The Time Taken to Understand (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Twenty-Three~ Alec

"Mark?" Alec asked softly, pushing the covers of their shared bed off of himself and sitting up. He had woken up alone, for the first time in the two months that they had been living together.

He checked the time before he got out of bed, wondering if he had overslept and Mark had to go to class or something, but he then remembered it was a Saturday.

The hard wood flooring creaked as Alec left the bedroom, discovering Mark in the living room with a large suitcase. "Are you going somewhere?" Alec asked, and Mark looked up at him, smiling lazily. He was still wearing what he had slept in; a white undershirt and maroon plaid pajama pants, and Alec admired him for a moment before focusing back to the matter at hand.

"Alec," Mark began, pushing the suitcase off of the couch and patting the spot next to him, "we're going home in a week. For over a month. I think we should be prepared".

Alec sat next to him on the sofa. "Christmas," he said slowly, and Mark nodded at him with a grin.

Mark absolutely loved Christmas. It was something he got from his mother. The need to decorate the apartment have come over him weeks before, and Alec was too kind to protest, so he let him do it, even though Alec hated the holiday. He didn't like snow and he was bad at getting people presents and didn't even have money to do so anyway.

"You need to get ready," Mark said, and Alec blinked at him. "We're meeting Penny and Adam in twenty minutes, and I'm assuming you don't want to go with your hair like that".

Alec frowned. "You say it as if I have a choice". Mark looked pleased with this answer and raised a hand to attempt to pat his hair down, Alec assumed. "That's not going to work".

"I know".

Mark stood from the couch, stepping over Alec's legs and moving into the bathroom and grabbing one of the two tooth brushes on the sink.

Their relationship had come so far since they moved in together, and Alec thought back to the day when they inadvertently had.

"Adam left?" Alec asked as Mark came back into the bedroom and sat on the bed. "I heard you talking and then the door closed. Is he upset?"

"Well, not really about us, but I told him that we wanted to move in together and-"

"You told him that?" Alec cut him off and Mark nodded slowly, "did that really seem to be the best time to do so?"

"We can't keep hiding things from him, Alec," Mark said, and Alec closed his eyes because he knew Mark was right. Also, his head really hurt.

"Could you take me home?" He asked softly, and Mark sounded panicked when he asked:

"Are you mad at me?" Alec opened his eyes and looked at the other, smiling softly.

"No," Mark relaxed, "I'm just concussed and want to go home".

"Can I stay?" Mark asked, and Alec nodded.

"Of course," he said, happy because he was hoping the other would ask.

The ride to Alec's apartment was the worst part so far, Alec decided. Having a concussion didn't really feel like anything besides a headache when you were inside with minimal noise and all of the lights out, but the second he stepped outside into the bright sunlight, he grabbed Mark's shoulders and pressed his face into the other's back.

Mark worried over him the entire ride over as Alec pressed his face against the dashboard. There was constantly noise, the car, Mark asking him if he was okay, birds outside, and Alec wanted to scream.