The Time Taken to Understand (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Eight~ Alec

When Alec woke up that morning, Mark's arm was under his head as a pillow, and his chest was pressed against Alec's back, keeping him warm. Alec didn't want to move out of his arms, but his phone was ringing, and he didn't want it to wake Mark. Alec slowly moved out of his grasp, feeling the other man's hand as it slid over his hip, the fingers squeezing lightly. God he wanted to stay. But his phone rang on, and Alec stretched away from Mark to reach his phone that was plugged in on the floor by the bed.

"Hello?" Alec sounded groggy so he cleared his throat. It was Penny. 

"You busy today?" She asked in his ear and he looked back at Mark over his shoulder. 

After last night, Alec really just wanted to stay in bed all day. But then he remembered that his only blankets were covering Mark and his head was on his only pillow. Also, he observed absent mindedly, Mark looked super hot when he was sleeping. "What time?" 

"Nine," She said, and he pulled his phone back to check the time. It was 8:12.

"I'll be there".

"Great". She hung up on him. Alec sighed, setting the alarm to 8:40 before climbing back in bed. He didn't want to leave. More than anything he wanted to stay and talk to Mark once he woke up (and hopefully make out more since he really liked that part). He looked up at Mark, deciding he wasn't about to go back to sleep. Raising a hand, he traced the curve of Mark's nose with his finger, smiling while the other boy shifted in his sleep, pressing closer into Alec.

For a second, Alec considered waking him up. They had enough time to talk before he had to go to work. Alec groaned, turning onto his back and closing his eyes as Mark slid another arm around him. Alec, realizing that staying here next to Mark would make it much harder to leave when he actually had to, climbed out of bed, gently pushing Mark's hands off of him, moaning in distaste when he suddenly felt cold.

Alec went through his closet, grabbing a pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt, taking one last look at Mark before he went to the bathroom. Usually, he would just change in his bedroom, but with Mark in there, he didn't want him to get the wrong idea if the boy woke up to Alec taking his clothes off.

After he had brushed his teeth and finished with his normal morning routine, he went to exit the bathroom, stopping when he saw his reflection in the mirror. It was his hair that had caught his attention first, but now that he was actually looking at himself, he realized that the first thing anyone would see when looking at him was the large hickey right above his collarbone that his shirt did a poor gob of covering.

When he met his own eyes in the mirror, they were very wide and blue, and he laughed at himself and the ridiculous situation he had gotten himself into, and how happy he felt because of it.

Exiting the bathroom with a smile still on his face, he realized that he couldn't just leave Mark without an explanation, and didn't want to wake him, since they both had a late night the evening before.

Alec was happy that he had made himself get up early, since he had to write six different notes, none of them turning ot how he wanted it to. The first one was too happy, and the next one was dull, and the third one had little emotion, and so on, until he wrote a simple one, and as a last thought, he turned it over and wrote something that would give Mark hope, if it was something that he was looking for.

Alec grinned, rereading the small words on the back of the paper carefully, admiring how they sounded, and wondering how they would make the recipient feel. He hoped good, but would prepare himself for something else.

When he went into his bedroom to retrieve his phone, he placed the note where his body should have been but wasn't because working at this coffee shop was going to ruin his life. For good measure, before he left, he leaned forwards, pressing a soft kiss against Mark's temple, wondering if it could possibly be the last time.

The boy stirred as Alec pulled his bedroom door shut, his phone vibrating in his pocket as his alarm sounded.

It was nice outside, so Alec decided to walk.

One of that advantages from working at the shop was that it was very close to Adam's building, only a couple of blocks so even someone in as poor as condition as he was could manage.