It came as a news flash, but winter was cold. Kyle didn't usually have trouble with temperature, but as they waited in front of the palace of Avignon, the silly French song about the bridge right in front of them playing on repeat inside his head, he had to admit he could do without the chilling wind.

Next to him, the others huddled up in their jackets, shivering. It had snowed heavily the night before, and even if it had stopped, the sky was still clouded and the light of morning barely made it through. The break of dawn had come with a chilly mist that seemed to be seeping into their bones. And to make matters worse, Billy was nowhere in sight.

"Where the hell is Billy," Jimmy mumbled. "I'm freezing my ass off."

Jerry opened his mouth, probably to comment on the language, but closed it after a giant puff of vapour came out.

Sur le Pont d'Avignon

On y danse, On y danse

"Do you think anything happened to him?" Jessie muttered into her hands.

"I hope not," Jerry said. "Should we call him? Should we go in?"

Sur le Pont d'Avignon

On y danse tous en rond

"I want to go inside the castle," Tina said. "It's so beautiful."

"Beautiful is a bit of a stretch," Kay retorted. "Huge and impressive, yes."

Les beaux messieurs font comme ça

Et puis encore comme ça

Les belles dames font comme ça

Et puis encore comme ça.

"Kyle?"

"Huh?" he turned to the others, finally getting the song out of his head.

It was horrible. He didn't even know why he still remembered the lyrics. He'd had a weird night anyway. He'd never shared a bed with anyone, so he'd been in a half-awake state, just to make sure he didn't knock Jessie out of bed.

"Should we wait for Billy or go inside?" Kay repeated the question.

He opened his mouth to question why she was asking him this, but then remembered he was actually supposed to be the leader. God, he wanted Sam back.

"I say we wait another ten minutes. It's still early." And they were hanging out there all day anyway, because he honestly doubted they'd find anything by taking the tour. The only reason they were going inside was to see what they were up against. They'd be breaking in during the night and checking properly.

The others nodded and returned to shivering. The fog and the wind really weren't helping and Kyle hoped Billy would be getting there soon. The mist turned into frost on his lashes, making it hard to see.

"Jerry, I'll race you to the corner and back," Jimmy said all of a sudden, jumping up and down.

"Race me?" Jerry raised his eyebrows. "You want me to run in these extremely heavy winter boots through snow reaching my knees? You have got to be joking."

Jimmy next turned to Kyle, and he had to admit running didn't sound like a good idea to him either. "Just keep hopping around." He turned a worried eye to Jessie, Kay and Tina as he said this. If Jimmy was so cold, he could only imagine how bad it was for them. Though they were taking it a lot better than his hopping brother.

Fortunately, a figure appeared from the mist and headed for them. Kyle crouched, picked up a handful of snow, and morphed it into a snowball.

"Hey, everyone," Billy said with a huge grin. "How are you on this merry day?"

Kyle threw the snowball at his face and it splashed right into his mouth. "This is how we are. Cold and tired of waiting around after your ass."

"Kyle!" Jerry said immediately, but then heaved a sigh. "What's the point? It's not like any of you actually listen. Maybe Sam."

"Sorry, Jerry," Jimmy said with a guilty smile.

Billy wiped the snow off his face, but not the grin. "So you want a snowball fight? Bring it on!"

"Not the best time," Kay said, raising her hands. "Let's just go in and get out of the cold."

Billy pouted. "I miss Sam and Tom. They're the fun ones. Well, Tom at least."

Kyle rolled his eyes and nudged Billy towards the entrance to the castle, more than grateful that he didn't decide to bring his girlfriend along. It was bad enough that he started talking about her immediately. Kyle tuned him out and focused on the castle. He agreed more with Kay. It was too big and too hollow to be beautiful, but it was impressive, with weather-worn limestone walls and ramparts piercing the grey sky.

Once inside the massive entrance hall, Kay and Jessie headed for the information booth to get tickets. Kyle looked around, both a little freaked and grateful that the place was large with a lot of dead space rather than cluttered. It would be easier to search it.

His eyes trailed from the elaborate arches on the ceiling and stopped on Tina. She had taken her phone out and was taking pictures, a warm, happy smile on her face. He'd never seen her like this before, with excitement surrounding her rather than that permanent air of mild awkwardness. The way her lips quivered as if she was trying to stop smiling but couldn't, the glint in her eyes...

Kyle elbowed Jerry.

"Ouch, what?" he asked, rubbing his ribs.

"Look at her." Kyle nodded towards Tina.

"Yes, she likes it here, she's..." Jerry's words faded as he focused properly on his girlfriend.

Tina twirled around, her arms spread out, silent laughter etched on her face. And she suddenly looked younger, calmer... more like them. Jerry's expression went from surprised to a tender smile, and Kyle was shocked by how much he could look like Jimmy at that moment. That and the fact that with this one look, it was clear as day that he loved her.

"Beautiful," he breathed.

"You should go tell her that."

Jerry nodded absently, but then shook his head and seemed to snap out of it. "Now's not the time to lose focus."

"I'm your leader and I order you to lose focus for the next five minutes." Kyle nudged him towards Tina. "We'll be here all day anyway."

Jerry gave him a sheepish grin and finally headed for his girlfriend. Kyle turned away from them, deciding to give them some privacy. Nope, not at all. It was more him not wanting to look at couples at the moment because it got him longing for Kay and he needed a clear head.

"Huh," Jessie said, coming up to him and handing him a ticket. "I guess there's hope for her yet."

"Don't be mean," Jimmy said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Kyle itched to grab Kay too, especially since she'd stopped right next to him, so close he could feel her even if they weren't touching. But he didn't and he couldn't and damn this leadership thing to hell and back and to hell again.

"I'm not mean. I just said there's hope for her."

"True. And just so you know, I can see the effort you're putting into this and you're simply amazing." Jimmy nuzzled his nose against her cheek, bringing a huge happy smile to her face.

Kyle fought the impulse to groan. "How long will the tour take?"

"About an hour," Kay said. "We booked a guide, too, so that we can get a general idea of what's going on here."

"You do that," Jimmy said, planting a kiss on Jessie's temple. "Kyle and I will keep a look out for more practical things. Like inaccessible areas, surveillance rooms and staff quarters."

"Why don't you take over?" Kyle mumbled.

"Why?" Jimmy asked with a laugh. "Are you turning into psycho-Sam?"

No. He just really, really, really wanted to be himself and wrap his arms around Kay and nuzzle her and just go along with doing what he had to do, no responsibility involved. Instead, he braced himself and joined the others on the tour of the castle.

The most of it was just like the entrance hall - large, impressive... utterly empty. As they went from room to room, it became increasingly harder to keep on track and focus on the functional side of the palace. Once the impressive arches on the ceiling were replaced by paintings in vivid colors, he turned into a ditzy tourist. It was amazing. And he enjoyed every minute of the tour until he realised, as they were left in front of the gift shop, that he'd been completely sidetracked.

"That was breathtaking!" Tina said, her cheeks flushed with excitement. "I'm going to buy a guidebook." And she rushed inside the giftshop.

The others just stared at each other, everyone shifting nervously.

"We need to do that again, don't we?" Jimmy asked.

"Probably," Jerry answered with a sigh. "I'm sorry, but I've never traveled much and visited..." He looked around. "Places like this."

"New idea," Kyle said, eying the giftshop vendors who wore a similar uniform to the staff. "We infiltrate Jerry as new staff and he can find out where the surveillance room is. Then we switch Jerry and Jimmy up and you can shut it down."

"Wait, what are we doing again?" Jerry asked warily.

"Searching for the stone while the castle is empty," Kyle answered. "What? Did you think we'd find it on a tour?"

Jerry bit his lip and shuffled his feet in a way that showed he hadn't really thought about it. "But that would be breaking and entering."

"Jerry," Jimmy said with a laugh. "I'd be surprised if that turns out to be the worst thing we have to do to find this thing."

"That's actually an awesome idea," Billy piped in. "We're not tourists, we're agents. So let's get this show on the road. I'm going back in."

"Be my guest," Kyle saida waving towards the entrance.

Billy grinned and offered Kay and Jessie his arms. "You guys coming or what?"

"It's best that we split up. We'll wait for Tina," Kyle said. "Jerry, go look for staff uniform."

Jerry grumbled, but followed the others back inside the castle. Jimmy watched him disappearing and turned back to Kyle, a worry crease between his eyebrows.

"Wanted to share something with me?"

"No." He hadn't really thought who went with who as long as Jessie and Kay were together and safe.

"I think we shouldn't be pairing up when we split up. Because you're the only one I can entrust this to for now." He fumbled under his hoodie, most likely in one of the pockets of the vest he had under it, then pulled out two black watches.

"Is this the thing you've been working on with Steve?" he asked, taking it and studying it. It surprisingly looked like a normal, automatic watch rather than the electronic variety, with hands and dials and everything.

"Yes. And it's a prototype. I only have these two and they're not even fully functional. I only programmed the gps and panic codes on it."

"Panic codes?" Kyle took off his watch and put the new one on. It was surprisingly light and molded to his wrist perfectly.

"I've programmed color codes." Jimmy moved next to him and started pushing the four side knobs in a two-by-two combination. The dial blinked green. "It only blinks green for safe and red for danger. When it blinks red, the other watch gets a gps signal so I can tell where you are."

"Show me."

"I'd rather not. I'll give you the combination, but avoid using it unless you really have to. Danger code sends a shock to the other watch to make sure you don't miss it."

"So if I want to shock you, I just push these buttons?"

"Don't," Jimmy warned, pointing a finger at him. "This is serious."

Kyle felt the burning desire to shock Jimmy just for the shits and giggles, but reminded himself that he was leader and had to behave. So he just nodded like a boring good boy and started off on another tour of the castle with Jimmy and Tina.

❄❄❄

I liiiiiive! Sorry I'm a little late but it's still Friday so it counts! So yes, the mission begins in a huge castle that was once full of popes. The French song is actually a kiddy song.

And Kyle is having a damn hard time with this leadership thing and trying to be responsible. Will he crack? Or will he grow and become a very proficient leader? Find out in the exciting next part of this chapter which is just as short.

Fun fact: The pope moved from Vatican to Avignon somewhere in the 14th century, in a time where France was a political power not to be messed with. Of course, this was a jab at the English because whoever had the pope on their side, was considered far more powerful and entitled in the name of God. Needless to say this didn't work out very well and the pope moved back tongue Vatican.

Vote comment and... yeah, that's all I have.