Work Text:
Alex stretched out languidly as he tuned out the teacher, only feeling a slight tinge of guilt that he was wasting his rare peaceful moment in school.
It was not to last.
Alex tuned in as he felt a familiar prickle of the hair on the back of his neck, only ever brought about by the presence of a certain assassin. Alex was on his feet in a matter of seconds, whipping around and pulling out the gun he carried with him at all times.
“I’ve come to kill Alex Rider.”
Yassen Gregorovich stood in the doorway, his own gun pointed directly toward the teenage spy.
Alex was vaguely aware of the deafening silence of his classmates, the whole room frozen in a mix of confusion and raw fear.
Neither assassin nor spy moved, guns held steadily in the direction of the other.
After a few more moments, Yassen’s face twitched, a glimmer of amusement present in his eyes.
“Thought you weren’t allowed a gun little Alex.”
Alex chuckled, the sudden noise startling the class out of their reverie.
“Why does Alex have a gun?”
“Who is that man?”
“I have my ways.” He replied with a wiggle of his eyebrows, swiftly holstering the firearm and crossing the room towards Yassen in large, measured steps.
“What the hell is he doing??”
“He does realise that man’s gun is still out?”
“Is he trying to get killed?”
Quickly whispers broke out amongst the other students, fear for their own safety overridden by fear for Alex who was pointedly ignoring the other gun.
“Why did he put his gun away?”
Alex leant closer to the assassin, gun pressed almost directly to his stomach and brushed his lips against his boyfriend’s cheek.
“WHAT?!”
“Er… who is that?”
“Is that his boyfriend? No way!”
“But he’s old!”
“He’s not that old! He’s pretty hot actually.”
“Long time no see Yas.” He said with one eyebrow raised.
Yassen shrugged elegantly, “Venice.”
“Now that you’ve decided to grace us with your presence how about you put the gun away?” Alex suggested quietly, lips brushing across the shell of Yassen’s ear.
The famed assassin shivered minutely and Alex smirked, leaning away to take a good look at his boyfriend.
“Is that how you greet every assassin?” Yassen asked, a glimmer of amusement colouring his tone.
“ASSASSIN! Who the hell is Alex mixed up with!”
“He’s insane!”
Alex broke into a wide grin and he shrugged playfully.
“Whilst I really am glad you’re back, did you really need to come and announce your presence like that?”
Whatever Yassen was about to say next was interrupted by the sound of heavy footfall, Alex’s eyes suddenly narrowing as he slung his arms over Yassen’s shoulders.
BANG
Screams echoed throughout the classroom at the sound of the gunshot.
“WHAT THE FUCK!”
“He’s dead! That’s it! Why the fuck would you walk up to someone unarmed?”
“Alex!” Tom shouted, concern painted firmly across his face.
Something thudded to the floor outside of the classroom as Alex turned to face the class, a look of confused bemusement colouring his features and a smoking gun in his hand.
“He fucking shot a man.”
“No way! Maybe it was a dog or something?”
“No. That sounded like a human. He killed someone definitely.”
“Don’t do that to me man!” Tom groaned, shaking his head at his best friend, the spy having the decency to look slightly sheepish.
“So you’re here to protect me?” Alex teased, eyes back on his boyfriend.
Yassen shrugged, “You’ve only taken out one.” He said meaningfully.
“Only one?? Taken out??”
“Is he saying he’s killed people?!”
Alex swore colourfully and stepped away from the assassin, sliding the magazine out of his gun to check how many bullets were left.
“I take it that there’s another hit out on me.” Alex said resignedly, “Who is it this time?”
“Hit?”
“Another one? Who the fuck is trying to kill him?”
Yassen’s eyebrows furrowed minutely as he shook his head, “I don’t know.”
“Ah, so that’s why you’re here?” Alex’s smile was back as he skilfully ignored the pointed whispers of his classmates, “You could still have waited until I was out of school, you know who has pulled me out of school enough in the last few years.”
“I thought he was just ill a lot?”
“You believed that? Have you not been seeing the multiple injuries he’s been returning with?”
“They knew the name of your school.” Yassen supplied helpfully.
“Fuck.” Alex kicked the nearest table leg as a stream of Russian and English flew from his mouth, “гребаные сумасшедшие миллиардеры, fucking MI6, I just want to... дерьмо!”
“Was that Russian?”
“Who cares about that! He just said MI6!”
Yassen clucked disapprovingly, “Sasha we need to leave.”
“Sasha? Is Alex not his real name?”
“Fuck! Yeah if you came all the way from Venice I hate to think how many people are here already.” Alex groaned, pushing the magazine back into the gun with a loud click.
The pair turned towards the door, only to halt at the sound of feet.
“You can’t deal with them here.” Alex groaned.
“Deal… with them? Like… kill them?”
Yassen nodded and hastily shut the door, pulling the blind down to hide the occupants of the room.
The pair glanced around the classroom, ignoring the questions thrown their way from curious classmates of Alex, looking for another way out.
“What is going on?”
“Alex who are you?”
“Are we safe?”
“Who’s trying to kill you?”
Alex quickly grabbed his chair, pushing it under the door handle to create a makeshift lock just as a piercing alarm broke through the air.
“Shit.” Alex said, kicking the table leg once more.
Yassen frowned, “What is that?”
“It’s for dealing with intruders.” One of Alex’s classmates answered, before promptly regretting opening their mouth when the assassin swept a cold look towards them.
“That was brave.”
“More like stupid.”
Alex rolled his eyes and grabbed Yassen’s free hand, “Come on I’ll call a team, they’ll deal with it.”
Yassen turned to look at him with one eyebrow raised, “Alex, I’m currently on Interpol’s most wanted list. You absolutely cannot bring your side into this.”
“Interpol’s most wanted?”
“Who the fuck is this guy? How does Alex even know him?”
“Damn Jones! She promised she would take you off that.”
Yassen barked a disbelieving laugh, “You believed her? After everything?”
Alex shrugged, “I hoped. What about the K-Unit? They all know about us.”
“Wolf hates my guts.” Yassen stated blankly.
“Wolf?”
“Codename?”
“Wolf doesn’t hate you that much!” Alex protested weakly, but made no move to drop his boyfriend’s hand and get his phone out, “We’re rapidly running out of ideas.” He finished with instead.
“Obviously does, that was a weak ass response.”
“You can call a team once we’re outside the building.” Yassen said.
Alex thought for a moment, “How about you leave, and then I call a team?” he proposed hopefully.
The assassin just stared at him, “I’m not leaving you alone in here.”
The spy shrugged, “Worth a shot.”
Yassen rolled his eyes and pulled his hand out of Alex’s grip, walking slightly closer to the window to peer out.
“I don’t see anyone outside.” He stated calmly.
Alex’s eyes lit up immediately and he glanced between the window and his gun thoughtfully, fully aware of the high bushes that lined the sides of the school.
Yassen turned quickly with a suspicious look on his face. He hadn’t known the young spy for years not to worry about extended silences.
“Alex.” Yassen said, voice dangerously low. He knew good things never came from silence.
Alex glanced up at his boyfriend, mischievous expression in place, “Trust me?”
Yassen groaned and brought a hand to his face.
“Always.” Before adding as an afterthought, “Just don’t blow anything up this time. I swear if I’m ever involved in another of your explosions I will let the next person succeed with their hit.”
“Another explosion?”
“IS he a pyromaniac? Actually now I’ve said that out loud I’m not even surprised.”
“No you won’t.” Alex replied with a sickly-sweet smile.
Whatever Yassen replied was drowned out by Alex suddenly firing four bullets into the centre of the glass window, the cracks spiralling outwards rapidly.
“WHAT THE FUCK!”
“Alex!”
“What you said not to blow anything up!” Alex protested, “You never said I couldn’t shoot the window.”
Yassen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose for a few seconds before flicking the safety on and smashing the glass with the butt of his gun.
“You are going to be the death of me.” Yassen muttered as the glass fell, turning just in time to see Alex flying towards him in a tackle.
Before Yassen could say anything they were already flying backwards out of the window.
“What the hell?! We’re on the first floor!”
“He has a death wish evidently.”
The science teacher suddenly looked faint, rushing towards the first-floor window along with most of the class.
Below them, the pair rolled out of the bushes, snatches of conversation drifting up towards them.
“Alex… stupid… could have died!”
“You… thought you died… several years!”
Yassen’s reply to that was too quiet for the class to hear, despite many of them straining to hear it.
“Nothing… blown up… so little faith.”
“You… blew up… boat.”
Alex’s voice got slightly louder, enabling the class to hear exactly what he replied.
“You made me fight a bull!”
“Bull?”
“…saved you… piranha tank…”
“Piranhas?”
“That was one time!”
“You’re alive… without me… MI6… useless.”
“MI6 again! What is with this!”
Alex wriggled out of the assassin’s grip and stood up bringing his phone to his ear and letting the gun swing idly in his other hand.
Above the class continued to pay close attention, only Tom remained in his seat well aware he would get the full story out of Alex when he spoke to him later.
Alex was speaking angrily into the phone, his words drifting upwards clearly.
“I demand you send a team right this instant! It is the middle of the school day, there are hundreds of children in here and I refuse to let you endanger anyone else. How the hell they even found out where I went to school is beyond me!”
He paused for a few moments, listening intently, “I don’t care if everyone is busy, send the K-Unit! I know for a fact they don’t go abroad for another few weeks!”
After a few more seconds he grimaced and hung up viciously, glaring at the phone as if it was personally responsible for what had happened.
Yassen sighed and stood up, brushing the various leaves and twigs that clung to his form as he strolled over to Alex and placed a cautious hand on his shoulder.
Alex whipped around, gun held firmly in his hand before relaxing upon realising it was just his boyfriend.
The couple exchanged a few quiet words before Yassen seized the phone and dashed it to the ground, grinding his heel firmly down onto the phone smashing it into pieces.
“Why would he even do that!”
“Littering!”
“Is that really what you’re focusing on here? He literally just killed someone.”
“Allegedly! We don’t know that he did for sure.”
“Yeah… whatever you say.”
Alex stooped down and picked up the sim card from amongst the battered pieces, neatly snapping it in half before scooping up the mess and shoving it into his pocket.
“Good! No littering should be going on here.”
“Will you shut up about the littering! That is literally the least interesting thing going on right now.”
“What?? Someone has to care about the environment.”
“Oh, will you just shut up!”
This done the couple turned away from the school and started for the main road.
Up in the classroom, the teacher stepped shakily away from the window and ushered her students under the desks, suddenly aware the intruder siren was still echoing out in the corridor.
~The following week~
After a week of hearing nothing of Alex Rider, the rumour mill at Brookland Comprehensive was full of what had happened that day.
They had pressed Tom Harris for information, but when he gave them absolutely nothing they turned back to outlandish theories.
“Alex is hooked on drugs, he owes some dangerous people money!”
That one was quickly dismissed, no one ever having seen the sixth-former taking pain medication, least of all hard drugs.
“He works for MI6!”
This rumour was the most popular, backed up by things the boy had said himself if rumours were to be believed.
“That man was his secret sugar daddy!”
The person who had thought of that rumour had been laughed at, but no one could help but wonder if there was some truth behind it.
“He’s an assassin!”
One person had announced loudly, only to be quickly shot down despite the very real proof in the shape of a dead man in the hallway.
“He’s insane.”
Another person had stated bluntly, uncaring of how unpopular their theory was.
The school all agreed on one thing though, despite the different versions that flew around.
“Alex Rider was a dangerous mystery.”
Tom carefully catalogued all of the insane rumours to tell his best friend when he finished tracking down the person who was trying to kill him, taking great pleasure in listening to everyone’s conversations,
Alex did absolutely nothing to quell the rumours upon his return, with one arm stabilised carefully in a cast and a battered-looking face.
He and Tom laughed over the various rumours, and he allowed Tom to scrawl his name across the cast, next to carefully written Russian.
“казак”