"congrats" + malex 😘
Okay so, for some reason this is what happened with this prompt. I don’t know why but I am in a mood to give my ships fluffy soft moments right now. I hope you like it, Lucie! And thank you for the prompt! 💜💜💜
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Alex wakes slowly, coming aware of the waking world once more. His eyes still shut he can feel Michael’s presence in the space next to him. Most nights they fall asleep, needing the skin to skin contact and wake up in the shape of two parentheses, their heads so close sometimes their foreheads touch. More often than not, Alex wakes to the feel of Michael’s curls ticking his face, their legs tangled together, Michael’s feet sandwiching Alex’s foot like he can’t bear to not be holding onto him somehow.
This morning, Alex wakes and their heads are inches apart, the space between them allowing him to watch as Michael sleeps on unaware. They’re both early risers - Alex from the years in the Air Force, and Michael from always needing to be busy - so he rarely gets the opportunity to revel in the quiet moments of the morning.
Alex lifts his hand and carefully pushes back a stubborn curl that’s fallen over Michael’s eyes, letting his fingers drift across Michael’s forehead, tracing the arch of his nose. It’s just a tad crooked, the remnants of the bar fights Alex has heard about, but never actually seen Michael engage in. It’s been a quiet year - a year since the last time they felt their lives were in danger. A year of quiet mornings and peaceful nights, the two of them learning how to live together, exist in the same space, learning to talk and communicate in ways they’d always been afraid of. A year of falling asleep together, and waking up together.
Alex knows the date, knows today marks exactly one year. He doesn’t know if Michael had been paying attention, but it doesn’t really matter anyway. Because even if Michael goes off to work today, and spends the day at the junkyard, he will still come home, back to Alex at the end of the day. The same way Alex will head off to work, go about his day as if there’s nothing particularly special about this day. But at the end of the day, when he’s tired of staring at a computer screen, he will come back here, home, to Michael.
“Morning, Private,” Michael says in that sleepy voice that Alex knows he’s never going to tire of hearing. He doesn’t reply, just watches as Michael blinks awake, lets him reach up to rub the sleep from his eyes.
Maybe he’ll work from home today. There’s nothing pressing he needs to do today, nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow. Maybe today they can take this tiny victory, this one year of them, together, and spend it together. Alex doesn’t know what they’ll do, and for all he cares in this perfect moment, they could spend it in bed.
“Were you watching me sleep?”
He smiles, pushing himself up towards Michael just enough to press their lips together in a quick good morning kiss. He feels Michael’s hand move to his back, fingers teasing the bare skin. Alex drapes himself across Michael, their faces only inches apart now. He smiles at the stubborn curl that falls back across Michael’s forehead, like it’s supposed to lay there, just above his left eye.
Alex loves that curl.
“We should just stay in bed today,” Michael continues, staring back at Alex. “Play hooky.”
“We could do that,” Alex hums in agreement.
