A/N: I got into Milo Murphy's Law a short time ago, and have been completely hooked. My personal favorite things about the show is the pistachio guys. Vinnie Dakota and Balthazar Cavendish are just awesome. It's a shame they're not in all of the episodes, but it makes any episode they are in all the more interesting.

Disclaimer: I am not Dan or Swampy. This show and these characters are not mine, I just like to play with them.

Vinnie Dakota woke up to the sound of the apartment door opening and being slammed shut again. The lights were turned on, which caused him to burrow deeper under the thin blanket to block out the brightness. His head was feeling heavy, and he really wasn't in the mood to get up quite yet. Vinnie just wanted to block out all light and sound and go back to sleep. The light was easy enough to block out, he just had to cover his eyes. A blanket did nothing to get rid of the sound of his partner grumbling and complaining.

"What's the assignment this time?" Vinnie asked with yawn. He was still tired, but he knew there was no point in going back to sleep now.

"Pistachios." Balthazar said the word almost venomously. Vinnie would have found his partner's new hatred towards the green nuts hilarious if he wasn't also kinda annoyed that they weren't getting any new missions. They were time travelers, for crying out loud! There had to be other things they could prevent that were cooler than pistachios.

And he was tired of his partner always complaining about how he wasn't saving the world.

"Alright." Vinnie dragged himself out of the bed and stretched. He turned to his partner. "Hey, why did you leave so early to get our assignment?"

"Early?" Balthazar raised and eyebrow and crossed his arms. "It's nearly noon."

"Whoa, really?" Vinnie may enjoy his sleep, but even he didn't sleep that much. And yet he was still tired. How weird. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I did try to wake you up." Balthazar sounded annoyed again, but Vinnie didn't think much of it, because he didn't think he had ever seen Balthazar not annoyed about something. "You refused to move, so an hour ago I just left to get the assignment myself."

Vinnie felt like he should be annoyed about this whole thing, they were supposed to be partners, after all, which meant they should be doing their work together. But it wasn't like Balthazar had done the actual assignment without him. And that extra hour of sleep had actually been pretty nice.

"Where are we going today?" Vinnie asked as he grabbed his jacket and looked around for his glasses, which he had misplaced. It was almost funny how often Vinnie ended up losing his glasses. Their apartment was so small, one would think it would be impossible to lose anything in there, but somehow he managed it all the time.

Balthazar frowned slightly and handed Vinnie his glasses which had been sitting in the otherwise empty fishbowl (why did they even have one of those?) "I'm going to the pistachio warehouse to make certain that the next shipment arrives. You are to stay here and rest." His tone was final and it was clear he did not want any arguments about this. Well, too bad, because an argument was exactly what he was going to get.

"Are you kidding me?" Vinnie swung his arms out in exasperation. "Why are you makin' me stay behind?"

"Because you're ill." Balthazar said dryly. "You may be lazy, but I've never seen you sleep in this much, and yet you still look exhausted."

"So I had a rough night's sleep, what does that prove?" Vinnie really didn't want to be left behind like he was some child who couldn't handle himself.

"You were also complaining last night about not feeling well." Balthazar reminded him, which Vinnie didn't really have a response to because it was true. His stomach had been bugging him, he had felt sore from the day's mission and had just wanted nothing more than to crash from exhaustion.

"I'm feeling better now though." Vinnie protested, which was kinda true. His stomach didn't hurt anymore, but his head felt really heavy. Even now he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open, but that didn't mean that he was sick. Vinnie figured he was probably just tired still, nothing more.

"And," Balthazar continued as though Vinnie hadn't even spoken up. "You haven't so much as mentioned breakfast since you woke up."

Vinnie frowned when he realized that was true. Usually the first thing he did after waking up was ask when breakfast was, but it hadn't even crossed his mind until Balthazar had brought it up. Maybe he really was sick.

"Look, it's not that big a deal." Vinnie tried to shrug it off. "I'm just tired, ya know? Whatever this is, It'll be gone in a few hours. I'll be fine on the mission."

"Absolutely not." Balthazar said sternly as he straightened his hat and quickly glanced around the apartment to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. "Need I remind you what happened the last time you went on a mission while ill?"

Vinnie's shoulders slumped. "No." He said reluctantly. He didn't think either of them would be forgetting that mission any time soon. Vinnie was still trying to figure out where those llamas had come from and how he hadn't noticed them earlier.

"Right, now that we've got that settled." Balthazar grabbed one more gadget that had been lying around. He looked over at Vinnie. "I won't be long. Just...stay here until I get back."

"Yeah, yeah." Vinnie drawled boredly. He laid back down on the bed, his arms spread out wide. He heard Balthazar leave the apartment without even saying a simple 'goodbye'. "Not like I got anywhere else to be." Vinnie still wasn't even positive what year they were in, let alone the types of places he might be able to go in said year.

That was one of the downsides of being a time traveler. There never seemed to be any time to do anything not work related, and wasn't that just ironic? Also, on the off chance that they did find time off, what would they do with it? This wasn't their time period. By the time they figured out just what people did for fun in the time period they were in their break would be over and they would have to get back to work.

Being a time traveler really wasn't all everybody made it out to be.

Vinnie often wished for more free time, but now that he had some he had no idea what to do with it. He spent nearly half an hour trying, and failing to go back to sleep. For some reason, despite how exhausted he felt, sleep just wouldn't come to him. Vinnie spent another fifteen minutes just lying awake in the bed, thinking, too lazy to move, but also completely bored out of his mind.

Finally Vinnie's boredom overcame his exhaustion. He got to his feet and slipped on some shoes. He briefly considered going after Balthazar, but decided against it. He couldn't remember how to get to the pistachio warehouse from here, and he wasn't exactly in the mood to take a guess and end up lost for the rest of the day. No, Vinnie was just going for a short walk. He would just have to see where he feet would take him.

Vinnie entered outside and shivered slightly. It wasn't exactly cold out, but it was certainly gloomy enough that he was glad that he had his jacket. Vinnie was also grateful for the less than cheerful weather. Too much brightness always caused Vinnie's head to hurt and his eyes to water, which was why he was always wearing tinted glasses. They went with his outfit, and dimmed the brightness of the sun just enough to make it tolerable without turning the world dark.

Vinnie shoved his hands in his pockets, popped his collar a bit to keep the somewhat chilly wind from hitting his neck, and walked down the street. He barely even paid attention to where he was going, he was just enjoying the fresh air.

Vinnie walked for a bit before he found himself in a location that he actually recognized. It was the Middle School. Vinnie remembered when Balthazar had dragged him here for a dance just so he could get some kind of proof that that Milo Murphy kid was an enemy agent or something. Yeah, that had certainly been the most interesting dance that Vinnie had ever been to, that was for sure.

He was about to keep walking when he noticed that there were a number of students in the football field. It looked like they were there for gym class or something. Vinnie normally wouldn't spare them a second glance, except for the fact that he swore that he recognized one of the kids, even from this far.

Curious, Vinnie walked closer, trying to appear as casual as possible. It would be extremely awkward and annoying if somebody decided he looked suspicious and decided to call the cops. When Vinnie was closer and could actually make out the looks of individual kids he instantly recognized one kid above the others.

It was that Milo Murphy. The one who always seemed to be around when their pistachios were ruined. Balthazar was convinced that the kid was an enemy agent or something. Vinnie was still on the fence. Sure, there were an uncomfortable amount of times when their pistachio cart had been destroyed and that Murphy kid was somewhere nearby. But on the other hand, the majority of the destruction seemed to be caused by some sort of freak accident, wasn't the kind of thing that a kid, even a time traveling one, could do.

Vinnie was getting tired, so he decided to stick around for a little bit. He watched the Murphy kid for a few minutes, and maybe his headache was worse than he thought and his mind was playing tricks on him, but it looked like freak accidents in general were just happening around the kid. In the five minutes since Vinnie had gotten there he had seen five soccer balls spontaneously combust, two random flocks of birds who had randomly decided to attack the students, and three different kids who had tripped over a rock and twisted their ankles.

Throughout all of it, that Milo kid seemed to be taking everything in stride. He came out with a new spare ball any time the other blew up. He used bird repellent to get rid of the avians, and he had plenty of wrap in his bag to help out with the twisted ankle.

Vinnie was surprised at just how prepared Milo Murphy was. It was almost as though he was used to this kind of thing happening every day, and actually expected it. He began to wonder whether or not the kid was actually the cause of all of these incidents. Like he was cursed or something.

...Was it possible to be cursed like that? Vinnie made a mental note to look into it. This kind of thing didn't sound very likely, but if he was being completely honest with himself, he had seen weirder.

Vinnie watched the kids for a bit longer, just until he was able to catch his breath again. He was about to move on, or probably just go home again, because despite the chill in the air he was starting to feel kinda warm, and he was pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen. As Vinnie was about to leave he caught sight of somebody on the other side of the football field. Somebody who wore a very familiar looking olive green hat and jacket.

"Balthy?" What the heck was his partner doing here? The pistachio warehouse was all the way on the other side of town. Why would Balthazar be hanging around a middle school, spying on a bunch of kids at gym class? And why was he watching them so intently? It wasn't like watching teenagers run around for an hour was an entertaining pastime. Maybe if it was, like, a dancing class or something than it would be more understandable. The only reason that Vinnie had bore through a few minutes was because of all of those incidents that may or may not have been caused by that Milo Murphy…

Wait a second.

"Oh no." Vinnie began to jog over to where Balthazar was, but he quickly slowed down to a walk because man, jogging was exhausting. "Balthy!" Vinnie called out as he neared his partner. Balthazar lifted his head in surprise.

"Dakota? What are you doing here?" Balthazar straightened up and tried to look casual and serious, but Vinnie wasn't fooled. His partner was up to something, and he had a pretty good idea what it was.

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Vinnie frowned in confusion. "I thought you had an assignment?"

"I did." Balthazar scowled. "The shipment was eaten by a flock of wild seagulls, and you'll never guess who just happened to be there when it happened." Balthazar sounded so bitter and he was glaring harshly towards the football field where that Milo kid was working on inflating ball number eight. Vinnie had no idea what had happened to balls six and seven.

"Milo Murphy?" Vinnie asked slowly, not because he was unsure, because he was almost positive that this was about Murphy, but because he really didn't like where the conversation seemed to be going.

"Milo Murphy!" Balthazar exclaimed as though he hadn't heard Vinnie at all. "Yet again he has ruined our mission."

"How though?" Vinnie asked. "Sure, he's always around, and that's a weird coincidence, but I don't think a kid can control birds or swordfishes."

"Unless he's an enemy agent." Balthazar said quietly.

"No, not even then. Time travelers can't do that kind of thing." Vinnie pointed at his partner. "You can't control animals, can you?"

Balthazar frowned. "Well, no, but-"

"So how could he?" Vinnie challenged.

"He could….I mean...it's just…" Balthazar floundered for an answer for a moment before shaking his head and getting a hold of himself. "It doesn't matter how he does it. We'll just have to ask him during the interrogation."

"Whoa, whoa, wait." Vinnie held up his hands. "What interrogation? I thought the boss didn't believe the whole 'enemy agent' theory."

"He doesn't, which is why we shall be doing this off the books." Balthazar said, which caused Vinnie's jaw to drop. Balthazar was a bit of a stickler for the rules, so for him to decide to do anything not by the books...man, he was really serious about this.

The thing was, Vinnie was just as serious.

"What exactly do you mean by 'interrogation'?" Vinnie asked.

"Well, we shall ask him a few questions up front, and if he doesn't give us the answers we want, we'll have no choice but to resort to more drastic measures." Balthazar took a step towards the football field, but Vinnie pushed him back.

"Hey, we're not takin' any drastic measures, alright?" Vinnie looked at his partner as though he was insane, because he was starting to think that he was. Drastic measures? They were dealing with a thirteen year old here. Just how 'drastic' did Balthazar think they could actually get?

Balthazar raised an eyebrow at Vinnie's defiance. He was usually more easy going than this, but Vinnie could be serious when he circumstances called for it, and right now they did. Milo Murphy was just a kid, he likely wasn't even an agent! And even if he was, so what? That didn't suddenly make him not a kid anymore. Vinnie knew first hand what kind of interrogation methods time travelers used, and he wasn't about to let that happen to a teenager.

"Dakota, what are you doing?" Balthazar tried to get around him, but Vinnie continued to block him.

"He's just a kid, Balthy, you can't hurt him." Vinnie said as he once again stepped in his partner's path.

Balthazar frowned. "Hurt him? I wasn't going to hurt him, I merely wanted to talk." Balthazar really did sound shocked at the thought of resorting to such extreme measures, and if Vinnie was thinking clearly or didn't know any better he would probably believe that his partner really didn't mean any harm. As it was, Vinnie's mind was just running with possibilities of the absolute outcome.

Although, some of the possibilities were from his imagination, and some from actual memories. He wasn't entirely sure which was which though, and it made his head hurt to try to separate them. Actually, Vinnie's head was hurting anyways. He whimpered ever so slightly and put a hand to his head. It was a small sign of pain, but it was more than enough to worry the older man.

"Dakota, are you alright?" Balthazar gently grabbed Vinnie's shoulders and looked into his eyes. "You don't look well at all. Did you even get any sleep?"

Vinnie shook his head. "No, but Balthy, you gotta listen to me, you gotta leave that kid alone."

"Leave him alone?" Balthazar's eyes widened in shock. "He has been ruining our missions for weeks. I'm sorry that it has come to this, but I won't be stuck on pistachio duty for the rest of my life. I am getting this problem resolved."

"You can't." Vinnie protested. He was so desperate to get Balthazar to listen to him that he said that first thing that came to his mind. "I won't let you."

"You won't let me?" Balthazar scoffed. "Look at you. You look as though you will fall at any moment now. And even if you were physically capable of stopping me, you wouldn't have the right to. I'm the senior agent here, and what I say goes."

"No." Vinnie said without thinking. "I'm the senior agent here. You have to listen to me." Alright, maybe Vinnie really was sick, because that was something that he had sworn he would never say. The awkward pause just reminded him why he had sworn such a thing.

"I beg your pardon?" Balthazar sounded so confused and shocked, as well as the tiniest bit hurt, not that he would ever admit it. "I highly doubt that you could possibly be the senior agent in this partnership."

The way he said it made Vinnie feel like he should feel insulted or something, but he didn't. He was just a little upset about how the information had gotten out and how it might affect their partnership. Oh well, might as well just go all the way with this thing.

"I'm rank C-42." Vinnie said in a quiet voice that was just so unlike him. Balthazar's eyes went so wide they looked like they might pop out of his head.

"C-42?" He asked. Vinnie nodded and handed over his time travelers ID card, which did, indeed, say that his rank was C-42, which was a full 5 ranks higher than Balthazar. "How could this have happened."

"Well, it's a long story." Vinnie rubbed the back of his neck. "See, my parents were both time travelers, and they-"

"Oh, I see now." Vinnie was taken aback at the bitter tone of Balthazar's voice. "You received special treatment because of your parents. I should have known. There is no way that a buffoon such as yourself could even become a time traveler on your own."

"H-hey." Now, that was just mean...and kinda hurtful, actually. Vinnie heard the rumble of thunder in the distance. It sounded like there was a rainstorm coming. "Look, how about we go get some lunch and we can talk about this? I know this great burger place that-"

"No." Balthazar said, causing Vinnie to freeze. "I don't even want to see you right now." He turned and practically stormed away from the football field.

"Uh, okay." Vinnie said unsurely. He hated it when Balthazar got mad at him, especially when he got so mad that he just left. Vinnie was always worried that he would never come back. He always wanted to follow Balthazar, but that would just upset the man even more, then he would be even angrier with him than before. "I'll just meet you at the apartment." Balthazar didn't even answer.

Vinnie frowned. Now what was he supposed to do? On the bright side, at least it looked like Balthazar had forgotten about Murphy for now. On the not so bright side, the truth that Vinnie had been trying to hide this whole time had finally come out. He had known that Balthazar would have been disappointed or upset about the revelation, but Vinnie really didn't like the actual anger the older man now seemed to have for him.

Vinnie had ended up temporarily saving the kid, but at the cost of possibly losing what he had had going with his partner up to that point. He wished he had never opened his big mouth in the first place.

Vinnie sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. There was no use moping about it now. The best he could do was go back to the apartment and wait for Balthazar to calm down. He hoped that Balthy would be fine with this, and if he wasn't...well, they would jump that hurdle if they came to it. Right now though, Vinnie's head was aching more than ever and Balthazar would probably be out for a few hours. Vinnie decided to give falling back to sleep another try.

When he got to their apartment Vinnie was disappointed to find that the door was locked. It must've been one of those automatically locking doors, because Vinnie didn't remember locking it on his way out. Oh well, he would just have to use his key. Vinnie reached into his pocket and found...nothing.

"Aw, man." Vinnie frowned. He had forgotten. They only had one copy of the key to their apartment, and Balthazar had it. Vinnie had no way of contacting Balthazar, because they didn't have communication devices or cell phones. He just had to wait until Balthazar returned on his own. Vinnie frowned and leaned against the doorway. He knew it was going to be a boring wait. Just as he thought that he heard another roll of thunder, much closer this time, and just like that the skies seemed to open and a downpour began, soaking him almost immediately.

Vinnie could tell that it was going to be a very, very long wait.

A/N: So it's my personal headcanon that Vinnie Dakota is actually Balthazar's superior. He's the one who has the password for things, he's smarter, and he knows whether there are more agents in the same time or area as them. I don't think that Balthazar is aware that he's the senior agent though, and he would probably be pretty ticked if he ever found out.

I was originally going to have this be a oneshot, but I decided to have two chapters instead, one for each of the boys, because I don't like having my chapters be so long, especially when there's a perfectly good place to split them right in the middleish area.

And I apologize if the end is kinda sloppy, but I'm seriously falling asleep at my keyboard right now. I need to go to bed.