What Love Could Do to Us

It was a strange thing for Alex to come back to the bus to.

He could hear it, muffled soft sounds from somewhere in the vehicle but he couldn't work out exactly where from or what they were. But he decided the back lounge was a good place to start looking.

Sure enough, he discovered the source of the noise; his boyfriend knelt on the floor in front of the TV, his back to Alex. He was hunched over but from the pained mewing sounds he was emitting and the way his body shuddered slightly at each deep breath, it appeared he was crying. Alex immediately discarded the plastic bag in his hand onto the sofa and ran to Jack's side, placing both hands on his boyfriend's shoulders.

"Jack? What's wrong?"

Jack turned to him, sniffling and whimpering, his eyes watering. Alex pushed his blonde-and-black fringe back from his face.

"Baby, what happened?" Alex tried again, keeping his voice gentle.

Jack blinked hard, fat tears spilling down his face. He kept his lips pressed together in a thin line, obviously not wanting to cry but unable to help it anyway. Alex shuffled as near to him as he possibly could, holding Jack's shoulders more firmly.

"Jack. Tell me what's wrong."

The younger boy whimpered, wiping his face haphazardly with both hands. "I broke my Home Alone DVD."

He revealed the boxset he was clutching in his lap, the disc of the first movie held between his thumb and forefinger. It had the most minuscule of splashes on it; seemed Jack had been crying for a while. Alex almost fell over with relief.

"Is that all?! I thought someone had died or something," he breathed, slapping a hand to his chest.

"No," Jack huffed, evidently unamused with how lightly the singer was taking this. It was a crisis, for fuck's sake! "It's scratched, Lex, it won't play! It starts jumping and freezing before it's even five minutes in!"

Alex sighed, looking up to see Jack's eyes filling with tears again. Damn him for loving that fucking film so much.

"It's scratched, Alex," Jack said shakily, holding up the DVD for him to see.

But Alex knew. Alex already knew there were about twenty scrapes and scratches scarring the shiny side of the disc, because they had watched it just three days ago. Jack fell asleep on Alex's lap during the credits and he had carried him to his bunk, slipped his jeans off and pulled the blanket over him. He went to the back lounge and took the stupid thing out the DVD player and discarded it on the floor, deciding he'd put it away later. He had wanted to watch his own movie. So he did. But when he finally decided to go to bed himself two hours on, he totally forgot about Home Alone abandoned on the floor, and he stepped on it, skidding across the room. He had panicked and shoved the disc back in the boxset quickly, hoping Jack wouldn't watch it again for at least a month and he would have thought up a reasonable alibi by then.

But he knew that wouldn't be the case, because Jack watched the fucking thing at least three times a week. And right now he really couldn't stand how upset his boyfriend looked about it.

"I broke it! I'm always so careful," Jack wailed, fresh tears threatening.

"Oh," Alex flinched guiltily. "Um, I kind of scratched that, not you..."

Jack missed a beat, staring at him. Then the points of his cheeks started to turn slightly pink, they always did that when he was mad. They often went pink when Alex was being an asshole. He jumped up, pointing at him furiously.

"You what?! You scratched it?! When?!"

"A few days ago, I left it on the floor, I didn't mean to!" Alex protested, standing up and making grabby hands at Jack, who quickly side-stepped them.

"You dick! You fucking pussy! You didn't even tell me!"

"I know, I'm sorry! I almost fucking punched myself in the balls when I scratched it, I felt horrible!" Alex defended, but he was still caught red-handed.

"I'll punch your balls for you, bastard," Jack muttered, crossing his arms and collapsing back on the sofa, holding back further tears.

How the hell was he supposed to watch Home Alone now? They had an entire tour still to go... an entire tour without his favourite DVD... What if he couldn't sleep at night? What would he watch? Or what if he was bored and too lazy to jerk off? Or upset or lonely or...

Alex sat down next to him, wiping the tear that escaped Jack's eye.

"Jacky, do you wanna know what I got at the store?"

"No."

"Yes you do."

"No I don't. Piss off."

Alex climbed into Jack's lap, straddling him and staring him straight in the face. "You really don't have a choice anyway."

Jack snorted and looked away.

"I went out to buy you a new fucking DVD because I'm a horrible boyfriend, and your favourite chocolate. Big packet," he smiled.

Jack's head snapped back to face him, his eyes lighting up. "Really?"

Alex rolled his own. "Yes, really!"

He leaned over and grabbed the bag, pulling it into his lap to sit between him and Jack. The younger rummaged in it excitedly, his skunk hair falling over his face, but Alex could still see his smile practically shining through. He pulled out the new DVD, still in the packaging, along with a massive bar of chocolate and two other bags, one filled with marshmallows and the other with popcorn. He looked up, throwing the food aside and hugging the DVD, delighted. The now-empty plastic bag was tossed to the floor and Jack rested Home Alone carefully between him and Alex before he grabbed his boyfriend's face with both hands, yanking him forwards into a messy kiss. It was all tongues and teeth but Alex didn't care, grinning against Jack's mouth and running his hands up and down his sides. Their noses nudged against each other, making Jack giggle, and then he was pulling away and jiggling excitedly underneath Alex, clearly desperate to put the film on. He held it up, almost shaking.

"...Can we?"

Alex couldn't refuse, because a) Jack was giving him the big brown puppy eyes, and b) how the hell was he meant to say no after this was all his fault anyway? He sighed and smiled, shaking his head.

"Yeah, put it on. I'll get us some hot chocolate."

Jack squealed and wriggled out from under him, dashing to the TV and ripping off the plastic. Alex was grinning all the while he was in the kitchenette making the drinks, his smile only getting wider if it were even possible when he returned to find Jack on the sofa, a blanket covering his legs as he waved the remote and bounced in his seat, eager to press play. He had the chocolate, popcorn and marshmallows spread on the sofa around him and he gestured for Alex to sit. He did as he was told, placing the mugs on the floor and cuddling up next to Jack.

Alex sighed happily as Jack lay back against his chest and played the movie. He stroked his boyfriend's hair idly, playing with the ends just like he did with his own when he was daydreaming. Jack wouldn't admit it, but it gave him butterflies every time.

"You're such a fuckin' baby, you know," Alex chuckled quietly.

"How?" Jack said, eating a marshmallow. Alex made a small sound of request and Jack reached up blindly, feeding him one too.

"'Cause," Alex said, chewing. "Cry baby. It's just a DVD. Of course I was gonna buy you a new one anyway."

"Just a DVD?"

"You know what I mean."

"It's my favourite! It makes me happy," Jack pouted.

Alex gently flicked his boyfriend's jutting bottom lip with his finger, much like you would to a toddler. Jack bit the tip of it playfully, giggling when Alex jerked his hand away and shaking it to get rid of the pain.

"Ow! That really hurt!" Alex inspected his finger closely. "I bet you broke the skin."

"Fuckin' baby," Jack muttered, smirking.

Alex sighed, a smile creeping onto his face again; why did that always happen around Jack? "Yeah, okay. So Home Alone makes you happy. Does it make you happier than me?"

"Yes."

"You didn't even think about the question! You answered too quick."

Now it was Alex's turn to pout.

Jack laughed at him again, and reached for the hand that he had bitten, pulling it in front of his face and kissing each of Alex's fingertips. When he got to the bitten one, he examined it, spotting faint teeth marks. He kissed them too, three times over, kisskisskiss.

"Better?"

"You love Home Alone more than me," Alex huffed, resting his hand on Jack's chest.

"I love Home Alone," Jack said thoughtfully. "And it makes me really, really happy. But... I can't make Home Alone happy in return. And that's why I love you more."

Alex couldn't contain his smile, the way it broke out so wide it dotted the dimples into his cheeks. Couldn't contain the butterflies in his stomach, fluttering so hard he was sure Jack could feel them. He was just quivering with love for the boy, and he didn't know how to control it. Jack could feel it, indeed. The happiness was practically radiating out of him in warm waves, enveloping every inch of Jack. He didn't say anything though. He just smiled and brought Alex's hand to his mouth, letting it rest on his lips. Alex used his bitten finger to trace them, right around Jack's mouth, loving the way it stretched from ear to ear.

He didn't even care that he had to watch Home Alone four more fucking times that week too, just as long as it was always, always with Jack.