Trust [Lams AU]

16

Trigger warning: drug mention, offensive slurs, violence and abuse mention

A/N: I cried while writing this :)

Alex and John spent the rest of the day in the abandoned playground.

Once they got tired of chasing each other around like preschoolers, they sat down under a tree to catch their breath.

Alex and John collapsed next to the tree side by side, their shoulders touching as they leaned against the tree trunk. Alex could feel the roughness of the tree bark through the thin fabric of his t-shirt.

Once Alex had caught his breath, he looked over at John. His cheeks were flushed bright red beneath his freckles, which made him look very young and innocent, like a child with rosy cheeks from playing outside all day. He was breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he attempted to catch his breath. His ponytail had come undone and his long curly hair spilled over his shoulders.

John noticed Alex looking at him and his cheeks seemed to grow even redder (or perhaps that was just Alex's imagination?).

"What are you staring at?" John said, his breath still a bit shaky.

"I never realized how long your hair was." Alex said. "You usually always have it tied up."

John looked down and his mouth widened in surprise as he realized for the first time that his hair had come undone. He pulled a hair tie from his wrist and quickly pulled it back up.

"Why are you putting it back up? It looked so good when it was down!"

"Yeah, it looked good now, but in five minutes it would have poofed up and I would have looked like I was walking around with a cloud on my head."

"Say, Turtle Boy, what do you have against clouds? Clouds are what give us rain, which allows the crops to grow so we have food to eat. Clouds keep us alive."

"I don't like being alive, so therefore I don't like clouds." John shook his head, chuckling. "Ew, did I really just say that? That's fucking disgusting. I sound like an angsty Tumblr blog from 2013."

"What's Tumblr?"

John patted his head. "You're pure. Stay that way. Don't let the edgelords corrupt you."

"What's an edgelord?"

John wrapped his arms around Alex, hugging him to his chest like a mother trying to protect her child. He was laughing so hard Alex could feel the vibration in his chest.

"Oh, my sweet summer child. My poor, sweet summer child."

"John, let go of me!" Alex started laughing too.

"Stay calm, my sweet summer child. I will protect you from the evil edgelords." John was laughing so hysterically he could barely speak.

"John, I can't breathe."

"Breathing is evil. The edgelords breathe, and look how they ended up."

Alex wrestled his way out of John's arms, turning around to shove John backwards onto the soft grass. Before John could react, Alex climbed on top of him and pinned his wrists to the ground. John tried to struggle, but Alex was too strong for him.

"Why the fuck are you so strong?" John said, tears of laughter streaming down his face.

"Who's the sweet summer child now?"

"Still you because you don't know what an edgelord is."

"I only don't know because you refuse to tell me."