Warnings: slash

Rated: T

This is a short one, but I thought it would be a cute interlude! Thanks to Op-fan for the prompt!

Alex struck his match against the side of the box, lighting the few candles he had managed to scrounge up. They flickered lowly, but added a certain ambiance to the room that was much appreciated. The scent of vanilla mixed with something called fireside treats, and clashed with what Alex detected to be lemon.

That done, he blew the match out with a sharp breath, and moved to the window. The day was beautiful, and it had rained the night before, leaving a scent of freshness in the air. He cracked the window the slightest bit, and made sure the curtains were fully drawn.

Lastly, he moved to the radio. A small thing next to the bed that they occasionally used to listen to stay up to date. He turned the dial from where it was permanently programmed to a news station, and found an easy listening, classical frequency.

Then Alex leaned back, arms crossed, and admired his handy work. Yes, he thought, this would do nicely.

"Alex!" Yassen shouted up the stairs, startling Alex out of his admiration. "I can hear you walking around up there! Quit stalling!"

Alex sighed, shoulders slumping. Yassen was right, he had put it off long enough.

He crossed to his desk, where the candles flickered in the cross breeze. Sat in the old but comfy chair. He took a deep breath, the smell of the outdoors intoxicating, then he picked up his pencil and read the first question.

His good mood evaporated. God, he hated maths.

By midday, Alex was ready to take his pencil and jab it into his eye. The cracked window was looking mighty inviting to jump out of, and Alex had spent the last few minutes contemplating whether or not lighting himself on fire with his scented candles was a tad too overdramatic.

The crackle of the stereo put Alex's teeth on edge. He had hoped the white noise might help him - that the candles and the smell of outside would relax him. Instead, they had all turned into bitterly annoying distractions.

There was a knock on the door. Alex turned, welcoming the excuse to abandon his work temporarily. Yassen was standing in the doorway, a sandwich and a glass of water in hand, a smirk on his face.

"Having fun?" Yassen asked. Alex huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Don't give me that look," Alex told him stiffly. "This is your fault."

Yassen continued smiling, despite Alex's warning. "Well, I brought this to make up for it."

The plate was extended out. Alex bit his lip, contemplating. It was his favourite, he noted, though he expected nothing less from a master manipulator like Yassen. There were also a couple of chocolate chip cookies on the side - fresh baked. Alex's resolve cracked.

"Thanks." He took the plate, taking a big bite.

"How are you doing?" Yassen asked, nodding at the stack of papers obscuring Alex's desk from view.

After being in the safehouse for weeks, Alex had been a little stir crazy. He had read all the books they had brought, watched all the movies, and had resorted to bugging Yassen and K unit, all who seemed unfazed by the solitude.

Yassen had done his best to distract Alex - had taught Alex to play piano on the rickety spinet downstairs. Had worked on a new language with him - Arabic, Alex's ninth. Had even let Alex drag him outside to play football, so long as he had scouted first and K unit were all on watch.

But - as much as they loved each other and as much as they loved spending time together - they needed their alone time. Ben had actually been the one that suggested Alex try for his A levels.

It had always been part of his plan, finishing school. He had more or less dropped out when he was fifteen. MI6 had provided tutors, but that had mostly been for the kinds of things he needed to know for the job. A hard focus on government and politics and less on more menial, but still fundamental concepts. Chemistry in the way of making bombs and recognizing dangerous compounds, less on balancing equations and synthesizing. Basic maths, but apparently no one at MI6 thought Alex would need to solve quadratics or derivatives. Part of him had always thought he would give MI6 up eventually, and then go get a degree.

That plan had quickly fallen to the back burner, which had soon after lit on fire, sending his old dreams up in smoke as Alex was dragged further into the spy world.

So when Ben had suggested he take the opportunity to study and get his A levels, Alex had thought why not? Yassen and K unit had encouraged him, and he had hit the books hard for weeks.

Alex had always been a top student - minus that year from hell. Ian had never stood for less, and Jack was a student, so she knew the value of studying. He had breezed through school with high A's - maths and sciences often came naturally to him, and he worked hard when they didn't. He had been more or less fluent in four languages by the time he was fourteen.

So he had assumed - quite mistakenly - that he could skim the textbooks and fall right back into his old habits. Unfortunately, studying was harder than he had thought, and honestly, Alex was struggling.

Yassen had written up this practice exam for him from examples online and his own Scorpia provided knowledge. Alex had already struggled through the Maths and Biology section, skipped the Physics section with a snort of contempt, and was staring at the Geography section like it was a bad joke.

Half the places Yassen was testing him on, Alex had detailed knowledge about - if only because he had been there himself on missions. Could he name the five longest rivers? No. Could he name every district in Madrid that housed a criminal outpost? Yes

"I could use a break," Alex told Yassen plainly. Though he knew that the test Yassen had scraped together barely held a candle to the actual A levels he would be attempting soon.

Yassen hummed, not commenting. He stepped forward and briefly placed a kiss on the top of Alex's head. Alex turned back to the desk, munching away at his meal. Meanwhile strong hands rubbed the muscles in Alex's shoulders. Knots of tension held between the blades were expertly massaged out. Alex certainly appreciated it, but…

"I thought you were busy?" He asked. Yassen and K unit had spent the better part of a week trying to keep Alex occupied. They had finally managed it. He thought it would take longer than half a day before they missed him too terribly.

"I thought you might appreciate the company," Yassen told him, breath ruffling Alex's blond hair. He did appreciate the company. He also noticed that Yassen had not quite answered the question.

"I thought you were working on your Punjabi?"

Yassen gave his shoulders a squeeze. "I was this morning."

Alex nodded. "And I suppose you've already gone for your run?" As a precaution, K unit only allowed them one outing each per day. Alex had decided to save his for tonight, as he assumed he would need to spend his pent up energy before bed, but Yassen tended to run at the crack of dawn.

"I did."

"Didn't you mention teaching yourself that piano song? By Shoe-man?"

Yassen snorted at the butchered name. But hey, dusty old composers were Yassen's hobby, not Alex's.

"Schumann," Yassen corrected, as if Alex knew who that was. "Schumann's Toccata in C Major. And your unit got a bit fed up with my repetition."

"Yeah, they can be a bit short-tempered, can't they?"

Yassen hummed agreement. Thumbs rubbed down his back, working in tight circles, eliciting a sigh from Alex. His shirt bunched up under the ministrations, but Alex didn't mind. Those lovely long fingers could do a lot more than just play the piano.

(And God didn't that sound dirty, even in Alex's own head!)

He stifled a snort at his own internal, lewd joke. Turning in his seat in an attempt to cover up his laughter, he asked: "So, what are your plans now?"

Anything to keep the conversation going - anything to forestall his return to studying.

"Well," Yassen smiled down at him, tilting Alex's chin up as if to get a better look at him. "I haven't made any… hard plans."

Alex paused. Was he imagining things, or was Yassen breaking out the innuendos as well? It was just past midday, was the assassin really suggesting they… oh.

Alex tilted his head, eyebrow raised mischievously. "You're bored, aren't you?" He challenged, a smirk threatening to break through.

Yassen saw his expression, and raised him one: both eyebrows lifted and his mouth parted indignantly. "I am not."

"Oh, you are," Alex argued, turning fully backwards on his chair and climbing to his knees. He leaned over the backrest, smiling crookedly.

"Well," Yassen admitted, glancing away to avoid eye contact, "Perhaps I have run out of ways to keep myself occupied."

Alex smiled triumphantly. A part of him - labelled the petty part - was tempted to leave Yassen to his own devices, just out of spite. But then… that was less fun for Alex. He would have to go back to his multiple-choice, and he really didn't want to do that anymore.

"Well," Alex parroted back in a mocking tone, "We can't have a bored assassin, can we? That's just… sinfully dangerous."

"I suppose you'd know all about the sinfully dangerous?" Yassen asked, smiling more broadly now. They leaned closer, noses pressed together.

"Oh yes, I'm self-taught. Care for a practical demonstration?"

Lips brushed against his own, and Alex could trace the words on them as well as he could hear them.

"I do believe it is important to take any opportunity to learn."

One of Yassen's hands was trailing down Alex's back, the other tracing his cheek. Alex had his own hands knotted in the short fair hair at the nape of Yassen's neck.

"Especially at your age, right?" Alex jabbed - tongue always quicker to act than his brain.

Yassen jerked back with a cut off laugh and a surprised smile. Alex had just dipped his toe into forbidden territory, and he guessed he would be punished for it.

Indeed, the next second Alex's world flipped upside down as he was dragged bodily from the chair. The wheels squeaked loudly in protest before the chair toppled over entirely.

Not wanting to mimic the chair's fate, Alex wrapped his legs around Yassen, forcing the man to bare his full weight. Yassen took the burden without complaint, and roughly pressed Alex against the nearest wall by the door.

Alex nipped at Yassen's lower lip, groaning as his back scrapped the drywall behind him. Close clipped nails dug into his thighs, and Alex tugged at Yassen's locks forcefully.

Between them, Alex could not tell who was teaching and who was taking.

"Better close that," Alex advised breathlessly, jutting his chin to the open door. The hallway outside was almost directly in the living room's line of view, where K Unit currently resided.

A smile spread over Yasssen's face. A sinister curve of the lips, accented by the red mark from Alex's bite. He got the feeling that Yassen was already a star student in the sinfully dangerous.

The door was slammed so fast that the candles on the desk winked out in the breeze.

AN: Hope to be reading some reviews later! :D