"But it feels bad." Adrien shivered and scooted closer to Alex. Alex was big and warm and most importantly, safe. It was a little childish to think that being around him could scare away the bad feelings, but Adrien didn't really care. Anything to feel better. "I… I can't…"
Alex wasn’t usually one for affection but he figured it was necessary. He wrapped his arms around Adrien, hoping to provide some type of comfort for the smaller male, “I’m sorry, but you have to….” He sighed, “You know… the first time I tried to jump from home to earth… I ended up in a pig sty or whatever.”
Adrien laughed, too desperate to be anything but hysterical, and pushed himself farther into Alex's arms. His own body felt alien and wrong, and Alex wanted him to do it again. To force that horrible feeling through him over and over. "I felt like someone lit me on fire and then soaked me in liquid nitrogen. My veins were screaming."
“You can control lightening, Adrien. The difference between temperatures and the burning feeling is going to happen until you get used to it, learn to use that pain and harness.” Alex knew it would take some convincing, he just desperately hoped that it wouldn’t take too much time to persuade him.
Adrien grimaced and pulled away, shivering slightly now that he didn't have someone to hold him. He couldn't help but lean towards Alex even as he scooted away. "You can take all that shit and shove it right back up your ass. I'm not torturing myself for you."
Alex sighed, shaking his head just a little and leaning forwards towards Adrien, “You saw the mess that Hyra made, the night stalker and there are others just like it. I can’t do this without you, Adrien. I get I’m an… asshole, whatever you said but seriously, I can’t just leave my friends there to die.”
Adrien was getting more and more tense, scooting back as Alex leaned forward. His hands were clenched into fists so he wouldn't reach out. His chest ached, a cocktail of anger, regret, and good old fashioned pain. "I wish I could help you, I really fucking do, but I can't. I've already died, did you know that? My heart used to stop at least once a week. That finally got fixed a month and a half ago. I'm barely functional as is, and now you want me to hurt myself even worse? I'll break Alex. You're going to make me shatter apart."
I'll miss you, and I hope things start to calm down for you!! Have fun over the school year (well, as much fun as you can). Good luck until summer!
(Heya! I’m back! How you been??)
Alex blinked once, twice and leaned backwards, head tilting to the side slightly. He’d never heard of anything like that before, and he’d traveled to many different and… strange places, “What do you mean your heart used to stop? Is that a normal human thing?”
The fight drained out of Adrien as Alex leaned away and he curled up around himself, yanking his knees up to his chest to act as a shield. "No you dumb fuck! You really think humanity would've gotten this far if we all had hearts trying to fucking kill us!?" His lips turned up in a bitter smile. "I'm one of a kind. Got a disorder of epic proportions all to my-fucking-self."
Alex held his hands up in surrender, taking a step backwards, “All right, Gods I’m sorry. No need to get defensive.” He crossed his arms over his chest, sighing through his nose, “Look, I need your help. If Hyra get’s away with what he’s done… the fates of all universes could be at stake, including yours.”
"Oh fuck off, I'm not the one telling you to fucking torture yourself for the sake of a world you've been to once." Adrien scooted up against the arm of the couch, as far away from Alex as he could get. "I… I can't do that again, don't you get it? I'm not gonna be able to take it."
Fuck, Alex was in trouble. He needed one way to convince Adrien to help him but the boy was too stubborn, and that was saying something, “Is there any way you could be able to help? Isn’t there some doctor or procedure or something?”
Adrien rolled his eyes. "Fuck if I know. I got something done that makes it so I don't need to visit the hospital every other fucking week, but I don't know how long it's gonna…" His chest gave a pang like someone had shoved one of those thousand-degree knives right into his chest and he let out a pained hiss, losing track of what he wanted to say. "Fuck."
The World Walker didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t seen or heard of any condition like this before but clearly it was bad. He didn’t exactly want to put Adrien in anymore danger then he probably already was in but-
His train of thought was lost by a scrapping on top of the roof, “What’s that?” He asked, standing from the couch.
Adrien took a few beats to force down the pain before he spoke. "I don't fucking know. It's an old house, the roof's probably shifting or something like that." He fumbled across the coffee table for his painkillers, dry swallowing two without a second thought. "Unlike your world earth is monster free."
“I beg to differ.” Alex mumbled, eyes still trained on the ceiling. He knew he was probably just being paranoid but still he couldn’t help but be on edge, “Do you have like… I don’t know… a birds nest near by or something?”
Adrian rolled his eyes, pressing himself back against the arm of the couch as the roof made another scraping sound. "No, but this house was built like a hundred years ago and it can sure fucking scream during storms. It's just settling."
Then there was another loud crashing noise on top of the roof, the house shaking slightly which caused Alex to curse, “You sure it’s just the house settling?”
Adrien winced, giving the ceiling an accusatory glare. "Fine, maybe your bird theory has some weight or something. You're the guy with the sword, you go figure it out."
Alex rolled his eyes, “And you’re the guy with weather manipulation,” He mumbled, “Wait here, don’t come out until I know what it is.”
"Hey!" Adrien stumbled to his feet, wincing when his chest gave a burning pulse of disproval. He kneaded the space between his ribs with a grimace as he made his way to where Alex was standing. "No way you're leaving alone. I'm not gonna be waiting in here in suspense while you do whatever."
Alex sighed, picking up his sword with a grip so tight it turned his knuckles white. He relaxed his grip a second later, though, "Fine. But if you have a heart attack or something that's on you, not me."
"You're a real cunt, you know that?" Adrien's voice was still dry, but there was an edge to it that was almost playful. He shoved past Alex, tossing the door open with a loud squeal of protest from the old hinges and glaring up at the sun as he made his way outside.
Alex snorted, following shortly after, “Yeah, I know. Been told that quite a lot.” He looked hot at the roof, raising his hand to his eyes so he could see better. Nothing dangerous as far as he could tell.
"You deserve it. Nothing makes a guy wanna hang out with you like reminding him of his near-fatal heart condition." Adrian gave him a sharp grin before he shaded his eyes and peered up at the roof. Empty. The way he'd said it would be. Alex was so fucking paranoid. "Are you satisfied with the status of my roof or do you need to go stab the shingles just to be sure it's safe?"
Alex held his finger up to his lipstick signal for Adrien to be quiet. Even though he was paranoid he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. He didn’t know wha it was but still he knew something was there, “Is there a way up there?”
"Hell if I know. You think I trust myself not to go toppling off?" Adrien gave the roof one last halfhearted look before he turned away and started heading inside. "C'mon, let's go back in. You can call me an idiot and and asshole and try to teach me about magic I don't wanna use, it'll be a real blast."
"It would be if you lis-" Alex was cut off by a screech. So loud and piercing that anyone within five miles would have heard it, "Fuck. Get inside!" He drew his sword as another one of Hyra's creatures lunged off the roof.
