Once again, thank you so much for the reviews guys! I really really appreciate them. Sorry this is a little late but I got back home a little later than expected, but Im here now and Chapter 5 is mostly done so that should be up soon.

Alex continually thanked the heavens that he had had the family to look after him after his parents had died. If it wasn't for his uncle Ian who took him in, Alex wouldn't have had a home. He was beginning to feel more and more lucky with regards to that fact as he met some of the kids who he had supposedly been smuggled over with from Britain.

"Alraaght?" one boy drawled, snatching Alex's hand from his side and shaking it, "I'm Luke. I don't remember you on the boat."

Alex shrugged, "I don't remember anyone."

"Huh, yeah," Luke chuckled. He let go of Alex's hand finally, "Can't believe we're living here. It's a shit hole. I lived in a better place back in London. What the fuck."

He shook his head as he looked around. Alex couldn't help but agree. The house had been cleaned up a bit from when Alex and Kai had last seen it, but not by much. The dust still lay thick on the walls and ceilings, except some of it now floated in the air after being disturbed from the 'clean up'. All usable furniture had been taken away, and mattresses that looked very much recycled were scattered around the various rooms. Kai and Alex had taken the room at the very back corner, as they had arrived the latest and no-one had so far claimed that room. There was only one spare blanket on offer when they arrived, so they jammed the two mattresses together and decided to share the blanket between them.

Great, Alex thought, another night of awkward silences as they slept in the same bed.

Kai was at the other end of the room, talking to an Indian girl and a boy who looked like brother and sister. He glanced over at Alex, and their eyes met. Alex blinked and looked away, flustered. There was something about Kai that made him so willing to behave strangely around him. At school, even though he didn't much care about what people thought of him, he still tried to maintain a veneer of 'cool' around his peers. It was just what you did at school. Everybody tried to impress everyone else, for fear they would be caught out and mocked.

But around Kai, Alex just didn't feel like that. In fact, he seemed destined to act like an idiot in front of him.

"So you come from London?" Luke was asking him. Alex turned his back to Kai and nodded.

"Yeah. Peckham."

"You don't sound like you're from Peckham."

"Only moved there a year before my parents died. Before that I lived in Islington," Alex said, reeling off the cover story he had memorised. He knew that he couldn't even attempt to fake a true Peckham accent, so had tweaked his cover story with Agent Rhodes at the last minute. The idea of faking someone from Peckham sounded ridiculous, seeing as his own accent was so different.

Luke seemed to take the story without an ounce of suspicion, and nodded sincerely.

"Hope we get to steal some cars," Luke grinned, "Heard they have some wicked cars in Moscow. All the rich people's cars. I got done for nicking a car back in England but it was only a Ford Mondeo."

Alex felt a presence at his shoulder and jumped as Kai appeared to his right, "Hey."

"Alraaght mate," Luke grinned, shaking Kai's hand enthusiastically, "I don't remember you from the boat either."

"I saw you throwing up over the side a few times," Kai said, with a smile.

"Oh, yeah," Luke burned a little red, "It was fucking rough at one point."

"I know what you mean," Kai nodded, sympathetically. Luke eventually moved off to introduce himself to some of the others.

Alex murmured to Kai, "How did you know he did that?"

"The two kids I was talking to before told me about it. Thought it would make us look like we'd been on the boat with them."

"Sure."

There were only ten or so kids, including the two spies, living in this house. They were the rest of the group that had been chosen to come to the Moscow ring. It was apparently a desired placement; every kid Alex had spoken to had said they were glad to be in Moscow and not stuck on some outpost in the countryside.

Apparently, he and Kai weren't the only ones who had been told they started work tonight. Alex had met three other boys who had also been told the same.

Alex felt Kai's eyes on him, but didn't return the look. He busied himself checking out the rest of the house and meeting some of the others, leaving the Russian on his own.

At eight o' clock that evening, Logan Safin's burly framed blotted the light through the front door. He strolled in with three boys behind him; they couldn't have been any older than twenty but no younger than eighteen. They had hard faces, eyes that watched all of them suspiciously, and jaws set tightly as though they were not used to talking very often.

There was some confusion as to what was going on, but eventually Alex found himself in what used to be in the kitchen with Kai and a few other boys, including Luke. The three older kids lined up at the damaged kitchen counters and said nothing as Logan Safin explained their night's plans.

"You're going to do some pick pocketing tonight. There is an concert on at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. Rich people, big wallets. Bring back as much as you can. If you get caught it is not our problem."

Everybody in the room nodded mutely.

"These three are your Lieutenants. You answer to them, and you do as they say," he gestured to the three older boys. Alex could see why the whole rank and order thing worked to keep the Beckett Circle kids in line. The Lieutenants' presence filled the room, a cold and domineering feel. Alex wouldn't guess many younger teenagers would want to get on the wrong side of these three.

"They are Alexei, Danil and Leonid. But, you call them Lieutenant. You do as they say. If they say get out and leave, you leave. If they say go and steal that handbag, you do it. If they say sit and stay, you sit and stay."

There was another round of furious nodding.

"Good. Follow them and do your first night's work."

Alex was cold and in a terrible mood. His fingers had gone numb long ago and his toes had now gone the same way. He was huddled against the heater close to a cafe where they were still determined to sell their drinks outside. People who didn't exactly have the money to have a drink inside the gilded theatre bar were huddled in coats at the outside tables, and Alex was grateful that the restaurant had provided them heaters so he could enjoy the warmth too.

He had lost Kai in the crowd a while ago, and hadn't seen any of the others for about half an hour. But he assumed they were out there, most of them doing their first ever attempts at pick pocketing. Alex had snatched two wallets but they had been easy pickings; one had been hanging out of a man's back pocket and the other had been hastily shoved into a pocket after buying a programme from a seller outside. The training from his uncle was starting to kick in; he hadn't picked a pocket in a long time but he remembered the rules Ian Rider had laid down for him well.

Still, he had no idea how many they were expected to steal or how long they were supposed to be out here. Apparently the Lieutenants were watching, so he thought it best not to hang around by a heater for too long.

Up above him, the skyline was puckered with the gnarled and gargoyle-crusted tops of the buildings. They were in a square that was apparently very important historically, but Alex didn't know why. Clouds rolled and rumbled over a deep purple sky, looking fat with expecting snow. He took a minute to take in the scene around him; the people having a night out were unworried and laughing. Some were studying their programmes, others were making the most of not being in the theatre by catching up with old friends. All around him, people were speaking Russian. He caught a few strains of German, but there was little else he could decipher. He felt useless not being able to understand the language, and he endeavoured to try to pick up as much as possible in his time in Russia.

Alex was about to move back to the throng of people when Kai came barrelling out crowd. He stumbled, righted himself, affixed an innocent look to his face and ambled over to Alex.

"Hey."

Alex looked him up and down suspiciously.

"What happened?"

"I may have pick-pocketed a Chihuahua from a woman's handbag."

"What?"

"I stuck my handbag and there was a bloody dog in there! Who takes their dog to the theatre? I thought it was a rat so I dropped it and she started shrieking and hitting me with her feather boa."

He scrubbed at the back of his neck with a scowl, "I think I'm allergic to feathers. I'm all itchy."

Alex blinked, surprised, but soldiered on. He gestured to Kai's pockets, "How many wallets have you got?"

"Three. You'd better get back in there, there's some easy pickings and we've got half an hour until the doors close."

Alex nodded and started back off for the crowd. He jumped at the feel of Kai's fingers around his wrist, "You Ok?"

"What?"

"Are you alright? You look cold."

"No," Alex shook his head, "I'm fine."

"Here."

Kai removed his hoody and handed it over, revealing a stained long sleeved shirt underneath. A piece of costume from the master craftsman that was Gaston. Kai shook the hoody in his hand, "Take it. I'm used to the cold, you're not. Go on."

"No, you'll freeze. I already have one on."

"Alex take it. It's bigger, it'll fit over the top of your own. Bring it me back when you've warmed up."

Alex didn't argue. He pulled the hooded sweatshirt over his head thankfully, and despite the smell that seemed to impregnate all of their clothes, he was glad to have it on. It was still warm from Kai, and he stuck his cold hands in the pockets gratefully.

He delved back into the crowd, the melee starting to thicken as the majority of the audience arrived for the evening performance. The smell of a hundred different top-end perfumes mixed with the spicy cologne of successful business men, oil barons and exclusive lawyers. He stuck out like a sore thumb, but they brushed him aside. He had learnt to say 'I'm sorry' in Russian, and said it over and over again as he jostled through the cloud, harvesting wallets and purses as he went. Someone left a shoulder bag hanging open and he swiped up the large pink wallet inside.

By the time the crowd was starting to thin, he had ten purses and wallets. A cold hand grabbed hold of the top of his arm and he jumped, thinking he had been caught. Instead, the unsmiling face of Leonid, one of the Lieutenants, was looking down at him.

"Bring them," he said, in surprisingly unaccented English, "We are going to see Safin."

"Ok," Alex nodded. He stripped off Kai's hoody, stuffed the wallets into his own hoody pocket and jogged out of the dwindling crowd to one of the darker corners of the square. Snow was starting to fall, a soft shower of ice-cold flakes. The rest of the group were huddled in the doorway of a closed bakery, blowing into their cupped hands and stamping their feet. The other two Lieutenants were waiting, hands stuffed in their pockets. For the first time, Alex realised that their rank was displayed visually as well as by their age and demeanour. On their left arm was a red band with a black circle gilded with gold. On their right arm was a piece of black material tied tight around their wrist. Alex guessed that what Agent Rhodes had said was true; you give people a rank name a uniform, and many are happy to fall in line and do another's bidding.

Kai was leaning against the bakery's display window, and Alex handed back the hoody so he could warm up.

"You look warmer," Kai commented, as they were shepherded out of the square by the Lieutenants.

"Yes, thank you."

They pulled away a little from the rest of the group, "How are we going to do this? We need to get some information on these people," Alex said in a low voice as they were marched across the street.

"If they're taking us to a headquarters to give over the wallets, we should make the most. One of us should slip away."

Alex nodded, instantly wondering which one of them that would be.

It did seem, after ten minutes or so of walking, that they were going to an office of some kind. It was in the back of a bar, with throbbing music leaking through the walls. The air was stuffy and smelt of liquorice and damp. They shuffled in behind the Lieutenants, keeping their voices and heads down as people passed.

Alex and Kai kept themselves aware though, their eyes following every face that brushed past them in the hallway. It didn't seem like a Beckett Circle headquarters necessarily; by the sounds of it the Beckett operation was making a lot of money and this wasn't the place that screamed 'money'. Still, maybe these people here were the ones taking the orders from those higher up.

They were made to dump their prizes on a table in an empty room, guarded only by another Lieutenant. He looked a little younger than Danil, Leonid and Alexei. His face was pockmarked from what looked like a bad case of chicken pox as a child. He mouth was a hard, straight line. His hair was cut brutally short, as though he had lost his temper with it one day and decided to do something dramatic with a pair of scissors.

When they finished dropping off what they had stolen, they were ushered out. A couple were grabbed by the shoulder and told to go back, and they shuffled out onto the street looking lost and confused. Kai and Alex were amongst the few told to stay behind.

Alex was lost in a sea of Russian as the Lieutenants talked amongst themselves, looking angered and to the point of arguing. There was lots of gesturing and pointing at the remaining four boys.

"What's going on?" Alex whispered to Kai.

"Apparently there's a job we have to do. But one of them doesn't trust us to do it. The other says they have to do what Safin says."

They dropped silent as Danil, the tallest of their three Lieutenants, fixed them with an intent stare.

"You go outside and wait at both ends of street," he said, pointing to Alex and another boy.

"You," he said, gesturing to Kai, "You stay at door."

"What are we looking for?"

Alex suddenly was shoved out into the cold through the back door. Danil appeared at his side, whilst Leonid manually positioned Kai by the door. Danil pointed down the darkened of the street.

"Come."

Alex found himself stopped at the corner of the street.

"You wait and look out for black Mercedes, number plate B40. There will be another one behind it, a red Aston Martin with plate HASSA7. When you see, flash torch down the street towards us."

An over-sized torch, the kind kept in houses in countries prone to hurricanes and storms, was slapped into his palm.

"Ok?"

"Yes," Alex nodded, not daring to say anything else.

"When this happen, you go back home. If you see torch flash from other end of the street, go home. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Danil turned on his heel and left. Alex watched him go, the street around him suddenly feeling very deserted and dark. He turned his head to peer around the corner. They were in a working class part of the city, that much Alex could tell. It wasn't gangster and graffiti riddled, but the cars were as modest as the houses and the gardens were more pruned weeds that managed to face the cold rather than fancy shrubbery. He pushed his hands into the pocket of his hoody and started to bounce on his toes. The cold was starting to seep in through the thin material of his clothes and his eyes were starting to droop.

It was one a.m. and still no black Mercedes had turned the corner. Alex's neck was aching from checking to see whether the torch had been flashed from the other end of the street, and to check to see if the car was coming his way. He was numb all over, his hands and feet starting to ache from the cold. He glowered at the frigid pavement beneath him. Thankfully the snow hadn't started to truly fall yet, but occasionally a small shower would sift a lawyer over his hair and shoulders and he'd be reluctant to move and knock it off him. Moving just seemed to expose himself to the wind more.

The cars moved so silently, Alex didn't realise they eres there until it's lights caught the pavement next to him. He scrambled for the torch he had placed on the pavement, and switched it on. As the two cars moved steadily passed him, barely crawling, he flashed and waved the torch down towards where he assumed everyone else was. He couldn't be sure; the night was so dark in Moscow, with only one street light over him and another at the far end.

Alex switched off the torch and squinted through the dark. The snow was starting to fall heavily now; Alex could see it whirling in the wind as a light hanging over the back door to the bar was switched on. Someone in a hat and coat opened up the back door for the passenger in the back seat of the black Mercedes. At the same time, two men got out of the front seats of the Aston Martin. Alex was briefly reminded of their encounter with Nikolai Karamzov, and wondered whether they would come across him again. A man in his early forties stepped out of the car, black polished shoes crunching against the new lawyer of snow. Alex could only see the two Lieutenants Leonid and Danil, but both snapped off a salute.

Whoever this was, they commanded some respect.

The two from the Aston Martin went over to him, and one shook his hand vigorously. Alex could hear the murmur of voices down the street, but nothing of what was being said.

The two men separated and moved towards the door, where the portly belly of Logan Safin could seen straining out of the doorway. He shook the hands of both men, then appeared to beckon them in. Alex scuttled around the corner of the street and crouched low to the ground. Here, he could see through the street light and towards the door, but not be seen. The cold gnawed at his hands and face, and icy fingers clawed their way up his back where some skin was exposed as he crouched. Still, he remained there, shivering silently to himself.

This man who had entered the back of the bar, an office of the Beckett Circle, had obviously been a man of some importance. The man who followed in the Aston Martin looked as though he was part of that meeting, although maybe not of the Beckett Circle entirely. The third man, who had driven the Aston Martin, looked almost too big to fit in the car, and had a grizzled, dangerous look to him.

Security.

The Lieutenants hadn't sound too bothered what the new kids saw, but still, they had asked them to leave the minute the black Mercedes was spotted.

And so Alex determined that when the two came back out, he was going to find a way of following the cars. And, hopefully, to some more information about the Beckett Circle.

He jumped a mile as a cold hand touched the back of his arm, and he shot upright. His eyes met Kai, who was hugging himself in the cold.

"What are you doing?" Kai whispered, stamping his feet.

"Whoever came to meet Logan Safin and the others in there must be important in some way. We should follow them; see where they go."

"Ok," Kai said, with a nod, "But how? Running along behind the car will get us nowhere."

"We can think of that when it comes to it," Alex said, crouching down again. Somehow being closer to the ground made things a little warmer.

They huddled together in the cold, listening and watching.

When, at half two, the two finally emerged, Alex still hadn't come up with a plan to follow them.

"We could steal a car," Kai suggested, "I think I could hotwire one of these old ones."

But the cars were already starting. There would be no time. Alex knew vaguely how to hotwire a car, but it was difficult. More difficult than, say, an abandoned moped.

"I'll take the bike," he said, and dashed across the other side of the street. He had spied the bike before, leaning forlornly against a lamppost. It wasn't too covered with snow to suggest it had been abandoned due to failure, it just wasn't well-loved by its owner. Alex just had to hope that it worked well enough to tail the two cars.

"Alex, wait-"

The black car at the front was starting to move away, and the light over the back door had flickered off. He could hear the purr of the Aston Martin starting. If he wanted to follow, he had to get the bike going quickly.

It was old, and cold, and temperamental. Alex could see why its owner had left it to its own devices when he wasn't using it. But finally, Alex managed to kick start the bike and get it sputtering into life. By that point, Kai had drawn up beside him.

"You're going to follow them on your own?"

"We've got no other choice!" Alex cried, pointing out the cars heading to the opposite end of the street, "I'll just follow them, see where they may be going. Then we can decide what to do."

Without giving Kai time to argue or agree, he squeezed the accelerator and sped off into the middle of the street.

Alex hadn't ridden on a moped in the snow before, and the experience was enough to put him off or a lifetime. The wheels skidded to the side and he had to keep his balance perfect to not give the ice an excuse to throw him off. He had to brake early and with smooth ease, as any jerk would cause the tyres to slide over the ice and potentially send him reeling into the parked cars on either side of the streets.

The cars up ahead hadn't split apart yet, and Alex was wondering that if they did, who he should follow. Something inside him told the black Mercedes, and when at a junction they did part ways, he pointed the bike to follow B40.

He stayed at a reasonable distance, hoping that the billowing snow in the wind was keeping him relatively covered. Certainly the car didn't suddenly accelerate or look as though it was trying to shake him.

Soon, they were in the distinguishably more upper-class parts of the city. He could see the well tendered balconies above, and covered doorways with doormen watching the bad weather from the warm receptions.

The car eventually slowed down, and Alex steered the moped towards the pavement. He switched off the engine and watched from behind a parked car as the Mercedes angled into an underground car park. He staggered off the moped, suddenly realising how cold he was, and jogged over to the building. The arch that signalled the parking was announced in both English and Russian. The English declared: 'Kennedy Building, Private Parking'.

The building with the plaque 'Kennedy Building Apartments' was made of immaculately smooth, sand-coloured stone, with a canopy over the entrance where the doorman watched Alex suspiciously.

Alex doubled back and headed towards the moped, teeth chattering violently. He knew he couldn't stay out much longer; it was just too cold and there was no way of getting into the Kennedy Building as yet. He hopped back onto the moped and after a moment of fiddling, he set back off into the direction of the bar.

He left the bike where he had found it, and walked to keep warm back to the abandoned house.

Kai was sat up in their makeshift double bed when he got back, arms wrapped around his knees.

"Are you Ok?"

Alex nodded, feeling too cold to say anything. Kai pulled back the covers and reached up to take Alex's wrist.

"Come on."

Alex had kicked off his shoes and socks and allowed himself to be pulled under the blanket by the time he realised Kai was sporting a black eye.

"What happened?" he cried. He tried to sit up but Kai forced him back down.

"Get warm Alex," he said, quietly but forcefully. The loud snores and heavy breathing of the others sleeping echoed through the house. Alex had shut the door behind him and Kai had plugged potential drafts with bits of leftover newspaper, so it was quiet and not too cold. The bed was warm with Kai's body heat, but Alex wasn't able to enjoy it as he studied the bruise on Kai's left eye.

"Who punched you? When did that happen?"

"It's nothing," Kai said, lying down, "Just get warm and go to sleep Alex, your lips are blue."

"Kai," Alex warned, "What happened?"

Kai rolled his eyes, "I met Nikolai."

"Where?"

"Coming out of a club the next street over."

"And he punched you?"

"No! Alex, leave it, Ok? Look...what did you find, when you followed the cars?"

Alex was reluctant to leave the subject of the black eye but knew there was no point pressing any further right now.

"I followed the Mercedes when they split. It went into a private car park for an apartment block called the Kennedy Building."

Kai nodded, thinking, "We'll find a way to call Agent Rhodes tomorrow. We can do a check on the plates and the building."

Alex was too cold to think anymore about it. The body heat of Kai next to him and the hush of the house was suddenly very soporific. He lay down next to Kai, and the warmth generated between the two of them eventually started to thaw him out.

"Night Alex," he heard in the dark, and he managed a mumbled reply.

Dark hair mixed with blonde as they unconsciously moved together in their sleep.

"I fucking love this job."

Luke was grinning from ear to ear when Alex and Kai entered the makeshift dining room. Someone had found a cracked, three-legged table in a skip and had dragged it back to the house. It was propped up with breeze blocks and a stack of porno magazines that had also turned up in the skip.

"Why?"

"It's the next job we get to do! Picking pockets was alright but it was boring and cold. Next one is mint."

"What is it?" Alex asked, losing his patience a little. He didn't feel himself at all; he was constantly cold and his muscles ached from the shivering. He had woken up very close to Kai a few hours ago and had had to detangle himself as gently as possible so as not to wake up the Russian.

Alex wasn't about to have his partner find them practically wrapped around each other, especially since Alex was suffering the early morning ailment of most boys his age had to put up with (he hadn't stayed around long enough to notice if Kai was).

He shook off the memory and wolfed down his second piece of bread. Bread, cheese and water. He ruefully reminisced about the breakfast back at the hotel.

"We get to start a fight at a football match! You know, a riot like. We start pushing people around and pissing people off and the whole crowd goes up into a riot."

"Why are we doing that?" Kai frowned. He was sat opposite Luke at the rickety table, already finished his breakfast and looking haggard. The bruise had blossomed over night, the colour now a thick black with flecks of purple and green. He held his head carefully, and his face was tense as though it hurt. He talked flatly, without moving his lips too much. A soaked rag lay next to him, stuck to the table with melted snow. It had been a makeshift ice pack, but even in the cold of the house it had melted completely.

"No idea. But it's planned for tomorrow. Some Moscow team is playing one from St Petersburg?"

"FC Zenit?" Kai ventured.

"Yeah, I think so."

Kai smiled then flinched and set his face back to a blankness that apparently didn't hurt his eye.

Luke stood up, "Better go and spread the words I s'pose."

"I used to support FC Zenit," Kai said, as Luke disappeared.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I even went to a few matches."

"With who?"

Kai paused, his gaze distant as he thought back, "Only when I was about eight or nine, I sort of lost interest in football after then."

Alex bit down into his bread, frowning. Kai had completely ignored his question. He had two options: press on and ask him again, or shut up and say nothing.

Since he still felt awkward about the incident that morning, Alex decided to shut up and say nothing.

"Shit guys, listen to this!"

Luke came pounding back into the kitchen, a packet of bacon in his hand.

"Whoa, where the hell did you get bacon from?"

A number of the others were starting to circle, catching a glimpse of the luxury item in his hand.

"Oh, this is for everyone."

He threw the packet onto the table distractedly, "That Lieutenant Alexei came back and gave it to me. He said if we work at the oven we should get it to work."

At those words, a few sped away to the kitchen in a desperate attempt to get cooked food inside them.

"Guys, that's not the news!" Luke cried, frustrated, "Listen, listen."

He paused for dramatic effect, "The Beckett Circle guys...they're fucking terrorists! We're terrorists."

Everybody stared back at him blankly. Alex supposed that Luke wouldn't have ever associated the Beckett Circle with global affairs including terrorism, but then Luke had never been debriefed on the entire organisation.

"What are you talking about?" one asked, with a sight.

"Beckett Circle kids brought down a plane coming out of Iran."

He had to repeat it twice before everyone in the house had heard and understood it.

"How do you know?" a girl asked, her face fixed in the permanent look of disgust she had had since Alex had met her.

"I just said: Lieutenant Alexei l told me. They used one of them ground-to-air rocket things."

"How the hell did they get to Iran?" Kai asked, shaking his head.

"We get sent everywhere, apparently. All over the world. Shit, they even do terrorist stuff. I didn't know we'd be doing that."

"Who was on the plane?"

"Family of a king or summat. What do they have in Iran? Sheiks?"

"No that's not Iran you idiot, they have Sultans."

"You got that from Aladdin, they don't have Sultans."

Alex had felt sick the moment Luke had first announced the news. An air accident. A plane being brought down. A family on board. His head felt hot and muggy.

He stood up and left the circle, heading for their bedroom and out onto the rickety metal terrace. It wasn't structurally sound anymore, but he stood firmly on its edge and let the cold clear his head.

Why was he suddenly so affected by what had happened to his family?

The last couple of months he had missed his uncle terribly. And this mission wasn't helping him move on from what happened to his family at all. It kept tearing up the slowly stitching wound and showing Alex more and more pieces to his family puzzle.

Had his parents plane been brought down too? After what Yassen had said as he died on Air Force One, nothing made sense any more.

It made him miss his Uncle more; if Ian was around at least he wouldn't have been thrown into this world in the first place...

"Alex?"

Kai appeared in the doorway, looking concerned, "Are you Ok?"

Alex scowled down at his hands gripping the rail, jaw tight. He bit down on his tongue, deciding not to say anything. He wasn't about to have a heart to heart with the guy he was supposed to be a professional spy partner to...

"Every time I hear about an car crash or an aeroplane coming down, I can't help but thinking of..."

So much for keeping quiet. What was that promise he had made to himself? Shut up and say nothing?

Well that lasted long.

Alex trailed off, his fists clenching harder onto the rail. He kept his head tilted down, his blonde hair covering his face. Kai drew up beside, leaning his back against the hard black metal.

"That's understandable. If your parents died in an air accident, you won't be able to help yourself thinking about them."

"And my Uncle."

"Your Uncle died on a plane too?"

"No, not on the plane. He died in a 'car crash', when I was fourteen. Apparently. Now I know he was a spy too, he worked for MI6. He was shot through the glass of his car window. He died and the car spun off the road."

Alex felt his eyes clouding with tears. He clenched his jaw to stop any from falling.

"I'm so sorry Alex," Kai said, softly.

"Every time I go on a mission, it's like I can see my uncle dying over and over again in the back of my mind. When I thought he had died in a car crash, I didn't know what that would have felt like. I hadn't even seen a proper car crash. So...it didn't seem real. When I learnt the truth, I still couldn't understand. I had never seen anyone being shot before, I couldn't imagine him dying that way. Now, after all I've done with MI6...I can see exactly how my Uncle died."

Alex felt the words tumbling out and anything that he had expected to stop them had turned numb.

"Now I know what someone pulling a trigger looks like. I know how to pull one myself. I know what it sounds like, what a gun being fired smells like. I've seen people shot, I've seen them dying. I've been shot myself, but that vest saved me. Now I know exactly what happened my Uncle. I can see it all. No-one is supposed to understand what seeing someone die from being shot is supposed to look like-"

Alex jumped at the feel of Kai's hand on the back of his neck. The warm fingers squeezed a little, and he felt his shoulders relax.

"I'm sorry, Alex. And I know. We know things we're not supposed to."

Kai's voice was low and quiet, but Alex could hear him clearly in his ear, "It's just...the job. You lose people."

Alex stood up suddenly, sniffing and clearing away the tears from his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said, even with a little laugh, "I don't know where any of that came from. I haven't told anyone any of that before. Even Jack, my guardian. I think she knows, but I've never said it to her. It's just...things keep reminding me how little I know about my parents and....well, how much I now know about my Uncle."

Kai smiled, "It's Ok Alex. You alright now?"

"Yeah," Alex chuckled, furiously scrubbing at his face with his left hand, "Sorry."

"No, Alex, it's fine."

Alex looked down at the frosty concrete beneath their feet, then up at Kai. He realised Kai's hand was still at the base of his neck, that Kai was only a matter of inches away from him. He could see the swelling under the dark bruise on Kai's eye had calmed , but a yellow line had blossomed on his cheek bone. Whoever had hit him had done so with some force. He felt a pull of concern.

"You lost people do because of this?" he asked, carefully.

"I guess," Kai said. Alex hadn't expected an answer at all, so he was quite please even with that.

Kai's thumb moved across one of the taught muscles from Alex's head to his neck and he felt his body melting. Still, the contact made his skim thrum with nerves. He was reminded of when Kai showed him his tattoo. Did these two do close contact in anything but emotional circumstances?

"What do you mean?"

"I never lost my parents to it, Alex. They had nothing to do with spies and espionage. They were just...brave enough – or stupid enough – to think that they could raise a family safely whilst helping out in a war zone."

"Then who did you lose?"

Alex could see a muscle in the side of Kai's jaw flicker, "No-one," he said, after a moment, "Just...just someone I knew."

"I guess you're right then," Alex agreed, "We do lose people because of this."

"Part of the job description." Kai chuckled, "Although I didn't know that meeting another person like you Alex would turn us both into grief counsellors."

"What-?"

Alex didn't know what he was about to ask, but the question was interrupted by Kai pressing a kiss to his lips.

Alex felt like he was melting and being electrocuted at the same time. There was a drumming in his head as though he had stood up too quickly. His first kiss. His mind was screaming something, not that he was listening. Suddenly his brain seemed weirdly detached from his body, and his body and his body only was in control. It explained why he moved closer and wrapped his arms around Kai's waist.

Because if his brain had been connected, that would have been unthinkable. Surely if his brain was in anyway controlling his body he would have pushed Kai away. Wouldn't he? But he did seem to be thinking an awful lot considering his brain felt so far away. Maybe it wasn't so disconnected. Maybe it was dictating play all along. Maybe it was his brain's fault he let out a small, imperceptible moan into Kai's lips.

But it was certainly his brain's fault that all he could say when they pulled away from each other was, "Uh...hum."

Kai looked amused. Alex still had his arms wrapped around Kai's waist; Kai had one hand on Alex's hip and the other was still at the back of his neck .

"We've got company," Kai said, softly, in to the following silence.

"What?"

"Turn around."

Alex whipped around, head still fuzzy and body still numb from the kiss. Sat behind him was a fat, mud-brown rat. It's feet was almost hidden into the frost covering the metal terrace, and its long skin-like tail balanced it perfectly on its back legs. It twitched its nose, looking at the pair expectantly. Kai let go of Alex and kicked out with his right foot. The rat squeaked and jogged off reluctantly into the house, slipping through a hole in the wall near their bed.

Alex turned back around to fix him with a surprised look.

'What had just happened had...well, it had just happened, right?' he thought, flustered. Or had he slipped away and imagined it?

Behind them, there was the clattering and sudden movement of the Lieutenants arriving in the house. They had been told to snap off a salute whenever they saw a Lieutenant – now that they knew what they looked like – and Alex didn't want be caught out failing at the first opportunity.

"We should go," Alex said, moving away.

Kai nodded silently, following him back into their bedroom, through the broken door and out into the hallway where the others were assembled.

As they were being talked to, Alex found it hard to concentrate when his face kept burning with embarrassment. What had he done? They had kissed each other. What the hell did that mean?

Alex wondered whether this whole 'working with a partner' thing was actually going to get the mission completed.

Tell me what you think guys!