No One's Gonna Need You More

Alex was laughing at something Jack had just said and Jack is bent over trying to catch his own breath because everyone knows that Alex’s laugh is infectious and usually has Jack on the ground squealing and snorting.

“Guys!” Alex looked up as Matt approached them, seeing a short guy following behind him.

“I’m not even going to ask what you two are doing but this is Ian. He’s the new tech.”
Jack immediately bounds over to stand in front of Ian, giving him a megawatt smile and bouncing on his heals.

“Hi! I’m Jack, I play guitar, these assholes will tell you I suck but I don’t, I’m actually the best ever and this is Alex.”

Jack gestures toward Alex and Alex looks up with a small smile. His jaw drops for a second because he might be staring at the most gorgeous guy he’s ever seen. His brown hair is tousled and sticking up in a cute way, he’s staring at his feet, seeming to be too nervous to look up at the two band members. Though he’s almost positive Ian’s eyes are a beautiful brown color, not so unlike Alex’s own. Alex is appreciating how tight Ian’s jeans are when he feels Jack wrap his arms around his waist and rest his head on his shoulder.

“Anyway, that’s Jack and Alex; let me introduce you to everyone else and then I’ll show you how we work backstage.”

Matt is quickly pulling Ian away from them and Jack waves as they walk away while Alex just stares.

“What was that about, man?” Jack is tugging on a lock of Alex’s hair, forcing him to look sideways at Jack’s face. Alex just shrugs.

“What do you mean?”

“You totally just started at that kid with your mouth open. Do you think he’s hot or something?”
Alex is quick to shake his head.

“Don’t lie to me.”

“Not lying.” Alex has turned so he’s fully facing Jack who has an extremely pissed off look on his face. Jack gets jealous way too easy and it’s obvious that this Ian kid is going to be a slight problem in their relationship. Jack has now turned from Alex and started to stomp away, most likely back to the bus where he’ll pout for the next half hour.

“Jack, wait!” Jack doesn’t stop though only picks up his pace a bit, Jack has longer legs so when it turns into a race to the bus, Jack wins, and then slams the bus door in Alex’s face and since Alex had been reaching out to grab the door it slammed on his hand.

“Jack! You are such a fucking asshole!” Alex yells as he holds his throbbing hand, biting his lip to keep the string of profanities he wants to scream, plus the tears, at bay.
Rian looks up from his spot on the couch and hastily runs to get Alex an ice pack as he can already see that Alex’s hand is swelling rapidly.

“What the hell happened!?”

“Jack fucking slammed the door on my hand cause he thought I was checking out our new tech.” Alex’s angry words had become less angry and more upset as he finished the sentence.

“It fucking hurts, Rian.” Alex is giving him a miserable pout and Rian leads him over to the couch, grabbing the ice pack and a towel, and letting Alex curl into his side. Rian carefully picks up Alex’s hand and lays it in his own lap before laying the ice on top of it. Alex winces slightly and buries his face in Rian’s shoulder. He doesn’t want to be a baby but fuck his hand hurts like a bitch.
They are still laid like that, Alex having fallen into a light sleep, when Matt enters the bus closely followed by their new tech.

Matt is so busy jabbering on that he doesn’t notice Alex and Rian but Ian does and can’t help but stare. He’s wondering if Alex is with one of his band members (he has now been cuddled up with two of them) or if he’s just a really affectionate person. He’s kind of really hoping for the second because Alex is completely adorable and Ian would definitely not mind if Alex ever wanted to cuddle up to him.

“So, yeah, anyway you’ll be sleeping in the back lounge with Greico and Evan cause we don’t have anymore bunks at this point.”

Ian looks up and nods but not fast enough because Matt has followed his gaze over to where Rian and Alex are. Matt gives a slight eye roll but says nothing. Their new tech would already be crushing on the singer.

“What’s up, Rian? Is he sleeping?” Rian looks down slightly and nods his head.

“He hurt his hand; it got caught in the door.” Matt’s face has gone from calm to concerned as he kneels in front of Alex and examines his hand without touching it.

“What the fuck!? How he going to play with his hand like that?”

Alex whimpers when Matt yells and Ian’s heart melts at the sound. He wants nothing more than to run over and hold him, which would be weird since he’s known Alex all of about 2 hours and even then they’ve never spoken.

“Alex? How did this happen?” Matt isn’t yelling this time and Alex opens his eyes slightly, they’re red and watery, and Ian thinks his heart has now been ripped out because that is the saddest thing he’s ever seen. Alex just looks so sad and miserable.

“Alex?” Alex isn’t answering Matt’s question. He’s just staying curled up into Rian’s side with Rian’s arm locked tight around his waist.

“Where’s Jack at?”

Rian shrugs and points toward their bunk area. While Alex cringes at Jack’s name.

“Are you two in a fight again? I knew this was a bad idea from the beginning. Inter-band relationships never fucking work. You guys better solve this problem because I am so sick of listening to your fights.”

Ian’s heart drops into his stomach after listening to Matt’s short tirade. Alex was in a relationship. With Jack. That whole creepy internet rumor thing was totally true. Though a tiny part of him feels some hope because obviously they have a rocky relationship, Matt did just say they fought a lot.
Ian sits back as Rian launches into the story of when Jack and Alex came back onto the bus and Alex is sitting quietly throughout twirling a strand of hair with the hand that isn’t still resting in Rian’s lap. Alex visibly tenses when Matt gets up and angrily calls for Jack to get his ass out to the front lounge.

When Jack appears Ian again sits quietly as Matt sorts out what exactly happened. They both refuse to say what started the fight but Jack admits to slamming the bus door in Alex’s face though he says he didn’t mean for it to hit him, and then makes a sly dig about Alex being a baby and needing to leave him alone. Ian almost wants to get up and punch the guy because Alex looks like he might start crying again.

Matt is getting super pissed off at this point and Ian can tell even though he’s only known the guy for less than a day. Eventually it’s decided that Matt is taking Jack and Rian to an interview (Alex has adamantly refused to go to the ER so Matt gives up) and he asks Ian to stay back on the bus with Alex, stating the other crew members are around, Zack should be back soon, and that Alex is an adult who will most likely fall back asleep since Matt is going to give him some pain medicine in hopes to bring the swelling down.

Ian is really nervous to say the least. Alex is lying on the couch across from him but he’s not asleep. He’s just laying there, with his hand propped up on a pillow and a melted ice pack on top of it. Ian isn’t even sure what Alex is doing but he’s guessing he must be thinking hard about something. Alex coughs and looks up to meet Ian’s eyes.

“Umm…could you get me some water, please?” Alex’s voice is quiet but Ian still jumps slightly at the sound, it’s been so quiet in the room. Alex gives him a shy smile and let’s out a quiet laugh.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” Ian blushes at that.

“I wasn’t scared. I just wasn’t expecting you to speak, you’ve been so quiet.” Alex looks up at him and frowns a bit. After Ian hands him the bottle of water, Alex puts it on the floor without opening it, he goes quiet again and that makes Ian’s inside squirm.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. If you want to be quiet then you can be quiet and it’s not any of my business.” Ian shuts up when Alex looks at him.

“I’ve just been thinking about my relationship.” Alex shrugs his shoulders and moves into a sitting position. He gestures to Ian to come and sit next to him. Ian’s insides squirm again. He’s sitting next to Alex.

“Do you…umm…do you want to talk about it?”

“Actually I was kind of hoping you’d just lay with me.”