How about #18 and platonic Kylex for the prompts? ❤️
18. “This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had. Of course I’m in.”
Alex and Kyle had come a long way since high school. For a while Alex wanted to hold a grudge, hated the person Kyle had become when he realised that popularity was an option for him.
And he did hold onto that, for a while, at least until Jim Valenti died. At that point Alex had one of those moments where he realised that the world was bigger than his teenage anger, and people were more than who they thought they needed to be in high school.
The first few times they started to interact again after Alex got back from his last tour he definitely felt that decade-old bitterness rising in his throat, and it took a while before he was ready to part with it. Well, a while and a few alien mishaps.
But spending time together again, Alex had started to remember why they got along so well as kids outside the forced proximity. Now, they spent time together a couple of times a week, either with their alien counterparts or without.
On this particular day though, Kyle and Alex had set up their meeting weeks earlier, because it wasn't just a casual catch up. Alex was using his tech skills to help Kyle set up the perfect proposal, and Michael had been enlisted to keep Isobel away until everything was ready.
"Give me a few broken bones, some corroded arteries even, I can fix up a human body no problem but wires and metal and... programming, no thank you," he said as he watched Alex hook his hard drive into the computer at the drive in. They (Alex) had hooked up some old monitors around the lot, then connected to the main projector. When the sun was setting he would get all of Kyle's carefully curated film segments together to play in the right sequence, and on the right monitors. At least he would when the systems started talking to each other like they were supposed to. "Seriously, thank you Alex. You don't have to do this if you don't want to, I can just find a less technological way of doing this."
Alex snorted out a laugh, looking up at him with a raised brow.
“This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had," he grinned. "Of course I’m in.”
It was Kyle's turn to snort derisively, folding his arms over his chest as he looked down at Alex who had gone back to tinkering with the connection ports.
"I'm sorry this is the stupidest? This? Not the time we were kids and I thought it would be smart to have you lock me in that rusty old fridge in summer? Or when I thought hey, you know what would be a good idea? Open heart surgery, on an alien?"
Alex raised an eyebrow because clearly, the pressure was getting to him. "To be fair, the heart surgery wasn't your plan. And it was a success."
"And the fridge?" Kyle said with a huff.
"I've seen sweatier men than that."
"I mean," Alex said with a grin. "Relying on Michael to keep a secret all the while spending the day with Isobel. I'll figure this bit out eventually, but he's the real wildcard here."
"He's kept bigger secrets, don't you think?" Kyle said.
"Yeah but this is a secret that will eventually be coming out, so there's really no motive for him to keep it. Hand me that hard drive would you?"
"What, you think Michael's going to ruin it?" Kyle said as he grabbed the hard drive from the backpack and handed it to Alex.
"No, I gave him a stern talking to."
"A stern talking to or I'll give you a spanking if you're a bad boy?"
"Hey, don't question the method if it gives you the results you want," Alex grinned. "And that would hardly be a deterrent."
Kyle rolled his eyes and ran his hands over his face.
"I'm just saying," he said. "Thanks, for helping."
"I'm your friend Kyle, that's what friends do when one of them wants to do an elaborate proposal," he said, looking up at him with a grin. "Especially when you're the tech-guy friend."
He turned back to the computer, finally opening up the sequencing program so he could stage the timing and hook up the visual to the right monitors.
Kyle thought about those words for a moment. His teeth dug into his bottom lip as he thought about what they meant, everything they had been through. How Alex had always upheld his end, and Kyle had let his end fall apart.
"Sorry I wasn't a better one," he said softly, and Alex turned back to him with a curious gaze.
"If you're talking about things that happened almost fifteen years ago-"
"I know I've probably said it before," he said, cutting Alex off. "But I don't really think there's a statute of limitations on treating someone like crap and then asking them to help you propose to your girlfriend."
Alex exhaled slowly, looking back at Kyle with kind eyes and waiting for him to say what he needed to.
"I just mean that I'm sorry for everything that happened between us. I guess the last couple of years especially have made me see it but I thought about it a lot after high school. I mean those friendships were just hollow and I didn't realise until I left. Thought about you a lot in those 10 years."
"I didn't really think about you," Alex said with a shrug.
"I mean," Alex said with a fond shake of his head. "At least not until your dad. And I know how much it hurt me to hear about what happened to him. So all I could think was how much you must be hurting. Even thought about calling but changed my mind straight away because all I could remember was who you were when I left. And then I got back from a war and, I just didn't have the energy to hold that anger, you know? Suddenly seemed kind of stupid, to still be affected by something from high school."
Kyle made a humming sound as Alex made a satisfied sigh as he turned back to look at him.
"Is this you telling me I'm stupid?" Kyle said, eyes narrowed but a smile playing on his mouth.
"No," Alex shrugged, looking up at him with a grin. "But if that's what you took out of it I'm not going to correct you. I think I've got this all set by the way. You sure you're ready?"
"Hey, you make it look easy," Kyle said. "And you married Michael."
They chucked together, followed by a moment of quiet until Alex got to his feet.
"For the record," he said, reaching out to put a hand on Kyle's shoulder. "What I meant when I said this was a stupid plan was that you don't have to go all out on the proposal, intimate and simple works just as well."
"You think I should find a secret alien dimension and use the phrases 'I'm dying' and 'marry me' in the same sentence?" he said with a raised brow.
Alex rolled his eyes and lightly smacked his shoulder.
"Could probably meet in the middle somewhere."
Luckily, Alex had finished with perfect timing. He messaged Michael to bring Isobel down, and by the time the truck was pulling up the sun was shedding a soft orange and pink glow over the horizon.
Alex watched Kyle exhale heavily as he heard the doors closing and gave him a nudge with his elbow.
"Too late to back down now," he said, and Kyle turned to him with soft eyes.
"Thanks Alex," he said, nodding to him with that nervous excitement brewing inside him. "Really, I mean it."
Alex rolled his eyes again and reached out to pull Kyle into a hug. They had probably done it in the years since they reconnected, but it felt like the first time, the start of a friendship fully renewed, leaving the stubbornness of their past behind them.
They broke apart when Isobel's voice called out somewhere across the lot, Alex reaching over to start the sequence for Kyle.
"Go on," he said. "Really no turning back now."
Kyle grinned, one last tap to Alex's shoulder as he ran towards his place.
As Alex watched him disappear between the old pallets and the screen, Michael slowly crept up beside him.
"That was adorable," he teased.
"Shut up," Alex said, leaning into him as they found a vantage point to watch.
They'd all come such a long way since seventeen, and in a weird way, Alex wouldn't change a thing.
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