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“What is this?” Michael’s voice is loud in the quiet kitchen and completely unexpected so early in the morning that Alex jumps and almost drops the carafe on the floor.
He turns towards the barely lit by the light coming through the window dining table to find Michael sitting down, the piece of the ship that Alex had left on top of his bed in the Airstream almost a week ago right on the table in front of him.
Alex watches as he passes his hand across it, and it shimmers brightly, brighter than it does whenever Alex touches it.
Alex sets the carafe down on top of the counter resigned to not being able to have coffee before this conversation and sighs.
“It’s a piece of the UFO that crashed seventy years ago,” he says blankly, and just gives Michael a look when he looks at him exasperated.
Michael tilts his head and furrows his brow when Alex doesn’t say anything else.
“Do you know what happens when I touch this?” He asks pointing towards the piece of the ship with his chin.
“It shimmers and glows?” Alex says feeling exasperated himself, and in need of some coffee before he goes feral.
“Every time I touch it I’m filled with the irrepressible urge to come looking for you.”
Alex blinks several times, and when the words stay the same in the same order in his head he exhales roughly.
“I need coffee.”
He turns back to continue to make his coffee when the carafe is slid across the counter and out of reach.
Alex refuses to whine and turns a glare on Michael who gives him an unrepentant look back, “I need to know why.”
“I don’t know, Guerin,” Alex snaps. “I’m not secretly an alien hiding secrets from you! I just found it!”
“Where?” He demands standing up from his seat and moving closer.
Alex takes a step back automatically. “Here. In Jim’s secret detoxing bunker.”
He points with one hand towards the living room area and the innocuous looking coffee table.
Michael looks over to where he’s pointing and then back at Alex and comes to a realization, eyes widening just a little as he stares at Alex.
“When?” He asks, and Alex really wishes that he could have some coffee before continuing with this conversation.
“Alex,” Michael starts and stops, and Alex exhales rubbing his hands over his face before he looks back to Michael, who is looking at him like he already knows the answer and just wants Alex to confirm it.
“Months ago,” he says, resigned. “Before I found out that aliens are an actual thing that exists and that you’re one.”
Michael looks at him for a long silent second.
“Why?” He asks, and Alex furrows his brow at him.
“Why what?”
“Why give it to me now? Why not tell me about it when I showed you the console? Why keep it a secret from me when I gave up every single secret that I had?”
Alex looks away from him, blinking rapidly and taking a deep breath.
“I didn’t want you to go,” Alex admits, voice low, hoping that Michael doesn’t hear him, but he knows that that is futile, since Michael makes a low sound at the back of his throat and Alex can hear him shuffling closer.
“I was being selfish,” he continues when Michael doesn’t say anything. “And only thinking about what I wanted and I know it was a shitty thing to do, but I couldn’t help but feel that as long as I had it, I had you.”
He shakes his head and looks back to Michael who is looking at Alex with his eyes wide and wet, a half smile on his face like he can’t believe that Alex is this much of an idiot.
Alex freezes for a second, eyes wide and unblinking and then looks away again, feeling the sting of tears at the corners of his eyes.
“I left it for you,” he says, answering the question that Michael really wants to know. “Because I figured, there is no point in holding on to you, if you’re already gone.”
“I’m not,” Michael says, voice insistent, and Alex shuts his eyes tightly and feels a tear leaking out of the corner of his eye. “I’m right here.”
“Don’t,” Alex starts voice shuddering and stops when he feels Michael’s fingers brush against his face, wiping the tears.
His eyes flutter open and he looks at Michael who is standing way too close, looking at Alex like he always has, making him feel like he’s seventeen all over again.
“Michael,” he says voice low and shaky.
Michael cups his cheek in his hand and moves so close that Alex can feel the sweltering heat of him all along the front of his body, chasing away the early morning chill.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Michael says. “I never have. I’ve been right here in this town, waiting for you to come back. You’re the one who keeps leaving, and I couldn’t handle it if you left again so I tried to push you away, but it didn’t work. It never works. You’re still the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing on my mind before I go to sleep.”
Michael drops his hand and moves in closer, dropping his forehead to Alex’s and Alex shakes as he feels as though something that was missing, has finally slot into place.
“I’m sorry that I hurt you, but I just needed the space and time to realize that I’m never going to feel about anyone, the way that I feel about you. You’re the piece that’s always missing in my life, so it makes sense that you had the missing piece of my spaceship in your possession.”
Alex shakes his head, and reaches for Michael, fingers gripping his arms tightly as he pulls him in even closer.
“If you’re not going to walk away again,” Michael says, voice barely above a whisper, looking deep into Alex’s eyes. “Then I’m not going anywhere, ever.”
Alex exhales in relief and closes his eyes, pressing his forehead harder against Michael and breathing him in.