A/N: I haven't written any Alex Rider in, like, a month, but I thought of this when I saw the prompt and I was like I NEED TO WRITE IT. So I wrote it all today, the last day of June, because I'm a procrastinating procrastinator who procrastinates

something old

Alex has had the picture for as long as he remember, maybe as long as he's been alive. Two people - his parents - sit side by side, while a man stands behind them with his hand on his father's shoulder. His mother is holding a baby - him. John and Helen and even Alex are all smiling, because they don't know what's going to happen in three days' time.

(Ash is the only one who isn't smiling.)

(Alex doesn't like to think about why.)

something new

Alex has been orphaned three times in his fifteen years of life.

With Jack's...death, he's now technically a ward of the government, or something along those lines. He still lives in his old house, surviving on monthly payment to Ian's old account that he's pretty sure MI6 has something to do with.

He knows for sure that MI6 has something to do with assigning Ben Daniels to the house. It takes a long time before Alex can trust Ben completely, but it comes. And then he realizes - it feels like having a family again.

(He never tells Ben how afraid he is to lose this new family.)

(He thinks he might know anyway.)

something borrowed

At this point, his entire life counts as borrowed time, because surely one of these days all of the amazingly lucky, dumb stunts he's pulled will catch up with him, and where is that going to leave him?

Every mission he comes back from lengthens his odds. Surely his luck's going to run out soon.

He can't see a way out. He's going to be stuck like this forever - missions, injuries, recovery, nightmares, missions.

(There are days he wishes that that borrowed time would run out a little bit sooner.)

(It never seems to agree.)

something blue

The walls of the house are blue, and the first thing Alex notices is that they're the same blue as her eyes.

Her eyes, which he now gets to see every day for the rest of his life.

He smiles just thinking about it, and squeezes her hand. She smiles right back at him.

(He doesn't remember the last time he felt truly happy.)

(He thinks he might have finally found it.)