Finished my H2H thing. It started out very well, then I went experimental and was pleased, but then went into epic fail and I thought I'd need to start something else, but the I had a brainstorm and it came out even better than I'd possibly hoped! Need to get it boxed and shipped.

Words, always words! I have barely started one of my two Kingsman Reverse Bang fics, because I'd gotten bunnied for some Eggsy/OC HC that doesn't want to be Eggsy/OC, but instead Eggsy/Harry, except that Harry's married to Merlin. Who thinks that his marriage to Harry is coming to an end. Sigh...

Harry stands in the doorway and watches, slightly slack-jawed, as Eggsy rapidly empties a high-capacity magazine into the target twenty-five meters down-range. He puts down the weapon, picks up another and empties that one, too. It's an impressive testament to Eggsy's recovery that he's able to hold a gun so steadily for even five shots, let alone fifty.

But Eggsy's stamina doesn't seem to extend to the simple task of ejecting the spent magazine and replacing it with a new one. His hands are shaking so hard it takes a dozen attempts to depress the button that releases the magazine, and twice as many to try to slot the new one into the grip. Eggsy finally gives up with a shout of frustration, pulling off the ear defenders and protective eyewear. When the glasses fall on the ground, Eggsy all but keels over, trying to pick them up.

"Here, let me." Harry retrieves the eyewear and puts it on the service deck, next to the gun and the magazine. "I didn't know that you've been cleared for firearms practice."

Eggsy makes a face, half grimace, half – nothing. The second stroke had left Eggsy with a noticeable impairment. "I was – " Eggsy pauses for a few long moments, scrubs at his face, "not busy. Needed – " There's another long pause, "something to do."

"I understand all too well."

"Yeah, you would, I guess." Eggsy manages to string that sentence together with only one lengthy pause

Harry aches to wrap his arms around Eggsy and hold him, to give the comfort the boy so desperate needs – and in truth, that Harry desperately needs, too. But Eggsy hasn't responded well to physical contact since the events in Belgrade and Harry keeps his distance.

"Do you want to see how you did?" Harry waves a hand at the target down range.

Eggsy shrugs but flips the switch and the retrieval mechanism rattles as the paper moves close. Harry is stunned at the results. "Jesus, Eggsy, you placed every shot. I am impressed." The target has a fist-sized hole where the heart would be and the head is completely obliterated. There aren't any stray bullet holes outside of the kill zone.

"Yeah – I don't seem to have any trouble aiming, but I can't reload a fucking clip." That comes out in a rush. "Like I can run the entire fucking obstacle course but I can't walk a goddamn straight line."

Eggsy rests his hands on the edge of the table; his whole body shaking. "I – I – "

Harry needs to get Eggsy out of here, to someplace where the air doesn't stink of gunpowder and metal and death. "Come, let's have a bite to eat and I will tell you how Bors got trapped overnight in a bakery in Berlin and ate his weight in doughnuts."

Harry waits to see if Eggsy gets the pun, and to his delight, he does. Except when Eggsy winks, his left eyelid doesn't reopen.

"Eggsy?"

Eggsy doesn't answer, his right eye is unfocused, and his whole body is trembling. Harry taps the side of his glasses and says to whoever answers, "Get medical to my location stat, Galahad is having a seizure."

He does what he can to make Eggsy safe - helping Eggsy to a prone position, folding his own jacket and making sure it's under Eggsy's head. He opens Eggsy's shirt collar and pulls off his tie, and then just waits, sitting on the ground next to Eggsy, watching and praying and feeling his heart break all over again.