InsaneJournal

All Roads Lead To Berlin
Fandom: Spy Game (movie)
Characters/Pairings: Tom Bishop/Nathan Muir (my other Nathan!)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A lot of people wanted to know where Nathan Muir disappeared to, but it takes Tom Bishop to find him.
Notes: One of my favorite movies, because I'm a dork. Thought it was a little... slashy, admittedly. I wrote this AGES ago, but I had to find the chatlog I'd written it in (as I didn't save it anywhere because I'm a loser). But I have it now! Something to cross off the list of doom!



A lot of people were looking for Nathan Muir. He'd made one hell of an exit from the agency and there was wounded pride aplenty. And since he was who he was, him and that car of his were gone up like smoke. Of course, Tom Bishop had been trained by Nathan Muir. It only made some degree of sense that he'd succeed where other people would fail.

"Take that ridiculous rug off, Nathan. Fake hair? I didn't think it was your thing."

"This is Germany, Tom, they always walk around in wigs. It's a thing all the cool people do."

"Yeah, blue wigs at parties. With glow in the dark drinks. Also not your thing."

"What do you want, Tom."

Berlin. Of all the gin joints and all that. It had to be Berlin because out of all the places Nathan had seemed most in his element there. Of course, there was no East and West anymore, just a shadow of conflict and that modernist feel that only Germans could pull off. People went to Berlin because they'd lost.

"I want to know why you're so full of shit, Nathan."

Nathan chuckled at that. It was strange talking to him when it wasn't an off hour. A lot of things didn't make much sense about Nathan, and it was something that hit him in the chopper coming out of China. When he realized that Nathan'd said so many things so fervently and yet did a complete 180.

"What are you talking about, I'm always honest."

"I know it was you. I figured my head was just rattled because those Chinese bastards hit hard, but no. It's just your style to, doing something good and not having the courage to be there to accept thanks."

He didn't respond, at least not verbally. Instead Nathan got up from the chair on his quaint little Berlin patio and walked into his apartment. Right when Tom was starting to get impatient, he came back with a bottle of the only thing Nathan ever drank.

"Courageous people don't get far in the CIA, you should know that."

"Do you even believe half the shit that comes out of your mouth? Or do you just say it because you don't like talking about what you REALLY think?"

Tom had basically thrown that in Nathan's face the last time they'd seen each other and now he was doing that again. The first time he'd done it because he was pissed off, truly and absolutely. Elizabeth disappearing was too convenient, did he think he was stupid? Did he honestly think he wouldn't notice a forged note when he'd spent so long learning to do forgeries himself?

And now, now all he wanted to know was why. What the hell was so special about him that made Nathan make it personal. Because it was, or else when Tom had decided to go after her and simply make it right, not leave her to rot in some cold place in China because Nathan couldn't handle something. It had taken him months to plan it, and he'd still fucked it up.

Of course, halfway through he realized it had stopped being about Elizabeth and had become--or had always been--about Nathan. He was always trying to prove something, get him to notice something. And this time, he had gotten him to respond.

"Do you want me to explain myself? Or do you just want me to say what you want to hear. Because I don't know which one it should be with you sometimes. People always say that they want truth and when confronted with it, they hide." Nathan took a sip. "By the way, that little bit about truth, I do believe."

"Oh don't starting preaching. I'm not a kid, haven't been for a while."

"You sure make decisions like one. Pissed off you couldn't rescue her on your own?"

"No."

Why did Berlin always feel like a colorist had gotten a little heavy-handed with the blue? It was a free city now, but it felt just like the Cold War still. Made Nathan look even older, and it really just...

"Why aren't you somewhere warm, Nathan?"

"Can't afford it."

Also bullshit. Even if Nathan couldn't afford it on his own, he had like, probably a billion favors he could call in. Even some who were still in the agency. No one knew Nathan Muir, but a hell of a lot of people owed him. It was that fact that made it sting less when Elizabeth told him that she wanted to go back to Britain and face up to her crimes. Gave him enough direction to start looking.

"I want to know why you did it. And I want a straight answer and I want it now. And then you can go back to your sad little retirement and do... whatever it is you're doing."

Nathan smirked. "Which part, getting rid of your girlfriend or getting you out of China?"

Tom had to pause at that. Was he just messing with his head in order to get out of talking, or was he really offering something there?

Well, Tom had been well-trained. "Both, ass."

"Well, it's very simple, Tom. I got jealous and then felt bad for it." Nathan got up then, under some pretense of putting his glass away. He wasn't drunk, because that just wasn't what he did, his drinking never went far enough to that. But hell if Tom was just going to let him say that and walk off.

"Wait wait wait. You just stay right there. Don't MOVE." And strangely enough, Nathan obliged, his back turned to him.

Now he had to actually think about how to react to it. Of course there was something between them, you couldn't spend as much time with a person as he had with Nathan and not feel something. He figured that part of Nathan's care with him had been because he'd likely looked up the record on his father, and in some weird way used that as a way to make him into the perfect little protege.

But no, not really. It wouldn't have explained how he talked to Elizabeth, he was smiling, but everything in his eyes had stated that if she suddenly got shot in the street the next day he wouldn't have felt bad at all.

"Do you know how few people I've met that were truly honest?" Nathan asked, still standing right there. And Tom figured he might as well, because hadn't he always wanted to know who he was, hadn't he used company resources just to figure out Nathan's birthday? He might as well come up behind him and put his arms around those stiff shoulders of his. Christ, he needed to loosen up. The Cold War was over.

"I'm a boyscout, remember? Come on now, stubborn old man, let's go somewhere warm."

Nathan relaxed. "I hope you've got some kind of savings, mine's all dried up."

"I'm sure we could call in a few favors."