Wanderlust

At first, Jack can’t figure out why exactly Alex wanted to come to Seattle. They’ve been in the city for three days so far and each day it was dark and rainy. It was kind of miserable, waking up at nine in the morning and looking out the window of your hotel room only to find that it’s already pouring and you’re going to have to get wet, at least just while waiting for a cab. But for whatever reason, Alex isn’t fazed by it at all.

“We’re already a half an hour behind schedule,” the older boy whines. He’s lying flat on his back in the middle of their bed, staring up at the ceiling while Jack finishes fixing his hair. “Your hair will just get wet once we step outside.”

Jack smirks, watching Alex while he’s standing in front of the bathroom mirror. “Take a chill pill. It’s fucking pouring outside. You can handle staying indoors for an extra half hour. Especially if you’re dragging me all the way down to the water to go to the damn aquarium.”

“I’ve heard good things about this aquarium,” Alex muses, nodding to himself as he sits up straight. “I’m excited. And then we’re going to Pike Place and then we have dinner reservations at the Space Needle.”

Jack nods, taking this information in as though Alex hasn’t already told him about it ten times since last night. “After dinner, do I get to pick where we go?”

Alex doesn’t answer right away. Jack can practically see his brain working overtime, trying to figure out if he has anything else planned for the night. But Jack memorized Alex’s list of things to do in Seattle on that first day he arrived, and he knows that once they leave the Space Needle, they’ve finished the whole list. A few more seconds pass and Alex shrugs, “I guess so. But where?”

“It’s a surprise,” Jack informs him, shoving the hair dryer back into the counter drawer and running one hand through his hair. “Good enough. Let’s get out of here.”

“Finally!”

Alex all but runs down the hallway to the elevators and Jack can’t help but smile as he watches him. He knows how much this all means to his boyfriend, and Jack can’t help but be comforted by the fact that Alex actually wants him to tag along. Jack knows how lucky he is to have captured Alex’s attention enough to keep him around. Somehow, they both just work and as long as that statement is still applicable, Jack will keep that engagement ring he bought last month, waiting for the perfect opportunity to pop the question. It’s coming, he can feel it. But it’s probably not tonight.

“Do you think they’ll have penguins?” Alex asks in the elevator on the ride down to the lobby. He slides closer to Jack and wraps both arms around his waist, head resting on his shoulder. “I wish they could put whales in aquariums.”

“I’m sure they have whales in SeaWorld,” Jack points out, kissing the top of Alex’s head just before the elevator doors slide open. “Maybe we’ll make it there one day.”

“Actually…I really do want to go there. Maybe in the summer…Maybe we can also go to Hollywood…”

Jack shakes his head and just follows behind his boyfriend, storing that information for a later date. He wouldn’t mind going to San Diego. He’s heard nice things about it. So if one morning in the middle of July, he wakes up to find Alex missing and a stuffed whale sitting on the living room couch, he won’t be too annoyed to know that he’ll be going to San Diego.

The aquarium, as Jack expected, does not exactly provide Jack with much excitement. He’s not a huge fan of just staring at fish behind glass, but Alex is. And he guesses that’s the important part. He follows Alex around the building, watching him take in everything he possibly can. That’s just one of things he loves about him – he’s so eager to learn and take things in. He knows how much the world has to offer and he wants to experience it all. And if Jack can join him, then that’s a plus.

By the time Alex has had enough of staring at fish and other sea animals, it’s almost noon and Jack is starving. Unfortunately, just when he thinks he’s getting out of there and can actually get something to eat, he realizes how wrong he is. In order to leave the aquarium, you have to walk through the gift shop. Clever, Jack acknowledges, but seriously. Now Alex is going to spend another hour picking out gifts to bring back home.

“Would it be rude of me to buy Martin and Zack a couple gift?” Alex asks, his hands on a thick beach towel that has dolphins on it. “I feel like this would match their bathroom.”

“One, they aren’t a couple,” Jack reminds him, pulling the towel out of his hands and putting it back on the shelf. “And two, nothing about that towel matched their bathroom. I think you’re better off getting them a magnet to stick on their fridge. And hurry up, or else we’ll be late to Pike Place and therefore late for your dinner reservations.”

At the reminder of his reservations, Alex’s face lights up and he grabs two magnets off the display a few feet away from him and hurries over to pay, picking up a sparkly looking pencil while he’s there. Jack adds in a bag of Cheetos to eat on the way to Pike Place and Alex pays for it all with his debit card. Jack knows that once the inheritance he got from his grandmother runs out, he’ll be much more cautious about how much he spends and how many trips he takes in a year. But that probably won’t be for a while. His grandmother was pretty wealthy and Alex was her only grandchild.

Pike Place Market turns out to be a life hazard. Well, in Jack’s opinion anyway. And that’s probably just because he was almost hit in the face with a fish. Why there was a fish flying through the air is beyond Jack and why people want to watch that sort of thing is even weirder but he guesses it must relate back to some sort of tradition or something so he won’t judge. Too much. He just lets Alex go from one stand to another, buying things from the bakeries that they both know neither of them is going to eat before they get on the plane tomorrow morning.

While they’re walking back to the hotel forty five minutes later so they can shower and get dressed for dinner, Alex slips his hand into Jack’s and looks up at him with a small smile. They walk up the annoyingly steep sidewalks and pass the architecturally intriguing library and one of a million Starbucks and a boarded up pizza place and suddenly the ring box in Jack’s pocket seems ten times more obvious than it was before.

*

“Is it just me or are you kind of dizzy too?”

Jack laughs and shakes his head, reaching out and steadying Alex on his feet before he can topple over onto the sidewalk. “How about you sit down for a minute while we wait for the car to get here?”

Alex shrugs but he doesn’t move away towards the benches lining the walkway. Instead, he shuffles closer to Jack, arms wrapping around his waist and head resting on his shoulder. “I think I drank too much.”

“You think so?” Jack asks sarcastically, squeezing Alex even closer. Their dinner at the Space Needle was probably the best part of the day, but mainly because they had wine and steak and a really awesome view of Seattle – a view that rotated. What more could you possibly want? Sure, Alex drinking more than he probably should have is kind of putting a slight dent in the plan Jack has but that’s fine. He’s carried Alex around while he was drunk before, it’s not as if he can’t do it again.

“I hope your plans don’t require my driving skills. Or any skills at all.”

Alex’s hands slip down and try to find their way into the pockets of Jack’s jeans but Jack is quick to redirect them. He takes them both and pushes Alex back, “Stop trying to molest me in the middle of a parking lot. We’re going to get arrested.”

Before Alex has the chance to respond, the same car that dropped them off a few hours earlier pulls up alongside the curb, the driver rolling down the window and greeting them. Jack opens the door for Alex, lets him in first and then slides in behind him, finding the backpack he brought when they left the hotel exactly where he left it under the seat. Alex might be the king of making last minute plans but Jack can hold his own pretty damn well.

“Where are we going?” Alex asks after fifteen minutes of driving. He glances out the window, leaning more into Jack. “This doesn’t look familiar. And why do you have a backpack?”

“You’ll see.”

Jack silences him with a kiss and Alex lets it go. His fingers tighten around Jack’s and he leans his weight even more against him and Jack knows that he’s going to be falling asleep soon. Alcohol has a habit of putting Alex straight to bed.

A few minutes later and the car pulls up alongside Alki Beach. It’s ten minutes from their hotel and Jack had overheard someone in the lobby talking about how nice it was, especially in the late afternoon so he figured he’d take Alex. Jack grabs the backpack, slips it over one shoulder and thanks the driver and informs him they’ll only be about twenty minutes. He opens the door and gets out, reaching in and offering a hand to his boyfriend.

“This is a beach,” Alex observes once he’s standing on two feet. “Why are we at a beach at eight at night?”

“Just come on,” Jack says, pushing him forwards towards the path that leads to the sand. “Walk as straight as you can and I’ll tell you when to stop.”

Alex grumbles the whole way down towards the shoreline, tripping over his own feet and complaining about the cold. Jack knows he’s only complaining because he’s pissed he didn’t think of coming here first. It’s not often that Jack thinks of things to do that didn’t even cross Alex’s mind.

“I’m not going any closer to the water,” Alex declares when they’re a good fifteen feet away from the water, “And you’re not getting me to go into the water either.”

“Stop being a brat,” Jack laughs, pulling the small blanket out from his backpack and spreading it out over the sand. “Sit down.”

The sun has been down for a few hours now but there are still a couple of other people at the beach, which surprises Jack. He didn’t think many people hang out on the beach in February. “Are you cold?” he asks Alex as he sits down behind him, wrapping his arms around him as best as he can. “I should have brought you another jacket.”

Alex shakes his head, staring out at the waves crashing into the shore line. A few minutes of silence pass by and Jack almost thinks Alex has fallen asleep until he says, “Thanks for taking me here, Jack. I wouldn’t have thought of it.”

“Now I think you’ve done everything there is to do in Seattle.”

“Hm. Except one thing,” Alex says, smirking and leaning his head back on Jack’s shoulder. “You.” And with that, Alex is separating himself from Jack and getting up from the sand, arms wrapped around himself. “Let’s go so I can fix that.”

For a split second, a pang of disappointment hits Jack. The ring is practically burning a hole through his pocket. But then he sighs and shakes his head, standing up so he can gather the blanket and shove it back into his backpack. He watches Alex head back towards the car that’s still waiting for them with a smile. He has no doubt that once they get into the car, the mood will be all wrong and totally not appropriate for marriage proposals. He has half a mind to call Alex back, stop him in his journey back to the car and get down on one knee right there in the sand. But he just shakes his head again and slips the backpack onto his back and follows along behind him.

More likely than not, he’ll get another chance sooner rather than later.