Come Alive

It had been nearly two weeks since the shooting. Jack had been back and forth between specialized doctors, different hospitals, and ever some private practices and he still had not been diagnosed. Jack was once again leaving a testing center for brain activity and he was waiting for Alex's car to come pick him up. Jack's doctors weren't comfortable with him driving under his condition and Alex had insisted on Jack taking the SUV service instead of public transport. Jack sometimes hated the way Alex could just toss around money like that...

The black SUV pulled to a stop in front of Jack and Alex unrolled the backseat window. Alex was supposed to be at some media thing today, so the surprise of him being there made up for Jack's day of medical testing.

"How was it?" Alex asked as soon as the door closed behind Jack. To be honest, Jack didn't really want to talk about the looks his doctors had been giving each other all day. Especially in the past few days, the doctors had been seeming a little more desperate to find a diagnosis for Jack's brain condition and that in and of itself was enough to make Jack nervous. He felt fine. He even believed he was getting better. Alex would even occasionally point out that Jack was getting better. But the way the doctors were acting made him feel like maybe he wasn't getting better. Maybe this was more serious than he thought it was.

"Eh." Jack shrugged. Then, to change the subject, he added, "What'd you have to do today?"

Alex sighed, "I've been trying to figure out what to do about my tour. It starts in like a week and a half." His phone started ringing, "And my mom won't stop bugging me to fly out for a visit," he held his phone up to show Jack the contact ID, "And I still have to announce my part in that movie to the public and Jack I just don't want to."

Jack was taken aback, they hadn't been together all day and usually they wouldn't actually talk about anything until they'd talked about nothing for a few hours. "Then don't."

The car was silent for a few minutes.

"Jack?"

"Alex?"

"Are you okay with the way we've been, like, hiding all month? Like, we're always either holed up in my apartment eating takeout or we're inside your apartment watching shitty movies. Does that bother you? That we don't ever actually do anything?"

Jack turned in the seat to look at Alex directly, "What are you even talking about? Like, where is that coming from? Alex, my head's broken I barely remember what your apartment even looks like why do you think I'd care what we do with our time? As long as we're..." Jack stopped himself. Though he and Alex definitely had...something, Jack didn't like to talk about it. He hated the way Alex just made stupid corny shit come out of of his mouth sometimes.

Alex smiled, "As long as what?" The stupid smirk on his face and the stupid way he looked at Jack through his stupid bangs and the stupid eye thing he did sometimes made Jack want to both kiss him and punch him at the same time.

He went for the latter.

"Shut up you fucking asshole."

Alex rubbed his arm and feigned a shocked expression, "Such violence in such a such a cliche boy!"

Jack hated the way Alex had known where Jack was going with his sentence.

"We aren't friends, go away." Jack crossed his arms and pointedly looked out his window. He felt Alex scoot closer to him on the bench seat and nuzzle his face into Jack's neck. "This isn't what I would consider 'going away...'" Jack said, trying his hardest to ignore Alex.

"But..." Alex kissed his neck.

"We're not friends who even are you please do not touch me." Jack forced back a smile, in all honesty, Alex was freaking adorable and he could continue to touch Jack as long as he wanted.

"Well..." Alex kissed his neck, "What if..." Alex moved himself closer to Jack's body, "What if I don't want to be friends?"

Jack's breath caught in his throat, what exactly did Alex just say to him? "I-I what?" Alex's face was pressed up to Jack's now. The whole world was just Alex at this point.

"Alright, alright, cool it off back there! Ya back home now anyway." The driver had stopped the car in front of Alex's apartment building. "Just make it to the door, y'all can do it!" He laughed at nothing and unlocked the door beside Jack.

Alex pressed a kiss to Jack's mouth before swinging the door open and hopping out of the large car.

What had just happened?

"Uh...See you 'round I guess..." Jack mumbled to the driver before following Alex upstairs.

***

"Chinese food for dinner?" Jack questioned later that night. They'd spent a good portion of the day on the floor of Alex's living room ignoring the TV as it played through episode after episode of How I Met Your Mother.

Alex yawned and looked around for his phone, eventually finding it underneath the couch. "We always eat Chinese food, Jack." He was shirtless and his sweatpants were sitting ridiculously low on his hips and as he stood up and stretched his back out Jack had to force himself to look away from the extra few inches of skin the loose pants exposed. "Goddammit." Alex was looking through his phone, unaware of Jack's fascination with his body at the moment. He sat down on the edge of the couch and leaned his arms against his knees, "My mom really won't leave me alone."

Jack rolled over onto his stomach so he could see Alex's face better. The expression of annoyance on his face bothered Jack. Why was Alex so upset with his mom? "Alex, she just wants to see you... I don't understand why you keep ignoring her."

Alex rubbed his face, pulling his messy hair into an even messier sweep across his forehead. "She just doesn't get it."

Jack cocked his head, motioning for Alex to explain.

"Well, I mean, I was supposed to fly home and spend New Years with her. I had a flight scheduled for the night of the shooting..."

"Is that who you were on the phone with? When I woke up in the hospital?"

A breathtakingly huge smile broke out across Alex's face, "Dude, look at you!" He tapped his barefoot against Jack's shoulder, "You remember that? Your memory's really lookin' up!"

Jack smiled, "I don't know, I remember things better if they involve you..." He mentally hit himself, corny corny corny.

"Goddammit Jack you're such a sappy douchebag. That's twice today."

Jack hit Alex's leg, "No changing the subject. Talk to me about your mom."

Alex sighed, "Really? I'd rather talk about you though..."

As much as Jack knew what the look on Alex's face meant, he pushed Alex further.

"Fine. I mean, okay. So I had to cancel on her for the holiday, obviously." He motioned to Jack with his hand, "I couldn't just leave you alone in the hospital. I mean you were just so adorable and broken looking. And I couldn't believe someone like you would just take a motherfucking bullet for someone like me and I had to, like, meet you, y'know?"

Jack nodded.

"And my mom understood that. Well, she told me she did. She wasn't that upset about it. She was really just happy that I wasn't dead, y'know? Well I don't know why but for the past, like, week, she won't stop bugging me to fly home before my tour and I just don't want to, Jack. I really, really don't want to go back to that town, with those people, and be reminded of everything I don't have anymore. I let myself lose that and I don't want go back there and remind myself of just how horribly I fucked up." Alex's voice was really quiet as he continued, "And, Jack, like, I really don't want to leave you here. What would happen if your brain fucked up again? What if I came back here and you didn't remember me?"

Jack had pulled himself beside Alex onto the couch at this point and was trying his best to get the other boy to look at him, "Alex, she's still your mom. Your parents miss you, can you blame them for wanting to see you? I'm not going to forget who you are, Alex. I don't really think that's possible. You need to go see them. Be home, away from all the fucking cameras stalking you here. Away from the rumors and shit. Your home should be your safe haven, a place for you to just forget who the world has made you and to just be no one for a little bit."

Alex sighed again and looked over at Jack, "No, I don't not want to be around my parents. It's everyone else I'm trying to avoid." Alex was pulling at his hair with his left hand, "I'm not that great of a person and I don't like to be reminded of it."

Jack pushed Alex a little, "Oh shut up, you're amazing. Now go put on a shirt, I'm hungry and we're not getting fucking Chinese food. You need to go outside."

"But Jaaaaaaack," Alex was stretching again. Jack hated when he did that. "People are gonna see us togetherrrrr."

"And?"

"The rumors don't bother you?" Alex was serious all of a sudden. "The rumors? About us? The bullshit people are saying?"

Jack though back to what Alex had said earlier in the car. About not wanting to be friends...

Jack took a deep breath in and stretched himself out on a weak limb, "Those are rumors?"

Alex turned his body so he was facing Jack directly, "The ones about us dating?" Alex's face was unreadable. Jack had never seen whatever emotion Alex was hiding right now.

"...Rumors... that's all they are?" Jack could hit himself. Why had he put them in such an awkward place. Obviously they were rumors. Obviously Alex didn't want to hurt Jack and was playing dumb.

"Jack... are we dating?" Alex's hand was pulling at his bangs again.