An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Title: I Can’t Chase You (But You Can’t Run)
Fandom: Roswell New Mexico
Relationship: Alex Manes/Michael Guerin, Background Echo and Maribel
Characters: Alex Manes, Michael Guerin, everyone else but they’re the important ones :)
Summary: Liz and Maria drag Alex to Isobel’s winter cabin, thinking it will do him good to get out of rehab for a bit. Alex can’t ski, though, so he gets really bored by himself during the day, until Isobel’s brother slips on ice and ends up stuck inside with him.(My attempt at a Malex holiday rom-com AU, with just a touch of whump)
A/N: For my amazing friend @brightloveee, this is your Secret Santa gift.
I really wanted to post today, but I struggled with this fic quite a bit, and it got longer and longer. So instead of missing the date, I decided to post it in two (possibly three) parts, with the first today, and you’ll get a drawn out gift :)
You asked for a Malex holiday AU, and I live to provide. I know you love rom-coms, but I’m terrible at writing them, so I grabbed a couple of prompts in the wintery prompts that were going round on Tumblr a while ago, and I shuffled and twisted them until I came up with something I felt I would enjoy writing.
It involved two pairs of crutches, and very awkward boys in love. I hope you like it!
Here were the prompts:
08. i slip on some ice and you’re the stranger who catches me (didn’t quite use that one, but it inspired me)
10. our friends rent a cabin to go skiing and we’re the only ones who stay inside
58. you’re my best friend’s older sibling that I only ever see around the holidays and this year we’re both single
Many thanks to @daffietjuh for helping me figure out the plot and @insidious-intent for cheerleading
How was the party? the text from Liz on the group chat reads.
Alex groans. He knows she’s teasing him, that she’s just worried for him, but right now it doesn’t help his abysmal mood.
Awesome, he answers. Please get me out of here.
I wish I could, Liz’s reply comes immediately.
I know. Kyle is picking me up in an hour. Pray that I survive until then.
Liz will pray, Maria writes. I’ll distract you.
I’m hiding in my old room, Alex types. Told them I needed to do some PT.
Good move. Does your room still look the same?
Alex looks around him. It’s the room he shared with Flint his whole childhood, the smallest bedroom in the house. It looks smaller than he remembers, even though there’s now only one bed, and it’s been turned into a guest room. He slept here last night. The worst part about coming back to Roswell for his first Christmas with his father in nine years is that since he’s not cleared to drive yet, he couldn’t make the trip over a single day, and he had to stay in the house overnight.
Well, not the worst part, just the most annoying. He still doesn’t know if the worst part is the incessant quips and comments from his father about his tastes, or spending hours in silence, watching each other out of the corners of their eyes, straight-backed and, in Alex’s case, in near agony from not being able to change position or remove his prosthesis.
Flint is the only one of his brother who is on leave this year, before he reports to his new unit in Munich in January, and he and Dad clearly have something going on that Alex doesn’t know about. Presents aren’t part of the Manes family traditions, so it’s only been stilted meals around the too-large table between the three of them, and an awkward and just as stilted visit to Dad’s only living aunt, who lives at the other end of town and seems to think Alex is still four years old.
Alex snaps a selfie showing the nondescript guest room around him. Nope. Nothing of mine left. Took it all down before I left and gave it away.
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