attention to the table, "Okay, this half would be good for chips and dip... Other half could be the punch but if it spilt it would get the chips soggy and that wouldn't be good... I'll have to find a way to stick the punch bowl to the table so it doesn't slide around when sailing."

"Ah Rookie, no need to worry about that! We have calm seas this evening and all will be perfect!" Rockhopper laughed, Rookie had noticed he laughed a lot.

"Oh brilliant! Any specific type of snack you want Rockhopper sir?" Rookie asked with a brilliant grin.

Rockhopper just slapped his back and laughed, Rookie still had no idea if that laugh was at him or for him or what. He was a weird one!

"Hey! Rookie!" Rookie spun his head and contained his excitement as Cadence and the band walked up the deck with their equipment.

"Cadence! Franky, Bob, Petey, Billy! Wow, it feels weird saying that, I think I'll just call you the penguin band." Rookie giggled, tongue poking out sheepishly. The band seemed delighted to see Rookie again and marvelled at the ship.

"Wow! This place is perf!" Cadence grinned, wheeling her DJ booth on. He glanced at Rookie and chuckled. "Love the look btw! You looked good in a suit but that style you are rocking!"

Rookie was back to his propeller cap and a Hawaiian shirt, he flushed at the compliment and fiddled with his hair with a smile. "Thanks! Just follow me, I'm really hoping you can confirm the spot Rockhopper picked out for you guys, I know nothing about music equipment and just want to know if everything is going to work out."

As he showed the deck and where the power supplies were he asked if they needed anything like extra cables or a higher decking but his questions were cut off.

"Dude, Rook you are such a sweetheart! This had everything, don't even sweat it! It means a lot that you offered this gig to us, it's gonna be SICK!" Stompin' Bob laughed.

Rookie smiled earnestly. "Glad to hear! It's really amazing to actually have you guys here! I'm surprised I'm not freaking out as we speak." He chuckled, rubbing his neck to give his hands something to do.

The band and Cadence all smiled at each other, as parents smile at each other after their child does something adorable. "You're the nicest secret agent I have ever met." G Billy cooed, Petey K elbowed them, "And the ONLY secret agent you have met!"

"Guys!" Rookie whined loudly, "You gotta stop saying that! Like, I know you're joking but let's just say my boss doesn't like it when people joke about that because-"

"Because he thinks you blew your cover? Pfft! It's all good man! I know people in secret agencies, once I was kidnapped by this bad dude and this rad chick pretended to be me while I escaped from his clutches!" Cadence explained, Rookie furrowed his eyebrows.

"Pretended to be you, huh?" Rookie muttered before continuing, "What was her name?"

"Can't tell you man! Sworn to secrecy! Kind of a bummer that CADENCE let that slip!" Petey K said, cutting off Franky's attempt to say a name.

"Was it Dot, perhaps?" Rookie asked, head tilted. They jolted.

"How did you know?" They all gasped.

Rookie brightened. "Oh! She's my fellow agent- I mean FRIEND! Fellow FRIEND!"

"Dude! You're part of the EPF?!" Franky whispered.

Rookie shrugged "Y-Yes? Please don't tell anyone!"

Cadence laughed "Aw man this is so funny! Dude, what is your role there?"

Rookie kicked the floor sheepishly "I'm actually the public relations and communications officer. And I manage the parties." He mumbled.

"Well, you are a fantastic officer! Our public relations with the EPF have improved since meeting you! You're a gem!" G Billy beamed. They crowded Rookie, he felt slightly uncomfortable as they complimented and reassured him of his role, what kind of celebrities did that?

"Rookie?" He heard from above, with a jolt he looked up and saw Guy peering down at him.

"JPG! Hey! Did Rory ask you to help with hanging the lights?" Guy nodded and glanced at the people around him who were now actually hugging Rookie, for real. "You uh, you okay down there?"

"Huh?" Rookie glanced at the band as they chattered to each other whilst clinging to Rookie affectionately. "Y-Yeah! I'm fine!"

"Hey Rookie! Wanna take a selfie with us?" Cadence asked with a cheesy grin. "We'll talk about how great the EPF is in a post~ Make your boss proud of you~"

Rookie snorted "You don't need to convince me!" He chuckled, happily talking the picture with them. He felt his phone buzz as soon as they posted it online. With a sigh, he let the band get set up and stared at the messages.

'First Rockhopper, NOW THIS: Link. Rookie why are you with the penguin band?!' That was from Dot. Rookie chuckled, it was also in the group chat.

'Just helping set up the entertainment for the night :P' He responded.

'HOLY SHIT WHAT?!'

----

They were very happy, to say the least. With music filling the brisk night air and laughter vibrating off the sea as they sailed away from the shoreline with the party people in the ship, Rookie couldn't help but look back on the short year he spent with the EPF, and how much it improved his life.

New job, new home, new friends, new life! He sighed as he let the wind tussle his hair.

"Hey Rook, once again, great party." Ace beamed, joining him as he leans on the ship's side. "It's been a fun year, I'm glad to have you here."

Rookie smiled back, eyes glistening with mirth. "Thanks Ace, I'm glad I met you. You got any new year resolutions?"

"Catch Herbert once and for all." Ace said seriously, Rookie chuckled. They were always so work driven.

"I wonder if he and Klutzy are celebrating the new year." Rookie pondered, eyes drifting over the waters and peering into the brightly lit city.

"Dunno, guess another resolution is to finalise G's translator machine, huh?" They held up their glass to clink, Rookie happily fist-bumped it, Ace chuckled lightly. "How about you? Got any plans? You better tell me you are going to get a New Years kiss."

"And it better be from Jet Pack Guy!" Dot called, walking beside Aunt Arctic, Dot wore a lovely teal dress and her hair was in a messy but lovely bun. Aunt Arctic wore a pink dress with a white belt around the middle.

"You two look beautiful!" Rookie complimented, ignoring the comment from Dot.

"You should see Paige, she let her hair down and is wearing this gorgeous light pink dress with a white frill, why anyone would think her dress was made by a genius-"

"You made the dress didn't you, Dot?" Ace chuckled, Dot grinned and nodded hastily.

"Rookie, you have done a fantastic job this year. And on this party especially. The penguin band, Rockhopper ship, Cadence? Amazing. I'm very proud of all your efforts this year."

"Thanks Aun- Director. I like how it turned out." Though the band, Cadence and the ship were all just happy accidents. One from a drunk Rookie and one from a running cat.

"Aun?" Dot asked, an eyebrow risen. Rookie searched his mind for a cover.

"W-Was going to call her Aunt, better than calling her mum I guess?" Rookie chuckled numbly. The two sniggered and chuckled at Rookie's expense. Aunt Arctic shot him a thankful look.

"G'day mates!" Paige called, running to their sides with Gary following loosely behind, he was without a lab coat but still sported his cyan shirt, but now he had a blue tie. Wow. Breaking out the big guns.

"Hey Paige! Lovely view right? I can't WAIT for the fireworks." Rookie greeted, excitement flowing off him in waves.

"Yeah it's awesome! You excited for the fireworks because it means you can kiss Guy?" Paige smirked, leaning in close to tease him. Rookie blushed furiously.

"No! I just really, REALLY, like fireworks!" He defended.

"Come in Rookie, I hate to say it but it has been way too long and you two need to get together." Gary insisted.

"Come now Gary, it is his own decision." The director fired back.

"Thank you!" Rookie sighed, watching the people of the EPF take to the dance floor as Cadence and the band winded down with a final song and prepared to wait for the countdown till midnight to start.
"We better get ready! We need to find the best spot before every other one is taken!" Rookie said quickly.

"I think this spot, against the railing, is perfect actually." Ace shrugged. The others nodded.

"Yeah, you can see just about everything from here!" Gary confirmed.

Rookie bounced on his heels "Well, I'm not going to settle. I'm going to find a higher vantage point!" He skidded away from the crew, rushing past Cadence and the band whilst wishing them a happy new year. Rory saw him and pointed above, he glanced up at the crows' nest.

"You think no one is up there?" Rookie whispered.

"One person is. I'm sure they don't mind sharing." Rory smirked, wandering to the ship's railing like everyone else. Rookie was not only puzzled on what Rory was insinuating but also was puzzled in how come no one else had thought to go up the crows' nest. As he reached the bottom rung on the ladder and gulped at the height, he figured out why.

----

Rookie panted heavily as he reached the top, two minutes before the countdown till midnight would start. He caught his breath and looked up in shock as Guy stared at him.

"Wow. You are the last person that I would pick that would willingly climb that." He laughed, Rookie pouted adorably.

"Well you underestimated me! I'd do anything to watch fireworks!" He ran to the edge and peered over, a clear view of the ocean and cities. Beautiful. "Guy! Guy it's going to start soon! Are you excited? I'm so excited! Guy look, look, look!" Rookie grabbed his arm with never-ending energy, leading him to the railing of the crows' nest and pointing out at the view.

-----
XoXoXoX

Guy felt his body physically hurt as he stared at Rookie, it was paining him to pine for him. As he stared at his best friend who was so earnestly grinning up at the place where the fireworks would go off and raising his fists up and down as people started to count down, Guy snapped.

It felt like his entire world view broke, and at that fleeting moment, he felt himself give up on holding back. He didn't care about the fireworks, he didn't care about the people below him, he didn't even care about the incoming new year. He only cared about Rookie. He loved Rodrigo Rook and he was fucking done with hiding it.

XoXoXoX

"Ten! Nine! Eight!" Rookie counted excitedly, eyes glistening with excitement as he watched over the ocean and into the shining city. He remembered the day when he had counted to ten to calm himself, and now it was doing nothing but excite him and fill him with joy. New year! New promises! It was EXCITING. He glanced at Guy and beamed at him, holding no ounce of joy that coursed through him back. "Seven. Six!" He said, laughter bubbling in his throat, he was concerned that Guy was not even looking at the fireworks.

Guy titled his head and lovingly smiled down at Rookie, the mere action sending more flustered joy into his system. "Five! Four!" This year had been nothing but an emotional roller coaster, from having his past crush renewed to moving house and getting a perfect job, the EPF sure was a fun place to be in. He glanced at the ocean as the early and mistaken fireworks started to rise up, he was so glad that he had experienced this year with Guy.

"Three! Two!" He squealed, he felt a hand on his chin and turned slightly.

Guy's sunglasses dipped down his nose, eyes holding every emotion he kept hidden, fondness and mirth were lying in wait to be exposed. "One." He whispered. Rookie didn't even register the word as Guy leant down and connected their lips. His hand still cradled his cheek and another interweaved around his hair.

Rookie's eyes fluttered shut as the world muted itself. The once loud and bright fireworks seemed to be nothing in comparison to the internal fireworks that lit up his insides as he let his hands gingerly grip Guy's waist as he stood a bit taller and kissed back with just as much passion. He smiled into the kiss as his hands wrapped around his back in a loving embrace, the distance between the pair lessening with every second into the kiss. Guy moved his hand to wrap around his back and pulled him even closer.

They parted gently, moving back just enough to catch their breath, eyes were on each other as they breathed heavily. Guy was still holding his waist and had a hand on his cheek whilst Rookie had his hands loosely dangling around Guy's neck. Rookie saw bright lights in his peripheral and turned to see the beautiful fireworks he had been captivated by before. Below him, everyone else seemed to have missed their moment as they gazed at the fireworks with excitement.

Rookie turned back to Guy who had also glanced at the display. The two stared at each other for a moment.

"Fuck FIREWORKS!" Rookie exclaimed, jumping up to meet Guy's lips again. Guy laughed between kisses as they held each other tightly and let their lips lock.

Rookie didn't register a lot that night, but he sure did register the frustration he felt of never confessing sooner. Then again, New Years kiss is pretty romantic.

When everyone seemed to stop staring at the fireworks, the two parted, settling with holding hands. A few other agents crawled up to the crows' nest and decided to join them in watching the fireworks from a better viewpoint. They kept it casual and tried to mask their held hands, not because of judgement but simply because they knew the reaction all the agents would give. Guy, obviously needing more affection then hand-holding, scooped Rookie up and flew into the sky, glimmers of fireworks still going off.

As Rookie was held bridal style in Guy's arms and the two stared at the fireworks, Rookie's mind finally caught up with him.

"Wait... did we just kiss?" He said in a daze.

"Yes." Guy responded, leaning his forehead against Rookie's.

"Oh my god." Rookie squeaked, looking delighted and overwhelmed all at once.

"Happy new year Rookie. I love you." Guy stated, kissing Rookie lightly before turning his attention to keeping them airborne.

Rookie made a wheezing sound. "I love you too. As... more than a friend." He clarified.

Guy snorted. "I think that was implied. But same, I love you as way more than a friend also. To be even more clear, I've been IN love with you for the longest time." He chuckled.

"You're joking." Rookie gasped.

"Nope." He grinned.

"Dude! I've been in love with you since you invited me to the EPF! Heck, I had a massive crush on you when we were in the ACADEMY! I was pretty obvious back then, but if you loved me now why didn't you say anything!" Rookie whined.

Guy stared at him bewildered. "Rookie, why didn't you say anything?"

"Fear of rejection." Rookie pouted. "You're way too out of my league." He mumbled.

Guy laughed loudly, the sound drowned by the fireworks and chatter on the ship below.
"Those are my reasons also."

"What?! No! You're hot as shit how could you even-" He slammed his free hand that wasn't keeping him from falling over his mouth and blushed furiously.

Guy grinned "Sorry what was that~ I couldn't quite hear you over the fireworks~"

Rookie groaned loudly "Staphhhh, I embarrass myself enough around you!"

Guy chuckled, digging his head against Rookie's neck. "I love you. So much. You're so fucking adorable and attractive." Rookie felt his face turn red. "Happy new year." Guy said again.

"Happy New Ye- MMPH!" Guy was already kissing him again, are they were flying a bit weird but hey, It was private in the sky. Rookie smiled into the kiss and held on even tighter.

Well, he supposed the agents were right. He did get a New Years kiss.

----

A month. It had been a month together. And between work, fights against Herbert and dates Guy and Rookie had completely forgotten to actually tell the others they were dating. They who reverted to keeping their feelings a secret from one another whenever they were on duty at work. Finally, as Rookie lay against Guy in their house whilst flipping through a comic book he decided to bring this fact up.

"So... are we gonna tell them?" Rookie asked, glancing to gauge Guy's expression. He flipped through a document carelessly.

"Tell who what?" He responded calmly.

"The crew that we're dating now." He said, still blushing at the fact they were indeed together.

"Oh yeah, I forgot we hadn't told them yet. Yeah, we should do that."

"How should we do it? Extravagantly? Casually? Normally?" He said 'normally' with a disgusted tone.

"How about, you calm down and leave it to me, okay? You have been planning a bit too much these past months so I'll handle this part." Guy patted his head and continued flipping through his document.

"Okay... but it has to be perfect. Or funny. Or both." Rookie pouted, Guy kissed his pouted lips to quickly stun him. It worked.

"Don't worry about it, it'll be a surprise for both you and everyone." Guy said. And Rookie relaxed, maybe a casual thing that Guy had planned would be best

----

"Okay Rookie, new year new me ended a month ago. You didn't even have a New Years kiss, you have GOT to hurry up and confess to that guy." Dot urged, sitting in the main break room with the rest of the agents. Gary was brewing coffee, Paige was sitting opposite Dot and Ace was playing puzzle games aggressively on their phone on one of the couches. Even the director was there, lazily leaning against the counter and chatting with Gary.

"I'm pretty sure the dude knows by now, I mean you guys don't lower your voices as much anymore so no doubt he's overheard at least ONCE." Ace commented, eyes not glancing up from their phone.

Rookie blushed brightly, "Guys!" He whined as he always did. "Can you stop pushing me? I don't need to act on it so just let it go, okay?"

"Rookie, I know you don't like machines but I could make one to judge the probability of you two ending up together?" Gary offered, Aunt Arctic lightly punched him in the shoulder.

"No! We don't need you spending your time on something like that." She chuckled.

"Listen Rookie, worst case scenario he rejects you and it's awkward for a bit. Best case scenario you end up together and we all happily congratulate you!" Paige added with a smirk.

"Stop! I'm sick of you guys getting involved, I appreciate it but it's not going to happen so please just; Give! Up!" Rookie said loudly, cutting through their chattered agreement. He and gotten good at acting his old role.

All was silent as Guy walked into the room, expression dull and neutral. "Sup' guys." He greeted dryly, walking through the room to get to the other doorway that lead to the file room.

A murmur of "Hey Guy." "Hi." And "Sup's" sounded out through the agents. Rookie waved, not even glancing at his partner "Hey JPG."

Guy walked past and stopped just as before he passed Rookie, he grabbed his chin, tilted it towards himself and kissed him. It was quick, it was passionate, and it was expressionless. He let go and kept walking as if nothing had happened. "Don't call me JPG." He said.

Rookie was frozen to his place. So was everyone, all staring at the place Guy was. Ace had dropped their phone on the floor, mouth gaping open. Guy reappeared from the file room carrying a couple of folders.

He sifted through them mindlessly as the silence stretched on. He left the room but popped his head back in for a split second. "We're dating. I'll leave you to the chaos, babe." He winked with a sly and evil grin and was gone and out of the room before Rookie could process what he meant by 'the chaos'.

Rookie blushed brightly and found himself stumbling backwards as Aunt Arctic ran at him with a shrill squeal. "YOU ARE WHAT?! AND YOU DIDN'T SAY?!" Next to react was Ace, who started to laugh hysterically, Paige soon joined them.

"YOU'RE KIDDING! YOU DIDN'T TELL US?! I WAS CONVINCED YOU WERE MOVING ON OR SOMETHING!" Dot shrieked.

Rookie curled into a ball. Gary stared at his coffee "Did I drink this yet? I think I need to wake up, this MUST be a dream." He chugged the whole coffee.

"HOW LONG?!" Dot finally managed to ask.

Rookie looked away sheepishly and bit his lip "One month."

"WHAT?! SINCE WHEN?!"

"Since New Years..."

"WHAT?!" All screamed.

"Okay, okay, did you confess or did he?" Ace sat, getting up and approaching the ball of Rook.

"Uhhh, he kissed me for New Year's kiss and I kissed back and yeah? So I guess since he initiated it..."

He prayed an angel would save him from this hell of questions.

"K, I'm back." Guy's voice called as he reentered the break room. Rookie beamed, that was CLOSE ENOUGH. Guy leant against the doorframe and rose an eyebrow as everyone scampered over.

"Okay, how long have you liked Rookie then?" Paige asked with a curious glare.

Guy shrugged. "Why do you think I invited him to join the EPF?" He smirked, Dot snapped her fingers.

"I KNEW IT! I CALLED IT DAY ONE!" He said loudly, pointing at Guy.

"Yes you did." Guy chuckled.

"I called it."

"You did Dot."

"And you denied it!"

"I did Dot." Guy laughed, he threw a hand up with a smile "Because I'm a liar."

"Please tell us you saw Rookie's obvious crush on you, right?"

Guy rolls his eyes "I didn't even know the guy was GAY. And when he said he had a celebrity crush on Cadence, yeah that didn't help."

Gary started laughing "Oh man that was when we were all trying to help you get together!" He realised.

"Besides, Rookie always acted that way around me since I first met him so I just guessed that was his personality in full. Not because he liked me."

"Isn't that because he liked you in the academy as well?" Paige asked. Guy nodded.

"Would you believe that back then he was the most annoying guy in the world and a pain in my ass?" Guy whispered, Rookie whined loudly.

"We were still best friends!" He groaned.

"That's true. An annoying but adorable best friend."

"How close have you come to figuring out he likes you?" Dot asked with a sly grin.

Rookie's eyebrows went way up, he stumbled to his feet. "Don't you dare tell them!" He hissed behind clenched teeth.

Guy smirked. "He called me daddy when he was drunk."

"OOOHHHHH" They screamed with laughter, half falling to the floor to laugh.

"I was DRUNK. Jet pack Guyyyyy why would you do this to me!" Rookie whined loudly.

"Because I love you!" He said overly sweetly. Rookie glared, he folded his arms.

"I'm not going to kiss you all day." He muttered.

Guy walked over the laughing bodies and grabbed Rookie by the shoulders, kissing him forcefully. "Okay, I'll just kiss you then." He whispered, pulling away.

Rookie flailed and covered his blushing face. "That's it! I'm going home! Fuck overtime!"

"Ohhhh you know he's an angry boy when he swears!" Paige giggled pronouncing boy like "boi" and swears like "swares."

Rookie stomped off with Guy in hot pursuit. He grinned at Rookie as he walked and Rookie could stop himself from smiling slightly.

"Well, we told them didn't we?"

"Didn't think you would do it like that." He giggled.

"I wanted it to be funny."

"At my expense!" He pouted.

"Aww, we can watch your favourite movie at home and cuddle." Guy responded. Rookie pretended to think about it and nodded.

"Finneee okay. But I want to get super buttery popcorn!"

"That stuff is really bad for you." Rookie death glared Guy and he eased up. "Okay! Okay! Buttery popcorn it is!"

----

Rookie smiled dreamily at his office cubicle, people passed by giving him delighted waves as he waved more ecstatically back to them. He could hear laughter, chatting and the slight clutter of office equipment. He spun the propeller on his head as he stared at his gadget-filled desk, potted plants, fighting nicknacks, paperclip statues and a single rubber band ball.

He flicked it across his desk and watched it roll, a large grin on his face as everything in his life had fallen into place.

The End