Chapter Text
"We should be studying for your test," George points out, stammering the last part a bit when he feels Alex's hands reach under his shirt.
"I'm studying, don't you see?" Alex replies, pulling off George's shirt like a pro. "I have a full body anatomical model right below me."
George visibly blushes. He makes that al the time: blushing. Alex likes to tease him about it, but he secretly loves seeing the visible evidence of his effect on George, who is as easy to read as a children's book.
“I mean it, Alex,” George insists, though the neck kisses break his will pretty quickly.
“Me too,” Alex says with conviction, then takes George's shirt off like a pro.
From there, George gives up embarrassingly easy, leaving Alex to lay him down on the bed in the locked callroom and trap him under him.
After the kiss on the gazebo, it was surprisingly easy. Still, it wasn't much different from the way they'd always related: clumsy George and gruff Alex. And they found a pretty nice rhythm in the middle of it all. Obviously, no one knew, and they intended it to stay that way. They were nothing anyway, so what was there to say? They were just friends who had sex and kissed occasionally.
Very good kisses, it had to be said. Alex would have thought George would be more inexperienced, but if he was, he's a quick learner.
They do a flip on the sheets and George ends up straddling Alex.
Yes, learn fast.
Alex is happy to have thrown himself into this, to unleash that desire of his usually hidden too far below himself. And he kisses George until his father's voice stops ringing inside his head, until he convinces himself that none of this is new.
Alex Karev is very good at telling lies to himself.
George groans under him when he makes a particular move and well, obviously Alex is good at other things too.
George and Alex arrive at the hospital the next day, each carrying a paper cup with a heavy dose of coffee to hold out for the shift. The hospital is soberly decorated with some Christmas gadgets.
Although they both enter the door at the same time, they separate as soon as they enter as if they don't recognize each other, but for Cristina, who arrived only a minute before, the scene does not go unnoticed.
She doesn't know that they both arrived in Alex's car. She doesn't know that George was lovingly complaining all the way about the Christmas decorations Izzie had wrapped the house in, as if a reindeer had vomited on it. He doesn't know that Alex had laughed as genuinely as he seldom does, or that he had then hinted at things they could do in the back seat of that very car if George didn't want to go home, and had greatly enjoyed the blush that arose from George in return.
No, Cristina doesn't know anything about that. However, she suspects that there is something they are both hiding. Perhaps a competition she is being excluded from or an odd alliance.
"What are we looking at?" Meredith asks, moving to her side and leaning over her shoulder to search for whatever Cristina is staring at.
Cristina shrugs and taps her shoulder against Mer's.
"I still don't know exactly" she reply.
However, she will find out eventually.
They also study, really. Alex's make-up exam is just around the corner, so in their spare time they walk around with the concept cards or do a role-playing game where George is their patient and Alex tries to find out what he has.
It's quite funny, actually.
That's what they're doing right now: Alex rubs George's abdomen with a professional touch while George recites his symptoms.
They are in the lower part of the hospital at this moment, where the inmates sometimes go to rest, complain or sleep for a blessed minute, where the first day of the residence the five of them had been, when no one knew what they would mean to each other.
"Appendicitis," Alex states firmly (he's regained some of his confidence in their time studying together).
George smiles in response and Alex celebrates his victory, kissing George's nose sweetly before realizing what he is doing.
George freezes in place, sitting on the stretcher, because that's a gesture he's not used to. Alex just...kissed his nose? just because yes? The chestnut's cheeks light up, reddened.
Alex, when he realizes what he just did, also freezes for a minute. They're not supposed to do these things, you know, the kind of things that couples would do. He puts his fist to his mouth and coughs, falsely clearing his throat to try to undo the tension between them that just lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Should we- can we continue?" Alex asks, as George continues make short circuit while sitting on the stretcher. "I think I'm finally getting the hang of this."
George lets out a nervous giggle.
“Oh yes, of course,” he says, running a hand through his hair and messing it up adorably, which doesn't help Alex concentrate at all. "Next set of symptoms, here we go.” And George rattles off a set of symptoms that have to do with his tonsils, so Alex pulls out a stick from the exam set and asks him to open his mouth so he can check with a flashlight.
George complies, his cheeks still flushed, but Alex doesn't notice (or at least pretends not to) as he checks. Their hearts are pounding and the contact, albeit brief, makes their skin crawl: They both wonder how it is possible for the other to cause that effect on him and it's almost like being in a sweet mist.
Alex puts a hand on George's cheek out of inertia and George looks into his eyes...
And then: "George?"
Izzie's voice makes them both jump in place, like they've been found out about something that's strictly forbidden.
“Izzie,” George says, looking at her with wide eyes as he pushes Alex as far away as he can.
Alex just looks away, drowning in the reasons to be embarrassed:
1) He's studying for a failed exam, and it's one thing for George, whom he's grown to trust, to know, and quite another for every other human being on earth to know, including Izzie.
2) Rumors spread fast, which means soon the whole hospital will know he's a loser, dammit-
3) George is driving him crazy, in a way that's very different than he used to be.
4) OMG he trust in George.
And I could go on, but Izzie speaks again before he finishes his mental list.
"Are you sick?" Izzie asks to George, approaching them without once looking at Alex. Evidently, she's still annoyed with him, "Why was Alex checking you out?"
"Ummh" George stammers and looks for Alex's gaze, as if asking for guidance on what to say since he knows that this topic is sensitive for Alex (and a little relieved because at least Izzie didn't catch them kissing, that would have been very difficult to explain).
Alex can't help but feel a curl of genuine affection curl around his chest at George's look, which seems to say: I'll say what you want me to say, I'll lie if that's what you want.
It's terrifying, but since there's a more pressing problem, Alex keeps it in his mental box of “Shit Alex Karev will worry about later. Or never", and decides, instead, that he will reciprocate the gesture honestly.
"O'Malley helps me study." he confesses, "I have to repeat my exam."
"What?" Izzie snaps, "Did you fail the exam?" She first looks genuinely puzzled, but then clearly annoyed as she looks at George and points an accusing finger at him.
"And why do you help him?!" she claims, "You're my friend, you're supposed to be on my side."
Alex resists the urge to roll his eyes, mostly because he knows she has reason to be upset with him, but god, could she not be so dramatic with George?
George jumps off the stretcher, "Izzie, it's no-"
Izzie raises her arms: "No, I don't want to talk to you right now," she says, and leaves.
"Izzie!" George calls her, frustrated, "Izzie wait!"
George makes as if to run to follow her, but stops abruptly (so much so that he almost stumbles forward) and turns to Alex and says, "We'll continue later, promise." and then he runs out and calls her friend down the hall.
A lot was going through Alex's head at this very moment: First, he had felt strangely abandoned when George had started running to Izzie, not only because of studies (which were very important), but when George casually promised he'd come back, that had been much worse for reasons he can't explain.
Alex snorts and slumps down onto the table George used to be on, picks up the cards (George's beautiful handwriting gives him a mocking look) and tries to go back to studying.
Yet he obviously can't concentrate and finds himself wondering how long it will take everyone to find out about this, about his pathetic failure, now that Izzie knows. Probably not a lot.
What if Izzie had discovered them in a more compromising position? Would it have been worth it?
Alex snorts, throws the cards aside, and lies down on the table. He distracts himself by humming a stupid song so as not to allow his brain to answer that question.
George is his friend, George attracts him, but they don't mean more. Alex won't let them mean more.
(In the background, the scared child inside her chest claws at her chest, and the rage and determination are actually fear. God, how terrifying it's feel.)
When George catches up with Izzie, she yells at him Traitor in the middle of the hallway and attracts the attention of Cristina and Meredith, who was already there.
"What's wrong, Izzie?" Meredith asks, surprised.
“George is a traitor. I thought I made it clear how horrible Alex was to me!"
George cringes a bit, grimacing.
"I'm just helping him study, Izz" (liar liar liar)
"Why are you helping Alex study?" Meredith asks, tilting her head in frank confusion, totally oblivious to Izzie's anger.
"I think the real question here is, why do you help Evil Spawn in wathever?"
George snorts, like he doesn't want to answer, but finally says, “He failed his exam."
"He fail?" Meredith is surprised. Behind her, Cristina bursts out laughing, as if it were the funniest thing she's ever heard.
"I still don't understand why that's your problem," Izzie snaps, indignant.
“Because he doesn't have anyone else, Izzie."
"And why do you think that is? I will tell you: Because he's a complete and utter jerk."
"I'm not saying it isn't, but it tries, I swear. And he needs friends now, he needs help." George finds the courage to finish by saying, "You know I love you, Izzie, and I'm sorry, but I'm not going to stop helping him."
Izzie backs away and opens her mouth, probably to complain again, but Meredith speaks first.
"We'll help him."
Cristina shrugs, nodding: "If I can help him and make fun at the same time, I will."
"Girls!" Izzie complains.
Thankfully, George doesn't have to continue to champion the cause in this argument because now Meredith takes control of the argument: She goes on a whole rant about Alex being "Dirty Uncle Sal" which honestly confuses him a lot, but at least it convinces Izzie, what is the important.
George hopes Alex won't be upset because there are now three more people willing to help him. He expects he to see him for what he's worth: That it's a good thing other people care about him.
And then, when Meredith takes the first turn to go help Alex, George leans back against the wall and sighs, because after these weeks of flirting with Alex, he no longer thinks this is "just fun" for him.
God, he's absolutely screwed.