#adiwriting

The residual heat of the blacktop kept them warm as they trudge back to the roadside motel. The sun had long set, but this close to the city, even the desert nights couldn’t get a chill in the middle of summer. Michael could barely make out the stars in the distance, the light pollution too great for that. In front of him, Alex seemed to mix into the shadows, somehow avoiding even the edges of the streetlights’ wide range.

It doesn’t hurt much, the knowledge that even know Alex needed to be wrapped in shadows to be seen with him. After all, that had been their relationship for years. Hidden in shadow, late at night, never longer than they had to be- that was what he was used to. This, a long weekend away from his Airstream and away from Roswell was the unusual thing.

Maybe, in his heart, Michael thought that this change could be the sign of something new for them.

They got to the door and Alex couldn’t shield himself from the light anymore. He opened the door and darted inside, Michael following after him.

“I’m sorry,” Alex started as soon as the door closed. “I didn’t realize others would be here too.” He said as Michael moved away from the door, away from Alex, and to the far side of the room. The side with the untouched bed.

“It’s ok,” Michael said as he kicked off his boots and pulled off his shirt. He unbuckled his pants before he moved to pull down the sheets.

“What are you doing?” Alex asked, still at the spot by the door.

“Keeping up appearances,” Michael replied as he slid into the bed.

“Guerin—” Alex started, but Michael cut him off.

“It’s ok Alex, just go to sleep.”

He didn’t watch as Alex got himself ready for bed. He didn’t watch as Alex turned off the light, when he climbed into the bed that they had used earlier in the afternoon.

He wasn’t asleep. He knew Alex wasn’t either. Every few minutes lights from the road streaked along the wall across from the window, shades left cracked to give the cramped motel room any sense of space. Michael watched at the lights sped across the wall, the few slower ones as a car turned into the parking lot. All along, he waited for Alex’s breath to even, waited for the moment Michael could relax and pretend that maybe this was the something more, the something different, that he had been dreaming of.

It never came. Instead, he heard the creak of Alex’s bed, the sound of his body moving across the barely 2 feet of space between their beds.

“I can’t sleep,” he said, slow and unsure. “Can I sleep here?”

Michael wasn’t one to deny Alex anything.

He rolled over and raised the blanket up. Alex crawled in and Michael wrapped his arms around him.

Author:  adiwriting

Rating:  G

Status:  Completed in June 2013

Word Count:  14.253

Summary:  Blaine Anderson has never quite fit in with his family... He's about to find out why.

Tropes/Genre:  Anderstark, adopted!Blaine, AU

Lynne’s review:  I’ve never read an Anderstark crossover before. Excellent and plausible way to tie Blaine in with Tony Stark. Although there’s not a lot of Kurt and Blaine in this, I did really enjoy it. 

With extra salt, right? 😉💗

It's too bright in Alex's house. The sun is streaming through the windows, there are flowers from the farmer's market on the kitchen table, and Forrest is making a bright, green smoothie with chia seeds and chatting amiably about his plans to take Alex out to lunch. Alex's skin feels raw and his hand twitches.

"Sounds good," he says quickly. "Uh, I think I'm gonna go to the gym for an hour or so."

Forrest smiles, makes no mention of Alex's abrupt interruption.

"That's a great idea, babe," he says, and pulls a steel bottle out of the cabinet. "Here." He pours half the smoothie in the bottle and screws on the cap, passing it to Alex. "Some fuel for your workout."

He kisses Alex's cheek and pours the rest of the drink into a glass, heading out to the porch with his notebook and phone.

"What's with the bag?" Michael asks, seemingly unbothered that Alex has waltzed into his trailer unannounced at ten o’clock in the morning. His curls are dripping onto his naked chest and he wears only a pair of dove grey boxer briefs that might actually be Alex’s, clearly fresh from a shower.

"I said I was going to the gym," Alex says with a shrug, tossing it onto the booth built into the front of the trailer. He isn't sure why he didn't leave it in his car.

Michael grins, grabs a fistful of Alex's shirt and walks him towards the bed, pushing Alex firmly onto it and climbing on top of him.

#40 - My first time writing teen!Malex. All for you @adiwriting! Brief mention of the toolshed incident.

Michael’s day starts going to shit the minute he wakes up in the bed of his truck. The misty morning dew has soaked through his sleeping blanket and pillow, both already starting to smell of mold. Not that they’d been that clean to begin with. But at least they hadn’t so obviously stunk.

Now he’ll have to carve some time out of his night to hit up the laundromat. And with Sanders already down his throat about the Collins wreck – he’s not sure how he’s going to make that happen. And it definitely means he won’t have any time for Alex. Unless he can sneak out and sit at the laundromat with him. And Michael hesitates to even ask – because who wants to spend hours watching clothes spin with him?

He flexes his hand, the cold morning stiffening the still tender scar tissue. Images flicker through his mind – taking him back to that toolshed. He shakes his head violently, trying to rid himself of the playback. It only half works.

At school, some jock tries to trip him in the hallway but hauls ass when Michael raises his fists. He doesn’t see Alex at all and Isobel refuses to speak to him after some dick comment he made about her flippy skirt. His mood worsens when his English teacher gives them a pop quiz which Michael proceeds to fail. Max shakes his head at him in disappointment. Michael flicks him off and decides the answer to his time management problem can easily be solved by bailing on the second half of the day.

He’s just climbing into his truck when Alex comes running up after him, waving his arms – a big smile plastered across his face.

‘Michael, wait!’ He’s out of breath by the time he reaches the Chevy, but his smile has only grown wider. ‘Where are you going? I tried to get your attention after second period, but you were too busy frowning at something.’ Alex presses in as close as he can to where Michael is sitting behind the steering wheel, lifting himself up on his tiptoes. Michael meets him in the middle – tongue easily sliding between his lips. Alex moans immediately, twisting his fingers in Michael’s flannel shirt.

The kiss deepens as Michael shifts sideways to firmly plant Alex between his thighs, squeezing them around his hips. He threads his hands through Alex’s hair and pushes him back, breaking the kiss. ‘Come with me. This day is shit and I’ve got to do some laundry. I’ll walk down to the diner and get a milkshake. We can share.’ He nudges Alex’s nose with his own. ‘Or we could find an empty parking lot and I could show you a new trick I learned.’ He licks his lips suggestively, boldly glancing down at Alex’s dick.  

Alex flushes at the suggestion, still not completely comfortable with this newfound attention. He runs his hands up Michael’s thighs, looping his fingers through Michael’s empty belt loops. ‘I can’t. My dad might find out I skipped and –‘

He doesn’t finish the sentence. Doesn’t have to. Michael clenches his left fist – sighs and rests his forehead against Alex’s. ‘That fucking sucks. But I understand. I wish I could steal you away in the night and never come back here.’

They close their eyes and sway together for a long moment. Both dreaming of where they might go and what a future like that might look like. But then Alex pulls back and bends over to grab something out of his bag. ‘I almost forgot! I made this for you.’

What Alex hands him is incomprehensible to Michael at first. Just a long, woven rectangle – black but intricately detailed in red and white thread with a gorgeous abstract pattern. The chaos of the design instantly appealing to him. The back is padded with supple leather and his initials are handstitched into the corner.

‘Do you know what it is?’ He’s bouncing on the balls of his feet like an excited puppy.

‘Uh, some kind of kinky sex thing?’ Michael smiles at him in bewilderment.

Alex laughs and shakes his head. ‘Not even close – unless…,’ he trails off, blushing again. Clears his throat. ‘Anyway. It’s a guitar strap. I couldn’t afford an entire guitar, but I could make you this. And you can borrow my brother’s acoustic as long as you like.’

It’s Michael’s turn to blush. The gift is too much – too much of Alex’s heart. He worries that he’s about to cry, blinking his eyes rapidly. ‘You didn’t have to.’ His voice crackles with emotion and he tries to move back from Alex, wiping at his eyes with the backs of his hands.

But Alex won’t let him budge. Wraps his arms around his waist and keeps their bodies flush together. ‘I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. Plus, it matches mine now. I just really like you, Michael. So.’ He looks down into Michael’s lap and kicks at the pavement.

Michael brings his arms up, hugging Alex into his chest. Placing a soft kiss in his hair. ‘I like you more.’ He smiles into Alex’s neck and breathes him in.

The bell rings signaling next period and Alex regretfully moves away, throwing his backpack onto his shoulders. ‘Can I see you after school? I could come out to the junkyard.’

He knows he should say no – that he’s risking Sanders’ wrath. But Alex is too pretty with the sun shining high overhead, casting deep shadows in his perfect cheekbones. ‘Yes.’

Alex grins and kisses him quickly on the corner of his mouth before dashing off. Michael watches him run back towards the school, laughing when he almost trips on the curb. They wave one last time before Alex disappears through the double glass doors.

Michael’s day may have started out shit. But that’s not how it will end.

I’ve had enough asks, nearly everything is getting a brief preview ❤️

*** from the part 3 of Vows that I’m slowly making progress on ***

The sun was starting to make its slow track toward the horizon before Michael finally stirred from his place in the mussed sheets of Alex’s bed. 

If he just kept his eyes closed, he could pretend that Alex was in the next room, rummaging for his keys. Over the years, he had developed a talent in his mind, for finding small moments to retreat into and relive. It wasn’t clear whether this was an alien ability or not, based on Tripp’s diary and the stories from the reservation about Louise, but Michael could fully disappear into his memories in a way that placed him apart from humans. He didn’t even have to search far to find the memory he wanted to revisit because it was never far from his mind. That perfect morning they had shared before, when they had unpacked the tightly wrapped hurts between them to make a new start, it haunted Michael like a phantom visitor of promise before the struggle had found them in the form of Michael’s sudden mysterious illness. 

All around him was the rich smell of sex from the previous day’s goodbye mixing with the pine from Alex’s body wash. It helped keep the fantasy intact for Michael, he was so completely surrounded by Alex’s scent that he found himself reaching out against the empty mattress, searching for the fading warmth in the sheets from Alex’s body. The mattress was cold, of course, having long since been abandoned that morning. 

He felt the faint trickle of wetness on his face, not tears but blood again. Alex’s DNA had covered the bedsheets and drowning himself in that soothing scent meant accelerating the cellular decay again. It made for a nice change from crying at least. 

The tissue box next to the bed weighed less than a pound, but his mind was able to lock onto it and lift it over to him, with only the slightest wobble in control. Reluctantly, he sat up and pressed a clean tissue to his nose to stem the flow of blood. Michael tried to summon concern for the stubborn bleed, but it was hard to feel anything.

His heart was sleeping in a pod miles away.

His cellphone blared to life, breaking that almost histrionic thought of his. Lady Gaga’s Born This Way echoed in the bedroom. Michael sighed, that was Isobel. He had to pick that call up because ignoring her calls didn’t make them stop, only escalate. 

“I’m okay, Iz,” Michael answered, cutting off whatever greeting she had.

“Oh really? Then why do I suddenly want to listen to Joni Mitchell and eat a carton of ice cream? And before you deny it, don’t forget that I will know if you’re lying to me.” 

That was the most unexpected result in their work on Michael’s psychic abilities, the formation of a link similar to what Isobel had always shared with Max. It was less of a twin phenomenon and more of the result of close proximity and mental contact. All of those years of feeling alone in his mind were over now to some extent because he had the warm awareness of Isobel hiding just behind his breastbone now. 

“I will be okay,” Michael amended, dropping the used tissue in the bedroom trash can joining the riddled rubbish of condom wrappers and last night’s activities. The nosebleed had stopped, but there was an itch to his skin that meant he needed to get up to strip the sheets before more of the cast-off retrovirus affected him further. It was just hard to care at the moment.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Cleaning up Alex’s house, why? Do you want to help or something?” Michael teased dully, forcing a bit of color into the conversation.

“You are cleaning,” Isobel began, her voice full of dubious belief. “I figured you would be laying in that bed like some fainting Victorian flower, with your lover’s shirt clutched to your chest while you wait for him to return from battle.”

haha i think i’ve shared almost all the marco i’ve got with you already, but here’s a tiny bit from marco 2!

“Uh, Marco, this is Alex.”

“O-oh. Oh! Alex. Right. Nice to meet you.”

Marco’s face softens, and it sours in Alex’s gut. Don’t you dare pity me. I don’t want your goddamn pity.

“Feeling’s mutual. I don’t come here a lot, so I get why you wouldn’t recognize me,” Alex replies, just barely resisting the urge to go chasing after Forrest so they can get out of here before he dies of awkwardness. A bead of sweat slips down the side of Michael’s neck.

The only relief comes when Michael clears his throat. “I’m gonna go get some water.”

“Okay, cool. Bring me some too?”

The relief evaporates when Michael leaves without Marco, and Marco and Alex are suddenly alone.

Tagged by the lovely @adiwriting and @a1kitkat. Sorry I’m so late, between the new semester, my kids going to school/kindergarten, and some health issues of my in-laws, I hardly had any time to do my own things. I’m still at episode 2 of The Boys S2, sigh. So thank you for tagging me, it’s always fun to remember the shows that cheer me up, especially in trying times like now.

Anyway, my five happy shows:

1. Leverage. Any time, any episode, it never failed to put a big smile on my face. I love the found family energy, the fighting for small guys concept and the OT3 that exceeds all of the OT3s imo. I can’t wait for the sequel!

2. Horrible Histories. Yes, I know it’s a kid show, and no, I’m not ashamed to admit that I first watched it when I was hitting 30 and I was instantly hooked. It’s ridiculously fun and highly educational, not to mention all the catchy songs and the six idiots that captured my heart with their insane talent and genuine friendship. Also, Mathew Baynton is a national treasure.

3. IT Crowd. It’s HILARIOUS. I watched it so many times that I almost memorized all of the lines, yet still, they made me laugh.

4. POI. What can I say. Every time Harold Finch appears on my screen, I smile, I listen, I sit up straighter, and I want to be better. He’s my all time favorite and POI will always hold a special place in my heart because it brought Harold Finch into the world.

5. Schitt’s Creek. It’s like, the ultimate perfect show for me. It gave me all the fuzzy and warm feelings, and most importantly, it let me believe life could be good.

RNM doesn’t make the list because it did not always make me feel better. If there’s a list of the shows that consume my life, it will sure be on it. 😂