Taking Pictures of Myself

"Jack," Alex whined, "stop it," the pair of 22 year olds were pressed up against their tour bus, the sun beating down harshly on their bodies. "Why?" Jack chuckled, continuing to nip and suck down his boyfriend's neck. "The kids might see!" Alex whined again, fully aware that they were on Warped Tour and a lot of their fans were probably walking around - maybe even looking for them. It's not like the two of them were in a very discreet place, there were few buses surrounding them, so they were fairly visible and it was times like this that Alex really hated his boyfriends impatience. If they had a hotel night, then it was fine when Jack pounced on him when they were alone in the elevator, but right here? In front of teenagers who dreamt that Alex & Jack would come out as gay and as a couple? It was far too risky, but Jack had used puppy dog eyes on him so he couldn't resist. Even when the bus door was less than two feet away.

"Oh, come on! You know they'd love to see some 'Jalex' action, or whatever it is they like to call it." Jack laughed, taking a break from marking Alex's neck to move up to his door, he felt the elder gulp before shivering under his touch, his hands coming up to grip at Jack's shoulders.

"They don't even know about us, Jack, and I don't want rumours spreading on the internet. If they hear anything I want them to hear it straight from us and not from something they read on twitter it tumblr." Alex said, remembering back to 2 weeks ago when he dyed his hair a much darker shade of brown and a few people snapped a picture of him and posted them on the internet - he could swear that within 2 hours their whole fanbase knew about it, Alex's twitter mentions got flooded with people just making up nonsense words (mostly in caps lock) and sending him pictures of his own hair, like he didn't already know what it looked like.

Alex gave a quick look around to see that nobody was near before he pulled Jack in for a quick peck on the lips, pushing the younger away almost as soon as their lips touched. "Spoil sport." Jack pouted, Alex knew that he was only joking, but that didn't change the fact that he wasn't ready to come out to their fans, granted, they would probably be happy about him and Jack dating, lord knows they wrote enough fanfiction about the two boys, but he just wasn't ready to take such a big step.

"We agreed not to tell anybody, I'm not ready..." Alex said, he was beginning to feel bad that after almost 2 years he still wasn't ready to come out about their relationship to their fans - even though he was well aware that Jack was 110% ready. "Don't worry about it, baby, I understand, I'm ready whenever you are." Jack said, giving the older boy a reassuring smile, reaching up to tuck a piece of his hair behind his ear. Alex just smiled shyly, thankful that his boyfriend was so patient with him.

"Now," Jack started, "what do you say we go back into the bus, cuddle, and watch Captain America?" He finished, watching the smile on Alex's face grow with each word he spoke. "Sounds good to me." The older boy grinned, he took hold of Jack's hand and led him onto the bus, they set up a blanket and pillows in front of the TV. Alex silently thanked Vinny because he had decided to go to a bar and the others had gone with him - meaning that the pair were alone for the time being.

Jack turned around from their DVD shelf holding up 2 cases, with a cute smile on his face he asked, "so, Captain America 1 or 2?"

~~

Jack didn't normally freak out, he liked to think of himself as a calm and collected guy, most of the time anyway. But right now, he was freaking out a little bit. He was laying down in his bunk, it was just about 7am and Alex was lying down pretty much on top of him, still fast asleep, little snores escaping his mouth every so often . But Alex's drool on his chest wasn't the reason that he was freaking out, no, he was having an internal dilemma with himself because it was their anniversary in a week and he had absolutely no idea what to do.

They were on tour so they wouldn't be able to do anything too fancy as they were on the road a lot of the time and driving, plus all of the soundchecks, shows and meet & greets, they didn't have that much time to themselves at all. Also, there was the fact that Alex had told Jack countless times that he didn't care if they did anything or not. Though Jack knew that this wasn't true, he had known the elder long enough to know that he actually did care about these things, he liked to do cute little things to mark special occasions, so he knew that Alex would be disappointed if they didn't do anything, even if he refused to show it.

He'd thought about a movie date and maybe dinner afterwards, it was cute, simple, and Alex would love it, but the idea exited his mind almost as quickly as it had entered, a movie date was something that couples did on first dates, right? Not on their 2 year anniversary. Plus, they had lots of cosy movie nights on the bus with the lights turned down and they flicked popcorn at each other, in Jack's opinion that was much better than spending way too much for cinema snacks and having to listen to the people behind you eat and talk far too loudly.

Anything that Jack came up with just didn't seem right, it was either something they couldn't do because of their schedule or just not good enough for Alex. It had to be perfect.

"Mmphhmf," Jack was brought back to Earth by Alex mumbling, his head lifting up from his chest, Jack smiled fondly as he brought his thumb up to the brown haired boys face to wipe the small trail of drool that was travelling down his chin.

"Morning," Jack smiled, the elder always looked really adorable of a morning, his hair was a mess and he had a dopey grin on his lips, his eyes still dropping closed every now and then. Alex tried to mumble a 'morning' back but it just sounded like gibberish, he put his head back down onto Jack's chest and his eyes slip shut, "what time is it?" He muttered, being disturbed when Jack lifted up to retrieve his phone from underneath his pillow. "7:23" he answered precisely, the sound of Alex's groan meeting his ears almost immediately, "too early, sleep now," he moaned, shifting to get himself comfortable on Jack while said not just chuckled. Yeah, he could do with some extra sleep.

~~

It was when Jack saw Alex on his laptop that he knew exactly what they were going to do for their anniversary. It was only 3 days prior and Jack had woken up in the middle of the night - around 2am - to no Alex, the older boy's head wasn't on his chest, his legs weren't tangled with his and his arm wasn't draped around his waist. He got himself up out of his bunk and padded into the front, planning to get himself a bottle of water - and find his boyfriend. Alex was sitting on one of the couches, his eyes wide in total amazement and his jaw hanging slightly open while he scrolled through whatever he was looking at.

Jack's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he made his way over to the boy, he sat down beside him with a thump, still not gaining his attention. "What'chu got there?" He asked tiredly. Alex jumped slightly, not expecting the youngers presence before he composed himself and turned to face him. "Did you know that Uranus' moons are named after characters created by Shakespeare and Alexander Pope?" He said in amazement, like he'd just discovered a cure for every disease ever. He watched as Jack just nodded along, speaking when he finished, "that's amazing, yeah," he said and Alex chuckled, it was nice that he actually tried, but a shame that he wasn't a very good actor.

"Nice try, babe," he laughed, closing his laptop and setting it on the table. The two got themselves comfortable on the couch - not even bothering to go back to Jack's bunk, they just grabbed the blanket that was on the back and draped it over themselves, exchanging their goodnights they let their eyes slip shut and sleep consume them.

~~

"Who knew that Jack Barakat could make it 2 years being in a relationship with the same person? Congratulations guys," Vinny said, probably too loudly and waking everyone up, as soon as he walked into the front of the bus. The pair smiled at him and said their "thank you's," it amazed Jack too sometimes. 2 and a half years ago he wouldn't even look at a guy in a sexual way - now he wouldn't look at anyone else but Alex in a sexual way. Not that Alex minded, he was happy if Jack stared at him all day, it kind of made him feel wanted and loved. Which he knew he was, it was just nice either way.

Everyone had made sure that they didn't accidentally post anything on twitter about the pair's relationship so they all congratulated them on their bus where they had the privacy to do so. Their parents had phoned them and just about blown their ears off with the excited yells and laughs - mostly their mothers - and all of their other close friends and family had text them to congratulate them. So all in all they were safe.

Jack had made Alex breakfast in bed and they may or may not have engaged in some sexual activities while everyone else was asleep, but what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

They were sat in the front of the bus, Jack waiting until the evening before he took Alex out, they were both cuddled close together, limbs tangled together while their eyes stayed glued to the episode of Breaking Bad that they were watching.

They hadn't exchanged gifts - they didn't really do that kind of thing because they had agreed that if they had each other then they had everything they needed, no matter how cheesy it sounded. Even if they didn't exchange gifts - Alex knew exactly what he was going to do for Jack later tonight. He’d been thinking about it for the past few days and he knew that he was ready to go for it and take that extra leap in their relationship.

~~

"Jack!" Alex whined, the younger had out a blindfold over his eyes and led him off the parked bus so he couldn't see anything. He was using his hands to feel around him and he was trying to remember what route Jack was taking him so that he could work out where they were going but he was having no luck. "Where are we going?" He asked for about the 5th time, while Jack just rolled his eyes, giving the same answer that he had every time Alex asked. "You'll see! Be patient," he laughed. He'd had Rian and Jeff come out about half an hour ago to set everything up so he hadn't seen it and he hoped it was as perfect as he imagined.

The breeze was warm against their bare arms as they walked through the small field that Jack had found the other day when he went on a walk. There was a small hill up to a cliff and Jack had asked Rian and Jeff to set the stuff up there, that way they could look out over the cliff and enjoy the view. “Okay,” Jack started, beginning to untie the elder’s blindfold, "we’re here," he took the blindfold off and stuffed it into his back pocket, waiting for Alex to open his eyes and take a look.

When he did open up his eyes, he gasped. There was a blanket laid out on the floor with a basket on it that Alex guessed was filled with food, there were small candles laid around the blanket as the ground was flat and they brightened the place up. He had to chuckle at the fact that there was a cooler with beer in it to the side of the blanket. He felt Jack’s arms wrap around his waist and he muttered into his ear “I thought that we could watch the stars when it gets darker,I figured you’d like it.” He said as Alex turned around and wrapped his arms around his neck. He leant up to peck his lips, “I love it,” he said against them, “I love you,” he went on, pulling apart and taking Jack’s hand in his and leading him to the blanket.

By the time their stomachs were full and they were both on their 3rd beer, it had gone dark and they were laying down on the blanket - in the same position as they were when they slept. With Alex laying his head in the crook of Jack’s neck and his arm draped over his waist.

“Oh, look at that one!” Alex said in excitement, pointing to a one of the brightest stars that was visible. “Yeah,” Jack smiled fondly, looking down to the older boy instead of looking to the sky at the stars. He rubbed at Alex’s arm and kissed the top of his head, gaining his attention. He moved his head so that he was looking up at Jack, “hey,” he said quietly, filling the silence. He leaned up further to connect their lips together softly, the kiss quickly progressed so that their lips were pushing together harder and it didn’t take long for tongue to be added.

After a few more minutes of the two making our, Jack felt a flash go off and he heard a camera click, he pulled away in confusion, seeing a smiling Alex looking at him, he moved his eyes to look at the elder’s phone above them. Alex clicked on the picture and yeah, Jack would admit that it was damn cute. The two had their lips locked and were smiling into the kiss.
“Why’d you do that?” Jack whined, no matter how cute they looked he was kind of enjoying their make out session.

Alex just smiled, turning to his phone and opening up his twitter app. “Jack?” He started, only getting a hum in response.
“I’m ready,” Alex said, gaining Jack’s full attention, he moved himself so that he was situated fully on top of Jack, their foreheads resting together.
“What?” Jack asked, completely oblivious to what his boyfriend was talking about.
“I’m ready to tell our fans about us.” Alex explained, he saw as Jack’s eyes blew wide.
“Alex, you really don’t have to if you don’t wan-” Alex cut the younger off, “Jack! I want to, I really want to, I love you so fucking much and I want everyone to know that we’re together and we’re happy and I don’t even care what they think about us because I have you and you’re the most important person in my life,” he finished his small speech, looking down to see Jack grinning like an idiot.

The skunk haired boy sat up and crashed his lips against his other half's, “I love you too, you sappy shit,” he said against them, both of them chuckling into each others mouths. Alex pulled away, giving Jack one final peck before he put his attention back to his phone.

He clicked the ‘compose new tweet’ button and attached the picture he took of them first before he typed out the message.

@JackAllTimeLow, happy anniversary, baby! Here’s to many more years together! x

He made sure to add a few emojis in at the end, if he was going to tell everyone about his relationship he was going to be sappy about it because god damn it he was allowed to.

He grinned as he tweeted it, turning his phone off for the night otherwise it would be buzzing every 2 seconds. He threw it onto the blanket beside the two of them and brought their lips together, “happy anniversary, baby.”