1 A Complication at Work

Harris found Joshua Alcott in a book shop, because that was how Merlin liked to engineer things. Joshua was using the little pocket money he had to buy a picture book for his little sister, which wasn't the sort of thing that Harris would have expected after reading the rather slim file that had been put together on Joshua by the teen division and then left gathering dust for several years. The teen division had evidently not understood Joshua very well, which was why- according to Merlin, anyway- files were no substitute for something a little more hands on.

When he'd passed Harris the file in question, Merlin had said that this one came from upstairs- way upstairs- and that this young man had had more than his fair share of trouble and that he needed a little more love in his life.

Watching Joshua buy that picture book, Harris thought 'yes.'

Joshua's aura, on the other hand, said 'no.'

When Harris became whatever he was- a cupid, an angel, a celestial matchmaker, the name had never mattered a great deal to him- he had, like all of his colleagues, been given a particular purview. It might have been something to do with the code-name they gave him at the same time- Cionus- but Harris's charges tended to be people who had been burned, often many times, but who still had a sort of innocence in their hearts and who deserved to be matched as much as anyone, if not more.

So when Harris looked at Joshua and saw one of the greyest auras he had ever beheld- at least on such a young person, since it often took age and perhaps the loss of someone very special for a mortal to get that jaded- it was something of a shock. It was true that people who weren't built for that kind of love looked grey to Harris; he could only see romantic potential, so it was those in the branches that maintained platonic and familial relationships who would be able to see everything those people had to offer. They weren't Harris's job.

Harris's job was to find Joshua someone to fall in love with, and Merlin wouldn't have assigned him unless that was actually something that Joshua needed.

Of course, Merlin also probably wouldn't have assigned Harris if it was going to be easy.

Watching Joshua walk up to the cash register, Harris quietly ground his teeth. If anyone but Merlin had delivered Joshua's case to him, Harris would have thought that his personal connection to the Alcott family had gone unnoticed- but it 'was' Merlin, so Harris suspected that it was actually precisely why Merlin had assigned Joshua to him. Harris had matched Joshua's parents, twenty-six years ago now, and it had been some of Harris's best work. To see that Dylan's son had fallen through the proverbial cracks and ended up like this… Harris wasn't exactly filled with general goodwill at the moment.

When Joshua left the shop, Harris followed him for a time as he usually would a charge. Harris noticed that Joshua had a wary way of carrying himself that would most likely not lend itself to serendipitous meetings on the street. The thought was off-handed only, since there would be no meetings at all until Joshua's aura had at least a little color in it, but it was sufficiently distracting that Harris didn't at first notice when Joshua came to an abrupt halt.

Harris actually collided with him, and Joshua gripped him by the lapels and dragged him into the nearest alley, which was mercifully empty.

To say that Harris was too surprised to react at first would have been a grave understatement. He wasn't literally invisible, because he did sometimes need to interact with mortals to do his job, he was just unnoticeable. People- the particular charge he had been assigned to most of all- were meant to see him and yet never actually process his presence. Unless he showed up in their houses- which a gentleman would never do, of course- they would ignore him and just get on with their lives.

And yet here Joshua was, closer than anyone had been to Harris since- well, since he was mortal, and that was long enough ago that Harris could hardly remember it- snarling, "Why are you following me?"

"I'm not," Harris lied quickly.

Joshua rolled his eyes. "Look, I ain't an idiot. I saw you see me in there. I saw you recognize me."

From the picture in Joshua's file, naturally, he had. Harris should have been thinking farther ahead than this, coming up with a better explanation, but he was actually finding it rather difficult to think at all at the moment. He hadn't been touched by anyone in so long, hadn't done anything but go from charge to charge, lingering on the edges of the world but never actually a part of it, that he sometimes forgot about his physical body altogether. It was impossible to forget about it, though, with that smaller but undeniably strong form pressed up against him like that. Joshua was 'warm,' that was mainly what Harris was thinking while he should have been coming up with a cover story. So very warm.

When Harris didn't produce an explanation, Joshua continued: "'I' don't recognize 'you'- a fact which don't endear you to me, by the way. But wherever you think you know me from you don't. I don't do that stuff anymore."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Harris finally managed to say. He had an idea, of course- Joshua's less than legal activities were just about the only thing that had been well-documented in the part of the file concerning the last five years of his life. He dealt drugs off and on and when he- or perhaps more accurately his family- had been truly desperate he had had sex for money. It was to be expected that that, at least, be highlighted in his file, since it could affect his love life in a myriad of ways. Still, Harris felt enough genuine confusion about the whole situation that he thought it would carry the lie. Joshua seemed to believe him at last, which in turn seemed to give him pause. Harris jumped to use the opening. "Anyway," he suggested, "maybe I thought I recognized you and then realized that I was mistaken."

Joshua did consider that for a moment, at least. He shook his head. "Not buying it."

Harris let his shoulders slump a little in Joshua's grip, searching for a better answer. Eventually he had to settle on the only one he could think of. "Your name is Alcott, right?" he said.

"Yeah." Joshua looked even more suspicious. "Who the fuck are you?"