And... here comes some angst. Don't worry - said angst is then drowned mercilessly in epic amounts off fluff. Maybe. Later. Perhaps… No copyright infringement is intended.
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Alexander realised it first. Magnus could have predicted that, had he known that it was there to predict. Magnus was standing by the window, exhausted, as he thought. Ever since their visit to the pool two weeks ago - because he could connect the dots now, that that was when it had first started - Alexander had gotten strange looks and even stranger questions whenever he dared to leave the house.
Magnus got angry just thinking about it, now that he knew that Alexander had consciously more and more avoided leaving the house. And now, naturally (though so very undeservedly, as Magnus had told him) he blamed himself for that, thinking it made the whole situation worse. Magnus himself doubted it. When people got ideas like that into their heads, nothing shifted them.
Today, Alexander had finally gotten a question in the local store which could not be misunderstood. Magnus had come home from his strangely suspicious employees to find his husband lying on the carpet in their living room, in the foetal position, accompanied by not one but two very worried pets; crying his heart out. Magnis had not seen him cry that hard since the evening after Alexander's parents called him an abomination. He could not stand seeing him like that.
Magnus sighed for himself. It had taken the better part of an hour to make his younger husband calm down even fractionally, and when he finally had stopped crying and been able to actually explain why he was so upset, Alexander had refused to talk further and shut him out of their bedroom, claiming he needed to have a nap. Magnus didn't believe him, and he hated that they suddenly had what seemed like an ocean of space between them, for no good reason!
"Mreow?" Magnus turned his head and saw the Chairman Meow sitting behind him, head tilted and looking up at him innocently. "Hello Chairman," Magnus sighed and bent down to pick up his cat. "Your other daddy is a bit upset today. He found out that people apparently think..." he couldn't go on, instead sighing and letting his cat headbutt him gently.
Magnus remained in the living room, talking only half aloud, pretending he was talking to his cat while he was really just thinking out loud as he could not talk to Alexander. At least, until Chairman meowed in boredom and escaped him by jumping down to the floor and trot off. With a sigh, Magnus decided he might as well make dinner and ran a tired hand over his face before going to the kitchen.