[In response not to the smile, but to the attempt to hide it. It's okay. Which isn't true and is. It will never feel wholly safe for Ben to express emotion the way Alex might, and that's just a fact. But with him, Alex would like to think, it's safe to smile every little while. Because Alex knows him, what he's done, where he started from, how far he's come, and what he's still capable of.]
[He packs as much of that sentiment as he can into those three syllables and grins in echo of his friend. It's dangerous out here in the world for an expression like that. But there are little shelters along the way. Alex is one of them.]
If you think I could do it - do it and make it feel like that. I'd like to learn.
[He could show Darwin, he thinks. Or Ben could. But there are some things that are too much to hope even in the privacy of your own mind.]
no subject
[In response not to the smile, but to the attempt to hide it. It's okay. Which isn't true and is. It will never feel wholly safe for Ben to express emotion the way Alex might, and that's just a fact. But with him, Alex would like to think, it's safe to smile every little while. Because Alex knows him, what he's done, where he started from, how far he's come, and what he's still capable of.]
[He packs as much of that sentiment as he can into those three syllables and grins in echo of his friend. It's dangerous out here in the world for an expression like that. But there are little shelters along the way. Alex is one of them.]
If you think I could do it - do it and make it feel like that. I'd like to learn.
[He could show Darwin, he thinks. Or Ben could. But there are some things that are too much to hope even in the privacy of your own mind.]