Endlessly

Jack sighs heavily. There's no way to escape this; if they don't talk about it now, they'll have to later. Granted, this probably isn't the best time or place to do it, but getting it out of the way seems like a good idea. "Can we talk about it when we get to the hotel? I want you to be able to take pictures before we dock, which should be any minute now."

Alex looks wistfully out the window, and nods hesitantly. "Promise?"

Jack's nod is much more sure. "Yes, I promise. We'll have to talk about it eventually at some point, anyways."

The pictures turn out perfect. Alex is a natural photographer, able to capture the beauty of this night in just a few clicks. Maybe he could learn how to develop his own film. Jack decides he'll look into buying the stuff Alex would need for that when they get home.

The hotel is just down the street from the Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. Jack purposely takes his time pointing out some of his favorite haunts and walking slowly to take in the early evening, giving him more time to think about how tonight's conversation would go. Maybe it wasn't good planning on his part to explain condoms to someone as innocent as Alex in a hotel room.

Despite everything on his mind, the way Alex's jaw drops when they stop in front of the hotel makes him laugh. "Are you gonna come in with me, or would you rather gawk out here all night?" He teases, squeezing the angel's hand, which he hasn't let go of since they left the boat.

Alex's jaw snaps shut so quickly Jack can hear his teeth clack together. "Is this really necessary?" Alex whispers, blushing at the ground.

"What, a place to sleep for the night?" He wants to desperately avoid this conversation. He already has one awkward talk to have, he doesn't need to hear Alex's opinions on what he does with his money.

Alex scowls. "You know what I mean."

"Yes, I do have to do this." Jack snaps back. "Look, I want to show you my world, and if that means dropping a pretty penny, so be it. I'll let you do the same thing. I'll go volunteer with you at a soup kitchen or whatever you do for fun sometime. I'll donate something to charity if that's what you'd like."

Now Alex's blush is back. He's been antagonizing Jack for so much, and ignoring all of the wonderful things Jack's trying to give him. All he's been able to think about today is money. He's been trying to make the most of Jack's money by using the camera as much as possible and getting overly excited about everything they're doing, but this hotel must cost a fortune to stay at. Short of, well, doing it, how could he express his thanks?

Fuck, was Jack expecting him to do that tonight?

No, he wouldn't. He promised Alex that they wouldn't until they were binded. "I'm sorry." he blushes again, still finding the ground intriguing. "I'm trying, I swear."

Jack takes a calming breath. "I know you are. How about we just go inside and forget this? We've got bigger things to talk about."

Alex smiles up at him and takes his offer readily. "Alright."

After a good fifteen minutes of feeling severely underdressed, and as a result criticized, Alex is relieved when they reach the top floor, the 45th. "This is my favorite place in all of New York." Jack claims just before the elevator doors open to reveal the most extravagant hotel room possibly in existence. Expensive chandeliers, wall of windows, golden accents on, well, everything, and a leather couch are just what they can see before they even take a step inside the room.

"Damn." Alex whispers under his breath, taking a delicate step onto the pristine white carpet as if his foot would break it. He slides his shoes off by the entrance so he doesn't mess up the floor. Jack does the same. "Remind me to take pictures of this room before we leave."

"You don't want to right now?" Jack's positive Alex has now caught on to his stalling.

The angel gives him a bittersweet smile and shakes his head. "We should just get this talk over now. You're clearly nervous, and I don't want to walk on eggshells with you all night."

"You're right." Jack huffs. "Sit down." He gestures to the long L-shaped couch, where Alex carefully takes a seat. "This room won't break, you know." Jack slides off his backpack and sit it on the end of the couch opposite to Alex.

"Ha, ha." Alex deadpans. "I know that. It's just so nice I don't want to mess anything up until I absolutely have to."

Jack nods absently, turning to his bag and digging through it until he finds the little troublemaker at the bottom of the bag. "There's nothing to be nervous about." he mutters, steeling himself up before turning back to Alex, condom in hand. "You were serious about not knowing what this was, right?" Jack is almost embarrassed to hold it up in front of Alex again.

Alex bites his lip. "Um, should I know what it is?"

The demon's laughter dissipates a bit of the tension in the air. "Guess not, considering your upbringing." He laughs again when Alex raises an eyebrow. "I bet your parents are strong 'abstinence only' believers when it comes to sex, right? And don't believe in protection or birth control?"

The boy's eyes and mouth widen simultaneously in realization. "That's, uh, protection?"

Jack nods slowly. "I didn't mean to bring it along. Don't worry, I have no intentions of having sex tonight, unless you change your mind..." He smirks at Alex's glower. "But yes, this is a condom. I guess I accidentally left it in here from a previous trip." Jack shrugs, hoping that Alex doesn't make this into a bigger deal than it is. "Do-Do you know what they do?"

Jack hides his laughter at Alex squirming. "After the first day of sex ed., I got my parents to write me an excuse slip so I didn't have to go. I was 14; I already knew I was gay and they were only teaching about straight sex, anyways. Not to mention that yes, my parents are all for abstinence until marriage. I didn't think it was necessary for me to sit through that. So, no, I have no idea what a condom is."

Jack facepalms. "You're making this really hard for me, you know that?" The angel cocks his head to the side, confused. "Even demons can have an innocence kink, okay?" He defends.

"Kink?"

"Oh my fucking..." He trails off, remembering Alex probably wouldn't appreciate him finishing that sentence. "Never mind that. We can go over that some other time. A condom," Jack places the foil packet on Alex's knee, to which he reacts by shoving it away to the floor. Jack just rolls his eyes and continues, trying to decide the best way to explain this to someone with the sexual innocence of a 5-year-old. "...it's kind of like a penis...coat." Jack cringes as the words come out of his mouth, but he's really never had to prepare a speech like this. He took sex ed. when he was 13 and lost his virginity to a classmate when he was 14. How did his teacher describe it again?

Alex can't help it; he giggles. "A penis coat?"

Jack elbows him for laughing. "Shut up. Yes, a penis coat. It keeps the semen - you know what that is, right?" Alex nods hesitantly, and Jack will take it for now because he's not giving his future boyfriend a fucking sex talk. At least not tonight. "Okay. It keeps the semen from getting...everywhere."

Another cringe, but this time Alex joins Jack. "Okay, I-I think I get it now. You can stop." Alex says, covering his face.

"Good." Jack nods, proud that he survived that with minimal embarrassment. "Now, if that's all, I'm pretty tired, and I bet you are too-" He stands up and starts taking off his shirt.

"Keep your shirt on!" Alex nearly shouts, cutting him off. He's just taken his hands away from his face, but now he throws them back up.

"I'm not keeping my wings folded up all night." Jack ignores him, shedding his shirt. This is the longest they've gone without their wings being free, and Jack's not sure why Alex isn't practically ripping off his own shirt. He's got to be just as uncomfortable as Jack himself, and it's not like there's anything they haven't seen of one another before. "Was that your plan?" He asks in disbelief.

Alex's hands leave his face in exchange for crossing his arms over his chest. His face is bright red. "Of course not." He scoffs.

Jack struggles to hold back laughter. "Then what's the problem?"

Alex thinks for a second before standing up. "There isn't one." He says quietly, shrugging out of his own shirt and tossing it toward their bag, refusing to even look in Jack's direction as he prepares for bed.

"Alex." Jack tries, but Alex doesn't respond. The only thing that gets his eyes on Jack is Jack crossing the room and grabbing the angel (lightly) by his chin. "Alex." He repeats. Surprisingly there's no sounds of protest yet. "Just because we had that conversation doesn't mean I expect anything to happen tonight. You wanted to know, so I told you. That's all. You don't need to worry about me trying to have sex with you again right now. This is strictly about sleep tonight." He gestures to the large, plush bed, which sits through an open door.

Tension melts off of Alex nearly immediately. Jack's heart plummets. Does he really have that low of an opinion of Jack? "Okay. Sleep. I'll just, um, go brush my teeth." He stutters. Jack beats him to the bag and hands Alex his toiletries. Once he disappears inside the bathroom, Jack flops backside up onto the mattress.

Although they are working things out, there's still a long way to go before Alex feels anything remotely close to what Jack does.

***

On their way home, Alex receives a text from his mother, telling him to meet at the field by their house. It's about a quarter mile away from their property, and that's where his parents always go when their wings are itching to get into the air. The childlike excitement that overtook Alex yesterday comes back. "We're taking a detour." Alex tells Jack excitedly, explaining the text.

"We decided today would be a good day to teach you both how to fly. It's a beautiful day and if you don't break them in soon, they'll just get weaker." Isobel explains once they reach the clearing. All four of their parents are waiting for them. Just hearing the word "fly" makes Alex's wings tremble against his back, begging to break free and do what they are meant to do. "Okay, let's do it." Alex answers for both of them. Jack looks just as ready as he feels.

"Excellent." Isobel replies. "First thing's first: shirts off." Every supernatural creature with wings flew shirtless, including the females. When flying, supernatural beings were invisible to the human eye, so that has never been a problem. Outside of the human world, breasts aren't as sexualized and never censored. There's no reason for it. Alex and Jack have never felt the embarrassment boys their age usually did when walking in on their mother naked. The human body simply has never been a big deal to them. Besides, flying with shirts on would be a hindrance to anyone, not to mention it would be annoying to rip a shirt every time you wanted to fly.

Once everyone is shirtless and wings are unfolded, the boys learn how to flap their wings and build up their stamina. The parents explain how to control their speed and soon, the two are prepared to get in the sky. This is a right of passage, something they've heard about for years, and it's finally here, even though they thought the day would never come. "Once, you're ready, come join us in the sky. You'll have to catch us all before we grant you flying privileges!" The second the last syllable leaves Joyce's mouth, there's a gush of wind in Jack and Alex's faces from the takeoff of four pair of humongous wings. This is like a driving test for them.

Alex watches in awe as they flit around in the sky, flying after each other like kids. Laughter trickles down like rain and covers the boys in a childlike joy. "Let's go!" Jack shouts, grabbing Alex's hand and taking off.

The parents hear the boys leave the ground, and immediately separate, each going a different way. Both of the boys - especially Jack, though, due to the stunt he pulled before his wings were healed - struggle to get to the height their parents are at, but they manage. "I think - our moms - are on the left." Alex pants. "You should - go for them." Just as out-of-breath as Alex, Jack simply nods. Hopefully they'll be easier to catch than the dads, whom Alex is already flying toward.

Just like running, as time goes on, flying gets easier and the boys feel like they can breathe again, which only enforces their motivation. Soon, their parents' laughter has quieted as they struggle to stay out of the boys' grasps. Isobel is the first to be caught, but by accident. She accidentally runs into Jack as she's getting away from Alex. The boys high-five on their teamwork as Isobel goes back to the ground. One down, three to go.

Bassam is the next to go, and not long after, Joyce. Even when combining their efforts, it takes another 20 minutes for them to catch Alex's father - longer than it took to catch the other 3 combined. "Well done, boys." Peter congratulates. He sounds just as tired as the boys. "Now, I think Isobel and I will head home. I assume you're staying at Jack's still, Alex?"

Alex nods while Jack verbally confirms it. "Yes, but if it's not a problem we'll stop by in an hour or so so Alex can get some of his stuff. Clothes and whatever. I want to practice flying more before then."

"Of course. We didn't even think about that; we would have sent stuff if we had. I'll let Joyce and Bassam know your plans. If you'd like, you two can have dinner with us while you're there."

"That sounds great, dad." Alex cuts in. Peter looks dubiously at Jack, but the demon stays quiet. Alex clearly answered because he didn't want Jack to say no.

"Alright, we'll see you then!" Peter says and then he's gone. Their parents are small as ants from this distance. For the first time, Alex thinks of falling and his wings stutter.

Jack grabs his arm before he can go far. "You okay?" His eyebrows are creased in confusion, worry.

"Y-Yeah. I don't know why that happened."

Suddenly Alex feels an arm around his waist as his chest presses into Jack's. "Then I guess I should keep you close. I don't want you to fall." He murmurs.

"A fall from this height just might solve all of our problems." Alex jokes. Jack chuckles. He's kind of surprised that Alex has a dark side to his humor not too different from Jack's.

Jack looks down. He can just make out their parents getting into their cars. Should I do it? Jack considers, biting his lip. Alex looks so content and relaxed, looking down at the world. This could either end extremely well or extremely bad. Jack's never dealt with nervousness like this before. Is this what full humans felt all the time when interacting with one another romantically?

The boys watch their parents' headlights fade. Neither realized they were in the air for so long that it was getting dark. Another perk to flying was heightened vision; they barely even noticed the light change because their perception hasn't changed in the slightest. Oh, fuck it, Jack decides finally. "So might this."He whispers. His head leans closer to Alex's under there's no room in between them. Their noses sit side-by-side as their lips meet in their first mutually consensual kiss. Jack's hand - the one not around Alex's waist holding him for dear life - finds the curve of his cheek where his face meets his neck. Alex's hands move to Jack's shoulders, and eventually his hair. He doesn't pull it, just holds it, holds Jack in place as he kisses back. There's no tongue, but at some point Jack's teeth find Alex's bottom lip. The sound the angel makes when that happens is downright heavenly.

Alex decides he likes Jack's problem solving more than his own.