Apr 24, 2021
KYLE VALENTI WEEK | DAY FIVE ➜ kyle + alien snark
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KYLE VALENTI WEEK | DAY FIVE ➜ kyle + alien snark
Kyle Valenti + Family
Just a gentle reminder; A doctor will see you 19-25 April. Please book your appointments.
Please tag us @kylevalentiweek2021 to avoid any missed post and for fic writers feel free to use this link if you are cross posting on ao3
Kyle Valenti Week 2021
Kyle Valenti Appreciation Week [Day 1]
“It’s a lot bigger than I thought it’d be,” Alex said, and Kyle smiled.
He’d spent weeks preparing to go to this doctor’s convention in Albuquerque alone, wondering just how many old men in lab coats he would be forced to listen to discuss the importance of the work they’d done at their bigger, fancier hospitals. Then, on the morning he was getting ready to go, Alex showed up at his doorstep with a backpack and a smirk.
“Ready to go?”
Kyle was more than a little grateful. He’d thrown his arms around Alex’s shoulders, making him laugh. The beautiful sound was a good start to what was already beginning to look like a more bearable trip.
So now they stood before a giant hotel that Kyle was sure was bigger than Roswell’s hospital, ready for five days of lectures and – hopefully – one too many martinis to get through it.
“Do not leave me alone with these people,” he muttered as the automatic doors let them in, and the cold air conditioning slapped their faces.
Alex scoffed. “If you hate coming to these things so much, why do you? Couldn’t you just take a sick day or something?”
“I’m a doctor,” Kyle said miserably. “I’m legally not allowed to be sick.” He mustered a smile as he checked into his room.
“Oh!” the receptionist smiled at the two of them. Kyle guessed she rarely saw anyone under the age of seventy at one of these things. “Your reservation doesn’t mention a plus-one. I can update you from the two double-sized bedroom to the single king-size, if you want.”
Kyle glanced at Alex with wide eyes, and was glad to see he wasn’t the only one blushing. Then a ping caught Alex’s attention and he pulled out his phone.
“Uh – we’re just friends,” Kyle stammered. “We’re not – I mean, he wouldn’t – he is way out of my league –”
“No,” Alex cut him off, pocketing his phone and smiling politely, if not a little uncomfortably, at the receptionist. “We’re good with the two-bedroom, thanks.”
Kyle swallowed and nodded, handing in his doctor’s badge and trying (and failing) not to look to Alex every so often, who was doing a great job of avoiding Kyle’s gaze completely. Was it really that bad for people to think they were together? He knew Alex was amazing, he knew he’d made mistakes himself when they were teenagers, but he’d hoped that they’d grown past that. That when someone asked if they were in love, they could laugh it off and take it as a complement.
Kyle wondered if it was normal to want people to assume you were dating your best friend, then realized he was being spoken to.
“Thirteenth floor, room 1369,” she said, still looking from Kyle to Alex and back as if too in love to know who to properly stare at.
“Great,” Kyle said, eager to go. “Thank you.”
They got onto the elevator with one old woman in the corner who was busying herself with pinning her badge on her lab coat.
“Forty seconds,” he muttered to Alex who huffed a chuckle. “We’ve been here forty seconds, and I already wish I was dead. Ironic, considering we’re surrounded by doctors.”
“Relax,” Alex said distractedly, and Kyle just realized how close he was. “You said the first lecture isn’t until tonight, right? So we’ll get to the room, and you can rest up until then.”
Kyle swallowed. Alex’s breath was warm on the shell of his ear. Was that normal? To like Alex’s breath against his skin? To want to lean back into him to feel more of it?
He shook his head, shutting his eyes tight. He was exhausted, and being ridiculous. He didn’t want to lean back into Alex – seriously, what was wrong with him today?
Once they’d reached the tenth floor, the old woman stepped off, and Kyle and Alex were alone. He looked down at his shoes, feigning nonchalance. “Can you believe that receptionist thought we were together?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “It’s not that hard to believe.”
“Still,” Kyle said, “I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable.”
Alex frowned. “Kyle, I’m not –”
Bing!
The doors opened to the thirteenth floor, and Kyle nudged his chin. “That’s us.”
They stepped off and down the carpeted corridor to their room. Kyle used his pass to let them in, and Alex let out a low whistle at the sight. It was a suite, it had to be. The door opened to a large sitting room with Victorian-esque furniture splayed around and flower vases on small wooden tables. There was a large-screen TV hanging on the wall and a small kitchen on the far right, reminding them that they hadn’t, in fact, been transported to the eighteenth century.
“Wow,” Alex murmured, checking the room on the left. “The beds are in here!” he called. “So’s the bathroom.”
“Great,” Kyle said, “because I need a shower to wash off the convention from my skin.”
Alex smiled, and Kyle tried not to think of the pride that bloomed in his chest at the sight of it.
As he rummaged for a pair of underwear and pajamas from his suitcase, Alex got another ping on his phone. Kyle threw glances at him, and noticed that his smile dimmed before he’d even pulled it out of his pocket.
Without responding, he clicked it off and tossed it on the bed.
“Everything okay?”
Alex hummed, mustering a smile that Kyle had learned long ago meant that he was bothered and trying not to fall into his own mess of thoughts.
“Hey,” Alex said. “I heard about this cool burger place, just down the street. You want to clean up and go?”
He groaned. “I’m so in love with you, please don’t ever leave me.”
Alex laughed, his cheeks red. He plopped down on his bed, arms outstretched. His shirt had ridden up his stomach, and Kyle’s eyes lingered on the tanned patch of naked skin. Alex’s eyes were closed, and he raised his hands to fold under his head, bringing his shirt up more.
If Kyle asked, would Alex let him touch him there? Would he let Kyle run his hand across his stomach, maybe higher up his shirt? Kyle imagined just lying down beside Alex, Alex looking at him with dark, hungry eyes. Alex reaching up to cup his jaw, caress his cheek, lean in with an open mouth and eager hands. What would Alex do, he wondered, if he just lied beside him and told him; Do whatever you want, I want you to.
“I don’t know why you complain about these things,” Alex said, yanking Kyle out of his thoughts. “A whole week away from work with a fancy hotel room sounds pretty good after Roswell.”
“It’s fancy this year,” Kyle said indignant, feeling a weird swell of shame in his chest. Not for the first time, Kyle was glad Alex didn’t have Isobel’s mind-reading powers. “You weren’t here when they put us in motels.”
“We could’ve had fun in a motel.”
“It’s a motel,” Kyle deadpanned. “There only thing you can do there for fun is . . .”
Alex raised a brow. “Have sex?”
Heat rose to the tips of Kyle’s ears and he cleared his throat. “Could you imagine . . . if – if we’d been there . . . together? Last year?”
Alex said nothing for a long while, and Kyle didn’t dare look at him. Then he heard Alex sit up in bed.
“Kyle –” he started, his voice strange, then –
Ping!
Alex turned silent, and Kyle looked over at him to see him focused on his phone, his finger hovering over the screen. Finally, Alex swallowed and pocketed it.
“You okay?”
Alex slid off the bed. “Yeah. I’ll go ask what time the meals are in this place,” he said. “You should get cleaned up.”
He patted Kyle’s shoulder twice on his way out, and Kyle watched him leave. The second he was out the door, Kyle threw his face into his pillow and cursed himself.
What had he said? What had he been thinking?! Alex was going to think he was hitting on him, pushing himself on his gay friend because he was bored!
“Idiot!” he yelled, his voice muffled. “What were you thinking, what’s wrong with you?!”
The empty hotel room didn’t respond.
As they sat over their burgers and fries, Kyle thought Alex was unusually quiet. Every time he tried to make him laugh, Alex would get a call or text, and his smile would instantly fall away.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” he tried. “There’s no way I could’ve made it through this week without you.”
“Week hasn’t started yet,” Alex reminded him, rational and calculating as always. Kyle smiled to himself.
“Why’d you decide to come anyway?”
Alex folded his arms on the table and sighed. He looked a lot more tired than he had that morning, but he smiled, nonetheless. “I didn’t want you to be alone.”
Kyle’s heart fluttered in his chest. “Alex –”
Ping!
Alex shut his away, his smile faded. “Sorry, just – just one second.” He pulled out his phone, checked the message on the screen with furrowed brows, seemed to hesitate about something, then swiped across his screen and fell silent again.
It was when they were nursing their milkshakes, Alex mindlessly swirling a fry in his, that Kyle couldn’t take it anymore.
“Okay,” he finally said, “what’s going on with you? I’m the one that’s supposed to be miserable on this trip, remember?”
Alex blinked. “Nothing’s going on.”
“Alex,” Kyle said. “It’s me.”
Alex said nothing a moment, then another text came, and he all but flinched. Kyle frowned. There was only one person who could give Alex that kind of reaction.
His shoulders fell. “It’s Guerin, isn’t it?” he said. “He’s the one that’s been calling nonstop.”
Alex shut his eyes and sighed. He ran a hand through his hair, and said, “I don’t know why I can’t talk to him. Not now, I –” he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I thought I could get over . . . the whole thing with Maria, but I . . . I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He shook his head, and managed a smile. “Because I don’t understand what’s happening either. I don’t get why it’s suddenly . . . bothering me so much. And because this trip isn’t about that. This is about you, so let’s just table Guerin until some of this starts to make more sense, okay?”
Kyle stared. He’d spent years watching Alex put his own feelings aside because everyone else was just that much more important. He’d seen Alex ignore his own tears so he could wipe away Kyle’s, he’d seen him bleed for Michael over and over.
“You know,” he said, “back in high school, when I first started to become someone I’m not proud of –”
Alex frowned. “What – why are you bringing that up now?”
“You didn’t hate me for it at first,” Kyle went on. “Even when I didn’t invite you to parties, even when I told people that I didn’t really know you, even when . . . when I called you things behind your back –”
“Stop,” Alex shut his eyes, “I don’t want to talk about that.”
“You have to,” Kyle insisted, leaning in and taking Alex’s hand. “Because even after all of that, you wanted to see the good in me, and only the good. And then, when I stopped talking behind your back, and said all that messed up crap to your face, then you started to get angry. You put me in my place, every time. You give people chances, Alex. That doesn’t mean you don’t know how to punish them.”
Alex stared at his milkshake. “What’s your point?”
“That I got mine,” he said, and shrugged a shoulder, smiling. “And Guerin’s about to get his. It’s okay, Alex. You’re okay.”
Alex stared at him a long while, then a smile tugged at his lips. “You were wrong, you know,” he said softly. “You’re the one that’s out of my league.”
Kyle blinked, and realized he’d leaned in impossibly close. He cleared his throat, sitting back, his face inexplicably warm.
“Manes,” he murmured, shaking his head. “This’ll be one hell of a week.”
As he watched Alex bite his lower lip to keep his smile from widening, his face a cute shade of pink, he realized this trip might not be as bad as he’d thought.
roswell’s one braincell: push and pull
[~540 words] [teen and up audiences] [unbeta’ed] [kyle valenti] [past abuse, past bully!kyle, redemption arc, angst] [written for @kylevalentiweek2021, day 4 ~ roswell’s (1) braincell: wisdom advice and redemption + angst + hurt/comfort + “too afraid to love you”]
[losing alex manes is solely his fault]
roswell’s one braincell: push and pull | on ao3
Kyle is fifteen when he pushes his best friend away in order to keep his own status at school — he still wants to be the most popular guy, he still wants to ask Liz Ortecho out — and if he’s seen with Alex Manes everything he’s ever worked so hard for will be turned to dust.
Alex Manes is well known for being different, and Kyle himself is responsible for telling everyone who’s willing to hear all about the secret that his former best friend told him when they were both thirteen. Kyle doesn’t want to be associated with the gay he’s yanked out of the closet.
Kyle is seventeen when all ties with Alex are severed by some ill-aimed teasing and a well-landed punch during their senior prom. He watches as everything he’s worked so hard for — his girlfriend, his reputation — crumbles around him as Liz takes off after Alex.
Alex Manes has taken so much from him — even the love of his family, as Kyle’s seen his own father shielding Alex from the wrath of Jesse Manes more than once — that it just feels fitting for him to snatch the last shreds of happiness Kyle had in his life.
Kyle is twenty-four when his father dies and he learns that the hunting cabin where they used to spend their summers has been left to Alex Manes. He doesn’t even flinch — he already knew that his father had a soft spot for Alex, and in the six years since high school ended he’s learned to accept that his past has led him to be the man he is today. He’s still regretful and ashamed of his actions, but there’s nothing he can do now.
Alex Manes has long since stepped out of his life — he pretty much kicked his best friend out — and he’s now just an estranged memory in Kyle’s past. He never gets to apologize for his teenager’s fever, for the pain he caused and the grief he’s to blame for.
Kyle is twenty-six when the news break across the state, reaching Roswell and spreading like wildfire. It’s the only thing the nurses talk about at their station, the only topic for doctors during their coffee breaks, the only question paramedics ask him when he greets them at the emergency bay. Local hero Alex Manes has been reported MIA in Iraq, and Kyle can only drag himself to the tiny chapel in Roswell Community Medical.
He drops to his knees and prays for the first time since his father passed away, hands brought together in desperation and guilt, as he mutters, “I wish I’d have been brave enough, Alex, I wish things had been different, and it’s all my fault, it’s all my fault, I was too afraid to love you for you, brother,” over and over and over until his throat aches from crying.
Kyle is twenty-eight when he sees Alex Manes back in Roswell, not unscathed but definitely alive, and he takes that first step towards rebuilding a friendship that he isn’t sure might ever be revived. But he tries. And he tries. And he tries.
He will never give up on Alex Manes.
The Family That Stays Together [RNM Fic]
The Family That Stays Together by @haloud and @maeglinthebold
Relationship: Kyle Valenti & Rosa Ortecho & Arturo Ortecho
Kyle, Rosa and Arturo bond in Liz's (and Jim's) absence.
Fic || Doesn't Work That Way For Me (Kyle/Max)
In honor of Kyle Valenti Week 2021, here's some fic where Kyle and Demisexual! Max have occasion to make out for Day 3!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
“Thought you could use this.”
Kyle sets the six pack down on the arm of one of Max’s wooden patio chairs, boots crunching on the gravel. Max flicks a glance at him and goes back to staring at the fire.
“Thought doctors were supposed to advise against drinking.” He mutters, the light of the fire pit flickering on his face.
“Strictly medicinal,” Kyle says, gesturing wide with hands shoved in the pockets of his jacket. “Doctor’s orders, even. Though I should advise you not to drink alone.”
“That mean you’re going to stay and help me drink them?” Max still doesn’t look away from the fire.
“That an invitation?” Kyle asks.
Read the Rest on AO3
Day 3: 21 April 2021
Theme: The Dr checks for vitals-Romance and Love
Fic: Fluff/Smut
Prompt: “Your Touch”
KYLE VALENTI WEEK | DAY SIX ➜ off hours at planet 7