moonlettuce | Bondage...

Alec Trevelyan looked up as the snow started to fall from the sky. "Fucking typical," he muttered. He glared upwards into the pink-tinged sky as the sun lowered behind the horizon. "Because near freezing temperatures, an injured partner and no back-up isn't enough to contend with? You know, if I actually believed in you I think I'd be impressed with how much of a bastard you're being tonight."

"Alec?"

Trevelyan stopped his introspective with a god he didn't believe in and looked down at the figure he was holding. "Yes, James," he asked softly.

"Shut up, I'm trying to be unconscious."

Alec smiled. "Good to have you back in the land of the living, 007."

"What the hell happened? And why is my left side alternating between agony and numbness?"

"Yuri wasn't as dead as I thought. Little shit stabbed you."

James tensed suddenly in pain. "Infected?"

Alec nodded. "Looks like it." Considering the state of the blade Yuri had used it would have been a miracle if the wound hadn't been. Yuri could only be grateful, in whatever afterlife he was in, that Alec had only had time to shoot him between the eyes instead of what he'd wanted to do.

"So, if I was stabbed in the side, why is my head pounding as well?"

"You cracked your head on the way down."

"Stab wound *and* a concussion. Not bad."

Alec grinned softly. "Don't be too impressed with yourself, James, it's not that good either."

Bond's eyes glanced up at the dark clouds. "When is the back-up going to be here?"

"It's on its way," Trevelyan lied, glancing at the cobbled together sat phone and hoping that the message had got through before the equipment had finally given up and died.

"Good," James murmured, his voice becoming quieter.

Alec shook him slightly, wincing in sympathy at the small "ow" that was emitted. "Don't sleep, Bond, I need you to stay awake."

James looked at him, almost petulantly. "Entertain me, then."

"And how should I do that, 007? A striptease? Or how about a blowjob?"

"As much as both of those appeal, it's too cold for the first, and I don't think I'm up to the second." James paused. "Tell me a story."

"A story?"

"If you loved me you'd tell me a story."

Alec sighed in defeat as he moved closer to James. "Once upon a time there was this beautiful man called Alec."

"Beautiful, huh?" interrupted Bond.

Alec frowned, the smile on his lips taking the sting out of the expression. "Whose story is this? If I say he was beautiful then he was. In fact, Alec was so beautiful that many people came to court him. He had princes and princesses all longing to be with him."

"Can't fault their taste."

Trevelyan grinned at the comment. "The problem was, no one who wanted Alec understood that his job was very important. They all thought that they should come first, or that he shouldn't just leave in the middle of the night and not come back for four weeks.

"And they didn't understand that he couldn't tell them what he did. He couldn't tell them that he killed people for a living because it was a secret. So no one ever stayed with him and Alec was very sad."

"Poor Alec." James stroked Alec's hand softly, thumb rubbing over his wrist.

"But, unknown to Alec, his wise and lovely boss-"

James snorted, "I'll have to tell M that one."

"-knew someone just like Alec. Someone just as beautiful and just as deadly. So she introduced them. Some people objected saying that they were too destructive to be together; that they'd only feed off each other and make every situation worse.

"But they were wrong. What they didn't realise is that Alec and James, for that was the name of the other man, were perfectly suited. That a weakness in one was a strength in the other. She knew that together they'd be unstoppable, and she was right.

"Only it didn't stop there. One day, Alec and James went out to stop a coup and something went wrong. James was nearly killed, and Alec realised that he was in love with James. So when they were back home, and James was lying unconscious in the hospital, Alec told James how he felt. What he didn't know is that James, the sneaky bastard, wasn't completely unconscious, and heard every word. But James felt the same way. So they kissed and lived happily ever after. The end."

Alec looked down at James to find the other agent smiling with amusement. "And what do Alec and James do now?"

"They still kill people, but at least now they get to shag afterwards."

"I'll give you this, it's a better story than my mother used to read me when I was young," Bond said, words snapping off at the end as he tensed again, spasm of pain passing through him.

Alec ran his fingers through Bond's hair. "Ride it out, James, you know you can."

"What time are we getting picked up?"

"0200," Alec replied. A lot sooner if the message was picked up.

"What time is it now?"

Alec looked down at his watch, quickly flicking the small button that illuminated the figures. "12:04," he answered.

The rest of Alec's reply was cut off by the faint sound of whirring. Squinting into the darkness, he could just make out a shape moving in the distance. Helicopter. He looked to see James' gun resting against the injured man's leg. James' eyes met his. Leaning down, Alec brushed a kiss across Bond's lips as his hand stole around to his holster and gripped his gun. There was less than two clips left between them, but they wouldn't go down alone.

"It's been a pleasure, 007," he murmured.

"Likewise," James replied, as both guns trained on the approaching 'copter.

Alec closed his eyes briefly. 'Okay, God,' he thought, 'here's the time to make me believe, let that be our guys instead of theirs.'

As the silent prayer went heavenward, the sat phone crackled, Alec's head snapping around to stare at the previously dead object. A static-ridden voice crept into the silence.

"006... received... there shortly... medic with... out."

The guns remaining aimed, Alec waited until the helicopter was close enough to identify, breathing a sigh of relief when the doors opened and one of the retrieval team waved down at them before a large package swung out and began to lower.

Dropping his gun back down, James looked up at the night sky, stars lit clearly through the sudden break in the clouds. "I just realised, it's January first," he commented. "Happy new year, Alec."

Looking up at the stretcher that was being lowered to them, and the medic coming down with it, Alec grinned. "Yeah, I think it's going to be."