*If you wanted, you could certainly consider this a missing scene from Falling Like the Stars, though you don’t have to read that to understand this*

****

“That’s not how you do it,” Alex argues, rubbing his face in frustration and doing his damndest not to just step in and do it himself. 

“I am literally reading the directions,” Michael says, clearly frustrated as well. “And I build and fix shit for a living. It shouldn’t be this hard.” 

He shakes his head and holds his hand out. He can’t watch Michael fumble with this anymore. It cannot possibly be as hard as he’s making it look. Michael snorts. “Fine, here.” 

Micheal hands over the pieces and sits back against the wall, an amused smirk on his face, crossed arms, daring him to do better. 

“So it clearly says that these two holes line up and you put the screw in there,” Alex says, narrating his moves as he goes through them. Only, once the screw is all the way in, the pieces fall right apart. “The fuck?” 

Michael cracks up laughing. Through his laughter he just barely gets out, “Oh yeah, it clearly says.” 

“I don’t understand,” he says, glaring down at the two pieces of wood that aren’t sticking together like the directions clearly say they should be. 

“I’m just highly amused that you thought you could get the thing to work when I couldn’t,” Michael says with a fond roll of his eyes. 

“Fuck off,” Alex says with a laugh. “Last week you tried to help me install the nanny cam as if electronics are your area of expertise.” 

Michael bites his lips to keep from laughing as he shrugs. Alex tosses the pieces of wood aside and moves to sit next to Michael. 

“It really shouldn’t be this hard to build a crib. Fortified military bases have gone up easier,” Alex complains, leaning his weight against Michael who rests his head on top of Alex’s. 

“Fuck Isobel and this bougie crib,” he says. “I’m building the damn thing myself like I said I was going to before I let her get all in my head about safety regulations. As if I’d build anything that could collapse. There’s no way this crappy thing is safe.” 

Alex reaches out to place his hand on Michael’s knee and smiles when Michael intertwines their fingers together. 

“We’ve got this right?” Alex asks. 

“What?” 

“Parenting,” he clarifies, looking around the half finished nursery. Their little girl is due in a few short weeks and Alex has been stressed about their ever growing to-do list that keeps getting longer, worried they won’t finish everything before the baby comes. 

“Yes Alex,” Michael says, not a hint of doubt in his voice. “Our inability to put some crap furniture together isn’t an indication of our parenting skills. It’s an indication that we need to stop listening to Isobel like she knows shit.” 

Alex nods. He’s probably right. “The crib you build will be better anyways.” 

“Damn straight.” 

of course there’s one in the pollen fic 🤣 two in the same paragraph, even.

OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS ANGSTY SOFTNESS? Is this from a fic? Is this a prompt? Why do you keep sending me prompts?! I don’t write!

I’m not the Malex fic queens aka @pastelwitchling and @litwitlady

This is a crossover with the show “Haven.” Instead of Michael leaving and going to help Max and Isobel, Alex calls Greg for help.

Alex dug his phone out of his backpack and dialed his brother’s number. He listened to it ringing, not realizing he was holding his breath until Greg answered. “Greg, I need help. There’s so much blood and I don’t know how-“

Greg cut him off. “Alex! Where are you? Why is there blood? Where is Dad?”

“I’m in the shed. I can’t explain over the phone but I need to get rid of the blood before he comes back. Please...if I don’t Dad’s going to kill him.” Alex tried to control his panic. Greg was silent and for a one scary moment Alex thought he made a big mistake. “Greg? Are you still there?”

“Hey, hey, Alex, it’s okay, I’m here. Are you safe right now?” Greg asked calmly.

Alex could hear the jangle of keys through the phone and the sound of a car engine being started. “I-I don’t know. Greg, I know I shouldn’t be but- but I’m scared.”

“I’ll be there in two minutes. Do not hang up. It’s going to be okay. I promise it’s going to be okay.” Greg repeated that mantra over and over until he opened the shed door. He stopped in his tracks and lowered the phone. “Oh my god.”

“Please, Greg, help me clean up the blood. The hammer...it made the blood go everywhere! He said it had to be gone. I tried but it’s still there. I don’t know what to do.” Alex pulled away from Michael and threw himself at his brother.

Greg put his arms around Alex and hugged him tightly. “Ssssh, it’s going to be okay. Grab whatever you want from in here and put it in your backpack.”

Alex looked at him, confusion written all over his face. “I don’t understand...”

From my final part of my Michael Week AU- This Hard Heart -  hoping to wrap this up in a week <3

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write

Hmmm. The meet ugly series, actually. I reblogged them thinking they were amazing, but I never expected anyone would prompt me! And I'm so glad they did. I want to get back to them soon; I'm a little stuck on my current one, tbh.

15. something you learned this year

Thanks to the awesome @litwitlady for tagging me. Even though I haven’t watched since s4, I still love the characters cause of the books and I do check the tags on occasion while the show airs to check on the few characters I love. 

Rules: answer the questions and tag seven people.

A character(s) you hope gets more screentime: Brienne. Always Brienne. A character you’ll miss: Like I said, I haven’t watched since s4 but I still check in on Sansa, Jaime and Brienne. One death you would like to see: Daenerys. I sincerely hate that colonizing, imperialist, too-many-titles-for-one-person, walking white savior trope whose only claim to anything is cause she lucked out and got some dragons. She's nothing without them. One death you would hate to see: Sansa. From the moment Lady was put down to the present, Sansa has been through so much crap. If any character doesn’t deserve to die, its Sansa fucking Stark. A storyline you like: Jaime. While the show hasn’t done it perfectly, Jaime’s redemption arc has always been a favorite of mine in the books. I went from being full-on disgusted and hating this man to rooting for him. I can’t wait till he kills Cersei. A storyline you don’t like: Since this game is about the show, I have to say Sansa’s whole arc in the North, marrying Ramsay and getting raped for Theon’s development. Seriously, fuck the hell outta that bs. All the plots they cut from the book but that’s the one they kept? I also hate that they killed off Rickon. Fuck that noise, too. Also: the entirety of Dorne. The show fucked up Dorne and all Dornish characters big time. A pairing you hope to see more of: Jamienne, OTP for life! Definitely more Jonsa bonding, too. I love that so much. Something you would like to happen: Besides Daenerys’ turn to Mad Queen villain? I really would love to see a happy Sansa/Arya reunion. The reunion between Jon and Sansa, admittedly, did make me tear up so seeing the bickering sisters reunite again, after they’ve both changed so much, would probably have me be a sobbing mess.