Steph was sitting at one end of the couch with Alex's head in her lap, holding her phone with one hand and the other stroking Alex's hair. Alex was lying on her back with her eyes closed, her mind blissfully blank as she soaked in the joy radiating steadily from Steph.

Cooking with Alex was so much fun.

I can't believe Ryan and Ethan ditched as soon as we had to do dishes, though, those assholes.

But it seemed like today was really good for Alex, even with all the memories that came up.

I don't think I've ever seen her this happy before. Or this relaxed. Or this beautiful.

She even did that extra cute smile a few times. The one where she closes her eyes and scrunches up her face.

When was the last time I told her I like her smile? Whenever I do, it makes her smile even more, and she gets even cuter.

Alex smiled, then started laughing when she realized she was scrunching up her face with her eyes closed.

Steph raised an eyebrow as she looked down at Alex. "What's so funny?"

Alex tapped one of her fingers against her temple. "I can hear you, remember?"

"Oh…right." Steph gave Alex a sheepish smile as color rose on her cheeks. "Sorry."

Alex shook her head. "You don't have to be sorry. I'm glad you're feeling happy enough that I can hear you."

Steph set her phone down and propped her elbow on the back of the couch before leaning her head against her hand. "So, how does your power work, exactly? Do you just always have other people in your head?"

"Not always. It depends. If the emotion isn't that strong, I can reach out to feel it and hear the thoughts connected to it, but it doesn't take over. And if I don't reach for it, it's just there in the background. It's only the really strong ones that I can't stop from taking on and then I feel it in my body the same way the other person is feeling it in theirs. But that's not really a problem with emotions like joy."

"That sounds exhausting, honestly." Steph frowned, her eyes shifting to watch her fingers running through Alex's hair. "And kinda scary. Knowing that someone could jump into your head at any time."

Alex shrugged. "It can be. But that's just how it is."

Steph breathed in like she was going to say something but let it out, repeating this several times before she spoke again. "Do you…ever get confused about which emotions are yours and which ones are someone else's? Especially with the ones that take over."

Alex stayed silent for a moment, her brow furrowing as Steph's aura changed from gold to purple. "You're worried that I don't actually like you," she said softly. "That I'm just taking on your happiness and thinking it's mine."

Steph looked away and rubbed her hand against her forehead. "Is that what's happening? Could you even tell?"

Alex sat up and turned to face her, taking one of Steph's hands in both of her own. "Steph. Look at me," she said, waiting to continue until Steph met her eyes. "I can feel how you're feeling but I know how to tell that apart from my own emotions. And I know how I feel about you. I'm with you because I want to be. Because I care about you. And because you make me happy."

"Right. Sorry." Steph sighed and gestured toward Alex with her free hand. "Of course, you'd know the difference. That was a stupid question."

"It wasn't stupid. And you don't have to be sorry." Alex felt her chest tighten when Steph's purple aura didn't fade. "Is something still bothering you?"

Steph sighed again, looking down as she drummed her fingers on the couch cushion. "I mean, you can tell, right? That's kind of the problem."

"What does that mean?" Alex hesitated for a second before leaning forward so she could see Steph's face. "Do you think I'm, like, spying on you? I'm not doing it on purpose."

"No, that's not–" Steph made a frustrated noise and dropped her head back against the couch. "It just sucks that how I'm feeling kinda gets forced on you. I know it's fine right now because I'm happy, but what about the next time I'm sad, or afraid, or…angry?" She paused, her voice growing quieter as her aura flickered to an even darker shade of purple. "We're going to be mad at each other again at some point, no matter how careful we are."

Alex looked down as she turned Steph's hand over to trace the lines on her palm, taking several deep breaths as she thought about how to respond. "The problem is really just with strong emotions. So, if you talk to me before it gets to that point, when the feeling isn't overwhelming yet, we can figure out how to handle it before it gets any bigger and I'll be fine."

"That might work." Steph rolled her head to the side so she could look at Alex. "But it might not."

"Yeah, maybe." Alex's eyes moved back to Steph's face, giving her a small, hesitant smile. "But we'll figure it out. Together. That's kind of the whole point of being in a relationship, remember?"

"Right. Yeah, you're right." Steph smiled back at Alex, the tension in her body gradually releasing as her purple aura dimmed. "A really smart person must've told you that."

"Yeah, she is really smart. And patient. And kind. And hot," Alex said, grinning when Steph laughed.

Steph squeezed Alex's hand and leaned forward to kiss her. She broke away a few seconds later and settled back against the couch, motioning for Alex to come closer. Alex put her arm under Steph's and laced their fingers together before resting her head on Steph's shoulder.

After a moment, Steph turned to kiss the top of Alex's head. "Can I ask another question about your power?"

"Sure."

"Did you ever tell Gabe about it?"

"No." Alex frowned slightly. "I didn't."

Steph waited until she was sure Alex wasn't going to say anything else. "Why not?"

Before Alex could respond, Mao-Mao trotted over to the couch and jumped into her lap. He nudged his head under Alex's hand, turning in several tight circles so she could scratch along his back. Then he laid down in her lap, his tail flicking back and forth as he began to purr.

Alex smiled down at Mao-Mao, petting him for a moment before she spoke again. "I couldn't when we were kids, while we were at the orphanages. It took a long time for me to figure out what was even happening and after I did, it was so confusing and overwhelming that I had no idea how to explain it. But even if I had tried, I don't think Gabe could've understood at that point.

"He was just so angry all the time. After a while even I couldn't get through to him. At first, part of me was glad that he was as fucked up as I was because I didn't want him to get adopted and separate us. But then he stole a car and got sent to juvie and I got moved into foster care."

Steph let go of Alex's hand to move her arm around Alex's shoulders, pulling her a little closer. "Was foster care any better than the orphanage?"

Alex shook her head, watching her fingers glide through Mao-Mao's fur. "Not really. In a lot of ways, it was worse. At the orphanages, the kids were taken care of as a group. But in foster care, you had 'parents' and had to live in their home. I know that was supposed to make it easier, but for me, pretending to be like a 'normal' family made it hurt even more. It was another reminder that my family was gone, and I didn't have anyone who cared about me enough to take care of me anymore.

"I remember the first foster home I was placed in was with a white family, so they didn't make any of the food that my mom and I used to make. I had the same problem at the orphanages, but I thought I could at least make my own food now that I was in a house with a kitchen. But my foster parents wouldn't let me, so I couldn't even make the stuff I was used to as a way to comfort myself. I was so upset that I didn't eat much for the first few weeks I was there. Eventually I got yelled at because I was losing too much weight and my foster parents didn't want CPS to think they weren't feeding me enough."

"But you were in a few different foster homes, right? Did they ever get any better than that first one?"

"Not really. Most of the time I felt like I was walking on eggshells, just waiting for someone to yell at me again. Each house I got sent to had completely different rules, so I was always getting in trouble for something that was fine at the last place but now was something I'd get punished for. Whenever anything in the house got broken or went missing, the foster kids were the first ones the parents confronted about it. And the whole time I knew that one wrong move could get me transferred to another family or back to an orphanage.

"But the worst part was that I never had any control over what happened to me. I could get moved to another foster home at any time, with barely any warning. Just a call from CPS to pack up my stuff in the morning and then I'd be gone by the afternoon. And my workers changed all the time, too. Sometimes I'd get transferred to a new worker and then a week later my foster parents would get a call from a completely different person saying they were my care worker now. I was so done with the whole thing by, like, my third foster home that I stopped caring about what I said to my workers."

Alex paused, the corners of her mouth pulling up into a wry smile. "I remember one time I had been at a foster home for less than a day before I got into a fight that made the parents kick me out. I got sent to the CPS office and my worker was trying to ask me about what happened, but I was so mad that all I said was, 'I don't know, shit was fucked, man.'"

"What did she say back?"

"'Can you tell me exactly how the 'shit was fucked,' young lady?'"

"And you said…?"

"'All the way up the ass.'"

Steph laughed softly. "I bet she didn't like that."

Alex sighed, her smile slowly falling from her face. "She didn't. I got transferred to another worker and another foster home the next day."

"So, that one wasn't a mystery. But the other times, they really never told you why your workers changed?"

"No. But it seemed like after a while they just couldn't handle the job anymore. Even as a kid, I could tell that the work they were doing was, like…eating them up inside. Even the ones that weren't completely terrible, who really cared and tried to help. The system just chewed up everyone it touched, including the workers."

Steph opened her mouth to say something, then paused, her fingers tracing small circles on Alex's shoulder. "But you made it through all that," she said finally.

"Yeah." Alex shrugged. "I have no idea how, but I did."

"And you still…" Steph sighed, gesturing with her other hand as she tried to find the right words. "I mean, I definitely don't want to say that everything you went through was 'worth it' or 'meaningful' or whatever, because it sucked, and you shouldn't have had to deal with it. But you did, and even with all of that, you still turned out to be a pretty incredible person."

Alex frowned as she gently ran a finger along Mao-Mao's ears. "A depressed mess with a mountain of baggage, out-of-control emotions, and years' worth of repressed memories, more like."

"Yeah, maybe that, too. But why can't you be both of those things?" Steph waited to speak until Alex turned to look at her. "You're amazing, Alex. I wish you could see that."

Alex held Steph's gaze for a moment as she mentally fumbled for how to respond. She felt Mao-Mao shift and looked down at him when he started to meow.

"See?" Steph said. "Mao-Mao agrees with me."

Alex raised an eyebrow as she glanced back at Steph. "I'm pretty sure he just wants his dinner."

Steph scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. I guess you would know since you're the cat whisperer. I'm still right, though." She laughed when Mao-Mao let out a yowl. "But you better hurry up and feed the little monster before he dies of starvation."

"Yep, I gotta hurry, he's obviously on the brink of death." Alex gathered Mao-Mao in her arms and stood up to move toward the kitchen. She paused behind the couch, waiting until Steph dropped her head back to look up at her. "Thank you," she said softly. "For listening. And for that last thing you said."

Alex bent down to kiss Steph's cheek, pulling back when Mao-Mao started to wail again. "Okay, little dude, I get it," she said, tapping Mao-Mao's nose with her fingertip. "I have to get your food before I kiss Steph more." She smiled when Steph laughed, trailing her fingers along Steph's cheek before she turned around to grab Mao-Mao's bowl from the kitchen shelf.