Did You Know?

When Alex had asked Jack to drive him to his dentist’s appointment, the younger was fairly confused. I mean, hello, Jack was nowhere near as good at driving as his friend – not to mention that Alex wanted Jack to take him to the dentist’s? Where’s the fun in that? He was expecting some catch-up time since being off tour, not just a pick-up, drop-off for some lousy tooth checkup.

Jack’s fairly positive that the dentist’s doesn’t serve alcohol, either.

Needless to say, Jack was pretty disappointed mere moments after picking up his phone. He hadn’t heard from Alex in nearly two weeks. Sure, Jack could have easily called Alex first; but he just figured that Alex wanted to catch up with his friends and family outside of his career as a musician. Jack didn’t want to be a nuisance, but there was no doubt that he was slightly let down. So naturally, Jack was hesitant to fulfill Alex’s request.

“C’mon, Jack,” Alex whined from the other end of the telephone line, “They’re taking out my wisdom teeth. I don’t want to stay there by myself until the anesthesia wears off.”

Anesthesia. Oh, if Jack were a dog, his ears definitely would’ve perked as soon as that word left Alex’s mouth. He would be lying if he said he had never watched videos of people under the influence of said drug on YouTube; it was comedy. To see the effect take over someone in real life, nevertheless his best friend – Jack was not going to let that opportunity slip through his fingers. No way.

Point being, if you were to find Jack in the waiting room of a dentist’s office right about now – that would be the explanation of his presence. He definitely didn’t have any plans of having his own wisdom teeth pulled anytime soon, nor did he even want a regular check-up. Hell, Jack hadn’t had seen any type of doctor since high school, and he didn’t exactly see that changing anytime soon. For now he deemed it appropriate to claim one of the uncomfortable chairs in the lounge area as his own; picking up one of the year old magazines to thumb through as he waited for Alex to come back through the door.

Jack couldn’t help but wonder what Alex was going to act like, however. He couldn’t even focus on the shitty article in the old magazine as his thoughts started to stray. Would Alex even know who Jack was? Is the dosage that Alex will be receiving even enough to make him as loopy as Jack had seen in all those videos, or just enough to will the pain away? Just the thought of Alex not having some sort of ludicrous persona at the end of this whole ordeal, for lack of better wording, pissed Jack off. There is no way that Jack gave Alex a ride all the way down to his stupid dentist without getting some sort of amusement out of it for himself.

“Did you know that scientists believe that we can only see about 5% of matter in the entire universe?”

Jack jumped, his gaze shifting upwards from where it was previously locked on his lap to see Alex standing in front of him; his eyelids drooped considerably as a thick man in a white lab coat approached slightly out of breath behind his friend.

“Scientists believe what?” Jack asked, his gaze shifting between Alex and the nameless man now perched behind Alex.

“I presume that you’re Jack?” the man asked, slightly breathless as he continued, “He’s been asking for you since he’s woken up, and left before we had the chance to, y’know… double check if everything is doing alright.”

“The very furthest galaxies are spreading away from us at more than 90% of the speed of light, did you know that?” Alex slurred, a smile breaking across his face as he started to giggle, “Space is… space is weird.”

The doctor gave Alex an exasperated glare as he just continued to giggle, “I think he should be fine, so you’re good to take him home. You have our number if you have any questions, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Jack confirmed with a nod as the doctor walked away, leaving Jack to stand beside his slightly swaying friend. Alex started to glance around before his gaze met Jack’s again – his eyes somewhat glassy as he started to speak.

“Did you bring my… my doggies?” Alex asked quietly as he attempted to tear the gauze out of his mouth.

“No no no, Lex,” Jack bit his lip to stifle a laugh, “That has to stay in your mouth, okay?” he said, bringing his own hand towards Alex’s mouth to stuff the gauze back into place.

“But… but why? I sound f-funny,” Alex whined, attempting to claw Jack’s hand away when Jack kept his hand firmly clasped onto the gauze that Alex was trying to force past his lips.

“Alex, if you don’t keep that in your mouth, you’ll never see you dogs again,” Jack said in a jokingly strict tone, watching as Alex’s eyes grew wider.

“N-Never?” the singer whimpered, his lower lip trembling, “I just wanna see Pey, where’s Pey?” Alex asked, his stare dropping to the floor as if his dog would be waiting for him right beside his feet.

“He’s at home,” Jack reassured, looping his arm through Alex’s, “Do you want to go home? I’m sure both of your dogs are excited to see you.”

Alex slowly nodded as Jack started to guide him towards the door, a smile plastered across his lips as Alex began to stumble over his own feet, “I don’t wanna see my doggies right away, though,” he continued, “I’m a lot of tired.”

“You’re a lot of tired?” Jack repeated, his eyebrow hitched as he looked down at his friend who was clutching onto Jack’s arm as if his life depended on it, “I don’t think that actually makes sense.”

“Of course it makes sense, dummy,” Alex claimed before tripping over his feet once more; giving Jack a hopeless look, “My feet are making me walk funny. I can’t walk with funny feet, they’re not even telling me any jokes. How can my feet be funny and not tell jokes?”

Jack bit the side of his finger as Alex continued to stare up at him, as if Jack had the answer to life itself in his back pocket. To say Jack was excited about how Alex was currently acting would be an understatement, it was just like all of the videos he had seen; except better, funnier.

“I don’t know, Alex,” Jack replied with a laugh, “But the car is right there, do you think you can make it?”

“Probably not,” Alex replied with a sigh, “but I’ll try anyways.”

Jack let out a chuckle, his arm snaking around Alex’s waist for the extra support as they made their way towards the passenger side of Jack’s car.

“Neutron stars are so dense, that a soup can full of neutron star material would have more mass than the moon,” Alex blurted as Jack was buckling his seatbelt for his friend.

The corners of Jack’s lips twitched upwards as he leaned against the passenger door, “Oh really?”

“Mhm,” Alex replied, staring at Jack with a small smile, “I bet you didn’t know that.”

“You’re right, I didn’t,” Jack said simply, patting Alex’s thigh twice before shutting the door and jogging towards the drivers side.

Alex leant his temple against the window to his right as Jack stuck the keys in the ignition, backing out of his parking spot and pulling into the street.

“Do you want to listen to the radio?” Jack asked Alex, to which he responded with a shake of his head.

“Will you hold my hand, though?” Alex asked, looking at Jack expectantly as he slowly outstretched his fingers, “I like it when you do that… holding my hand.”

Jack gave Alex a side-glance, seeing his friend’s palm patiently facing upwards over the console. With a small smile, Jack tore one of his hands from the steering wheel and clasped their hands together, fingers intertwining as Jack’s thumb lightly stroked Alex’s knuckle.

Minutes later, they were pulling into Alex’s driveway, said man’s eyes sealed shut as he snored lightly. Jack was slightly tempted to take a picture and post it on twitter, but he wasn’t willing to face the wrath of Alex himself once he woke back up and saw it for himself. Nope, not worth it.
Instead he climbed out of his seat and walked around the hood of the car towards Alex’s side, opening the door to unbuckle his seat belt and loop his arms underneath the singer’s knees and around his back.

The action caused Alex to stir as Jack lifted him from his seat and used his foot to kick the door shut – the elder’s hands finding their way to Jack’s shirt to cling onto the fabric as the guitarist unlocked Alex’s front door. With difficulty – it’s not easy to unlock a door while carrying a grown man.

“Did you know that shooting stars are usually just tiny dust particles falling through our atmosphere?” Alex asked groggily as he looked up at Jack, who was trying to not trip over Baz and Pey as they scurried around his feet.

“For someone on drugs, you sure talk like you’re some sort of college professor,” Jack replied as he used his hip to open the door to Alex’s bedroom.

Alex furrowed his eyebrows, his fingers tightening their grip on Jack’s t-shirt fabric as Jack started to place the elder onto his bed, “Would you watch the tiny dust particles with me, Jack?”

“Are you asking me on some kind of weird date?” Jack mused with a smirk before he tugged Alex’s jeans off, leaving him in a t-shirt and boxers as Jack threw the elder’s duvet over his body.

Alex only shrugged, his hands clasping the edge of his blanket as he tugged it over his shoulders and stared at Jack expectantly, “Are you gonna lay with me? I want to keep talking to you.”

Jack let out a small sigh as he pulled out his phone and checked the time, seeing it was 4:56 p.m. Seeing no hurt in lying down for awhile, Jack kicked off his jeans as well and crawled into the bed beside his friend, which resulted in Alex immediately turning onto his side to face the younger.

“You never answered my question,” Alex stated as he stared blankly at Jack, “Aren’t we going to cuddle? Answer my other question, too.”

“What question?” Jack asked as he turned onto his side as well, Alex’s leg swinging over Jack’s, “I thought you were a lot of tired, go to sl-”

“Would you watch falling dust particles with me?” Alex interrupted, repeating his previous question as he leaned his forehead on Jack’s, his eyelids drooping considerably, “Like a Jalex thing.”

“Like a what?” Jack sputtered, his eyebrows drawing together.

“A Jalex thing,” Alex repeated simply, “y’know, that name that the weird fans have for us. Did you know that light from distant stars and galaxies takes so long to reach us, that we are actually seeing objects as they appeared hundreds or even millions of years ago?”

“No, no I didn’t.”

“You’re still avoiding my other question,” Alex sighed, his hand finding its way to hold onto Jack’s.

The younger pursed his lips, giving Alex’s hand a slight squeeze as he let his other hand clasp the elder’s hip. In all honesty, he didn’t exactly feel comfortable discussing the whole ‘Jalex’ topic with Alex himself, on drugs or not. Jack would be lying a little bit if he told you that he has never thought of he and Alex becoming an item; it’s hard not to when the kids are always pestering the pair about it.

“I like you, Jack,” Alex broke the silence as he pushed his forehead further into Jack’s, “I miss when we used to kiss on stage, don’t you? Why don’t we do that anymore?”

“I- uhh,” Jack drawled before he bit his lip. When Alex was out of his senses, he sure knew how to be confrontational.

“It’s ‘cause you don’t like me anymore, isn’t it? We’re still friends, right Jack? You… you don’t hate me,” Alex ranted as he started to sniffle, his eyes opening so he could give Jack a look filled with worry.

“I could never hate you,” Jack replied quietly, but with honesty.

Alex’s lips stretched into a lazy smile then, only for it to falter moments later, “Would you kiss me right now if I asked you to?”

“Uh…” Jack started, but never finished; his gaze shifting towards the hand that still remained intertwined with Alex’s. The younger took a jump and pulled back to tilt his head upwards and press his lips against Alex’s forehead momentarily; his hand tightening it’s grip from where it was still rested on Alex’s hip in hopes to get the elder to just drop the subject. He heard the singer let out a sigh, and then there was a tugging on Jack’s neck, pulling him downwards. Before the younger could comprehend what was even happening, Alex was leaning up and messily slotting their lips together. It was gone as soon as it came, and Alex ended up pressing his lips more to Jack’s top lip and the base of his nose rather than his lips in general – but it still left butterflies fluttering in Jack’s gut as Alex pulled back and rested his forehead back onto the guitarists.

“Hey Jack,” Alex mumbled sleepily after a few moments with his eyes remained shut, “did you know that Venus is hotter than Mercury, even though it's further away from the sun?” he asked before he started to giggle to himself, “Isn’t that stupid?”