“And The Rest Is (World) History.” Alex, Bianca. (Persona Dreamscape) - Chapter Twenty-Three

[videokilledme]

~
"And The Rest Is (World) History." Alex, Bianca. (Persona Dreamscape) - Chapter Twenty-Three

[music]

Almost before Alex knew it, Thanksgiving break had come and gone, and it was time for Christmas break instead.

Carrington University actually won the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball tournament for the first time ever, beating out Stanford U, the multiple-time-champion title-holders who’d been heavily favored to win. Bianca had been delirious with excitement and well-deserved pride for an entire week, and her happiness had been contagious as usual; the meals in the cafeteria with her various groups of friends were even more lively, but it was such a heady, high-spirited energy that Alex found himself every bit as swept along with it as everyone else.

At least, he had been until the looming presence of the rest of the holiday season brought him right back down to earth. It could have been much worse, though: he was also riding the minor high of the fact that he had actually managed to beg off going with Bill to Aunt Bess’s for Thanksgiving, claiming that he had a big paper due in his History of Psychology class. That alone meant it had been just about the best Thanksgiving break he’d ever had, simply by virtue of him not having to put up with his asshole dudebro cousins, not to mention avoiding the excruciatingly long car trip down to Alabama with his father. He wasn’t going to get out of going to Gemma’s for Christmas, though--not that he really wanted to, since staying in DC would’ve meant a stiff, awkward holiday with Bill, probably just like the one they’d had last year.

No, he would much rather spend Christmas morning sipping Joe’s mulled cider, watching as Drew and Addie excitedly dove into a huge pile of presents and ate more candy in one day than their usually-restrictive parents allowed them to eat in most of the rest of the year combined (Halloween and Easter were also outliers). The food would be fantastic as always, a Christmas dinner straight out of a high-end cooking magazine, and while Alex would still feel a little out of place, a little bit like an intruder, they would at least treat him with warmth and a decent level of respect.

Really, the only downside to going to Gemma’s was her over-fondness for throwing expansive holiday parties. It didn’t matter whether it was her turn to have Alex there for Christmas or not, and she always seemed glad enough to show him off to the assorted friends, business partners, and clients who she’d invited into her huge, beautiful home. Additionally, while she did ask Alex to dress up for the parties, Gemma didn’t ever say anything the least bit negative about the inevitable sharp punk edge to his outfits. It was a novel sort of thing, to be accepted like that, and even if he couldn’t help resenting his mother for a lot of things, Alex had to admit that at least she let him be himself.

“It’s going to be a smaller party this year than it has been the last few times you’ve been here for it,” Gemma had told Alex that morning as he helped Joe with some of the food prep. “I wanted things to be a little quieter, so I only invited a few other designers and architects this time, just people I see often or really enjoy working with. One of them is bringing her whole family though, and two of her kids are in college, so at least you’ll have someone your age to talk to this year, won’t that be nice? Her youngest is nine, I think--considerably older than Addie and Drew, but hopefully they’ll get along again, she only brought her three youngest last year but there were other children around too, and they all did well enough. None of the other friends I invited this year have children, so hopefully you won’t feel too much like you’re stuck babysitting, but you know how much Drew and Addie just love you, Alex, and how shy Addie can get around new people, so...”

Alex hadn’t thought anything of it, nodding absently as he carefully copied Joe in stuffing miniature portobello mushrooms with some sort of walnut and blue cheese filling. “It’s not a problem. I’ll probably just take ‘em all down to the rec room.” He had never had more than passing interest in video games himself aside from the music-based ones--though arcades could still be pretty fun once in a while--but Drew loved showing anyone who’d watch how good he was at the newest Superb Antonio game, and Addie liked the dancing and rhythm games even if she was too young to be very good at them. Aside from four different video game consoles and a huge TV with a shelf full of movies beside it, the rec room also had pool and air hockey tables, as well as a closet full of all sorts of board games, most of them for younger children, but a few for an older crowd as well. Some of Drew and Addie’s toys ended up in that room on occasion too--mostly LEGO sets, which could also potentially prove to be a good distraction. If he couldn’t keep them occupied in the rec room, Alex thought dryly, then there simply wasn’t any reasonable way they could be occupied.

All the remaining prep for the party went smoothly, and before long they’d all changed into their party clothes and the doorbell was letting out merry, periodic chimes to announce the arrival of more guests.

Alex didn’t actually hate these parties, had never hated these parties even if he wasn’t exactly comfortable around so many strangers; but this year, he definitely noticed that the time he’d spent with Bianca’s friends made it noticeably easier to talk to all these people he didn’t know, and his time spent as a radio talk show host helped even more. So while it still wasn’t exactly enjoyable, it wasn’t torture either--he would’ve taken this sort of thing over spending holidays with Bill or at Aunt Bess’s any day.

And then, just about the last thing he’d ever expected to happen, happened.

Alex was on his way back down the first floor hallway after hanging some coats in the nearest guest room closet when Joe snagged him and sent him to the kitchen for the second cheeseball tray. As Alex vanished into the kitchen, he heard the doorbell ring again, then his mother’s voice raised in cheerful greeting, though her actual words were cut off when the swinging door shut behind him. Intent on not wasting any time, Alex scooped up the heavy, two-handed platter of food that his stepfather had carefully plated earlier, using his back to push the door open again--and then very nearly dropped that heavy platter right there on the floor when he saw who was standing in the doorway of his mother’s house.

Three of them he’d seen before, one of them quite often; the other four he’d seen plenty of pictures of, so in a way, all of them were familiar.

The friend who Gemma had invited who had kids was (and Alex was inwardly slapping himself for not considering this as a possibility, considering the fact that he knew her mother was an architect, knew that their mothers knew each other) none other than Annabeth Chase-Jackson.

Bianca’s mother.

Which was why Bianca, her parents, and her four siblings were all crowding into the entryway, stomping traces of what little snow hadn’t been cleared away off their shoes and smiling and chattering away and shedding their winter coats.

Alex gaped at them for a moment from the shadow of the kitchen doorway, then darted away to hand the tray off to Joe before returning to Gemma’s side to dutifully take their coats, as he’d been doing all evening.

“Oh, Annabeth, this is Alex, my oldest!”

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Chase-Jackson,” he said politely, even though his mother hadn’t told him her last name--a fact that made the stern-looking but pretty blonde woman pause in the middle of taking off her coat to give him a measuring stare.

“Alex is a junior in college just like your Bianca, I think. Sweetheart, can you take their coats? That first guest bedroom should have enough hangers, but if it doesn’t-”

Gemma continued to chatter away brightly, but Bianca’s gaze had snapped up the instant Alex had spoken, and she froze when their eyes met, surprise evident on her face. Alex couldn’t help but smirk at how taken aback she looked as her jaw dropped, and he neatly caught her coat as it slipped out of her suddenly-nerveless hands. Then in another instant she was over the shock, laughing and lunging forward to throw her arms around him in a jubilant hug that he only halfway reciprocated, having very suddenly become the one who was stunned instead.

“Oh--well then--I guess you know each other?” Gemma said haltingly as Bianca continued to laugh and all but dance Alex around in a circle; but before she could follow up on things, Drew rushed up to her, babbling something nonsensical-sounding about cheese and Santa Claus and Batmonk as he grabbed at her arm and tried to pull her away. “Sorry, Annabeth--and company! I’ll be right back--Drew, honey, don’t pull on me like that-”

Gemma let Drew haul her away, and the instant she was out of easy earshot-

“All right, Bee, what’s goin’ on here?” demanded a tall blond guy who looked like he could’ve been Bianca’s twin--Caleb, Alex recalled, the next oldest child in the Jackson family and currently a sophomore in college. He was squinting at Alex mistrustfully, arms crossed over his chest, and Alex had to fight a sudden, reflexive urge to cling to his best friend for safety, to keep her between him and her scowling younger brother.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” muttered Bianca’s father, striking a similar pose to his oldest son, expression thunderous and arms crossed in preparation for pronouncing grim judgement upon the offender--until his wife rolled her eyes and punched him in the side, making him reflexively uncross his arms to clutch at his ribs as he gave a slightly strained-sounding wheeze.

“Come on, Seaweed Brain, let’s leave the kids to get acquainted.”

“But-”

“Gemma told me that Joe would be making those chili chicken wings with that weird lemon yogurt sauce you liked so much. Remember how fast they all got eaten last year?”

Bianca’s dad’s entire demeanor changed at that, shifting from grizzled guard dog to excited young puppy in an instant. “Then hey, what are we waiting for? Have fun, kids, play nice and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

The only boy with dark hair, who Alex recognized as Harper, a sixteen-year-old junior in high school, watched calmly from beneath raised eyebrows as their dad almost bounced across the room over to the snack table, their mother following much more sedately. “...Did Dad really just give us permission to do pretty much anything but literally burn this place down?” he murmured with something like thinly-veiled cynicism.

The youngest boy, a fidgety blond who Alex knew must be twelve-year-old Skylar, grinned and folded his arms behind his head. “Sure sounded like it to me! But first...” His grin widened as he took in how one of Bianca’s arms was still casually draped around Alex’s shoulders, “I think Bee should introduce us to her friend.”

The teasing way Skylar drawled out that last word, not to mention his sing-song tone throughout the whole preceding phrase, made Alex more than a little uncomfortable. He could feel his face going red, and fought the urge to stiffen up and move away from Bianca--but that would only play right into that impishly-grinning little middle schooler’s trollish hands, no doubt. Instead, despite the damning rush of pink in his cheeks, he just quirked an eyebrow at the kid and angled an expectant look (just slightly up) at Bianca instead.

At that kind of obvious prompting, Bianca finally released the blue-haired student and stepped back towards her siblings, eyes shining with happiness and excitement. “Oh, right! Guys, this is Alex! You know, my friend from Carrington!”

“Don’t you have a lot of friends from Carrington?”

“Only about a hundred of them.”

“Bee has a lot of friends everywhere.”

“She does,” Alex agreed, cutting in with smooth precision before the banter could continue or ramp up into something truly obnoxious, “But I actually made her work to be my friend, which makes me special.” He didn’t try to hide his small, wry smile, and let himself both sound and look amused by what he was saying...which cast a measure of doubt on his level of sincerity.

Gotta be careful, he told himself as he scanned a subtle look around at Bianca’s siblings. They probably already suspect that I’m in love with her, just on general principles. Gonna be hard to hide the fact that yeah, I really am.

But he’d find a way. He’d treat her just like he always did, which was friendly and familiar, but not too friendly or too familiar.

“...Ohhhh, wait. ‘Alex.’ I know who this is now. He isn’t just some random friend. This guy is your replacement Avery,” smirked a devastatingly pretty little girl with long, wavy dark hair and the same gorgeous sea-green eyes as Bianca--Olivia, the youngest, a nine-year-old. There was a light glimmering in those eyes that Alex hadn’t seen much in Bianca’s, though: age aside, this girl looked like she was out to cause trouble.

“Liv! That makes it sound like I friendship-dumped Avery, which I have not done!”

“Charming as this conversation is proving to be, maybe you’d all like to give me the rest of your coats and stop standing here in the doorway, so other guests can get in?” Alex interjected, his pleasant tone of voice utterly at odds with the words he was saying in it. He was also smiling his most charming fake smile, which earned him a hard sideways look and an arched brow from Bianca as the rest of her siblings obediently handed over their coats. “If you’ve been to one of these parties before, then I don’t have to tell you the food is great. I’ll meet up with you over at the snack table and take you down to the rec room once you’ve got your plates loaded up with canapes or whatever. Okay?”

Without waiting for a response, Alex turned and carried off the stack of coats, inwardly fighting down the impulse to freak out about this whole situation. While it was nothing short of fantastic to get to see Bianca in the middle of his Christmas vacation, having to meet her whole family all at once was pretty intimidating, especially considering how tall (aside from Skylar and Olivia, of course--though Skylar wasn’t much shorter than Alex) and intense they all looked. He wasn’t sure how well he’d manage to get along with all of them, especially since he wanted them to like him; from what he knew of them, he already liked them in return. Especially Harper--he’d been right, they definitely had comparable, or at least very compatible personalities, and the few seconds back in the entryway when their eyes had met and the younger boy had given him a small, guarded smile made Alex think that maybe at least one of Bianca’s siblings might take a genuine liking to him before the night was through.

He’d just tossed the coats on the bed and opened the deep walk-in closet to retrieve some hangers when he heard a familiar voice speaking nearby. “Hey, Alex! Ready for a few more?”

Stepping back out of the closet, he found Bianca holding two more coats--her parents’--and leaning in through the doorway, her usual bright smile on her face. Alex couldn’t help but mirror the expression, and if he’d known it, every aspect of him softened as he looked across the room at his best friend.

“Sure, you can just toss them there with the rest, and I’ll take care of it. Thanks for bringing them-”

“C’mon, no need to try to play the posh host with me,” Bianca laughed, sweeping into the room and snagging a hanger out of his hand. “I’ve seen you drunk and throwing up in my dorm’s bathroom. I’ve seen the real you,” she chuckled, playfully bumping his shoulder with hers, the impact enough, as usual, to make him stagger. “No sense putting up a front around me, Alex Ace!”

Alex’s brows lowered in a challenging stare. “I’ve seen you drunk, too, if you’ll remember,” he reminded her a bit testily. “And if you’ll recall what happened that first time-”

“Okay, okay!” Bianca interrupted in a rush, waving her hands at him and shooting an anxious look towards the door. “Not so loud, my brothers might overhear-”

“Oh~?” Alex quirked an eyebrow, and though his mouth curled into a playful smirk, the question he asked was a lot more serious than it sounded: “Embarrassed that your family might get the wrong idea about us?”

“No, that’s not it at all! They’re just...really, really stupid about this kind of thing, and I want them to like you, not be mean to you. You get that enough from your cousins and all the random jerks at school-”

“Wooow, good to know that you think I’m so likable.”

“I do think you’re likable, you snarky, punk-rock jerk,” Bianca said, her words holding such warmth and affection that even the name-calling sounded more like a pet-name than anything. “But I also know that you push people away so that you won’t get hurt if they decide they don’t like you. C’mon, we’ve talked about this dozens of times before.”

Thanks to the power of teamwork, all the coats were already neatly hung up, and Alex didn’t have anything to look at or do to avoid Bianca’s soft, steady gaze aside from stare down at his feet and feel his face turn a telling, guilty red.

“If any of my family members decide to be buttheads, they’re gonna have to answer to me. But I know them well enough to know that they’re going to like you, Alex.” He gave a slight start as he felt one of her hands land on his shoulder, eyes jerking up as she gave him a hearty pat, followed by a reassuring squeeze. “So...just be yourself. They can handle a little snark, trust me.”

For a long moment, he could only look up at her, eyes wide and expression vulnerable, both his nervousness and his adoration for her completely exposed. Then she gave him another pat, and some of the typical wise-ass smirk crept back onto his face.

“Too bad that I’m not known for being a little snarky, then, huh?”

“Alex!” Bianca burst out, his name escaping her amidst a rush of laughter that nearly bent her double, and he grinned at her with a very satisfied expression as she swatted at him playfully, which he only made a half-hearted attempt to avoid.

“Hitting on me right here in my mom’s house, huh? What ever will you do if your brothers see this and get the wrong idea?”

“Then I’ll smack them too, until I’ve set ‘em straight!”

“Fine,” Alex chuckled, closing the closet door behind himself and gesturing towards the hallway, “But we’d still better get back to the party, or you’re gonna have to start swinging for the fences already.”

On their return to the party, Alex collected all of the Jackson kids, as well as Drew and Addie, and with Bianca’s help he managed to corral them all down into the rec room within the space of a few minutes.

They spent the next two hours or so amusing themselves with all the various games and things that were kept in the rec room. Drew got his chance to show off his Superb Antonio skills, with much-impressed ooh-ing and ahh-ing from the older Jackson kids, Olivia destroyed Caleb at air hockey (and Alex wasn’t at all certain that he’d let her win), and they all took turns playing Ravenous Ravenous Rhinos. At one point about an hour into it all, Bianca had excused herself to use the restroom, and the moment they were certain that she was out of earshot, the four other Jackson children immediately rounded on Alex.

“So...Bianca had to work to make you her friend, you said. Gave in to her in the end though, huh?” Caleb asked shrewdly, crossing his arms again, which looked much less imposing now that he was seated cross-legged on the floor in the middle of a veritable explosion of LEGOs, UNO cards, and board game pieces.

Alex had seen this miniature inquisition coming though, and so instead of catching him off-guard, he felt pretty ready for just about anything they were likely to throw at him. “Of course I did,” he shot back with serious and immediate matter-of-factness, “I would’ve been stupid not to. Bianca is great, I wouldn’t have had half as much fun or gotten to know half as many people if she hadn’t decided that I was worth befriending, despite my...everything,” he said, gesturing vaguely to himself. “I just have such a winning personality, so friendly, you know? A real...people person. Which is why I thought she was just being nice to me out of pity or whatever at first, or maybe just pretending to be nice. But...she’s actually that nice, and doesn’t fake anything. What you see is what you get, and I appreciate that kind of honesty. Once I knew she was sincere about wanting to be my friend...” Alex shrugged and let his words trail off, hoping they would jump in and save him from having to complete that thought.

“...So you’re saying that you’re really just friends,” Caleb pressed, eyes still narrowed in deeply suspicious slits.

“Last time I checked, yeah,” Alex shot back, then let that almost that teasing smirk return. “Have you seen your sister? Do you really think that if we were dating, I wouldn’t brag about it to everyone?”

Caleb jabbed a finger at him, face alight with half-devious, half-indignant triumph. “So you DO like her!”

Alex rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “What are you, a middle schooler? Looking for all the scandalous classroom gossip?” The shriveling derision in his tone made Caleb actively recoil, blinking with shock at the sharpness of Alex’s words, even as Skylar let out an offended-sounding hey! at the middle schooler comment. “Bianca and I are friends--she’s my best friend, the only best friend I’ve ever had--so yes, of course I like her, but just as a friend. And despite having drawn that line, I can still admit that yes, she’s beautiful--physically, yeah, but also mentally and at her heart. But we’re just friends, and that’s all it’s ever going to be, so none of you have to worry about me getting all handsy or whatever with your big sister.”

The four Jackson kids present all spent a few moments giving each other meaningful looks, and Alex felt a flicker of worry--he didn’t know them well enough to interpret their nonverbal exchange, though his own expression was darkening in a glower of suspicion--but before he could turn the tables and ask them what they were thinking, or what Bianca had said about him, the person in question returned. Pausing in the doorway, she looked in at the unexpectedly silent tableau, then posted her hands on her hips when she received five semi-guilty looks from the room’s older occupants.

“Guys,” she said in a warning tone mingled with disappointment, “Did you stop playing nice while I was gone? I thought you were all getting along so well...”

“We’re fine, Bianca,” Alex reassured her, giving her the best smile he could manage, though it still came out a bit reserved and lopsided. He wasn’t lying, though: to his surprise, he and Bianca’s siblings had been getting along remarkably well all evening. Maybe he had just gotten better at talking to people thanks to his regular attendance at Bianca’s crowded friends-meals, but they had all been effortlessly easy to talk to, even Caleb, who he had halfway expected to be a problem. In addition, he was more than a little surprised--almost flustered, really--to find out that they knew who he was. They had known a lot about who he was, actually, far more than he would’ve expected. Caleb apparently downloaded old episodes of his show regularly from the campus radio website, and Harper almost religiously looked up whatever music Alex played at the end of his show, often asking Bianca to buy him CDs when the band was too small and local for him to find their music online. Skylar and Olivia had known his name, and that he liked music, documentaries about space, pancakes with bacon, and super-strong black coffee--all very specific, strange things for kids their ages to remember about some person they’d never met before. They certainly knew a lot more about him than he knew about them, though when he mentioned things that he did know, it earned him a smile and an excited bubbling babble of conversation each time. Their interrogation during Bianca’s brief absence had been the only pothole in the otherwise smooth surface of their interaction.

But judging by the semi-apologetic look Caleb angled his way, the other college student regretted even that one minor rough patch a little.

“Yeah,” Caleb spoke up now, supporting Alex’s claim that they were fine, flashing his older sister a grin that made him look very much like a younger, blond version of their father. “Also, you’re definitely right. He’s totally got the same type of vibe.”

The rest of the Jackson kids had broken out into chuckles and grins, and Alex had looked around at them all with a mistrustful scowl, which for some reason just made them grin wider or laugh harder.

“The same type of vibe?” Alex looked to Bianca for an explanation, one eyebrow arched. Whatever they meant by it, it didn’t quite sound like a compliment, though it didn’t seem like an insult either. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Instead of answering, Bianca tried--and failed--to smother a little laugh of her own. “Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing bad, I promise. You just...remind us of someone.”

Alex could recall Bianca saying something similar before, and now seemed like a good time to press her for more information. But before he could manage to do it, Addie gave a loud, expansive yawn, rubbing at her eyes sleepily, and at the same time, the thus-far remarkably quiet Drew looked up from the LEGO tower they were both building with Harper.

“Alex! It’s gettin’ late so Addie needs to go to bed! An’ I’m hungry an’ thirsty again, an’ so is Batmonk!”

Alex gave a low chuckle as he picked his way across the sea of LEGOs to scoop up Addie, who blearily held out her arms towards him as he leaned towards her, then immediately nuzzled her face into his neck once he’d swung her up off the floor. “All right, I’ll put Addie to bed, then grab you something from the snack table on the way back-”

“NO! I want a PBJ SAMMICH! An’ I want it cut like Daddy does, an’ without the crusts, an’ I want APPLE JUICE, TOO!”

“All right, all right. Inside voice, okay, Squirt?” Carefully balancing Addie’s slight weight, he reached out to ruffle Drew’s curly hair as he added, “Think you can keep an eye on our guests while I’m gone? Play the host? Maybe you could all play Superb Bash Sibs Ultimate--you’re great as Superb Antonio in that game, too, and we have enough controllers.”

It was a successful distraction tactic: immediately Drew had abandoned both his whiny attitude and the LEGOs and rushed over to the TV and started raving about how he was ‘gonna beat ‘em all’ as Superb Antonio. Bianca had given a light laugh and followed after him, asking him questions as she helped him get it all set up, and although Addie gave a grumbly little murmur against his collarbone, Alex still found himself pausing almost involuntarily to watch them for a tellingly long moment.

It wasn’t the first time tonight he had caught himself looking Bianca’s way just a little too long; but it was the first time he knew for a fact that one of Bianca’s siblings had caught him looking, too: as he finally pulled his gaze away from his lovely blonde friend, he felt a sudden jolt of panic as he met a pair of watchful, stormy grey eyes from across the room.

Shit.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, and it was a tribute to his vocal control and acting abilities that he managed to keep his voice even and unrushed, sounding absolutely normal or near enough to it that even Bianca didn’t catch any of the nervous waver sending shivers through his body, making his stomach clench and his pulse start rabbiting away.

Being able to get out of the room, to get away from both Bianca and Harper, to have something immediate to focus on really helped Alex calm that initial burst of overwhelming panic; it was something like routine now, helping Addie brush her teeth, then change into a set of her cute footie pajamas before tucking her into bed. From there, he slipped back downstairs to let Gemma and Joe both know that he’d put her down for the night, then shot them both a quick text instead when he saw that they were both deeply involved in separate conversations across the room from each other.

Drew would be distracted by the game for a short while, but Alex knew that wouldn’t last long. He should still hurry to keep his half-brother from getting too hungry, and having an inconsolable meltdown as a direct result. Slipping into the kitchen, he set to work putting together a few PBJs the way he’d seen Joe do it several times before, making sure to cut off the crusts before carefully cutting the sandwiches in triangles, then even smaller triangles.

And all the while, he was inwardly arguing with himself about how he should handle this. He was entirely out of his depth here, had never had to deal with anything like this before in his life, so should he just pretend it had never happened and hope that Harper would do the same? It probably would’ve been best if he’d asked Harper to come with him with the excuse of needing help in the kitchen, but it was too late to ask for that help now, and anyway, it would’ve seemed weird to single out Harper, even though they’d obviously been getting along well. Bianca, someone who was already his close friend, would’ve been the more obvious choice--but then again, she’d been involved with helping Drew set up the gaming console, so maybe it would’ve made sense to ask Harper-

Alex was so absorbed in his mental self-wrestling match that he made way more sandwiches than he needed to, enough for the rest of the “kids” to have some also, but he figured that Drew would like that, being able to eat the same thing as everyone else, the same thing as all the “big kids.”

He was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn’t hear the kitchen door’s quiet squeak as it swung open, didn’t notice that he wasn’t alone in the kitchen any more until Harper came up alongside him, casually leaning one hip against the counter, his feet silent on the sleek marble floor. Though he couldn’t hide the way his hands fumbled with the sandwich he was currently working on, Alex did manage to clamp down on the reflexive urge to jump or take a quick step to the side, swallowing hard before daring to angle a nervously wide-eyed look over at the younger boy. Instead of looking back, Harper suddenly shifted his stance, reaching over to take the peanut-butter-smeared knife out of Alex’s hand, then fell to putting together the last few sandwiches as easily if it were something he’d done every day all his life--and who knew, maybe he had. The quiet stretching between them remained unbroken, the faint, buzzing babble of the party attendees outside nothing but a low hum; then as he finished the second to last sandwich, Harper finally glanced up to give Alex a knowing sideways look, sending another spasm of terror slamming through the blue-haired student. For a moment, Alex couldn’t breathe, much less break the silence. Desperate for something to do, he hurriedly put the peanut butter, jelly, and bread away, then got out the apple juice and a spill-proof kids’ cup before he managed to begin with, “...Look, don’t get the wrong idea-”

“I’m sure I haven’t,” Harper cut in with a murmur, his attention focused on cutting the edges off the sandwiches he’d made, “But you don’t have to worry. I don’t plan on saying anything about it.”

Alex could only gape at the dark-haired teen, who gave a half-shrug and ate one of the crusts in two bites.

“You must have a reason for not telling her. And it’s not my business anyway,” he said, collecting the rest of the crusts on a paper napkin (presumably for himself), then picking up both plates of kid-friendly quarter-cut sandwiches, leaving Alex to carry the drinks and lead the way back to the rec room. “It’s enough for me to know. And to know what kind of person you are.”

Alex couldn’t find any words to give a response to that, so he simply scooped up the sippy cup, a stack of plastic disposable cups, and brought the apple juice along as he headed for the door, heart still beating hard enough in his chest to make his head spin. They walked in (for Alex, very uncomfortable) silence as they made their way downstairs, and when Harper spoke up again, it was utterly unexpected.

“...But.”

Alex paused at the bottom of the stairs, anxiously looking back to find Harper standing there on the bottom stair, a closed but contemplative look on his face as he stared unseeingly down at the plates of sandwiches in his hands.

“...But in my opinion, she could do a lot worse. She has done worse.”

And without any further explanation, he slipped around Alex, silent as a shadow, and returned to the rec room. Drew hollered at him excitedly, then demanded to know where Alex and his juice were. It was enough to make him shake off his daze, though he couldn’t help one thought, one question that kept elbowing out any others:

What the hell was THAT supposed to mean?

“ALEEEEEX! I WANT MY JUUUUICE!!”

“All right, I’m literally right here. But if you don’t remember what your mom and dad told you about saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ then you’re gonna be drinking your juice alone in your room because you got sent to bed early for being a grump. So, how do you ask someone for something?”

Drew was still a little sulky, but Alex knew that, as a five-year-old, he was capable of understanding and remembering some basic manners, and thanks to Joe’s constant, gentle, and persistent instruction on that very topic, Drew knew it, too.

“...Sorry,” he muttered, still pouting a little, then looked up and said with big, pleading eyes, “I meant, ‘can I please have my juice?’ ”

“There you go, much better. Of course you can. And we’re all gonna join you and drink juice, too,” Alex said, passing the cup into Drew’s eager hands first before setting the bottle of apple juice and cups on the rec room’s low coffee table. Harper put down the sandwiches there, too, and the Jackson kids all eagerly crowded around, and for a few moments everyone enjoyed the simple pleasure of a good PBJ and fresh juice.

Alex had unthinkingly settled in between Drew and Bianca, unmindful of how naturally he behaved whenever his shoulder happened to brush or press up against his best friend’s, sometimes even leaning into the contact. But most of his attention was on Drew for the moment, making sure his half-brother got his fill of sandwiches and juice, habitually wiping his face and hands every so often to ensure Drew didn’t get jelly all over his nice clothes.

The whole time they’d been eating, Caleb and Olivia had continued to one-vs.-one each other in Superb Bash Sibs, and just as he had all night, the oldest Jackson boy had teased his younger sister relentlessly, albeit good-naturedly.

Drew, who had also been on the receiving end of that playful harassment a lot of the night, watched as Caleb kept knocking Liv’s character off the platform, letting her struggle and climb back up before knocking her right off again, much to her very vocal discontent. Finally he stopped toying with her, and as he smashed her down off the screen to her death, Drew swallowed his current mouthful of sandwich, turned an extremely grave and serious look on the older girl, and said, “Liv, you gotta tell him what my big brother told me to say when I’m really mad at someone who’s bein’ mean to me.”

Everyone snickered behind their hands or their cups, amused by how serious this five-year-old kid sounded as he addressed the fuming nine-year-old, but it was obvious from the looks they shared that they were curious, too. Alex alone retained his serene, unmoved expression, though he had to hold back a smirk at all the questioning looks sent his way.

“Yeah?” Caleb chuckled, turning back around with a grin and looking Drew right in the face. “So, what is it that she should say to me?”

Drew raised his chin, giving the tall, rangy blond a dismissive look across the table (which incidentally made him look a lot more like Alex than he usually did) as he said primly, “I hope you step on a LEGO.”

The entire room let out a muffled exhale of smothered laughter--with the exception of Alex, who gave a triumphant smirk, and Caleb, who turned such a slack-jawed look of shock and horror on Drew that the younger boy puffed up with satisfied pride.

“Daaaang,” Caleb said with a slow shake of his head, and his stunned-sounding drawl and bemused expression had Alex recalling that the tall blond was a theatre major, and something of an actor. A pretty good one, from the look of things. “Your brother doesn’t mess around, huh? Stepping on a LEGO...that’s a fate worse than death.”

“I know,” Drew answered, still looking very pleased with himself. “It hurts the mostest of anything ever, ‘cept maybe gettin’ your fingers closed in the car door on accident. That happened to me once, an’ one of my fingernails turned purple an’ fell off!”

Caleb gave the appropriate (exaggerated) reaction, a theatrical wince and grossed-out expression that had Drew giving a burst of high-pitched, gratified giggles.

“Speaking of falling off,” Skylar interjected, meaningfully holding up one of the controllers with a shit-eating grin, “Now that Alex and Harper are back, we should all play.”

“You’re totally goin’ down, little bro,” Caleb said, mirroring his youngest brother’s grin as he picked up his controller again and returned to the controller connection screen.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll die first,” Alex sighed as he accepted one of the newly-connected controllers from Caleb. “I’ve never really played video games much--Bill hates them, always has. He wouldn’t even let me have a PlayLad as a kid, not even just to use on long car trips.” He gave a wry chuckle as they moved to the character selection screen, taking a minute to look over a few options before finally choosing a pretty looking elf-guy with a bow who he hadn’t been terrible with the few times he’d played this game with Drew. “My phone and laptop are bad enough, in his opinion. I think he’d have a coronary if I ever tried to bring any sort of actual game system into his house.”

“Aww, that’s no fun,” Skylar chirped as he immediately selected Powser, the big and brawny spiky-turtle-shelled villain of the Superb Antonio series, who gave an overdramatic laughing roar of triumph at being chosen. “Who’s this Bill guy, anyway?”

“Bill’s my father. Gemma’s my mom, Joe’s just my stepdad.”

“Ah, gotcha,” Skylar said with a simple nod, seemingly unconcerned about any potential family weirdness he might’ve brought to light with his question. Then again, Bianca had said a few times that her own family situation was ‘unusual’; Skylar’s easy acceptance of Alex’s at times uncomfortable homelife situation definitely seemed to support that claim. “All right then, let’s get to it!”

They spent a large part of the next hour gleefully beating each other up via a cartoony fighting video game; as Alex had predicted, he was often the first one over the edge, sometimes unwittingly by his own hand, but he still did better than he’d expected. Twice, he’d even been one of the final two players still on the map--once facing off against Skylar (who soundly kicked his ass right off the platform in about .5 seconds, as he’d expected), and once facing off against Bianca. They’d ended up sitting next to each other again when they’d all moved closer to the huge flat-screen TV, and this time it was Bianca who dropped down onto the cushion beside him, her gaze already intent on the screen...and it was actually due to their seating arrangements that their fight became particularly drawn-out and interesting.

It started when Bianca’s elbow came up as she shifted her controller--not that moving the controller actually did anything in-game, it was just reflexive on her part--and connected sharply with Alex’s upper arm. She didn’t seem to realize that she’d done it at all, so he ignored it the first time, and winced and pulled a face when it happened a second time. When she did it a third time in half as many minutes, however, he leaned over to give her a slight shoulder-check in response, which surprised and distracted her enough that his character managed to land a few good hits on hers.

“Hey!” she protested with an indignant half-laugh as her character, some sleek-looking guy in a mask and dark coat flipped back out of range of Alex’s character’s bow. “No fair attacking me in real life, too!”

“Yeah, well you started it,” Alex shot back, though he smiled as he said it, and the words were suitably warm, lacking the usual standoffish chill. His eyes never left the screen as he moved his character closer, following after hers and switching to a sword-and-shield attack, which she also flipped and neatly dodged, then lunged in for an attack with her own character’s sword.

“What?! I did not!”

“Did too.”

“I didn’t shove you like this-”

“No, but you jammed your elbow into my arm like this-”

“Ow, that hurt!”

“Yeah, and that’s exactly what you did to me--three times in a row.”

“Oh, I’ll show you what I’m gonna do to you three times in a row-”

By then a playful, impromptu shoulder-shoving match had broken out between them, and while they were normally pretty evenly matched in the game, they were both more than a little distracted by laughingly trying to push the other over into whoever was sitting on their other side--Skylar for Bianca and Harper for Alex. On screen, their characters missed easy jumps and failed to connect with their special moves, and once Bianca very nearly managed to flip herself off the side as she dodged another ranged attack from Alex that would’ve missed anyway even if she hadn’t moved at all.

“Oh my gods, this is cheating, you’re totally cheating-”

“If it is, you cheated first.”

“I wasn’t trying to cheat!”

“Yeah, well I was just trying to get you to stop elbowing me.”

“By cheating!”

“If that’s what it takes to keep my arm from getting any more bruises, then sure, by cheating.”

“I did not elbow you that hard!”

“I mean, you practically elbow-dropped me, but okay, yeah, it wasn’t that hard.”

“Alex!”

By then, their characters in the game were almost forgotten, the majority of their attention focused on engaging in what was basically some sort of bizarre no-hands-allowed wrestling match. Both of them were pink-faced and shamelessly giggling, and even Alex was too lost in the joy of the moment to remember to be guarded or self-conscious, too deeply immersed in the fun of it all and his overwhelming happiness at Bianca’s unexpected presence here in his mother’s house during the holidays, a time meant to be spent with family and the people who meant the most, who were closest to your heart. He would’ve been lying if he’d said that Bianca wasn’t right there, her bright presence nestled in the hollow of his chest in a way that felt fearfully vital, but wonderfully comfortable and comforting.

In the end, it was no real contest: with her much greater physical strength, Bianca pushed him over, sending him sprawling across Harper’s lap as she gave a triumphant, crowing HA!--right as they hit the time limit for their Superb Bash match.

...And since Alex’s character had taken less damage, it was his victory.

There was a moment of stunned surprise from everyone in the room as the deep-voiced in-game announcer shouted out GAME! and everyone’s characters could be seen applauding Alex’s.

“...Wow,” Alex finally said, blinking in surprise at the screen from where he was still draped across the rather bored-looking Harper’s legs. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever really won a match.”

“Really? Well then, congrats on your win-”

“Thanks, it was-”

“-Even if you were cheating.”

Pushing himself back upright, Alex gave a light huff of a laugh--and very intentionally bumped his shoulder against Bianca’s once more. “All’s fair in video games and war. I’ll take it.”

“I thought it was love and war,” Harper murmured, quietly enough that only Alex could really hear him, but although he shot a quick look over at the younger boy, Harper wasn’t looking back, placidly thumbing through some site on his phone and acting as if he hadn’t said a word.

“On that note, I think I’d better get Drew up to bed.” Alex inclined his head towards his half-brother, who was sitting on the floor beside Caleb, slumped sleepily against the tall blond.

“Noooo, I don’ wanna go t’bed,” he protested weakly, blinking owlishly as he fought to keep his eyes open. “I wanna stay up an’ keep playin’...”

“I think we’re probably done playing this game for now,” Bianca said with a soft smile, her voice both kind and somehow conspiratorial. “But we can come back some time and play again, if it’s all right with all of our parents. Sound good?”

“Mhm, sounds good,” Drew agreed with a sleepy nod, and Alex smiled and scooped him up, heading for the door and the stairs amidst a quiet chorus of good nights and sweet dreams from the Jackson kids.

“...Hey, Alex?” Drew spoke up again right as Alex stepped out into the hallway.

“Hm?”

“Why isn’t Bianca your girlfriend?”

Unthinkingly, on sheer reflex, Alex clamped his hand down over Drew’s mouth, shooting a hasty look back over his shoulder to see if his little brother’s innocently loud, piercingly-clear question had been overheard by the rest of the room’s occupants. Drew squirmed in protest at having his mouth covered, and Alex made a hurried rush for the stairs, face burning a painful red. Once he was halfway up, he finally removed his hand, and Drew frowned up at him.

“What was that for?”

“It’s just--it’s rude to ask that sort of thing, okay?”

“But I wasn’t tryin’ t’be rude!”

“I know that, Drew, but some things are rude to say even if you aren’t trying to be rude.”

“Why? An’ what’s so rude about askin’ why she’s not your girlfriend? You like each other, so why not?”

By now they were on the second set of stairs, the ones leading up to the second floor where all the family bedrooms were. “...It’s hard to explain, I guess. But it’s like I told you last time I was here--we do like each other, but only as friends.”

“Nuh-uh,” Drew protested as Alex nudged the door to his room open with a foot, then kicked it closed after them. “You really like her, I can tell. Otherwise you wouldn’t’ve been pushin’ her like that. An’‒an’‒an’ she has to like you back, since she pushed back, too!”

Alex heaved a sigh as he set the younger boy down on the bed, half-turning away to fish a pair of Batmonk pajamas out of one of his dresser-drawers. “We were just playing. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Nuh-uh! Why’re you lyin’ t’me?” His next words were muffled by Alex pulling his sweater off and then immediately pulling the pajama-top down over his head, but not incoherent. “Lyin’ is bad, it’s a bad thing t’do, an’ I know you are! I know you like her!”

“Drew,” Alex growled, a warning in his voice that he knew his half-brother was too young to really catch, much less understand.

“You do, though! You do!”

Releasing another long-suffering sigh, Alex shook his head. “C’mon, change your pants and let’s go to the bathroom.”

Drew gave a sulky, overtired little grumble but did as Alex told him. The trip to the bathroom was distracting enough that the younger boy forgot what he’d been so upset about, and before long they were back in his room, with Drew snugly tucked into bed, a big plush Batmonk Alex had given him as an early Christmas present clutched tightly to his chest.

“Goodnight, kiddo. Sweet dreams.”

“G’night...” Drew mumbled against the Batmonk plush, and Alex turned off his overhead light, turned on his nightlight, and stepped out into the hall, quietly closing the door behind him--then sagging back against it, closing his eyes and letting his head tip back to rest against the wood.

Hopefully, Drew had been tired enough that he wouldn’t remember anything about this conversation...otherwise breakfast tomorrow would be really interesting. Gosh, Joe will have a fucking field day if Drew mentions any of this within earshot of him. He already thinks I’m in love with Bianca, no matter how many times I’ve denied it. Which was true, of course, but it was still annoying how smug and knowing Joe was about it.

With yet another sigh, Alex pushed off of the door, though he was slow in returning to the rec room, some part of him strangely reluctant to face the Jackson kids without the buffer of the potential helpful distraction of his younger half-siblings there. It was silly to be nervous about things all over again--he liked them all, even Caleb, and they’d seemed to like him well enough in return, so why...

Because you’re worried that they might’ve overheard Drew’s question, he realized with an inward wince. And you’re worried about what they might say about it. About what Bianca might say about it.

It would be bad enough if one of the others mentioned it or joked about it; it would be downright painful if she did it, and then laughed at the very idea. He already knew it was impossible, that Bianca was way out of his league, regardless of whatever Harper had meant by his earlier comment. No, he knew for certain that it wasn’t going to happen, that it couldn’t and wouldn’t ever happen. He just didn’t want to have that fact rubbed in his face.

...In that case, what he had to do was pretty obvious.

Straightening, Alex drew himself up and headed back down the stairs, sending another quick text to Gemma and Joe about having put Drew to bed, too, then resolutely returning to the rec room.

The Jackson kids were all lounging around on the couch, and true to their word, they hadn’t started another round of Bash Bros. They had even turned off the console, most of them deeply focused on messing with their phones, though Liv was leaning up against Caleb, who’d moved to join the rest of them on the couch, and visibly nodding.

Swallowing hard and taking a deep, centering breath to steel himself, Alex stepped into the room, managing a faint smile as he said lightly, “All right, what do you guys think, board game or movie to finish out the night? We have...a lot of movie options here, and that doesn’t even count all the streaming options they’ve got programmed into this thing. And I’ll warn you, if you choose board games and somehow decide on Cartel, I am the reigning and currently undefeated champion of that game in this household. So challenge me at your own risk.”

That lofty statement earned him the chuckle he’d hoped for, but though Skylar’s eyes had gleamed at the idea of a challenge of any sort, they soon decided on watching something rather than trying to play anything. Before long, and after both his own and Bianca’s glowing endorsements, they’d settled on doing as much of a marathon of Lockelave as they could manage.

Bianca and Harper both shifted on the couch as he approached, making space for Alex to reclaim his previous spot, to sit between them again; and though it was difficult not to show any hesitation and even harder not to simply choose to sit on the floor instead of joining the Jackson puppy pile that the couch had become, Alex found that he couldn’t resist giving in.

Because, if he was honest with himself, he wanted to be there with them. Even though he’d only met some of them tonight, just a few hours ago, it somehow felt like they’d known each other for years, an easy sort of companionship already having sprung up between himself and the rest of the Jackson kids. He wanted to be on that couch, to be close to all of them--close to Bianca most of all, of course, but the rest of them had that same strange warmth to them that she did. It put him at ease in a way that he’d never experienced before, left him feeling remarkably relaxed around these people who he should by all rights still have considered to be strangers, or nearly so.

But he didn’t. He couldn’t. They were Bianca’s family, and he couldn’t help but trust them, just like he trusted her.

As he settled back into the couch cushions, Bianca slipped her hand around his arm, letting it rest easily in the crook of his elbow, and Alex felt himself smiling at the small show of affection, a minor, innocent way of being closer to him. On a whim, he glanced over at Bianca, and found her beaming at him, her whole face alight with happiness that only grew brighter as she snuggled herself down into the couch even more, letting her shoulder press up against Alex’s with a comfortable familiarity.

A little more than an hour and a half later, right as they were finishing the second episode, there was a quiet knock on the door frame, and Annabeth and her husband peeked their heads into the room...and, overprotective dad or not, both of them could only smile at what they found:

Caleb and Harper were the only ones still awake, though judging by the weary smiles and heavy-eyed looks they both turned over the back of the couch towards their parents, they were ready to head to bed, and soon.

Skylar had really liked the show, and had fought a valiant battle to keep his eyes open through the whole first episode, but he had been forced to concede during the start of the second; now he was snoring softly from where he lay, sprawled out on the wide couch beside the peacefully-sleeping Olivia, who had hardly made it past the opening credits before she’d stretched herself out on the cushions, folded her hands on her chest like a princess from a fairy tale, and proceeded to sink deeply into her dreams.

Alex and Bianca, who both had seen the first episode twice already, had drifted off little by little, and ended up leaning back against the couch-cushions and also leaning against each other more and more as sleep claimed them by inches. Now they were both fast asleep, with Alex’s head resting on her shoulder, and the side of Bianca’s face pressed against his hair. They weren’t holding hands, at least not quite, but Alex was loosely cradling one of her hands in both of his...and both of them wore small, relaxed smiles that radiated a gentle, perfect peace.

Annabeth and her husband had exchanged a look, and when Gemma had joined them a moment later, she’d pressed a hand to her mouth to cover her smile, then whispered something to both of them before darting back up the stairs in a flurry of bright skirts. Once she was gone, they had exchanged another look, he’d given a shrug, and she’d given a decisive nod, and just like that, without a word exchanged, they’d settled on a plan of action.

“Hey, kids,” Annabeth murmured in a low voice as they carefully stepped into the dimly-lit room. “Gemma said that since it’s snowing really hard and our hotel is nearly an hour away--and that’s on a good day--and also on the other side of this mountain, we should all stay here for the night and then leave after breakfast tomorrow morning.”

Bianca and Skylar’s eyes drifted open, both of them looking up at their mother with drowsy half-comprehension, but they were awake enough to give nods of sleepy understanding. In contrast, Liv didn’t so much as stir, and resolutely slept on.

“They have a lot of extra beds, but we’re still going to have to share if you don’t want to sleep on a couch. Liv and Bianca will have one guest room, your father and I get another. Caleb and Harper, there’s a double in the last guest room and there’s a twin in the kids’ playroom, so you and Skylar will have to decide who’s sharing and who’s staying in the playroom.”

Caleb flashed a silent thumbs-up at her and glanced over at Harper, who gave a shrug rife with apathy; in the meantime, their dad had stepped in and scooped Liv up off the couch, and was already disappearing out the door with her, carrying her up to whichever guest room Gemma directed him to. With great effort, Harper pried himself up off the couch and followed them out, while Caleb looped an arm around Skylar’s ribs, helping to guide his sleepily-stumbling feet up the stairs.

Leaving Annabeth alone with Bianca and Alex.

The blonde architect couldn’t help it--she raised a non-judgmental but still pointedly questioning eyebrow at her eldest child, a clear is there something going on here that I should know about? For a long moment, Bianca gave her a confused, uncomprehending stare in response, then she blinked in sudden understanding and smiled, shaking her head in a clear negative. Annabeth’s other eyebrow went up, however, as she watched her daughter turn a warm, profoundly fond look down at the other college student still slumbering away at her side. There was a knowing light in her grey eyes as she watched Bianca carefully shift herself away from Alex, who (surprisingly enough) didn’t stir as his best friend eased herself up off the couch, lightly brushing a hand through his hair as she followed her mother out of the room. Alex unconsciously leaned into her touch, but didn’t open his eyes or otherwise give any indication that he was awake.

A few minutes later, Joe leaned his head in to check on him, and found Alex still completely crashed out on the couch--so much so that he didn’t do more than groan and grumble in protest as his step-father carefully gathered him up in a princess carry and took him up to his room. Once there, Joe laid him out on the bed, pulled off his shoes, pulled the thick down comforter up over him, and closed the door behind him, an amused but not unkind smile on his face the whole time.

---

Alex woke in the night, one of the many buckles on his pants digging into his thigh in a most uncomfortable manner, and for a moment, he was confused about where he was and how he’d gotten there.

...Ugh...must’ve fallen asleep during the show...guess Joe brought me up to bed.

His mind still fuzzy from sleep, Alex only had the capacity to vaguely wonder about Bianca and the rest of the Jackson family as he peeled out of his tight black faux-leather pants and his sleek red-and-black sweater, slipping into a far more comfortable pair of black pajama pants and a ratty old band shirt instead. He started to crawl back into bed, under all of the covers this time, then changed his mind and wandered out into the hallway, heading for the bathroom.

While there were two bathrooms on the second floor, one was the master bath, which placed it pretty firmly off-limits to Alex, and the other was right between Addie and Drew’s rooms, which made using it a dangerous prospect if he didn’t want to risk waking either of them up. Which was why, even though it was kind of out of the way and the bare wood flooring on that level was bracingly cold beneath his bare feet, Alex had always felt more comfortable slipping down to the first floor and using the main guest bathroom instead.

As he passed them, he couldn’t help but notice that all the guest room doors were closed, which was kind of strange--Gemma liked to have doors open, if there was no one in the room who needed privacy. Alex knew the twofold reason for it without ever having been told: to show off her considerable interior decorating skills, and also because Gemma hated to feel trapped. Open doors were more inviting, weren’t closed up and closed off, and they let the light that poured in through their windows reach more of the rest of the house.

The door to the last guest room, which was across from the bathroom, was half-open, and Alex couldn’t help reflexively glancing in...then stopped in his tracks, slack-jawed and staring. Even in the dim light, it was plain to see that the bed was occupied...and that said occupants were none other than Caleb and Skylar Jackson.

Which probably meant that the rest of the Jackson family was still here, too.

Including Bianca.

Bianca was--holy shit, Bianca was here, staying overnight in his mother’s house. That was something of a mind-blowing concept, because while they’d both crashed in her dorm room together countless times by now, a setting that was far more intimate than this (especially considering that a few times they’d even ended up sharing the futon or the mattress on accident)...well. Having Bianca and her family staying here with his, all of them under the same roof, almost as if they were all part of one big family... It was hard to quantify at stupid o’clock in the morning, but there was something excruciatingly nerve-wracking and yet also really nice about it. He didn’t want to say that it ‘just felt right’ or any of those other sappy, ridiculous clichés, but...it was sort of true, whether he liked it or not.

Wanting to wake up any of the Jackson family even less than he’d wanted to wake up his half-siblings, Alex fled back down the hall on near-silent feet, taking the stairs down to the basement and using the bathroom down there instead. He didn’t have his toothbrush down here, but there was some mouthwash in the medicine cabinet that helped him feel a little less gross, enough that it wouldn’t keep him awake. It wasn’t like he’d be getting close to anyone before he’d brushed his teeth in the morning anyway.

Immediate biological needs taken care of for the moment, Alex slipped back upstairs and into his still-warm bed, settling down to try to sleep amidst the whirlwind of his thoughts. Still, he’d been up early helping Joe with the food and Gemma with the decorations, and it had been a long day, so he was tired enough (and good enough at closing away his feelings) that he managed it relatively soon.

As he drifted off to sleep again, Alex consoled himself with the knowledge that he had definitely been right about one thing: breakfast that morning was going to be very interesting.


READ MORE