A Pair of Dark Denials
Walker was not recruited to be an assassin. Contrary to popular belief, it had not, had never been, and would never be his specialty. His role in Scorpia was completely different. Recruitment. Walker was meant to recruit only the best of operatives. His specialty was sucking the emotionally cracked and highly gifted operatives into Scorpia contracts. The two usually went hand in hand. And then he was their primary point of contact. Unless they wanted a change.
"Walker!"
Walker inhaled. Alex was his newest recruitment run. They had just gotten back from his latest round of shady crap. Walker suddenly had his arms full of a gangly teenager. He looked down. "Yes?"
Alex was looking hopefully at him. Walker rolled his eyes. "Mhm. Let me guess, you want to eat somewhere obscenely expensive again."
Alex pouted. Walker was more amused than anything else. Three had sent him a rather snarky email about his expense reports. Look, Rothman had gotten exactly one thing right. Alex appreciated having money vomited at him in the form of food and entertainment. Less so with clothes.
"I mean, yes?"
Walker chuckled. Well, at least he was pretty honest about it. "Did you have a place in mind, you little gremlin?"
Alex grinned. Walker was rather enjoying the dinners if he was honest. Alex liked really good food. "Indian food?"
Walker rolled his eyes. He was going to drag the kid to all the fancy upper-class gay bars he'd always wanted to visit once he was grown up. Even if he was completely straight, Alex would appreciate the music and white tablecloth environment. "Do you have at least four days' worth of make-up crap done?"
Alex rolled his eyes. What? Kid said he wanted to pass his classes. Walker was just making sure he wasn't getting in the way of that.
"Five. Can we go now?"
Walker shrugged. That sounded like plenty. "Sure. And I'm trying to not get in the way of you passing classes. There's no need to roll your eyes at me."
He ruffled Alex's hair and lightly shoved the kid before walking towards the door. Walker grinned as he pulled his coat on. "I could kill you in your sleep."
The kid looked grumbly. Walker figured he had a right to be. "Sure, but then you wouldn't be able to enjoy my company anymore."
Walker was extremely confident that Alex had no intention of murdering him. Alex could kill in cold blood but typically didn't unless you sufficiently enraged him. "You're mean."
Walker enjoyed the bickering. If he was going to be honest, he was going to wedge Alex between his two least favorite assets during the regular meetings. "Yes, I rescued you from Africa and am now taking you to dinner. Very mean. Absolutely horrid. You're being cruelly neglected."
Alex made a scoffing noise. Walker grinned. "I neeed more attention, Walker."
Walker rolled his eyes. Alex could be a bit clingy sometimes. Then again, the kid had dead parents, a dead uncle, and a currently AWOL guardian, so it was kind of expected. "When? I have work, you have school and friends, and we hang out otherwise. I thought you didn't want me to watch you sleep or shower, but if you've changed-"
Alex flushed. "WALKER!"
Walker snorted. He was so much fun to rile up. Then again, British people were always fun to poke. "I was just offering."
Alex glared at him. "You're a shit."
Walker grabbed his arm to prevent him from crossing the road into oncoming traffic. Alex gave him an annoyed look, but glanced at the road and immediately cooled off. Honestly, he'd be better off with Walker looking after him. "So are you, Alex."
Alex huffed. Walker let out a sigh. Alex deserved a not AWOL guardian, which Scorpia would furnish him with. Alex's hand slid into his. Walker strolled down the road. He looked old enough to be assumed to be a male relative of some sort. "Almost there."
Alex deserved all of the nice things in life, which a Scorpia salary would give him. Plus, Doctor Three was big on continued education, so he'd get to finish school like he always wanted.
"Are you going to order the chicken tikka masala again?"
Alex's voice broke up his thoughts. It was then that Walker noticed he was looking pale and there were tremors in his voice. Shit. "Alex, turn around?"
The kid turned around. Walker noticed a darkening stain on the shirt. "Right. You're bleeding. We're getting takeout."
Alex's eyes widened. Walker ordered the food and drinks and whisked him back to the house. "I want dinner."
Walker rolled his eyes. Teens. "You can drink your mango lassi while I check your back."
Walker cut the shirt off of him with some of the first aid scissors. At least there was one in every room here. His back and arms were heavily bruised. Alex should have an SO and medical checkups. "How bad is it?"
Walker sighed. This was depressing. "If it was any worse, you'd need steroids. Looks like you might need a stitch or two."
Walker cleaned up the back and started fixing the bandages. Alex didn't squirm. "Does this happen a lot, kid?"
Alex let out a hiss as Walker started to clean the wounds on his back. Walker sighed. "Maybe."
Scorpia wouldn't kidnap and beat him up to go on assignments. I mean, they could, however, Walker would bet that money would work better. As he fixed Alex's dressings, Walker felt a lot less guilty. Recruiting Alex to Scorpia was for his own good. "You deserve better, kid."
There was no answer. Walker finished up in silence. "You still wanna do movie night?"
Alex rolled over. Walker prayed that he wouldn't screw up the bandages. "Food first."
Walker chuckled. One track mind. It could be worse, though "Sure. And put a spare shirt on while you're at it."
Alex grabbed one from a drawer in the living room. The kid leaned against him while they ate dinner in front of the television. See, this was much better than the crap setup MI6 had. This was all for Alex.
Fin
Based on a prompt by Zyzyax (see story summary). This is the 205th work in the Winds of Change 2022 Alex Rider Prompt event, where a new prompt (plus a short 1-3K work) is posted every day. For more details, see the AO3 collection. We have an index of all the prompts used in this event so far and going forwards - join the discord to get access to the online index (and to take part in our events, chat about everything and anything, and meet a load of awesome people!