Chapter Text
They’d been at it for what felt like hours, back and forth, tossing mildly veiled insults at each other, not really trying to hurt each others feelings, but trying to get their point across in the quickest way possible, meaning they’ve been shouting at each other across the kitchen for nearly 40 minutes, David hiding in his bed occasionally whining, waiting for it to stop, it's the longest they’ve fought, as long as you don’t count the non-consecutive weeks of ghosting on Henry’s part, but right now Alex’s mind isn’t clear enough to think about anything else other than when Henry stops shouting and turns around, which hurts Alex more deeply than when he got punched in the face the first time.
“What, so you’re just gonna walk away? We’re in the middle of a conversation Henry!” Alex reaches for Henry’s arm, how did it get to this so quickly.
“This isn’t a conversation Alex, and you know it, I’m going to bed, you do what you want” like you always do goes unsaid, but they both hear it. Henry pulls his arm away from Alex and turns to head upstairs to their bedroom.
He doesn’t want to fight with Henry, this isn’t what this is supposed to be, he just wanted to explain, just tell him the truth, but how he’d explain it, Alex hadn’t quite thought through yet, but he knew if he let Henry walk away now, then it would just get worse. The noise in Alex’s head was becoming almost unbearable, all he needed to do was tell Henry but of course with Alex’s level of self-preservation he didn’t think he could do that, at least not while Henry was mad at him.
“We need to talk about this Hen-” He takes a few steps to follow before Henry’s voice cuts through the noise rushing around Alex’s head-
“We’ll talk about it when you’re being less of an obtuse fucking arsehole, Good night Alex.” Good night, so final and so formal, normally it's goodnight love or it’s lets get to bed sweetheart never just Good night Alex. Oh, he really fucked up.
“I’m the fucking asshole? Me? Woah, hang on a sec-” But of course he couldn't let it go, Alex Claremont-Diaz always has to get the final word, at least he did until he met Henry.
“I don’t want to talk to you.” oh. This is worse. This isn’t ‘we’ll talk about it later’, Henry straight up doesn’t want to talk to him, and Alex feels the strings holding his heart together come closer to snapping.
Don’t say it, don’t say it, for the love of all that is holy Alex don’t say it-
“What, so I’m supposed to sleep on the couch?” You said it. It’s not what he expected to come out of his mouth, but it's also the only thing that he could think to say, no matter how badly he didn’t want to say it.
“Maybe that’s for the best.” this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening.
Alex stands in the hallway, not able to watch as Henry makes his way upstairs, he stands there and he’s never felt more like a guest in his own home than right now Henry’s home, he bought it, he’s just letting you live here. He hears the bedroom door shut. Alex stands there frozen, he doesn’t hear David, his collar jingling gently as he makes his way out from the living room, barely feels him nosing at his leg, whining and snuffling for some attention now the shouting has stopped.
Alex can’t do anything, he can’t move, he can’t think, he can barely breathe.
He needs to do something, he can’t stand here all night. The noise is getting louder.
Alex heads into the living room with heavy legs,, and thinks about sleeping, he wants to sleep, and then he remembers, he’s sleeping on the couch.
He’s sleeping on the couch. Louder
Like his Dad did before that all fell apart.
Before he left. Louder
Left.
Henry’s gonna break up with him. And Louder.
Henry’s tired of fighting, fighting with Alex about things that shouldn’t be important, fighting for Alex and their relationship, Henry is done fighting for them.
Henry doesn't love him anymore.
It’s over.
They're over.
Alex has to apologise right now, he can’t do this without Henry, he doesn’t want to do this without Henry, he needs Henry.
Alex turns to head up the stairs to beg for forgiveness, apologising so much that they’ll both get sick of the word ‘sorry’. He’ll make it up to Henry in a thousand different ways, any way he chooses, as long as Henry doesn’t leave him, as long as Henry loves him again.
Alex tries to go up the stairs.
His legs won’t move.
His legs can’t move.
Alex blinks and when he opens his eyes, he’s on the floor, David is barking. He’s never heard David make so much noise, he’s normally so calm.
Alex feels something on his face. He reaches up with heavy arms and swipes his hand across his face, he lifts it just enough to see and it comes up red. His hand is covered in blood. His blood.
David is still barking, it's really not helping the pain in his head. Alex hears movement upstairs. Henry.
He can’t see him like this, he tries to shush David to calm him down, but his vision is getting darker by the second.
“Shh Dave, s’ok, m’ok” a whispered slur from the distance before he realises, it’s him, his voice.
He can barely see, it’s hard to breathe, he can’t move, but he can feel the blood dripping down past his ears.
It’s gonna stain the floor.
There’s movement, he hears the creaky stair in the middle-
“David, what have you knocked over now-” He must see him. He hears a gasp “Alex?” The noise of the last few stairs passes quickly, and soon he feels hands on his face.
“Alex, baby? What happened? What's happening?” Alex doesn’t like the sound of fear in Henry’s voice, he tries to move his head to look at him, his mouth opens to say something, anything, but nothing comes out apart from a pained wheeze.
“Shit Alex, hang on-” he feels one of Henry’s hands leave his face, and he opens his eyes when did he close them? Henry is on the phone “Shaan, I need an ambulance now, right now, I don’t know, I was upstairs, shit I was upstairs and I heard a thump, I thought David had knocked the coat stand over again, I didn’t- He’s bleeding Shaan, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do?!” Alex thinks he reaches a hand up to hold Henry, but his hand barely moves up from his chest, where it landed after wiping his nose, but Henry, ever observant, sees it and grabs it tightly.
“I’m here baby, I’m here, I’ve got you, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m here, you’re going to be ok- no, no Alex, keep your eyes on me ok, keep looking at me sweetheart-” Alex always liked it when Henry called him sweetheart, made him feel warm, but the dark is so warm and tempting, he wants to keep his eyes open, he wants to do that for Henry but they're so heavy and he’s so tired, he tries for a little longer, he thinks he can hear sirens in the background, and if Henry’s here then he will be ok, he feels his eyes shut and the dark is so welcoming, but he can still hear Henry.
“Alex, baby open your eyes, please open your eyes, I need you, please, I love you, baby just open your eyes-” at least Henry still loves him, he tries to squeeze Henry’s hand, he thinks he does, but the dark surrounds him before he can be sure and it's the quietest Alex’s head has been in a very long time.
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