Alex had dreamed, and when he woke up hours later, he was fighting off the memory of cold water biting into his skin. The sight of nothing eerily mirrored the nothingness that dragged him toward the bottom of the ocean. His eyes were wide open and his postures taunt, but he didn't make a sound.

Or maybe he did because it clearly woke Wolf. A fumbling, followed by a quick curse, was heard on the bunk above him. "It's four in the bloody morning."

"Well, thanks," Alex said dryly. "I wasn't going to ask."

"Then what? Gonna feel around for clock Brailles?" The ex-soldier above him snorted, the drowsiness slowly fading in both their tones.

Knowing that there were cameras in their room, Wolf had grown anxious and irritated over the past few days. Anxious because any slip-of-the-tongue could end up with them dead, and irritated for there were only so many topics that Alex and he could talk about without things going past the point of awkwardness.

"I need some air." The bunk creaked and the sound of feet on wooden ladder splattered to his left. Alex groaned and turned to face the wall. "You comin'?"

"I'm not going for a run at freaking four in the morning. In case you don't remember, Dean, I've got vision problems."

"There's less noise, you can sense things better. C'mon." Wolf gave his back a nudge with his sock-clad foot. "We can walk if that's better. No need to pull the blind card every two seconds."

Begrudgingly, Alex rolled over and chucked the pillow across the bed. The other raised end of the bed blocked its trajectory with a sounded oomph. At the same time, he pictured a white pillow following the same curve in his head. Was the light on? Was the shade dark enough? Was he imagining it correctly?

Sometimes, he just wanted to see so badly.

They hit the air five minutes later. It was chilling in the morning, and the air still smelled faintly of night. How, he didn't know, but he just knew. True to his words, Wolf didn't set off in a jog, instead, he opted to walk. Boots grounding against gravel, clothes rustling against clothes.

"We need to talk." Wolf began once they were well past the dorms and into the large field.

"We're talking now." The rustling made it hard to focus, and Alex blamed that for the irritation in his tone.

"I don't trust your friend Robert." Wow. Blunt. "And I don't trust Troy. We shouldn't solo anything until we've checked everything out." Wolf grounded out. "This isn't brute force, this is strategy."

"And I've been doing my thing longer than you have."

Wolf brushed past his comment. "Don't tell me you didn't sense anything wrong with Robert? A bit too enthusiastic?"

"You haven't met the whole 7 billion population on earth to say that," said a scoffing Alex.

"He gives off a wrong vibe. What do I have to say to get through your thick skull that you should be cautious around him?"

"Aw, you care."

"Don't be an ass about it." He could hear the frown in Wolf's voice. "And while you're at it, if you really want to do that archery club, keep your tone down. Don't whip out whatever jumps you have, be subtle. With the inspector going around, we need to keep our head down."

"I know, I know." Wolf was probably just anxious. Remembering Alex's own first mission, he sure had been nervous and anxious: nervous enough to spout off that stupid jellyfish comment. "But it's not 'we', Dean, it's 'me' or 'you'—let me finish—we're not a package. And if we stop sticking around each other that often, we might have a better chance of being clued in."

Hopefully, before Inspector Chevalier uproot the whole school in search for the tiny whiff of illegality.

Alex tilted his head slightly, almost wishing he could see Wolf's expression to garner an emotion from him. Wolf might be expressive sometimes, especially when he was angry, but when he was silent there was no way to understand how he was feeling.

He wanted to tell Wolf about the inspector recognizing him, but he bit back his words. Should he? What good was it going to do? Wolf would only get more apprehensive, and knowing the ex-soldier's tendency to sometimes rush into things when thoughts became too jumbled, Alex was sure it wouldn't be a good idea.

Perhaps he should have a talk with the inspector.

Yeah, no. That would be one quick cover blown.

There was a long pause, too long Alex thought before Wolf answered gruffly. "Fine. We will see."

He had the sneaking suspicion that Wolf had been watching him to read his emotions, and he hoped the words 'I'm hiding a secret' wasn't blatantly stamped all over. Wolf might not necessarily be wrong, but Alex hated to think that Robert was anything more than a normal civilian. Perhaps for just a little bit, he wanted at least a single piece of normality in his hectic life.

Alex just wasn't sure how he should phrase it. "What you gonna do in the meantime?"

"I'll deal with the police. We can't have two sides boxing us in."

Maybe that was the tactical difference between Wolf and him: Wolf had a broader spectrum while Alex focused instead on the details. They would either be a well-made team or catastrophe waiting to happen, and Alex certainly hoped that it wouldn't be the latter—and if they were, that the realization wouldn't hit too late.

"Okay," said Alex. "Let's go for a run."

"But you're—" At the last second, Wolf held his words back. "If you fall, I'm not picking you up."

"Likewise, likewise." He grinned back.

They set off at a slow pace, waiting for the sun to rise a few inches higher before they return. The sound of shoes on sand and gravel filled the air in military cadence, reminding Alex of a different place and a different time back at Brecon Beacons. Absently, Alex wondered how Bear was doing.

Well, they didn't end up on the wrong foot, but neither did they end up on the right one either. It was sort of like a tentative truce, both admitting that they had been at fault. They had both been too caught up in the heat of the events to have clear thoughts.

He knew the death of Ferret and Leopard had hit Bear hard; it had been hard for the both of them, even if neither were willing to admit it out loud. Bear had his facade to maintain, and Alex had his own reason. He didn't want to experience the deaths over again. He didn't want anyone else to die because of his inability.

Yassen caught him unprepared.

Jack was enough.

Perhaps after this mission, he should really talk to Bear. He was leading K-Unit now, but Alex knew that bond he had had with his old team couldn't ever be replaced. It just wasn't the same.

How was Wolf dealing with it? Wolf had stayed somewhat silent throughout their path, only grunting every here and then to inform Alex of obstacles. How was Wolf dealing with the sudden change of operations? He wasn't with a team anymore, he was with just Alex. A two-man team for a job that probably would suit a four-man unit better.

Alex wanted to ask Wolf about his decision: why did he join MI6? For Fox, the reason was clear. Fox was independent, they'd all slowly realize. Fox worked well both in a team as well as on his own, but his skill sets leaned him toward MI6.

So what was Wolf's reason? His skill as a tactical leader clearly weighed heavier in assaults than in espionage. He remembered asking the soldier about it, and Wolf had told him it was mostly Bear's idea.

Wolf was too…stuck up. Sometimes a bit too straight-forward. Point and shoot. Double tap. Packages. Those were not the terminologies Alex would ever use on a mission.

Wolf had stayed strangely silent throughout, each to their own thoughts, except for the occasional grunt to alert Alex to the obstacles he couldn't feel. Alex didn't know the exact time of their return to the heated interior of their dorms, but it was only minutes before they headed out for classes again.

He shouldn't deviate from the mission right now. Focus on the present, he could deal with the side dramas a little later.

Ian might not have been a spy or part of the espionage, but he had dabbled enough in his late brother's affairs to know that trust wasn't something that was earned, but rather the prize behind a wall weathered down through time. Yet often times he found himself throwing out bits and pieces of his trust, hoping that at least one of them would grow into something magnificent.

And he told himself that was the reason behind him calling Evans into his office. "Shut the door behind you."

His new assistant complied before settling himself comfortably in a standing position in front. Pale features became paler under the whitewash of light, and the blue eyes shades lighter in harshness.

"I want you to look into one of the students for me," Ian said, pulling out a folder from the stacks neatly organized on his desk. "Feighton Winchester. I want to know everything about him, who he is, where he's from, and who that half-brother is."

"Why?"

Ian's eyes hardened in calculations, but the decision came easily. "I have my suspicions. His file is crisp clean, too normalized for a school like that. He also strangely reminds me of someone I know." The officer didn't need to know that, but perhaps that would give him an added incentive. "It's an under-the-radar job, and everything I said stays in this room."

"Understood."

"Good, get it done. While you're at it, see what he's up to, but don't make it too obvious: that half-brother of his is rather perceptive."

Half-brother. Ian could laugh at that. Despite the obviously bogus claim, the two brothers looked nothing alike. There was something fishy about the two, but at the same time, it wasn't the typical vibe Ian would get from suspicions—perhaps it was the way Feighton reminded him of his young nephew (as well as Ian's brother).

"Should I look into his brother as well?"

"Yes," Ian dismissed. "You will undoubtedly cross paths when you're looking into the boy."

"Understood."

Ian watched Evans leave the office in his typical soft gait. The door shut behind him, and he sat watching the closed door for a few moments. He still wasn't sure if 'trusting' Evans to do the job was the right thing to do, but what was the harm? Evans didn't know his nephew, and with the man's connections, he could easily pull up files that could not be legally accessed.

The joy of unlawfulness.

He waited until he was sure the officer was far before laying out the files on an Anthony Evans and Silver Barsad. With a shake of his head, Ian sighed. He knew Silver wasn't as loyal as he pretended to be, especially after watching his expression when he presented him the picture of Yassen Gregorovich. There was something even more fishy with Evans. Pale skin. Brown eyes (presumably contact lenses). He wasn't immediately recognizable beneath the dyed brown hair, but the resemblance was there alright.

There was no mistake that he was Yassen Gregorovich. And there was no mistake that the international assassin knew he knew—and wanted him to know.

Silver, on the other hand, was deadly with a gun. Ian hadn't reckoned Gregorovich to be a man who valued companionship, but then, the world could change people in the snap of a finger. Perhaps that was the assassin considering an early retirement through action rather than words.

Wolf had a nagging suspicion that Coyote was enjoying the mission more than he was letting on. Not that Coyote didn't need the chance to unwind his stubbornness, but this wasn't a field trip. Mildly annoyed, Wolf glanced at the man sitting to the right of him. Coyote was doodling away on a piece of paper, and it was tempting to lean over to see what monstrosity the man had conjured up.

Coyote couldn't see, Wolf supposed he had to cut the man some slack for that. Not for the first time, he wondered what was Mrs. Jones thinking and if she needed to have her own sight checked out. She was patronizing Coyote too much, hindering his growth.

"Hey," Wolf said, dragging Coyote aside as soon as the bell rang.

"Yeah?" Coyote didn't look all too surprised. An improvement, really, from when he was skittish at every contact.

"I'll drop by the police precinct after school," he muttered. "See if I can find out how much the inspector knows."

"You sure that's wise?"

"Wiser than sitting ducks."

"Right." Coyote didn't sound like he was on board, but Wolf didn't need his wholehearted approval anyway. Separate was better, wasn't that what the man said? "Hopefully you don't ask any stupid questions."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Coyote said it all too quickly. Yeah, right. Nothing his ass.

Not wanting to battle against the rush of students in the hallway, they slowly moved along. "You said we should work alone, and that's what I'm doing."

"That's not what I mean," said the man. "It's just not the way I'd handle a mission."

Wolf growled, glared, then swallowed his pride for a tad fracture. They were bound to crash, better get it out of the way first. Coyote and his fragile ego. "Then pray tell, how would you handle it?"

Coyote just stared at him as if he had grown a second head. Then he sighed and said, "Maybe something less subtle."

"Straight up asking wasn't my plan either."

"Not saying it was," said Coyote dryly, sounding like the absurd act had been his exact thought. Wolf felt very offended. "Anyway, I'll see you at lunch? Well, not see, but—"

"Yeah yeah," Wolf rolled his eyes, feeling an uncharacteristic tug on the corners of his lips.

Wolf watched him go, navigating the crowds slowly. Robert appeared by his side moments later and placed a hand on his shoulder to easily push them through the crowds. While Wolf understood Coyote's reluctance to admitting that Robert was anybody but who he said he was, Wolf had a hard time warming up to Robert and his childish antics.

The bullied kid? Snugging up to a blind man? How old did Robert say he was? Wolf would put him as barely eighteen, but definitely not innocent of crimes. He wouldn't trust Robert as far as he could throw him. Maybe Coyote did know and was pretending otherwise to gain the kid's trust. Wolf really doubted that. Anyway, he supposed he had to give Coyote that barest trust if this mission was to go somewhere.

Wolf breezed past the fourth period without paying more than half a mind on the professor. He just really couldn't wait till school was over. When he had signed up to become a spy—really, he hadn't signed up, Mrs. Jones had asked—he wasn't expecting a throwback Thursday of old school memories. School wasn't a place he wanted to revisit. Once was enough.

When he told Alex that him becoming an agent had partially been Bear's idea, he hadn't been lying but it wasn't the whole truth either. Mrs. Jones had asked him to keep an eye on Coyote, and, especially after what had happened with the blown-up church, it would be good for him. At first, Fox wanted the assignment—Fox was close to Coyote and they definitely had a long history—but the head of MI6 decided that it would a good debuting mission for Wolf if he ever decided to want to become a spy.

Damn MI6 and their poaching. Wolf had no intention of becoming a spy because he didn't like all the behind-the-back business that was their unspoken motto. Bear had asked him to at least consider the offer, from one unit leader to another, and dammit there was no way he could refuse the man who had lost all but one thing.

"Hey, Dean?" Wolf's head snapped up in annoyance at the voice. Robert. Great.

Not having enough time to school in his load of displeasure, Wolf answered gruffly. "Yeah?"

"Uh," Robert paused. "You okay?"

"Great. What do you want?"

"Um, Feigh wants to let you know that he's not gonna be joining you at lunch. Something came up."

At this, Wolf gave the kid his full attention. "Why? What came up?"

Robert winced. "He kinda failed the assessment. Mrs. Heatherson wanted to give him a one-on-one."

"Really?" Wolf narrowed his eyes. Wouldn't Coyote come to tell him that personally, knowing that Wolf didn't trust Robert?

"Uh. Yeah. So," Robert said carefully, sliding into the seat in front. "You want company?"

"Not really," Wolf managed as he chewed, but just as Robert was about to leave, dejected, Wolf stopped him. "Fine. Sit."

Robert grinned and bounced back into the seat. "Knew you'd come around."

Now was a good time to question the kid without Coyote nagging at him for his paranoid behavior. Better safe than sorry, screw Coyote's optimistic mindset. "Tell me about yourself."

Robert stared at him blankly, so Wolf tried again. "Feigh thinks you're being bullied, but I doubt that."

The kid furrowed his brows in confusion. "I, well, some people pick on me, but it's not a big deal. Feigh's really empathetic, I think, but I'd never use anything like this to gain his friendship."

"I don't know what you're up to but," Wolf said slowly. "Feigh trusts you and that's something." The words felt stupid once they'd been said, but it was too late to take it back now.

"I know." Clearly getting the idea that he wasn't really all that welcomed, Robert stood up. "I'm just gonna…go check on Feigh. Bye."

Wolf watched him go before sighing loudly, putting his fork down. Yeah, he'd definitely hear it later from Coyote.

Alex was half a lesson in on his recorder when he heard someone calling his name. He pulled the earbuds out of his ear and turned to the source. Wolf. Of course it was Wolf. The ex-soldier cleared his throat to gave Alex his general direction. Before Wolf could start speaking, however, Alex had a piece of mind he wanted to share with Wolf.

Alex hadn't gotten the chance to talk with after lunch nor immediately after school, but now he had plenty of time. "So I had a talk with Robert today."

"Yeah, about that—"

"You know what he said?" Alex interrupted the man. "Actually, never mind that, I'm too embarrassed to even repeat what he said. But what the hell were you thinking, Dean?"

Wolf grunted. "I don't like him."

"Oh, because he's taller than you?"

That elicited a growl but thankfully Wolf knew better. "Funny, really funny. Keep that up, and I'm gonna leave you in here while I go grab dinner."

Alex rolled his eyes, placed the recorder into his jacket, and pulled the clothing over his figure. "Doesn't mean I'm forgiving you."

The two of them were well aware of the camera in their room, and it was making their every conversation difficult. As soon as Wolf shut the door behind them, however, Alex ducked his head and grinned. He wished he had been able to see Wolf's expressions.

"Sorry," Alex said unapologetically with a snort.

Wolf just growled as he ushered Alex down the hall and out the door.

"But seriously," Alex lowered his voice. "What were you thinking? I mean, fine, you don't like Robert and you think he's not trustworthy. If he really is part of the organization, you'd be tipping them off."

"It's well within my character."

"Oh yeah, what's that? Asshole half-brother?"

"Keep talking," Wolf dared threateningly.

"Or what?"

"That's it, you're getting water for dinner."

Alex just laughed.

TBC

A.N.: can't believe I updated. I'm really sorry guys, I just got back from vacation and break so far's looking up. I'll try to update soon but no promises :3 I just wanna say a quick thanks to everybody who has encouraged me to keep updating this one (you know who you are ahaha don't be shy I've read your review :3), and I'm also really sorry that I keep starting new stories heh.