Wow, I'm tired. So very, thoroughly exhausted. And I've still got two hours babysitting left. It's just by younger siblings, but tiring nonetheless. Plus working at a library is harder than you'd think...

But well, I've written another chapter anyway! Can't help it. Must do something, right? XD

Disclaimer: Eagle would have been acting like he does below at Brecon Beacons, too, if it were up to me. But it clearly isn't.

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Twenty minutes later – ten minutes more than Alex had said, oh no – the spy was up and in the kitchen. He was yawning repeatedly, though, and his hair looked like a mess again.

He vainly tried to flatten it out, letting his hand run through it over and over again, but to no avail.

Snake watched with amusement as Alex tried to collect himself, from his seat at the table. Eagle was in the living room, watching some old soap opera. That man loved anything that was (overly) dramatic.

"Wha'd'ya wanna eat?" Alex asked, tiredly. He had no idea why he was so tired; he usually was drained when he came home from school, but this was different. The teen was exhausted, without any special reason.

"Doesn't matter--" Snake started, but was cut off by the grown baby in the living room.

"PANCAKES!" Eagle shouted happily, clapping his hands. "Make us pancakes, Cub!"

"--whatever you feel like," Snake continued, ignoring his loud teammate. "Or do you want me to cook? You shouldn't have to supply us all with such fancy dinners every day..."

"PANCAKES! PANCAKES! PANCAKES!"

"No, it's fine, Snake, I'll cook... but what do you wanna eat? Is pasta ok--" Alex clenched his fist, doing his best to ignore Eagle. But it was hard.

"PAAAANCAAAKES!"

"Then pasta it is." Snake nodded, smiling slightly, as Eagle burst into the kitchen and threw himself at the teen, screaming "PANCAKES!" once again.

~~.._..~~

An hour later – it didn't take that long to actually cook, but getting Eagle to back off did – the dinner was ready. Fox had also arrived and they were only waiting for Wolf, who had yet to come home. Snake and Alex set the table, Fox was just having fun at Eagle, whom was sulking since they weren't going to eat pancakes.

The doorbell rang and Snake, whom had joined Fox in teasing Eagle, asked Alex to please go open the door. They all assumed that it was Wolf, though they couldn't understand why he'd use the doorbell. But then again, it could probably be because he was either bored or simply had forgotten the keys (they were all rather paranoid men, they preferred to keep the door locked at most times).

So Alex wasn't quite prepared to meet James when he opened the door. James was grinning widely, holding out his arms, as if expecting a hug. He didn't receive one.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" the spy hissed, slipping out the door and closing it quietly. It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see James – after all, said boy had come all the way here from bloody Austria, just to see him, Alex – but it felt quite risky, seeing as Fox, Snake and Eagle were there. And Wolf could come home at any time, too.

"Great to see you too!" James exclaimed, looking rather offended. "Here I go out of my way just to come see you while you're grounded, and you don't even seem happy to see me..."

"It's not that," the spy sighed lightly, his features softening and resisting the urge to explain that half of the point with being grounded, was to not see any friends. Oh, well. . "I'm just... tired right now, and not really up to you meeting the grand K-Unit..."

"Tired?" James frowned. "Why?"

"Can't we take this some other time? Wolf's bound to come home at any time now and the curious and paranoid bastards inside will wonder where I disappeared all of a sudden." Alex let a hand go through his hair.

"But – but, Al!" the taller boy whined, loudly. "We haven't seen each other since Monday and I'm getting bored with just bodyguards and overweight baldies as company!"

"It's your fault I got grounded to start with, James." Alex stated, matter-of-factly. "And you're gonna have to suffer just as much as I do. Do you realize how tiring it is to spend every day with overly paranoid-and-curious-and-annoying-and-overprotective-but-nice-but-annoying-still-SAS-agents?"

"No. No, I don't." the taller boy shook his head, frowning slightly. "I'm not used to hanging with SAS agents. Sorry."

"And you don't wanna! So please, leave now and I'll call you as soon as I get a chance to...--" the spy's voice trailed off, as he heard heavy steps stomping up the stairs. Damn. Wolf was on his way.

So he did the first thing that came to his mind; grabbed James' arm and opened the door, his plan being to lock James up in his, Alex's, room. But, unfortunately, the military men inside had started to wonder where the hell the teen had disappeared to, and were standing at the door, just about to open it themselves.

So, on one side, there was Wolf. On the other, were Snake, Fox and Eagle. Bloody SAS agents everywhere!

Alex was basically stuck between a rock and a hard place. Kind of.

~~.._..~~

Wolf glared at Alex. Wolf glared at James. Wolf glared at Alex again.

Eagle was just staring at James, his eyes wide, his mouth hanging open and forming a small o. He had heard of the Sprintz name. It amazed him how extremely rich the dark-haired teen in front of him really was.

Fox was frowning. He didn't like the fact that "an unknown teenager" was here, without invitation. He wasn't a man who was very fond of surprises. Oh, plus the fact that James was wearing a goofy grin and shot "meaningful glances" at Alex every now and then.

Snake wasn't as bad; he was just slightly bewildered by the fact that an Austrian boy was sitting in Wolf's kitchen, all of a sudden. But he did seem bothered by the way James stared at Alex.

There's no reason to explain that James was grinning as if there was no tomorrow, again, so... he was grinning. It was as simple as that.

Alex was shifting uncomfortably in his seat, letting a hand go through his hair and rubbing the bridge of his nose. It was at times like these he wished he could just go James Bond and disappear away with a helicopter through a window, if that was even James Bond, or anything at all to get away.

However, they had somehow managed to get through the dinner.

Without. Saying. A. Word.

The tension had grown insufferable, and you'd seriously be able to cut through the tension with a knife. Honestly. The tension was almost visible. Not that it could be... but... still.

"You see," Alex muttered. "this – is why I didn't want you to meet." Mostly. And because K-Unit is partially MI6 and James is not. They're not supposed to meet...!

"Now that you know who Al were with, is he still grounded?" James asked, happily, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the room. "Technically, he shouldn't be, right?" he asked, hopefully.

Alex kicked his leg under the table. James grimaced and stuck his tongue out at the spy, whom just shook his head. So James decided to struck back, but Alex simply caught his wrist and twisted it lightly, but enough to hurt, at least a little. The taller of the boys swore again and glared halfheartedly at his friend.

"Ignore him." Alex muttered.

"Are you rich?" Eagle asked, dumbly, still staring at James. Now it was Snake's turn to struck Eagle, instead. He used Alex trademark "smack over the back of victim's head". Eagle seemed to suffer a lot of those lately.

"What kind of relationship do you have?" Wolf asked, suspiciously.

"You don't just drop by from Austria for nothing." Fox added, just as suspiciously.

"What were you doing during the Monday evening?"

"Are you some kind of stalker? Alex, does this kid stalk you?"

Alex groaned quietly. He would have banged his head in the table, if it wasn't for the fact that his plate was in the way. He would have moved it, too, if it wasn't for the fact that there were five other plates there, as well. And glasses and a saucepan and a jug of water. They definitely were too many at the table; just K-Unit and Alex were one or two too many, but with James as well...

"How close are you, really?" Wolf kept asking.

"Did he ever make you do uncomfortable things?" Fox pushed. By this, James had stopped pretending to be entirely oblivious.

"Hey! What the hell was that?" he asked, angrily. The spy feared what was coming. "Whatever Alex does, he does it because he wants to, right, A--?"

Ah, there it was again! The smack over the back of victim's head!

"Don't listen to him. We're just friends." Alex sighed. He was so tired... "James hasn't seen the room I live in here. May I show it to him? Thanks." the teen stood up, brining his plate and placing it in the sink. "Are you coming, James?"

"Sorry, Al, but I'm busy." James said, dramatically.

"With what?"Alex, having his back toward his friend, rolled his eyes and turned around. His tall friend was kneeling on the floor, pretending to be looking for something on the floor, while (stupid, yes) having one hand over his forehead.

"Picking up the pieces of my broken heart!" the dark-haired boy sniffed, clutching his chest. "You thoughtlessly threw it away and it shattered! Here I am, picking up each and every piece so I can glue it together and give it to you all over again!"

Alex was already in his room by now. There was no way he was listening to James stupid "confession" again. But, if anything, K-Unit must've understood what kind of relationship James and Alex had now. A complicated-kind-of-hopeless-but-who-knows-what-might-happen one.