All the boys were fast asleep, cheeks bunched up against the pillows or backpacks they had their heads resting on.

The fight we had yesterday didn't mean much. If I hadn't been here it would probably be someone else in a headlock and dangerously close to death. I wasn't worried about it affecting the dynamics of the mission too much. Frankly, it was about time we all erupted into a fight. Despite what I told Axel the other day about talking feelings out, there was no way that was gonna work with these boys. Sometimes a little blood and bruises were the only way to solve a problem. At least with spy agents.

I couldn't sleep. I could still feel Owen's arm around my neck like ghost claws. Getting choked was another painful memory from my time with the Syntegos that I thought I'd pushed away with Axel's help, but I guess it had been at the back of my throat this whole time, just waiting for a small hiccup to bring it back up.

Axel was beside me, our legs tangled up together even though I was sitting up and he was fast asleep on the carpeted floor. Occasionally he'd murmur something incoherent. I wasn't the only one with nightmares. I'd simply reach down and run my hand through his hair once or twice and he'd quiet down.

It was about 4 in the morning. The mission was tomorrow, and by that evening we'd be back at the agency in Denver. The thought of not having Axel beside me all night to calm me down frightened me a little bit, I wouldn't lie about that. But there was no way in hell I'd ask Flagg if we could keep doing it. My dorm mates would just have to deal with getting scared out of their minds when I started screeching in the middle of the night.

-

"10:24 I drive around to the south end of the library," Cal said.

"10:26 Harrison, Quinn, Lautaro, Blitz and I come out the north exit. Quinn, Blitz and I go around the east side," Axel said.

"10:26 Lautaro and I go west and we meet Oakleigh in the car," Harrison said.

"10:27 I disconnect from their server and the camera footage goes back to live," said James.

"10:28 I get up to the roof from the fire escape ladder," I said.

"10:29 I get up on the roof from the vents," Lucky said. "10:30 Adira and I use the grappling strings to get down the south side of the library. 10:31 we join you guys in the car."

"Back here by 11:03. Mission complete," Owen said.

We all nodded our heads as we studied the blueprints of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. James had been taking out his drone everyday and doing x-ray scans of the whole building over the course of our time at Jinx's, to finally print out an accurate map of the library Basilone will be targeting with his bombs.

Owen had said we were agents above all else. He was right. We put what happened yesterday behind us to go over our plan one last time.

The German looked satisfied that everyone knew what they were doing, yet exhausted. He still couldn't stand up without holding onto something, but Cal said he should try and maintain good blood flow, so he was with the rest of the group crowding around the outline on the end of the kitchen counter, gripping the edge like it was life support.

"Lucky, Adira, you get the grappling strings ready?"

The Mongolian and I exchanged a quick look of surprise. "Yes?" Lucky replied cautiously. Owen had given us the order almost in the form of a question, like we had a choice whether or not to do it. From the older boy's tired blue eyes I think it might be an apology for choking me half to death.

Agents are fucking weird.

"And the inside guys —get your bags and the disguises ready," Zach said.

Yeah. Zach and Owen were actually working together. It was like that fight had finally knocked unity and respect into us.

Axel, Blitz, Harrison, Quinn and Lautaro were our inside boys this mission. And because Axel had been seen in Taranto pretty publicly —Jinx reported there were sketches of us out and about in the Italian news— we got to dye his hair before the mission so he was less recognizable. Lucky was going in through the vents and I was going in through the roof. James would hack the security camera footage so they wouldn't see us, so we didn't have to worry about physical disguises.

After Lucky and I got the grappling string harness fitted to us so there were no delays during real time, I plucked a blue hairspray can out of Axel's backpack.

The agent stared at me. "No."

"Yes," I grinned.

"No," he repeated.

"You can pull of that hipster gothic-like look Axel, come on," I said.

"She's right, you do have the physique for that," Jinx agreed from her corner. "Gauges, dark jeans, converse...yeah, you could totally make that work."

"I am not taking fashion advice from either of you." Axel snatched the can out of my hand and tossed it back in his bag, settling for the color closer to James' red hair instead. While he went into the bathroom with his choice of color, I secretly grabbed the blue one back out from his bag and crept after him.

Before he even opened the lid of the red can, I sprayed a cloud of blue over the hair at the back of his neck.

"Adira!" Axel scrambled around to grab me but I ducked and came up around his side and sprayed some more. "Bitch!" He yelled, running a hand through the blue streak. I backed away laughing.

"Well, guess you gotta blue now," I giggled.

He fumed at me in the bathroom, fluffing the newfound blue tufts through his fingers. "Fine. Gimme the fucking bottle to finish then." I tossed him the can, bending over with laughter.

I turned around and crossed my arms. "Census," I called, "Can Axel pull off blue hair?"

"I know for a fact he can pull off pink," Harrison winked, sliding bullets into his handgun.

"I feel like there's a really good story behind that," Quinn noted.

"Harrison for the sake of your limbs I would not tell that story!" Axel called from the bathroom.

"I gotchu later Deera," Harrison nodded at me.

"I hate you," Axel muttered from behind me. I turned and covered my mouth with my hand. Instead of his usual pecan-brown colored hair, his hair was now a dark electric blue. He dragged his feet out the bathroom and into the main room with everyone else, where in contrast to me, the agents made no effort to hide their amusement.

"Holy shit Lawrence," Lautaro hugged his side in laughter.

"You look like a 2009 genderbent goth girl," Jinx cried.

"I think I like this better than the pink."

"How long until that washes out Lawrence?" Zach was scowling and cleaning his gun.

"Two to three days," Axel said through his teeth. I cracked up again.

Zach sighed. "It's not...orthodox, but...you don't look like you, and that was the point."

"Ha ha!" I yelled triumphantly, pumping my fists in the air. I latched onto his chest from the side. "You need to learn how to trust more," I said up to him.

He sighed and since I was wrapped around his ribs we were both moved by his breath. "I remember saying that to you not that long ago."

"And look at me now —trusting you not to hurt me even though I turned you into an elf."

The blue-haired boy rolled his eyes and peeled me off of himself. "You're lucky I'm adaptable Deera," he said, retreating to his backpack again. I smiled at him as he stalked off, then joined Cal and James on the carpet of the living room and watched the medics play some intense checkers.

"Hey Adira I wanna show you something real quick." Jinx got up from her corner, leaving pencils, pens, sticky notes and lose notebook paper behind her. I followed her to her bedroom.

I shut the door behind me and watched her reach up on her tiptoes to grab a decrepit red sticky note off her wall. After she'd retrieved it she walked back over and handed it to me.

I silently accepted the red note. In thick black capital letters read 'take the pain, ignite it.'

"Keep it," she said. "I think it really fits you. You've really opened up since you came here. I don't know what happened to you before to make you anxious and afraid, but whatever it was you've definitely turned it around. You've felt a lot of pain, but you've ignited it into something so much brighter."

I glanced up from the note to her. "Thank you Jinx."

She smiled. "I got loads of them, as you can see," she swept out her hand to the walls swallowed with paper. "And I know it's kinda cheesy, but still." She gave me a lopsided grin.

"Thank you," I repeated.

"Now get back to that mess of humans outside and plot your take down." She smiled once more and then approached her bedroom door.

"Hold it," I sighed before she could reach the doorknob. I told her to backup. Then I yanked the door open and stepped aside with a flourish.

Harrison and Axel tumbled onto the floor, landing with various limbs strewn on top of each other at Jinx's and my feet. Axel shoved Harrison off of him and flipped himself onto his back, puppy-dog eyeing me with his green and brown eyes.

"Did you hear any of what we just said?" I asked him.

"I wish," he snorted. I took out my knife and dangled it by its hilt above his head.

"I swear! I swear I didn't hear anything!" He put his arms above his head in surrender. I tossed the knife in the air. "I swear!"

I caught the knife just before it could impale his nose.

"Good." I pocketed the knife, then offered my hand to him. He eyed it waringly before accepting it and allowing me to help him to get to his feet.

Harrison started to try and scramble to his feet too but Jinx kicked him in the chest with a corgi sock. His back hit the floor again and knocked the breath out of him.

"I'm flattered," she said, smirking down at him.

Harrison grabbed her foot and shoved it down towards his own feet, causing Jinx to lose her balance and fall down on top of him.

Harrison smirked, seemingly not minding her extra weight even though she crashed down on top of him. After what seemed like a quarter of a millisecond too long, Jinx huffed and pushed herself awkwardly off of him. "The things I could say to you right now..." she glared down at him.

"But you're flattered," Harrison repeated with a grin, still with his back on the floor.

"I'm not helping you up," she said calmly. She stepped over him and out the doorway of her bedroom. I followed her. I heard Harrison get to his feet and then the sound of two hands coming together.

I whirled around. "Did you two seriously just high five?!"

"No," Axel and Harrison both replied at simultaneously. They both ruffled their hair, one blue and one brown.

-

"Barnes you better give that back."

Quinn twirled the bra around his fingers. "I dunno...this is a fine contraption you got here." He squinted at the thin material. "Might be useful... for, I dunno, like practice or—"

Adira bolted forward towards him and he quickly sprinted around the coffee table.

"Quintin!" She yelled.

He snickered and tossed it to Lautaro before Adira could catch him.

The Honduran snatched it out of the air and continued running around the living room.

"Assholes!" Adira shouted, punching Quinn in the chest as she ran past him. "Just give it to me!"

"'Just give it to me,' title of your sex tape!" Lucky laughed.

I laughed so hard my sides hurt as the bra continually got tossed between agents with Adira still chasing them and Jinx threatening over the ruckus that we would be paying for whatever we broke.

Finally it reached me, and Adira, out of breath a little, fixed her brilliant blue eyes on me. "Axel Lawrence if you know what's good for you you will give me back my fucking bra," she growled.

I grinned. "This?" I balanced the black garment precariously on my finger.

"Lawrence," she warned.

I tossed it over her head and past her outstretched hands and to Harrison who was behind her. She twisted on her heel, jumped onto the small table that was on one side of the couch Owen was on, and used it to vault herself over the back of the couch, narrowly missing Owen's blond head, and jumping onto Harrison's shoulders. She clung to his back like a monkey while clawing over his shoulder trying to get her bra back.

"Laurie!" He called, trying to toss it back to me while Adira still wrestled him for it on his back. It landed on the floor while everyone continued to laugh.

I dove for it and she jumped off Harrison's back a millisecond afterwards and we landed in a heap on the floor together. We muscled her bra back and forth until she finally jammed her fingers into my stomach and I let it go.

"Thank you," she smiled sweetly above me, folding her bra neatly in her hands.

"No problem," I said in monotone from under her.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Don't use that tone, you were the one keeping it from me."

"You dyed my fucking hair blue!"

She rolled her eyes and stepped off me. "You're fine."

I accepted her hand for help back up and then huffed moodily.

"Who wants to start a War tournament?" Blitz piped up.

"I challenge Patterson!" Quinn called out, shaking off where Adira had probably bruised him.

Zach snapped his head up, then looked at Owen like he needed permission. The German gestured to Blitz sitting on the carpet, indicating it was his choice.

We all started expectantly at our new mission leader, who was looking actually a little worried.

"What about it Patterson, come on?" Quinn tried doing the bridge to shuffle the cards but instead they all flew out of his hands like a cloud of butterflies.

"Prepare to go down Barnes." Zach stood up and there was something almost like a smile on his face as he made his way over to help poor clumsy Quinn.

-

Even though I knew it was wrong, I wasn't going to stop Adira from laying her head on my shoulder. She was comfortable. And this was the last day we might ever be able to make physical contact since tomorrow evening we'd be back in Denver and back under the harsh laws of Flagg.

Whooptiefuckingdo.

"¡Jinx, tu gato es muy dificil!" Lautaro was wrestling his hand away from Percy, who was sprawled across his lap with all four legs and his mouth clenched around Lautaro's hand like a venus fly trap. Jinx had gotten him allergy meds, so he wasn't sneezing and having to blow his nose every minute, but he still didn't quite understand how cats work yet."¡Es imposible!"

Jinx laughed as she poured herself more coffee in the kitchen.

"He rolls over like he wants to be pet there, and when I do, I get scratched!" The Honduran whimpered as his tug of war fight with Percy made no progress besides littering his hand with scratches.

"Well," Jinx said as she came back to all of us in the living room, "I guess pussy just grabs back."

Next to me Adira choked on her own coffee, dribbling it down her shirt and even onto my lap a little. Blitz did a similar thing, but at least managed to keep his coffee in his mouth.

"Are you making it your own personal mission to destroy me today?" I asked her, staring at the speckles of coffee on my jeans.

Adira set her mug down on the coffee table and managed to curb her laughing. "That was just perfect Jinx," she giggled a little more and then looked guiltily at me, "sorry Axel."

Lautaro's brown eyes had gone a little bugged-eyed after Jinx's comment, and once he froze Percy let his hand go.

"Please don't tell me we are going to talk about politics now, are we?" Lucky moaned.

"I hope not," Harrison replied from beside me, "something tells me Miss Opinions over there would have a lot to say."

"Nothing your ears are worthy for," Jinx stuck her tongue out at him, but sat between him and the end of the long couch Adira and I were also sitting on. Owen was outside on the fire escape conversing with James and Zach, while the rest of us were staying far far away. "My thoughts stay on paper."

"Good idea," Harrison noted.

"But I do have a question for you guys though," Jinx wrapped both hands around her coffee mug.

"Shoot sweetheart, we got time," Quinn laid back on the carpet, crossing his hands under his head.

"What do you guys think about at night? I've noticed by now that none of you sleep that much. I thought I was bad, but you guys call three hours a successful night."

"I think about my family," Cal said. He was on the floor wrapping gauze in neat rolls. "Not the family that I had, they're all dead. For good reason too," his dark eyes glittered with hate for a small moment, before they changed back to his typical dark brown color. "I think about the family I'd like to start, about everything I'm gonna do that my dad never did."

"I think about all the places I want to go back to and explore," Lucky said wistfully. "I've been all over the world, but it's always been for missions. I want to go to hiking and swimming and climbing and all that touristy stuff."

"I think about what I would be doing in the world if I'd never been rescued," Lautaro said. "I try and think about how grateful I should be that I'm working here and not doing," he swallowed, "what I was doing before."

"I think about going back to Iraq," Quinn said. "Find my parents maybe, learn what my real name is. Get in touch with my roots or whatever." Percy crawled off Lautaro's lap and waltzed over to Quinn laying on his back. The black cat started to rub his chin on an edge of the agent's belt. Eventually Quinn picked the cat up and held him suspended in the air above him. Percy went limp and let Quinn use him like a toy airplane. "Maybe find God or some shit. Isn't that what people end up doing on a journey of self discovery?"

"That or explore their sexuality," Jinx shrugged.

"I think I'm good there," Quinn nodded. "I'm like... 70% straight."

Blitz quietly laughed to himself. "You can go looking for God with a capital G if you want to Quinn, but I don't think you're gonna find him."

"Or her," Jinx added.

"You're suddenly an atheist now Blitz?" I asked him.

The Englishman shrugged and took a sip of his coffee. "I dunno. What I do know though is that if there is a God, in heaven or on Earth, they're doing a pretty shit job."

"I dunno either," I breathed out. Next to me Adira drew her legs up on the couch and draped them in my lap. "I just think about the next day. My past sucked, and the future scares the shit out of me so I focus on the now, just try and get through day by day. Probably the survival instinct thing. Can't really seem to shake it." I turned to look over at Adira.

"Me?" She glanced around nervously at the group. "I uh, I think about you guys actually." I couldn't help the smile that tugged at the edge of my lips. "Just... being here. With friends." She mumbled the last part, knotting her fingers together.

"Hot Head?" Jinx looked at the agent on her right. "Last and least?"

My best friend chuckled, then leaned forward to pluck his beer bottle off from the long coffee table in front of the four of us. "You don't wanna know fangirl." He lifted the bottle to his lips, but Jinx didn't look deterred.

"Try me," she said.

Harrison sighed. "Alright fine."

"Harrison—"

"She asked Laurie," he shrugged.