Evenfall (34 page)

A smile spread across his lips at the thought. It was small but genuine and it lingered briefly. A flash of surprise crossed Sin's face and his eyes briefly dropped to Boyd's mouth.

Boyd studied Sin's expression, wondering about that look. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could, a sound at the door caught his attention. His expression automatically closed off, returning to a blank stare before he'd fully turned his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a flash of annoyance on Sin's face.

"Hola!" Ryan's voice sang out even before the door had fully opened. "How--"

The words abruptly cut off as Ryan focused on Sin and he froze in mid-step, gawking. "Hsin!"

Sin stared at him flatly, mouth turned down.

"Uh..." Ryan trailed off and began walking again awkwardly, jerking at the straps to his backpack and tripping his way to his side of the table. "Wow, I didn't expect to uh, see you... ever."

The senior agent didn't reply and switched his gaze to the wall.

Ryan gave an awkward laugh and was clearly trying to make up for his lapse. He was unhooking his backpack and opening it up but his gaze kept straying back to Sin who studiously ignored him.

"Hello, Ryan," Boyd greeted, partially as a way to break the awkward silence. "Are the others on their way?"

"Owen's probably stopping to get coffee," the R&D agent replied quickly. He was still flushed red from embarrassment and fiddling with his laptop. He seemed to be one of the few people who still preferred a laptop over thinner hand held devices.

"So, how are you guys?" he asked, awkwardness still as prominent as it had been a few seconds ago. He snuck a glance at Sin out of the corner of his eye.

"Grand," Sin said blandly.

"Fine," Boyd said. "And you?"

"Oh, you know. Busy, not being able to sleep because of all of my projects-- although... oh! That reminds me," Ryan burst out, looking over at Boyd but not before his gaze stumbled over Sin once again. "I was going to ask you if you wanted to come watch anime with me. I just downloaded a series I've been searching for forever. It's super old."

Sin's gaze switched to Boyd but he said nothing. The information seemed to catch his attention although Boyd had no idea why.

"Is it the one you have on the walls with the robots?" Boyd asked, not knowing much about anime or what kinds of series existed.

"No but if you're interested in mecha, I have a ton of Gundam stuff. The series I found was called Rurouni Kenshin. It's so cool; it takes place in the 19th century and is about this awesome samurai guy in Japan."

"Where else would a samurai be?" Sin commented, eyes still on Boyd. He only shifted them after Boyd returned the stare once again.

Ryan shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "I dunno. I was just explaining..."

"I don't know what I'm interested in," Boyd admitted, turning his attention back to Ryan. He didn't know what mecha meant but apparently it had something to do with young men and robots with wings. "The series you mentioned is fine. Is it historically accurate?" he added curiously.

"I'm not sure so far, it just finished today. I didn't want to start until I had it all. There's a movie too." Ryan flicked a look over at Sin. "Hey, you know, you could--"

"No."

"Okay..." Ryan frowned but didn't seem terribly surprised.

The door opened before any of them could speak. Owen shuffled in, his eyes bleary and half-lidded. He looked across the room and stopped just inside the door when his eyes fell on Sin. He stared at Sin, looked down at his coffee, and then turned around and headed back for the door.

"Where are you going?" Ryan demanded, sitting up straight. "Owen!"

"Something's wrong with my coffee, Ry-Meist," Owen mumbled sleepily as he continued toward the door. "I think they gave me a shot of L-espresso-D. I'm seeing things now. I'm going to go away and come back and see if anything changes."

Sin's gaze flicked over Owen before moving to Ryan. He didn't appear very moved by any of this but then again, he always looked that way around other people.

"Come sit down before Jeffrey gets here and starts badgering you."

Owen made a face and stopped. He turned around, peering at Sin again and then looking over at Boyd and finally Ryan. After a pause he shuffled back over to the table and sat down next to Ryan, carefully setting the coffee cup on the table.

His sleepy gaze didn't waver on Sin even as he leaned over to Ryan. "Okay but just so we're clear... Sin Vega
is
sitting on the other side of the table right now and I'm not imagining it? I've been having some weird dreams lately so I don't know what's going on right now. I might look down and realize I'm naked."

A low scoff emanated from Sin's full lips and he slouched down in his chair, tapping his knuckles impatiently against the desk. Now that other people were in the room with them it seemed like he couldn't wait to leave.

"It's good that he's here," Ryan said with an encouraging grin, apparently deciding to pay no attention to Sin's unfriendly behavior. "I'm glad. We can all be one big happy unit now and everything."

"Oh yeah, it's all good," Owen said, relaxing and finally looking away from Sin. He took a long drink of coffee and immediately grimaced, his entire face scrunching up. He looked over at Ryan with his eyebrows dragging down.

"I just didn't wanna be hallucinating in the middle of meetings again. I got a lot of dirty looks the time it happened with Stephen. I don't know why it's such a big deal anyway. It would've been way more exciting if there really were tap-dancing penguins in there, even if it made it kind of hard to concentrate."

Boyd didn't pay much attention to Owen as he found his gaze straying to Sin. He wondered if Sin didn't want to be around others at all or whether it was specifically the way Owen and Ryan were acting that caused his impatience. Given how uninterested Sin had seemed for a long time in even interacting with Boyd when they were alone, Boyd assumed it must simply be the idea of being around a lot of other people.

It made him wonder why exactly Sin had come. Was it really that he was trying to make more of an effort to be a good partner? Was he finally putting some amount of stock in this whole process? Or, perhaps, had General Carhart or someone else recently told him he needed to start attending the meetings?

He thought that maybe it really was just that Sin was trying to be nice but he wasn't certain if he only thought that because that was what he wanted to believe. He knew that there was more to Sin than his gruff exterior but some of his motivations were still a mystery to Boyd.

The door opened and General Carhart and Jeffrey arrived at the same time. Carhart's gaze immediately fell on Sin and he arched an eyebrow as he took his spot at the head of the table. "Nice of you to finally join us."

"No problem," Sin replied with a smirk. "Nice group of misfits you have here."

Owen rested his chin against his palm, still looking half asleep. He raised one hand briefly, just a flick of his wrist, with a look that clearly said 'guilty as charged.'

Jeffrey's eyes narrowed and he stared at Sin in clear distaste as he took his seat across the table. His lips were thinned and for a moment it seemed he planned to say something but in the end he remained silent.

Carhart ignored the comment and looked between his two field agents. There was a slightly pleased tilt to his mouth but he evened it out after a moment and turned to business.

They went over the mission with Boyd doing most of the talking. Sin didn't speak even when it came up how Boyd and Warren Andrews had been saved. From time to time, Boyd noticed Sin observing him but for the most part Boyd ignored it as they discussed the mission and information he'd been given by Andrews.

It wasn't until Boyd mentioned Thierry's name that the routine of the debriefing seemed broken.

"Oh no," Ryan groaned with an almost comical grimace. "Not that guy again. Ugh. And also, my sources all dried up with him. They lost touch or don't have any access to him anymore. We'd have to go through the civilian route to get in touch with him."

Owen took a long drink of coffee, made a face, and set the cup down heavily. He nodded tiredly, seemingly barely listening before something apparently clicked. His head shot up and he straightened abruptly, looking between Ryan and Carhart. "Wait, what? We're talking Mr. Suave in the tux? I know someone with the direct connect."

"Good," Carhart said. "We'll get a feel on how agreeable he's feeling lately and decide how to approach him from there. If he is having recent contact with Janus shot-callers, that goes directly against his previous claims that he'd fallen out of contact with them."

"Who is he exactly?" Boyd asked, looking at the others with slightly drawn eyebrows.
Looks were exchanged around the table and Sin rolled his eyes. "A pointless asshole with a lot of connections."

"Basically," Ryan agreed with a snort of amusement.

"Yeah, I don't think anyone wants to claim him as their BFF," Owen said and then finished off the rest of the coffee in one gulp. When he made a face and started to set it down, Jeffrey snatched the cup from his hands and moved it well out of Owen's reach.

"Whoa," Owen said in surprise, looking over at Jeffrey. "What's with the ninja move?"

"You'll play with it and irritate us otherwise," Jeffrey said shortly, turning his attention to Carhart.

Carhart once again ignored the side comments and looked directly at Boyd. "Thierry Beauvais is a wealthy entrepreneur who uses his vast wealth to either help or hinder different political groups in Western Europe. His father had been one of the first benefactors of Janus when they were nothing more than a fledgling group but when he died, Thierry didn't show that same exclusivity and instead began playing various groups against each other seemingly for his own amusement."

He paused and glanced at Sin. "We've had previous dealings with Thierry. In the past he's shown interest with helping America gain access to certain people but he's very temperamental. The most recent negotiation with him ended in disaster when Sin took the liberty of insulting him to the extent of the mission failing."

"He's a condescending fuck," Sin replied with a shrug.

Boyd leaned back in his chair, studying Sin briefly before returning his attention to Carhart. "Are there worries that despite his interest in helping America in the past he may be uninterested in negotiating with us again?"

"It's possible. But we won't know for certain until we contact him. At that time, we'll have a follow-up." Carhart looked at Owen. "Get your source on this as soon as possible. I want a contact number immediately."

"I'll be all over that after the meeting," Owen said with a nod. "Like a mongoose on a snake." He frowned. "The trained ones, anyway."

Jeffrey glared at him from the side.

Carhart shook his head. "If no one has anything further to add, we'll wrap up for now. Owen, I expect you to be in touch within the hour."

Owen nodded again, although this time he eyed Carhart briefly as if wondering if he was in trouble.

No one spoke and Carhart soon left. Jeffrey wasn't far behind him, pointedly taking the cup with him and throwing it out in the garbage on the way out. Owen rolled his eyes but he left unusually quickly as well, no doubt to work on his assignment.

"Don't mind Jeffrey, by the way. He has a permanent case of stick-in-ass," Ryan confided, glancing at Sin with a brief hopeful grin. When he got a non-response in return, the R&D agent sighed and looked over at Boyd again. "Well, if you're interested in the anime let me know."

That being said, he gathered his stuff quickly and headed out of the room. When the door shut, Sin looked over at Boyd with raised eyebrows. "Interesting."

"That does seem to be the best word to describe the unit," Boyd replied, inclining his head in agreement.

Sin just shook his head and shoved his chair back, dropping his hands on the arms of the chair as if to push himself up. He didn't do it automatically though and his vivid green eyes rested on Boyd for a long moment. There was something almost curious about his gaze and it was the most deliberately open Boyd had seen his expression so far.

But then the senior agent shook his head and stood. "Well, I'm off to the training room to likely be hassled by complete morons."

"Is that the one on the first floor?"

"Yes. It's an unfortunate place to go because it's widely used by every single idiot on the compound but it offers a wide variety of equipment to work out and spar if you want to do that sort of thing." There was another pause and then he added, "My new found freedom to roam the compound leads me there more often than not."

Boyd's gaze hovered on Sin. He was unaccustomed to Sin offering up so much information. It was nice and almost seemed as though Sin was still interested in interacting even when they weren't on a mission. He nodded, pulling some hair behind his ear.

"That's good to know. I'm primarily used to the training complex but I don't have access to it anymore. Are there places where a person can be left alone or does it get too crowded?"

"There are private rooms." Another pause. "You should consider utilizing the area. To further your training."