It seemed like it'd never end.

Alex morosely eyed the massive pile of textbooks, assignments, and other homework on the desk next to him. He was just getting through the last of his overdue French homework, but he still had sciences and maths to get through. With a sigh, he wrote down the last conjugation of the verb "study." He was sick of this. Missions for MI6, homework from school… he sighed.

Alex had been living with James – or Wolf, rather – since Jack had passed away and the Pleasure's household didn't work out. He was amazed at how much their relationship had changed since the SAS training they'd completed together. The downside was that MI6 could use that against Alex now, to coerce him into work.

"Hey," a voice called out from behind him. "You going to sleep?"

Alex put down his pencil and turned around in his chair. James was standing in his doorway, leaning against one side. "Hey," he said softly. His non-answer was deliberate.

Alex's last mission had been rough. He was having nightmares every night. It had been long, too, contributing to his extra-large pile of homework. At least MI6 was giving him enough time to recover and catch up a bit now.

"Well?"

Alex shrugged and turned back to his desk. He put away the now-complete French assignment and pulled out his textbook for Maths. It wasn't difficult – just time-consuming, and it required a lot of his attention.

"Alex, it's Friday night. You don't have anything due tomorrow, do you?" Alex could tell by the way James's voice sounded that he had walked into the room and was standing behind him.

"Are you encouraging me to procrastinate?" Alex responded sharply, sharper than he intended. He could practically feel James rolling his eyes.

"No, I'm encouraging you to go to sleep. You know, good health and all that?"

Alex snorted. "Sleep's overrated. I have homework to do." He didn't even look up from his book.

James moved into his peripheral vision. "You got back Tuesday in the middle of the night and slept maybe 4 hours before school on Wednesday. Then you pulled an all-nighter Wednesday night. You slept maybe 3 hours on Thursday. You've got to be exhausted."

Alex closed his eyes. Yes, he was tired. James was right. But he also had a mountain of work. "I didn't know you cared so much about my sleep schedule, James."

James shrugged. "Point is, you need to sleep."

Alex mentally cursed as an ill-timed yawn escaped him. "I need to stay in school so I can get a better job once I'm 18."

Alex knew James didn't like his 'job', as he described the strange relationship he had with MI6. James thought he was too young, should be innocent, was incapable, would get killed… blah blah blah. Alex was acutely aware of all the non-ideal conditions of his job. James didn't need to point them out – Alex knew.

But it seemed that even referencing his job wouldn't get James to back off. "But you can't work as well if you're nodding off."

Alex blinked and re-read a sentence about polygons. He might take a little long to process information, but honestly? It wasn't that big a difference. At least, Alex didn't think so. He hummed noncommittally.

James was waiting. Alex looked up at him, glaring a bit more than he really needed to. "Are you going to keep distracting me, or let me actually do my homework?"

James rolled his eyes and threw his arms up in defeat. He walked out while saying, "Good night. Just make sure you actually get some sleep, yeah?"

"Mm-hm. Close the door behind you, would you?" Alex already knew that he wouldn't go to sleep for a while – not until he'd at least accomplished a quarter of his work. The weekend wouldn't be long enough, otherwise.

ARARAR

James looked at the clock. It was half past midnight, and he'd told Alex to sleep over two hours ago. He was in the living room, watching an old movie. He would have preferred to be out with friends, but he'd declined this evening because he was worried about Alex.

Worried.

He resolved to never tell anyone that.

The movie just finished, and the credits were rolling. It was the second one he'd watched tonight. It was a relaxing way to let down his hair after work if he couldn't hang out with friends.

With a yawn, James got up and went down the hall toward his own room. As he expected, Alex's light was on. He sighed and tapped lightly on the door, but no response came.

"Alex?" he said softly. If the boy was asleep, then he didn't want to wake him. But since the light was on, he doubted it.

Still Alex didn't reply. James frowned a little and opened the door. He almost laughed at the sight in front of him.

Alex's head was on his desk, his face not turned to either side but face-down in a textbook. His left hand was by his face, and his right hand was on a separate sheet of paper, positioned to hold a pencil but not actually holding one. The desk lamp illuminated Alex's hair and cast light shadows elsewhere.

James shook his head and stepped up next to him. He'd learned that startling Alex in his sleep could make him attack blindly, so he was careful not to wake him.

Now he could see the very problem Alex had been working on. Some kind of calculation, based on the equations. The last one was half-complete, and a long light line trailed from Alex's thumb. A pencil lay a few inches away.

James grinned a little and raised his eyebrows. It wasn't easy to fall asleep while doing something else.

Very gently, so as not startle or wake Alex, he picked up the boy's right hand and moved it out of the way of the line. Then he took the pencil and erased the line. He put the pencil in Alex's pencil holder at the top of desk and turned off the lamp.

"Alex?" he asked softly. If he was in a light sleep, he probably should have woken up by now. He must have fallen asleep a while ago.

On impulse, James warily reached out and ruffled the boy's head. Alex still didn't wake. James wasn't sure he'd even seen Alex in such a deep sleep. Not that James saw him asleep that much.

He must be completely exhausted.

James bit his lip. Now what?

He moved along and went over to Alex's bed. He pulled back the covers, all the way to the foot of the bed. That way, he could position Alex in his bed more easily. There was a t-shirt on the pillows. James had seen him enough times to know that he slept in his boxers and a t-shirt.

Carefully, James leaned Alex back in his chair. His arms slid off the desk and plopped into his lap. James wondered vaguely if that would wake him, but it didn't. Deep sleep had a firm grip on the child, it seemed.

Gently, James slid his arms under Alex's knees and behind his back.

Alex didn't even seem to notice, so James went ahead and carried him over to the bed. He laid back Alex's upper body and removed his shoes before completely laying him down.

James studied Alex for a moment. Yes, he wanted Alex to rest more peacefully, but James wasn't related to him. Should he go so far as to undress the kid? James sighed and ran a hand through his own hair, uncertain of what to do.

It wasn't like he hadn't seen Alex wholly or partially naked before. A slip between his room and the shower, a retrieval from a mission, a doctor explaining what James had to do for Alex's physical therapy… the list went on.

Alex shifted, twisting a little bit as if trying to roll onto his side. His arms twitched up until they draped across his body to one side. That decided James. From there, it was just a matter of moving fabric a little to make Alex more comfortable.

James gently removed Alex's jeans and pulled up the blanket.

With that, James turned off the lights and left.

ARARA

Nine hours later, James got out of bed himself. He got up and about, dressed and everything. He even made a simple breakfast for himself, after checking that Alex's door was closed. He assumed that the boy was asleep.

To pass the time, James pulled out a magazine and started flipping through it. Scarlet sedans, shades of Chevrolets, twilight trucks…

Hot chicks…

"Good morning." James looked up, surprised that Alex snuck up on him. One time James had nearly punched him for it, so he thought Alex would be a little more careful.

Upon actually looking at Alex, he realized the kid looked like shit. However long he'd slept – maybe 10 hours? – was nowhere near enough to make up for what he'd done to himself that week. His eyes had deep circles underneath, and they were uncharacteristically glazed. It looked like he hadn't even taken a shower yet, though he had slipped on a pair of jeans.

"Morning," James said. "You look like shit."

"Thanks. You look just peachy yourself."

James frowned. The kid's retort lacked its usual energy, the sarcasm lacklustre and dull instead of sharp and piercing. "You want some breakfast or something?"

Alex started to shake his head but stopped. "You're offering?"

Standing to move to the kitchen, James nodded. "I think I could rustle up something." James frowned when Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "What?"

"You're going to cook? Why?"

A sigh escaped James' mouth before he could think better of it. "Are you ever going to get it through your head that some adults just want to help you?"

"No one helps anyone without a reason."

"Or maybe they just care about them."

Alex looked away at that. James closed his eyes. Right. There had been Jack before him. Though Alex never admitted it, James could always see the hurt in his eyes whenever she was brought up or something reminded him of her. Just because he'd grieved for her and accepted that she was gone didn't mean that loss wasn't a painful feeling. If anything, James could relate to that.

"Ah, look," James tried, "I'll just make you a sandwich or something, yeah? Have a seat."

Alex acquiesced and followed him into the kitchen. As James started pulling out slices of meat and other sandwich ingredients, he coaxed Alex into conversation. He remembered that Alex's therapist had said something about socializing being important for the kid. Not like James remembered why.

"What are you going to do today?" he tried.

"Study."

"Study what?"

"Math."

"What kind?"

"Geometry."

"You like it?"

"I would if I didn't have to cram it."

"What're you studying right now?"

The conversation continued like that, with James drilling Alex. It felt a little stilted to James, and he wondered if Alex had picked up on his distinct effort to do something for him. Eventually, the conversation dwindled into nothing, and James couldn't help but feel a little awkward about the whole situation. He didn't normally make food for Alex if they weren't both eating. But the kid just looked so dead tired…

Finally, the sandwich was done, and he put it on a plate and slid it over to Alex, who was resting his head on his forearms.

"Alex?"

Bleary-eyed, Alex lifted his head off the table and looked up at James. "Thanks."

"It's the least I could do." He paused, studying Alex further. "You okay?"

"I'm…" Alex paused, mouth open. They'd had this conversation before. 'How are you?' was a greeting that should get a 'Fine, thanks,' but 'Are you okay?' deserved an actual answer. That Alex wasn't answering meant 'no'. James slid into the chair next to Alex as the boy took a bite of the sandwich.

"What's up?"

"I've got a lot of work to do, that's all."

James nodded, uncertain. "Your health comes before your schoolwork."

Alex's eyes flickered over to James', and he took a moment to finish chewing a bite of sandwich. "Really."

His guardian nodded firmly. "If you're not healthy, you won't perform as well in any way, shape or form." Somehow, James felt that he wasn't getting through to Alex. "I'm serious. You need to sleep more, Alex. Rest. I don't want you to do any homework after 10 today, all right?"

Alex snorted. "You've never given me a curfew."

"It's not like that," said James. "It's that you aren't taking care of yourself – "

"I can take care of myself, thank you," Alex snapped. "I don't need you. I wouldn't even be in this situation if it weren't for you."

Dumbfounded, anything James could have said dried up on his tongue. It wasn't like Alex to snap at people unreasonably – just if the situation really, really called for it. And this situation didn't call for snapping. Alex's tone drew out anger in James, and he made to respond with something equally angry before he could think better of it. Luckily, Alex beat him to it.

"Sorry," he muttered, more collected than before. "It's just been a rough week. I didn't mean to snap at you. You haven't done anything."

Just like that, and James didn't know what to say – again. When he finally did think of something to say, Alex was almost done with his sandwich.

"Alex," Wolf started slowly, placing a tentative hand on his shoulder. "You do realise MI6 are to blame?"

Alex nodded and finished off his sandwich, chewing it slowly. "I know. But it's easy to forget." Alex drew in a deep breath and let it out. "Thank you for - for caring."

Wolf looked down at the table. He never knew quite what to say when Alex acted far beyond his years or spoke from the heart. He muttered a platitude. "You're welcome."

With that, Alex went back to his homework.

AN: So... I was going through my fanfiction folder and found this. I wrote it well over a year ago, it seems, and never put it out for people to read - and I can see why, too, as it has no plot or significance (and I think it's unfinished, but I have no idea where it was going). But, eh, why not? It's kinda okay. I added the last sentence because I didn't know what else to do.

Drop a review if you feel like it - I'll smile for sure! :-)