Template:Featured Articles/15-2021

Moment of Awesome - Lorna Dane/Polaris: After the Haunted House, Lorna gets Alex to talk about his deepest fears. Alex chuckled, taking a sip of beer and grabbing a treat out of the jar they kept nearby, tossing a treat to Magnus, who gobbled it up happily. "Yeah, I'm... I'm..." His expression slipped slowly into something slightly more somber. "Tonight was a trip." "It was. Fear is a tricky thing." She moved her toes under his leg, mostly to let him know she was aware of him. "Want to talk about it?" "No... Yeah... Kind of?" The world sucked enough. Alex did his best to keep his usual, happy demeanor in place, but sometimes... "It was like... being lost. I didn't feel trapped, or abandoned, just like.... I didn't know where I was or how to get home." Lorna raised an eyebrow as he spoke. Lorna liked to think she knew her husband pretty well, but there were still something they both didn't know of each other. "Being lost in complete darkness?" "It wasn't dark. I could see. It was just like... I dunno." Alex shrugged, sipping his beer again. "You remember that time we thought going off-trail in that Redwood park was a good idea because we're experienced hikers and we know what we're doing aaaaaaaaaaand then we got lost because we were idiots? It was like that - that feeling of not knowing where you are or how the hell you're going to get out of there. Except that time you were there." "Yeah, that was pretty stupid of us." Lorna whispered in silent. "Lost and alone?" Lorna moved and placed her wine glass down and moved closer to Alex, this time putting a leg over his as she placed her chin on his shoulder. "Pretty much." He sighed, kissing the top of Lorna's head. He liked being surrounded by people for a lot of reasons, but the main thing was that he wasn't alone. One of those childhood fears he'd never grown out of. "It's stupid." "It is not stupid, Alex." As she snuggled closer to him. "We can either run from it or embrace it. But you are never alone." She pointed to his ring finger. "Think of that as a symbol that I am always with you, no matter how far apart. And I am sure your moms and sister think of you often. I've seen their photo collection." He laughed. "You've only see part of it, trust me. There's an entire closet full of photo albums." He hugged her tighter, breathing deep and content. "I knew this being married thing was cool for a reason. I mean, besides spending the rest of my life with my best friend. But that's also awesome."