Oct 28, 2021
“What is the mission you’re working on right now?”
@alexmanesappreciation
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“What is the mission you’re working on right now?”
@alexmanesappreciation
Alex Manes Week 2021 Day Two: Tropes
Alex Manes Week 2021 | Day One: Found Family
@alexmanesappreciation week - day 5 How much do you know Alex Manes?
// dedicated to my gals in the group chat - this wouldn't exist without you <3
title: surprise
summary: day 1 of alex week. found family. post s3. now that they are officially together, michael wants to give alex the best birthday party ever.
ao3 link
@alexmanesappreciation
“Mikey, are you sure this is a good idea?” Liz asked her friend as he put up banners all around Alex’s house with his powers. The curly-haired alien looked over at her and rolled his eyes.
“This is his first birthday celebration since we got together. I need this to be perfect, Ortecho.”
Max and Isobel were on their way with the drinks, while Kyle, Maria, and Rosa were making food for the party in the kitchen. Dallas and Heath would have been there, but they were on a date, apologizing to Michael for not making it.
Alex had been out of the house since 8 am, having no idea everyone would take it over. They still had two hours before he would be home, and Michael hoped he would like it.
He finished with the insane amount of birthday decorations as Liz looked at him with a smirk. He caught her look and sighed.
“What?” He pretended to be busy putting extra tape on one of the signs, his cheeks turning an embarrassing shade of pink.
“You loooooove him,” she teased and watched as he paused what he was doing. Turning to her, he gave her a look as if she was stating the obvious.
“I’ve loved him since we were 17. Nothing has changed, other than the fact that we are finally dating like normal people would when they love each other.”
“It’s cute.”
“I’m not cute.” He muttered, and she snorted out a laugh.
“I didn’t say you were cute. If anything, Alex is the cute one in the relationship.”
Michael let a grin cross his face, showing his agreement at that statement. “You got that right.”
Alex Manes Week 2021 Day 5: How Well Do You Know Alex Manes?
(aka are you so obsessed with a fictional character you set up a whole Animal Crossing house just for him? Yes. Yes I did.)
Alex and Michael live in a cabin in the woods obviously. Please notice the little airstream right behind the lawn chair. An homage to all those late night angst heavy talks.
They kept a lot of the original wood. Lots of warm tones with musical instruments all over.
No way Alex doesn’t have a studio all set up. When all the alien drama is over and done he and Michael are making sweet music together.
Just like Tyler, Alex takes self-care seriously so the bathroom is spa-worthy
Now the kitchen is usually Michael’s space but Alex likes to spoil him with breakfast in bed now and then.
Alex likes to keep busy so there’s a mix of things in the bedroom, but the bed itself is a sacred space for rest, relaxation and railing.
And even though they’re retired it helps to be prepared so they have a secret bunker in the basement.
Outside Alex has a little camping nook for when he and Kyle are feeling nostalgic. Michael does not do camping but he has a workshop all set-up nearby.
The Last Avenger: Alex Manes Appreciation Week Day 1
The room was a cacophony of beeping computers and alert sirens. The wide window before them stretched out to a sea of clouds, but Nick Fury wasn’t interested in the view. Because somewhere to his right, one of the trackers called to him.
“I’ve found him, sir,” he said steadily. Fury did not move, but raised a brow at the computer screen.
“Hill?”
Agent Hill crossed the length of the room to confirm the report. She studied the screen for just a second before she looked up at her boss, eyes wide, unable to hide her surprise. Fury couldn’t blame her. He’d started to lose hope, too.
Nonetheless, Agent Hill crossed her hands behind her back, ever the soldier. “It’s him, sir.”
Fury clenched his jaw. The dissonance didn’t stop, neither did the alarms. Something is coming, they said. And it’s coming fast. “Where is he?”
“Roswell,” she said. “New Mexico.”
Fury nodded, thinking. When the airship did not change course, its pilots angling instead to see the tracker’s screen as if it’ll give them a camera to an old friend, he rolled his eyes.
“Can we go today, please?” he said not without some edge.
The pilots started, and immediately input the coordinates given to them.
Fury walked down the length of the ship to the windows, staring unseeing into the limitless skies. He wondered if his protégé could sense what was coming. He wondered if he had any idea.
Agent Hill came to stand beside him, back straight. Without looking at him, she asked, “What if he doesn’t help us, sir?”
Her tone was formal, though even Fury could hear the genuine worry. He was never the type to sugarcoat, and he wouldn’t start now.
“Then we’re screwed,” he said grimly. Hill’s jaw clenched, and Fury looked back out the window. “But he’ll help.”
She raised a brow, confused. “Sir?”
“He’s the Last Avenger,” Fury said by way of explanation. “He’s all we’ve got left.”
*
It was one of those things you’re convinced is a dream until you get stabbed in the gut by a sharp piece of metal and you take a look around at the panicked faces and feel warm, loving hands holding you and you realize; this is real.
It couldn’t be, it defied every bit of logic you had ever clung to, but it was real. It was happening.
Lying there, Michael remembered the beginning. When he had been at Alex’s side at the Wild Pony, holding his boyfriend’s hand, still unable to believe that he got to call this airman his at all. Every day he woke up next to Alex Manes was a revelation, every second not long enough. Had he known what was coming, had he known what he would discover, what Alex would have to once again endure, he would’ve taken Alex away from their group of friends, away from the Wild Pony, away from Roswell. He never would’ve stopped running.
As it happened, as he sat at Alex’s side at a table, pulling at Alex’s leg to sit atop his own, all he could think was that Alex looked beautiful tonight. Tired, but beautiful, and when wasn’t he tired anyway? All he could know to think was that he wanted to go home and touch him, to taste every inch of him, to hear his moans and hold his thighs tight around his own hips. When Alex laughed, Michael thought again of how badly he wanted to kiss him. It took him thinking about it for the third time before he remembered that Alex was his, that he got to kiss him whenever he wanted now. So he did.
He kept a hand buried in Alex’s soft hair as he pulled him away from whatever useless conversation he was having with Isobel and Kyle, and took his lips in his own.
Alex’s startled gasp was so quiet and soft that Michael was sure he wasn’t mean to hear it, but Alex quickly melted into him, reaching up and clutching his arm as he always took to doing and making Michael eager to reach around and hold him close.
When he started to let go, Alex held him tighter, keeping them pressed together. Alex’s cheek pressed to Michael’s as he panted. Michael was familiar with the desperate touch. It was what he’d done every time he and Alex had kissed and he’d known that they were on borrowed time. It was to breathe Alex in, lose himself to Alex’s touch. It had been his only source of real strength.
“Can you not cling to him for two seconds, Guerin?” Kyle demanded.
“I think it’s cute,” Isobel cooed in that way she knew Michael hated but made him blush anyway.
To them, they could only see Michael’s arms around Alex, keeping him close. They couldn’t see Alex clinging back. But Michael recognized that same need he’d had and still has in Alex now.
He ran a hand through Alex hair and murmured into his ear so that no one else would listen in.
“You okay, baby?”
Alex tugged a little on Michael’s jacket collar. That was how Michael really knew that something was wrong, and his doubt turned to legitimate worry.
“Alex?”
“Yeah,” Alex whispered, pressing his face to Michael’s neck and unwilling to let him go. “Yeah, I’m okay.” Finally, and with a force Michael could feel, Alex pushed away. He mustered a smile for Isobel and Kyle that didn’t reach his eyes, that worked at convincing everyone else that he was doing okay. Everyone but Michael. “What were we talking about?”
Michael watched him carefully the rest of the night. Alex looked beautiful, but then when didn’t he? Something else was wrong.
On the drive back to his house, Michael watched as Alex rested his head against the window, his eyes half-lidded like he’d lost the energy to even pretend to be awake and conscious of his surroundings. Michael hadn’t seen him all day, only able to meet up with him tonight. What had he been doing that left him like this?
When he parked in Alex’s driveway, he kept the doors locked. Alex didn’t make a move to open them anyway. “You want to tell me what’s really going on?”
Alex shut his eyes, but not as though the question bothered him. He seemed more exhausted than anything else, and resigned to the knowledge that he was going to have that question before the day was over.
“Please,” he murmured. “Can I please not answer that right now? I’ll tell you tomorrow, I just . . . I can’t do it now, Guerin.”
Michael should’ve pushed and pressed like he’d done over the years he’d known Alex. But the last time he’d pushed, Alex had forced himself to relive the memory of losing his leg. The memory of a friend lost. Michael hadn’t trusted him, and Alex had cut himself to prove that he was worthy of that trust.
So he didn’t push. Instead he said, “I don’t want you to be sad.”
Alex offered half a miserable, weary smile. “Even you can’t fix everything, Guerin.”
“Wanna bet?” he muttered, and closed the distance between them, kissing Alex again. If kissing him last time relieved enough of the weight on his shoulders that he didn’t feel the need to hide how he felt, Michael hoped kissing him now would give him some reassurance. That Michael was here for him this time, that he wouldn’t leave him again when his demons returned.
Alex hugged Michael’s arm as they made it to the front door, his head on Michael’s shoulder. It felt like miles between the car and the porch, the way Alex moved, like his legs were made of lead. Had he been this miserable all day and Michael just noticed? Alex had gotten to the bar first. He’d laughed and shook his head and teased. Then Michael had kissed him and it seemed to drain the energy right out of him. Michael had kissed him, and Alex’s heart seemed unwilling to keep the truth in.
Michael kept his lips to Alex’s forehead as he unlocked the door. They stopped. There was a light left on inside. To anybody else, it might’ve seemed like Alex had made a mistake. But Alex didn’t make mistakes like this. Alex’s back straightened, his hands tugging on Michael’s arm, and Michael realized too late that Alex had moved to shield him.
“Alex –” Michael started, but Alex held up a finger to his lips, a signal to stay quiet. He looked more serious, more distressed, than Michael had ever seen him. But why? Michael had watched before as Alex singlehandedly disarmed assassins, beat murderers, tasered evil aliens. What was he so worried had made it into his house?
Michael kept his palm flat and facing the floor at his side like a weapon, ready to launch the intruder into the wall, when Alex rounded the corner, gun up and Michael right beside him. Michael blinked. Whatever he’d been expecting, he was not expecting this.
The intruder was a very tall man, obvious even as he sat leisurely on Alex’s couch, with dark skin, all dressed in black. But that wasn’t the part that had given Michael pause. He was wearing a black eyepatch and he looked . . . familiar.
“You,” the man told Alex, “are not an easy person to find.”
“I know you,” Michael blurted, eyes narrowed.
“No one knows me,” the man said dryly without taking his eyes off Alex. He nodded once, and Michael was startled to see real respect in his eye. “Captain Manes.”
Alex had yet to lower his gun. He seemed to have suspected this intrusion. “Fury.”
He tilted his head at the weapon. “You planning to shoot me, Cap?”
“Depends on what you want,” Alex said. “I’ll save you the time. No.”
Fury sighed as he leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his gloved fingers interlocked. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple anymore, Alex.”
“It’s simple to me,” Alex said curtly, and put his gun away with the swiftness of a man who’d been handling it all his life, which, Michael realized with an unpleasant start, he has. Alex stepped aside to unblock the hallway back to the door, keeping Michael behind him. “You have your answer.”
Fury stood and crossed his hands behind his back. He made no move to leave, and Alex’s jaw was clenched so tight Michael feared he would draw blood. Despite Alex grabbing for him, Michael moved to shield him from Fury this time.
“I don’t know who you are,” he shrugged with a humorless smirk. “And I don’t care. You’re making Alex uncomfortable.”
“He’s about to be a lot worse,” Fury said, and anger flared in Michael’s stomach.
He took a menacing step towards Fury. “That sounds like a threat.”
Fury was unflinching. “I know about Jones.”
Michael faltered. “What?”
“Guerin,” Alex warned, “don’t talk to him.”
“And if you think he’s the worst you’ll ever face,” he said grimly, “well then you should see what kind of creature he called down here.”
Michael was looking between Fury and Alex. “How do you – how does he –” he faced Fury. “How do you know about that?”
“I have friends in all kinds of places,” was all Fury said in response. “But right now, I just have one who can help end the threat that’s coming.”
“We’re not friends,” Alex said darkly. “Not since the –” he cut off abruptly, his breaths shallow and quick. He covered his face with one trembling hand, like he had a fever.
“Alex?”
“Go,” Alex said through grit teeth. For a horrifying moment, Michael feared he was talking to him. But then Alex grabbed Michael’s arm like he was trying to draw on his strength, and he glared at Fury. “GO! I told you when I’d leave, I wouldn’t come back. And you can’t make me.”
For a moment, as Fury stared at Alex, Michael was shocked to see something crack against the calm of his expression. For just a moment, he looked sorry. “I wouldn’t make you do anything, Alexander. And if you don’t think I feel what you feel –”
“Don’t,” he warned. His eyes were dark, cold, full of anger and rage, but no hate. Nothing like the look he used to give his father.
“That monster your boyfriend and his siblings unleashed,” Fury went on mercilessly, and Michael flinched. “He unleashed a monster of his own. You have no idea what’s coming, Alex, and you have a chance to stop it. Come back, join the –”
“THEY’RE DEAD!” Alex snapped. “All of them are dead! Because of you . . .,” he growled the last words, looking like a barely tamed wolf. He stood between Fury and Michael, keeping a tight enough grip on Michael’s arm to bruise, to keep him out of sight, and when he spoke again, his words were barely higher than a murmur, and as soft as an axe. “Go, Fury. You’ve cost me enough family.”
Fury regarded Alex coolly, untouched. Or so he pretended. Even Michael could see the remorse, the pain. Whatever had happened between them, it had broken them both in an irreparable way. Without another word, Fury walked out past Alex. He stopped at the door.
“We’ll be in touch,” he said, “Captain.”
As soon as the door closed behind him, Alex’s eyes fluttered and he collapsed. Michael managed only a gasp before his arms were around him, keeping him steady on his feet. He sat him down on the couch, cupping his jaw.
“Hey, hey, look at me,” he said with a calmness he didn’t feel. He didn’t like the look of that Fury guy. He felt like someone else here to take Alex away from him, to a world Michael knew nothing about and could never be part of.
“He’ll be back,” Alex whispered, his eyes fluttering. He turned away from Michael’s touch with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Michael clenched his jaw. “Then I’ll break his arm off.”
Alex huffed a chuckle, and rubbed his face, trying to properly wake himself up. Michael felt his heart shattering. He hated seeing Alex like this; so miserable, so lost, so . . . broken.
Michael wordlessly took his face in his hands and kissed him. Like at the bar, Alex was first startled, and like at the bar, Alex melted into the kiss with a sigh, taking the strength Michael was giving to him.
As soon as they pulled apart, Michael had his forehead pressed to Alex’s. “Tell me,” he whispered. “Tell me what happened.”
Alex’s eyes were still shut and Michael didn’t know if he would answer. But he believed in Alex’s strength more than anyone, so he brushed his thumb across Alex’s cheekbone and let him take his time.
Then, just when he started to think that Alex was too tired to do this, his airman took hold of his waist, as if to keep him there, and with his dark eyes serious, he asked, “What do you know about the Avengers?”
Coming Soon!