“It’s not a game to me!” There it is—Alec’s bound to find the right thing to break that little stalemate of theirs. It’s hard not to stiffen up at that remark about playing with his food. It’s hard not to see red after recalling how his mother apologized to him over and over again as she lay dying. It’s hard not to grit his teeth and feel his muscles tense when it feels like Alec is playing with him again, like he always does, and Koujaku’s almost inclined not to take that confession of murder by proxy at face value.

But no one ever said that it would be fucking easy to try and understand somebody else, especially when that somebody is trying so hard to push him away.

But Koujaku doesn’t lunge for him—yet. “Got that?”