Michael's smile was quick and a touch thin. "Not always," he said. Like now, when he was dating someone else. Or when Michael had been with Maria. Or the times between sparse returns to Roswell, when they never talked.

Michael stiffened, then settled again, exaggerated slouch of his shoulders giving away the defensiveness as much as the stiff set of them would have. "Could warn a guy for spoilers," he said. It sounded like nonsense. "Guess you know about dear old uncle Jones then." He couldn't help but test, make sure this was really Alex and he wasn't full of shit, even if he already knew it was, on some level. He couldn't mistake Alex kissing him for anyone else.