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“Alright, everyone ready to hear the plan?” Brett asked, leaning over the floor plans of the mansion to look at the team. The crew settled down and focused on him, James and Aleks leaning back on the couch while Lindsey sat forward between them. Alec, Matt, and John standing around the couch.“Yeah man, been ready for hours,” Alec said, leaning against the wall. Brett rolled his eyes and flipped him off.“Alright, so we’re hitting the Pirate’s house. We’re one of five gangs going in as Geoff wants someone from each part of the syndicate there. Our specific job is to get into the pirate’s private office and take everything. Money, paintings, everything in his safe, knickknacks, basically anything not bolted down, we take. Geoff has provided us with the blueprints, as well as our tickets in. Cover stories and escapes are up to us, but Geoff has promised us that there will be a rather large distraction for us to make our escape with.” Brett passed the blueprint around, before launching into step by steps for the plan. “James, you and Aleks will be the first to enter. Here are your tickets, Mr. Richard Paragon and Mr. Sasha Vitalyevich. Alec and Matt, you two are on the staff and will have access to most of the building. Lindsey, you’re with me, Mr. Jack Parsons and Mrs. Christina Danforth. We’ll go in about fifteen minutes after Mr. Richard and Sasha. John, I need you to be our eyes and ears ok? You’ll have an in with security, along with a few other familiar faces. Your job is to let us know when we’re clear to leave and keep us from getting completely blown.”Brett handed everyone IDs with their pictures on them, along with their new names. Aleks made a face when he saw his, before looking up at Brett.“I hate this picture so much,” Aleks bitched before tucking the ID into his pocket.“Yeah, I figured you would,” Brett smirked at him. “Here’s the thing, all of us are expected to dress the part, wealthy and willing to take advantage of people. So tuxes, dresses, the whole nine yards. Oh and it’s a masquerade, so find your own masks.”“Alright,” Lindsey stood up. “The Fakes have given us a budget of sorts. We can only use covert weapons and such, they’re checking us when we walk in. No guns obviously.”Lindsey handed them each a small stack of hundred dollar bills. James and Aleks took theirs and passed it on to Alec and Matt, not needing the extra money. Both of them had been in the game long enough that they already had tuxes ready as well as enough covert weapons for their needs. “Alright, the heist is in three days, I don’t want to see any of you except for last minute checks. Grab your comms on the way out.”~~~~~“Well you clean up nice,” James said, pulling up outside of Alek’s apartment in his Aston Martin. “Of course I do,” Aleks climbed in, wearing a black tuxedo with deep navy and gold accents. “Good thing we always coordinate.”“Well, it helps when we buy our clothes together.” James glanced down at his own tux, a deep navy blue with a mix of black and gold accents. “You ready for this?” Aleks asked, slipping his earbud in and making sure all of his weapons were properly concealed.“Of fucking course man, it’s gonna be chaos in there with the entire syndicate going in at once. Why? You nervous or something?”“Just a bad feeling,” Aleks gave one last tug to his jacket before James pulled up to the Corpirate’s mansion. They both gave each other one more look before pulling their masks on, Aleks’ being a simple black one and James with a slightly more elegant gold one. “Well it’ll be fine, trust us all.” James touched his hand and smiled at him before straightening up and stepping out of the car. Aleks climbed out right after him, watching him toss the keys to the valet before following him up to the front of the building. There was a line of people waiting to be let in, holding the same invitations that James and Aleks had in their pockets.James and Aleks could see James and Elyse Willems a few people ahead of them and they were willing to bet that there was at least a few other members of the Fake Syndicate in the line with them. James slipped his arm through Aleks’, leaning in to whisper in his ear without drawing too much attention.“You ready for our plan to get up towards his office?”“Of course, are you,” Aleks whispered back, leaning back a little and pressing a kiss to his cheek and curling his fingers into the curls at the back of his neck.“I, uh, I,” James’ face was turning pink and Aleks smirked at him. “I’m ready.”“Good boy,” Aleks purred quietly before pulling back slightly from James but not before feeling him shudder.“Tickets please?” The guard at the door said, holding out his hand. Aleks gave him one of his winning smiles and handed over his own ticket, giving James a second to collect himself. He checked both of their tickets before handing them back and waving them through a metal detector. They both walked through with no problems, having done infiltrations like this with the Syndicate in previous years. As they entered the front room of the mansion they saw people milling around everywhere, and could make out about half of the syndicate already. Aleks took James’ arm and led him toward the stairs where he saw Bruce and Autumn.“C’mon let’s go mingle.” “Hello, I don’t believe we’ve met before. I’m Richard and this is my fiance, Sasha. You are?”“I’m Ben and this is my girlfriend, Winter.” Bruce wrapped an arm around Autumn’s shoulders and gave them a smile. “Pleasure to meet you,” Aleks played up his natural accent.“Ah, Russian.” Bruce nodded knowingly before slipping into business mode. “Are you here to buy or sell.”“A little of both,” James said, tilting his head. “You?”“We’re here to buy, however, I do have some people you can talk to if you’re interested in selling.” Bruce gestured for them to follow him, and they were swept away in an ocean of new contacts. After an hour they hear Brett and Lindsey’s voices come through the comms, and their internal clock started ticking. They know they have about twenty minutes before they need to get upstairs at least, the Fake AH Crew distraction being set to begin in thirty minutes. “Come dance with me,” Aleks says, taking James’ hand and pulling him toward the center of the room, where there were people dancing.“Alright.” James let Aleks pull him close. Aleks started leading him in a slow dance, keeping his eyes locked on James’. James found himself lost in Aleks’ eyes, and in his thoughts of their past and future. He pressed closer to Aleks and took control of the dance for a moment, spinning him out and then pulling him closer than ever before so he could whisper in his ears.“I’ve missed running jobs like this with you,” he whispered, barely moving his lips.“Me too,” Aleks whispered back, spinning back out and moving closer to wrap his arms around his neck, playing with his curls which had come loose from his bun.“Yeah, yeah, you’re both adorable and in love, please stop trying to have sex in the middle of the floor.” Brett’s voice came through their comms and caused them to jump slightly. They pulled apart from each other and flushed, eyes scanning the crowd to try and find Brett. “C’mon, let’s go somewhere more private,” James said quietly, lacing their fingers together and pulling Aleks off the dance floor. Aleks slipped into the role they had discussed, leaning against his side and laughing. The two of them slipped up the stairs, to the hall above the Corpirate’s office. Aleks started kissing the side of James’ neck as they walked up the stairs, making sure to keep a mostly closed eye behind them for any tails. They made it to their designated hall, completely unguarded as they expected. “Alright, we’re clear.” Aleks stepped away from James and took two steps down the hall to keep an eye and ear out while James picked the lock. James pulled the two decorations out of his bun, pulling off the coverings to reveal a set of lock picks. He knelt down and started working the lock after clicking off his comm and watching Aleks do the same.“So where the hell did you learn to kiss like that?” James asked, trying to keep the flush off of his cheeks.“Hmm? Oh, you know I don’t remember. Was it that good?” Aleks smirked, taking in the lines of James’ body and wishing for a moment that they weren’t just faking their relationship for the heist. “Shut up man.” James tensed up but finally clicked the door open and gestured for Aleks to follow him. They both clicked on their comms again and slipped into the room.“Alright Brett, we’re in. We’re going out the window in five.” Aleks glanced out the window they had chosen and swore quietly. “Alright James, it’s about 15 feet up and we don’t have any rope, you wanna do this the old fashioned way?”“Goddamnit,” James looked out the window and closed his eyes. “Why the hell do I always have to be the person to deal with heights? Why can it never be Brett?”“It’ll be fine James, I promise. Look at these curtains, they’re long and we can use them to get us a little lower. I can drop first and then you follow me?” Aleks grabbed one of the curtains and pulled on it to test the strength. When he was satisfied he tied a knot in the end for him to hold onto, and opened the window. “I fucking hate that plan,” James said, tying off the end of the other curtain and leaning over to watch Aleks go down. About half of the way down through James heard the sound of drywall cracking and watched with horror as the rod holding the curtain up ripped out of the wall. He lurched forward and caught the rod but not soon enough. He heard the unforgettable sound of Aleks hitting the ground as well as the sound of a bone cracking.“Aleks!” He whisper yelled as he leaned against the window. Aleks was laying on the ground beneath him not moving at all, causing James to jump into action. Ignoring his fear of heights he climbed out of the window, lowering himself down until he was just dangling from his fingers. He took a deep breath and dropped himself, managing to turn the straight drop into a roll.“Aleks,” James scrambled to kneel next to him. “Aleks, can you hear me?”“Ok, bad idea,” Aleks coughed out, letting James move him into a sitting position. “Shitty idea,” James agreed, glancing around. “You going to be ok until evac comes? I need to get Brett and Linds into the office.”“Yeah, go.” Aleks waved him in and held himself against the wall. He reached up and touched his comm, only to find it missing. “Fucking hell.” Inside the office, James managed to get the door open and take out the guard standing outside of it without attracting attention. As soon as the guard went down Brett and Lindsey appeared and helped him drag the unconscious man into the office. Alec and Matt slid into the room right behind them.“Why’d Aleks drop off comms?” Brett asked, pushing the door closed behind him. “Idiot fell and broke his leg,” James said, gesturing to the open window where Aleks’ middle finger popped up.“Ah,” Brett was clearly holding back a laugh. A few seconds later they heard the sound of an explosion from the front of the house. “Holy shit, the Fakes are insane.” James stared at the door for a second before they all started going to town on the office in earnest. James started pulling paintings off the wall, getting them out of their frames and rolling them together. Brett got into the safe, shoving everything into one of the bags that Alec and Matt brought. Alec went after the desk, Matt and Lindsey going after the bookshelf together.“How much time?” Lindsey asked, pushing books into a bag. Half of the books on the shelf were trashy novels and the other half were rare first editions. Matt was dealing with first editions, loading them into a box that was sitting in the office, being careful and making sure they weren’t getting damaged.“Five minutes until evac,” Aleks’ voice came from the window. Everyone moved a little faster, aware they needed to be out before anyone realized what was going on. As soon as James finished with the pictures he went after the furniture, carving into the seats of every chair and the loveseat along the wall, pulling out emergency funds that the pirate had hidden. They managed to get everything out of the office and out the window with a minute to spare, giving the go-ahead to John to bring the truck through the back hedges. “Well, with most of the mansion on fire they won’t notice us. Aleks, you’re with me in the back of the truck ok? I need the room to work on your leg.” James climbed out of the window with both bags as well as the rolled up paintings.“You got it boss man,” Aleks let James pull him up, taking one of the bags into his arm before wrapping his other arm around James’ shoulder. The truck pulled up in front of them, Brett climbing out of the window behind them and opening the doors to the truck. James helped Aleks in and got him settled first before helping the others load up the truck. “Alright, we’ll be out in 10,” Brett said, closing the door to the truck.“Ok, now let’s look at that leg,” James said, looking from the closed door to his injured partner.“I can’t believe I busted my leg, but you looked like a badass when you came down to save me.” Aleks had his eyes closed and was leaning against the wall of the truck.“You must be high as hell on pain, we need to get you something for that soon.” James knelt down on the floor of the truck, poking at Aleks’ leg and then pulling off his jacket. “The syndicate better pay us well for this job, we need new suits.”“Hey James, James, Jamie,” Aleks leaned down and poked at James’ head until he looked up. “I liked fake dating you.”“Aleks, I’m gonna stop you before you say something you’ll regret.” James tried to cut off Aleks but he just kept talking.“No no no, you don’t get it. I think you’re really great. You take care of me, you’re my best friend, and you’re a really good kisser.”“Aleks,” James flushed and finished tying the brace around his ankle before sitting up and looking at his face. “I think you’re great too, but I won’t say anything until you’re not stoned or injured.”“Fine,” Aleks closed his eyes again and leaned against the wall. James hesitated for a second before moving next to him and pulling him down to his shoulder. Aleks fell asleep rather quickly, leaving James to hold him close and think more about their future.