A Rose by Any Other Name - Short Affair - Jan 9th

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

Prompts - Witness/Black
Word Count - 355

Illya Kuryakin sighed, a little too dramatically, in an effort to tell his partner that he was not interested in hearing about his his dating exploits. If it weren’t for the fact he was stuck with Napoleon, waiting for a dead drop, Illya would have walked away by now. Solo had been talking about the latest woman for almost twenty minutes although, being a gentleman, he didn’t give any graphic details. The Russian was reaching the point of telling the American to shut up, when the woman’s name was finally mentioned.

“Misty Maple?” Illya asked, incredulously.

“It’s her stage name,” Solo countered. “No-one would go and see a dancer called Norma Rudd.”

“I do not understand why not,” Kuryakin replied. “Your name cannot shame you, but you can shame your name*.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It is something I heard in Finland,” he explained. “What I am saying is, her name does not change who she is, or what she looks like. To quote Shakespeare ‘that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet’.”

“I don’t agree,” Napoleon stated. “I think the name Misty Maple is like a costume she puts on in order to become the character of an exotic dancer. I think it allows her to get into the right mind-set. Believe me, some of the things I’ve been witness to could never be performed by a Norma.”

Illya found himself nodding in agreement to Napoleon’s argument. He had used many pseudonyms throughout his career, and some of them had indeed been a way to get himself into character. However, he chose reply, hoping against hope that Solo wouldn’t decide to illuminate as to exactly what it was which impressed him about Miss Misty Maple’s talents.

“There’s this thing she does with a black feather boa which could make a lesser man weep,” Napoleon continued, dashing his partner’s hopes.

Luckily for Illya, the courier they were awaiting appeared, forcing Napoleon to halt his reminiscences. Within half an hour, the two agents were back at HQ, where Illya made sure to be where Napoleon wasn’t for a while.


*I was once told this in a pub by a visitor from Finland when I told him my surname was embarrassing.

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Comments

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You are so very right :-)