-When Sean woke up on a Friday morning, he'd expected to roll over and see Alex asleep next to him. That, however, was not what he saw.
Instead all he saw was a piece of paper on his pillow.
He picked it up and read.
Sean, the Professor sent me on an emergency mission. I tried to wake you up to say goodbye but you were out of it. I'll see you in about two days.
-Alex.
Sean sighed; he hated it when the Professor would send them on spontaneous missions. They never had time to properly say goodbye or to at least try and convince the Professor to let their other half go too.
He took a deep breath. He could get through this... it was only two days without the other boy. Sean could survive that, right?
"Two days, my ass!" Sean said abruptly, as he pushed the door to the study open; rudely walking in on Charles as he read a book.
"Excuse me?" he asked, placing the book onto the table.
"Alex said he'd be two days. It's been three. Do your hocus-pocus thing and find him" Sean made some wild hand motions.
"My hocus-pocus?" Charles smirked, clearly amused.
"Tap into his brain, use the big machine... I don't care but can you just find him?" he threw himself into the chair opposite the other man and let his head fall dramatically to the table. "I miss him"
The Professor chuckled, "Sean, what did Alex tell you about this mission?"
The red-head looked up slightly "Nothing, he didn't wake me. He just left a note"
"I see... and what has he told you about his past? His family?"
Sean sat up straight "He never mentions his parents but he says that he has a little brother... and I know why he was in prison. But what does this have to do with anything?"
"It's his brother," Charles said "that's why he left immediately, his brother's mutation has surfaced and he's gone after him."
Sean stood up so quickly that his chair flew backwards. "What?" he demanded "He has a mutation already?"
The Professor nodded "It's extraordinary,"
"So where is Alex? Why is it taking so long?"
"He called his morning and said that the foster family are being difficult." Charles said carefully.
Sean's jaw dropped, "Did-Didn't he ask to talk to me?"
"He had to go but Sean, I read his mind..."
"What did he..."
"He just wants to come home"
Sean nodded and his fist clenched "Can-Can you send him a thought?"
"I can try"
"Tell him... Tell him to be safe and to come back soon"
Charles nodded and with that; Sean left.
It had been another five days since his talk with the Professor and Sean was literally at his mind's end. He missed the older boy so much that it was almost painful and as well as that; Alex and his brother had completely dropped off the radar.
Even Charles was beginning to get worried because not even Cerebro could find him. Either meaning that he was being kept in a void or the other boy was dead... Sean tried not to think of either being an option because doing so made his heart beat faster and his head spin.
So Sean tried to continue his life as he would if the other boy was there. He would wake in the morning and shower before breakfast, then he would head up to the roof and practise his flying for a few hours until Lunch was ready. From there he would eat before he would work on how to make aim at specific objects using his mutation. Then he'd eat dinner and spend time with Alex until bed.
He was honestly trying to keep some normality in his already-upside down life but when a part of you isn't by your side – your body aches to bring it back and Sean times like these remind him that one day... his body will ache but there will be nothing to bring back.
It was exactly ten days after he left that Alex returned.
He had been sat in his and Alex's bedroom, mindlessly playing a game on his Nintendo DS when a thought rang though his head.
Sean, he's back.
Sean wasn't considered a lazy person but he also wasn't known for being the person who would move quickly or do anything at a quick speed – he was a laid back kind of guy.
Now, however, he just threw his DS down and sprinted for the door, getting tangled in his bed sheets and tripping as he did so. His legs carried him down the stairs in a record time but to Sean it still felt too long.
A couple more flights of stairs followed and when he reached the very bottom; Alex was just entering the house through the huge front door. Before Sean knew what he was doing; he was crashing into the older boy, throwing his arms around his shoulders and hugging him so tight it hurt.
This was real. Alex was right here.
He breathed in the familiar smell that the other boy seemed to always have, he ran his fingers through soft blonde hair; remembering every little detail of him, like he could disappear again at any second.
"Sean..." he breathed and then he was hugging the red-head back – clutching handfuls of his hoodie.
"Never do that to me again" Sean said in his ear.
"No." Was his response, followed by a jerky head shake "Never. I promise... never again..."
Slowly and reluctantly, Sean forced himself to pull away from the ever-so-slightly shorter boy and he looked at him fully and his mouth dropped open in horror.
"Oh god..." he whispered, feeling like his throat was about to close over and he would actually choke any second.
A black and blue bruise framed the corner of his eye, his lip was split open and noticeably swollen and his blonde hair was matted with blood around his temple; hiding away the cut there. His fingers gently touched the other boy's cheeks, gently pushing his fingertips over his face just to –again- make himself believe that Alex was real. Alex really wasn't dead.
"Are you- Oh god. Alex, what happene- Never again, I should have been there!" his spinning head managed to get out. "I should have been the-"
He was cut off when Alex pushed their lips together. It wasn't the best kiss they've ever had; it was desperate and needy. Alex kept wincing because of his swollen lip but he didn't seem to mind too much.
"Some rouge mutants caught me when I was on my way to get Scott and I've been kept in this mirror room for the last few days. Scott thought I had gone and left him behind but I think my face managed to convince him that I wasn't lying." He gave a chuckle although nothing was funny.
"How did you get out?"
Alex blinked "Actually... Eri-Magneto saved my ass and for some reason he knew where I was. He told that red-skinned demon to teleport me back to where I was taken and that was that."
"I'm so happy you're finally home" Sean leaned forward and ever so gently and pushed their lips together again.
"Mm, me too..." he replied gently
Alex abruptly looked down and Sean followed his gaze. There was a boy there, his hair was dark and he wore red glasses that were far too big for his face. He clung to the dirty, tattered material that was Alex's jeans and he was peeking out nervously at Sean.
Alex grinned and released Sean's face to bend down and pick him up, resting him on his hip while the younger boy clung to his neck.
"Scott... his is Sean" Alex said softly, grinning in adoration at the red-head.
"This is your brother?" Sean asked quietly, taking a small step forward.
"He sure is; aren't you buddy?
"Yep" he said, his hands gripping the necklace that the blonde wore.
"I'm Sean," he said, holding his hand out.
Scott looked at Alex, who nodded with encouragement. "Scott" he reached out and shook Sean's hand. "What do you do?"
The red-head couldn't help but laugh at the eager tone to his voice. "Well, I have a 'sonic scream' that can make you go deaf and I can use it to fly"
"You can fly!" he asked excitedly. "Can you take me flying? Please, please, please Alex?" he begged, pouting slightly at the other boy.
"At some point he can but you got to go move your stuff in upstairs"
"Do I have to share a room with you, Alex?" he asked, clearly not happy about the idea.
"No, I have a room with Sean. You get a room all to yourself"
The young boy made a small excited noise and he hugged Alex's neck tightly. "I've never had a room to myself, I always had to share with Will –he was my foster brother- and Will wouldn't let me put my things out..."
The boy continued to ramble on in a way that most children do and Sean couldn't keep the smile from his face as he watched because he's never seen Alex quite so happy and he thought it was adorable the way that Scott was terribly shy one second and wouldn't shut up the next.
When Scott finally finished his story, the Professor rolled up in his chair and Alex lowered the boy onto his feet again.
"Hello Scott, my name is Charles Xavier. Would you like to take a walk?" he asked.
"But I wanna stay with Alex"
Charles glanced quickly at Alex and the blonde bent down to his brother. "Scotty, I need to go and get checked over by the doctor and I need to talk to Sean. But you can go with the Professor, okay? You can trust him"
Scott nodded and then left with Charles.
Within seconds, Alex had Sean pushed up against a wall, their lips mere millimetres apart. "He's great" Sean grinned "He's so like you but at the same time he's not..."
"I've always wanted my brother back" he admitted, tangling his and Sean's fingers together as he held their hands beside the Sean's head.
"You never told me" Sean frowns slightly. "Is he what you expected him to be?"
Alex laughed at that "I expected him to have a mutation but I didn't expect him to be handling it. He brought the glasses himself and he'd managed to hide it from his foster parents. It wasn't until I turned up that they found out."
"How old is he?"
"Eight and a half"
Sean's eyebrows shot up "Are you serious? Mutations are meant to come out in teenage years."
"I know, it's weird but honestly; at this moment in time... I don't care." Alex nudged his nose against Sean's cheek.
"Wh-What? Why? He's your brother, you should care."
"Sean. Stop talking about my brother when I'm trying to get you to kiss me... it's a serious distraction"
The red-head suddenly grinned "Oh, sorry"
And with that their lips were glued together, and Alex released Sean's hands in favour of gripping his hips and slamming him against the wall again.
"You're more ginger than I remember" Alex smiled against his lips.
"You're more of an asshole" Sean replied.
"I try" he smirked
"Mm, I missed you" the red-head whispered, knowing that Alex would love to hear this although he wasn't really the type of person to return the sentiment.
"I know, I felt really bad about not being able to say goodbye..."
"It's my fault that I can't wake up. But next time will you jump on me or drag me to the ship so we can go together? Please?"
He only got a nod in response.
"Good" Sean said before he kissed Alex again.
"And it would seem that you are a very healthy young man, Scott" Hank said, his blue fur sticking up in all directions.
"Thank you, Fluffy" Scott said, he had dubbed Hank with this nickname upon entering the room and so far, Hank didn't seem to mind it too much.
Alex and Sean stood in the doorway, watching as the boy jumped down off the bed and ran over to them. The blonde reached out and placed a hand onto his head and ruffled the messy brown hair.
"Alex, if you could take a seat please?" Hank muttered and Alex went and sat on the bed.
The blue mutant got to work straight away; cleaning up his face and checking for any long-term damage. Sean was watching intently but then he felt a tug at his jeans and he looked down to Scott who reached upwards, probably expecting to be picked up. Sean complied and rested the boy on his hip like Alex had done earlier.
"Do you love Alex?" Scott asked abruptly.
Sean blinked and looked at the boy like a deer in headlights, it would seem that Alex and Hank had also heard the question because they had stopped talking and were just looking at them.
"Umm..." he said, mentally wondering if Alex had told his brother about their relationship. But then the red-head decided 'fuck it', he's gunna have to know sooner or later... "Yeah, I do love Alex" he smiled.
"Does Alex love you?" Scott asked, in that same innocent voice he'd used before.
Sean's eyes flickered to the blonde and then back to the young boy "I think so... but he's too cool to say it"
Scott snorted a laugh "He's not cool. Alex is lame"
"I'll tell you something Scott, but your brother is the coolest person I've ever met." Sean had to try and keep a straight face because he was about to start laughing.
"Don't lie" the boy yelled.
"No, I'm not lying... He's got a really cool power, and he's funny and he can fit like six Jaffa Cakes in his mouth at once!" Sean said, the smirk just breaking on his lips. "I wish I had a brother that cool"
"You can't have Alex as a brother, he's my brother"
"Okay," the red-head agreed "But can I still share a room with him?"
Scott seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding. "Alex, 'm tired" he yawned as to prove his point.
Alex jumped down off the bed and walked over to them; he took Scott from Sean's arms and said; "Time for bed, say goodnight"
"G'night Sean, goodnight Fluffy!" he waved.
"Night kid" Sean replied.
"Sleep well, young man"
Alex looked at Sean "I'll see you in a bit, okay?" he winked and a mischievous smile held on his face.
The red-head nodded and leaned forward to quickly kiss Alex on the lips before he left.
"I really hope that kid is a deep sleeper or he'll be getting no sleep tonight" Hank muttered and Sean just laughed.