"If I was going, I'd be gone," Alec said, taking the mug of coffee with both hands. The warmth seemed to seep into him slowly. Fingers, palms, hands, wrists, arms and on and on. He watched the dark liquid move about inside the mug before he brought it to his lips to sip.

"I'm not staying for the pie, though," he said, shaking his head. He was staying because he wanted to stay. The food was nice and it was definitely more food than he'd seen in a long, long while but it wasn't his reason for being here. Luke and Reid had asked and Alec had wanted to come. Despite some of his horrible recent decisions that had left him with doubt and the thought that he deserved to be alone, he'd managed to push through that so he could be here today.

"Thank you," he added, nodding down at the coffee. "I need to buy a better coffeemaker."