You'll Never Know My Name but You Can Call Me R {Phan AU}

You'll Never Know My Name but You Can Call Me R

"You realise what happens, Mr Lester, when you sign this document?" the woman, who only gave her name as M, said "your name is wiped off the system and you no longer exist, you will become R"

"R".

It rolled off Phil's tongue and he swallowed. To give up everything for a job which that didn't really have description or much of a fail safe. He wanted to do this.

"I'll sign"

He remembered signing his name for the last time at the age of 24 as Phil Lester.

The woman smiled at him and held out her hand. He took it and shook her hand with now a small degree of confidence.

"Welcome R, to MI6"

***

The first time he started coding was he was around 10, when he was bored one day and decided that there were some things on the home computer that needed adjustment. He improved its efficiency by 15% by the time he was 12 and managed to hack the school website when he was 13 with the words Amazing Phil written everywhere as some sort of childish status symbol. He hacked a few other search engines when he was a bored 15 years old with nothing to do. It was strange how easy it was to hack them and tweak certain things as something to laugh about, not to seriously consider as a job. But as his hacking and coding got better, so did his business as a hacker. Some people noticed the innate talent he had for it as they saw his fingers fly across the keys, dancing to a tune very few could understand. They made him hack Facebook for a few hundred quid to adjust posts that made others look less than favourable and even got him get addresses of certain people. Phil never really thought about what he was doing or about the end result. It was the sheer thrill of knowing he could get anywhere in the nethersphere of the internet with a few lines of code; all with a few cups of coffee in his system and Muse blasting through his headphones. He used coffee shops, not chains as they could trace his laptop, to do his coding and met clients on side streets and busy squares. That was his life going through university doing Computer Science at an almost boring pace. He needed something else than just theory, he needed the results.

Until the day he decided he was going to hack MI6. It was shockingly easy for a secret service. And the next day he had men in suits at his door demanding he come with them, to see someone. That was the day he met his boss. She didn't give her name but offered her initial, M. she told him "no one had hacked MI6 like the way he did". She threatened prison and possible charges of treason against the state. Phil saw in her eyes that day that she realised he could be of use to the service. Even him, with his weird emo hair and bizarre tendencies. He was offered the position of second in command of Q Branch. And the rest they say is history. If you can find it, that is.

***

3 years later

"007 if you're not going to listen to the most basic instructions I will send you on your next mission with a bubble gun and blu tack".

It had been a frustrating day at Q branch. Phil leant against one of the work benches lining the main console and watched the events unfold. He had handled a few missions with the infamous agent himself and knew exactly what Q was feeling. The new(ish) Quartermaster was around the same age as him matching both intelligence and annoyance with 00 agents perfectly. M had also changed around the same time as Q and Phil would always miss the woman who gave him the only job which meant he could hack into a worldwide terrorist's bank account while still nursing his first cup of coffee. He was bought back by Bond's chuckle over the comms.

"You love me really" 007 shot back. Q could only let out an exasperated sigh and continue to type and mutter under his breath "Unfortunately". Phil grinned and started to walk back to his workstation. It was MI6's worst kept secret of Q and Bond being a lot more than work colleagues. Q had stopped Bond's sleeping around by simply standing up and answering back with enough sarcasm and wit to put the agent in place. They flirted back and forth over the comms, even with most of Q branch present. More than once Q came in with angry red marks on his neck, claiming the Quartermaster as the 00's partner. It was also a given that if either were flirted or propositioned the person would have to be prepared for their life to turn into a living hell before they thought of doing it ever again. Phil supposed they took some gleeful pride in getting the others attention and intended for it to stay that way.