Chapter Text

Walmond St. Clair, or Q has was his nickname since he was a child, looked at the readout on the cash machine and frowned. It seemed like it was going to be another week of ramen and water biscuits. He knew that he was going to be low on money, but he hadn't realised how low it would be after rent and all of his bills were paid. Cancelling the transaction, Q grabbed his card out again and stuffed it into his pocket. His wallet was in his back pocket, but he would be using the card again at store, so there was no reason to stick it in there. The printout for how much money he had spit out and Q did grab that and stick it in the wallet. He would update his spreadsheet for his finances when he got home with the new total and how much his check was.

Turning his collar up against the cold wind that was blowing from the dreary late fall day, Q turned to head to the store. He grabbed a basket because then at least he would be less tempted to buy things that he didn't need. The ramen was thankfully on sale so he bought enough for three weeks because he would probably eat that in the two weeks before his next check. The water biscuits were not on sale, but at least there were very cheap brands of those. The only thing that he didn't have at home that he needed was breakfast stuff. Q hated porridge, but at least it was cheap and filling, so he grabbed two canisters of it. It was also on sale.

The checkout lane was going slow, so Q pulled out his phone to check over his email account to see if there were any odd jobs that had come through his website. The cheap site was good for business, but it was a slow time as people got ready for the holiday and pinched their pennies. Q closed the email app when it gave him nothing. He sighed and closed his eyes. He could feel a stress headache coming on and hated that. He had the next two days off of work after working for seven straight, but he wouldn't see that bit of money until his next check.

"Hello, Q," the lady at the counter said as Q finally stepped up and set down his basket. She grinned at him, and Q gave her a weak smile back. He didn't like her much as she flirted too much and still did it even after he had told her that he was gay. She was kind enough, but a bit slow on the uptake and Q didn't like it when people didn't respect him and his choices. She was probably one of those ones that thought she could change his mind if she got him in bed.

"Thank you," Q said as he packed his reusable bag with the items after paying. The less said to her the better.

"A few of us from the block is going to the pub tonight if you want to join."

"Sorry, I have to work," Q said before he exited the door. He shuddered in delight being away from the shop. He liked the food that they had there, and the prices were more in his line of cost than the other stores in the area and it was the only reason he kept on going there. Q made a mental note that he needed to email the human resources for the store because there was being friendly and there was being too friendly and trying to get someone to go out with you that didn't want to and keeping on doing it was on the wrong side of too friendly.

Q was stopped at a corner waiting for the signal to cross when a man ran into him. Q was spun, and he crashed down to the ground, his bag falling from his hands and glasses popping off. The sound of the man running had Q cursing mentally. He carefully got to his knees so that he didn't crush his glasses and started to pat around on the ground for them. He found his bag first and moved it closer to him. He would have to wait until he found his glasses before he started to make sure that his food was in the bag.

"Here," a voice said from beside him. Q turned to look that direction and just saw a blur of someone crouching there. There was something in the man's hand that was just in Q's vision, and he saw that it was his glasses.

"Oh, thank you." Q took them and was fumbling them on when the sound of more running feet came close. Q grabbed his bag and moved back until he hit a wall but the person running stayed to the edge of the pavement and away from people. The man didn't stop but the first man held up something, and he grabbed it.

"Are you okay?" the first man asked.

"Um, yes. I think so." Q checked over his body, and he didn't feel anything torn as far as it came to his clothes and he didn't feel anything that hurt when he touched. Q looked at the man who was crouched there. He was dressed in a very nice looking suit that made him look very handsome. He wasn't smiling, but there was evidence where he did with the lines at his lips and eyes. He looked to be a little older than Q but not so old that he was you know old. The man grabbed something, and Q saw that it was one of his packs of ramen.

"I think this is the only thing to escape your bag. It seems the streets are dangerous this morning."

"I guess so," Q said before he yawned. He had been up all night working, and he could feel that he was pushing his luck on staying awake to put up his groceries, thankfully nothing needed refrigerated.

"How about I walk you to your place? Make sure that no one else runs into you."

"You don't have to do that," Q protested, but when the man smiled at him, Q felt his waver dissolve. It had apparently been too long since Q had gone out and pulled because his body was reacting to that. He wouldn't take the cashier at the store up on her offer, but maybe after he woke up, he could head out and see about finding someone. Q detested one night stands but it was better than his hands night after night, and really he didn't have the money to date, anyone. Not until he had his student loans paid off.

"Now, I don't have to do that, and I know it, but you look a little shakey after you spill and I would feel bad if you passed out while walking home." The man stood up and offered his hand to Q. Q extended his hand even though he generally didn't like people touching his hands. His hands were his only source of income, well that and his brain but it was hard to type and code if one didn't have use of his hands. The hand was gentle as it pulled him up to his feet, gripping just hard enough that Q didn't slip out of his hand but not hard enough that the man was going to bruise him. Q started to blush as the man walked around him, checking him out for what Q wasn't sure but their clothes were so very different. Q was in a coat from when he had been a teenager, thankfully he had only grown up and not got too bulky as it meant that he could still wear all of the things that had been bought for him while in foster care. He didn't care about his clothes but having a man in a suit that looked like it cost more than Q's whole education checking him over and taking in every single detail of his clothes was embarrassing.

Q grabbed his pitiful bag of food and clutched it to his chest while he waited for the man to stop his perusal of Q and his not that great assets. When the man came entirely around, he reached out for the bag and took it by the handles. Q wanted to fight him but when he yawned his hands relaxed, and the man took it from him.

"Ready?" the man asked. He looked very out of place with Q's rainbow shopping bag hanging down from his side. Q could only nod and waved in the direction that they were heading. Q felt the man fall in step with him as he walked back to the edge of the pavement before the road that he had been trying to cross what felt like years ago. Q could feel his body protesting being awake so long but he just had another two blocks to go, and he would be home. He really hoped that the man would allow him to go up to his flat alone. The man didn't look like a serial killer or a rapist, but one never knew any more and Q didn't have the strength when he was fully awake to fight off a dog much less this man, but Q wasn't sure exactly how to tell him now. He was so damned charming.

"Thank you," Q said when they crossed to the other side of the road, and Q turned them down the block.

"What for?" the man asked.

"Not just leaving me back there. Many wouldn't have stopped to help me find my glasses much less helping pick up my groceries."

"Well, that's just rude. I couldn't leave your glasses to be stepped on by someone who wouldn't pay attention to what is in front of them."

The wind picked up, and Q shivered. He would have to break out his heavier coat soon. It was too cold for this time of year, and Q hated that it would do to his bills. He wondered if he could just wear more clothes for longer and not touch the thermostat to keep the place warm. It was just Q and his computers there, so he didn't have to worry about a pet. As much as he would like a cat or two he didn't have the money to feed himself most week much less animals that would need more than just food. He had thought about getting a Betta fish to talk to, but if he did, he would have to keep the flat up to a specific temperature.

Warmth surrounded Q, and he looked over to see that the man had taken off his suit jacket and laid it over Q's shoulders. The man was just wearing a thin dress shirt and suspenders. It showed Q precisely how defined the man was.

"No, no you are going to catch a cold," Q said as he tried to take the jacket off, but the man swapped the bag to his other hand and wrapped an arm around Q's shoulders to stop him from taking it off without shoving the man away.

"I'm fine. I grew up in Scotland, this is warm," the man said, and his eyes light up with humour and Q couldn't stop looking at them. They were ice blue and so entrancing. Q forced himself to look away because he needed to. It wasn't like this man was doing this out of a want of Q. He saw Q as something to be pitied and was doing his good deed for the day, week, or month or however long the man went between things like that.

"Okay," was the only word that Q could manage. The jacket was warm on his person, and the smell of the man's cologne filled Q's nose. It was soft and yet spicy with a hint of something musky. It smelled better than anything Q had ever smelled before, used to men at clubs and pubs that drown themselves in something thinking that it would make someone want them more. If more men wore this, Q didn't think they would have an issue pulling a bloke or bird to fuck for the night.

There was no traffic at the next intersection, so Q looked both ways before they started to cross. There was a sound behind them so Q turned his head to look and that was when he saw the gun at the back of the man's trousers. Q forced his head forward quickly because he really didn't need the man knowing that he had seen it. Only a few people wore guns in London, and most of them were not good men. Q really wanted to get inside of his flat as soon as possible and hope that the man took no for an answer.

Just as they were arriving at the outside of the flat, the man's phone started to ring. He pulled it out and looked at the caller before he silenced it. He handed over Q's bag and grinned at him before reaching behind him and taking his jacket back.

"I hope you are going to get some sleep or at least some rest."

"Yes, yes I will be as soon as I can," Q said. He didn't want to tell him that he was going to bed as soon as he got up into the flat.

"Good. Have a good day." The man turned and lifted the phone up, pressing the button to answer it. "Alec, did you find him?"

Q turned and used his key to get into the door that was the foyer for the flats and shut it quickly. He watched the man walk away, back the way that they had come from. Q waited until he was gone from sight before he started up the steps and to his flat on the third floor. It wasn't the top floor, but it was the one right underneath it. Q didn't want the top one as he liked the noise of someone moving around above him. It reminded him that he wasn't alone. And since he slept during the day when the person above him was at work, it worked out well. He was rarely kept awake during the day by the man above him unless the man was sick. That had happened once, and Q had gone up with medicines for him because the coughing wasn't doing either of them good. The man had been thankful and even gave Q money to go and buy himself a replacement since he had some coming from the chemist, but it seemed that the delivery was taking a while. Q had gone and bought himself some, and when he had come back, there was a note for him to keep the change.

After getting into the flat, Q went to the window. The man wasn't in sight, but still, Q locked the deadbolt on the door and made sure the main lock was locked as well. Q set his bag down on the island in the small kitchen area and walked to his bed to collapse in it. He grabbed the covers and rolled until he was rolled like a burrito. He liked the feel of it wrapped around him and even with the shock of figuring out that someone who wasn't exactly in a legal profession had been caring enough to walk him home, he fell asleep in seconds.

James Bond frowned at the text on his phone from his partner Alec Trevelyan. He tried to understand what the man had typed, but autocorrect had messed it up enough that James's wasn't sure, so he texted back asking Alec to try again. Stopping to wait for the light to change to where he could walk he looked around. He was back at the corner where the skittish kitten of a man had been knocked down by the druggie that he and Alec had been chasing. James saw something peeking out from behind the planter that was in front of the shop on the corner. He picked it up to see that it was a wallet. James opened it up and saw that the ID was for the man that he had walked home. James looked through and saw that there was no debit or credit card in the wallet, but there was also no cash.

There was, however, a slip of paper from the cash machine. James ignored that and looked at the other things in the wallet. There was an ID for a company that James knew didn't pay well at all and yet worked their employees to the bone. It was a dead-end job, and the intelligence in the eyes of the young man he had helped home didn't match that kind of job. There was also a folded up piece of paper that had been unfolded and folded enough that it had been taped at the seams to keep it in one piece. James opened that up and looked at it. It was a paper on a student loan with a great deal of money still on it to be paid off, even with the handwritten notes on it that detailed every payment in a cramped writing style. There was a small notation about a five hundred pound payment that been from playing the lotto once and winning money.

Frowning, James folded the paper back up and stuck it back where it belonged. The last slip of paper, and the first he had found called to him. James looked at it finally to find that it was a statement of how much the man had in the account. James hadn't seen that little of money in an account in a long time. His own was well above that, but with the debt, the job, and this, it wasn't a wonder that the man had bought porridge, ramen, and water biscuits.

The light changed, and James crossed, turning when he should go straight. James put everything back in the wallet where he had found it, and when he reached the flat building, he rung at the bells until someone let him without asking. He looked for the same last name that was on the ID on the mailboxes. He wrote a quick note that said he found the wallet on the ground where the young man, Walmond his mind supplied, had fallen and he didn't want him to miss it. James wanted to note that the card was gone that he had used to access the cash machine, but he didn't want to make Walmond think he had gone through his wallet. Instead, he just slipped the note into the centre fold on the wallet and dropped it into the mailbox. He made a mental note of the flat number and the address in his head before leaving. He looked up to what he thought was the young man's flat and saw that there were no lights on. He hoped that he was asleep.

James took out his phone and texted Alec to meet him at a local restaurant that they liked to eat at. It would take James just moments to walk there, but it would take Alec a little longer. If James understood at least part of the text. James walked slowly toward the restaurant, thankfully it was still a little too early for the morning crowds to clog the streets. It was cold out, but after a few months back home in Scotland resting after an injury nearly lost him the use of his shoulder, James felt that it was warm in London. Alec had stayed in London to run their business but had been in contact with James the entire time. It was better to spread the rumour that James was away on business than he was recovering from an injury, that would mean that their enemies would think them weak and go after them harder.

The restaurant was empty except for the waitress who was getting ready for the early morning rush. James settled in at the table that gave him an eye on the exit to the kitchen as well as the only door in and out for customers. The waitress was new, and James looked at her name tag as she set down a menu. Her name was Cherie.

"Hello, Cherie. I don't need the menu, but I would like a carafe of strong brewed coffee. You'll find the packages to brew it within a box labelled James and Alec."

"Oh, yes. I was told about you. Maggie the normal lady, her daughter is sick, and her husband walked out on them two days ago."

"Poor thing," James said. He grabbed his pen and paper from his pocket and opened it up. He made a note in it about the address and name of the young man he had met earlier before flipping to a new page and making a note to have some money sent over to Maggie to cover the bills for the month as well as give her name to the young lady who needed a job in babysitting to make ends meet while she was in university. James and watched her grown up in the shadow of a dead father and a mother trying to make ends meet until James had been able to hire her on to run the front of their legitimate business and make sure that she made enough to support herself and her two children.

"I'll make that coffee and set out two cups for you?" Cherie asked.

"Yes, please. Alec will be joining me soon."

Cherie nodded and walked away, taking the menu with her. James watched her find the packet of grounds to make them a pot of coffee. They both liked their coffee strong, and it was the only thing that this place lacked, so they paid for a blend they liked to be dropped off from a local bean roaster. The food was some of the best that could be found in this area of London, but the only thing that kept the place afloat was the fact that James and Alec ate there and it kept the other riffraff away. There were less than savoury areas around the restaurant, and it showed in the whole of the neighbourhood. James was trying to change that, but it took time. It had taken years to get the area as built up as it had.

"James," Alec said as he entered the restaurant. Cherie was setting down the pot of coffee on the table with two cups before walking away. "What's got you up in arms and where is Maggie?"

"Maggie's taking care of her sick child after that bastard of a husband finally walked out on them. I've got a note to send her some money cause I am sure the bastard took all of theirs and send along the little one to watch the kid when she can. I'm sure that we can figure something else out for when little one is in classes."

"You know at some point you'll have to stop thinking about her that way right? SHe's growing into a fine young lady."

"Yes, she might be, but she'll always be that little girl who used to run up to me with half-dead flowers she picked because she thought I was the most handsome man. Why again did she have to grow up?" James asked.

"Because that's what kids do."

"Bah," James said and waved his hand at Alec before starting to pour himself a cup of coffee. He poured one for Alec as well and slid over the sugar. Alec picked it up with a murmured ta and then started to add it to his coffee. "That man from earlier?"

"He's in a cell at the Yard. Settled in with the full list of crimes handed over with proof. I'm sure that some detective inspector is crowing over not having to do the work."

"Good. The young man that he ran into. He's in a bit of a pickle as far as money goes."

"And not hard on the eyes either. I saw the way you were looking at him. We have enough to take care of on our own, James." Alec didn't look upset, but he seemed intrigued.

"Just talk to him. I don't think that he saw you at all. He's quite blind without his glasses even peering through his glasses I got a headache. He dropped his wallet, and I went through it. I'm certain that he had little money in the wallet, but someone might have knicked his card. He won the lotto and dropped it all on his student loan. It looks like he puts as much as he can to his loans and lives off Ramen."

"You and your bleeding heart."

James looked at Alec with a raised eyebrow because while James had a soft spot for humans, Alec had a soft spot for animals. Or they wouldn't have basically bought the local animal shelter and expanded it. It was the only money pit that they had, but James gladly dropped money on saving animals because it made Alec happy. It really wasn't a money pit, but they lost money on feeding the animals. There were vets that gladly donated their services for word of mouth and James helping with other issues.

"So the money from his uni degree, it's big, and it seems that he went for a while."

"I'm shocked you aren't having someone look into him."

"I was going to wait for our little snoop to wake up." James touched the edge of his phone, and it lit up. It was still not late enough for James to wake up their little hacker that they employed on an as-needed basis. James didn't trust the man enough to let him into the business.

"So he needs money. We have that, and we can do it."

"He works for Silva Industries, as what I have no clue but we both know that they pay shit. I can't figure out why he works there. With the amount of money that he owes, he should be working somewhere that would pay him a lot."

"Then let's see what we can dig up on our own, after breakfast." Alec waved his hand and Cherie came over. Alec ordered for the both of them, and he made sure to order enough bacon to feed a family of eight. James liked his bacon.

Alec slipped his foot forward under the table and hooked it behind James's ankle. The one show of affection they allowed themselves in public. Neither was ashamed of their relationship, it had been what had got them in trouble in the Navy and tossed out. But it was their relationship and not for the world at large. They loved each other fiercely, and it showed in everything that they did but many who saw them through them like brothers and not lovers. Only a few in their business knew about them. They kept to themselves as much as possible, and that was all they cared about.

James listened to Alec give him the rundown on everything that he hadn't been told over the months that he had been gone. Their business ran itself mainly, and most of their spies and information givers were the people who the police weren't able to help. There were bigger fish to fry other than those who harassed businesses. Deliveries that were delayed and caused problems with customers who wanted what they wanted when they wanted it and were displeased when it didn't happen. It wasn't hard to bother businesses without actually threatening them. James also kept most drugs from getting into the neighbourhood. Issues popped up now and again, but those were taken care of their assets taken in and used to help more than harm.

There was little to do but eat once their food arrived. Talk dropped off, and James was left to think. The money for the bill as well as a good tip was left on the table, and then they were gone.

Alec wasn't sure what he thought about James's newest obsession. The hacker had promised them results within the week, but Alec went to meet with Walmond before that. The young man rarely left his flat, but he went once out to get some powdered milk from the store. Alec watched him count out change from his pocket to pay for the milk. The woman at the counter flirted with him, and al it did was make him very upset. Yet when the young man who was sweeping the floors talked to him, Walmond blushed.

Walmond walked home carrying the powdered milk like it was precious to him. When he got home, he went right up to his flat and Alec watched from the ground as he set himself up at a computer that was right at the corner of the flat. It was one of the worst kept buildings in the area, and even Alec could see from a distance that the windows were half of the problem. James and Alec had bought a few places and rented them out to people, making sure that families who were a little more less likely to get help were the ones who got the good places at prices that were nearly steals. Most of the buildings broken and a few even made them a little bit of money which was generally put back into them or another.

Alec knew that they were getting older and that most of what they did was a young man's game, so they made sure that when it was time to get out of it, they had the means to do so. He didn't plan on dying outside the law, even if he lived outside of it.

Walmond got up after an hour and grabbed a blanket to wrap around himself even though he was still in his coat and looked like he was wearing thick pyjamas under that. Alec frowned because he looked like a little kitten trying to find a little warmth where there was none. That wormed its way into Alec's heart because lost animals were his one weakness. It was what had drawn him to James when he met him in the Navy. He was a dog who had too much pain inside and was scared of letting anyone in to run the chance of being hurt again.

It had taken a long time to get through James's hard shell and see the man that he was capable of being. It had been their love that had broken through the rest of the way. Then they were thrown out for that love. Disgraced and it stopped them from getting any job that was legitimate. Taking over the operation from a small time mob boss had been the start of their life together, and it had been the best of their life, Alec thought.

Alec could see what drew James to Walmond and while they had found fun in adding a third to their bed on occasion, they had never found anyone that they wanted long term. Walmond could be that person.

It took an hour to walk to the flat that James had bought after a few years of them being dishonourably discharged from the Navy. It had been a stupid purchase, but it was their haven from the world. It was where they were them, and it was perfect. They owned the building after a few years, buying it from the very corrupt man who used it as a front for drug dealing.

"You've been gone a while," James said as he looked up from the reports from the local police hub. It was just a rundown of everything that had happened during the night, but it helped them see what kind of issues they were dealing with.

"Just checking in on a kitten," Alec said.

James dropped the file and looked at him. "You came from the wrong way to have come from the shelter."

"Not a kitten-kitten but a human kitten."

"A human kitten."

"You know that if we give him the money he's going to drop it on his debts so we will have to figure out a way to get him money that he can't spend on anything but food right?" Alec asked as he sat down on the edge of the table that James was sitting at. James leaned back in the chair and grabbed onto Alec's hips when he settled in with his legs on either side of James's body.

"What?"

"Your little kitten, Walmond. Whatever money he gets he's doing to drop on his debt. So we'll have to get gift cards to that shop he goes to and make sure that they are upstanding enough to not give him cash for them. We can work on other things, but he needs food and a better place to live. He's bundling up instead of turning up the heat, and the windows leak all of the hot air out. I do not want to buy the building because it's a little out of our protection area, but maybe we can figure something else out."

"It's on the edge of the area that we want to take over though, and I think that will be enough, don't you?" James asked.

"Or we can just force the person who owns that building that something needs to be wrong with his place and they offer a new flat in a new building that's not too far away, and that can be in our control."

"The flat on the other side of us is empty. We've not found someone to move into it because we've been storing those guns we took off the gangsters from eight blocks over. We can finally unload those somewhere and let the police find them. Take care of a few birds with one stone. Our building manager would do whatever we want as far as that goes. Let Walmond think that it's the same in rent because his landlord is footing the rest since there are no other places in the building and he can't live in his anymore."

"You've been thinking about this a while haven't you?"

"A few times, yes. He's...well a kitten does seem like a good term for him. He tugs at my heartstrings much like your animals do for you. We can't do much about his job until we know why he's working where he does, but we can make sure that he doesn't have to bundle up to stay in his own place." James pulled Alec a little closer before angling his head up for a kiss. Alec gladly gave it over and smiled into the kiss as he felt that James was thinking about other things than the kiss, but the kiss was giving him a centre to ground himself in. Alec cupped James's face and when the kiss ended he pressed his lips to James's forehead and just enjoyed being there with James.

Alec had missed him while he was gone healing up from the shoulder. Being shot in the shoulder and then in the side had messed him up and they both feared what would happen if someone figured out that James was weak. So a trip to Japan to discuss a few things had been the cover. No one had found James and his nurse hiding at James's ancestral home Skyfall in Scotland. Alec was sure if something had happened to him, he would raize the world.

"So let's make plans for your kitten," Alec said as he scooted to where he could drop into the chair at the side of the table. James grinned at him, and there was a twinkle in his eye that had been missing since he had left to go to Scotland.

Chapter Text

Q walked around his flat with the blanket wrapped around him. The weather had turned even colder during the night, and while dawn was coming, it wasn't getting warmer. He had put on two pairs of socks and two pairs of sleep pants while his upper body had an A-shirt, T-shirt, and a sweater on it, as well as the blanket. Q's fingers were cold, and he was trying to warm them up by rubbing his hands together. A safety pin was holding the blanket where it needed to be to allow him to rub his hands together. Q looked at the thermostat and thought about turning it up even two degrees. He shook his head and moved back to his computer. He was done with his work for the night, but he still had a few updates to do to his personal computer system. After that, it would take about eight hours to complete the overhaul of it, and during that time, Q was going to get some sleep.

A few key taps and Q knew that he would have to sleep with his hands curled to his chest to stop the ache in his fingers from the cold. He typed as fast as he could and tried to push away the pain. He mentally moved the fingerless gloves up the list of things that he needed to buy. It took fifteen minutes, five minutes longer than it would have taken him any other time before he started the new build on the OS on his computer. He checked that it was plugged in before he walked over to the bed. He unpinned the safety pin and laid down, sliding under the two other blankets on the bed and tossing the one he had been using over those. He even ducked his head underneath, letting his warm breath help to warm up the covers until he couldn't stand not having fresh air and he moved to where his head was between two pillows, it would stop the light from waking him up, if the sun ever rose and would help keep his ears warm.

Q's dreams were a scattered variety that had a lot to do with tea and sunshine that never went away. He thought that he was on a beach somewhere but when something jerked him out of the dream, and he was just lying in bed under way too many covers, he hated it. Q laid there and tried to figure out what woke him up. He looked at the time on his watch, it was the only way he could see the time with his glasses off. It was twenty minutes after when he usually woke up, so he chalked it up to that until he heard a knock on the door.

Dragging himself from the bed, Q shivered at the cold that was in the flat. He shuffled to the door, he didn't care what his hair looked like. He gave that up a long time ago. He had a note on his door that he worked nights and that knocking before five meant that they might not get an answer or would get one that they didn't like. It was just after three.

"Yes?" Q asked as he opened the door and stopped. The young man standing there was the one that worked stocking and cleaning at the shop he went to. That was no the delivery boy, and even if he had changed positions, Q didn't do the delivery because he liked picking out his own things.

"Hello, Q," the young man said, and at the moment his name was escaping Q. His name badge was covered up by the coat that he was wearing.

"I'm sorry, did something happen with my card?" Q asked.

"Oh, no. No. It's fine. It's just as well we were running a contest the last few weeks, and you won."

"I didn't enter a contest." Q stepped back and allowed the young man to enter. It wasn't much warmer in the flat than it was in the hall but at least Q's nosy neighbours wouldn't hear anything.

"Oh no, you didn't have to enter it. It was a shop here and be entered in the contest. Every time that you shopped your name was entered into the drawing, you had one of the highest numbers of entries."

Q knew that was because he only bought things when he had to, and sometimes that meant going once to twice a day. It got out him out of his flat, so he didn't mind.

"So you are here to...get me to come down?" Q asked.

"No. To drop off your prize. It was at the registers to give to you but well..." The young man reached up to rub at the back of his head, and he was looking at Q with an embarrassed blush to his cheeks. Q saw that his name was Bruce which made Q think of Bruce Banner with how unassuming the man was. "There was a notation that the prize had been given to you already but it seemed that it was a lie. Betsy was trying to be the one to give it to you and to try and get you to go on a date with her."

"Oh." Q didn't know what to say to that as he hadn't been in when she was working for a good reason.

"It was finally enough to get her fired though. The owner didn't like her keeping your prize from you just because she wanted to force you on a date with her just to get your prize. Tim, the manager, told the big guy that you had asked to be notified of her shifts so that you could not be in when she was and so would never get your prize. The owner was distraught at himself that he had not taken Tim serious when you had forwarded complaints to him about her. Since you like me and talk to me when you are in, they thought that I would be a good choice to go to your home and give it to you. We still had it on file from when we did a few runs when you were sick. Also, I got Betsy's job."

"Well, that's good." Q's head was swimming, he could go back to shopping when he needed and wanted instead of having to check the handwritten note by the fridge that stated when the troublesome woman was working. It was nice.

"Well, here you go," Bruce reached into his coat pocket and pulled out an envelope. Q took it but didn't open it up with Bruce standing there. Bruce gave Q a smile and turned around to leave. Q rushed forward to open the door for him.

"Thank you."

"You are welcome, Q," Bruce said, and then he winked at Q before leaving. Q shut the door to stop any colder air from getting into the flat. He held the envelope up to the light but couldn't see what it was. It felt like a card of some kind and a letter. Probably something to do with what he had won and how it could be used.

Q walked to his bed and wrapped himself in the blankets before he grabbed his phone and used the light on it to be able to see in his cocoon of blankets. He carefully tore the sticky part of the envelope open and pulled out the paper. It was just a simple congratulations on winning with no other information on it. He tipped the envelope up to allow the card to fall out and saw that it was one of the gift cards for the store. Q had seen them before and knew how to use it and what it could be used for. He flipped the card over and nearly fainted because it was a five hundred pound gift card.

That was a lot of money, and it could only be used on items in the store. He also knew that if he didn't use it and tried to sell it to someone else the store would be offended. The thought of paying another five hundred on his uni debts was nice, but he didn't want to offend the only shop that he could go to at all hours and that they were kind to him. Especially since he was the main reason an employee was fired. Well, it was their fault but if he hadn't been around. Q stopped that train of thought because if it weren't him, it would have been someone else. At least Q was able to stand up for himself and push on the fact that he was not interested.

Q wiggled himself free of his blankets and grabbed the pen and paper that was beside the bed and shut off the light on his phone. He started to budget out the money. He knew exactly how long each of his packages of the foodstuffs that he ate lasted and he bought powdered milk so that it wouldn't go bad since he didn't use it except in his tea. The shop sold vitamins so he could keep on buying those there. He took a lot since he didn't get out into the sun a lot and he didn't eat as he should. Eating the way that one would mean money and he didn't have that, so he made up for it with vitamins.

Emerging from his handwritten paper, with a little bit of finagling on the price of inflation and such, Q knew precisely how long the gift card would keep him in food, and that was a little more per paycheck that he could pay on his loans. It would be less of a lump sum, and more of a stretched out payment, but it would allow him to put five hundred on the loan. Q pushed the blanket off of his shoulders and stretched out his muscles. He was slight in build, but he did a few workout things in his flat, including yoga to make sure that he didn't become frailer than he needed to. He wasn't ever going to win a fight with someone much bigger than himself, but he would do well enough that he might be able to run away.

Q stripped off his warm clothes and put on his workout clothes that were still warmer than most people used but once he got to moving and working up a sweat, he wouldn't be that cold anymore nor too hot.

The draw of his computer and checking on the new OS build had Q forgoing his yoga for the day. He would make sure to do it the next. He marked it on the calendar that he had skipped it and then sat down at his computer. Q tapped the trackpad and smiled as the new login screen was showing. He typed in his password and mentally crossed his fingers.

Q jumped up and did a little dance as the new everything was loaded on his laptop. The OS upgrade had worked flawlessly. Still, there were things he needed to do to make sure of that but the computer loading up correctly was the first hurdle. Q started to debug, checking everything. He was off work that night, so he had a long stretch of time to do what he wanted. He actually had the next two nights off as well. Due to the onsite training of some new people and using senior staff to do it for a few days, Q was going to be working as tech support for two extra hours in the morning, so he was going to do four ten hour shifts instead of his five eight hour shifts. It would mess up his sleep schedule, but it was doable.

Tea was the first order of business while the data on the computer was compiled and before he delved deep into the bugs that had popped up. Q grabbed the bag of his Earl Grey tea and opened it up, inhaling deeply. Everything that he needed was right there to make a pot of tea, including the warmer that he had built to keep his tea warm between cups, especially since he lost himself in the code for long stretches. There was also a warmer by his workstation for that reason as well. Q filled the water kettle and waited for it to warm up. He prepped the tea leaves in the strainer and settled it into the pot. There was little to do then but go into the bathroom to clean up a little for the day. He wasn't going to shower until later but at least using flannel to remove the sweat a little would help him. He tried not to shower too much so that he didn't have a big bill but he was planning on going shopping later to get a few things, and so he would shower before that.

The kettle shut off and Q rushed from the bathroom to pour the water into the teapot before he flicked the warmer on under it. He set the timer on his phone so that his tea would be perfect and went back to the bathroom to finish trying to tame his hair. He had got it cut a little shorter than he liked the last time, hoping he could go longer between cuts and therefore saving more money and it made the hair a little wilder. He liked it though and wondered if all that it meant was that he would get it cut the same timeframe just keeping it shorter.

When the timer went off, Q was waiting right in front of the pot, and he pulled the strainer out and settled it onto the little plate that was just for it. He added a little bit of the powdered milk to his cup and a little sugar and poured the hot tea in. It had been an adjustment learning the taste difference between the powdered milk and regular, but he had learned to like it. There was nothing else to do until he got hungry and hoped the tea would help that along, so he settled down in front of his computer and started to work.

It wasn't hard to get people to do what you wanted when you were known as a ruthless mobster. Even in London people still, fear the mob. James and Alec had killed a few over the years, always bad people but still, ti worked in their favour. James looked at the young man who dropped off the letter. James knew that he was one of the employees of the shop that Walmond, Q as James found out from Betsy that he liked to be called, liked.

The letter detailed what Q had bought over the last week since he had finally been given the gift card from the random drawing that hadn't actually happened at all. Oh, the shop had put up signs, paid for my James, but there was never a chance that it wasn't going to be Q that won. James looked at the list of things and groaned because Q's shopping habits had not changed at all. James shoved back from his small desk in his bedroom and walked to the computer in the office and sat down. It was just the work of a few minutes to get into the account that held Q's university debt, and James saw that Q had outsmarted him. He had taken the money he usually spent on food and had instead put it on his loan, mitring out the gift card.

"James?" Alec asked as he entered the room. "I thought we were taking the day off?"

"Q is a little bastard," James said as he hit the button to close out the Internet browser with more force that was necessary. He had broken many mice that way.

"What has he done?" Alec asked, and James just shoved the list at him instead of answering verbally. "Really? Given five hundred pounds and still, he buys the same shit. I would have at least expected something extravagant."

"He did. He bought the tea that was on sale and just a little more than what he normally spends. A half a pound more on tea." James rubbed his hand over his face.

"He's been pinching those pennies for years, James. He'll crack and buy something and then keep on doing it."

"Yeah, I don't think that he will. We will just have to keep that in mind for what we have next. Instead of a gift card, maybe a certain amount of clothes that has to be bought all at once? Like new wardrobe."

"Except even I know that he's not going to buy clothes at a store like what we do, James. You've seen what he leaves the flat in. He's into geek chic, and I think we will pry his sweaters from his cold dead hands. So we will have to wait and see what places he shops at."

"Oh, I saw that one sweater of his in a little shop around the corner. He doesn't leave a five-block radius unless he has to go into work for something. It's like he's scared of leaving the area for some reason."

"Probably lived near there growing up," Alec said.

"No. Foster system in one of the Burroughs. I didn't look too far into which one. He got out at sixteen and into uni. Our friend still hasn't figured out why he doesn't have a damned good job somewhere. He's shocked as hell at the list of degrees that Q has and what he can do. Q's his hacker handle by the way, and he's worshipped by many."

"Our little Q is a hacker?" Alec asked.

"Yes. I was thinking the same thing, but he got scared when he realised that I had a gun so it's not like I can approach him and say hey so I need a hacker for my highly illegal business in which I sometimes kill bad people for their money. We would have to woo him into that job carefully. Even if Silva pays him shite."

"I hope that we find out why he's in a dead end job sooner rather than later."

James hummed his agreement before he stood up. He and Alec had plans to go into the country to do some hunting. There was a lovely older couple that let them use their land for hunting for deer and geese. They did a few times a year and gave the geese to a few families to help with their holiday meals. The deer they kept for themselves. There was a butcher that worked them up for them, and they stuffed a freezer with it and ate it whenever they were sick of the staples from stores. Alec made jerky with some of the meat, and it was a great snack until they ran out which was always quicker than either of them wanted.

"We try again and learn from each mistake and your Q being a stubborn arse."

James nodded.

Q entered the shop he liked to buy clothes at. He wished again that he could buy used clothes, but he had a childhood of getting hand me downs that made him shiver if he thought about putting on clothes that someone had worn and cast off. It wasn't easy to force himself to buy new clothes either, but when he had to, he had to. He was down to just a few pairs of underwear that he could wear, so he had to go and buy more.

"If you need anything just shout," the woman at the register said before she disappeared into the back. The shop was cheap, and usually, there was only a single staff working, and it was part of why it was cheap. Not as much overhead. Q never knew which one was the owner, but he just liked their prices, that and the shop had everything that he ever wanted to buy. It wasn't one of those horrid department stores but instead served the clientele that wanted comfortable clothes and didn't care about the name that supplied them. Q found the underwear section and grabbed two packs. He had only brought enough money for those with him so that he wasn't tempted to buy something else. The underwear was found, and he picked up two packs that had colours that he liked. There were the ordinary whites, greys, blacks, and blues but also packs that were wild and crazy and ran the rainbow of colours and those were the ones that Q always picked.

Q looked around the shop, not wanting to bother the lady who was doing some work in the back. He was off work for the next two nights, so he had all the time in the world. He only had a dinner planned out with a friend who was in town form uni. He would have to make that but it was still over an hour away, and he was already dressed and ready for it. He just had to drop off his underwear at the flat and then start walking to the restaurant. There was a contest sign up at the counter, so Q looked at it, his eyes taking in the rules. He worked on filling out the sign-up form and dropped it in the bin.

"Oh, are you ready?" the woman asked as she stepped out of the back.

"Yes, but I was just browsing at a few things and thinking. Get lost in my head sometimes."

Just a few minutes later, Q was walking out of the shop with the underwear in his bag and headed home. The wind was picking up, and Q could feel the rain on the air. It was going to start soon, but Q had brought his umbrella with him knowing London's weather.

Dinner out was excellent, and thankfully the friend hadn't questioned Q getting an appetiser as his meal. He wasn't that hungry as he usually ate light for his breakfast and he hadn't woke up early enough to eat a breakfast before eating out. They talked for two hours after finishing eating, not in the restaurant but walking around London as the sun started to set. They talked changes in computer systems, Microsoft and their changes, and just everything and anything that came to mind. Q glossed over his job, not wanting to get into it and what he was doing so mainly he talked about what he did for fun.

"So, Q, I've been meaning to ask all night," Robert said as he bumped his shoulder into Q's. It was a familiar feeling, and Q knew exactly what it meant. "Are you single still?"

If it were anyone else, Q would have told the truth that yes he was, but he didn't want to take Robert back to his flat, where it was evident that he wasn't doing well with money. Robert's family wasn't the richest, but they had enough to get what they needed, and most of what they wanted and Robert's job in France had him earning money fist over wallet. Q didn't want to show what he was to his only friend that he kept in contact with.

"I've actually started seeing someone recently."

"Damn. Here I was hoping to get a leg over," Robert said with a grin, but he didn't push it anymore. Didn't ask about the fake lover or anything and Q knew that he had upset Robert, but there was little that could be done about that. It was forgotten about as Robert started to tell him a story about what one of their new staff had done that had crashed the email system for six hours. Q's sides hurt from spending the evening laughing when he and Robert finally said goodbye. Q held onto the hug for a little longer than necessary, missing human contact.

"Take care of yourself," Q said as Robert, and he split, Robert to head back to his car and Q to go to his empty flat.

"You too, Q."

The walk home felt lonelier than anything else had in a long time. Q still hadn't gone out and found a shag for a night and now with Robert in town at least one more night he couldn't risk it. Instead, Q flopped on his bed and sighed, not even stripping out of his coat or shoes. He closed his eyes and thought about the sad state of his life.

There was no one counting on him and more than once he had thought about just letting go. His family was dead. Mother to a car accident that it wasn't until years later he found out wasn't an accident and his father killed in front of him by people that Q later found out were terrorists who his father had been working for and was the cause of his mother's death. There was no aunt, uncles, or cousins as both of his parents had been only children. Both sets of his grandparents had died before he was four, which he was glad about. None of them had seen what his life had become because of the choices of his father.

Q had stayed in the foster system until he had turned sixteen and got an early and full paid ride to Cambridge for his undergraduate degree. It was only after that and the other degrees that he started to have issues. Q learned the power that some men wielded and what they could do with it when they were denied what they wanted. Grants and scholarships that should have been Q's ripped from his hands because of a bad word from a professor. His name smeared before he even left college and only a single company would hire him for the job that he could do and paid shite. All because Q refused to sleep with a small group of male professors who were used to students who all but rolled over and begged for shagging a professor.

Daddy issues were not something that Q had, even with the issues that he had with his father. There were a laundry list of issues that Q did have but wanting a man to dominate him sexually because he was an older father figure was not one of them. Q had only had a few lovers that he would consider long-term and Robert was one of them. It had only been a friends with benefits when they were in college together, but Robert was one of the only ones that would stay friends with him. The professors didn't even think of demanding anything from Robert because his family was influential enough to cause them issues and Robert knew a few of the problems but not all of them because Q didn't need him to fight his battles. Even if sometimes when Q was sick of ramen he didn't hate himself for not asking for help. Even now if Q called up Robert he would do what he could to help but this was Q's life, and he was too proud to beg for help.

The most damaging thing was that once the email was sent out to every single tech company, there wasn't anything that Q could do to save his name. He could retaliate, but that wouldn't do a damn thing to help him now. He just had to bide his time and make a name for himself in the worst company in the city before he could branch out and try and get jobs elsewhere.

Q was asleep before he knew it, the slight stress of the day putting him under before he wanted to be.

Alec watched Q on what looked like a date. The man he was with was pretty if one like pretty boys, James did but that was neither here nor there. However, when the date leaned in and seemed to offer something, Q had backed up quickly, and Alec had to change his thoughts on what the night was.

Pushing himself closer, Alec listened to them talk about university a little, and then the date was talking about his job. Alec slotted the man into maybe old flame but from uni and that Q didn't want to take him back to his place which Alec could understand that. There was nothing nice about the flat except for the fact that it got good late afternoon sun when there was some. The place was small, but since Q was alone, that wasn't an issue. The place was run down but not so bad that it was a place that only those who were on the seedy side of life would want to stay there.

Alec shadowed Q on his way home and made sure he was in his flat before he left. He had seen Q enter the contest, so it was going to be easy for James to stop by and get the lady to make sure that Q won. James had caught Q looking at clothes in the shop and had talked to the lady inside. She remembered Q from the few times he had come in. The shop had been running the contest, but James had offered her a little more money to add in a second and third place winner and him supplying the first prize that would go to Q if he came in and entered if not, James would still give over the prizes. Alec had been listening in over the short-range comms they had as James spun a tale about how Q was down on his luck and refused to ask for help, so James was trying to get him some good luck and happiness but without Q knowing that he was doing it. Which wasn't all a lie but there was just enough of a lie to it that it made Alec a little proud of the lies that James could spin.

James was still awake which wasn't out of place, but they had been running ragged over the past few days after a new group of malcontents that were trying to but into their territory. It was a nuisance more than anything else, but since they were kids basically, James didn't want to just kill them. Finding enough to get them scared straight though was hard work. They were a close-knit group that had few ties outside of the community and had no one working for them, just brass balls that came with youth and the thought that they were untouchable. Alec wanted to hurt them just a little, enough to scare but James wanted to wait.

"How was Q duty?" James asked as he worked on taping his knuckles from where he had been hitting the heavy bag.

"Not as boring as I thought. He did go into the store, and he entered the contest. So we are good on that. He had dinner with a uni friend who tried to get a little more than dinner out of him, but Q turned him down."

"Because he didn't want it?" James asked, that protective instinct coming out of him.

"Oh no his eyes said that he wanted it, but he didn't want to take the man back to his place I would assume. The man looked to be in big business of some kind fo the act of bringing a man back to his hotel might not have looked good. Or Q just didn't want sex with him anymore, but the thought of sex did make him excited."

"He's not gone out with anyone in the time we've been watching him a little bit, and the camera outside of his flat shows that he's not leaving and coming back long enough to have bought sex. As if he would drop money on that." James crooked his finger at Alec after he tossed the tape from his knuckles into the trash can in the room. It didn't have a bag in it as it was closer to their room where they worked out, so it got tape a lot, so a bag to get tangled wasn't a good idea. James leaned back in the chair he was sitting on and spread his legs. Alec knew what he wanted because he knew James so well. James had been working out hard, and Alec could see that his pants still bore a little sweat on them, but James had stripped off his T-shirt using it to wipe off the sweat on his body.

Alec dropped to his knees and pressed a kiss to James's stomach before leaning up to take a nipple in his mouth. James's fingers tangled in his hair, and when he pulled on it, Alec bit down on the flesh in his mouth. They were both feeling like something a little rough it seemed. Alec dug his hand down for the bottle of lube that lived in the chair cushions. It wasn't like they invited anyone over to eat dinner and shite, so they kept lube where they wanted. They were slobs, so it was usually hidden.

"What do you want?" Alec asked as he licked across to James's other nipple.

"Still young enough to put me on my knees and fuck me?" James asked.

"Impertinent little shite," Alec said, and he bit just a little harder at that nipple before grabbing James's hips and pulled him down off the chair and into his lap. Alec knew that the pants James was wearing were his favourite workout shorts so he didn't rip them but he was tempted. Instead, he pulled them down to where he could get at the hole hidden underneath and grabbed the lube. He got his finger slick enough to push them inside of James before he did as James asked and turned him over, pressing his shoulders and head down into the seat of the chair and holding his hips where he wanted them before he coated his cock with plenty of lube. Alec didn't hesitate as he pushed steadily into his lover. James had been cagey for a few days, and he needed a good fuck to release tension if the heavy bag hadn't done good enough.

James didn't try and muffle the moan he let out as Alec bottomed out inside of him. It was the one thing that they had both agreed on that any emotion was never hidden. Whether it was anger or love or even pleasure. It was all kept out in the open. Alec pulled his cock in and out a few times, slowly but surely making sure that James was stretched to where getting fucked hard wasn't going to hurt him. James wanted hard and fast not hard, fast, and painful. James's hands were gripping the side of the chair as Alec started to find his rhythm. Alec was good at it, giving James what he needed.

When James's hands sagged to the floor, Alec grabbed them and pressed them up behind James's back. He didn't want his sneaky lover going for his cock and jerking off.

James turned his head into the cushion, rubbing his face on it. Not to muffle himself but to give himself a sensation other than what he was feeling form what Alec was doing to him. It meant that he was close and he didn't want to come. Alec transferred James's hands to one hand and held them against his back before reaching down under James. He bypassed James's bobbing cock and went for the skin right behind it.

"Bastard," James gritted out just a second before he came. Alec kept pressing there on the skin and muscle and waited until he felt James go limp before he let up. HE let go of James's hands and took his pleasure right up until he came inside of James. The tension in James's shoulders was gone, even as he was holding himself up against the chair with them. He was calm and centred. Alec went and played with the animals at the shelter, giving love to the abused ones to calm and centre himself. James punched a bag or a wall until he felt better, but sometimes it wasn't enough. So it was sex, something to make him feel alive and free. Sometimes he needed to fuck Alec but more often than not when it as needed, he wanted to be fucked. There was no strict split on sex. It wasn't like they swapped every single time. It went on mood and sometimes who had the more energy when sex was wanted. Sometimes it was just hand jobs or one rubbing off on the other while they half dozed, uninterested in sex but unwilling to miss the closeness of the act.

"Feel better?" Alec asked as he pulled out. James grunted something that sounded in the positive. Alec found James's shirt and cleaned his lover up a little, enough to get them into a shower. It was time for bed ad both of them were feeling it. Alec wanted to fall asleep wrapped around James and not wake up for a long time. He just really a day of cuddling on the couch and hoped they got it soon.

Q looked at the letter and the check that he had got in the mail. It wasn't a real check but made to look like a check. He remembered entering into the contest at the clothes store, and he had spent the entire amount that he had won on clothes that would be warmer, and he wouldn't have to layer as much. Corduroy trousers in seven different colours and sweaters. Thick, warm sweaters that were in many shades and different patterns. He bought more socks and a few undershirts, but those were in his budget for the year, so he didn't buy as many of those.

This contest he didn't remember entering, and he hadn't got a new pair of glasses in several years from the local optometrist. He didn't think that his prescription that changed that much. Q picked up the letter and read it. In the details, there is said that the office had done a drawing based on all of their patients and discounted those who had been in to get new glasses in the past two years. Once was normal but three contests in two months was a statistically impossible, especially since two had been things he hadn't entered into.

Q settled himself in front of the computer and frowned at it as he waited for it to boot up. He had worked two fourteen hour days and a twelve of the past three so he had slept like the dead and was going to enjoy four days off before his next scheduled shift and back to his standard ten at night until six in the morning. Still, he was wired from nothing to do and interested in finding out what the hell was going on.

Getting into the optometrist's database was stupid to risk. Patient confidentiality and all that meant that they had better protection, so Q hacked into the grocery. He looked through everything that was in the whole of the database, including the work email that was run through the website for the shop. There was nothing. There was no mention of the contest outside of the description when it started up and when it ended and that it didn't need to be pushed, just mentioned when one had the time. The clothes shop was different. There was a simple online website that linked to the people whose clothing was sold in the shop, but there was no online ordering or a list of what they had and no email. There was nothing that Q could use to figure out how he had won both of the contests.

The only thing that was the same on both was that there was a way to watch the cameras for the shops. Q found the start and end dates for the grocery shop's contest and watched the feeds for the office during that entire time. He sped through the feed and was glad that it was all there. One day halfway through a familiar face knocked on the office door and let himself in without a word. The camera in the office showed the man shaking the owner's hand, and they talked for a while. Money changed hands, but instead of going to the good samaritan form the owner, the good Samaritan gave the owner money. There was no audio so Q couldn't hear what was going on but it looked like a transaction of some kind.

For the clothing shop, Q started up the video for the time after he had been rescued from possibly having his glasses broken when he had been shoved down and went forward. Q saw himself in the glass of the shop looking at some of the clothes. Window shopping was one of the things that Q did a lot of. The next day though, Q saw that the man was back. The blonde haired, blue eyed man who carried a gun was talking to the lady running the shop, and then money was going from him to her. He left, and she disappeared into the back of the shop. When she got back, she pulled the paper about the contest off and put up a new one. Q zoomed in on it, and it was the one that he had read over and had decided to enter. Q backed up the feed and read the old one. There had only been a single prize in that one, and there were three in the one that Q had read over. Had he paid her to expand the prizes? Q was very confused.

Shoving the computer lid shut, Q stood up and walked to his freezer. Inside was his one indulgence of the last year. He had bought a bottle of scotch and drank enough to get drunk at New Year's but hadn't drunk any since but he thought that it was time to maybe indulge. He grabbed a glass and added some ice because he wouldn't drink it straight or warm. He poured some into the glass and put it back up. If he got more, he'd need more ice.

It was still light enough that Q could see the cars on the road and he watched people go on about his life, and he tried to figure out what the hell someone like that man wanted with him. Why had he got him clothes, food, and an appointment for an eye exam and a new pair of frames and lenses? If it was something overt like wanting sex, the man could have forced himself on Q after getting him into his flat, but the man hadn't even tried that. He could have come around at any point after that as well and tried to bank on how much of a gentleman that he was. The man hadn't contacted him since.

A knock on his door startled him, and Q debated not answering. It was in his regular hours of not answering as stated by the sign on his door.

"Mister Q, are you awake?" the building maintenance manager said.

Q stepped over and set about unlocking the deadbolt and the regular lock before opening it up. The man who took care of maintenance, as much as the owner would all that was, was a timid man. He was rubbing his hands over the hat that he was holding in his hands.

"Hello, Sven," Q said with a smile. He never got upset with the man. Who was just trying to provide his wife with a good place to live. She worked in various shops around the block when they needed help, and her health allowed. "What can I do for you?"

"May I come in?" Sven looked really nervous, so Q waved the man inside. Other than the bed and Q's work area there was nowhere to sit. Sven didn't move inside any further than the island in the kitchen. "Mister Q I have bad news. Very bads new but good news as well."

"Why don't you start with the bad news."

"I was going to because the good news doesn't make any sense without the bad. You know that we've been having issues with the tenants below you? Issues, many issues. Well, they finally stopped paying the mortgage, so they were being evicted."

"That's good." Q knew that there were a lot of complaints about the tenants, but there was little that could be done as they paid their rent and didn't threaten anyone. Q hated them, but the only tenants he liked were the ones who lived above him and the nice couple on the ground floor.

"Yes, well...I went in after they had handed over their keys and said that they were all moved out. They left so much stuff. I started to clean. Then I found it."

"Found what?"

"Mold and a lot of it. It's infected the walls horribly. We have to strip the walls and redo them all the way. We started that last week. The problem is that the mould went up one wall in particular and it's in the floorboards under your flat just as much as their flat."

"Okay." Q knew that mould was a big issue and he dreaded figuring out how they were alive and had been living in with that much of an issue going on. "That's really bad but what's the good news."

"Well, part of the good news is that only three flats are affected by this, but we got word today that the other two need to be vacated. Health and safety aren't going to allow you to stay here."

"I'll move to another flat while it's being taken care of." Q had no attachment to the flat he was in. It was a place to sleep and work, and that was it. Q watched as Sven started to wring his hands even more.

"There are no other empty in the building, but we have secured you a place to live while the renovations are happening. Health and Safety are putting the screws to the fat ass who owns the building because this should never have got that bad. Three years of complaints of a weird smell from the neighbours to the side, who are very upset and buying a new place elsewhere."

"Yeah, I can't do that. I've been renting instead of getting a mortgage for a reason."

"Yes, yes I know but the new place. It's very nice. It's small but not any smaller than this place. It's not far either."

"It's my only option?" Q asked. It wouldn't take but a few hours to pack up his shit and get it into the new place and he would have plenty of time for that over the day. He would need boxes to pack things up. He would have to see about getting his Internet transferred, and that would require calling work to get that done. It should take long as he would just have to get the modem setup and then the company would route it to the new address once he had it hooked up. It was what they had done when Q had moved out of the really horrible place that he had been living before he found the flat he was in.

"Yes. I'm sorry. You won't have to worry about utilities either. There is something of a deal going on between the owners and Health and Safety since this is a big deal."

"Yeah, and if I got sick because of another flat, there could be lawsuits and such. So my rent will be the same?" Q asked.

"Yes. Yes. I have the agreement right here." Sven pulled a sheet of paper out. It was very straightforward, and there were no loopholes that Q could see. There was no end date on the rental agreement, just a date that when Health and Safety allowed him back into his flat. It was strange because it usually said a certain date with the addendum that it would be extended if the flat wasn't livable by that date. Q picked up a pen and waved his hand at the paper and Sven nodded. Q signed it and handed it back over.

"I can be moved out today, probably. Might need to see about borrowing your truck to get my bed over to the new place."

"Oh, no. No, Mister Q. I have a lorry rented for you and that lovely man who has been helping me with the hard stuff from the ground floor is going to help you get your things out. We have it all taken care of. You just tell us when you are ready for that. I have boxes too!" Sven dashed to the door and opened it up and grabbed a stack of boxes, more than he was going to need, even with his new clothes. Sven stacked them on the edge of the island, not touching anything on the island. He went back to the door and came back in with a few of the reusable bags that keep things cold or hot. Q didn't really need more than one of those because he just had some cheese and a few condiments in the fridge at the moment. He really didn't want to tell Sven that though. "You need anything else, just tell me. I'll get it."

"Thanks, Sven. You've been a big help already. I'll call when I am ready for the bed to be moved."

Sven nodded and left, shutting the door behind him. He looked around the old place and frowned because it seemed like his life was going good, even if that was set by the strange man who was probably a criminal of some kind but this just ruined it all. Q might not like his flat that much, too cold and too hard to heat but it was his. He had picked it out, and he had got used to the people around him. He didn't like strangers, and the new place was going to be full of strangers. He didn't like it at all.

Chapter Text

Q looked out the big bay window that was in his new flat. He felt like a fucking whore coming to visit his john in their home instead of at a hotel. There was no way that this place was being paid for by the owner of the last place that he rented. There were only two flats on the top floor. One massive one and this smaller one. There was no name attached to the mailbox on the ground floor or a name attached to the actual door of the flat. The walls were thick so he didn't hear a thing from whoever lived in the other flat and even though he tried to watch for whoever it was, he never saw them.

It had been a week, and the Internet had been transferred, and he was working again. Q had walked around the new neighbourhood and learned it but still didn't get out of the flat that much. Q didn't like to be around people that much, and he didn't like to socialise for the sake of socialising. Q had only talked to a single person who lived in the building, and she had been slightly older and talked about the nice couple who lived on Q's floor, but that was all that she had said.

There had been an inquiry into his new living arrangements, but after showing the agreement he had signed to HR and the report he had been given on the mould, HR had backed off. It had been interesting to be the matter of an inquiry from something as stupid as where he was living. He wasn't aware that anyone ever paid that close of attention to their employees.

Q was getting ready to turn away when he saw a man cross the street toward the building. He watched the way that the other people reacted to him. It wasn't outright terror, but there was fear and respect in the way that they let him go first and the way they stopped and said hello. It was like they were afraid of not saying hello to him. Q waited for him to enter the building before he walked to his door and opened it. He grabbed his bag of trash that he had been meaning to take down to the chute that took it down to the large trash bin. He walked slowly and took his time opening the chute door. The ding of the lift told Q that it was coming up to his floor. He turned then and started back to his flat. He was in front of the lift doors when they opened up. It was the same man as had been outside.

"Oh, hello," the man said. He was smiling at Q like one would a child who was coming outside for the first time after being scared. "You are the new tenant right?"

"Yes." Q looked at the man to see if he would offer his hand first but the man didn't. Q held out his hand. "Walmond St. Clair."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Walmond St. Clair. My name is Alec Trevelyan."

Q nodded his head and was pleasantly surprised when Alec shook his hand softly. There were callouses in some weird locations on Alec's hand, but Q had some weird ones as well. Q turned to head back into his flat when the last name hit him. He knew that there was a person with the last name of Trevelyan who was a local mob person. Q looked back at Alec and saw that he was smiling fondly at Q with no malice on his face at all. Q wondered who the wife was as it was a couple. Alec was handsome, and his eyes were a near match for Q's. He could probably have anyone that he wanted.

"I should go," Q said before he walked back into his flat and shut the door. He locked the deadbolt and the standard lock and even threw the chain over the door. He was tempted to stay by the door but didn't. He forced himself into the office that he had put his work things in. The table that he had used as a desk before had been swapped for a real desk when he had come across it in the foyer for the building with a note that it was free to a good home. There were scratches across the top that looked like it had been used for things that were not standard work. Still, it was a good desk that had a long life ahead of it as Q's desk.

Working from home used little, but Q liked to be able to work on his personal laptop as well when it was a slow night or the support he was giving needed a not so constant touch. Restarting computer took time and that time of Q's could be better spent working on code or even hacking.

Q's old flat had been a one-room except for the loo but this new one, while small had two bedrooms and nice sized kitchen. There was an island inside of it that was set up as the table. Q only needed a single chair, so he had taken the other three that had been there and moved them into his office to work as shelves for books and other such things. The living room was still just as empty, but Q didn't need a couch or chairs or anything like it. The only people that might be coming back to his place were one night stands, and they didn't need anything other than the bed. Not that Q was going to go out and find a person to fuck.

Touching his glasses, Q booted up his personal laptop because he now had a name to look up. He also really wanted to know if it was the same Trevelyan that was working for the mob or not that he was living next door to. A simple search was what he did first. There was no online social media presence for an Alec Trevelyan that lived in London. Q was halfway through hacking a small Government database that would give him the name used for the mortgage or whatever they had when the name Alec struck him. He remembered that blue-eyed man saying the name Alec that day but Q had been glasses-less and hadn't seen the man's face.

Q backed out of the government database, leaving no tracks at all and he started to hack the Met. He found files for an Alec Trevelyan and a James Bond and the file for James had a picture, and that picture was of the man from that day. Q closed out of that hack as well, after reading over just enough of the file to know that they were no men to be messed with. There were at least seven murders on each of their hands, but evidence had never been linked to them. There was also the notation that they were a couple in the files from the Met. That meant the couple on the floor with him were mob bosses. Two mob bosses had decided to up Q's lot in life through sneaky means. There probably isn't anything wrong with his flat, and he vowed that he was going to be back and find out. Right then. Q shut down his laptop and grabbed his wallet as he was leaving. He looked at the door for the other flat as he passed it and went for the stairs. He wasn't going to run the risk of Trevelyan leaving the flat and getting into the elevator with him.

The walk took a short time given that most people were home with the late hour that it was becoming. Q still had the key to the old flat on his ring as he hadn't been asked for it back. He used the key for the foyer to get in and then raced up the steps. There was caution tape all over his door, and Q raised up his shirt to cover his mouth and nose as he stepped up to the door to unlock it. He didn't have to try though because the door swung open. There was plastic everywhere, and the wall that the mould had been listed as being in was near all the way gone. Half of the floor was missing. There was a lot of things going on in the room. Q looked at the palace he had lived in for so long and felt bad that it was so gutted. He spun around and left, breathing a little heavy from not feeling like he should breathe in the flat. He made it down to the outside before he took a deep breath.

Sitting there idling at the kerb was a very fancy car. It took Q a few seconds to recognise it as the Aston Martin Vanquish. Very few had been made of the car and from what Q understood only a single person had bought one in London. Q couldn't remember the name of the person who had bought it. It looked vastly out of place idling out front of a run-down set of flats. Q looked at it for a few more seconds before he turned to head back to his new flat because there was no going back to his old one.

"Q," a voice said, and it was like ice down Q's back. He turned back to find that the door was open on the car and while the person inside wasn't leaning over, the profile that Q could see told him that it was James Bond. Q swallowed and took another step but stopped when the sound of a second door opening told him that Bond was getting out of the car. "Get in the car, Q."

Q looked at the empty pavement around them and debated running for it. He really didn't want to have to run as he hated running but he could make it to the shop at least and get inside where the cameras would protect him. Except for the shop had been part of whatever game Bond was playing with him was. Q seriously debated running and just not stopping until he was dead, either from exertion or Bond killing him for running. It would be better than whatever plans Bond had for him were. It was all reminding him of uni and the professors. Make nice and lure them in and then demand payment for that kindness. Q hadn't given in the first time, and he wasn't going to this time either. He just had no clue what Bond wanted. It couldn't be sex because he had Trevelyan. It wasn't like Bond could know what his hacking skills. That was carefully hidden.

"Q, I'm just going to drive you home. Alec saw you take off and he followed you because you looked spooked and he was afraid that something was wrong when you came here. I concluded my business and came here to wait on you." Bond sounded patient, but Q knew that it had an end and he should just at least not make the mob boss madder than he really should be.

"I know about the shops," Q said.

"Alec said you were too inquisitive. I'm glad that you went and got new glasses." Bond's voice was fond and that had Q turning to look at him. Bond was standing in the open driver's side door of the car looking at Q like one would a pet. "I just really wish you would actually buy real food."

Q frowned at Bond as he wrapped his arms around himself. Bond might have gotten him the money, but it was his to do with what he wanted, but the clothing thing made sense to him then. Bond had made it so that Q couldn't mitre that out as well.

"How did you know that I needed a new set of glasses? I didn't even know it."

"Alec noticed when you would get your mail. You were squinting enough that it wasn't just the lack of light. You were bringing things closer to your face as well."

"You know that stalking is creepy right?" Q asked, but he took a step towards the car. Bond just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "I should report you, but according to the Met, it would be fruitless."

"You've called the Met?" Bond asked, and he looked very shocked at that. He was frowning at Q, and his head was cocked to the side. Q felt self-conscious again and took a step back. Bond looked out into the street before he shut the door on the car and started toward Q. The fight or flight response was coming back, and Bond had to have noticed it because he stopped right at the kerb. He held his hands up in the move that was probably meant to calm Q down, but the man was still too close. "Did you call the Met?"

Q shook his head no because the thought of lying to Bond seemed very scary. He had no clue how well the man could read people and the thought of him getting upset at being lied to was very scary.

"Then how do...you hacked the Met."

"Shush!" Q explained and he took a few steps forward so that Bond would stop talking so loud. "I don't exactly want someone hearing that, Mister Bond."

"You can call me James."

"I think I'll be fine with Mister Bond. Now I'm going home, alone."

"We are heading to the same place, there is no reason for you to walk."

"THere is no need for me to get into that car with you," Q bantered back, and he turned to start home. Q tried not to listen for the sound of the car, but it was there. Just in the background. He resisted the urge to see if Bond was truly following him at a slow pace in a sports car like he knew that he was. It was stupid and ridiculous, and Q really wanted to smack the man's smug face. The only point where Bond flew in front of him as he was following Q was when he revved the engine to rush down into eh underground garage for the tenants. Q wondered why the man had done it until when Q entered the code to get into the building he saw Bond leaning in the door of the lift. Q glared at him and walked right past it and to the stairs.

Q expected something from Bond, but there was nothing. Q took his time going up the steps but it was all for nought because Bond was right there waiting for Q when he got off the stairs. Q wanted to groan, but he didn't want Bond to know that he was getting to him.

"You've seen me home now, Mister Bond. You can go inside and get on with Mister Trevelyan." Q moved to the far edge of the hallway and walked to his flat. He unlocked the door and shut the door behind him. He threw the lock as soon as the door was closed and leaned against it, there was too much energy inside of him at the moment, and he needed to get rid of it. Q had to work in a little while, and he needed to be calm to do that, or he was going to yell at a worker. Q looked at the door that led out to the balcony and walked over to it and drew the curtains on it. He wouldn't put it past Bond to crawl out there to annoy him.

"He's quite infuriating," James muttered into his coffee before he closed his eyes. It had been a week since that night where Q had refused to allow James to drive him home and the young man had made it his raison d'être to piss James off at every single opportunity. Including the one time that James had ordered dinner for him and had it dropped by the delivery man. Q had left it sitting outside of the flat all night long, and when James had got up to leave the next morning, he had tripped over it.

Alec, the traitorous bastard, just laughed. He leaned back, and James realised that their food was being dropped off.

"Thanks, Maggie love," James said as he grinned at her. Maggie swiped at James's head with an exasperated look on her face. The door chimed, and James looked up to see that it was Q. James kicked Alec under the table and nodded his head towards the door. Alec turned around to see that it was indeed Q. He was wearing a hoodie that James had seen him wear a great deal on the slightly warmer days outside. James was standing up as Q was looking around but the hood was pulled to where James couldn't see his whole face all that well.

Alec stood up as Q started towards them. Maggie started over with a menu but gasped, and James stood up then. Maggie rushed into the back fo the restaurant and came back with an ice pack before Q even got to them. Maggie shoved back the hood and James was shown Q's face which was already starting to bruise up something fierce.

"Q?" Alec asked.

"I think I was just mugged." Q sounded very unsure of that, but given the look of his face, James was pretty sure that something had happened.

"Sit down, dear." Maggie directed Q to Alec's seat, and Alec walked around to sit beside where James had been sitting. "Let me see your face."

Q submitted to the examination of his face as Maggie pressed on a few spots and it made him hiss.

"Nothing feels or looks broken, but you'll be a right splash of colours in a day or two. You stay here, and I'm going to get you something warm to drink."

"Earl Grey, Mags," Alec said. "Little cream, little sugar."

Maggie was gone in a few seconds.

"What happened?"

"I was walking home from the shop. I had taken a little bit of money with me to get tea. I didn't even take my wallet with me. I just wanted tea, and I was out. I just got done working so I thought that a run to the store would be nice. When I had no money on me or cards or anything, they took my tea and tossed my keys down the drain."

James grabbed a napkin because talking had split open Q's lips again and James looked for where the blood was and found it on the sleeve of the hoodie.

"Maggie, do you think you can make up one of those protein smoothies that you make for the kids who come in after practice? A couple of them? We can stick the other in Q's freezer. He can drink one here."

"His lip looks horrible," Alec said, and he directed Q's hand that was holding the ice pack down to where it was getting close to his lip.

"Do I need to call someone?" Maggie asked.

"No. He lives alone and is our neighbour."

"What flavour?"

"Do you still have that Chai powder? He likes tea."

"Sure." Maggie left them.

Q was just staring forward, and if it weren't for the fact that his clothes looked to be in the exact same place and not haphazard on his body, James would have thought that he had been more than mugged.

Maggie was back with a cup in her hand with a straw already out of it. She pressed it into Q's hand and directed it up to his mouth. "You two are going to handle this yes?" Maggie asked, glaring down at James.

"Of course," James said.

"Tell us about him, Q," Alec quietly demanded as Q started to take a few sucks of the smoothie in his hand. HIs face lit up a little as the taste hit his mouth and James watched him start to suck down more of it. Alec didn't ask his question again, but he did reach across the table and touch Q's elbow.

Maggie was back seconds later with three boxes for James and Alec's food. Alec tossed the bacon into one while James worked on getting his food into the three section container. Alec worked on his next. A sack was handed over next, and the weight already in it said that the other smoothies were in there. James pulled out a small wad of money and laid it on the table. He directed Alec toward the door with the food while James walked around to Q's side of the table and helped him up. Q was focused on something else, minor shock it would seem and James wasn't shocked at that. Q didn't know a life of violence, not like James and Alec did.

It was silence as the three of them walked to James and Alec's flat. Q didn't protest it all when they got into the lift nor when they didn't walk Q to his flat. Alec grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and wrapped it around Q as he sucked on his smoothie. James kept an eye on the level of it, and Q wasn't taking n enough with each suck to give himself a headache from the coldness of it. There was no getting the hoodie off of Q to check for more injuries, so James directed Q to a chair and let him sit there until he came out of whatever bit of shock he was in. James looked at Alec who was changing out of the casual clothes that he was in and into one of his more lethal looking outfits. Black jeans and a black leather jacket that made him look good enough to eat. James was left to watch as Alec left. James hoped that he would be able to find the keys in the drain that they were in. As far as James knew it was just the keys to the current flat and the door in case of the power going out and the keys to the old flat. As far as James was able to figure out, Q didn't have storage facility of any kind or anything else to his name except for the meagre things in the flat next door.

James started to put up the food in the fridge and then the smoothies into the freezer. He did a little spot cleaning around the kitchen and just kept an eye on Q. If he wasn't responsive in the next little while, James was going to take him to A&E. James found the cup of Earl Grey tea in the bag as well and left it out. It still felt pretty warm, so he checked the tea bag in it and pulled that before putting the lid back on.

"Q," James said out loud when Q started to suck on the smoothie, and there were only the sounds of too much air getting in the straw. James looked over at him and saw that he was looking out into the flat, his eyes not stopping.

"Mister Bond?" Q asked as he leaned forward to look around. It was strange to see such confusion on his face, but he didn't look scared.

James walked over to him and held out his hand for the ice and Q gave it over. James took it and set it in the sink before he grabbed a towel to dry off Q's face where the pack and sweat. Q was huddled into his hoodie like he was scared of James when he came back. James had planned on wiping Q's face off, but he handed over the towel instead. Q just nodded his thanks and dried off his face. It was strange to see him so subdued.

"What do you remember?" James asked. He walked back over to the counter to grab the tea. It would at least give Q's hands something to do.

"The punk kid that likes to skateboard mugged me, and after that, I don't remember anything."

"You went into the restaurant where Alec and I were eating breakfast. You were in shock. Alec's looking for your keys where the punk tossed them down the drain."

"He took my tea." Q was pouting, but his pout turned inquisitive as he stared at the cup that was in front of him. Q took it and carefully took a sip, his eyes closing in pleasure at the taste. James walked himself to the couch to sit down because the sound that Q made as he took the first few sips of tea wasn't anything that should be done in polite company, even if James was not polite company. "Where did this come from?"

"The restaurant. I don't drink their tea there, but I know that they get in a few different good brands. I'm not sure which one she used."

Q's stomach growled despite the smoothie that was inside of it. James grinned and stood up. He could easy warm-up Alec's meal to give to Q and eat his own with the extra bacon. Q would be hard pressed to refuse when it was smelling up the place. Until Alec got back with Q's keys, he was a sort of captive in the flat. It would be at least an hour or two until a locksmith could come and get him into his flat.

James felt Q's eyes on him as he kicked on the oven to warm up the food. He settled the food onto plates and then popped them into the oven. He set about making a new pot of coffee and turned around to ask Q if he wanted any of it when he saw that Q had started to walk around the room. James hadn't heard him get up at all, but given that the chair had been bought because it didn't make a noise when moving on it, James wasn't shocked that he didn't hear him getting up. The noise of him moving around was another story.

"Coffee? We might have tea around here somewhere." James opened up the cupboard with the coffee in it, various kinds in airtight jars so that the beans didn't go bad nearly as quick. He found a box of Earl Grey, the most expensive brand that Q's shop sold. He was pretty sure that Alec had bought that particular brand during one of his trips there. Alec was becoming attached to the shop and when it was his turn to the do the shopping that was where he went.

"Whatever you are having is fine," Q finally said when he moved on from the bookshelves to the one with the DVDs on it and a few VHS tapes that they had not got to replace yet.

"I asked if you want coffee or tea, Q." James stared at Q until the man turned around and looked at him. He looked horrible with the bruise starting on his face.

"Coffee," Q said, and at least he sounded like he might actually want it, so James believed him. Tea wouldn't be hard to make if Q seemed like he didn't want the coffee after all. James was turning back to the hob and checking on the food in the oven he saw that there was a bit of fresh blood on Q. It wasn't from his lip but on his trousers.

"Q? James asked. He looked at the food, so it didn't burn and saw that it wasn't ready, so he walked over to Q. He walked slowly so that he didn't startle him, but Q looked at him like he was going to run anyway. That settled that Q was scared of him because of the gun that first day and then being in the mob as it were. "You are bleeding."

"What? Not anymore." Q raised a finger up and pressed it to his lip and pulled it back there was no fresh blood on it.

James reached out and swiped his hand on Q's trousers, and the fingers came back covered in blood. Q looked down in shock and raised up his hoodie, and James saw that there was a rather large slash on his skin. It looked like it might need stitches. Q getting up probably pulled his clothes off of where it had sealed the wound shut.

"Well you have two options, Q. A&E or I take care of it. I have everything needed to take care of it here as long as I don't think it's got into an organ."

'You can-" Q stopped himself and shook his head. "Of course you can. you can't go to the A&E can you?"

"Oh, we can, we just choose not to. You learn a lot about wound care in the Navy. I took a few extra courses on it actually to work as a field medic. So what do you want?"

Q looked at James, trying to see if he could trust him. Q must have found what he was looking for because he nodded his head and waved for James to get on with it.

"It's going to hurt so I'm going to give you a strong narcotic after I get done but give you a strong local as well. I need to clean it out, and that's going to be a bitch."

"Okay."

James turned off the oven, the temperature would be pretty good on the food when James was done taking care of Q's wound.

"Why don't you go and take off your outer clothes? I don't want to get more blood on them than I have to and I see about washing them and getting the blood out of what you are wearing. I can find a pair of sweats for your to wear and one of my shirts should fit you."

Q looked up at James's face, and he was again trying to read it. It was insane how much Q it seemed got from James's face.

"You'll wash my clothes?"

"With what I went through to get them for you, you had better want them cleaned instead of throwing them away," James said.

"I, of course, want them cleaned but you..." Q's eyes swept the flat. He was taking in how spotless it was.

"Alec and I mostly clean up after ourselves, but a single mother on the third floor comes in and dusts for a little help on some cash. Other than that we take care of our own needs. I don't want someone doing my wash, it gets messed up if you let too many do it. I have plenty of things to get the blood out. If they are not already ruined."

"I should leave and run away," Q said.

"You wouldn't make it far with this wound, and then you would be passed out and waiting for an ambulance to come and get you." James smiled down at Q and hoped that he didn't get slapped for it. Q's fingers twitched like he might, but he didn't. Instead, he just started to raise up his hands to take off his hoodie. The exclamation of pain and the quick lowering of his hands told a very different story.

"I...it hurts too much," Q said, and his hands moved like they wanted to cover the wound.

"How about I give you the local now, enough to make it to where you should be able to get it off and then we can see about a little more to make sure that you don't feel the hurt."

"Okay."

Q watched James like a hawk, looking at the bottle that he drew the shot out of after James had brought out the very well stocked medical kit for stitches. There were kits for various things in a stack in the closet. It made it easier to grab just one kit instead of several different to get various things out of each. James let Q grab hold of his thigh as he injected the local in several spots. That part always hurt and Q didn't seem like he was used to shots of any kind really. James wondered how he could get his friend to come over and give him a once over. He and Alec had an old army doctor that checked on them when they were too stubborn to go to A&E when they should. The extra money wouldn't hurt John either.

"Feels funny."

"That's because it's the good stuff. We will give it a few to deaden the nerves and then we shall get going." James looked at the wound, seeing it already clotting some but as soon as Q moved again, the clots ripped. James settled in and started to lay out everything that he would need to clean up the wound including a bottle of distilled water to use in the basin that he had grabbed as well as several flannels. The flannels looked horrible, but they were used for wound care and not cleaned up other than killing everything on them. Looks didn't matter.

"I'll need to eat," Q said after a few moments. He was poking at the side of his wound and staring at it didn't hurt. James pushed his hands out of the way.

"I know you will, and there is food in the oven. Eggs, toast, bacon, fried potatoes. I think you'll find it enough to sate the hunger and stop the strong stuff from ripping through your gut."

"Thank you," Q said, and he looked like he really meant it.

"You are very welcome, Q."

"For everything. I don't know why you did it, why you care about a man you've only met the once really and saved from getting his glasses crushed."

"Are you sure that you are just reacting to the local?" James asked as he dipped the first flannel into the water that he poured a little bit of wound cleaner in. James grabbed one of Q's hands and settled it on the arm of the chair and then the other on his leg. He wanted to know what Q was feeling so that he didn't hurt him any more than he had to.

"I don't always react well to normal things, so yes his is me probably reacting to the local." Q's head tipped back, and he relaxed into the chair and seemed like he was high. James thought about what narcotic he was going to give Q to make him at least sleep some before turning him loose in his flat all alone. He would have a chat with Q before he gave him anything.

Q only hissed when James got all of the blood off the outer parts of the cut and started in on the inner parts. There was little James could do for that, and he didn't trust giving Q more and then the narcotic. The narcotic was going to help more than anything else, so he withheld the local.

"How did you not know that you had got cut?" James asked.

"It hurt, but most of my body hurts. It didn't hurt any more than my face or my shoulder where the punk twisted it. I just didn't think that it was anything more than maybe when I had crashed into the box when I had fallen after the punk shoved me away. He had a knife, but I don't remember getting sliced with it, but I don't remember sliding down the box enough to cause this. It's all kind of a big blur, what happened in the alley close to the shop. He shoved me down it and demanded my money. I think he was high."

"Drugs are trying to make an expansion into this area. Alec and I are trying to stop it, but it seems that too many want to buy them."

"You don't want drugs that aren't yours in the area, I understand that."

"No, we don't want drugs at all. We've only ever taken money from the drug lords trying to get into this area. When we find their product, it's conveniently found by the Met or even MI5 so that we don't have to deal with getting rid of it."

"You don't try and sell it?" Q asked, and his hand clenched on James's thigh even harder as James finished cleaning up the wound. It was slightly oozing blood but it would until James stitched it and he decided that a little more local was needed for that if Q was in that much pain with the cleaning. James was going to shoving a needle into his skin and stitching him closed. James needed something as well, but he would wait until Alec was back to get a drink of something strong.

"No. Drugs are vile, and we don't like them."

"I thought that you wanted your people under control, drugs are the fastest way to get that."

"No, we want our area under our control, and that means only the thing that we want in are allowed in." James focused on the needle that he was getting ready to use on Q. It was from a sealed package that had been used before but always cleaned in an autoclave from a local tattoo shop. The owner gladly let James and Alec use it on their things.

Q fell silent as James stitched up the wound and smeared antibacterial cream all over it. He used a strip of gauze and tape over the cut. James made sure that it was sealed up well enough before he started to clean up the rest of the blood from Q's person. Including the little bit that was on his lip. James cleaned that up and used superglue to close it up so that Q could at least use hip lip until it healed without fear of it splitting again.

"You stay here," James said as he stood up, carrying the basin of water with him. He cleaned up the detritus of the wound care before he washed his hands to get the food ready. The plates were hot, so James grabbed two oven mitts to use to hold the plates. James pushed bacon onto each plate and snagged a piece to eat. He put the lion's share of the potatoes and bacon on Q's plate, hiding that he had given Q some of his by hiding it under the bacon. James handed over Q's plate to him and made sure he used the oven mitt to hold it before he went back to get coffee for the both of them. He set both down on the coffee table near the chair before he went back for his own plate.

Q was eating quickly but carefully, eating only a little bit of the eggs.

"Don't like eggs?"

"Not plain scrambled. Do you want them?" Q offered up his plate, and James scraped them off on his own. He held out a hand and in it was a pill. "Narcotic?"

"Yes. The tea should be cool out to use it to drink." James touched the cup with his fork, and Q threw the pill into his mouth and downed the tea. Next, he took a sip of the coffee and glared at James. "You take your tea with cream and sugar, so I assumed that you did your coffee as well. I didn't add too much of either, so I can get more if you need it."

"No thank you, it's fine. Just a touch too much cream but other than that I can drink it."

"That's good." James stabbed a few potatoes and ate them as he watched Q eat everything that was on the plate except for two pieces of bacon. James hated that Q was so strict with himself. Eating food that wasn't the greatest just to be able to pay more on bills to get them gone. James didn't think that he would be able to do it. Eating tinned, dried, or boxed food wasn't a way to live life. James was too ingrained in the finer things in life to live with the bottom of the barrel when it came to food.

Q settled back in the chair with the cup of coffee between his hands. He was gripping it hard, and James could see that he was taking the warmth from it more than anything else. It was time to get him in clothes that were not his pants. James went to the bedroom and grabbed a pair of sweats that had shrunk a little in the wash and were in the bottom of his dresser drawer and a warm sweater that wasn't quite small enough for Q but paired with a T-shirt it would be warm for him.

When Jame entered the living room again, Q was nearly asleep in the chair, his hands getting loose on the mug. James rushed forward and took the cup from his near lax hands and settled it onto the coffee table. Q was half asleep as James dressed him. James had dressed Alec for years whenever he was sick or drunk so shoving Q into clothes was no big deal to him. He did, however, grab the ottoman and settle Q's legs up onto it and put Q into what he hoped was a good position to sleep off the drugs that James had given to him. James had not been expecting Q to pass out quite like he did.

The sounds of the locks unlocking had James brushing Q's fringe out of his eyes before he stood up to greet his lover and hopefully stop him from saying anything that would wake up Q. Alec had a bag slung over his shoulder and a Ziploc bag in his hand that had disgusting looking keys in it.

"Those need to be cleaned and bleached. Thankfully one for the kids was willing to go down and get them for a hundred quid. It was nice to not have to do it myself. I stopped and got some tea for him as well as some of the bruise cream. Also, they had a new reusable bag at the shop, and I hope that Q likes it. Where is he?" Alec looked around after toeing off his shoes while he talked and frowned when there was no Q visible.

"He's asleep in the chair. He was cut, had a big eighteen inch cut across his stomach around to his side. I stitched him up and gave what I think might have been too strong of a narcotic. I gave him the stuff that you called weak as piss when John gave them to you. He's in other clothes, and I need to see if we can save his other clothes." James waved his hand toward where Q was as he grabbed the clothes off the back of the couch where Q had put them and walked back into the laundry room. It was covered in various clothes in varying states in need of care. Some were ruined and would be used to make bandages and things for wounds while others were waiting to be taken to the dry cleaners and others were air drying if they couldn't be tossed in the dryer. James started to fill the washer with water after checking the labels. He added some of the oxy stuff that as good at getting out blood before he added a paste made of the same stuff directly to the trousers and the hoodie but the shirt would need a little more love and care.

Trusting Alec to watch over Q, James took his time with Q's clothes, and when the washer tub was full, he added the soap to it and let it agitate. James had spent enough time abroad when he was in the Navy that he had learned to like what was American style washer and dryer and had bought them for use in the flat. Alec was used to them as well, so it had been easy to convince him to get them. James settled the rest of the clothes into the basin and shut the lid. He typed in the delay to let the clothes soak before they started the washing cycle.

Alec was working on eating what was left of the bacon and working on making a great deal of toast.

"I gave Q most of our food. He needed something with the narcotics."

"When I saw the two plates and the cups, I figured. It's no big deal. I grabbed a doughnut on the way back, but some bacon and toast sound pretty good to me." Alec waved toward a bowl and James walked over to it. It smelled of bleach and James used the tong that was beside it to pick up the keys that were inside. James gave them a few shakes before letting them settle back down. He would clean them up a little later. James settled in beside Alec at the counter.

"He's scared of us because he thinks we are thugs."

"Well, I didn't see that one. He's known what we were for a little while now, but I understand being scared. We will just have to make sure that he doesn't fear us anymore."

"He let me stitch him up and give him drugs that I'm sure that he knew would knock him out. He's not that scared of us now or at least doesn't care anymore if anything happens to him."

"Those kind are never good to have around," Alec said as he shoved the last piece of bacon in his mouth. The toast popped and he grabbed the butter to slather on the toast. He took a bite of one after folding it over into a near sandwich. James smiled at him. Feeling the ache that he always had when he thought of how much they had to fight to keep what they had, not even their little empire but just their relationship.

"I think that I have a problem," James said to Alec his voice soft.

"You care for him a little more than you think that you should?" Alec asked after he swallowed his toast in his mouth. "I've known that for a while now. Even just watching him from a distance. I'm not jealous. The little shit's growing on me as well. Especially the handling you by walking home with you following behind in your Aston. It was quite a nice story. Maggie liked it, though I didn't tell her who it was at that point. He's a wayward little kitten who needs help to just enjoy life. I don't think I've ever seen anyone fight so hard to keep just a plain life ever in my years."

"I don't think that he'll like us butting into his life."

"He'll get used to it," Alec said waving his hand. He took another bit of toast and chewed it while it seemed like he was thinking. "Everyone can get used to anything."

"And you think forcing our attention on him like this is something he should have to get used to."

"He's was living in a one-room flat with a bed, a table, and a hob. He never used the damned hob at all except to heat up tea when his kettle was acting up. I saw him take it apart while the water was boiling on the hob. He's working a dead end job that we both know is killing his brain. He doesn't know what he can have if he just tries a little."

"We still don't understand why he's at the job he's at, Alec. We can't remove his autonomy on his choices."

"No, but we can tempt him into giving in a little bit. We won't force him to give in, but the temptation is good."

"With what end in sight? A toy that we play with for a while and get rid of?" James asked.

"No, a partner in this. We pay a hacker a lot of money for their silence and their help, and if what we think is true of Q he can do that, hell I'd be fine he just warmed our bed, but his brain would die like that. So we tempt him with little things, show him our life and what he could have if he gave in and let him make the decision on his own. First for safety and then who knows what else after."

James nodded his agreement before he started to clean up the dishes that were left from their very impromptu breakfast at home. He cleaned the keys last, taking care to use a brush on them before he dried every single bit of metal so that nothing rusted on the ring. He thought about Alec's words and watched as his lover gently moved Q to the couch to sleep, his head on Alec's head as Alec watched a game of footy on DVD with the sound off. It was domestic in a way that James was used to with just the added aspect of Q. He could see Q with them in the long run, but still, it was so odd to him because he shouldn't feel like he did after such a short time with the young man.

Chapter Text

Q scratched at the stitches that were in his side and wondered about taking them out on his own for not the first time. James had promised them out the day before, but something significant had happened, and it hadn't happened. Instead, he was sitting in James's flat as he watched the news about an escaped killer on the loose in London, and there had been many attempts to find him, but nothing had been even found on the man.

With a promise to James to stay in the James and Alec's flat, James had left the day before and other than a text from Alec he had heard nothing from them. They were both wandering around what they considered their part of London, making sure that none of their people fell victim to the vicious killer. It was very much at odds with the idea of them being mob bosses. Q had been seeing them more and more over the past ten days. James had been checking on his stitches and cleaning them before bandaging them up again. Then when it was dinner time every night, James made Q take off his shirt and bandage to let it get some air.

Q was unabashed in looking around the flat. He was never left alone in there before, even when James and Alec made him eat with them every night one of them was in the room with them. He wasn't able to say no, and it stick. If he didn't leave his flat, they would break in, and the smell of food would make him eat. Alec had bought tea for him and had already said that they wouldn't drink it, so if Q didn't, it was going to go to waste. Q was reasonably certain that it was going to be the reasoning behind everything that they did. Q still wasn't sure why the two had taken to him. He felt like a reverse duckling. Instead of following them around they were following him around.

The bedroom was understated, but it fit what Q had learned about the two of them. They were focused on the good things in life. It was interesting though to see who slept where and what they kept each on their night tables.

Q was looking through their drawers in the loo when he felt that someone was watching him. Q turned around to see that Alec was leaning against the door jamb.

"Hello boffin, having fun?" Alec asked. His face was impassive, and Q felt his heart rate spike. He knew that snooping wouldn't end well, but he hadn't thought about the fact that he would be gone so long that he wouldn't hear the door open.

"Bored," Q said hoping that it would pass for him really just being bored and not being nosy. "Did you find him?"

"No, but he was sighted by a Detective Inspector on the other side of town. I came back to get dinner started and to see about getting those stitches out. If I think it's time. Since we are in here, we might as well stay in here. Less cleaning up I'll have to do so up onto the counter and get your shirt off." Alec didn't want for Q to move, he turned and left to get supplies. Q took his shirt off and got up onto the counter like Alec wanted. He braced him up on his arms and waited for the other man to return.

It wasn't long and then Alec was entering with a small kit that has S. Removal wrote in black sharpie on it. Q was fascinated by the kits and each one being for a specific thing. It made sense, but it was terrifying that they even needed it. Alec ran his thumb over the skin that was showing under the stitches. James had no put a bandage on it that morning after swapping it out after Q got done working. He had wanted it to get more air that day. Alec laid out everything that it looked like he was going to need from the kit before he washed his hands.

Watching Alec remove the stitches was very different from watching James put them in. Alec used much less local, but given that the only possibility of pain was from skin attaching to the stitches, Q wasn't worried about there not being enough. There were a few that tugged, but the blood was minimal, and Alec made sure that none of it got on his pants. The room was silent, and Q wasn't sure what he wanted to say much less if Alec would even want to talk. After using a swapped out gloved finger to smear a little more antibacterial cream on him, Alec wrapped it in gauze and then tape.

"That's just until it stops bleeding so about an hour and it'll be good to come off. Then you should be good." Alec didn't step back from between Q's legs. He stood there and stripped off the gloves he had been wearing and tossed them in the trash before his fingers started to trace over the bandage and around the tape. Q gasped. "Does that hurt?"

"No," Q said as he tried not to react. It had been too bloody long since he had sex and it really was the worst time for Alec to mess around with his cut. The skin around it was sensitive, and Q wasn't sure what he wanted. He could shove the man back, but he wouldn't make it far.

"Then the nerves are healing fine." Alec stopped touching him and stepped back. He stepped around Q and started to rewash his hands. Q wasn't sure that he wanted to move. It would attract attention to him and the fact that if he moved, his slightly hard cock would be noticeable. He didn't need this. He didn't need any kind of attraction to his neighbours, his mob boss neighbours. His in a long relationship mob boss neighbours at that.

Q watched Alec as he dried his hands before starting to clean up the items not used in the kit that he had set out. Everything else had been tossed in the trash as soon as he was done with it. He was much cleaner than James, but then James had been dealing with a bleeding cut and not stitch removal.

"I'll have dinner ready in about twenty minutes. If the drawer is locked, there's a reason." Alec threw the last words over his shoulder as he exited the bathroom. It was permission to snoop, but Q felt like it was a terrible idea.

Slipping off the counter, Q pulled his shirt over his head and left the bathroom. He grabbed the book off the shelf that he had been reading and settled into the chair. He liked the chair because there was not room enough for anyone to sit with him unless they wanted to get really close and there was no other furniture that close to where Alec or James could reach over and grab him. Q spent several minutes getting comfortable before he settled in with the book.

Several pages later, Q had to move again. His side wasn't aching so much as just feeling the effects of the stitch removal. It didn't like being bunched up. Q set his hand on the arm of the chair and pushed up. His hand lost its grip, and it slid down the arm and in between it and the cushions. He frowned as he felt something. Q grabbed it and pulled it up. Itw as a bottle of lube. Q shoved himself out of the chair so quickly that he ran into the coffee table and tripped over it. He fell down, knocking the table over and onto himself, hitting his head on the edge of the hard corner of the couch.

Q laid there looking up at the table as it slowly crushed him. He could see and feel the room spinning even though he couldn't actually see it but the table was moving in a way that it shouldn't. Q wasn't even trying to get the table off of himself. He couldn't think, couldn't process.

James sighed as he let himself into the flat. He could smell the pasta that Alec was making, and his stomach and its emptiness made itself known. Just as he was unlocking the last, he heard a crash, and Q crying out before there was a very weird sounding thud. James nearly threw the door open but forced himself to unlock it all the way and not just break through the door. As soon as he was in, he was locking the door again out of habit and looking around. The coffee table was on its front, and it moved a little. James stepped around the couch to see that Q was under the table. James ran over, and lifted the table off of Q.

Q was looking up, and James could see a spot on the side of his head swelling. Alec rushed over, and James could see that his hands were wet. He had probably rinsed off his hands before rushing in.

"What happened?" James asked as he started to check Q over for other injuries.

"I don't know. He was reading in the chair last I saw him. I don't-" Alec stopped talking and moved toward the chair. Laying on the ground James saw was lube. Q had found their bottle of lube in the chair, and it freaked him out. "Nosy kitten."

"Nosy?" James asked. He was looking at Q though who looked like he was trying hard not to puke.

"Found him snooping around in the bathroom when I got here. He didn't move anything but a few drawers had been opened in rooms and such. It's the first time we've left him alone. He decided after I caught him that maybe it wasn't a good idea or he didn't like me telling him that he could look as long as he didn't break into drawers that were locked. He's quiet."

"He's trying not to puke," Q said through gritted teeth.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Alec asked, and James looked up at him. Alec was flipping Q the bird, once on each hand. Q lifted up his hands and flipped him off as well. James didn't hold back the laugh.

"I think I'm fine," Q said as he started to push himself up. James wanted to push him back down, but he let Q decide if he could get up or not. James hovered though as Q turned to lean himself against the couch. He looked at the table that was lying behind James. "I didn't break it did I?"

"If you broke that table, it deserves it. All of our furniture is built to last. If you broke it, then we got it that far, and you were the straw that broke the camel's back."

"Still." Q looked behind James again.

James wondered if it was the fact that he was upset about the table or something else, so James turned to look where Q's eyes were looking, and he saw that it was on the lube and not the table. James reached over and grabbed it before tossing it back into the chair. Alec stepped over and slipped it down where it belonged.

"Be thankful you snooped on that side first. The other side has a gun," James said.

"What?" Q's eyes snapped to James's before he shot up and shoved Alec out of the way. He grabbed the cushion and James could see his face for the shock when he saw the gun that was strapped there. Q looked at the two of them with shock on his face. At least it wasn't fear.

"Besides snoopers get what they deserve."

"I wasn't snooping. I was trying to push myself into a new position, and my hand slipped down. I felt something and thought you two had lost something in the cushions not that you keep lube and a gun in the chair."

"We have guns all over. It's part of the military part of us." Alec walked over to the other couch and reached under it and came up with another small handgun. James knew there were five others and he didn't really want Alec showing Q those. It was enough that he knew the location of the two but the rest he didn't need to know unless someone attacked the flat, which wasn't out of the realm of possibility. The two guns that Q knew where they were, they were very small guns and not the best aim but when being invaded it was anything was better than nothing.

"You keep guns in weird places," Q said. His eyes looked over the room, and James wondered what Q was looking for. He took a step, but his body swayed a little, but after another step he was fine. Still, Alec moved to hover around him as he walked over to where another gun was. "I would keep one here."

James waited for Q's hand to slip back and find the gun that was there. His arm stopped moving, and he looked at James in shock before looking at Alec. The hand pulled back from the bookshelf flicking the overhead light on at the same time. It was the first light switch that was easily accessible from the bedroom, and while they would come out of the bedroom with guns already ready, it was nice to have backups.

"Where else?" James asked.

Alec stayed two steps behind Q ready for him to hit the floor as he pointed out seven other spots for guns, four of which did have guns and two of which had knives. The last spot was one that neither of them had thought about before and James was already making plans to add something to that spot because it did make sense. Alec was looking at Q like he ready wanted to shag him. James was feeling pretty damned good about him.

The beep of an alarm had all three of them looking into the kitchen area.

"Garlic bread is ready. The noodles should be as well. Just need to do one thing to the sauce and let it cook a few minutes more, and it will be." Alec disappeared into the kitchen. He came back out a few seconds later and tossed an ice pack to James. "Make the boffin lie down and put that on his head.

"Quit calling me a boffin!" Q nearly yelled.

James kept his smile to himself and walked over to Q and pulled him toward the couch with the gun. Q didn't hesitate as James shoved him down onto it. James forced him to lay down and rest the ice pack on the rather large goose egg that he was going to have on his face.

"You really got that jumpy about lube?" James asked.

"I didn't know it meant you always keep lube there. I thought that maybe you had slipped it there after sex recently and well...I wasn't sure how clean the chair was."

"We always wipe it down after sex on it and yes we keep it there all the time."

Q pressed the ice pack to his head and closed his eyes. James slipped his hand under Q's legs and lifted them up. He settled under those legs and draped them over his legs. Q gave James a weird look, but James ignored him. Q went back after a minute of nothing to looking at up as the pack laid on his head. James grabbed the book of the end table and started to look at it. It was Alec's, but it wasn't something that James would refuse to read. It was just different. James began to read it as he listened to Alec cooking.

Alec carried in James's plate first along with the tray that was covered in homemade garlic bread. James snagged one of those and dabbed it into the sauce of the pasta and groaned at the flavour. The sauce wasn't from a can or a jar it was one of the sets of it that Alec had frozen. Q was looking at James, and he dabbed a little sauce on a corner of the bread and tore it off and handed it over. Q eyed it but took it. Q's eyes lit up, and he sat up on the couch to look for where his plate of food was. James looked back as well to see Alec entering the room with it and his own. There were was bag hanging from his arm that James knew was used for groceries, but James had no clue why it was on Alec's arm. Q turned around on the couch to look forward, but Alec handed one plate to James before he wiggled into the spot left between Q and the couch.

"Brute," Q said and moved a little closer to James who did not move at all. When Q relaxed back, he was propped against Alec's side. "I'm sure that over there is just as comfortable."

"It might be but this is my place and my couch, and I want to sit here, and I want you to sit there, and I want James to sit where he is. I cooked you both can do what I want."

"Listen to that big head of his, just because he cooked," James said with a wink, but he handed Q his plate of food and grabbed a hunk of bread and dropped it onto the plate as well. Alec settled the bag on the table and pulled out a can of fizzy water for Q and a beer each for James and himself. James saw a third beer in there and frowned. The can went to Q who popped it open and took a drink all one-handed.

"Ta," Q said. He looked like he was trying to ignore the way that he was sitting as much as possible as he dug into the food. James was just glad that he had given up fighting them on feeding him for at least one meal a day. It was nice to eat with him as well. It had been him and Alec for a long time, and James wasn't sick of his partner, but Q was like a breath of fresh air. It was nice to have him around. When James could get him to talk. Sometimes that took some doing to get Q to talk to them without being afraid of them getting upset.

Alec leaned back all the way and Q wiggled and then stilled. James looked over to see that Alec had wrapped his arm around Q, palm resting on hip on the other side of his body. Alec didn't seem interesting in moving it so after another minute, Q just shifted around to where he could still eat, his water between his knees on the couch. Q drank tea and a lot of it, seeing how much he went through when he had it, James was astounded that he hadn't allowed more in his budget. However, with some things like heavier pasta dishes with a lot of spice, he liked the seltzer waters, so James had picked up some at the shop. Q had said nothing but eyed James the first time he had handed one over.

Q was done first, like always, filling himself up quickly. He never asked for seconds and even when given seconds he usually didn't eat more than a few bites before declaring himself full. It was easy to see that he wasn't used to so much food so quickly, so neither James nor Alec pushed more on him. Q leaned forward, stretching Alec's arm out as he snagged another hunk of bread and he used it to get up every single bit of sauce.

"What did you add to the sauce that only needed a few minutes. It has to be something liquid because a powder or leaf spice would need longer than that to really give any flavour."

"Cheese. Parmesan cheese. Make the sauce thicken up some and gives a little flavour and tempers some of the spices. It was an accident the first time. I was handing a bowl of it over to James, and it fell into the sauce. We decided to try it and while we put in much less the second time we liked it. We have it narrowed down well. I don't put it in the sauce when I make it but just a few minutes before serving."

"Hmmm," Q hummed as he had a mouth full of bread. The plate he had been eating off of had no space left on it and barely any breadcrumbs. James took the plate and set it down before snagging another hunk of bread. He handled that over to Q who blushed but took it. He ate it slower than the first two. Breaking off bites and chewing each one slowly before swallowing.

James kept looking up at Q to find his eyes closed and he was settled back into Alec's arm. It looked good, and it looked right. Hell, it felt right, Q there with them. There was just the whole convincing Q of it. There was no evidence of Q ever having been in a relationship, but then it wasn't something that could be found online. Social media was sparse when it came to Q only mentions from other people but not his own actual presence.

"So, Q, you've never said why you work where you do," Alec said as he finished off his pasta, doing as Q did and using his bread to wipe the plate clean of sauce.

Even with just his legs over James's, James could feel how tense Q became from just that question. James had been wanting to ask but had been afraid of what Q would do. He was kind of trapped at the moment though, and so it seemed Alec thought that is was a perfect time. There had been nothing that could be found by the hacker and tops marks at school meant that Q should have been living the good life with at least a slightly high paying job. Instead, he was in the more impoverished neighbourhood in London barely making it on what little money he could.

"Because they offered me a job," Q said, and all tenseness went out of his body. He sighed like it was the worst thing in the world and opened his eyes. James was staring at him, so he saw the pain there. It seemed that whatever it was, it wasn't a good thing. Though, James was kind of sure that it wasn't a good thing, to begin with. "In uni, I did well. Top marks, as I am sure you both have seen."

"Yes," James said unwilling to lie to Q.

"I was the big star. I didn't have a lot of money though so I had to scrape to get by with food and such, but I got scholarships and grants. Two years before I was finished with my last degree a professor that I wasn't taking that year came up to me and offered some help getting a new scholarship. I knew the reputation the man had and politely declined, I had already applied for it you see. I applied to every single one that came up that I was qualified for. Then I was denied that scholarship. I didn't get it, and the professor came back and offered help with the next one. He told me that if I didn't do as he wanted, in all things, school or sexual, I wouldn't get another scholarship. I didn't believe him, and then it happened again. Then the whole scope of what as going on was shown to me. It wasn't just a single professor it was many across all walks of academic paths. When I left I dropped a bomb, but the school covered it up, oh they fired all the professors and made sure that they couldn't work again, but the damage was done to me. I was still graduating in the top five of my class, but all career paths were closed to me. With the school keeping it quiet it allowed their damage to stick with a few other kids and me. So when the job was offered to me. I took it. It pays better than other jobs that I wouldn't have to train or go to school for, but it still pays shite."

"And where does this professor live?" James asked.

"He 'retired' to France but it seems that he crossed the wrong person because he was found stabbed to death and a young lady was found innocent because he'd been abusing her sexually. As well a few maids that he had been employing. I actually laughed when I saw one of my fellow classmates shared the story about it. They were sad he was dead, but I was happy. Maybe in a few years, I can finally find a job that would be worth having."

"You know that Silva Industries isn't an up and up company right?" Alec asked.

Q turned on the couch to look at Alec, his face confused. "What do you mean?"

"Silva, the man who runs it, he's a piece of shite who had been tried three times on espionage and the last only failed because the evidence disappeared."

"I'm only tech support for other people in the offices. I'm not part of that."

"You were blackballed Q, and he offers you a job, it might not be the best job, but he has to know that you were blackballed," James said.

"I've never even met him. There is no way that he's biding his time until I'm desperate and in want of money."

James said nothing. THere was a lot of looking into things that they needed to do before James tried to find Q another job at another place. Certainly, there was a good company out there that wanted Q, but the fact that he had been blackballed by a professor meant that many weren't looking at him. James really hated that professor at the moment.

"James," Q said his voice sounding far away. James looked over at him. "My head hurts a lot. Do you have anything for it? I don't work tonight."

"I do have something for it. Stay right here." James got up, letting Q's legs slip from his as he stood up. Q tucked his legs up to his chest as he got them under control again. Alec's hand wrapped around his stomach more and held him still.

When James got back into the living room, the positions on the couch had changed. Alec was at Q's feet with his feet actually in Alec's lap while Q was sitting up and leaning against the back of the couch in the middle. Alec waved to the spot behind Q's back, and James walked over and sat there. James picked up Q's hand and settled the pill in it. Alec had Q's water in his hand, and Q took the pill and popped it into his mouth before holding out his hand for the drink. Q drank all that was left of it before he murmured a thanks.

"Why don't we see about getting rid of Q's headache in the not fun way. I offered an enjoyable way, but he turned me down before I could explain it." Alec wagged his eyebrows, and it made James laughed, but he turned around to where he could lay back and allow Q to lay on him. Q was hesitant as he laid down right until James started to massage his shoulders. James could feel the tension in them. It was no wonder that Q had a headache even if it was entirely brought on by bashing his head.

"Thank you," Q said almost to low for James to hear it but he did, and James whispered a welcome back.

It wasn't but twenty minutes later that Q was asleep on James with Alec rubbing his calves and feet. It was intimate in a way that spoke nothing of sexuality and James really enjoyed it.

Q sighed as he read over the email from HR that stated that he was being considered for a promotion and needed to come in an interview for it. It would mean getting up super early the next morning to go and get a haircut, but the more money was worth it. Q closed down his email program and programmed the wake-up notification into his phone as he logged in to let those in need know that he was there. Q made a list of things that he needed to do while he waited for his first tech support submission.

The night was slow, but since most of America was fully awake at that time of day, as well as Canada, Q was shocked that he didn't get more calls. All calls for English speaking offices of T.R. Enterprises was run through the office in London, but since they didn't want to pay for a huge office for a small support staff, most of them worked from home. There was an office that was used to train new people or to be used in case of an emergency, but the laptop was crucial. Q had to use it just once when the power was out in his area of town, but the office lacked anything that made anyone want to stay working there.

When work was done, Q looked at the time and decided against sleeping. He laid out his suit from the bag an hung it up in the bathroom. It looked good and wasn't wrinkled, so he found a shirt to go with it and started to work on shining his dress shoes.

Q looked at his outfit and tried to figure out if he missed anything. He was going over it all in his head when he forgot that he had no ties. His one that he had used for years had got a run in it; silk caught on everything. He looked at the time. James and Alec had to be awake. Q mustered up the courage to go to their flat to ask to borrow a tie. He took a picture so that James could pick out something that matched.

Alec was the only one home, and he allowed Q to raid their closet. Q held up tie after tie and tried to match something to what he was wearing when he heard Alec behind him.

"James said the light purple tie would be best with the rest of the outfit," Alec said.

Q looked behind at Alec ad frowned.

"What he called to check on me." Alec sneezed and shook his head. "He also said that before an interview it's better to have a full meal in you and I'm in no condition to cook, so you are to go to Maggie's and eat there."

"What are you going to do to make me?" Q asked.

Alec grinned and held up a small plastic bag. Inside were Q's two mice, on for each computer. Q reached out for it and was held back by one of Alec's arms.

"You get them back if you come back and Maggie says that you ate a full meal and got a cup of tea to go."

"You know that I really, really hate you both, right?" Q grabbed the tie that James had said would go with the suit and he marched out of the flat. He slammed both the door to Alec and James's flat and the door to his own. He would have enough time to go and eat at the restaurant Maggie worked at then have time to come back and get dressed before the interview. He didn't want to risk getting anything on his suit.

Breakfast was quick even with Maggie mothering him to no end about how skinny he was. Even with Alec and James feeding him large meals every evening none of stuck to his ribs as Alec said. Q had never been all that fatty anyway. Not since he had been put into foster care at age eight. He lost his baby fat and never got any of it back with not enough food to go around.

Q was sitting outside of the room where he was told the interview was going to take place. There were no other people around which kind of shocked Q. Even if it was just open internal at the moment, there should have been more people.

"Thank you," a voice said with an accent that grated on Q's nerves. He looked up to see that room was an office and there was a man seated at a desk inside of there and a woman leaving the office.

"You can go in now, Mister St. Clair," the woman said, and she waited for Q to get up and walk inside before she shut the door.

"Walmond St. Clair?" the man asked.

"Yes," Q answered, but he didn't sit down until the man looked up from his stack of paperwork and waved for Q to sit down. A hand for a handshake was not offered. Q saw the nameplate. It was Raoul Silva. Q swallowed and wondered if this was what James had been talking about. There was no reason that the owner of a company would be doing an interview for a level two tech support staffer.

Q listened as the man spoke and talked about the direction he wanted to go for the future and what he needed to complete that.

"I've heard about what the professor did to you, Mister St. Clair. He was so very naughty. I heard how he died as well. That's why I wanted to talk to you. Meet you I think that with a few more years under your belt you could be a very good head of digital technology. I have an opening in the tech department that does bug checking on new software updates. We have many versions of software, as I am sure you know. Each one tailored for each device that exists. So how do you feel about taking that job?"

Q had liked debugging when he was in college. It was fun to fix things that professors broke on purpose sometimes so craftily that it took forever to find the mistake and fix it. It was like a dream job. To find errors in code that no one else could find before a customer could find the mistake and it crash their system.

"It sounds like a stimulating job."

"The hours on it would be whatever you wanted them to be. Again working from home and a newer and updated laptop. It would be Sunday night through Tuesday night. No more getting weekly schedules and such things."

"I would like to have that job very much," Q said.

"Good. Good. There is a manual that you need to read and memorise as well as forms that you will need to fill out to show that you can follow instructions. The actual debugging part of the job won't start until Sunday. The rest of this week will be just reading the manual and submitting the paperwork. We expect that all in by Friday at noon. You can come back in then and pick up a new laptop and drop off the old one. Candace has the paperwork waiting for you in HR as well as everything that you need to get started on your job." Silva grinned at Q and Q wasn't sure that he liked that smile.

Silva creeped out Q more than anyone else that he had ever met in his life and he had met some creepy men in his time in foster care. A few women as well but they just scared him. Silva thankfully did not offer his hand at all.

Three hours later after Q had read every single page that he was to sign, Q knew two things. One that he was quite happy with the pay raise, which wasn't as much as what it should have been for someone doing the job that he was, but he was going to take what he could get. Two was that that Silva was going to ask him to do something illegal and he would make sure that he either went to the Met with it or James and Alec.

He was still in his suit as he shopped for food, going over budget even with buying nothing for his dinner. He didn't care that much. He was going to get paid to do something that was going to take him a day to do, even if he slept in and ate dinner with Alec and James the next night. The forms looked stupid simple.

"Well?" James asked as he waited in the tea aisle making it look like he belonged there.

"Well?" James asked as he waited in the tea aisle making it look like he belonged there.

"Well, what?"

"Did you get the job? Finally away from Silva's hands?" James asked.

"It's not my fault that Alec didn't ask where I was interviewing, but yes I got the job and not I'm not out of Silva's clutches. I am moving into the debugging department. I can still work nights, but it's a set schedule, and I like debugging a lot. Budge up you are in front of my tea."

Q waited for James to push off the shelf and he could feel the glare that the man was giving him. Q grabbed two boxes of the tea that he liked best of all but didn't buy that often. He was almost out of what Alec had bought for him.

"Still a job is a job, and I think that means celebration tonight. Stay in the suit and come to dinner at six." James left without waiting for Q to answer. Q glared at the man's retracting back. He wondered what the two of them would if Q stayed in his flat until they came for him. It was fun to rile the both of them up. The uneasy friendship between them had slowly become very easy, and Q wondered sometimes he was insane to make friends with two people who ran the mob.

Q knocked on the door to the other flat at one minute until six. He had meant to wait for them to come and get him but he had decided that it was better not to anger them when they were doing something sweet for him. While they did a lot of nice things for him, this felt different. This felt like something a lot more.

Alec was dressed in a soft sweater that Q wanted to bury his hands in when he opened up the door and smiled at Q. The trousers were crisp looked ironed. James was just inside, setting a candle at the table where it was set up for three. Three glasses that were freshly filled with wine, three sets of plates, three sets of utensils. It looked romantic and something from in a movie. Q looked up at Alec and then at James waiting for one of them to say something.

"Mister Bond?" a voice said behind Q. Q spun around to see that it was a delivery boy from a local shop. The smell of the food in the bags that he was carrying was wonderful, and it made Q's stomach growl. He had eaten something small for lunch while looking over the papers.

"Ah, Alfredo! Welcome!" James was moving towards the door with a grin on his face. He stopped and Q and gave him a kiss on the cheek before directing him to follow Alec to the table. James shook Alfredo's hand and Q saw that money changed hands then, so Q wondered what kind of place James had ordered from that didn't do deliveries or James's order had been jumped in the line.

Alec seated Q at the table, holding his chair like people did in the fancy movies. Q didn't watch many, but he had seen a lot of old classics while in foster care. One woman flittered and fluttered over all of the old movies that had dashing men and heroines who needed them in some way, even if it wasn't always that they needed help. Q felt the press of Alec's lips to his cheek, the opposite one that James had kissed. This felt like an elaborate seduction that Q should not be on the receiving end of.

Q felt very out of place as James placed some of the food in the over, some in the fridge, and the rest of plated up. James settled down dishes for all three of them out. It felt like one of those big fancy dinners.

It was sushi, decorative and already on a plate that looked like it was plastic. The sauce was drizzled on it beautifully, and there was no way that James had enough time to do that. Q didn't want to know how much money these men were spending on this meal.

"I won't have sex with you," Q stated.

Alec choked on the water that he was drinking while James was just looking at Q in shock.

"Why do you think that we want to have sex with you?" James asked when it looked like he could get his mouth to function again.

"You were hard that night, but my head hurt too much for me to really care. Alec, no matter what he says, was going to suggest sex to get rid of the headache. I've seen you both look at me over the past weeks like you want to eat me and not in the horrible cannibal way. This meal is way too much for something to celebrate me getting a job that the two of you hate."

"It's not more than your glasses, or the clothes that we already bought you. I paid for a meal, and I know that I wasn't charged the full price for it because a local man tried to revoke the liquor license for the restaurant because they wouldn't pay him. This is a standard meal for us, we just usually eat it there, but we felt like we didn't want to share your attention because you in the suit, Q. You look utterly fuckable." James's face showed it too. He was downright smouldering at Q. Q risked a glance at Alec to see the same thing.

"You two have been doing this just to get me in your bed." Q made to shove himself back from the table, but James moved fast and shoved him down into the seat.

"No. We started to do this because you needed someone to help you, even though you didn't want to ask for it. I looked at you no different than Alec does the damned cats and dogs that he goes to the shelter to cuddle up to. Then you started to grow on us. Then instead of a kitten, you were attractive. You bite back when we anger you. While I know that our jobs are not exactly something that you really want us to be doing we won't change and so far you've not tried to get us to get legitimate jobs even when we have tried to pull you into our world. You are not just someone to fuck. We want to savour you for a long time. Slowly seduce you to where you don't want to leave our bed. Make you want us as much as we want you."

"And maybe one day," Alec said as he reached over and laid his hand over Q's where it was gripping the edge of the table. "Maybe we will all love each other as much as James and I love each other."

Q looked at the two of them and tried to find the lies in their words, but both were laid bare at his feet. He had seduced two mob bosses with his strop and his refusal to bend to their wills. It was altogether exhilarating.

Chapter Text

Q settled in across from the man that he knew by name only. It was hard not to know the name of the most famous detective that worked for the London police. Detective Inspector Lestrade was sitting down and reading the notes that Q had compiled on Silva's code that he had been debugging over the past three months. Q didn't think that it would be long before someone was going to come in and take over.

"Mister St. Clair, these are some very interesting claims. What this code can do."

"Yes, Sir. It is, but it's all true." Q knew that the jargon and code were above the man's head. It would take someone who lived and breathed code to understand it, and the London police force just didn't have someone like that on their payroll.

"I'm not the most up to date with technology but hacking MI6? With this?"

"Well-" Q stopped when the door opened, and a man and a woman stepped in. The woman looked slightly scary and the man well he only exuded the fact that he was scary. The face though, Q knew it.

"Gareth Mallory," Q said with a smile.

"Q," Mallory said with a tip of his face. "Detective Inspector, thank you, but I'll take over this interview.

"I won't be getting into your car, Mallory. We will talk here when I know I am safe."

"Safe in the interrogation room of a station instead of feeling safe in the car of the head of MI6?" the woman asked.

"Yes much safer. You got my email?" Q asked.

The detective inspector stood up and left the room, knowing that he was in over his head. Q watched as Mallory sat down in the spot he had been in, and the woman took up the spot behind him. Mallory set down a device and turned it on. Q was pretty sure that it would block the cameras and mics in the room from working. Q wanted to look at the device but would probably get slapped for doing so.

"I had our techs disconnect a computer from our servers and run that code...it does a lot of very interesting things. You state in your email that you did not make the code. How did you come to be in possession of it?"

"I've worked for Silva Industries for a few years. Recently I've moved in the code debugging department. This was given to me two weeks ago. I was not told what it was for or anything. Just that I was told to pick up the hard drive with it on it and work on it. I ran a bit of it to make sure that I corrected a part of it and it got me onto the MI6 servers. That's when I knew what I had, and I emailed you. I debated several ways that I could go about getting a hold of you, but I thought that a partial code emailed to you from a secure location would be enough."

"Yes, my techs tried to gain access to your secure device. They were unable to. I've been told by them to offer you a job."

"No, thank you. Consult maybe but work for the Government? No." Q reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper. He had copied his entire work agreement with Silva Industries. "When I was moved up to a debugging position, I made sure that if something came up, I would be able to actually be able to turn against them without fear of going to jail myself. There was nothing. So on the hard drive that I gave to Detective Inspector Lestrade is the whole of the code. I also brought my work laptop with me."

Q slid the paper over to Mallory and leaned back in his chair.

"Why did you think that you would maybe one day have to turn against the company?"

"Because I was told just about the time I took the new position that they were not a good company. I was desperate and in need of money then so it was that or starve."

"And now you don't?"

"What did you find on me, SIr?"

Mallory looked up at the woman.

"Walmond St. Clair top of your class all the way through primary. University you hung just far enough back to not be in the spotlight but was considered still the best in class. You were blackballed from what we can tell but don't know how or why. Worked at Silva since graduation. Moved recently because mould had infected the whole of your flat from a lower location. Your current landlord is paying the gap in the rent on the flat you had to move into. Though that place is being rented to you for a lot lower than it should be, probably given the fact that you have two mob bosses for neighbours."

"No, not the reason it's being rented to me for lower but do go on."

"You drop all of your money on your school loans. You eat stupid things that will kill you and supplement the whole of your diet with vitamins so that at least your diet won't kill you fast."

"Good job," Q said, and he smiled. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the cigarettes that he had started to smoke again. Alec smoked, and James smoked more than both of them together. Q had knicked Alec's cigarettes enough to where Alec had taken him to get a pack of his own one day, and after that, they brand just appeared on the coffee table of the larger flat. Q lit it up and offered one to Mallory and the woman. Mallory looked tempted while the woman looked aghast. There were signs that pointed out it was no smoking allowed. Q didn't care.

"So why were you blackballed?" The woman asked.

"Because I wouldn't fuck the professors at the school to get scholarships. One decided that he didn't like that and made sure that I couldn't get a good job. He probably had plans of me begging on my knees at some point."

"I see," Mallory said. He frowned and looked at the paper Q had shoved over. Q watched him read it over before he looked up at Q again. "So your plan to have the Met raid your flat and find the computer and the code and then it go from there is approved by your neighbours?"

"They don't care what happens to the flat. It's not like there is much there other than the things that I use to work and my clothes. Those two have enough clothes that they don't have room for mine. Plans are being made for that. So raiding my flat and making it look like they are going for James and Alec will push the blame from me giving up Silva and to the Met just stumbling onto something good. However, there is one thing that you need to do before that."

"And what's that?" Mallory asked.

"Find the former head of MI6 and find out everything that she knows on Tiago Rodriguez."

"What does that name have to do with anything?"

"Because that's who Silva used to be and his hate on for the former M is huge. He is going to use the code to break into MI6 and cause enough destruction that she's brought back to deal with him. I think that something along the lines of murder-suicide. MI6 does well at making their agent disappear, but someone out there knew of him, so nothing was totally erased. I did facial recognition based on school images from databases. Found a few that looked close enough and then I found him. His Background matches several that work at MI6, so I started to hack him. His security is good, but I'm better. It wasn't hard to find his hate on for M. He will have backdoors and other ways into your system. If anything is remote controlled, disable that before moving on him."

"Are you sure that you won't work for us?" Mallory asked.

"Between working for MI6 and keeping my two lovers, I'll keep my two lovers. They keep me warm at night." Q stood up and looked Mallory. "I'll be home in three hours with my things. That hard drive is only a copy so if it's decided to trust me and raid my flat, then I'll see you all in four hours."

Q left without waiting for Mallory to let him go. He fieldstripped his cigarette before dropping into the bin.

Q was home ten minutes before there was a knock on the door. He opened it up, and there was a man standing there that looked like he belonged in an office, not leading the charge for MI6 and London police to raid his flat. The work laptop was sitting right where it always did, and the hard drive with the code was beside it and unplugged.

"Mister St. Clair, please step aside," the man said before he barged into the flat. Q stepped aside and let the man do what he wanted. Q was watched by the woman who had been with Mallory before. Q's personal laptop was in the flat with James, and a cheap one that had been bought by Alec was resting where his personal one usually sat. Q had done enough on it to make someone think it was his and just a cheap one because he had no money.

Q didn't trust that someone on the Met wasn't working for Silva in the room. He made a fuss, especially when one of his tea mugs was knocked off the counter by one of the men searching his flat. The way that he laid into that man was surely heard by James and Alec who Q was pretty sure was pressing their ears to the wall to hear everything that they could.

Four hours later, Q was left alone in his flat after everything technological had been taken, including the modem that Silva Industries had supplied for his work. Q watched as the officers left through the bedroom window. Tanner, the man from MI6, has taken the tech with him and into a black SUV.

"Well?" James asked from where he leaned in the doorway from the hallway.

"They said nothing but they took all of the tech."

"MI6 is going to sniff around you."

"I know. I'll make sure that they don't."

"They could threaten to have us locked away to get you to do what they want."

"They could be unwilling workers are not the best. I could blow them up from the inside just as easy as I can work for them and they would have to check on me constantly. Better to just let me be."

"We have dinner ready. Pasta and sauce." James was grinning. "And a surprise."

"A surprise?" Q asked. He tossed the arm of the mug he had been playing with onto the counter of the kitchen as he walked to the door. James looked at the broken mug and frowned. "It's the only thing that was damaged."

"Good. Come." James held out his hand. The man was more tactile than Q thought he would be. James was touchy with Alec, but he was downright handsy with Q, but then Alec was the same way. They had not let him sleep anywhere but their bed since he had agreed to let them court and woo him. Q had not had sex with either of them, but it didn't stop them from having sex right beside Q to tempt him. Q had made them a promise that if after a year of them courting him, he would give them everything. Though at the time it had meant his loyalty and his work as a hacker for their mob. However, Silva's eagerness made Q have to give up that part earlier.

Once the inquiry was done, and Silva was in jail, the smaller flat was going to become a tech room for Q to do anything and everything that he wanted.

"You know that I still despise surprises right?" Q asked. He glared at James as he passed in front of him to head out the door. James caught his upper arm, and Q stopped walking, but he didn't turn around. He felt James reach up for his glasses and stilled all the way. James and Alec never touched Q's glasses when they were on his face. They didn't remove them from his face, and they didn't ever push them up his nose.

"But you love us, and you'll submit to our surprises as long as they don't hurt." James pressed a kiss to Q's temple after he pulled the glasses off the rest of the way.

The hallway was blurry, so Q closed his eyes. James wrapped an arm around him and escorted him to the door of the other flat. He heard it shut and then there was only the sound of the flat. Q opened his mouth to say something but stopped when he heard a purr. Q wanted to open his eyes, but he didn't. He felt James settle at his back, holding him. The purring got louder, and he cocked his head to the side. There was something about it.

"Ozma!" Q cried out. He had met the kitten at the shelter a week before. Her and her sister Mombi. Alec had taken him after his hack on the edge of MI6's servers to see if what he was seeing was really what he was seeing. He heard a soft exclamation from James and then a laugh.

"Sneaky cat," James said.

"That's Mombi, she's silent on her feet," Q said. He knew that Alec had got them for him. Q hadn't wanted to ask for them because this was still James and Alec's flat, even if Q was living there.

"Alec warned me. We've tried to keep them company, but Ozma remembers you and wants you."

"Glasses?"

"No. You are going to cuddle with the cats on the couch while we finish up getting dinner ready. Then you can look around the flat."

"What's going to stop me from looking around while you two do other things?"

"Because you hate it when we pout and we will pout. You sit your ass on the couch and love on your new kittens," Alec said.

Q did as he was bidden and the cats came to him willingly. There were sounds of water being dumped and just the sounds of Alec and James preparing to take care of him. It was altogether wonderful and happy at the same time. Ozma and Mombi crawled all over him, disappearing for short bursts to come back and when Mombi did it, Q could just make out her dark shape against the backdrop of blurry things all around him. Ozma's white fur blended in with the blurs too much.

After having James help him that first time, Q hadn't been expecting this to come of it all. Alec and James treated him like he was precious. It felt nice after not having that in his life since his mother had died.

Q picked up Ozma and buried his face in her fur. He knew he had made the right decision even if it meant a life in the mob.

The End