Story Title: Home

Story Type: Slash, AU

Characters: Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley

Pairings: MMG

Rating: PG-13/NC-17

Series: Doesn't have a name yet, but here are the others in it: Not Now and He Knew.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Even after all my research, they still belong to TNA.

Warnings: Slash, AU, language

A/N: So, here's the third part for my wing!fic 'verse. I suggest reading the other ones first or you'll be very confused. Hope you like it and enjoy, peeps.

A/N2: This one is really strange; not bad strange, more like 'huh?' strange. As for the names of Chris's family, I have no idea what they are and my laptop is being very retarded now, so I can't check and make sure that it's right. If anyone knows, feel free to tell me and I'll edit it.

Whenever they were in Detroit, they usually stayed at Chris's apartment; it was in a shitty neighborhood but everyone minded their own business and if anyone happened to get a glimpse of Chris's wings they were more likely to shrug it off as a bad acid trip instead of calling the cops and reporting that there was some guy with wings walking around.

They could've stayed at Alex's but Chris was never really comfortable there and that mattered more to Alex then his own personal safety. He was just trying to figure out a way to move his TV to Chris's without anyone seeing them do it and trying to keep someone from stealing it once they had it in the apartment.

And unlike most places, no one ever tried to start a fight with Chris. Alex found it strange; they couldn't even step into a bar in most cities without someone picking a fight with him. But when he asked Chris about, he just shrugged and said everyone's a freak around here.

It pissed Alex off to hear Chris call himself a freak; every time he did it, Alex just wanted to go hunt his family down and kick their faces off. He wasn't doing it as much any more; it seemed like once he realized Alex was serious about not thinking of him like that, he was slowly starting to believe it himself.

Whenever Alex brought up his family, he always just shrugged it off. Alex wasn't Lifetime movie close with his own, but he always made sure to at least call his mom and let her know that he was still alive once or twice a month.

In the whole time he had known Chris -almost three and a half years- Chris hardly ever said anything about them, apart from the fact that he had an older brother and that his parents were still together, he never mentioned anything about them. That said more then a thousand words could, Alex supposed.

To Alex the way Chris acted said it all. Alex knew that growing up as different as Chris was had to have been hard and he could even understand not having many friends but the fact that Chris used to look so surprised and shocked whenever Alex touched him after he found out about wings, when Alex touched his wings, told it's own story.

After some badgering, Chris admitted no one had ever even been close enough to touch them. It made Alex quietly furious that Chris had went his whole childhood without anyone who knew the real him giving him a hug or telling him that they loved him. Alex had never been very sappy before but he made sure that Chris knew how much he meant to him, even if he didn't tell him in words.

When he got out of the shower and saw that Chris was still sleeping, and that his phone was ringing, Alex didn't think anything of it when he walked over to answer it.

"Yeah?" Alex answered, assuming it was one of their friends and acting accordingly.

"Um, is Josh there?" A male voice asked hesitantly. Alex frowned for a minute before he realized they were looking for Chris.

"Yeah, hold on a minute," Alex told him, walking over to the bed, where Chris was passed out face first in the mattress.

"Chris, get up. Phone's for you." Alex said, grabbing his shoulder and trying to wake him up. Chris just turned onto his side and put his head under one of the pillows. Alex rolled his eyes, Chris was such a baby when it came to getting out of bed.

"Come on, fucktard, it might be important." Alex went to go run a hand over Chris's wing but decided against it. It would definitely wake him up but Alex would end up on his back and while that was something he definitely enjoyed on a daily basis, he thought now was probably not the time for it.

Instead, he tickled Chris's side making him jerk away from him. "What?" Chris asked, his voice sullen. Alex didn't take it personally; Chris hated waking up -unless it was for sex- and he would be pissy for the next ten minutes or so until he was completely awake.

"Some guy's on the phone for you," Alex told him, poking him in the back with said phone. Chris rolled over so he was facing Alex, his wing brushing Alex's arm. "A guy," Chris said, frowning and reaching for the phone. "Did he say who it was?" "No, but he asked for Josh." "Josh," Chris repeated, even more confused.

"Hello?" Chris said, absently resting his hand on Alex's thigh when he sat down on the bed next to him.

"Josh, it's Dave." He must have sensed Chris's complete blank at the name, because he sighed and added: "Your brother."

Chris's hand tightened on Alex's leg, making Alex look down at him in concern. "What do you want?" He asked, the words stilted

"It's Mom, she had a heart attack and she -" Dave's voice hitched for a second and Chris briefly felt a little sympathy for him. "She's still in the hospital, and they don't know when she'll be able to come home."

"I'm sorry," Chris said automatically, but it sounded distant, like Dave was talking about a stranger and not the women who had given birth to him and raised him. "But why are you calling me?"

"Dad didn't want me to, but I thought you might want to come talk to her, say goodbye in case -"

Chris laughed; a harsh, angry sound that had Alex starting to get really worried. "I said goodbye to her years ago, Dave. She never wanted me, none of you did. And I know it could have been a lot worse for me, and I'm beyond grateful for what she did do for me, but I won't go there and pretend we're one big happy family.

"And I don't think she'd want me there, anyway. Dad definitely doesn't and I have no reason to believe you do, either. Last I heard, he was telling everyone I ran off and he thinks I probably OD'ed. That doesn't sound like someone eager for a family reunion to me.

"I'm sorry for you, Dave, I really am," Chris's voice was a little softer now. "I know how close you two were and I hope, for your sake, that she gets better. But I won't go back there, I can't."

He hung up the phone and stared at it for a minute before he flung it at the far wall as hard as he could. Alex didn't even flinch when it hit the wall and broke, but just put his hand on Chris's where it was still holding onto his thigh.

"I don't want to talk about it, 'Lex," Chris rasped out, his voice rusty. "I just want to forget it for now."

"OK," Alex said easily, despite how angry he was at the look on his partner's face. "Wanna play Halo or something until we leave? We've got a half an hour before we need to get to the airport."

"Yeah, that sounds good." Chris tugged Alex closer when he moved to get up and gave him a long kiss. "Thanks."

Alex nodded, and leaned his forehead against Chris's for a minute. "I know you'll tell me when you're ready."

He moved away from Chris, getting up and walking over to the small TV -he really needed to get his over here- and started setting everything up.

Before he went back over to Chris, Alex swore he would do whatever it took to make sure Chris never had that look on his face again.