#ALEX FOR ONCE IN HIS LIFE TRYING TO NOT BE A SARCASTIC ASSHOLE ABOUT SOMETHING

[innytoes]

Hello, can I request 14. Every time I come home there are more tiny pumpkins everywhere and it’s driving me insane from your autumn prompts list, with Alex being the one who's being driven insane? - @michelangelinden

Also for @floating-in-the-blue who asked for Willex + 14

Listen, it wasn't like Alex minded the way all his friends seemed to go insane about fall every year. He was used to Luke pouncing on him whenever he saw someone had placed a pumpkin at their front door, hollering 'it's decorative gourd season, motherfucker'!. He thought it was cute that Reggie, Flynn, and Julie did a Pumpkin Spice Latte Grand Tour to find which coffee shop had the best one. (Even if he always needed to call for backup when they came to the studio full of seventeen small PSLs worth of caffeine.)

He helped Reggie and Carlos hang up their ghost lights in the studio, he complimented Mister Molina's wreath on the door, and he quietly wondered why everyone seemed to be celebrating the start of flu season. Still, he didn't want to be a killjoy over something so harmless. He had way better things to be a killjoy about.

So when the first pumpkins arrived in his apartment, he didn't even notice at first. They were clustered in a little group of three on his coffee table. It was right after The Great Pumpkin Spice Latte Disaster Of 2022, so he almost managed to convince himself that maybe he'd put them there himself. Despite his best attempts (and because Luke and Willie were no help) they'd dragged him to the dollar store. Reggie kept adding fall and Halloween themed stuff to their basket, even though they said they just wanted some snacks.

He'd tried to put them back discretely, but clearly some had come home with them. Maybe he'd taken some home with him.

But then more pumpkins arrived. Another three, clustered on his book shelf, next to his favourite cactus, the one Willie called Alex Junior. One on his nightstand, on top of the book he was reading. Three lined up on the top of his ancient not-that-flat-screen TV. One in the soap dish in his shower.

It would be cute if Alex didn't live alone.

Reggie was the only one who had an emergency key, but Reggie swore up and down that he hadn't broken in to keep leaving tiny pumpkins at his place. In fact, at the anxious look on Alex' face, he carefully asked if Alex was okay and if he wanted Reggie to sleep over or something.

He almost said yes, but somehow that made his whole 'tiny pumpkins keep appearing in my apartment and I'm worried I might be axe-murdered by an evil Halloween spirit or a serial killer who has a Tiny Gourd Fetish' anxiety feel more real and grounded in reality. It probably wasn't that. It was probably just Luke playing a prank or something. Right?

He was fine. Totally fine. It wasn't freaking him out or anything.

But then one day, he came home, to find Willie perched on top of a stool on top of his coffee table, carefully trying a pumpkin on a seethrough string to his ceiling fan.

"YOU!"

"Hey, Hotdog!" Willie said cheerfully, finishing up his handiwork with a flourish before hopping down.

Alex spluttered at the lack of guilt. "You... how... you don't have a key!" Not that he didn't want his boyfriend to have a key. He was waiting for their anniversary in a few weeks to ask him to move in with him, okay? He had this whole romantic date planned.

"Babe, you think I need a key to get into your apartment?" Willie asked. "That's so cute." He came over and pressed a kiss to Alex' cheek. "Do you like it?" he asked, making jazzhands at the now seemingly floating pumpkins above his coffee table.

"I just... why?" was all that would come out of Alex' mouth.

"Because you love the season so much," Willie said. "But you never decorate or do anything for yourself. I wanted to do something special for you."

"I don't... I- okay." The fact that Willie had gone through all this trouble just to do something to make Alex smile made his heart hurt. He pulled Willie close, kissing him thoroughly.

"I love it."

Maybe he did like fall a little after all.

[froggywritesstuff]

Blow Us All Away | Philip Hamilton (Chapter 9)

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8,  Part 10, Part 11)

‘Letters’

The tension during the carriage ride was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Thomas' words were replaying in Alexander's head and Y/N had no idea how to help.

'You're nothing without Washington behind you,'

"Ignore it." was all Y/N said.

Alexander just scoffed, already knowing what Y/N was talking about, "Easier said than done."

Y/N rolled her eyes, "Dude, he's an asshole dickhead who doesn't know any better." she explained, feeling the confused stare from the carriage driver.

Alexander stared at her for a minute, "He's an asshole or a dickhead?"

Y/N threw he hands up in frustration, "Both!"

Alexander laughed quietly, smiling at Y/N.

"Besides," she began, "You won fair and square. He just had to turn to petty insults that don't mean shit."

"You're a good kid, Y/N." Alexander grinned, not even phased that a woman younger than him was using foul language like that.

"Thanks," Y/N smiled.

"You did good in there by the way," Alex complimented.

Y/N stared at him confused, "You don't think I shouldn't have spoken?"

"Not at all, someone had to shut Jeffer-shit up."

"I see why you hate him so much."

"Well... hate's a strong word, Y/N."

Even just thinking that made Alex cringe.

"Not for you, it's not." Y/N laughed.

Alexander smiled at Y/N, "You know... you remind me so much if your father."

"How?"

"He never gave a shit about what anyone thought."

As Alexander began listing off all the memories of Y/N's father, something finally dawned on Y/N.

"The bank took my house didn't they?"

Alexander sighed, which was all Y/N needed to confirm her suspicion.

"When were you gonna tell me?"

Alexander ran a had through his hair, "Eliza and I were going to tell you earlier tonight."

Y/N wiped away a tear she didn't even know was there.

"Y/N, we tried everything we could to save it,"

"So-so what, this whole thing was just a way to deliver the news easier?" Y/N demanded.

"Well, yeah," Alex began earning a scoff from Y/N, "Y/N, we just didn't want you to be upset."

"Well your plan is going wonderfully," she retorted sarcastically.

"We know how hard everything has been for you," Alex paused, trying to read Y/N's expression, "With Philip leaving for college, your dad dying, your house-"

"You can stop listing sad details of my life, Alex, I get the picture!" Y/N interrupted.

Alexander gave an apologetic sigh, "I'm so sorry, Y/N."

This time Y/N sighed, "I know. I understand you were just trying to help me. And today was a good distraction."

"Well, I'm glad watching me kick Jeffer-shit's ass was entertaining."

Y/N smiled, bringing her knee up on the seat and wrapping one arm around it, "Jefferson can eat a dick, if you ask me."

"Uh... ask anyone actually," Alexander laughed, "Well, you should see him and Madison."

"No!" Y/N gasped dramatically, as if she was gossiping with a friend at a sleepover.

Alex nodded, "Honestly, you should see them at work, they're so sickly in love." he half joked.

"Aww," Y/N laughed.

As Y/N and Alexander laughed and spilled the tea, the carriage driver was once again confused, and possibly rethinking his life choices.

—————

When they arrived home, the two jumped out of the carriage, aware of the unlikely friendship the two had formed.

Y/N walked inside the house, confused as to were Eliza was.

"Don't worry," Alex reassured, knowing she was confused, "Betsy's just outside."

Y/N nodded, before running down the hall to the backdoor which led to the garden where Eliza was working.

"Eliza?" she called, which was followed by the sound of Eliza calling out to Y/N, notifying where she was.

Y/N ran over toward her, being greeted by her warm smile.

"How was it today?" she asked.

"It was actually really fun!" Y/N answered.

"I see you're quite surprised." she chuckled.

"Well I thought it was gonna be a bunch of boring politics, and we got there and there were like, no women," Y/N ranted, "Utter bullshit."

"Language." Eliza scolded, only half joking.

"Yeah, and then they started arguing, and I got really mad with Jefferson, but then Alexander won! Like, I was so surprised."

"Oh, don't tell me you're a Jefferson hater too." Eliza mumbled.

"He's a dick!" Y/N quickly covered her mouth as soon as she said it.

"Language!" 

"Sorry," Y/N muttered.

"But Y/N, if you all you and my husband are going to talk about now is Jefferson, I won't make it until Christmas."

Y/N laughed, when Alexander's voice came from inside, asking for Y/N.

"Sorry, Eliza, I gotta go,"

Y/N ran back inside, being greeted by Alexander who was in the dining room, roughly going through some papers in his hands, before handing them to Y/N.

"Would you mind taking up to my study and putting them in my desk drawers?"

"Sure," she said, taking them from his hands, before coughing, "Ah, child labour,"

"Oh, hush," Alex whispered as Y/N ran up the stairs.

She ran down to the end of the hallway where Alex's study was.

She walked up to his desk, carefully opening the drawers.

As she placed the papers inside, the writing on another letter caught her eye.

It looked like nothing, but Y/N was still drawn to it.

'I probably shouldn't look at it,' she thought as she grabbed the letter and looked at it.

'Dear sir, 

I hope this letter finds you in good health, and in a prosperous position to give wealth in the pockets of people, such as me, down on their luck.

You see, that was my wife that you decided to-'

"What?!"

Y/N sprinted out of the room, shut the door and ran down the hallway, where she ran into Alexander.

"Y/N, is everything alright?" he asked, concerned for her.

Y/N glared at him, her grip on the letter tightening, "How could you?!"

"Y/N, what are you talking about, what's wrong?" he asked, extremely confused.

"You tell me," Y/N demanded, shoving the letter in his face.

Alex's face went pale, "Where did you find this?"

"Doesn't matter," Y/N hissed, "What matters is, that you cheated on-"

"Stop! Y/N, please," Alex whisper shouted desperately, before grabbing her arm and moving to his study, "I know this is confusing, but just please don't say anything."

"It's not confusing. No, it's actually pretty clear! You're an asshole!" she whisper shouted. She couldn't even begin to think how she would ever forgive him, but she didn't exactly want everyone to know, eventually leading to the whole family being broken apart.

"I know, but you have to understand, I just wanted to help her!"

Y/N just ignored his words, going full interrogation mode, "When did this happen?"

Alex thought for a moment, running a hand through his hair, "1791, I think."

"And you still haven't told her?!"

"I've tried Y/N!"

As Alex continued to beg and plead, Y/N sighed and sat down in the desk chair, "You better tell her soon, Alexander. Eliza is one of the kindest and most amazing women you've ever met - I don't care who else you've met, she's the most amazing."

"I will tell her, Y/N. I promise."

"Good."

With that, Y/N left.

—————

The next day, she woke up. More accurately, Angelica woke her up.

"Y/N, Y/N, wake up!" she sang, jumping around her bed.

"Why?" Y/N groaned, slamming her head back onto her pillow.

"You got a letter." Angie whispered in her ear.

"From?" she mumbled.

Angelica ran around to the other side of Y/N, whispering in her other ear, "Philip."

Y/N shot out of bed, her sheet falling to the ground. She was ready to sprint down stairs, when she faced Angelica, "Are you serious?"

"Yes," she laughed at Y/N's antics, "Mama's got it downstairs!"

Y/N hugged Angelica, before sprinting off downstairs.

At the bottom of the staircase, she was met with Eliza, holding the letter out with a smirk on her face.

"You got up fast," she remarked with a smile, holding the letter out to Y/N.

"Uhh," she mumbled, her voice resembling a squeak from a mouse.

Eliza laughed, passing the letter to Y/N, "Go on."

Y/N smiled ear to ear, "Thank you!" she cried, before running back upstairs.

Y/N ran into her and Angie's room and jumped on her bed.

"Open it!" Angie cheered.

Y/N grinned, tore open the letter, and began to read, "My dearest, Y/-"

"Would you like some privacy?" Angie cut her off with a grin.

"Angie!" Y/N gasped, trying to hide the blush on her cheeks. Angie just raised an eyebrow at Y/N, "Would you?"

Angelica laughed, before skipping out of their shared room.

Y/N took a shaky breath to pale the bright blush on her face, before reading the neatly written letter in her hands.

'My dearest, Y/N,

My tenderness, my happiness, what words can I write for you?

How strange that although my soon to be life’s work is moving a pen over paper, I don’t know how to tell you how I love, how I desire you. Such agitation — and such divine peace: melting clouds immersed in sunshine — mounds of happiness. And I am floating with you, in you, aflame and melting — and a whole life with you is like the movement of clouds, their airy, quiet falls, their lightness and smoothness, and the heavenly variety of outline and tint — my inexplicable love.

I cannot express these cirrus-cumulus sensations.

You are the only angel in my heart of heaven. 

Aaaand, that's my special way of saying that I love miss you more than any words can describe and I'm counting down the days until I can see you again.

I hope you haven't gone insane living with my family - especially Angie -  for the last couple weeks, and I hope you're not missing me too much.

Not much has been happening here at college. I've made a few friends (in an attempt to distract myself from how much I'm missing you).

Now I'm running out of things to write, so once again, I love you, I miss you and I can't wait to see you again!

Love, Philip H.'

taglist: @acupnoodle @vermilionrr

[hamihamstik]

idk what the fuck did i do to yeah get ready for visual cancer and my bad writing.

´´John, that's enough! ´´ claims an annoying Alexander, a 17-year-old boy who attends Columbia University, this boy had charming eyes of a blue color combined with violet and a curly hair dyed a strong brown that He could almost look red, not forgetting his beautiful freckles which were scattered all over his face. He had to admit that he was very feminine and his height and body did not help, he was very handsome among women and men although he denied it. Taking her hands off his insistent boyfriend, John, the ones that only managed to scare him.

And it was October 31 and instead of going out to party with the boys or the Schuyler sisters, he could even stay with Gil or George and Martha but no, he had decided to stay with John in his apartment, to watch movies, taking advantage of his parents and siblings are not there.

Serious mistake.

You're a coward. . .''John jokes, continuing with the pinches that distract the freckled, in his attempt to pay attention. They were watching the Japanese version of ´´The Aro´´ and the truth is that Alex was on the verge of a heart attack, he was not good at horror films, although he had a masochistic taste for these types of films.

´´John, seriously. . .Y-stop! ´´ he asks in a not so convincing way, noticing how the blond's hands begin to slip through his clothes. Alexander knows that they are alone and that they will probably do "that" to take advantage of the time together; he resists anyway.

deep down he liked that Laurens wanted more of him.

Come on, you know the end. They all die, '' he whispers in Alex's ear and although he knows he is right, his hoarse and excited voice is what disturbs him.

In less than he expects, he's already got John on top of him and he's collapsed on the bed in a struggle actually. . .not so forced. And that although he does not want to admit it, Alexander likes that rude and daring side that he rarely showed and despite that, it was ´´Jack´´ who started this type of encounter, mostly to commit indecent acts and explore the joys of sex.

´´ Why don´t you stop Lex? ´´ jokes John with a little impatience and his cock is too erect. ´´oh! I don't know, maybe it's because I have a fucking fear that a woman will appear from the TV and kill us? ´ 'Alex sarcastically responds, with a small blush peeking out of his freckled cheeks and managing to get a small laugh from both of them. Listening to Alex's melodious laugh, for John it was music to his ears, but, if he had known this was going to happen, he would have put him in one of those 80's movies, with those he hadn't had any problems the last time.

"It doesn't matter, we'll fix it," he says, smiling confidently and pulling his pants down on his embarrassed and sarcastic boyfriend. Leaving those slender and shapely legs in sight.

He didn't need his dick to lift anyway, as long as he loosened it would be fine.

´´J-jack, u-hm. . . ” Alex gasps when he feels Laurens's tongue brush against her belly button in circles, as his hands venture up his thighs, spreading them wide open. In the background you can still hear the screams of the horror movie.

Movie that they will never finish seeing.

"Do you like it?" Jack asks between gasps and his cock about to burst. He had spent minutes preparing hard the contracted entrance of his dear boy, who would not stop panting and letting out moans that made him lose what little patience he had. ´´Y-yes. . I think I'm ready," he announces to which John, instantly, unbuttons his pants. Releasing his aching erection.

´´Ngh. . . Alex´´ John moans hoarsely against his ear, at the same time that he aligned his cock in his tight entrance, without waiting any longer, the blonde enters suddenly, drawing a groan from both of them at feeling so complete. It didn't take long when he began to thrust into his ass, as the sound of the bed and their sexual release filled the room. For a moment, none of them feel the noise of the film anymore. They are both gone in that dance of sweaty bodies that invokes pleasure and to which they have become addicted without knowing how.

Until something rings.

´´What was that? ´´ asks Alexander to the busy John, who doesn´t even flinch at the loud sound. He is still very immersed in his work of going out and going into the depths of his being.

A second noise is heard.

'' John. . .´´ Alex insists, starting to get really scared. It sounded like knocks, coming from the first floor. ´´Alex, for the shit stop squeezing me ngh !. ... it must be a fucking bird crashing into the window.´´ he tries to calm him down, feeling how his member is compressed against his insides, every time the freckled body tenses.

"What if he is your father?"

The blond's face pales at the horrendous possibility.

"Shit, get dressed!" He says, completely leaving his entrance, and then running off to get their clothes. He throws Alex's clothes at his face, ordering him to stay in the room and for no reason leave there, until verifying if he is his father.

He doesn't know about their relationship, nor that Alexander is in the house. . His presence of him there would be something very annoying to explain.

(…)

The minutes pass and John does not return, Alex begins to worry.

´´John? ´´ he asks once in the kitchen, he chosen to go downstairs anyway. They had spent several minutes without knowing anything about her boyfriend and now she was really scared

He walks towards the front door. . .

It's open.

. . .

With a little chill through running her body, he quickly goes to the kitchen for something to threaten his possible aggressor. He takes a knife, but since he does not consider himself a murderer, he decides to exchange it for a large meat grinder. At least with this one he could take down the possible intruder, before escaping.

Alexander, barely breathing, creeps into the house. There is no noise in it and no sign of John. So, drawing courage from him, he does not know where, he goes outside through the backyard door, where the entrance to the shed can be seen ajar.

A stain of what appears to be blood can be seen on the door of this and causes the freckled young man to collect his heart. Then, shivering and tears streaming from his violet eyes, he enters desperately.

´´J-jack? ´´ he asks with a shaking voice and gasping for breath. He does not see the blond, because it is very dark. He advances looking for the wall switch and then. . .

Then he steps on something that made his blood run cold.

´´AHHHHHHH !! ´´ he yells when he steps on something similar to a body, then realizing that it is just a very battered scarecrow. He breathes a sigh of relief and luckily for him, he finally finds the light switch.

He turns it on.

´´AHHHHHHHHHH !!!! ´´

Alexander runs terrified of the place before what he saw. A shed full of blood-red stains and something that looked like guts scattered on the floor, but what had scared him the most was the dark cloak one that he could make out at the bottom of a corner.

It was that of a person.

. . .

Alarmed, he enters the house and without being able to reach the bathroom, in the kitchen dishwasher he begins to vomit. His body trembles and tears of deep pain fall from his eyes, as he thinks about the possibility of what he saw spread across the walls and floor. . . was his jack

-Hey, don't you think we went out of line?-

-Shut up dumb.-

-oh god, I can't anymore.-

-It was your idea, I'm just following you, asshole! -

-my idea?, it was Ben! -

-Don't blame me for his perversions, when Alex finds out he's going to hit us with that butcher's machete.-

Three young people comment on their joke while hiding in some bushes, unfortunately, precisely the ones facing the kitchen.

(…)

'' Shit, we're more than screwed. . .´´ are Benjamin's words as he sees Alexander open the bushes, revealing his hiding place. His face overcomes what is anger. His eyes are still red from crying and his serious gesture is one of complete hatred.

And he still has the machete in his hand.

"B-ben, weren't we going to the party?" Hale asks Benjamin, who nods nervously, because he knows that if they don't get out of there. . . . they will go very badly.

Alexander although he seems a weakling, but he has strength.

And a machete.

´´y-yes´´ supports him ´´ well dude. . . take care! ´´ Benjamin says goodbye, slapping John on the back, in an attempt to give him support. Although rather, it is a gesture of condolences to his sexual life.

Tonight someone was going to stay without fucking.

(…)

´´Alex,. .hey. . .´´ He tries to get closer to the redhead, taking care that the minor does not split his head.

´´NO! ´´ Alex jerks away from the arm that is trying to take him. "DON'T TOUCH ME, YOU'RE A DAMNED IDIOT!" He shouts angrily, trying not to give her the satisfaction of seeing him break into tears.

Although he was already doing it.

John, like few times in his life, feels bad about the things that

he does. And he had never seen Alex like this.

Crying as if his life were lost on it, and with so much sorrow in his eyes.

This time,

He messed it up.

´´Alex, sorry. . .´´ he whispers and makes a second attempt to get closer, which this time, if it seems to work. His dear boy is so sad and hurt that he does not resist when John embraces him, pulling him close to his body. ´´ I already told you I'm sorry, I'm fine. . Come on, don't cry. . .´´ he tries to calm him down, stroking his back and giving him small kisses on his face full of small salty tears.

'I-I thought you were dead. . .I-I saw all those things and. . .´´ Alex tries to speak but only starts crying again. John, feeling like the worst beast in the world, accompanies him in bed. Laying him on his bed and settling aside to caress his face, guiltily, until he stops crying. Spreading kisses down his cheeks, which were now red as was his nose.

´´J-john no. . .'' Alex tries to stop him when he sees him approach his lips to his face, with the intention of kiss him. ´ ´I v-vomited´´ he confesses ashamed, hiccupping from crying.

´´ I don't care, it's okay. I can clean you with my tongue. . .´´ John insists, speaking flirtatiously to make him laugh again. He likes Alexander who usually laughs, who cries in this way hurts him, and more to know that it was his fault.

´´Stop your nonsense. . . . Can we sleep? ´´ asks what Laurens, trying to control her sexual / depressive urges, nods.

He would have to stay with it this time.

They both snuggle up, covering themselves well with the blankets and giving each other a couple of kisses before going to sleep.

A noise is heard again

Alexander, snuggled against Jack's chest, looks up. John, annoyed, decides to ignore the sound similar to that of a while ago.

Again he is heard again.

These idiots. . .´´ he complains, taking his cell phone to give Benjamin's life sermon. When he answers him, he receives exactly that.

-Hey idiot, are you retarded or what? Stop with your shit or seriously I'm going to kick your balls, and until they come out.

But it is not Benjamin who speaks, it is more, nobody answers. The music of the party is not heard either. Only someone's breathing can be heard in response, so terrifying it makes John hang up the phone and throw it to the ground as if on fire.

´´What's wrong? ´´ asks Alex, calmer now. Jack was a little pale. And is that John, had already heard that noise. He heard it when he stood at the entrance of the house, when he went out in search of what was generating that annoying blow, and then ended up meeting his friends and playing that stupid joke for which he now feared that the freckled man would really hate him.

"It's nothing, let's go back to sleep." He replies, trying to convince himself that it must be another stupid joke of those two. Alexander closes his eyes quietly but John cannot sleep, any noise alerts him. He has a bad feeling.

´´ What's wrong, can't you sleep? ´´ asks Alex, noticing how his Jack moves too much on the bed. . . "no. . . .i have a little insomnia" he confesses, not wanting to terrify him with the chilling thoughts of him.

Where there was still someone in his home.

´´ Me too´´ Alex mentions as he snuggles deeper into John's arms. "Do you want to fuck?" Asks the blonde, to which Alex just laughs. "Jack, don't think I forgot the joke," he replies to which John huffs, frustrated, assuming there really wouldn't be sex today.

´´ although I am surprised that they were so detailed with all that of the blood, guts and that dark suit.´´

´´What a dark suit? ´´ asks John, not remembering that in the plan.

´´the one with the disguise, the dark cape.´´

´´ There was no dark layer .´´

´´ but I saw someone at the back of the shed.´´

. . .

This is when John is more alarmed than before.

And when another noise is heard, this time they can both notice

Which is from a window on the first floor. and that this time they will not be able to see the light of a new day.

Morning news, yesterday October 31, two bodies were found on 123rd Street, because of the atrocious way in which they were murdered, they could not recognize them, however, thanks to our best police officers, we now know their names. John Laurens and Alexander Hamilton. we recommend not leaving the house while we still do not catch this man.

On tv there was an image of the murderer of that couple.

who could say that John Andre's jealousy would lead him to commit such an atrocity.

[jckelly]

updated intro / jack 101

Is that JACK KELLY? Wow, they do look a lot like VAN MCCANN. I hear HE is an NINETEEN year old FRESHMEN who are studying AEROSPACE ENGINEERING  at Luxor University. Word is they are an ARISTOCRAT student. You should watch out because they can be PHILOPHOBIC and INSINCERE, but on the bright side they can also be WITTY and IMAGINATIVE. Ultimately, you’ll get to see it all for yourself. [YUNI, 21, GMT, SHE/HER]

 the other two got updated intros n rat man felt left out

basics

full name: jackson noel kelly 

nicknames: jack (does not answer to jackson)

date of birth: december 25, 2001

zodiac: capricorn sun, leo ascendant, sagittarius moon

nationality: dual uk and us citizenship

sexual orientation: straight but will try anything once

course: aerospace engineering

appearance

faceclaim: van mccann 

voiceclaim: van mccann

ethnicity: white (english, irish)

height: 5′8 / 173cm

weight: 58kg / 127lbs

eye colour: blue

hair colour: brown

distinctive features: freckles (many), left ear pierced, scars on his wrists usually covered by long sleeves, northern english accent

clothing preferences: jack prefers to only wear black, or at a push grey, although he’s slowly improving and will Occasionally mix it up with ... navy. his style is pretty basic, usually just a sweater, jeans, and beat up black converse or doc martens depending on how emo he’s feeling. the sheffield united hoodie makes an appearance every time someone forgets precisely which uk city jack is from. 

personality

overview

positive traits: witty, imaginative, perseverant, passionate

negative traits: philophobic, disloyal, insincere, callous

mbti: entp

religious beliefs: atheist

description

the first side most people see of jack is the side he wants you to see. a total asshole. it’s not an exaggeration - he’s pretty much infamous for flirting with everyone, dating anyone and as a serial cheater. he’ll actively try to worm his way into your life, and then just when you start to care, he does something to hurt you. he’s strangely persistent, probably helping him to push people even further, until they snap. there is nothing which satisfies him more than managing to wind people up to the extreme, get them to the point where they give up. adopted parents, friends, nobody is immune to this side - he even tries it on the people he genuinely cares about, as if just to see if he’ll still be able to push them away.

the second side, which most people don’t see, is that at heart jack is a kid. he’s the type of person to ask if owls have ears at 3am, or get some childlike joy out of dumb jokes. of course, this is the side nobody but a very small number of people see. and even if you do see it, it never lasts long. he keeps his true personality under wraps even amongst those he does like, and it only slips out if he’s extremely comfortable with you. otherwise, he’ll go straight back to being a sarcastic, flirty piece of shit.

biography

jackson noel kelly was born in hell on ironically christmas day to his father satan......

jk

jack and his older half brother finn were born in sheffield, united kingdom, to a single mother. a drug addict, she was notorious among social workers for neglecting her children and as a result jack shuffled between foster homes and his mother’s home during his first ten years of life, with finn, less than four years older than him, being his primary carer even when he was back with his birth family. this cycle finally ended when jack was ten and he was permanently removed from his mother’s care, and placed in the first of a series of foster homes which didn’t last particularly long.

the thing was, jack’s remarkably good at pushing people away when he wants to, and as he got older his talents only increased. running away, wreaking havoc, insulting anyone who tried to get close and anything else he could possibly think of meant that for three years he lasted no longer than eight months in any one place. in fact, he frequently took himself back to live with his birth family until social services came to drag him out again. this lifestyle continued until he was fostered by his now adopted parents, claire and george, at thirteen.

much to jack’s dismay, no matter of hell raising would push these newest set of parents away. in fact, they seemed absolutely set on raising him as Their Son, even as his attempts to get them off his back got more and more extravagant. they removed him from his previous school, transferred him to a fancy private school, put him in therapy and tried their best to help him get through all of the issues developed through his slightly fucked up childhood.

the thing was, jack loves his mother. he still refuses to see her as being in the wrong, no matter what people tell him or what he himself recalls, in his mind he has one mother and that’s his birth mother. so he did not take kindly to attempts by his foster parents to become his “new” family, because in jack’s mind? he already had a family. and even though they were actively encouraging him to continue contact with his brother, he couldn’t help but see them as trying to replace his birth family.

jack’s fifteenth year pretty much became the year when all of these issues finally came to a head. he was adopted legally by his foster parents, who had now been fostering him for two years - which should have been a happy occasion, but for jack represented the final loss, the final betrayal to his birth mother and brother. then shortly after his fifteenth birthday his brother went to prison at eighteen for grievous bodily harm, having glassed another boy after an argument.

of course, it would later be revealed that in actuality the assault had been committed by jack. and that finn was simply covering for him. (they looked alike enough that questions were not raised, it had happened so fast.) but in the eyes of jack’s adopted parents, finn was now a dangerous offender and jack had to be protected from him. so he was then isolated from his brother, his mother had relapsed and his continuous guilt over being adopted played on his mind, culminating in a suicide attempt in march 2017. 

of course, he wasn’t successful, but this was the final straw in the minds of his adopted parents. they felt jack needed a fresh start, away from the people who had defined his life prior to that point. so by his sixteenth birthday, jack had been moved to the united states to be near the family of his adopted mother, and subsequently enrolled in luxor academy. 

where he continued to be a menace :))

although it did appear, for some time, that jack was showing signs of improvement. sure, he was still wreaking havoc at luxor. but at home, he had calmed, even showing signs of affection to his adopted family. until his mother overdosed suddenly and died when jack was eighteen and things started to immediately go straight downhill again.

he can’t help but blame himself, for allowing himself to be moved. for the move being his fault, if he’s being honest. and if the honesty continues, jack’s got a whole lot of other stuff to blame on himself. (see: ruining his brother’s life.) so now he’s just taking shit out on everyone to try and make them a fraction as miserable as him. 

npc connections

birth fam

finn kelly / fc: jake bugg / b. may 10 1998 / taurus sun, gemini ascendant, pisces moon

finley, who also refuses to use his full name, is jack’s older brother - same mother, different father.  jack thinks he’s boring because he doesn’t raise hell with every opportunity. finn calls this “being a sane person.” went to prison for jack and regrets it. pastimes include crying over murakami books and trying to look shocked when jack tells him about the newest crisis he’s having. 

lauren kelly / fc: elena tonra / b. february 20 1983 - d. april 1 2020 / pisces sun, aries ascendant, leo moon

jack’s birth mother, who was still a teenager when he and finn were born. she was an on again, off again drug addict and had jack removed from her care when he was ten due to continued neglect. instilled in him a love for oasis and a hefty number of mental health issues. looked pretty much exactly like jack. 

jordan taylor / fc: alex turner / b. october 12 1984 / libra sun, leo ascendant, virgo moon

jack’s birth father, who he knows little about. not for lack of trying on his father’s part, who was prevented from seeing jack as a child by his birth mother and blocked from trying to make contact by jack’s refusal to interact. he keeps trying to message jack and jack is running out of daddy issues memes to respond with. finn thinks jack should give him a chance to redeem himself. jack thinks finn should fuck off. 

adopted fam

claire fielding / fc: julia roberts / b. may 12 1964 / taurus sun, cancer ascendant, leo moon

jack’s adopted mother. loves him very much and is convinced he is a sweet boy who just needs love and help. has written a memoir about adopting jack. jack is mad at her constantly. when he is not mad at her, he is embarrassed by her existence. honestly deserves better.

george fielding / fc: timothy olyphant / b. november 6, 1963 / scorpio sun, capricorn ascendant, virgo moon

is proud of jack, but very deep down underneath a strong layer of calling jack out on his bullshit. has some loud ass shouting matches with jack. also really wishes jack would sort his hair out and maybe not look like a cheap liam gallagher. jack honestly just winds him up constantly and he knows jack is doing it but goddamnit it’s so hard to not be mad at the little rat. 

other

maisie adeyemi / fc: yewande biala / b. january 6, 1997 / capricorn sun, sagittarius ascendant, aries moon

finn’s fiancee. her goal in life is to try to get jack to ruin finn’s life at least 70% less often. she has yet to achieve this goal. her love language is setting finn’s phone to silent when he goes to bed to stop jack from phoning in with some sort of random crisis at four in the morning because the little shit forgot timezones exist. finn will never find out. maisie is grateful that men have no brains. 

[iamtrebleclefstories]

help, ‘cause I need saving - part one

six times Jo and Alex saved each other from horrible dates and the one time they didn’t 

a two-shot fic taking place in a Season 9 alternate universe

One

“Yeah, you know I just really think it’s weird for a woman to be a surgeon. I don’t know, it just doesn’t sit right with me. I feel like your skills would be of better use in…”

Jo drowned out the voice of the man sitting across from her, willing herself to not give an outburst as a result of her date’s misogynistic comments. She should’ve known that he would be a sexist asshole the moment she heard his name. No self-respecting guy goes by Trent. But no, William Trenton III, insisted on being called Trent because Billy was his grandpa and Will was his father. 

She wanted to bang her head against the table and throw a tortilla chip in Trent’s eyeball. Her patience was quickly fading and Jo was struggling to think of a good enough reason to bail on this guy that Stephanie had set her up with. From the corner of her eye, she watched as Alex Karev walked into the bar. Despite what she’d originally told him about she’d never sleep with him, Jo couldn’t deny that she was extremely attracted to him. It honestly wouldn’t take much from his part to get into her pants. Especially since she’d started spending more time on his service, learning from him and growing as a surgeon. They weren’t exactly friends, but ever since she had shared her tragic backstory with him, there was a sort of kinship between the two doctors. 

Hoping he would catch on to the hints she was dropping, Jo looked over at her superior with a desperate expression on her face. Locking eyes with her, Alex tilted his head in question at the intern. Jo motioned to her date with her head and mouthed the words “help me” as discreetly as she could. Alex raised an eyebrow and his lips twisted up into a smirk as he realized the situation. 

Schooling his expression, Alex walked over to the table with a serious look on his face, “Wilson!”

“Dr. Karev,” Jo feigned surprise. “Is something wrong?”

“Hate to break up your date, but we’re being paged for a trauma. Let’s go,” Alex pointed towards the door. “Now.”

Jo scurried up from the table, grabbed her purse, and mumbled an insincere apology to Trent as she exited the booth and followed Alex out the door. Once they were outside, Jo let out a sigh of relief, “Oh God, thank you so much. I thought my brain was going to melt if I kept talking to him for one more second.”

“That bad huh?” Alex chuckled. “You looked pretty miserable there.”

“It was horrible,” Jo leaned against the outside brick wall. “He kept talking about how the OR was no place for a woman and that my skills would be of better use in the kitchen when I told him that I’m a surgeon. He was a sexist asshole that I hope never has any children because his daughters will grow up oppressed and his sons will grow up to be oppressors.”

Alex nodded, an amused expression on his face, “So, it was worse than bad. Got it.” He leaned against the wall next to her. “Well, I’m glad you got out of that horrible date, but now you owe me a drink.”

“What?” Jo raised her eyebrows. 

“I was going on there to get a drink to wind down after a long day but instead I had to fake a page to get you out of there. I can’t exactly pop back in. So, now you owe me a drink to make up for the one I gave up to help you,” Alex stated, hands in his pockets.

“That’s fair,” Jo conceded. “Well, I know this place near my apartment that does buy two, get one half off beers. It’s not as nice as Joe’s but it’ll do the trick for one night.”

“Lead the way Wilson.”

+++

Two

He wasn't quite sure how he got here. But after friending an old high school classmate on Facebook, Alex found himself on probably one of the worst dates he'd ever been on with Britney Bowers from his high school English class. He was glad that he told her to meet him at Joe's so that he could fake a patient emergency and never call Britney back again.

“I think it’s just so important to eat healthy and live a clean lifestyle. People are so focused on all the illnesses there are nowadays but they refuse to see all the wonderful things that nature has to offer us. I guarantee you that none of that modern medicine stuff is necessary if people just ate the right foods. You see it all comes down to your gut. That’s the root of all the diseases. If we eat healthy then we don’t get sick and there’s no need for medication or vaccines or the healthcare field,” Britney’s ignorance seeped through as she voiced her opinion in conversation. “It’s such a scam, all of it. It’s just Big Pharma that wants your money and everyone is in on it. Why do you think doctors make such good money? I bet half the time they treat you, there’s nothing wrong with you or there’s something that can be remedied naturally that they’re refusing to acknowledge because it takes away from drug companies that stuff money in their pockets.”

“You do know I’m a surgeon, right?” Alex stared at her incredulously. 

Britney laughed awkwardly, "Oh, I'm not talking about you. I'm sure you aren't trying to scam people for their money. I'm just… you must know a lot of people who do."

"Nope, I don't," Alex shook his head. "Most of the people I work with are just trying to save your life, not take your money. We aren't the ones in charge of billing." 

"Huh," Britney stared at him dumbly. 

Much to his luck, Jo had been sitting at the bar witnessing the travesty and found it in herself to be merciful. She walked up to the table with her best innocent expression and spoke, "Dr. Karev, I'm so sorry, you told me not to bother you tonight, but I was monitoring Lily Phillips vitals and I noticed that her SATs started dropping again. I know her parents were hoping not to have to operate again, but I think you should come in and see if there's something more serious going on."

Alex’s eyebrows shot up when he saw who had come to his rescue. Realizing that this was his out, Alex stood up, “Crap. Yeah, lets go.” He turned to face Britney. “Listen, it was great catching up, but I’ve got to go.” 

“Oh, no worries, I get that you’re busy,” Britney flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder. “You can always call me and we can continue this another day.” 

“Sure,” Alex smiled awkwardly, trying not to glare when he heard Jo’s quiet snort. “Goodbye.” 

As soon as they were outside, Jo burst into laughter, “Wow, that was hard to watch. ‘There’s no need for medicines or vaccines or the healthcare field.’ Please, if it weren’t for modern medicine, natural selection would have weeded her out a long time ago.”

Alex laughed along with Jo, “You’re not wrong.” 

“How did you even meet her?” Jo asked as they walked over to their cars. 

“We went to high school together,” Alex huffed in annoyance. “She found me on Facebook and sent me a message. I answered like an idiot. She said that she moved here a couple months ago and was surprised to see that I was living here too. She asked if we could meet up and since I didn’t want to be a complete jerk, I said yes. I also kind of had a thing for her back in the day, so I guess I wanted to see what she was like after all these years. Not making that mistake again.” 

“Yikes,” Jo grimaced. “Well, on the bright side, now you know that you wouldn’t have worked anyway, being that she believes we’re in cahoots with Big Pharma.” 

“You’re right,” Alex chuckled. He looked over at Jo gratefully. Ever since Bailey’s wedding when they fake cried their way into a stranger’s hotel room two weeks ago, they became fast friends. Honestly, Jo was probably one of the people he trusted most in the world. Not to mention she was really hot, which was clouding Alex’s head with all kinds of confusing things, especially when his friends were hell-bent on insisting that he and Jo were more than friends. All he knew was that he enjoyed her company and found himself wanting to spend more time with her. “What do you say we go get some pizza and beers and eat them at my place?”

“Sounds great to me.” 

+++

Three

“So… I’m going on a date tonight.”

Alex raised his eyebrows as he looked over to Jo who’d come up next to him by the fourth floor nurses station, “Okay… and?”

“And, I need you to be on-call in case I need to get out of there,” Jo rested her chin in her hands. 

“You want me to sit by my phone all night waiting for you to call me just in case your date goes bad?” Alex made a face. “If you’re so worried, why are you going out with this guy anyway?”

“Because my drunk ass may have agreed to go on a date with him after you left me alone at Joe’s last night,” Jo narrowed her eyes. “This is why you can’t leave me alone while I’m drunk. I can’t be trusted. I make stupid decisions while drunk.”

“It wasn’t like I wanted to leave. I got paged,” Alex rolled his eyes.

“Ah, yes. I’m sure you tell all the girls that,” Jo grinned sarcastically. 

“Shut up,” Alex sighed and placed the chart down on the counter. “Where’s your date and what time is it at?”

“It’s at the movie theater ten minutes away from here,” Jo answered. “I haven’t been on a movie date since I was sixteen. That’s how I know that it’s going to be interesting…”

“Fine. I’ll be at Joe’s with my ringer on and a bottle of beer, trying to think of a creative way to bail you out,” Alex crossed his arms. “But if an hour goes by and you still haven’t called me, I’m going to assume it’s not horrible and I’ll worry about myself. Maybe I’ll pick up some chick and get laid.”

“You’re the best! I’ll text you later,” Jo smiled brightly as walked away to finish her shift. 

Sure enough, later that evening, Alex snorted when his phone lit up with a message from Jo. 

J: Save me please 

A: Dude, you haven’t even been there for 20 minutes

J: I know but I need to get out of here ASAP. He’s creepy and I feel uncomfortable.

   His name is Brock. BROCK! 

A: Don’t panic 

    I’m coming.

    What do you want me to do? Interrupt the theater?

J: Yes. I don’t know… just help me. And the movie hasn’t started yet. We’re just watching the previews. 

A: I’ll be there in ten minutes 

    I’m going to call and text you fifteen times now

    Don’t answer, it’s part of my plan

Ten minutes later, Alex was standing in front of the ticket booth bargaining with one of the workers. 

“Listen man, I don’t need to sneak into a movie. I’m a surgeon. I’ve got the twelve dollars you need to get in, but I’m telling you, this is an emergency.”

“I’m sorry sir, but I cannot let you in there. Especially now that the movie is about to start any second,” the young ticketmaster said. 

“Dude, you’re not getting it. I’m not asking to go in there. I’m asking you to get someone to interrupt the theater before the movie starts and get her,” Alex huffed. “Her phone is on silent, so she probably hasn’t realized that she had about twenty missed calls. Her brother was just in a car accident and might not live to see tomorrow. I think you can make an exception just this once.”

The teenager looked back and forth between Alex and the theater and sighed, “Fine. What’s her name again?” 

Back in the screening room, Jo was bouncing her leg anxiously as the lights began to dim, signaling the start of the film. She looked at Brock warily as he attempted to rest his hand on her thigh. She brushed it away and chewed on her lip, hoping that whatever plan Alex had in place would begin soon, so that she would have to be stuck watching the movie with this creep. 

Suddenly, the lights brightened again, and she watched as one of the teenaged workers walked into the front of the theater. 

“I’m so sorry for the inconvenience, but I’m looking for a Josephine Wilson.”

The moviegoers grumbled at the interruption, but Jo shot up in her seat, “Yes. That’s me!” 

The worker walked up the steps to her level and spoke, “I’m so sorry, ma’am. But your friend Alex is outside. He says he’s been trying to contact you and you haven’t answered.”

“We’re on a date, of course she hasn’t answered the damn phone,” Brock sneered. “What the hell could be more important than this?”

The teenager looked down apologetically, “He said that he’s called you about twenty times. It’s an emergency.”

Finally catching on to Alex’s plan, Jo suppressed a laugh. She looked down at her phone and indeed saw all the missed calls that he’d warned her not to answer, “Oh my God. It says he called me nineteen times. What happened?”

“Ma’am, your brother has been in an accident,” the worker—Vinny, as described by his name tag—gave her a sympathetic look. “I was told it was really bad.”

“Oh God,” Jo pressed a hand to her mouth and got to work on her fake tears. “Is… is he alive?”

“I’m not sure,” Vinny shook his head. “But I think you should come outside and head over the hospital with your friend. 

“Yes, yes of course,” Jo nodded as a couple tears made their way down her face. 

“I’ll go with you,” Brock stood up from his seat. 

“No!” Jo said, almost too quickly. Shaking her head, she held a hand up. “No. It’s alright. Stay here. Enjoy the movie. We can always go out another day.”

“Okay…” Brock sat back down and watched as Jo walked out of the theater, not realizing that he had no way of contacting her until it was too late. 

When Jo exited, she kept up her façade and ran straight into Alex’s arms, fake tears staining his shirt. He rubbed her back soothingly, “Hey. It’s okay. We’re gonna go see him now.” Alex looked back at the kid. “Thanks for your help.”

“No problem,” Vinny waved his hand. “I hope everything works out with your brother, ma’am.”

“Thank you,” Jo sniffed and wiped a couple tears. She looked up at Alex. “Can we go?”

“Yeah,” Alex led her out of Vinny’s view and into the parking lot. 

As soon as they entered the car, Jo and Alex both burst into laughter. Jo held her stomach as she laughed, “When I said yes to interrupting the theater, I didn’t think you’d actually do it.” Jo wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “My brother was in a horrible accident? Do you know how hard it was not to laugh at that? I don’t have a brother.”

“It was the first thing I could come up with,” Alex took a few deep breaths in an effort to calm his laughs. “You were great in there, though. The crying was very convincing.”

“Thanks,” Jo giggled. “You know he tried to come with me? Brock.”

“That right there—his name—should’ve been a red flag from the get go,” Alex chuckled. “You were right though, fake crying gets you out of everything.”

“Stick with me and maybe I’ll teach you some other tricks,” Jo grinned.

They stared at each other with mirth in their eyes for a few moments. There was no denying that there was something brewing between the two of them. As much as they tried to ignore it, there was this connection that neither of them could quite explain. It was comforting but electric at the same time. But neither of them were bold enough to take it any further. 

“What do you say we get some fried chicken and eat it in the car like we were raised to do?” Alex suggested. 

“I’d say… I think I love you,” Jo joked. “In all seriousness though, let’s get out of here before Brock comes looking for me.”

“Yeah, probably a good idea.”

+++

Four

“So you know how helping each other get out of dates now is our thing?” Alex said as he fell into step with Jo as she exited the intern locker room. 

“Is it now?” Jo raised an eyebrow in amusement. “Didn’t know that.”

“Oh come on. I’ve helped out get out of two really bad dates already, and I expect you to return the favor,” Alex gave her a sideways glance. 

“Mhmm,” Jo hummed. “What kind of trouble did you get yourself into this time, Karev?”

“I haven’t gotten myself into anything yet,” Alex placed his hands on his hips. “I’ve got a date tonight with this blonde chick named Tiffany. I met her last night while I was out grocery shopping. She seems pretty nice, normal, but then again, I met her in the frozen food section so who knows what she’s like. Anyway, I was hoping you’d be available to get me out of it in case things go horribly.”

“I’d love to, but it all depends on what time I get out of here tonight,” Jo sighed. “I’m on Medusa’s—I’m sorry, I mean Dr. Grey’s service today.”

“No you’re not,” Alex shook his head. “I switched with her.”

“What? Why?” Jo scrunched her eyebrows as they approached the elevator. “Is this because you want me available to bail you out?”

“No. Well… yes, but it’s not the only reason,” Alex pressed the elevator button. “Murphy was on my service and I know it’s been months but she still gives me those creepy, weird looks and I don’t feel like dealing with her today.”

Jo snorted in laughter, “You are such a douche.”

“Whatever. She knew what she was getting into when she slept with me,” Alex shrugged. “So, if I let you out when I leave, will you hang around in case I need you.”

“I guess,” Jo faked annoyance.

“Great, thanks.”

By the time the date rolled around, Alex had been pretty optimistic. Sure, Tiffany wasn’t the girl he wanted to go out with, but since he couldn’t date the one person he wanted to date, Alex was doing his best to try to find someone he could make it last with. So far, he wasn’t having the best luck.

It started out normal, great even. So great that for a while there, Alex thought about texting Jo and letting her know that maybe he wouldn’t need her tonight. He discovered that he was very wrong rather quickly. 

Tiffany was beautiful, he couldn’t deny that. But she was too clingy. To the point that it was actually scaring him. He was sure if this went any further and they broke up, he’d have an ex who wouldn’t take no for an answer—or worse, a stalker on his hands. 

Sending a quick text message to Jo under the table, he waited for a reply. 

A: Definitely going to need your help tonight

J: what happened?

A: She’s too clingy. Bad clingy. Creepy clingy. 

    Take a lock of my hair and clone me later clingy. 

J: Yikes. Where are you again?

A: The club across the street from that diner we like to eat at. 

    I should’ve known it would be bad when she suggested going to a club on the first date 

J: You think?

    I’ll be there in fifteen

A: Please hurry 

True to her word, fifteen minutes later, Alex watched as Jo entered the club and took a seat at the bar. He spent about five minutes looking back and forth between Tiffany and Jo, who’d taken to flirting with a couple guys that had come up to her in the short time since she’d arrived. Bouncing his leg impatiently, Alex sent another angry text to Jo. 

A: What the hell are you doing?

    You’re supposed to be helping me, remember? Not trying to get laid.

“Is everything okay?” Tiffany asked. “It’s just, you keep looking at your phone.”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Alex rubbed a hand on his neck awkwardly. 

In that moment, Alex heard a gasp from his right side. Jo had materialized and wore an angry expression, “You!”

“Me?” Alex pointed to himself, confused as to what her play was. 

“Oh my God. You don’t even remember me,” Jo clutched her drink in her hand. “I shouldn’t be surprised. You’re a hump ‘em and dump ‘em kind of guy.” 

“What did I do?” Alex widened his eyes as he waited for Jo’s cue. 

“What did you do? What did you do!” Jo’s eyes hesitated for a split second before she threw her drink in his face. “Thanks for the syphilis, you ASSHOLE!” She turned to face Tiffany before walking off. “Don’t waste your time!”

Sitting there in shock, Alex watched as Tiffany rose from the couch they'd been sitting on to look at Alex with a face of disgust, “And to think, I had picked out our kids names.” 

Once Tiffany grabbed her face and exited the club, Jo came back with a semi-apologetic, but mostly amused face, “I’m so sorry about your shirt, but that was awesome! I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“Yeah, I bet you’re having the time of your life right now,” Alex glared.

“Hey, you told me to get rid of her and that’s what I did,” Jo defended, a shit-eating grin on her face. “Come on, I have one of your old t-shirts in my car.”

“Why do you have one of my t-shirts in your car?” Alex scrunched his face in question. The thought of her having one of his shirts in her car did things to his brain that he wasn’t even sure how to vocalize. 

“It’s from the last time I crashed at your place on the nice, comfy couch I bought you,” Jo smiled. 

“Yeah, with my money.”

“Semantics,” Jo waved her hand. “Anyway, let’s get out of this hell hole and go to watch movies at your house.”

Alex rolled his eyes at her antics, “Fine.”

+++

Five 

Alex should’ve said no the moment April Kepner offered to set him up on a date. Knowing Kepner, he should’ve known what kind of thing he’d be getting himself into. But when she came up to him with a request from a former patient’s daughter who thought he was attractive, he found himself having trouble saying no and ended up agreeing to the date.

That’s how he ended up spending the past 20 minutes staring across the table at a woman who might as well have been the carbon copy of Izzie Stevens. 

He’d truly tried to give the woman a chance and not associate her with his ex-wife, but the longer they spoke, the more freaked out he was getting by the whole situation. Especially when she started talking about her love of baking.

“I’m gonna go use the bathroom real fast,” Alex started to stand from his seat.

“Oh yeah, no worries,” the woman waved her hand. 

The moment he stepped foot into the bathroom, Alex searched for his cellphone in his pocket and dialed the one number he needed to get him out of this situation. It rang four times before a voice came through the speakers.

“Hello?”

“Dude, I need you to get me out of here right now,” Alex whispered into the phone. “I’m at the bar and grill 20 minutes away. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t stand this for another minute.”

“What’s wrong with this one?” Jo chuckled on the other line. 

“She looks like my ex-wife,” Alex hissed into the phone. “She’s got strawberry blonde hair but they have the same face. Their brown eyes are the same. Sure her tits are smaller than Izzie 's were, but they even have the same creepy, overly perky laugh. And her name is Katherine. That was Izzie’s middle name. But she insists on me calling her Kitty Kat.” 

Jo snorted into the phone, “Gosh, you really know how to pick them. What do you want me to do? How are we going to play this?” 

"First of all, I didn't pick her," Alex paused. "Kepner set me up."

"Mistake number one right there," Jo giggled in amusement. "Okay, again, how do you want to play this?"

“I don’t know,” Alex shrugged helplessly. “Pretend you’re my girlfriend and come in here kicking and screaming at me because I’m a cheating asshole or something.” 

“Wow, you’re really desperate this time aren’t you. Aren’t you traumatized from what I did last time?” Jo laughed at his expense. “Okay, I’m changing out of my scrubs right now. Give me half an hour. I’ll figure out a story on my way there.”

“Thank you,” Alex sighed in relief. 

He made his way back to the table giving Kathrine an awkward smile as she continued to yap on and on about some cooking show she’d almost been a contestant on. He was about ready to gouge his eyes out with his fork when he saw Jo walk towards the outdoor area where he and Katherine were sitting with an oddly shaped bundle in her hands. 

“What the hell Alex? Tell me why I just got off the phone with your mother only to find out that you were supposedly at dinner with me, when you told me you were working late,” Jo exclaimed, causing the bundle in her arms to let out a cry. 

Alex stared at her in shock, wondering where the hell she had gotten a baby from. He hoped the very real confusion on his face would come across as shock to Katherine, who was sitting there, jaw dropped and eyes wide, watching the scene unfold. Alex opened his mouth, "Jo—"

"Don't, Alex. Just don't," Jo held up one hand as she rocked the now screaming baby. "I know things have been difficult since the baby was born, but I really expected more than this. I don't know when you stopped loving me, but I expected more respect as the mother of your child. I thought you'd have the decency to at least tell me the truth! Instead of lying to me and your mother, about where you were and who you were with."

Alex looked back and forth between Jo and Kathrine, unsure of what to say. Jo was really selling it this time and he did not want to throw her off by saying the wrong thing, "Jo, I—"

"Shut up, Alex. Just shut up and hold your son," Jo shoved the crying baby into his hands only to scoff when the child stopped crying immediately after landing in Alex's arms. "Of course! Of course he calms down as soon as you hold him. I'm done!" Jo threw her hands up in the air and turned on her feet back towards the car. 

Alex cradled the child close to his chest and looked up at Katherine, “I should go…" 

Much like Izzie used to do, Katherine turned up her nose indignantly, "Yes, and I think it's best if we never see each other again."

"Yup," Alex nodded sheepishly as he made his way out of the outdoor seating area and to Jo's car.

Rocking the small infant in one arm, Alex opened the car door with his free hand and sat inside the passenger seat, staring at Jo who smiled at him. 

“How was that for a rescue?” 

“Where the hell did you get this baby from?” Alex scrunched his face in question. “Please don’t tell me you stole some stranger’s baby.”

“I didn’t steal the baby,” Jo shook her head, a smile playing at her lips. She bent over to stroke the baby’s head. “I signed up to be one of the people that picks up the safe haven babies after they’re dropped off at the fire stations. I got the call about this little guy two minutes before you called me to get you out of your date. I picked him up and came to get you. Which honestly, I would’ve interrupted your date regardless because I wanted you to be the one to give him a check up. I’m supposed to head to the hospital with him now.”

Alex watched as Jo became entranced with the little boy currently resting in his arms. She was a natural when it came to kids, and it showed now as she fussed over a whole bunch of details he hadn’t thought of himself. He opened his mouth in confusion, “Wait, so you used a kid abandoned by his mother at a fire station to play our fake son and get me out of my date with my ex-wife’s doppelganger?”

“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up,” Jo took the infant from his hands and looked at him lovingly. “Come here you little guy. I know it must be scary to be away from your mommy, but I have to believe she did this because she thought she was giving you your best chance. She might not have been able to give you a home, but I will make sure that you end up in a very nice home, with some very nice people, who can give you all the love you deserve.” 

Seeing this side of Jo was incredibly sweet. She was so tender with the child resting in her arms, cuddling him so that he’d never know that he’d been abandoned; so that he would be surrounded with love. Alex knew instantly she would be an amazing mother one day. What scared him though, was that he’d begun picturing himself in that position with her. 

Jo sighed dreamily, “Okay. We’ve got to take him to the hospital for a check up and contact a social worker. If we don’t do it now, I’m afraid I’ll fall in love with him and take him home with me.” 

A crooked smile pulled at the corner of Alex’s lips, “Here, I’ll get him into the car seat and sit in the back with him. You drive.”

+++

Six

“That’s going to be fun. I’m especially excited for that kid’s next eighteen years.” 

They had just finished monitoring a newborn with the most difficult set of parents Alex had ever gotten a chance to work with. When he and Jo were paged down to OB for the case that morning, he never would’ve guessed that the parents would end up being coworkers who hated each other, hooked-up once, and ended up with a baby. But hey, not much surprised him these days. Still, the success of the little boy making it past the benchmark was a special moment for the two parents, who despite their differences were able to come together to make a decision in favor of their child's health. 

The situation inspired a conversation between Jo and Alex regarding workplace relationships. If Alex was being honest, he was a bit biased when it came to his answers. Ever since Jo had all but dragged him into that linen closet to celebrate their win against Cahill with powdered sugar donuts last night, he could not get her out of his mind. Working with her today made him realize just how much he enjoyed her company. They'd grown so close in the last couple months and if he let himself, he could see them potentially becoming more.

Deciding to take initiative, Alex turned towards Jo, “Hey, do you want to go get a beer?”

“Oh, I would love to. Especially after today, but I actually already have plans," Jo waved over to a guy standing in the hallway wearing pink scrubs. "Tomorrow night? Is that cool?”

“Yeah… yeah that’s cool,” Alex looked at the guy suspiciously. "So, you have a date tonight? With someone from OB?"

"Yeah," Jo smiled nervously. "I've been wanting to ask him out for a while now, but, well you know my luck when it comes to dating. Anyway, I finally got the balls to do it today. We’re just going to Joe’s."

“Huh,” Alex nodded. For the first time, Alex felt strange knowing that she would be going out on a date with someone else.  “Well, if you need help getting out of it, I’ll probably be hanging around the bar too.” 

“You know, I don’t think I’ll need you this time. I feel really good about this one,” Jo beamed. She looked over at the doctor in pink scrubs before turning back to Alex. “Jason is waiting for me. I’m going to go change for my date. I’ll see you later.” 

“Yeah, see you later,” Alex waved lamely at her. 

He seriously considered forgoing a drink at Joe’s altogether. He didn’t want to see the girl he was falling for having fun on a date with some guy that wore pink scrubs to work on a daily basis. But another side of him wanted to keep an eye on Jo and make sure she was okay. He wanted to be around in case something happened or that Jason guy tried to pull something fishy. 

When Jo first saw Jason, she was immediately attracted to him. Who wouldn’t? He was hot and delivered babies for a living. After going on failed date after failed date over the past few months, Jo wanted a win. Besides, she needed a distraction from the thoughts invading her head about Alex. Because it definitely was not appropriate to think of your friend in the way she’d begun to think of him over the past few months. Especially when said friend was a pediatric surgeon who held babies on a daily basis and she’d begun picturing what he’d look like holding their own child. Yeah, that was a glaring warning that she was treading into dangerous territory with Alex. 

What she hadn’t banked on was Jason being the worst date she’d ever been on. From the outside, they looked like a normal, carefree couple, but something within her was raising some giant, blaring red flags. Maybe it was the way Jason had insulted and disapproved of her close friendship with Alex the moment they walked out of the peds wing earlier that evening. Maybe it was the way he mansplained everything and spoke down to her. Maybe it was the way he roughly grabbed her arm and raised his voice when she said something he disagreed with. 

She needed an out and she needed one fast. 

Alex was standing in the corner of the bar playing darts, periodically glancing at Jo and the guy she was with. He made sure to get a really good look at this Jason guy, memorizing his face enough to imagine it on the dart board as he flicked his wrist and hit a bullseye. One second he was pulling a dart out of the board and taking a swig of his beer and the next, someone was tugging on his arm to get his attention. 

“Kiss me,” Jo looked up at him with wide eyes. 

“What?” Alex sputtered his drink. 

“Jason. He’s the worst one Alex. The worst. And he’s at the bar getting more drinks and I need to get away from him,” Jo rambled. 

“I still don’t understand how—”

“Just kiss me,” Jo blurted, eyes desperate. “Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable.”

“Yes, they do,” Alex responded dumbly, still unsure as to what was going on. 

He didn’t have any time to think about it though, because as before he knew what was going on, Alex was being pulled into a searing kiss. While this wasn’t the way he’d pictured his first kiss with Jo going, he wasn’t complaining. Not when he could feel her this close to him. Not when her tongue met his own. Not when he could hear her whimpers as she deepened the kiss. 

They could’ve kept going. They would’ve kept going, if it weren’t for Jason’s angry interruption, “You little bitch. I should’ve known you were a liar when you said that there was nothing going on between you and Karev.”

“Jason—” Jo attempted a weak protest. 

“No, you know what? I dodged a bullet with you Wilson. I don’t need to be dating a whore,” Jason’s fists balled up at his sides. 

Seeing the red in Jason’s eyes and his fists ready to strike, Alex intervened, “Don’t you dare call her that or any insult ever again. She’s not your girlfriend, she’s not even your friend. She didn’t cheat on you. So, if I hear you ever disrespect her like that again, you’re gonna want to skip town and that’s a promise.”

Jason glared at them in disgust before turning on his heels and walking out of the bar. 

It wasn’t until Jason was long gone that they were reminded of what had happened minutes prior. Staring up at each other with the strangest expressions on their faces, Alex and Jo waited in silence for a moment. Because what were you supposed to say when you kissed your best friend and you liked it?

The question was, where do they go from here? 

With the surfacing of Jo’s thoughts about Alex blaring 

loudly in her mind, Jo mumbled a small, “thank you” in order to avoid the very real possibility that she’d just thrown this friendship down the toilet. 

Alex nodded awkwardly at her appreciation, “Yeah… don’t mention it.”

And for the first time in months, the end of a horrendous date was not celebrated with Jo and Alex hanging out. It was spent alone. 

[imagineofallkindsxxx]

Eternal Flame- Kol Mikaelson 3/?

Chapter 1- You're the Hybrid?

Summary: Singing. Thats all what Alexandra Gilbert has cared about since she was young and all she would care about until she met him.

With Alexandra fighting vampires, werewolves an all between she may do a thing she vowed never to do, fall in love.

And to think it all started with a walk in the woods...

The room was pitch black I could barely see what's in front of me my fingers getting clipped and cut on the item in my hands. Finally, it was fixed but then the worst thing happened. The door opened.

The room was filled with light from the lights on the ceiling of the room and all of the hard work we created was useless now with all the neatly placed mouse traps springing open making me question the reason of everything. I looked up and saw an alarmed looking Matt Donovan making me feel even more depressed, wondering what I ever did to deserve this.

"Oh come on! Seriously?!? Do you know how long this took for us to set all this up?!?" Caroline yelled at the blonde footballer essentially expressing my thoughts out loud.

"Forgot about senior prank night?" Tyler Lockwood asked his best friend.

"Clearly." he replied seeming confused by the whole ordeal that has been tradition since well ever.

"How could you forget We've only been waiting for this since freshman year!" Caroline once again yelled and not gonna lie I agree with her until last year all of us had been dying for us to prank the teachers following the footsteps of those before us trying to outdo them.

"Yeah, Matt if I'm doing this, you're doing this" Elena chipped in

"Doing what? Having fun what a travesty" I sassed rolling my eyes at my sister "Lord give me strength." I whispered so no one but Caroline would hear me throwing me a glare where I just shrugged innocently. I mean it's not my fault that Elena became boring when dumb and dumber came along.

"I'm surprised any of you are doing this" Matt said, what are we supposed to do just stand around and worry about what might happen? Feel guilty about the deaths we've caused? If we do that, we'll miss college.

"Caroline's making us." Bonnie piped up

"Not making me. To be perfectly honest I'm enjoying myself" I shrug attempting to fix a mouse trap not making eye contact with anyone but still managing to make Caroline to smile at me.

"We're about to be seniors. These are memories that will stay with us forever, and if we don't..." she trailed off still trying to be positive compared to the rest of us.

"And if we don't create memories now, then what's the point of it all?" My sister finished for her best friend making Caroline deflate at the tone of her voice making me feel like snapping at her again but for sake of Caroline I decided to focus on her more than my annoyance or Elena.

"Go ahead make fun, I don't care" She replied, obviously lying to us, hurt how the majority of her friends are making fun of an idea to get all of our mind of the supernatural by doing normal things a teen would enjoy. I wasn't the only one seeing how upset Caroline was with her boyfriend saying.

"You're all lame. And I've got ten more classes to prank." I decided to pitch in after he announced his leave.

"Yeah, I'm meeting my boys in the chem lab, we're 'doing something awesome to Jones' according to Jamie anyway" a small smirk on my face "See you losers later" winking at Caroline.

When out of the class I headed along the hall to get to the class seeing Tyler giving some students instructions "Seems like Caroline's rubbing off on you Ty" a small smile on my face, instead of verbally responding he just rolled his eyes playfully continuing to give instructions.

I kept on wondering down the dark and quiet hallway feeling creeped out. All of a sudden I heard a slamming of a door making me feel more aware of my surroundings ready to run in case of any well unusual people out there

"Who's there?" I shouted out on instinct before realising what a stupid move that was. Well done Alex if they didn't know you were here they do now my subconscious reminded me, I slowly walked towards the noise until I heard from behind me.

"Boo!" I turned around and punched whoever it was on instinct "Fucking hell Andie!" the mysterious 'creature' yelled making me realise it was just Mark then hearing laughter behind him making me see he isn't alone but thing one and two were here as well.

"Jesus Andie remind me never to get in a fight with you" Sam managed out before James saying "Yeah next boxing match I'm putting my money on you"

I give them an unimpressed look "oh you mean all 10 cent you know seeing as though the last time you bet you lost 100 dollars" casting up how he bet on the Dolphins winning the super bowl losing 100 dollars in the process. "And you. carry on way you're acting and we'll be getting in a fight quite soon" I told James.

"Not a word." was all I said to Mark knowing a sarcastic comment was coming causing him roll his eyes. "Right gents what class are we supposed to be pranking?" before following a still grinning James to the chemistry lab belonging to Mr Jones' the hatred between him and Jamie running deep with the detentions and destruction in the past 3 years.

"Of course it would be Jones. Your obsession with each other is genuinely unhealthy." Sam remarked with an eye roll.

"Gotta agree with Sammy on that Jame" Mark seconded with me making a noise of agreement while looking through the bag he brought with him finding confetti, superglue, a large cut out of about 8 feet cut out of the periodic table and purple paint?

"Yeah well, I could say same for you and Kayleigh Jackson." referring to the rivalry between Kayleigh a kind blonde braniac who was on the cheer squad and honestly the only girl in this school I would trust with my life. Her and Sam had a rivalry which stemmed from how Kayleigh fought over a red crayon with him in kindergarten ever since they fight over the most stupid things, from what colour nitrogen mixed with sulphuric acid to whose cake was better in home economics, honestly, it's just became a way of life.

"Right before we start fighting about whose rivalry is worse let's get on with the prank?" I suggested with the back up from my blue-eyed best friend.

"So, you want to superglue the periodic table coloured in purple his least favourite colour" I started before Sam butted in

"How do you know his least favourite colour exactly?"

"I have my ways you have yours" Jesus this is hard work but I tried to continue "Then rig up this contraption when he opens his door tomorrow, he'll have confetti fallen on him?"

"and superglue" he added

I stared at him for a few seconds before saying "Sounds good. I'll get started on the confetti and super glue"

We all joked and tried our best to prank Mr Jones to the best of our ability and not just because of the hated between a certain drummer and the teacher himself. After we did that, we walked to the next class Mr Curtis our favourite music teacher but before we could begin, we were interrupted by Harry from my political studies class coming in and telling all of us

"Hate to break it guys but we've been busted, teacher saw us pranking the gym hall." he told us with a sympathetic smile. once he told us this, we all groaned and complained

"That's shit"

"You're joking!"

"No. That aint right."

"Jesus Christ. Why is god against me?"

"Don't shoot the messenger guys." Harry replied with his hand up in surrender walking out of the class.

Mark sighed "Well this is shit."

"I know fucking hate this" James agreed shaking his head. I swear I saw a tear in his brown eye.

"What can we do gents? We're caught. Just think of Mr Jones face tomorrow that's all you have to think about to get through the day" I told them trying to show them a silver lining to this horrible end of a great night.

"Yeah, doesn't make it any better." The drummer moaned "Do any of you need a ride?"

"Yeah, that'd be great"

"Yes, please my man" the two other males answered the brunette.

"Can't sorry boys, have to go home with my sister. Sorry" I declined

"Good luck, Alex" Mark said somewhat making it sound sarcastic making me throw a pencil at him as he raced out the classroom.

"See ya tomorrow my girl"

"Adios gorgeous" the other two more sensible- at that moment- boys said. I waved them good bye before we walked out of the class going in opposite directions with them heading out to the parking lot and me like an idiot going through all the school looking for my sister. Texting her asking where she was.

"She better not have left me" I muttered before opening the doors to enter the Gym hall.

"Alex! get out of here!" was all I heard looking up from my phone seeing an unusual scene in front of me to say the least. An empty hall with the exception of my sister, chad from Miss Golds class and Dana the girl who co-organised the whole prank night with Caroline and a man in his 20's? next to Elena seeming to be talking to her.

For once it looked like my sister had the right so I turned and bolted towards the doors only to be stopped by the same man that was conversing with the doppelganger.

""Now, now love. Who may you be?" He said in a nice posh British accent looking into my eyes therefore me being able to understand I'm being compelled.

"Someone on vervain." I snarked back "Try an eat me and it'll be like drinking acid, or so I've been told." I told him acting innocent at the old. he rolls his eyes as though expecting the sarcasm. Stefan must have told him everything about the entirety of the school.

This dick of a vampire gripped my am tightly and threw me onto the ground.

"Jesus be a bit gentler. Love." adding a bit more English mannerisms sarcastically where he just smirked back. Asshole.

"Alex! Are you okay?" My sister asks worried for my safety. I looked around my surroundings once more seeing Dana keeping her leg up wobbling every now and kind of like she's being controlled.

"Been better, been worse." I replied to my sister getting up "What's wrong with Dana and Chad?" I asked the brunette doppelganger; she opened her mouth but before she could reply the mysterious and freak of a vampire answered for her.

"Well love I compelled them. You seem to know what that means?" I glared at him thinking of any wooded objects that would kill the vampire in front of me there's a pencil you stole from Sam in your back pocket use that but before I could I heard my sister ask the vampire.

"Where's Stefan? What did you do to him?"

"Stefan's on a bit of a time out" What? Stefans with that psycho hybrid? Oh my days... before anything else was said I gave out a little laugh

"You're the hybrid? the scary murderous sociopath everyone is talking about? you look like an old man with dire need of a new war-" but before I could finish, he ran towards me pushing me against the back wall threatening to kill me in a chokehold.

"That may be so but I can break your neck with a single flick." he said with a murderous tone and eyes that look like he wanted to kill me but couldn't?

"Duly noted." I managed to get out before hearing him laugh in my face letting me go and fall to the floor with a crash.

"Now what is your name sweetheart?" but before I could reply Bonnie and Matt open the doors and enter the huge hall

"Bonnie, get out of here!" My sister yelled

"Go, Bon, Leave!" I shouted along with her well attempted to shout. But in a blink of an eye the hybrid was in front of the Bennett witch, now this is a fight I would like to see. On Bonnies side of course.

"Ah I was wondering when you'd show up. Now we can get started."

***********************************************************

A/N: thought I'd end it like that cause I want to do two chapters an episode maybe. Therfore warning to readers itll be a while until you meet Kol however there will be bits and pieces which relate to Kol but not going to say anything else.

Let me know what you think and if I can do anything to improve my future writing or this chapter.

Also Ashleigh is a REALLY good friend of hers, her best girl friend.

Thank you for reading lovelies xxx

[szivtalan]

character ask: kagami, momoi, alex and himuro 👀👀👀

!!! omg thank u Ceru! u might be one of my favorite mutuals <33 (putting this under a read more just so I can speak at lengths about each individual character)

Why I like Kagami: this is where I sarcastically ask “why DON’T i like him” but that’s literally the next question so; he’s everything i want to be and more. He has the determination and the willpower to make his own dreams come true, he’s gay as shit, he’s tall and buff and well-adjusted, mature enough to live on his own at an annoyingly young age, he’s funny and dumb and a total himbo as well as an excellent advisor bc of how grounded he is.

Why I don’t: I’m... not really good with explosive people. Violent men with loud voices especially scare me, and I’d think I’d flinch around him a lot and that would make me rlly anxious.

Favorite episode: it’s a toss-up between the Seirin fam visiting his place for the first time (is it where Kuroko confesses his love to him and then passes out in his arms? idk), and the onsen episode. I also loved all his plays against Kise and Aomine. AND the training camp w him running a lot in the sand.

Favorite season/movie: season 2 probably because he’s not a jerk anymore, but he’s still on his way to shed off any asshole behavior stuck to him. And I actually liked Last Game?

Favorite line: “There’s no such thing as useless effort.” and “This is our drama and we write the plot.” because he’s so ridiculous.

Favorite outfit: all of his casual fits... comfy but manly is my Jam

OTP: AoKaga....they’re truly soulmates, star-crossed lovers, canonically brought together by fate.

Brotp/otp no. 2: KagaKuro, I love them

Head Canon: I have several collections because I think too much about this boy, but here’s something I think about his family: he doesn’t know what happened to his mom. He never asked, because it wasn’t relevant, and he didn’t want to inconvenience his dad by questioning him. Occasionally, as a kid he felt like he was missing out on something (seeing other kids with their moms, feeling like they’re being treated with much more gentle care because they have moms), but as he grew older he realized that nurturing behavior shouldn’t have been limited to only a mother, and that he was just straight up neglected without any regards to missing a parent in his life.

Unpopular opinion: I never realized this was an unpopular opinion but I’m glad he went back to America at the end of Last Game. Obviously, it’s sad that he had to separate from the others, but I felt like Japanese basketball has always been just a stepping point to him, and now that he’d beat the best of them, it was time to move on. And it also warms my heart that him getting scouted in the US gave Aomine hope to aim big, too. I felt like both of them would’ve felt trapped in Japan with their skill sets.

A wish: I want him to be happy and gay and to confront Himuro and tell him how hurt he was by how he treated him and probably do the same to his dad too

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: ....whatever I’d say Shinsun has probably written it/will write it, but I don’t want him to forget about the GoM just because he becomes a world-famous athlete.

5 words to best describe them: sweet child with anger issues

My nickname for them: not mine (it’s Sypha’s) but “Kags”, Kagami, Tigerboy, Kagababe, Baby

Why I like Momoi: she is SO nurturing and sweet and she cares so much about her boys!! I’m sorry it always turns into “how they remind me of myself” but actually I get feeling like a background character and being the moral/emotional/physical support of those who are more talented or in any way better than you. I feel a strange kind of kinship with her and also,,, feminine girls make my heart stop, and it doesn’t get more feminine than Momoi. Added: Aomine aside, the Touou team wouldn’t worth shit without her skills tbh, and she’s not in any way less than the GoM. Also, I appreciate her being the one person to try to keep their friend group together.

Why I don’t: Analytical People Scare me like!! how do u know stuff people are Unknowable!! I usually am also irked by her pointing out Riko’s breast size but I can just pretend that’s in a gay way (maybe Momoi likes girls with small boobs and she’s just bad at flirting) (also I don’t exactly liked her calling Aomine a “ganguro” but I have too little knowledge on the use of this word to say exactly why)

Favorite episode (scene if movie): uh the one where Aomine made her cry? It really came through how much love she actually has for her friends at that one.

Favorite season/movie: she was great in all of them!!

Favorite line: I can’t remember the exact quote and Google isn’t really helpful either but the one where she made Kuroko promise they’ll always play together or something? Or that they’re gonna beat Aomine?? idk?

Favorite outfit: I like all of them but mostly I just appreciate her wearing so many hoodies, she looks so cute in them

OTP / Brotp: it’s both AoMomo. I feel like the have the most special and strongest bond in the entire series.

Head Canon: She’s never been shown to do, but I feel like she wears Aomine’s clothes a Lot. Also, they definitely have sleepovers To This Day.

Unpopular opinion: Momoi is good at basketball and she loves playing!!! But try being successful in it when ur opponents are Giants and Way More Buff than you are

A wish: I wish people appreciated her more!! Both in fandom and in canon. She’s an amazing person and she has her own skills and strengths that are rarely explored or even mentioned anywhere.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: her falling out with her boys ;-; I do not want that

5 words to best describe them: strawberry sweetheart to steal ur heart

My nickname for them: Satsuki :> I feel like it’s a little too much to call characters on their first names sometimes but hers is so cute I can’t

Why I like Alex: yet again another woman with an extensive skill set. I love her persistence and again I appreciate getting disillusioned and finding your way back to the thing you love. Also it’s just sweet that she did that by teaching (again, something I can relate to)

Why I don’t: the whole “kissing children” thing rubbed me the wrong way but again, just like Momoi’s obsession with comparing breast sizes, it’s just bad/sexist writing from Fujimaki probably

Favorite episode (scene if movie): adshg any and all where she expressed that Himuro and Kagami are equally important to her <33 that shit makes my heart burst

Favorite season/movie: she only appears towards the end of s2 and in s3 so... I guess s3?

Favorite line: its so Bad that u literally can’t find the iconic quotes of these iconic ladies anywhere but... her story on finding her passion again through teaching kids, and anytime she mentions her fondness of Kagami and Himuro.

Favorite outfit: her iconic olive green coat with the short red shorts... wtf was that I loved it.

OTP: she doesn’t really interact with people her age but I’ve heard she’s shipped with Masako Araki and I’ve seen some seriously good fanarts and like... Yes Good I’d Love To See It

Brotp: I feel like her and Himuro would be that sassy pair that Kagami tries and fails to contain and they get into all sorts of weird, absurd situations asdjs what I’m trying to say is Kagami has to bail them out of jail from time to time

Head Canon: fck me if I’m wrong but she’s the lesbian single mom of the two gay kids she reluctantly adopted from the streets

Unpopular opinion: it’s more like another headcanon, but she can dunk and she taught Kagami how to do it.

A wish: I’d love her to coach the Seirin fam more!! Pls let her be part of her children’s lives (she could also judge streetball games between the goms it would be fun)

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: anything about her being romantically involved with her pupils makes me.................no

5 words to best describe them: Beautiful Beach Blonde Basketball....goddess

My nickname for them: Alex!! sometimes An Icon

Why I like Himuro: em dash Asdgsdj I’m joking, I’m becoming more and more fond of the boy. Once I realized that he shouldn’t have been the “bigger person” in that situation and one year doesn’t really mean much when you’re that young and that hurt, I realized he’s actually a good and hard-working kid and I’m sorry for giving him so much shade. Also I really like his snark and sass, but that might not even be canon at this point tbh

Why I don’t: I’m still sort of irked by him beating down on Kagami because he was envious/mad, but I realized the aspect of that situation that Really got to me was how devoted Kagami still was to him after all that. That devotion was what felt toxic, nothing that Himuro actually did to him.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): the time they met up w Kagami just to exchange a dramatic socially distancing bro fist and a few encouraging words.... gays be Like That

Favorite season/movie: I really didn’t mind s3 Himuro

Favorite line: apparently he’s said some iconic stuff that I don’t remember (and my sources don’t seem really legit) but I’m gonna say “let’s see you become number 1, bro” because again, that’s just so ridiculous and endearing. On one hand he really went from loathing Kagami to rooting for him and wanting him to reach his full potential and on the other, honey ur  like 17 stop speaking like That

Favorite outfit: his knitted V-neck sweaters and the black coat with the white fur.... boy’s got all the fashion sense that’s missing from Kagami

OTP: can I say.....AoHimu asdfh I ship 3/4 of these characters with Aomine what does that say about me

Brotp: KagaHimu. They can be sweet, but I’ve only ever seen Jake write them really well

Head Canon: I’ve been entertaining the idea of....trans Himuro.....

Unpopular opinion: everyone thinks that Kagami is the violent kid and Himuro is the chill, sweet child who’s somehow wound up with this mess of a fiery tiger, but it’s actually Himuro who taught Kagami how to fight and Kagami learned quite a lot of aggression from him

A wish: I feel like Himuro should’ve gotten a separate episode to explore his thoughts, feelings and past. He had so much potential as a character Is2g

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: him quitting basketball would fucking destroy me. I’d be devastated for others too, but it would really pull on my heartstrings if he just dropped the only thing he’s been so passionate about.

5 words to best describe them: gender-non-conforming emo child

My nickname for them: Himu, Tatsuya, Tatsu

[spaceskam]

Him. (the werewolf au)

warning: mild sexual content, guns, hunting, daddy issues

ao3

Alex Manes did not get along with other human beings. It was a simple fact.

He'd known he was different from a very young age because of this one little fact. It meant he got in fights at school. It meant he didn't listen. It meant he was deliberately rude. He didn't mean to come off so horrible, but he learned it was the only way to get people to leave him alone. If he was an asshole and perceived dangerous, they’d leave him alone.

Another one of those little things he did as a kid to make him unapproachable was spend his free time in the woods, usually with his grandmother who lived in a cabin deep in the trees. While normally, in any other place, that wouldn’t be a problem. Maybe that’d make him a person to bully, but here it just made him that much more of an obvious outcast that people didn’t even want to associate with negatively.

According to the hunters' legend, the wolves that populated the woods outside of Roswell weren’t quite... normal. They were larger than normal, more violent, more deadly. They were the wolves, yes, but also not. Whispers were spread from generation to generation about how everyone should be wary of people they didn’t know well enough; you never knew who wasn’t quite who they claimed to be. Alex thought it was funny to play right into that idea.

His grandmother, before she’d died, had been the only sane one. She’d learned to fend for herself, growing her own food and hunting deer and using every part of the animal to avoid going into town. She was completely self sufficient where she lived in the middle of the woods and not once had she ever had a negative encounter with those supposedly vicious wolves. She was more reliable than the hunters and their tall tales, Alex deduced, and had been living in her old cabin since he was 16.

It wasn’t that easy, though. His father was still the leader of the group of hunters that ran the town and made it their mission to go out into the woods once a month and try to kill one of those wolves. They usually succeeded. It was a carnal, horrific act that was meant to be applauded, parading these dead animals around after they’d killed them and insisting that they were in some way human and not caring. Alex hated it.

And yet he was still a Manes man. His brothers still came to him for deer meat and kept him up to date on town gossip. His father still stopped by and made it clear that people spoke negatively about him and that he should join the hunt. After all, he was skilled gunman, he’d be good at it. But Alex denied.

On the few occasions that he did go into town–whether it be for things like soap or just simply a man to warm his bed for the night–people stared. The Manes boy who went wrong, the Manes boy who was one of them, the Manes boy who had somehow made it to the age of 26 without caving under his father’s iron rule. He’d be lying if he said that didn’t make him feel powerful.

“Don’t you get lonely?” Forrest asked. He was nice and he was cute and he didn’t judge Alex, always being open to make the drive into the woods for a lengthy fuck in front of the fire. Alex wouldn’t even mind seeing him more than once every two weeks if he didn’t do things like ask that.

“No,” Alex said, shaking his head. He was in Forrest’s lap, both of them bare and comfortable being that way. Another benefit of living in the woods was that, as long as the hunt wasn’t happening, there was a very slim chance anyone would stop by without a warning. They could do whatever they wanted.

“I would,” he admitted, “If I lived out here, I would.”

“Good thing you don’t live out here then,” Alex said. Forrest wrinkled up his nose before giving a playful laugh, reaching a hand up to comb Alex’s long hair behind his ear. He couldn’t actually remember the last time he cut it, but it didn’t matter because it pissed off his dad and for that reason alone he would never cut it again.

“You ever think about moving back into town?” he wondered, craning his neck as Alex moved down to kiss his neck. He slowly kissed his way to his ear, taking it between his teeth gently.

“I’d rather put my dick in a blender,” Alex said as seductively as he could. He felt Forrest physically recoil at the thought, a groan coming from him as he leaned away. Alex smiled.

“Why do you say shit like that? Jesus,” Forrest breathed, shaking his head. Alex just grinned at him until he grinned right back. “I hate you.”

“Yeah, I believe that so much,” Alex said sarcastically, rolling his hips forward to get a little bit of a reaction from him. It worked far too easily. “Round two?”

“You expect me to say no to that?”

“No, I really don’t.”

Forrest left around two in the morning, needing a little coercion to make him realize staying over night wasn’t an option. Telling him he planned to be up early to do yoga didn’t work, but telling him he’d be forcing him to wake up at 5AM to join if he didn’t leave definitely did.

He didn’t really understand Forrest’s desire to be around him. Sure, he was probably the only person Alex had found since his grandmother that he could tolerate for more than thirty minutes, but that didn’t mean he wanted him around always. He liked space, he liked being alone. His brothers asked often when he would settle down and Forrest occasionally liked to see if he wanted something more, but apparently ‘I don’t want to’ wasn’t a valid answer. Apparently, it wasn’t right to enjoy being on your own.

Sometimes, on days that weren’t great, he’d consider it, though. He felt like this now, yes, but would he always? Wouldn’t he want someone eventually? And, when that time came, wouldn’t it be nice to have Forrest around, someone who he already knew he could tolerate? But then he remembered that’s just what society told him to feel.

If he found someone worth altering his life for, it wouldn’t be a question. He’d know it.

Bright and early the next morning, Gregory Manes, the middle Manes boy, showed up at the door with iced coffee. He was the least pushy of Alex’s brothers and was the only one who, while still going hunting every month, hadn’t killed any wolves. That was the only reason Alex tolerated his early morning visits.

“Wasn’t Flint supposed to come?” Alex asked, sipping the coffee as he led the way to the side door. It entered straight into the not-quite-outside room that Alex used to do all the fun stuff like skinning and packaging.

“Yeah, but I wanted to come talk to you,” Greg said. Alex raised an eyebrow as he opened the freezer, desensitized to the smell of blood and meat that filled the room as he continued to drink his coffee while simultaneously pulling out package deer meat to put in a bag. For a town full of hunters, they never seemed to be able to get any deer of their own.

“Why?”

“You need to steer clear of that Long boy. Or at least tell him to stop acting like you two are an item,” Greg said. Alex furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Since when had he ever taken being told what to do well? “I’m not judging you or trying to tell you what to do. I’m just saying he’s starting to outcast himself by association and he seems too nice to suffer like that.”

“He shouldn’t be telling anyone that we’re together anyway,” Alex said, slamming the freezer door shut, “We aren’t and he knows that.”

“Okay, well make sure he knows that. Mrs. Sibley, the lady who runs the coffee shop, refused him service this morning and I have to assume it’s because word is getting around that you two are together.”

That took Alex off guard as he looked at him with wide eyes. Even he had never been refused service. Maybe that was the fear, but still. 

“Seriously? Jesus, why do any of you stay in that town?”

“It’s not that easy to just get out.”

“For him it would be. He’s smart and friendly, he’d be able to get out easily,” Alex explained. Greg sighed.

“I don’t know, that’s not my call to make. All I’m sayin’ is he’s gonna suffer if something doesn’t change,” he said. Alex nodded and decided to be nice about it. He knew Forrest wouldn’t listen to him if he told him to stop, but it wouldn’t hurt Alex to distance himself from him for his own good. He didn’t need him like that.

“Okay.”

“Also,” Greg sighed, “I need you to drive into town later and pick up Isobel from work because I have to get ready for the hunt tonight.”

Alex froze and looked over at him, carefully pulling the coffee away from his lips. Greg was giving him that pleading little smile and Alex hated him for it. This is why he didn’t socialize. They did shit like this.

“So this is a bribery coffee?” he asked. Greg rolled his eyes.

“Please? Your the only guy that I trust around her anyway.”

“Then maybe get her to ask one of her friends? You know, women so she doesn’t have to be picked up from work by some guy she’s met once?” Alex explained. 

Greg gave him that look like he should know that wasn’t an option. Which, granted, it sort of wasn’t. All the women in the town usually got together on the night of the hunt to cook for all the men when they got back. It was all very sexist if Alex was concerned. But, still, Isobel already got judged because she wasn’t from around there. If she asked someone to go out of their way on the night of the hunt, it could make it worse.

“Fine,” he groaned, “But you owe me. That’s like a two hour round trip just to pick up your girlfriend.”

“I’ll pay for your gas and I’ll make sure dad doesn’t come around here for three months,” Greg offered. Alex eyed him.

“Deal.”

-

Alex spent his day compiling fire wood, checking his garden, and making sure the fence around his cabin was secure. His one rule was that, during hunts, if any of the fuckers even tried to enter or shoot around his property, he’d shoot them. They listened, but you could never be too cautious.

He combed and braided his hair before he left, even bothering to get dressed in something that wasn’t dirty. As much as he didn’t care to impress anyone, he also wasn’t too keen on alienating a girl who was already alienated enough. 

She was quiet when he picked her up from her work, saying her thanks and nothing more. He dropped her off and immediately started heading back home. The sun was starting to go down and he knew that as soon as it go dark, idiots would be in the woods. He was trying to avoid getting his tires blown by boys who got spooked by every little sound and mistook his truck for a wolf.

He was none too lucky though, navigating that dirt road that he specifically carved out for his truck as the siren rang throughout the town to signify the beginning of the hunt. He rolled his eyes and kept an eye out for people that were in the woods hunting, not really eager to hit anyone despite the fact that he could hear just how gun crazy they were. 

But then something dark was laying in the middle of the path. Alex slowed to a stop and turned on his brights. He felt all the air leave his lungs as he realized it was a wolf. Big as ever, but not in pieces every other time he’d seen one. Instead, this one was wounded and looking in the lights with scared eyes. 

Against all better judgement, Alex climbed out of his truck and slowly started walking towards it. It was hurt, but it wasn’t dead. Maybe he could help and then he could feel just a little bit better knowing he wasn’t as bad as the rest of his family.

“It’s okay,” he said softly, as he neared the animal. It’s fur was thick and a dark brown, eyes almost too human as they stared him down His stomach swooped in fear, but kept his hands where the animal could see and took slow steps. “I’m not gonna hurt you. I just wanna help, okay?”

The wolf whined, but didn’t bark or growl. Alex tried to remember all the tales of how vicious these creatures were and wondered if maybe, just maybe, they were only vicious because they were treated with venom first.

“Let’s see where you’re hurt, okay?” Alex cooed as he got close, crouching slowly. He held eye contact and slowly reached to pet the wolf’s head, promising that he wasn’t a threat. It didn’t bite his hand off, so that was a plus.

It only took a few seconds to see that there was a bullet graze in it’s front leg which was probably why it was in the middle of a path instead of hiding somewhere. However, it looked like something he could feasibly patch up. Alex frowned as he tried to figure out how the hell he was going to get the animal back to his cabin. Sure, he was strong, but strong enough to pick up a whole ass wolf?

A gunshot rang through the air and the wolf startled, whining and fearful. Alex had never felt so much compassion for anything in his entire life. Never had he ever felt as bad for a human as he did for this wolf. Which is probably what led him to deciding to carry it.

“Give me one second, okay? I’m gonna help. If you wanna bite my arm off, that’s cool too,” Alex said before running back to his truck. He dropped the tailgate and grabbed a blanket from the back seat before heading back to the wolf. “I got you.”

He laid out the blanket as fast as he could and, will a lot of struggling, he managed to get the wolf on it. He didn’t question why it was trusting him so much, he just went with it. His grandmother did always say he had an open soul. He always thought that was bullshit, but maybe he was just open to a different species.

He dragged the blanket with the wolf on it all the way to the back of the truck and winced when another shot echoed through the air. Alex said a few cursed under his breath before looking down at the wolf that was staring up at him, putting it’s life in his hands so willingly.

“This is probably gonna hurt, okay? I’m sorry,” he warned.

Alex gathered the ends of the blanket and wrapped them around his hands, trying to think of it as picking up a heavy log instead of a living being as he lifted it and tried to throw it in the back of the truck as gently as possible. That didn’t stop the pained yap the wolf made when it hit the bed of the truck and Alex instantly gave it another pet.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “Stay put, okay? It’s gonna be okay.”

He closed the tailgate and quickly got back into his truck, driving the rest of the way feeling like he had stepped into a different side of reality. This is why he didn’t go out during hunts. Now he had a stupid wolf to take care of.

When he got to his cabin, he moved fast to get the wolf from the bed of the truck and inside. It’d be safe there as long as no one actually saw him taking it in there. Alex had zero faith in his father to respect his privacy if there was a wolf involved.

“Alright, it’s okay,” Alex cooed, repeating himself over and over as he carefully got the wolf onto the ground. It was a lot easier to do that than it’d been to lift it, so that he was thankful for. 

He dragged the wolf on the blanket all the way through the front door and locked it behind him, letting out a huff of relief. He stood there for a moment to catch his breath as the wolf stared up at him, 

“You trust me, right?” Alex asked rhetorically, but the wolf rolled onto his side and gave him unbridled access to tend to the wound on his leg. Alex tilted his head to the side. “Oh, you really trust me. Guess I gotta make it worth your while, huh? Gimme one second.”

Alex flicked on the lights in the kitchen, not giving a shit if it obscured the men hunting. He was the one that rigged up the generator and he was going to use it regardless. He started searching for his first aid kit, a rag, and then got two separate bowls to fill with water (well water, he couldn’t take credit for that, that was his grandmother’s doing). 

He brought everything back to the wolf and sat on the ground beside him, opening the first aid kid.

“Here’s water if you need it,” Alex said, putting one of the bowls by the wolf’s head, “This might hurt a little... I say to an animal who literally can’t understand me.”

The wolf a soft huff of acknowledgement, ears flicking. Alex smiled and shook his head, scooting a little closer. He tried to be gentle as he looked at the wolf’s bleeding leg, dipping the rag into the other bowl of water to use to wipe it clean.

“It’s just a graze,” he murmured in confirmation, “Took a chunk of flesh, but I think it’s superficial. You’ll be okay.”

Still, he got a little gauze pad and wet it with hydrogen peroxide before cleaning it with that. The wolf let out another whine and Alex gave mindless words of encouragement, trying to move as quickly as possible. After that, he got neosporin and dabbed that over it as well before wrapping it up. He hoped it would be enough. He decided he’d just keep a close eye on it to make sure he would be okay. 

“You can stay here until you feel better,” Alex promised, petting the wolf’s stomach gently. He watched him lap up a bit of water before laying his head back down. “You look tired.”

Tired sounded nicer than in pain because surely that’s what he really felt. Nonetheless, Alex pet him a few more times before getting up to put the first aid kid away and discard the bloody rag and bloody water bowl.

The wolf stayed right there by the entrance of the kitchen on the blanket, watching Alex as he got up to make some semblance of dinner. He hummed to himself and to the wolf as gunshots continued. He didn’t want him to be scared.

He made himself deer sausage and a potato, keeping it plain and simple. On another plate, he put a slab or raw deer meat and went back to sitting on the floor.

“I don’t know if you’re hungry, but here,” Alex said as he placed the plate beside him. The wolf eyed him, but Alex kept to himself as he ate his own food. It seemed to be enough and he eventually started taking small, delicate bites. Alex grinned. “Not very wolf-like.”

The wolf gave a superficial growl and Alex smiled even wider.

They ate in silence for the most part, gunshots dying down as it got darker. Usually, by 10, the wolves were either in hiding or dead and the men retreated back into town. Alex stayed with his wolf until the siren signified the hunt was over at 11PM. 

“Okay, well, I’m gonna go get ready for bed,” Alex told him after cleaning their dishes and double checking the lock on the door, “I’ll leave your water there.”

Alex headed into his room after that, grabbing a pair of sweats, an old sweater, and fresh boxers before he stripped down. He could take a shower in the morning. 

Right as he dropped his pants to the ground, he heard uneven tapping against the wood floors. He looked over his shoulder to see the wolf in all his wounded glory limping his way to be near him.

“Excuse you,” Alex said, feigning modesty. The wolf just gave another soft whine and Alex shook his head with a laugh, pulling on his clean clothes. When he looked back again, the wolf had gotten onto the left side of his bed. “Oh, so now you can walk and jump? You really did just want me to carry you.” Another whine. “Kidding.”

Alex climbed into bed, careful to be mindful of his wounded bed partner. He wasn’t actually used to sharing a bed to actually sleep, but this felt like a valid exception to the rule. He pet the wolf beside him a few times and scratched behind his ear.

“Goodnight.”

-

The next few days went by with ease.

They’d get up early, eat breakfast, tend to the garden, eat lunch, hunt deer, get firewood, eat dinner, go to sleep, repeat. The wolf followed Alex around as much as he could and he got stronger each day. By the third day, he wasn’t even limping anymore.

“I have never seen something heal this fast,” Alex marveled as he cleaned up the wound that was now just a scratch after dinner, “That’s insane.”

He stood once he was done and headed into the kitchen to wash his hands again. It was strange. This was the first time since his grandmother died that he didn’t get annoyed by the constant companionship. Hell, even when she was around, he’d go get lost in the woods for a few hours to be in his own mind. But there was something comforting about having another being that didn’t talk back. There was no annoyance about him, just a presence to remind him that he wasn’t completely alone.

Alex was halfway through putting his hair in a bun when someone knocked on the door. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and the wolf stood in attention. No one had told him they were stopping by.

Still, he made his way to the door with the wolf hot on his heels.

“Go,” he whispered to him, shooing him away, “Go in there.”

It took a few seconds of staring him down, but eventually the wolf went into the living room. Alex closed his eyes and let out a heavy breath, hoping that Greg had kept his word and it wasn’t his father. If his dad found out he was harboring a wolf, well, they had bigger problems.

Alex opened the door and saw Forrest, the man smiling hesitantly.

“Um, hey,” Alex said, “What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t return any of my texts,” he said, “I was kinda worried.”

“You shouldn’t be, you know I don’t look at that thing,” Alex said. Forrest nodded, looking around as if trying to find a reason to stay. “Look, my brother told me about people acting rude towards you because of me. I think it’s best if we stopped.���

Forrest looked taken aback. “They’re rude because I’m gay.”

Alex gave a small smile and shook his head. “No. Well, maybe a little, but Mrs. Sibley wouldn’t refuse service to someone because they’re gay. Not saying she’s the most welcoming person in the world, but she takes her money very seriously. It’s because you’ve mentioned me to people.”

He bowed his head for a moment, thinking about it. Alex expected him to leave, but instead he just looked back up at him and shrugged.

“Fuck ‘em.”

“No,” Alex said, “No, I’m not about to be responsible for you.”

“Then I’ll say we broke up.”

“We aren’t dating.”

“Yeah, but clearly they think we are,” Forrest said, shaking his head, “Look, I don’t give a shit what we are. You’re the only guy in this town that is both not straight and not conformed to this town’s bullshit agenda. Can’t I fuck at least one person that isn’t a Republican?”

Alex snorted a laugh and felt himself caving. He did like having Forrest at his beck and call for the same reason that Forrest clearly liked having him. They were two of the only sane people.

“Fine,” Alex said, looking him up and down, “But you still came back here awfully soon.”

“What can I say? The hunt always makes me hate everyone around there a little more,” Forrest explain. Alex took that as a perfectly valid answer.

He pulled Forrest into his house and into a kiss, slamming the door behind him. Forrest grinned easily, wrapping his arms around his torso and pulling him in tight. Alex could feel how toned he was through his shirt which, honestly, he loved. Alex did yoga and lifted heavy shit, but he wasn’t all sculpted with abs and stuff. Forrest, on the other hand, was.

Their make-out was interrupted by a loud bark. Forrest nearly jumped out of his skin and Alex instantly looked over his shoulder to where the wolf was all but glaring at them.

He was growling low as he slowly stalked forward. Alex couldn’t be fucked to find it intimidating.

“Really? Relax,” Alex told the wolf. He just growled right back. Forrest hid behind him shamelessly.

“Since when did you get a fucking dog?” he asked. Alex didn’t really have an answer, so he just shrugged and then walked closer. He knelt down in front of the wolf despite his anger and looked him in his all too human eyes.

“Go to bed,” he said. The wolf’s angry demeanor dropped in favor of something close to a pout, a mournful whine coming from him. “Go.”

He slowly walked away, head bowed and tail all but tucked between his legs. Alex huffed and stood back up, turning to Forrest who seemed very confused still.

“What the hell was that?” he asked. Alex just shrugged and walked closer. He didn’t want to explain himself and he wasn’t about to. Forrest didn’t question him as he pulled him back into a kiss and started pulling him to the couch.

Alex tried, he really did, but it was hard to enjoy having sex when there was a wolf dramatically walking through the house and whining for attention. They got as far as Alex being shirtless and on his back on the couch and Forrest kissing down his chest to go down on him when they had to stop because the fucking wolf was just watching them like a disappointed parent who whined louder and louder by the second.

“Go to bed!” Alex told him. He just laid down on the floor right there as if that’s what Alex meant. “Oh my God,” he groaned, throwing his head back. Forrest chuckled against his stomach before sitting up.

“This is what you get for getting a dog.”

“Well, if I knew getting cock-blocked was a side effect of a pet, then I’d never have signed up.”

Forrest gave a small laugh and they both sat up, accepting that there was no way to continue without feeling awkward as hell. The wolf seemed awfully proud of himself.

“Why did you get a dog, anyway? I thought you said you weren’t lonely,” Forrest said.

“I’m not. And I didn’t really want him. I found him and he was hurt, so I’m letting him stay until he’s healed,” Alex explained. Forrest gave a teasing smile.

“You helped something in need? Aw, who knew you had it in you.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Alex laughed, reclining back against the couch, “I guess you can go now since we’re clearly not allowed to do anything.”

“Seriously?” Forrest asked. Alex just raised an eyebrow. He sighed, but clearly wasn’t too shocked. He probably would’ve been more shocked if Alex actually condoned in letting him stick around if they weren’t going to hook up. “Alright then.”

Alex walked him back to the door and they shared a kiss before Alex locked up after him. He glared at the wolf when he walked back into the living room, shaking his head.

“Can’t believe I’m just letting you tell me what to do in my own home,” Alex scolded as he dropped back on the couch. The wolf got up and came over, jumping up onto the couch and licked at his face. Alex tried to lean away, but the slobbery kisses kept on. “Haha, very funny.”

The licks stopped, but the wolf laid heavily on him. Alex just accepted it and relaxed into the couch, stroking his soft fur. Was it bad if he didn’t mind this over sleeping with Forrest? 

“Lets go to bed, I guess,” Alex sighed eventually, giving him one last scratch before they both got down from the couch.

It felt standard now to walk to his bedroom and change and get comfortable in bed with a huge ass wolf. He’d only been doing it for a few nights and yet it was like he couldn’t remember not being this way. He was almost sad at the prospect of sleeping alone again.

“You’re almost all healed,” Alex whispered into the darkness but he trusted the wolf understood every word. He stared at him with conviction like he always did and Alex no longer assumed he didn’t hear him. He did. “Are you gonna run off tomorrow?”

The wolf blinked once and then shifted closer, nudging his nose against Alex’s chin and laying his head on his chest. Alex huffed a laugh and shamelessly buried his face in his fur. 

“I’ll take that as I’ll at least see you around.”

-

Alex woke up the next morning, not to fur, but to skin.

When he opened his eyes, he was face to face with a man. Alex immediately jumped up and scrambled out of bed, his heart thudding in his chest. The man in his bed sat up, unabashedly naked as he sat criss-cross and blinked up at Alex. He tilted his head to the side in that distinctly animalistic way that made Alex’s heart stop.

“What the fuck?” Alex asked, raking his hands through his hair as he tried to make sense of this, “What the fuck?”

“I’m all healed now, see?” the man said, pointing to the faintest little scar on his arm. Alex’s mouth went dry at the confirmation. What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck.

“I-what? Oh my God, cover up, I can’t fucking think,” Alex said and the man just smiled at him, doing as he said. He had curly hair that almost reached his shoulders and stubble dotting his cheeks along with a hairy chest. His shoulders were broad and so was his smile, his skin tan in a way that complimented his muscles. He was hot. But he wasn’t fucking human. “I’m so confused.”

“Why?” he asked. Alex scoffed, eyes nearly bulging out of his head.

“What do you mean why? I went to sleep with a wolf in my bed and woke up to a fucking man,” Alex pointed out. He blinked innocently, those eyes identical to the ones he’d seen in the wolf. It was only more confirmation.

“You like men.”

“And I liked your smartass comments better when I couldn’t hear them,” he said. Again he just blinked and tilted his head. Alex rubbed his hands over his face. “I just... I know the legend, but... really? Is this really a thing? What the fuck?”

“I... I don’t know what you want me to say,” he said. Alex took a deep breath, trying to focus on his thoughts so he could ask the right questions. When he did, though, they came out all at once.

“How do you speak English so well? Why did you wait so long to show me that you’re human? Why did you show me at all? Are you human? What’s your name? How old are you? What the fuck?” Alex rambled. The not-wolf stared at him with wide, overwhelmed eyes. “Fuck.”

“I... I...” he stuttered out, furrowing his eyebrows, “You usually say less words.”

“Yeah, well, I usually don’t get confirmation of fucking mythical creatures,” Alex snapped. The not-wolf’s face slowly got more and more concerned, not longer any trace of that big smile. In fact, he looked scared. Alex sighed and rubbed his hands over his face again. He’d told that wolf four days ago that he was safe here and he meant it. Even if that meant he had just quickly adjust to this. “I’m sorry for freaking out. Look, just... I’ll lend you some clothes and then you can explain everything to me while we make breakfast. Okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed, nodding his head as he stood to his feet with complete disregard of his nudity. He stumbled a little as he did so, catching himself on the wall and laughing a little. “These feet are weird.”

“Yeah,” Alex breathed, looking away and hoping he had clothes that would fit him. He picked out the baggiest sweater and baggiest pair of sweats he owned, turning to give the pair to him. He took them with welcome hands.

Alex watched as he fumbled with them, sitting the sweats on the bed as he decided to focus on the sweater first. He twisted it and unfolded it, flipping it around in his hands a few times before finding the large opening at the bottom. He looked up at Alex for confirmation that he was doing it right. All it told Alex was that he was basically dealing with a fresh goddamn human.

He stuck his hands inside, stretching and moving wildly as he tried to make it work. Alex smiled at the childish nature of it and moved forward, helping him get his arms through the sleeves and his head through the collar. He flashed a smile when they made eye contact. 

“Can you get the pants or do you need help with that too?”

“I got it. You did it so many times.”

“Great, glad to know I could teach you something,” Alex huffed, shaking his head with a little laugh. Still, the not-wolf had to sit on the bed and focus harder than normal to get his legs through the pants. “Does your hand-eye coordination improve the longer you’re human or am I going to have to teach you how to function?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Like, do you get better at doing things?”

“Oh. Yes.”

“Got it.”

They made their way into the kitchen and the not-wolf stood too close to him, lingering over his shoulder as if his wolf boundaries were still acceptable in human form. They weren’t though, not really, and Alex shoved him away.

“Give me space,” he instructed. He agreed, moving a few feet away before eventually deciding to sit on the floor by his water bowl that was probably not helpful anymore. “Now, give me answers.”

Within the 15 minutes it took to cook eggs and deer sausage, Alex got the run down of all things mythical. He learned that it was extremely difficult to shift when they were hurt, meaning he couldn’t have let Alex know earlier if he tried (but they healed faster in wolf form anyway so it was pointless). He also learned that he spent most of his time as a wolf, but usually became human during hunts because his elders had taught him that was what he should do. That was how his English had gotten as good as it had.

“Wait, so why were you a wolf during this last hunt? What happened?” Alex asked. He shifted awkwardly, pulling on the sleeves of the sweater as he tried to find his words.

“Days are different out there, it’s hard to know exactly when the hunt will be. Usually, my sister comes to get me and gives me a place to go, but this time she didn’t. I-I don’t know why,” he said. Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he looked over at him.

“Your sister?”

“Yes. She spends most of her time human, she doesn’t like being outside like that.”

“Because of the hunt?”

“No,” he said, but then he paused for a moment, “Yes. I don’t know. It’s strange. She wants to be normal, so she goes. I like being that.”

“I get it,” Alex said easily. He dispersed the food onto two plates and walked over to him, sitting down on the floor with him. He handed him the plate and a fork, but he simply put the fork on the ground and used his hands. “So, do you have a name? Or do you spend so much time as a wolf that you don’t have one?”

“No, I have one,” he said, picking up a small section of scrambled egg with all five of his fingers. Alex smiled as he shoved it in his mouth in the messiest way possible. “It’s Michael.”

“Michael,” Alex repeated, “I’m Alex.”

“Alex,” he said, nodding his head as he shoved more egg into his mouth, “I never had this food, Alex, it’s good.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome.”

They ate in silence for a little while longer, Alex finding amusement in watching him make a mess and then eventually having to show him how to wash his hands. Instead of a morning workout or going immediately to his garden, they sat down on the couch to talk more. Michael sat too close, too eager to lay on him like he did when he was a wolf.

“Okay, you can’t do that,” Alex told him, pushing him away until they were firmly on other sides of the couch, “I don’t like that.”

“Like what?”

“The whole unnecessary touch thing.”

“That man that was here before did that,” Michael pointed out. Alex opened his mouth to explain, but then he realized that Michael had caused that whole scene and knew exactly what he was doing.

“Yeah, and you ran him off. Why would you do that?” Alex asked. Michael had no shame as he looked at him.

“Not fair.”

“What’s not fair?”

“He got all the petting and he was only here for a few minutes. I got none for that whole time,” Michael explained like it was obvious. Alex scoffed, but couldn’t help but laugh.

“You aren’t entitled to my attention, you know that right? I can pet whoever I want,” Alex said. Michael just shrugged, twisting to sit with his back against the arm of the couch and his legs criss-cross again. “But I was trying to have a sex and I think you knew that.”

Michael gave a guilty smile.

“What the fuck?” Alex said, giving another little laugh, “You’re such an ass.”

Michael laughed, so open and free that Alex nearly felt guilty for being cynical. But, still, this wasn’t a completely understood situation.

“So, what’s the plan? ‘Cause you can’t stay with me forever,” Alex told him. Michael pulled his leg up, resting his chin on his knee and giving him those sad puppy eyes that worked just as well as they did when he was an actual dog. “Oh no, you’re not guilting me into letting you stay here.”

“But I’m hurt.”

“You said it yourself, you’re all healed,” Alex pointed out. Slowly, that bottom lip popped out in a pout and Alex had to fight a smile. 

“But we’re friends.”

“Friends don’t cock-block each other.”

Still, that pout was still there. Alex shook his head, trying to hide his laugh before he got up. He was just going to have to think about this more. He felt bad just throwing him back out when he knew that his family was trigger happy, but he didn’t like the idea of having a whole ass person in his house. Maybe they could compromise. 

“Look, I’m gonna go take a shower, can I trust you to stay put?” Alex asked. Michael nodded. “Good.”

The rest of the day somehow carried on like normal. Michael sat on the bed like he always did to watch Alex braid his hair, staring like it was the most interesting thing in the world. They went to work on the garden together, this time with Michael working on his hand-eye coordination by trying to help. It was the same as they went to cut fire wood. Turns out there was a bonus to having someone around with werewolf strength--the dude could basically carry a whole ass tree.

For some reason, Alex didn’t hate it. He didn’t hate having him tag along and he didn’t hate having to explain things to him. He felt more patient than ever and that in itself was wild. He didn’t like people. But, then again, Michael wasn’t quite people.

“You need to go take a shower,” Alex told him that night. Michael just stared at him like he’d lost his mind. “Don’t look at me like that. If you’re gonna stay in human form, you have to act like one.”

With a little bit of persuasion, Alex showed him how the shower worked and what soap to use on his hair and what soap to use on his body. Alex waited outside of the bathroom for about five minutes until a large crash happened and not-so-manly whining followed it.

“What did you do?” Alex asked.

“My eyes,” Michael whined. Alex sighed and asked for permission to help him. It was granted without hesitation.

He walked into the tiny bathroom and pulled back the shower curtain, seeing him holding his palms to his eyes and yet barely any soap in his hair. Alex grabbed a rag and peeled his hands away from his eyes, holding his chin as he dabbed over his closed eyes.

“Now blink a lot,” Alex told him. He did as he was told for about a solid minute until it didn’t hurt as bad.

Alex decided to stay and showed him how to wash his hair, massaging his scalp and smiling at the way he seemed to purr at the sensation. He helped him rinse it out before deciding he could wash his body on his own. He left him with a warning that he needed to be completely dry with the towel before he came out. The instructions worked well enough despite Alex ending up drying his hair for him.

“So, I don’t know if you plan to stay human, but if you do, we can go to a thrift shop and get you some clothes of your own,” Alex offered as he gave him another pair of clothing. He would have to do laundry soon which was always a pain in the ass.

“I’d like to stay human for a little while,” Michael said, putting on the sweater with a little less trouble this time. 

“I thought you said you liked being a wolf.”

“Yes,” Michael said, “But I like being with you.”

Alex ignored the way his stomach clenched and he just made his way towards the bedside table, grabbing his brush before undoing his braid. He didn’t mind Michael, but the fact that he didn’t mind him was scary. It was scarier to know that Michael wanted to stay human to be around him. What exactly did that mean? Nothing, right? They hadn’t known each other long enough to be more than nothing.

The bed creaked as Michael crawled onto it and Alex eyed him.

“What are you doing? You’re sleeping on the couch,” Alex said. Michael made a wounded noise, looking up to him like Alex had just told him his dog died. “I told you. If you’re human, you have to act like it. Humans don’t share beds with strangers.”

Michael didn’t move, looking up at Alex like he was genuinely, deeply hurt by the idea that, not only could they not share a bed, but that he was a stranger. Alex held up his end for a total of thirty seconds before he caved. What the hell was this wolf-man doing to him? Since when was he this fucking nice?

“Fine,” Alex groaned. Michael instantly fell into bed and curled into the blankets, smiling all proud of himself. Alex shook his head, finishing brushing his hair before he climbed into bed too. 

Like the night before, only much different, Michael nuzzled his face under Alex’s chin. He snuggled close like that was okay and shifting and itching as he tried to get comfortable in not only his new skin, but new clothes. Alex thought about pointing out that unnecessary touching thing again, but he smelled good and he wasn’t actually that bothered. He didn’t instigate it by touching him more, but he definitely didn’t push him away.

“Alex?” he whispered, voice soft like it was a secret.

“What?” Alex whispered right back.

Michael didn’t give a verbal response, simply pressed in closer and pulled the blanket up to Alex’s chin which meant it was basically over his head. It had Alex wondering if he got cold without all the extra fur. Regardless, he still didn’t touch him.

But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it.

-

A week went by and it turns out living with a half-man, half-wolf wasn’t that bad.

Michael was actually quiet for the most part and he adjusted to human-living quite well. He picked up on how to make coffee very fast. He took showers regularly and wore clothes and helped in the garden. He was an effective hunting partner and wasn’t grossed out by the process of skinning the deer. He was still working on the boundaries part, but, hey, he was trying and Alex appreciated it. It had to be confusing to rationalize that it was okay to touch while they were in bed, but not when they weren’t unless he was a wolf.

It was all easy until they had to go into town to get him clothes and to refill gas cans.

“I don’t like stores.”

“Neither do I.”

“I hate them.”

“So do I.”

“Then why did we go?”

Alex sighed and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. He hated going into public, he always had, and after moving into the woods, he hated it more. He hated talking to people and he hated the way the town looked at him and he hated having to perform social niceties that, to him, didn’t feel very nice. However, he hadn’t quite acknowledged that Michael had been even more isolated from it all. 

They’d been in the thrift store for a total of about thirty minutes and just barely made it to that point. People were staring and whispering and avoiding them like the plague, judging them openly. Alex was used to that. Michael, on the other hand, was not and he nearly had a breakdown in the middle of the store after four people deliberately speed-walked away from him and one lady loudly asked her friend why they thought it was okay to come during peak business hours. He couldn’t quite wrap his head around people not liking him on principal and it made him uncomfortable and, well, a wolf never really had to learn to contain emotions. So Alex sent him to the truck while he paid.

When he got to the truck, Michael was curled in a ball with his hands clasped over the back of his head.

“Look, I’m sorry, I should’ve warned you,” Alex said softly. He knew that the people who chose to be around him suffered consequences with the exception of his brothers and his father. And even then the only reason they didn’t was because they ran the fucking town. Alex was an outlier and everyone suspected he was one of them and that his father had sent him to the woods for that reason. The worst part was that Michael actually was.

“Can we go home now?” he asked, voice small as he stayed in the ball. Guilt filled Alex’s system and, for the first time since he was human, he reached out and initiated touch. He stroked his hair and then squeezed his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

“One more stop, but you can stay in the car for that, is that okay?”

Michael nodded.

Alex drove to the gas station while keeping one hand on Michael, hoping that that would be stabilizing enough. He left Michael in the car with a soft ‘I’ll be right back’ and went to go pay for his gas. He grabbed a coffee and sour candy while he was inside, deciding to give Michael some sort of prize for surviving a day amongst the humans of Roswell along with something to ground him, before heading to the counter.

“$50 on pump 7?” the cashier said without even looking up at him. Alex appreciated her lack of conversation mixed with the lack of judgement. She had the same distaste towards him as she did everyone else and she always had. Which is why this was the only gas station he went to.

“Yeah,” Alex answered, fishing out his wallet. There was something slightly annoying that all of his money still technically came from his father and brothers. Sure, they were buying meat off him for not only themselves, but for the big dinners on the night of the hunt, so it wasn’t like it was a handout. But still.

“Alex?” a familiar voice asked. Alex looked up to see his brother, Greg, walking inside. “Hey, I was just on my way out to your place.”

Alex gave a small shrug as he turned to him, coffee and candy in hand. He would never admit that he was a little scared that, if Greg saw Michael, he would know. They’d all been taught from a young age to question anyone who wasn’t from around there and, even if they were, to keep watch of all their differences. Greg was a little different and had been dating a girl who wasn’t from around there, but it still made him wary to let him follow him back to the truck.

“Need meat? Or just need a little brotherly companionship?” Alex asked. Greg huffed a laugh and rolled his eyes.

“Meat,” he said, “I told you, I’d keep dad from comin’ around there. I keep my word.”

“Right,” Alex sighed. He was thankful that he didn’t have to see his father, but, fuck, he didn’t want him meeting Michael. Not one bit. Especially not when Michael was having a bad time. He would like all of his brothers to not see him be nice to anyone. 

“Isobel’s with me,” Greg told him and then eyed him for a moment before looking towards the cashier and then looking back, “And I also noticed there’s a guy in your truck.” So much for keeping that to himself.

“Yeah,” Alex said simply, shrugging his shoulder. He could play it off.

“Moved on from Forrest already?”

“You’re the one who told me to leave him be,” Alex pointed out though he didn’t say that he’d sort of forgotten about Forrest over the last week. He’d sort of been distracted.

“Yeah, I did,” Greg said, nodding slowly. This was certifiably one of the weirdest conversations they’d ever had. That was saying something. “You usually don’t listen.”

“What can I say? We both have a thing for strangers, don’t we?” Alex said. Greg huffed a small laugh.

“I’ll see you at your cabin in a bit,” he said, clasping a hand on his shoulder as he walked past him.

Alex went to his truck, opening the driver’s seat and prodding Michael in his thigh with his middle finger. He peeked up at him through his curls and over his knees, eyes wide and cautious and obscenely gorgeous. Alex held out the coffee and the candy.

“Eat that, it’ll help you feel better,” Alex instructed. Michael nodded and grabbed the items with slightly shaky hands. 

As frustrating as it was to see Michael so distraught over a few rude people, there was also something fascinatingly pure about it. Hell, there was something fascinatingly pure about nearly everything this non-quite-man did. It had Alex’s mind filling with new questions each day. Was he born this way or had he been changed? Was he raised as a wolf? Was he given the option? Had he been in these woods with Alex their entire lives and somehow never crossed paths? 

Alex filled the gas cans in the back of his truck as quickly as possible, climbing back in once he was done and heading home. He was exhausted already and it was hardly noon. He rightfully blamed Michael.

“You good now?” he asked after they’d been shrouded by the trees on the path to the cabin for a good fifteen minutes. Michael had lifted his head entirely, sucking on the sour candy that made him make disgusted faces, but he kept on because Alex had told him to. He’d follow it up by taking sips of the coffee that caused an even more distressed face from the clashing tastes, but he persisted nonetheless. “‘Cause my brother is coming over and I need you to feel like a real person.”

“I am real,” Michael answered.

“Yeah, you can’t talk like that.”

“I…” Michael started, but he stopped himself and shifted, “Alright.”

When they pulled up to the cabin, Michael grabbed the bag of clothes they’d gotten, his trash, and went to help with the gas cans. Alex rationalized that that was a big reason why he didn’t mind having Michael around. He pulled his weight.

“Do you feel better?” Alex asked as they got settled in the outside area, filling a bag with frozen deer meat for Greg.

“Yes,” Michael said, but his eyes were still a little distanced. It only took a few seconds before he added, “But do you mind if I shift?”

Alex blinked in surprise, but he quickly shoved that away. “Yeah, of course, do whatever you need.”

Michael nodded and started heading inside to go do just that. Alex almost stopped him to wait until after Greg got here and left, but he figured he could say he dropped him off before coming home. Alex did have a lot of questions, more pooling in his mind that he supposed he could wait until he wanted to shift back. Maybe them healing faster in wolf form applied to emotional wounds as well.

A few minutes later, someone‒Greg‒knocked on the door. Alex brought the bag of deer meat into the house with him as he went to go open the door. Michael was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh, you really want me to leave as soon as I got here, don’t you?” Greg asked as Alex immediately handed the bag to him. He shrugged a dismissive shoulder. “You remember Isobel, right?”

Alex looked over towards the tall blonde that stood behind him. Her makeup was faint and her hair was down and her clothes were plain. It almost made Alex feel bad. When Greg had first met her, he’d excitedly showed Alex pictures of her since he was the only one he could go to about a girl who was from out of town. She looked lively and always dressed to the nines in every picture, regardless of how mundane the situation. That town had successfully forced her to conform. 

“Yeah,” Alex said, “I picked her up from work that day.”

“Yeah, I know, but you’re, well, Alex,” Greg said. He didn’t need to elaborate for Alex to get what he meant by that.

They barely had a second of silence pass between them before Isobel’s face suddenly lit up, looking much more like those pictures. Alex looked behind him at that and saw that Michael, fully wolfed-up, had made himself known. Alex stepped to the side and she took that as her invitation to go pet him.

Except it seemed a little more than that. Isobel dropped to her knees and Michael immediately jumped all over her, licking her face as she hugged him and pet him. Alex couldn’t help but feel extremely confused by that.

Clearly, so was Greg because he felt the need to say, “She really likes dogs.”

“I see that,” Alex noted. The two of them sat there on the ground even as Michael calmed down, just hugging each other. For a moment, Alex recalled Michael saying his sister much preferred living as a human. Was it possible that she… No. No, that’d be crazy.

“When, uh, when did you get a dog?” Greg asked, a little too much emphasis on the word ‘dog’. Alex licked his lips as he watched the two of them. Isobel seemed to be whispered into Michael’s fur, slowly but surely convincing him that maybe she was that sister he spoke about.

“He was hurt, took ‘em in,” Alex explained. Greg just nodded in a kind of stilted way. Alex looked between Isobel and Greg a few times, slowly but surely milling things over in his mind. Did Greg know? Was he also just harbouring one of them?

Oh, what would Daddy Manes say if he knew what his boys were up to?

“Iz,” Greg said after a moment, clearing his throat, “We gotta get back for dinner with my dad.”

Isobel looked over at him with sort of a neutral expression before she nodded. She kissed Michael’s fur and scratched behind his ear and he gave a little whine when she pulled away. Alex stared at her pretty intently as she stood back up and looked at him. She gave him a small smile.

“He’s a very nice dog,” Isobel said. Alex nodded.

“Yeah,” he agreed. They stared at each other for a while, longer than what Alex was taught was socially acceptable. Neither of them cared.

Greg cleared his throat.

“We’ll see you later, Alex,” Greg said, giving him a goodbye nod. Isobel reached for his hand and he took it, leading the way as they headed to his truck. Alex closed the door behind them and turned to the wolf that seemed to continue to take over his life.

“Was that your sister?” Alex asked him. Michael just stared up at him, his animalistic features making it difficult to receive confirmation. “Okay. Lunch?”

Michael stayed close, disregarding the boundaries they’d established when he was in human form. Honestly, Alex didn’t really mind. It was strange, but he was infinitely more comfortable with the wolf version of him snuggling up to his side, laying at his feet, rubbing up against him for pets than he was with the human man that breathed too heavy and still put his clothes on backwards.

After lunch, with not much to do, Alex laid on the couch and grabbed a book. Michael, in all his fluffy glory, sprawled across him. He got through maybe a chapter before the not-quite-wolf captured his attention. It was easy to just wrap his arms around him and hide his face in his fur. It was easy to focus on his steady breathing and the way he cuddled close despite his lack of human grip. Which, honestly, was what made it easy. People left and judged and spoke. Animals… There seemed to be an unspoken dedication that Alex could appreciate.

He could remember the last time he took a nap in the middle of the day before that.

-

Forrest: heard you got a new man. Feel like I shouldn't be surprised.

Alex rolled his eyes, throwing his phone back on the bed and grabbed his brush. Michael watched him with those intense eyes like always and still said nothing. Alex got to work braiding his hair.

It had taken a few days, but eventually Michael was ready to be human again. Alex woke up that morning with him snoring and naked, body cold from the lack of fur and basically burying himself into Alex to chase heat. It was clingy and annoying and so fucking hot that Alex wanted to kick him out. But he didn’t.

“More buzzing,” Michael noted as Forrest texted him again.

“Ignore it.”

“Okay.”

Alex pulled the braid over his shoulder to finish it, noticing it had reached his nipples now. A childish thought of how he could finally be a mermaid passed through his brain and he couldn’t help but smile. It was weird to think of how many years he’d wanted to be anything but himself and now he happened to befriend someone who had that choice.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Alex asked as he thought about it, turning to Michael who was eager to give an answer, “Were you always like this? Like, able to shift? Or is, like, the legend a thing and you can be turned?”

Michael paused for a moment, thinking relatively hard as he tried to find the right words. Alex let him as he tied off the end of the braid. He sat back on the bed and Michael, the king of needing physical touch, made sure their thighs were touching. Alex didn’t mind.

“Both is true. I was born like this. My parents were both this,” Michael said, “But they died. Or left. Or something. I’m not sure.”

“What do you mean you’re not sure?”

Michael shrugged. “I don’t remember. They were gone when I was a baby. I was by myself a lot.” 

Alex felt an uncharacteristic pang of empathy and he reached out, rubbing his arm slightly.

“I’m sorry to hear that. That must’ve been scary.”

“A little. I got good at hiding during hunts and stuff and a few people fed me when they didn’t realize I was a wolf because I was small. But one of the elders, Aliya, she found me and took care of me. She taught me to go human during hunts for safety. She died too,” Michael said. He seemed very flippant about that word, like so many people he’d loved died. And most of them were probably at the hand of Alex’s family. Wasn’t that just horrifying?

“What about your sister‒that’s Isobel, right?” Alex clarified. Michael stared at him for a minute, almost like he was scared to confirm it. Alex just squeezed his bicep in comfort. (It was obscenely muscular and almost ruined the mood, but Alex was adult enough to cover that up.)

“She… Don’t tell her I said so,” Michael said quickly. Alex nodded. “Yes. But she isn’t my real sister, we just…”

“Take care of each other?” Alex filled in. Michael nodded in agreement. It had Alex wondering a little bit what had stopped her from going to get him on the night of the hunt. Maybe it had to do with Greg, but even that felt weird. The whole thing was weird. “I get that.”

“Humans can become like us, though,” Michael said, changing the subject. Alex didn’t mind. Whatever was going on with her really wasn’t his business. “We can bite right here.” Michael reached up and pressed his fingers to Alex’s neck.

“Just right there?”

“Yes, I think,” he said, nodding, “But it’s scary. You can die if it’s wrong.”

“Have you ever done it?” Alex asked, his hand moving from his arm to tuck a few loose curls behind his ear. Michael kept that intense look. 

“No, never,” he insisted, “I don’t think it’s good.”

“Not even if I asked?” Alex said. Michael’s eyes seemed to widen just a little bit more, trying to register his words as Alex continued to fiddle with the ends of his hair. He wasn’t quite sure what he was doing. “Kidding.”

Michael swallowed harshly and stared, leaning a bit closer. Alex wasn’t sure if he should move or not. But Michael didn’t cross any boundaries‒or, not really‒and instead did that thing he did when he wasn’t human. He nudged his nose into Alex’s cheek and then buried his face in the crook of his neck.

Alex leaned back against the pillows and moved his hand to the back of his head, letting him lay there for a moment. Michael had gotten dressed more for a desire to be warm than a desire to be clothed, so Alex wasn’t surprised when he moved his hand up and put it over Alex’s collarbone. His fingers slipped beneath his shirt. Alex still had no desire to push him away.

“Did you ever think about being human and moving into the town?” Alex asked, gently scratching his nails against his scalp.

“When Izzy did. I didn’t wanna be alone,” he whispered. 

“What stopped you?”

“I found Max,” Michael said. That was the first time he ever mentioned someone named Max. Alex didn’t know what to say to that, so he just kept scratching his head and waited. “He’s my brother.”

“Where’s he?”

“I got hurt,” Michael told him, voice softer than before. Alex wrapped his other arm around him. “I’m not sure where he is. We got split up and you found me, so he’s probably out there.”

“Do you miss him?” Michael nodded. It was the first time that Alex considered that Michael might actually leave for real. Why was that so much scarier than him staying? “Do you want to go back into the woods?”

“I want to find him,” Michael said instead, “So he knows I’m okay.”

Alex dragged his thumb over Michael’s jaw, staring up at where the wall met the ceiling. His great grandfather on his mother’s side had built this little cabin back in the late 40s when the Manes had changed the status quo from killing wolves for protection to killing wolves for glory, moving out into the woods to make a statement that it wasn’t dangerous. His great grandma and his grandma had lived in the town for awhile after that, though, and his grandma only moved out here after she’d had two kids and her husband died. 

Alex’s mother had been raised in this tiny cabin with her brother and her mother, fully living off the land like it should’ve been. To this day, he still never understood how exactly his mother met his father and why she liked him enough to have four children with him. It felt like a disconnect. Why would she choose that over this?

But it didn’t matter. This cabin, small and quaint as it was, was a statement of rebellion and family and change. Who would Alex be if he tried to make Michael stay? Even if he wanted him to?

“You can go, if you want.”

Michael sucked in a deep breath and nuzzled in a little closer. 

“And I could come back?”

“Always.”

They fell silent like they usually did, soft touches still being given. They didn’t really need to discuss the logistics. He would probably leave and he would probably come back. Alex had been alone for a long time before‒he liked being alone‒it wasn’t some dramatic thing. This was just a wolf person he’d housed for the last three weeks. It wouldn’t be a drastic change.

It was only when Michael tilted his head and pressed a kiss to the side of his neck that Alex realized he was beyond fucked.

-

“Stop talking.”

“Then you talk. C’mon, tell me how good I‒”

Alex coved Forrest’s mouth with his hand, chasing his release with each thrust of his hips and trying to get the man under him to stop fucking ruining it. 

It was perhaps Alex’s own fault, though. Michael had left to go find his brother four days prior and Alex, for the first time ever, felt lonely. It was weird sleeping alone and it was weird gardening alone and it was weird eating alone. He missed the annoying heavy breathing and the too much touching. Staring at the unused pile of clothes felt like they were taunting him. So he called Forrest up. It was dumb of Alex to think it was a valid replacement.

The man was still a little burned by Alex “moving on” and felt the need to show that by attempting to be bossy. It had Alex wondering how he even dealt with him in the first place. He liked the silence that came with living with a literal wolf much more than the ramblings of a man who claimed to be an animal in bed.

“Fuck,” Alex grunted as he finished, catching his breath for a second before pulling out and rolling onto the other side of the couch. Forrest seemed to be silenced by his own climax which, honestly, was a blessing.

A blessing that didn’t last nearly long enough.

“So, why’d you call? New guy not doing it for you?” Forrest asked. Alex rolled his eyes and groaned, wanting for him to just shut the fuck up for a few minutes. Forrest kicked his leg to get him to answer. 

“Why do you care? I made it clear we aren’t a thing,” Alex said.

“Yeah, but I at least deserve to know who else you’re fucking for my own safety. Like, when’s the last time you’ve been tested?”

“I’m not fucking anyone else,” Alex huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “And I got tested, like, last month. Which, again, haven’t fucked anyone else.”

“Well, then who’s that guy everyone saw you with? You know shit spreads fast in that town when it involves a Manes,” Forrest told him. Alex closed his eyes. “You’re known whether you want to be or not.”

“Oh my God, will you fuck off?” Alex asked, pushing himself to his feet, “It’s none of your business, nor is it anyone else’s. I’m out here for a reason.”

“Which I still don’t get. You’re a Manes, your family runs this town. Why aren’t you basking in that?” Forrest asked. Alex walked to the kitchen and grabbed a towel, wiping himself down and trying not to be irritated.

“Why would I want to? I fucking hate it,” Alex said, “The only reason I hooked up with you in the first place was because I thought you got that.”

“And I do, on some level. I don’t wanna be associated with my family either. But the difference is my family is a bunch of annoying bigots, your family runs a town.”

“A town full of idiotic, cold-hearted people who thrive off the glory of murdering innocent animals for generations,” Alex scoffed, “And you think I want that tacked onto my name?”

“No one fucks with you because of your name, Alex.”

“No, no one fucks with me because they think I’m some fucking creature of the night.”

“And you do nothing to dispute that, by the way.”

“Because I don’t give a shit! Let them think what they want.”

“Sometimes I think your dad was right,” Forrest said, his words making Alex freeze in place. He looked up slowly, seeing Forrest just standing there completely naked and with none of the charm that Michael’s nudity had. The power those words held, the ‘your dad was right’, hit Alex square in the chest. He hated it.

“What did you just say to me?” Alex asked. Forrest shifted under his gaze, his angry stance swaying just a little bit with the fear that came with being stared down by a man with the last name Manes. Alex felt he was the least scary of them all, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know what he was capable of. 

“After I first met you, your dad cornered me and told me to tell him if there was anything sketchy about you and he’d make sure I was safe in town. And there is something sketchy about you. This, this whole isolation thing and your weird indiviuality complex is fucking weird. You do know humans are social creatures, right? We’re supposed to feel more comfort being close, not being separated. Sometimes I think maybe you really are what the rumors say,” Forrest said. 

“So you were hooking up with me because my father told you to?” Alex clarified slowly, his body filling with anger and something akin to betrayal. It wasn’t like he’d ever really put anything into a relationship with Forrest, but, fuck, he did think they were at least friends on some level.

“No,” Forrest said quickly, shaking his head, “No, that was my choice. He just… took advantage of that. But still.”

“No, what the fuck have you told my dad?” Alex scoffed.

“I told him you self isolate and that’s probably a mental issue,” Forrest said, having the audacity to sound like he cared, “That isn’t normal, Alex.”

“Fuck you,” he said, shaking his head, “Seriously, fuck you. Why would I want to be normal? Why can’t I just do what I want? Why the fuck do you buy into bullshit standards that are set for us? You even said it yourself, everyone in that fucking town conforms to the same bullshit ideology. Why are you buying it?”

“I like you, Alex,” Forrest said softly, “But I’m worried about you. So’s your dad.”

“Oh my God,” Alex breathed, a small hysterical bout of laughter raking through his system. He felt so stupid. So stupid for thinking that someone else, someone human, would get it. “Get out.”

“Alex‒”

“No, get out. You don’t know shit about my dad if you think he’s worried about me. Get the fuck out of my house.”

It took a few minutes too long, but eventually Forrest was gone and Alex was left with more regrets than ever. How the hell did he let someone into his space? He’d known for his entire life that humans were shitty and thrived off their stupid hive-mind. Why did he think Forrest was any different? Was it the blue hair? The fact that he was intrigued by Alex’s way of life until he realized how in depth it was? Why?

 He missed Michael.

-

Gregory Manes showed up unannounced early one morning, no coffee in hand.

“I’ve come to expect coffee from you and now I’m disappointed,” Alex said flatly. 

“I know that you know,” Greg responded instead, voice a little on edge. It was how Alex noticed the way he was fidgeting. “But the hunt’s tonight and Isobel’s out there and you know the woods better than anyone else. Help me.”

Alex had to blink a few times to fully process what he was asking. He figured that Isobel had probably gone to fetch Michael before the hunt. He wanted to reassure him, to tell him they’d probably be fine, but Michael had been shot last time. And, honestly, he was a little eager to see him again. 

“Okay.”

Greg waited for him to get dressed and braid his hair. They filled their water bottles and stuffed a bag with two blankets in case they shifted and needed cover. Then they headed out into the woods to find their respective objects of affection. It was strange that they had this thing in common and both of them seemed very determined not to elaborate. Alex had no idea what Greg knew, Greg had no idea what Alex knew, and they were both aware of how dangerous it could be to share information. So they didn’t.

Alex didn’t really know where the wolves went when they were out and about. He rarely saw them and, when he did, they kept their distance. He never felt the need to bother them before. They shared space, it was free reign. That meant he really had no idea where the hell he was going. 

It was the definition of wandering. Neither of them spoke or tried to call out for the wolves they wanted to protect, deciding to keep it to themselves. Truly, it was more for Greg’s safety than Alex’s. If all the wolves were like Michael and Isobel, that meant they knew exactly who the Manes were. Alex didn’t hunt them, but Greg did. Maybe he didn’t shoot, but he was there. It had Alex wondering if Isobel suffered any judging from other wolves for being with him.

They walked for hours, going deeper into the woods than even Alex really hadn’t gone since he was an angry 13 year old who ran out of school and into the woods. His father had assembled a search party after six hours of him being gone only for his grandmother to find him in a clearing, eating berries she’d taught him were safe.

They reached that same clearing around noon after a solid five hours of walking and decided to take a small break.

“Dad’s gonna kill us when he finds out,” Greg sighed as they sat down on a log. Alex shook his head.

“Why are you going to tell him?” 

“Didn’t say I was. He’s just… Dad. He knows,” Greg said. He had a point. The worst part about his father was that he was one of the smartest men Alex had ever met. He had a military background and was a born leader who had studied human psychology to only boost that more. He could read body language too well. The idea that Greg even brought Isobel over to his house for dinner felt like bringing her into a trap.

“Why do you let Isobel around him?” Alex asked. Greg huffed a laugh.

“I tried not to. Even, even before I found out about all this. I didn’t want her influenced by him,” Greg said, giving a stupid little laugh, “But she has been, so…”

“Does she spend enough time out here? I think it makes a difference,” Alex said, keeping his words as vague as possible. He knew Michael handled things by shifting. It wasn’t even like he was trying to run away from the problems, it seemed to be more about things making more sense in the mind of a wolf. 

“I don’t think so,” Greg admitted softly. Alex nodded. He wasn’t very good with words and he didn’t know how he was supposed to comfort him in that moment. Was he supposed to say it gets better? That it’d be fine? That she wasn’t out here because she was mad at him? Because he didn’t know any of that.

“If you wanna, like… spend more time out at the cabin… It was your grandma’s too,” Alex said as if that was helpful. And it seemed to be because Greg smiled.

Maybe it would’ve been more heartwarming if a low growl didn’t come from behind them.

They both looked over to see a wolf, bigger than Michael, growling at them with his head bowed and eyes narrowed. It was a similar tactic to the one Michael had used in an attempt to run off Forrest, but this time Alex actually did find it intimidating. This wolf seemed out for blood.

The two of them jumped off the log as the wolf took a step closer.

“It’s okay,” Alex said softly, holding out his hands to show that he wasn’t a threat, “It’s okay, we’re not going to hurt you.”

It was stupid of him to think what worked with Michael would work with this wolf. Alex caught the moment the wolf lunged and immediately pushed his brother out of the way. Before the wolf could get to him though, another one tackled it out of the way.

Alex and Greg both fell to the ground as they watched the two fight with wide eyes. It was jarring and confusing and Alex only got more horrified when he realized one of them was Michael. But it wasn’t like they could do anything. They just had to wait.

Eventually, Isobel, barefoot in human form, appeared. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were thrown on like she’d shifted in the woods beside some hidden stash of clothes. She whistled loudly, efficiently breaking the two wolves up.

“Thanks,” Greg told her. She simply walked over and held her hand out to him, helping him to his feet. 

Before Alex could get to his, Michael came to him and instantly started to greet him with licks and nuzzles. Alex shamelessly accepted them, scratching behind his ears.

“Hi,” he said softly and Michael damn near purred in response. God, he missed him.

“We need to get out of the woods, they’re going to prepare for the hunt soon,” Isobel said sternly. It was more words than Alex had ever heard her actually speak and he sort of understood why. There was a comforting, yet commanding lilt to her voice. It was impossible not to obey.

“We can go to my cabin,” Alex offered despite the fact that part of him actively hated the idea of packing his house with that many bodies. However, he could suffer one night with it.

Besides, he could close the door and only focus on Michael being back in his bed.

“Let’s go.”

- 

“I’m sorry for almost attacking you. I’ve never seen any Manes that weren’t a threat.”

“It’s alright.”

Alex didn’t say anything. He just let Greg accept the apology from Max and Max could just take the fact he let him in his house as enough of a compromise.

It was dark by the time they all got settled in the cabin and all in human form. Michael and Max had to shift back and Alex witnessed it for the first time. It looked ungodly painful and, according to the looks on their faces, it was. Their bodies were morphing in different ways and contorting unlike anything Alex had ever seen. But then they’d both stretched, bones cracking, and they were fine.

Michael put on his clothes, but Max was a little harder. He was taller and broader than Michael and Alex and it wasn’t like Greg had clothes in his truck. He had to just settle for pants that didn’t quite reach his ankles and a jacket.

“Coffee?” Michael whispered, his breath hot against the back of Alex’s neck. He was hovering and touchy, but Alex honestly didn’t mind. He had a bad taste in his mouth after the night before and he’d sort of missed the way he wanted to be close.

“It’s night time,” Alex pointed out. Michael hummed and pressed a kiss to his neck. Logically, Alex knew that meant nothing. Michael was a fucking wolf, he didn’t know what constituted as romantic and platonic affection. But, still, it was getting difficult to make sense of it.

But, then again, his brother was sleeping with a wolf, so it must be okay.

“Coffee,” Michael repeated. Alex huffed a laugh.

“Fine.”

They made coffee and joined the other three in the room. Max had sat on the floor and Isobel had chosen to sit in Greg’s lap on the couch. Alex took the other end of the couch and Michael placed himself at his feet. The siren signalling the beginning of the hunt rang through the air and it didn’t go unnoticed how all the wolves in the room got stiff with discomfort.

“It’s okay, they know not to come close,” Alex promised, hand mindlessly rubbing Michael’s shoulder as he sipped his coffee. 

“Dad’s gonna fucking kill me for skipping,” Greg noted.

“Kill him first,” Max suggested. Alex snorted and nodded in agreement. 

“I wish it was that easy. I don’t even know how to fix any of this at this point. How do we change a whole town’s mindset? Like, no matter what, they’ll be scared and they’ll want the hunt to continue,” Greg complained, making it a little too serious. No one really had a response because he was right. People have tried to make statements before, but they all got virtually shunned out of the town. 

“Well, it doesn’t help that they’re right,” Alex said. That got the wolves attention, but he wasn’t going to back down. “They’re scared of creatures that aren’t quite human, aren’t quite wolf. And they exist. Maybe it’s not the same way they think, but they do. And because of the hunt, the wolves are defensive. Like, Max wanting to attack us. That’s because of what the humans did first. There’s a lot more to stop before we just say no more hunting.”

“How many wolves are even left out there, do you know?” Greg asked. Isobel didn’t answer which made sense since she was in the woods the least.

“Not many,” Michael said.

“A lot left decades ago,” Max chimed in, “Like, at least eight different packs left decades ago. Most of the ones that were left were just stubborn. But, now, with the way things have been going, most of us that are still out there are alone or run in packs of two. Makes it hard to keep a head count.”

“But there are other places? Like, you won’t go extinct or anything?” Greg clarified. Isobel huffed a laugh and shook her head.

They sat up and talked through all the gunshots, trying to provide a distraction. Alex kept his hands on Michael the whole time and Michael did the same. It made it hard to focus entirely, but he did his best. 

Alex, deciding to be nice, offered to let them stay for the night. Greg and Isobel could take the couch and Max seemed content to take the floor. They just all agreed that they would find a better hide out in the morning. Then Alex and Michael went to bed.

Alex changed out of his day clothes into his night ones, deciding that he could force himself and Michael into the shower in the morning. He just wanted to get back into bed with him and maybe steal a more efficient night’s sleep. Maybe. Spending so long touching all casually had him feeling sort of restless. Still, Alex took out his braid and shook his hair out before heading to the bed that Michael had already made himself at home in.

“Can I ask you something?” Alex asked as they stared at each other in the darkness. Michael nodded like he always did. “Why’d you trust me so easily that night of the last hunt? Like Max said he could smell that we were Manes. Why’d you trust me?”

Michael furrowed his eyebrows like he was confused by the question. Alex just waited until he realized he actually wanted an answer.

“I’ve seen you, Alex,” he said simply. It was Alex’s turn to be confused. “I’ve seen you for years. We share space, we always have.”

“So, what, you just trusted me based on watching me?”

“The one who lived here before you fed me when I was small,” Michael explained, “If she trusts you, I trust you.”

Alex let out a heavy breath at that little revelation. He remembered Michael saying that he’d been fed by humans, but he hadn’t quite put it together that it was his grandmother. But, if she had, she had known full well he was a wolf no matter his size. Suddenly, her insistence that they were calm creatures made sense. She fucking fed them. She took care of them.

She took care of him.

“I’m sorry, should I not have said that?” Michael asked.

“I want to kiss you,” Alex said, all those pent up feelings from missing him and wanting him and touching him rushing to the surface. Michael didn’t give him a verbal response.

Instead, he moved forward and placed a soft little kiss on his lips. Alex felt like his whole world shifted into place at that moment. That’s what it was supposed to feel like. Not like getting a fix, but like he was finally fitting somewhere. He’d never felt so welcome and in a good way. There was no hiding. He was wanted because he was him.

Alex exhaled slowly as Michael ended the kiss, still sort of hovering a centimeter away. It really wasn’t enough. 

He dove back in to continue the kiss, making it a little deeper and deliberate than the one that preceded it. Michael laughed as Alex rolled him onto his back, placing himself firmly between his thighs and sliding his tongue past his lips. Michael held him close, kissing back just as feverishly and seeming to enjoy the closeness. Alex wondered if this is what he’d been chasing this whole time.

He didn’t want to stop. He never wanted to stop.

And, with Michael so eager, he didn’t see why he would ever have to.

-

Alex Manes was never one to sleep in, but apparently having sex with a not-quite-man could knock you out for hours.

He woke up to someone knocking on his bedroom door and, as much as he wanted to tell them to go away, he couldn’t. He gently pushed Michael off of him since he’d decided to lay on top of him all night and grabbed his pants off the floor, putting them on before he opened it. It would’ve been all nice and fun if he didn’t open it to his brother looking like a deer caught in headlights.

“Dad’s here,” he said. Alex suddenly felt a lot more awake.

“What?”

“Our father is here,” Greg said, voice hushed as he leaned a bit closer, “And we’re casually harbouring three fucking wolves.”

“Right. Just… right,” Alex said, looking around as he tried to stop feeling so fucking shaken up. He’d spent so many years no giving a shit what his father wanted anymore, but put a hot, naked wolf-man in his bed and suddenly he was fourteen and trying to explain how the first season of Queer as Folk got stashed under his pillow. “Um, let me get dressed. Stall him?”

“Hurry.”

Alex closed the door behind him and Michael lifted his head at the commotion. His curls were an absolute mess and his face was soft, everything about him making it hard to deny when he reached out towards him. Literally all Alex wanted to do was crawl back into bed with him.

Instead, he said, “Get up.”

Michael whined in protest, but Alex was just quickly throwing on clothes and tying his hair back in a bun as he tried to get him to put clothes on. He sat up in slow motion, a pout on his sweet mouth as he tried to listen. Alex grabbed his jaw, kissing him hard and quick in hopes that it would wake him up a bit more. It did, but he seemed to want to use that energy to pull him back into bed.

“No, look, get up, my dad’s here. Put clothes on, okay? Actually, you know what? Stay in here, don’t leave the room, okay?” Alex said. Michael fed off his fear and gave him a concerned look, nodding his head. “Okay.”

Alex pulled on his shoes and left the room, trying to act normal.

His father stood in the doorway of the cabin, face irritated as he spotted Alex over Greg’s shoulder. He was unsure of where Isobel and Max had gone, but he hoped they were somewhere safe. It felt weird to actually care about two people he hardly knew, but he knew Michael cared about them and that was pretty much all that mattered.

“Either of you care to explain to me what’s going on here?” he asked. Greg and Alex didn’t fork over an answer, but nor did they look at each other for one. They knew their father. They weren’t going to show any sign of guilt.

“Just hanging out with my brother,” Greg said.

“And you skipped the hunt for it? Do you know how bad that looks on me? It’s already bad enough that we have Alex hiding out in the woods and then parading around town with strange men all the time. Do neither of you have any ounce of respect for our family name?” he demanded. Alex searched for his confidence as he gave a cocky smile, hoping that it came off as genuine.

“Not really,” he said. Jesse shook his head in disgust.

“For God’s sake, Alex, you’ve really made it your mission to be a disgrace,” Jesse said. No matter how many walls he built up, that still hit him in his chest. He didn’t show it.

“Don’t talk to him like that,” Greg snapped.

“Don’t,” Alex said, shaking his head, “Not worth it.”

Jesse huffed a laugh, shaking his head. “I guess I should blame myself for this. I tried so hard to instill comradery in all four of you. Somehow it split into two groups, equally as hard to manage.”

“What do you need, Dad? I’m going hunting tomorrow, so maybe come back in a few days if you need deer,” Alex said. He shook his head.

“No, I had questions about that new friend of yours,” Jesse said, eying Alex. He tried his best not to react. “Forrest told me you had a dog and then you didn’t.”

“I had a dog for, like, two days. It was just one that was hurt and I patched up. He’s gone now,” Alex said, though he couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed. Then again, he knew his father was manipulative as hell. He was pretty sure Forrest had no idea of what his father might take from that little bit of information.

“And that man you were seen with. Where is he from?” Jesse prodded. Alex rolled his eyes.

“Seriously, Dad? You do get that the whole werewolf thing isn’t real, right? It’s a myth,” Alex said. Jesse didn’t buy it. Alex didn’t actually expect him to, but it was worth a shot.

“Both of you are playing with fire,” he said, looking between the two of them, “If I find out what I think I know is true… Both of you will suffer the consequences, do you hear me?”

And Alex heard him loud and clear. It was a simple threat. Stop or I’ll make you stop.

“Okay,” Alex said, “Goodbye.”

He slammed the door shut and locked it, both of them still unable to breathe properly until his truck was gone. It was nerve wracking.

“Alex,” Greg whispered, “I think we’ve dug ourselves into a hole we can’t get out of.”

Alex swallowed harshly and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm down. It was clear that the only alternative to stop or I’ll make you stop was to just leave. He either had to get rid of the wolves or get rid of the town.

And wasn’t that fucked. And, yet, it was simple.”

“I know a way out.”

-

“I feel bad.”

“Don’t.”

“I do.”

Alex held Michael from behind, pressing kisses to the back of his shoulder in an attempt to give him some kind of comfort. After Greg and Alex had talked for a while, they brought up the prospect of leaving the town to the wolves. They’d said it themselves, most of them left. Maybe it was time they did too.

“Maybe we could just go, just me and Izzy and Max. This is your home,” Michael said. Alex sighed and his chest ached at that. He didn’t really want to leave this cabin. It was his and had been passed down for generations. But now that he had confirmation of the beasts he’d been warned about his entire life, it didn’t seem right to stay.

Besides, what was this cabin standing for if not to inspire rebellion?

“I know that sounds like a good idea, but my dad knows we’re hiding something. Even if you leave, we’ve got a target on us,” Alex explained. It was, sadly, the complete truth.

“I’m sorry, Alex,” Michael whispered, that guilt so evident in his voice. Alex shook his head and craned his head over his shoulder to steal a kiss. Michael tried his best to reciprocate, but Alex knew he was hurting and it made it hard. “It’s all my fault.”

“No, it’s my dad’s fault for thinking genocide is a fun bonding activity,” Alex pointed out, “Besides, I promised I‘d keep you safe, right? Let me do that for you.”

Michael sniffled and nodded reluctantly. 

After speaking for the entire day after his father left, the plan was to pack everything up over the next two days and then get the fuck out of town. There was a tiny, woodsy tourist town a coupe states over that sounded appealing. They’d stay in a hotel for a few days until they found work and another cabin in the woods, hopefully one a little bigger so Alex could still keep his space. It would all work out. Probably.

It was funny to think that simply a month prior he never would’ve considered uprooting himself for someone else. But he guess he always did say that, when he found that person who was worth it, he’d know.

And he did know.

"Hey, look at me," Alex coerced and he opened his pretty eyes, "This isn't just because of you. This is right and wrong. He's wrong." 

"Yeah," Michael breathed, "Okay." 

"Let's get up and have breakfast and then we can start packing," Alex told him.

Michael was better once he got up and had Isobel and Max to talk to. He seemed to be reminded that their decision wasn't only about him. They both seemed to understand that, if their siblings hadn't been so directly involved, then maybe they would've decided against leaving. But it wasn't about their own safety, it was about the safety of the ones they loved.

Still, Alex itched for alone time and itched for things to go back to the way they were those three weeks where it was just him and Michael. It was calm and they fit. Now, though, Alex just had to deal with adjusting to socializing until he could find a new place to isolate.

He could do it. He did it for the first 16 years of his life.

Alex cooked for them, admittedly feeling a bit odd at Michael's lack of hovering. They'd only hooked up for the first time two nights ago, but Alex already felt more comfortable with him at his side when he was human. It had Alex wondering just how much of that was the wolf in him that made him addictive.

"I called a buddy of mine from out of town," Greg told him, hair slightly toussled from Isobel's hands more than it was sleep, "He said he could get us a job as farm hands out there for a little while. You think you can handle that?"

Alex nodded despite that being the last thing he wanted to do.

"We're looking for land too, right?" Alex clarified. He could take a little bit of working and living in close quarters, but he knew he'd be right back to being a pissy teenager if it was kept up too long. He needed to be alone.

"Yeah. How much do you have saved up? I was gonna go transfer my bank account so dad can't track us," he explained. Alex shrugged. 

"Few thousand. It's all in cash," he answered. Greg nodded as he absorbed that information.

"Okay. I'll see what I can do. It might take a little while to get self-sufficient," Greg said, "Property taxes 'n all."

The more Alex thought about it, the more he felt uncomfortable. He knew leaving was the right thing, he did. But he'd finally gotten to a good place.

"How about this," Alex said, "Once we get a cabin, I stay there and start a garden and hunt. You and Isobel can work since you like being around people." Greg gave him a stupid, older brother look. "Don't. I'll pull my weight and I'll work for awhile, but I can't do that forever or we're all fucked and you know it."

"Yes, but you're used to feeding yourself and maybe Michael. This is stepping up to five people."

"You seem to forget I fed the whole town every hunt. And Max prefers being a wolf, so he can feed himself," Alex pointed out. Greg sighed and nodded.

"I'll try to make it work, okay?" 

"Good."

Alex finished up and made all five plates, dispersing them. Michael took that as his opportunity to hover again and Alex loved it. He stood behind him, nuzzling his nose into Alex's jaw and giving his neck kissed in between bites. He felt so shameless and that was a wonderful feeling.

After they are, Greg, Isobel, and Max left to go pack up things from his house and deal with his bank account. It finally left Alex and Michael alone and Alex felt like he could finish fucking breathe again.

"I'm gonna miss this," Alex admitted as they walked into his bedroom, "Being alone with you all the time."

The plan was to pack, but Michael wrapped his arms around him and dragged him towards the bed. He didn't fight him, instead he just laughed and complied. Except it didn't turn into anything sexy. Michael picked up his brush and took it upon himself to brush Alex's hair before braiding it. Apparently all that intense watching wasn't mindless.

He tied the braid off and tugged him back a bit, pressing a kiss to his jaw. Alex turned into it, sealing the kiss easily. How had he gone all his life without those kisses?

“And you’re sure you won’t hate us for making you leave?” Michael clarified mid-kiss. Alex breathed him in.

“No. You’re just finally giving me an excuse to get away from my dad,” he admitted. Michael nodded and pulled him in for another kiss that quickly escalated into more.

Within the next two days, they found themselves all packed up and ready to go start anew. Alex’s heart broke a little knowing that he was leaving his cabin, but he told himself over and over that it was for the best. It was the only way to get away from his dad and all the shitty connotations that came with that town.

He was going to get away. He was going to breathe again.

He was finally free.

[soldierallen]

Married. 15

Warnings: some cursing, cheating, dream sequence,

um idk ha also I would like to say I’m really sorry for prolonging this story for so long in the last couple years life as been so tiring that I’m really proud of myself to actually get through it you know. Please keep in mind I would love to have finished it fast but writers block hits and everything has to come together in the right way. It’s been two years officially on the 7th of this month thank you to anyone who’s stuck around for this long. The final chapter coming soon.

Chapter 14: here

“I just can’t understand why you don’t want daisies?” Sebastian says “because! it’s my wedding” “HEY it’s our wedding I should be able to help you plan it asshole!” They’re practically married already planning the wedding when already acting like a married couple, “I don’t understand why we’re here?” Henry said as he threw a baseball in the air catching it, “you’re our best men you have to be here!” “You don’t love each other anyways so what’s the whole point of this” Henry says, Sebastian and y/n look at each other in shock “this is all fake since the very beginning Sebastian only wants you so i can’t”

she gasped realizing she was dreaming.. Sebastian laying next to her asleep, they haven’t talked much since Friday... it’s Monday. Today was the flower arrangements.. she cuddled into him whilst he slept with his back towards her, he slightly woke up feeling her arms wrap around him, “i love you” he said turning to face her his eyes still closed her head on his chest his arms around her, hers around him, she relaxed for the first time in days “I love you too” he kissed her hair and they went back to sleep, only to be woken up two hours later.

she lazily looked out the window of their shared home the sun was shining with a slight blue from the clouds.. “you’re awake” Sebastian said from the bathroom she hummed to say yes, he was in his underwear in the doorway of the bathroom that connected. his eyes caught hers and she caught herself smiling “never in a million years, would I have ever thought I would wake up in the morning to see you and in your underwear looking down on me, god I love you” she laughed “and never in a million years would I think my best friend would lay next to me and tell me she loves me” he slowly walked over to the bed “I know I apologized a hundred times already.. but I am so sorry” he never felt like an apology was ever going to be enough for saying he would’ve rathered married alex than her. “We’ve been through this for four days now.. I love you no matter what okay” she rubbed his cheek with her thumb he relaxed into her hand “your temper gets you in trouble I know this for as long as I know you.. just don’t cheat on me I don’t think I can handle that” he smiled leaning in kissing her she pulled away “I guess I am going to delete all of those women’s numbers I have” they laughed “You know I only ever have eyes for you..” he kissed her once more “how about we skip the flowers today and go on a date” he said “no today’s the only day I have off from work so we have to do this today and later while get to other things” his eyes lit up and so did hers he grabbed her pushing her down and kissing her neck “not now come on!! We have to get dressed”,

“You’re unbelievable!” Henry yelled, “Henry it’s not what it looks like” morena yelled “yeah it does! you did all of this! You ruined my relationship and William’s not MINES??!? And now you’re sleeping with some guy! In my fucking house?” ..... Sebastian and y/n walked in at the wrong time... “h..” y/n was in shock “morena’s not coming” Henry yelled sarcastically walking out... “okay what just happened?” Sebastian said as they walked down the cobblestone to seb’s car “she’s a fucking lunatic” Henry said as he walked in front of y/n he stopped in his tracks “and you know what? having William not be mines was the best thing to ever fucking happen to me you know why cause I lost everything once her and that kid came around”, “Henry stop you’re gonna regret saying those things” she was admin about trying to stop him from talking, her ex is gonna start talking about their relationship with her fiancée right there. “She lied to me, she ruined us” and there it was she knew it was gonna happen, y/n watched as all the blood rushed out of Henry’s face “I didn’t-“ realizing what a big mistake he just made “just stop talking Henry” Sebastian said walking past him to the car “go back in there and fix things” she walked past him too. they got back in the car the drive was a bit silent or fucking eerie as hell. “so roses or Lily’s” she said, he turned his head and looked at her his eyes were just sad “do you think.. if morena never interfered you would’ve still been with him.” his question was genuine “do you want me to lie or tell the truth” “lie”

“yes we would’ve still been together and I would’ve only been with Henry for the rest of my life” he half smiled “okay now the truth” he said “I said something a few months ago while we was together that you burnt me out, I was exhausted trying to fix us let you have your space from her and wanting to be with you be your friend again, and I said my love was all burnt out because I couldn’t go any further with us” he was really listening, “I knew while being with Henry that I wanted you, even though I constantly tried to convince myself that I wanted him it was never henry... he was just the easy way out” he grabbed her hand giving it a small kiss and holding it, “I do indeed love you” she smiled at him whilst he drove to the florist, I wanted to be with this man for the rest of my life she thought, yes we’ve had our ups and downs and fights and arguments nothings ever been easy but it’s a relationship nothing is easy nothing is butterflies it’s real raw and people say things they don’t mean, forgiveness is a trait you’re suppose to have in a relationship.

“I finished my vows the other day” Sebastian said, whilst looking at arrangements, her eyes lit up “oh I can’t wait to hear them” she felt a tap on her shoulder.. “y/n” a women said she turned around and it was chase’s assistant “mr Crawford needs you at the office and he tried calling you but it’s not your phone is not on” “lucy? how did you know I was here?” She was confused “i called all the florists in a 20 mile radius from your house because he’s gonna kill me if you aren’t there he’s... freaking out” she looked at Sebastian not sure what to do “go, they need you” he kissed her cheek “seb” she was upset clearly this was her only day off “okay I guess I’m going?” She left with Lucy in the town car “Lucy what’s going on it’s just us two you can tell me now?” “You should hear it from chase and not from me” she was going crazy what could possibly be so bad, they went up the floors and too the office chase looked like he was going to pass out “chase what’s going on” she said walking in his office closing the doors behind her they were glass but soundproof. “Remember what you told me about the pictures and I left it all as a joke and even Elena said it’s a joke and everything” she nodded her head confused “well” he threw a magazine on the table, it was D&C magazine, where she used to work. she looked at the cover “Chase Crawford’s affair with New CD Y/n L/n...” she felt her skin start to boil in her body “it was her again.” she was on the verge of tears “I can’t have people thinking we’re together” chase said “chase we can fix this! firing me will not do the trick please chase I just risked my life for months to do that piece for you did that not matter to you?” “You picked us in a time of need y/n you’re one of the most important people to this company I want you here but it doesn’t seem like I have another choice...” he was sitting in his chair with a panicked look on his face “I’ll handle this” she grabbed the magazine off the table, “what are you gonna do?” He yelled “start a war to keep this job”

she hailed a cab quickly, the ride was something she dreaded having to walk into that place again when she was doing so good at NY Daily, she got up the elevator like she used to feeling sick to her stomach, “LINA” she screamed in the hallway getting to main office area, she knocked furiously on the door opening it wide “HOW COULD YOU PUBLISH THIS” she threw the magazine on the table harshly as evanglina sat there in shock, across from her was alex’s father mr daddario and downey “I called my lawyer in the cab over here I want you to know that this lawsuit will FUCK you in the ass, I am tired of all of you fucking me over. I know all the in’s and outs of this fucking company and if you think! you can mess me up you got another thing coming! I’ll lay out all the laundry, Downey you’ll go to jail for stealing money from this company, Lina you will be prosecuted for GIVING money to a victim of sexual assault and daddario, does annie summers ring a bell? I have money I can make anyone TALK get the magazine OFF of the stands and apologize PUBLICLY to me and mr Crawford immediately or you will face consequences” all of them were completely shock she knew all of those things, that she kept quiet for years about the disgusting humans they were, jail was the only answer for these three disgusting people, and with that she walked out she looked over and saw A lot of employees give her looks for her brave performance, and Tom right out the door “I always knew you had it in you” Tom smiled, she smirked at him and left, as she walked out a call from Sebastian “so roses or Lilly’s?” He said “roses” she said laughing at him not asking any questions about everything that just happened in a span of an hour. “What happen I called chase he said you rushed out of there to fight I guess this is my call of asking if you’re okay” seb said he was pretty concerned “I’m on my way back to you now stay pretty for me” he laughed loudly as they hung up

It was a few hours later they were home her legs up on his lap watching tv when she gets a text from her boss “put on channel 52 I guess you got through to them.. see you tomorrow at 8am ” “Seb put on channel 52” she said he grabbed the remote putting the news on, “we’d like to apologize to our former employee, y/n y/l for our latest issue it comes with great disappointment that our writers and team did not fact check this issue. all issues will be pulled and and a public apology was issued earlier today” the news anchor lady said in a statement from the company she screamed of joy getting up Sebastian followed through kissing her and hugging her in excitement “we did it oh my god!” she held on to seb “god I love you” he kissed her forehead “you went up against one of the biggest companies in the country and won you’re amazing scratch that you’ve always been amazing ” he spun her around she kissed him “a toast to ruining lives” she said raising her can of Dr Pepper and Sebastian raising his beer bottle. she was so excited to finally get something her way, “let’s go somewhere.” He said, she looked at him she was confused “Junes!” she laughed at him “let’s go” when they arrived, at June’s, Elena saw them “DID YOU SEE THE LOOK ON THEIR FACES” she yelled over the counter, there was a ton of people in the diner y/n laughed “we saw the photos in the car on our way here, I wanted to formally apologize to you” she said “sweetie how long have I known you?” “Since I moved in my old apartment so like 5 years something like that” she smiled at her “I know you would never do anything like that to me, you didn’t even know about chase’s job until a few months ago, you knew about chase never his job. You’re my best friend and my sister you know” she said this whilst pouring multiple coffee’s “thanks el, also I have something for you” she gave the sign for one minute so that she could serve on whoever, when another waitress came who was new she was polite and took our orders was a little flirty with seb “so I’m just going to stay it, can I get your number” “I’m married, no thanks” he said with a laugh y/n smirked “I don’t see a ring on that finger” she protested “cause it’s on mines” y/n said not even looking her direction and with that she left “you are just coming out with jabs all night” he got closer to her while they sat on the stools elbow to elbow “I got more where that came from” she said with a flirty tone in her voice he hummed “so what if we skip the food and go home...get you out of these terribly tight clothes” his hand finally landing on her thigh he whispered “if you don’t want me to do this tell me to stop” she loved the feeling of his hands on her he got closer and closer “stop” she whispered he stopped “are you okay?” “no I’m hungry and now I’m horny” she tried to laugh it off and he kissed her lips “I’m sorry” he smiled “it’s fine jerk” she hit his chest playfully he smiled back at her “I’m finally here what did you wanna show me” Elena said finally coming around the counter again, she pulled out a small white leather box.. she gave her a confused look opening the box a note first “Elena, thank you for everything you’ve done for me, talking with me for hours on end sitting in the diner and making me cry from laughter for years would you like to be my.... MAID OF HONOR” she started crying when she yelled this out hugging the two of them “come on pull yourself together el” “I don’t know what to say” she said “say yes” y/n said she hugged her again “yes” she smiled “and you didn’t even see the next part I got your name engraved on a little sliver plated necklace” she was more excited, the day felt good everything was coming together... finally.

Over the corase of a few days they sent out invites and all those little details of the wedding, Chris was Sebastian’s best man officially this time.. and y/n’s made of honor Elena with Jenny Sherri and seb’s sister as her bridesmaid she felt bad for not including her brothers wife or her brother for that matter they were never close and honestly these people were her family... you choose your family they don’t choose you.

Tagged @hiddlestonstansworld @lovely-geek @imcalledflorence @misz-adrii @escapistdreamer-wishfulthinker @someplxce @cuddlesforlashton @coffeebooksandfandomsohmy @weasley16 @ilovethewayyourheartbeats @vogueworthy-barnes @xeniarocks @thisismysecrethappyplace @racheo91 @gravedollie666 @inlovewith3 @supernaturaldean67 // if anyone wants to be untagged or tagged please leave a message ty♡ also I do not own any gifs or images of any kind.

[litwitlady]

whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still (4/6)

Read on AO3. - A chapter ahead over there.

Warnings: mentions of murder and childhood abuse

iv. Max

‘And Max. He’s your brother? You were found together?’

Michael nods but frowns. ‘We’re brothers in theory, I guess.’ 

‘In theory? Explain that.’ Dr. Sampson hands him a cup of coffee and settles back into her seat. 

He shrugs. ‘He and Isobel were adopted together. I got thrown into the system. Once I returned to Roswell, we struggled - I struggled.’ He clears his throat and takes a sip of the coffee. ‘He can be a condescending dick. And as de facto leader, he pisses me off - a lot.’

‘Have you ever been close?’ Dr. Sampson has a voice that lures things from you - ugly truths that you never made a conscious decision to admit. To yourself or anyone else. Michael decides it’s her superpower. 

‘Once. Back in high school. Before all the lies.’

She smiles warmly, trying to soothe the answers loose. ‘I know you two aren’t blood related, Michael. And that your relationship is often strained. But do you still think of him as your brother?’

‘Only sometimes.’

***

Michael doesn’t immediately go to Max. He drags his feet for a couple of weeks and is happy to continue doing so, but Isobel has other ideas. She begins orchestrating reasons for family meetings - their doppelganger problem, Liz and Max’s emotional crisis, her desire to cook some new recipe. 

None of her plans work. Michael too stubborn and Max too oblivious. It’s not until Max unexpectedly climbs down into Michael’s bunker that avoidance is no longer possible. And he comes at the worst moment. Michael is already fuming - his newest calculations providing nothing but bad news. No matter how many simulations he runs. It’s frustrating, but not nearly as frustrating as when he’d run into Alex and Forrest that morning. At the Crashdown having breakfast, hands touching across the table. This time they had noticed him and he honestly wishes they hadn't.

‘Not in the mood, Maxwell.’ He doesn’t bother looking up from his worktable.

Max ignores him and slides a stool over, sitting far enough away that Michael can’t reach him. Already playing defense to Michael’s anger. ‘You’re never going to be in the mood for this, so sit down and listen.’

Michael laughs, bitter and sarcastic. ‘Fuck you, Max.’

‘I don’t want to be the leader of this anymore.’ He motions vaguely around the bunker.

That certainly grabs Michael’s attention. ‘Come to handover your letter of resignation?’ He sits down on his own stool and smirks at Max. ‘Because I accept. Long live Queen Isobel.’

‘Not Isobel, Michael. You.’ He’s looking at Michael through those big, brown puppy dog eyes - full of sincerity. Not a single hint of humor anywhere on his face.

Michael laughs anyway. ‘I don’t have time for this, Max. Go brood somewhere else.’ 

Max stays quiet but he doesn’t move. He watches Michael work for a long time. It frustrates Michael because it’s always been one of his favorite strategies. Wait him out until he crumbles - which Michael always does because Max can be a patient motherfucker once he digs his heels in and decides to be an asshole.

The air around them thickens and when Max clears his throat, Michael comes the tiniest bit unhinged.

‘Alright, fuck! Say what you came to say. I’ll listen.’ He only half means it, but Max seems satisfied enough. 

‘Sheriff Valenti confessed something to me a few months back. Something I’ve kept from you and Isobel.’ He stares down at his hands and grimaces. ‘I didn’t know how to tell you or what any of it meant or even who I was anymore. And that was wrong. I’ve been wrong about a lot of things, Michael. Especially with you.’

Michael rolls his eyes at Max’s melodramatics. ‘Spare me the contrition, Max. Just spit it out already. I have work to do.’ 

‘It wasn’t you in the group home who was drawing all over the walls. It was me.’ Their eyes meet over the table and a heated silence falls around them. Michael blinks slowly, not comprehending what he’s just heard. ‘I was the deranged, damaged kid. And I think I’ve known that all along.’ He shakes his head and breaks eye contact, staring back down at his hands.

More silence. Several moments stretching long between them. Finally, Max sighs. ‘Say something.’ Emotion straining his voice. Eyes welling with tears.

Michael continues to glare at Max. Not believing he has the audacity to cry. He tries to stand but it’s like he’s glued in place. And instead of his normal white hot rage, a calm coolness washes over him. Pooling in the bottom of his belly. Michael knows that feeling is hate. Pure, icy hatred. He’s not unfamiliar with the feeling - Jesse Manes, Kyle Valenti, Flint Manes, Noah Bracken. Sometimes the list seems endless.

‘Explain it better, Max. Make it make sense.’ Every word pushed through teeth clenched so tight he’s worried they’ll break.

The tension surges between them, the temperature palpably rising in the windowless bunker. Michael’s not sure he’ll hear anything Max says - not with the ferocious pounding in his head. Blood pumping through his veins like icy sludge.

‘All my nightmares as a kid - the times Isobel literally had to mind-walk me so I’d calm down. My obsession with the symbol - the way I’d doodle it over and over again in every notebook I ever owned. And then the tattoo.’ His voice cracks, high-pitched and frantic. ‘Now, with all that devil talk? Michael, I couldn’t have survived what you survived. I’d have killed more than some random pervert in the desert.’

Michael stalks towards him, fists raised. ‘Is that supposed to make me feel better? I was kicked around - slapped, beaten, burned. And that’s all supposed to be okay because you were safe? From yourself?’ A strangled noise rises from Michael’s throat. ‘I was never loved, Max. Not ever. Not once. All so you could be protected and loved, held tight by the perfect fucking family?’ 

He takes several steps forward, fisting the collar of Max’s jacket. The urge to wrap his hands around his brother’s throat throbbing in his fingers.

Max grips Michael’s wrists softly. ‘And yet, you are the most loving of the three of us. Of anyone I’ve ever met. And no that’s not fair, but it’s the goddamn truth.’ He pounds his fist on the table and Michael flinches, dropping his hands away and stepping back. Watching as Max’s tears finally crawl down his cheeks. ‘You’ve always had the most control - ever since we were kids.’ He throws his hands up in submission. ‘You’re not the murderer, Michael. I am. It always had to be this way.’

A manic sort of laughter overwhelms Michael. He can barely believe what he’s just heard. And by someone meant to love him. He turns his back to Max and moves as far away as he can. The rage inside him festering into something almost sentient. He closes his eyes and counts backwards from twenty - inhaling and exhaling around every number. Like Dr. Sampson had suggested whenever his anger tries to get the best of him. 

Michael can choose to take back control. To let it all go. Even if the other person doesn’t deserve such kindness.

And it works, mostly. Some of his tension drains away and the weight on his chest subsides enough for him to breathe again. He’s still angry - still furious. But it’s a low, simmering heat now - not the numbing white hatred that had consumed him earlier. His head is spinning with this sudden rewrite of his life and there’s only one person he wants to talk to right now. And that person is certainly not Max Evans.

Michael slowly turns around and shakes his head at Max. ‘I need time. Maybe a lot of time.’ He needs Alex. ‘I miss my brother. I’ve missed my brother for a long time now. But the truth is, Max? I don’t recognize you anymore.’

Max nods. ‘I get that. And for whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry.’ He starts to walk away but stops with one foot on the ladder. ‘I won’t tell Isobel yet. To keep her out of your hair for a while. However long it takes for you to process all this.’

‘I’ll tell her when I’m ready, Max. You don’t have to keep making all the decisions and putting in all the work. We can’t be a family until we’re all on equal footing.’ He moves towards Max. Not necessarily because he wants to - because he doesn’t. Not right now, anyway. But he knows that some future version of himself will want this. That Max needs this and Isobel. Maybe even Liz. So, he wraps his arms around Max, quick and tight. One sharp clap on the back. ‘Maybe take a trip to California.’ He pulls back. ‘I hear it’s nice this time of year.’

Michael returns to his calculations and Max leaves, already planning the best route to California in his head.

[xfirepilot]

title: set me free (1/?) (ao3 link)

summary: malex au loosely based on “peach plum pear.” alex asks kyle to take them on a road trip to roswell, new mexico and along the way meet michael guerin.

day 7 of malex week - au

Kyle Valenti was a lot of things. 

Proud Mexican-American. Quarterback for the football team. A great friend.

Such a great friend that when his best friend of fifteen years, Alex Manes, decided he wanted to take a road trip to Roswell, New Mexico of all places and asked Kyle to drive, he said yes. He had no idea what was in Roswell that was so important. Maybe his best friend believed in aliens and kept that embarrassing fact about himself hidden. Kyle would.

If anything, Alex just looked at him with his big brown sad eyes and he didn’t have the heart to suggest a different road trip destination.

“Alex, can you let me know what’s so special about Roswell?” Kyle asked as soon as they hit the freeway, saying goodbye to their life in San Diego for the next week. Alex sighed in response before speaking.

“You’ll see when we get there.” Kyle narrowed his eyes at the vague answer, and watched as Alex curled into himself and leaned his head against the window, shutting his eyes and effectively also shutting down the conversation.

Kyle turned on the radio as Alex slept. 

He was a really great friend.

--

“Alex? Come on man, wake up.” Kyle shook Alex’s shoulder gently and watched as Alex sat up in alarm. As Kyle’s worried eyes met Alex’s, Alex ignored the look of concern before taking off his seatbelt. 

It was dark out and Alex looked around in confusion, before he took notice of the sign in front of them.

“The Wild Pony?” Alex asked, incredulously, turning to his friend. “Kyle, why are we at a bar?”

Kyle rolled his eyes before opening his car door. “Because I have been driving for 6 hours straight, my legs are cramping, and I need a drink.”

Alex scoffed, “You mean, you want to see if you can pick up any girls with your obviously fake I.D.?”

“I also need a drink,” he responded, ignoring Alex’s judgemental look and turning towards the entrance to the bar. 

Alex begrudgingly followed after him and to no surprise, their fake I.D.s worked as the bouncer let them into the bar.

There was a black woman at the bar, with curly hair and a soft smile. Her kind face put Alex at ease. If he just sat at the bar all night, he would feel safe. While Kyle tried to mingle with drunk girls, Alex took a seat on a stool near the bar.

“What would you like?” The woman - Mimi, he noticed from her nametag - asked. 

“Just water please,” he asked politely. His mom would be proud of his manners. She always had been, before she focused too much on her work and would sometimes forget about Alex’s existence. All his other brothers were out of the house, but Alex was stuck there. He knew she tried and she met Ben, who was a nice enough stepdad, but Alex just wanted his mom and she seemed to disappear before his eyes. Maybe after this trip was taken care of, he could fix their relationship.

“Everything alright sweetie?” Alex shook thoughts of his mom out of his head as he took notice of the glass of water in front of him, the condensation falling down the side of the glass. He looked up to see the bartender looking at him with worry and he plastered on a smile. 

“I’m great,” he responded, before quickly grabbing the water and sipping it, trying to end the conversation. 

He turned on the stool to see Kyle surrounded by three girls and Alex could only roll his eyes.

“Friend of yours?” The bartender asked him and he groaned in response. 

“Best friend and current pain in the ass,” he muttered, banging his head on the bar. As he went to hit his head again, he landed on a gentle cloth and looked up in surprise.

Mimi smirked before speaking, “No blood on the bar please.” 

“Sorry,” he said quickly. The mention of blood triggered something in him and he quickly got off the stool, almost toppling it over before running outside of the bar. He didn’t see the older woman’s worried look in his direction as he left, looking over into the parking lot trying to steady his breathing. Flashes of his past went through his mind.

“Clean up that blood,” Jesse Manes yelled out, kicking Alex in his already bruised ribs as he left him in the driveway. 

“Alex?” Kyle’s voice brought him back to the present and Alex looked at his friend, noting the way he was swaying in place. 

Rolling his eyes, he grabbed Kyle gently to steady him before looking back into the parking lot. 

“Kyle, you parked the car in that spot right?” Alex asked, remembering how close they had parked to the front of the bar and how he was now looking at an empty parking space.

Kyle squinted his eyes as he faced the parking lot, as if the car would appear in his line of vision before turning to Alex. “Alex, the car is missing!” 

“No shit, Sherlock. You have keen observational skills,” he deadpanned. 

The sound of the door from the bar opening was just background noise to Alex as he tried to think of what could have happened to their car.

“You boys okay?” Mimi let the bar door shut behind her as she took out a pack of cigarettes for her smoke break.

Alex tensed at the cigarettes, reminders of the cigarette butts his dad would burn into his arm, before shaking his head.

“Our car seems to have… um… gone missing.” 

Mimi winced, “Wyatt Long.”

“Who?” Kyle asked, sobering up as he digested the news that his car was missing.

“Local asshole and thief. He probably stole it.”

“So let’s go talk to him. See if we can get the car back,” Alex suggested, suddenly feeling brave. What could be so bad about asking him for the car back? 

“Probably not a good idea boys. He’s racist, homophobic and usually right after he steals a car, he takes apart the car and sells the parts for money.”

The boys looked up at her with twin faces of disbelief, before Kyle groaned.

“My mom is going to murder me.”

“Not unless we get murdered here first. We have no car, no clothes and nowhere to go,” Alex pointed out, not really sure if he was even being sarcastic about the murdering part. 

“If you boys don’t mind, I have two couches that you can sleep on for the night. You can go to Sanders’ Auto Shop tomorrow about trying to get a car there working so you can continue on your trip.” 

“Really?” Alex asked, biting his lip, not wanting to be an inconvenience. 

Mimi only smiled. “Not a problem at all. You can meet my daughter Maria. She’s about your age. It’s just the two of us, so it’s a bit lonely. Nice to have some company.” She put her on Alex’s shoulder gently, rubbing her hand up and down in comfort.

“Okay, but only for one night,” Alex stated, looking at Kyle who could only nod in agreement.

Mimi winked as if she knew more than she was letting on. “If you insist.”

--

“Welcome to our humble abode boys,” Mimi opened the door and let them walk in. Alex noted the unusual decor of the home, but there was a comforting aroma that put him at ease. Living at home when his dad was still in the picture was an abusive prison and living with his mom and Ben now was just filled with silence and missing family, even with his mom there - she was never really there anymore. 

Mimi’s house reminded him of what kind of home he could have had. It made Alex freeze where he stood.

“Mom, are you home?” A voice called from the kitchen. Alex and Kyle looked in the direction the voice came from and came face to face with a beautiful girl with the same natural curly hair as her mother. 

“Maria, meet Alex and Kyle,” Mimi introduced the pair to her daughter, who took in their appearance with a raise of her eyebrow. Mimi excused herself to go to the bathroom.

“More strays mom?” She asked loudly as her mom walked past her, amused. Alex looked at her in confusion and Maria caught the look on his face.

She could only laugh in response, shaking her head. “You two aren’t the first people she’s offered our couches too. When people come to this town and have no place to stay, my mom will offer the couch to them for a night or two. She once invited two lost Mormon missionaries who didn’t know how to say no to my mom and they ended up trying to sell us on their religion.” Kyle laughed at that and Alex’s mouth turned up, as if he was trying not to laugh himself.

“Did it work?” 

“No, but my mom tried to sell them some Wiccan supplies in return and they ran out of here so fast the next morning.” The boys both broke into hysterics at that and Maria walked to the hallway closet to get them blankets and pillows. 

“Here ya go boys,” she offered them the items and they gratefully took them from her.

“Thank you again for letting us stay with you both,” Alex quickly said in appreciation for their act of kindness.

Maria could only nod, before a smile took over her face.

“Don’t worry about it. Did you plan on staying in this town for long?” She asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

“Oh no, just the night. Your mom mentioned that we can go to some car service place called Sanders to get a car to use for the rest of our trip.”

Maria smirked. “Good luck with that. Goodnight boys.” 

Kyle and Alex looked at each other in uncertainty, but shrugged their shoulders and got ready for bed.

Maybe tomorrow would be better.

[imaginesforyourfandom]

Start Over - Alex Morgan Imagine

(Y/N) POV:

I smiled slightly as I watched Ash and Pinoe bicker about who had the better fashion sense. Ash was claiming that Pinoe’s was better, but Pinoe was swearing that Ash had the better style. I chuckled when Ash stood up slamming her hands down on the table.

“Pinoe I swear to god.” She said as everyone around us laughed.

“Sit down.” Ali said as I shook my head. I turned my head a little when the door opened and in walked Kelley, Allie, and Alex. I bit my lip taking a moment to check out the forward. If you could say anything about her, she was very attractive.

“What are you looking at?” I focused up when Alex was stood in front of me. She had an irritated look on her face as I shot her a smug smile.

“Not much.” She rolled her eyes taking a seat next to me.

“Asshole.” I heard her mumble which only caused me to grin.

Yeah, I don’t think she likes me very much. I’m not entirely sure she has ever really liked me. When I first joined the team, it seemed like we could be friends and then suddenly, she became very cold towards me. Every little thing I did seemed to piss her off. I don’t know why, but ever since then I have found an incredible amount of amusement in pissing her off.

Things got much worse when I was transferred to Orlando. I didn’t want to be at Houston anymore, so I asked for a trade and landed myself in Orlando. I figured it would be a great way for the forward to really get to know me, but she seemed less interested in knowing me and more interested in competing with me.

“Let’s talk about something else.” Pinoe said as I chuckled at the angered look on Ash’s face at having been dismissed.

“Let’s talk about how you two can’t seem to get your shit together for Orlando or the national team.” Allie said looking over at Alex and me.

“I’m not the problem.” I said earning a scoff from the girl next to me.

“And I am?” she looked over at me with a glare.

“I get along with everyone.” I said as she rolled her eyes. “I’m perfect.”

“Please try to be more full of yourself.” She said sarcastically as I grinned at her.

“I’m well liked Alex. Not my fault that you can’t seem to share the spotlight long enough to appreciate me.” Her eyes widened before narrowing at me.

“Go fuck yourself.” She said standing up and walking out of the room. I was being given looks of disapproval as I sighed. I might have taken that one a bit too far.

I stood up turning and walking out of the room. I walked around for a little bit trying to figure out where the forward could have gone. Eventually, I found her talking on the phone. She looked upset as I tried to figure out if it was my fault or not.

“I know. No. Okay but Serv….” She sighed before getting off the phone. She turned and stopped when she saw me standing there. “I’m not in the mood.”

“I just came to apologize.” I said as she shook her head.

“Yeah because I believe that…” she moved to walk past me as I stared at her with a confused look. I really am never going to win here.

“You don’t have to.” I said as she was just about move past me. “Hey wait…”

“What?” she snapped as I stared at her with wide eyes. I was definitely not the one she was upset with because there was no way what I said warranted this kind of reaction.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her as she gave me a calculated look.

“Why do you care?” she snapped again, and I could feel myself losing patience at her reactions to me trying to be a nice person.

“Despite what you believe, I do care about you. What’s wrong?” I asked again as she gave me an unsure look.

“It’s none of your business.” She said walking away from me. I stood for a moment as I looked around with a confused look.

“What just happened?” I asked myself quietly.

To be honest, it hurts that she doesn’t like me. Despite the fact that she is nice to literally everyone else, I truly don’t know what I did to her. I bit my lip debating whether or not I should try to go after her again but decided better not. I hated that she wouldn’t just talk to me about whatever it was going through her head.

Truth is…I care more for her than I really care to admit. In the times she isn’t being rude to me, she is a wonder. I am in awe of how incredible she is. I know she is in a pretty serious relationship and that it would never happen, but it doesn’t hurt to think about what a life would be like with her. I could never be good enough for her, and I am okay with that.

My next encounter with the forward came a few weeks later once we were back in Orlando. We had just finished up a really rough practice as I started gathering my stuff together. I was talking with some of the girls when I noticed Alex off to the side arguing with who I believed to be Servando. Most of the girls were heading out leaving just me and the couple who were a little bit away.

I glanced around trying to see if anyone else was around but found no one which was disappointing. When I glanced back, I saw him shove her which immediately sent me into action. I walked closer to the couple as she noticed me which then caused him to notice me. Her eyes showed relief as his just showed anger.

“What’s up guys?” I said as she glanced between us. He was sizing me up which only made me smile. I could definitely take his ass if he tried anything.

“Nothing that concerns you.” He said as I raised my eyebrow at him.

“I mean…you’re on the pride training ground. Everything that happens on this field concerns me.”

“That’s a very arrogant statement.” He said as she remained quiet. My eyes found her as she still looked incredibly nervous.

“Yeah she’s called me arrogant enough for me to be pretty immune to the insult. I’m really considering changing my middle name to it at this point.” I said shrugging my shoulders as he continued glaring at me.

“Back off.” I rolled my eyes at him as I turned my attention towards her.

“Are you okay?” I asked as she looked between us again before nodding her head a little. I could still see a little fear in her eyes as I bit my lip not wanting to leave her alone. “Let me take you home. I wanted to talk to you about tactics and shit.”

“You don’t have to do that.” He said as I turned my attention back towards him.

“Do I look like I was talking to you asshat?” I asked as her eyes widened.

“You don’t have to.” She said softly as I shook my head.

“Nonsense. I’m offering.” I said as she nodded at me. “I’ll get her home safe. Don’t you worry.”

“Alex.” He warned glaring at her. I stepped in between them when he took a step towards her.

“If I was you, I would rethink your next move.” I warned as he searched my face.

“I’m not afraid to hit a girl.” He said as I glanced towards Alex who immediately had shame on her face.

“I bet.” I said as I took another step towards him. “I’m not either.”

He glared at me before turning and walking away from us. Once he was at a safe distance, I turned towards Alex who had tears in her eyes. I didn’t hesitate to pull her into my arms.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here.” I said pulling her with me. We got in my car and I immediately started driving her towards my house. There was no way I was taking her back home. The ride was silent as I drove.

“I’m sorry.” She said finally as I gave her a small smile.

“You don’t need to be.” I said as she gave me a sad look. “Guys like Servando just need to be knocked down a little. They’re insecure so they beat on those around them to make themselves feel better.”

“Not just for that. For everything else…every single time I was mean to you and stuff…”

“Don’t worry about it Alex.” I said softly as she nodded her head.

When we got to my house, I had sent a message to Ash letting her know that if Servando came looking not to tell him where Alex was or where I lived. She had questions but I told her I would explain later. I found myself unsure of how to react around Alex due to our complicated history with each other. I offered to make dinner to which she had accepted.

“Can I help?” she asked as I nodded my head. I gave her some vegetable to cut up as I prepared the chicken for us. I put on a little bit of music as we worked silently. “Can I ask you something?”

“You just did.” I said cheekily causing her to smile. “What’s up?”

“Have you ever been in love?” I stopped and stared at her with a look of uncertainty.

“I mean…yeah. It didn’t really end well, but I’ve been in love.” I said as she nodded.

“Was your first love a girl or guy?” she asked as I smiled again.

“Girl. I’ve never really been into the guys….I knew from a young age that I was gay.” I said as she nodded her head.

“How did you accept that?” I stopped and stared at her for a moment. I felt like I knew what she was asking me but I decided to just let this conversation go at her own pace.

“I mean…I never really had some big gay panic. I just decided that it was okay for me. I told my family and they were really cool with it. My friends were okay with it. I think mainly because they saw how okay I was with it.”

“I think I am in love with a girl. That’s part of the reason Servando and I have been fighting a lot more.” She admitted quietly as I nodded my head.

“That’s okay. You’re allowed to change your mind about someone. We are constantly growing and sometimes we grow out of love. That’s not anyone’s fault. It just is how it is.” I said as she nodded her head.

“I don’t mean to bother you with this. You’ve already done more than enough for me.” She said as I smiled brightly at her.

“Like I said, don’t worry about it Alex.” I said as she gave me a small smile. “So, am I allowed to know who has caught the eye of the great Alex Morgan?”

“Oh I…umm…no.” she said blushing bright red which made me grin.

“Is it someone I know?” I asked as she shook her head. “It totally is isn’t it…”

“No, it’s not.” She said blushing harder as I tried to think of who it could be.

“Okay it has to be someone on the team because we spend most of our time there again…oh my god is it Kelley…”

“No.” she said quickly as I tried to think of who else it could be that has stolen her heart.

I was so lost in thought that I hadn’t noticed her cross the room before she was pulling my face towards her and her lips were on mine. I stood shocked for a moment before I started reciprocating. I pushed back with as much passion as I could. My arms snaked around her waist as we stood kissing each other.

Eventually, air was a necessity as we pulled away. My eyes remained closed as I tried to gather my thoughts. I was feeling conflicted as my mind tried to catch up with what was happening. I opened my eyes to see Alex’s still closed. She had a dazed look on her face and something that looked like fear. Finally, after a minute or two of standing there, she opened her eyes and I could see the nervousness on her face.

“It’s you.” She said after a moment of me staring at her. “I’ve liked you for a long time and I know that’s no excuse for how I’ve treated you. When I first realized I was developing feelings, I got scared. I’ve never really had feelings for a girl before and you always seem so sure of yourself. I decided that if I didn’t get close to you then I had nothing to worry about. I tried to focus on my relationship with Servando, but he knew something was off. That’s when he started being the way that he is. Treating me the way that he does. The sad part is through everything my feelings have never wavered. They’ve only grown and when you came to Orlando, I was really excited because I was going to get to spend more time with you, but I also knew what that meant for my relationship with Servando. He’s only got worse since you got here. I’m so sorry (Y/N). I don’t expect you to forgive me anytime soon. I hope that we can start over or something.”

“I don’t want to start over.” I said after a moment as she gave me a sad look. “Alex…I don’t love the way you’ve treated me because for so long I have tried to figure out what I did to upset you. I wish you had talked to me though. I’d be lying if the idea of being with you hasn’t crossed my mind. You’re in a really rough spot right now and I don’t want to take advantage of that. So, when you’re ready and feel comfortable enough…I would love to take you out.”

She gave me a smile as I kissed her forehead. She hugged me as I wrapped her in a tight hug. I could kill Servando for ever putting his hands on this beautiful human being. We stood for a few minutes before returning to making dinner. As it was cooking, we started talking about anything and everything to keep her mind off of the craziness of the night. I let her pick the movie we were going to watch as we ate and watched it. As the night came to a close, I offered her some clothes and my guest bedroom. I know she was nervous, but I assured her that she was safe as long as she was in my home.

I’m not entirely sure what will happen in the future, but I do know that I will do anything to keep her safe. If Servando thinks he can just put his hands on her, well he has another thing coming…I’ll be sure to push him down a little the next time I see him. I can’t imagine any of our teammates will be too pleased once they find out as well. I’m hopeful for the future and what can come out of this new development for Alex and me. It will definitely be interesting.

The End.

[andrea-lyn]

For your birthday prompt: Malex fic where one of them is a barista and the other one orders increasingly more complicated orders just to have more time to talk to the super cute barista! Also happy birthday, friend!

Some days, Michael questions why he’s the ride-or-die asshole that he is.

Life would be a lot easier if he weren’t. If he were actually as self-centered and selfish as the image he tries to project, it would be easier, but he’s not. For all that he tries to make people think he doesn’t care, he’s the polar opposite, deep down.

Now is one of those times when he’s debating changing his mindset. Though, it usually happens during these shifts when he’s bored, he’s tired of cleaning the counter, and he’s done with his coursework. He’s only here because he’s getting his Masters and has some spare time on his hands, and Maria had seized on the opportunity for help at barely minimum wage, convincing him to come in.

That’s why it had started.

Now, he’s here because of one particularly gorgeous customer who comes in every morning around eleven for a mid-day pick-me-up. “Michael,” Maria calls over to him when the bells jangle.

He also happens to be Maria’s friend, too, and Maria’s made it her life mission to hook the two of them up. It means that every time he comes in, she makes herself scarce along with any other staff so that Michael’s the only person around to serve him.

Michael’s not sure that the guy likes him back, even if Maria insists he does.

“Alex,” Michael greets him. “Hey!”

“Hey Michael,” he returns, putting down his phone as he leans his elbows on the counter. “So, today…”

Then he launches into an order that’s about ten percent more complicated than yesterday’s (which had already been plenty difficult).

Michael calls over his shoulder for coverage at the counter, because Alex’s order is going to take him away for at least a few minutes, especially since Alex had actually asked for the milk in his latte to be steamed to an exact degree, or be thrown away and restarted. “What’s your day looking like today?” Michael asks, still loving the fact that Alex’s complicated orders mean that he gets to talk to him.

Most customers are busy with their cell phones while they wait for their order.

Alex has never once looked at his phone, giving Michael his full attention every time. “Oh, you know,” he drawls. “The usual,” is the sarcastic addition. “I’m going to go in and warn people that their security is terrible, they’re not going to believe me, and then I’m going to have to go in and tear their systems to shreds to prove it.”

He’s smiling a little like he’s a shark who’s scented blood in the water, and is all too pleased about that.

Michael glances back to the milk, making sure it’s frothing properly. “Somehow, I doubt it’ll be a hardship,” he deadpans.

“What about you? Maria said you have your exams next week.”

Michael shrugs. “Yeah,” he says dismissively. Alex leans up on his toes, peering past the counter. Why? Michael has no fucking clue. “Okay, what?” he protests.

“I don’t see any books, no papers…” Alex gives him a serious look. “Do I have to give you the speech about how you need to take this seriously, Michael?”

The milk starts to steam and froth, the thermometer gauge showing the perfect Alex-approved temperature, which means it’s time to pour. He pulls it away from the steam wand and pours before he wipes the counter down, giving Alex a smirk. “Do I need to give you the speech about how you shouldn’t doubt me?”

“Everyone needs to study,” Alex protests.

Michael doesn’t.

Then again, he doesn’t know Alex that well, so launching into the whole ‘I was a child prodigy and the only reason I’m not off with my degrees right now is because I had foster parents who wanted me to have a normal childhood’. It does mean he can spend most of his days here at the shop, not worrying about his grades.

“Michael,” Alex warns.

“Make you a deal,” he says, handing him his coffee. “If Maria tells you I pass with an A, you have to come in here tomorrow and the next day and the day after that when it’s my shift.”

Alex’s face is flooded with fondness as he sips his coffee. “Why would I need to make that bet, when I already planned to come in?” he asks, and sips again. “Perfect. For this, I didn’t doubt you for a second,” he guarantees, and lets his gaze linger on Michael’s lips before he waves to Maria, heading off for the day.

Michael watches Alex go with a happy sigh, mainly because he always wears tight jeans and the view of him departing is one of the best things he’s ever seen. “Do you believe me now that he likes you?” Maria demands.

“You may be right,” he concedes. “He might like me back.”

After all, there’s no way that Alex would be so picky about his milk temperature, not without a deeper purpose. Seeing as the only reason he would get so complicated and picky with his orders is to spend more time with Michael, it’s fairly strong evidence that he definitely likes Michael.

“What are you going to do about it?”

He’s got a few ideas up his sleeve.

“Man like that, he deserves to be wooed,” Michael says.

Maria’s looking at him warily, and she doesn’t say it, but it’s like Michael can see the thought bubble above her head that reads, what do you know about wooing people?

Not much, but isn’t that what the internet is there for?

Michael decides to launch a campaign of charm, romance, and he intends to do it using the foods of love, found on a site that talks about aphrodisiacs. Every time Alex comes in, he gives Michael a wildly complicated drink order, so it shouldn’t be hard to mix a little bit of that in.

On Monday, he begins his campaign to romance Alex.

It doesn’t start well.

“Michael,” Alex says warily after he sips his drink. “What’s in this?”

“Powdered oysters.”

“That’s…really not what I ordered.”

“We’re trying it out,” he says, his eyes fixed on Alex. “Do you like it?”

Alex musters up a smile, but slides it back. “Thank you?” he offers, “but I really think that I’d like to have my drink without any powdered seafood.” He gives Michael a look like he’s trying to figure something out, but follows it up with a mildly sarcastic, “I’m also pretty sure you shouldn’t be risking fate with anyone who has seafood allergies by sneaking that in.”

Michael doesn’t let that knock him off his stride. So it didn’t work, so what? It’s only the first try.

He remakes Alex’s drink and basks in the sunny smile it earns him, loving how Alex reaches out to squeeze his hand in thanks before he heads off with drink in hand (a complicated layer drink that required Michael to wait a whole minute before adding the next, lest it all collapse and lose the effect Alex had asked for).

Michael makes a few more attempts to introduce aphrodisiac elements into Alex’s coffee and snacks to see if it does anything. The truffle oil he uses on his breakfast sandwich gets a dubious look, and the hints of champagne in his smoothie don’t go over well. That’s why Michael saves the best for last.

At least, he’d thought it was the best.

Alex chokes a little when he sips his hot chocolate, which Michael has loaded up with actual pieces of dark chocolate. “Michael…”

“Yeah?”

“This is like sludge. This is the fourth time you’ve done weird things with my order. Are you trying to give me a sign or something?”

He is, but clearly not the one Alex is reading.

“They’re aphrodisiacs,” he blurts out. “I was hoping that maybe one of these times, I’d get you in the right mood and then I could ask you out.”

Alex gapes at him. “…are you serious?”

His defenses suddenly up, Michael is ready to yank the terrible hot chocolate out of his hands. “What? If you don’t like it, you don’t have to…”

“Do you honestly think,” Alex cuts him off, “that I give a shit what temperature the milk in my coffee is? Michael, I do that because I know it’ll give me an extra few minutes with you, just like I know that by asking you to steep my tea for five minutes before the bag comes out, then I’ll get to talk to you. You didn’t have to douse me with oysters and chocolate and…were there chili peppers in the breakfast sandwich?”

“Yeah,” Michael admits, knowing that he’s definitely gone too far. “And asparagus in the scone.”

Alex gapes at him.

“Please go out with me,” Alex begs. “If only so you can stop trying to poison me with romance.”

Michael’s grin is a radiant thing, something that could light up the skies. “So it worked?”

“If it’ll make you stop, then yeah! Yeah, it worked.”

Michael does stop.

Alex’s orders go back to being his normal orders, Michael stops trying to infuse romance into them, because now he doesn’t need to.

He’s got a date with Alex, and now that they’re going to have dinner, they’re finally into familiar territory where Michael has plenty of tricks up his sleeve to woo and romance Alex, without powdered seafood, mushrooms, or asparagus. And lucky for Alex, Michael hasn’t had any complaints in this department.

He might not be good at wooing, but he’s excellent when it comes to actually being in a relationship.

[bellakitse]

Driving alone, following your form

Day 2 Fic prompt : Distance @michaelguerinweek

Michael leaves Roswell two weeks after they bring Max back to life. That's how long he manages to give his siblings before the sinking feeling that has surrounded him for the last seven months takes over him again.

He’s been drowning since Caulfield prison, Rosa coming back like a living ghost of all their sins, Max dead on a cave floor, and Alex.

Always Alex.

Alex who left time and time again but refused to leave at the prison, willing to die for him. Alex who gave him one absolutely crushed look when he found him at the Wild Pony with Maria and then shifted to his military persona in a blink of an eye, doing everything in his power to give him and Isobel back their brother.

It's ridiculous that with everything they all been through the last seven months, what has him the most in knots is Alex Manes, but when has that ever not been the case.

Aliens, secrets about a dead girl, murderous brother-in-law’s and in the end the first and last thought of every day for Michael still comes down to Alex. His anger, his resentment, his pain but most of all his all-encompassing love for the man.

He and Maria last exactly one kiss and one song, the look on Alex's face when he found them together still haunts the little sleep he manages to get.

So, he goes, quietly in the darkness of night. He leaves his siblings a note, telling them that he needs to go for a while, clear his head because he feels like a powder keg about to explode and if he does, he doesn't want them caught in the fallout. He asks they don't call him.

Isobel texts him hours after he's out of Roswell.

'You're an asshole, we love you, be safe.'

He lets out a noise when he reads it; half laugh, half sob, grateful for the understanding he doesn’t deserve. He’s put Isobel through the wringer during the months that Max slept in his pod. He should have been a better brother, and he promises himself as soon as he has his head on straight again, he’ll do exactly that.

On a whim he also leaves a note for Alex, telling him pretty much the same. He’s a mess and that he needs to go for a while. That he’s always loved him and that he’s sorry. He hopes that it’s enough but isn’t sure.

During the months they all worked on bringing Max back, Alex was there every step of the way, supporting Liz, being there for Isobel, being their access point to what the military knew. He risked his life and his career more than once to get them the information they needed. He worked side by side with Michael and never once brought ‘them’ up in conversation. A part of Michael was thankful for the reprieve, knowing that he wasn’t in the headspace to deal with everything Alex means to him. However, every time they didn’t talk about the elephant in the room the distance between them seemed to expand and Michael wonders; fears that there’s maybe too much damage, too much hurt on both sides. That maybe too much of everything has chipped away at their love.

He prays to a God he doesn’t believe in, that that’s not the case. He hopes as the miles between him and Roswell grow; that leaving will serve as a balm to the open wounds they both carry.

He has no plan, no map, no destination in mind for the first week, he drives his truck down main highways, taking exits and then back roads on a whim. He starts north, crossing Colorado without even stopping until he arrives at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Stopping here and there in the picturesque town, grabbing some food and information before getting back in his truck and driving towards Grand Teton National Park. It’s the afternoon, later than when people usually get to the park but there are still families and groups around probably ready to call it a day if they aren’t sleeping onsite. Some make eye contact and even nod in his direction, but no one bothers him as he takes his camping equipment and starts to make his way up the trail to Lake Jenny where he’s decided to spend the night.

That night he sits outside his tent looking up at a starry sky that reflects on the still waters of the lake, and his only thought is how much Alex would love to see it. He takes a picture that comes out better than expected and he begrudgingly thanks Isobel for nagging him into updating his phone. He texts the photo to Alex before he can start to doubt himself, his heart beating fast when he sees ‘read’ on the message, he waits to see if Alex will text anything back. The seconds turn to minutes, and he shakes his head, calling himself an idiot. What exactly does he expect Alex to say to a damn picture?

He sits there wishing he had something to drink, Whiskey, a beer, definitely some acetone, but he’s made a commitment to himself to slow the fuck down, and he’s going to keep it. When his phone buzzes in his loose hold it startles him so much, he almost drops it.

It says: ‘That’s beautiful.’

It’s not much, but it still feels like an olive branch, and it helps loosen some of the tightness in his chest. He holds his breath as he sees little bubbles appear on the text indicating that Alex is writing. It stops and starts a couple of times, and Michael feels a stab of sympathy for Alex being at a loss for words. Finally, a text comes through.

‘Are you okay?’

Michael lets out a small, humorless laugh because the obvious answer to that is no. He’s not okay. He’s an alien, his brother died and came back to life, he watched his mother die in front of him, he loves a man more than anything in his life, and he can’t manage to get it right with him, and he’s currently running away from all of that like a child running away from home.

He starts to write without pause, lets every random, not so great thought that has circled his head pour out of him. That he’s never felt at home here and resents Isobel and Max for feeling differently, how he loves Max and is so grateful for having him back but resents him for playing god in the first place, for healing his hand without permission.

There are more little bubbles after he presses send on his small meltdown.

‘Feel better?’

Michael snorts, the question feels a little sarcastic and knowing Alex it probably was, surprisingly it does make him feel better, and he answers as much.

‘Good, I’m glad.’

Michael's thumbs hover over the keyboard, hesitating on whether he should ask or not, writing back he promises himself that if the answer is no, he won’t take it personally, he’s not the only one trying to heal here.

‘Can I keep texting you?’

He doesn’t have time to work himself up; Alex’s answer comes back fast.

‘I’ll be here.’

Michael can’t help the small smile it brings to his lips. That night he sleeps better than he has in months.

He hits the road again a day later, flipping a coin to see if he should keep heading north or turn east. Tails have it, and he heads into Nebraska and sees a lot of corn, a lot. When he tells Alex this on their now nightly communication, he gets pure sass in return.

'It’s the Cornhusker State, Guerin, what did you expect?'

The answer is so Alex that it makes his ridiculous heart do a funny jump. He treats Alex to a picture of the cornfields at sunset and Alex answers back with: 'I wish I could be there.'

Any chance of his heart settling down after that is hopeless; it beats hard against his chest as he answers back.  

'Me too.'

Alex doesn't say anything after that, and Michael doesn't either; at peace with the exchange. Where before he would have seen the silence as Alex retreating, he's starting to understand that the last few months hasn’t been Alex distancing himself from Michael because he doesn't love him anymore. He's been trying to give Michael space to find his footing again after having the rug pulled from under his feet again and again. The damage that before seemed unfixable between them is slowly starting to mend with every text they share. He doesn't know if it's because they aren't facing each other and therefore don't have sex to fall back on or because quietly they both know what's really at stake for the first time, but they're talking in a way they never have before.

Alex hadn't been exaggerating when he said they loved each other without ever really talking and now that they are, Michael wants to know more. So, he asks questions without fear, in between driving, in-between states as he heads into Kansas and Missouri, crosses through Oklahoma to get to Texas. He texts and sends pictures; Alex answers and sends of few pictures of his own. The one of Isobel looking through dresses, her back to the camera has him raising an eyebrow. When he asks about that, he gets back:

'We've become close.'

It makes him smile, he likes the idea that Isobel and Alex have become friends, and he remembers the Max-less months how more than once Alex could be found next to Isobel, protective in his stance. Still knowing his sister and knowing Alex an alliance between them does send a shiver of nervousness down his spine.

‘Should I be scared?’

He gets back ‘Terrified’ and it makes him laugh, it’s followed with a selfie of Isobel and Alex, straight-faced, the hint of a smirk on both their faces and it squeezes his heart to see the two people he loves the most together.

He makes his way through Texas and stops in Hays County to get to the Dripping Springs; he sends a quick picture of the place to Alex, and he doesn’t have to wait long for a response.

‘That’s 500 miles from Roswell.’

Michael swallows hard because yes, he knows that. If he leaves now, he could be back in Roswell in about eight hours, take the US-87 N and US-380 W, and he’d be back home. But he’s not ready, he’s close, he’s better, but he’s not there yet. He tells Alex and holds his breath when he sees that Alex is texting back.

‘Okay, no rush. I’ll be here when you’re ready.’

He has to sit down at that answer and just breathe and keep on breathing. There has been a part of him, a part that has gotten smaller and quieter, but still there that has been whispering in his ear that maybe once he’s ready, Alex won’t be there. After all, isn’t that what he did to Alex when he was ready? He ran away and towards someone else, he realizes now out of fear. He’d gotten so used to Alex walking away, that he didn’t know what to do when Alex was standing in front of him, telling him that he wasn’t leaving anymore, that Michael is where he wanted to be. He ran.

He does cross into New Mexico but doesn’t stop until he hits Arizona. There he goes to The Grand Canyon, and it’s breathtaking at sunrise.

‘If I ask, will you come here with me someday?’

‘I’ll go with you wherever and whenever you ask, Michael.’

Michael sits on a massive boulder, his feet dangling, the morning sun hitting his face with a stunning view in front of him but all he can do is stare at Alex’s message and the significance of his name.

When he texts back, there is no more fear.

‘I haven’t looked away.’

‘Neither have I and I never will.’

If he cries for a while; the last remnants of his pain finally releasing him. If he cries because he’s finally within reach of what he has so desperately wanted since he was seventeen, no one’s around to watch. From there he knows what he wants, what he’s always wanted. He shoots Alex a text with coordinates and the time it will take him to get there as he enters California, he doesn’t get an answer back, but he doesn’t worry as he drives through Death Valley up to Yosemite, getting there as it starts to get dark.

He pulls into the campgrounds where there are other cars gathered, but he only notices one, or better yet, the man leaning against the car. Parking across Alex’s rental, he takes him in as the headlights of his truck illuminate him like a halo of light around him.

Alex has always been beautiful, he was beautiful back in high school with his emo punk clothes, he’s beautiful in his Air Force uniform, and everything in between, he’s beautiful now as he combines the boy he was and the man he is.

But after traveling for weeks on end with only a picture of the man he loves, looking at Alex now, he’s never been more breathtaking.

“You made good time,” he says as he gets out of his truck and walks over to him.

Alex gives him a small serene smile. “You took the long way; I took a plane.”

“I bet my view was better,” Michael teases.

Alex nods. “I have no doubt.”

“I’ll show it to you someday,” Michael blurts out, wincing at the volume of his voice. “Sorry, I’m nervous I guess.”

Alex looks at him, studies him in that Alex way of his, his expression softening. “Can I?” he asks quietly, his arms open. Michael doesn’t answer. Instead, he steps into Alex’s space and holds on as Alex’s arms circle him, his hold strong and comforting.

“I missed you,” Alex whispers into his neck and Michael answers by tightening his arms around him. They stay wrapped in each other for a while before Michael pulls back.

“Come on,” he says, taking Alex’s hand in his, leading him back to his truck to grab his gear. “I called ahead and reserved the spot we’re camping in,” he continues, heading up the trail the girl at the desk told him about.

It doesn’t take them long to get set up. At this point Michael is a pro at putting up his tent, it’ll be close quarters with Alex here, but given that they haven’t stopped holding each other since they laid down on one of his blankets staring at the sky, he doesn’t think either of them is going to complain.

“I’ve stared at the sky for weeks now,” Michael says quietly, not wanting to ruin the peace around them.

“I don’t blame you,” Alex says just as softly. “It’s beautiful.”

“I have been looking at the stars, searching for my home,” he continues, swallowing hard as he feels Alex tense up. He doesn’t stop him when he pulls away to sit up. Alex is quiet for a moment, his gaze upward.

“Did you find it?” he finally asks, looking back at Michael, the light of the night reflecting in his eyes like amber.

Michael nods and places a shaky hand over Alex’s chest. “Right here,” he says, tapping on Alex’s heart. “If I’m allowed in again.”

Alex lets out a watery laugh and a tear rolls down the side of his face, but the smile he gives Michael is wide, and the love that shines through his expression warms Michael more than the Roswell sun.  “That implies that you ever left, Michael,” He answers, and it’s Michael's turn to cry as a sob passes his lips. Alex's hands cradle the back of his neck, and he presses his forehead against Michael’s. “And you have never, not for one second left my heart,” Alex continues, shushing him softly as Michael cries. “It’s yours, Michael, it’s yours.”

The first kiss they share in over nine months is salty from their tears, but as Alex holds him, as he whispers, he loves him, and Michael whispers it back, a sky full of stars above them and a future full of possibilities ahead of them, it’s utterly sweet.

[lyricfulloflight]

Cherik Bodyguard AU

I have no idea what this fic will be title, but I wanted to share the prologue because...because I’ve been working on the start of three different cherik fics and I just wanted to share at least one of them.

This is a modern, AU, non-powered fic.  Erik is a former military man turned bodyguard, Charles is an actor.  This is the prologue to the main fic.  

Let me know what you think!

Story below the cut.

Prologue

It took Erik less than five minutes to decide he hated Los Angeles. More specifically he hated rich, entitled, juvenile model/actresses who hosted parties in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles in the middle of the summer when Erik had to stand outside in 100 degree heat in a suit.  This particular rich, entitled model/actress probably hated him right back, which was fine with Erik.

He had arrived at the sprawling one story, mid-century modern house at the time assigned to him by the Frost Protection Agency: 1pm.  The host of the party, one Raven Darkholme, had answered the door with nothing more than skimpy lingerie and a scowl.  Erik had, according to her, woken her up.  Since she was supposed to be hosting a party that started at 2pm, Erik figured he’d done her a favour.

After muttering a completely insincere ‘Sorry’, Erik brushed passed the half-asleep young woman and started a perimeter check of the property.

It was another forty five minutes before his colleagues showed up.

“You’re late.” Erik said when they entered the backyard.

“Good morning to you too, you grumpy German asshole.” Alex Summers replied with a smirk.

“It’s almost fourteen hundred hours.”  Erik answered flatly. “The party is supposed to start in fifteen minutes.”

“This is Hollywood, Lenhsherr.  No one is going to be here on time, they’ll be at least an hour or two late.  That’s how things work around here.” Alex explained. “You can relax – if that’s even possible for you.”

Erik stared at Alex in silence for a minute and then went back to scanning the completely inadequate fencing around the backyard.

“Have you met my brother, Scott?”  Alex’s voice interrupted.

“No.”

“This is where you turn around and say hello, Lehnsherr.  They do teach basic social skills in Germany, right?”

Erik scowled and turned around to face the brothers.

“Hello.”  He ground out, extending his hand toward the unfamiliar brother who had darker hair and sunglasses. “Erik Lehnsherr.”

“Scott Summers. Nice to meet you Erik.”  Scott replied with a tense smile. “Haven’t been in California long have you?”

“No.”  

And given the ridiculousness of this day so far, he didn’t plan to stay long either. The basic concept of schedules and timeliness was something Erik was not willing to live without.  He’d only been with the agency for a couple weeks, but fortunately they had offices in several large American cities and even a few in Europe.  Erik had been looking to get as far away from his former life as possible and California had seemed like a worthy prospect for escape.  Clearly it was not.  Luckily he remembered that Ms. Frost had mentioned during his interview they were also looking for new bodyguards in Dallas and New York.  Surely one of those cities had to be better than this.

“The inadequate fencing appears to be the most likely point of entry.”  He stated.

“Have you ever been to one of these parties man?”  Alex asked.

“I’m not at the party, I’m providing security for the party.”  Erik replied stonily.

“Listen, not that you shouldn’t check the perimeter and do all the regular security ‘stuff’”  Alex said sarcastically, making making quotes as he spoke, “but seriously, these parties, they hired us cause they like how it looks.  Tall, strong guys in suits standing around looking dangerous, we’re like...arm candy or something.  You’ll probably spend more time trying to get drunk party goers to leave you alone than you will chasing away threats.  They like the paps, man.  They want their pictures taken.”

“That’s not what the contract said.”

“Screw what the contract said.  A bunch of young almost celebrities who are trading on their good looks and charm?  They want their pictures splashed across magazines and all over the internet.  It’ll help them get their next job.”

“I hate this place.”  Erik muttered, but not quietly enough not to be overheard.

“Yeah, doesn’t seem like your scene.”  Scott nodded. “You should ask Emma if they have openings in Washington or New York.  More politicians and businessmen on contract out there.  Might be a bit more your speed.”

Erik grunted in acknowledgement, clearly Scott was the smarter of the two Summer’s brothers.

The next hour or two passed without issue.  As Alex had predicted, the first guest arrived at the late and complete imprecise time of 3:17pm.  As guests began to trickle in, wearing odd and unusual clothes, Erik had a sinking feeling.  When the hostess, dressed in a green and blue flowy gown that somehow managed to have plenty of fabric and yet cover nothing but the essential bits strutted out to welcome the guests to the party, his fears were confirmed.

“Welcome to my 21st birthday, costume pool party bitches!  Let’s all get plastered!”

Erik winced at the high pitched announcement and the roar of cheers that followed it. Wonderful.  A costume party full of twenty-somethings who wanted to get shit faced and also swim in a pool.  Genius idea.

The following hours were some of the worst of his life, which was saying something as Erik’s life had never been a something to brag about.  He was accosted by no less than a dozen bikini clad girls (he couldn’t call them women since they all looked about fifteen and he was tempted to ask them when their parents were coming to pick them up), had a woman dressed as Cher pinch his ass, and was propositioned by two men, one dressed as a sailor and the other wearing both too much leather and yet not enough clothing in general.

Erik hated this job. He hated California, with its hot, sticky weather.  Most of all he hated these people.  People with nothing in their heads and botox in their faces (even though no one looked a day over thirty) and silicone in their chests. People who thought nothing of invading the personal space of someone who was working, and clearly not attending the party.

At this moment he particularly hated the young man dressed as Tom Cruise from Risky Business, wearing nothing but a button down shirt, sunglasses, tube socks and white briefs, who was currently serenading everyone with a truly terrible rendition of ‘Copacabana’.  Firstly, Erik thought, the man obviously should have been singing ‘Old Time Rock and Roll’, given his costume. Secondly, the man might have been better off singing when he was less drunk. Erik could only hope his voice would have been better and more in tune if he wasn’t quite so sloshed.  And thirdly, it should have been illegal for someone’s ass to look that good in plain white briefs.  Plain white briefs were not sexy, they were practical and unassuming.  But these briefs, with that ass, they assumed a lot, including far too much of Erik’s attention.  Erik found himself thinking quite a bit about how likely it was that someone would push the young man into the pool.  Erik tried to justify his thoughts as concern, concern that the young man, being more than a little drunk might be at risk of drowning if he was unexpectedly pushed into the pool.  Obviously his thoughts had nothing to do with how transparent his entire outfit would be once he emerged from the pool, certainly not.  Erik was a professional and professionals did not think about random party guests in that way.

No one pushed the man into the pool.

For while, Erik lost sight of the man and was able to give the full force of his concentration to patrolling the perimeter of the yard and looking for unwanted, uninvited intruders.  Thank goodness he was looking, because within half and hour of starting his route, he found one nosy paparazzo hiding behind the bushes, gleefully snapping away.  His line of sight the perfect angle to get shots into the flimsy tent where guests were changing into swimming attire.  ‘What a horrible excuse for a human being’  Erik though vaguely before kicking the man’s camera out of his hands and hauling his upwards by the scruff of his shirt.

“Hey man!  Lay off!  I was just doing my job!”  The man scrambled frantically for his camera as Erik dragged him along.

“Your job is to take pictures of unsuspecting women taking their clothes off?”  He bit out through clenched teeth.

“Hey, they’re asking for it man!  They want to be famous!”  He man whined as Erik pushed him toward a mostly discrete side exit.

“I’m quite certain they were not asking for it.”  A crisp cultured voice interrupted before Erik could punch the man in the nose. “There’s no need for violence, my friend.”  The voice spoke again and Erik felt a hand touch his arm, causing him to frown, but relax his arm back down to his side.

Erik turned to find himself face to face with the Tom Cruise costumed man, who sounded considerably less drunk than Erik would have thought based on his earlier behaviour.

“Your film, please.”  The young man said, holding a hand out toward the paparazzo Erik had caught.

“It’s all digital man.”  The man replied smugly.

Erik grabbed the offending camera out of the man’s hands and passed it over to Tom Cruise, or whoever he was.

“Here.”

“Thank you.” Tom (as Erik had decided to think of him for lack of a better option) smiled a brilliant smile up at Erik and happily took the camera.

“Digital they may be,”  Tom said, deleting pictures and removing the memory card, “but they are now gone.  If I ever see you back on my sister’s property again, I will call the police and have you charged for trespassing.”  He turned back to Erik,  his voice now much lighter, friendlier even. “If you would be so kind as to escort this man off the property Mr. …?”

“Lehnsherr.  Mr. Lehnsherr.”  Erik managed to answer.

“Mr. Lehnsherr.  I would be most grateful to never see him again.”

“My pleasure.” Erik smiled, lifting the offensive man high enough that his feet didn’t touch the ground, he started forward moving quickly to haul the man by the house and down the driveway, depositing him on the road outside the front gate.

Erik returned to the party and somehow made it through the last couple of hours of debauchery.  No other intruders were spotted.  Guests continued to drink and a great many people were pushed into the pool.  ‘Tom’ was no where in sight, however.

Erik took to smiling his biggest, most aggressively toothy grin at everyone who came near him, which effectively scared everyone away from his general vicinity.

“Jesus, that’s terrifying.”  Alex commented after a pair of young women had turned and run away from Erik’s latest smile.  “You should never smile, man.  I’ve gotten six phone numbers from these chicks – stop scaring them away.  If you don’t want the phone numbers, I’ll take them.”

Erik scowled, disgusted at Alex’s complete lack of professionalism.  Of course he was scaring them away.  He didn’t want their phone numbers.  The only thing he would admit to wanting, was a name (okay, he likely would have taken a phone number too).  Unfortunately, as the party died down and guests stumbled home, Erik didn’t catch sight of ‘Tom’ once.

The next day he was back at Frost Protection Agency headquarters asking for a transfer. Within the week he was flying to New York.  He had no regrets, he and California were clearly not meant for each other. ‘Tom’ whoever he was would remain a mystery.  Which was fine by Erik.  Mystery Tom was intriguing: a man with some principles, a horrible singing voice, and a fantastic ass.  ‘Tom’ is real life would no doubt have been a disappointment, as people almost always were.

So Erik did what he did best: he compartmentalized and pushed ‘Tom’ into a nice little box and stored him away in the recesses of his mind.  Now, was the time for New York.  He sat on the plane, in a cramped economy seat and pulled out the file on his next assignment.

[hockeytrashgoblin]

A Tuch of your love ~Alex Tuch

A/N: Hi! so here’s an Alex Tuch imagine. I’m not sure how I feel about it but I get anxious with all my writing so I’m going to post it anyway. I’ve been doing research to try and find how people act so I’ll probably write another one when I know more about how he is as a person and how I can make him into a character also. Also the title is a song name but instead of touch it’s Tuch...Idk I thought of it and couldn’t make it go away so it is what it is and I hope you enjoy.

“Hey good lookin’ what’s cookin’?” I rolled my eyes as I stepped past him into the house.

“How was the filming of the ‘castle’?” I asked Alex puting air quotes on castle. I took off my coat and hung it up by the front door before kicking my shoes off.

“Hey, don’t insult my house.”

“Come on, this isn’t a castle and you know it. You wouldn’t be sleeping in a closet if it was.” I said making him laugh as we walked upstairs to his gaming room.

“Touche.” 

“So what are the plans for today Tuch?”

“I have no plans.”

“You invited me over for no reason?” I asked suspicious of my friend.

“Well I mean I wanted company but I didn’t plan anything to do.”

“Classic.” I said falling back onto the futon.

“We could order food and watch a movie?”

“Unoriginal.”

“Ya know what..” he said letting out a laugh. “You’re a nuisance today.”

“I am not!”

“Pick a movie, you brat.” he said with a big smile. “I’m going to go get snacks.”

“Okay. Bring me a blanket too?”

“God you’re so needy.” he said playfully rolling his eyes.

“Shut up you love me.”

“For some unknown reason.” 

“Rude!” I yelled after he left the room, hearing him laugh which made me smile. I really had the biggest crush on Alex. I’d been friends with him since we were teenagers. Our 10th grade english teacher paired us up for a big group project to give him a better chance at getting a good grade. I had already had a crush on him at that point and I figured it would go away but it never did. The big shot hockey player has had my heart for years. He was so goofy and almost flirty with everyone though so it was really hard for me to navigate what was going on so I just never did anything about it. 

“Hey space cadet.” Alex yelled throwing the blanket at my head, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“Asshole.” I mumbled making him laugh again. 

“What’s got you so zoned out?”

“Dumb boys.”

“Oh? Is there finally a boy in (Y/N) life?”

“God no.”

“You’ve never had a boyfriend. You’re like 23 and still single.”

“And your point?”

“Why?”

“Maybe I have my eye on someone.”

“Well what’s taking so long then?”

“He’s super not interested.”

“How do you know?”

“Well it’s been years and nothing sooo that’s pretty clear to me.” I sighed and pushed his shoulder. “Hey why are we talking about this where are my snacks?”

“Here you little gremlin.” he said throwing a bag of Doritos at me.

“Thank you.” I said with a sweet smile.

“Don’t look at me all sweet and innocent like that.” he laughed. “I know better than anyone that you are not either of those things.”

“Um wooow. I am sweet I’ll have you know. Just not to you. Because you don’t deserve it.”

“Brutal.” Shea said laughing in the doorway.

“Shea! Come watch a movie with us?” 

“No this was our hangout time.” Alex said pouting.

“Nonsense Alex, be nice. Come watch with us.”

“If the pretty girl says so.” he said shrugging coming in and sitting on the other side of me.

“Don’t call her that.” Alex said rolling his eyes.

“What are you trying to say there Tuch?” I asked raising an eyebrow at him.

“That isn’t what I meant. Can we just watch the movie please?”

“Okay..” I said quietly pushing play. Alex got off of the futon and turned the lights off before coming back and sitting closer to me. I unfolded the blanket Alex brought me and curled up in it. At least I tried before both boys took an edge and got under the blankets too. “I’m not very cozy anymore.”

“Well sorry, princess.” Alex said sarcastically.

“Come here.” Shea said putting an arm around me. I rested my head against his shoulder as the movie continued. I heard Alex scoff but he just let it be. Half-way into our second movie Shea got up claiming he had to go do something. Almost as soon as Shea left the room Alex scooted closer to me and pulled my body back into his.

“Alex what are you doing?”

“Shea left. Someone has to hold the baby.” he said trying to make a joke out of it.

“But you don’t like touchi-”

“(Y/N) if I didn’t want to touch you I wouldn’t be. Simple as that.” he said interrupting me and pulling me closer.

“If you’re sure..” 

“I am.”

“Okay.” I said quietly pulling the arm that was resting on my hip around me so his hand was up by my head. Doing that made us get into more of a spooning position and I was fine with that. It felt really nice to just be with him in that way. We were quiet for a minute just watching the movie until Alex cuddled more into me and broke the silence.

“I can’t help but notice that this is very different to what you were doing with Shea.”

“Is it a problem?” I asked trying to move away.

“No.” he whined pulling me back. “I was just pointing out that it was different.”

“Shea’s like a brother to me.”

“What and I’m not?”

“Absolutely not.” I said too quick. “I mean yes.”

“No, no, no you don’t just get to back track like that.” he said rolling me over so he could see me. “What do you mean I’m not like a brother to you?”

“I um..I just don’t see you as a brother that’s all.”

“Why not?” he demanded.

“Don’t raise your voice at me like that.” I said quietly.

“I’m not raising my voice, I just want to know why I’m not a brother to you.”

“Alex just leave it please? I really don’t feel like talking about it.”

“How am I just supposed to leave it and ignore that?” 

“Alex..”

“All I’ve ever tried to do is make you feel safe and happy and have you know that you’ve always got someone around who cares about you a lot. I just don’t understand.”

“You do all of those things. Every single one of them and more.”

“Then why is Shea someone you consider to be so close to you and I’m not?” he yelled standing up.

“Listen up Tuch. You mean more to me than Shea does. You both mean something to me in very different ways.” I tried to explain getting mad.

“Then what way am I important? Hmm? Because I don’t feel very important tonight.”

“For fuck sakes Alex, I don’t see you as a brother because I’m in love with you, you dumbass. It’d be kinda weird to be in love with someone you thought of as your brother.” I didn’t realize what I said until it was too late and I just shut my mouth and looked down away from his face. Which was probably for the best honestly since he just left the room. I panicked and went downstairs to get my stuff and get out of there as fast as I could but I was stopped by a pair of very large arms.

“(Y/N) you can’t go yet.” Shea said while I was struggling to break free.

“Shea you don’t understand. I just embarrassed myself more than I ever have in my life I need to leave.” 

“You can’t leave right now.”

“Yes I can.”

“Not until this is fixed.”

“Does he want to talk to me Shea?”

“Well I mean-”

“Does he want to talk to me?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then I will be leaving.”

“I don’t think he wants that either.”

“Shea this is what he does. I’ve watched him do this for years. He gets admissions from people he doesn’t want them from and he never fucking speaks to them again. He just disappears. This isn’t going to be any different.”

“(Y/N) this doesn’t make sense, please just stay and try to deal with this.” he let me go and when he did, I ran. Once I was outside I just sat down angry at myself. I kicked over a flower pot but then quickly picking it back up and fixing the flowers. Soon my anger towards myself became anger towards him. I hated the feeling I had. The anger powered me to go back into the house. Shea saw that I was on a mission and just nodded while moving out of my way. I opened the door to his room and found him lying on his bed.

“Can I fucking help you?” he asked taking his headphones out.

“Yeah. We’re fucking talking about this.” I said sitting down on the end of the bed. “I’m not leaving here until we do.”

“This is stupid.” he said rolling his eyes.

“Talk to me, asshole.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say. Sorry you have feelings?”

“You’re fucking stupid.” I said scoffing. 

“You had the right idea to just leave before.”

“Why? So you could just cut me off and never speak to me again in your life?”

“What no? Why would you say that?”

“I’ve watched you do it to sooo many girls. They speak up and you disappear. Never to be heard from again. The great fucking Houdini.”

“I wouldn’t do that to you. You’re my best friend.”

“An easy to lose one apparently.”

“You’d never be easy to lose, don’t fucking start.”

“But you’re willing to do it.” he was quiet and I knew I had him. “So that was just going to be it? Because I have a stupid crush on you, you were just going to pretend I never existed in your life? Why?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Too bad.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I’m not letting you throw away 6 years of friendship because you don’t want to deal with feelings.”

“I don’t want to talk about feelings. I’ve never been about feelings and you know that.”

“Then just say that you don’t like me back so I can start to move on and this can just become some stupid joke that we laugh about while drunk at parties.” I said laying back on the bed. I needed a break from looking at him.

“I can’t tell you that.” he said making me sit straight back up.

“What? Why?” 

“Because it isn’t true.”

“Then what the fuck is all this for then?”

“I can’t be what you need me to be. You know how I am and who I am. I can’t be what you want me to be.”

“You have no idea who or what I want you to be. All you know is I have feelings for you.”

“I can’t be the perfect loving boyfriend you deserve to have.”

“Uh yeah I know.”

“Um wow rude.” he said cracking a small smile.

“The fact that you think I don’t know how you are and that I’m liking you blindly is fucking hilarious to me. I know you aren’t perfect, idiot.” I said smiling kicking his leg.

“Why would you bring it up now? It’s been so long.”

“I just got upset and it had been bubbling to the surface for a while now. I would’ve been content just sitting around on these feelings and never letting them out but here we are.”

“Here we are.” he repeated. He was quiet for a minute before he added, “I don’t know what to do here.”

“Me neither. I always thought you would react bad but I never thought you wouldn’t be able to tell me it was one sided. I don’t know what to do with that honestly.”

“I didn’t think you’d ever have feelings for me knowing me as well as you do.”

“You’re not that bad of a person to know.” I said rolling my eyes.

“I have a bad temper, I don’t trust easily, I overreact all the time.”

“Trust me I know all of these things.” I rolled my eyes and crawled up the bed to sit beside him. “But you trust me already so there’s that.”

“I guess there is that. But trusting you as a friend and trusting you as something more are two different things.”

“But why? Just leave things how they are but more.”

“What do you mean?” he asked bumping his leg with mine.

“I mean treat me like you always have just with like, touching and stuff.”

“Wouldn’t that just be friends with benefits then?”

“If that’s what you wanted it to be I guess.”

“I don’t want that.”

“Ouch okay.” I said laughing.

“I didn’t mean that I don’t want to fuck you.” he said bluntly sighing making me burst out into laughter. “What is so funny?”

“Just the way you said it. I’m sorry. What were you saying, Tuch?”

“I was just saying that you deserve better than friends with benefits.”

“Then be better than friends with benefits.” I said shrugging and looking at him.

“I don’t know how.” he said quietly. “I’ve only ever had friends with benefits.”

“Then let’s figure it out together, Alex.” I said putting my hand to the back of his head. He closed his eyes and I gave him lots of time to pull away before I closed the distance and pressed my lips to his. He kissed back right away and it was intense to say the least. He licked my bottom lip asking for entrance almost immediately and when I let him in he really destroyed any ability I had to come up with a coherent thought. It really felt like I had been hit by a train. I felt the kiss in my entire body and when he pulled away I whined making him laugh and me blush.

“Needy.” he said brushing his thumb against my bottom lip with a smile.

“God everyone knows I’m needy, Tuch. You’re not original.” 

“My needy girl?” he asked softly.

“Yeah.”

“(Y/N) I’m really not good at this. It’s hard for me to let my guard down and I shut people out in these kinds of situations. I don’t want you to get into something you weren’t expecting and then leave me.”

“I’m not going anywhere. You’re not nearly as hard to love as you think you are.” I said hugging him.

“I’m willing to give us a shot if it’s what you really think you want.”

“It’s what I really know I want Alex.”

“I’m just so afraid you’re going to see me in a light that you don’t like.” he said resting his head on top of mine.

“I’ve seen you in every light. There’s nothing there that’s going to make me want to leave you. Let me prove it to you that not everyone is just trying to leave.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s just give it a try. That’s all I’m asking. We both have feelings, we might as well give it a shot. We kind of owe it to ourselves.”

“You’ve got a point.” I he smiling and pulling back to give me another kiss. “Plus turns out I really like doing that.”

“Me too.”

“This is the most you’ve ever agreed with me in one sitting. The baby just needed attention to cooperate is that it?”

“God shut up, asshole.” I said laughing before pressing another kiss to his lips.