"Not me."

Blink. "I am not a hypocrite."

"Huh, are you serious? You do you-2."

"Far from me to... I am not sure what I would be doing in this scenario, actually. Or not doing. Is this serious?"

He grins at Franklyn's words, and then nods, "That's great! Cause I'm serious, yeah."

Alex looks up at this point, "You four are the only people in the world - worlds - who definitely know about this, now," he notes. "We usually play it safer than this. But we're going to be living in pretty close quarters here for a few months at least, so it would come out eventually. Better it happen before we've packed everything up and moved in, really." Despite his words, he still looks a bit like he's bracing for some sort of... delayed negative reaction.

"Aw, man. That sounds tough." He changes position so he can hug them both.

-okay, hug then. 

"...Thanks," he says quietly. 

Hug!

"I mean, it's illegal in most states," he tells Sawney. "Anywhere from a few months to life imprisonment. Though it's sort of ambiguous whether it counts when we're both male, in some of them," he adds, thoughtfully. "No idea what the law is in the other worlds, but people are weirdly concerned about incest, even when no one's having kids." 

 "You looked that up?" Alex asks, bemused.

"Sure I did!" Jamie grins, "Gotta know what the laws are to really stick it to them, you know." Also, he wanted to know what he was risking. Not that knowing changed his choice.

"Ah, I am technically not a legal resident of the united states." Sawney shrugs. "And I can see that most people would have a problem, but I am not one of those. I don't think anyone else will give you a hard time about it? Stephen won't, the other twins might be uncomfortable about it? Adam might complain if people in his school find out?"

"Life in prison, really?"

"Most cases are not like ours, it usually involves... unbalanced power dynamics." To not use other terms. "And legally, cousins are less covered."

Alex pulls away from Franklyn to settle on the end of the bed next to Jamie, shrugging, "We're not going to be very demonstrative about it," he tells Sawney, "They don't need to think about it if they don't want to, and Adam's school will only find out if something goes really wrong. We just... didn't want to be kicked out a month in because someone walked in on us or something." 

"Depends on the state," Jamie tells Henry, "But usually, yeah." He hums, "I figure an actual good law would just fold it into 'don't have sex with kids' and 'don't rape people'. The rest of it isn't really something it makes sense to try to control like that. I mean... it's not like you have to be related to have unhealthy power dynamics in a relationship." He goes quiet for a moment, turning his attention to fiddling with his pencil. 

Alex takes the pencil and squeezes his hand, nodding in agreement. 

"No one is going to kick you out over it. No. I am sorry that you were worried."

Henry does not add further comments.

He offers Franklyn a smile, "You don't need to feel sorry," he tells him, "But thanks."

Now that that's dealt with... back to art?

Back to art!

Back to art!

Eventually, though, the sketching party ends, and it's time for the two of them to grab their stuff and say their goodbyes.

Everyone gathers to wish them a safe journey and a safe return. Even the ones that will depart soon enough, in the opposite direction.

They exchange contact information and Stephen asks them to call if there is anything they can do to smooth things over.

They should be fine! They appreciate the offer, though. 

"See you all in a few days," Jamie says, waving, as they climb into the car.