798. Chapter 798

They weren’t sure what was wrong.

Classes were going well (they were acing everything, of course), their girlfriend was incredible (as always), their sister and Lena were disgustingly adorable after finally realizing what everyone else knew about their relationship (by disgusting, they meant beautiful), and for once they were getting on decently well with their mother and…

And everything was horrible.

Maybe it was precisely because everything was great.

Maybe it was precisely because their brain was broken, somehow they were broken.

“You’re not broken, Alex, I promise,” Winn told them without taking his eyes off the PS4. He took out a stormtrooper that had been about to lower Alex’s health to nothing.

Oh damn. They’d said that out loud.

“Behind you!” Adrian warned, backseat driving without a controller.

“Behind which of us?” Winn asked even as he swerved just in time to avoid a jump trooper’s fire. “If you’re gonna backseat Star Wars: Battlefront, you’ve gotta be more specific, dude.”

Adrian preened, leaning into Winn and batting his eyelashes. “You called me dude, dude.”

“Yeah, yes, you’re both very dudely, but one of us has gotta get to the damn turret and take care of those TIE fighters,” Alex groaned.

Adrian slid off of his dorm room couch, inserting himself on the floor between Alex and Winn. He rested his head on Alex’s shoulder.

“Winn’s right, you know. You’re not broken. I mean, your health is pretty low, you should go for that heart in the corridor – but you, IRL, are not broken, Alex Danvers.”

“No?” Alex said, slamming pause just as they were respawning with their last life, glaring daggers at the jump trooper that had finally gotten them. “Then what the hell? Everything’s fine. Kara’s good, Maggie’s good, you guys are good, James is good, everyone’s healthy, everyone’s fine, my mother finally started using my damn pronouns, so what could possibly -”

“Your feelings aren’t a laundry list of who’s doing well and what’s going right, Alex,” Adrian said. Alex turned on him instead of the jump trooper and glared.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the itty bitty freshman? Aren’t we supposed to be giving you sage life advice?”

Adrian held up his hands and smirked. “Listen, I’m the one with the PS4, so you can’t piss me off.”

“True,” Alex murmured, apologizing by putting their head on his shoulder.

“He’s right, though, Alex,” Winn shrugged, adjusting the controller in Alex’s hand and pressing play on their game again. “Depression isn’t broken, it’s just… depressed.”

Alex and Winn’s Star Wars avatars lined up back to back - I got your six, Maggie always told Alex, and Winn had done some learning from her - and finally took down the damn jump trooper.

They both whooped, and Adrian whooped louder.

For some reason, it made the three of them descend into such a strong fit of giggles that they had to pause the game again.

“Guys?” Alex said when they finally caught their breath. “Thanks.”

“That’s what we’re here for,” Adrian said, kissing their cheek.

“Aww, can I kiss your cheek too?” Winn asked.

“Try it and see what happens, Schott,” Alex said, and they all laughed again.

And God, it felt good to laugh.