A/N: A thousand apologies for my shameful neglect, I hope you all still enjoy this nonetheless.

Tom gaped at him in unabashed shock, his blue eyes extremely wide. "Hang on, let's see if I've got this right," he said eventually, "some nutter who you thought was dead is still alive and is trying to get his hands on you?"

"Yes."

"Jack's in America and you've got to live with a soldier until the nutter is captured or killed?"

"Yes."

"And the soldier you've been stuck with is the same dickhead from Brecon Beacons you trained – and with who bullied you?"

"Yes."

"And you're expecting to see his three unit members who you think hate your guts?"

"Yes."

Silence. Then, "Can I come over?"

"No!"

"Alex, Tom!" the teacher growled from the front of the class. The two boys turned to face him as he scowled at them. "Kindly keep your personal gossip to yourselves until break time and return your attention to the equations on the board!"

"Yes, sir." They both chorused.

Tom put his elbow on their shared desk and his chin in his palm, staring at the written equations with a glassy-eyed expression. Alex kept up a better pretence of concentration, though his mind was miles away. He almost shuddered as he remembered the previous day. As if finding out a man with an unhealthy obsession in him and the theory of communism was still alive wasn't bad enough, he had to stay with Wolf for protection? The idea was a terrible one. Not only was it awkward as hell, as clearly displayed by the oppressive silence in the car as they drove to Wolf's flat or the tension that hung between them as Wolf explained where everything in the place was, but Alex didn't know how to dispel said awkwardness. After all, he barely knew the man and during the brief periods they were together in the past, they clashed badly. Alex admitted that he had a sort of grudging respect towards the soldier, only heightened after seeing him in action during Point Blanc, but that didn't mean they were going to get along and, though Wolf hadn't been horrible to him the last time they had met, he got the vibe that the man still didn't like him very much.

Sighing almost inaudibly, Alex frowned minutely and tried harder to focus on his lesson, trying to push away the thought that he should've been put with Ben. At least with Ben, he would've stood a chance.

XXXXX

"Help me, Ben!" Wolf begged down the phone.

"For Heaven's sake, Chris, you'll be fine." His friend's slightly bemused voice informed him down the phone.

"No, I won't! You weren't here yesterday, it was awful." Wolf winced at the memory. He still recalled those searching looks the kid kept shooting him when he thought he couldn't see them, like he was expecting the soldier to turn around and thump him one or something.

"Of course it was, the first couple weeks are bound to be awkward as hell, you know that. How could it not be?"

"Oh God," Wolf muttered to himself. The prospect of looking after this kid indefinitely was daunting, to say the least. "Ben, he hates me!"

"No, he doesn't," the spy chided.

"Yes, he does! He keeps looking at me like he thinks I'm going to eat him or something, like he expects me to do something terrible to him when his back is turned."

He got no response from his friend. "What is it? Ben?"

A sigh reached him. "Look, Chris, Alex has had a pretty rough time of it with MI6 and whatnot."

"I know," Wolf said darkly, "they sent me his mission file so I'd know what to expect and so that he wouldn't be breaking the Official Secrets Act by talking to me about anything."

"Then you'll know how the mission to Skeleton Key affected him; the knowledge that Sarov is still alive and likely to attempt to abduct him is not going to help. I'm not surprised he's a little on edge." Fox's reasonable reply came.

"I know," Wolf murmured sulkily.

"It's not just that, though, is it?"

Wolf frowned as he responded, "What do you mean?"

"Something else is bothering you, isn't it? There's something you're not telling me."

The memory of soft, slightly chilly lips touching his own came, unbidden, to Wolf. Shaking his head abruptly to clear it, he coughed and said the first thing that came to mind, "I just don't think I'm the right person for the job, Ben. What about you? The kid likes you."

"Whether he likes me or not is irrelevant," Fox said gently, "Blunt wants him to have to best protection possible and you're a far better soldier than I am."

Wolf grunted lowly. Sensing his friend's lingering discomfort, Fox continued, "Do you want me to come over later?"

"No, it's okay. Give it a few days, yeah? I think he probably needs time to adjust to being here. How about Saturday or something? Come for lunch."

"Sounds good," Wolf could practically see his friend beaming down the phone at his proposition. "See, Chris? You're already adapting to being a dad."

"Shut. Up."

Fox was still laughing when Wolf hung up on him.

XXXXX

Alex swallowed hard as the dark blue door that led to Wolf's flat came into view. This was bound to be tense – again. Steeling himself, he opened the door into the hall and walked quickly up the stairs that led to two different doors. As he stared at the dull silver "2" on the entrance, it suddenly occurred to Alex that he didn't have a key. That meant a quiet entry was out of the question. Cursing mentally, he rapped hard on the wood with his knuckles.

Heavy footsteps reached his ears from behind the obstruction and then it swung inwards. A look of surprised flashed across Wolf's face before he demanded gruffly, "Why'd you knock instead of letting yourself in?"

"I didn't have a key."

"Oh. I'll have one made for you." Stepping back, he let Alex pass him and begin his trek up the set of stairs located in the flat itself until he came to the actually landing of the flat.

It was a nice place, Alex had to admit. Quite small, but nice. The hall he now stood in was the centre, coming off from the stairs to the right was a fairly large bathroom with a bath as well as a toilet and shower and at the end of the hall was a decently sized kitchen. To the immediate left of the stairs' landing was Wolf's bedroom, which Alex hadn't seen before; next to it was the living room and in the corner a moderate guest bedroom that he was currently being housed in.

Alex stood a little self-consciously in the middle as Wolf ascended the final stair, unsure of what to do. Wolf's feelings were harder to discern, but from the way he fidgeted next to him, loosely clenching and unclenching his fists, he assumed that the soldier was as ill at ease as he was.

Surprisingly, it was the older man who broke the silence. "Good day?"

Blinking in surprise, Alex said, "It was all right. Yours?"

"Same." The tension was still there. "Uh, I went shopping for some food today. Pasta okay for tonight?"

The teenager nodded, face unintentionally blank. "Yeah, sounds good."

"Ben is coming round."

Alex raised an eyebrow slightly. "Tonight?"

"No, on Saturday. For lunch. Just thought I'd give you a heads up."

"Oh. Thank you."

The two males loitered around for a few more moments until Alex said, "Well, I've got homework to do, so . . ."

Wolf nodded and walked passed his new ward into the living room, while Alex slipped soundlessly into his room, closing the door behind him, both breathing a sigh of relief and thinking 'That wasn't so bad.'

Alex liked his room. It was small compared to the room he had had in his Uncle's Chelsea place, but it was still pretty good. Wolf had gotten him a decent double bed that he'd put against the wall, a serviceable desk and chair under the wide window and a fair sized chest of drawers to but his clothes in. A two drawer bedside unit and a silver lamp sat beside the section of bed not jammed against the wall.

Tossing his school bag onto the bed, he rifled around until he found his maths book and pencil case – both he and Tom had been lumped with extra homework by their irritated teacher for talking during class. Settling down, Alex studiously began to work. By the time he was finished it was almost quarter passed six. He was delighted with the quantity of work he had gotten through, not just all his maths, but his French and a good amount of his English too. As he had spent so much time away from school, he knew he still had a lot more to get through, but he was reasonably confident that he'd be finished by the end of the week if he kept the same pace up.

He exited his room and strode towards the kitchen, looking for a glass of water. He stopped short in the doorway at the sight of the chaos that had enveloped it. Cooking utensils and food of all kind was discarded haphazardly across every available surface as Wolf – looking extremely bad-tempered – clutched what appeared to be a recipe book to his chest and glowered down at the dog-eared pages.

Alex blinked in surprise before saying hesitantly, "Wolf?"

The man in question jumped in shock, nearly dropping the book on the floor and spun around to face Alex, looking surprised to see him there. "Yeah?" he grunted when the shock faded.

Sweeping his brown eyes over the multitude o ingredients threatening to overwhelm the kitchen, the teenager asked, "Do you want me to do it?"

"Do what?"

Cocking an eyebrow wryly, Alex gestured at the disorder. "Cook dinner."

Wolf narrowed his eyes, a look vaguely resembling suspicion crossing his face. "You can cook?"

Alex nodded. "A few dishes, yeah."

Wolf hesitated, as if not sure whether to trust the boy with his meal. Finally, he muttered, "You do the sauce, I'll do the pasta."

Alex nodded and they set to work.

Less than twenty minutes later, the two sat on Wolf's black leather sofa, staring idly at the TV in the vain hope of finding something vaguely entertaining to watch. A slight frown touched Alex's brow as he noticed Wolf periodically glancing at his watch as he ate.

He hesitated before asking, aware that the question may not be a well-received. Eventually, however, his curiosity got the better of him and he asked, "Are you waiting for something?"

"Hmm?" Wolf asked absently, looking up at the boy before glancing at his watch yet again. "Yeah, it should be on about now."

Alex watched in mild interest as Wolf grabbed the remote and wordlessly scrolled through his channels before settling on Pick TV. As the familiar theme tune came on, Alex asked in surprise, "You watch Oops TV?"

"Never miss it if I'm at home." Wolf responded neutrally, though Alex detected the smile in his eyes as he placed his plate on the floor and settled back into the sofa to turn his full attention to the screen as the voice of Justin Lee Collins began to speak about what was on the show that evening.

They both watched in silence, punctuated by the fairly common laughter shared by the two house-mates. As it cut to an ad break, Wolf asked, "Do you watch that show often, then?"

Alex nodded as he picked up his eating utensils from the floor and temporarily placed it in his lap. "Yeah, I like it."

As he stood up to take his plate into the kitchen, he held out his hands for Wolf's. Looking surprised , the adult handed them over, calling to Alex as he left the room, "Leave them on the side, I'll wash up after the show."

Alex nodded an affirmative and carried on. Wolf smiled to himself, glad that he and his new ward had found at least one thing they had in common, even though it was something as simple and insignificant as a TV show.

A/N: Just paving the way for some bonding. Hope you liked it! I won't be answering any reviews or the like for a few days as I'm going on holiday tomorrow – I just wanted to give you guys something before I left, as I've been putting it off for a very long time. Sorry :( Apologies for any and all mistakes in the work.