Fic: Loyalties (Generation Kill)

[crime_and_ink]

Title: Loyalties
Rating: G
Word count: 519
Disclaimer: This is based on the depiction of the characters in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill. No offence is meant to the real men.
Characters and pairings: Brad Colbert, Nate Fick; Colbert/Fick
Summary: Brad steals from a corrupt system.
Note: For the prompt ‘government’ on my au_bingo card.

Every Tuesday, without fail, Captain America holds a meeting to discuss how they are government official s and how they should be able to stop a handful of people from stealing equipment from the bus station.

Some Tuesdays it takes most of Brad’s energy to resist telling Captain America that most of the people who are stealing from the station are the people who work there. It isn’t even difficult to get things out of the building. Brad’s been talking walkie talkies from the building since months after he started working there and half of the wires he gave Ray were taken from the split radios, television and unidentifiable electronic devices in the basement.

The only reason Brad attends most of the meetings isn’t because he’ll lose his job if he doesn’t, but because it’s a chance to see Nate alone when they’re working. Nate spends most of his time either at the other end of the bus station or patrolling the arrivals section, even walking the perimeter if he’s really pissed off Encino Man.

The offices at the back of the bus station are never used, but Brad once used one of his breaks to change the locks on one of them. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

The only windows are high on the wall, letting in light but not letting anyone see out of them. The desks on one side of the office are covered with paperwork that was probably done years ago but never filed. Nothing is ever filed here. Overtime slips, reimbursement for injuries or loss of property while at work, missing persons reports.

The trunk of Brad’s car is full of everything he can strip from the building without it being too obvious. There are small panes of glass, copper wires, radios, walkie talkies that Encino Man and Captain America are too retarded to think about fixing.

“You’re late,” Brad says, and it isn’t a complaint, merely an observation. Nate locks the door behind him and hands Brad another key. It’s the spare key to his car.

“Ray should be able to get some use out of the three radios they wanted to put in the dumpster,” he says, and he sounds every bit as long suffering as Brad feels.

Surrounded by morons, turning people from small towns where there’s no electricity or running water, and most of the people in the city aren’t much better off.

“Do we have a plan?” Brad asks, rubbing at the ink that’s stained his wrist, a perfect copy of Nate’s signature on the sheet that Encino Man ordered them to sign.

Nate looks younger in the sunlight that washes over him when he moves to stand in front of Brad.

“Of course.”