Kyle (brainoverbrawn) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-04-15 18:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alex manes, kyle valenti |
Who: Kyle Valenti & Alex Manes
What: The morning after the night before
When: After this
Where: Valenti/Manes household
Rating/Warnings: PG
Status: Complete
Kyle was a light sleeper. So much so that when the rumble of an engine and the flicker of lights from his driveway happened at gone about three in the morning he'd stirred, in time to watch Alex head off God only knew where and he would have gone back to sleep but then his dad called. The rest as they said was history. That did mean he was wide awake and raring to go at five at which point he along with Biscuit had hit up the streets and back roads of Los Angeles as he tried to run off his mood and hey it was good to stay in shape. Also no risk of running into Max given the time and definitely no chance of injury.
He spent a hour or more just relentlessly pounding the shit out of concrete, asphalt, sand, grass and whatever else he crossed paths with until eventually he took pity on Biscuit who literally looked like she could collapse into a heap and never move again for the entire day. It was gone eight by the time Kyle and Biscuit returned and as Biscuit ran off in the pursuit of water Kyle happily and readily stripped out of his sweat soaked t-shirt, tossing it in the nearby washing basket before heading into the kitchen.
Apparently he'd forgotten he no longer lived alone and the risk of running into somebody in the kitchen all half naked and sweaty was much greater than it had been before and that's exactly what happened.
"Shit, Alex, sorry," he muttered. "I totally- I mean, hell, well it's not like it isn't anything you haven't seen before."
Alex nearly dropped the cup his coffee was in when Kyle's half-naked, sweat-shiny form appeared in the kitchen followed by the skittering of Biscuit's feet as she realised that he was there and bounded over to say hello to him. He cleared his throat, eyes dropping from where they'd taken more than a moment to roam over the expanse of tanned skin to the counter, where there were two paper bags containing bagels that he'd grabbed on the way back from Michael's place that morning.
Michael hadn't been happy that Alex was leaving but he hadn't really been intending on spending the night, he didn't want to have the conversation with Kyle right now that would lead to some sarcastic comment about Alex's love life that he wasn't quite comfortable enough to take well.
He cleared his throat and shook his head, lifting his eyes again with a smirk and an upward quirk of his eyebrow.
"If you wanted to put on a show, Valenti," he drawled, "you need a bit more glitter."
Kyle snorted at Alex's comment before he turned on the spot to basically work his hips in a way that was both obscene and bordering on sinful but admittedly hot though caught himself a moment later, a laugh escaping him. "I think I'll leave the dancing to actual strippers." He flashed his teeth at Alex in a grin and pushed his hand through his dark damp hair, strands being peeled back as he rummaged in the fridge for orange juice.
"Everything okay? I uh, heard you leaving early this morning."
He popped the lid of the orange juice and filled up a glass before he leaned back against the nearby counter, downing it in one fell swoop.
Alex laughed, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back against the nearby counter, eyebrows lifted as he watched Kyle rolling his hips. "I don't know, if medicine doesn't work out for you as a career I'd throw dollar bills at you in a seedy club," he teased, chuckling and moving out of the way as Kyle approached the fridge.
"There's a coffee on the counter for you and I grabbed you a bagel."
He wet his lower lip and sipped at his own coffee, taking a seat on a nearby stool and resting his elbows on the countertop, coffee hanging loosely between his fingers.
"Did I wake you?" he asked, looking apologetic.
"Always have a back up plan," Kyle said sagely. "At least that's what my mom always used to say." He perked up at the mention of coffee and a bagel. "Mmm, breakfast. I like it." He helped himself to his coffee and the bagel, taking a bite out of it and chewing slowly.
He waved his hand. "Nah, I sleep light as it is and I would have gone back to sleep if not for my dad giving me a call to chat." He tipped his head. "So, is everything okay?"
Alex's eyebrow lifted. "Your dad called you at 3am to chat?" he asked, at least admitting that he'd left the house ridiculously early. Because he had, he'd gone to check on a friend. Or something more. He wasn't sure how to categorise himself and Michael right now. "He okay?"
Did Alex realise he wasn't answering Kyle's question? And that Kyle wasn't about to let it go? He did what he always did whenever the topic of his dad came up, he plastered on his best 'devil may care' expression and just nodded. "Mmm, he just couldn't sleep. No big."
Alex had enough on his own plate without worrying about Kyle's issues.
"So, you ever going to answer my question?"
Alex's eyebrow lifted. "Couldn't sleep?" he challenged, "Just invite him over and you can talk to him about the importance of physiotherapy, we'd both get a decent nap out of it."
He shrugged, "I- needed to go see a friend."
"Hey, low blow," Kyle shot back at Alex as he tossed a nearby dishcloth at him and unsurprisingly managed to hit him. Ex-athlete after all. "Just because you don't see the benefits of it does not mean it isn't important, especially to your recuperation."
He tipped his head. "Michael Guerin, by chance?"
Alex snorted and caught the dishcloth, balling it up and throwing it back with a surprising level of accuracy. Air force training had done more than a few things for him, after all. "Low but true," he teased, deciding to let the matter of Jim Valenti drop for now.
He coughed into the coffee he was sipping when Kyle dropped Michael's name casually, though there was a calculating curiosity behind the hazel gaze that made Alex feel a little stripped bare.
"Uh- yeah, in fact."
Kyle chuckled as he caught the dishcloth and then placed it to one side as he broke off another piece of bagel and put that into his mouth, chewing as his eyes watched Alex very closely for his reaction to the use of Michael's name.
And there it was, the coughing and the awkward shifting. Curious.
"Mm, figured." He sipped at his coffee. "He okay?"
"Yeah, he's fine," Alex replied, clearing his throat and putting his coffee down to thump at his chest. "Long story." And not really his to tell. "But he needed a friend so- y'know, I went."
"Mmhm," Kyle hummed as he stepped away from the counter to rummage out Biscuit's food so he could give her breakfast. "I mean I didn't think Liz would be calling you at that time of the morning and given how you and Michael have been seeing a lot of each other lately I figured the next logical leap would be him."
He rested the bowl down and Biscuit was there immediately, scoffing her food down.
"Liz coulda been calling me," Alex pointed out a little defensively before he folded his arms across his chest, brows furrowed a little and feeling that old sense of prickliness unfurling a little. "And wait- how do you know Guerin and I have been seeing each other?"
Kyle looked over at Alex with raised brows as if to say 'really?' because there was no reason to be getting all defensive. "Relax, Alex. What you do in your free time is entirely your business." And it was, Kyle definitely wasn't judging. He was a little hurt though that Alex had been back in LA and seeing Michael but it took an accidental meeting at the VA clinic for him to reconnect with his best friend.
"Michael told me," he said with a shrug as he wandered over to fish a wife beater out of the clean washing. "We went out for a couple beers, he'd mentioned you two had been talking."
The eyebrows were all Alex needed to loosen his shoulders, forcing his body to relax. The reminder that here was safe still hadn't filtered into his head. He'd spent the last couple of weeks at his father's place with the echoes of all of that hanging over his head and before then the Air Force and it was just a lot to process that he didn't have to compartmentalise himself anymore.
He rubbed his hand over his face and blew out a breath. "He did?"
"Yeah, yeah he did," Kyle said as he pulled on the dark wifebeater and tugged it down so he was no longer wandering around half naked. "He mentioned how you'd said to him that we'd run into each other at the VA clinic."
He returned to his bagel and finished it off but not before he'd given Biscuit a small bit of it.
Alex felt only a small pang of disappointment that Kyle was clothed now but any flirtation was gone following Alex’s knee-jerk reaction to Kyle making a comment about him and Michael. He rubbed the side of his head and shrugged a little.
“Yeah, I ran into him in a bar. Not too long after I got back.”
Kyle slid onto a nearby stool and braced himself against the breakfast bar and sipped at his coffee. "Yeah? LA really is a small place considering I collided with Max on a run not too long ago." And when he said collided he literally meant that, he had the scrapes to show for it.
"I did wonder what you'd done," Alex teased, reaching out and touching Kyle's forearm. "Didn't want to ask in case it was some kind of... hetero sex thing." He grinned a little. "Max, huh? Wow, talk about a small place. I really thought we'd all just... go somewhere else, you know? Like when I got back everything would just be irrevocably changed."
"Hah," Kyle barked out sharply before he rolled his eyes at Alex. "You need to be having sex for it to be a hetero sex thing." He snorted softly and shook his head, a further sip being taken of his coffee. "And apparently not. We all seem to have the same idea about coming home. Not always a bad thing though, right? To be somewhere familiar and with people you know."
Of course some things had changed but nothing too major.
Alex nodded, though he looked a little less convinced than maybe he should have done under the circumstances. "Yeah, I'll feel better once I'm settled in properly, I think. Just..." he waved his hand, "in general."
As if Biscuit could sense Alex's trepidation she nuzzled against his leg and promptly rested her chin on his thigh.
"I think Biscuit is happy to have you here so that's something, right?"
Alex laughed, "Yeah," he scratched behind her ears and she stole a lick, swiping her tongue along the inside of his wrist, "And I'm happy to have her around too. She's good company."
He glanced up at Kyle and offered his long time friend a small smile, "I- uh- sorry about earlier, by the way," he said finally, referring to the defensiveness that prickled out of him more quickly than he could control.
"Don't worry about it," Kyle offered easily and readily. "I get it. I mean, I don't but I do-" He breathed out a laugh and cleared his throat. "Let me try that again. I just want you to know that whatever or whoever you're into it's cool by me, alright? Only thing I give a shit about is your happiness, yeah?"
Love was love as far as Kyle was concerned.
Alex laughed softly. "Yeah, I get it. Thanks. It's just-" he wet his lower lip, brows furrowing briefly before he thought better of whatever it was he was going to say. "Need to just keep reminding myself that I'm surrounded by people who don't give a shit so it's okay."
Kyle sipped at his coffee. "Not easy though, right? I mean you spent the last ten years n the army where it wasn't exactly the most understanding of environments. Like they say at the VA clinic you think coming home will fix everything but actually you find that adjusting back to civilian life is far more difficult than you anticipated."
Alex's eyes cut up to Kyle, that guard slightly raised until the other guy kept talking and he forced himself to relax again as he nodded. "Yeah, well, DADA wasn't repealed until two years into my first enlistment. Even then, people are assholes." He smiled and rubbed behind Biscuit's ears, realising he hadn't even started his own bagel. Well, he could get it later. It wasn't going anywhere. "I- adjustment's harder than I thought it'd be."
"DADA, such bullshit," Kyle muttered with a shake of his head. "Like it even matters. You're all out there fighting the same war, spilling the same blood, and being separated from everything and everyone you love." He snorted derisively. "And yes, people are assholes."
He glanced over at Alex. "And that's okay, you just need to cut yourself some slack."
"Well, it was bullshit I had to live under," Alex muttered, a little perplexed - visibly - at the fact that they were not only talking about this but that he was talking about it. "You know, even after it was repealed things didn't magically get better overnight. It- really nothing changed for years."
Kyle sighed at that admission. It didn't surprise him but it was still disappointing. Seriously, he would never ever understand why so many people had an issue about who people loved and what they did or didn't do behind closed doors.
"Everybody says that change is this thing that happens really quickly but that's a lie. Change takes time, mostly because change only happens if people are willing to grow and learn. If they're not? Then change will never happen."
Alex's shoulders lifted again. "It was actually easier just to stay in the closet?" he confessed. "Well, easier to go back into the closet. My unit knew, or they had their suspicions and after the first time I got their asses back alive anyone who did care or thought it impacted on my ability to do my job quickly didn't."
“Makes sense,” Kyle said with a nod of his head. “You do what you have to in order to survive. “ He reached out to help himself to apple before he took a generous bite, chewing it slowly as he regarded Alex. “It’s such shit that it took that for them to brush off their concerns.”
Kyle offered a smile. “Just don’t forget that you’re home now and whoever you want to be with is your choice and nobody else’s opinion matters.”
Alex’s lips curled up a little. “Yeah,” he rubbed the back of his head and then folded his arms on the counter. “I know. Old habits.” The words were apologetic in tone, he hadn’t meant to be defensive or come across as shutting Kyle out. It was just a habit.
“What time are you heading out?”
“You’re lucky I like you,” Kyle shot back with an affectionate smirk as he leaned over to give his friend’s shoulder a friendly shove.
He took a further bite from his apple. “Probably after I’ve had a shower because as you’ve noticed I am sweaty and gross.”
Alex's eyebrows lifted. "Are you?" he asked, voice thick with sarcasm. "I hadn't noticed."
If there was one thing Kyle Valenti had in spades it was an expressive face and even more expressive eyebrows so when Alex got his sarcastic on he was immediately in trouble if the look on Kyle’s face was any indication.
“I think somebody needs a hug.” Apple abandoned and now on his feet he approached Alex with rapid speed at which point he wrapped his very warm self around the other man and just hugged.
And yes he was hot, sweaty, gross but upside? He didn’t smell bad.
Alex knew a split second before Kyle moved what was about to happen from the mischief that spread across his best friend's face. He wasn't quick enough to move, though, and the peal of laughter that escaped him when Kyle's arms came around him and Alex was ensconsed in a sweaty, overly warm embrace belied the complaints and shoving that followed immediately afterwards.
Biscuit, having no idea what was going on, just barked and wagged her tail, feet tapping excitedly on the spot just so that she could be taking part.
Kyle laughed as Alex did and went so far as to try and shove him off before finally he relented and dropped an affectionate kiss on Alex’s temple as he finally released his friend from his embrace.
“See, hugs make everything better.”
And he had most throughly hugged Alex to the point where he basically smelt like Kyle’s cologne.
Alex squeezed Kyle's arm forearm before patting it as Kyle moved away, having forced himself to relax. At least he'd seen the hug coming and hadn't been taken by surprise, which just meant one less thing to have to talk about.
"No," he corrected, "hugs mean that now both of us need a shower," he teased with a grin.
“Shocking,” Kyle returned with a drawl as he plucked up his apple and took another large bite out of it, giving Alex a wink. “But totally worth it you gotta admit that.”
Alex snorted, "Jury's out on that one," he retorted, that playful grin not disappearing from his face, "but I've had worse hugs in my life."
Kyle clasped at his chest over dramatically as if he’d been physically wounded by Alex’s retort and even went one step further by groaning.
“Wounded, Alex. Legitimately wounded.”
"You'll get over it, Valenti," Alex threw, not giving even the tiniest bit of a shit over Kyle's melodramatics, instead just going back to nonchalantly sipping at his coffee.
“That’s cold,” Kyle said with a disparaging shake of his head before glancing at Biscuit. “Isn’t that cold, girl?”
Biscuit just happy to be involved promptly flopped over onto her back and stuck her feet up in the air.
“See, even the dog thinks that was cold, Manes.”
“The dog has no idea what just happened, don’t bring her into this.” Alex replied around another sip of coffee, his eyebrows lifted. “You’re being dramatic and you need to go take a shower.”
“Don’t you diminish Biscuit’s role in this,” Kyle remarked oh so seriously. “She’s a part of this home and what happens between us affects her and right now she’s devastated.” He turned to look at Biscuit. “Devastated aren’t you?”
Biscuit huffed and from her strange position on the ground she wagged her tail which made her look like an awfully hairy oversized worm.
Kyle swanned past Alex, even going so far as to steal a sip of his coffee before with a further grin he started to back up while removing his wife beater that he rather promptly tossed at Alex’s head.
“Gonna grab a shower now.”
“Yeah,” Alex said, peeling the shirt off from where it had landed on his head. “You do that, and I’ll just work on making sure I get Biscuit in the divorce.”
He chuckled, not perturbed by the fact Kyle had stolen his coffee or that he had just had a shirt thrown at his head. After all, this was Kyle and everything about him was just... easy.
Kyle gave a short bark of laughter in response to Alex’s divorce remark and turned on his heel to head up the nearby stairs.
“Believe that when I see it.”
And a minute later he was gone, up the stairs and into the bathroom.