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Michael tucked his arms behind his head, turned his face towards the sun and basked.
There was really no other word for it. After weeks of tension, and stress, and having to rescue his boyfriend from a fucking underground cave system, it felt so unbelievably good to just. Stop. Relax. Bask.
He stretched his feet as far as they would go, past the edge of his beach towel and digging his toes into the hot sand. It was a glorious day, blisteringly warm with not a cloud in the sky, and Michael soaked up every ray like a lizard sunning itself on a rock.
He never wanted to leave. Fuck, he never wanted to move ever again.
A heavy thump reverberated to his left, and he cracked a lazy eye just in time to see a beach ball roll to a stop right next to his head. With a fond huff he sent the ball flying back the way it came with his TK, and let his eyes slip closed again.
“Michael! Come and join us!” Liz’s voice fluttered across the barely-there breeze from the makeshift volleyball court the rest of the gang were setting up in the firm sand closer to the lake’s edge.
“Can’t, I’m too busy doing nothing,” he called back without opening his eyes, hoping that would be the end of it.
“Mikey, don’t be a spoilsport.”
Of course it wasn’t. When was it ever with Liz Ortecho?
He sighed and propped himself up on his elbows, giving Liz what he hoped was an unimpressed look. Liz flopped down onto the sand next to him and gave him a completely unfazed grin in return. She waved her hands at him in a way he figured was supposed to be encouraging. “Come on, Greg’s car just arrived so we can start.”
Michael looked over Liz’s shoulder and sure enough, the whole gang was now here - Max and Alex hammering a wide net into place while Maria, Greg, Bonnie and Rosa drew out the court markings with sticks of driftwood. To the left of them underneath a cluster of sun-umbrellas Anatsa and Isobel were fussing with what looked like an overly complex towel-blanket-cooler setup, and towards the water’s edge Cam was laughing and dragging Dallas by the hand into the shallows, Dallas using his powers to set the water swirling around them.
“Surely there’s enough people for you to play without me,” Michael argued, making a point of wriggling his ass deeper into the sand underneath his towel.
“I mean we could,” Liz replied, pouting shamelessly, “But it’s more fun with everyone.”
Michael opened his mouth to reply but was cut off with a wheeze as something small and heavy landed on his chest, knocking the air out of him.
“If you’re going to crisp yourself out in direct sunlight like this, make sure you reapply every two hours.” Michael shaded his eyes to glare up at Kyle who was towering above him wearing his Concerned Doctor Face.
Michael picked the bottle off his chest, raising an eyebrow at the label which identified it as ‘SPF 50+ child-friendly sunscreen’
“The kids' stuff is more water-resistant,” Kyle explained with a shrug.
“You do realize I’m literally fire-resistant, right?” Michael said, dropping the sunscreen down onto the towel next to him. “I doubt I can even get sunburnt.”
A long pause followed where Kyle opened and closed his mouth repeatedly as he tried and failed to find the words he was looking for. A vein pulsed in his temple and he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I don’t even know how to begin to explain that those two things are in no way the same, Guerin.”
And Michael had known that - probably - but it was still fun to fuck with Valenti from time to time. Keep the good doctor on his toes and all that.
“It’s an interesting consideration though,” Liz piped up, eyes bright in a way that they’d all learnt spelled trouble. “You run hotter than humans, you’re immune to almost all human diseases and, from what we’ve learnt from Bonnie and Clyde, Oasis does have a slightly different atmospheric makeup to earth. You may well react differently to UV rays than we do.”
“Liz…Liz no ,” Kyle replied, sounding truly pained as Michael snorted in amusement. “We are not encouraging the aliens to flirt with skin cancer in the name of scientific discovery.”
“I wasn’t suggesting that,” Liz pouted, even though all three of them were well aware that she would have absolutely run with it if Michael had been amenable. “I’m just hypothesizing.”
“What are we hypothesizing about this time?” Alex asked, making his way over to them now that the makeshift court was complete.
“Alien resistance to UV rays,” Liz explained, picking up the bottle of sunscreen and waving it for emphasis.
Michael was fully prepared to continue his argument against needing it - not that he particularly cared either way but he had a reputation to uphold and it was the principle of the thing - but then Alex plucked the bottle from Liz’s outstretched hand. “Need some help doing your back?”
And really, how was Michael supposed to say no to that?
He shuffled up to sitting cross-legged, leaving enough space for Alex to lower himself down onto the towel behind him, legs splayed on either side of Michael’s hips. Kyle and Liz gave each other a significant look and turned back towards the group who had split into teams on either side of the net and were playfully punting the ball between them.
“Get your boy to come play with us, ‘lex,” Liz threw over her shoulder as they left, pointedly ignoring the finger Michael gave her in response.
A witty comeback was on the tip of his tongue, but the snap of a bottle cap behind him elicited an almost pavlovian response in him, and he didn’t try to suppress a happy shudder as Alex’s hands started to slide over his shoulders and down his spine.
“The sun suits you,” Alex’s voice murmured lowly next to his ear. “It’s like you were made for it.”
“I would say it’s an Oasian thing,” Michael said, tipping his head back in bliss as Alex dug his fingers into a knot at the base of his neck. “But Clyde begs to differ.”
They both looked over at the other alien who was huddled in the shade of an umbrella wearing the biggest sunhat Michael had ever seen and doing a remarkable impression of a grumpy cat in denial at having made friends with a pack of labradors.
Alex snorted softly, dropping his head to press a light kiss to Michael’s shoulder.
“You don’t have to join in if you don’t want to,” Alex said, voice warm and inviting, “But I know I’d like to have my alien by my side while I show off the sweet bit of alien tech he built me.” He shifted his weight, stretching out his right leg so that the sun glinted off the surface of his new prosthetic, the hybrid metal-alien composite rippling white and pink and purple.
Michael had spent the past month holed up in his workshop, as soon as Isobel had suggested the trip and Alex had reluctantly admitted that he hated the idea of not being able to join in with beach games the way he used to. The design was modeled like the prosthetics used by athletes, with a wide curved blade designed to accommodate impact, but combined with material from parts of Michael’s console to give it more stability on uneven terrain. The look on Alex’s face when Michael had oh-so-nervously showed him the finished product was one he knew would stay with him for a very long time.
Plus, the sex that followed had been phenomenal .
“Alright, twist my arm why don’t you,” Michel said, purposefully hamming it up as he stood so that Alex knew he was joking. He held out a hand to Alex, who accepted it without hesitation as he let Michael pull him to his feet.
They headed over to the group, taking up their place on one side of the net with Dallas, Cam, Isobel and Anatsa. On the other side of the net Max, Liz, Kyle, Maria, Bonnie and Greg went through some complicated hand chant with far more enthusiasm than skill, while Rosa set herself up as the umpire at the center of the court. (Clyde was still valiantly pretending not to be interested, but he had relocated to the court’s edge so Michael didn’t think anyone was really buying it.)
“Alright, lets have a nice, clean game, kids,” Rosa called out, throwing the ball to Max to start them off.
“And no cheating from any of the aliens,” Alex added seriously, crouching down in preparation to receive Max’s serve.
“You know I’m the one with the strongest TK right?” Michael said in confusion as he set himself up next to Alex. “The alien power deck is very much stacked in our team’s favor.”
Alex only grinned, an expression that was all teeth. “I play to win, and when I win, I want to know I did so fair and square.”
”God, I should have known you’d be this ridiculously competitive,” Michael laughed, feeling so light and so carefree he wondered if he might actually float away. “Ok then, let’s win this thing.”
It had been a rough few weeks. Hell, it had been a rough few years, what with Rosa and Noah and Alex’s dad and Jones and fucking Tezca and who knew what would come at them next because apparently a casual life just wasn’t in the cards for any of them.
But five years ago Michael had had no-one, just a crappy trailer and a crappy job and a heart full of hurt. And now? Now he looked around and saw…family, in Max and Isobel and Dallas and even old Sanders back at the junkyard. He saw a partner who he loved to invention as Alex dived with perfect form to return a sneaky lob from Greg, and more friends than could reasonably fit on a single makeshift beach volleyball court as Liz, Maria and Kyle all laughingly collided as they all tried to reach his return.
He saw a life, drenched in sunshine and surrounded by people he loved and who loved him back, and Michael wouldn’t trade any part of it for the whole of Earth and Oasis combined.