strings attached ; firstprince

chapter three

"Okay, we'll go order then," Pez says as he, Nora and June go inside the café. Alex laughs under his breath. Alex looks at Henry, his eyes staring at his fidgeting hands in his lap.

"You can't be British and boring, like, pick a struggle," Alex says, breaking the silence.

Henry looks up, a glint of amusement in his eye. "What? Because of my scrambled eggs?"

"Yes, because of your boring toast, which you can just make at your penthouse dorm by the way."

"Scrambled eggs is a perfectly reasonable dish."

"You cannot call scrambled eggs on toast," Alex puts on a British accent to mock Henry's "A reasonable dish."

"Well, I can and I did," Henry says, a smile pinched in the corner of his mouth. Alex cracks a smile, finding his attempt at a comeback both amusing and endearing. Henry's brows furrow, his lips dropping into a frown. God, why can't Alex stop staring at those lips? "What's so funny?"

The question breaks him out of his trance. "Nothing," Alex answers, failing terribly at concealing his growing smile.

"You're smiling," Henry points out. "Something has to be funny."

"You're just cute," Alex hums. Henry's ears tinge pink and Alex can see him processing it in his eyes as they flicker back and forth.

Henry coughs. "How so?"

"It's just cute when you get all flustered," Alex's smile only widens. The flirting is definitely becoming way too much fun for him.

Henry juts out his chin and straightens his posture. "I am not flustered." He says, smoothing his hands across his pants before resting them back on the table. He's so endearing.

"Sure babycakes," Alex says. Henry's eyes soften and he lets a quiet laugh escape, averting his eyes back to his hands with a bashful smile.

"We're back!" June says in a sing-song voice as she places a table number on the table. Nora and Pez follow shortly after her, taking their respective seats. "Happy to see y'all didn't kill each other."

"Surprisingly, I can behave myself in public," Alex retorts, as Henry looks up at him and grins.

"Surprisingly so," Henry says with a smile that threatens to knock out all of Alex's senses.

It's not long before all their food arrives and they all dig in, ceasing most conversation. Alex is quick to grab his burger with both his hands, opening his mouth wide to take a bite. After the first bite, a combination of grease and sauce leaks from the burger and onto his fingers.

Alex feels Henry's eyes on him, giving him a sick but wonderful idea. He purposely makes eye contact with Henry who is watching him intently. He holds the eye contact between them as he slowly wraps his lips around one of his fingers and sucks the juices off them, overtly sensual. Henry is immediately flustered and begins to squirm in his seat, diverting his gaze back to his sad plate of mushy eggs on bread. Alex watches him inhale deeply as if calming himself down before he turns towards June and Nora, purposefully doing everything in his power not to look at Alex. Alex grins wildly.

Choosing to show Henry mercy for the time being, he turns to Pez. "Hey man, do you have Venmo or something?" Alex asks, tearing his gaze away from Henry.

Pez pauses eating. "It's my shout."

"No," Alex says.

"Yes," Pez says.

"No."

June laughs, watching the two of them bicker. "Alex is terrible at accepting kind gestures."

"Can't pay me back if you don't have my details," Pez shrugs as he resumes his eating.