My favorite part ever ever ever of the book, if someone said that to me I would simply desintegrate 🤭
“Should I tell you that when we’re apart, your body comes back to me in dreams? That when I sleep, I see you, the dip of your waist, the freckle above your hip, and when I wake up in the morning, it feels like I’ve just been with you, the phantom touch of your hand on the back of my neck fresh and not imagined? That I can feel your skin against mine, and it makes every bone in my body ache? That, for a few moments, I can hold my breath and be back there with you, in a dream, in a thousand rooms, nowhere at all?”
—Regards, Haplessly Romantic Heretic Prince Henry the Utterly Daft
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I’m not crying, you are.
9 for malex
First of all, how dare you?? Second of all, play this song based on this post
9. “You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you.”
Pick a number from this list and send to me with a ship 💕
The rain had just started to trickle down from the sky, heavy drops shining iridescently as they fell, landing all but silently around them.
Michael knelt, pulling Alex up over his thighs and cradling his head in his hand, the other holding his ribs as they strained for breath.
He wasn't sure what was the rain and what was coming from his own eyes, the drops landing softly on Alex's pale cheeks.
"Alex," he muttered in a choked cry. "Alex, please."
It was every fear being realised all at once, it was every wall coming crashing down around him, everything they had built just crumbling into nothing. Because that's what it would be without him, nothing.
Alex reached up slowly, fingers barely grazing Michael's cheek as his breaths grew shallow, his eyes still warm, still looking at Michael the way they always had.
"It's okay," he said, and Michael shook his head.
"No, no Alex this isn't okay, you need to hold on," he sobbed.
"You're here," Alex said, the words getting caught in his throat. "That's all... I ever wanted."
Michael held him tighter, his teeth grit tightly in his jaw, lump rising in his chest, or maybe it was his heart tearing into pieces.
Others stood around them, Max and Liz, Isobel and Maria, but as far as Michael was concerned, there was only Alex, and he was begging him not to go.
"You'll be okay," Alex said, tears falling down into his hairline. "You will."
"No, this never should have happened," he said. "I was supposed to keep you safe. It should be me, it should be me."
Alex was shaking his head, wincing at the movement, fingers trying to press deeper into his skin, but they were growing weaker.
"They need you," he said, his voice tired, low. "Michael you're... you're their family."
"Maybe," Michael said, leaning in to press his forehead against Alex, knowing the tears were landing on his skin, feeling his breathing slow under his hands as he barely managed the words. "But you are mine."
"Hey," Alex said. "I know."
His voice was cracked and rough, Michael felt the way his body was pushing out each syllable, like they were physically weighing him down.
"I love you," Michael said, lips brushing against Alex, filling the gaps between his words with soft kisses to his skin. "I love you Alex, please, I love you..."
"I love you... too," Alex stuttered, taking in a slow breath, and then another, followed by a slow exhale as his hand went limp and fell from Michael's cheek.
A sound came from Michael's mouth that was barely human, it was agony, manifested from his lungs and spat out into the cold night as though someone out there would hear it, change fate.
"No, no, no, no, Alex!" he yelled, a great heaving cry that made the headlights around them flicker, the light-towers creak and quake. "No you can't go, you can't..."
Max made a move to step forward, but he couldn't do it. His heart broke for Michael, there was nothing he could do, nothing he could say. If it had been Liz, there would be nothing to soothe the burning fire in his body, nothing to quell the sheer heartbreak.
"Please, you have to wake up," he sobbed, holding his body tighter. "Alex I can't do this without you."
He cried out his name, the light towers flashing with loud cracks, everyone covering their faces as the sparks fanned out like fireworks through the rain.
Michael's fingers held Alex's head, wiping the rain and tears from his cheeks, whispering promises and apologies against his skin, pleading to a god he never believed in to bring Alex back to him. He couldn't lose him, not like this, not before they'd really even started.
His mind was reaching out for a miracle, for anything that could fix this, bring Alex back to him. And he was grasping at straws, going over every scenario in his head, because he refused to believe that this was the end.
Max's powers were gone, but maybe there was something deep inside him like his father, as much as he had rejected that thought for so long he was finally in a position to hope for it. He pressed his hand to Alex's collarbone, every inch of him willing something, anything, to happen.
Tears streamed down Isobel's cheeks as she watched him, her arms around Maria who was sobbing into her shoulder. She shook her head, biting her lip as it trembled.
"Michael..." she said softly, about to go on until she saw the pendant around his neck begin to glow.
They watched as his body trembled with it, the force of his efforts and his unmatched will to make it work. The steel in the light towers were now warping with metallic screams that filled the air while the pendant against Alex's lifeless chest hovered to meet Michael's, glowing in symmetry until the pieces met between them, crashing together with one final spray of sparks from the towers behind them, fading back to darkness as the air was sucked back into Alex's lungs in one deep breath. Michael's body relaxed as he stared down at him, the silence closing in around them as he pressed his fingers to Alex's throat.
"Michael..." Isobel said, in barely a whisper, looking down at the shimmering pattern ever so faintly painted on Alex's skin.
"He's got a pulse," Michael said incredulously, letting out a laugh between his heavy panting breaths.
"What did you do?" she whispered.
Michael's head lolled to the side, dizzy and light, his breathing laboured before he looked back up with an unfocussed gaze.
"Call Valenti," he said, before he slumped down to the ground beside Alex, the alien glass still connected between them like a tether.
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