#this is a bit long but im on mobile

[justlightlysedated]

35.wake up kisses

35. wake up kisses

Isobel is waiting for Margaret, a friend of her mother, who was visiting and used the bus instead of flying because it was safer.

Isobel wrinkled her nose at the amount of people inside of the bus depot, and decided to just wait outside, sending her mother a message so she could let Margaret know that Isobel was waiting for her.

The only reason that she had agreed to do this, instead of sending Max, was because Margaret was known in their social circle as a woman with expensive tastes, and Isobel was trying to network.

Her eyes sweep across the other cars in the parking lot, and she jumps when she sees Michael's truck.

She pushes away from her car, and heads over there, not surprised to find Michael himself sleeping in the front seat, head lolling back against the headrest, mouth open.

If there was one thing that the foster system fucked up that Isobel hasn't been able to unfuck in the time that Michael has been living with them in Roswell, it's his sleeping.

Michael can literally fall asleep anywhere, like he never got any sleep wherever he was living and had to compensate, but the downside to that was that if someone woke him up, he woke up swinging, like he had to defend himself immediately after being drawn out of sleep.

Isobel doesn't like the implications, but Michael actually refuses to talk about anything important without turning it into an uncomfortable joke.

Still, Isobel walks over there, determined to wake him up since he’s been missing for a few days, and while Max may be convinced that he’s wasting his life away on some bar floor, Isobel had been worried.

Before she can get close enough to yell his name without attracting too much attention, she sees a movement, and then someone else sits up, coming from around the vicinity of Michael’s lap.

Isobel ducks behind a car and gags a little. She can’t believe that Michael is actually having sex in a very public parking lot in broad daylight.

She looks around the hood of the car, hoping that whatever is happening is coming to an end, and is once again surprised.

Alex Manes is sitting beside Michael, and instead of looking like he was just giving a blowjob, he looks like he just woke up, yawning wide and stretching his arms as far as they can go.

He rubs a hand through his messy hair, rubbing his eyes, then blinks and turns towards Michael, who Isobel notes is actually asleep.

She opens her mouth to warn Alex about the dangers of waking Michael up, but Alex is one of those things that Michael has never talked to her about, and she doesn’t think right now would be the best time to bring it up.

She’s expecting Michael to wake up swinging the moment that Alex gets close enough, but he doesn’t even twitch.

Alex manages to get close enough to tap a finger against his cheek, and Michael just settles down more comfortably, head lolling to the other side as he smacks his lips together, but doesn’t wake up.

Isobel can see Alex saying something as he taps his cheek again, and when that doesn’t work, he leans in even closer, and then presses a kiss to Michael’s cheek.

Michael twitches then, nose scrunching up, but he doesn't make any sudden or rough movements.

Alex kisses him again, this time on the edge of his jaw, and again, going lower, until Michael is waking up, eyes blinking open, hand cupping the back of Alex's head.

Alex moves so that they're face to face and Michael says something, and Alex just leans against him, laying his head on Michael's shoulder.

Isobel sees the way Michael's face crumbles a little, but he wraps his arm around Alex and holds him tight, eyes falling shut as he leans his head against Alex's.

Isobel is broken out of the spell the moment put her in, by her phone vibrating in her hand.

She remembers why she's here in the first place, and turns away from the intimate scene still happening in Michael's truck, feeling more embarrassed than if she'd actually seen them fucking.

She shakes her head, pushing the thoughts aside and heads back to her car, vowing to try to talk to Michael about Alex again.

-

Liz doesn't think that it makes her a bad person to push Michael's stool over with her foot until he startles into wakefulness right as he falls to the floor.

She has never tried to wake him up, since Max told her that he wakes up swinging, if anyone tries to wake him up, and she has seen him almost punch Max in the face twice, and both times it was right after Max woke him up.

Liz thinks that they need to do something about it, maybe try different techniques, but both Isobel and Max shut her down, saying that that's just how Michael was.

It's several days after Isobel was put into stasis and they've been working nonstop on trying to find the cure. Liz has told Michael countless times that he should go sleep in the cot she's got in the corner, just for this purpose, but he still ends up falling asleep hunched over on top of the lab table, his butt just barely falling off the stool.

Liz is debating whether or not to push him and then send him to the cot so that she can get at their equipment, when there is a knock on the lab door.

It is pretty late, so she's expecting Kyle, and is startled when Alex is the one to open the door a crack and peek inside.

"Hey," he says as soon as he spots her. "I was looking for Ky-"

He stops speaking when he spots Michael, and Liz doesn't exactly understand the look on his face. He's surprised, yes, but it seems to be something more complicated than just surprise.

He opens the door wider and steps in all the way, closing the door behind himself softly.

He doesn't have his crutch, and Liz wants to ask about that, opening her mouth to ask him how he's doing and what he needs Kyle for, anything to distract him from asking what Michael is doing asleep in her lab.

His eyes flicker from Michael to her, and there is something in his gaze that seems knowing, like he knows exactly what they are doing here, like he knows that Michael is an alien.

"How long has he been asleep like that?" He asks instead of any of the other questions Liz thought he would ask.

"Long enough," she answers after clearing her throat. "I keep telling him to use the cot but-"

"He just falls asleep anywhere," he finishes for her, a fond look on his face, like this isn't the first time that he's seen Michael do this, and for the first time since he walked in through the door Liz wonders how exactly does Alex know Michael 

She opens her mouth to ask, but her teeth click together as she shuts her mouth again when he walks over to Michael, without a care in the world.

"Alex-" she starts, wanting to warn him, but before she can, Alex is close enough to Michael to duck his head down and press a kiss to his temple.

"Guerin," she hears him say in a soft, melodic tone she's never heard come out of his mouth.

He kisses him again, at the corner of his eye, and then one more time on his cheek, and Liz feels her cheeks flame up as she realizes exactly how Alex knows Michael and how well.

By the third kiss, Michael is twitching and moving, and making a low groaning sound as he does.

Alex moves away then, as Michael stretches and his back cracks, the noise making Liz wince.

Michael looks around the room and then spots Alex, and if Liz hadn't guessed when Alex was kissing him, she would've gotten it by the look on Michael's face.

He opens his mouth like he's gonna say something, but then he seems to remember exactly where he is.

He looks over to Liz, eyes wide like he's terrified, and before Liz can say anything to rectify it, Alex's phone is ringing.

He pulls it out of his pocket and waves at them goodbye, not looking back to Michael as he walks out of the lab, answering the call.

"Kyle, I've been looking for you everywhere," he says as the door closes behind him.

There is silence for a few minutes before Michael says, "I don't want to talk about it."

He moves from the stool and walks over to the cot, dropping on it recklessly enough that it creaks alarmingly.

Liz wants to know what exactly went down between Michael and Alex, but instead she just goes back to work, looking at Michael out of the corner of her eye.

Well, she thinks. It looks like there is one way to wake Michael up without getting a punch to the face. Liz wonders if it only works with Alex.

-

Maria opens the door to the Airstream after the first flurry of knocks, and she refuses to feel anything negative when she sees that it's Alex knocking on the door.

His face is impassive as he looks at her, a look that Maria has only ever seen turned on strangers, and she tries not to let it affect her too much.

Michael did tell her that he was going to be doing something with Alex this morning, when she'd asked him if he would be around to help her with something back at the bar.

If she was being really honest with herself, she'd shown up last night with a sixer and a bottle of cheap whiskey at his door, to make sure that he had a reminder of what was waiting for him back home.

"He's still asleep," she tells him when he doesn't say anything else. "He did say that you would be here early, but I don't think he remembered to set an alarm."

She smirks a little at that, since she had been the reason that he was too busy to set an alarm, but Alex just rolls his eyes a little.

"It's okay," he tells her. "Let me just-"

He doesn't finish the sentence, and she's expecting him to point towards his car like he's going to leave, and wait until Michael calls him, but instead he signals inside, where Maria is basically guarding the door with her body.

She steps aside and towards the counter, feeling reluctant, remembering exactly what happened the last time that Alex was inside of the Airstream.

Alex doesn't pause as he walks towards the small bed and squats down beside it.

Maria wants to warn him to be careful. There is a reason why she barely sleeps in bed with Michael. He's pushed her off the bed more than once if she accidentally brushed up against him, and it's a good thing that she's been in a few fights and is good at blocking and ducking since he swings fists first before his eyes are even open.

He was insanely apologetic afterwards, the first and only time that it happened, but Maria really doesn't want to risk it.

She thinks it's something that they can work towards as their relationship continues, but at the moment she likes her space.

However much it pains her to think about it, she thinks that Alex should already be aware of Michael's waking up habits, so she just stays silent and stares.

Alex doesn't do anything that she's expecting.

"Guerin, time to wake up," he says in a sweet low voice, and then she feels her neck and cheeks flush red with anger and shame when he leans even closer and presses a kiss to Michael's forehead, a tender touch that could be platonic if Maria wasn't aware of Alex's feelings on the matter.

The shock of Michael blinking his eyes open, and then stretching and waking up without so much as one erratic movement is what stops Maria from saying anything at all.

"If you're not ready in the next ten minutes we'll be late," Alex says as he gets back up to his feet.

Michael just groans, but then sits up, swinging his feet to the ground.

Alex walks back over to where Maria is standing, and he doesn't look smug or even remotely satisfied that he's able to do something that Isobel had assured Maria no one had ever been able to do.

"Tell him I'm waiting for him in the car," he tells her as he walks out of the Airstream without a goodbye.

Maria watches him get into his car, and only unfreezes when she hears the sound of the shower.

She inhales a shaky breath and wonders what exactly she's gotten herself into.