Cherish these moments.

Verse: Multi

Genre: humour/fluff/friendship/romance.

Rating: T

Pairings: Alex/Birkhoff, Chloe/Dean, Rachel/Puck

Song: You've got a friend in me by Randy Newman

Summary: These rare moments was to be cherish by them.

Alex/Birkhoff- Friends.

Gripping at his hair, Birkhoff was fighting hard against the urge to slam her head against the wall. Just hoping something he said would get through to her.

"Yelling at me won't change anything" Alex snapped turning her heated eyes towards him. He could do nothing but glare at her. Over the course of her training, Alex had shown small sparks of actually knowing what she was doing with computers but as quickly as that spark flared up she did something monumentality stupid and he was back to berating her and taking his frustration out on her.

Two days ago had been his breaking point; if Michael hadn't excused the girl Birkhoff was sure he wasn't going to be held accountable for his actions.

"Yeah because teaching you is so easy" he scoffed and he smirked when she turned away from him and glared at the screen before her.

He decided that if Michael's pet wasn't going to learn like the rest of them, then he would help her after hours, just in the hopes that Michael wouldn't look bad. It was no secret that Michael had some investment in the girl and despite denying it, Birkhoff knew it was because Alex was so like Nikita.

"Like learning is just as easy" Alex muttered under her breath but Birkhoff heard and glared just as hard.

"what did you say" Alex flashed him a dangerous look and if that look hadn't been sent to him at least a hundred times a day, he might have been scared.

"Your not a teacher; your smart, I know that, but you sure in hell can't understand that everyone isn't as smart. You think this is so easy but have you once thought what it's like for us" Alex demanded, taking in short pants of air. She was either really pissed at him or her self, and being the vain, ego driven genius he was, he figured it was at her self.

"You're recruits, I don't have to give a damn about what you think. Your only mission right now is to make sure you sponge this all up just so you can scrape yourself out of being a recruit" Birkhoff snarled and he was proud when he held back the flinch at Alex's fingers curling into a fist.

"If we have you here, being the oh so great one, why the hell do we have to learn this" it was stupid but she wanted to lash out. And his snort wasn't helping in keeping her fists at her sides.

"Because sweetheart you're recruits; recruits who might just become an agent who will face moments when I might not be there to save your sorry asses" Birkhoff retorted.

Closing her eyes and turning away, Birkhoff swore he heard her counting to ten. Opening them once more she began to punch every key that was required.

Taking this to mean he was right, he hovered behind her and watched closely, happy but by no means impressed that she seemed to have understood his lessons.

"Drop the door now" he ordered, waiting and slowly edging forward when she didn't. After several seconds he was nearly breathing down her neck, feeling his frustration grow once more as she made simple mistakes.

"DROP THE GOD DAMN DOOR" he snarled before she slammed the key board away from her and spun to glare up at him.

If he noticed how her chest heaved with each forced breath, or how her eyes were an intoxicating colour now she was mad, he didn't let on.

"STOP BREATHING DOWN MY NECK" she growled and for the first time since meeting her, Birkhoff felt a twitch of fear course throughout him. It was so easy to image this recruits as harmless when they were stuck behind their screens, ducking their heads at his barks of demands.

Standing this close made Birkhoff understand that they were, in essence, killing machines.

"If you weren't stupid I wouldn't have to" he snarled and for another second he saw that look that meant danger; either she was good at controlling her self or she remembered hitting him would only lead to bad things, because she just shoved him away and glared.

"Go to hell" she snapped before spinning on her heel and storming towards the exit.

"I tell you when your done" muscles bunched beneath her tank top, and that butterfly that adorned her neck, seemed to flex it's wings.

If she simply gave up or knew he was telling the truth, he wasn't sure but Alex slowly, tensely turned and glared at him. Some emotion playing across her face that screamed of Nikita made Birkhoff blinked, but by then she was already moving and it was gone.

"Shall we try this slow" he growled, folding his arms as she once more slid into the seat before. Leaning into her personal space, with no respect, Birkhoff reset the program and lent back.

"I'm sure you can keep up with that right?" Birkhoff snorted gaining only the clenching of Alexis teeth in response.

As the half hour mark crept upon her, Alex was furrowing her brows. She had beaten her best time in dropping a back door into the system Birkhoff had created and she dared him to smirk her at him, but impressed or not Birkhoff pushed her.

"I can't" she almost whimpered but after watching her kick ass Birkhoff wasn't going to accept defeat from her any more.

"Can't or won't" Birkhoff challenged and for the first time since he had started berating her that evening, she smirked up at him.

"It's mirrored. The program is creating mirrors every time I go through a door I dropped" Alex admitted, raising her eyebrow at his amused look.

"So! What the hell do you do when you can't go around something" Birkhoff demanded and after several seconds Alex simply shrugged. Grunted he shoved her lightly out the way and lent forward, his fingers speeding over the keys. Alexis eyes darted between his fingers and the screen, watching the codes Birkhoff slammed into the keyboard.

It took seconds before she understood what he was doing and slowly she began to smile at his idea.

"Smash the mirrors?" the distracted smirk made her roll her eyes but she was riveted to how he worked none the less.

"I make the rules" he grunted before hitting one final key and stood back grinning at his own brilliance.

He was smug, had an over inflated ego and was oh so vain but there was no denying it, he knew his game and he played just as well. But she wasn't about to stroke his ego any more, so instead Alex just stared at the screen

"Now; move on to the next level" the groan emitted from Alex echoed around the room and with pursed lips Birkhoff half glared, half smirked at her. He wasn't there to be liked; he was there to do his job and that was making sure Division ran smoothly.

"Don't you ever just relax" the question was innocent enough and it nearly made Birkhoff snap at her in defence. But the look on her face was so far away from the usual mocking and pitying looks he got when asked that question, that Birkhoff just snorted and decided to be a smart ass.

"I can relax when I'm old and dead" he offered, avoiding eye contact as he moved forward preparing her for her next task. The moment her small hand gripped his forearm, Birkhoff took a stuttering breath and darted his eyes around, feeling like the nerd he was.

"No I meant when your not working or thinking about Division or just your ego; don't you just relax?" the earnest tone made his tongue dart out and his eyes to lock on to his stilled fingers. He feared that admitting to his hobbies out side of work would cause her to mock him, not like he wasn't used to it, or worst.

She would pity him.

There was no girlfriend, wife, sister, mother or aunt out there waiting for a phone call from him. No people to consider friends outside work. He knew people who shared his tastes but no one close enough for him to consider friends.

"I read" his fingers started moving, seemingly appalled by his honest answer to this recruit, one whom couldn't even break into a system right.

The snort from beside him gained his attention and he glared at her until he saw that smirk playing across her lips.

"Not that type of reading sweetheart; I read," catching the corner of his mouth Birkhoff snapped his eyes away from her questioning look, glancing at her hand that still gripped his arm.

"It's not like I have a normal life; before Division and even now. The only book I remember reading was a children's book about a solider with a big heart" the softness of her voice made he duck his head and pull his arm back.

"I read graphic novels; alright" he cringed at that. He meant it as a statement but it ended sounding like a question. He didn't care what people thought about him reading graphic novels, about collecting them and waiting for those few moments each time when he held a new one in his hand and felt almost normal.

"That's like a comic right" the snort and the roll of eyes was something he could do well, this was the Birkhoff he was proud of.

"No not like; but they share some similarities" agreeing he couldn't help but offer a small smile at the one sent his way. Nodding, Alex almost seemed to be tucking that piece of information away, she just turned her eyes away and sighed.

"We get to beat up dummies or lie on our beds bored out of our skulls" the sigh made him purse his lips and force himself not to care. They were after all just recruits. They didn't have any rights once in Division.

The silence stretched between them and when she focused back on the screen before her, he couldn't help it. Maybe he was just tired or coming down from a caffeine buzz, it didn't matter.

"Turn it off" he ordered and he would have smirked at her questioning look but he was already walking towards his bag laying on the table. Grabbing it he spun to give her a pointed look, and he did smirk then because she hurried to power down her computer and scrambled to her feet when he strolled over to her.

"Back there" he ordered, the bag swinging close to her face when he pointed to an area that was as hidden as they were going to get. She didn't question him out loud as she followed him. When he slumped on the ground, he just busied with opening his bag and digging around for the objects he wanted.

"Sit" he ordered and smirked when Alex quickly sat with him, peering at him with confusion, and he left her in silence before he produced a bag of twizzlers and a stack of graphic novels. When he looked up to find her eyebrows raised and a small smile playing across her lips he pursed his lips and frowned.

"what" he offered her a twizzler and tossed her a couple of novels before settling down to read his own. He ignored her smile and ignored the way she savoured that sugary sweet.

And for an hour they just sat there, discussing graphic novels, eating twizzlers and laughing. It was in these rare moments that they forgot who they were and just cherished the feel of having a friend.

Because after all they were meant to cherish these moments.

The End

Next: Chloe/Dean – Chilling