Prompt: Cathartic shower/bath

Summary: Their job isn’t an easy one, and some days are harder than others.

Cross-posted to AO3

It was 3 AM, and the shower was running.  Napoleon sat on the couch, listening to the
water running.  It had been a sleepless
night for the both of them, after their last mission—a decidedly somber one, as
Napoleon and Illya had been assigned to deal with the aftermath of a THRUSH
attack on a small village—there had been no signs of it happening, no chatter
that would have alerted them to it, and no way for them to have prevented it.

The carnage had been difficult for both of them to witness,
but Illya especially had been forcefully reminded of his boyhood days during
the war in Kiev.  Upon returning to New
York, they didn’t even bother to try to sleep—if it had come, it would have
been filled with nightmares, anyway.

Illya had gone in for a shower after arriving home, leaving
Napoleon with the cat in the living room.
Finally, Illya, now in a bathrobe, his hair still wet, walked in and sat
down on the couch beside Napoleon, sighing deeply.

“Didn’t help much, did it?” Napoleon asked.

“No,” Illya said.  “How
long was I in there for?”

“Hour and a half almost.”

“Mmh.  There should
be some hot water left, if you want to take one.”

“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass,” Napoleon said.  He passed a hand over his forehead.  “I think I’m just too tired to move.”

“Tired… physically?”

“No, not physically—tired of this,” Napoleon said.  “But we’ve got to keep at it—we can’t let
THRUSH keep getting away with things like this.”

Illya gave him a long look.

“…How can you keep positive in the face of all of this?” he
asked, after a while.  “We see so much
devastation on our missions, and yet, you seem convinced that we are able to
improve things.”

“Well, you have to agree we’re keeping things from getting
worse.  We’re fortunate enough to be in a
position that allows us to do that.”

Illya conceded this.

“Even so…  Do you not
find it draining?”

“Of course I do,” Napoleon said.  “It’s incredibly disheartening.  Sometimes, even I ask myself what the point
of it is.”

“And do you get an answer?”

“Yeah—if not us, then who?
I don’t know if I could settle for not doing what I could.  And I think you feel the same way—because you
wouldn’t have joined U.N.C.L.E. if you were truly cynical that things could
never change.”

Without saying a word, Illya silently admitted that
Napoleon was right.

“But some days are harder than others,” he concluded.

“Some days are,” Napoleon agreed.  “And that’s when we rely on each other to
help us through it.  Because we’re a great
team—you and me.”

He reached out to Illya, who took his hand.  Baba Yaga paused and added her paw to their
hands.

Despite themselves, they both managed a smile at this.

“…And kitty makes three,” Illya added.

Sleep was out of their grasp tonight, but they would
continue on.

Prompt: Surrender

Summary: Part 2 of 2.  When you’ve got the perfect partner, the impossible becomes possible.

Cross-posted to AO3

Illya was certainly willing to trust whatever plan Napoleon
had to get them out of their predicament—ten THRUSHies meant that their enemies
were, no doubt, expecting them to tire and surrender.  And while going quietly might end up working
in their favor temporarily, it was a last resort.

“What is your plan?” Illya whispered.

“That we fall back on the element of surprise,” Napoleon
said.  “Right now, with everyone being
too scared to move, they are expecting us to stand quietly like this until we
give up.”

“But, we won’t.”

“We won’t,” Napoleon agreed.  “If we can find a way to distract them for
just a moment, we can get the drop on them and tranquilize them.  And, knowing you, you probably placed some of
your special fireworks before we ended up surrounded, didn’t you?”

“Mmh, you know me well…”

Napoleon smirked.

“I knew I could count on you.”

“There’s just one small hiccup,” Illya said.  “The charges aren’t timed; they need to be
activated by a detonator—and the activation mechanism is hidden in my
watch.  If I move my right hand to my
watch, the movement will likely cause them to react.”

“My right hand is right near your left,” Napoleon
said.  “Just tell me what to do.”

Their arms had been at their sides, and Napoleon now
slightly moved his right hand to touch Illya’s watch.”

“Just turn the dial a quarter-turn.”

Napoleon did so, and, a few yards away, an explosion went
off.  As they’d hoped, all ten THRUSHies
turned to face the direction of the explosion.

They grabbed their Specials and, still back-to-back,
flawlessly turned around in sync together, each tranquilizing 5 THRUSHies in
rapid succession, with each pair of shots occurring almost simultaneously.

“Well, that went well,” Napoleon grinned.

“That, it did,” Illya said, satisfied.  He wouldn’t get emotional now, but he was
very glad that Napoleon had been here, as he knew he wouldn’t have pulled off
this maneuver with anyone else.

“Well, let’s gather these THRUSHies up into the nearest
U.N.C.L.E. cage,” Napoleon said.  “I’m
sure you’re hungry after that standoff.”

“Very,” Illya agreed, smiling now.

They knew each other well—and that was what made them such
great partners.