A/n: I've gotten really obsessed with the Alex Rider series lately and this popped into my head as I was rereading Stormbreaker… thus, this one-shot/ drabble thing was born. It's funny, when I try to write a one-shot I get an annoying mess cause my brain goes faster than my fingers or a drabble. When I try and write a drabble I get a one-shot…oh well on with this…story.
Disclaimer: Let's see, not a dude, not a high school graduate, not a legal adult, oh! And I don't bloody well own Alex Rider…(actually I'm American but I read way to many British books…it annoys people so much and my teacher yelled at me for using British spellings…).
Title: Matches
Summary: It was just a box of matches. Taken using one of the oldest tricks in the book. Maybe it was the shock. Maybe it was the fact that it was too simple. Maybe he'd gone soft. But, one thing he was sure of was that he'd underestimated Alex Rider… the kid. But that trick with a box of matches told a lot more then it should have…
Sergeant P.O.V
Now, if there is one thing you should know about the Sergeant is that he did not scare easy. He did not get shocked. Or surprised. He was a man who had gone through war. He's killed and seen people be killed. He did not survive by being kindhearted or understanding. He was not cruel; he just wasn't going to sugarcoat the real world.
Then the MI6 send a bloody schoolboy to him; and give him 11 days for a 14-week training coarse. Maybe someone up there finally cracked, maybe the world has gotten even more messed up, maybe there was no other choice. But here was a teenager who obviously did not want to be there. And maybe that was his mistake. Thinking of him as some little kid who didn't know a thing. But that kid, could take full-grown armed men and leave without a scratch. He finished the 'playground from hell' in 17 minutes. Even his best man only finished in 12.
But the Sergeant did not admit defeat easy; even to him-self. He went easy on the kid. Let his guard down. He was just a kid. And maybe that's the point. No one thinks some kid with seemingly no talents or skills what so ever to be a black belt or a spy.
Even so, it was just a box of matches. Pick-pocketed using one of the oldest, simplest tricks; the stumble and grab. And maybe that's why he didn't realize it. Didn't expect it. Maybe he was waiting for something like this to happen. To prove him wrong. To show him he'd underestimated the kid, cub, Alex Rider. Even if he didn't show it, that trick with the little box of matches told him a lot more then it should have… maybe the kid would make it. Maybe he would save the world. He would watch and see. But, after all, it's just a box of matches. Right?