Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

"Jack," Alex said, later on that Friday night. "You're squishing me."

"Mm," Jack hummed into Alex's hair. It felt nice, the way Alex was tucked beneath him as the pair lay on the younger boy's bed, Alex's back side practically glued to Jack's front. He had his arms around Alex's head, his cheek resting against his boyfriend's light hair, creating a tent for Alex. As Jack felt Alex shift beneath him, though, he realized how the position may not have been equally as comfortable for Alex. "Sorry, babe."

"S'alright," Alex breathed contently, and Jack was unable to wipe the smile off of his own face from where he was now lying behind Alex, with only an arm thrown around his waist. Sometimes, he considered if it really made sense how much he cared about Alex. Fully aware of how teenagers usually exaggerated how they felt, Jack always made sure not to do so. Alex really was different than anyone else he had been with, though. There was something about the shorter boy that eliminated all of the selfish thoughts from Jack's brain, and although still young, Jack was not stupid enough to ignore such a thing. Alex was his main focus, and that was not questionable, no matter how juvenile it sounded concerning their circumstances.

What was questionable, though, was the amount of time they spent together, never doing what they originally planned to do. The daylight was long gone by this point, and Jack sighed contently as he snugged into Alex further.

"I should probably get going soon."

"Probably," Alex agreed, "But that doesn't mean you're going to."

"Nope." Jack laughed, placing a kiss on the side of Alex's neck.

Jack left just after midnight, after standing at the door with Alex for almost half an hour. When Alex finally leaned up to hug Jack goodbye, the taller boy whispered, "Come over tomorrow, as early as you like."

Giggling, Alex responded with, "What else would I do?"

"I don't know, but it's nice to pretend we have lives."

"Yeah, true. You should go now, it's really late."

"I'm going, I'm going." Jack mumbled, giving Alex one more hug, making sure to pat him on the butt before finally stepping out of the door.

The next day, Alex woke up before the sun was even out. His whole house was comfortingly quiet, and he got ready as silently as he could, trying not to wake up his parents. He peeked his head into his parents room just before he left, trying to be the least bit obnoxious he could.

"Mom?"

"Yes, Alex?" Isobel replied, still very asleep.

"I'm going to Jack's."

"Alright, honey."

Satisfied with the answer he got, he set off to Jack's house, walking relatively fast. The streets were empty still, even though the sun had finally risen. When Alex arrived at Jack's house, he tried his hardest to knock as softly on the door as he could. It was something Alex did a lot, trying not to be annoying. He acted that way especially at Jack's house, though, because he knew Jack's mother was not exactly fond of his relationship with her son.

"Alex," Joyce smiled as she opened the door, "It's quite early, isn't it?"

Laughing uncomfortably, Alex said, "I guess so, but Jack said I could come over when I woke up."

"Ah," Jack's mother nodded, "Well, he's upstairs."

She stepped to the side, letting Alex in and shutting the door, before heading back into the living room. Alex took that as his queue to go upstairs, climbing the staircase and opening up Jack's door. He placed his jacket and backpack up against the wall, before walking over to Jack's bed. It was sort of a must now, Alex placing his backpack up against the same wall beside Jack's door every time he visited. He felt stupid, always having to bring his backpack everywhere, but Jack understood that he needed his medication around him at all times. Alex stopped in his tracks when he was nearing the edge of Jack's bed, pausing to gaze down at the older boy. Alex liked seeing him fast asleep, because he looked a lot more peaceful and calm than he ever was when he was awake. That, and he also looked really, really cute. Taking a seat next to Jack carefully and crossing his legs, Alex poked Jack in the shoulder softly.

"Stop."

"Wake up, Jack." Alex murmured, poking him again in the cheek.

"Alex?" Jack hummed, one eye opening slightly, before a smile took over his face. "Hi, baby."

"Hi," Alex greeted in response, "I'm bored, let's do something."

"I'm asleep."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am." Jack yawned, "You should join me."

"If I lay down, can we watch videos on my phone?" Alex questioned, not wanting to spend another day in bed with Jack. Sure, it was great, but he got bored of doing nothing after a while.

"Alright."

It was around noon when Alex and Jack finally decided to go downstairs. They were both hungry, so Alex sat at the table while Jack looked around for something to make for lunch.

"We can have soup," Jack said, "The one from last week."

"Okay." Alex nodded, watching as Jack went about making their meal. When he was finished, he left the pot alone on the stove to cook, walking over to where Alex sat, instead. Cradling Alex's face in his hands, Jack swiped his thumbs across his boyfriend's cheeks, before leaning down to kiss his lips. The noise of the front door opening sounded out as soon as Jack pulled back, and he craned his neck to look down the hall. Alex noticed a look of surprise take over the darker haired boy's face, before he took off toward the entrance of his house.

"Dad!" Alex heard Jack call out, and it suddenly made senses him why the other boy was so excited all of a sudden. He stayed put in his seat as Jack came back into the room, with an older, similar looking man in tow.

"Who's this, Jack?" Jack's father, Bassam, asked his son. Alex shrunk in his seat as he felt both pairs of eyes land on him, and he did not dare to look up. He wanted to make a good impression on Jack's father, he really did, but it was hard to do so with the knowledge of how the man would feel when he found out who Alex really was to Jack.

"My new friend, Alex." Jack answered simply, not stuttering, but not sounding sure of himself, either. He noticed how Alex looked up at him for just a second, and he saw the glint of sadness he had in his eye. It made Jack feel terrible, like utter shit, but he had full plans to deal with it as soon as possible. Surely Alex would understand he had to say what he did, just for the time being.

"Nice to meet you, Alex," Jack's father greeted, walking over to the table. Finally deciding it was time to stand up, Alex did so, meeting him halfway to shake hands. He noticed how different Jack's father was from his own at this point. Jack's father's handshake was firm and to the point, while Alex never even shook his own dad's hand. Jack had never had to shake Peter's hand either, instead being pulled into a few hugs from his boyfriend's father from time to time. It had only been a week, but Peter was already treating Jack like a son since he was over so much.

"You, too," Alex replied, thankful for the way Jack walked up to them quickly and nodded for Alex to follow him.

"We're going out, okay, dad? I'll be back soon to help you unpack."

Jack practically tugged Alex out the door, not even giving him time to bend down and tie his shoes before shooting into a rant.

"Having him back scares me so much, Lex. I mean, it's great, I love my dad, but I can already tell you're intimidated by him. He seems to think you're a fine kid, but I'm so scared he's going to treat you like shit when he finds out about us. It's going to be so annoying, because it'll be that slimy, gross kind of hate. He's going to bully us, Alex, and my mom's going to support it." Jack went on, as he lead Alex down plenty of sidewalks, until they eventually reached the park. A very common place it was for them, as they usually ended up there on their unplanned outings. It had been a while since they had actually travelled into the forest, but since Jack had so much pent up inside to discuss with his boyfriend, Alex figured they had enough time to travel a bit deeper that day. Jack was silent as they walked through the trees, though, simply taking Alex's hand in his and swinging them back and forth as his eyes were trained to the ground.

"Y'know," Jack finally set, as the two boys settled down in their fort, "I love my dad, but I love you a whole fucking lot, too. At this point, I don't even care what he thinks about me, I just don't want you to feel unwelcome in my home."

"Love you lots," Alex agreed, before Jack continued.

"I'm so sorry about lying to him today, but we both know I couldn't have just spilled it on him right then and there. I think we should leave telling him until tomorrow. Maybe you can stay for dinner today, to, like, make an impression on him? I don't know."

"Stop stressing," Alex smiled, his grin fading as he heard a shuffling noise coming from just outside their small shelter. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah," Jack nodded.

"Hmm. Well, whatever. Like I said, don't worry, everything will be fine. Can we make out now?"

Notes

hi!!!! it feels like it's been a while since i've updated this, doesn't it? i've been working on a christmas fic this week which should be up within the next couple of days, as well as a bunch more chapters for this, and it's stressing me out so much :^( i'll reach my goal, though!

don't forget to leave some nice comments on this, and i hope you all have a happy holiday <3

thank you to Alltimegabi for commenting on the last chapter, and thank you all for reading :-)