Bring (Baby) Me Back

<i>Same day, 4 p.m.</i>

Rian and Zack woke up to the sound of their friend excited shouts.

“Yes! Come on, you can do it!”

Zack sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Rian stretched a little, still laying down.

“What is Alex doing?” Zack muttered.

Rian shrugged. “I don’t know, most probably he’s watching soccer or something.”

He watched Zack stretch in the tight space he was in, smiling at his disheveled hair and sleepy eyes. He looked absolutely adorable when he was trying to stay awake.

Zack noticed Rian looking at him and gave him a shy smile.

“What?”

Rian stuttered, blushing. “Nothing, I just…”

The sudden yell heard from the kitchen drew their attention to Alex.

“Alex, what the fuck are you doing?” Rian shouted, sitting down on the couch.

“Oh, hey sleeping beauties!” Alex exclaimed, jogging to the couch. “Had a nice sleep? You looked adorable sleeping, by the way.”

“Yeah, whatever. Why are you screaming like mad, it sounds like someone’s trying to kill you!”

Alex prompted himself down on the couch, grinning.

“Well, since the guy said Jack was gonna stay like that for the rest of his life – I still don’t believe that, but yeah –, I managed to make him walk on his own!”

Rian and Zack looked at each other and snorted, while Alex glared at them, confused.

“You’re turning more and more into a mama bear, Gaskarth.” Zack laughed.

“Oh, shut up.”

Jack appeared a moment later, sloppily walking and babbling something only he could understand.
Rian picked him up and sat him next to Alex. Jack crawled to his lap and cuddled on his chest, giggling.

“Man, I’m pretty sure that level of clinginess isn’t healthy.” Rian mused, watching his baby friend.

“It’s like he got two times clingier after he was turn into a baby.” Zack replied.

Alex looked at them and laughed.

“Oh shut up, you’re just jealous he pays more attention to me.”

Rian snickered. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”

Jack suddenly cried out, pointing excitedly to the window and babbling.
The trio stared at it instantly, wondering what his friend meant.

A white blanket covered everything outside, and there was a lot of kids throwing snow at each other and making snow angels.

“Oh my god, it’s snowing!” Alex exclaimed, jumping off the couch and running to his bedroom with Jack on his arms.

He came back five minutes later, both him and Jack fully clothed and prepared to go play in the snow.
Rian glanced at both boys and then at Zack.

“Should we go with them?”

“Well, someone has to look for the two babies.” Zack smiled, getting up and putting his jacket and gloves on.

---------------------------------------------

Ten minutes later, Zack and Rian were standing next to a tree, watching Alex and Jack play in the snow.

Zack didn’t want to play with them, so he just stayed there and looked after them, making sure they don’t get hurt or in trouble. As for Rian, well, he didn’t want Zack to be alone there, so he joined him on the babysitting.

But he was dying to get in a snowball fight, so it didn’t take long before he ended up throwing a snowball at Zack, hitting him in the back of the head.

Zack turned around, shifting his eyes, and before Rian knew it his face was full of white fluff.

A fight started in that moment, snowballs flying in the air, hitting both boys most of the time.
Rian was having trouble aiming his snowballs; most probably because he kept getting distracted by Zack’s adorable laugh.

The battle ended with Rian tickling Zack and trying to shove snow down his shirt.
Zack was giggling like a little kid, trying to keep Rian away and failing.

He ended up tripping on a rock while he was walking backwards, and grabbed Rian’s jacket as he fell, bringing him down with him.

They fell on the snow with a soft “thump”, Rian on top of Zack.

Rian groaned and tried to get up, but he froze when he felt Zack’s hands on his waist, softly holding him in place.
He swallowed hard and looked up, catching his friend’s smile as he sweetly looked at him.

Rian hesitantly leaned down, his eyes closing just as their lips were about to touch…

“Rian! Zack! Where are you?”

Alex was shouting, looking for his friends as they seemed to disappear.

Rian cursed under his breath and got up, shrugging the snow off his jacket. Zack sat up, looking at Rian slightly confused.
Alex walked to them with Jack on his lap, stopping as he realized something wasn’t right.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine.” Rian grunted, frustrated. “I’m going inside, it’s getting too cold.”

They watched him walk away, confused.

Alex stared at Zack, hoping he could explain what had happened.

“I, uh… I better get inside too.” He stuttered, rushing to the door, leaving Alex alone outside.

He stood there for a moment, stunned, before he looked down to Jack.

“I think Rian and Zack have a crush on each other…”

Jack gave him a look that clearly read “no shit”, and Alex scoffed.

“Oh, shut up, it’s not like that was obvious!”
-------------------------------------------
Inside the apartment, the ambient was a bit awkward.

Rian had ran inside, completely embarrassed with had just happened outside. What the fuck was he even thinking when he almost kissed Zack?

The aforementioned boy entered in that moment, and Rian faked his best innocent look as he started making hot chocolate.
Zack was looking at him with a confused expression, and when he tried to talk to Rian about that moment he just pretended nothing had happened.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Zee, we just had a snowball fight and fell.” Rian shrugged, giving him his best smile.

Zack knew him enough to know he was faking it; for some reason he didn’t want to talk about it, and he didn’t insist, after all he wasn’t sure of what happened there either.

Alex and Jack entered some minutes later, both grinning as they accepted the hot drink Rian was offering.

They stayed there for a while, Alex helping Jack drink with a straw while Rian and Zack watched with a find smile.

They decided to watch TV for a while, since there was nothing better to do. They all sat in the couch except for Jack, who sat at Alex’s lap as usual.
Alex noticed how Rian and Zack were sitting with a certain distance between them, and tried to hide his smile; he definitely needed to talk to Rian when they were alone.

Sometime later they ended up getting distracted from the movie, instead chatting and laughing.

And that’s when things changed.

When Jack started laughing, no one really paid attention to it; everyone was laughing, so it was normal.
But when Alex decided to look at the TV his face went pale.

A sex scene was playing, and while it wasn’t anything explicit it was enough to make Alex freak out and enter full mama bear mode.

He got up with Jack on his arms, running to the baby’s playground while exclaiming something about him being too young to watch those scenes and that he needed to put him somewhere safe.

Rian and Zack looked at his friend, completely incredulous, and tried to muffle their laughs.

“I think Alex forgot Jack is just a baby outside, his mind is still the same.” Zack muttered, leaning to Rian’s side.

Rian wrapped his arm around his shoulders without thinking, snorting.

“And he calls me the mother of the band. Unbelievable.”

Alex put Jack on the playground, and groaned loudly when he realized Jack could still watch the scene.
Rian and Zack laughed, and the drummer calmly picked the remote and switched channels.
Alex sighed, falling on the couch with his legs on Rian’s lap.

“I think you went overboard on this one, Alex.” Zack laughed.

“I know… I guess I’m becoming a bit too protective of Jack, uh?”

“You are. Just chill Lex, Jack isn’t a baby! I mean, not inside at least.” Rian said, and blushed when Zack pressed his head against his shoulder.

A phone suddenly ringed, and Alex got up to pick it, frowning when he didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?”

“Hey Alex, it’s me. The witch.”

“What the fuck do you want?!” he growled, anger growing as he remembered it was his fault Jack was like that.

“Calm down! We need to talk, okay? I think I found something about the spell I put on your friend, something that you might be interested in.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not talking over the phone. Meet me in the alley where you guys trapped me in yesterday.”

Alex hesitated before nodding. “Fine. Meet you in ten.”

He walked to the couch, brows furrowed.

“Hey, can you take care of Jack for a bit? I have to go out.”

“At this time of the night? Where are you going?” Rian asked, worried.

“I have to take care of something, I won’t take long.” He said, putting his jacket on. He wasn’t entirely sure of the truth of that affirmation, but he wasn’t going to let his friends know.

Jack whimpered, not liking the idea of staying away from Alex, and made grabby hands when he walked to him.

“I’ll only stay away for a bit, ‘kay buddy? Rian and Zack are taking care of you, don’t worry!” he exclaimed, ruffling his friend’s hair.

Jack crossed his arms and huffed, frustrated, and whined when Alex walked out of the door.

The house fell in silence for a moment, before Rian spoke.

“I don’t like the sound of this. Not one bit.”

And he had reasons to, because Alex didn’t come back home that night.