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When he slinks back to the warehouse a couple of days later, James is yelling at him, though Aleks isn’t sure if it’s because he went missing for technically a day or two, or if he still looks that bad. Could be both, considering James. He just liked to yell.
Or it could be Brett trailing in behind him, staying by the door, leaning against the wall with a boot up on it and bat resting loose in his hand, the tip just hovering over the cement floor.
“Aleksandr, what the fuck?” James voice drops to a harsh whisper, grabbing Aleks’ wrist and yanking him close, frantically gesturing at Brett, “who the fuck? What the fuck? Why the fuck?”
“He, uh… follows me around,” Aleks shrugs, looking back at Brett, whose pushed his sunglasses into his hair and is scrolling through his phone, “I dunno, man. I can’t shake him.”
“You can’t bring him here! He’s gonna scare Trevor.”
“You scare Trevor,” Aleks rolled his eyes and pushes his own sunglasses into his hair, looking mildly annoyed, “look, he really won’t leave me alone. Just… ignore him, alright?”
James looks pissed, but he lets it go for now, drops Aleks’ wrist and crosses his arms over his chest like a bratty kid. “What happened?”
“Uh,” Aleks scratches his cheek, thinks of the best way to put this, and shrugs, “bar fight.”
“You lost.”
“Dude, that’s rude. I won.”
“I had to kill the guy,” Brett speaks up, looking up at James, “he lost.”
Maybe Aleks should have made Brett leave. James just gives Aleks one of those looks, the ‘i’m gonna knock you out myself’ looks, and just shakes his head. Aleks shrugs, sticking his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
“Anyways, I did what you wanted me too. Roughed up those kids, took a couple of their guns. It should be cool,” Aleks shrugs again, tilting his head up a little, “anything else you need from me?”
“Don’t bring in strays next time,” James says instead, glancing at Brett for a moment before looking back at Aleks, “I’ll call if anything comes up. Just don’t… disappear again for a couple of days. Jakob was worried.”
“Sure, gay,” Aleks grins, pushing his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose, “I’ll keep in touch.”
He leaves to James shouting at him and feels weirdly satisfied when he hears the steps of Brett behind him.
Brett’s bike is pretty chill to ride on, you know, when he isn’t knocked out. Aleks just holds onto the back, enjoying the sun on his face. Shit, maybe this isn’t such a bad deal; take in a stray, get sweet bike rides.
They stop at a out of way cafe and Brett parks in an alley, kicks the stand down and climbs off, taking his helmet off and slinging it onto a handle. Aleks just soaks a little in the sun for a moment before he climbs off himself at the sound of a throat clearing, though a little reluctantly.
“Your boss doesn’t like me.”
“He’s not really my boss,” Aleks shrugs, leaving the alley and holding the door to the cafe open for Brett, “we just work together. He’s a friend.”
“A friend,” Brett’s tone makes him prickle just a little, hairs standing on the edge, and Aleks just gets in line behind a young girl. Brett stands besides him, a little too close, and Aleks tries to ignore it the best he can, “sure. I want a black coffee, hot.”
“Gross,” Aleks murmurs as he steps up to the counter next, ordering Brett’s drink, and then a iced coffee with cream and sugar for himself. Leans against the pastry display case as he waits for the order and pulls out his phone, frowning as there’s a couple frantic messages from James.
dude hes fuckn htman trevor looked him up
*fucking *hitman
dude bretts a fuckin hitman i would suggest u gtfo immediately
Aleks just glances at Brett who's gone and sat himself in a booth by a window, and then back at his phone. Huh. Well, that explains a couple of things. Like the won’t leave him alone thing, for sure.
He’s kind of a bad hitman if he is one. Don’t worry. Can take care of myself.
NOT THE ANSWER IM LOOKIN FOR ALEKSANDR GET THE FUCK BACK HERE RIGHT NOW
Bye, James.
Pockets his phone, picks up their coffees, and leaves to the booth. Aleks could care less about James right now with this new information, sliding Brett his mug and sitting across from him, hands wrapped around his iced coffee.
“Heard you’re a hitman.”
“Is that a surprise?” Brett asks, not even bothering to look up from his phone, “I thought you knew.”
“Uh… well, no. Not until James just told me,” Aleks shrugs, glancing out the window, “so is that why you keep following me around?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“I told you why I’m here.”
“Kinda vaguely, though. Like… uh, if I was… a normal person, your answer was like… Loch Ness, or something.”
Brett looks up from his phone at that, brows furrowed, and shakes his head. Aleks just shrugs. It’s a good comparison, really.
“One thing I do hate doing is repeating myself, so if you’re not satisfied with my answer, I can go.”
“No,” Aleks says quickly, surprising himself, “no, I… didn’t say that. I just don’t understand.”
“There’s nothing to understand. Promise you this, if you were a mark, you would have been dead ten times over by now,” Brett leans back in the booth, taking a sip of his coffee and setting it back down, holding it between both his hands, “so don’t sweat it.”
Don’t sweat it. What the hell? Aleks scrubs a hand through his hair, looking at Brett over the top of his sunglasses. Don’t sweat it.
Don’t sweat it.
“Want to go shoot some things with those guns I stole?”
Brett’s expression turns into one of a smile and a seeming laugh, and Aleks just grins back, all teeth.
Maybe taking home a stray wasn’t so bad.