Timed to the 22nd

[takecourage]

Alex is in a shitty, shitty mood. She has been for days, since the first argument with Darlington but now, after the conversation that they'd had in his apartment, the things that both of them had said, she's just fucking furious. She's not down to work tonight and she just needs to get out of her own head so she picks up her phone and texts Caleb.

want to hang out? xA

While she's waiting for him to respond, she gets in the shower and washes her hair, tries to scald the irritation out of her with hot water.

It's not entirely successful.

Comments

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"It was super uncomfortable," he admits. "So, if that ever happens again, I'm definitely gonna bug you about it." He's blushing again, mostly at the concept of talking to Alex about bras and panties.

"I hope it doesn't, though," he admits. "I felt totally haywire the whole time. My ability, I mean."

[takecourage]

"Yeah?" asks Alex, pathetically grateful for the distraction in that moment. "How did it affect it?"

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"It was like... Too big? Like, okay, so." He adjusts them a little, like he's settling in to really tell a story and they both need to be comfortable. "I'm a big dude, right? Well, as a girl, I'm still really tall, but not this tall. And I had, like, a fucking fraction of the muscle mass. So my whole body was just smaller. And it's like my ability didn't also shrink to fit the new body. It was still meant for this body."

He has no idea if he's making sense, at all, but now that he's talking about it, he's finding it difficult to stop.

"And, like, all of the emotion that poured in from other people made me feel like a, like a fucking balloon with too much air, y'know? I felt like I was going to burst apart from it all."

[takecourage]

"No, that makes sense," says Alex, shifting a little to accommodate the way he moves, the way he moves her and, yeah, maybe there's a little electrical flicker in the base of her belly when she realises how strong he actually is. "Like you're...a vessel for the feelings. I feel like that sometimes."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

Caleb looks at her when he feels that, but she powers through it, ignores it, so he decides to, too.

"Yeah, exactly," he says. "And sometimes, it hurts. Not, like, a literal pain, but close."

[takecourage]

He doesn't comment so Alex thinks that, maybe, she got away with it. Maybe there was too much else going on.

"Yeah," she says. "I definitely get that. I was attacked, back home. By a Gluma. Sort of like a...weaponised gray? The deathwords didn't work."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

The relief she feels at his non-reaction is enough to tell Caleb he made the right move. He's tempted to give her a look — one of his 'I totally felt that and I'm letting you get away with it this once' look — but he opts not to, especially when she starts talking about her ability.

"What's, what's a death word?" he asks, frowning.

[takecourage]

"So it's language that you use to remind grays that they're dead, which they hate," she says. "So it can really be anything. Poetry. Song lyrics. Take courage - no-one lives forever."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"Okay, it sounds way less creepy when you just say that, instead of calling it a death word," he says, poking her in the shoulder. "But... It wasn't working on this... Groom... Thing?"

[takecourage]

She grins when he pokes her, nudging him back with her knuckles against his chest.

"Gluma. And no. They don't respond the way other Grays do. They're compelled."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"Like, something's controlling them?" he asks. He knows what the word 'compel' means, but it feels different in this context.

[takecourage]

"Like someone's sent them," she says, and a shudder runs through her. "I honestly thought I was going to die."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

He tightens his arm around her protectively. "Someone sent them? Like, on purpose?" He thinks about Chloe, accidentally reading minds left and right because she can't turn it off, and Sam, time-traveling against her will. Could this be the same?

[takecourage]

"Yeah," says Alex, automatically leaning into him when he says pulls her closer. "And whoever it was definitely wanted me dead."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"What the fuck," he says eloquently. "Who was it? Do you know?"

[takecourage]

"Probably the same person who handed me my ass right before I got here," she says. She pushes forward. "I'm having one of those beers. Sure you don't want one? Eighteen's legal here and you're about five minutes from that, right?"

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"Uh, no," he says, and he lets his arm slide off from her shoulders, but he tenses a little. "I can't drink. My ability, it gets way worse if I try to drink. Or if I'm around people who are drinking..." He doesn't want to ask her not to. It's her apartment, and if she needs it to unwind, then, fine. But he won't be able to stick around long. "I get drunk, even when I'm not the one drinking."

[takecourage]

"So I shouldn't drink a beer. Shit." She sighs and pads to the fridge, grabbing two sodas instead. "It's okay. I don't need something to take the edge off when I'm somewhere warded."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"I'm sorry," he says, more in response to her disappointment than her actual words. "I can leave, if you want, I mean. I don't want you to not do what you want to, just because I'm here."

[takecourage]

"I don't want you to leave," says Alex. "I'm enjoying using you as a pillow." She cracks open her soda. "It's fine. I'm not an alcoholic or something."

An addict, maybe. Maybe.

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

Bzzt.

Caleb's lie detector goes off, just a little. It's not a complete lie, but it's... something. But he doesn't want to ruin the easy, comfortable mood they've been working towards since he came here, so he just shifts a little so his big, dumb feet don't fall asleep as they resume their platonic cuddling.

It is nice. The cuddling. Caleb had always kind of laid close to Adam even before he'd realized what the butterflies were. It seemed to help keep the ocean at bay, just a little, and he liked the contact, too. He's apparently a super tactile person. Who knew?

"Okay, well. D'you have Netflix? Or. FilmFix, whatever the fuck it's called here." He rolls his eyes at the weird Mandela Effect bullshit this place is pulling.

[takecourage]

Alex gets back onto the sofa with him, her legs curled up underneath herself while he settles himself. She reaches for the remote and drops it into his chest.

"Knock yourself out."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

He catches it before it slides down into the cushions, then starts navigating through the menu. His phone goes off, a quiet little ding! that he ignores.

"D'you have anything you want to watch? Or do you even care?" She doesn't feel like she's fussed about it, but he figures he should ask, instead of just assuming.

[takecourage]

"I don't care," she says, knowing that he'll pick up on the feeling being genuine. "I finished something the other day and haven't found something new to mainline yet."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"Cool, okay," he says, and relaxes a little more as he gets to browsing. "My friend Clint was telling me about this one show, Space Hospital? I guess it's really big here. We could watch that." If nothing else, it'd be good background noise for more of their conversation.