Shelter

Alex paced around the room nervously, trying to take deep breaths. Jack had gone to an interview a few hours ago, leaving Alex at his apartment alone. Alex had been fine until he went back to sleep and had a nightmare, which left him on the edge of an anxiety attack. It had been a few hours now and between absentmindedly burning breakfast and getting a text from Jack saying he almost ran out of gas on the way home, Alex was now a nervous wreck. He was pacing to try and stop his anxiety attack, but it didn’t really help.

“Alex, are you okay?” Alex suddenly heard Jack ask, and he yelped and almost jumped ten feet.

“You scared me!” Alex said shakily, upset.

Jack walked over to him and grabbed his hands, tugging him over to the couch to sit down. “Quit pacing, you know I hate when you do that. Why are you having an anxiety attack all of a sudden?”

Alex sighed, leaning into him. “I had a nightmare after you left, when I fell back asleep. And I was worrying about stupid things.”

“Well, on the bright side, that’s the first anxiety attack you’ve had in almost three weeks. Good job,” Jack said, pulling him into a hug.

“I never thought having anxiety attacks would turn into something congratulatory,” Alex mused, and Jack laughed.

“You’re much better at controlling them now. Look – you’re not even shaking anymore. Do you feel like the worst of it is over?” Jack asked.

Alex nodded. His heart wasn’t pounding anymore and he felt much more at ease than he had been all morning. “Yeah. I’m fine now.”

Jack pecked him on the cheek. “Good. Come on, let’s go lie in bed and find some movies to watch. It feels like a movie and junk food day to me.”

--------------------

A few hours later, Alex was cuddled up with Jack in bed, watching Home Alone. Well, Jack was watching it. Alex was on twitter, scrolling through fan tweets and replying to some of them. It made him happy to see people get so excited just from a simple reply. No wonder Jack did this so often.

Somehow he started thinking about everything, about how much happier he was with his life and everything. He looked at the phone in his hands and opened up a new tweet, typing out a few.

@AlexAllTimeLow: Looking back, these past few years have been pretty hard on me emotionally. Thanks to everyone who stuck around with us on the ride.

@AlexAllTimeLow: I’ve made some changes in my life and I’m a lot happier. No more disappointing my fans and my family and my friends. I’m a changed Alex.

@AlexAllTimeLow: …and a lot happier Alex than I’ve ever been before. I love all of you little fuckers.

Alex smiled as his mentions flooded with replies congratulating him on being happier, along with those asking why he had been sad in the first place. The world didn’t need to know every little detail, though.

“Hey, Jack?” Alex said suddenly, looking up at his boyfriend.

“Yeah?”

“What do you think about making our relationship public?” Alex asked.

Jack cocked his head slightly, turning to look at him. “What do you mean?”

“Like telling the fans and everyone. I mean, it’s been almost two months now…” Alex trailed off. “You know, even though the fans already suspect we’re dating to begin with.”

Jack smirked. “The fans would go completely nuts. But are you sure you want to do that? Everyone will be prying into our lives more so than usual,” he pointed out, and Alex shrugged.

“I don’t care. I’m totally in love with you and I want the rest of the world to know.”

“Aww,” Jack grinned, kissing him. He took Alex’s phone from him, opening up the camera. He took a picture with Alex kissing him on the cheek and grinned, handing it back to Alex.

Alex sent the picture to twitter with the caption “movie day with the boyfriend… ;)” and refreshed his mentions. Within seconds, fans were already freaking out.

Jack laughed, shaking his head. “Let the internet explode.”

Alex giggled and snuggled up with Jack again, actually watching the movie this time. The rest of the world could go to chaos and he wouldn’t even care, because he was happier than he had ever been and had Jack by his side.