"Fuck, I've needed this," Eggsy muttered to himself as he gulped down half his pint. He'd been stationed on an undercover op in France for a month, and hadn't had a chance to sit down and relax for the entirety of the mission. He could hear his mum cooking up a welcome-home meal (by which he meant a good curry because hers was way better than any chippy) and singing alone to whatever was on the radio, and he smiled to himself, glad she was here with him instead of living with his dickhead stepdad.

Daisy cooed at him from her crib. She was getting too big for it now - he could sort that tomorrow, seeing as his paycheck had just come in.

Outside, the rain pattered gently against the windows, not that he could see it, pitch black as it was. Daisy really should have been asleep, but she'd refused when Eggsy got in. She'd fall asleep in her own within ten minutes, now that she knew he was here.

All in all, everything was perfect.

*line break*

Alex cursed under his breath, once again finding himself picking the lock on his own damn house. '6 had been messing about with the locks to 'keep it secure' but didn't bother to inform him - again - or give him a spare key - again. His fingers were numb from the freezing raindrops that slid down the collar of his long sleeve shirt, soaking him, and it took some time to get the uncooperative digits to twist the lock-picking the right way.

Once inside, he found himself questioning whether it would be worth going all the way up the stairs just to get to his bed, when there was a perfectly good sofa just a few feet away in the living room.

He sighed and wandered over to it. It wasn't like there was anyone to tell him off for dragging mud everywhere of leaving the door open to let in a draft - not that a draft was the worst thing that could get in his house - and collapsed onto the sofa.

The next thing he was aware of was the phone ringing. He glanced out the window and sighed - it was still dark. There was only one group who would phone him this early in the morning.

A wave of self pity washed over him. He tried to ignore it, but hunger, cold, and pain from injuries from the mission he had just got back from made it incredibly difficult.

Fuck this.

For once, Alex had made plans for himself. Last time he got time off - an entire week - he'd gone snooping around his uncle's study, what was left of it anyway, and found a photo of him with what looked like his old unit from the SAS, made up of him, his dad, Ash and some other bloke named Lee Unwin, who he'd been wanting to meet, just because. (Just because there was someone still alive who's met his dad.) As it turned out, the man was dead, but his widow and kid were still about, and a small link's better than nothing.

The kid was military, at least from what Alex could scrounge up about him without '6 noticing, and would hopefully let him hide out with him, understanding that they probably owed each other through their dads having saved each other's lives and whatnot while working as soldiers.

It was better than nothing and he had to get gone before '6 sent a car around.

Alex paused by a mirror to check that he looked the part of a young, disheveled kid who couldn't possibly be kicked out into the rain (not difficult, he looked way younger than fifteen if you didn't look to closely at his eyes), and left, taking a night bag and enough money for a taxi with him.

*line break*

"Mum, we expectin' someone?" Eggsy yelled as the knocking at the door got progressively louder.

She didn't reply, probably couldn't hear him over her music, so he shrugged and went to the door.

Outside, frozen stiff and dripping wet, was a random kid, peering at him from underneath overlong blond hair.

"Who are you?" Eggsy asked, going for the obvious question.

"Alex Rider," the kid said, his accent middle class and his tone quiet, "Are you Gary Unwin?"

Eggsy blinked. "Yeah, but I prefer Eggsy. Why you looking for me at, like," he checked his watch, "one in the morning."

Alex swallowed. "My father and yours were unit mates. I'd been planning to meet you at some point in case... I don't know, really, but I don't know many people who knew him...I was going to come at a decent hour but I needed to get out the house for...reasons," he paused, "Sorry, I don't know what I'm doing here, but it seemed to make sense at the time and I'd really rather not go back home just yet so, uh, would you mind helping me?"

Eggsy eyed the kid suspiciously for a second, then invited him in. He wasn't some random street kid looking for a warm bed - he knew his name, and that his dad was a soldier type - and he wasn't going to question him about not wanting to go home, seeing as the bruise on his chin was pretty fresh.

He showed Alex through to the kitchen, and asked his mum, "Do you remember any of the blokes who was in dad's unit, like before he got the promotion?"

She paused and nodded, sparing Alex a slightly confused glance, before saying, "Yeah, they were over all the time, thick as thieves them four. It was your dad, the two Riders and Ash, though that wasn't actually his name, but I can't remember what it was. Who's the kid?"

"John Rider's son," Alex responded. "And Ash were his initials, by the way, Anthony Sean Howell."

The woman paused, examining Alex for a second, then said, "You look just like him."

"So I've heard."

"What you doin' here at this time?"

"I couldn't stay at my house, but I needed somewhere to sleep. Sorry."

"Don't worry, we've got the space." Eggsy guessed that she'd come to the same conclusion as him about Alex's home life. "You're soaking though, have you got something dry in that bag?" She gestured to his shoulder.

He nodded. "Sorry for the presumption, but I couldn't afford to nip back and grab stuff. I've got enough for a few nights...after that I'll probably have to head back."

She frowned. "Stay as long as you need. I'm Michelle, by the way."

"Alex," he responded with a grin.

They stood there for a few seconds that threatened to get awkward, then Eggsy volunteered to show Alex to his room and let him get changed.

While he was busy he asked his mum, "So he's legit, yeah?"

"Yeah, I think there's a photo of them in your dads old things, if you wanna check yourself," she paused, then asked, "Did he say why he wasn't at his own house?"

"Said he had to leave for 'reasons', I'll ask him later when the food's sorted...and I'll check out that photo tomorrow."

At that point, Alex came back down again. They stood in silence until the late tea was ready.

After they'd sat down to eat, Alex asked, "Why are you eating so late? I was expecting to be waking people when I got in."

"I just got back from doin' some shit in France for my work, so mum and Daisy stayed up for me."

"What do you do?"

"I'm a tailor."

"I wasn't aware that job required a lot of travel."

"Yeah, most people aren't." Eggsy was uncomfortable with that line of questioning, so he changed the subject. "Why are you hiding out at a strangers house at 1 AM on a school night, anyway?"

Alex paused in eating - which was a surprise as he'd practically been inhaling his food up until then, "I was expecting company that I'm not too fond of. Usually I can handle it, but I'd just dealt with some other stuff a few hours before and really just needed to get away from it."

"Fair 'nuff," Eggsy shrugged. "They won't be able to find you here, mate, too many Toffs around for that type to hear about you."

Alex gave a weak smile, "Here's hoping." He looked exhausted, like he was about to fall asleep in his curry. Eggsy wondered what the 'other stuff' he'd been doing was, it must've taken a lot out of him.

"You know where your room is, head to bed, yeah? We'll finish playing catch-up in the morning, assuming you'll still be there then?" His tone wasn't accusative, it was a possibility that the kid would split overnight.

"I'm not planning on leaving for a little while yet," Alex replied, dragging himself out of his chair and upstairs. "Night."

Eggsy watched the kid stumble his way to his room and decided to call Merlin, figuring he could get him some info on whoever was bothering the kid, or, at least, verify that he was who he said he was.

A/N this is something that I wrote just because. Sorry to everyone that's after my other stuff - I really don't know what I'm doing with them. I plan to write more of this, please comment if you're after more or if you have ideas of where this should go, because I don't.