I'm Sick of Sleeping Alone (so I'll Just Sneak Into My Best Friend's Bed)

It was the last day of tour, and the guys were on the bus, on their way back home. They were all in different parts of the vehicle, each making something different to pass the time.

Suddenly, an animal appeared right in the middle of the road, and the bus driver violently turned the bus to the side to avoid hitting it, causing the vehicle to squid and enter the woods, crashing into a group of trees.

An ambulance was called almost immediately after the accident, by someone who had watched the whole thing, and everyone was taken to the hospital to treat their injuries.

Rian and Zack escaped with some light injuries, nothing too serious, and got out the same day. Alex and Jack weren’t so lucky.

Jack was literally thrown into a cabinet when the bus turned, and the force of the impact got him some broken ribs. Fortunately, no vital organs were affected.

Alex was next to the window when it all happened, and when the bus crashed a branch broke through the glass and stabbed him in the left side of his stomach.
He was taken to the block as soon as he reached the hospital, and as the doctors realized the branch had gone through his spleen, they decided to remove it.

When Alex woke up from the surgery, his first thought was of his friends.

“We’re fine Alex, you don’t need to worry.” Rian assured his friend as he started to panic.

Rian had bandages on his forehead, which had a rather big cut, and one of his fingers was broken, so he had it in a cast.

“Where are Jack and Zack?” Alex asked, only mildly relieved.

“Zack is on Jack’s room down the corridor. He broke some ribs and the doctors decided to keep him here for a few days. Like you, actually. And Zack’s fine, only broke an arm, nothing really serious.”

Alex seemed to have ignored the last part.

“Is Jack okay? I- I have to see him!” Alex exclaimed, trying to sit down.

He regretted it soon, though, as the stitches started pulling on his skin and it hurt like hell.

“Dude, are you crazy? You just gone through a surgery, you need to rest!” Rian scolded, trying his best to keep Alex in the bed.

At the end of the corridor, inside Jack’s room, the scenario wasn’t that different.

“Jack, there’s no way I’m gonna let you go to Alex’s room. The doctor said you couldn’t get out of this bed.” Zack said, crossing his arms. Or, well, the best he could with an arm casted.

“But Zack, I need to see him!” Jack whined. “You said Alex had to go through a surgery, he can’t be as good as you’re telling me!”

Zack sighed. If I knew he’d react this way I wouldn’t have tell him anything.

“He is, okay? I talked to the doctor, he told me the surgery was simple and that Alex would recover in a week max. So there’s nothing to worry about, and- stay still!” he exclaimed as Jack started to get up again. “I might have only one arm working, but I sure as hell can still keep you in that bed!”

“Ugh, fine.” Jack huffed, crossing his arms and pouting like a five year old.

The scene didn’t last long, though, as the pressure on his chest made him yelp in pain.

Zack smiled. “That was well deserved. Now, I have to go, visit time’s over, but me and Rian will come back tomorrow. Good night.”

“G’bye.” Jack muttered, laying down on the bed with extra care, not wanting to feel that pain on his chest again.

The hours passed, dinner came and went, and soon the clock stroke midnight.

Jack was looking through the window next to his bed, watching the starry sky. He wasn’t paying attention to it, though; his mind was focused on something else.

On someone else.

He wondered if Alex was as good as Zack had told him. He could have lied to him to make him less worried.

Except that wasn’t Zack’s style. If something was wrong he’d tell the truth. Plus Jack could see it when Zack was lying.

So maybe Alex really was okay. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t see him.

Jack got out of the bed, wincing at every sudden movement, and slowly opened the door of his room.

He scoped the corridor, looking for any medical staff that could be around. Seeing none, he silently got out, closing the door behind him.

Jack soon found out he had no idea in which room Alex was, so he decided to check out every room.

After five fruitless tries, he finally found his room.

Slowly opening the door, he looked inside, and saw Alex on the hospital bed, apparently sleeping.

Jack carefully closed the door and walked to the side of the bed, jumping when Alex opened his eyes and looked at him.

“Jack? What the hell are you doing here?” Alex asked, surprised, but with a smile on his face.

“Zack told me you went to the block, I was worried about you. What happened?”

Alex sat up, smiling. “Nothing big, a tree decided to stab me on the stomach and they had to remove my spleen or something.” He heard Jack chuckle. “And you? I’ve heard you broke some ribs.”

“Yeah, I flew straight into the cabinet in the kitchenette and it earned me 4 broken ribs. Could’ve been worse.” Jack shrug, hiding the pain the movement caused.

“You know you shouldn’t be here. You should be resting right now. Plus the doctor is gonna be pissed off at you when he finds out.”

“I just couldn’t be all night on that freaking hospital bed without sneaking out to check on my best friend!” he exclaimed, pausing for a moment before continuing: “But maybe I should go back to my room. Where else should I sleep, anyway?”

“You could sleep here.” Alex said on impulse, blushing right away. “I- I mean, I-”

“Well, that actually isn’t a bad idea.” Jack smiled. “Is there room for two in that bed?”

Alex didn’t say anything, too embarrassed to answer, and just moved to the side, giving Jack space to sneak in.

After some incidents – Alex accidentally elbowed Jack on the side and had to cover his mouth to muffle the scream – and some threats of falling off the bed, they finally managed to fit on the narrow space of the bed, Jack laying half on the side with Alex pressed against his shoulder.

“You comfy?” Jack muttered, and Alex nodded, yawning.

“Yeah. You’re sorta bony, but you’re more comfortable than this hospital bed.” He replied, starting to doze off.

Jack couldn’t help but think it felt good as he fell asleep.

The morning came, and with it the consequences of Jack’s small runaway. After some panic form the nurses’ side, they started looking for the missing patient, eventually finding him sleeping on the same bed as another patient.

After a quick call to the doctor, they were woken up and Jack was sent back to his room, being heavily scolded by the doctor as he checked if his night adventure aggravated his injuries.

Needless to say, Jack was forbidden of leaving the bed all day, only if it was strictly necessary. Which, of course, left him very upset.

Alex, on the other side, was frustrated as hell. He was allowed to go for small walks, since the injury wasn’t that bad, but they also forbid him to visit Jack after that night incident.

The day was really boring for both of them, except for when Rian and Zack came in for their daily visit, along with some other friends.
However, they still wished the other could be with them, and they could have some fun.

(Not in that way, you perverts.)

When the night fell, Alex couldn’t sleep, for more he tried. The bed was even more uncomfortable than the bunk he slept in the past months, and the noise of the machines didn’t help either.

After an hour of rolling around in bed, Alex couldn’t take it anymore. So he got out of bed and walked to the end of the corridor.

He was almost caught in his way by a nurse who was called into a room, but managed to enter Jack’s room without being seen.

When he closed the door behind him Jack noticed him and simply smiled, making room for his friend to lay down close to him.

They soon found out they slept much better when they were next to each other, so every night one of them would sneak to the other’s room to cuddle.

This was a complete nightmare for the doctor, who was afraid that all these sneak ins would make one (or both) injuries worse. Also he was stumped about how they were able to do it every night and never be seen.

He had tried everything to keep the two men from getting out of their room at night, but nothing worked: when he put a nurse in front of Jack’s room, Alex bribed her with the promise of a concert ticket the next time they’d go on tour; when he locked Alex’s room’s door, Jack stole the key from his pocket; and when he put someone inside Alex’s room to watch and prevent him from getting out, he somehow managed to make them fall asleep.

Nothing seemed to work to keep them away from each other at night. They looked like two little kids, who had to have their best friend next to them or would get grumpy.

After five nights of finding them sleeping next to each other, the doctor decided enough was enough.

“Nurse, I want you to move Mr. Gaskarth and Mr. Barakat to the double room next to the lift. Hopefully they won’t move this time as they’re on the same room.”

The nurse did as told, and soon they were transferred to the room.
Alex basically jumped off his bed and hugged Jack as soon as the staff left them alone.

When Rian and Zack came for their visit, they were surprised to find out they were moved to the same room.

“What caused the change?” Rian asked from his spot next to Alex. Zack was in front of him, next to Jack.

Alex blushed lightly. They didn’t know about their nightly sneak ins, and honestly he didn’t want them to know now.

It was Jack who answered.

“They moved us ‘cause they were sick of us sneaking into each other’s room every night to sleep together.”

The room fell in silence for full five seconds, and then Zack chuckled.

“Why am I not the slightest surprised by this?”

“Guys, we know you can’t stay away from each other, but isn’t that a bit too excessive?” Rian laughed.

Alex blushed harder. “Oh, shut up.”

“What’s the problem on that? Hospital rooms are creepy at night!” Jack exclaimed, which made Rian and Zack laugh harder.

Zack was the first to calm down. “Well, I’ve got good news for you. We talked to the doctor, he said that tomorrow afternoon you should be able to go home.”

“Really? Finally!” Alex cheered.

“It was about fucking time!”

“Just try not to make something that would keep you here for more time tonight, okay? I’m getting sick with this hospital atmosphere!” Rian joked, earning a pillow on his face thrown by Alex.

After they got out, Alex and Jack decided to play a racing game, since there was a console on the room.
As the TV was turned to Jack’s bed, Alex promptly climbed into it to play.

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing, only stopping for dinner. Alex had to get back to his bed as the nurse refused to give him his dinner while he was on Jack’s bed.

After dinner, Alex switched beds again for the second round. Jack had won the race before dinner and he wanted revenge on that.

He accidentally fell asleep next to Jack, and he didn’t have the heart to wake him up, so he wrapped his arms around Alex and fell asleep with him pressed against his chest. And to his surprise, it didn’t hurt him one bit.

When the doctor found them the next morning, he didn’t have it in him to reprehend them. It was their last day in there too, so why bother?

Alex and Jack were really excited to go back to the house the band shared (at least till Rian finally moves in with Cass), especially since they were tired of the hospital air.

The day passed normally, except for the fact that all of them had to be more careful due to their injuries.

When the night fell, Alex was especially excited to sleep in his own bed. His back still hurt from all the days he passed in that damned bed.

However, when he closed his eyes, comfortably snuggled under the covers, he couldn’t fall asleep.

He didn’t understand why. The bed was comfortable, he didn’t ear anything outside. Hell, he was at home!

And then it hit him. Something was missing.

Someone, to be more precise.

He had gotten so used to sleep next to Jack while they were in the hospital that now that he was alone it just didn’t feel right.

Alex was considering going to Jack’s room again when he heard a knock at the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and a slightly embarrassed Jack came in.

“Hey.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I couldn’t sleep.” Jack muttered, and a light blush creeped in. “I… I missed you.”

Alex smiled. “Well, I can’t say the feeling isn’t reciprocated. Com’here.”

Jack promptly climbed into the bed and got under the covers, snuggling close to him.

“How are your ribs?” Alex asked.

“Much better. Don’t hurt nearly as much as before.” Jack muttered, getting closer to Alex.

Alex wrapped his arms around Jack’s back, being careful not to press on his chest.

“It feels good to be like this.” Jack whispered, dozing off.

Alex kissed the top of his head before closing his eyes, smiling.

“Yeah, it does.”