Wanderlust

Deciding how to propose to someone like Alex was nearly impossible, but Jack managed to get it eventually. Sure, it’s like…six months later than he originally intended to do it, but at least it’s happening and Alex has absolutely no idea. He’s standing in their hotel room bathroom, brushing his teeth with the shower running, waiting for the water to warm up so he can shower. His hair is sticking up at weird angles and Jack can see the outline of his own fingers on Alex’s hips just above the waistband of his boxers. They should probably stop having such rough sex. Especially when people in the rooms next to theirs complain like they did last night.

“Would you hurry up? Our flight’s in four hours!”

Alex ignores him, as Jack expected him to, shaking his hips as he stares at the spray of the water in the shower just to spite Jack even more. Jack can only roll his eyes, remind himself that he’s planning on engaging himself to this guy in less than a few hours, and take a deep breath. Someone has to marry him. Someone has to marry him and deal with his shit and his disappearing acts and his inability to take a shower in under an hour. Jack doesn’t mind. In fact, he’s going to just volunteer.

“Check us into our flight on my phone!” Alex shouts from the shower, his voice echoing off the tiled walls. “Saves time!”

He’s not wrong in that, so Jack goes along with it, using the app on his phone to check them both in. Since neither of them have to check luggage, it’ll be better for them to do this and go straight through to passport control and security. He’s never flown out of Acapulco before, but he can only assume they need to give themselves enough time to deal with all the bullshit. But if Alex continues taking his sweet time, they’re going to cut it close. And Jack would really like to get home as soon as possible. Acapulco has been nice but there’s only so long he can go avoiding drinking tap water. Oh and he has an engagement ring to get rid of. That’s another thing.

Of course, by ‘get rid of’ he means finally actually proposing and getting the damn ring on Alex’s finger. It’s been a year since he bought it. About six months since he really started thinking about growing a pair and proposing. And finally, he knows it’s time. He’s waited long enough now that he can actually kind of tell Alex is starting to wonder why it hasn’t happened yet. Jack would feel badly about that, but he also knows that if it was really starting to bother him, Alex would have just outright confronted him. So before he gets to that stage, Jack will do it. Tonight. They just need to make this flight home first.

“Aw shit. Shit. Jack, I forgot to bring the soap into the shower!”

Jack groans in frustration. Of course he did. But he gets up from the bed again and goes to help him out anyway. Because he almost feels a little bad for him.



They just barely make their flight, but on the bright side, Alex smells like strawberries.

“I wouldn’t be able to stand being near myself if I didn’t shower,” he says, looking up at Jack who’s putting their carry-on luggage into the overhead compartment. “And for your sake, obviously. I hadn’t showered in like, two days.”

“You’re so considerate,” Jack tells him as he sits down in his seat beside Alex. Alex has the window seat, as always, and Jack gets the aisle. He doesn’t really care. It makes it easier for him to go to the bathroom mid-flight without having to climb over Alex’s sleeping body. “Next time how about you plan to shower a little earlier so we have even less of a chance of missing our flight to our country?”

“I’ll take it into consideration,” Alex says, but Jack knows that’s not happening. Alex does whatever he wants, by whatever schedule he wants. “I’m starving. Do you think we get a snack soon because-”

“We haven’t even taken off yet.”

“We should get a pre-takeoff snack. I’m going to suggest it.”

Jack hums in response, taking out the magazine he bought at the news stand outside the gate. Alex shifts around in his seat, messing with the seatbelt and lifting the shade on the window up and down. Anyone would think this is his first flight or something. But no. He’s just a child.

Forty-five minutes later, after takeoff and after Alex has had his snack and complimentary glass of wine, Jack decides it’s time. He digs through his pocket for the ring box, where he’s been keeping it for the past two days, and pulls it out, opening it carefully to double check that the ring is actually still inside it. It is, the simple gold band in the exact place it was in when he checked an hour ago, and he looks over at Alex, finding him curled up in his seat and staring out the window.

The flight isn’t crowded, but there are still people around them, all doing their own thing, watching movies or listening to music or talking to the person beside them. Jack swallows hard, figuring it’s now or never. “Hey, Alex?” he says quietly, nudging him with his shoulder a bit, “I have to ask you something.”

Alex turns his head, at first looking annoyed that Jack has distracted him from whatever is so interesting thousands of miles off the ground, but then he catches sight of the ring box in Jack’s hands and he sighs dramatically, throwing his head back against the seat. “Oh, thank God,” he breathes, “Fucking finally, Jack.”

Jack grins. Of course. Alex has been waiting for this moment to happen almost as long as Jack has been waiting to start it. And of course Alex makes it easy on him, giving him the answer he wants without him even really having to ask the question. It’s so Alex. And Jack’s not sure why he thought it might go any differently.

The ring fits Alex perfectly, and he spends the rest of the three hour flight to their layover in Houston staring down at it and flashing it around to anyone who will look – mainly the flight attendants who have to smile and nod at you no matter what you say. They leave the plane hand in hand to wait at the next gate for the connection to Baltimore and the first thing Alex does is buy a wedding magazine. He wastes no time.