Wow, so I wrote this when Slingshot was aired, but I never got round to publishing it. This is actually my first fanfic for TAG, so leave a review! :)

As usual, thank you so much to my awesome friend Anna, who read and checked this through for me, so I didn't end up posting it and looking like a complete fool, and for coming up with the title for me! You rock! :)

Of course he knew he shouldn't have done it: staying up for Movie Night the night before, and then agreeing to the challenge of staying up until dawn watching film after film which then turned into Truth or Dare, but without the truths and Tracy Dares always had been legendary. Shoving open his door, Alan blinked at his bed in utter disbelief.

Granted, he had taken to sleeping on the floor the past week but that was only because he'd been trying to catch up on work (sure, maybe he said he was doing work when his brothers were out on rescue, but that didn't mean he was actually doing that - nope, he was simply monitoring his siblings' progress.) during the night and then he had ended up falling asleep on top of his work.

That had been stopped as soon as John had realised what was going on (his older brother had this annoying habit of popping up in Alan's room when the youngster was least expecting it - it scared the life out of him to suddenly hear John's voice right beside him).

Needless to say, it had been carefully passed from brother to brother until Smother Hen No.1 (aka Scott) had heard about it and had forced Alan to rest properly - some rubbish about how Alan was not fit to fly Thunderbird 3 unless he was actually focussing properly. Still, Alan had gotten into the habit of sleeping on the floor, so he had just crashed out there, and had then woken up on a bed that wasn't his - it had actually scared him for a moment, before the cool idea that could he have actually really teleported there had cropped up...until he'd realised that a certain older brother was pretending not to be watching him in concern, but was actually inwardly freaking out. Not that Alan could blame Scott - his older sibling was irritatingly over-protective of them all and to anyone other than John who already knew Alan slept on the floor, it would look like he'd collapsed there. Which he hadn't, obviously. But Scott had thought he had.

But now staring at his bed in some sort of mute horror, as if he had just walked into one of those weird mirror halls that made you look as if you had grown another head, the reason it looked like he was going to spending another few hours on the floor of his room was completely different. He honestly couldn't remember dumping all of his stuff on his bed earlier, in his rush to get to the TV before Gordon could take over the sofa, claiming it for himself.

"Great," he muttered, yawning, before dropping to the floor and resting his head on his arms. Surprisingly the floor was quite comfortable and he could feel sleep claiming him within a couple of seconds...or was it minutes...and then he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

There was an irritating voice he could hear calling his name in the distance.

"Rise and shine little brother..."

Why couldn't John shut up for once? Oh yes, Alan had noted the evil glint in his brother's eye when he announced they had a rescue in the middle of the night, something which Virgil found particularly annoying. The middle Tracy was definitely the hardest to get out of bed, closely followed by Alan, and John always attempted to sound that stupid siren in their rooms first.

Rolling onto his back, Alan draped an arm over his eyes, trying to hide from the light with another groan. He really couldn't be bothered to get up. Of course he loved to fly his Thunderbird, and was overly protective of 3, like they all were of their individual birds, not liking to let another fly them, but it was too early for this sort of thing.

"Ugh, John, what time is it?" Alan groaned, everything seemed too bright. Geez, he missed being able to just sleep. Sleep was good. He liked sleep. Ah, yes...sleep.

"Time to suit up, you're going to space."

And he said it like it was a good thing? But then again, his eldest two brothers did have seriously creepy sleeping habits. Getting up at the crack of dawn each morning? Nope, it was an agreed fact between Alan and Virgil (not so much Gordon - he also got up the minute light began streaking across the sky, flinging himself into the pool like he was some kind of mutant goldfish) that their older brothers were just plain weird. Seriously, they actually genuinely scared Alan.

Still, in typical teenager style, he attempted to buy himself more time. Which, combined with typical Tracy stubbornness, meant that he was going to refuse to get up. This was a godforsaken time in the morning which shouldn't even exist anyway, so there!

Yawning, he glanced over sleepily at the holograph of his brother. It was kinda weird to wake up and see your older sibling floating in mid air right next your face though, who could blame him?

"Aww, John, just five more minutes?" He whined pathetically, yawning again. Honestly, sometimes saving the world could be so inconvenient!

Nope, John really wasn't going to let him get away with that one, he thought with a sigh. John gave him an evil grin, smirking as he hit a familiar red button up on Thunderbird 5. A couple of seconds later the screeching sound of a siren pierced the air, with an ear-splitting volume.

Alan let out a yelp, leaping to his feet, still half asleep. God, Johnny was going to pay for that later!

(At that same moment, John was laughing on Thunderbird 5, with EOS watching in confusion, wondering if her creator was alright or not. John gave up on trying to explain to her that in a matter of seconds, he had gathered plenty of blackmail material on his younger brother. Ah yes, he could have fun. Because Alan would really not want Kayo to find out he had just made a very undignified and un-masculine squeak.)

"Okay, okay!" He yelled hurriedly, wincing from the alarm that appeared to be attempting to send him into the realms of such headaches he never ever wanted to experience.

"I got the message," he groaned, managing to get to his feet without tripping over the frayed edge of carpet. Heading for the nearest door, he blinked, trying to wake up, and failing miserably.

Huh? He opened the door, frowning as he realised with growing confusion all he could see were empty hangers...and a couple of older spiders webs - probably best not to tell Virgil about them - his older brother got seriously creeped out by the eight legged fiends, something which provided Alan with the best entertainment ever! It was even better than when John had discovered it was Scott who'd stolen his chocolate, and had come up with the best revenge ever. It was AWESOME (even Gordon had admitted that).

"Alan," John told him gently (his younger brother never had been one for mornings). "That's your closet."

"Ah, whatever," Alan yawned, shrugging at his brother as he finally managed to open the right door and stumbled into the lounge, where Brains was sitting, watching MAX intently.

"Alright," he yawned again, still trying to figure out what Brains, or specifically MAX, was doing. Giving up, he turned his attention to John who was waiting patiently for him. "What's the...hang on, is that a...coffee maker?"

Brains looked proudly at MAX as Alan continued to stare in bemusement at the scientist's robot. "I engineered MAX to produce sixteen different types of hot beverages." He frowned, taking a sip as MAX spun round to face him. If a robot could look anxious, Alan thought to himself, then MAX had proven that.

"Hmm, still a little...over extracted," Brains commented and MAX drooped slightly. Alan shook his head, glancing back over at John, raising an eyebrow at his older brother, as if to say: 'Seriously? You got me out of bed to look at a lump of rock?'

'Yup, and it's an asteroid, not an lump of rock,' John seemed to signal back. It was probably kind of scary that Alan could guess what his siblings were thinking, but having grown up with them his entire life, it would probably quite...weird if he couldn't.

"You're looking at the Asteroid 21-" Alan zoned out. He knew John would send everything he needed to know through to Thunderbird 3 anyway, so he just focussed on waking up.

"It's all so tragic. That's my favourite asteroid." Brains commented sadly and Alan looked up sharply, struggling not to laugh at his friend.

"You have a favourite asteroid?" He asked incredulously, ignoring the warning look he was receiving from John.

"Of course Alan!" Brains exclaimed, as MAX turned from Alan to his creator again, like he was trying to read their minds. It was kinda creepy. "Asteroids are extremely interesting."

Alan gave him a 'you cannot be serious' look and then heard a squeak from his space bound brother, who he promptly turned to look at. Oh god, now they were all going insane!

Luckily for John, it was only Alan who heard him laugh. Hastily trying to cover it up, he turned to face EOS, who attempted to throw a bagel at him. She really was not helping the I am trying not to laugh situation.

Interesting? Was he kidding? Alan thought, staring at Brains in surprise, hiding the grin that was threatening to emerge across his face. Do. Not. Grin. Or laugh for that matter. Or giggle...wait, what the? No, he had not just thought that. Alan Shepard Tracy does not giggle! That's a girl thing!

"Err, right..." Alan nodded hurriedly, and leant back in his seat, folding his arms behind him. "How many on board?"

"Just one," John reported and Alan zoned out again, fascinated by the way Brains seemed to be genuinely upset about the asteroid. It was only John's question that made him look up:

"Are you cool with that?"

Cool? Getting to fly his own Thunderbird on an actual mission? Was John kidding? He was more than freaking cool, he was practically a penguin. Or a killer whale. Yeah, a killer whale sounded way cooler.

"Sure," he replied. "With everyone else still helping with that tunnel fire in the Pyrenees, I'm guessing this will be a solo mission?"

Then he shot his brother his best 'this IS going to be a solo mission, ok?' look. John stared back, and Alan glared at him, until Brains spoke up again, having apparently regained his composure over the asteroid. Thank God.

"Not advisable," Brains told him. "You'll need an extra set of hands in case something goes wrong." He leaned forwards and patted MAX. "I'll gladly volunteer MAX. He'll do great in the desolate unforgiving vacuum of space."

MAX shot up like a rocket, shaking violently, with a terrified buzzing. Alan watch him in amusement, raising an eyebrow. John struggled to stop laughing again.

"Ah, thanks Brains, but..." He glanced at the trembling robot to his side. "I'll be fine solo," he finished and MAX stopped shivering, clearly relieved.

Standing up, Alan went to head towards the hidden entrance to the rocket's hanger when someone landed next to him, causing him to jump slightly.

"I'll go with you," Kayo told him.

"Kayo!" Alan exclaimed. "You will?" He realised he sounded a bit like an overexcited puppy dog and backtracked desperately as his friend raised an eyebrow. "I mean, err, that's cool."

It was only when he walked into his room later that day that he realised he'd totally forgotten to clear his bed. Time for yet another night on the floor, he realised with a sigh. At least he wasn't burnt to a crisp, like Grandma's cooking. Ugh, he shuddered, that would be disgusting, and he knew she would be making some 'delicious cookies' as a reward for...for what actually? Being alive? Cos, you know, he was pretty glad about that part too.

He knew that his older siblings weren't actually going to let the matter rest, he'd seen the worry in their eyes. Typical smother hens! Thank God Scott had actually let him go to bed (or rather the floor) without insisting Virgil gave him a full medical.

Yawning, he flopped down on the floor.

It only seemed to him to be a few seconds later that John was half yelling in his ear, as had come their tradition of waking him up now. Still, anything apart from that damn siren. Anything! (Apart from Gordon's singing!)

"Rest time's over hot-shot!" His brother's voice echoed in his ear as he looked at the youngest Tracy fondly. "We've got a rescue."

It was one of those days when saving the world wasn't inconvenient, Alan thought to himself. Because to be honest, flying out and knowing he'd saved someone's life - well that was the best feeling in the world, including the proud gaze of his brothers when he got back. Then he promptly stopped thinking that, deciding that was way too deep for a teenager to be thinking at that time in the morning. Or was it evening? Hmm...

"FAB!" He replied, leaping up and heading over to his closet.

Grinning as he saw John about to say something, he laughed.

"Just kidding!"

So, how was that? Please tell me, because I have other ideas in my head, but I'd love to know if I've got this okay first before I write them down! Although somehow I suspect the plot bunny won't let me get away with ignoring the ideas...

Anyway, review?

Kat x.