Balthazar had always felt a need to have control in his life. He had grown up in an environment that had made it near impossible for him to have any say in his life. Everything had been decided for him. It was a near poisonous upbringing, and even now, decades later, he was still struggling to move on from his past.

It was why he had become a time traveler. What better way to deal with the cruel mistakes of others in his past then by doing what he could to fix the mistakes of just the past in general? It gave him a sense of control over his future, the fact that he could, potentially, change his past (even though it was strictly forbidden for him to get involved in his own past, or that of his ancestors).

The person that Balthazar had been assigned to as a partner had all but demolished that sense of control.

Vinnie Dakota was an unpredictable man. That was about the easiest way to describe him, but it didn't even begin to cover how complicated and confusing he was.

Dakota was of of the youngest time travelers in their agency, but unlike all the others his age he wasn't impulsive and passionate about the work. Dakota was actually quite laid back and relaxed, as though he had been doing this sort of thing for years and it just came as second nature to him.

But he most certainly didn't have the air of professionalism about him like most seasoned time travelers did. Dakota was quite immature, always thinking with his stomach and heart rather than his head. He was always snacking on the pistachios that they were supposed to keep safe, or feeding the nuts to some animals that he had befriended.

Dakota was quite fond of animals.

On some missions Dakota would be the voice of reason when Balthazar let his own pride and hurt feelings to lead him to act impulsively. On other missions Dakota would stand around and not lift a finger to help, even though they were supposed to be partners. On yet other missions Dakota would refuse to listen to a word that Balthazar said.

On the few occasions that Dakota had done as Balthazar told him to, he did it while commenting about how it wasn't a very good idea. This distracted Balthazar each and every time, he would lose his focus, and suddenly the shipment of pistachios they were supposed to be protecting would be up in flames.

Vinnie Dakota was most definitely an unpredictable young man. Balthazar never knew how his partner would choose to do things that way, and it was a constant struggle for him to try to figure it out.

Balthazar hated not feeling in control of his own life, and his partner just threw too many curveballs in his direction for him to get a grip on it. None of this was exactly Dakota's fault, he certainly didn't mean to cause things to spiral out of control. Balthazar just didn't know how to regain control, and it scared him.

Although, Balthazar probably should have told as much to his partner before he had run off.

He really wasn't sure what he should do. This was the first time that Dakota had ever run off like this. It was usually Balthazar who was the one who got angry and ran off for an hour or two because of a fight. Dakota had never done this before, and every second that he was gone made Balthazar more and more concerned. If this was how Dakota felt whenever Balthazar left to cool his head, then he may have to consider a different method of calming down, because this was absolutely nerve-racking.

Balthazar sat on the bed and frowned. He held the request papers for a new partner in his hands. He remembered that he had felt very serious about working with somebody else, but now he couldn't really remember why. Looking over the papers Balthazar still didn't exactly understand it. There were seven whole pages that basically just said that the two of them couldn't get along with each other.

More like Balthazar hadn't been willing to even try to get along with Dakota.

Looking back on his old reasons for despising being Dakota's partner, Balthazar realized that many of them were reasons why he actually admired Dakota, and the others were barely even true at all.

Dakota didn't necessarily respect authority the way that Balthazar had expected him to at first, but he didn't exactly disrespect it. Dakota just questioned things sometimes. He had a sense of kindness about him, which was a rare trait for time travelers. If anybody he was working with, regardless of their ranking, wanted to do something that was less than ethical Dakota questioned their motives and logic.

Dakota was young, and he was often lazy, but he didn't let that get in the way of their missions. In his own way, Dakota did in fact take their work very seriously. It had just taken some time for Balthazar to recognize that not all professionalism had to look like the way it did for him.

And as for the fact that they didn't work well together as partners, that they were just too different from each other, well, that was completely nonsense. Balthazar's dedication to his job helped him to drag Dakota forward when the younger man occasionally lost focus on the job. And Dakota's fun personality kept Balthazar from taking everything too seriously. Their personalities clashed against each other, but that was why they worked so well together. They kept each other in check without even trying to.

And they actually worked very well together as partners. Failure in their missions did not equate to their teamwork being a failure, they just had bad luck...extremely bad luck.

Balthazar set aside the papers and pinched the bridge of his nose. What had he been thinking when he had turned in the request in the first place?

Balthazar looked out the window and frowned when he saw how dark it was getting. Dakota had left in the early afternoon, and now evening was falling. Dakota had been gone all afternoon, and Balthazar was beginning to get worried...well, he had been worried from the start, but only now was he starting to think that he had made a mistake in just letting Dakota leave.

Whenever Balthazar got upset, he just needed his space for a few hours and he was just fine. But Vinnie Dakota was most definitely not Balthazar Cavendish. Just because the older man needed to be alone when he was having his little tantrums did not mean that Dakota needed the same.

Balthazar looked at the old, cracked clock on the wall and narrowed his eyes. In just a little more than an hour the shipment of pistachios that they were supposed to intercept would be arriving, and Dakota still wasn't back yet.

Balthazar sighed and got to his feet. He knew that this had gone on for long enough. He needed to go out and find Dakota.

Unfortunately, Balthazar didn't have the slightest idea of where to begin looking for Dakota. This wasn't their city, this wasn't even their time period. Balthazar just didn't know the places that Dakota might want to go. So he just went to the places that came to his mind.

Dakota wasn't in the pistachio warehouse. Balthazar had expected as much, but he had to begin somewhere. He went to the pier. He went to so many restaurants and diners, but he wasn't there. Balthazar even checked the bloody mall, but Dakota was nowhere to be found.

It was only by luck that Balthazar had just happened to pass by the zoo. When he remembered how obnoxiously excited Dakota had been about going to the zoo, Balthazar knew that this was where he should be searching.

It should have been where he had gone from the start, because Balthazar knew that Dakota really did love animals. Cats, fish, llamas, he loved them all.

Unfortunately, Balthazar didn't know which animal was Dakota's favorite, so he was stuck with wandering around the zoo, hoping he would get lucky and find his partner. After quickly visiting six or seven exhibits Balthazar went to the monkey habitat and immediately spotted a young, curly haired man wearing a yellow, red, and orange track suit.

"Vinnie." Balthazar's voice was quiet, but Dakota still heard him. The younger man jumped in shock and looked back. Balthazar frowned when he saw the tear tracks on Dakota's cheeks. For as long as they had been working together, Balthazar had never seen Dakota cry before, and the knowledge that this had been his fault was heartbreaking.

Balthazar couldn't help but wonder if this was the first time that he had brought his partner to tears. Something told him it wasn't.

"What are you doing here, Cavendish?" Dakota tone was guarded. He turned back towards the monkeys. "Don't you have a mission right about now?"

"Yes, I suppose we do." Balthazar didn't even have to know the specific time to know that the shipment had come and gone. He had been so busy looking for Dakota that the mission hadn't even crossed his mind since he had left the apartment. And, strangely, he found that he didn't really care.

Dakota must've been confused by the lack of disappointment or even anger in Balthazar's voice when he acknowledged that they did indeed have a mission and he knew that they were missing it. Dakota turned towards Balthazar again. "So what are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you." Balthazar said honestly.

"What about the pistachios?" Dakota asked.

"They'll probably be gone by the time we get there." Balthazar admitted. "Though, if we're being completely honest with ourselves, we probably would have ended up losing them anyways."

"But tonight might have been the time when you could have accomplished the mission." Dakota said, and his tone made it clear that he completely believed that if Balthazar had gone to retrieve the pistachios, he would have gotten them successfully, even though all of their previous attempts served as evidence against it. That was a funny thing about Dakota. No matter how many times they failed their missions, he always stayed optimistic about them.

"Yes, I suppose it might have been." Balthazar said, even though he didn't truly believe it. "But I couldn't exactly have done it on my own, now could I?" He eyed his partner meaningfully. Dakota just rolled his eyes.

"It was an easy assignment. You probably would have been able to do it just fine on your own." Dakota pointed out.

Balthazar frowned slightly. "But I didn't want to." He said honestly. Dakota tensed slightly at his words. Balthazar sighed and sat down on the seat next to his partner. For a few minutes they just sat there, watching as the monkeys began to settle in for the night.

Balthazar struggled internally to find the words to express what he was thinking, but it was a lot harder to do than it looked. "Vinnie...about what happened-"

"Can we just go home?" Dakota asked in a small voice. Balthazar furrowed his brow slightly. That hadn't been what he had been expecting, or what he had wanted. He had been trying to explain things to Dakota, to apologize.

"We both know this isn't something we can just ignore, Vinnie." Balthazar said. Dakota frowned slightly at his words.

"Can we try though?" He asked. "Please, Balthy, just for tonight?"

"...Just for tonight." Balthazar found himself reluctantly agreeing. He knew they had to talk about this mess sooner rather than later, but neither of them were in the mood for it at the moment. Maybe it wasn't the best idea, but he figured it would be alright for them to put off the conversation for a day or two.

Balthazar got to his feet. He offered a hand out to help Dakota up. The younger man sighed and took his hand. The two of them left the monkey exhibit and quickly made their way to the exit of the zoo before any management could find some reason to yell at the two of them for being there so late, even though the zoo was still technically open.

The two walked home in silence for a few minutes before it became too much for Balthazar. He had never heard Dakota be so quiet before, and it was quite unnerving. Feeling desperate to hear Dakota like his old self, Balthazar asked how his day had been.

He spent the next half an hour listening to Dakota rave about how much giraffes apparently loved pistachios. Balthazar willingly listened to the mindless chatter, and actually found himself being rather amused by it. It was much easier for him to appreciate Dakota's enthusiasm about childish things when they weren't in the middle of a mission.

Balthazar really did enjoy being around Dakota. He may be overbearing sometimes, but his joy and excitement about just the smallest little things, as well as the way he didn't stress out about the big things, made Dakota just a nice person to be around.

Balthazar just wished that he knew how to tell as much to the younger man. Because, even though they had their differences are arguments, they really did work quite well together.

And Balthazar couldn't imagine being partnered with anybody else.

A/N: I'm really not sure what I was doing with this chapter. I just started writing and this is what we ended with. It didn't really resolve anything, and I don't think I meant it to. Balthazar seems like the type of person who has a hard time talking about his feelings, and while definitely wouldn't feel completely alright about all of this, he'll probably quickly forgive Balthazar just because of how the older man basically chose to go after Vinnie rather than do their assigned mission, implying that Balthazar cares more about Vinnie and their relationship than he does about his job, which we all know he cares about a lot.