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Henry Fox has a problem.
And no, it’s not his classes, those are going surprisingly well. And no, for once it’s not even his homophobic family because they’ve mostly left him alone since he left England.
No, his problem is his frustrating, kind, gorgeous roommate.
Alex has been his roommate for about two years now. Coincidentally, that's the same amount of time that Henry has been completely in love with him. They had a brief period of time where it seemed that Alex couldn’t stand him and Henry couldn’t even stutter out 2 words in his presence, but they eventually got over that.
They’re now “attached at the hip” if one is to believe June and Nora and Pez and Bea on the subject. They do most things together. They have a weekly movie night. Alex knows how he takes his tea and Henry always has Alex’s coffee ready for him in the morning.
It's fine, it’s been fine for two years. That is until Henry took a nap.
Last week, Henry had spent the better part of the night working on an essay and spent the following day lazing about their shared apartment. He didn’t even consciously decide to take a nap, but one moment he was watching “In the Mood for Love" with David at his side and the next his head was on the arm of the couch, and he couldn’t keep his eyes open.
No big deal, until that frustratingly gorgeous roommate of his came home. Henry heard the door open, but in his half-asleep state, decided not to move. He heard Alex shuffle into the apartment before all his movement stopped suddenly.
Henry was too out of it to consider why, but a few minutes later he felt a blanket being draped over him. A moment later, soft and gentle fingers caressed his cheek and brushed his hair off his forehead. Before Henry could even freak out just about that, he felt a soft pair of lips gently kiss his forehead.
Alex then moved away like he hadn’t just flipped Henry’s world on its head and when Henry eventually opened his eyes sometime later, he saw Alex at their kitchen counter getting dinner ready as if nothing happened.
So yeah, Henry has a problem.
And it’s not that he doesn’t want his, once again, absolutely frustrating and kind and gorgeous roommate to kiss his forehead. It is in fact, quite the opposite. He wants Alex to do it again. Repeatedly. Preferably knowing that Henry is awake this time.
How is he supposed to ask that of Alex without becoming so mortified that he decides to just drown himself in his Earl Grey instead?
Now, physical affection from Alex is nothing new. Oftentimes during their movie nights, they end up cuddling on the couch, Alex’s head on Henry’s shoulder or running his hands through Henry’s hair. Alex also loves to throw his arm around his shoulders or even wrap his arms around Henry's waist from behind and rest his head on his shoulder while Henry makes breakfast in the morning.
But it’s not like it means anything. Alex is physically affectionate with everyone. It’s just who he is, how he has always been, and Henry loves it about him. He wants more of it. But how is he supposed to ask for that without knowing if Alex wants more of him?
So, what has Henry done to try and solve his problem? He’s made it worse.
Henry doesn’t have the best sleep schedule in the world (which is putting it lightly), so it’s not the strangest thing for him to decide to take even more mid-afternoon naps. He knows that Alex comes home relatively early on Wednesdays and Fridays, so it's the perfect time to see if Alex will do it again.
And he does. Without fail. Again. And again.
Henry always makes sure to “fall asleep” without a blanket covering him and Alex always comes in and covers him with a blanket, caresses his cheek and his forehead and gives him a small kiss.
Henry does his best not to melt into it, not to show any signs that he’s awake, but it takes all of his strength to do so. A kiss from Alex, even on the forehead, just melts his insides entirely. Getting wrapped in a blanket by Alex just makes him feel soft and protected.
It’s nice, sue him.
That is, until it all comes crashing down.
“Are you feeling okay?” Alex asks, one Wednesday night over dinner.
Henry gives him a confused look. “Of course,” he says. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’ve been sleeping a lot lately,” Alex says, and Henry feels himself tense. “Don’t get me wrong Sweetheart, I’m glad to see you being able to get some sleep, but it’s just not like you.”
“Oh,” Henry says softly. Alex is onto him. Of course, he is. Henry was relatively obvious about it. “I can start taking naps in my room if it bothers you?”
Alex gives him an unimpressed look. “Baby,” he says and Henry shivers. Baby is a relatively new one. Alex has called him sweetheart for a long time now, but baby has only been for the last few months. Henry doesn’t know how it started but he sure as hell isn’t complaining.
“Of course, I don’t have a problem with it,” Alex continues. “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay."
“No, I’m perfectly fine, just catching up on what I missed during the night.”
“Well good,” Alex says, his mouth starts twitching upwards at the corner. “You look adorable sleeping on the couch.” He gets up after that and takes his empty dish to the sink as Henry feels his face heat up to an alarming degree.
Henry doesn’t really know what to do with himself after that. He goes a few weeks without purposely falling asleep in their living room. He really doesn’t want Alex to catch on to what he's doing or else he feels he’d have to find the nearest train station and ride as far away as he possibly could from the situation entirely.
But… the thing is… he misses it. He misses getting covered by the soft blanket and he misses those soft fingers on his cheek. And Christ, he really misses Alex’s lips on his forehead.
Alex comes home one Wednesday and see’s Henry on the couch writing on his laptop. Henry expects Alex to go about his day, but he stops and stares at Henry for a minute.
“Everything alright?” Henry asks.
Alex shuffles in one spot for a minute, looking nervous, which is very odd. Alex is rarely nervous about anything, or at least rarely shows it, especially in their home.
“Yeah,” Alex eventually says, though it doesn’t sound genuine even to Henry’s ears. Alex doesn’t give him time to call him out on it though as he hurries to his room and closes his door.
Odd , Henry thinks, but he lets it go, figuring that Alex must have just had an off day.
They don’t talk about it, and it’s forgotten by the time they have their movie night that Friday. The weather is just starting to get particularly cold in New York, so Henry makes them each a cup of hot chocolate and Alex grabs a blanket for them to snuggle up with as they prepare to watch some rom com that Alex had picked out.
Henry pauses when he comes back from the kitchen and sees Alex, or well, what Alex got. It is indeed a blanket, but it's the blanket he normally sets over Henry when Henry takes his naps on the couch. He's just sitting there with the blanket and looking down at David who is already snoozing away at Alex's side.
Its… well it shouldn’t be anything, but Henry feels his heart skip a beat.
Alex looks up at Henry then and gives him a smile. Just a tiny quirk of his lips, but Henry’s entire stomach erupts with butterflies when Alex gives him that look and raises one side of the blanket, encouraging Henry to sit down next to him.
The fluttering feeling hitting Henry when he’s near Alex is nothing new. In fact, he should be used to it by now, even though he fears he’s never going to get used to the way Alex Claremont-Diaz makes him feel.
Like right now. Here Henry is in his nice apartment in New York with the man he is hopelessly gone for with their dog, a soft blanket, hot chocolate, and a damn rom com of all things. It’s so devastatingly domestic.
It’s so devastatingly couply, Henry realizes with a start.
“You coming, Hen?” Alex eventually asks, “I mean I know it’s easy to get lost in my wonder and charm, but we gotta start the movie sometime or else David might get mad.”
The only thing David cares about is whatever he is chasing in his dreams, but Henry shakes himself out of it and rolls his eyes so hopefully Alex doesn’t realize that that is precisely what he was doing. It is with a monumental effort that he makes his way over to the couch without tripping over his own feet, but he manages.
Alex takes the drink with one hand and drapes that damned blanket over Henry and Henry cannot describe the warmth that overcomes him as he settles beside Alex. They lean into each other like two magnets gravitating towards each other without even realizing. It’s just so easy to be with him.
Henry shakes his head again as Alex turns the movie on. He has to continuously remind himself that they’re just roommates. Alex is just affectionate. It's just how he is with everyone.
The movie is essentially everything a rom com normally is, so Henry actually quite likes it. He is a hopeless romantic after all. And though Henry is interested, he can’t help but feel the week catch up to him.
He has been lacking in his afternoon naps after all. He feels his eyes dropping and his head nodding, though he tries to fight it. His head falls to the side, and he gently lands on something soft next to him.
Alex , Henry realizes through his foggy brain. He must have fallen on Alex’s shoulder. He should probably get up, but that sounds like the absolute last thing he wants to do right now. Future Henry can worry about it later.
Sleepy Henry doesn’t have to worry because he hears Alex chuckle softly and reach around Henry to pull him in closer. Henry snuggles further into him, right on the edge of falling completely asleep.
And then…
Then he feels Alex’s hands come up to his hair. He feels him caress his cheek softly and then brush his hair off his forehead. Henry feels himself smile. Finally. Finally, he can feel what he’s been missing for the last few weeks.
But it never comes.
Alex brushes the hair off his forehead gently, but he doesn’t lean down to kiss his forehead. He doesn’t do anything but continue to glide his fingers through Henry’s hair.
And it feels wonderful, but Sleepy Henry wants to know where his damn kiss is.
“No,” he mumbles. He reaches up and lazily swats Alex gently on the chest.
Alex immediately tenses and moves his hand away.
“No,” Henry says, more urgently this time.
“Hen-”
“Kiss,” Henry mumbles again, still almost asleep.
“What?”
“Kiss,” Henry whines.
“You want me to kiss you?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Alex seems to hesitate for a moment, but Henry whines again and Alex laughs.
“Okay Baby,” Alex whispers and his hand is back in Henry’s hair, and he tilts his head down to press a gentle kiss to Henry’s forehead.
Henry smiles and with it he feels himself drift away completely.
***
Henry wakes up still on the couch.
It’s the next morning, if the light coming from the window is any indication. He groans as he sits up, back sore from sleeping on the couch and tries to stretch himself out. He looks at the coffee table and see’s what looks like a fresh cup of tea in front of him.
“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty.”
Henry’s head snaps up and he sees Alex in their kitchen, a cup of coffee sitting in front of him and a killer smirk on his face.
“Oh, Christ,” Henry says immediately as the memories of last night resurface. Is it too late to catapult himself off the nearest tall building? There are plenty of them in New York.
“Morning, Sweetheart,” Alex says and Henry can see the shit eating grin on his face. Well, that's something good at least. He didn’t make Alex uncomfortable then.
“Morning,” Henry says, taking a rather large gulp of his tea and getting up to take a seat on the stool of their kitchen island.
“Are you ready to talk about it?”
“About what?” he asks, feigning ignorance.
“About your snoring,” Alex deadpans.
“I do not snore.”
“Do too,” Alex says. “I would know, we slept in the same place last night.”
“You slept on the couch?”
“Hard to get up with a giant laying on top of me.”
“You being short does not make me a giant.”
“Quit trying to change the topic.”
“I believe I’m staying right on topic, actually.”
“Sure,” Alex says, and then he’s moving around the island to join Henry on the other side, stopping right in front of him. “Hi.”
“Erm, hello?” Henry says.
Alex reaches forward and brushes Henry’s hair out of his forehead before leaning down (which is only because Henry is sitting) and kisses his forehead.
“Oh,” Henry says stupidly, but he doesn’t trust his mouth to make any other words.
“Are you ready to talk about it now?”
“Uhh...” Henry is on his way to getting a master's degree in English Literature, he promises.
“Okay, how about I talk?” Alex asks, but he doesn’t wait for an actual answer. “Every time you were taking a nap, I would cover you in a blanket and kiss your forehead because seeing you sleeping, and so adorable, was just too much for me to handle. And then when you stopped sleeping out here, I worried that I’d made you uncomfortable with that and with all the obvious flirting I’d been doing.”
“What?” Henry blurts out. “What flirting?”
“Hen,” Alex says, gently flicking him on the forehead, which Henry does not appreciate, but he follows it up with another kiss, which Henry does. “I call you sweetheart. I call you baby. I am literally always touching you in every appropriate way I can. I literally called you adorable a few weeks ago.”
“Oh,” Henry says. English Literature, he really does promise. “But I thought that's just how you have always been? With everyone?”
“Do you see me having a cuddle session every week with anyone else?”
“Well…”
“Henry, you may think that’s how I’ve always been because it’s how I’ve always been with you.”
“And… and what does that mean?”
Alex sighs and looks like he is considering flicking Henry again. If he follows it up with a kiss, then Henry won’t complain. “Baby, it means that I’ve been obsessed with you since the moment we met. And it means I want to take you out on dates and take David on walks with you and cuddle you and kiss you. On the forehead and also preferably in other places.”
“Really?”
“Yes , Hen.” Alex looks unsure for a moment. “If that’s what you also want, at least.”
And Henry will not be putting his degree to use at the moment, but he will wipe that nervous look off Alex’s face. He surges forward out of his seat and captures Alex’s lips in a kiss.
Henry is only a bit ashamed to admit he’s thought about kissing Alex an uncountable number of times, but none of it compares to the real thing. Alex kisses like he means it and his lips are so soft against Henry’s. And they just fit together so well, just as they do in every way.
They pull back and can’t help but grin like idiots at each other. “So, that’s a yes to the dates and walks and cuddles and kisses?”
“Yes, you cretin,” Henry says, kissing Alex quickly again. “You’re not the only one that’s been obsessed since the moment we met.”
Alex laughs. “Good. Does that mean we can skip past the awkward first steps and right into boyfriends?”
“Well, we do already live together.”
“Exactly.”
“And I’ve been in love with you for about as long as I’ve known you.”
“Same here.”
“So, now I guess I just ask you to be my boyfriend.”
“And I accept.”
Henry laughs. “I’m not sure we’ve done the order correctly, Love.”
Alex scoffs. “Meh, we’ve always been a bit unconventional.”
Henry nods in agreement, leaning his forehead against Alex’s. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Given the way Alex kisses him after that, they seem to be in agreement.