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One day, he thinks, after answering a call from Zahra in the early morning as he studies for class in the Brownstone's kitchen with Henry still asleep upstairs..one day the world will stop giving a fucking shit about his every move. He has to force himself to believe that because the alternative is so engraging he wants to cry.
For some reason-- a slow news day, mercury in retrograde, the universe's penchant for never giving him more than a few months of peace at a time-- some article with out of context photos of he and Nora was doing the rounds on Twitter and while usually it would go (mostly) ignored by anyone who wasn't overly attached to their parasocial construct of he and Henry, some popular gay man on tiktok known for spouting conservative bullshit had picked it up and gone viral for his take on how clearly Alex was cheating on Henry because of body language and history with Nora and the fact that Alex is bisexual means that 'he'll never be satisfied with monogamy to one gender for the rest of his life'.
Ultimately his name ended up as a trending topic.
It's bullshit for many reasons, the first being that he wouldn't cheat notwithstanding, but Henry was literally only fifteen feet away from them, just enough to be properly cropped out apparently. Alex had been leaning in to whisper in her ear about how he was planning to take Henry to Paris for their anniversary and she had then teased him about proposing, and the whole thing feels like a fucking cosmic level joke.
But, since he's trending, it's officially a Situation that has to be handled, and Alex is trying not to have flashbacks. He knows better than to check Twitter, he does. Really. After all this time he had to.
He still checks Twitter.
The usual republican alt-right politicians who are sleazy enough to comment on tabloids are easy to ignore, just as their disciples, but there's more than just a few retweets and comments from people with rainbow emojis in their bio or clear usernames that are harder to shake off.
@twinkhon if you're bi can you do us all a favor and take the rainbow out of your bio?
@dkesonly people are surprised some bi guy cheated? be for real.
@your8royal8gayness8 Such a shame that the Prince was put through all that when we know he's just getting cheated on… and that's coming from another gay man.
@the.lez-bee-n it's one thing for him to cheat but she knew what they went thru and then still got between them? absolutely disgusting.
What had been simmering anger at being personally attacked for utter bullshit turns into rage at seeing Nora brought into this as well. He throws his phone at the wall, unluckily striking the unforgiving brick of their fireplace, and it falls to the wooden floor with a certain finality that sounds damning.
It takes him what feels like an hour to reach it, and when he goes to check how long it's actually been, he sees that he's shattered not only the screen protector but what screen was underneath.
He goes up the stairs to find Henry in the mid stage of waking up, checking the same flurry of notifications Alex had.
"Baby," Alex tries not to fall into a spiral of guilt at Henry always having to manage the enormity of Alex's emotions. "I might have cracked my phone again. …More than the screen protector."
Henry sighs. "I was hoping you hadn't seen that article yet."
"You were hoping I wouldn't be told by any one of my mother's multiple public relations social media managers that I was trending on Twitter as the number two topic ?" Alex replies drily, not angry so much as embittered at the situation as a whole. "That's a level of optimism even Leo couldn't reach."
"Yes, I suppose it was shortsighted." Henry sighs, pulling his torso up out of the blankets. "In my defense I am just waking up. Come here, will you."
Alex climbs in bed beside him, feeling a bit small but almost immediately stronger when Henry wraps him in his arms. He used to resent himself for the neediness but they've been together for almost three years now and he's finally left himself accept it for what it is-- a product of love. He lets himself fall to the side of Henry, sitting up and letting him twist them both so they're still able to look into each other's eyes, even if Alex has his lowered at the moment.
"I couldn't give less of a fuck what the homophobic assholes are trying to say. I never have. Most of them are blanketly fucking intolerant of everything."
"Nor should you," Henry affirms, still staring patiently. "I am sensing an ellipsis there, though."
"I don't think I expected-," He feels his throat tighten a bit and pauses, desperately willing the sharp wetness gathering in his eyes to disappear. "It's stupid, but I don't think I realized I'd get it from our own community too now that us being outed isn't on everyone's mind."
"Their prejudice is 'stupid', not your hope that people would be decent human beings."
"It's not-- I mean it's not like this is new , is the fucking thing." Alex lets himself fall into the release of an emotional rant. "Being queer isn't exactly acceptable to every Mexican or Latino. I know what it's like to be isolated within your own marginalized community. I saw Rafael deal with it because he's gay before I even knew I was bi."
Henry murmurs support but doesn't interrupt.
"And even he threw the bi part in my face."
"He what ?" There's a sharpness to Henry's tone, measured steel. It's rare, usually he empathizes at the unfairness of the media and tries to focus on comforting Alex first, but he supposes having an exact target they both love and respect might feel different.
Honestly he'd forgotten he hadn't mentioned the whole thing to Henry. It was such a blip after the trauma barely months later that it slipped under the radar. For almost a year he wouldn't have been able to explain the underlying cause of Rafe's temper at the time anyway, and it felt disingenuous to not explain how very out of control and in the midst of his own trauma that Rafael was without betraying his trust. Since then the attempted assault had been made public as Richards was currently being dragged through court for all sorts of charges that between his mother and the Crown, Alex suspects he won't be able to slip out of. "It was in the middle of damage control before the full leak. He was still on Richards' campaign and justifiably a mess and I had already been yelling at him for all sorts of shit when I told him that I was bi and he told me to keep it a secret and find some wife because I was lucky, because I could, because it wouldn't be a lie."
It takes a minute for Henry to respond, jaw clenched, but he finally does speak. "What did you say? I assume I'd have heard about it if you had decked a sitting Senator."
"I said it would be a lie because it wouldn't have been you."
Henry's eyes soften at that and he releases a small breath as he kisses Alex's shoulder.
"He's apologized since. The first time I talked to him after the leak, and a few times after that when it's come up, but I guess it's still stuck with me."
"I know we owe him more than we can repay and that he wasn't in the right headspace." Henry sighs. "But I still want to 'accidentally' trip him in the hall at Christmas."
Alex snorts. "I don't think a foreign Prince should be tripping a sitting Senator any more than the First Son should be decking one. Probably less so, actually."
Henry smiles. "No, I suppose you're right."
"Zahra told me the PR team and my mother want to know how I want to respond since it's not just one viral tweet from some idiot in his basement." he sighs. "I told her I'd let her know before I broke my phone."
"This would be why I have her number as well by now, yes." Henry says, kindly not saying exactly how many phones Alex has destroyed. It's not always his temper, to be fair, he's also just fairly clumsy when he's not focused on a lacrosse field. "Do you know how you want to respond yet?"
"How I really want to respond would get me temporarily banned from Twitter." Alex answers moodily. "How I'm going to respond will probably be in defense of bisexuality in general."
Henry nods. "I know I can't perfectly relate to some of your experiences, but I am here for you. And while I'm well aware you can fight your own battles-- I think there should also be accountability from my side of the aisle."
"They'll just say I manipulated you into defending me."
"Maybe." Henry allows. "But I am largely responsible for several LGBTQIA youth centers around the world, so even if we weren't together I wouldn't stay silent."
Alex considers that quietly for a moment, taking in the daylight coming in behind them from the back window and the stillness of their brownstone amidst everything else in the world outside of it. He never likes imagining a universe where they don't have this, where they never met or never saved each other, but there's something comforting in the idea that even if they hadn't, Henry would defend him.
"I think," Henry continues, "Focusing on the larger picture of biphobia might be more productive for both of us, even if I wouldn't mind having Shaan 'take care' of a few of those wankers."
"Amy would probably get to them first," Alex points out, thinking of knitting needles used as weapons and her amazing wife.
"Did Nora say anything about it yet?"
"Just that it's all bullshit, but she also finally deactivated her Twitter so I don't want to picture the backlash she's getting on her end of intersectionality." Alex tries not to see red when he thinks about it, it's most of why his phone met an early death. "I imagine from the way both Amy and Cash have been reassigned to June for now since they live together it's… bad."
Henry grimaces, only now looking away from Alex and instead down at his hands. "I'll never understand this sort of hatred, nor do I want to, but when they cover up their racism or biphobia in excuses of concern over me just so they can then turn around and hurt the people I love--it's incomprehensible."
"Nora knows it's not anyone's fault but the people who are doing it, sweetheart." Alex says. "As do I."
"You don't have to comfort me, I should be the one taking care of you." Henry exhales, before looking up, gaze becoming intent. "I just want to remind you that I have nothing but absolute trust, respect, and deep love for you. Every part of you."
"Even the part that loves Empire more than Jedi ?"
"Well now you're pushing it."
Alex laughs before turning back to the situation at hand, wanting to get it over with. "I suppose I could just re-tweet some of my mom's old outreach initiatives. She had a whole thing about the B in LGBTQIA not being silent her first term."
"That does sound like her," Henry muses before teasing, "Was it initially a PowerPoint?"
"You know it."
"So you could do that, and I can have Pez and I draft something up for the foundation to push out." Henry considers. "But I don't want to leave Nora to fend for herself."
"As much as I want to go off on people on her behalf anyway, it's 'bad optics' right now when everyone thinks we're the ones in love'."
"PR?"
"Mhm." Alex has had multiple, lovely dreams of making several of their lives more of a living hell over the past few years. "But Zahra agreed and I guess I get it."
"I think I still have that photo of her, June, and I at the lakehouse. I could always crop it to the other side this time and post it to my personal account so that I make it clear she's as much my friend as yours."
"I'm really growing to fucking resent that photo." Alex huffs. "But yeah, it might help to show that you love Nora just as much as I do. Even if I think it'll be responsible for cursed fanfic dynamics popping up.*
A laugh startles out of Henry at that. "You really should stop reading that nonsense, you egomaniac."
"However else will I find sexual positions for us to try?" he mocks in response, earning a pillow to the face.
When they're done play fighting, down everywhere because Henry likes ridiculously bougie pillows, they both settle their breathing and Henry takes a moment before saying, "I love you."
"Love you too, baby."
"I'm going to tell off the gays and lesbians for you and you're just going to have to let me, okay?"
Alex knows Henry would step back if he set the boundary, but he figures it's for the better on behalf of others. "Want to tell off your white people while you're at it?"
Henry laughs. "I can probably try and fit that in. Any new major complaints or just the usual?"
"The usual will suffice for the moment."
"Got it."
The B Isn't Silent: A Crash Course in Bisexual Americans
Studies have found that bisexual-identified people make up approximately half of the total population of the LGBTQ community -- but only 28 percent of bisexual people report being out to those closest to them.
According to Boston University Today, bisexual individuals often have poorer sexual health, face more sexual violence due to fetishization and do not come out to their doctors as much as heterosexual or homosexual individuals.
According to the Bisexual Resource Center (BRC), approximately 40 percent of bisexual people have considered or attempted suicide, compared to just over a quarter of gay men and lesbians.
HRC’s Health Disparities Among Bisexual People found that “when compared to heterosexual adults, bisexual adults reported double the rate of depression and higher rates of binge drinking.”
Those numbers are even higher for the bisexual people who are also transgender, people of color and/or people with disabilities.
Read More:
https://carrollnews.org/112207/campus/biphobia-and-acceptance-in-the-lgbt-community/
https://www.hrc.org/news/bisexual-health-awareness-month-mental-health-in-the-bisexual-community