Fait Accompli

Liam is typing up a record of one of Zayn Malik’s missions when the person in question steps into his office with a smirk. The boy with black hair, hazel eyes and really long lashes saunters up to his desk with a cup of coffee in one hand and a bagel in the other. It looks like the older boy has gone for one with cheese today.

Just like every day, Zayn is dressed in a casual attire. He’s wearing black jeans hung low on his hips and a black sweater, only zipped up halfway so you can see the blue shirt with the logo of ACDC printed on it that he’s wearing under it. There are black combat boots on his feet that would probably slip off if he tries to run with them.

His clothes are in contrast with Liam’s, who’s wearing a suit every office stiff has to wear. Only if you’re an active agent, are you allowed to wear any clothes you like. Liam has never understood why the rule existed, but like with every rule he adheres to it.

“Liam, my boy,” Zayn bellows as he sits himself down on the chair he has moved in front of the desk. He puts his cup of coffee down in front of him. “How did the date go yesterday?”

“Not all that well,” Liam replies, patting the back of his head in embarrassment. “The girl was a bit boring to be honest. She kept going on and on about her pet dogs and how much her parents loved her. Which is sweet but only to a certain extent.”

“And you didn’t tell her to talk about something else, did you?” Zayn takes a bite out of his bagel before shaking his head ruefully. “Of course not. You’re Liam, ever the gentleman.”

Liam doesn’t correct Zayn. What he’s saying is true. Liam is too polite for his own good sometimes and Zayn knows this. He and Liam have been friends for more than a year, ever since Liam started at the Agency, and they know each other inside and out.

Before meeting Zayn, Liam never had friends, not real ones at least. No, he didn’t have any imaginary friends, the friends he had during his school years had been of flesh and blood but they had been fleeting. They hadn’t interested to get to know him, they only befriended him because they didn’t want him to feel alone – which was nice of them, Liam supposes.

But all of that changed when he met Zayn. He had just finished his training as a Time Agent and was the newbie of the office. Zayn is two year older then Liam, so when Liam had started at the Agency, had just finished his first year as an active agent. The older Time Agent had taken him under his wing and in the process they had become good friends.

Zayn would tell Liam, at the younger boy’s request, about the journeys into the past that he and his partner went one while Liam was stuck doing paper work and Liam sucked them up like a sponge. Zayn was an amazing story teller, when Liam closed his eyes, he could easily see the old roads in Rome Louis and Zayn ran down as they tried to escape a group of angry cohorts – sticks in their hands as they chased the two men down. He could taste the sea on his own lips when Zayn told him about his mission that had brought him onto the first ship of the Dutch VOC.

The stories always make Liam anxious to go on a mission of his own, eager to leave his desk behind and go after the bad guys himself. It’s why he signed up for the Time Agency in the first place, to catch bad guys and see history with his own eyes.

But he had still to complete his first year of desk duty before his bosses would let him go through a time portal. According to them, it’s because Time Agents must become familiar with all aspects of the agency before they can become active. Liam had hoped they would make an exception when it came to him because he had been a remarkable student who eared high grades, was fit and always played by the rules. But his hope had been in vain, because he had been assigned to desk duty just like the rest of his year.

“I would offer to help you find a girlfriend, but alas.” Zayn pretends to look sorry as he grins at Liam and holds up his hands, palms up. His hands are bagel free, having finished his sandwich a few seconds ago. “I don’t have any clue what makes a girl attractive.

Zayn is one of the few gay guys who can’t tell if a girl is pretty or not. Most blokes who are only interested in other blokes, do know what a fit girl looks like, but they just not attracted to them. Liam’s friend is one of the few he can’t, he can only appreciate the male form of beauty.

“I think I’m just going to take a break from dating,” Liam tells Zayn. He laces the fingers of his hands together and lays them in front of him on the desk, next to where his friend his planted his feet while Liam had been daydreaming about his career in the agency. “I’m becoming an active agent in a few months, so I’m going to be really busy soon if everything works out.”

“That’s right, you’re almost up for promotion,” Zayn exclaims as he slaps his forehead none too gently. His skin is red as he pulls his hand back. “I should probably get you a little gift, or something.”

Zayn loves giving people gifts, not only when it’s their birthday. He uses every special occasion as an excuse to buy people small gifts. He has gotten Liam something the day after his first day at the office, on Valentine’s day, on his birthday, when he won a boxing match againts one of the other Agents and even when he bought his puppy Loki. His whole flat is filled with little trinkets Zayn gave him.

“You don’t have to give my anything,” Liam assures Zayn. He snickers when he sees the frown that has formed on his friend’s face. “You know I’m not getting the promotion on my own merit. I’ve done my one year of desk duty and just like everybody else after their first year, I get promoted to field agent.”

“That’s not how it works, Liam,” Zayn corrects Liam, frown still on his face. “You don’t automatically become an active agent, just because you had a year of desk duty. They only promote you when you’re ready and Liam, you are ready. And that’s all because of me,” Zayn adds with a grin.

“My dear collage here is speaking the truth,” a fake posh voice suddenly says, making Zayn turn his head around and Liam turn his eyes towards the door.

It’s Louis Tomlinson, Zayn’s colleague and Liam’s other best friend. Like Zayn, he’s dressed in casual attire – beige jeans, blue shirt and red beanie. Louis’s hair is a sandy blonde color and his eyes are a piercing blue.

Louis walks further into the room and sits down on Liam’s desk with a grin on his face. Zayn immediately removes his feet from the desk– almost knocking over his coffee in the process – so Louis can sit more comfortably. Just like always, he’s eager to please the two-year-older boy.

It really is strikingly obvious that Zayn has a weakness for Louis. It wouldn’t surprise him if the whole office knew. You would have to be blind to not see the way Zayn looks at Louis – like he’s the sun and stars at the same time – or goes out of his way to make Louis laugh or look at him.

Luckily – or not, depending on the way you look at it – Louis doesn’t seem to have a clue about Zayn’s feelings. He probably thinks Zayn pulls pranks with him because he likes the pranks themselves instead of the one who pulls them.

“You only get promoted when you’re ready and apparently the bosses think you are, Payne,” Louis announces. He grabs Liam’s hands and shakes them enthusiastically. “They’ve asked me to fetch you. You’re getting your first mission.”

Liam’s eyes become huge as saucers as he hears the amazing news. His heart drops for what feels like a mile. He’s finally going to do what’s been his dream ever since Mr. Livingston had told him about the Time Agency. He’s going to travel through time.
Exhilarated doesn’t even begin to describe how Liam is feeling right now.

“Congrats man,” Zayn exclaims. He leans over the desk and bumps Liam’s shoulder with his fist, a big grin on his face. “You deserve it.”

Louis jumps from the table and turns to Zayn. “They want us to come as well. I reckon they want us to help prepare or…”

“Or they want us to go with him,” Zayn interrupts Louis. “That would be awesome.” The dark-haired boy’s gaze shifts from Louis to Liam and back.

New active agents are always accompanied on their first mission by older active agents. A young, reckless new agent can too easily do something wrong and change history forever and traveling with an older agent is supposed to prevent that.

Liam hopes Zayn is right and he and Louis are the ones who will travel with him. The mission would be even more exciting if he could do it with his two friends. That and they are two of the best agents Liam knows. They’ve caught more bad guys than the other agents, even the more experienced ones.

“Well, who knows.” Louis takes a step towards the door and tips his head sideways. “Let’s go. You know how much the bosses hate waiting.”

“We’re coming, we’re coming,” Zayn replies before rising from the chair. He takes his foam cup of coffee from Liam’s desk and make his way towards the door. Liam follows his example.

On their way to the office of their head of department, the three time agents walk past a bunch of offices just like Liam’s. Inside them are a dozen of agents dressed just like him typing out reports, writing recommendations and press releases they will send to papers as a cover for the time portals. The things they do are just as important to the Time Agency as the work the active agents do. When Liam started out here he hadn’t known, but now he does.
The halls where the active agents as well as the students train are one floor lower.
Sometimes Liam can hear the sound of heavy weights banging on the ground. The ceilings of the gyms aren’t sound proof, unlike the walls.

Liam, Zayn and Louis reach the office within three minutes. They come to a standstill in front of the door and Louis knocks on the door. A voice with a Yorkshire accents tells them to enter.

Three men in suit are sitting at a large desk at the far end of the room. Two of them are balding while the third one has an healthy head of blonde hair on his head. All three of them have stern looks on their faces.

The blonde man was the one who recruited Liam three years ago. He had approached him when Liam was still working in the Foreign Office and had told him he was chosen by the government to take part in a special project. It had sounded ominous, but in a good way, so Liam had told the other man that he was interested. Liam had never wanted to work for the Foreign Office, he had only applied for a job there because his father worked there as well. The special project had seemed to Liam as an escape from an otherwise dull job.

“Ah, agent Payne,” the bald man in the middle exclaims, smiling for a fraction of a second before schooling his face into a stern look again. He nods to Liam’s friends, who are standing to both side of him. “Agent Tomlinson, Malik.”

Louis and Zayn nod back. The greeting must be an sign they can sit down because Louis and Zayn walk towards the chairs standing in front of the desk. Liam follows their example and sits down next to Zayn. The older male hasn’t put his cup of coffee on the desk, instead he’s holding it in his hands.

“Another portal has opened,” the blonde boss tells Liam and his friends. He is leaning his head on his hands, fingers laced together. It makes him look a little less stiff and formal. “This one leads to 1522 and apparently someone thinks it’s an important enough date to travel to because one of our agents saw a man enter the portal and not come back.”

The year 1522 doesn’t ring any bells. As far as Liam knows, nothing important happened that year. No one important was born or brought to power. However, Liam knows not all things are that obvious. Maybe something minor happened that is important enough for someone to want to change it. Who knows, maybe it is something important on only a personal level.

“Mr. Stevens, Mr. White and I thought we could give this mission to a new agent and you, agent Payne, was our first choice.”

Liam is a bit disappointed that they’re giving him such an unimportant mission. He would have thought with his perfect scores on all his tests – physical as well as cognitive ones – he would be given an slightly more important first mission. Does being first in your class count for nothing?

But he knows better than to complain, so he just smiles at his bosses and thanks them. He thinks he does a good job at hiding is disappointment.

“We thought it would be a good idea if both Zayn and Louis go with you. I heard you admire them.”

Liam can’t stop a blush from creeping onto his cheeks because Zayn and Louis weren’t supposed to know. And now they do.

“Yes. Um, how long do I have to prepare?” Liam quickly asks, his voice a quiet grumble.
“You have an hour to get change clothes and supply yourself with weapons. One of the engineers will tell you were the portal is when you’re ready. I will be waiting in Liam’s office.”

The bosses don’t have much else to say, so within seconds, Zayn, Liam and Louis are standing outside the office.

“So, you admire us, hey?” Louis asks while wiggling his eyebrows. He is grinning from ear to ear, much to Liam’s embarrassment.

“Yeah, but almost all of the none-active agents do,” Liam defends himself.

“There’s no shame in marveling at our awesomeness,” Zayn tells Liam with a grin. He throws an arm around his shoulders and pinches the younger man’s side. “We are the best Time Agents after all.”

Louis adds, wrapping his arm around Liam’s waist, “Don’t worry. After this mission you will be as good as us, my dear Padawan. All you have to do is, watch and learn. This mission will go down in history.”

Louis doesn’t know just how right he is.

Notes

So, my first Liam story. I hope you guys liked the first chapter. Please, let me know your thoughts.