(A/N) Heyo peoples of the planet Earth. Time for chapter 4, things are explained a little bit in this one, it's a bit of a background on the OCs. Things will start getting more interesting next chapter...I hope...

Sorry for the delayed update, I planned on updating by Thursday but I had stuff...and...well sorry but I am just a lazy girlie.

Disclaimer: Rat owns absolutley nothing only Contessa and Tristan actually belong to me, I am to cheap and broke to be able to afford anyhting else. (Let alone a whole T.V Series. Maybe I could afford apeice of gum featured in one episode...no...not even that..*Sigh*

We're off to read the next chapter, the wonderful chapter- forget it, I hope you enjoy. Reviews are appreciated with much love!

4

Now things are getting interesting

Outside in the streets of New York the world passed by cheerfully, blissfully unaware of the horrors their city held within its walls. But to speak of such things would break the magic spell cast upon it. Is it not better to go on living, lying to yourself and saying that things can't get any better? Simply telling yourself that nothing can touch you, hurt you, break you or bring you down. No, there isn't. Too bad then that such ignorance can only be held within ones grasp for a little while.

Eventually you learn that things can always get worse, that the world you've been smiling and laughing about is not all fairytales and butterflies. In that single moment of realization you can choose to do one of two things, live with the fact, or give up. I never had a choice; to give up would have been losing. Contessa does not lose. I tore my eyes away to stare at the chaos unfolding with the confines of Leverage head-quarters.

Nate and Eliot were having a quite albeit heated conversation involving whether or not it was alright to toss my dear friend Tristan out of the window. Parker and Sophie were standing off to the side, talking to Hardison as he called his sister on the phone. Tristan stood with his arm draped around over my shoulder, his head tilted to the side as he listened to the people around of him. Tristan wasn't the kind to take action; he never did anything unless somebody told him to. Before I had met him he would work for anyone, do practically anything, as long as he thought he was helping you, he would give his right arm with a smile on his face.

His eyes followed the actions of the men in the corner arguing, his smile twitching at the corners of his mouth as Eliot glared at him. I couldn't help but sigh. It's my fault completely that he gets a kick out of annoying others now, before me he would have been clinging to the hem of Eliot's pants trying to get him to forgive him. He met my eyes and winked. I shook my head and returned to my eyes to the window, to the people who walked by without a care in the world besides 'what do I want to have for dinner?'

The idiots I was working for now wanted me to run protection of sorts on some geek inventor dude who was supposed to be able to get us in to the Michigan state art museum in less than two minutes. They tell me he can get us past the security cameras, through the key entry doors, and around the motion detectors that were stationed around the collection of Grecian artifacts. Yeah, right. I look around the dimly lit alleyway I was told to meet the most man. He was most likely going to be some MIT drop out with thorn in his side who decided to play the part of the villain in his own personal graphic novel.

It was going to be a long night. My patience was wearing thin; the moron was already three minutes late. What good is a genius if he isn't on time? I was about to blow the whole thing, I have better options than this, when foot steps could be heard coming towards me. "Took you long enough, if I wasn't supposed to be looking out for your sorry ass I would have knocked it into next week." I swung around, impatience and distaste evident on my lightly tanned features. "I'm sorry, but I thought you would be hungry." He was tall, handsome even. But unlike my previous assumptions he was far from the basement dwelling college dropout.

His caramel colored hand held out a milk shake for me, the sides still coated with condensation. "I wasn't sure what you would want so I went with chocolate. I have strawberry if you'd rather trade." The face that grinned down at me wasn't that of a hardened criminal. He was something else that's for sure. Pulling myself together I snatched the cold beverage from his hand and pushed past him. "We're late; we need to hurry if we want things to go smoothly." I pulled the collar of my jacket up and the brim of my hat down. He trotted along behind me like a lost puppy. The moon shone silver on the damp streets. It was a five minute walk to the back entrance of the museum, but it felt much longer than that.

The silence was deafening. It bothered me greatly but I was too stubborn to be the first to break it. I was here to make sure this buffoon didn't get himself hurt. "Hey, you know, you seem pretty young to be working this side of the law?" He spoke as if we were conversing over coffee, not heading to clean out a museum of its glittering artifacts. He sipped from his ice cream noisily, waiting on my reply.

"I could say the same for you professor. You don't seem like the criminal genius I was expecting kiddo." I could hear him chuckle behind me. "Touché, I got into the business because I needed a hobby. Mom sent me to live with Dad so as to 'better my education in a safe environment'. He's the dean of the local college." I paused in my stride, tripping on the curb as I stepped to cross the road. I was about to fall when a firm hand caught hold of arm. "Watch it! I'd hate to have you break your face walking." I quickly righted myself. My cheeks flushed from my fall. "Why?" When he looked confused I turned away and kept walking. "Why did you want to leave that kind of life?" I called over my shoulder. I hoped he wouldn't answer, that he'd say it was none of my business. To think that someone would willingly give up that kind of life to be a criminal, a thief, it confused my greatly." He didn't answer, at least not for a while. We were nearing the target, the back door to the loading plat form not ten feet away when he answered. "Because I hated it. I didn't like being coddled. I'd rather steal things, get things by working for them rather than have them handed to me." I couldn't help the disbelief that colored my features as I stared at him. He chuckled low again and came to stand in front of me. "Besides, I like this game. I get to meet all kinds of people and do al sorts of things I never would have dreamed of."

He tilted his head and stared at me, "What about you? Why do you do it?" He was the first to ask me that question. Honestly, even I hadn't bothered to think about it. I didn't know why I chose to do this, besides the fact that it was one of the few things I enjoyed. I like the thrill that came with beating down someone twice my size in combat, or rush you get when you get your hands on something that the public can't even get within five feet of.

He grinned, expecting me to reply. Instead I leaned over and put my lips around the straw of his cup. I stole a swig of the frothy beverage from him and then turned to the door, to the job. "We have work to do." He stared at his drink amused and then went to work applying his gadgets to the door, melting right through the locks. We slipped like wraiths in the night, grinning to ourselves, thinking of the wonder we were about to pull off.

Neither of us were the type to make friends, that much I had learned by the end of our first meeting. Both of us were wanderers, we both left the lives we knew to find something more exciting, something we could do for ourselves, because we both knew we could do much more than we were previously allowed. From then on we worked together as much as possible. I stayed in that city for months, just because we made such a good team.

Eventually however I became restless, I knew I would have to move again soon. Staying in one place for too long was never good; it felt too much like setting down roots. I always worried I would become attached, like I had become to Eliot before he began disappearing off the face of the earth. I had made a friend and as much as staying terrified me, leaving would hurt worse. I smiled at the street below as I though of the day Tristan solved all of my problems for me.

I was padding around in circles in the cheap motel room I had been living in, wearing a path into the already thin carpet. "Knock-Knock?" My head shot up at the sound of a voice, of Tristan's voice. "Yes?" I stared at him. It wasn't abnormal for him to randomly show up at my humble abode, but to show up with a rather large duffel bag and a computer bag draped around his shoulders was definitely not average behavior.

"What are those?" I was the queen of subtly obviously, no need to beat around the bush with Tristan. Playing word games with him was fun yes, but we never got anywhere because we always found a way to trip me up. "Bags my lady, obviously." He grinned at my narrowed glare and continued, "Kidding, it's my stuff. When do you want to go?" My face hurt from the sudden change, one minute I'm glaring at his oh-so witty remark, the next I'm wide eyed with my jaw on the floor. "What are you talking about Tristan? Go where?" I had to sit down, he had never talked of leaving, and the thought of me asking him come with me had never crossed my mind.

"Oh come on Tessa, do you take me for an idiot? I haven't known you all that long but I know you're smart enough to figure out what I mean." I must have appeared confused still because he smiled and stepped in, closing the door. He continued, "You don't want to stay here for too much longer, you need to keep moving. I don't know you well enough to know why yet, but I know that for some reason you don't want to go this time around. I flatter myself into thinking it's because of me, but by the way you've been acting around me lately it is the only conclusion that makes sense.

I hung my head in shame. It was true, I had been avoiding him. Every time I saw him, wanted to confront him of my issue with leaving, to ask him to help me find a solution, I chickened out at the last second. I hadn't actually talked to him the past three days. "That's what I thought. So I thought if you leaving with out me would make you seem so muddled then the only logical solution is for me to go with you. Alright?" I looked him in his bright eyes, looking for a sparkle that would tell me he was just teasing again, that this was all a joke and he just wanted to make fun of my weakness. I never found it. I found myself grinning to, a small smile twitching at the corners of my lips. "Yeah, alright."

We had been partners ever since then. With our skill combined permanently, not just when we were assigned together, we hauled in a much bigger check and could afford an apartment of our own. He was my best friend and jumped on the chance of helping me reconnect on my long lost big brother. He helped with reconnaissance and in research. The two of us together make a deadly team.

Some how from the atmosphere around us, the Leverage team knew that too. A click was heard and the occupants of the room turned towards the sound, still somewhat paranoid after Tristan's dramatic entrance. "Well, this is definitely no what I was expecting when I came to work today." He turned towards Tristan who had moved from casually draping his arms across me in a one sided hug, to attacking me from behind and using my head as chin rest. Stupid tall person. I could feel the dangerous aura emanating from Eliot's stoic form. I was sure that Tristan could too, but when he wanted to snuggle there was no stopping him. I asked him about it once and all he said was that he must have been hug deprived as a child.

"You, you young man are not making my life easy." Hardison was waving his cell phone at him threateningly. "How in the world did you convince her you were off at some special boarding school for gifted children? I almost got an earful of worried screaming mom syndrome when I mentioned you weren't where you were supposed to be." Tristan hummed thoughtfully as he contemplated this. "Well Uncle, I didn't say anything to her, so it must have been dad. And besides, I have an automated program set up that sends her e-mails at semi-regular intervals so that I don't have to call her. You didn't need to go worrying her like that. If you had bothered to ask me then I could have told you she was blissfully oblivious with out you having to go to all that trouble." He waved his hand in front of him like it was no big deal and that Hardison was a fool for acting concerned. In reality he was right, and it was no big deal. But flaunting it was just asking for a tirade.

"I ought to smack you. Get off of Con before Eliot has a conniption, and don't call me Uncle." He snapped. Honestly this was hilarious. "But you are my uncle, Uncle. What else am I supposed to call you?" Now Tristan was just asking for a fight. I reached up and thumped his head, he responded by tapping mine.

"Be nice to your uncle."

"Yes ma'am."

"Oh, I can't help it. They are so cute. Aren't they Parker?" Sophie was holding back a squeal. "Yep, the cutest." Some how Parker's sarcasm didn't seem as thick as normal. I glanced at the two of them from the corner of my eye and found that they were both inches away from melting at Tristan's adorable obedient boy friend act. A growl could be heard from across the room, low and even. Eliot was loosing it. Tristan wasn't helping any either. If anything he seemed to be enjoying teasing him.

"Alright, things are getting out of hand. Eliot, get over it. So your sister has a boyfriend, what did you expect was going to happen. Con, Tristan was it? Stop causing trouble. I can't very well get the two if you to leave so I guess the two of you are along for the ride. Sophie, Parker, stop giggling like fan girls and go sit down. Hardison…just…just go sit down. He's going to call you uncle no matter what you say. Now, if everyone is through, why don't we get down to business?" Slowly the room's mood became professional, everyone putting aside the things that were previously their concerns to focus on more important matters, the job, helping people. The way they all transitioned into work mode was flawless and left me feeling shut out. I really didn't belong here. They wanted to help people; I was just fine hurting them, perfectly fine with taking their material wants in order to go on living my own way.

"So, Tristan darling, it is clear that this isn't our circle, we live the opposite of their line of work…" I paused, trying to think of something else to say. I didn't think I wanted to help them, I thought I wanted to leave them to there own devices…but…? "I know what you mean Tessa, you like playing games as much as I do, right. Let's play this game for now." Tristan was right, it was a game. Just a silly game to help me figure out what in the world my brother had been up to. Now it was even a game Tristan would be able to be interested in. He had found his uncle amidst the chaos; things were starting to get interesting. That is what I started out thinking of it as, a game, and there was no reason to change that now.

"You're right, it's new game. Let's play." We settled in amongst our newest toys, waiting to hear the rules of our newest form of self entertainment. Neither of us had ever truly grown up, the reason we enjoy living like we do is because we love toys, games, riddles, and puzzles. This line of work was full of them. We were just to children who were set with playing every dangerous game they could find till their hearts content.

When you see the world for what it truly is then you get to choices, except it and move on, or give up. I must have forgotten about the third choice. Take it a run with, enjoy every second by living in this crooked world with rules that were meant to be broken. Break them, play the harsh game of life, and don't look back. Tristan and I have lived like this for years now, and we have no regrets. It's time for a new game, one where there are heroes who aren't conventional, and crooks who can be considerate.