But that still posed a problem for Alex. He wasn't sure where to begin. Where do you begin to unravel an almost seven year relationship with someone that you shouldn't even be with according to the rest of society, though his genetics alone seemed to have marked him out for not being part of normal society.
She was right though, it was hard on him. Trying to pick apart a good place to begin to explain.
Let me show you, I trust you. He did, this wasn't the younger girl he'd known before, this was a very capable woman who like him had learned control.
He'd always felt a little awkward when Charles had been in his head like that, but he supposed that was usually to call them down to dinner and the reason the weren't downstairs was because he and Sean were sneaking about. He was sure Charles knew, but never said anything. Hank usually just sighed at him the way he always did when Alex was late for anything and he just assumed they were up to their usual tricks. Which was one of two things, breaking something or up to things that Hank wouldn't talk about. Or maybe couldn't talk about easily without stuttering or going red.
Alex could just look at Sean and feel something he'd not before when they'd first met. Something he'd been expecting years previously but he'd never. Not with the girls who as soon as he'd started to finally grow into his body had taken notice of him. He'd briefly been on the football team before that all came crashing down. Of course the cheerleaders noticed him. But he didn't really care. Flirting with them was just what was expected of him then. So he had.
Flirting with Sean was different. It had been from the moment it started.
They were both so inexperienced. It was laughable if anyone had actually been paying any real attention to them. But it was mostly them being teenagers while trying to process the reality of being dragged into what was essentially a war but wasn't really a war at all. They were trying to stop world war iii while still trying to figure out their own places. At least that was the case for Alex and Sean. They seemed like the two who didn't fit in with the others who had better control.
Alex still set things on fire with reckless abandon. He didn't want to admit to how he was feeling. There was the all too familiar scream of the fire alarm and the woosh of the sprinkler system kicking in.
Then there was a moment of Alex leaning out of a window with Sean sat on the one over with Charles next to him before he jumped out. Alex behaved exactly like Alex would in public. He laughed as Sean failed and took a dive out the window into the bushes below. Where they’d set up a soft landing for him just in case. Alex had just pointed out to Charles that it wouldn’t be good if anything happened and they would be one down for their showdown. Charles had said Alex was a good friend. Alex didn’t want to see Sean get hurt.
Alex had been the one to bandage Sean’s cuts and make sure he had ice for the inevitable bruises that came from falling out the window. He took a lot of care with this task as Sean happily chatted on, missing out on Alex’s pauses to gaze up at the ginger with an expression that could only be partly described as adoring. Alex was anger and abandonment issues but all that just melted away around Sean.
A little later Alex was sitting on his bed, they were still awkward and were still sleeping separately, even if there had been a few messy private make out sessions and fooling around when they got a chance. Not that there had been much chance…