Long Live Us

*Jack pov*

That week off had seemingly intensified Alex and Jack's relationship. Of course it did sexually, but emotionally as well. It had become apparent that the two were inseparable. They weren't just lovers, they were best friends. They needed each other, relied on the other, would drop everything and anything for each other. They both felt this increasing feeling of attachment to the other boy, but neither had openly voiced this. Part of Jack told him he didn't need to, Alex already knew, but the other half felt he should.
Now, the pair were lying in Alex's bed, worn out from doing nothing - as they often were. Jack was playing the big spoon, the brunette cuddled into his chest. The taller boy nuzzled his face into Alex's hair, breathing in the faint scent of strawberries that they held.
"Yes I use girl shampoo don't judge me." The boy mumbled, almost as if he read Jack's thoughts, making the younger laugh.
"It's cute. I like it." He replied, setting his face in the crook of Alex's neck. The brunette made a squirming noise in embarrassment, wiggling a little bit.
"Awwww is likkle Lexy embarrassed?" Jack teased, putting on a voice you would talk to babies with. The elder boy huffed loudly and quickly stood up and slowly began walking away from the bed.
"Don't leave me! Alex I miss you!" Jack whined, stretching his arms out towards the boy. His shoulders moved in a laugh, and he turned around with his arms crossed.
"Lexyyyyyyy." Jack pouted, making grabby hands and thrashing his legs around a bit, throwing a kid tantrum.
"You're such a baby." Alex commented, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm your baby." Jack replied, biting his lips and making more grabby hands. Alex smiled at that, looking down and covering his face while he grinned, before he sighed in defeat and returned to the comfort of his bed and Jack's arms. The dark haired boy giggled playfully and flung his arms around Alex, squeezing him tightly against his chest. He planted lots of soft kisses over the shorter boys face, ensuring to make loud sloppy sounding noises to go along with them.
"Jack Barakat you are going to be the death of me." Alex told him, a laugh in his voice and he tried to wiggle out of the grip.
"No. Lex no leave." Jack told him, tightening his grip even more and nuzzling his face back into his hair.
"I would never leave you." Alex said, rolling over in the little space that he had and attempting to look up at Jack.
"Good." The taller boy replied, a shy yet gleeful smile playing on his lips. He honestly couldn't imagine how he would function without Alex. So he hoped he never would have too.

A couple of hours later the boys were still on Alex's bed. They'd played video games and sloppily fed each other pizza and ice cream for dinner, which ended up with tomato sauce smeared over Jack's face - which he wasn't to impressed with, before settling down again.
The idea of proving how much Alex meant to him was still burning in Jack's mind. No words were able to express it, he had tried many a time and failed, resulting in his mind feeling like an action was needed. But not just a small, petty thing. Something big. Something symbolic. Something important. Something that really would show how serious he was about the older boy and how much he wanted, and needed, him in his life.
That's when an idea came to mind. A step that was a massive deal to him. An action which would break down one of his thickest and highest walls. One that he had only broken down for Jenna, so far. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to do it. He wanted to let Alex in, fully in to his life.
"Er, Jack? Are you okay?" The older boy asked gently, snapping Jack from this thoughts and he noticed his leg was jumping up and down as he thought.
"Er, yeah sorry." The dark haired boy replied, chuckling with embarrassment and stretching his legs out so they would remain still.
"What's got you thinking so hard?" Alex questioned, tipping his head to one side and raising one of his bushy eyebrows. Jack chuckled again and shrugged, still having an internal battle about whether this was the right thing to do. It could go wrong, so so wrong, and ruin everything - potentially - yet Jack wanted to let him in. It would prove whether what they had was going to work, and whether it was going to last.
"Jay?" Alex asked softly again, concern slowly filling his brown eyes and he searched the dark haired boys face for a clue as to what thoughts were dancing in his brain. Jack held his worried gaze for a few moments, contemplating whether or not to tell him. And in that moment, as Alex's bushy eyebrows slowly came together and crumpled up his forehead, Jack decided that he was going to break down his fortress for his Prince.
"I want you to come to therapy with me. I want you too meet Penny, as my boyfriend." Jack said simply, putting a lot of effort into keeping his voice from wavering. It worked, and his wish was now out in the open. In the younger boys mind, it felt like bricks were being knocked off the top, one by one, as each second ticked by.
Alex knew how important that statement was, and that knowledge was evident in his reaction. His eyes widened in disbelief and his mouth dropped open slightly, his eyes brightening with excitement. His mouth opened and closed as he tried to find any words, before he put his hand over his lips and it almost looked like he was going to cry. Jack awkwardly fiddled with the top of his sock as he waited for a reply, his heart beating quicker than ever. It was almost stupid how nervous he was, but then again it was such a big deal to him, so his minds reaction was understandable.
After a minute or two, Alex had indeed shed a tear, before the brunette managed to be able to form a sentence.
"I would be honoured." His voice was quiet and almost husky, as he lay his hand gently over Jack's knee. The younger boy looked up through his fringe and smiled, already glad that he had made this decision. Placing his hand over Alex's, the dark haired boy smiled a shy smile, watching their hands as his skin tingled like it always would.
"I know how much this means for you - and it means so much to me as well. Thank you for doing this Jay, you really are the best and bravest and most beautiful and funniest and just most perfect person I ever have and ever will meet." Alex told him, flipping his hand over so their fingers could interlock. Jack felt his cheeks heat up as he met the brunettes gaze. He felt so safe, so secure and protected with the older boy. That feeling alone made every step they took together that much easier, making Jack know that it was only Alex that he wanted by his side. The pair leaned in and shared a short, emotion filled kiss, and sealed the deal. Alex would be attending Therapy with Jack on Saturday.

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The day rolled around quickly, almost too soon for Jack, and many times over the days he wished he could back out of his decision. But now, he couldn't, it was too late. The couple were now sat in the waiting room, and for the first time in years Jack was taking someone that wasn't Jenna in with him. Usually he was alone. However now, with Alex, he wasn't. And not just in this room which he knew so well, but everywhere. Jack knew that he could always turn to the brunette, whatever happened the elder boy would be there. That was no longer a hope or a dream, but it was certain. It was a silent promise they had made to one another.
The alcoholic man emerged from the room and made a swift exit, which signalled to the two boys that it was Jack's session. Everything was happening now. The younger boy looked at Alex, and was almost glad to see nervousness glowing in his brown eyes, probably mirroring Jack's own. For some reason that settled him slightly, probably the knowledge that this was as scary for the brunette as it was for himself. Jack took a deep breath and stood up, smiling at Alex as he copied his actions, before leading him through to Penny's office. The taller boy poked his head round the door, revealing the blonde women sorting through the files as she would always.
"Morning Jack." She greeted happily, slipping her glasses off of her nose onto the table as she put away the file she didn't need.
"Er, hi." Jack started nervously, pulling his hoodie sleeves over his hands. Penny looked up, concerned at his tone.
"I've brought someone to m-meet you. This is A-Alex..." Despite the stutters, he managed to get the sentence out, before walking fully into the room, bringing Alex with him. The older boy strode up to the desk with his hand stuck out, the therapist eagerly accepting the gesture. The three then sat down on their respective sides of the tables, before the blonde opened Jack's file.
"Would you like a proper session then?" She asked the boy, who thought for a moment, before nodding.
"Are you sure?" She asked, knowing how much of a big deal this was. Alex looked towards Jack, his eyes bright and hopeful, and the younger boy decided that it would be better to let him know about his past rather than to be embarrassed outright by Penny. So he nodded his confirmation, and the questions started. "So, how are you feeling?"
"Great. Never better." Jack's response was instant, and he couldn't fight the smile that formed on his face. Damn the boy sitting on his right.
"Good. And how long have you been clean?" Penny ran her finger along the next question after filling in his answer to the first.
"Erm, what is it now? Like, two years and three months or something?" Jack guessed, pondering for a second over the exact date of his last cut.
"Show me." Penny said - something they used to always do when he first started was to check his arms. Jack shrugged his jacket over the back of the chair and laid his arms on the table, his palms facing upwards. If you looked you looked really closely, you could make out the faint, white criss crosses of the many times he had pushed something into his skin. Jack watched as Alex's gaze danced over the seemingly normal arms, the boy finally noticing them. It pained the younger boy to see Alex's eyes glaze over, and Jack knew that, despite it being stupid, the brunette would be blaming himself.
"What's that?" Penny then questioned, pointing to a mark on his left wrist. Jack examined it, working out where it came from, before laughing when he remembered.
"I dropped my straighteners the other morning because my phone went off really loud." The blonde shook her head at that, chuckling to herself as she wrote down the observations and motioning to Jack that he could take his arms off the table. After pulling his jacket back on he shuffled his chair over so he could link his fingers with Alex's, the elder more than happy to complete the gesture, rubbing his thumb along the back of Jack's hand.
"What about your other scar?" Penny continued.
"It's still there obviously but like yeah whatever." Jack responded with a shrug, smiling once again at knowing that the whole situation had now done a full circle and everything was essentially back to normal. Another good thing that was down to Alex.
"How is your mother?"
"Yeah fine. She's in Baltimore and has been for ages so it's just the long shifts stuff at the moment." Jack replied, noting to himself how he hardly noticed anymore considering he spent every waking moment with Alex.
"And how does that make you feel?" Jack replied with a dismissive shrug, telling Penny that he didn't care. She nodded, jotted a few notes down, before flipping the page over and turning to Alex. Jack subconsciously tightened his grip on the brunettes hand, hating this part. Penny did the same when he first brought Jenna, it wasn't even that bad, it was probably just not knowing what to expect that unnerved him. Alex once again ran his hand over Jack's hand, smiling at him before returning his gaze to the blonde.
"Right, because you're being brought here as a guest of Jack's, I'll just ask some things about you and some other questions about him, okay?" Alex nodded, his foot tapping nervously.
"Okay. So what's your position in Jack's life?" Both boys smiles sheepishly at each other, blushing madly.
"I'm his boyfriend." Alex responded confidently, a grin spreading across his face. Penny smiled as well, seeing she already knew that answer and had heard more than enough about the brunette from Jack in previous sessions.
"And what do you think about Jack's emotional well being?" Alex blew out a loud breath, puffing out his cheeks.
"Wow. Erm.." The older boy shifted slightly and sat in silence while his thoughtful expression overcame his features.
"When I first met him I thought he was the happiest, most easy going guy I had ever met. Actually, I still think that. He has his blubbery moments, as we all do. I'd be lost without his goofy smile and he has an awesome sense of humour. I think he's happy, and I hope he is. He deserves to be." Alex spoke after a few moments, biting his lip as Penny nodded and made notes once more. Jack smiled, he was content with that answer. He was happy. Even more so when he was with Alex. The younger boy pressed a soft kiss on the brunettes cheek, lingering there for a moment, wanting to be cuddled up with the sweet smelling boy. Jack withdrew from Alex and looked and Penny once more, who had a grin on her face.
"I'm more than happy with what I've seen today. Welcome to Jack's life, Alex."

Notes

voila, massive love to you all xoxo