Long Way Home

"Alex! Alex! 'Lex! Alex! Alexander!"

The aforementioned male blinks blearily, rubbing at his eyes as he groans in the back of his throat. He slowly pulls himself up into an upright position, eyes narrowing on the skunk-haired male who's grinning at him like he's just won the fucking lottery. But this is Jack Barakat he's talking about – the dude gets excited about the littlest of things. It's a little endearing, honestly, but Alex would never admit to that out loud.

"What?" He grumbles, voice hoarse from hours of disuse due him being asleep.

"Get up, you fuckwit."

"Why?" Alex whines, letting his body fall back down onto the bed.

"Because," Jack huffs. "We're going to Disneyland."

"We're a bunch of twenty something year olds," Alex mumbles half-heartedly, voice muffled due to how his face is buried in the pillow. And okay, maybe he likes the idea of going to Disneyland but like. They're a bunch of twenty something year olds, and Flyzik's not even with them anymore. He'd rather go to Universal, or somewhere with more rides and stuff (with the exception of Six Flags, of course, because you know. Banned, and all that). "Why are we going to Disneyland?"

Jack pulls the duvet off of the older male's body, earning another groan from him. He rolls his eyes, "Flyzik's here, and we wanna, like, you know. Relive old times and all that shit."

Alex's eyes pop open at that, then he's raising a brow at the younger as he props his upper body up by his elbow. "Flyzik's here?" He echoes.

"Yeah," Jack grins. "Surprise visit. Said he missed us. But, I mean," he lets out a playful scoff. "Who wouldn't?"

Alex just scoffs again, blearily rolling his eyes. "I wouldn't."

"Rude," Jack gasps over dramatically then, putting a hand over his heart. "Get up," he whines again. "Or we're going without you. You wouldn't mind, would you? Since, you know. We're a bunch of twenty something year olds, and all."

"... Wanna go to Disney," Alex mumbles, slowly pulling himself into a more upright person and then swinging his legs across the bed.

"Of course you do," Jack laughs joyfully, rolling his eyes. Alex tells himself that he rolls his eyes fondly over at the elder, just to make himself feel a little better and to stop himself from chucking one of his pillow's at the younger. "Go get dressed and – wait," he pauses, taking a step closer to the frontman of the band and taking a sniff of the air. Jack scrunches his nose up in distaste, brows furrowing as he takes a step back. "Go fuckin' shower. You stink."

Alex pouts slightly, lifting his arm up and smelling himself. "S'not that bad," he mumbles and okay, it's kind of a lie. He does kind of stink but he's smelled worst before.

Jack scoffs, "Uh, yes, it is that bad. Go shower."

"But I barely smell!" Alex protests.

"You smell disgusting," Jack pulls a face. "Go shower."

"But – "

"Don't make me get Flyzik," the younger warns, raising a brow. "He'll go all babysitter on your ass – you know he will. Plus... you don't wanna smell like shit when you meet the pretty princesses and stuff, do you?" He smirks then and Alex rolls his eyes, shoving his friend lightly in the shoulder with the words "piss off" mumbled under his breath as he made his way to the bathroom.

See, the thing is, Jack's a great friend. Really, he is. And Alex has always known this because he was the stupid English kid with the accent, who had come from a private school to a public school, and people thought he was weird because of how he dressed (he thought he was cool but really, he wasn't, at all) and the only person to not look at him like he was from another universe was Jack mother fuckin' Barakat.

It took a while for them to be proper best friends because, well. Jack was a weird kid. He still is. He thought Alex was trying to compete with him by having bigger eyebrows than him, or something, but he let it go when he realised that Alex could play the guitar and was "an alright singer" – his words exactly.

Jack's also a great friend because he likes to see his friends happy. He likes seeing other people, in general, being happy – but it's, like, a bonus to him when it's his friends and if he'd had something to do with their happiness. He's just such a nice guy that even when Alex was falling too hard and too fast for some girls that they'd toured with, Jack wouldn't have the heart to tell him that it'll end anyway. He never had the heart to tell Alex about how his and Lisa's relationship was more toxic than anything – till they finally called it off. 'Said that he'd been waiting for the day they broke up because he didn't want them to get married, only to hurt each other even more than they already have whilst only being "boyfriend-girlfriend".

Alex and Lisa. Lisa and Alex. It's never complete when one name comes without the other, when they're back in Baltimore. But then when Alex is on tour, it's like Lisa ceases to exist and it's so fucked up. And Lisa's a great girl, really, but she deserves to be happy with someone who isn't Alex. She deserves someone who won't constantly be on tour and won't constantly hook up with other girls because their relationship's so inconsistent that neither of them are even aware of when they're together and when they're just friends.

Which leads to how Alex had literally told her straight-up, before he left for tour, that he thought it'd be best if they parted ways. He was prepared for tears, or like, maybe her trying to convince him that they could work it out, but then she smiled and she looked almost relieved. Turns out that she loved him just like he loved her. As a friend, and nothing more.

(And she'd also met a guy that she was really interested in, as was he, but hadn't pursued it because of how she thought that Alex was still legit in love with her. She was going to try and make herself fall back in love with Alex because she'd been in love with him for at least eight years of her life, so she was sure that she could fall back in love with him. When Lisa told him this, Alex just blinked and her and then he was practically prancing around the lounge room, singing "Lisa's got a boyfriend, Lisa's got a boyfriend," like the mature twenty-six year old he absolutely is.)

Jack's a good friend because ever since then, he's been trying to get Alex to start dating again. Not casual hooking up anymore because he's almost thirty (and that's terrifying to think about) so he needs something stable. However, it's a little hard, since they're on tour and all. Jack's just trying his best to find a pretty enough girl that looks nice enough and seems like Alex's type (petite, usually under 5'4", dark hair), and then proceed to shove his best friend over to said girl to chat her up a bit.

Thus why he's persistent on Alex getting a shower so that he doesn't smell like shit when he "meets the pretty princesses" later.

Alex's breathes out a laugh as he's under the shower head, letting the water pour down on his body. He may not like how his best friend's trying to get him to date again and proper settle down, but he appreciates it.

And hey, maybe Jack's right. Maybe he'll meet a pretty princess today.



Disneyland's so great. Gives him a sense of being a child again, and now that he's older, he can actually hit on the pretty princesses without being laughed at patronisingly because he's not a little kid who barely reaches their knee and is dressed in plaid shorts and weird t-shirts. Now he's just a twenty something year old man who is single and dresses better and actually has a stable(ish) job.

The group of twenty something year old men are sat in one of the many themed restaurant/diner things in Disneyland itself. They're at one of the longer tables and Alex is right by the window. He's talking to his mates while eating, and laughing, and just generally having a good time, then he sees her.

She's walking with a curious expression on her face, elbows bent and hands clasping each other as she looks around like she's looking at everything for the first time. And holy fuck, she's gorgeous – even in her costume.

Kids see her and they start to come up to her, shyly asking for photos probably, and she lets a wide smile come across her lips as she nods enthusiastically, skipping over to where the kid wants to take the photo and posing with them. More kids come and she takes more photos, smiling brightly and greeting them all with enthusiasm as she does so.

Alex is smitten. With a fucking Disney worker. And he hasn't even fucking spoken to her. Damn Jack for even putting that idea into his head.

The devil himself, a.k.a. Jack, seemed to have noticed Alex staring out the window. And like, Alex isn't even sure when his lips curled up into a smile but he is smiling slightly, just from watching her interact with the kids.

Jack nudges him lightly (he's sat next to Alex), "Dude. What are you looking at?"

Alex snaps out of his daze, shaking his head, "What? Huh? Wasn't looking at anyone," he splutters out.

Jack smirks, "Never said you were looking at a person." He grins, and Alex rolls his eyes. Smug bastard. "So who is it?" He asks, looking out the window, too.

Alex mumbles something incoherent under his breath, taking a drink from his milkshake. Jack raises a brow. The elder sighs dramatically, "Wendy. I was looking at Wendy."

The younger male looks at him, then he's laughing gleefully, clapping his hands together like a fucking seal. The others turn to look at him curiously and when Jack just shakes his head, they turn back to whatever conversations they were having because they're used to Jack being Jack that they're not even phased anymore.

"Come on," Jack says then, getting to his feet. Alex shoots him a confused look, raising both eyebrows in silent question as to where exactly he was intending on bringing the elder. "We're gonna go take a picture for you."

They make it out of the restaurant, then Alex is frowning. "Nah, let's wait. Look," he gestures to the kids wanting a photo. "They should get their photo first and, um, yeah."

"Why are you nervous?" Jack laughs lightly, amused.

"M'not,"

"Dude," Jack laughs again, slinging an arm around his shoulder. "You play shows to thousands of people almost every night. You meet beautiful people everyday. This is just another day," he shrugs. "Besides. Think of it as like, you being a kid and wanting a photo with a princess because why not, you know?"

The elder nods, "Yeah," he takes in a breath, "Okay."

"Good," Jack claps him on the back, gently shoving him towards where Wendy's taking a photo with the last of the children in the small line. "Turn on the charm, Gaskarth."

Alex sidles up to the pretty stranger then, a smirk on his handsome face. "Hey Wendy," he greets, earning the pretty stranger's attention.

She smiles at him, but Alex sees the way her eyes dart across his face and then glance down at his body. Yeah, he saw it. Wendy isn't as sneaky as she probably thought she was. It's making him wonder why he was ever nervous because Jack's right. This is just another beautiful person.

"Hello," she greets and her voice is chipper – like, overly chipper. He understands though. Working at Disney must be loads of fun, but also energy draining.

"Hey. Mind if we take a picture?" He asks, raising an eyebrow, gesturing to where Jack waves his iPhone over at the pair with a little, amused grin on his lips.

"Of course," the pretty stranger nods, smiling again. Then she moves to stand next to him, letting Alex wrap his arm around her shoulders loosely whilst she wraps both of her arms around his waist.

Alex just grins in the direction of the camera, tightening his arm around her shoulder. He can barely hear the camera shutter go off because of how noisy it is around him, but he has a feeling that Jack's taking multiple photos, just because. So Alex leans down the slightest bit (because she's not that short, just a few inches shorter than himself), so that his mouth's placed right by her ear.

"Hey, Wendy," he whispers, and okay, maybe he smirks triumphantly when he can hear an audible gulp coming from Wendy. "I can be your lost boy," Alex says into her ear, only blushing and biting on his bottom lip when he pulls away to see her blinking at him.

"That's lovely, but I'm looking for Peter!" The pretty stranger chirps and then she's waving and bounding off to fuck knows where, leaving Alex to stand practically gaping at her.

"Dude," Jack laughs, clapping a hand on the other's shoulder. "What'd you say to her?" The older blushes, shrugging his shoulders, making Jack whine. "Dude, come on. Please tell me?"

"I told her I can be her lost boy," Alex mumbles incoherently but of fucking course, Jack hears what he's said and he's bursting out into uncontrollable laughter, clutching his stomach as he bends forward. Alex wants to smack him.

"Bro," Jack finally gets out once he's done with his laughing fit. Alex just fixes him with a completely unamused stare, crossing his arms across his chest. "You, my friend, have hit an all time low."

And this time round, Alex really does smack him.