"I'm just saying that it might split the difference and go from kind of romantic to kind of prison-tat," Michael informs him, and that one's not so much a joke, because it's that or he has to think of Max's penchant for tattoos and how it might end up that Alex is like that.

He leans in to steal one of those kisses, smugly, and eases back.

The warmth that hits him when Alex talks about showing it off is wild, like he never could have anticipated, and he breathes out slowly. "You wanna show it off?" he asks. "It's just a prosthetic."