#noex

Noah is surprised with himself that he isn’t as nervous about this as he had expected. He isn’t sure if it’s because he’s not the one initiating or if it’s because it’s Rex. Probably both. But Rex had called and asked to shoot hoops at the usual spot and maybe talk some stuff out so Noah of course said yes. Any excuse to completely demolish Rex at basketball is reason enough to meet. Though, Rex did sound a bit nervous over the phone so maybe Noah should have expected the “talk about some stuff” part to be heavier in nature.

Rex arrives around the time he said he would with a smile on his face but Noah immediately notices that he’s picking at the seams of his gloves. He’s restless. Not the bored restlessness that Noah is accustomed to with leg bouncing and over-exaggerated gestures but a more anxious restlessness. Despite it not being his job anymore, Noah can’t really help but pin Rex’s behavior as something to smooth over. He’s not contractually obligated to distract and placate Rex’s “rebellious outbursts” anymore but as his friend, he hates seeing him upset. Noah raises a brow at Rex’s behavior and figures he’d broach the topic first.

“We can skip the hoops and just chat now if you want?” Noah asks, putting the metaphorical ball in Rex’s metaphorical court. Rex’s smile drops and he blinks like he wasn’t expecting Noah to offer before smiling again, though a little sheepishly. Noah immediately clocks it as Rex’s “I’m feeling guilty for burdening you with my problems” look so Noah puts his hand on Rex’s shoulder to reassure him. It’s still surprisingly easy to comfort Rex with gentle touches and general compassion but Noah blames it on Providence isolating him so severely that most human contact is a relief. Noah leads Rex over to the bench where they sit down, the basketball tucked underneath for later, and Rex is immediately bouncing his leg and messing with his gloves again. “Are you okay? You’re not breaking up with me, are you?” Noah jokes with a laugh.

“No!” Rex cries out in alarm at such a volume it makes Noah flinch back. Rex then reels back himself like he didn’t expect to have that loud of an outburst. “Sorry, no, but it is about boyfriend stuff,” Rex amends, speaking at his usual volume. He closes his eyes, takes a breath, and opens his eyes again. Noah patiently lets him gather his thoughts but he keeps his gaze on Rex’s face to show he’s ready to listen whenever Rex begins.

“Sooo, y’know how I told you it was okay that you didn’t have to break up with Claire if you wanted to say yes to dating me?” Rex begins, steepling his hands.

“Yeah, I thought it was a little weird but it made it easier for me to talk to Claire about it,” Noah acknowledges. “She totally got it though and is still fine with it, by the way.” He nods for Rex to continue.

“Well, I haven’t been entirely honest with you,” Rex says, moving one of his hands to his lap and the other to rub the back of his neck. Before Noah can ask, Rex keeps talking. “I kinda have a second, secret long distance boyfriend that I’ve been talking to.” He closes his eyes and braces himself behind the arm that’s already up. It doesn’t really sit right with Noah that he’s reacting like Noah will strike him. Rex knows that Noah is far from physically confrontational. Noah is a coward for the most part. He tries not to dwell on it since this likely has nothing to do with him at all. The way Rex reacts to most things has been many a discussion between him and Claire. Noah keeps calm and keeps his expression neutral but he doesn’t keep quiet.

“How long have you been talking to this person? And how long distance are we talking about?” Noah asks casually. Rex opens his eyes and uncurls from himself now that he’s sure Noah won’t lash out. He lowers his hand to join the other on his lap and looks at them with a soft smile on his face.

“Almost a year now. And uh...long distance as in another universe,” Rex replies, facing Noah with a nervous grin.

“Another universe?” Noah parrots incredulously. Rex nods.

“Yeah. He’s a guy that kinda helped out during a nanite catastrophe that started because another one of my brother’s sentient AI decided to wipe humanity from the planet. Turns out César had sent his AI to Ben’s universe and in coming back here, unintentionally dragged Ben with him,” Rex explains. “His name is Ben Tennyson, and he’s his universe’s hero. He has a crazy watch that lets him turn into aliens. Before he went back to his universe, we exchanged numbers and I guess his friend Kevin worked on his phone so he can send inter-dimensional texts.”

Noah’s mind is already spinning because this sounds like something straight out of a science fiction television show. Aliens were real in another universe? And this presumably human guy can turn into them? Noah runs his hand through his hair. “That’s...a lot to take in. The aliens and alternate dimensions stuff, not the fact you have a long distance boyfriend,” Noah admits. “I’m cool with that by the way. Now it makes sense why you said it was okay that I was still dating Claire,” Noah assures with a smile. Rex returns the smile and straightens his posture.

“Awesome! Yeah, Ben’s love life is crazy complicated so you dating Claire too is easy,” Rex explains.

“Whoa whoa whoa, back up a sec. How many people is he seeing?” Noah asks, eyes wide. Rex looks up and away from Noah and puts a hand on his chin as ponders this.

“Technically he’s currently dating a girl named Kai but he also has a long distance alien boyfriend he calls Reiny. Oh, and he has his work partner but also life partner Rook,” Rex lists off with his fingers before turning his attention back to Noah.

“Is he only dating guys whose names start with R?” Noah asks absently. Rex blinks and he snickers.

“Y’know what, I never thought about that,” Rex laughs. “Guess he is! I’m gonna ask him that later.”

“Don’t you feel jealous? But also, isn’t that kind of greedy to be dating that many people?” Noah asks, his brows furrowing. Now he’s kinda glad that Rex started dating him too. It seems like this Ben guy has his attention split in so many directions that Rex might not even get any of it.

“I don’t really get jealous. I get sad sometimes that I’m so far away and he’s with Rook all the time but I’ve talked to Reiny about it,” Rex shrugs. “He got so mad when I called him Reiny the first time but I can’t begin to remember his actual name so I get why Ben calls him Reiny.”

“You’ve talked to Ben’s other long distance boyfriend?” Noah gawks.

“Yeah, he’s kinda hard to understand. That and he doesn’t quite get human emotions and culture yet,” Rex replies with another shrug. “We bonded over that but at least I live with humans all the time. He just has others of his kind around him.” Right, long distance alien boyfriend.

Noah can’t help a sour expression settling itself on his face. It took Rex’s help to start dating Claire and now he has to hear about Rex’s other boyfriend’s partners. With so many, it sounds like he makes dating easy. Like Noah’s personal struggles are diminished because he’s not Ben. Rex’s brows are furrowed now and he looks worried.

“Noah? What’s wrong?” Rex asks cautiously.

“I don’t know what you see in me if you’re with a guy who has so many partners,” Noah admits as he averts his eyes. From his peripheral vision, Rex looks taken aback. He leans forward and takes Noah’s hands in his. Noah turns his gaze to Rex’s.

“Noah, you’re the one who taught me how to be human. You’re the one who showed me what love looks like. You explained to me that what I was feeling for you was love,” Rex explains. It’s probably the most heartfelt and sincere Rex has sounded since he asked to be Noah’s boyfriend. Noah feels slightly comforted by that but something wretched and dark bubbles in his chest that he can’t hold in any longer. He pulls his hands out of Rex’s and folds his arms, bodily turning away from Rex’s doe eyes.

“I was only around because White hired me. You wouldn’t have fallen in love with me if I wasn’t hired to babysit you,” Noah spits. “It feels like you were forced to fall in love with me. Like I gave you Stockholm Syndrome or something.” He hears the bench squeak and a rustle of fabric so he assumes Rex flinched back. Rex gives a small little gasp and emotionally it feels like Noah may as well have struck him. He almost wants to take back what he said. He knows he’s lashing out at Rex for his own feelings of inadequacy but he can’t help it.

“Oh, well, now that you say it like that…” Rex says weakly. “What does it say about me that I fall in love with anyone who treats me like I’m human?” Rex laments with a wet laugh. Noah’s eyes widen and he turns to face Rex. He’s staring at his own hands, aglow with the blue circuitry that is associated with nanite communication. His brown eyes are shiny with unshed tears and his throat keeps clenching like he’s physically swallowing back his emotions. When Rex puts it like that, Noah feels bad for yelling. Because how many people actually treat Rex like a human teenager and not an EVO? He can count the number of people on his hands that don’t act like Rex is a monster or a freak like the EVOs he fights. Noah unfolds his arms and exhales quietly. He knows he’s being unfair to Rex and that he’s just jealous of his long-distance boyfriend for making relationship stuff sound easy. He takes Rex’s hands hand in his, mirroring Rex’s gesture from earlier.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” Noah starts. He sighs. “I’m just jealous of your other boyfriend. He makes all of this sound so easy,” Noah finishes as he brings Rex’s hands up to his lips so he can kiss his knuckles. Rex laughs to himself but it sounds half-hearted. There’s still hurt in his warm, brown eyes but he keeps his gaze locked onto Noah. He squeezes Noah’s hands reassuringly.

“Oh, Ben has had his fair share of exes,” Rex points out. “He and Kai have been on-and-off for a long time too. He’s mentioned something about time continuity so he and Kai have to get married or else events in the present won’t happen.” Noah’s eyes widen.

“That sounds like an arranged marriage basically,” Noah balks. Hopefully Ben’s time-continuity-wife is okay with all of Ben’s boyfriends though Noah supposes she kinda has to be, unfortunately. Noah idly wonders if Kai also has girlfriends she’s seeing.

“I generally don’t talk with him too much about it unless he wants to,” Rex replies with a shrug. “Well, I mostly listen since I’ve only met Kai a few times. She’s really hot and I’ve joked with Ben that I would start dating her if they broke up,” Rex says with a chuckle. “Kai reminds me a lot of Circe in the ‘I can and will kick your ass’ way y’know?” Rex wiggles one of his hands out from Noah’s so he can flippantly wave his hand to get his point across. Noah relaxes slightly since Rex is acting more like himself now.

“Sheesh, she sounds intense,” Noah shudders. Rex laughs.

“I can tell Ben has a hard time with their relationship. It’s funny; with me, Rook, and Reiny, he has no trouble at all,” Rex remarks. Noah stares at Rex, now somewhat invested in Ben’s love life. How is it that he cannot for the life of him date women but has so many boyfriends? Unless he’s gay and Kai is his beard. Man, that’d be a bummer since they have to get married. Noah pushes his speculations aside because there’s something bugging him about one of Ben’s in-universe boyfriends.

“Um, Rex? This might be an insensitive question but is Rook human or-?” Noah lets his question hang as he grins nervously. It probably looks closer to a grimace but Rex doesn’t seem to care.

“Rook’s an alien. He looks like a tall, blue gray cat man without a tail,” Rex describes without any sort of offense.

“Huh,” is all Noah can really say. “And Ben’s exes...?”

“All human and all girls,” Rex replies succinctly and knowingly. Noah doesn’t want to say his train of thought out loud but it seems like Rex has already come to this conclusion himself. It’s funny how Ben, a human, is able to form such close relationships with nonhumans of the same gender. Yet he’s struggles with human women. Noah doesn’t feel as bad about himself now since he’s still close with Claire and has a nonhuman boyfriend now. Compared to Ben, Noah doesn’t have any exes and he’s able to bond with humans and nonhumans!

Noah smiles to himself and wraps his arm around Rex’s shoulder. The motion catches Rex off-guard but he melts into the touch. Rex usually initiates physical contact so Noah knows how much the gesture means to him. It’s almost laughable how just a few minutes ago, Noah despised Ben for having so many partners but now, Noah feels very smug to have Rex for himself most of the time. He’s going to be such a good boyfriend to Rex and give him all of the affection he’s clearly starved of. Noah doesn’t care that he’s being competitive with a guy he’s never seen. It’s his competitive nature that brought him to Rex demanding he help him win at table tennis against EVOs. Hopefully this Ben guy isn’t also competitive. Or maybe it’d be a good thing? Then Rex would get plenty of attention from both Noah and Ben.

“Thank you for telling me about your secret long-distance boyfriend, Rex and I’m sorry for yelling at you,” Noah says after he gives Rex a soft kiss on his cheek. Rex is positively beaming now and he knocks the side of his head against Noah’s.

“Thank you for being okay with it and I forgive you,” Rex replies as he kisses the back of Noah’s hand, repeating Noah’s move from earlier. The two of them sit in each other’s silence for a few minutes listening to the ambient noise of sneakers squeaking on the concrete and the hum from the vending machines. It reminds Noah of one of the reasons Rex wanted to meet up.

“Sooo, are we still on for some hoops?” Noah asks cheekily. Rex groans and leans more heavily against Noah with a huff.

“Can you not right now?” Rex whines. “I don’t want my mood ruined twice!” Noah laughs at his expense.

“I already apologized for the first time!” Noah points out. “I’ll even go easy on you in HORSE!” He laughs even harder when Rex lightly shoves Noah away from him and stands up grumbling the whole time.

“I don’t need you to go easy on me, I can get to S this time!” Rex retorts, jabbing his finger at Noah’s direction. “Just watch me! You’re not even going to need to chase after the ball afterward!” Noah rolls his eyes, shaking his head.

“Whatever you say, pumpkin,” Noah quips. Rex goes from blushing to offended in a matter of seconds before he grimaces.

“Eugh, you need to work on your boyfriend names for me,” Rex gags. “Do you call Claire that? I hope you don’t for her sake.” Noah snorts as he reaches underneath the bench and tosses Rex the basketball.