Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Seriously? The Parthenon?”

“What?” Talon whined, “Uncle Claw wanted a new paperweight, and what better than a monument that has lasted thousands of years?”

“MAD plans really are getting worse,” Penny sighed, “But I guess there’s no helping it if they’re still letting Dr. Claw run the place. How long has he been operating? Like 30 years or something crazy?”

“Since 1983… but he got trapped in that iceberg in 1986 and was freed in 2015. And now it’s 2022. So about 40 years. But I wouldn’t count the years he was trapped in the ice. He wasn’t technically operating.”

“So he’s at least 60 years old if we assume he started MAD at 20. Do you really think he’s fit to keep leading MAD at that age?” Penny raised an eyebrow at Talon.

Talon pointedly did not answer and instead threw himself at Penny.

Penny dodged, “Come on, Talon. We were just getting to the good part of the conversation.”

“I don’t have to talk to you about what’s going on in MAD especially since we aren’t exactly on the same team, Pen.”

Penny ran towards the shrink-ray. Didn’t MAD already do a shrink ray? You’d think they’d be able to come up with new ideas.

Talon stepped in to cut Penny off and grinned at her. “Ah, ah, ah, Pen. I can’t have you destroying our machine just yet.”

Penny used the momentum from her run to launch herself in the air and landed by the shrink ray. She kicked the ray and it shattered with a small shower of electricity. “Looks like Claw won’t be getting his Parthenon paperweight today.”

Talon groaned in defeat, “See ya next time Pretty Penny~” He winked and saluted as he jetted off using his rocket boots.

“I seriously need to get a pair of rocket boots for myself,” Penny muttered to herself as Chief Quimby appeared in a statue of Athena.

“Great job Penny! Another MAD plan foiled by our top agent at HQ” Quimby congratulated Penny.

“Thanks Chief! All in a day's work. Would it be okay if I stayed a couple more days in Greece? I really want to explore the city.”

“Ah yes, Greece. Lots of ancient relics to look at,” Quimby pondered the idea, “I don’t see why not. HQ will deal with the expense. Check your codex in ten minutes for details.”

“Thank you so much Chief! I’ve been looking forward to touring Athens for a while now, and this mission was the perfect opportunity. I had no idea it would take such a short time to beat MAD.”

“You did a great job, Penny. We’ll see you back at HQ in 3 days! Have fun.” Quimby seemingly disappeared back into the statue and left Penny smiling to herself.

Penny checked her codex. 15:08. She had arrived in Greece at 12 so it had only taken her 3 hours to complete her mission. Penny groaned, she had almost beat her record of 2 hours and 52 minutes. But Penny did not dwell on this fact for too long, after all she did have 3 whole days to explore Athens.

With a spring in her step, Penny headed toward the long line of what she assumed to be tourists leading into the Parthenon. The fight had taken place on Lycabettus Hill because it had the best view of the Parthenon. Kicking the debris from the shrink ray aside, she trudged on down the hill wishing that she had a car to get to her destination faster.

*** Three Days Later ***

“Hey Chief. I’m back!” Penny announced cheerily.

“Why hello Penny, good to have you back. I have a mission for you.” Chief Quimby skipped the pleasantries and went straight into business as usual.

“Wow, so soon? You sure are on top of things.”

“Yes, well there’s no rest for the weary.” Quimby mumbled, “Or for the well-rested I suppose.”

“I’ll get right on it, Chief Quimby.” Instead of letting Quimby do his usual spiel of explaining the mission, Penny took the mission ball and walked off, leaving Quimby with an almost giddy expression of not getting blown up.

His giddiness was short-lived however, and as Penny finished reading the contents, she threw it over her shoulder, landing the mission ball perfectly on Quimby’s head. Quimby looked up and groaned before it even exploded, too lazy to even try to swat the ball off his head. At this point in his career, he may as well accept his fate of being blown up.

“Hey Uncle Gadget, I’m home,” Penny set down her keys and went into her room before hearing Gadget’s response.

“Hey Penny, I made you some soup if you’d like some. It isn’t as good as what Slick makes, but it’s nutritious!”
The lack of response from Penny worried Gadget, so he went to check on Penny.

“Penny, are you-”

“Uncle Gadget! I thought I told you to knock. And I’m fine thanks for asking, I could just use some sleep.” As she said this Penny let out a huge yawn.

“Alright Penny, if you’re hungry I made soup.”

“No thanks Uncle Gadget, I’m a little too jetlagged to eat right now,” Penny rolled onto her stomach and gave Gadget a look that screams ‘please leave’.

Gadget backed away from the door and Penny was left in her room alone. She started to drift off before she remembered that she still had her yucky plane clothes on. She shucked off all her clothes at once before hopping into the apartment’s tiny bathroom for a shower. She was just about done washing her hair when Gadget walked in with his “go-go gadget toothbrush” in tow.

“UNCLE GADGET!”

“Hey there Penny, sorry I needed some toothpaste. I’ll be out in a second.”

“UNCLE GADGET GET OUT. I’ll be done in like 10 minutes,” Penny yelled.

“It’ll only take me a second to get the toothpaste-”

“GET OUT NOW,” Penny yelled at the top of her lungs.

Gadget did not say a word as he retreated from the bathroom. Penny loudly sighed and the movement made some of the lather from the shampoo fall into her eye. This only aggravated Penny more and she viciously scrubbed the shampoo off her head before putting in some conditioner.

After getting out of the shower, Penny wrapped herself in a towel and ran down the short hall to return to her room. She had forgotten to bring her pajamas to the bathroom with her, hence the running.

Of course, Penny was met with a sleeping Brain when she got to her room and she loudly yelled, “OUT”.

Brain started awake and looked at Penny before jetting out of the room in fear of her wrath.

You’d think I’d be safe in my own room, but nooooooooooo Brain just happens to be napping on my bed.

After getting dressed, Penny plopped onto her bed and groaned loudly into her pillow. My first day back and I’m already being hounded by Gadget and Brain. She started thinking about how much her space has gotten invaded in the years that she’s lived with Gadget. She doesn’t remember her mom, so Gadget is all she has but now that she’s 22, she shouldn’t be stuck living with her uncle when she has a well-paying job with perks.

Penny sat up, her brain racing, and grabbed her computer off her desk. She immediately typed in “apartment listings nearby”. She scrolled through the options and found a suitable option for her budget… if she were to have a roommate. The pay at HQ isn’t too bad but it certainly isn’t enough to be living alone in an apartment in Metro City.

Penny checked the time after a good half hour of scrolling and decided to leave this for tomorrow morning’s Penny.

Luckily it’s Thursday morning which means that Penny is off the clock at HQ and she fully immersed herself in her apartment search. She came across the conclusion that a roommate would be the most beneficial for her budget and that she needed to put applications out soon. She went to visit the apartment and liked the convenience of it being near HQ as well as the view from the building. It wasn’t the most glorious view, but at least it wasn’t the view of another building. She put a down payment on the apartment and the seller let her know that she could start moving in by next week and that rent was due every month on the 17th.

Her next problem she tackled quickly. She needed a roommate, and she needed a roommate before the 17th. There was no way she was going to pay such an atrocious amount of money for such a small apartment by herself. She started putting ads in the paper and up on the internet and when she finished that task she got to work on packing up her things.

Kayla was still living at home, and when Penny confronted her about rooming with her she declined saying that it was cheaper to live at home and deal with her parents than have to worry about paying for laundry at the complex.

Gadget unfortunately had to fill out paperwork on Thursdays so she didn’t get the chance to tell him about her new home until Friday night (Gadget was known for coming home at very early hours in the morning on Friday because he could not focus on the paperwork for long enough).

Brain was with Gadget so she couldn’t break the news to him either.

When Friday night finally rolled around, Penny told Gadget and Brain and Gadget started firing questions at Penny, and after answering each one with startling prepared answers, Gadget relented and told her that he would miss having her at the apartment and that she should still be home for Sunday brunch.

On Saturday, Penny checked her inbox as usual and opened an email from a “Tanner Clint” who expressed interest in rooming with her. She emailed him back immediately and asked him about his hygiene habits and the like. He replied back positively and let her know that cleanliness would not be a problem and that he would not throw any parties without her consent.

Penny was satisfied with Tanner Clint, and may or may not have found some background information at HQ that stated that he got his highschool diploma the same year she had gotten hers and that he was in his last year at Metro University studying math and physics. Since his background check didn’t show anything negative, she was a little bit suspicious but put down her suspicions in favor of being hopeful for a good new roommate.

They communicated throughout the weekend asking about hobbies and the like and eventually agreed that moving in on the same day would be hectic, so Tanner let Penny move in first.

She moved in on Monday morning after letting HQ know that she would not be able to be at work for the next three days because she was moving apartments. Chief Quimby took this in stride and let Penny know he was proud of her for making such an independent decision. Others like Professor Slick let Penny know that if she needed any help that he would be there for her and Penny was happy that she had such caring coworkers.

Her move on Monday was easy enough and she relaxed on the pre-furnished apartment couch while idly playing this new game that she had found called Unravel Two. She would meet her new roommate Tanner tomorrow and saying she was excited would be an understatement. Penny never got to make new friends often because of how hands-on her job was, but hopefully living in an apartment with someone would help her branch out and make friends outside of work.

When Penny woke up she was disoriented with her surroundings before the recognition came in. She trudged to the kitchen to grab something to eat and opened the fridge to find it empty. She face-palmed because of course there’s no food you didn’t get anything for the fridge. She went back to her room and grabbed her phone before leaving the apartment to get some food. Penny did not function until she had some sort of nutrition in her body whether it be breakfast food or dinner food.

She found a breakfast place and ate a surprisingly well made omelette. When she was headed down into the complex hall, she noticed that her door was open. A thousand thoughts ran through her head

Did I leave the door open? Oh my gosh am I getting robbed already? Wait, why am I worrying about getting robbed? I can just take ‘em down myself.

As Penny crept towards her door another small thought made itself known, it’s probably your roommate moving in remember???
Penny relaxed her fighting stance and walked into the apartment, “Hello? Tanner Clint?”

A voice from the other bedroom answered her, “Yeah, that’s me. Are you Penny Brown?”

“Yep! Do you need any help moving anything? I just got breakfast down at this cute little diner across the street, so I’m full of energy.”

“Uhhhh, that’s alright, thanks though Penny. I already moved all my boxes while you were gone.”

“Okay! I’ll leave you to your unpacking then. I’ll be in my room if you need me for anything,” Penny sort of wanted to go see what this Tanner Clint guy looked like, but she was nothing if not patient.

“Sounds good. Once I reach a good stopping point we can get lunch and actually chat.”

Penny did not reply to this, already lost in the new paperwork she had to fill out for HQ since her mailing address changed.

By the time lunch rolls around, Penny is engrossed in new paperwork from her Greece case. One thing about HQ was that all the cases that were handled didn’t get documented until weeks or even months later. Penny, being one of the HQ agents, was always on top of her work, but had forgone the document from Greece because of her little vacation.

“Penny? Want to get lunch?” Tanner knocked on her door.

“Huh? Oh yeah, give me one second. Sorry, I zoned out while filling out paperwork.”

Penny prayed that it didn't give Tanner an impression that she was a workaholic. Because she totally wasn’t a workaholic. … Was she?

Once she wrapped up the sentence she was on about Talon using his rocket boots to get away, and making a slight comment about the fact that HQ should be developing these!!! she left her room and walked to the living room where Tanner was sitting on the couch.

She walked over to him and put out her hand with a cheery grin and said, “It’s nice to finally meet you in person Tanner!”

What she was not expecting when he turned to face her was Talon Claw staring at her with big brown eyes.

Chapter Text

Penny doesn’t know what to do. Does she scream? Does she fight him? Does she calmly ask him what he’s doing in her apartment? 

She truly doesn’t know. And clearly “Tanner” doesn’t either. He stared at Penny owlishly. 

Penny finally decided on something to say, “Tanner? Really? You couldn’t come up with something more original?” she asked dryly. 

“Tanner is totally original. What are you talking about Pen? Oh, are you just upset because you didn’t know it was me?” Talon smirked at Penny and waited for a beat, “Well I guess I didn’t put two and two together with ‘Penny Brown’ so who’s the real dumbass?”

“Brown used to be my last name, but when my parents died I changed it to Gadget since it made more sense. I still use Brown for more normal life stuff though. For the record, I think you’re the real dumbass for not realizing Penny was me Penny.”

“I didn’t really care so much about the name of the person I was rooming with more than the place itself. Dr. Claw’s been getting pretty gnarly and I had to get out sooner or later.”

“Well Tanner Clint, do you still want to get lunch so we can talk about this over a meal, I’m hungry after working on that stupid Greece report for three hours.”

“You were doing the Greece report? I did mine agEs ago. Come on Pen, I thought you were HQ’s top agent.” Talon teased. 

“I took a short vacation in Greece and that kind of made me realize that I really needed to get out of Uncle Gadget’s house. I love him and all but as a 22 year old adult, I should not be living with my uncle when I don’t have to. Anyway, lunch? You can pick the place.”

“Sure,” Penny was confused as to why she agreed to have lunch with Talon, after all weren’t they mortal enemies???

They get to the lunch place, sit down, and order their food. When their milkshakes and burgers were brought out, Talon started eating ravenously. Penny stared at Talon, it’s so weird to see him eating.

Penny shook her head at the thought and started picking off a couple of her fries. She wanted to talk to Talon about their new situation, but she figured she should let him finish his burger before talking to him. 

After a few more seconds, Talon was done. Jeez, he sure does eat fast, doesn’t he know that’s bad for him? 

“You know that eating too fast is bad for you right? You end up swallowing a lot more air and will get gas.” 

Instead of replying to Penny, Talon just glared at her and scarfed a handful of fries down. Penny turned her head up and took a small bite out of her burger. It’s not too bad, but it could definitely use more pepper. Penny reached for the pepper and shook the shaker for a solid 30 seconds. At this point, Talon stopped chewing to stare at Penny’s hand. 

“You know that overloading your burger with pepper is bad for you right? You can get indigestion.”

Penny, like Talon, did not reply to his statement and kept eating her burger. Once both were done with their food, they looked anywhere but at each other until Talon broke the silence. 

“So, roomies, huh?”

“Is ‘huh?’ all you have to say?” Penny started to fume. 

“Hey! At least I said something, Placid Penny.”

Penny rolled her eyes, she did not want to start down this road again. I am an adult, and I will not resort to children’s tactics. 

“Alright, I’m sorry Talon. I am a bit nervous about this whole ordeal and honestly us arguing already does not bode well. Well, since you aren’t running away screaming, I take it that you still want to room with me?”

“Yes, please. I needed to get out of that hell-hole. Dr. Claw is fun and all for the first few years, but when plans don’t go your way for 40 years, then he starts to take his anger out on his minions; me being one of them,” Talon shuddered, “what about you, Pen? You not afraid I’ll kill you in your sleep?” 

“Surprisingly, not really. Based on what you said about Dr. Claw, you’re trying to move out of an abusive home, so you probably won’t be doing any abusing. Also, I’m positive I can take you down,” Penny smiled cockily. 

Talon gaped at Penny and was starting his comeback, but Penny beat him to speaking, “So roomies then?” Penny extended her right hand out for Talon to shake. 

A tense moment of silence followed where Talon just stared at her hand in disbelief. Then, he took her hand, and firmly gripping it, shook it. 

“Then that settles it. So should we go grocery shopping tomorrow? I’m almost done with my report and I have to submit it by the end of today.” 

“I can just go once I finish unpacking, it’s not like I have too much to unpack.”

“No no, we are roommates, and I am willing to put the effort in to become as close to “friends” as we can. That means that at least our first round of groceries is done together .”

Talon grumbled, “Fine. But we’re ordering takeout for dinner, and maybe play some Mario Kart 8?”

“Sounds perfect, and if you need help unpacking, I really don’t mind taking a couple breaks. Reports are sO boring.”

“Wow, Penny not liking something work-related? I’m in shock. Maybe Perfect Penny isn’t as perfect as I thought,” Talon grinned at Penny. 

Penny put on a mock mad face and sipped her mint chocolate chip milkshake. The flavor reminded her of that afternoon in Paris all those years ago. Her and Talon had become a little too close to comfort during that mission. She could still remember the sunset from the top of the Notre Dame with Talon at her side. Penny stop thinking about it and say something, the silence is too awkward. 

“You know, this milkshake kind of reminds me of that time we had a truce. That was probably the most fun I’ve ever had on a mission,” Talon reminisced. 

“Yeah. Gadget really is the “Dynamite Dater” what with the exploded rickshaw” Penny deflected from saying that she thought of it too. 

“Those were the good old days,” Talon sighed loudly, signaling the end of his milkshake, “You ready to go back home, Proper Penny?”

“Yep!” Penny replied shortly. 

They walked back to the apartment in silence. When they got to the foot of the building, Talon asked, “Hey, did you by any chance leave the window or door unlocked?”

Confused, Penny replied, “Uhh, I think I left my window open to get some fresh air, and I don’t remember closing it. Why?”

“Well Puzzled Penny, instead of taking all those stairs, I think I’ll just jet up there,” Talon kicked his rocket boots on and flew up to the window. 

Penny looked up and yelled, “Hey! Don’t go through my stuff!”

It seemed he was too far out of earshot to hear what Penny said, so Penny sighed and trudged into the building, ready to get her steps in.