I will always love you

Chapter 16

"I wanna eat." Alex said suddenly, getting bored of just sitting and it has only passed half an hour. "Let's go Yassen! You guys wanna come?" Alex decided, standing up and pulled Yassen up with him. K-unit and the other Riders tagged along, they all noticed his attempt to hide his flinch. "What do you wanna eat?" Alex asked Yassen as he latched onto two of Yassen's fingers, pulling him to encourage him to walk. "What do you recommend?" Alex looked at Yassen, as if studying him would cause the answer to pop out.
"Do you guys want anything in particular?" Alex asked the rest that was following along and received a negative in response. Alex pondered for a bit before he changed direction abruptly and headed towards the travellators - it's a flat surface that inclines and moves like an escalator, it just doesn't have steps! Just for those who don't know. Yassen realised Alex had released his hand during the process but it doesn't matter to him. He knows Alex is uncomfortable with the idea that so many people knows already.
"Where are we going?" Eagle asked.
"You'll see and you are going to like it." Alex led them down a few levels and to the kopitam- it's a place where there are many different individual stalls, it's a very wide variety but generally in that one big space, there is always food and drinks and dessert. Alex handed K-unit and his family each a $50 note, saying it should be more than enough and to go around to take a look to buy whatever they want to eat. Alex pulled Yassen away before his family could say anything. A few walks back and forth from one end to the other, Yassen settled for some fish ball noodle soup that Alex had insisted would be good and Alex bought Korean food - kimchi soup.
It was a miracle that all 9 of them could find a spot to sit together. "What the hell is that?" Eagle asked when he saw Alex's food, it was all red and looking very very spicy. "Wanna try?"
"Is it very spicy?"
"To me it's not..."
"Then no thank you, whatever you say is not spicy is gonna be spicy and if you say it is spicy then it's the end of the world." Eagle said quickly.
"You know, just because I say it's not spicy doesn't mean I can't taste the heat. It's just that my tolerance for spiciness is high." Alex said, drinking the soup with the long metal spoon.
"But ours is not, mind you."
"Come on, just give it a try." Alex encouraged, pushing the tray towards Eagle. K-unit tried to stifled their laughter. They all knew Eagle has the least tolerance for spicy food with Snake and Fox being a little bit better at tolerating, then Wolf and Alex being the master of the master. When Eagle finally gained enough courage, he quickly took a little and sipped it. "It's so spicy." Eagle hissed, biting his tongue in hopes it would stop the burning sensation. Alex grinned at Eagle's reaction before lifting a bottle of ice cold water he bought just before from the seat beside him and handed it to Eagle. He took a greedy gulp and kept some in his mouth to cool his mouth. "You planned this!" Eagle said as he swallowed the water.
"Great job for figuring that out." Alex said dryly, pulling his tray back.
When they finished they headed back and Alex received a text from Collin saying the plane is ready. "What was your actual mission?" Wolf asked as they travelled up the levels.
"What made you think that whatever I told you wasn't the actual mission?" Alex asked, turning around to look at Wolf. "For starters, MI6 wouldn't have allowed you to blow your own cover."
"They can't do anything about it." Alex said.
"You always complete your mission no matter what so you wouldn't blow your cover for this. You would have thought of something else." Snake deducted, Alex's lips pursed into a smirk as he turned back around to step off when they have reached the next level.
"... '6 received intel that John, Helen and Ian was caught. I was closest, I was in Dubai finishing some things, so yeah. I got send in to check if the info was accurate. If it is, rescue them and get out. Simple." Alex finally revealed when they neared the plane and both the pilots joined them. Alex send the pilots a look and they nodded. "What was that look about?" Ben asked as he plonked down in his seat. "And what are the two of you doing here?!"
"Alex is the pilot now not us. We're off duty." The engines swirled and soon it got a speed where Alex pulled the throttle and the plane started moving and it lifted off the ground soon. Collin went to check on Alex an hour later, he opened the cockpit door and glanced in before shutting it. "What's with that face you're pulling?" Travis asked as Collin sat down.
"He is doing it again."
"Doing what?" Yassen asked, sitting up to get ready to go into the cockpit to look for Alex, worried.
"He is always distracting himself with some paperwork when he can put the plane on autopilot and relax." Collin answered and the cockpit door opened, Alex walked out and rummaged for something before pulling out a laptop and heading back in, not uttering a word to anyone and not even glancing at anyone. "Don't go. He wants to be alone. He wanted to fly the plane only because he wanted to be alone. Maybe Yassen can go but no one else can. Wait for it. Maybe he'll give a signal or something." Yassen twitched, wanting to see if Alex is alright. Why are you working yourself so hard?