Chapter 5

 

Monday morning Alex feels like he's dragging, and he's not alone. The whole of Fourth's cast and crew seems slow and cranky.

For Alex, though, it's not because he's tired -- after brunch he'd done nothing but sit with Gemma and gossip, burying his face in a throw pillow in mortification when she questioned him at really inappropriate length about Dicks He Has Seen -- but because he's distracted. A weekend without alone time is not a weekend. Wanting to and worrying about running into Paul is no help either. Brunch was hard, he doesn't know if eventually encountering Paul at work will be harder, and he can't decide if he wants to find out.

Liam, meanwhile, is working his last nerve, because he thinks the solution to everyone's Monday blahs is to actively badger them between takes about how awesome their weekend must have been for them to feel this awful.

It's not that Alex doesn't appreciate his efforts -- Liam can grate, but he's also one of the people Alex feels easiest around, an unexpected outcome of the way they have to interact in front of the camera. But on the list of people Alex feels like telling about hooking up with Paul, Liam falls somewhere close to the bottom. Not only is he a gossip, he's casually graphic about anyone and everyone's sex lives regardless of his own involvement in them. Alex doesn't even feel able to be casually graphic about his own sex life at this point, Gemma's efforts entirely aside.

Alex isn't actually sure he wants that to change, either. It's nice having a secret that's actually, he hopes, a good thing. A delicious thing. A thing he wants more of. But it's so goddamn distracting.

Which is bad, because there's work to be done and the cameras never miss distraction. What Alex really needs to be thinking about isn't his relationship with Paul, but the relationship between his character on Fourth, Zach, and Liam's James.

As far as the plot is going, despite James's mentorship -- if it can even be called that at this point; the onscreen tension in their long nights working together is becoming less and less about rivalry and deals with the devil and more about something being very much left unspoken for now -- Zach has yet to land a story, and his increasing frustration needs to both concern and compel James.

"So I heard a thing," Liam says in between scenes, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet in front of Alex's chair, where he's sitting with headphones on and trying to refocus before the next material.

"What?"

Liam either doesn't hear the annoyance, or chooses to ignore it, Alex isn't sure. "Apparently someone had a very good time at the party on Saturday."

Alex gives him a glare that Liam pays not the least attention to, which is frustrating if unsurprising. For as good and expressive an actor as he is, Liam is often terrible at picking up other people's body language. Which means Alex is going to have to resort to chasing him off with words.

"There were a lot of people at the party. I'm sure somebody enjoyed it," he says.

"Annnnd you were one of those somebodies?" Liam asks, scrubbing his hand through the back of his slightly-too-shaggy curls.

"What I do in private is not your business. Or anyone else's."

"Dude, hanging all over each other at a party with half the crew around is not private."

"Liam--" Alex starts, because they have always had very different levels of comfort with various aspects of their lives being made public. Alex wants to make very clear what is and is not acceptable for Liam to talk about Alex doing anywhere near a camera, but Liam's eyes light up and he interrupts him before he can get started.

"Oh my god it wasn't just the dancing! You totally hooked up with him!"

Alex groans.

"Don't be like that! This is amazing! Paul is awesome, oh my god Alex, how was it?"

"How do you know it was Paul?" Alex hisses.

"I have sources," Liam smirks. Alex tips his head back to roll his eyes at the ceiling and wonders who talked. Given that half the crew had been there, the list of suspects is discouragingly long.

"So how was it? Is he good?"

Alex snaps his head back down. "No!"

"No, it wasn't any good?" Liam's eyes are wide and concerned and utterly insincere.

"No, I am not having this conversation with you!"

Liam pouts.

Alex smirks. As irritating as Liam can be, he's not actually an asshole, and it's fun to aggravate him even if the prospect of his digging any more is kind of horrifying. "Do you really think that's going to work?"

"One of these days, something's going to get you to crack. When was the last time you even got laid?"

"Working now!" Alex sings, and kicks up from the chair to push past him, because they have to go now, thank god.

"We're not done with this!" Liam calls after him

"Find someone else to bother!" Alex shouts back.

 

***

 

When lunch comes, Liam decides to do exactly that. The Fourth Estate shoots on the lot's least far-flung stage, and it's easy enough for him to jog past the courtyard with the shitty coffee place and go poke around the boxy office building where Fourth's writers have been cruelly, yet conveniently, consigned.

Victor, however, intercepts him before he gets there, swinging around to hook his arm through Liam's as their paths cross on the asphalt.

"And what are you doing?" Victor purrs.

Liam laughs, because that voice is Victor's bored voice, and Liam -- more or less like everyone else on Fourth -- serves at the pleasure of his amusement.

"I was about to seek out some gossip, but apparently you've come to deliver instead?" he asks hopefully.

"Not likely. Also, does anyone know where you are?"

"Crew's on lunch. We're on lunch. And they totally have to lay track before the next shot. I have time," Liam says, even though he knows that in costume he's not supposed to stray so far from set without a P.A. at hand to fetch him back.

"Mmmmhmmm."

"Alex wanders off all over the place all the time--"

"Liam, Alex is a cat. He knows where and when his dinner is served. You, on the other hand, are a dog that chases squirrels in the neighbor's yard for days at a time."

"Ow. Ow! That is harsh," Liam says, laughing and pressing his free hand to his heart.

"Would Carly tell me I'm wrong?"

"Fine." Liam concedes. "But you still want to know the thing I was totally on my way to find out about."

"Really? And what's that?" Victor says, his voice gentle but unconvinced.

"Alex and Paul."

"Alex and Paul what?"

"Sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," Liam hisses with undisguised glee.

Victor stops dead, causing Liam to trip over his untied shoelaces. "Repeat that."

"Alex and Paul. Isn't that totally awesome?"

Victor just stares at him.

"Is that not totally awesome?" Liam asks, deflating a little.

"Who told you and who knows?"

"Alex confirmed it because he yelled at me when I mentioned half the crew saw them hanging all over each other at Paul's on Saturday."

"Happy Monday to me," Victor sighs, before disentangling himself from Liam and patting his cheek. "Go be a good boy and eat lunch. I'm going to go ruin someone's day."

 

***

 

Paul is in the writers' room with his laptop on his thighs and feet up on someone else's chair. He has his headphones on and is tapping a pencil against his mouth when Victor suddenly appears in front of him.

"Come on, lunch time," Victor says as he lifts the headphones away from Paul's ears.

Paul blinks and puts his feet back on the ground. "What’s up?" he asks, wary.

Victor drops the headphones unceremoniously onto a table. "Come with me," he says, setting out to take the long way around to catering. He waits for the hallway to be relatively clear before he adds "So. You and Alex."

"How do you know about that?" Paul asks, surprised, though he probably shouldn't be, that word has already managed to reach Victor.

"Liam told me."

"Liam wasn't even there."

"And?" Victor asks.

"Oh."

The force of Victor's personality outweighs the averageness of his appearance -- his black hair is kept at a utilitarian length, and Paul always forgets that he's actually taller than Victor -- but the force of his attention and the intensity of his brown eyes are like a physical blow whenever Victor decides to employ them, which is always. At the moment, that energy is all focused on Paul, and Paul braces himself.

"Yes." Victor says. "Would you like to explain to me why you felt the need to take out your dysfunctional singlehood on Alex of all people? He's ten years younger than you."

Paul is a little affronted. Usually, he's fine with Victor's encyclopedic knowledge of the one-night stands and personal debacles of his staff. But at the moment, as far as Paul is concerned, someone who needs people as little as Victor seems to -- despite the Liam thing -- really shouldn't be judging the ways in which other people seek connection. The inappropriate and incestuous workplace gossip aspect of the entire situation does little to lessen the absurdity.

"I didn't take anything out on him. And Alex is a big boy, he can handle himself."

"When it comes to this, I really wish he didn't have a reason to need to. Do not fuck with him," Victor says.

Even after dealing with him continuously for years, ever since Victor first hired him as an intern on a show now long gone but still much loved, Paul feels a little thrill of animal fear at that particular tone. Not that he's inclined to give into it. Most things with Victor are a test anyway.

"It's not like that. It was good. It is good."

Victor raises an eyebrow. "This is not entirely in the past tense?"

"We've got a date on Friday."

"Do you now."

"Yeah. He's coming over for dinner." Paul smiles.

"You're actually serious right now."

Paul gives a little shrug and refrains from saying that he's known Alex a while, so no, this isn't just a blowjob and a bucket of inappropriate romance, even if he's self-aware enough to know that the odds are good that that's probably exactly what it is.

Victor nods to himself, as if absorbing Paul's shrug and grin and what it means that he's not trying to talk his way out of getting caught having such bad judgment.

"All right," he says. "This could actually be good."

Paul raises an eyebrow, amused, now that he's sure he's not getting shouted at, how everyone is always merely a character in Victor's world.

"You're way more functional when you're not alone--"

"Thanks, Victor," Paul drawls. Because really.

"It's true; don't even start. And I'd worry a lot less about Alex if he wasn't single, either."

"What are you worried about Alex for?"

"Many, many things." Victor nods to himself. "All right. But be careful of him. He has his own mind, and you front well, but we both know you were a mess long before Craig, and you're still a mess now."

"Once again, thank you."

"I came to find you to yell at you, you know," Victor says, his voice gentling.

"I know," Paul says. "It was hard to miss."

"I feel like I should go yell at Alex instead."

"Are you going to?" Paul asks cautiously.

"No. You know what you're getting into, or at least you should. And Alex..." Victor trails off before spreading his hands expansively before them both. "Alex always lands on his feet."

By the time they get to catering, both the foot traffic and the volume of chatter is much higher. Victor steps out of the flow just before the door, and Paul stands aside with him.

"Did you know his birthday is on Thursday?" Victor asks.

Paul grins, and his eyes flick for a moment to the crowd inside. "No, Victor, I didn't IMDB him."

"God, you're terrible. Go eat. And tell him not to freak out about Liam."

 

***

 

You didn't tell me your birthday was Thursday, Paul texts Alex later that afternoon.

 

It's hours before he gets a response. Keep forgetting, and I don't want it to be a thing.

Actual convo for later? Paul tries.

I guess. It's not like I've never had tequila before.

If Friday's gonna be too hungover for you, just let me know.

No, Alex replies. Looking forward.

"Aren't you just always," Paul murmurs before he sets his phone down and gets back to work.

 

***

 

While Alex doesn't always work a five-day week, depending on how the filming blocks for Fourth are set up, it's a full week of shooting for him, and so the draining effects of the weekend never do get a chance to wear off. The ten-hour turnaround Alex is guaranteed feels a lot shorter when he's spending a good chunk of his off hours on endeavors other than sleep and solitude.

Margaret has found a movie opportunity and wants to know if Alex is interested (and Alex is surprised to find that he is); he's been texting more and more with Paul who is quietly insistent and also always answers; and he spends the rest of his evenings alternately chatting with and hiding from Gemma, who remains as wonderfully nosey and enthusiastic as ever.

He sees Paul as much as he ever did at work, which is only occasionally, but Paul's smile when they cross paths in the hallways is always bright and makes Alex grin until he has to get back to being Zach. Liam has, miraculously, stopped hounding him for gossip. He'd sheepishly admitted that the gossip about Alex and Paul had made it to Victor, somehow. Alex is thrilled when his reaction to that not-quite confession apparently makes Liam feel guilty enough to not badger him for at least forty-eight hours.

Thursday they make a big deal of his birthday on set. There's cake and booze and more attention than Alex wants, but less than there could be. He does at least appreciate the thought. Paul is there, to say hi or Tweet semiofficially as is his habit. Alex isn't sure which, but decides to enjoy it anyway.

He laughs and finally poses for a picture for him after Liam puts a plate with cake on it in his hands and pushes him forward. Paul winks when he lowers the phone. Alex smiles back. Even if it's not entirely a secret at this point -- Liam is giving Alex knowing looks over Paul's shoulder -- it's still fun.

His mom calls while he's driving home, and since he's stuck in terrible traffic -- the mess that is the L.A. highway system never ceases to amaze Alex or to piss him off -- they get to talk for forty-five minutes before he says I have to go, I'm home now.

But even then he sits in the car in the parking lot for another ten minutes before he says love you too and hangs up. Every thought of home is hard for him; he misses it and his mom, even as he doesn't miss growing up in Indiana at all.