Work Text:
Waves lapped calmly against the shore, a light breeze rustling the material of a lone beach umbrella staked into the sand. The world felt at peace once more, dark clouds clearing throughout the night to provide a bright, clear day for all Medician people to wake up to - a new day, and the start of a new era. One of those, albeit recently reinstated, citizens had broken away from his group that morning: loading a helicopter with a beach umbrella, a deckchair, and a bottle of whisky, he then flew himself to the most secluded island that was apart of the archipelago that made up the republic of Medici.
Rico sighed, watching the ocean and swirling the ice cube that was melting in the bottom of his glass. He was halfway through the bottle - he had another in the heli in case he fancied it, but he knew he wouldn’t be having much more. Checking his watch it was almost 2pm, which meant it was almost time for the planned demolition of medici’s missile stockpile to happen. Rico leaned back in his chair, and took a sip of the cold water that was forming from the melting ice in the glass, before focusing his attention back on the waves.
It was odd, he thought. Odd that he wasn’t helping with something, when they had so much to do. Odd that he was even allowed to sit there, taking a moment to just breathe, on a deckchair with his feet buried in the sand like a child. It was a stark difference to when he was still with the agency: when he would have been whisked back to America as soon as he had finished up everything he was tasked with doing to start on something new. Back to painstakingly boring meetings, pressed shirts and training sessions.
One of the perks of leaving that life behind, I guess.
He snapped back into focus when he noticed the first signs of the missiles in the air, and watched in awe as they flew up from all across medici. He had glanced at the plans as Rosa had been talking about them the afternoon before: part of her approach of being “of the people” was to tone down the militarisation across Medici, and with that expel all unnecessary arms that Di Ravello had built up over the years. Whilst Rico didn’t fully agree with her plans, watching the missiles all converge and fly into the ocean, all erupting with a massive explosion above the surface, it was a sight to behold. He refilled his glass and raised it, taking a hearty sip before placing it down onto the arm of the chair and wiping his brow with a towel he had thrown over the back.
It was then that he heard footsteps coming up the beach towards him. Confused, Rico turned to see a woman, young, with terra-cotta skin and an uncharacteristically non tourist-y look to her for someone who didn’t look like they were from Medici. Her brown hair was messily tied up, light jacket open with the sleeves rolled up, and a pair of sneakers in one hand. She had no sign of a weapon anywhere on her person, however a hand instinctively moved to his U-39 Plechovka, gripping the barrel as the woman squinted at him. She raised an arm to shield her eyes from the sun, and Rico noticed she had no pistol holsters underneath her jacket.
“ EXCUSE ME SEÑOR!”
Spanish, interesting.
The woman finally reached him, glancing at the assault rifle in his hand before glancing at her face.
“ I’m not armed, Señor Rodriguez, and I definitely wouldn’t stand a chance if I was. Not from what I’ve heard of the rumours.”
He glanced at the young woman’s face, quizzical, and determined she was in her late 20’s to early 30’s.
“ Sì? And who are you then? How do you know me?”
It almost felt odd to be speaking Spanish again after so long, the instinctive Italian twang of being back in Medici making his voice seem foreign. She placed her sneakers in the sand, and held a hand out for him to shake.
“ Mira Morales. I know you may not believe me, but I know some information regarding your father that I thought you might be interested in knowing.”
Shit.
“Excuse me?”
She sighed, and retracted her hand to point to her jacket.
“ Do you mind if I sit down? It’s a long story, and I’ve walked around most of this island trying to find you señor.”
He stared at her for a moment, grip tightening on the barrel of the gun at his side, before nodding curtly. She moved to remove her jacket, and he moved the bottle of whiskey to sit in between them, as well as a bottle of water he had behind his chair. When she had gotten comfortable, he nodded at her once again
“Talk.”
—-
“Well… Mierda.”
The woman sitting next to him laughed mirthlessly, taking a last sip from the whiskey bottle before placing it back down in the sand. The sunset was beginning to set in, hues of yellow and orange reflecting off of the calm waves in front of them.
“Now you know why I needed to find you.”
Rico scrubbed a hand down his face. He had just completed a war, and now he was walking straight into another one. His mind screamed at him to not believe the woman: for all he knew, she was a CIA spy, tasked with bringing him back to America after his desertion. But he could just tell she wasn’t. The hitch in her voice when she talked about her uncle, and the pain and suffering that her people had been through. It was almost like how he had been, joining the agency at 18 as a newly orphaned teenager with no planned future.
“Do you have a plan? On how to take down this ‘Espinosa’?”
The woman tilted her head towards him, eyes squinted in thought.
“ I have a couple, but none of them can be put into motion without you. We need you, Rico. Me and the people of Solís - Hopefully we will be able to find out more about your father along the way.”
Rico sighs, caressing his brow before dropping the hand onto the armrest once more.
“ You do realise I thought I was just getting a vacation, and then you find me and drop this on me? It’s a hard decision to make.”
Mira smiles, and moves to pull a slip of paper out of her jacket pocket.
“You don’t need to decide now - I’m in Medici until the end of the week, so if you want a free ride or to meet up and discuss more, feel free to get in touch.”
Rico glances at the number written neatly on the post-it note in his hand, and slips it in his pocket.
“I’ll be sure to let you know, I just need to think it over.”
He already knows he’s going to say yes. The woman in front of him seems genuine, if all of the lessons in body language were correct. The story added up perfectly, and if she’d come all this way, she must have been desperate. He just wanted a few days to run it past everyone else - see if he was needed, see if there was anything more he could do before going. He knew he always got bored fast when he had nothing to do anyway. Anyway, he was definitely coming back in the future - he still had a car to build with Mario after all.
“ Well, it was nice to meet you, thank you for hearing me out!”
Rico rises with the small woman, reaching out a hand to shake like she had before. She takes it easily, and with a sharp tug lets go, moving to shake out her jacket of any loose sand before collecting her sneakers.
“It was my pleasure. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time here, I’ll definitely be in touch.”
With one last smile Mira departs back up the beach, and Rico sits back down in his chair with a plethora of new plans to make.