((Hey guys! Just wanted you all to know that I hadn't worked on this story in forever until I posted it, so it has taken me a while to get back in the proper mind set for it. Still, I hope you enjoy what I have managed to scrounge up for my lovely readers!))

Sitting around the table is several people he doesn't know, as well as some he does.

Most importantly, there was the man he'd been hoping to avoid: Yassen Gregorovitch.

"Hello, everyone. You rang?" Alex says, deciding that the current best option was avoidance. After all, Yassen may not recognize him, considering how much he had changed since the last time he saw the assassin…

He was correct, at Yassen looks at him with faint curiosity before going back to the business at hand.

Alex grins triumphantly, taking a seat opposite everyone else and closest to the door. Hopefully, this wouldn't take long, as he had a mainland to visit with about three guys to sleep with and several bottle of whines to inhale.

"Yes, we have a mission you may be interested in, considering your past. At least, so I am told by Ms. Rothman."

He nods encouragingly, feeling as if he is coaching a little league team as the average man continues where he left off.

"I am here to hire you and a team to take out Kevin Blunt, Tulip Jones, and Samuel Smithers."

"Done, done, and no can do. Over my years, I have found that I owe Smithers, and any threat by you, as you are not a man of this organization will be thwarted, as that man is under my protection, and there for anyone that works even indirectly for Scorpia or its allies. I made the no hit policy months ago, and you were probably not informed about it in whatever discrete location you were hiding in."

He gives the surprised man an indulgent smile, before turning his focus on the remaining targets.

"Now, how would you like the other two done?"

The man seems to need time to process all of what had just been said, but after a few moments he snaps out of it.

"It is unfortunate about that, but I am here to get a job done, not make enemies. I don't care how you do them, so long as it is done in such a way that it is impossible to mistake for an accident, then make sure that it is spread about that it most definitely wasn't one."

As the man was talking, Alex had kept a close eye on Yassen. The blonde had this expression of someone who just knew that they had met the other person before, but had no idea where.

Once again, it's not that Alex could blame the man. He'd cut his hair shorter so that it wouldn't get in the way as well as the clothes and glasses that he wore. He had had laser hair removal everywhere but his eyebrows and head, and he'd somehow managed to get even paler. Probably from spending less time outside… he'd have to work on that later.

"Fabulous, that shouldn't be a problem. Who do you wish to be in the team other than me? Who do you want as the leader?"

At this, Yassen seems to snap to, straightening even more, which shouldn't have been humanly possible, but apparently was.

"I will be the leader of the team. Other than that, you may choose whoever you'd prefer, so long as you remember the fewer the better."

Yassen's voice had always managed to do things to his body, especially when he talked in his, "I am the boss, defy me and die." Voice. If he was going to work with the man, he couldn't have him queue in that he was in lo- liked the man.

"Fine by me. When do we leave?"

"In a week, where we will then have as long as we need to prepare and make sure that we don't miss."

"I know your record and you will soon know mine. I never miss." Alex says, dead serious as he stares back at Yassen, unwavering.

Eventually, the man is the one that breaks them off.

"Now, what about payment."

"All me and my team require is operating expenses, as I am willing to do the actual killing of these particular people for free. Operating expenses can be anything that I deem as such. Everything else, you can work out with our team leader."

After receiving a nod, he heads out, completely oblivious to the cold brown eyes that follow him.

He stops by his quarters, and after grabbing a snack grabs his towel and clothes, heading to the communal showers.

He had his own, but the communal ones were much better and he knew that they would be deserted enough that he wouldn't have to worry.

Hot water shoots from the shower head, pounding into his back in a blissful burning that he never wanted to die.

It wasn't until the sound of a second shower that he fell out of his trance, and he lazily glance around, but notices that it must be on the other side, out of view. About to go sneak out, he was stopped by a shadow falling across his path, and he quickly looks up to find an almost completely naked Yassen there.

Yassen's body was just as he always thought it would be, all muscles and smooth skin, the only blemish being the occasional scar.

Trying really hard not to drool, he completely misses the appreciative look the man gives him in return, before his eyes land on his… less accidental mark.

The man's eyes widen minutely, no doubt recognizing the Russian Eagle symbol with a background of two pistols with silencers on them crossed.

"Yeah, a little noticeable, but the person that I got it for would like it if they knew that I had gotten it for them." Alex says, restraining himself from telling Yassen everything then and there. It was hard, but he managed.

"Yes, it looks very good, though it is also extremely risky to have one, as it is easier to identify you." Yassen says, not relaxing for a second, always tense even as he stands in nothing but a towel, that Alex thought was doing its job way too well.

"Yes, that is true. But, if someone is going to get me shirtless, they'll be dead before they can tell anyone else. Half the times that I am shirtless, it's at somewhere in Russia and all of the people that see it seem to like it well enough. Now, I have places to go, but I will be back before we have to leave. The team will be assembled and waiting for your orders."

Smoothly, he brushes past without actually touching the man, his head already filled with what those plans were…

((Once again, reviews are good. The more desperate, the better.))