Written for comment_fic on livejournal

Prompt was for M/V/S, Sam knows spies

If there's one thing I know, it's spies. I know 'em better than they know themselves sometimes.

Take Mikey. All controlled, maybe even a little uptight, always with a plan B and Plan C and pretty much a whole alphabet. All about self-discipline and precision and perfect manipulation of events. And he really believes that this is what makes him so good.

But really push his buttons, put him in an impossible spot - either impossibly bad, or impossibly good, if you know what I mean -- and you see something else entirely. All that pent-up energy, all that un-acted-on emotion - like a volcano, I'm telling you.

And that's what makes him such a good spy. Because when all the contingencies fail, and everything falls into chaos, Michael himself lets loose. Goes chaotic. And it's a beautiful thing. Which is why I love making Mikey lose control.

Victor's also a good spy. And also a beautiful thing. But it's kind of an opposites attract thing, which it's why it's so much fun when I get the two of them together.

Victor is, as the kids say, a few decks short of a casino. He makes Fiona look like the poster child for mental health. He is unpredictable, impulsive, and rash, with occasional but inconsistent strokes of brilliance. And he really thinks that this is what makes him so good, so adaptable.

But underneath, there's a solidity, a hard line of something, that makes him finish what he starts, no matter what the cost. A willingness to sacrifice when logic dictates what his emotions would rather ignore.

And that's why he's such a good spy. And that's why Mikey and I knew that when we invited him in, he would be with us 'til the end. And also why I love making him be in control sometimes, making him show how much patience and restraint he really has.

See, that's what I know about spies that they don't know about themselves. You know why they're so good at being two different people at once? Because that's exactly what they are. Inside the best spies, there's another self, an even stronger self. And if you can just get close enough to see it, I promise you, it'll blow your mind.