FIC: Roswell New Mexico - Moving Forward - 21/?
Summary: Alex gets to work on dismantling his father’s legacy. He has help because Caulfield was only the beginning.
TITLE: Moving Forward
RATING: R (for language)
CHARACTERS: Alex Manes, Jenna Cameron, Kyle Valenti, Michael Guerin, Max Evans, Isobel Evans-Bracken, Liz Ortecho, Maria DeLuca
PAIRING: Rath/Zan, Liz/Max, Alex/Michael, (past Michael/Maria, past Isobel/Noah)
AUTHOR: Melanie
Summary: Alex gets to work on dismantling his father’s legacy. He has help because Caulfield was only the beginning.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
FEEDBACK: Please?
Moving Forward 21/?
She curls up in a bed that smells like Zan and Rath and breathes. Zan is beside her, hand resting lightly on her hip and he’s relaxed but she can tell that much like her he’s watching the door.
Waiting, like she is, for Rath to come. She knows he’s not going to sleep until Rath is there, which means she’s not going to sleep until Rath is there.
“You should go get him,” Vilandra suggests and Zan huffs a sigh and presses a kiss to her shoulder before the bed shifts and he climbs out. He’s muttering under his breath and she can’t understand what he’s saying but she’s sure she knows the context.
She pulls warm blankets up tight under her chin and waits. It’s just minutes before Zan comes back through the door, fingers linked around Rath’s, tugging him along behind him, shutting the door on the way.
Rath is rolling his eyes at Zan’s back as he climbs back in beside her and Vilandra waits for Rath to sit on the edge of the bed nearest her.
“I would have come up when we were done,” Rath says defensively and Vilandra doesn’t roll her eyes because she’s sure that Zan is doing it for both of them.
“And when would that have been?” she asks, she reaches out a hand to poke at his leg. He watches her, then runs a hand over her head, leans down to kiss her forehead. “I’m sorry I’m not her,” she whispers.
“Vilandra…” Zan starts.
“He ruined it all,” she doesn’t need to specify who in this case, she thinks they all know. “If you couldn’t bond with me then Mara and I should have had the chance and he,” she curves her hand into a fist and breathes. “It’s not fair.”
Rath stands and she thinks he’s going to leave the room, instead he toes off his shoes, removes his pants and then pulls back the covers so he can climb in next to her. He lays on his side facing her, still an awkward distance between them.
When she’d been a teenager, after Rath and Zan had bonded, she’d had dreams of what it would be like to share a bed with the two of them in the, what she thought was their inevitable, future.
There was much less clothing, much less space between them all, in those dreams of long ago. Though he does finally touch her, moving just a hairs breadth closer so he can press his lips to her forehead, laying an arm across her so he can link his fingers with Zan’s.
She closes her eyes and can feel Zan against her back, feel Rath’s arm against her skin.
She prays for no dreams, no nightmares.
Just sleep.
********************************
“This isn’t very romantic for a first meal back,” Liz says as she eyes the sandwich and chips on a plate, the bottle of water that Michael is gathering. Cameron has her arms crossed and her head down on the table and she looks like she’s asleep.
Michael isn’t sure where they’re going to sleep, he’s got first claim on his room that he sometimes shares with Max by the sheer fact that Alex is already in it.
“Alex is probably going to pass out as soon as he eats,” Michael says, if he’s lucky he might get a few minutes of making out before he does that, but Michael doesn’t really have high hopes in that regard. He thinks it’ll be enough that he can climb into a bed that Alex is in and hold him.
“He’s probably already passed out,” Cameron mumbles, she doesn’t even open her eyes so Michael can glare at her properly which is frustrating.
She’s right though, when he gets back to his room, opening the door quietly and managing to not drop anything, Alex is passed out in the middle of his bed.
He’s got on shorts and a t-shirt and Michael stops dead at the sight of his leg. It’s definitely not the prosthetic that Michael last saw when he had Alex in his bed.
He eyes it, it’s not like Alex to fall asleep before pulling the prosthetic off, but he can’t see any way for it to come off.
He sets the plate on the dresser, puts the bottle of water on the side closest to Alex then shifts and pulls on the blankets so he can get them out from under him and covering him instead.
“I’m awake,” Alex mutters.
“No you’re not,” Michael murmurs, he runs his hand down the side of Alex’s face and Alex’s eyes crack open to look at him.
They stare at each for a moment, then he starts undressing, belt and jeans dropping to the floor, tugs off his t-shirt and leaves the underwear on because he doesn’t want to presume that just because Alex is in his bed, voluntarily, that he has any desire for Michael to be naked in that bed with him right now.
Alex doesn’t say anything, just watches through barely open eyes, pink starting to tinge his cheeks. He’s absolutely the most beautiful thing Michael has laid eyes on in a while.
Alex rolls onto his side and Michael slides under the blankets, pulls until Alex is flush with him and he can wrap his arms around him. He presses his lips against the back of Alex’s neck and just lays there, breathing, Alex is relaxed and warm in his arms and Michael wants him closer.
Even though there is no real, physical way for them to be any closer.
He knows Alex can feel that he’s hard against him, it’s been way too long since he’s had sex with anything besides his hand. And it’s Alex, in his bed, finally, again.
Alex twists in his arms until they’re facing each other, he touches the side of his face and the look in his eyes isn’t anything that Michael has seen before. He drags his thumb over Michael’s lips and smiles at him, then leans forward to kiss him.
Michael slides a hand under his t-shirt, wanting to touch skin and Alex makes a noise that sounds like want and frustration all mixed together.
Michael knows he’s exhausted, but he also knows that it’s been over a year and a half since he’s had an opportunity to actually touch Alex… he wants to strip him naked and put the sound proofing of these military built houses to the test and open the new bottle of lube that’s been hidden in the night table between the bed’s since Alex said he didn’t want to break the bond.
But he also knows that Alex will very likely pass out from sheer exhaustion and he doesn’t know if his ego can take the hit of Alex falling asleep in the middle of sex.
So he strokes his hand down Alex’s back and keeps his kisses gentle as he rolls onto his back, Alex sprawls over him and breaks the kiss finally so he can lay his head on the pillow next to Michaels. Fingers drawing indecipherable patterns on his skin.
Michael can almost feel the second that Alex actually loses the fight against staying awake, one minute his fingers are moving and the next they’re lax against his stomach and his breaths are slow and even.
Michael lays his hand over Alex’s, closes his eyes. He can take a cat nap while Alex sleeps, then when he wakes up they can talk and have sex and maybe Alex will explain what the fuck is up with his leg.
********************************
It’s surreal waking up and not having to fumble around for crutches just to get to the bathroom, he can just swing both legs out of bed and he can feel the cool wood floor under his feet. He slides out from under Michael’s arm, Michael frowns in his sleep but doesn’t wake.
He leaves the door cracked when he goes into the bathroom, he washes his hand when he’s done and searches for a toothbrush to run over his teeth. He finds an opened package with one missing in a drawer and brushes his teeth, runs a damp wash cloth over his face.
He’s awake now but if he leaves the room then Michael will likely think he’s headed for the hills so instead he flushes the toilet, turns the light off and climbs back into the bed. Curling back up under the covers, Michael’s arm coming over him to pull him tight against him.
He kisses his chin, his cheek, runs fingers over stubbled skin before kissing his lips gently. He can feel Michael’s lips curve up into a smile against his as his hand slides down the back of his shirt.
“Good mornin’ to me,” he drawls as he bites at Alex’s lip and rolls onto his back taking Alex with him so he’s sprawled on top of him. He can feel him hard against his thigh and he reaches down to press a hand against him, curling it around the thickness as much as he can with his underwear still in the way.
“Not morning,” Alex murmurs as Michael chuckles against his lips.
“I can take those off,” Michael says, hips moving against Alex’s hand, even though Alex isn’t really doing anything more but holding him his hand. Familiarizing himself with the weight and girth and heat of him.
“In a minute,” Alex says as he leans back, Michael makes a noise and tries to hold him back with his hands until he realizes that Alex is trying to take his t-shirt off then he slides his hands up his side and helps him pull it off and toss it aside.
He shivers when he lies back down, chest to chest with Michael. Skin against skin.
When Michael pulls him into a kiss he sinks into it, and he’s not much help at all when Michael pushes his hands against the waist band of his shorts and starts pushing them down his hips. He kicks them away and gasps at the feel of Michael’s hand brushing against him as he negotiates getting his own underwear off.
“We need to talk,” he manages to gasp out when Michael gyrates against him.
He feels like a teenager again, except they at least managed to get lube and condoms out and have real sex when they were teenagers; this feels like making out they should have had in the back seat of a car, fully dressed, at a look out point… something they never did.
“Yep,” Michael manages, he cups Alex’s ass in his hands and pulls him in, presses fingers against his hole dry and Alex makes a likely embarrassing noise that he will deny to his dying day and comes. Michael just seconds behind him.
They lay there, in each other’s arms, Michael keeping one hand pressed against his ass, the other against the back of his neck. Alex curling one arm under his, the other on his hip.
They should move and clean up before it becomes an ordeal, but right now Alex just luxuriates in the feel of Michael’s skin against his, of his hands holding him steady and closes his eyes.
********************************
It’s still dark out when Zan’s eyes snap open, Rath is pressed up against him and Vilandra is no longer in the bed between them. He stills and turns his head to find Rath watching him.
“She got up about half an hour ago,” Rath says, “She said she needed something to drink, I offered to go with her and she told me to stay here with you.”
He sounds so bewildered by this fact, likely because all those years that Kivar was within her Vilandra spent a considerable amount of time trying to keep Rath and Zan apart. Zan leans forward to kiss him, Rath meeting him and cupping his face in his hands.
“Do you think she meant it?” Rath asks as he sits up.
Zan knows what he’s speaking of, the comment that Vilandra had made about bonding with Mara. And there’s a part of him that wishes that they could have gotten there, the four of them, together with their children. He thinks Mara would have had another child, a girl likely, to take up the mantle of Mara the Twelfth.
“I do,” Zan says as he walks around the side of the bed, he stands between Rath’s spread legs and twines his fingers into his hair.
They stay there like that for long minutes, and when they finally go down to the kitchen they find her sitting at the table with a cup in front of her and she looks tired and worn; fragile in ways that Zan doesn’t remember her ever being before.
He kisses the top of her head, and she manages a small smile at him.
Rath sits in the chair next to Vilandra as Zan pours them both cups of water from the canister that is kept in the refrigerator.
It’s quiet and when he turns Vilandra has her face turned into Rath’s shoulder, likely to hide her tears from him, Rath is touching the back of her head and whispering things he can’t hear.
He sets the cups on the table and moves the chair closer, laying his arm over the back of the chairs so he can touch Rath’s arm and press his lips to the back of Vilandra’s head.
Her breathing hitches slightly as she reaches blindly for his hand and he links their fingers together, laying them as one across Rath’s thigh. Rath kisses her forehead and when his eyes meet Zan’s there is a look that he’s not seen there before.
He prods at the bonds and there’s nothing in Rath’s that screams discomfort, and Vilandra’s is calm for once, he thinks he’ll need to spend time meditating with her to get it completely stable again. He’s sure he can convince Rath to meditate with them as well.
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********************************
Vilandra is sitting with his dads at the table when he comes down and he feels like he’s interrupting though both Zan and Rath smile at him, Vilandra doesn’t smile but he’s not sure Vilandra even has the energy to try.
She looks like she’s half asleep, she looks more exhausted then Alex did and he honestly didn’t think that was possible.
“The Captain still asleep?” Rath asks, there’s a twist to his lips that Michael recognizes from when he looks in a mirror and he’s positive his dads know that they had sex.
“I’m awake,” Alex says, and he still looks tired, but he’d devoured the sandwich after they’d cleaned up and then they’d spent a really long time just touching each other.
Hands stroking against skin as the sun came up, Michael had opened the bond up, wide open the way he hasn’t since Rath had shown him how to close it up so he wasn’t leaking his feeling all over Alex’s brain.
But it felt like the right thing to do, the right time to do it as he sank into Alex and it was transcendental… he swears he could feel every ounce of love and devotion that he feels for Alex radiating back at him.
Alex presses a hand against his back and brushes his lips against his cheek as he goes to make Rath’s coffee maker give him coffee.
“You look much better,” Vilandra offers in a soft voice, it’s similar to Isobel’s, but cultured the way that Zan and Rath’s can be.
Alex glances at her, studies her face.
“You look like you could use a couple more hours of sleep,” he says and Michael stills, waits for her to get defensive and yell. Instead she offers Alex a wry smile and leans into Rath’s side.
“Bad dreams don’t care if we’re free or not,” she says and Alex nods.
“There’s probably a couple of therapists on call here, I think the Major said something about having a couple on rotation when we’re setting up plans,” Alex turns back to the coffee maker and presses several buttons that have the brewer dispensing coffee a second later.
He pours two cups when it’s done, then pours a third when Rath just stares at him.
“There are several, I’ll touch base with them this morning and find you someone to talk to,” Rath says as Alex puts the cup in front of him, he smiles at him but its distracted, like he’s thinking of all the things he needs to do during the day and not enough time.
“What are the chances I can actually see the inside of the spaceship?” Michael asks, he takes the couple of steps across the kitchen and leans into the counter and Alex’s side. He feels like a kid asking if he can see the new toy up close and personal.
And he’s only just the slightest bit jealous that Alex got to ride in an actual fucking spaceship first, especially considering he’s the one that’s an alien.
“There’ll be people in and out of them all day, but if you want to wait I’ll go out with you,” Rath says, he’s looking at him and Michael has a vivid memory of Rath holding him by the hand and leading him onto a spaceship, swinging him up on his hip and walking him through hallways.
“I can wait for you,” Michael says and Rath beams at him.
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TITLE: Moving Forward
RATING: R (for language)
CHARACTERS: Alex Manes, Jenna Cameron, Kyle Valenti, Michael Guerin, Max Evans, Isobel Evans-Bracken, Liz Ortecho, Maria DeLuca
PAIRING: Rath/Zan, Liz/Max, Alex/Michael, (past Michael/Maria, past Isobel/Noah)
AUTHOR: Melanie
Summary: Alex gets to work on dismantling his father’s legacy. He has help because Caulfield was only the beginning.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
FEEDBACK: Please?
Moving Forward 21/?
She curls up in a bed that smells like Zan and Rath and breathes. Zan is beside her, hand resting lightly on her hip and he’s relaxed but she can tell that much like her he’s watching the door.
Waiting, like she is, for Rath to come. She knows he’s not going to sleep until Rath is there, which means she’s not going to sleep until Rath is there.
“You should go get him,” Vilandra suggests and Zan huffs a sigh and presses a kiss to her shoulder before the bed shifts and he climbs out. He’s muttering under his breath and she can’t understand what he’s saying but she’s sure she knows the context.
She pulls warm blankets up tight under her chin and waits. It’s just minutes before Zan comes back through the door, fingers linked around Rath’s, tugging him along behind him, shutting the door on the way.
Rath is rolling his eyes at Zan’s back as he climbs back in beside her and Vilandra waits for Rath to sit on the edge of the bed nearest her.
“I would have come up when we were done,” Rath says defensively and Vilandra doesn’t roll her eyes because she’s sure that Zan is doing it for both of them.
“And when would that have been?” she asks, she reaches out a hand to poke at his leg. He watches her, then runs a hand over her head, leans down to kiss her forehead. “I’m sorry I’m not her,” she whispers.
“Vilandra…” Zan starts.
“He ruined it all,” she doesn’t need to specify who in this case, she thinks they all know. “If you couldn’t bond with me then Mara and I should have had the chance and he,” she curves her hand into a fist and breathes. “It’s not fair.”
Rath stands and she thinks he’s going to leave the room, instead he toes off his shoes, removes his pants and then pulls back the covers so he can climb in next to her. He lays on his side facing her, still an awkward distance between them.
When she’d been a teenager, after Rath and Zan had bonded, she’d had dreams of what it would be like to share a bed with the two of them in the, what she thought was their inevitable, future.
There was much less clothing, much less space between them all, in those dreams of long ago. Though he does finally touch her, moving just a hairs breadth closer so he can press his lips to her forehead, laying an arm across her so he can link his fingers with Zan’s.
She closes her eyes and can feel Zan against her back, feel Rath’s arm against her skin.
She prays for no dreams, no nightmares.
Just sleep.
********************************
“This isn’t very romantic for a first meal back,” Liz says as she eyes the sandwich and chips on a plate, the bottle of water that Michael is gathering. Cameron has her arms crossed and her head down on the table and she looks like she’s asleep.
Michael isn’t sure where they’re going to sleep, he’s got first claim on his room that he sometimes shares with Max by the sheer fact that Alex is already in it.
“Alex is probably going to pass out as soon as he eats,” Michael says, if he’s lucky he might get a few minutes of making out before he does that, but Michael doesn’t really have high hopes in that regard. He thinks it’ll be enough that he can climb into a bed that Alex is in and hold him.
“He’s probably already passed out,” Cameron mumbles, she doesn’t even open her eyes so Michael can glare at her properly which is frustrating.
She’s right though, when he gets back to his room, opening the door quietly and managing to not drop anything, Alex is passed out in the middle of his bed.
He’s got on shorts and a t-shirt and Michael stops dead at the sight of his leg. It’s definitely not the prosthetic that Michael last saw when he had Alex in his bed.
He eyes it, it’s not like Alex to fall asleep before pulling the prosthetic off, but he can’t see any way for it to come off.
He sets the plate on the dresser, puts the bottle of water on the side closest to Alex then shifts and pulls on the blankets so he can get them out from under him and covering him instead.
“I’m awake,” Alex mutters.
“No you’re not,” Michael murmurs, he runs his hand down the side of Alex’s face and Alex’s eyes crack open to look at him.
They stare at each for a moment, then he starts undressing, belt and jeans dropping to the floor, tugs off his t-shirt and leaves the underwear on because he doesn’t want to presume that just because Alex is in his bed, voluntarily, that he has any desire for Michael to be naked in that bed with him right now.
Alex doesn’t say anything, just watches through barely open eyes, pink starting to tinge his cheeks. He’s absolutely the most beautiful thing Michael has laid eyes on in a while.
Alex rolls onto his side and Michael slides under the blankets, pulls until Alex is flush with him and he can wrap his arms around him. He presses his lips against the back of Alex’s neck and just lays there, breathing, Alex is relaxed and warm in his arms and Michael wants him closer.
Even though there is no real, physical way for them to be any closer.
He knows Alex can feel that he’s hard against him, it’s been way too long since he’s had sex with anything besides his hand. And it’s Alex, in his bed, finally, again.
Alex twists in his arms until they’re facing each other, he touches the side of his face and the look in his eyes isn’t anything that Michael has seen before. He drags his thumb over Michael’s lips and smiles at him, then leans forward to kiss him.
Michael slides a hand under his t-shirt, wanting to touch skin and Alex makes a noise that sounds like want and frustration all mixed together.
Michael knows he’s exhausted, but he also knows that it’s been over a year and a half since he’s had an opportunity to actually touch Alex… he wants to strip him naked and put the sound proofing of these military built houses to the test and open the new bottle of lube that’s been hidden in the night table between the bed’s since Alex said he didn’t want to break the bond.
But he also knows that Alex will very likely pass out from sheer exhaustion and he doesn’t know if his ego can take the hit of Alex falling asleep in the middle of sex.
So he strokes his hand down Alex’s back and keeps his kisses gentle as he rolls onto his back, Alex sprawls over him and breaks the kiss finally so he can lay his head on the pillow next to Michaels. Fingers drawing indecipherable patterns on his skin.
Michael can almost feel the second that Alex actually loses the fight against staying awake, one minute his fingers are moving and the next they’re lax against his stomach and his breaths are slow and even.
Michael lays his hand over Alex’s, closes his eyes. He can take a cat nap while Alex sleeps, then when he wakes up they can talk and have sex and maybe Alex will explain what the fuck is up with his leg.
********************************
It’s surreal waking up and not having to fumble around for crutches just to get to the bathroom, he can just swing both legs out of bed and he can feel the cool wood floor under his feet. He slides out from under Michael’s arm, Michael frowns in his sleep but doesn’t wake.
He leaves the door cracked when he goes into the bathroom, he washes his hand when he’s done and searches for a toothbrush to run over his teeth. He finds an opened package with one missing in a drawer and brushes his teeth, runs a damp wash cloth over his face.
He’s awake now but if he leaves the room then Michael will likely think he’s headed for the hills so instead he flushes the toilet, turns the light off and climbs back into the bed. Curling back up under the covers, Michael’s arm coming over him to pull him tight against him.
He kisses his chin, his cheek, runs fingers over stubbled skin before kissing his lips gently. He can feel Michael’s lips curve up into a smile against his as his hand slides down the back of his shirt.
“Good mornin’ to me,” he drawls as he bites at Alex’s lip and rolls onto his back taking Alex with him so he’s sprawled on top of him. He can feel him hard against his thigh and he reaches down to press a hand against him, curling it around the thickness as much as he can with his underwear still in the way.
“Not morning,” Alex murmurs as Michael chuckles against his lips.
“I can take those off,” Michael says, hips moving against Alex’s hand, even though Alex isn’t really doing anything more but holding him his hand. Familiarizing himself with the weight and girth and heat of him.
“In a minute,” Alex says as he leans back, Michael makes a noise and tries to hold him back with his hands until he realizes that Alex is trying to take his t-shirt off then he slides his hands up his side and helps him pull it off and toss it aside.
He shivers when he lies back down, chest to chest with Michael. Skin against skin.
When Michael pulls him into a kiss he sinks into it, and he’s not much help at all when Michael pushes his hands against the waist band of his shorts and starts pushing them down his hips. He kicks them away and gasps at the feel of Michael’s hand brushing against him as he negotiates getting his own underwear off.
“We need to talk,” he manages to gasp out when Michael gyrates against him.
He feels like a teenager again, except they at least managed to get lube and condoms out and have real sex when they were teenagers; this feels like making out they should have had in the back seat of a car, fully dressed, at a look out point… something they never did.
“Yep,” Michael manages, he cups Alex’s ass in his hands and pulls him in, presses fingers against his hole dry and Alex makes a likely embarrassing noise that he will deny to his dying day and comes. Michael just seconds behind him.
They lay there, in each other’s arms, Michael keeping one hand pressed against his ass, the other against the back of his neck. Alex curling one arm under his, the other on his hip.
They should move and clean up before it becomes an ordeal, but right now Alex just luxuriates in the feel of Michael’s skin against his, of his hands holding him steady and closes his eyes.
********************************
It’s still dark out when Zan’s eyes snap open, Rath is pressed up against him and Vilandra is no longer in the bed between them. He stills and turns his head to find Rath watching him.
“She got up about half an hour ago,” Rath says, “She said she needed something to drink, I offered to go with her and she told me to stay here with you.”
He sounds so bewildered by this fact, likely because all those years that Kivar was within her Vilandra spent a considerable amount of time trying to keep Rath and Zan apart. Zan leans forward to kiss him, Rath meeting him and cupping his face in his hands.
“Do you think she meant it?” Rath asks as he sits up.
Zan knows what he’s speaking of, the comment that Vilandra had made about bonding with Mara. And there’s a part of him that wishes that they could have gotten there, the four of them, together with their children. He thinks Mara would have had another child, a girl likely, to take up the mantle of Mara the Twelfth.
“I do,” Zan says as he walks around the side of the bed, he stands between Rath’s spread legs and twines his fingers into his hair.
They stay there like that for long minutes, and when they finally go down to the kitchen they find her sitting at the table with a cup in front of her and she looks tired and worn; fragile in ways that Zan doesn’t remember her ever being before.
He kisses the top of her head, and she manages a small smile at him.
Rath sits in the chair next to Vilandra as Zan pours them both cups of water from the canister that is kept in the refrigerator.
It’s quiet and when he turns Vilandra has her face turned into Rath’s shoulder, likely to hide her tears from him, Rath is touching the back of her head and whispering things he can’t hear.
He sets the cups on the table and moves the chair closer, laying his arm over the back of the chairs so he can touch Rath’s arm and press his lips to the back of Vilandra’s head.
Her breathing hitches slightly as she reaches blindly for his hand and he links their fingers together, laying them as one across Rath’s thigh. Rath kisses her forehead and when his eyes meet Zan’s there is a look that he’s not seen there before.
He prods at the bonds and there’s nothing in Rath’s that screams discomfort, and Vilandra’s is calm for once, he thinks he’ll need to spend time meditating with her to get it completely stable again. He’s sure he can convince Rath to meditate with them as well.
********************************
********************************
Vilandra is sitting with his dads at the table when he comes down and he feels like he’s interrupting though both Zan and Rath smile at him, Vilandra doesn’t smile but he’s not sure Vilandra even has the energy to try.
She looks like she’s half asleep, she looks more exhausted then Alex did and he honestly didn’t think that was possible.
“The Captain still asleep?” Rath asks, there’s a twist to his lips that Michael recognizes from when he looks in a mirror and he’s positive his dads know that they had sex.
“I’m awake,” Alex says, and he still looks tired, but he’d devoured the sandwich after they’d cleaned up and then they’d spent a really long time just touching each other.
Hands stroking against skin as the sun came up, Michael had opened the bond up, wide open the way he hasn’t since Rath had shown him how to close it up so he wasn’t leaking his feeling all over Alex’s brain.
But it felt like the right thing to do, the right time to do it as he sank into Alex and it was transcendental… he swears he could feel every ounce of love and devotion that he feels for Alex radiating back at him.
Alex presses a hand against his back and brushes his lips against his cheek as he goes to make Rath’s coffee maker give him coffee.
“You look much better,” Vilandra offers in a soft voice, it’s similar to Isobel’s, but cultured the way that Zan and Rath’s can be.
Alex glances at her, studies her face.
“You look like you could use a couple more hours of sleep,” he says and Michael stills, waits for her to get defensive and yell. Instead she offers Alex a wry smile and leans into Rath’s side.
“Bad dreams don’t care if we’re free or not,” she says and Alex nods.
“There’s probably a couple of therapists on call here, I think the Major said something about having a couple on rotation when we’re setting up plans,” Alex turns back to the coffee maker and presses several buttons that have the brewer dispensing coffee a second later.
He pours two cups when it’s done, then pours a third when Rath just stares at him.
“There are several, I’ll touch base with them this morning and find you someone to talk to,” Rath says as Alex puts the cup in front of him, he smiles at him but its distracted, like he’s thinking of all the things he needs to do during the day and not enough time.
“What are the chances I can actually see the inside of the spaceship?” Michael asks, he takes the couple of steps across the kitchen and leans into the counter and Alex’s side. He feels like a kid asking if he can see the new toy up close and personal.
And he’s only just the slightest bit jealous that Alex got to ride in an actual fucking spaceship first, especially considering he’s the one that’s an alien.
“There’ll be people in and out of them all day, but if you want to wait I’ll go out with you,” Rath says, he’s looking at him and Michael has a vivid memory of Rath holding him by the hand and leading him onto a spaceship, swinging him up on his hip and walking him through hallways.
“I can wait for you,” Michael says and Rath beams at him.
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