I wanted to say: I have no idea where this is going, I just needed a place to let my imagination lose; with any luck, you guys will actually like it, so feel free to leave reviews whenever you feel like it. I should warn you that this fic will be heavy and deal with subjects like torture and mature content. For now I'll rate it T, but later on the rating might change.

There's not much background needed to understand this story. It takes place one year after Scorpia Rising, except Alex never went to live with the Pleasures, he went to live with Ben (Fox) who became his new legal guardian (we all love that plot line right? I know I do…). So, they've been leaving together for a year now and have fallen into a sort of brotherhood relationship (definitely no slash) and sometimes even a father-son relationship, but not often, only when Alex is feeling extremely vulnerable like when his nights are plagued with nightmares. I might actually write some scenes about nightmares. The rest of K-unit is very much present in their lives when they are on leave, but they don't leave together; Wolf, Snake and Eagle each have their own places. They will appear in this story later on I suppose.

All in all, Alex is a 16 year old boy who no longer works for MI6 since Ben prevents it, even though Ben still works as a spy. Alex goes to school and is enjoying as much of a normal life as he can, given how abnormal his life became when he was 14.

All that being said, let the story begin!

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Chapter 1: Wining Season

Alex was running through the field like his life depended on it. He danced around his opponents while making sure to keep an eye out for his teammates in case he needed to get rid of the ball by making a pass to Tom or any of the other players. He was incredibly agile on his feet and that had made him the perfect candidate to act as a forward player.

His school was currently playing the finals of the annual championship against their long-life rivals and they were stuck at a tie. The official time of the game was almost up, and if they didn't manage to score, they would need to play an extra set.

Alex was tired, of course, they all were, but their spirits hadn't been broken yet. They could win this; they would win this! He was getting closer to the other team's goalie and he was getting ready to shoot with a powerful kick when suddenly he felt pain shot up his leg and before he could realize what had happened, he went flying forward, hitting the ground with a painful thud and rolling over several feet until he came to an abrupt stop. The referee blew the whistle and immediately approached the downed player, reaching into his pocket and taking out a red card that he flashed towards the one who had committed the foul.

"Alex! You okay?" Tom asked when he was able to catch up to him and crouch down, the rest of his team joined him too. The blond teenager was breathing heavily on the grass, making sure he wasn't actually all that hurt before responding.

"Yeah, I'm okay" he grunted when Tom helped him up and jumped on one leg before testing the one the now expulsed adversary had used to tackle him. His ankle protested the weight of his body but after a few tries, he was able to walk again without much discomfort.

"You okay kid?" the referee asked and then handed him the ball when he said he was fine. He had fallen inside the area and now he got to shoot a penalty thanks to it. All his friends were encouraging him to take the shot and were grinning widely at him. If he could score now, when there was barely two minutes left on the clock, they could win the game once and for all.

The referee sent everyone away and Alex was left alone at the penalty mark to get ready to shoot. He looked up at the goalie jumping around and trying to decide which way Alex would direct the ball. He smiled. One of his signatures as a player was the ability to always send the goalie the opposite way of where he was actually shooting. Tom had said on several occasions that his time as a spy had provided him with the perfect poker face to misguide the other guy and, even though he knew many more players were able to do just that, he couldn't help but agree with his friend at least a bit.

Once he had taken several steps away from the ball to gain momentum before he shoot the ball, a heavy silence settled on the crowd of supporting students and families that had come to watch the last game of the season and that's how Alex was able to hear a shout that came all the way from the front row.

"You've got this Alex!" the blond smirked and glanced up to find Ben cheering him on. He never missed a game, if he wasn't away on a mission of course, and he definitely wouldn't have missed the final for anything in the world.

He focused on the other teenager in front of him and got ready to end this. With his body language and his eyes, he tricked the goalie into believing he would shoot right, changing directions at the last possible second and sending the ball left. Too late though, the keeper had been already on his way right and failed to catch a shot that went straight through the goal.

Screaming erupted all around the field and Alex found himself tackled a second time, this time by his friends, although he did manage to not fall face first to the ground.

Soon after that, the referee blew the final whistle of the game and people came running from every direction to celebrate. They had won! Alex and Tom embraced and laughed. He felt pats on his shoulders from his other teammates and some of his friends from school that had come to watch the game as well.

From the middle of the crowd of proud parents and excited teenagers, Alex spotted Ben trying to make his way between a bunch of running adolescents that had begun to give chase to each other, and the moment he reached him and Tom, Ben pulled him in for a hug, both parties clapping the other's back before Ben released him and did the same with Tom.

"Congratulations!" Ben roared over the hectic sounds around them and the music from the band blaring at a high volume "Your first winning season. How does it feel?" it was true, it was the first time their school had managed to get into the finals, much less win one.

"This is bloody awesome!" Tom answered excitedly "and Alex got the winning shot. It was almost magical, honestly!" Alex laughed at that.

"Don't know what's so magical about getting tackled to the ground… hard" his statement was accompanied by a hand going to his ribs because now that the adrenalin from the game was fading, he could feel a slight ache over that area. Ben, of course, didn't miss this.

"Did you hurt?" he asked concerned.

"Nothing serious" Alex said, quick to stall the movement of his hand because he wanted to avoid Ben getting too worried about him. That would mean the older man, almost 25 years old, wouldn't stop pestering him about getting checked out by a doctor or something; he was that intense whenever Alex got hurt. Internally, he couldn't deny he appreciated the concern but it sometimes just got to be too much, and he still hadn't gotten used to someone actually caring about him, in an honest non-interested kind of way. Even after a year of living with the man, Alex still had trouble opening up to him, or anyone for that matter, not the way he used to open up to Jack…

She shook his head to avert his train of thought. He couldn't afford to think of her right now, here, in the middle of the soccer field surrounded by all these people. Her memory still brought stabs of pain to his heart and left him panting from an accelerated heart. The anniversary of her death had been a week ago. It had been hard. He had broken down in the worst possible way and just thinking about the way Ben had had to carry him from the living room to his room was enough to embarrass him for the following week every time Ben spoke to him.

Sensing that the teen's mood had changed visibly, Ben was quick to interrupt whatever thought had been running through his mind.

"As promised, today we're eating out. Care to join us Tom?" he asked, because he had promised Alex that if their team won the game, they could go out to eat and celebrate in style.

His friend accepted the invitation and Alex was glad he would have enough company that night to distract him, so after saying good bye to the rest of the team, the tree of them began their way to an Indian restaurant Ben and Alex liked to go to on special occasions.

While they were eating and laughing at Tom's antics, Alex couldn't help but wonder when had he started to feel happy with his new life. He remembered the first few months after coming back from Egypt being incredibly awkward and riddled with nightmares and night terrors from which he would wake up screaming. He honestly thought the torment would never end, until the nightmares weren't so frequent and he began to go out more with his friends. He had managed to salvage the previous school year and was about to finish this one with a spot less record of assistance; he never again missed school, not even when he was seriously ill and Ben had insisted on him staying at home to rest. He had even gotten his grades up and he dedicated a lot of time to the soccer team. Between practices and matches, he was barely at home.

He was getting along with Ben better, great actually, and although he didn't mind spending a week or two by himself whenever the older man had to leave on a mission, recently he had found himself missing the company at dinner. It was all very strange, how a man he had barely known over a year ago had become such an important part of his live now, and he would be forever grateful to him for taking him in when he was at his worst. For helping him.

Overall, Alex was content with his current situation and was beginning to think about his future more seriously. Talks about soccer scholarships had been discussed and what he would like to study once he got into college. He hadn't had time to think about it before since mostly he never thought he would live long enough to get into college, not when every mission MI6 sent him to, ended up being worse than the last, yet, here he was, making plans.

He should've know better though; he shouldn't have remembered that he had the luck of the devil and that the red horned creature would never agree with him having a normal life after all. It would be a couple of weeks later, when the school year had come to an end, that his world begun to come crashing down and then it took only a week, one mere week, to have him breaking down all over again.

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Any thoughts? Care to guess what's gonna happen next? I don't know exactly when I'll post the next chapter, I'm just taking my time enjoying creating this.

It would be great to see what you thought of the first chapter though…