"He's gonna find out, if he's gonna be staying here for the next few weeks."

"Let him find out on his own then!" Wolf barked.

"Aw, but that's not as much fun!" Eagle replied, resting his chin in his hands and pouting while Snake snorted a laugh. Alex turned to the only person he thought he might be able to get information out of: Fox.

"Who are you talking about?" he asked. Fox's cheshire cat grin grew.

"It's Tammy," he stage-whispered, sending Wolf into a sputtering rage.

"Who?"

And before Wolf could stop them, all three K-unit members howled,

"WOLF'S EX GIRLFRIEND!"

0o0o0o

Chapter 2

Grand Theft Auto

The next morning, Alex was awake at eight a.m., and Wolf followed him downstairs after taking a short shower. On the day before, K-unit and Alex had gone to the store to pick up some food and make the house vaguely livable in. Now, he was putting that food to good use by making breakfast.

Pancakes – who needed anything else? – were the perfect pick-me-up on Monday mornings. Wolf hadn't thanked him for the food, but then again, he hadn't apologized for pointing a gun at Alex the day before either, so he'd decided to stop expecting such pleasantries from the man. They both sat down, and Wolf stabbed his pancake harshly, glancing up and asking as a means for small talk,

"So how's school?"

"Fine," he responded, stuffing a piece of pancake into his mouth before licking his fingers. Wolf grunted, and Alex watched him closely, wondering what he was trying to accomplish.

"... Yeah? What year are you in?"

"… Twelve." Alex slowed down his movements. Wolf was looking uncomfortable, but he persevered anyway.

"… Do you… miss a lot of school? Because of your, um, you know –"

"Speaking of school…" Alex cut him off, hoping to end the subject. "Could I take your car?"

Wolf's response was immediate. "Absolutely not. Want to answer the question?"

Alex narrowed his eyes. Plan B it was. Until then, he supposed he should try a different approach.

"What are you doing?" By this time, the blonde had stopped eating and was now openly staring at him. Wolf glowered, throwing his hands down on the table in exasperation. The action reminded Alex of Jack – he really should give her a ring today; between everything happening the day before, it had slipped his mind.

"I'm just trying to learn a bit more about you!" he cried out. "No one knows anything, Cub. I don't even really know why you need to be here, in my own damn house. Consider that, and then you tell me if it's such a crime to try and make small talk."

"It's a crime when you do it, Wolf. Every time you try to make small talk, someone's precious baby dies."

"Fuck it. What the hell do you do at MI6, anyway? Are you a spy?"

Alex thought about it. He could probably tell Wolf – it was true that he'd told less-involved people – but he wasn't sure if he wanted to give him any information at all. Then he wouldn't be the exotic, mysterious stranger. Voicing these thoughts to Wolf, he watched as the man ran a hand over his pinched face, frustrated.

"I'll take that as a yes, then," he growled, "and believe me when I say there is nothing exotic about you. The strange, mystery-child part is spot-on, though. How come you're a spy at age seventeen? You're still in school, damn it."

Alex shrugged. "I do okay."

"What do your parents think about it? Do they even know?"

The blonde paused in the action of picking his napkin, and then slowly raised it to his face, answering dryly, "Well, it'd be pretty hard for them to hear about it, being six feet under and all."

Wolf looked vaguely, albeit not entirely, surprised. "So they're dead?"

"No, no. They have this little underground clubhouse six feet under our backyard, and–"

"Just… go to school, Cub," Wolf cut him off tiredly. Alex stood up, cleaning off his plate and tossing it in the formerly unused dishwasher before turning to Wolf in the process of collecting his books.

"Why are you up so early anyway, Wolf?" Alex asked him. "I thought you only had to work when they asked you to? Don't tell me you got a call…"

"Nah. I have a second job."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

Wolf grinned… wolfishly. "I'm a bouncer."

Alex laughed, picturing the intimidating soldier working at a club, nodding at the cute girls and pushing other guys back. It fit him perfectly, but it couldn't possibly be true. "Bull."

"Yeah, you're right. You really want to know?" Predictably, Alex nodded, temporarily stopping in his task of seeing how many books could be crammed into the average-sized backpack before it would explode.

"I'm a part time mechanic. It's a decent job; you organize your own hours and make sure it works with everyone else, and then you go in when you go in. If you can't, give 'em a day's notice and they can usually find someone to cover for you… or maybe it's just me. They know I'm in the SAS," he explained with a smirk. "See? I don't have to live a lie like you do."

"I may live a lie, but at least I'm young, handsome, and hold on to a promising career in espionage," he shot back. "That's not bad for someone who's not even out of school yet. You're just a paranoid old car junkie with a bitchy ex and Eagle as a best friend."

Wolf rose to the threats, as easy to provoke as ever. "Hey! I can take most of that stuff from a stupid brat, but Eagle is not my best friend. That's going too far."

Alex peered at him, calculative chocolate eyes analyzing the man's words carefully. "Then who's your best friend?"

"… Snake."

"I'm telling Fox and Eagle," he declared instantly.

"You're a bastard, you know that?"

Still cackling, Alex escaped out the front door just in time to avoid a flying spoon. Then he pulled his bag over his shoulder and grinned mischievously, reaching down to draw something from his pocket. Alex clicked the unlock button on the set of car keys, and the car gave an enthusiastic beep. Wolf owned a silver Camaro, and when Alex started it, he found the tank full and the keys functional enough to turn on the car without setting off an alarm loud enough to shake the continent.

Wolf hadn't noticed yet. Pulling out of the driveway, Alex couldn't keep the smile off his face. He'd outsmarted Wolf. The man was too annoyed with him to watch him leave – his pride wouldn't allow it. With any luck, he wouldn't realize his car was missing until Alex was out of the neighborhood and out of sight.

Alex's luck of the devil kicked in at that moment, and he sped off without a hitch, smart enough not to test the speed on the roads in the city but thinking every minute about how he might be able to grab Tom and find a freeway to race it on without getting in trouble with Wolf. The car had some impressive limits upon closer inspection.

A few minutes later he pulled into the school, getting out of the car and locking it behind him. School was better three years later – he'd been able to catch up on missed assignments and take more reasonable missions, ones that only took a couple days and usually incorporated weekends and breaks outside of emergencies.

He was also more popular now, and MI6 had finally decided to give him a solid disease – they created a fake one that he'd supposedly contracted just after Ian died, and it would kick in when his red blood cells were down and his blood sugar hadn't received enough iron or something else that was long and boring and actually made sense if you were a doctor looking in on it. MI6 had even gone as far as to post a few articles on the internet to back it up. It just so turned out that one of the nurses at Brookland had looked up his "condition", and had been satisfied enough when everything seemed to check out.

Alex still hung out with Tom Harrison and James Hale, but the three were often joined by other people – most of which were girls. He'd made up some stupid story about being in a motorcycle accident back when he'd gone to Italy with Tom after the guys had asked him about his scars in the change rooms, and he explained the bullet wound with being caught up in a drive-by shooting.

"The police were trying to cover it up," he'd told them animatedly. "'Appendicitis', my ass."

Word had gotten out to the girls about his "dangerous" side, and pretty soon his dwindling fan club had been restored to its former glory. The ones that obsessed over him were naturally pretty annoying, with personalities dull enough to knock Eagle over the head with, but it had its perks: it wasn't merely an ego boost (although it certainly did that, too); rather, anytime he supported some kind of cause – a charity, or even the petition for better football supplies he's signed back in year ten – it was flooded with the girl's donations and help. "Alex? Did you see? I just donated eighty dollars to Feed the Children." He'd give them their pat on the back and they'd scurry off, satisfied. Before all, it was for a good cause.

"Well, at least you use your powers for good," Tom had commented dryly the first time Alex had gone canvassing to selected lockers. Alex had responded by punching him lightly in the shoulder, ignoring Tom's mock noises of pain.

Alex's first class was maths. He took his seat beside James and jotted down notes as usual. It was halfway through science, his second class of the day, that he'd finally gotten the call he was waiting for, accepting it with about as much anticipation as a piece of driftwood.

"I apologize for the interruption. Would Alex Rider report to the office, please? Alex Rider, report to the office, thank you." The class did their customary "oooh you're gonna get it now!" rumble, and then Alex was off.

When he showed up, he was greeted by a sheepish looking Eagle and a furious looking Wolf. Disregarding the secretary completely, Wolf had stalked up to Alex and grabbed the front of his shirt, shaking him roughly.

"What part of 'absolutely not' do you not understand, Cub?" he raged.

"The 'not' part?" he replied with a nervous smile. Wolf bashed him over the head with a fist, drawing the attention of all the nearby classrooms with the noise he was making.

"Honestly, stealing my car? As if I haven't already been way too generous with you! It's been one day and you're already taking my stuff after I say no? If you don't smarten up, I might just have to pull my gun on you again and fire, do you understand me?"

"Why is Eagle here?" Alex asked flippantly, heightening Wolf's fury with his lack of fear. Hearing his name, the blonde turned and waved enthusiastically, resulting in a swift kick to the shin via Wolf. The man had already turned back toward Alex when Eagle let out a cry of protest, but unfortunately, the intimidation factor was slightly dampened by the fact that Alex was taller than Wolf by about half an inch. It didn't make much of a difference, but it meant Wolf couldn't tower over Alex like he had done in the past.

"I gave him the ride here," Eagle responded, still rubbing his leg. Wolf's dirty look was lost on his overly-nonchalant teammate.

"I'm serious, Cub! Try it again, and I'll show you what we learned about after you left Brecons Beacons." He shoved him hard in the chest, sending a twinge of pain shooting through his ribcage at the pressure put on his bullet wound. Alex carefully masked the discomfort.

"You wanna keep it down, Wolf? Classes are in session," Alex reminded him. Wolf looked mutinous as he reached out to roughly grab Alex's arm, shoving a hand into the boy's pocket and withdrawing a pair of silver car keys before Alex could retaliate.

"Take me seriously, brat!" he snarled, pushing the keys into his own back pocket.

"Or what?" Alex taunted.

"Or I'll fucking shoot you in the knees, that's what!"

"Wolf… I think we should go…" Eagle mumbled, eyeing the tall, angry-looking man that had just emerged from the office.

"Shut up, Eagle. I mean it. Take my shit again, and you're gonna pay."

"Like you'd ever hurt me. Oh wait, let me rephrase that – like you could."

With a roar, Wolf launched a fist at Alex's face, but it was pushed off course by a frightened Eagle seconds before it could connect. He grabbed Wolf's wrist, pulling him towards the door and away from the security guard who was fast approaching. Wolf had given up on fighting Eagle, but he did manage to shout one last time over his shoulder,

"And don't you dare show your face in my house ever again!"

When the two were gone, Alex stood frozen for another minute before sighing and rubbing his face, the other hand running through his hair as he always did when he was stressed. So maybe taking the car had been a bad move… and aggravating Wolf at school hadn't done much for him either, but… the man just came off so arrogant, and if there was one thing the teenager couldn't handle, it was that particular trait.

Turning around, he was met by the horrified stare of the school secretary. Slowly, she pointed at the door where the two men disappeared, as if she expected them to come bursting in again any second.

"Was he… serious?"

Alex gave her a long, withering look, and decided that lying was most certainly the best course of action if he didn't want to create an even huger mess of things all over again.

"No, ma'am. Of course he wasn't… he just has a bit of a temper. It's okay, I know him – he says things he doesn't mean when he's angry. Please don't worry about me," he offered a smile. "Was that all you called me here for?"

The woman nodded dazedly, and Alex said goodbye before going back to maths. However, upon opening the door, he was greeted with twenty-six startled faces, and one smirking one. James, you cocky bastard.

"Mr. Rider? I trust you'll… work that out after school?" his teacher, Mr. Werth, asked. Alex nodded numbly. Had the entire school heard him and Wolf battle it out back there?

"Alright. Take a seat then."

He did so, all the while dreading lunch more than ever before.

0o0o0o

As soon as the break bell rand Alex was shooting out his chair and tearing out the door, managing to make it through before any of his classmates could shut it and pester him for information. James was right at his heals, asking him about the man, what the guy's name was, why he'd felt the need to be so loud, and what the hell was wrong with him. Alex said answer "I don't know" to every question, for once in complete honesty.

As he had expected, his locker was swarming with curious classmates, and a cry of "there he is!" turned them all in his direction. Target spotted, he was taken down with swift ease, surrounded by a dozen people wanting to know what he'd done now. Tom was there, almost seeming to take up the position as leader of their gang.

"Guys, guys! Shut up and let him speak. When he explains this, I want you to go to every single one of your friends and tell them. Hopefully you'll be the only group he has to deal with like this."

"I feel like Britney Spears," Alex commented mournfully, earning a strangled look from James.

"Give the man some space. That's it. Now Alex, what the fuck was that?"

Alex scowled, crossing his arms over his chest angrily. "That guy is taking care of me while Jack's out of the country, visiting relatives. He's an asshole."

There was no need to explain his situation – everyone knew Jack. A few of his classmates had even added her on various social networking sites, much to her amusement.

"Why was he yelling at you? I couldn't understand him through the volume of his voice."

"I… sortofkindofalittlebit took his car. But I didn't know how else to get to school. My bike was left behind at my house, and it would've been too long to bike here anyway. I couldn't take the tube because the only one near his place was under construction."

"Next time, just call me, man."

"Yeah! I'd be happy to give you a ride, Alex!"

"Here's my number. Anytime, anyplace…" The noise erupted as everyone responded to the story. Tom was forced to calm them down again.

"I heard him say not go come home tonight." Actually, Tom had tacked on the tonight to make it look less damning. Wolf had dictated that he never wanted to see Cub again. "You can stay at my place if you want."

More shouts and offers of places to stay.

"So when he said he'd pull his gun on you again and fire, what did that mean? Like, he's done it before?"

Alex sighed, knowing someone would've caught that bit. This was tiring. He wasn't even sure he'd have time for lunch at this point.

"Yes, this one time when he caught me up for a midnight snack, he thought I was an intruder. Wolf's a cop, so he–"

"Is that his name? Wolf? Who was Eagle? And why did he keep calling you Cub?"

"They're… nicknames. Wolf's real name is Luke, and Eagle's is Jim." He'd made the second part up, but he doubted anyone would call him on it.

"They call me Cub because I'm the youngest. It was sort of a joke when I was younger, but it stuck. I think they've probably forgotten my real name…" Alex spotted Tom watching him sharply. He was expecting a non-bullshit version after school, Alex was sure.

"What were you doing at Brecons Beacons?"

Tom blanched, remembering the awful training facility Alex had described. So that explained who Wolf and Eagle really were. He remembered hearing their names somewhere, but now hearing the name of the SAS camp, he was able to pinpoint their origin. Alex had described them as the abusive members of "K-unit".

"I had a karate competition there once, and that's where I met Wolf. He was – instructing, and Eagle was helping."

"I thought you said you met them when you were little?" Alex was getting frustrated. Were they going to question his every answer?

"Yeah. It was a competition I had when I was eight." That was good. There was no one in his eight year-old karate class that currently went to Brookland.

"He wasn't serious about hurting you though, was he? Because we'll kick his ass," one of the other guys on his football team offered, cracking his knuckles. Alex grinned.

"Trust me, he'd never really intentionally hurt me. And I'll probably stay with Tom tonight, just to give Wolf some time to cool down."

There were various nods throughout the crowd, so he guessed everyone was basically done with him. As the group of people cleared out to spread the news, Tom hung back.

"We can take my car," Tom piped up.

Alex just grimaced.

0o0o0o

It was four in the afternoon and Wolf hadn't heard a word from Cub. Eagle was sitting next to him on the couch, eating a sandwich that was so big it barely fit in his mouth, but Wolf couldn't bring himself to turn off the ISPN and find out if Cub was going to hang out with a friend or if he'd taken his words to heart.

"I probably shouldn't have told him he wasn't allowed to show his face here ever again," Wolf commented for what seemed like the tenth time. Eagle nodded, wiping the mustard off his face and missing a large amount at the base of his nose.

"You also probably could've left out the part about shooting him in the knees," he supplied helpfully. Wolf glared weakly at him.

"If anything happens to him…" Eagle choked, turning towards his leader with an appalled look on his face. Wolf threw a hand down on the man's back, sending Eagle into a violent coughing fit as he watched on apathetically.

"Better now?" Wolf asked flatly. Eagle managed to get out what he'd been about to say before Wolf could stop him.

"Are you worried about Cub? No way…!"

"I'm not worried, you idiot. If you'd have let me finish, I was going to say that if anything happens to him, MI6 is gonna be pissed. I don't wanna get in deep shit because the kid couldn't hold his own to a bunch of seniors."

Eagle grinned at him, obviously still on about his original assumption. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"And what if you lost him? What if he's run off and he doesn't ever want to come back?"

Wolf wasn't fazed. "He'll be back."

"How do you know?" Eagle shot back. Wolf stared at him blankly.

"Well… there's food here. He needs food… you know, to eat. How is he gonna live if he has no money or food?"

Eagle swallowed the bite he'd bitten off, wincing when he found he hadn't chewed it quite as thoroughly as he'd thought. "Well, I reckon he'll do the same thing you do when you have no money or food."

Wolf made a face. "Freeload off you guys?"

"Exactly."

"But he doesn't know where anyone else in K-unit lives."

Eagle shook his head, waiting patiently for the light bulb to go off over Wolf's head. A second later realization dawned on him, and then Wolf was nodding slowly.

"But all his friends are still in school. How long until–"

"How do you know," Eagle cut in, "that all of Cub's friends are all still in school? I really doubt that he has to come back here."

"He left all his stuff here. And he needs to apologize."

But Wolf was getting nowhere and he knew it. After a while he gave up, sighing and falling back into the couch.

"Fuck it. Fuck him, and fuck MI6. I don't give a rat's ass. The kid can jump off a bridge for all I care."

Eagle laughed. "You're so cold, Wolf."

"Fuck you too."

0o0o0o

Three days passed and Wolf found Alex still hadn't come home. In truth, Alex had stayed at Tom's house for two days and a girl named Mia's for the third – James' twin sister. James himself had moved out a couple weeks ago with claims of "psychotic parents" with his girlfriend. Since Mia was someone he knew pretty well, he'd taken her up on her offer of a place to stay. He didn't want to stay too long in one place, so he was jumping from person to person, fearing the day he'd run out of people to stay with on the football team. He might even be forced to ask one of the girls from his fan club for a house to sleep overnight in if things kept up like this – of course, that wasn't all bad since some of the girls from his fan club were really cute… Alex just wasn't looking forward to confronting Wolf again.

So he was putting it off.

Wolf sighed. It was Friday, the last day of the school week and the final chance Wolf had to catch Cub before the weekend started up and he disappeared all together. He'd gotten a call from Mrs. Jones already, berating him for making a scene at Alex's school. It was clear he was to keep him at the house. So, accompanied by extreme regret, Wolf got in his car half an hour before Cub's school day ended and drove over to Brookland.

When the bell rang, teenagers began to flood out the doors. Wolf waited impatiently for Alex to appear, but it was a full fifteen minutes before Alex finally made an appearance, talking to a large group of friends made up of various girls and boys. A couple of them started to laugh, and Alex grinned while a dark-haired boy cuffed him over the head him playfully.

It was a nice picture – until Alex's eyes found Wolf's and the smile faltered. A couple of the friends followed his gaze before trailing off, apprehensiveness flooding their postures. Three people turned around and left, while a few tried to look threatening. Wolf might have laughed had he not had his steely eyes locked on Alex's suddenly cooler brown ones.

Alex approached the car slowly, and Wolf was the first to speak.

"Hey, Cub. Where've you been?"

"He has a name!" a taller teenager barked. Wolf looked over to him without looking the least bit intimidated. He'd already put together eight different ways of using his height against him should he need to take him down. Teenagers were prone to violence, after all.

"I know he has a name. I forgot what it is and I don't care enough to ask," he returned evenly, throwing the kid off. Then he glanced back at Alex, who was looking at him with cold indifference.

"So? What do you want?"

"What the hell do you–" he stopped upon realizing he'd drawn attention to their corner, lowering his voice to a hiss and finished, "–what the hell do you mean 'what do I want'? You're supposed to be staying with me."

"I was under the impression that I was going to be violently killed if I was seen on your property again."

"Get in the car, Cub," Wolf growled.

"A friendly reminder then – his name is Alex," a boy spoke up from next to the first one. "So how about you use that instead of your stupid nickname?"

Wolf stared at him for a second before repeating vacantly, "Nickname?"

Alex gave him a hard look. "Whatever. Maybe I don't want to stay with you, did you think about that?"

He was purposely being difficult. Wolf had pissed him off, and he wanted to make things harder for the man. Wolf needed to realize he wasn't a child and didn't need to be treated like one, even if the approach he was taking was a little redundant. It was more likely that he just needed to blow off some steam – taking the car was one thing, but he didn't deserve to be screamed at in front of all his whole school. Wolf could've waited until he'd gotten home like any civilized person – in fact, Alex would havee been satisfied if they'd simply left the building.

In short, Wolf had acted like an asshole, and Alex wanted to make sure he felt like one.

"Yeah, well guess what? You don't have a choice. You're coming home right now, and there's no argument. I just got a call from…" he paused, examining the audience, but Alex got the message all the same. With a resigned sigh, he pushed aside some of his bigger friends in order to reach his guardian. Although there was some variously distributed glares and mumbled threats, Wolf wasn't scared of the surrounding group. And for good reason – a few frustrated teenagers were hardly a workout for him.

"Okay," Alex conceded. "I'll come back. But only because I know how much Eagle misses me."

Alex said goodbye to his friends, knowing he'd be bombarded with questions when he got to school again on Monday. Sliding into the smooth leather seats, Alex made a decision. At the age of seventeen, he was mature for his age to say the least, but staying with Mia the night before had given her time to make sure he knew that he needed to loosen up. She wasn't part of his fan club, thankfully – their connection had started with James since they were siblings, but she'd developed into somewhat of a friend. Not particularly close, but familiar enough to be able to hold an easy conversation with. "You're always worried about something, Alex," she'd teased lightly. "Don't you think you should be acting a little more your age?"

It was an interesting insight on her part, but he'd taken the words to heart. After he graduated he would be growing up pretty fast, and he knew his social life would become more limited. Now was the perfect time to have some fun… in fact, it was the only time he'd get.

"Sorry for taking your car," he apologized, despite his last epiphany. He wasn't feeling particularly happy with the SAS soldier, but he had been in the wrong and he was probably going to end up doing it again at some point. Wolf grunted, but didn't reply otherwise. Alex crossed his arms over his chest, annoyed. He'd expected an apology in return. Wolf was making it clear that it wouldn't be that easy.

After a heavy silence, Wolf pulled into the driveway and Alex headed straight up to his room. Wolf didn't bother to say anything more to him. It was better to give the teen some time to get used to the house again before he tried to get a word out of him.

Fox was already in the kitchen, cooking. He was the unit's resident chef, even if he was limited to the basics of most dishes. However, upon finding food in the refrigerator, Ben Daniels had decided to make good use of his skills. They'd been drilled into him by his mother when he was younger, and he'd never lost them despite having lived off instant food for the past few years. Tonight he was preparing store-bought ravioli that looked ten times better than the Chinese food Wolf had eaten the previous night.

"You got Cub back," Fox said. The statement filled in the gaps, so Wolf nodded vaguely. Sitting down on the couch, he flicked on the TV, determined not to think about the blonde any more than he had to.

0o0o0o

Upstairs, Alex was lying on his bed, cell phone in hand. James had texted him, having missed the confrontation after school, and so had Mia.

Hey. U okay?

Alex internally smiled at the question. She didn't know a lot about him, but he figured it wouldn't be so difficult to believe he might not be. Mia had been in one of the closer classrooms the morning Wolf had "dropped in".

Yup. Why? Worried about me? ;)

The phone vibrated in his fingers a few seconds later.

I think u can take care of yourself, alex.

Got that right.

Just thought I'd make sure. I gotta go take a shower, ttyl.

Goodnight, mia.

She didn't respond after that, so Alex assumed she'd gone to sleep. Lying in bed, he contemplated ways to raise some hell. Wolf had dragged him back here – that meant that if anything happened to him, it was on Wolf's shoulders. That meant any threats to throw him out of the house were just that – words. That fact alone was a very comforting thought – and a hopeful one. As ideas trickled into his mind one by one, Alex found himself becoming more and more excited for the days to come.

He fell asleep grinning.

0o0o0o

Wow! Great feedback! I got some really nice reviews :) Thank you guys so much for letting me know what you think about the story! Just a quick reminder – this story will not be AlexOC. OC's will be coming in and out of this story for plot purposes, but none of them become permanent fixtures, so you can put down the pitchforks :P

Next chapter: strip poker, copious amounts of alcohol, and Alex has three missed calls.

Edited 6/19/12