21. “You’re trying not to let anyone get close to you because you are scared of being too close, of getting hurt.”
Mallory slammed his hand down onto the desk, the items atop it jolting from the sheer force. He and Bond were arguing yet again, and he had thoroughly lost awareness of exactly why they were constantly at loggerheads. He had never imagined that Bond might hate him as much as he evidently did - because why else would he start constant fights? You don't start fights with someone you hold affection for, surely. The idea of the flipside was absurd enough to make him furrow his brow, his frown simultaneously increasing. He also couldn't figure out why James was being so snippy with him - all he'd tried to do was form a friendship with the younger man. To try and give him a purpose outside of his fieldwork, but each attempt had been met with indifference, annoyance and what seemed remarkably like repulsion.
"What?" Bond snapped coolly, showing complete passiveness to Gareth's outburst of anger.
He flexed his jaw once, twice, and then swept his tongue across his lower lip. He was, however fruitlessly, attempting to remain level-headed. He had never known someone even an ounce as infuriating as Bond was, and it was difficult to keep his emotions in check. He allowed a couple of seconds to tick by, and eventually spoke as calmly as he possibly could.
"You're trying not to let anyone get close to you because you are scared of getting hurt." The words were still full of anger and the volume to which he spoke them echoed throughout M's office, but there was something else in the words - something that even Mallory himself couldn't deny. Care.
James stood from the chair, then, and moved his hand to the front of his waistcoat, buttoning it up deftly. He offered no verbal response for a few moments, leaving them both staring at one another whilst the silence loitered between them, growing heavier by the second.
"Can you blame me?" James's voice broke the silence, soft, almost meagre.
"Not exactly." Mallory responded without incident. Of course James had experienced more loss than anyone he knew. Hardship had been the bubble in which he grew up in, and that hardship only developed into pure agony as he fell in love... and lost her, too. He'd watched through every second of heartbreak as the young boy trapped within him came back to his office, desperate for another job to sink his entire being into. The first time he himself had assigned James to a job, he immediately recognised the anguish behind the dazzling blue eyes of the services' most rogue, yet effective, agent. But he also saw the glimmer of hope that flashed across his expression as he placed the confidential file in front of him. He knew that, beneath the icy exterior, a broken man resided.
A thoroughly irritating broken man.
"Why won’t you tell me what happened to you out there?” Gareth asked, placing his palms flat on the desk, leaning forwards, trying to close the gap between them without being too confrontational.
“We’re done here. I’ll see you Monday.”
Gareth rounded the desk, standing in front of it with a hefty sigh. He pushed his hands into the pockets of his slacks, burrowing them deep. He needed to seem as non standoffish as he could. Approachable, even. He wanted James to trust him.
The negativity between them crackled and then dissipated, leaving behind some tension but nothing like they’d been previously been shrouded with. James didn’t respond verbally, instead he stepped away from the door and towards Gareth, bypassing the chair he’d previously occupied, coming to stand only a pace or two away from the older man.
Mallory couldn’t ignore the speed increase of his heart, but put it down to the close proximity of someone he knew was largely unpredictable.
“I…” James began. “I think I need…” he paused for a beat, only long enough to inhale; an eternity, it felt like, to Gareth. “I need to be close to you.”