Title: Age of the Geek
Fandom: Kingsman
Rating: G
Length: 515
Pairing: Merlin/Roxy, Harry/Eggsy
Content notes: none
Summary: Three things that change for Merlin after Valentine + one thing that doesn't.

There had been a time when Merlin's new batch of recruits wouldn't know a motherboard from a Doctor Who set prop, but that time was long since past.

Everyone, from the high schooler whose education was interrupted to the grandparent who's found retirement to be much more hectic than they'd planned knew the basics after V-Day. People who would've asked, "What the hell's a CPU?" now asked about its size instead, and what company made it.

In a way, Merlin was satisfied by the fact that he had to do less teaching.

It also meant that people were much more likely to notice electronics than in years past.

.

A couple months ago, the top-right corner of Merlin's glasses was taken up by a miniscule video feed and sound and temperature data from his home. It wasn't that it was a prime spot for break-ins, but rather that Merlin found comfort by glancing at it on occasion, when life in Kingsman made him want to throw his hands up and quit. There was always a home to go back to, one that even Arthur didn't know about.

Now, it had been replaced with the most non-invasive data about his girlfriend's state and location that he could gather.

"You creep," Roxy had said the first time she'd found out. And then she'd added a geolocation to his array. It wasn't always on; she'd turned it off last week, when Merlin was mostly positive she'd been buying Christmas presents.

.

Harry had been a constant companion over the past decades, but as Eggsy handed him another beer and said, "Stop worrying already," Merlin had a feeling his skills at making new ones weren't as rusty as he'd always thought.

And then he made a face. "Of all the things the new recruits could talk about, their instructor's hot girlfriend shouldn't be one of them. Don't they know there are cameras everywhere?"

"Dunno, maybe they don't care. You should take pride in dating a hot young thing half your age," Eggsy said. He spoke with a slightly dubious tone that clearly said he mostly believed in the validity of this fact only for other, older, people since people half his own age were twelve year olds instead of attractive sexual beings.

Youth, Merlin thought, rolling his eyes behind his glasses. "Roxy is not half my age."

"Fine. Ten--no, fourteen years difference," Eggsy said.

Merlin would've wondered which private files he'd had access to, but Harry had probably spilled. Probably while trying to convince Eggsy their own age difference was too large, the ass.

"Have you worn Harry down yet?"

"Working on it," Eggsy said, grinning.

Merlin would've offered to help, but it looked like Eggsy had it in hand.

.

Merlin stifled an extremely unprofessional sneeze as a group of dogs was brought in. The final test had been altered since Chester's death, but it had been decided that the dogs were a good opportunity to judge the candidates' responsibility and humanity.

The fact that Merlin was terribly allergic to the damn things was a real shame.