Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

The plane ride from England to France later that night was incredibly hectic. Traffic had the students racing against time, so much as they actually had to run through the airport. In the times where they did have to stand and wait in lines, though, Alex was becoming a bit sad about leaving.

"You look like you don't want to go," Jack said, as he watched Alex staring out the doors behind them, back into the rest of the airport.

"What?" Alex asked, his eyes snapping back to Jack. "Oh. Right." Jack looked at him expectantly, and Alex sighed. "No, not really. I like it here. Home is where you and everyone else lives, but sometimes I wish I could move you all back here with me."

"We'll come back." Jack said, sounding sure of himself.

"We?" Alex laughed, noticing a blush rise on Jack's cheeks.

"Yeah, maybe, hopefully. I know you'll come back one day for sure, though." Jack shrugged, and Alex smiled in agreement. Their little conversation didn't last for much longer, as they finally got to the front of the line, and were then able to run directly to the boarding area. Their teachers were sure of the seats they had booked, but not of anyone's exact spots. Since they were late, they instructed the students to sit wherever they pleased within the area they had reserved, and to not block the walkways since being late already made them a nuisance. Somehow in the chaos of the moment, Jack lost Alex, and found himself sitting next to Rian. He knew he had to accept it and move on for the moment, so he followed all instructions for take off, making small talk with Rian until they were finally able to take off their seat belts. During that time, Jack had also noticed that Alex was two rows in front of them with Max, while Natasha, Marissa, and Zack were right in front of them. The window seats beside both Jack and Alex were taken up by strangers, looking as though they felt extremely unlucky to be placed next to a bunch of teenagers.

"Rian," Jack asked quietly, as if his boyfriend and Max would be able to hear them over the noises inside of the plane. "Do you think Max would switch seats with me if I asked?"

"Sure, dude, go ask him," Rian shrugged, and Jack nodded, moving to stand up.

"Wait," he said, sitting back down again. "It's not because I want to sit with Alex over you, alright?"

Rian chuckled in response. "I get it, you hate the guy. Go save Alex."

Jack grinned in response, making his way out of their row and into the aisle. When he reached Max's seat, he cleared his threat to get his attention. It was already fairly awkward.

"Hey," Jack nodded, receiving a similar gesture in response. "Would you mind switching seats?"

"Actually," Max started with a smile, which made Jack resist the urge to roll his eyes, "Is it alright if I stay here? It's a pretty short flight, right?"

Not expecting Max to disagree, Jack didn't really know what to say. He looked to Alex, but all the blonde could do was shrug and give Jack a small smile. "Oh," Jack stuttered, "Uh, um. That's cool." With that, he spun on his heels, face already projecting everything Rian needed to know.

"What's up, man?" Rian questioned, as Jack practically slammed himself back into his seat.

"He fucking said no. Who the fuck says no? Alex is my boyfriend! Max barely knows him!" Jack sputtered all of this out and once, and Rian put his hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down," Rian said, "Maybe it was a dick move, but it's not a big deal. You're rooming with Alex again, right?" Jack nodded. "Right. Then you'll see him right when we get there."

"I know," Jack breathed, sounding kind of like he knew it was time to give it up. "I'm just mad because he thinks he can do that."

"Well, they are friends, Jack," Rian reminds him.

"I don't care," Jack responds, "I don't like him."

"It's not like he's going to get anywhere with it, so I don't know what you're worried about." Rian tried to say this in a sincere way, but all it seemed to do was rile Jack up more.

"I don't know that, though! I don't know anything about him," Jack insisted. "Alex is smart, but maybe he's smarter. That's all I'm saying."

"So you think he's trying to manipulate him, or something? You think he'd do that?" Rian raised an eyebrow. "He seems like a fine person to me."

Without responding, Jack let out a breath of air and let himself fall back against his seat in annoyance. A few minutes later, Marissa poked her head through the seats to look back at them.

"What were you guys yelling about?" She asked. Rian smiled, while Jack frowned even more than he had been frowning beforehand.

"Jack's being pissy and paranoid." Rian summed it up, and Jack glared at him immediately.

"That's not true. I have a right to be angry, he was being rude. Besides, isn't it healthy to worry? I trust Alex, just not people I don't know." Jack said.

"You're really running with this today, huh?" Marissa laughed. "Usually you pretend it doesn't bother you that much."

"Whatever. I get to room with him, so that's all that matters."

When they finally land, Jack rushed up to where Alex was, effectively pushing Max out of the way. They walked throughout the terminals together, telling each other about their flights. The bus ride to the hotel was fairly quiet, since everyone was pretty tired. Jack and Alex were able to get their room first, and when they were alone in the elevator, Alex broke the calm silence.

"Max asked me if I wanted to room with him."

"Excuse me?" Jack's eyebrows scrunched together, and Alex frowned.

"Obviously I said no," he explained.

"I know, but still. It's weird." Jack said, not wanting to complain any more about it to Alex. He'd warned him, and he didn't need Jack nagging about it.

"I do think it'd be kind of weird," Alex shrugged, agreeing with Jack. "I barely know him. Besides, I don't really want to pass up the opportunity of staying with you."

Jack grinned at that, stepping toward Alex and winding his arms around his waist. He pulled the shorter boy closer into him, hiding his nose in his light hair. "I love you so much," Jack whispered, his eyes closed as he left a kiss on the top of Alex's forehead.

"You too, lovely," Alex murmured. Jack grinned as the doors opened, and he took Alex's hand while they searched for their room.

"What do you want to do tonight?" Jack asked. They found the right door, and he slid the keycard in.

Alex raised an eyebrow at Jack. "What is there to do?"

"I don't know," Jack answered, opening the door and putting the keycard down as he went inside, Alex following behind him. "Whatever you want."

"I just want to go to sleep," Alex sighed, throwing his stuff down on the bed nearest to the door. When he looked back at Jack, the older boy was standing across from, a very obvious pout on his face. Alex rolled his eyes. "No, Jack."

"No, what?" Jack asked with a grin, following Alex as the other boy unpacked his luggage a bit, bringing a few things into the washroom. He began to brush his teeth, but Jack wouldn't leave, standing at the door and watching Alex.

Spitting out the toothpaste in his mouth, Alex looked at Jack. "It still kind of hurts from last night."

Jack gave Alex a blank stare. "What do you mean?"

Alex chuckled. "Remember our first time? Yeah, it does that still. Not as much anymore, but it does feel funny after."

"Oh. Sorry," Jack said, and Alex grinned.

"It's fine. I'm going to take a shower, okay?" Alex asked, and Jack nodded, going back out to their room. He could hear Alex turn on the shower, and he sat down on the empty bed. He wondered if Alex saw himself in the mirror the same way he saw him. Alex never really put himself down, but he never carried himself highly, either. Jack also began to think about Max. Did Max see Alex the same way he did? He hoped not. Max was very obviously interested in Alex at this point, and Jack wasn't sure if Max did certain things in front of him to piss him off, or because he just didn't know. Was it possible that Max couldn't even tell that he was pushing himself into Jack's territory. Jack thought this was unlikely, and shook the idea out of his head. He was angry, and he wanted to stay angry about it. It offered him some sort of control in a situation that he couldn't interfere with, no matter how hard he tried.

"Hey," Alex's voice echoed in the silent room, and Jack looked up. "Your turn." The marks on his chest were still very visible, and he smiled shyly at Jack, one towel around his waist and another in his hand to dry his hair. Jack smiled at his boyfriend, taking his own stuff into the washroom with a plan to shower and brush his teeth as fast as he could. He wanted to spend as much time cuddled up with Alex that night as possible. He was still full of emotions, but he could be angry later.

Notes

HI GUYS OH MY GOD THIS CHAPTER OFFICIALLY BRINGS THIS STORY TO OVER 100,000 WORDS!!! isn't that crazy??? i had no idea i'd be able to pull that off tbh

with this milestone, i'd like to mention a couple things. if i've mentioned them before then OOPS but i don't think i have. first off, i am NOT british, so anything alex says/does, i apologize if it doesn't match up. that's also why i only summarized the tour of london, since i haven't ever been there. i'd also like to say that if there are any weird time skips or things that don't match up with dates chronologically in this story, it has been 14 months since i began this, so i'm sorry if i forgot about something i wrote in the past. maybe when this is all finished, i'll go back and edit it so it makes sense in time if it doesn't already (their anniversary, for example. i have no idea what day that was! did i mention it? i'm going to have to make one up, so i hope an actual date doesn't exist already LOL). lastly, and probably most importantly, i want to talk about perspective a little bit. when writing, i'm always scared that what i'm saying doesn't seem real. that's so wrong, though! anything can be real. for example, alex's allergies are something i know is very real for a lot of people. his relationship with jack also is, even if you/i have never had such a sexual or meaningful relationship. a lot of teens do! the one that bothers me the most is their trip. i'm scared it seems like i'm thrusting them into a perfect situation, but the exact same trip happened to me and my friends (except not the london part). it was only myself and a couple of my best friends, and nobody else. just a little insight for you guys in case it doesn't seem realistic enough, although i'm probably worrying about nothing.

i know this chapter was a bit boring, but at least the end was kinda cute? the next one is gonna be wild tho and hopefully i'll be able to get that up early next week since i was SO LATE this week lmao

thanks for reading as always!!! and thanks to ashleywinter for commenting :^)