Together Let's...

“What's this?” Jack asked as he walked into the living room. He'd only had to go to school for two and a half hours that morning, so he wasn't as exhausted as he'd normally be.

Alex looked up from where he was sitting on the ground between the couch and coffee table, smile stretching his face. “It's the next thing on the list,” he said, tilting his head towards the mounds of different materials he'd gathered while the elder was away. “We gotta release floating lanterns.”

“Release,” Jack emphasized, moving to plop on the couch and then maneuvering his way over so that Alex ended up between his long legs, “which is totally not the same as make from scratch and then release.”

The slighter leaned back, head tilting against the cushion hair on the top of his head just barely brushing Jack's crotch to see his partner. “Well, why not get the full experience? It's simple, I promise. I looked up how to make them a little while ago. Just do what I say, and I swear we'll be done in no time at all.”

Jack nodded and moved to get up from the couch (only kicking Alex once, and he will forever swear it was on accident) before making himself as comfortable as possible on the ground.

“Okay,” Alex started, “so first we have to knot a piece of cloth.” When a strip was handed to Jack, the younger began to work. The only problem? He was moving and talking a little too fast for the elder to truly keep up. Jack did his best to not let it show, and soon they were cutting up bamboo strips and taping them together.

Everything all seemed to blend together, and in the time it took Jack to finally finish taping one piece of wood to another, Alex was hopping to his feet and picking up a can of fireproofing spray as well as a stack of paper towels.

“Come on, baby,” he called over his shoulder as he walked through the house and from the backdoor. In the few minutes it took Jack to amble to his feet and stumble from the living room, Alex had the top of all of his papers covered with the liquid and was working on running the spray over the other side.

When the can was handed to Jack, he began to spray them right away. He knew Alex wouldn't wait long for him to catch up. He was wrong, however, and he only realized that when the younger said they'd have to wait until everything dried when he was halfway through his stack.

Then, it seemed, Alex remembered something and was rushing back into the house. Jack joined him once he knew his sheets were complete, and he saw the shorter man cutting up paper.

“Here, I already drew yours. You just have to cut it out,” Alex said, not looking up from his own work. As with everything else, Jack kept quiet and did as he was told.

More gluing, taping, cutting, and folding later, and Jack felt kind of proud with his work. Sure, it looked horrendous, but Alex's did, too, so he wasn't too worried about it. Besides, it was probably due to the fact that it wasn't made of fancy tissue paper with flower designs all over it, but it was good enough for the amount of effort he put in.

Both were set on the kitchen table to dry out completely, and as soon as the younger man deemed it dark enough, they were brought out to the backyard and lit.

“You gotta make a wish,” Alex said as he lit his own lantern, eyes closing once the lighter was removed from his lantern. Jack did just that, eyes closing as he wished for the rest of the list to be simpler than Alex's definition of the word. He opened his eyes just in time to see his partner doing the same.

“Are we doing a countdown, or are we just letting them go whenever?” he inquired, and Alex shrugged before deciding that starting a countdown whenever was a pretty good medium.

“In three... two... one... go!” he cried, pushing his lantern into the air with both hands. Jack let go of his as well, and he reached out to wrap his right arm around Alex's waist as they gazed upon their creations.

Then, tragedy struck.

Alex's continued to float through the air, light as a feather and bright as a new light bulb, but Jack's? Jack's wasn't so lucky.

No, the elder's lantern crashed to the ground. Before Alex could even get out a laugh, it was bursting into flames.

“You didn't... you...” Alex choked, tears streaming down his cheeks as Jack ran toward the disaster area. “You only sprayed one side, didn't you? And you probably didn't use enough tape.”

As Alex did his best to (vainly) control his hysterics, Jack merely pouted down at what was once his masterpiece.