Ready to Start

Fandom(s)
Now You See Me (2013)
Category
F/M
Relationships
Alma Dray/Dylan Rhodes
Tags
Episode Tag, Character Study
Words
425
Date
2013-08-04
Originally posted
https://archiveofourown.org/works/911503

Summary

The key sinks into the murky water of the river, and Alma is left with her own sinking feeling that she's just promised to keep the secrets of a man she doesn't know at all.

Notes

Title is from the song by Arcade Fire.

I kept forgetting about this fic and then finding it in my Works in Progress folder, which is why it's being posted way too late to be topical. I also only saw the film once, so I apologise for any canonical errors.

The key sinks into the murky water of the river, and Alma is left with her own sinking feeling that she's just promised to keep the secrets of a man she doesn't know at all.

He looks the same but different, somehow. More relaxed - an unnoticed tension released from the set of his shoulders. He's a little more smug than she would prefer, but she supposes he is entitled to it.

"What happens now?" she asks.

He shrugs. "I'm suspended from the Bureau until they figure out who to blame for the Four Horsemen mess."

Alma looks at him closer, startled. "You do not think they will fire you."

"I hope not, because then I'd need to find something else to do. At the moment becoming a professional Robin Hood is looking pretty tempting." He gives her a wry smile. "I've got the taste for it, you see."

She purses her lips. "I did not agree to keep that secret. And I do not wish for you to, as you say, play hard to get."

"You'd chase me?" he asks, delighted. "Be the Javert to my Valjean?"

"No," she declares. "I would catch you much sooner."

He looks at her gravely. "Perhaps you would. Then it's settled, I won't become a thief."

"And your... apprentices?"

"They have their own decisions to make." He looks down into the river again. "I don't imagine the FBI will fire me. I had a pretty decent closure rate, before this."

"I know." Off his look, she continues. "I read your file before I met you, of course. I was excited to work with you - you had a way of seeing through to the heart of the problem." Alma snorts. "Which is why it was so frustrating that you were such a pig-headed fool when we worked together."

He laughs. "I suppose I deserve that."

"I wanted to slap you many times," she tells him seriously.

"Sorry," he says, although he doesn't sound sincere. His fingers drum on the railing for a moment. "I've spent a long time planning this. Now that it's over, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel."

"Free," she says. "You are free of your father's mistakes, and now you can choose your own path."

"But how do you live, without something to work towards?"

"One day at a time," she says. She holds out her hand. "Come. You are in Paris. I will bet there is something I can show you that will surprise you."

He cocks his head and smiles. "OK. Surprise me."


End Notes

Title is from the song by Arcade Fire.

I kept forgetting about this fic and then finding it in my Works in Progress folder, which is why it's being posted way too late to be topical. I also only saw the film once, so I apologise for any canonical errors.


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