Hello, friends! Thanks for finding your way to my story! I hope it isn't as awful as I fear it is, but who cares if it is? I've had a blast writing this so I hope you enjoy reading it. This is the first story I've posted on FanFiction, so it would mean a lot to me if you would leave constructive criticism for me, and I'll ask you to bear with me! So, here is the first chapter…

(I do not own Kingsmen)

Elaine was not the type of person to run from things.

Well, she didn't enjoy running in any situation; unless it was towards a couture dress. But couture dress or no, Elaine stood by her belief that she was able to face obstacles head-on.

It was the morning of another fall day on Columbia Street. Ms. Muffy's flower shop display had already been set up once Elaine arrived, so there was nothing else to do but sit behind the makeshift counter and wait for customers. Thrumming her uneven nails on the counter, she dropped her chin into her hand and hummed.

Mr. Harkley gave his usual greeting to which Elaine returned as he made his way to his own stall. As it was early, the other sellers were still putting themselves together and the occasional commuter would walk through the street to browse. Shivering, she stuffed her hands deeper into the pockets of her grass-stained overalls and surveyed the terracotta pots of flowers in front of her.

Sitting idle behind the table on Columbia street was the clean part, Elaine simply stood, sold flowers, and arranged the flowers as much as she could. It was her time in the old greenhouse that left grass stains in her overalls, and she had worn these overalls to the greenhouse on more than one occasion.

Elaine had sewn them herself, so she reasoned there was no point in trying to keep them nice. Though they had been quite the challenge as Elaine usually dealt with the soft fabric of flowing dresses; not denim. But she liked to consider herself a somewhat accomplished seamstress. So there she stood in her overalls embroidered with daisies and tulips in the frigid London morning.

The crisp air reminded her of her jacket that hung beside her front door. The door that led to her cramped apartment she managed to get after she left Minneapolis.

Left; not ran.

Bouncing on her toes and surveying the people moseying by, Elaine spotted a man wearing a suit across the street, carrying a plain black umbrella.

"Hey! Mr. Gentleman!" Elaine jumped up and called from across Columbia street, nearly knocking her stool over. The dark blonde gentleman in the bold glasses and crisp Saville Row suit turned at the sound of her call.

It had rained the night before so the pavement was slick, the iron sky overcast but somehow, as he was making his way over to her, the rainy weather made him all the more attractive. But Elaine was choosing to ignore that effect; as always.

"Good morning," He greeted with a wink. He took a moment to study her flowers before leaning towards her. "What d'ya have today?"

"One of my favorites." Elaine caressed the flowers beside her. "Gladiolus."

"Dare I ask why or do I have to clear my schedule?" He teased, both hands resting on the umbrella he always carried. He was attractive and had impeccable posture so Elaine let him tease, what with that lopsided grin and blonde hair combed neatly back.

"Cheeky." She said, returning his sly smile. "First, they're pretty. Second, Gladius in Latin means sword. It's delicate and beautiful but is also strong and fierce. Like people." Elaine turned one bouquet so the fullest flowers faced outward. "It's also the flower of my birth month."

She brushed a strawberry strand of hair behind her ear, wishing she had brought a tie. And a jacket. Meanwhile, the nameless man in front of her plucked a sword from a bushel.

"Where's JB?" She may not know his name, but she knew his dog's name.

"At a friend's."

"Right! Your trip. How was that?" She asked, managing to hide a shiver by rearranging a pot in front of her. The last time she had seen him and his furry friend was Friday of last week. He had said something about going East.

Elaine turned her back for a second only to turn back to see him holding out his jacket.

"What? No!" Elaine gawked. "It'll get ruined." She crossed her arms.

"If you believe anything in this world, believe that I can get a bit of dirt out of this jacket. It has seen worse days, trust me." He said, offering her his pristine jacket. Elaine wondered what type of worse days a man in a suit could have.

She gave him a pointed look.

"My trip was fine. Always nice to get away from work for a few days." He flashed her a smile, but Elaine always felt he was talking in subtext to her.

Just as he said that a gust of frigid air rushed through the street. Elaine had no chance of hiding her shiver now.

"Jus' take the bloody jacket, love." He chided.

"Are you going to buy flowers or not?" Elaine bit back.

He gave her a look that made Elaine suspect that he was rolling his eyes mentally.

"I'll take a bouquet of swords." He decided, tucking his jacket under his arm.

"For Rosy?" Leaning over the soil peppered table between them. Nosiness was a trait she couldn't subdue, especially in manners of the heart. She had met Rosy a while ago and Elaine could see them as the perfect couple; both striding down the streets of powerful cities with their expensive, pressed suits, matching glasses and chiseled jaws.

"Roxy. And no, we've had this talk, Elaine." He feigned seriousness, but his sly smile gave him away.

Rolling her eyes, Elaine tied together a bouquet of the purple flowers and put his money in the register.

"How come you know my name, and I somehow only know the name of your dog and girlfri- excuse me- ladyfriend." Elaine accused. "We've known each other long enough and I don't think I can trust you anymore, Mr. Gentleman."

He smirked.

"I like being mysterious." He said, bringing his umbrella up and setting it on his shoulder as he made a funny face. "In fact, mystery is my middle name."

Elaine rolled her eyes and failed to hide her smile.

"Mmmkay. Well, Mr. Gentlemen Mystery Man, I don't know when we'll have these again so enjoy them before they wilt."

He agreed, bringing his umbrella down again before giving his usual farewell. And then he turned and went on his way.

"Just so you know, it's a new policy that every customer needs to introduce themselves so don't bother coming back without a name tag." She called out before he was too far away. "You may need to find a new flower vendor."

He turned and gave her a handsome, toothy smile.

"Like that will bloody well happen!"

Elaine laughed as she attempted to send him a glare. Once he turned again to walk away she shouted again.

"I hope Roxy enjoys the flowers!"

"Goodbye, Elaine!" He called back with a wave farther down the street.

Once he had gone, Elaine noticed too late that his jacket sat neatly folded on the table with one flower set on top.

Giving a heavy sigh, Elaine could stop her heart from fluttering as she picked up the jacket and slid her arms in. It was much too big for her, but warmth encased her and the cold fall breeze no longer bothered her.


"Here." Eggsy sat the Gladiolus bouquet in front of Roxy.

"What is this?" She raised an eyebrow. "I swear if you're confessing your love I'll shoot you."

The conference room was long and overhung with a high ceiling with walls adorned with old portraits of previous Kingsmen. Eggsy personally thought the green floral walls between oak doors was a tad out of taste, but as the gentleman, he was slowly turning into; very, very slowly, he never spoke up about it.

"I walked through Columbia street to get to work and I thought these could spruce up the old place a bit." Eggsy said, settling into a sturdy chair beside her as the other Kingsmen filed into the room.

"Just casually walking through the other side of London that's 40 minutes out of your way for flowers," Roxy scoffed. "Sure. And the uniform usually includes a jacket."

Eggsy remembered that he had left his with Elaine. He wished he would have been able to see her wearing his jacket over those adorably embroidered overalls.

"I was a bit warm today. And they have nice flowers and it just so happens that I was already in that part of town," Eggsy defended.

"And I'm sure the pretty ginger flower girl had nothing to do with it. You know, for a professional spy, you're a terrible liar."

Eggsy grumbled as one of the entering Kingsmen distributed tablets.

"Does she still think we're together?" Roxy whispered.

Most of the agents were present and the conference was started soon.

"Of course," Eggsy whispered back.

The clock struck nine and Merlin commenced the meeting. The long table running down the room was sparse of Kingsmen as Valentine's attack had yet to be fully amended. The elite Secret Service had yet to replace Degore, Bors, Tristan, Brunner, and Hector, leaving only the six remaining Kingsmen in their wake. Bedivere had fallen in last year's attack but had fully trained in his replacement before the unfortunate events.

Sitting at one end of the table, Eggsy surveyed the surviving Kingsmen, both thinking of his own recruitment and the need to hunt down his own, He didn't even know where to start. Roxy sat next to him, her hair pulled back into a tight bun with Percival next to her, then Kay to the other side of the table with Gawain and Bedivere.

Eggsy had worked with Kay and Gawain closely this past year and he knew Roxy and Percival quite well, but Bedivere was the most distant agent. The previous Bedivere did a shining job of training the present Bedivere because the current namesake of the Medieval knight sat poised in his chair listening to Merlin like a statue.

Eggsy didn't trust him.

"Our next matter is that of Ms. Daniella," Merlin brought up a surveillance photo of a girl, no older than early 20's wrapped up in a heavy black coat and a scarf in a cold, frozen city. If he had to guess, the architecture and weather placed the girl somewhere in Russia. The photograph was taken from across the icy street. The sky was an iron grey.

She looked into the distance, her eyes hollow, face shallow.

"We have little intel on Ms. Daniella and even less on the organization she is tied up in. As you are all aware, Callisto is the terrorist organization responsible for the numerous attacks throughout Europe including isolated bombings in Beijing, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, and New York. Fortunately, while they have proven impossible to infiltrate, Ms. Daniella warned us of the attempted bombings in both Milan and Kiev as well as identifying several key influential members of Callisto."

As Merlin listed off the infected corporations and exposed players of international terrorism, Eggsy stared at the picture. The girl buried deep in the dark wool in the cold maze of the nameless city reminded him of someone. He just didn't know who.

"Is she in protective custody?" Eggsy spoke once there was a break in Merlin's speech.

"No. We received the information in the form of an anonymous tip. We traced the tip to Ms. Daniella and Bedivere made contact with her, though she made it clear she wanted to stay where she was."

"Unfortunately," Bedivere mumbled.

From the opposite end of the table, Eggsy could see the regret hiding in the corners of his eyes, though he feigned composure.

"Unfortunate, indeed," Merlin said, looking back at the surveillance photo. "Three months ago, Ms. Daniella disappeared. There are no traces of her that we can find, however, we are certain that Callisto is not behind her absence." Merlin brought up another surveillance photo, this one of a tall, shaggy man in a beige pinstripe suit with an obnoxious know-it-all smirk.

"Ms. Daniella was married to Devron. We've long suspected the illusionist of having ties to Callisto but these suspicions were confirmed by both Bedivere and Evie. A month after her disappearance, Devron posted an order that his wife be brought back to him. In any condition. We have seen glimpses of Devron's superior, but much is still in the shadows."

Merlin brought up another photo, this one grainy and pixelated of a partial figure stepping into a building.

"Can you flip back to the photo of Evie?" Eggsy asked.

Merlin did, continuing to assign missions to the six Kinsmen in the room. First Percival, then Bedivere, Lancelot, Kay, and Gawain, but Eggsy wasn't focused on the sorted missions but on the girl in the snowy streets. She looked so cold and isolated. He knew her. He had seen her, spoken to her, but Eggsy couldn't figure it out. It was something about her hair or her nose or that dark freckle just below her left eye.

"Galahad, are you listening?" Merlin snapped.

It wasn't until he imagined the snowy streets melting away in place of bushels of flowers and broken pots and dirt peppered endearingly over rosy cheeks that Eggsy realized that he was looking at Elaine. The cold, lost girl staring through the frigid Russian city was the flower girl on Columbia street.

"Feckin' A!" Eggsy cursed.

Bedivere raised an eyebrow the exact moment Merlin snapped his head towards Eggsy. Roxy kicked his shin.

"Something to add, Galahad?" Merlin asked.

"Who does tha' look like?" Eggsy asked Roxy.

"Eg-Galahad, this isn't professional," Roxy reprimanded under her breath.

Merlin agreed.

"No, jus' look."

Roxy sighed, turning to the photograph. Merlin mumbled something about the disintegration of cultural articulation in millennial knights as Eggsy waited and watched the realization dawn in his fellow Kingswoman's eyes.

"The flower girl?" Roxy asked incredulously.

"Yeah, Elaine." Eggsy said. "Merlin, she's here, in London. Evie Daniella. She goes under the name Elaine and she jus' moved to London three months ago. She has a different haircut an' her hair is reddish instead of blonde, but I bet my life it's her."

In a rare moment, Eggsy saw Merlin astounded, as were the other Kingsmen. Especially, Eggsy noticed, Bedivere.


"Are you certain, Galahad?"

"I've met her as well, Merlin, it's definitely her," Roxy spoke up.

Merlin nodded.

The room had emptied since the revelation as both Percival and Gawain had urgent matters abroad and Bedivere was looking through local surveillance.

"What is her story?"

Glasses on, Eggsy flipped through the pages of intel on Callisto and the other documents on Devron, Evie, and the fractions of glimpses they caught of the players. He looked back up at Merlin.

"She moved from Minneapolis three months ago. Wouldn't tell me why, but it was apparent she was hidin' something," Eggsy said.

Bedivere reappeared, carrying a snapshot of what Eggsy assumed to be Elaine. Or rather Evie.

"Facial recognition confirms it's her." He seated himself at the opposite side of Eggsy.

"Galahad, this is your mission now. We need more intel from Ms. Daniella and her safety is in the crosshairs. Bedivere, you are to steer clear of the asset. No need to scare her off. If worse comes to worst, we'll take her under our custody but I want her to willingly give information. She has before."

All Kingsmen agreed.


After the meeting, Eggsy left straight for the shooting range. Firing off a few rounds, he took off his headgear to reload.

"You're going to wrinkle your suit," Roxy said, approaching the stall beside him.

"Like it hasn't been through worse," He filled the rounds.

"What's bothering you?" Roxy asked before she fired her own rounds.

"This whole bloody thing. You've met Elaine-"

"Once," she said, setting her gun on top of the counter.

"Yeah, but you know how happy she is. All those flowers, her smile. The girl in the photo wasn't her. All dull and cold."

"That's probably why she ran," Roxy said between shots.

"To a flower boutique? In the middle of London? I dunno. Somethin' jus' doesn't add up." He said.

Roxy scoffed and leaned against the wall beside him.

"Eggsy, you were the one that recognized her. Why are you second guessing the facts?"

He lowered his gun to think. Elaine's long, strawberry hair and easy smile flashed in his mind. Her bright eyes were incomparable to those of the stark blonde in the cold photograph. Unable to respond, Eggsy turned back to the cutouts backed against the far wall and emptied everything he had.

"She works Sunday evenings, I may be able to catch her tomorrow."

Roxy nodded, focusing on her own rounds.


To Lioni Williams: Thanks! Sorry for deleting and then reposting, I just needed to make some major rewrites, which I believe make the story more comprehensible. Thank you for sticking around!

To Kaayrakoi: I'm glad you like the start! Let's hope I can follow through! I am also hoping the fandom will pick up again, but I also kind of enjoy small fandoms.

To Guest: Woot! I'm glad you like it!

To EviColt: Thank you! I love to get constructive criticisms as you've given me and I've fixed what you've pointed out. I'll warmly welcome any more that you have!

To Harleyquinn87: I'm glad you found my story and I hope it keeps your attention!