Chapter Text
“Just… run it by me, again?” Reginald pinched the bridge of his nose, massaging his temples as his agent explained their reasoning as to why he should let an international criminal live in his house.
“I mean you"re always wanting to keep an eye on him, aren"t you?” Phoenix was slightly nervous, they knew they were kind of pushing their luck here, and they didn"t want to force their handler into anything they strongly disapproved of.
…
But they really wanted to make this work.
“I like to keep track of my enemies from a distance, not twenty feet away where they could easily kill me in my sleep.”
Phoenix waved a hand dismissively, “Oh come on! Without the help of Zor, he"s practically harmless! Especially in the state he"s in now.”
“Hm” Reginald grunted, leaning forward onto his desk, turning the conflict over in his mind. “He was surprisingly easy to knock out…”
Phoenix nodded, full of persuasion. “Exactly! And who better to make sure he doesn"t get into any more trouble than the agent that thwarted him in the first place?”
Their handler sighed, rubbing his hand down his face. “I"m just not sure I like the idea of harboring a former Zoraxis Operative in my own walls. What if the agency finds out?”
“Well you let Roxy live here, you tell me.” Phoenix smirked, as Reginald stared at him before letting out another sigh and looking up from their desk.
“...well played, agent. Well played.”
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Juniper draped a comforter over the several blankets already covering the air mattress Phoenix had helped set up in the basement, and- honestly? It didn’t look too bad. I mean, nothing compared to the luxurious suites he had enjoyed before the peace summit, but it was sure better than the lumpy mattress at his crummy apartment. He swore he could still smell the vaguely musty sheets from here, it was practically ingrained into his nostrils. In contrast, the handler’s basement smelled pleasantly… sweet. Not in a sickening or concerning way, just like the fresh smell of air after a long rain. The floor was carpeted, the walls were painted a soothing olive green, heck, there were even some decorations loosely strung about the room just begging Juniper to set them up.
After a considerable amount of time spent hanging up the various pictures, wall hangings, and figuring out what to do with the more miscellaneous stuff that was likely just tossed down here without a second thought, he decided to rearrange the furniture, aka, the one cabinet and his makeshift bed. To fill up the space a little more, make it feel… homey. He didn’t know why he cared, it’s not like this was bound to last or anything, but still, he guessed it was nice to be organized, at the very least.
While trying to relax on his bed, he heard the door swing open revealing a lady in a black lab coat with yellow accents, and blue tinted goggles strapped to her forehead. They kept her mess of coily black hair out of her face as she made her way down the stairs. Juniper vaguely remembered her from when the hardware store where the handler had knocked him out. She seemed nice, but what was she doing barging in here?
"Phoenix told me you might need some help. They said your burns looked infected." She said as she walked down the stairs.
Juniper recoiled, he knew he hadn’t been taking the best care of his scars, but there was no way they were that bad, were they?!
“W- no they’re not!” His tone was indignant, not willing to accept help for something he’d been managing just fine for the last few months, even if it had been less than pleasant…
“Right, right” She scoffed. “I’ll just come back in a few weeks when it’s swelling and possibly in need of surgery…” She was, in fact, not coming back. Phoenix had warned her about the stubborn play-boy, and she wasn’t going to head back up those stairs until she’d at least had a look at those scars. Or else the agent would be bothering her for days about it.
Juniper scowled, but reluctantly let her inspect his scars. The last three months had eroded away most of his dignity anyways, why not let a random lady poke at his face? And if Agent Phoenix said he needed medical attention, well, he trusted them. Surely they knew quite a bit about needing medical attention, if their current state was any indicator of that.
Roxana walked over to his bedside and started by inspecting the burns. They were a little discolored, and quite oily to be honest. “What have you been putting on these?”
Juniper winced as she turned his head to look at the side, feeling incredibly indignant. “Some sort of cream a doctor gave me.”
“Well they did a horrible job. Are you sure this person was a professional?”
He rolled his eyes, “They sure acted like it.” The scientist scoffed and pulled out a notepad, but come to think of it, he didn’t remember getting too much from his brief stay at the hospital. It might’ve just been the lingering shock, but from the hazy memories he could recall, everyone in that room seemed a tad… nervous. As if… they had recognized him.
…
Well that would explain some things. But it also opened an entirely new can of worms. If they had, why didn’t they try to call the police, or some form of reinforcement? He’d been recognized a few times before, it was never pretty and always ended up with him having to make a new fake I.D. But why leave it alone? What did they have to gain? Juniper felt a familiar sense of paranoia creep back into his mind.
“If you keep squirming this is going to be a lot harder for the both of us.”
He was dragged out of his thoughts by the scientist"s mildly annoyed voice, he hadn’t even realized he was leaning out of her grasp. Begrudgingly he straightened up and tried not to wince when she brushed some sort of liquid onto the lower half of his scars. He, of course, failed, but it wasn’t his fault it was hurt like stinging nettle!
“Be careful!”
“I am being careful.” Her voice was deadpan, although it had a hint of amusement thrown in there somewhere. For being an actor that was must have been used to having his face done up, he sure was jumpy.
Of course, that might’ve been a new thing since the peace summit. She hadn’t seen much of him before his broadcast on that fateful day- besides a few of his flicks she had tolerated with Reginald-, but she could tell there was something different in the way he held himself now. She could feel it, Phoenix could feel it, Reginald wasn’t ready to admit it- even though he had permitted the setup- he still thought of him as a threat, and rightly so, but still. She had expected The Great John Juniper to be more… Great. Big and powerful, towering over you in confidence. More of that “holier than thou” attitude she had seen on the broadcast. Instead, he looked… ashamed. Like he was just tolerating himself, and maybe it was the scars, or maybe… it was deeper than the marred flesh that was still healing on the outside. Maybe there was something on the inside that needed help.
She shook herself out of her thoughts, was she really feeling sympathy for the war criminal right in front of her?
…
Not yet.
As she sealed in the hydrator Juniper hissed again, “Can you try not to tear off my skin?!”
She rolled her eyes, a tint of fondness sneaking in, “Relax, you big baby. It’s just to make sure the hydrator actually works, and doesn’t just drip off of you like some crappy halloween makeup.
“I AM NOT A-” The scientist brushed his face again and he took a deep breath, deciding to remain quiet, but the fire in his eyes remained while she put on the last layer of sealant.
After that was done, she slipped a small tracking device where his earrings had previously been, before withdrawing her hands from his face. It was something that Reginald had requested before she came down here. He wanted to make sure that if he was staying here, he was staying here, and that this was simply a necessary precaution to make sure no funny business was attempted. She had wanted to say that was overkill, but he had impersonated several heads of authority before, including Reginald himself. Better safe than sorry I suppose.
But no matter how discrete she thought she had been, Juniper inevitably noticed while they waited for the sealant to dry.
“wait a second…” He mumbled to himself as he felt an ever so slightly uneven weight on one side of his head, his eyes slowly turned to horror as he felt a piece of metal embedded in his ear. “WHAT IS THIS?!”
Roxana tensed as he started to grab at it, trying to rip it out. “Stop! You’re gonna hurt yourself!”
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!”
“It’s just-” How could she word this without justifying his outrage? “It’s… just a safety precaution.”
The actor’s eyes narrowed, “For me, or for you?”
Roxana took a breath to say something, but it fell apart before reaching her mouth, and after a moment of uncomfortably long silence, she just settled on. “For all parties involved. It’s harmless I swear."
Juniper scoffed, but rolled back onto his bed. He couldn’t believe this, he was being treated like a rabid dog. He wasn’t going to jump out of the window! Unlike a certain agent who he’d seen trying to escape bed rest.
“We"ll see about that.” He muttered, though he wasn"t quite sure what he was saying. He didn"t know what he really expected from the mad scientist with medical training, but he suspected from the look on her face- she wasn"t the only involved in this decision.
Roxana sighed as he continued to glower at her. “I guess we will.”