got my mind set on you (part three)
part two is behind us!
Alex glanced over his shoulder, and he was surprised to find a guy somewhere in between Hank’s height and his own with some intense red makeup on his face and his arms crossed and it’s not like he was as muscular as Alex but he was kind of intimidating. He could feel Hank’s shoulders sinking towards his back and it was like Hank was trying to climb back into his own skin, to hide in his chest cavity, and this must be the dude that made Hank quit when it was obvious Hank enjoyed being here.
He put on his best ‘dealing with customers’ grin and turned towards the other dude, who was trying to make eye contact with Hank. Alex went for Hank’s hand and he felt Hank’s big hand wrap around his in understanding.
“Hello Azazel.”
“Why hello Hank - it’s been a while. And this is?”
“Hi, Alex Summers.” He offered the hand not currently calming Hank to the make-up laden man, who quickly shook it - screaming over confidant and cocky at Alex - and grinned at this stranger, who had made Hank start to sweat a little. “Hank was just showin’ me where he disappeared to last summer.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude but I don’t know who you are.” The stranger said, a vague accent to his words, and Alex bit back a grin.
“Yeah, sorry, I’m Hank’s boyfriend.”
And that was it. Those three words had caused a frown on Az-whatever’s face, and the guy backed up. “I’m so sorry for interrupting then. I just wanted to say hello. So, yes.” And then the guy turned on his heel and stalked off, and Alex started to do what he called his victory dance before he realized he was not in his own home after beating whoever was on Jeopardy again.
Alex turned, triumphant, towards Hank, and beamed. Hank managed a weak smile, and Alex wanted more smile, more mouth, more everything. He pulled Hank’s hand to his lips and kisses his knuckles like they do in old movies and the smile widens and his eyes don’t look so worried now, instead a twinkling of amusement in them.
“Still want me to beat him up for ya?” Alex asked, tilting his head.
Hank made a face, his mouth scrunched up as if he was thinking about it, then he shrugged. “Maybe later. Soda time?”
“Who likes orange soda? Alex likes orange soda.” Alex proclaimed, and they walked side by side over to the concessions stand, where the blonde from earlier was beaming at the two of them. “Do you want me to beat her up too?” Alex whispered to Hank, flexing his muscles, and Hank laughed.
“No, that’s Lorna. She’s harmless. Well, most of the time.” Hank said, and went for his wallet. Alex smiled pleasantly, and she wiggled her eyebrows, which caused Alex to feel slightly violated. He slid behind Hank, arms around his waist, and peeked his eyes over Hank’s shoulder as he interacted with the woman who looked like she was going to throw down and have sex with the both of them if Hank wasn’t in between her and Alex wasn’t gripping to Hank like an octopus.
---
Once Hank had gotten the soda, they had exited the concessions area after a lascivious wink from Lorna which made him feel slightly dirty. Hank had only gotten one straw and was sipping at the soda, and Alex was thirsty god damn it and Hank was all limb and angles and he could probably just grab it but then it would end up everywhere.
Instead, he decided to return to an old habit of his. “Soda? Soda? Soda?” He squawked, batting his lashes at Hank and poking him in the cheek. “Soda?”
Hank sighed. “That wasn’t funny when you started doing that eight years ago, and it’s still not funny now.” He handed the soda to Alex, who slurped and wiggled his eyebrows.
Hank’s phone chirped out Charles’ ringtone, and Hank squinted to see if he had missed any texts. “I should probably get this.” Alex shook his head. “After the photobooth?” Alex nodded. “Are you coming over after here?” Alex nodded again, slurping the soda noisily. “You are just so gross. I don’t know why I put up with you.” He put his phone back in its holster and dragged Alex towards the photobooth in the corner.
Hank grabbed onto Alex’s wrist and yanked him over towards the photo booth while Alex slurped on the soda greedily, eyeing every person that crossed their path smugly. He didn’t understand why he was so damn happy - he’d just been propositioned - but he was also trying to let everyone in this place know to back the fuck off.
Then he felt Hank let go and he looked and they were at one of those cutesy little photo booths with a big thick black curtain and Hank looking up at him, a mix of pissed and pleased because his hand had gone back to his pocket to silence his phone because Charles was probably calling, again. Alex thrust the soda at Hank, who shook it and frowned.
“Did you have to drink almost all of it?” Alex shrugged and Hank sighed, puckering his lips and sucking in hard, the ice crackling as the soda went up the straw.
Alex cleared his throat and slid into the booth, placing himself on Hank’s knees as he checked his teeth in the camera, Hank gracefully sliding an arm around Alex’s waist while his arms did something with the soda cup and it took one pull of his arms for Alex to fall back gracelessly against his chest, his hands going to the seat of the photo booth, his eyes wide as Hank laughed at his reaction to almost dying because Hank fucking McCoy is a spider monkey or something weird like that.
It would suck if all of these muscles were in reality built because Hank was Spiderman. He was fake dating Spiderman. He was fucking Gwen Stacy. He was going to die by being tossed over George Washington Bridge by the Green Goblin. He would have to start wearing a parachute now when he went into the city.
This was some serious shit.
Then he felt a finger in his side and he realized he was still in a photo booth with Hank and apparently had plastered himself to Hank’s chest, his hands around Hank’s neck like some sort of girl, and maybe he did have a bit of a superhero complex.
“Is this how we’re going to take the pictures - like you’re my child, clinging to me? Because I’m fine with that, I just have to put the money in the slot and then you can go back to clinging -“
“Give me the money.” Alex demanded, pouting. Hank motioned to his pocket - and somehow Alex’s feet had ended up on Hank’s thigh which, great, thanks a lot natural reactions, and angrily edged the wallet out of Hank’s pocket and opened it, pulling out all of the ones and dropping them in his lap, then picking out three and shoving them into the machine until it took. Hank’s giggles just made the thrusting harder, and then one all three dollars were in the machine, Alex jabbed at the buttons until the blank frame came up - who wanted angels or devils surrounding their faces, not Alex - and then settled back in.
“You realize all of my cash is on your lap?” Hank said, and Alex shrugged and grinned maniacally at the camera as the first flash went off.
“I adjusted the camera so our faces are the only things in this shot. Now smile, Hank!” Alex turned with his manic grin - the one that Hank identified with bad ideas and Alex drunk - and pulled at the corners of Hank’s mouth, widening his eyes and causing Hank to smile on top of Alex’s crazy mouth-pulling and Alex turned around to face the camera and beamed. After the flash had gone off, Alex stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes, causing Hank to knock his head into Alex’s shoulder because his knee-jerk reaction when Alex did that was to put his hands on his knees and howl with laughter. The last time Hank had seen Alex purposefully make that face for him was when Hank was twelve and he had broken his arm trying to stop Scott on the swing. The final frame had Alex wrapping his arm around Hank’s neck, laughing and grabbing the hand that had been on his head and pulling it away, kissing Hank on the forehead where he had bumped it against Alex’s bone.
Then Hank’s cell phone went off again.
“Charles - the ultimate cock block.”
Hank picked up on the third ring and Alex leaned in close to the receiver, breathing in heavily so Charles could tell someone was annoyed by him calling seven times during their date.
Well, this section of the date, anyway.
“Hank, why are you breathing heavily into the phone?”
“Sorry, that’s Alex.” Hank put his hand over Alex’s mouth. Alex began to inhale loudly through his nose.
“Summers?”
“Yeah. We’ll be home in thirty minutes, so don’t worry about us. We’re fine.”
“I just didn’t see you go to bed last night or leave this morning so I thought you’d been kidnapped.”
“I’m sorry but Alex had - had stuff planned for us. We’re uh - we’re having a good time. I - I have something to tell you Charles.” Alex looked up and raised his eyebrows. “Alex and I have been dating for about six months.” Alex knitted his eyebrows together.
“Is that why you go to the Y so much? Being athletic for science is good, but I’m sure that Alex wouldn’t mind you all scrawny. But perhaps it was a bonding experience - I don’t know what you two do but - are you happy?”
“Yes.” Hank admitted, blushing around his ears, and it gave Alex a certain satisfaction that he didn’t even have to tease Hank for his ears to turn red at the mention of his name. He dipped his head and nosed at Hank’s neck while Hank finished up the conversation about how Charles wasn’t being annoying, he had just been distracted by Alex who seemed to want to touch him more than ever while Hank was on the phone and that yes, he still loved Charles no matter what and sure, he and Alex would pick up some mangoes for fish tacos later so Charles didn’t have to worry about it - Alex hated fish tacos but he’d eat anything that was free so there was no point in trying to get Charles to change his mind.
After Hank hung up he leaned his head against the back of the booth, closing his eyes for a moment to evaluate what had just happened. Charles had told him that Raven had an afternoon date so that she wouldn’t be home until after dinner, which would give Hank plenty of time to upload and tag and fix all of the stuff on Facebook while Alex fixed whatever in the house or played Pokémon or slept. Then they would really scare the shit out of her - Charles had confirmed that Sean had come home freaked out and had slept most of the afternoon as usual.
A few minutes ticked by and Alex began to nose at his neck again - not altogether an unpleasant feeling, but he was also squished up on Hank, touching places that he shouldn’t touch unless he was Hank’s actual boyfriend and Hank didn’t want to go there right now, right as he was realizing that Alex was a Leo and he was a Sagittarius and they could be together flawlessly though Alex was blunt and crazy and loud and Hank was withdrawn in some ways, afraid of his own shadow, but it didn’t matter because it turned out Alex doesn’t hate him. Not even a little bit. Not even at all.
Because Alex is so into this moment, Hank realizes as he watches Alex grin as he bites at the collar of the plaid shirt, the grin he’s only seen when Alex is truly happy and enveloped in what he’s doing, not aware of the world or anything that makes what Hank now knows is a brash and hard front go up. He looks like a puppy, happily nipping at his favorite person of the moment, and Hank stops this train of thought because if someone else was to see them, they’d be like every other couple - two young adults in love.
And Hank wasn’t - he couldn’t be in love with Alex Summers. They’d only spent a day together - love didn’t happen like that. But even then, he had to let Alex have a little more time playing, because Alex rarely played unless it was poker with Sean, and even then, it wasn’t like this. Alex rarely returned to his childhood boyishness, the face that had taunted him because no one else could look as - as happy as Alex when they had been young.
Once Alex realized that Hank had been watching him carefully, he leaned up and kissed Hank on the tip of the nose and Hank’s chest constricted - his head screamed to his body to tug Alex in closer. That this is what he wanted instead of the harshly exchanged insults when he walked into the apartment every afternoon. The Old Spice clinging onto his clothes like it had this morning when he had changed into new clothes but could smell Alex’s deodorant on his used shirts. The quiet morning coffee.
“Should we get back, baby? I don’t want your daddy hating me because I brought you home late.” And Hank realized it was a mix of both teasing and genuine worry - Charles was a great pseudo-father for both Scott and Alex and Alex would rather die than get on Charles’ bad side - that buoyed Alex into comments like this.
“Charles wouldn’t hate you even if you streaked naked across the country club’s front lawn. Again.” Alex’s neck flushed and Hank smiled, remembering that night and how embarrassed Alex was - he had lost a bet to a twelve year old Sean and had never lived it down - and Hank leaned down and kissed his neck. “Come along, Summers. We’ve got some plotting to do.” He can see the whine in Alex’s eyes, but also a flicker of thought, like he had forgotten the plan. “You can even lie on my bed if we get back to the house before 5:30 with the mangoes Charles wants.”
Alex rolled his eyes and got up , offering a hand to Hank while picking up the pictures with the other. “Shall we?”
The ride back was quiet, the classic rock station playing softly in the background as Hank checked his phone, a foot up on the dashboard and Alex knew that it was a casual gesture, one picked up from being stuck in the front seat with too long legs on car trips where Sean and Raven spread across the backseat, Hank curled up because Sean had harassed him into sitting up front.
About halfway through, the hand which had been hovering over the shift went to Hank’s knee, and Hank’s hand went from wrapped around his neck to over Alex’s hand, tapping along to the bass line. Alex smiled at nothing.
----
When they got to the house, Alex got the car parked neatly so no one - Sean - would hit it if it was parked a little to the left of its assigned spot.
Hank grabbed his bag - which he had repacked neatly at every stop - and by the time that he had repacked the over shirt and placed the mangoes on top, Alex was hovering next to him, tapping his foot impatiently as if he was bored with standing there. His normal asshole aviators were on his head, and he looked like the models that Raven papered her walls with. As Hank went to shoulder his bag, Alex stopped him and tugged it out of his hands and shouldered it himself, his other arm snaking around Hank’s waist, his glasses falling onto his nose, his head tilting up towards Hank. “Are you ready for the coup d’etat?”
Hank flung his hand over Alex’s shoulders, smiling. “I knew that you secretly liked helping us with The Awakening project.” Hank jabbed, and Alex shrugged. Normally Alex would have defended himself, but it was like he was pleased. He also started to pull Hank towards the house, fingers in the waistband of his jeans, smiling up at windows and when Hank pulled his eyes away to follow Alex’s eyes to the window where Sean is standing, pressed up against the glass like he’s seriously high - though when he was home he tended to stay sober in case Erik found his stash again and chased him around the mansion again. No one wanted a repeat of that day and the subsequent night. Hank grinned widely at him and then looked at Alex, who was kind of two steps ahead of him and also beaming at Sean like he knew every single thing about Sean’s life and could kill him, and Hank gripped Alex’s shoulder as they entered the house, both automatically taking the left which was the way up to Hank’s room - and the opposite way from where Sean had been staring.
----
Once they were in Hank’s room, Alex took the camera bag and sprawled on the bed as Hank put his clothes away and then grabbed his laptop, sliding next to Alex.
“Wait.” Alex said, popping up and sprinting over to the door, locking the door and smiling. “Just in case Sean tries to bust in on us.”
“We’re not doing anything bad though.”
“But I don’t want him to know that. Do you want me to call Charles on the house phone and tell him we’re here?” Hank waved his hand, already working on sliding his memory card into the laptop.
Alex’s call was banal, explaining how he’d bring the mangoes down in a minute, they had a wonderful time out and about today and yes, he would see if something was wrong with Charles’ car after dinner. Per usual Alex and Charles got into their debate on whether Charles should get a new car or not: Alex hated the one he had and if Charles got a new one, he could rebuild the engine without distraction. But Charles wanted a BMW and Alex kind of hated them, though Erik loved them, which made his points invalid.
At the most heated point of their discussion, Hank started to snap at him. “What?” He mouthed, covering the receiver with his hand.
“Photobooth pictures.”
“No way, babe. Those are for me.” Alex said, smiling and winking at Hank.
“No they are not!” Hank said, springing up and marching over to Alex, grabbing him by the waist. “Which pocket are they in?” Before getting an answer, Hank began to pull at his pockets.
“Charles, I’m going to have to call you back.”
Without hearing Charles’ answer, Alex slammed the phone into the wall and then used both hands to attack Hank, pulling his wrists away from his pockets, trying to push Hank backwards and away from the memory Alex intended to keep until they were old and grey or the pictures actually got too marred for him to recognize how happy he looked, how happy Hank looked. “No, you can’t have them Hank. No, get away from my pockets,” he gripped harder on Hank’s wrist, “Hank, stop.”
Then something flipped in Hank and suddenly Alex was pressed up against the back of the door, struggling as Hank pulled his wrists above his head. “No, I need the pictures, Alex. You forget that I’ve been going to the Y a lot lately. Plus I have like, four inches on you easy.” He easily manipulated both of Alex’s wrists into one hand, then went back to digging in his pockets, pressing in so that he could grab the neatly folded paper. Alex wiggled a bit and Hank pressed in further as the picture tried to slip out of his fingers and back into the abyss of Alex’s pockets. After a few minutes of struggling Hank finally managed to dig out and let Alex go, practically prancing over to his scanner.
Alex, however, was trying not to jump Hank. He had always liked being dominant in public, but in private it was a totally different story. He enjoyed being pinned up to places, being the smaller one, having someone being in charge because his whole life he was the one who had been calling the shots. Even in those first foster homes, he was the one in charge of his own life. But when he was in a romantic relationship - and he’d been in two, thank you very much - he had always been the dominated one. Hank had no idea how hard it made him to be pushed up and held, to be taken care of.
Then the door pushed him back towards the bed, and he was glad that it was locked. “Hank.” It was Sean. “Hank, open the door. What’s blocking it?”
“Me, you asshole.” Alex answered, and he could hear the squawk from the other side of the door. “Go away, Sean.” You’re killing my boner, he added silently.
Sean must have thrown his whole body at the door because it surged forward and then went back, the lock holding steady. “ALEX?” He shouted at the door, and Alex didn’t respond, instead flopping himself on the bed, rolling over so that he could mess around on Hank’s facebook.
“Alex, what are you doing?” Hank said, turning over from his scanner.
“Flipping through pictures. What does it sound like I’m doing?”
“I’m not done with the album yet!” Hank squawked, but Alex started to scroll through them. The two of them eskimo kissing in barely anything. Hank laughing at the coffee shop, eyes shining. Under the tree, grinning like idiots because this was a brilliant plan. It would be easy to believe, it was easy for Alex to believe it and he had done it. Hank slid in next to him and started to click things, and Alex settled his head under Hank’s shoulder as Hank started to edit, his head sliding into the hole made by Hank’s chest while he edited and messed around.
---
About ten minutes later Alex was awoken by a hand in his hair. He pushed up into it - he loved having his hair touched - and Hank chuckled softly, running a hand through it as he settled back in. Somehow Hank’s legs had intertwined with Alex’s and it was warmer than Alex could remember because Hank was half on top of him, pushing his head forward until his eyes attached to the album that had been loaded on Facebook. It was ridiculous, how cute they looked, the little captions Hank had made about each thing they did representing their favorite date, and after he published it he opened another browser and then fixed their anniversary date. Alex pulled at Hank’s elbow until Hank lowered his right arm and Alex pillowed his head on it as Hank used his left to navigate out of the internet and shut off his laptop.
By the time the computer beeped to signal it was finished shutting down, they were both asleep.
Hank hadn’t even realized they’d fallen asleep until he heard a firm knocking on the door, a knocking he identified with crying and late night cookies. He attempted to move but he was too warm, and he opened his eyes to feel little hairs brush his eyelashes, an arm twined around his, something pressing up into his chest as he got up and tried to get up to the door. The body keened itself up into Hank, and if it had been anyone else’s knock, Hank would have stayed where he was.
But it was Charles, and he was like their father, so he detangled himself and grabbed the bag of mangoes. Alex groaned and rolled into the spot where Hank had been, mumbling in his sleep as he was prone to doing right before he started to snore, and Hank opened the door to Charles beginning to knock again, his hand in mid-air.
Charles took one look at him and began to chuckle - Hank’s shirt was un-tucked, his hair unruly from the twenty minutes of sleep he had gotten, his eyes blinking because he had left his contacts in while he was asleep. “I’m sorry I interrupted your nap but I need the mangoes and dinner will be in a half hour. It’s your job to set the table this week, but I can handle it if you want to continue with your nap.” Hank handled Charles the mangoes and leaned into the doorframe, attempting to hide Alex with his body. “Hank?”
“Yes?”
“Do we need to have a talk about what you and Alex do with the door closed? You know I don’t mind if you two, well, you know,” Hank could feel the blush dripping down from the tips of his ears, “but if you want to talk about how it makes you feel or anything like that, just know that I’m here. I know that you’d prefer to not talk about it, but if you do, don’t go to Erik. When Sean went to him, I was afraid he’d been scarred for life.”
“I will. So, I should be down in twenty?”
“If you wouldn’t mind. I also want Alex to see if the strange sound comes from the dishwasher earlier does it again when he fiddles with it.”
“Will do.”
Charles beamed at him, “You really are happy, aren’t you?”
Hank shrugged. He just wanted to get back to his nap before Alex pulled a starfish and Hank had to force him to give him space.
Charles grinned wide and smacked Hank on the shoulder, smiling. “Good on you. See you in a few. Hopefully Erik hasn’t burnt the taco meat while I’ve been away.” Charles walked away, and Hank turned to find Alex, his hair askew, focused on something on the computer.
“I logged into Facebook and I had like a hundred notifications. I’m more popular then Kim Kardashian or some shit like that.”
“Because you changed your relationship status?”
“No, it’s like everyone we know has gone through our Facebook album and liked every single one of our photos. Now the comments are starting - every time I think I’ve gotten rid of all of the notifications, more pop up.” Alex huffed and clicked to the album, reaching up and motioning to Hank to sit down.
Hank did so, and he saw that Alex wasn’t wrong - Armando, Angel, even Anne-Marie from the coffee shop had all left comments on the album. It had no less than sixteen likes and more comments, but Hank didn’t really care.
“So, did you hear? Charles needs you to look at the dishwasher again, and I have to set the table.”
“Do you want me to change into other clothes or whatever?” Alex looked up at him, and Hank wanted to - well, he wanted to not go to dinner, but he heard the front door slam and he knew that it was Raven. Also, the screeching from Sean and the feet pounding down the stairs signaled that he was about to get loud.
“No, stay like that. Do you want to face Raven now or later?”
Alex grinned wide and rolled on his side, his shirt riding up to show his lower stomach. “I say we do it now. No messing with your hair, babe. You look hot like this.”
“I look hot all messed up? Thank you. Love you too.”
Alex beamed and rolled off the bed, popping up a few second later. “Come along, Pond!” He said, skipping towards the door and unlocking it.
Hank heard screams from the bottom of the stairs and he pulled himself off of the bed and headed over to Alex, who offered him his hand. Hank took it, intertwining their fingers and allowed himself to be pulled down the stairs towards the kitchen. Alex used the back stairs to avoid Raven, but he heard shuffling up the front stairs so they would find the two of them sooner or later.
---
Charles was happy to see Alex, and in a few moments Alex went from standing next to Hank to on the floor, examining some sort of belt in the dishwasher. Hank went and set the table for six, but before he could escape back into the kitchen, there were hands on his hips, their nails painted a vibrant blue.
“Raven, why are you squeezing my hips like we’re in a Shakira video?”
“I just love you and the fact that you’ve freaked Sean out so much today.”
“By?”
“By pretending that you’re in a relationship with Alex.”
“I’m not pretending.” Raven squeezed harder. “Really, I’m not. We’ve been dating for six months - but I guess we weren’t that subtle.”
Raven screamed and Hank wiggled out of her grasp only to have a hand tucked into his back pocket. “Is everything alright?” Alex said, his voice a mix of delight and confusion.
“You two aren’t - I don’t know what - oh my God Sean! Sean, Scott, come here, oh my God oh my God oh my God!”
“Yes, Raven, it’s lovely to see you again too. Charles said to sit down when you got in - dinner apparently took less time then he intended.” Alex took his normal seat on the right side of the table, and Hank went over and sat next to him, throwing his arm over the back of Alex’s chair.
Raven’s jaw went as far down as it physically could, which was almost far down as her shoulders. Sean came up behind her and smirked at her. “See, I told you I wasn’t too high to dream this up.”
“How - I - I’m calling Scott.”
“He’ll be over later after he, Jean and Logan get dinner ” Charles said, appearing in the doorway with a platter of steaming tacos. Erik was behind him, a platter on each arm, a frown on his face. Obviously his and Charles’ argument wasn’t over. “Apparently they went to museum exhibit and got caught in a bad case of traffic. Either way, we all get to have the first chance to eat the tacos before the human garbage pit gets here.”
“I thought that was me.” Alex moaned. Hank flicked his ear and Alex stuck his tongue out at Hank. “What? I totally finished your lunch earlier.”
“You don’t like fish.”
“I’ll eat anything if I’m hungry enough. And boy am I hungry.” He winked at Hank, who licked his lips back.
Erik cleared his throat. “Please not before or directly after I eat.” Alex snickered and looked back at the table, where the food had been placed. Alex dug in, and Hank followed, because though they had eaten a full lunch, all of the activity had made him really hungry.
---
Dinner was quiet, with Alex and Hank kicking at each other’s ankles, and when they were both full, Alex kicked Hank three times on the ankle, a signal they had made up when Hank was twelve and Alex was fifteen and they had gotten stuck with Charles’ great aunt for the summer. A kick three times to the ankle meant that one of them thought it was safe enough to escape to another room, play some soccer or if it was raining, chess.
“We’re going to go watch a movie.” Hank stood up and took his plate into the kitchen, Alex following him in. They both dumped the dishes in the sink, then turned to go up to the TV room, Alex’s hand slinging itself around Hank’s waist, Hank’s arm going over Alex’s shoulders.
---
Once they got there and the door was securely closed, they both burst out into laughter, Alex on the floor, Hank doubled over, and they roared with it. Every time one of them started to get it together, they glanced at the other and started to laugh again. About ten minutes later Hank’s throat gave way and he started to hoarsely giggle. Alex got up and started to stifle his giggles, getting up and pulling Hank towards the couch, slinging Hank over it and then heading towards the cabinets and going up on his toes. After scanning through the selection, he pulled out a case - “Let’s watch The Breakfast Club.” He went and popped it in, and when he got back, Hank was slung over the corner of the couch. He smiled and headed over to the mini fridge, taking out two bottles of water and tossing one to Hank, who caught it and opened it. Alex cracked his open and then drained it, putting it on the table before walking over to Hank and burying himself into Hank’s chest, arms going around his neck and turning his face towards the television. Hank held the water bottle towards the table, and put it down on the newspaper Charles had ill-advisedly left on the table. Hank knew he’d be scolded for it later, but he didn’t care.
He wrapped his arms around Alex, and they settled into watching the movie.
---
Forty minutes later, Scott busted through the door to find his brother snuggled into his best friend’s neck, his best friend’s hands on his brother’s ass.
“WHAT THE DEVIL IS GOING ON HERE?” Scott shouted, and Logan tumbled in behind him to see the same sight and began to choke up with laughter, holding his stomach. “Oh my God, Alex, get off Hank!”
“Why would he do that?” Hank answered, smiling widely and patting Alex’s ass just to see Scott’s eyes almost pop out of his head. As an added bonus, Logan fell onto the floor he was laughing so hard. Scott looked over at Logan, who he had hated less than seventy two hours before, and stomped his foot.
“Oh my God, Logan, please stop gloating. This isn’t happening! Hank, stop touching his ass. Alex, get off Hank!”
Alex turned his head as he paused the movie. “Scott, get out. We’re celebrating our six month and you’re ruining both it and my chances by being so negative. Logan, if you would be so kind.”
Logan smiled and nodded, chuckling as he went over to Scott and flinging him over his shoulder, Scott pounding at his back as he got carried out of the room. “Have fun, you two! Be safe.” Logan turned around and shut the door on the two of them.
“So, I’m pretty sure that Logan bet that we were having sex. Which also means that he thinks that Charles and Erik are doing it too.”
“Not yet - not with the way they fight. Eventually, hopefully, maybe they will, but not right now.”
“Is that why - “
“Is that why what?”
“Never mind. Time to finish the movie?”
“Yeah yeah. Get back to lying down.”
“What am I, a human pillow made solely for your amusement?”
“You’ve always been my favorite source of amusement, since you take my attention when you walk into a room anyway. Now I get to cuddle with you instead of watching you freeze on the other side of the couch. Now shut it - I want to see how they finish out their day in detention. When I was in high school detention was never this fun.”
---
Later on in the film when the part about Brian keeping a gun in his locker came up, Hank ducked his head away from the screen, gripping tight on Alex’s hips.
“You alright?” Alex’s voice came out low and deep, reverberating against Hank’s chest. Hank mumbled something incomprehensible and Alex elbowed him in the cheek. “Hank, what’s wrong?”
“I thought about that, once or twice. If the world would be a whole lot better if I wasn’t around, falling over things and annoying people. It was in the middle of the year last year, right around the time that Jean and Scott started to fight.”
“Why would you feel that way?”
“Erik and Charles were fighting, Raven was with Janos and actually happy for once, Jean and Scott were arguing and you were busy and - I don’t know, I just felt like I annoyed Scott every time I talked to him, I annoyed Charles by not being completely understanding all of the time, Sean was high and happy and I don’t know, I couldn’t get happy.”
“Did you - “
“I sat around on Valentine’s Day and almost did it. I - I ended up falling asleep with the gun in my hand. Erik found me. We both agreed never to discuss it.”
“Hank, please don’t. If you think about it, talk to me about it. I don’t want you gone.”
“Thank you, Alex.” Hank said softly, and Alex nosed at his jaw, kisses pressed into his neck, and Hank warmed up again. Alex mouthed words against Hank’s neck in between kisses, but Hank didn’t ask him and Alex wouldn’t tell if he had.
---
At the end of the movie, both of them were mostly asleep, the blanket at the end of the couch warming Hank’s feet, Alex warming the rest of him. Hank went to roll Alex over so that they’d be in proper spooning position - mostly so that when they fell asleep, Hank’s shoulder wouldn’t be in some sort of pain.
Then a thump was at the door, and giggling, and Hank knew that noise.
“Alex. Alex.” He whispered into Alex’s hair, rubbing his hands on Alex’s lower back, Alex keening into his lower stomach. “Alex, they’re listening in.”
Alex blinked once, twice, and then his lips were on Hank’s, his legs sliding up around Hank’s waist, his arms caging his head. Hank moaned then his hands went to Alex’s hips, gripping then flipping Alex over so Hank hovered over him, grinning devilishly. Alex laughed and went up to bite the tip of Hank’s nose. Hank snorted and bit Alex’s bottom lip, a moan escaping Alex’s lips a second later. Hank laughed and bit Alex’s top lip, lapping at it and then sticking his tongue into Alex’s mouth. Hank groaned at the sweetness, the tang of the mangoes from the tacos and the good old Alex taste he had begun to identify earlier that day, a taste he liked a little too much.
Then the door opened and Hank raised one hand to flick whoever it was off, his lips not daring to leave Alex’s in case the jig was completely and totally up and they all figured it out. Hank hoped not.
“Oh my goodness.” Jean Grey’s voice flooded over them, and the both broke apart, a little shell shocked. “I can’t even understand this. Orroro, tell me you’re seeing this.” Hank looked away from Alex and over the couch for a moment to find both Jean and Ororro staring at them in shock, Logan behind Jean, cackling, and Scott as pale as snow behind Ororro.
“Oh my god.” Ororro said, and started to laugh. Jean joined in after a moment, cackling like the evil bitch that she could be. Logan opened his mouth to begin laughing, but instead turned to Scott and patted him on the back awkwardly, Scott leaning into his chest.
Hank grinned. “See! I told you the two of you would get along if you just stopped being little girls. Alex, look, your brother and Logan are getting along!”
“Hank. Please stop talking about my brother while I -“ Before he could finish that sentence, Hank covered Alex’s mouth with his own. Alex groaned and keened up into the touch, his hands threading through Hank’s hair, pulling Hank back on top of him.
“Hank! Alex! Please stop. I’ll call Armando!” Scott’s yells sounded muffled by something, and Hank smiled into the kiss because he knew it was probably Scott’s shirt. Alex’s tongue followed the curl of his lips and he went to bite the tip. “Ew, is that tongue?”
Hank pulled off of Alex once again, “Get out.” He growled.
He heard the shuffle of Logan’s boots dragging Scott’s tennis shoes, the click-clack of Jean’s sensible heels followed by the tap of a more elegant rap of a toe-heel step from Ororro’s flats. He waited until the door closed, the steps further away before he started to pull off.
But that wasn’t what Alex wanted. Alex cried out in anguish as Hank pulled away, his hands clawing at Hank’s lower back. “No no no please, Hank.” And Hank wanted Alex to beg, wanted Alex below him, and he didn’t want to stop.
“You like that?” Hank asked, and Alex nodded, keening up.
“Can you please not do that in here?” An accented voice said, and Hank pulled back again to find Erik with a raised eyebrow standing in the open doorway.
“Sorry Erik.” Hank said, his voice coming out like a rumble of thunder from somewhere in his chest.
“It’s not a problem, Charles and I wanted to watch a film and this is the best television in the house, so if you two could take it to your room or any room that isn’t this one, it’d be much obliged.” A cough came from the other side of the door and Erik rolled his eyes. “Scott would like if Alex took him home, though. He has a television show he wants to watch at nine.”
“At home. Alone. Without you making out with Hank. Mostly so we can talk about this.” Scott sounded like his head was going to explode.
Hank rolled back and off of Alex, who groaned and shifted his hips so that the tent in his pants was less noticeable. Hank snickered and Alex stuck his tongue out. Hank retaliated by making a licking motion and wiggling his eyebrows. Alex’s breath caught, and Erik cleared his throat. “Are we moving?”
Alex got off the couch and walked slowly towards the door, turning around to find Hank’s eyes laughing. He shook his head and pulled Scott after him.
---
“ALEX ROBERT SUMMERS, ARE YOU SERIOUSLY HAVING SEX WITH HANK?” Scott said as soon as they slid into the car.
Alex ignored him. In fact, he hadn’t really heard anything since he’d left the room. Hank, on top of him, licking and biting, was running on a continuous loop in his head. Until he got home and in the shower, he wouldn’t focus on anything except driving safely and the memory of Hank hovering over him, breathing heavily and ready to love him.
Even though they’d been walked in on. Even though they’d been told to separate repeatedly.
Alex just wanted Hank, and it seemed like Hank wanted him too.
When they got home, Alex didn’t even wait for Scott to get safely out of the car before he hopped out and locked the door, getting the keys in the door faster than you could say Quidditch. Scott screeched and tore after him, and when Scott was behind him, hovering as he unlocked the door. Scott went to open his mouth but Alex turned around and snapped.
“Look, four eyes, here’s what going to happen. I’m going to take a shower and then I’m going to bed and you are going to not get in my way because you.” He poked Scott in the chest after every word for effect, like Hank did when he got angry after an experiment gone awry, “ruined. My. Night.” With that, he turned on his heel and stomped inside, stripping his shirt off as he went towards the shower.
----
Hank had slipped into his bathroom a short time after Alex left. He knew he needed a shower - he’d been out all day, he stank of sweat, cologne and strangely of coffee and a type of Old Spice he didn’t use, though he may have grabbed the wrong one out of the bag earlier. He locked the door behind him. He slowly took off his clothes: he folded his pants so he could wear them again, removing his shirt and then hung it up on the back hook. He took the blue towels normally left out for him - Charles, the other person who used blue towels, never took showers outside of his own bathroom - and slid out of his boxer-briefs.
He turned the shower on cold - it was really warm in the house, alright - and slid in, trying to breathe calmly and not think about the fact that his penis was pretty much attached to the bottom of his stomach. He was trying not to think about Alex below him, the sweet taste of Alex on his tongue, his hands trailing south towards Hank’s waistband.
Hank started to recite the periodic table, names then symbols then numbers, but still his mind drifted back to super soft blond hair, softer lips, and skin that he’d only seen bits and pieces of.
---
Alex had locked the door seconds after getting into the room, stripping his pants off, and then peeling his boxers off. He didn’t even bother pretending that he wasn’t going into the shower to jerk off to Hank holding his hands over his head, breathing hard onto his mouth, biting his lips, and his hand was on his dick before the shower was even on. He flicked the water to lukewarm, sliding in and then pumping his dick for all it was worth, licking the lingering taste of Hank off of his lips, his hand pulling hard on his dick like he knew somehow that Hank would do.
----
By the time he got to Scandium his hand was back on his dick, and he sighed and gave into the temptation, taking long, languid pulls until the water was truly cold, his arm braced against the wall, breath coming in and out in pants.
----
Alex got to the point that he was at the edge, his breath ragged, his thoughts on deep blue eyes and dark hair. He knew in the back of his mind that he was going to get off tonight, but it wasn’t the same. He wanted Hank holding him down, Hank fucking him, Hank -
And he came, breathing hard, his mouth going slack.
He wanted to have sex with Hank.
He would call him after this shower.
---
Hank had collapsed on his bed after his shower in his boxers, his chest rising and falling because that was possibly the most intense wank session he’d ever had.
His phone buzzed from his bedside table, and after four buzzes Hank rolled over and grabbed at his cell phone, missing it the first time and barely getting it in his palm the second.
He hit the answer button and grunted, “Hello?” into the mouthpiece.
“Hey.” Alex’s voice, equally as gruff, answered him back.
Hank smiled into the receiver, not even attempting to hide how happy he was that Alex had called him. It was weird - though they had spent the whole day together, it was weird not having Alex around him, touching him, laughing. He missed it, and it had been forty five minutes since Scott had forced Alex to take him home.
“So, I think today went pretty well.”
“Yeah, I bet I have like a zillion notifications on Facebook when I log back in.”
“You haven’t been back on?”
“No, I had to drive home and then I spent some quality time in the shower.”
Hank chuckled low in his throat. “Me too. Tonight was a bigger success than today.”
“Oh.” It came out as a statement, but almost a question as well, as if he wanted to gauge Hank’s reaction to what he said.
“So, do you think we would have gotten anywhere if we hadn’t been interrupted tonight? I mean, it was our anniversary.”
“Of course. I was planning on going all the way, I pulled out all of the stops, held your hand, I even got you right where I wanted you, but fucking Erik wanted to watch a movie. So, are you free tomorrow?”
“No.” Hank winced. “I have to study for that AP test, I totally blew off any review that I could have gotten today because I was with you. Then getting talked at by Raven. Then I enjoyed a shower. Now I’m here. And I’m tired.”
“I could come over, flip your flashcards, mess with you a little so you can pretend like you won’t ace this test.”
“That would be -“ Alex messing with him when he was now allowed to touch Alex back, fight back, hold him up against things? Bad idea. “That would be a bad idea. How about you come over for dinner?”
“So everyone can stare at us? No. How about you come over here instead? I can make Scott disappear and we can finish what we started.”
Hank ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “Okay.” He paused and rolled onto his side. “Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t hang up.”
---
Hank woke up to a snoring sound and rolled over to identify the noise. His phone was on the other pillow, and he smiled as he remembered that Alex had done the same thing at the Summers’ residence and fallen asleep on the phone with Hank.
Yeah, it was one of those weird couple-y things to do, but Hank didn’t give a damn. If he was going to try this, he was going to go all out, not pussy out because he did like having Alex around. He liked Alex’s hair, his smile, his laugh when he found something particularly funny, the fact that he had kids beaten up so Hank wouldn’t be touched in middle school. Even though it was kind of irritating to know that Alex was like a big brother when he was younger, maybe that was what had made it so hot when Hank had overpowered him, hovered over him and dominated the shit out of him.
But his phone beeped, and the snoring stuttered as Alex woke up.
“Alex?” Hank murmured, his voice almost a full range lower than normal. “Alex, my phone is going to die.”
“Mhhmmm.”
“Good morning. I’ll see you at 5:30, maybe 6 if I can’t talk Charles out of making me stay for Sunday dinner. He’ll probably understand - he was a part of the cockblock.”
“Alright.”
“The phone’s going to die so I’m going to hang up now, okay?”
“Mk. See you soon, darling. Love you.” Alex mumbled back, and Hank ended the call with a smile and took his phone over to his desk, where the charger waited for the phone’s return.
----
Studying was hard for Hank. It’s not like he didn’t already know the material back and forth already, but review was the key to being successful on tests and Hank couldn’t focus on his color coded flashcards, couldn’t sit through a full pre-test, falling asleep at one point during a portion of the writing and waking up to Charles standing over him, clucking his tongue.
“Come on, Hank. Time for a sandwich and for you to talk to me about this.”
----
Hank loped after Charles, his mind bouncing from thought to thought about what Charles wanted to talk about. He couldn’t possibly know about their plan, how he and Alex were faking it. But then, if anyone was to figure it out, it would be Charles. Charles was the person that figured out that Hank was into boys in the first place, the one who made him go to Europe and learn without boundaries, learn to be himself.
But instead they ended up in the kitchen, Charles shoving a sandwich at him and motioning for him to sit at the bar while Charles started on the pasta for typical Sunday night dinner. Hank plowed into the sandwich as Charles composed himself, taking a sip of a glass of water before peering at Hank.
“So, I know you probably don’t want to talk about this, but Hank, have you and Alex - well, have you and Alex had sex?”
Hank choked on a potato chip that were a typical part of any sandwich he ate. He hunched over his plate, coughing until the chip came back up and he spit it into his hand, then taking the glass of water Charles had thrust at him.
“Was that too forward? I mean, you don’t have to tell me but Erik said that he found you and Alex in a compromising position last night on the couch.”
“He wasn’t graphic about it?”
“No, he described it in great detail. He used some pretty fantastic metaphors about lions tearing up their prey with their eyes and it was kind of disgusting to be quite honest.”
Hank chuckled to himself. Leave it to Charles to try and clean up sex. “No, we haven’t. But we are planning on it. We’re being careful, we’re being safe and smart and whatever. We were going to do it last night but we didn’t end up doing it because Scott was being a baby about the whole thing. Oh yeah, Charles, I can’t make dinner tonight.”
“Well I’m making it.”
“No, I mean I’m going over to Alex’s to finish our date because everyone interrupted us. Is that alright?”
“Of course, of course. If I’d known I was going to interrupt your night I would have made Erik come into my room and watch it on the television in there.”
“But he’s Erik and wanted the best for you so he shut us down. But it was for the best that we didn’t have sex on the couch.”
“Well, Sean would never sit on it ever again.”
Hank chuckled.
---
After a few more minutes of chatter, Hank finished his sandwich. “I should get back to that studying thing seeing as I have that test this week.”
Charles waved his hand in defeat as Hank got up to put his plate in the dishwasher. Hank hummed a tune he couldn’t exactly place but sounded like one of those songs Raven put on when she was prepping for a date.
When he turned around, Charles was holding out an envelope. Hank shook his head, but Charles thrust it at him, flicking his wrist until Hank took the envelope, feeling the little packages through the thin white paper. “Hank?”
“Be safe, I know. Thanks, Charles.”
“I was going to say that condoms aren’t cheap so don’t expect to get a gift like this every week. Also, that would really worry me if you two blew through that in a night. I expect you home by midnight.”
Hank nodded.
As soon as he got back to his room, he picked up his phone to send Alex a picture.
Look what Charles just gave me.
no way
trust me, he made me a sandwich and told me to be careful. luckily my number is low so I’m not really that worried.
oh.
Oh?
later.
Alex?
Seriously Hank, later ;)
---
It’s not as if Alex wanted to ignore Hank, he just knew that if he started to get distracted by Hank he would never start cooking.
When they were younger Hank used to watch Lady and the Tramp when he was upset, and Alex had gone out and gotten pasta and sauce to make pasta with meatballs for their big date.
Scott had left earlier after a few scowls from Alex and a perfectly timed call from Jean wanting him to come over and study. Scott had mentioned going to dinner at the mansion but Alex had pulled the sullen older brother card and Scott had given up on trying to understand if it was a yes or no: he had probably assumed it was a yes, but Alex went by the old adage when you assume you make an ass out of you and me.
Right now the garlic bread that he gotten the recipe was his goal, and he sighed as he reread it. He didn’t want to mess this up.
He also needed a shower.
---
Hank gave up studying at four forty five, opting to take a shower for his “big date” as he had started to think of it as.
Though it really wasn’t an actual date, he still wanted to at least smell nice.
---
Alex grinned as he lowered the heat on the pasta, double checking the time before double checking that everything was going according to plan. The sauce was simmering, the pasta cooking and the garlic bread was ready to be put in the oven when he got out of the shower but before he got dressed.
---
Eta?
I’m still thinking 6:30 if that’s good for you.
y.
Why? Well I just got out of the shower and I’m trying to figure out the best way to sneak out without anyone seeing me and grabbing some soda or something.
i meant yes.
oh. See you soon!
---
Alex smiled as he slid the garlic bread into the over. His pasta was cooking perfectly, his sauce simmering, the garlic bread in the oven.
Fucking success.
----
Hank snuck down the back stairs, holding his shoes in his hands, sliding across the back hallway in his socks and sprinting through the little hallway that you could kind of see him sneaking through if you were looking for him.
He heard Raven’s shrieking but he escaped before she could track him down and harass him, sprinting to his car and sliding in, smiling and sliding the door closed, then locking the door and backing out carefully but quickly as Raven tried to flag him down, Scott behind him.
He grinned and waved innocently. Rarely did anyone get out of Sunday dinner at the Xavier household, but tonight he was home free.
Alex glanced over his shoulder, and he was surprised to find a guy somewhere in between Hank’s height and his own with some intense red makeup on his face and his arms crossed and it’s not like he was as muscular as Alex but he was kind of intimidating. He could feel Hank’s shoulders sinking towards his back and it was like Hank was trying to climb back into his own skin, to hide in his chest cavity, and this must be the dude that made Hank quit when it was obvious Hank enjoyed being here.
He put on his best ‘dealing with customers’ grin and turned towards the other dude, who was trying to make eye contact with Hank. Alex went for Hank’s hand and he felt Hank’s big hand wrap around his in understanding.
“Hello Azazel.”
“Why hello Hank - it’s been a while. And this is?”
“Hi, Alex Summers.” He offered the hand not currently calming Hank to the make-up laden man, who quickly shook it - screaming over confidant and cocky at Alex - and grinned at this stranger, who had made Hank start to sweat a little. “Hank was just showin’ me where he disappeared to last summer.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude but I don’t know who you are.” The stranger said, a vague accent to his words, and Alex bit back a grin.
“Yeah, sorry, I’m Hank’s boyfriend.”
And that was it. Those three words had caused a frown on Az-whatever’s face, and the guy backed up. “I’m so sorry for interrupting then. I just wanted to say hello. So, yes.” And then the guy turned on his heel and stalked off, and Alex started to do what he called his victory dance before he realized he was not in his own home after beating whoever was on Jeopardy again.
Alex turned, triumphant, towards Hank, and beamed. Hank managed a weak smile, and Alex wanted more smile, more mouth, more everything. He pulled Hank’s hand to his lips and kisses his knuckles like they do in old movies and the smile widens and his eyes don’t look so worried now, instead a twinkling of amusement in them.
“Still want me to beat him up for ya?” Alex asked, tilting his head.
Hank made a face, his mouth scrunched up as if he was thinking about it, then he shrugged. “Maybe later. Soda time?”
“Who likes orange soda? Alex likes orange soda.” Alex proclaimed, and they walked side by side over to the concessions stand, where the blonde from earlier was beaming at the two of them. “Do you want me to beat her up too?” Alex whispered to Hank, flexing his muscles, and Hank laughed.
“No, that’s Lorna. She’s harmless. Well, most of the time.” Hank said, and went for his wallet. Alex smiled pleasantly, and she wiggled her eyebrows, which caused Alex to feel slightly violated. He slid behind Hank, arms around his waist, and peeked his eyes over Hank’s shoulder as he interacted with the woman who looked like she was going to throw down and have sex with the both of them if Hank wasn’t in between her and Alex wasn’t gripping to Hank like an octopus.
---
Once Hank had gotten the soda, they had exited the concessions area after a lascivious wink from Lorna which made him feel slightly dirty. Hank had only gotten one straw and was sipping at the soda, and Alex was thirsty god damn it and Hank was all limb and angles and he could probably just grab it but then it would end up everywhere.
Instead, he decided to return to an old habit of his. “Soda? Soda? Soda?” He squawked, batting his lashes at Hank and poking him in the cheek. “Soda?”
Hank sighed. “That wasn’t funny when you started doing that eight years ago, and it’s still not funny now.” He handed the soda to Alex, who slurped and wiggled his eyebrows.
Hank’s phone chirped out Charles’ ringtone, and Hank squinted to see if he had missed any texts. “I should probably get this.” Alex shook his head. “After the photobooth?” Alex nodded. “Are you coming over after here?” Alex nodded again, slurping the soda noisily. “You are just so gross. I don’t know why I put up with you.” He put his phone back in its holster and dragged Alex towards the photobooth in the corner.
Hank grabbed onto Alex’s wrist and yanked him over towards the photo booth while Alex slurped on the soda greedily, eyeing every person that crossed their path smugly. He didn’t understand why he was so damn happy - he’d just been propositioned - but he was also trying to let everyone in this place know to back the fuck off.
Then he felt Hank let go and he looked and they were at one of those cutesy little photo booths with a big thick black curtain and Hank looking up at him, a mix of pissed and pleased because his hand had gone back to his pocket to silence his phone because Charles was probably calling, again. Alex thrust the soda at Hank, who shook it and frowned.
“Did you have to drink almost all of it?” Alex shrugged and Hank sighed, puckering his lips and sucking in hard, the ice crackling as the soda went up the straw.
Alex cleared his throat and slid into the booth, placing himself on Hank’s knees as he checked his teeth in the camera, Hank gracefully sliding an arm around Alex’s waist while his arms did something with the soda cup and it took one pull of his arms for Alex to fall back gracelessly against his chest, his hands going to the seat of the photo booth, his eyes wide as Hank laughed at his reaction to almost dying because Hank fucking McCoy is a spider monkey or something weird like that.
It would suck if all of these muscles were in reality built because Hank was Spiderman. He was fake dating Spiderman. He was fucking Gwen Stacy. He was going to die by being tossed over George Washington Bridge by the Green Goblin. He would have to start wearing a parachute now when he went into the city.
This was some serious shit.
Then he felt a finger in his side and he realized he was still in a photo booth with Hank and apparently had plastered himself to Hank’s chest, his hands around Hank’s neck like some sort of girl, and maybe he did have a bit of a superhero complex.
“Is this how we’re going to take the pictures - like you’re my child, clinging to me? Because I’m fine with that, I just have to put the money in the slot and then you can go back to clinging -“
“Give me the money.” Alex demanded, pouting. Hank motioned to his pocket - and somehow Alex’s feet had ended up on Hank’s thigh which, great, thanks a lot natural reactions, and angrily edged the wallet out of Hank’s pocket and opened it, pulling out all of the ones and dropping them in his lap, then picking out three and shoving them into the machine until it took. Hank’s giggles just made the thrusting harder, and then one all three dollars were in the machine, Alex jabbed at the buttons until the blank frame came up - who wanted angels or devils surrounding their faces, not Alex - and then settled back in.
“You realize all of my cash is on your lap?” Hank said, and Alex shrugged and grinned maniacally at the camera as the first flash went off.
“I adjusted the camera so our faces are the only things in this shot. Now smile, Hank!” Alex turned with his manic grin - the one that Hank identified with bad ideas and Alex drunk - and pulled at the corners of Hank’s mouth, widening his eyes and causing Hank to smile on top of Alex’s crazy mouth-pulling and Alex turned around to face the camera and beamed. After the flash had gone off, Alex stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes, causing Hank to knock his head into Alex’s shoulder because his knee-jerk reaction when Alex did that was to put his hands on his knees and howl with laughter. The last time Hank had seen Alex purposefully make that face for him was when Hank was twelve and he had broken his arm trying to stop Scott on the swing. The final frame had Alex wrapping his arm around Hank’s neck, laughing and grabbing the hand that had been on his head and pulling it away, kissing Hank on the forehead where he had bumped it against Alex’s bone.
Then Hank’s cell phone went off again.
“Charles - the ultimate cock block.”
Hank picked up on the third ring and Alex leaned in close to the receiver, breathing in heavily so Charles could tell someone was annoyed by him calling seven times during their date.
Well, this section of the date, anyway.
“Hank, why are you breathing heavily into the phone?”
“Sorry, that’s Alex.” Hank put his hand over Alex’s mouth. Alex began to inhale loudly through his nose.
“Summers?”
“Yeah. We’ll be home in thirty minutes, so don’t worry about us. We’re fine.”
“I just didn’t see you go to bed last night or leave this morning so I thought you’d been kidnapped.”
“I’m sorry but Alex had - had stuff planned for us. We’re uh - we’re having a good time. I - I have something to tell you Charles.” Alex looked up and raised his eyebrows. “Alex and I have been dating for about six months.” Alex knitted his eyebrows together.
“Is that why you go to the Y so much? Being athletic for science is good, but I’m sure that Alex wouldn’t mind you all scrawny. But perhaps it was a bonding experience - I don’t know what you two do but - are you happy?”
“Yes.” Hank admitted, blushing around his ears, and it gave Alex a certain satisfaction that he didn’t even have to tease Hank for his ears to turn red at the mention of his name. He dipped his head and nosed at Hank’s neck while Hank finished up the conversation about how Charles wasn’t being annoying, he had just been distracted by Alex who seemed to want to touch him more than ever while Hank was on the phone and that yes, he still loved Charles no matter what and sure, he and Alex would pick up some mangoes for fish tacos later so Charles didn’t have to worry about it - Alex hated fish tacos but he’d eat anything that was free so there was no point in trying to get Charles to change his mind.
After Hank hung up he leaned his head against the back of the booth, closing his eyes for a moment to evaluate what had just happened. Charles had told him that Raven had an afternoon date so that she wouldn’t be home until after dinner, which would give Hank plenty of time to upload and tag and fix all of the stuff on Facebook while Alex fixed whatever in the house or played Pokémon or slept. Then they would really scare the shit out of her - Charles had confirmed that Sean had come home freaked out and had slept most of the afternoon as usual.
A few minutes ticked by and Alex began to nose at his neck again - not altogether an unpleasant feeling, but he was also squished up on Hank, touching places that he shouldn’t touch unless he was Hank’s actual boyfriend and Hank didn’t want to go there right now, right as he was realizing that Alex was a Leo and he was a Sagittarius and they could be together flawlessly though Alex was blunt and crazy and loud and Hank was withdrawn in some ways, afraid of his own shadow, but it didn’t matter because it turned out Alex doesn’t hate him. Not even a little bit. Not even at all.
Because Alex is so into this moment, Hank realizes as he watches Alex grin as he bites at the collar of the plaid shirt, the grin he’s only seen when Alex is truly happy and enveloped in what he’s doing, not aware of the world or anything that makes what Hank now knows is a brash and hard front go up. He looks like a puppy, happily nipping at his favorite person of the moment, and Hank stops this train of thought because if someone else was to see them, they’d be like every other couple - two young adults in love.
And Hank wasn’t - he couldn’t be in love with Alex Summers. They’d only spent a day together - love didn’t happen like that. But even then, he had to let Alex have a little more time playing, because Alex rarely played unless it was poker with Sean, and even then, it wasn’t like this. Alex rarely returned to his childhood boyishness, the face that had taunted him because no one else could look as - as happy as Alex when they had been young.
Once Alex realized that Hank had been watching him carefully, he leaned up and kissed Hank on the tip of the nose and Hank’s chest constricted - his head screamed to his body to tug Alex in closer. That this is what he wanted instead of the harshly exchanged insults when he walked into the apartment every afternoon. The Old Spice clinging onto his clothes like it had this morning when he had changed into new clothes but could smell Alex’s deodorant on his used shirts. The quiet morning coffee.
“Should we get back, baby? I don’t want your daddy hating me because I brought you home late.” And Hank realized it was a mix of both teasing and genuine worry - Charles was a great pseudo-father for both Scott and Alex and Alex would rather die than get on Charles’ bad side - that buoyed Alex into comments like this.
“Charles wouldn’t hate you even if you streaked naked across the country club’s front lawn. Again.” Alex’s neck flushed and Hank smiled, remembering that night and how embarrassed Alex was - he had lost a bet to a twelve year old Sean and had never lived it down - and Hank leaned down and kissed his neck. “Come along, Summers. We’ve got some plotting to do.” He can see the whine in Alex’s eyes, but also a flicker of thought, like he had forgotten the plan. “You can even lie on my bed if we get back to the house before 5:30 with the mangoes Charles wants.”
Alex rolled his eyes and got up , offering a hand to Hank while picking up the pictures with the other. “Shall we?”
The ride back was quiet, the classic rock station playing softly in the background as Hank checked his phone, a foot up on the dashboard and Alex knew that it was a casual gesture, one picked up from being stuck in the front seat with too long legs on car trips where Sean and Raven spread across the backseat, Hank curled up because Sean had harassed him into sitting up front.
About halfway through, the hand which had been hovering over the shift went to Hank’s knee, and Hank’s hand went from wrapped around his neck to over Alex’s hand, tapping along to the bass line. Alex smiled at nothing.
----
When they got to the house, Alex got the car parked neatly so no one - Sean - would hit it if it was parked a little to the left of its assigned spot.
Hank grabbed his bag - which he had repacked neatly at every stop - and by the time that he had repacked the over shirt and placed the mangoes on top, Alex was hovering next to him, tapping his foot impatiently as if he was bored with standing there. His normal asshole aviators were on his head, and he looked like the models that Raven papered her walls with. As Hank went to shoulder his bag, Alex stopped him and tugged it out of his hands and shouldered it himself, his other arm snaking around Hank’s waist, his glasses falling onto his nose, his head tilting up towards Hank. “Are you ready for the coup d’etat?”
Hank flung his hand over Alex’s shoulders, smiling. “I knew that you secretly liked helping us with The Awakening project.” Hank jabbed, and Alex shrugged. Normally Alex would have defended himself, but it was like he was pleased. He also started to pull Hank towards the house, fingers in the waistband of his jeans, smiling up at windows and when Hank pulled his eyes away to follow Alex’s eyes to the window where Sean is standing, pressed up against the glass like he’s seriously high - though when he was home he tended to stay sober in case Erik found his stash again and chased him around the mansion again. No one wanted a repeat of that day and the subsequent night. Hank grinned widely at him and then looked at Alex, who was kind of two steps ahead of him and also beaming at Sean like he knew every single thing about Sean’s life and could kill him, and Hank gripped Alex’s shoulder as they entered the house, both automatically taking the left which was the way up to Hank’s room - and the opposite way from where Sean had been staring.
----
Once they were in Hank’s room, Alex took the camera bag and sprawled on the bed as Hank put his clothes away and then grabbed his laptop, sliding next to Alex.
“Wait.” Alex said, popping up and sprinting over to the door, locking the door and smiling. “Just in case Sean tries to bust in on us.”
“We’re not doing anything bad though.”
“But I don’t want him to know that. Do you want me to call Charles on the house phone and tell him we’re here?” Hank waved his hand, already working on sliding his memory card into the laptop.
Alex’s call was banal, explaining how he’d bring the mangoes down in a minute, they had a wonderful time out and about today and yes, he would see if something was wrong with Charles’ car after dinner. Per usual Alex and Charles got into their debate on whether Charles should get a new car or not: Alex hated the one he had and if Charles got a new one, he could rebuild the engine without distraction. But Charles wanted a BMW and Alex kind of hated them, though Erik loved them, which made his points invalid.
At the most heated point of their discussion, Hank started to snap at him. “What?” He mouthed, covering the receiver with his hand.
“Photobooth pictures.”
“No way, babe. Those are for me.” Alex said, smiling and winking at Hank.
“No they are not!” Hank said, springing up and marching over to Alex, grabbing him by the waist. “Which pocket are they in?” Before getting an answer, Hank began to pull at his pockets.
“Charles, I’m going to have to call you back.”
Without hearing Charles’ answer, Alex slammed the phone into the wall and then used both hands to attack Hank, pulling his wrists away from his pockets, trying to push Hank backwards and away from the memory Alex intended to keep until they were old and grey or the pictures actually got too marred for him to recognize how happy he looked, how happy Hank looked. “No, you can’t have them Hank. No, get away from my pockets,” he gripped harder on Hank’s wrist, “Hank, stop.”
Then something flipped in Hank and suddenly Alex was pressed up against the back of the door, struggling as Hank pulled his wrists above his head. “No, I need the pictures, Alex. You forget that I’ve been going to the Y a lot lately. Plus I have like, four inches on you easy.” He easily manipulated both of Alex’s wrists into one hand, then went back to digging in his pockets, pressing in so that he could grab the neatly folded paper. Alex wiggled a bit and Hank pressed in further as the picture tried to slip out of his fingers and back into the abyss of Alex’s pockets. After a few minutes of struggling Hank finally managed to dig out and let Alex go, practically prancing over to his scanner.
Alex, however, was trying not to jump Hank. He had always liked being dominant in public, but in private it was a totally different story. He enjoyed being pinned up to places, being the smaller one, having someone being in charge because his whole life he was the one who had been calling the shots. Even in those first foster homes, he was the one in charge of his own life. But when he was in a romantic relationship - and he’d been in two, thank you very much - he had always been the dominated one. Hank had no idea how hard it made him to be pushed up and held, to be taken care of.
Then the door pushed him back towards the bed, and he was glad that it was locked. “Hank.” It was Sean. “Hank, open the door. What’s blocking it?”
“Me, you asshole.” Alex answered, and he could hear the squawk from the other side of the door. “Go away, Sean.” You’re killing my boner, he added silently.
Sean must have thrown his whole body at the door because it surged forward and then went back, the lock holding steady. “ALEX?” He shouted at the door, and Alex didn’t respond, instead flopping himself on the bed, rolling over so that he could mess around on Hank’s facebook.
“Alex, what are you doing?” Hank said, turning over from his scanner.
“Flipping through pictures. What does it sound like I’m doing?”
“I’m not done with the album yet!” Hank squawked, but Alex started to scroll through them. The two of them eskimo kissing in barely anything. Hank laughing at the coffee shop, eyes shining. Under the tree, grinning like idiots because this was a brilliant plan. It would be easy to believe, it was easy for Alex to believe it and he had done it. Hank slid in next to him and started to click things, and Alex settled his head under Hank’s shoulder as Hank started to edit, his head sliding into the hole made by Hank’s chest while he edited and messed around.
---
About ten minutes later Alex was awoken by a hand in his hair. He pushed up into it - he loved having his hair touched - and Hank chuckled softly, running a hand through it as he settled back in. Somehow Hank’s legs had intertwined with Alex’s and it was warmer than Alex could remember because Hank was half on top of him, pushing his head forward until his eyes attached to the album that had been loaded on Facebook. It was ridiculous, how cute they looked, the little captions Hank had made about each thing they did representing their favorite date, and after he published it he opened another browser and then fixed their anniversary date. Alex pulled at Hank’s elbow until Hank lowered his right arm and Alex pillowed his head on it as Hank used his left to navigate out of the internet and shut off his laptop.
By the time the computer beeped to signal it was finished shutting down, they were both asleep.
Hank hadn’t even realized they’d fallen asleep until he heard a firm knocking on the door, a knocking he identified with crying and late night cookies. He attempted to move but he was too warm, and he opened his eyes to feel little hairs brush his eyelashes, an arm twined around his, something pressing up into his chest as he got up and tried to get up to the door. The body keened itself up into Hank, and if it had been anyone else’s knock, Hank would have stayed where he was.
But it was Charles, and he was like their father, so he detangled himself and grabbed the bag of mangoes. Alex groaned and rolled into the spot where Hank had been, mumbling in his sleep as he was prone to doing right before he started to snore, and Hank opened the door to Charles beginning to knock again, his hand in mid-air.
Charles took one look at him and began to chuckle - Hank’s shirt was un-tucked, his hair unruly from the twenty minutes of sleep he had gotten, his eyes blinking because he had left his contacts in while he was asleep. “I’m sorry I interrupted your nap but I need the mangoes and dinner will be in a half hour. It’s your job to set the table this week, but I can handle it if you want to continue with your nap.” Hank handled Charles the mangoes and leaned into the doorframe, attempting to hide Alex with his body. “Hank?”
“Yes?”
“Do we need to have a talk about what you and Alex do with the door closed? You know I don’t mind if you two, well, you know,” Hank could feel the blush dripping down from the tips of his ears, “but if you want to talk about how it makes you feel or anything like that, just know that I’m here. I know that you’d prefer to not talk about it, but if you do, don’t go to Erik. When Sean went to him, I was afraid he’d been scarred for life.”
“I will. So, I should be down in twenty?”
“If you wouldn’t mind. I also want Alex to see if the strange sound comes from the dishwasher earlier does it again when he fiddles with it.”
“Will do.”
Charles beamed at him, “You really are happy, aren’t you?”
Hank shrugged. He just wanted to get back to his nap before Alex pulled a starfish and Hank had to force him to give him space.
Charles grinned wide and smacked Hank on the shoulder, smiling. “Good on you. See you in a few. Hopefully Erik hasn’t burnt the taco meat while I’ve been away.” Charles walked away, and Hank turned to find Alex, his hair askew, focused on something on the computer.
“I logged into Facebook and I had like a hundred notifications. I’m more popular then Kim Kardashian or some shit like that.”
“Because you changed your relationship status?”
“No, it’s like everyone we know has gone through our Facebook album and liked every single one of our photos. Now the comments are starting - every time I think I’ve gotten rid of all of the notifications, more pop up.” Alex huffed and clicked to the album, reaching up and motioning to Hank to sit down.
Hank did so, and he saw that Alex wasn’t wrong - Armando, Angel, even Anne-Marie from the coffee shop had all left comments on the album. It had no less than sixteen likes and more comments, but Hank didn’t really care.
“So, did you hear? Charles needs you to look at the dishwasher again, and I have to set the table.”
“Do you want me to change into other clothes or whatever?” Alex looked up at him, and Hank wanted to - well, he wanted to not go to dinner, but he heard the front door slam and he knew that it was Raven. Also, the screeching from Sean and the feet pounding down the stairs signaled that he was about to get loud.
“No, stay like that. Do you want to face Raven now or later?”
Alex grinned wide and rolled on his side, his shirt riding up to show his lower stomach. “I say we do it now. No messing with your hair, babe. You look hot like this.”
“I look hot all messed up? Thank you. Love you too.”
Alex beamed and rolled off the bed, popping up a few second later. “Come along, Pond!” He said, skipping towards the door and unlocking it.
Hank heard screams from the bottom of the stairs and he pulled himself off of the bed and headed over to Alex, who offered him his hand. Hank took it, intertwining their fingers and allowed himself to be pulled down the stairs towards the kitchen. Alex used the back stairs to avoid Raven, but he heard shuffling up the front stairs so they would find the two of them sooner or later.
---
Charles was happy to see Alex, and in a few moments Alex went from standing next to Hank to on the floor, examining some sort of belt in the dishwasher. Hank went and set the table for six, but before he could escape back into the kitchen, there were hands on his hips, their nails painted a vibrant blue.
“Raven, why are you squeezing my hips like we’re in a Shakira video?”
“I just love you and the fact that you’ve freaked Sean out so much today.”
“By?”
“By pretending that you’re in a relationship with Alex.”
“I’m not pretending.” Raven squeezed harder. “Really, I’m not. We’ve been dating for six months - but I guess we weren’t that subtle.”
Raven screamed and Hank wiggled out of her grasp only to have a hand tucked into his back pocket. “Is everything alright?” Alex said, his voice a mix of delight and confusion.
“You two aren’t - I don’t know what - oh my God Sean! Sean, Scott, come here, oh my God oh my God oh my God!”
“Yes, Raven, it’s lovely to see you again too. Charles said to sit down when you got in - dinner apparently took less time then he intended.” Alex took his normal seat on the right side of the table, and Hank went over and sat next to him, throwing his arm over the back of Alex’s chair.
Raven’s jaw went as far down as it physically could, which was almost far down as her shoulders. Sean came up behind her and smirked at her. “See, I told you I wasn’t too high to dream this up.”
“How - I - I’m calling Scott.”
“He’ll be over later after he, Jean and Logan get dinner ” Charles said, appearing in the doorway with a platter of steaming tacos. Erik was behind him, a platter on each arm, a frown on his face. Obviously his and Charles’ argument wasn’t over. “Apparently they went to museum exhibit and got caught in a bad case of traffic. Either way, we all get to have the first chance to eat the tacos before the human garbage pit gets here.”
“I thought that was me.” Alex moaned. Hank flicked his ear and Alex stuck his tongue out at Hank. “What? I totally finished your lunch earlier.”
“You don’t like fish.”
“I’ll eat anything if I’m hungry enough. And boy am I hungry.” He winked at Hank, who licked his lips back.
Erik cleared his throat. “Please not before or directly after I eat.” Alex snickered and looked back at the table, where the food had been placed. Alex dug in, and Hank followed, because though they had eaten a full lunch, all of the activity had made him really hungry.
---
Dinner was quiet, with Alex and Hank kicking at each other’s ankles, and when they were both full, Alex kicked Hank three times on the ankle, a signal they had made up when Hank was twelve and Alex was fifteen and they had gotten stuck with Charles’ great aunt for the summer. A kick three times to the ankle meant that one of them thought it was safe enough to escape to another room, play some soccer or if it was raining, chess.
“We’re going to go watch a movie.” Hank stood up and took his plate into the kitchen, Alex following him in. They both dumped the dishes in the sink, then turned to go up to the TV room, Alex’s hand slinging itself around Hank’s waist, Hank’s arm going over Alex’s shoulders.
---
Once they got there and the door was securely closed, they both burst out into laughter, Alex on the floor, Hank doubled over, and they roared with it. Every time one of them started to get it together, they glanced at the other and started to laugh again. About ten minutes later Hank’s throat gave way and he started to hoarsely giggle. Alex got up and started to stifle his giggles, getting up and pulling Hank towards the couch, slinging Hank over it and then heading towards the cabinets and going up on his toes. After scanning through the selection, he pulled out a case - “Let’s watch The Breakfast Club.” He went and popped it in, and when he got back, Hank was slung over the corner of the couch. He smiled and headed over to the mini fridge, taking out two bottles of water and tossing one to Hank, who caught it and opened it. Alex cracked his open and then drained it, putting it on the table before walking over to Hank and burying himself into Hank’s chest, arms going around his neck and turning his face towards the television. Hank held the water bottle towards the table, and put it down on the newspaper Charles had ill-advisedly left on the table. Hank knew he’d be scolded for it later, but he didn’t care.
He wrapped his arms around Alex, and they settled into watching the movie.
---
Forty minutes later, Scott busted through the door to find his brother snuggled into his best friend’s neck, his best friend’s hands on his brother’s ass.
“WHAT THE DEVIL IS GOING ON HERE?” Scott shouted, and Logan tumbled in behind him to see the same sight and began to choke up with laughter, holding his stomach. “Oh my God, Alex, get off Hank!”
“Why would he do that?” Hank answered, smiling widely and patting Alex’s ass just to see Scott’s eyes almost pop out of his head. As an added bonus, Logan fell onto the floor he was laughing so hard. Scott looked over at Logan, who he had hated less than seventy two hours before, and stomped his foot.
“Oh my God, Logan, please stop gloating. This isn’t happening! Hank, stop touching his ass. Alex, get off Hank!”
Alex turned his head as he paused the movie. “Scott, get out. We’re celebrating our six month and you’re ruining both it and my chances by being so negative. Logan, if you would be so kind.”
Logan smiled and nodded, chuckling as he went over to Scott and flinging him over his shoulder, Scott pounding at his back as he got carried out of the room. “Have fun, you two! Be safe.” Logan turned around and shut the door on the two of them.
“So, I’m pretty sure that Logan bet that we were having sex. Which also means that he thinks that Charles and Erik are doing it too.”
“Not yet - not with the way they fight. Eventually, hopefully, maybe they will, but not right now.”
“Is that why - “
“Is that why what?”
“Never mind. Time to finish the movie?”
“Yeah yeah. Get back to lying down.”
“What am I, a human pillow made solely for your amusement?”
“You’ve always been my favorite source of amusement, since you take my attention when you walk into a room anyway. Now I get to cuddle with you instead of watching you freeze on the other side of the couch. Now shut it - I want to see how they finish out their day in detention. When I was in high school detention was never this fun.”
---
Later on in the film when the part about Brian keeping a gun in his locker came up, Hank ducked his head away from the screen, gripping tight on Alex’s hips.
“You alright?” Alex’s voice came out low and deep, reverberating against Hank’s chest. Hank mumbled something incomprehensible and Alex elbowed him in the cheek. “Hank, what’s wrong?”
“I thought about that, once or twice. If the world would be a whole lot better if I wasn’t around, falling over things and annoying people. It was in the middle of the year last year, right around the time that Jean and Scott started to fight.”
“Why would you feel that way?”
“Erik and Charles were fighting, Raven was with Janos and actually happy for once, Jean and Scott were arguing and you were busy and - I don’t know, I just felt like I annoyed Scott every time I talked to him, I annoyed Charles by not being completely understanding all of the time, Sean was high and happy and I don’t know, I couldn’t get happy.”
“Did you - “
“I sat around on Valentine’s Day and almost did it. I - I ended up falling asleep with the gun in my hand. Erik found me. We both agreed never to discuss it.”
“Hank, please don’t. If you think about it, talk to me about it. I don’t want you gone.”
“Thank you, Alex.” Hank said softly, and Alex nosed at his jaw, kisses pressed into his neck, and Hank warmed up again. Alex mouthed words against Hank’s neck in between kisses, but Hank didn’t ask him and Alex wouldn’t tell if he had.
---
At the end of the movie, both of them were mostly asleep, the blanket at the end of the couch warming Hank’s feet, Alex warming the rest of him. Hank went to roll Alex over so that they’d be in proper spooning position - mostly so that when they fell asleep, Hank’s shoulder wouldn’t be in some sort of pain.
Then a thump was at the door, and giggling, and Hank knew that noise.
“Alex. Alex.” He whispered into Alex’s hair, rubbing his hands on Alex’s lower back, Alex keening into his lower stomach. “Alex, they’re listening in.”
Alex blinked once, twice, and then his lips were on Hank’s, his legs sliding up around Hank’s waist, his arms caging his head. Hank moaned then his hands went to Alex’s hips, gripping then flipping Alex over so Hank hovered over him, grinning devilishly. Alex laughed and went up to bite the tip of Hank’s nose. Hank snorted and bit Alex’s bottom lip, a moan escaping Alex’s lips a second later. Hank laughed and bit Alex’s top lip, lapping at it and then sticking his tongue into Alex’s mouth. Hank groaned at the sweetness, the tang of the mangoes from the tacos and the good old Alex taste he had begun to identify earlier that day, a taste he liked a little too much.
Then the door opened and Hank raised one hand to flick whoever it was off, his lips not daring to leave Alex’s in case the jig was completely and totally up and they all figured it out. Hank hoped not.
“Oh my goodness.” Jean Grey’s voice flooded over them, and the both broke apart, a little shell shocked. “I can’t even understand this. Orroro, tell me you’re seeing this.” Hank looked away from Alex and over the couch for a moment to find both Jean and Ororro staring at them in shock, Logan behind Jean, cackling, and Scott as pale as snow behind Ororro.
“Oh my god.” Ororro said, and started to laugh. Jean joined in after a moment, cackling like the evil bitch that she could be. Logan opened his mouth to begin laughing, but instead turned to Scott and patted him on the back awkwardly, Scott leaning into his chest.
Hank grinned. “See! I told you the two of you would get along if you just stopped being little girls. Alex, look, your brother and Logan are getting along!”
“Hank. Please stop talking about my brother while I -“ Before he could finish that sentence, Hank covered Alex’s mouth with his own. Alex groaned and keened up into the touch, his hands threading through Hank’s hair, pulling Hank back on top of him.
“Hank! Alex! Please stop. I’ll call Armando!” Scott’s yells sounded muffled by something, and Hank smiled into the kiss because he knew it was probably Scott’s shirt. Alex’s tongue followed the curl of his lips and he went to bite the tip. “Ew, is that tongue?”
Hank pulled off of Alex once again, “Get out.” He growled.
He heard the shuffle of Logan’s boots dragging Scott’s tennis shoes, the click-clack of Jean’s sensible heels followed by the tap of a more elegant rap of a toe-heel step from Ororro’s flats. He waited until the door closed, the steps further away before he started to pull off.
But that wasn’t what Alex wanted. Alex cried out in anguish as Hank pulled away, his hands clawing at Hank’s lower back. “No no no please, Hank.” And Hank wanted Alex to beg, wanted Alex below him, and he didn’t want to stop.
“You like that?” Hank asked, and Alex nodded, keening up.
“Can you please not do that in here?” An accented voice said, and Hank pulled back again to find Erik with a raised eyebrow standing in the open doorway.
“Sorry Erik.” Hank said, his voice coming out like a rumble of thunder from somewhere in his chest.
“It’s not a problem, Charles and I wanted to watch a film and this is the best television in the house, so if you two could take it to your room or any room that isn’t this one, it’d be much obliged.” A cough came from the other side of the door and Erik rolled his eyes. “Scott would like if Alex took him home, though. He has a television show he wants to watch at nine.”
“At home. Alone. Without you making out with Hank. Mostly so we can talk about this.” Scott sounded like his head was going to explode.
Hank rolled back and off of Alex, who groaned and shifted his hips so that the tent in his pants was less noticeable. Hank snickered and Alex stuck his tongue out. Hank retaliated by making a licking motion and wiggling his eyebrows. Alex’s breath caught, and Erik cleared his throat. “Are we moving?”
Alex got off the couch and walked slowly towards the door, turning around to find Hank’s eyes laughing. He shook his head and pulled Scott after him.
---
“ALEX ROBERT SUMMERS, ARE YOU SERIOUSLY HAVING SEX WITH HANK?” Scott said as soon as they slid into the car.
Alex ignored him. In fact, he hadn’t really heard anything since he’d left the room. Hank, on top of him, licking and biting, was running on a continuous loop in his head. Until he got home and in the shower, he wouldn’t focus on anything except driving safely and the memory of Hank hovering over him, breathing heavily and ready to love him.
Even though they’d been walked in on. Even though they’d been told to separate repeatedly.
Alex just wanted Hank, and it seemed like Hank wanted him too.
When they got home, Alex didn’t even wait for Scott to get safely out of the car before he hopped out and locked the door, getting the keys in the door faster than you could say Quidditch. Scott screeched and tore after him, and when Scott was behind him, hovering as he unlocked the door. Scott went to open his mouth but Alex turned around and snapped.
“Look, four eyes, here’s what going to happen. I’m going to take a shower and then I’m going to bed and you are going to not get in my way because you.” He poked Scott in the chest after every word for effect, like Hank did when he got angry after an experiment gone awry, “ruined. My. Night.” With that, he turned on his heel and stomped inside, stripping his shirt off as he went towards the shower.
----
Hank had slipped into his bathroom a short time after Alex left. He knew he needed a shower - he’d been out all day, he stank of sweat, cologne and strangely of coffee and a type of Old Spice he didn’t use, though he may have grabbed the wrong one out of the bag earlier. He locked the door behind him. He slowly took off his clothes: he folded his pants so he could wear them again, removing his shirt and then hung it up on the back hook. He took the blue towels normally left out for him - Charles, the other person who used blue towels, never took showers outside of his own bathroom - and slid out of his boxer-briefs.
He turned the shower on cold - it was really warm in the house, alright - and slid in, trying to breathe calmly and not think about the fact that his penis was pretty much attached to the bottom of his stomach. He was trying not to think about Alex below him, the sweet taste of Alex on his tongue, his hands trailing south towards Hank’s waistband.
Hank started to recite the periodic table, names then symbols then numbers, but still his mind drifted back to super soft blond hair, softer lips, and skin that he’d only seen bits and pieces of.
---
Alex had locked the door seconds after getting into the room, stripping his pants off, and then peeling his boxers off. He didn’t even bother pretending that he wasn’t going into the shower to jerk off to Hank holding his hands over his head, breathing hard onto his mouth, biting his lips, and his hand was on his dick before the shower was even on. He flicked the water to lukewarm, sliding in and then pumping his dick for all it was worth, licking the lingering taste of Hank off of his lips, his hand pulling hard on his dick like he knew somehow that Hank would do.
----
By the time he got to Scandium his hand was back on his dick, and he sighed and gave into the temptation, taking long, languid pulls until the water was truly cold, his arm braced against the wall, breath coming in and out in pants.
----
Alex got to the point that he was at the edge, his breath ragged, his thoughts on deep blue eyes and dark hair. He knew in the back of his mind that he was going to get off tonight, but it wasn’t the same. He wanted Hank holding him down, Hank fucking him, Hank -
And he came, breathing hard, his mouth going slack.
He wanted to have sex with Hank.
He would call him after this shower.
---
Hank had collapsed on his bed after his shower in his boxers, his chest rising and falling because that was possibly the most intense wank session he’d ever had.
His phone buzzed from his bedside table, and after four buzzes Hank rolled over and grabbed at his cell phone, missing it the first time and barely getting it in his palm the second.
He hit the answer button and grunted, “Hello?” into the mouthpiece.
“Hey.” Alex’s voice, equally as gruff, answered him back.
Hank smiled into the receiver, not even attempting to hide how happy he was that Alex had called him. It was weird - though they had spent the whole day together, it was weird not having Alex around him, touching him, laughing. He missed it, and it had been forty five minutes since Scott had forced Alex to take him home.
“So, I think today went pretty well.”
“Yeah, I bet I have like a zillion notifications on Facebook when I log back in.”
“You haven’t been back on?”
“No, I had to drive home and then I spent some quality time in the shower.”
Hank chuckled low in his throat. “Me too. Tonight was a bigger success than today.”
“Oh.” It came out as a statement, but almost a question as well, as if he wanted to gauge Hank’s reaction to what he said.
“So, do you think we would have gotten anywhere if we hadn’t been interrupted tonight? I mean, it was our anniversary.”
“Of course. I was planning on going all the way, I pulled out all of the stops, held your hand, I even got you right where I wanted you, but fucking Erik wanted to watch a movie. So, are you free tomorrow?”
“No.” Hank winced. “I have to study for that AP test, I totally blew off any review that I could have gotten today because I was with you. Then getting talked at by Raven. Then I enjoyed a shower. Now I’m here. And I’m tired.”
“I could come over, flip your flashcards, mess with you a little so you can pretend like you won’t ace this test.”
“That would be -“ Alex messing with him when he was now allowed to touch Alex back, fight back, hold him up against things? Bad idea. “That would be a bad idea. How about you come over for dinner?”
“So everyone can stare at us? No. How about you come over here instead? I can make Scott disappear and we can finish what we started.”
Hank ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “Okay.” He paused and rolled onto his side. “Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t hang up.”
---
Hank woke up to a snoring sound and rolled over to identify the noise. His phone was on the other pillow, and he smiled as he remembered that Alex had done the same thing at the Summers’ residence and fallen asleep on the phone with Hank.
Yeah, it was one of those weird couple-y things to do, but Hank didn’t give a damn. If he was going to try this, he was going to go all out, not pussy out because he did like having Alex around. He liked Alex’s hair, his smile, his laugh when he found something particularly funny, the fact that he had kids beaten up so Hank wouldn’t be touched in middle school. Even though it was kind of irritating to know that Alex was like a big brother when he was younger, maybe that was what had made it so hot when Hank had overpowered him, hovered over him and dominated the shit out of him.
But his phone beeped, and the snoring stuttered as Alex woke up.
“Alex?” Hank murmured, his voice almost a full range lower than normal. “Alex, my phone is going to die.”
“Mhhmmm.”
“Good morning. I’ll see you at 5:30, maybe 6 if I can’t talk Charles out of making me stay for Sunday dinner. He’ll probably understand - he was a part of the cockblock.”
“Alright.”
“The phone’s going to die so I’m going to hang up now, okay?”
“Mk. See you soon, darling. Love you.” Alex mumbled back, and Hank ended the call with a smile and took his phone over to his desk, where the charger waited for the phone’s return.
----
Studying was hard for Hank. It’s not like he didn’t already know the material back and forth already, but review was the key to being successful on tests and Hank couldn’t focus on his color coded flashcards, couldn’t sit through a full pre-test, falling asleep at one point during a portion of the writing and waking up to Charles standing over him, clucking his tongue.
“Come on, Hank. Time for a sandwich and for you to talk to me about this.”
----
Hank loped after Charles, his mind bouncing from thought to thought about what Charles wanted to talk about. He couldn’t possibly know about their plan, how he and Alex were faking it. But then, if anyone was to figure it out, it would be Charles. Charles was the person that figured out that Hank was into boys in the first place, the one who made him go to Europe and learn without boundaries, learn to be himself.
But instead they ended up in the kitchen, Charles shoving a sandwich at him and motioning for him to sit at the bar while Charles started on the pasta for typical Sunday night dinner. Hank plowed into the sandwich as Charles composed himself, taking a sip of a glass of water before peering at Hank.
“So, I know you probably don’t want to talk about this, but Hank, have you and Alex - well, have you and Alex had sex?”
Hank choked on a potato chip that were a typical part of any sandwich he ate. He hunched over his plate, coughing until the chip came back up and he spit it into his hand, then taking the glass of water Charles had thrust at him.
“Was that too forward? I mean, you don’t have to tell me but Erik said that he found you and Alex in a compromising position last night on the couch.”
“He wasn’t graphic about it?”
“No, he described it in great detail. He used some pretty fantastic metaphors about lions tearing up their prey with their eyes and it was kind of disgusting to be quite honest.”
Hank chuckled to himself. Leave it to Charles to try and clean up sex. “No, we haven’t. But we are planning on it. We’re being careful, we’re being safe and smart and whatever. We were going to do it last night but we didn’t end up doing it because Scott was being a baby about the whole thing. Oh yeah, Charles, I can’t make dinner tonight.”
“Well I’m making it.”
“No, I mean I’m going over to Alex’s to finish our date because everyone interrupted us. Is that alright?”
“Of course, of course. If I’d known I was going to interrupt your night I would have made Erik come into my room and watch it on the television in there.”
“But he’s Erik and wanted the best for you so he shut us down. But it was for the best that we didn’t have sex on the couch.”
“Well, Sean would never sit on it ever again.”
Hank chuckled.
---
After a few more minutes of chatter, Hank finished his sandwich. “I should get back to that studying thing seeing as I have that test this week.”
Charles waved his hand in defeat as Hank got up to put his plate in the dishwasher. Hank hummed a tune he couldn’t exactly place but sounded like one of those songs Raven put on when she was prepping for a date.
When he turned around, Charles was holding out an envelope. Hank shook his head, but Charles thrust it at him, flicking his wrist until Hank took the envelope, feeling the little packages through the thin white paper. “Hank?”
“Be safe, I know. Thanks, Charles.”
“I was going to say that condoms aren’t cheap so don’t expect to get a gift like this every week. Also, that would really worry me if you two blew through that in a night. I expect you home by midnight.”
Hank nodded.
As soon as he got back to his room, he picked up his phone to send Alex a picture.
Look what Charles just gave me.
no way
trust me, he made me a sandwich and told me to be careful. luckily my number is low so I’m not really that worried.
oh.
Oh?
later.
Alex?
Seriously Hank, later ;)
---
It’s not as if Alex wanted to ignore Hank, he just knew that if he started to get distracted by Hank he would never start cooking.
When they were younger Hank used to watch Lady and the Tramp when he was upset, and Alex had gone out and gotten pasta and sauce to make pasta with meatballs for their big date.
Scott had left earlier after a few scowls from Alex and a perfectly timed call from Jean wanting him to come over and study. Scott had mentioned going to dinner at the mansion but Alex had pulled the sullen older brother card and Scott had given up on trying to understand if it was a yes or no: he had probably assumed it was a yes, but Alex went by the old adage when you assume you make an ass out of you and me.
Right now the garlic bread that he gotten the recipe was his goal, and he sighed as he reread it. He didn’t want to mess this up.
He also needed a shower.
---
Hank gave up studying at four forty five, opting to take a shower for his “big date” as he had started to think of it as.
Though it really wasn’t an actual date, he still wanted to at least smell nice.
---
Alex grinned as he lowered the heat on the pasta, double checking the time before double checking that everything was going according to plan. The sauce was simmering, the pasta cooking and the garlic bread was ready to be put in the oven when he got out of the shower but before he got dressed.
---
Eta?
I’m still thinking 6:30 if that’s good for you.
y.
Why? Well I just got out of the shower and I’m trying to figure out the best way to sneak out without anyone seeing me and grabbing some soda or something.
i meant yes.
oh. See you soon!
---
Alex smiled as he slid the garlic bread into the over. His pasta was cooking perfectly, his sauce simmering, the garlic bread in the oven.
Fucking success.
----
Hank snuck down the back stairs, holding his shoes in his hands, sliding across the back hallway in his socks and sprinting through the little hallway that you could kind of see him sneaking through if you were looking for him.
He heard Raven’s shrieking but he escaped before she could track him down and harass him, sprinting to his car and sliding in, smiling and sliding the door closed, then locking the door and backing out carefully but quickly as Raven tried to flag him down, Scott behind him.
He grinned and waved innocently. Rarely did anyone get out of Sunday dinner at the Xavier household, but tonight he was home free.