wanted most - tracob

eleven

Jacob stood painfully, following Agent Owen and the other agents to the door. Much to his surprise, Adam was pulling in behind the other agent's vehicles. Jacob pretended to huff, "Oh joy, more harassment."

Agent Owen chuckled, and then nodded to himself as the other four agents came around from the back of the house. One of them called out, "Absolutely nothing. Doesn't seem like anyone has been in those woods for ages."

"I go in there all the time," Jacob scoffed. "What are you talking about?"

"Ignore Agent Bixenman," Adam sighed. "He's always grumpy. Just... you can go on your way. Sorry you had to come all the way out here for what I'm guessing was nothing? He won't let you bug his house, right? That's Jacob Bixenman for you. He doesn't need help from anyone, ever."

Jacob shrugged and all the other agents chuckled. Agent Owen gave Jacob a slight wave, "Sorry for intruding... it was Tran's orders. Have a good day, Agent."

All of the other agents loaded back up into the vehicles, and Adam and Jacob slipped back into the house. The moment the other agents were turning around and their vehicles were disappearing down the road, Adam was in front of Jacob, "How did you do that, where did you hide him?"

"I didn't..." Jacob croaked.

"What?" Adam shook his head. "What are you saying?"

"He hid himself," Jacob whispered. "Outside of the house. He... he's not here."

"He..." Adam's jaw dropped. "You let him escape. You let him escape?!"

Jacob simply blinked at him in return, crossing his arms. It wasn't like he'd wanted Troye to escape. In fact, he thought he could trust Troye. He still did trust Troye. Surely the boy would be back. Adam lunged forward to grab Jacob's shoulders, and from the hall a voice protested, "Hey, he's hurt, don't."

The two agents whipped around to find Troye standing in the opening to the hall. Adam's eyes nearly bugged out of his head, and Jacob gave a surprised bark of laughter, nearly darting forward to hug the younger man, "Where the hell were you hiding?"

"Climbed an evergreen tree back there," Troye motioned with his thumb. "When I saw the agents leave I climbed down and climbed in through Jacob's window. I hid in his closet and listened to you all talk to make sure it was safe. I'm a bit offended, Agent Bixenman. You didn't trust me!"

"That's... how did you..." Adam shook his head.

"Adam," Jacob sighed, motioning to Troye. "You are in the presence of the thief who avoided us for over a year. Are you seriously questioning how he hid from the agents? He's Troye Mellet."

The dark haired agent ran a hand over his face, "You could have escaped. You could have just ran off and never came back."

"Well I told Jacob I would..."

Adam made a spluttering sound, "Right. You told Jacob you would. That makes sense. Okay. I'm just... I'm going to go question everything I ever learned in training."

Troye gave an awkward shrug, "Sorry... so Jacob... more pain meds?"

"I think I'm good," Jacob replied.

Troye nodded, but walked forward past Jacob and Adam to pick up the plates they'd used, "Funny... you think they'd have noticed that you had two plates sitting on your table when you were all by yourself."

"Maybe they just thought I was a slob," Jacob chuckled. "Or maybe they just suck. Their lead agent is probably on rest like me. He actually got shot whereas-"

"Yeah, let's not talk about that," Troye announced, scooping up the plates before he flaunted from the room and into the kitchen. Adam was gawking at the boy, and he made a gurgling sound as he heard the sink turn on.