The face staring back in the mirror seemed to belong to another person. Alex swiped some of his blonde locks out of his face. He really needed to get a haircut. The scar on the left of his face had become a thin, white line. Occasionally, he caught people staring at it. The dynamics at school had changed significantly. Only his class knew what had really happened to him. So, the regular mill of rumours still circled, though Alex knew most kids had moved on from the rumours entirely. His classmates sometimes whispered about him. But they no longer mocked him or challenged him. In fact, most treated him with respect and a sort of reverence.

Alex still enjoyed the normalcy of school. Since that last mission, he'd been able to stay in school for four whole months. He'd even started prepping for finals and he finally felt confident that he would pass at least some of his GCSE's. A couple more months and school would be over.

The familiar sound of Jack making coffee brought Alex's thoughts back to the present. He straightened the tie on his school uniform and grabbed his bag, quickly stuffing last night's homework inside. When he came down the stairs, he looked at the familiar scene. Jack, slightly sipping her coffee. And Wolf, reading the newspaper.

Somehow, in the weeks that Wolf was assigned protection duty, he got past the craziness of the American and started to see the woman behind the guardian. And he had decided he liked that woman. Wolf had consulted with Alex before making a move. Alex would always be his priority, and he did care a lot about what the youngster had to say. Wolf had been surprised when Alex had grinned when he told him he liked her and had quickly given his blessing.

And so, Jack and Wolf were slowly exploring a relationship while handling living together and caring for a teenage spy. Not exactly white picket fence stuff, but everyone in the house was having a good time.

Occasionally, Wolf or Jack caught Alex sulking around. The scar on his face really bothered him sometimes. All his scars shook his self-image, but his face was the worst. And like every teenage boy, Alex had his insecurities. Jack or Wolf would take the teen out for a ride or call Tom to come hang out. That usually fixed things. Alex had always been more serious than his classmates. He was focused on his studies. He still went to weekly martial arts classes and had a tutor for Arabic, a language he intended to master before leaving school. At school Alex is part of the football team. He spends most of his time on the bench because of all his absences but occasionally he gets to play a game or 2. He quite enjoys being with his friends. Tom always had his back, and now Alex was building his old friendships up again. Life felt pretty sweet.

Alex almost hit himself in the head for thinking that. Life felt pretty sweet? Great, now he knew something was going to change. He had to jinx it, hadn't he?

"Morning, Alex. How do you feel about your test today?" Jack asked.

Alex mentally shook his thoughts away and answered: "Pretty good. You know Spanish is one of my better languages. I'm fairly certain I'll ace it," he grinned.

Jack turned her head to Wolf, who gave no indication that he was listening to the conversation. Jack coughed once. Wolf ruffled his paper and, without looking up from it, asked Alex:

"De que trata la prueba?" (What's the test about?)

"Tengo que hablar sobre la Guerra Civil Española." (I have to talk about the Spanish Civil War)

Wolf put down his paper and looked at Alex, who was tugging on his jacket.

"Phew, eso no es fácil. ¿Y que vas a decir?" (Phew, that's not easy. And what are you going to say?)

"Ah pues, voy a hablar sobre el inicio de la guerra y los partidos. También quiero mencionar unas personas distintas de la Guerra. Ya no sé quiénes serán, espero llegar a esas personas antes de mi presentación." (I'll talk about the start of the war and the parties involved. I'll also mention some distinctive figure from the war. I'm not sure yet who, I hope I'll have some people before my presentation.)

"¿Personas distintas, dices? Pues, había muchas artistas quienes eran importante por la guerra. Pienso a Pío Baroja y Federico García Lorca. ¿Los conoces?" (Distinctive people, you say? Well, many artists were important during the war. I'm thinking of Pío Baroja and Federico Garcia Lorca. Do you know of them?)

"Si! ¡Eso puedo usar! Gracias, Wolf." (Yes! I can use that! Thanks, Wolf.)

Jack was smiling. She'd understood some words here and there and was feeling very proud right now.

"Thank god I had the good sense to follow Spanish in high school. At least I know you two will never be able to keep secrets from me in Spanish," she said. It wasn't true. She'd barely been able to follow parts of the conversation, so they could definitely keep secrets from her and talk about them in Spanish.

Alex snorted. He knew it too. He finished tying his shoes.

"Ready to go?" he asked Wolf. The man nodded, folding the paper and putting it back on the table. He gave Jack a quick kiss and grabbed his jacket on the way out.

"Do you have the keys, Alex?"

Alex held up his right hand, keys dangling from one of his fingers, in response.

"Alright." Wolf walked out the door, following Alex. He turned around to blow a kiss back to Jack. And then he heard the noise.

He whipped himself around and… caught the keys right on time. They would have hit him straight in the back of his head had he not heard them flying through the air. He turned murderous eyes to Alex, who was looking at him innocently. Before he could open his mouth, the youngster said:

"Just keeping you on your toes, Wolf. Wouldn't want you to start feeling old, you know, what with all this domestication."

He winked at the SAS soldier and jumped in the front seat of the car. Wolf grumbled something under his breath before getting behind the wheel. He still had murder in his eyes when he turned to the teenage spy sitting next to him. He pointed his finger at Alex.

"I am not old. I am not getting old. In fact, I'd even go as far as calling myself a young man."

Alex gave him his signature smile, with mischief in his eyes.

"Is that a grey hair I'm seeing there?" Alex asked, purposely shifting his eyes to Wolf's head. Wolf didn't have long hair, but he'd been letting it grow a bit since he wasn't really on active duty.

Wolf's eyes widened a bit, before he narrowed them at Alex.

"I won't dignify that with a response. Let's get you to school, you bloody bastard."

This made Alex laugh. Wolf always felt a little proud when he was the source of Alex' laughter. It was rare that Alex truly enjoyed himself, letting go of the burdens placed on his shoulders.

The pair of them quickly made their way to Brookland Comprehensive, Alex' school. Wolf spent his days hanging around the school. Alex had even suggested he become a PE teacher, just to have something to do while he was babysitting Alex. But Wolf had shrugged him off, saying that would distract him.

There was no immediate threat against Alex' life, but MI6 had felt the need to protect him better. Alex was fine with it, because he got along well with Wolf now. It hadn't always been that way, but the pair of them had come to a mutual respect. Of course, living together had helped their relationship a lot.

"Have a nice day," Wolf said as Alex stepped out the car.

It had become routine. Wolf no longer wore his army slacks now, he was just in regular clothing. To most people, the basic truth was the whole truth: Wolf was dating Jack, Alex' guardian, and now functioned a bit as a dad/older brother for Alex. It was lesser known that Wolf was in the army, though some students did recall seeing him in uniform sometimes. Only one person knew the full truth of who Wolf was. And that person was just rolling into school on his skateboard.

"Alex!" Tom waved. He zigzagged through a crowd of younger students, who quickly fled to get away from the speeding maniac. Alex jogged towards Tom.

"Hey! How's it going?" he asked his friend. They bumped fists.

"You know… same shite as always." Tom said. His parents had gotten a divorce a year earlier, and Tom now lived alone with his mum. His dad still had his temper, but it had lessened now that he was no longer in a toxic relationship with Tom's mum. And she was always crying. Tom was basically taking care of himself, eating at Alex' house as often as possible. Jerry checked in with him regularly, and Tom was going to spend summer break in Italy with his brother. He couldn't wait for it to be summer.

Alex gave a sympathetic smile. The two boys trudged into the school together. They were soon greeted by the familiar sounds of the playground chaos. They moved to their vast spot, waiting for first period to start. A couple of the guys from the football team were already there, kicking a football around. Soon after Tom and Alex sat down, the morning signal went for first period.

Grudgingly, Tom and Alex joined their classmates, James picking up the rear end.

"Hey, did you guys hear?" he asked, popping his head between Tom and Alex', casually leaning on their shoulders as they waited in line.

"Hear what?" Tom asked.

"Apparently, our annual field trip is to one of them tropical swimming pools this year! It's going to be wicked, man!" James smiled.

Tom gave him a reluctant smile back. When James had left their side, Tom turned to Alex.

"Are you… are you going to go? On the field trip, I mean?" he asked Alex.

Alex stared ahead.

"I don't think so. It's bad enough people see a scar on my face. I don't think anyone wants to see the rest of me."

"Alex…"

"Forget about it. I'll just use the field trip day to catch up on some homework," he lied. Tom slapped his mate on the back.

"Hey, we'll go do something together that doesn't involve the entire school talking about you. What do you say?"

Alex saw the mischief in Tom's grin and had never felt more grateful for this friendship than right this second. Maybe this day wouldn't be so bad after all.