If Alex's plight had brought K-Unit closer together, his death drives them farther apart than ever.

They fight about what to do with Alex's things. They barely talk otherwise, and the conversations they do have feel almost forced. Given time, they probably could figure it out, but Fox leaves the flat barely two weeks after Alex dies, citing a need to be by himself. He and Snake have a long, loud argument about it, Snake demanding that they need to stay together, but Fox doesn't listen to a word of it. He's gone when they wake up the next morning.

Snake supposes he understands. Fox had been the closest to Alex; it made sense that the teen's death would affect him the worst. Still, Snake wishes he had stayed. Being together as a unit would have made it easier.

Wolf leaves next, claiming that it doesn't feel right without all four of them there. Snake tries to get him to stay, but it's a lost cause. Wolf is set in it, and nothing Snake says or does can stop him. He leaves two days later with a duffel bag over his shoulder and what he claims aren't tears in his eyes.

Eagle stays for another month or so before he too leaves the flat. Although he does his best to hide it, Snake can tell that the other man is unhappy. His normally bright mood is melancholy and unenthusiastic, he avoids Alex's closed door like it's a highly dangerous wild animal, and any mention of the teen is met with sharp words and short replies. Snake thinks his decision to leave had been made all along.

And so Snake is left, alone, in what used to be one of his favorite places. Now, though, it reminds him too much of the happy times he used to have (and will probably never have again). There are days that he just sits on the floor and wonders at the emptiness of it. They were going to stay here for a long time, at least until Alex was an adult. It was going to be nice, like having a family.

That's all been taken, snatched away by a split second of inattention and a single car. Things are probably never going to be the same in K-Unit. He isn't sure if they'll ever regain the closeness they used to have.

What he is sure about, though, is that he can't continue to live in the flat by himself. It's too big, too lonely, too painful. He'll need to sell it and find somewhere that he can live by himself, without all the memories that he can't push away.

And, he realizes reluctantly, that means that he needs to go through Alex's room.

As a way to delay the inevitable, Snake goes through all the other rooms first. The three bedrooms that had been occupied by the Wolf, Fox, and Eagle are empty-they took all of their things with them. Snake's own room is as neat as usual, and the downstairs is pretty much spotless.

So, able to put it off no longer, Snake opens the door to Alex's room.

It's much the same as it was when Alex was still alive-Fox had tried to go through it but had broken down before he got very far into it, and no one else had tried since.

Snake walks in and slowly runs a finger over one of the shelves. It comes away with a thin coating of dust. Snake sighs and grabs the nearest item, a frame with four pictures in it. Two he assumes are Ian Rider and Jack Starbright, one of Alex and Tom, and one, to Snake's surprise, with Alex and K-Unit in it. They had taken the picture on one of the rare occasions that they had actually gotten Alex out of the house. Snake hadn't known that Alex had kept it.

With a slight pang of sadness, Snake realizes that the frame has the least dust of any of the other items on the shelf. Alex had taken extra care of this.

Snake sets it down and goes to find a trash bag.

Two hours later, Snake has finally gotten the visible parts of the room clean enough to start working on the other spaces. Alex's dresser is perfectly neat, although Snake does find a knife in the sock drawer that he hadn't known about. The closet is such a nightmare that Snake decides to take care of it last, leaving under the bed as the next obvious choice.

"Please don't be a mess," Snake says to no one as he gets down on the ground. To his relief, the only items under the bed seem to be two boxes, one considerably smaller than the other, and a photo album. He pulls out the album first, but it appears that there's only one picture in it. A man and a woman, smiling happily, gazing into each other's eyes. The only words Snake can think of are in love.

For the briefest moment, he thinks the man in the picture is Alex. Almost immediately, though, he realizes that the man is probably in his late twenties.

His parents, Snake thinks abruptly. Pulling out the picture only confirms it. The back of the picture is labeled in scribbled, messy handwriting:

Dear Alex,

This is one of the few pictures I have of your parents together. I want you to have it to remember them by-I think they'd want you to. Happy birthday.

Sincerely, Ian

Snake sighs deeply and replaces the photo in the album. John and Helen, dead. Ian, dead. Even...even Alex, now, dead. Their family seems to be cursed.

Pulling out the larger box, Snake can see that it's somewhat of a catch-all-some school projects, small, random possessions, and a necklace that might have belonged to Alex's mother. He sorts it into three piles-trash, keep, donate-and reaches for the smaller one next.

The smaller box, however, is locked. By the weight, though, Snake would guess that it's empty, or close to it, which doesn't make sense. Why would Alex lock an empty or near-empty box?

It barely takes Snake twenty minutes to pick it, though Eagle probably could have done it in less, and he's soon proven wrong. The box isn't empty-it's full of envelopes, each addressed to a different person. Tom, Mrs. Jones, Smithers, K-Unit-they're all there. Snake frowns, not understanding, until he pulls them out and a small paper comes fluttering down.

To be opened only if I, Alex, am dead.

Snake stares at the paper for a full half minute before his mind completely absorbs it.

Alex had written letters to all of them.

He pulls out his phone and immediately dials Eagle's number. "It's me," he says before Eagle has a chance to say anything at all. "I need you to come. There's something you three need to see."

K-Unit stands in the kitchen, each staring at the envelope they hold. It's Wolf who finally breaks the silence.

"You found these where?" he asks in a hushed voice, which is unusual for him.

"In a locked box under Alex's bed," Snake replies. "There are a lot of them, not just ours."

"I think we should open them," Fox says. "I mean, it's kind of his last wish, isn't it? He wrote these specifically for us to read after he died."

"Well, I doubt Snake got us all back here just so we could stare at these things." Eagle turns his envelope over and carefully pulls up the tab.

One by one, the rest of K-Unit follows.

Dear Fox,

If you're reading this, I'm probably dead. If you're reading this and I'm not dead, please stop messing around in my room and put this back. Seriously, Ben. I'm trying to do a serious thing here.

Anyway, so if you're reading this, I'm dead. I don't know how, obviously, so this is just going to kind of be a vague thing. I'm sorry if it turns out to not be exactly what you wanted. Closure is hard when you don't know what you're closing for.

First off, I have two things to say to you.

If I killed myself: it's not your fault. If something else happened: it also wasn't your fault. Unless you personally pointed a gun at my head and pulled the trigger, which if for whatever reason did happen most likely isn't even your fault, it isn't your fault.

Did you read that, Ben?

It. Isn't. Your. Fault.

Anyway, now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'm going to address some things specifically to you.

Thank you, Ben, thank you for everything. I don't think you know how much you did for me. I don't think I can tell you everything.

But, I can tell you this. There was a night when I first started living with you. You probably don't even remember, but I do. You came in and you told me in no uncertain terms that I was important. I think you thought I was asleep. Do you know how much that changed? My life was miserable. I was miserable. You were the only reason I kept going then.

Also, I talked to Mrs. Jones. She told me you all but screamed at them to stop recruiting me. I don't think it did as much good as you hoped, but I appreciate it.

You've done me so much good, Ben. You took me in. You didn't have to. You were never not there when I needed your help. You were like an older brother to me when I needed an adult figure in my life.

Thank you, Ben. Thank you for everything.

-Alex

Dear Snake,

You know, you might have already gotten some kind of closure. Maybe I judged you wrong, but you seem like you're good at coping. Maybe you don't even need this letter.

Then again, maybe you do. Still, since these are getting surprisingly difficult to write, I'm going to keep this short.

You cared about me so much. I mean, I think all four of you did, but all in different ways, and yours was a quiet, almost parental kind of caring. I could talk to you, rant to you, get help with my schoolwork. I trusted you so much.

There are a couple of things I need to thank you for. Really, there are too many to count, but I'm trying to keep this short.

You never asked too many questions. You never pushed me too hard. You never forced me to do anything. I show up at your door at two in the morning, bleeding from both knees? You patch them up without question. I break down over the smallest things? You help me, comfort me, reassure me.

You were like family to me. You all were. Thank you for everything.

-Alex

Dear Wolf,

It's okay to cry. I know you miss me, and you're probably completely unhealthily repressing your emotions.

Or maybe you aren't. I don't know. I've realised as I've written these that I really don't know you all as well as I thought I did. I'm not completely sure how any of you are going to be dealing with my death. Maybe you've been crying your eyes out. How am I to know? I'm dead. I'm assuming you're not. (How sad is it that I'm assuming that I'll die before you? My life is a mess.)

Sorry. I wrote that last part when I woke up in the middle of the night. Feel free to ignore it.

Anyway, I'm glad I got a chance to live with you for however long it ended up being. I know Fox half forced you into it, so I'm glad you gave in. Once you apologised and all that, it was like having an overprotective big brother. (Two of them, actually. Fox is as bad as you.) You make made me feel safe and made me realise that I'm not cursed. By caring about me, you made me care about myself again.

You probably hate this. I can't even believe I'm writing something this ridiculous. I thought it might be appreciated. You can't make fun of a dead person.

Anyway, Wolf, thanks for everything. Really.

-Alex

Dear Eagle,

I hope you're still staying ridiculously cheerful all the time. I can't imagine you not, and it would be really sad if you're really sad.

Wow. Look at that. I'm a literary genius.

Even if you are sad, that's okay. It's not like I'm going to tell you what to do with your life. I just hope you know that there's no good part of dwelling on the past. It's okay to be happy even though I'm dead. I hope you are.

Moving past that, I'd like to thank you for making me realise that I'm not I wasn't broken or worthless. Thanks for being patient, funny, cheerful. Thanks for convincing but not pushing. Thanks for being there. Thanks for caring. Thanks for everything.

I'm running out of things to say. Who knew these would be so hard to write?

Anyway, the important thing here is thank you. Everything you and the others have done meant so much to me. Don't ever not be you.

-Alex

P.S. What kind of shoes does Voldemort wear?

Horcrocs

(You're welcome)

Snake sets his letter down on the counter and looks at the others. Fox is staring at the paper in his hands, looking like he intends to pull Alex himself out of the words. Wolf has silent tears running down his face, and Eagle is in the corner, smiling sadly.

No one says much for a while as they each reread their letters, but the atmosphere between them seems to change. The tension practically melts away. Snake and Eagle sit down at the table with Fox and Wolf, and they talk for half an hour or so before Eagle has to leave.

As he walks out the door, Eagle asks if they want to do something Friday night, and they all agree enthusiastically.

And Snake realizes that the letters did more than Alex probably thought they would. They didn't just give some measure of closure to each person. They made them a unit again.

A/N: well, it's finished! and I've started a kind-of-sort-of sequel: They Call Him Deathmask.

please let me know what you think!