Surprise! Another chapter this week! Like I mentioned on my notes for the last one, this chapter is written from Vict't perspective. I hope I got him right considering how unrattled he is by his current circumstances. If there was one thing I tried to convey in this chapter were his warring emotions.

I don't wanna risk giving up too much information on the chapter before you read it, so go ahead! I hope you enjoy it.

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Chapter 13: I'm not their guest, Alex. I'm their prisoner

Alex turned away from him and began pacing around the room.

Victor's heart was still beating wildly in his chest with a mixture of excitement and fear. Seeing Alex walk through that door, if one can call being pushed unceremonously inside a walk, had made him insanely relieved and almost dizzy with affection. The arms that held him while they hugged were strong and steady. Above all, they were familiar. The only thing familiar in a sea of unfamiliar people, settings and circumstances. And yet, standing in the middle of that room and staring at the now unhesitant movements of the other boy, somehow, he was having trouble reconciling the warm safe feeling the blond always provided him with and the person currently sharing his confinement. Victor hadn't been able yet to let go of the fact that he'd been caught up in this situation in the first place because of who Alex used to be. Or still was, he just didn't know for sure.

I'm going to get you out of here

Still, the words ecchoed in his mind and one thing was clear, he wanted absolutely nothing more than for them to be true.

"How?"

But Alex didn't break away from his new task to face him. He'd started walking alongside one wall, running a hand over its surface while his eyes swept its length from the ceiling all the way to the floor "I need to check something first"

He remained silent until all four walls of the room had received the same treatment. Exactly what he hoped to find, Victor wasn't sure.

"There's nothing here"

"There could be" was the simple reply, which the blond didn't even bother dignifying with a look his way.

Soon enough, the two glass rectangles that served as the only decoration of the room became the subject of Alex's thorough investigation.

"The windows are shut down. I checked" Victor offered but the other boy didn't abandon his task.

Victor had been grateful at the sight of the windows when he'd been brought back to the building after meeting with Alex in the parking lot the day before, if only because it meant he wouldn't have to spend another endless minute locked in that dark storage room on the ground floor.

The change of sceneary had brought with it not only the natural light that had filtered through the windows all day, but a light bulb hanging from the ceiling that he'd turned on the moment night started to fall. Above all though, he'd been grateful for the freedom to move his arms around since his hands had also been freed.

But despite whatever sense of freedom the appearance of windows had provided, they didn't help anyone if they couldn't really use them to find their way out. Open or not, they were three floors up above the ground after all.

Alex kept inspecting them either way.

"What are you looking for?"

Once again, the blond answered without tearing his eyes away from the wall to look back at him "Hidden cameras or microphones"

He had not been expecting that.

Watching Alex go about the room like he actually knew what he was doing left Victor feeling at a loss.

Little by little a few images of the Alex he knew and the one he didn't began to finally click into place. The way he never liked to park in the same spot twice, how he never slept with the shutters or windows open. Those were odd traits he'd attributed to a combination of personality and recent past trauma. He never would've guessed that the blond had been trained to think like that. Paranoia wasn't just something he'd developed through trauma, it was something he had been taught.

Victor couldn't help but feel like he was drifting even farther away from the person he loved. Because he did love Alex. He'd told him so countless of times before. Victor had made sure to wait long enough to be certain of his feelings before actually saying the word for the first time. He'd accepted the fact Alex wasn't ready to say the same words back to him but he'd powered through that because he believed love didn't have to reciprocated to be given. Victor loved Alex. There had been no doubt in his mind about that.

But how could someone not know something that important about the person they loved?

He didn't want to accept the only explanation he could come up with, that their relationship had been a lie from the beginning.

Victor's eyes remained glued to the blond until the other boy startled him by dropping face down to the floor and crawling every inch closer to the underside of the door.

"What are you doing?" he felt like a broken record and he was getting tired of the dismissive short answers he was getting. The fact that Alex wouldn't even look at him when he gave them only fueling his unease.

All he got for a reply was the palm of a hand gesturing for him to wait and that was the final straw for Victor to snap.

"Alex!" something in his tone must have finally caught his attention because the blond turned his head sharply at the sound of his name. Desperation, probably "Just- just talk to me! What the hell are you doing? Stop acting like this is normal. This isn't normal. Look where we are! There's nothing here! I don't understand what you're looking for. There's nothing in this room. This isn't-"

"Stop. Stop it. Breathe" Victor was sure he'd just lost at least a few seconds of his awareness because the blond had gone from being sprawled on the floor to standing less than a foot away from him, a hand pressing firmly into his chest and the other one clasped on his shoulder.

That's when he noticed his fluttering heart and the poor quality of his breathing. But Alex's hands were soothing and this time his calmed demeanor was more grounding than enfuriating.

"How... how did you know?" he asked in between still too hectic breaths.

Alex gave him a pained smile "I can recognize a panic attack when I see one. Now, come on, you've done this for me before. Breathe with me"

Victor did and the panic receeded almost as fast as it had hit him.

There was a beat of silence before he nodded and Alex let him go. He regarded the blond curiously "Why are you not freaking out?"

"It's not my first time remember?"

For a moment there, Victor thought he'd been referring to his time in Kiev but a second later he understood.

"Being a spy you mean" Alex dropped his eyes momentarily before bringing them back up.

"About that... I don't-"

"Forget it" Victor interrupted shaking his head. He wasn't sure he was ready for another confrontation in the matter. The memories of their fight in his apartment were bad enough and the doubts about whether their relationship was real or not were still too raw in his mind "I can't hear about that right now. Just explain to me what you're doing"

Victor preferred not to delve too much on the expression on Alex's face. He would be the first one to admit he wasn't being tactful about the whole thing, even since the day a stranger came into his home to out his boyfriend's secret life. But he supposed first things came first and, right now, surviving long enough to actually have that conversation came first.

Thankfully, Alex seemed to understand that too because he signaled the door and began to explain.

"We need to know how often they check up on you. Their timing, their patterns. That's what I was trying to see under the door, the shadow of people walking near it" and shit if that didn't sound too much like a spy movie. But he didn't comment on it. Instead, he gave his head a slight shake.

"No one does that" when the blond didn't offer any other words, Victor elaborated "No one's been here since yesterday"

"What about food and water?" he shook his head again and Alex's eyebrows went up in surprise before frowning in controlled anger "They haven't given you any?"

"I'm not their guest Alex, I'm their prisoner"

And then the blond went on a tirade of questions about his wellbeing.

Are you dizzy?

Are you nauseated?

Are you hurting anywhere?

How's you head?

Is your stomach cramping?

A little.

No.

My head.

See previous answer.

Not more than the ocassional rumble. He was hungry.

"Actually someone did come this morning so I could go to the bathroom but that's it"

"Bloody hell" the blond spat out angrily on his behalf. He also ran a han down his face "Okay, when we get out of here we'll take care of you. You're gonna be okay"

As good as the promise of food and water sounded right now, Victor was more interested in the getting out of there part of the plan. Not that Alex had actually explained his plan.

"If anything" the blond spoke again "The fact no one checks on you works in our favor. That at least makes our way through the third floor easier. I didn't see anyone occupying the other rooms so we should be clear on this floor. Going down the stairs might be tricky but as long as you stay behind me you should be fine. We should assume they'll be coming up here to fetch us within the next ten or maybe fifteen minutes so we should hurry 'cause we don't have much time..." Victor just tuned him out after that.

He stared dumbfounded while Alex went on and on about their escape route but his mind wasn't really registering any of it. Because he must have been missunderstanding the meaning of Alex's words. He must have! There was no way the other boy meant what Victor now thought he meant because that was crazy, surely.

And yet... I'm going to get you out of here. Those had been his words. Victor couldn't believe it.

"Hold up. What are you talking about?" Alex halted his speech to regard him with a worried expression. He was probably thinking his head injury was messing with his mind.

"We're escaping" he said slowly, as if Victor needed time to process the meaning of the words.

"How, Alex?"

"But I just… That's what I was... are you okay?"

Victor ignored the question "You're talking as if we're finding our way out of here ourselves"

"We're gonna have to fight our way out of here, yes"

Victor let out an incredulous laugh.

"You can't be serious. We'll get caught. We'll get killed!"

"This is our only chance"

"But the ransom. Whatever it was they asked you for, you brought it, right? They have to let us go" Alex shook his head and Victor's stomach sank.

"They won't. I couldn't get what they wanted for real so I brought a fake. It won't be long before they realize" he just stared in horror after those words.

"That's crazy! They're gonna kill us for sure if you tricked them"

"We were gonna get killed anyway. This was the only way I could get to you before that"

"What about the police Alex!? You're supposed to call the police when these things happen. We can't do this ourselves!" his breathing was picking up in speed again and he couldn't determine if it was because of anger or fear. Most likely both.

"I couldn't go to the police!" the blond said with a hint of urgency in his voice. He glanced at the door briefly before focusing back on him "You heard what they said, they would've killed you if I did that. Now, we don't have much time. We really should get going" he was ushered closer to the door but Victor didn't budge, uncertainty written all over his face.

Alex sighed in frustration, or maybe it was understading because he gentled his tone and craddled the side of his neck. Victor wanted to feel reasured by the gesture, he really did, but he couldn't help flinching when the hand made contact with his skin.

Alex's eyes saddened but he didn't pull away.

"I know this is scary and I know you have no reason to trust me. But, if anything, trust the fact that I've done this before and I swear on my life I won't let anything happen to you. I would die first than allow any of them to hurt you. Please believe that if nothing else"

Well, damn. No matter how many doubts he had or how much he knew he shouldn't trust the other boy now, Victor's heart couldn't help but ache for the reasurance of his boyfriend's presence and determination, seeing as it had been conditioned to do for the past two years almost. He managed to hold the blond's gaze while his nerves became just a little less rattled.

"We're actually going to break out?"

Alex's wide smile was terribly out of place under the circumstances but it was reassuring none the less.

"That's the plan"

"So getting caught was part of the plan"

"Of course... sort of" at Victor's exasperated huff, Alex hurried up to add "It was! It was actually the most important one. Like I said, I won't let anything happen to you" but as convincing as Alex's argument was, Victor still failed to see how it would all work out when the odds were stuck at the two of them, defensless and unharmed, against a lot of guns.

"Alex, this doesn't sound like much of a plan. We can't do this by ourselves. I can't fight my way out. I'm not like you. They're gonna catch us and they they're gonna kill us and they're gonna-"

Alex stopped him from going into another panicked spiral.

"They won't" he said firmly giving his hand, which was still on Victor's neck, a firm shake "Help is on the way, it's just not the police"

Well, he could've said that sooner!

"Who's comming?" another devilish smile.

"My brother. And my uncle. And Eagle. He's in town, by the way"

"So, an accountant, a dead spy and a soldier?"

"It's better than nothing" he said with a shrug and Victor supposed he was right.

He cleared his throat and swallowed a couple of times so his voice wouldn't break embarrassingly on his next words.

"Okay. Okay. So what now?"

Right on time, a distant shout reached them and Victor jumped a few steps back. Alex calmly turned around to put his ear against the wooden door.

"That would be our cue" then he dropped into a crouch to take off his right shoe.

Victor stared and he produced a pair of long metal needles that he instantly recognized as the ones they'd used to break into his old house back when his uncle Ed was still around.

Things made so much more sense now.

After tying up his shoe laces again, Alex began working on the door handle and a soft click was heard after barely a minute. The blond turned the handle and the door opened inward.

Holly shit, Victor thought. This was happening.

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I apologize for the chapter being so short but it needed to end here so I could get the explanations out of the way, sort of, so that we can focus on the action. Because next chapter will be full of action as our babies try to escape the bad guy… emphasis on try.

Now, questions time! Did you like Vict's PoV? It's always hard for me to step out of Alex's mind set because I've been writing my version of Alex for so long now, but it's always interesting to delve into the other characters, specially Vict because after this fic is done, I'm planning on writing a whole lot more on this little Alex and Vict universe and some things might be done from his perspective. So I better start practicing now!

I want to get started on the next chapter right away, so I'm gonna go back to writting. See on the next one!