AN: Feels chapter! Next chapter isn't written so it may take me some time. Russian words are Interbutt Translations (at end).

Disclaimer:

I own nothing you recognise. This is all completely un-beta'd and totally fresh off the top of my brain!


The next day begins as normal. Alice takes Steve for his morning walk. They come back, have breakfast at the kitchen bar while James reads in the arm chair, and she departs with the normal 'have a nice day' platitudes with her earphones on.

She comes barreling right back in. James stands quickly, eyes darting past her to sweep the street outside. She shuts the door behind her and tucks her head, breathing heavily.

"What's wrong?" James asks, moving close enough for her to pick up his shoes in her periphery. She takes off her headphones.

"I don't want to go to school," she says quietly.

"Why don't you want to go to school?" he asks.

"I just don't want to," she replies, pushing past him and towards her bedroom, Steve trotting along beside her. James stops her with a hand on her arm.

"Alice," he begins, and she flinches, tugs her arm free and spins on him.

"I don't want to go, okay!" she shouts at him. She storms off toward her room. "You can't make me go, you're not my mum!" she yells right before the door slams shut.

"No," James says, raising his voice to be heard through the door. "I'm your uncle!" An inarticulate scream of frustration comes from the other side of the door. James sighs and pads to the lounge, where he picks up his cellphone and calls Alice's school to inform them she will not be joining them today.

He then texts Alec. She doesn't want to go to school.

Thought that would happen. I b over in a few. James grinds his teeth and settles himself in to wait. He's going to need to have a word with Alec about sharing his information.

True to his word, Alec appears at his front door within fifteen minutes. James is entirely uncertain where Alec is currently living, as he burned down his last flat. He's fairly confident Alec is also on the 'black list' – the list every rental agent denies existing which lists the tenants to which you simply Do Not Rent.

"Right, where is she?" Alec says by way of greeting, brushing straight past James and into the apartment. James jerks his head in the direction of her bedroom.

"In there, won't come out," James says.

"Right," Alec says, and James is suddenly deeply concerned, because that look on Alec's face is the one he gets right before a particularly nasty mission. The ones that usually go tits up with explosions. Alec takes a moment to … James actually has no idea what Alec does. On almost any other man, James would link that particular expression to the act of bracing oneself.

He charges forward. Knocks on the door.

"Go away!" comes the shout from the other side.

"Солнышко," Alec says, pressing his forehead to the door.

"Оставьте меня в покое!"

"Всё в порядке?"

"Нет," comes the quiet reply.

"Поговори со мной, моё золотце. Почему не в школе?" Alec says, sliding down so his back is pressed against the door and his legs are sprawled out in front of him.

James watches. There is silence for a long time. Then a thump at the door, and Alec lets his head relax forwards in relief. James realises this is something they have done before. Not exactly this situation – talking to an emotional young teenage girl who refuses to go to school – but they have sat on either side of the door and spoken to each other before.

He's not sure how he feels about that.

"They'll think I'm stupid," comes the quiet admission. James tenses. Alec's eyes pinch.

"Why will they think you are stupid, mоё золотце?" Alec keeps his voice light. There is a shuffling from the other side of the door.

"Because I freaked out," she sighs. There's a thump as though her head hits the door.

"And you think you do not have an understandable reason to 'freak out'?" Alec asks. This time there is a long silence. James observes Alec as he waits, patiently, for Alice to process the new information, the new viewpoint.

"...no...?" she mumbles.

"Ой моя милая, you've lost your мама, you miss her. Everyone misses their мама," Alec replies.

"Even you?" she asks.

Alec closes his eyes and swallows. "Even me, моё золотце."

"I really miss her, дядя." This sounds as though it is pressed into the woodwork.

"I know you do, моя милая, and you probably always will. You will have other times when you are upset, or when things get too much, and anyone who does not understand these moments is a придурок who has never experienced loss themselves," Alec explains.

"Did you get upset?"

"Yes, моё золотце, I did," Alec says. His voice is quiet.

"Does it stop hurting?"

"No, моё золотце, not completely," he says.

James sighs internally. The house is a clusterfuck of orphans. His own parents' death affected him. If he admits it, which he never will, even under pain of death, it still does. His lips turn down. Alec is right. It never truly stops hurting. He's a braver man than James to say it aloud, even for the benefit of another.

Alec moves, slowly climbs to his feet and opens the door, showing Alice still hunched on the floor in the doorframe without the wood panneling to support her. "Иди ко мне, моя милая," he says, and opens his arms. Alice clambers to her feet and throws herself into his chest and she is enveloped in a hug. They stay like that for a long time until Alec finally pulls back to look down at her. "Now, are you ready to go to school?" Alice makes a face up at him.

"If I must, дядя," she replies.

"Education is important. Why don't you go get yourself ready and Uncle James will walk you in?" Alec says, glancing over Alice's head to where James stands, still unsure if he's uncomfortable with the level of feelings in the apartment but unprepared to show either his confusion or his potential discomfort.

"A morning walk will do me some good," James says. Alice nods and shuffles back into her room to get her things. James steps into Alec's personal space. "You are going to share your resources with me," he purrs, the threat of 'or else' lingering in the limited space between them. Alec's eyes twinkle.

"Maybe."


Солнышко - SOlnyshko - little sun

Оставьте меня в покое! - Ostav'te menja v pokoe - go away!

Всё в порядке? - VsyO v poryAdke? - Is everything all right?

Нет – net – no

Поговори со мной - Pogovori so mnoy – talk to me

Моё золотце - MoyO zOlotse - my gold

Почему не в школе? - Pochemu ne v shkole? - why are you not in school?

Ой Моя милая – Oy mIlaya moyA – oh my sweet (to female)

дядя – dyadya – uncle

придурок – pridurok - moron

Иди ко мне, моя милая - IdI ko mne, moyA mIlaya - come to me my dear (to female)


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