Chapter Text
The early morning sky was grey as rain pitter pattered against the windows, though the rain wasn't what woke Francis. A warm breath tickling his head, the comforting weight of another body against his, soft lips framed by dark facial hair that tickled his skin as a kiss was pressed to his cheek. He turned his head, bringing his mouth closer to Adam's, and received a proper kiss this time. He cracked his eyes open atlast, smiling into the kiss as he shifted his body to be able to lazily drape an his arms over the other's shoulders.
“Morning...” He muttered against the other's cheeky grin.
“It's not morning yet.. Not if we don't want it to be.”
To which Francis could only reply with a chuckle as he stole another kiss. A year ago he might have scorned himself for giving in so easily to the other's whim, yet now he had become comfortable and pliant in his life with Adam, almost forgetting the troubles of the world that didn't directly involve him. So no, he didn't at all mind that his boyfriend wanted to begin the day with a healthy dose of tom foolery, already following the lazy instruction to shift so he was laying on his back, Adam's weight resting over him, cocooning him in the man's scent. He always smelled best in the mornings, still emitting warmth from their bed and a feeling of safety.
Francis smiled, pressing his lips to Adam's neck, inhaling deeply as his fingers traipsed over each bump and dip of muscle on the other's back, skirting over scars and metal fixtures alike. Before he could become too distracted by his wanderings, Adam gave a playful roll of his hips, the sudden motion shocking a gasp out of the hacker, before he laughed and delivered a well deserved slap. Adam claimed his lips once more, cutting off any remarks that may have risen with another kiss.
His carbon black hands already making to remove Francis' shirt, an old thing with a faded image only good for sleeping in. In kind the smaller of the two, though he'd argue not by much, wrapped his legs around Adam's waist, squeezing as he rolled his own hips upwards, a little personal revenge, biting the other's lower lip as he groaned in appreciation.
Sadly however, it turned into a groan of displeasure, a faint bleep breaking the illusion that they were alone in the world.
“It's Miller...” Adam said, giving Francis an apologetic look as they disentangled and he climbed out of bed, answering the call. “Jensen here.” He muttered as he left the room, making down the hallway to likely put on a pot of coffee and serve himself up one of his various cereals for the most important meal of the day.
Though disappointed that they'd been interrupted, Francis couldn't help but chuckle as he too climbed out of bed, already regretting it as the cool air hit his bed warm skin. Serves Adam right for getting caught up in the moment on a work day.
Instead of going to work and confusing his colleagues with his sated smile, he would spend the day pent up and consumed by insatiable lust. Which worked for Francis just fine.
Miller's talk must have been short and sweet, because by the time Francis joined Adam in the kitchen, he had hung up, offering the other a smile.
“Sorry about that... I have to go in early, but I'll make it up to you later.” Every time, without fail, whenever Adam felt bad about something, he always did that thing, with his eyes and his perfect face, like a dog that had been kicked. And god did Francis fall for that face every damned time.
At first he said nothing, smiling as he leant up to press a kiss to his lover's lips, his hands resting on his chest lightly... before the began to wander, down over his abdomen, fingers reaching the waistline of his slacks and tugging down ever so gently.
“You can thank me later~” He muttered, mainting eye contact with a surprised Adam as he dropped to his knees before him. Miller could wait. He was here first.
///
Francis was sitting inside one of the little window boxes, with a blanket, pillow, warm coffee, and his laptop, waiting for Adam to come home from work. It was dark now, though he left the blinds open, the dim streets of Prague a sort of macabre inspiration. He would never stop writing his script, but now it was purely hobby if anything, to fill in the hours when he had nothing better to do. If he pursued it further than that, he knew it would just be stolen and credited to someone else again.
At this moment in time however, he was lost in thought as to what would be said in the next few lines, how he wanted this particular scene to play out, when a little blue light blipped into life with a musical tone. An email. There were very few people he gave his personal contact information to, and knew that they would only really contact him if they needed his help with something. Only Malik seemed to just check in for a chat, and that was usually over the phone.
However, upon opening, he saw it was from no one. There was no indication as to who had sent the email, not even a subject title or greeting message. Just a few image files, requesting permission to be shown. He supposed it was just a spam message, or something along those lines, though it was odd that it wouldn't filter straight into his junk folder.
With a slight frown, he clicked on each image, waiting for them to load, thumb bouncing lightly above the space bar of his keyboard.
The pictures were hard to make out of course, until he could open them individually, a lot of blue, whatever was in the background, obscured by something like steam or fog?
His frown grew deeper as he tried to clear up the image, scaling in and effectively leaning closer with a slight hunch towards the screen. It was something like a coffin, with tubes connected to every part here and there. And there was a man inside, visible through a glass viewing window. He seemed familiar somehow, frost from the cryo stasis masking some of his features. Yet it almost look like.... Adam!!
A second message blipped in, the musical notes shocking Francis out of his concentration. He swallowed, unsure if he wished to open it. But a second glance at the picture, of Adam locked away in ice and sleep, he had to see, had to know.
The second message had no sender again. Nor a greeting, nor pictures. But there was a subject title this time. An eerie one if that.
HELP ME.
Another message.
HELP ME.
Blip!
HELP ME
HELP ME
HELP ME
HELP ME
HELP ME
HELP ME
He closed his laptop, pulling the battery out to end the plea for help, not even caring that he had lost the work on his script at this point, his head ringing as if the alert hadn't been silenced.
He breathed in, shaky and slow, trying to calm himself down and asses the strangeness of the situation. Adam was in trouble. And somehow, he was asking for help. Perhaps, whatever contraption he was in, didn't shut down his augs, and he was able to use the web and security systems to send an SOS. Right... so what Francis needed to do now was go to that little import company, tell that fake front agent that he knew what was really going on and that he needed to tell their boss that Adam was in trouble.... Or he could approach Shadowchild... Or even Adam's Collective contact, Vega.
But if he got into trouble on an op, then the Task force would be able to tell him what op it was and where he had been sent. Something to work with atleast. And if they denied him, then he could fall back to plan.... contact someone else.
After he remembered to breath out of course. His every fiber was telling him he should be panicking, worrying about Adam and how soon he could swoop in and save him, but he told himself he was being lenient enough by letting his hands shake this much as he locked the door on his way out, the cold air biting at his cheeks.
Though this air must be warm compared to that coffin of ice...
“Going somewhere?”
Francis startled, turning around briskly to come face to face with... Adam?
“I-I.... What...?” He felt tears threatening to reveal themselves and fall as he just stared at the other man. Adam was alright. He was safe. He extended his arm, touching his chest to see if he was real, to assure himself that he was, when instead of tactical vest, he felt something softer, more strange.
Catching up with reality, he saw it was a bouquet of flowers, a few a little bruised, and some already starting to wilt a little, an end of the day purchase before the florist closed. The box of what could only be chocolates still looking crisp and clean atleast.
“Happy Valentines Day... I would have gotten roses, but they were sold out by the time I arrived.”
“Adam... these... they're fine.” Francis smiled, relaxing atlast. It was Adam. He'd worried for nothing. “To be perfectly honest, I'd forgotten all about Valentines day...” He admitted with a chuckle, leaning up to kiss Adam briefly before he opened the door.
“Really? I thought that's what this morning was all about...” Adam grinned, Francis' cheeks heating up just a little.
“That was just a whim... A continuation of what YOU started.” The hacker remarked, removing his coat and shoes, thankful he had put them on for nothing, keeping his back to Adam now as if he were ignoring him, though if he was pissed at anyone it was himself for forgetting this sappy day for romantic commercialism. For Adam's sake he'd promised to give a damn about this sort of thing this year, and instead of doing something romantically cheesy like covering the house in rose petals and scented candles and waiting sprawled out on Adam's bed in some skimpy underwear or something, he'd been sitting in his corner writing all day... and all for naught since he'd oh so conveniently forgotten to save any of it.
The faint smell of flowers entered his bubble as Adam wrapped his arms around his torso, pressing a kiss to the corner of the smaller male's jaw. The chocolates and flowers were pressed to Francis' hands until he took them, leaning back against the broader body and closing his eyes, a smile, soft and warm and so unlike him ghosting across his lips.
“Let me shower, then I'll make dinner, and then we can finish what WE started, this time so that you get something out of it too.”
“Now how could I turn down that proposition~” Francis mused, earning a laugh from the other as he cracked his eyes open, catching a glimpse of the smile on the other's face out of the corner of his eye.
After a moment or two, Adam finally let him go, heading off to the bathroom. Francis meanwhile made to find a jar for these flowers. To atleast save them for another day or so before they completely died, setting the chocolates on the bench.
He found the perfect jug, something they never used for anything else and would serve well enough as a vase for now. He set the flowers on the bench and placed the jug in the sink, turning the tap on and letting it fill with some water, when his phone rang. Unexpected, but perhaps it was Malik calling to see how his first Valentines with Adam was going. It was utterly like her to butt in like this, but what were friends for.
When he answered however it wasn't his closest friend's bright hello that welcomed him, but a voice filtered through mechanically, to sound like he had been contacted by Billy from the Saw films. But like, female Billy.
“Francis. Wendell. Pritchard.”
“What do you want? I can assume you're the one who sent those emails?” He asked briskly, irritation in his voice.
“That I did. What did you think?”
“That you're a prankster trying to scare me, but it just isn't going to work. You'll have to try harder than that.”
“I didn't scare you, huh? You looked pretty frightened when you were leaving your apartment just then.”
Francis blinked, feeling the colour drain from his face, before scoffing, denying his paranoia victory over him.
“Adam, prank calls from the bathroom were funny half a century ago.”
“Adam... How much do you really know about him? How long have you known him? What would you do, if I told you something about him. A secret. Do you like secrets, Francis?”
“I... Who are you?”
“I'm your friend.”
No reply. He couldn't stop biting his lower lip long enough to reply.
“Would you believe me if I told you that thing in the bathroom isn't Adam Jensen? That Adam Jensen disappeared with Panchaea.”
“If... IF he disappeared then why send pictures of him in cryo stasis?”
“Disappeared doesn't specify death, Mr Pritchard. He was recovered and revived and put into stasis by a particular group that saw him as a beneficial investment.”
“Ah yes, one hundred percent believable. So tell me, what does that make the man in my bathroom then? An evil twin perhaps?”
“You jest, but I still hear the fear in your voice. He is a duplicate. A clone if you will. A sleeper agent, going about his life as he wishes until provoked in just the right way to bend to his hidden master's will.”
“Right, and where did you learn all this? And for crying out loud, who the hell are you?”
“I'm a friend. Your friend. His friend. Adam's friend. No one has been able to stop him, through force, poison or jurisdiction. Any task he has been set he has completed. My concern is that his past trials were a series of tests, and that when awoken, he will be truly unstoppable. I have been silent for a long time, observing him. Observing you. This is not a fairy tale where love will save the day and you will break his bonds to his creators. It is my hope that in freeing the real Adam, he will be able to stop his duplicate should the need arise, regardless of the enhancements the copy was implemented with.”
“This is insane, you realise. You're insane.”
“Have people not called you such before when you have sought to advise them, and then they pay for it with their lives.”
Francis didn't reply this time. Was this stalker implying he would die if he didn't do as told. When the sound of the shower cut out, Francis jumped, goosebumps rising on the back of his neck as he turned to stare at the bathroom door, eyes wide, his free hand gripping the bench so hard his knuckles were bone white.
“My Pritchard, I assure you my intent is not to frighten you. This duplicate truly believes he is Adam Jensen, and for now means you no harm. I will contact you again tomorrow. And if you choose to believe me, I will give you the information required to save Adam. For now, perhaps you should turn the tap off, and enjoy yourself. Happy Valentines Day, Francis.”
The call ended and for a time, Francis was left listening to the disconnected signal. Enjoy himself? How could he enjoy himself after that.
This person was just crazy, trying to drive a wedge between them. For some... reason???
It didn't matter. He wasn't going to let paranoia rule him any more. He had promised Adam he wouldn't. So he put it out of his mind as best he could, and when Adam sauntered into the kitchen, leaning against the wall with a smile, telling him that he loved him, his heart raced and he forgot all about the conversation.
///
“Where the fuck were you? Don't you dare go silent on me again!”
Francis' words were angry, and hurt, but he kept himself close to Adam, fingers tugging on the other's coat as he smiled like a goddamned cock head, only answering with a heated kiss of tongues and teeth, and on all the gods real or not did the hacker surrender to it, pushing Adam back towards the couch in his office, pulling his coat off with little resistance and tossing it over his chair.
Adam's augs couldn't save them however when the heel of his boot caught on a cord, and the tumbled down to the floor instead, the taller man's shoulder connecting with the corner of Francis' desk.
They were still a moment, recovering from the shock, before they both laughed, Francis laying over Adam like he were a glorified pillow. He tilted his head, inspecting the shiny black limb to see a nick, his desk having won out against Sarif industries best tech. It was faint however, barely noticeable, so he decided to ignore it, going back to what they had been originally going for. The floor would do.
///
Francis' eyes snapped open, staring at the ceiling of his and Adam's room.
A dream. A memory. Both. Neither.
He turned his head, the clock telling him it was three in the morning. But he felt wide awake. He sat up with a sigh, his loose hair falling around to frame his face as he cracked his neck,when he caught sight of Adam sleeping soundly beside him.
He couldn't bring himself to be upset at his insomnia, compared to Adam's deep sleep. Living like a semi normal person took some getting used to after all. Besides, waking up at odd hours meant he could catch private moments like this. But something was off. His shoulder... That was definitely the shoulder. Maybe his doctor, Kholer, did better repair jobs than he thought but... the mark was gone. Absent. As if it had never been, and to his knowledge, Adam never noticed it.
He swallowed, biting the inside of his cheek before sighing and laying back down beside Adam, making sure their noses were barely touching as he continued to watch him sleep.
“Stop being so irrational Frank... This is Adam. YOUR Adam.” He spoke to himself in the quiet and dark, Adam not stirring at all, even when the hacker pressed against him and willed himself back to sleep, drowning in his lover's scent.
///
“Have you chosen to believe me?”
It was midday. Adam was at work, and Francis had been pacing, waiting for the call, the mark on Adam's shoulder, or the absence thereof, tugging at his mind.
“... Assuming I did....”