"I'm getting married to Jack." Alex’s words rang through Jack’s head. Surely he wasn’t talking about him, right? That would be complete
madness. His head was spinning, making it seem like he was moving around in circles when in reality he had stayed with his feet rooted to the same spot for a couple of minutes now.

Tommy and Paul looked at each other skeptically, it was just last month when Alex was yelling at his whole office that ‘him and Jack would never date in a million years’ and ‘even if Jack was the last man on Earth, he would never date him.’
Is that why he got so defensive? Tommy and Paul thought, because they were actually dating, more than dating, even.

Alex’s heart was racing, almost pounding out of his chest, Why had he said that? He was panicking, he looked over to Jack whose skin had paled and he looked like he was about to faint - that or throw up. His hand had tightened considerably around the papers that he was holding and his other hand was gripping onto the doorframe - almost like he was trying to keep himself standing up.

Alex swallowed, looking back to his superiors and smiling nervously, hoping that he looked at least a little bit convincing.

“Is this true?” Tommy asked, clicking his pen and getting ready to scribble on the page that sat in front of him.

“Yeah, it’s true, all of it’s true. Me and Jack here, are engaged.” Alex said, far too quickly for his liking. He looked back to Jack, trying to swallow down his own nerves and giving the boy his best death glare, praying to God that he would just play along this one time and Alex could hopefully get everything smoothed down and sorted by next week.

“Uhm,” Jack started, successfully turning all of the eyes in the room to him, he managed to let go of the doorframe and walk - stumble - over to the 3 men, he took the seat next to Alex, mainly just to take the weight off his feet, he felt as though his legs had gone completely dead and he couldn’t stand up. The numbness in his legs disappeared, however, when Alex discreetly kicked him so that the two older men couldn’t see.

“Y-yeah, yeah.” Jack nodded, unconvincingly, though the charming smile on Alex’s face never left. What was he playing at? Jack could barely breathe properly and he was sat there like he had the whole fucking world in his hands.

The papers he was holding in his hand were creased, so creased that the untidy scrawl that was just about readable before was no longer legible. “...Are you sure about that Jack? You don’t look completely certain.” Paul asked, he was trying to push Jack into telling the truth as he was still unsure.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Jack nodded hastily, biting his lips afterwards. He just felt guilty lying in front of people who could fire him with a click of their fingers. He avoided eye contact with all three men in the room, worrying that he’d just break down and blurt out that it was a lie that Alex had made up on the spot about 10 minutes ago.

“Okay then.” Tommy started, scribbling down on his paper hastily, filling in the lines and ticking at the boxes. “The immigration office will probably want to hear about this so you’ll have to go down and book an appointment, Alex.” He said, looking up briefly before he signed the bottom of the sheet, passing it along to Paul to sign his name also before it was put into a brown envelope along with both Jack and Alex’s personal files that Paul had taken from his desk drawer only seconds prior.

“You can both leave now.” Tommy dismissed them with a wave of his hand, the chairs dragging across the rug and making that horrible noise that sent shivers down Alex’s spine every time.

Alex sped out of the door quickly, ignoring Jack’s quick footsteps behind him, he didn’t dare look back, not wanting to see the look on Jack’s face. the two of them were about halfway down the corridor, nearing the elevator when Jack spoke up. “Uhm…” He said, not waiting for the elder to reply before he carried on, “what the hell just happened in there?” His voice was loud in the undisturbed corridor and Alex swiftly turned around, grabbing him by the arm roughly and dragging him into the nearest bathroom, shoving the wedge underneath the door so that nobody could come in.

Jack watched as the brown haired boy walked over to the sinks, taking a deep breath before he turned the cold tap on and splashed his face - seemingly unbothered that he now had wet hair and a small puddle had formed on the floor by his feet.
“....So?” Jack said, keeping his nerves to himself and trying to act as tough as possible.
“What?” Alex sighed, just glancing over at the taller boy. He sounded frustrated and he was rocking back and forth on the heels of his feet.

“Sorry, were you not in that room?” Jack asked, incredulously.
“Of course I was in that room, Jack.” Alex said, his hands were tangled in his hair and his elbows were leaning on the sink unit as his hands tightened and he began to tug at his hair. Jack wouldn’t be surprised if some of it fell out.
“You told them we were getting married, Alex!” He nearly shouted, beginning to panic again at the elder’s lie.

“I know what I said, okay? Just shut up and let me think.” Alex groaned, tugging at his hair a final time and rubbing his hands over his face.
“Think about what? A way of getting out of this? The only result of that would be us getting fired!”
“Can you just shut up for 5 minutes?” Alex asked, his brain going into overdrive as he thought of all the possible ways that he could get out of the hole he had dug for himself.

He thought about telling them the truth, that he was lying and he had no idea why he did it but he dismissed that thought straight away. Jack was right, Tommy and Paul wouldn’t take any excuse and it would end with Jack and Alex being thrown out of the building with a cardboard box full of their things.

The only other solution that he could think of was to go down to the immigration office and actually tell them that he was getting married. But then he would actually have to get married to Jack, a boy he didn’t even know the second name of. He’d only just learnt his first name earlier. He didn’t want to voice his idea of them actually getting married and then getting a quick divorce to the younger in fear that it would send him into another panic.

“So?” Jack repeated, tapping his foot impatiently on the tiled floor. The elder better have a good idea otherwise he would drag him into the nearest cubicle and shove his head into the toilet. He hadn’t decided whether he’d keep it there or eventually bring it back up.

The room was silent for a few moments before Alex audibly sighed. “Well...It looks like we’re getting married, doesn’t it?” He said, barely loud enough for himself to hear, never mind Jack.
“What?!” The black haired boy yelled, breaking all silence that had filled the room.
“Do you have any better ideas?” Alex asked, just as loud, he was sure that anyone who passed the room would be able to hear what was going on.

“Well…” Jack started, flailing his arms around like it would make him think quicker before he dropped them back to his sides, “no.” He replied, because in all honesty, what else was there that they could do? Alex had dug them into a hole that not even a 10 foot ladder could get them out of.

“Unless you want to tell them that you’re a colossal prick and you made the whole thing up so then only you get fired and I can keep my job.” Jack said sarcastically, knowing that Alex would just disagree with him immediately. But he didn’t, instead he just spoke up and said, “I think you’re forgetting whose PA you are. I pay you, the only reason you have a job is because of me, if I go, you go.” He smirked, taking the smart-ass look off of Jack’s face and replacing it with a frown instead.

“You’re a first class dickhead is what you are,” Jack groaned, stomping his feet on the floor and storming out of the room, reminding Alex of a small child having a tantrum because they didn’t get what they wanted.

It would all be fine. They’d go down to the immigration office after work, tell them what was going on, get married then get divorced like a week later, saving Alex from having to leave the country at all.

Everything would be fine.

--

“Off we go then,” Alex smiled, almost sarcastically at his assistant. He was far too calm about the matter for Jack’s liking, did marriage mean absolutely nothing to him? Jack had always thought that he’d find someone who he really loved, settle down with them and get married after a few years, but no, instead he was making this lifetime commitment to his boss, a person who he had never spoken to outside of work and had never had a conversation that wasn’t about work with, all so that the elder didn’t have to move back to England for a few weeks before coming straight back.

“I fucking hate you,” Jack mumbled as he walked past the elder who he had been avoiding for most of the day. He’d felt faint and dizzy for a few hours too and he guessed that it was because of what Alex was about to do. They were going to sit in front of someone who had so much authority over them and just lie to their face.

It was when they were outside and Alex had stopped to fix his shoulder bag that Jack had an idea.

“I want 15 extra vacation days this year otherwise I’m spilling.” He said, smirking at the elder.
“You can’t do that.” Alex said, seeing through Jack’s bluff.
“Try me.” He tested, watching Alex’s smile fall and his eyebrows furrow, that was a risk he was definitely not taking.

“...5.” He gambled, he knew that Jack wouldn’t take it but it was worth a try.
“10.” The younger said, he refused to go any lower. He did a lot more work than Alex, he deserved this.
“...8.”

Jack shook his head, “10,” he said again, watching as Alex’s frown grew and his eyes glared at him.
“Fine, okay.” The brown haired boy said, sounding frustrated and a tad bit angry.

“Great,” Jack said, smiling to himself at the other trick he had hidden up his sleeve.

They were walking together, Jack behind Alex as he couldn’t stand beside him due to how crowded the streets were, Alex was growing a little bit nervous while Jack was tapping away on his phone. His nervousness had disappeared as now Alex had to do all of the work, instead he just felt anger towards the older boy.

Jack bumped into Alex’s back as he had decided to stop and just stare at the building that they were supposed to be entering, “uh, you alright?” Jack asked, he could see small beads of sweat forming on his forehead and his hands were clenched.
“Let’s go,” was all he said, walking into the building, Jack following shortly behind him.

The place was surprisingly deserted - but Alex guessed it was because it was a Monday, no one really does anything on a Monday - so he assumed that he didn't need to make an appointment. There were 5 people sitting behind a desk, 3 of them occupied with people, so Alex walked up to the elderly looking woman, upon further inspection he noticed that she wasn’t that old. Only about 40, but the clothes and type of makeup she was wearing really wasn’t really doing her any favours.

“Uh, hey.” Alex said after clearing his throat, Jack was stood beside him with his hands stuffed into his pockets and looking bored. The woman looked up at the two of them, giving them a smile before she asked how she could help them. “I’m Alex Gaskarth,” he said, pausing his sentence while the woman typed his name into her computer, giving a small nod to signal that she had found him. “You sent a letter to my workplace informing them that my Visa had ran out and I needed to leave the country, but uh, I’m getting married in a few weeks time.” He said, trying to make himself sound as composed and professional as possible, he just hoped that it worked.

“Right…” She said, her nice manner fading as she sounded suspicious, they probably got a lot of fakes like Alex in here. “Well sir, if you could just wait here a moment, I’ll go get James.” She mumbled the last part before she stood up and walked into the back, behind the desks. A few minutes later she returned, with a man in his mid 30’s behind her.

The man didn’t even bother to give the two of them a smile, instead he kept his ice cold expression on his face while he stared at them before telling them to follow him into his office. His office was dark and dull and Jack took note of the fact that it was nothing like Alex’s one, it was a navy blue colour with no personal touch to it at all.

All three of them took a seat, James’ eyes never leaving the younger pair. “So, Alex, is it?” He asked, Alex nodded dumbly, not speaking a word, his throat had closed up and he felt as though not enough air was getting to his lungs. “And…” He trailed off, looking at Jack with raised eyebrows.

“Jack,” said boy informed James, tapping his feet on the floor to try and rid the little nerves that he had about being found out by this man. He looked like he had dealt with a lot of cases like this.
“Well..Jack, let’s cut to the chase, ay? Are you aware that if you’re found out of lying just so Alex here doesn’t have to go back to England then you will be fined with $200,000 and could possibly be thrown into prison?” Jack’s eyes blew noticeably wide before he managed to compose himself and splutter out a response.
“We’re not lying. We’re getting married on the 21st of June.” He said, pulling a date out of nowhere, realising that today was the 3rd of February so they had a couple of months to sort things out. He reached over to take Alex’s hand in his own to hopefully make their act more believable, he took note of how soft Alex’s palm was, he guessed it was because the boy used a lot of hand lotion.

“As you’re both so adamant that you’re getting married, we’re going to need to ask you some questions separately about each other and we’ll do a few house checks, just to make sure I’m not being told porkies.” James spoke in a patronising tone that made Alex want to punch him across the face, but he refrained, he didn’t think it would vote very well for him if he did do that.
“So, how about you both come back for questioning on Friday?” He said, Alex was about to agree but he was beat by Jack.

“Uh, we can’t, we’re leaving to visit my family on Wednesday for a week.” He said, ignoring how Alex was looking at him and instead listening to James. “And where do they live?” He asked, taking out a sheet of paper to write on.
“Lebanon.” He informed, crossing one leg over the other and sitting up straighter, just about hearing the choking noise that the boy sitting next to him made.

“Right, well I’ll call when you get back and we can discuss this then. Goodbye, gentlemen.” James dismissed them, moving the sheet of paper into a file that Alex noticed was marked ‘Important.’

They got outside and that was when Alex finally managed to find his voice. “What was that? Lebanon? What the fuck?” He spoke at a mile per minute, his questions coming out rushed.
“Yeah, might as well use my vacation days wisely.” Jack smirked.
“So you weren’t making that up? You’re actually going to Lebanon?” Alex asked, since when did Jack have family there?
“No, we’re going to Lebanon, they have your address and they’ll be snooping around so it’s in your best interest to come with me. Plus, my family are going to want to meet my fiancé, who has apparently just come out of fucking nowhere.” Jack explained, enjoying the distressed look on Alex’s face.

When the older boy didn’t respond, Jack decided to call it a day, he turned to walk away and go home after he said,

“Start packing. And don’t worry, there’s a spare bedroom.”

Notes

So this is a pretty boring kind of filler thing I guess?? Leave a comment to tell me what you think and all that jazz and it will get more interesting in the next few chapters
ALSO, i don't have THAT much planned for the next few chapters so you can leave a comment with an idea or come to my tumblr (wearetheocexn) and I'll probably write it in!! Don't forget to sub and vote! :)