Alex wasn't sure how to feel about Tom living with Wolf. It was odd to say the least but that was the only thought that immediately came to him when he heard the news. Tom had told him about moving in with Wolf at the first opportunity, which was to say he'd shouted it down the corridor in front of a dozen MI6 agents and the rest of K-Unit. Alex had never seen Wolf look so uncomfortable. He'd also never seen the man flush with embarrassment but there was a first time for everything.

Alex had gaped at the other boy, not really understanding what he was shouting about. He'd heard Jack giggle and Eagle mutter something under his breath about crazy people. The other two hadn't said anything until Wolf had dragged the boy by the collar of his shirt to join the group.

"Is he being serious?" Snake asked pointing at Tom who was grinning like a jackal. Nobody saw fit to answer the question aloud. After all, they all knew the boy well enough by now to know that the boy was completely serious. No one thought to press the matter further either.

There just didn't seem to be anything they could say. Alex had known there was some problems in Tom's house but never had he suspected they were bad enough for Wolf to take the other boy in. It was an odd situation to say the least. For once Alex didn't know the details of what was going on with his friend and he didn't have the heart to ask either. For whatever reason Tom hadn't wanted him to know the intimate details but he had, for some convoluted reason, let Wolf in enough to know more than his best friend.

Alex felt a prickling of jealousy at that thought. Tom had been his best friend for a long time and they'd once told each other everything. The spy didn't like not knowing what was going on with the other boy. He didn't like admitting that he may have missed something of critical importance in Tom's life. He vowed to himself that something like that would never slip by him again.

And that was how the two boys came to spend most their time at Wolf's flat which was only a few blocks away from Brookland in the opposite direction of his own home. For the first time in a long time, Tom had a place he could bring friends to and he took full advantage of it. Wolf once came home to the entire first string football team eating pizza and playing Xbox in his living room. He hadn't been too pleased and Tom had been grounded-something he ignored at first opportunity.

Tom's mother was heartbroken and determined to have her son return home. However, the boy wouldn't hear of it. It didn't matter that the boyfriend was gone, he had lost his trust in her. He had told her that he would consider coming home when things settled down again but everyone knew he was just trying to placate her. He had no intention of going back there to live. He was out and he wanted to stay out. Alex knew there was a little more to it than what most were seeing though.

Tom didn't have to lie or sneak around with Wolf. The boy had become engrossed in Alex's spy life to a degree and Wolf knew it. There were very little half truths and evaded questions anymore. Tom also found himself with a greater amount of freedom, which he wasn't willing to give up. So the boy settled down into Wolf's flat determined to stay even though he was sleeping on the pull out couch. It didn't bother the boy though. Very little seemed to bother him, which the exact opposite of Wolf.

Everything seemed to bother Wolf. Alex didn't know what the soldier had been expecting when he told Tom he could stay with him but it didn't appear to be what he'd gotten. Tom was naturally messy, he was always late, and he was loud. Wolf couldn't stand the piles of junk the kid had accumulated in seemingly no time at all; punctuality was a big deal for a soldier and Wolf saw Tom's lack of it completely disrespectful; the noise the teenager made just plain annoyed him. It wasn't uncommon for a stern, angry shout of Harris! to ring through the small flat followed shortly by an argument.

None of it bothered Tom, in fact he seemed to enjoy it. Then again, nobody should have expected anything else.

"Harris!"

"Ugh," Tom sighed as his head dropped onto the back of the couch. "What?"

"Get in here and clean this shit up!" Tom got up and headed back into the bathroom followed by some chuckles from K-Unit and Alex.

"Kid's going to give Wolf a coronary," Snake said, pausing the movie they'd been watching until the noise died down.

"I think he'll only give him high blood pressure," Eagle said.

"Don't people die from high blood pressure?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Fox replied simply. "His headstone will read 'Rey Alvarez: Victim of Annoying Teenager'." They all laughed including Alex even though one could argue that he could be included in that description.

"What's so damn funny?" Wolf growled as he stormed into the living room and took the seat the Tom had just vacated.

"What did he do this time?" Snake asked his face showing his amusement. This new arrangement had been the sole entertainment of K-Unit for two weeks now. There was some loud banging and muffled curse words from the bathroom which effectively redirected Wolf's attention.

"Harris, don't break anything!" the soldier shouted back over his shoulder.

"I'm not!"

"That's what you said last time!"

"Rey!" Snake said sharply, forcing the soldier to answer the previously ignored question.

"He just left a mess in the bathroom," Wolf grumbled. "He's a pig."

"He's a teenager," Fox said, sounding like he was on the verge of laughing. "They're all like that."

"Alex isn't like that," Eagle said from the armchair, nodding his head towards the teen. They all turned and looked at him.

"What?" he said. "Jack likes a clean house."

"So do I," Wolf responded. "How do I get a clean house?"

"You'll never get a clean house," Alex told him.

"Why not?"

"You aren't scary enough." Wolf didn't like the sound of that. He wanted a clean, quiet flat like he'd had before the little monster moved in. To top it all off, the kid didn't want to go home and it wasn't like he had anywhere else to go. Wolf was starting to think he'd need to get a bigger flat. Which meant he had to pay more in rent. Not mention the kid was a bottomless pit and his grocery bill had nearly doubled. If the kid stayed he'd be responsible for clothing him and feeding him. Would he have to pay for University?

Tom came clambering back into the room, cutting off Wolf's ulcer forming process and took a seat on the couch between Alex and the soldier. With all parties reassembled, Snake started the movie.

If you had asked Wolf a year ago if he thought the A-Team was unrealistic he would have said yes without hesitating, but now he knew Alex and Tom better than most people ever could. It suddenly seemed like a likely situation. And he knew that both boys would be attracted to that type of lifestyle. Even if one resisted it more than the other.

"Ooo," Tom said suddenly. "I want to-"

"No," Wolf replied sternly hoping to cut him off before the idea took hold too deeply. He knew, even from the short amount of time the kid had been there, that if Tom thought about something for too long he wouldn't be able to stop himself from doing whatever crazy plan he'd cooked up.

"But," the teen began.

"No."

"Wolf-"

"Under no circumstances are you allowed to try and fly a tank!" Wolf snapped. It seemed that he was snapping a lot lately. It wasn't his fault; Harris had the innate ability of getting on his last nerve quicker than anyone else had ever done before. "You're not allowed to enlist either!"

"Why not?" Tom asked, thrown off guard by the seemingly nonsensical command.

"Because you're enough of a threat to public safety as it is!" the soldier replied. "You're going to work in a cubicle!"

"Well, that sounds awfully boring," the boy threw back. Alex could tell he was doing his hardest not to laugh at Wolf, who was beginning to take Tom's craziness in all the wrong ways.

"Exactly," the man grumbled. "The world will be safer."

"But I only do things when I'm bored so I should enlist and keep myself from being bored," Tom continued and Alex could tell that the logic was sincere on Tom's part. He truly did believe that his craziness came from boredom, a sentiment Alex was inclined to agree with for the most part.

"You are not enlisting!" Wolf snapped back at him. "And I've had it with your messes!"

"What do my messes have to do with the army?" Tom asked sounding as confused as Alex felt in the random leap of logic Wolf had just made.

"Everything! They have everything to do with the army! Clean your shit up!" Wolf was actually standing now, his team looking at him with slightly wide eyes and the movie completely forgotten. "It's like living with a bloody pig and I'm through with it and your antics!"

"What antics?" Tom snapped, standing up himself to face Wolf head on. "I haven't done anything!" Despite, Tom's insistence that he was innocent of whatever Wolf was accusing him of, Alex knew that it was all about perspective. Tom rarely thought he'd done something deserving whatever punishment he'd been given.

"You know exactly what you've done," Wolf replied, eyes narrowing. "You make me miss Iraq!" With that somewhat nasty remark, Wolf turned on his heels and stormed out of the room towards the kitchen. Everyone stayed silent for a full minute, more than a little shocked, but also trying to laugh. Even though, Wolf had said something that could be taken very badly, they all knew Tom wouldn't be particularly bothered, making the soldier's little meltdown all the more hilarious.

Once Tom had finally settled back into his seat, Snake dug his hand into his front jeans pocket and withdrew a folded slip of paper.

"So who had him cracking between weeks two and three?" he asked, eyes roaming over the list of numbers and names.

"I did," Fox said and held out his hands as Eagle, Snake, and Alex each dug out their wallets to fork over the right amount of money. Tom looked incredulous.

"Hey!" he snapped. "Why wasn't I let in on this betting pool?"

"Because you'd time it so that you would win," Alex replied. "It's unfair." Tom just pouted and crossed his arms.

"No fair."

Break

Tom found Wolf in the kitchen, gazing out of the window over the sink, beer bottle forgotten on the counter. The others had left, figuring it was time to go. Tom was sad to see them leave. He was completely aware that Wolf was feeling some stress with this new responsibility and the man was usually less tense with his friends around. Not to mention, it was nice to have Alex hang out where he was staying for once.

"Rey?" he hedged and the man spared him a glance. "The others left." The soldier just nodded. "Are you angry?"

"No, kid," Wolf replied, finally looking at Tom head on. "I'm not angry."

"Then what was with the miniature meltdown?" Wolf snorted and rolled his eyes at the blunt phrasing.

"Nothing, don't worry about it," the man said, turning around so that he could lean against the sink and folded his arms.

"Fine," the boy told him and the promptly changed the subject. Well, sort of. "What's wrong with me joining the army?"

"Nothing," Wolf sighed, wanting nothing more but to move on from the whole army thing. Besides, it wasn't as if he could really stop the kid from enlisting if he really wanted to, no matter how much he feared for his country's safety. No one ever really told Harris what to do. The kid let you have a certain amount of authority of over him and if he decided he didn't want to play anymore, he didn't. It was truly that simple. Looking at the clock, Wolf said, "What do you want for dinner?"

"Chinese," the boy replied, immediately distracted at the thought of being fed.

"We had that yesterday," the soldier said, opening up the fridge to see if there was anything he could cook.

"Pizza."

"No."

"McDonald's."

"Lasagna," Wolf said finding some sauce and cheese. He knew he had a box of lasagna noodles in the cabinet.

"That's icky."

"That's healthy."

"Exactly."

"Have you finished your homework?"

"Yes."

"Harris."

"Fine."

As he boiled water, Wolf began to wonder how they had fallen into that domestic routine crap. It had always been the exact opposite of what he'd wanted in his life. That was why he had joined the SAS in the first place. All he needed to be a cliché was a wife, a dog, and a nine to five job. It didn't appeal to him in the slightest. In fact, to quote Harris, that was just icky.