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He isn't really paying attention where he's going. He just knows that the school is too loud and if he has a breakdown now he'll start moving things and the jig will well and truly be up.. he'll be caught and tortured and experimented on...and he can't. So he goes to a far hall on the school grounds, past the lockers and out to a trailer he vaguely knows as the music room. He’s mostly planning to just let some chairs fly around where no one can see.
He’s just getting the hang of the powers he acquired not even six months ago, but he’s getting better at not smashing things, at least. So far the only way he’s found to stop them is to let loose. To exhaust himself until things stop moving on their own and his emotions feel like they’ve been drained from his body.
At first he doesn't hear it, the noise coming from inside the trailer. Later he’ll put that down to stress, because there’s no way he would have entered if he’d realized someone else was there. He just knows this room is drawing him - something in the vibrations pulling at him like he needs to be there.
But when he opens the door it hits him. The sound.
It's music, but not like he's ever heard it before. Michael has heard music plenty of times before. Over a radio, or forced out of him in a pew while a foster parent grips his shoulder. But it’s never been anything like this. This is sweet. Low. And it soothes something inside Michael he didn't even know could be soothed.
He finds himself slumped against the wall by the door, listening to the sound of the piano mixed with the vocals. He doesn't know the song but it sounds so sad and wistful and he feels it in his bones, the singer's desire to be somewhere else. The anxiety that had brought him careening away from the crowded hallways fades away. Nothing else matters, in that moment, but the music filtering over him. It feels like it's changing something in his entire chemistry...the way his skin buzzes and his entire body hums with the tune.
He can't see who it is. Can’t see whoever is making the sounds that he feels vibrating through his core. He wants to. It’s an entirely new feeling, wanting to interact with anyone. But somehow he already feels a connection to them, whoever it is, and he wants....
"-warm on the sand. Bet you on land, they understand-"
The voice breaks and the music falters, stops.
Michael moves closer, around the wall of instruments to see a guy sitting at the piano wiping at his face with a palm. Michael knows him, vaguely. They're in the same classes and he knows the guy is one of Liz Ortecho’s friends because Max has forced him and Isobel to memorize them all. But mostly how he recognizes him is - he's the guy that Kyle Valenti shoved against a locker two weeks ago.
Alex Manes.
Michael feels his stomach clench as Alex's fingers return to the keys, but he doesn't start playing again. He just...sits there. Staring at his hands while Michael stares at his hands. And Michael feels like Alex...might actually know what it's like to feel as alone as he does. He wants Alex to know....
What he's not sure. He's never actually wanted a human to know anything about him, before.
"You're really good."
Alex jumps in panic. His eyes dart, locking onto Michael. Michael holds his hands up, trying to make it clear he's not...gonna fight him.
"I didn't know anyone was listening."
"I didn't really mean to but....that's a nice song."
Nice. Smooth, Michael. Alex looks slightly dubious. Like he’s unsure if Michael’s being sarcastic or not.
"It's from The Little Mermaid."
"I don't know what that is."
"You..." The look on Alex’s face turns dumbfounded, but it's a million times better than the fear that had been on his face before. "You've gotta be kidding me. It's Disney."
"I...don't have TV where I'm staying."
"It's a movie."
"Well, I definitely don't have those." Alex laughs, but it doesn't feel cruel. It feels like relief. Like understanding.
"If you liked the song you should check it out. It's...kind of sad though, I guess."
"I'm okay with sad."
"Hmm..." Alex is looking at him, brown eyes soft and warm and it feels like Michael is hot and cold at the same time. Like his brain’s gone haywire sometime between when he walked in the classroom and now. The impulse to walk forward and sit down on the piano bench with Alex jumps to the forefront of his mind even though it makes absolutely no sense. Michael doesn’t have the faintest clue how to play.
"Anyway uh... sorry I didn't know anyone was in here already so I'll just...go."
"You don't have to." Alex offers. Except he really, really does. He has a feeling if he stays close to Alex Manes for too much longer he's going to actually like him. And he isn't going to like humans. He's going to find his family and they're going to take him back home and he's going to be...
"No I...m gonna be late for class anyway. I was thinking of skipping but I think I'm okay now. Uh...thanks, I guess. For the movie rec."
"Sure. Thanks for...well. I guess....not. Don't tell anyone I was in here okay? You might not know the Disney princess collection but if anyone else in school finds out my life is gonna suck even more than it does now." Alex looks unsure. Scared again. And Michael doesn’t like him but he also really doesn’t wanna be the reason for that look.
"Yeah, sure. I won't tell."
And he leaves. Turns around before he can process whatever the look on Alex’s face turns into at his agreement.
But he does go to the school library and finds a cassette tape of the song Alex had sung and listens to it on a borrowed walkman in a corner.
It's not....it's good. He still likes the words. But there was something about Alex's voice that made them inch underneath his bones that he doesn't know if he's ever going to get the chance to duplicate.
He knows he should stay away from Alex. If not for his own safety than because Alex having guy friends will only fuel...whatever makes Kyle Valenti think it's weird for a guy to kiss another guy. And he doesn't want to add to Alex's pain. He doesn't want to be another reason Alex has to hide in the music room.
He also doesn't want to get attached to Alex, because he's leaving.
Humanity and humans are stupid and even if Alex doesn't seem so bad, Michael can't afford to be distracted by a less evolved species.
He repeats that to himself a couple times, until he thinks he believes it again.
Even so, he still sits in the library for the rest of fifth period letting his memory of Alex’s voice play under the cassette tape’s recording. Sits; still, focused on the music. When the bell rings he reluctantly stands, returning both the cassette player and the tape to the front desk. He can’t explain what he’s feeling. Like he's settled in his skin for the first time since he and Max and Isobel woke up naked in the desert. Like all the chaos and unsurety are, for the moment, relenting. He feels...quiet. It’s nice.
---
Alex listens intently as Michael finishes reminiscing. He’s pressed against Alex’s side, the two of them lounging naked in the quiet stillness of the evening. He presses a kiss to the long curl that rests against the top of Michael’s head.
"You...I had no idea how humans worked..I'd only been around them for six years, and only the worst kind."
"You were the first guy I'd met who didn't instantly bust my jaw for liking a princess movie."
Michael props his chin on Alex’s chest so they’re eye to eye, his gaze twinkling.
"Alex when I say I had literally no idea what a mermaid was or why that should be a problem I wish I was joking."
"No. I mean...obviously I didn't know you were an alien who hadn't grown up with classic Disney movies. But...the fact you didn't just..inherently think it was bad. It gave me hope, I guess. It made me feel less alone."
Michael looks him over, the warmth in his eyes traveling all the way down to Alex’s toes. He nuzzles in, addicted to the feeling, reveling in the scratch of Michael's stubble against his skin and the way he turns to meet Alex halfway.
Something strikes him, though. About the words Michael had used, and the echo of them from ten years prior.
"You said...you felt quiet. Like something changed in you, when you heard me singing."
"Mmhm." Michael hums in acknowledgement, not breaking away from his place against Alex's face.
"That's....what you said to me in the shed when I gave you Flint's old guitar. That music made you feel quiet."
"It does."
"Yeah but..." Alex isn’t sure how to phrase what he wants to ask.
"I think it was you, a little bit too. Yeah. I really hadn't heard music like that before. With so much emotion that I understood.”
Michael is quiet for a second, tracing a pattern on Alex’s chest with a finger as he clearly thinks something over. The next part of what he says is so sincere and quiet, Alex doesn’t even know if it’s meant for him or just Michael talking to himself.
“I don't know if I fell in love with you because I loved music... Or I fell in love with music because....I thought I couldn't love you. Maybe both."
His throat is closing up. His entire chest is going to explode because Michael Guerin is the most beautiful thing Alex has ever had the chance to experience. He tightens his arms around Michael’s body. Feels the solid, warm weight of him all along his side. “I love you.”
“Mm.” The pleased sound and the way Michael rubs against his body like a pleased cat pulls the words out of him again. He’ll say them a hundred times a day if it makes Michael happy like this. “Love you, too.”
“I know.”
They’re quiet for a minute before Michael speaks again.
“Haven’t seen that one, either.”
“Then how do you know it’s a quote from something?”
“I guessed. I was banking on the fact you’re still just as much of a nerd as you were in high school.”
Alex sinks his teeth into Michael’s ear in retaliation, laughing at the surprised yelp it pulls from the other man. “Jerk.” Michael buries his head back under Alex's chin, but doesn't bother denying the accusation.
“...Sing me something?”
“Now?”
“Or hum. I like the vibrations.”
And really how is he supposed to say no to that? To making Michael happy. He thinks back over their conversation, Michael’s story. Back to the scared, lonely kid who had hidden in a music room to cry because it had been months since he’d offered a part of himself and not been hurt in return. He runs his fingers idly through Michael’s hair, curling fingers in time to the melody as he sings softly, feeling Michael go boneless in his arms, breathing steadying, going...quiet.