A/N:Sooo, did you know that Alex had a thing for... read to find out :P

Disclaimer:Plus ça change, plus c'est la même merde.

Dedication:For Tsuki (SamayouTamashi) who requested and inspired this. I hope this is to your taste ;) Bon appetit!

A Thing For...

Ben was sitting by the small kitchen table, partially hidden behind the newspaper he was studying. Hearing Alex enter – they had taken to avoiding accidentally sneaking up on each other due to their habitually light steps – he lowered the paper and looked up at his partner over the rim of stylish rectangular reading glasses. A smirk spread over his face when Alex's step faltered just the tiniest bit, and the younger man stared at him, carefully blank-faced.

"Hey there," Ben greeted him with perfect nonchalance, his dark eyes twinkling mischievously. "Like my new glasses?"

Alex swallowed, his Adam's apple bopping minutely up and down in his throat. He shrugged non-committally and turned towards the shelf over the counter, rummaging through the general chaos to find himself a coffee mug in an attempt to ignore the urge to openly gape at his partner. The newspaper rustled behind him as Ben folded it and laid it on the table.

"I thought you'd been to the bank, not the optician's," Alex remarked casually. He had finally found a cup and grabbed for the coffee-pot to pour himself a drink.

"Oh, I was," Ben had risen from his seat and moved to stand beside Alex, almost lounging with his hip against the counter. He adjusted the glasses in a very deliberate movement. They pronounced his high cheekbones, adding to his handsome features. "Got them from Smithers for my next assignment. Splinter-proof. Zero dioptres.* I'm supposed to get used to wearing them."

"Smithers?" The name piqued Alex's interest, and he latched onto the prompt, apparently ignoring Ben's advances after his little slip before. "So they're not just a disguise, right?"

"Integrated camera and mike, as well as an LED light – to read in the dark," Ben offered easily, giving in to his partner's little stalling game.

"Ofcourse," Alex smiled crookedly, and leant a little closer to examine the glasses, trying to figure out which gadget was hidden where. Despite expecting it, his breath hitched briefly when Ben mirrored the move, meeting him halfway, stopping just before Alex went cross-eyed at the proximity. Their noses were only an inch from touching, and then Ben's lips were suddenly right next to his ear.

"I like the fourth function best, though," he whispered smoothly and licked the spot just under Alex's earlobe, making him shiver and push the porcelain cup in his hand away out of precaution.

"Do you, now?" Alex mumbled huskily, titling his head and offering more of his neck to Ben's caresses. "What is the fourth function then?"

Alex groaned slightly in disappointment when Ben pulled away to look deeply into his eyes, an intense gaze framed by the elegant design of his newest accessory, and Alex felt himself being undressed mentally. Then Ben flashed him a dirty grin and took the glasses off in a slow, lavish motion, brushing one earpiece over his lower lip seductively. In spite of the exaggeration towards the end, the gesture made Alex's throat constrict.

"They make me so irresistible," Ben murmured hoarsely, putting the glasses away and pulling Alex flush against him with his free hand, meeting his lips in a rough, hungry kiss. Feeling warm hands slide downwards from his waist Alex grinned against Ben's lips and let his own wander freely, touching and teasing and showing just how much he agreed with that statement.

In a high-security workshop in Liverpool Street, Derek Smithers chuckled merrily, looking at the monitor showing the input it received from the camera hidden in agent Daniels' new reading glasses: nothing but a tiled kitchen wall and an abandoned mug of cooling coffee, soon veiled by the dark red fabric of a t-shirt, accompanied by a shirt rustling. He bemusedly turned off the audio feed transmitting his two favourite agents' gasps and sighs and other noises it was very much inappropriate to listen in on. He hummed to himself as he deleted the records of the scene he had just witnessed. It seemed that Alex Rider had a little thing for men wearing glasses. He concluded that Ben Daniels would grow used to wearing his in no time.

A/N: ...maybe I should have put a 'fanservice' warning?

Thanks again for giving me that incredibly smexy mental picture of Ben with reading glasses, Tsuki! I hope I managed to appropriately share the hotness xD

*I'm afraid I have no idea if my dictionary messed this one up. Please do correct me if it did.