Alex didn't care that people were actually noticing them sitting as they were. He did wonder, very briefly if they just thought they were a couple in love. People, he continued his thought, could think what they wanted. He didn't care, for the first time in years he was allowed to share the bright and beautiful memories he had of the person who he had wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He finally had someone who he could share them with that wasn’t there are the time. That he could relive them with and see her reactions.
After Cuba life shifted in a way that they weren't expecting. Charles was learning how to deal with his new circumstances. Hank stuck mostly in his lab. Which Alex was just fine about. Although it did mean that Alex's memories of him then were brief but he was still blue and fuzzy. He appeared mostly at their meal times when they were almost forced into gathering together.
Charles was usually head of the table and Alex and Sean sat together with Hank opposite. Kicking each other under the table sometimes until they accidentally caught Hank which stopped their game.
Alex's cooking improved as did Sean's. Gradually Hank stopped coming to dinners and one day Alex and Sean started eating alone, leaving food for the other two. That happened for a week or so that Sean and Alex had the dining room all to themselves. They were free to pretend that this was their normality. They owned the house. It was a fun game for them. They always seemed one step away from riding bikes around the halls or an attempt at reenactment jousting tournaments using brooms and mops as weapons.
There was the day they were exploring one of the outbuildings on the estate. They’d poked around Charles’ collection of cars and had a few fun joy rides along the way. Alex driving and Sean in the passenger seat. Little trips out to places that more than once ended with them climbing into the backseat. But that day they’d forsaken the idea of taking another car for a spin to poke around one they’d not really been in before that was closer to the treeline. Alex wondered if it had been a groundskeeper’s once.
“Sean?” Alex had lost track of where his companion had gone, but the familiar laugh led him through the detritus to where he was.
“Do you think it still works?”
Sean had clearly found something, it took a moment for Alex to catch up with what he was seeing.
“How bad do you think the lecture will be if we find out?” Alex grinned as Sean pulled the sheeting back fully to reveal a clay pigeon launcher.
“Oh worth it!” Sean beamed as he threw aside the sheet and went hunting for more of the discs for targets. “But for you this could be useful. Help with your…” Sean paused and there was a noise as he reappeared with his arms full of clay discs to load into the trap. “Control and aim. You’ve nearly wiped out the population of those mannequins. And we need something else to destroy.”
“Move your ass out of the way.” Alex looked for a way to move the trap outside. Sean had a point and they could at least take it outside and claim to be getting fresh air at the same time… “Move…” He said with a grin as Sean made a point of getting in the way. Alex advanced on Sean and there was a crash as some of the clay targets ended up falling as Alex started a tickling assault on Sean before kissing him. “I. Warned. You.” He said between kisses, then picked him up and dragged him bodily out of the way. Sean still clinging on to one last clay disc as he laughed.