Work Text:
“...and I don’t know where he got it from, the House had put up Alladin at some point and I suppose it must have been a veil, but there he was in my study, in this spangled loincloth, and Jones knocking and rattling the doorknob and demanding to be let in. I was half-tempted to bundle him into the cupboard or out the window, but in the end we simply stayed very quiet and Jones concluded I’d locked the door on departure. Hell of a time I had later, trying to sneak Hazell out without anyone noticing... what?”
“You were happy,” Alec said, tensing in preparation for Ralph’s smiling mouth to thin to a grim line. “With Hazell.”
Ralph only shrugged elaborately, his shoulder warm against Alec’s cheek. “Of course. That’s why it hurt, later.” Of course. Alec tightened his anxious hold. Ralph laughed. “All present and accounted for. Doc.”