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an-amalgamation-of-things · 3 years

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Castles and Secrets

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For Alex Rider All Things Nice Week 2021 - Day One: Fluff

The August Bank Holiday Monday was the perfect time to take Alex to the beach, Ian decided. Any other time, the vast crowds that would be expected to descend on the beach would have been off-putting, but they would be perfect cover to lose the two MI6 trails that had been assigned to him as protection. Of course, Alan Blunt hadn’t mentioned them to Ian. He understood the reasoning - he was a spy and criminals wouldn’t take the fact that he was on holiday with his nephew as a reason to leave him alone - but he needed them to not follow them once they got to the beach. They were going to meet up with someone and it wouldn’t be good if MI6 found out about it.

It was a gloriously sunny day, and by the time they had driven the two hours to Clacton-on-Sea, the beach was packed, as he expected. He parked the car and paid for the day’s parking before emptying the boot of all of their gear. He’d packed a couple of rucksacks with towels, suncream, buckets and spades, extra clothes and food and water.

Weaving their way through the crowd (to any onlookers, it would just look like he was trying to find them a spot on the sand, but he was actually expertly losing themselves in the crowd so that their trails couldn’t follow them), Ian led the way to the far end of the beach where the waves splashed against the rocks at the base of the cliffs. They had been climbing before, and Alex was a natural. He was steady as he made his way confidently from rock to rock, even though they were slippery in the sea spray. It didn’t take them long to clamber around unseen to the private beach on the other side of the headland. The owner of the house up on the clifftop had been thrilled to learn that this house came with a private beach. Of course, it was more useful for the quick escape route (not that it had ever been needed) and the easy surfing access, but having a quiet sandy beach also had its perks… especially on a day like today when Ian and Alex were visiting.

The man was waiting for them on the beach, and Alex leapt down from the rocks and began running towards him, jumping into a hug. It had been a while since they had last seen each other, and Ian knew that Alex wasn’t the only one who had been looking forward to the day - they all had.

“Yassen!” Ian heard Alex shout gleefully as he ran.

“Hey buddy!” Yassen exclaimed as he picked him up, laughing joyously as Alex threw his small arms around his neck. He staggered dramatically in a circle, carving a wide, jagged circle into the sand with his bare feet. “How is my godson?” he asked, resting his forehead against Alex’s.

Alex pulled back to eagerly look at Yassen’s face, his baseball cap flying off his head as he did so. Yassen deftly caught the falling green hat, placing it back onto Alex’s head and affectionately flicking at one of the red dinosaur spines that decorated the top.

“I’m so excited! Can we see the rockpools like last time? I want to find a shark!”

“I’m not sure sharks can fit in rockpools, bud,” Ian chuckled fondly, moving over to greet Yassen himself. “But maybe there’ll be a crab?”

Alex nodded thoughtfully before asking “Or a baby shark?” with an endearingly hopeful tone of voice as Yassen placed him down carefully into the sand, which was already warm beneath their feet.

“A baby shark is much more likely than an adult,” Yassen agreed. “But I do have a different surprise for you today!” he exclaimed, his eyes filled with anticipation. “Can I get a drumroll please?” and Ian and Alex both obliged by slapping their thighs with their hands and stomping their feet. “How would you…” he paused for dramatic effect. “Like to learn to surf, buddy?”

Alex gasped with delight. “Yes please!” He had watched Ian and Yassen taking turns surfing while the other played with him on the beach for years, and always begged to have a go. They had taken him out on their own boards, but he had never been allowed to go out on his own. He watched, legs trembling in anticipation, as Yassen ran to his equipment store and pulled out an Alex-sized surfboard and a brand new wetsuit.

“Wow!” Alex exclaimed as Yassen drew close. “Thank you!”

“You’re very welcome! It is my duty as your godfather to give you presents,” Yassen said with a smile, ruffling Alex’s hair. “Come on, let’s show you the basics.”

He already knew the correct stance from when they had taken him on their own boards, but he still had to learn how to popup once he was catching a wave. They began on the shoreline, correcting his stance and posture, before venturing out into the water. They started in the shallows, with Ian and Yassen taking turns to pick waves and helping Alex catch the smaller waves, by pushing his board onto them and shouting their encouragement. As with most things, Alex picked up surfing like a duck taking to water, and Ian and Yassen were both bursting with pride as they watched him.

They stopped for lunch, a brightly coloured parasol shading them from the rays of the midday sun. Once they had eaten and reapplied suncream, Alex was eager to get back in the water.

“You’ve got to wait for your lunch to settle down, Alex,” Ian said. “Let's do something on the sand for a bit.”

“Alright,” Alex agreed, pouting slightly but not putting up too much of a fuss.

“We could build sandcastles or play with a frisbee or go rockpooling or-” a glint formed in his eye as he spotted something towards the far end of the beach “-we could build a dam!”

“Yes! I want to build a dam!” Alex shouted enthusiastically.

“I thought you might,” Ian said laughing. “C’mon little man. I’ll race you!” he challenged. Alex took off running down the beach while Ian grabbed the rucksack with their buckets and spades before he and Yassen chased Alex towards the stream that ran down the beach. They caught him up quickly, and Yassen hoisted him up onto his shoulders as they continued running.

“Hey! Put me down!” Alex protested, half-hearted and laughing.

“Alright,” Yassen agreed, pulling Alex off of his shoulders and instead cradling him in his arms like a baby.

“No!” Alex squealed, still laughing, and wriggling until Yassen put him down. They all reached the stream at the same time, and began working on building a dam. With the three of them working together, they managed to build an impressive dam, and watched with interest as the water built up behind it.

“Oh no we’ve got a leak!” Ian shouted dramatically as he pointed at the place where water was slowly, although increasing in speed all the time, eroding through the wall of sand and beginning to flow down towards the sea.

“Quick, Alex! Or the whole dam will burst!” Yassen added quickly, grabbing a handful of sand to plug the gap whilst Alex did the same.

“Whew, good job, bud!” Ian and Yassen both commended Alex once they had stopped the leak and the dam was working properly again.

“Can we build sandcastles next?” Alex asked after they had sat admiring their efforts for a while.

“Of course we can,” Yassen said, hoisting Alex (who didn’t complain this time) onto his shoulders, blissfully unaware of what his guests had planned, and striding back across the beach.

Back under the parasol, the three of them began to fill their buckets in readiness to build sandcastles. Ian and Alex had devised a plan earlier in the car, and once their buckets were filled with compacted sand, they put it into motion.

“Now!” Alex screamed, barely able to contain his laughter, tackling Yassen to the ground, to which he only put up a mock protest. Alex and Ian made light work of covering him in sand, and then turning one of the buckets over, leaving a sandcastle on top of Yassen’s chest.

“You can’t move now, or you’ll destroy the sandcastle and that will make me sad and Ian said that it is your duty as my godfather to make sure I’m never sad!”

“Well if Ian said it, it must be true,” Yassen replied agreeably, casting a quick look in Ian's direction which promised later retribution. Still, he rested his head back on his hands on the sand and allowed Ian and Alex to continue building their epic sandcastle on top of him. They worked diligently, determined to make this the best sandcastle that any of them had ever seen. After about ten minutes, Ian announced that he was going up to the house to get some drinks, leaving Alex to continue covering Yassen in an ever-growing mound of artistically placed sand. Passing through Yassen’s back door, Ian immediately swept up Yassen’s key and exited the building onto the street, turning sharply left as he walked briskly towards his destination.

***

Alex was humming to himself as he continued to pile sand over Yassen’s body. The regular thwack thwack thwack of the spade against the grains was oddly soothing. Yassen lay with his eyes closed, his world tinged green by the dinosaur hat that Alex had placed over his face a while ago. Whenever he opened his eyes, he squinted at the tiny pin-pricks of light blazing through the eyelets in the top of the cap, trying and failing to make out any details of the world beyond. The stitching on the hard peak was making his nose itchy, but when he had moved his hands to scratch it, Alex had quickly told him that he wasn’t allowed to see his masterpiece before it was finished. He worried for a second about the little boy burning before remembering that he would be mostly shielded by the parasol.

“How’s the castle looking, buddy?” Yassen asked, careful to stay very still so as not to cause any damage.

“It’s good! It’s very wide now. But it needs some decorations!” Alex stood up and started walking away.

“Hey!” Yassen called, perhaps a little too sharply, causing Alex to freeze in place. “Remember to stay away from the water, please.”

“Yes, Yassen,” Alex replied, resuming both his search and his humming, putting Yassen’s mind at ease. At least his humming and footsteps meant that Yassen could hear where he was, and knew that he wasn’t wandering too far.

After several shells and who knows what else had been pressed into the sandcastle, each accompanied by a satisfied murmur, Yassen heard the distinctive slap of flip flops approaching them.

“Wow Alex, that sandcastle is magnificent!” called Ian’s voice from some distance behind Yassen’s left shoulder.

“Thanks,” Alex replied, giving the sand a final pat with the flat of the spade. “I just need to add the flag and then I think it’s done!” he said enthusiastically.

“It’s just in the front pocket of the bag,” Ian said.

The little feet padded away and Yassen heard the zip of the rucksack being undone, and Alex came back over. He knelt down next to Yassen’s right ear and he could hear the sand parting as the flag was pushed in. Yassen was about to ask whether he was allowed to see the masterpiece of a sandcastle when the cap was abruptly removed from his face.

“Happy birthday to you,” Ian and Alex began to sing.

Blinking against the harsh sunlight whilst still trying not to move, Yassen made out the shape of a Colin the Caterpillar cake complete with lit candles, as well as a camera being pointed at his face. His birthday wasn’t for another two months and for a split second he wondered whether Alex had really been building his sandcastle for that long, before reason took over. His look of genuine surprise, which only lasted for a moment, was captured by Ian’s camera and then he waited in that awkward, quiet way that one is supposed to when being serenaded until the boys finished their song, at which point he quickly blew out the candles.

“Hooray!” Alex cheered. “Cake time!”

“May I request permission to move, young architect?”

“Only after Ian has taken photos,” Alex replied seriously.

Yassen complied, shooting yet another warning glare at Ian. The pair both knew just how dangerous these photos could be. It was a good thing that Ian was the one person Yassen could trust. Alex made them take an array of photos, with smiles and funny faces, and insisted that Ian swap places with him so that he could get some with Ian in too. After a couple of shots taken using the timer so that all three of them were in the photo, Alex finally removed the flag and gave Yassen the okay to get up. With a look at Ian to make sure he was ready to take a couple more photos, Yassen prepared to launch himself out of the - admitidally beautiful (it almost seemed a shame to destroy it) - sandcastle, grab Alex and tickle him as his retaliation. Unfortunately for him, Alex had done such a good job that it was a lot more effort for him to get out of the sand than it should have been; instead of simply leaping up into the air and shaking the sand off of himself, Yassen had to burrow out, throwing the sand aside with his hands, and he made a mental note to never let Alex build such a large sandcastle on top of him again, just in case. Alex, meanwhile, had found it hilarious, and was doubled over in hysterics as he watched Yassen struggle to escape the huge mound of sand.

Once he was free and the cake had been sliced and plated up, and Alex was busy picking at the chocolate shell, Yassen turned to Ian. “Thank you for the cake, but why is it my birthday today? You know it’s in October.”

Ian levelled him with a look. “Of course I do. But who knows where either of us will be then. Alex was so eager to celebrate with you in person for once and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. Besides, who would want a birthday party on the beach in October when you can have it in August?”

Yassen laughed and had to agree that Ian had been right. The day had been absolutely perfect!

***

A few weeks later, Yassen was sitting on his sofa when he heard the post being pushed through the letterbox and landing with a much heavier thud than usual. His mind instantly heading to the worst case scenario, Yassen ran into the next room - all of the walls were reinforced to provide more protection in the event of an explosion - to take cover. When he heard no further sounds after a couple of minutes, he grabbed his tablet off of the table beside him and checked the security cameras. He could see a box addressed to Mr Jacob Twitchit in large, scrawling handwriting and instantly relaxed, knowing who the sender was.

A long time ago, he and Ian had decided that they needed to use cover names if they sent anything via the post, just to avoid attracting unwanted attention; the name they decided for Yassen was ‘Jacob’ - one of the English diminutives of Yasha, with the surname ‘Twitchit’ as a nod to one of Helen’s favourite childhood stories which, coincidentally, was one of Alex’s favourites too.

Slicing open the tape and opening the box, he curiously peered inside to see what he had been sent. It was a book. He pulled it out and turned it over so that he could see the front. It was titled Castles and Secrets and had a photo of the sandcastle that Alex had built, without anyone visible in the image on the cover. It had been designed to look like a book detailing old castles and the secrets that they held, with a blurb on the back and the title and authors name (A. I. Rider) printed on the spine. Yassen instantly noticed the initials and knew that this was going to be no ordinary book.

Opening it, he saw that it was a scrapbook filled with photos and handwritten notes from Ian and Alex from their visit a few weeks ago. The photos were stuck down with an assortment of stickers of sharks, dinosaurs, cartoon characters from his favourite shows and other animals. There were pictures that baffled him as to how Ian had taken them; photos of Alex surfing with them in the background and the three of them building the dam, as well as the ones that Yassen knew about with the sandcastle. Taking a closer look at the photos, Yassen deduced that Ian had had a camera set up in his bag to get the shots throughout the day. His heart swelled with joy as he turned each page and remembered the happiness of that day. In his line of work, days like that were rare, so it was always nice to have one in such recent memory, especially if Alex was involved.

Although it wouldn’t have looked out of place amongst his other books on one of his many bookshelves, Yassen hid the scrapbook in a concealed, fireproof safe (it wasn’t worth the risk of their association being found out) before ringing Ian on their encrypted line. He knew that Ian was in the country, and not on a mission at the moment, and Yassen wanted to thank the both of them for such a thoughtful birthday present that he would cherish forever.

#Alex rider #Ian rider #yassen gregorovich #alex rider series #alex rider fanfic #alex rider fanfiction #Alex rider all things nice week 2021 #ARNiceWeek #Jemima's fic #Jemima posts

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