A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Title: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Chapter: One
Author: alexgokart
Pairing: Jack Barakat/Alex Gaskarth
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Summary: “It’s the camera, Lex!"
“Holy fucking shit - Alex! Come and look at this!”
The twenty year olds attention perked as the excited cry from his boyfriend filtered through their bedroom door. Alex’s thick eyebrow raised, spindly fingers dropping the pen he’d been spinning absentmindedly onto the paper that was scattered with random lyric ideas and frustrated, black scribbles.
“What is it, Jack?” he called back, trying to sound annoyed because Jack knew not to interrupt during Alex’s writing time, but really, he was thankful for the distraction.
“You gotta fucking see this!”
And now Jack was practically squealing with excitement, so maybe it was really worth taking a look.
Alex found the dark-haired boy in the kitchen of their apartment, stood behind the bench with a gleeful expression on his face and a large something in his hands.
After a quick inspection, it turned out that something was a very old, very battered Polaroid camera.
“You got a Polaroid?” Alex questioned, and he probably would have been more excited if Jack hadn’t just got his hopes up, so instead, his voice was dripping with boredom.
“Yeah, well, you know that old Op Shop down the road? Well I saw it in the window, and I thought maybe you’d like it, so I bought it, but then I decided to just try it out to make sure it works and Jesus Christ, Alex!”
Alex just stared at his boyfriend as if the boy had finally cracked. Was it really necessary to get this excited over the fact a beat-up Polaroid camera still worked?
Alex gave Jack his very well practised, unamused bitch stare, perfectly styled blond locks falling into his eyes, because he had no fucking idea what Jack was getting at.
“I appreciate the gesture and all, but was it really-”
“Look!” And that was probably the highest pitched noise to ever escape Jack’s lips, and believe him; Alex had heard a lot of squeaky noises.
Now Jack was pointing with a trembling finger to the kitchen bench, where there sat two perfectly identical pink-frosted cupcakes. At this, Alex could feel himself starting to smile, because fuck, those things were his favourite, but he still didn’t understand the hype of it all.
“And you got us some cup-”
“No!” Jack sighed dramatically, becoming increasingly annoyed with Alex’s lack of ability of reading his mind and decoding his vague descriptions. “Fucking hell, I’ll just show you.”
Jack raised the old camera to his face, closing one eye - with much difficulty, mind you, because Jack never could wink and ended up looking like his face was shrivelling up - and looking through the little hole, pointing the camera at one of the cupcakes and finger flicking the button to take a photograph.
And what happened next wasn’t what Alex had expected. He was waiting for the camera to click, the little flash to blink and the captured image to roll out.
But instead, Alex was shielding his eyes from the incredibly bright light that blasted from the flash, and if he were a scientist, he could have insisted that it was impossible for such a small globe to make such an intense, blinding light - but he wasn’t, so when the light had blinked back off after a split second and the black spots had disappeared from his eyes, he settled for a what the fuck was that?!
Jack was merely grinning, obviously well aware of what was going to happen and eyes safe from their spot behind the camera. He lowered the Polaroid, smile widening and sparks dazzling his pupils as he pointed in excitement towards the bench again.
“See!”
Alex’s weary eyes glanced back towards the cupcakes, and then his mouth was gaping, eyelids blinking rapidly to make sure the unexpected light hadn’t given him double-vision.
“What…I…how did you do that?!”
On the bench, beside the two original cupcakes, now sat a third; its frosting the same tint of pink, its peak leaning at the exact same angle.
It had fucking doubled.
“It’s the camera, Lex! It like…takes whatever you’ve taken a photo of and makes another one!”
Alex was still frozen in astonishment, caramel eyes darting between Jack, the camera and the new cupcake.
“But…that’s impossible. It has to be a trick-”
“It’s not, look!” with his free hand, Jack reached out to pick up the new cupcake, taking a generous bite and licking frosting from his lips “’s’good.”
Alex’s face stayed blank, emotionless eyes blinking a few more times before a giant grin was spreading across his face.
“That is fucking awesome! Here, give it to me, I wanna go make doubles of those jeans I could never find my size in again.”
Jack scoffed, pulling the camera out of reach from Alex’s searching hands, shaking his head.
“No way, I’m gonna go make doubles of all my Batman collectables. I could sell them for hundreds!”
Alex rolled his eyes, wondering for a second how he’d bagged himself such a geek, before he was grabbing at the camera again.
“You said you bought it for me, therefore I should get to go first!” he reasoned, both hands managing to get a good grip before Jack could pull the Polaroid away again.
“No! I bought it, so I use it!” Jack fought back, trying to yank the camera away, as Alex pulled in the opposite direction.
Neither boy realised the way the lens was tipping as they fought, nor did they realise the way Jack’s finger was slipping dangerously close to the button, and then suddenly there was a flash of bright light and Alex was crying out as he shielded his eyes again.
It took much longer for Alex’s eyes to adjust back to normal this time, pupils slowly dilating, and the first thing he saw when his vision came back was the gobsmacked look on Jack’s face.
But Jack wasn’t looking at him, Jack was looking at something directly beside him.
And Alex almost passed out when he turned to check it out.
It was him. The perfect mirror image of himself stood right next to him, exact same purple GK tee, exact same practically-painted-on jeans and exact same bewildered look on their face. As his mouth dropped and eyes scanned up and down the figure next to him, so many thoughts were rushing through his head, so many things he wanted to scream and do to Jack for doing this, but the first thing that slipped from his lips was
“Is my ass really that flat?”
And then Doubled-Alex was moving, frowning as his hand came down to cup his own ass and gave Alex the bitch stare.
“Hey! My ass is fucking fine, thank you.” Doubled-Alex snapped, arms folding across his chest “Can’t say the same for your hair though, just a hint, I can see your roots.”
The two’s bickering was interrupted by laughter, both of them turning their identical eyes to look at Jack who had the most smug, amused look imaginable plastered on his face. He looked far too pleased with himself, and the situation.
“Jack you fucking idiot, look what you’ve done!” Alex cried, gesturing to the clone “What the hell are we supposed to do with two of me?”
“I can think of a few things.” Jack smirked, eyes glinting as they flashed between the two Alexs.
Chapter: One
Author: alexgokart
Pairing: Jack Barakat/Alex Gaskarth
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Summary: “It’s the camera, Lex!"
“Holy fucking shit - Alex! Come and look at this!”
The twenty year olds attention perked as the excited cry from his boyfriend filtered through their bedroom door. Alex’s thick eyebrow raised, spindly fingers dropping the pen he’d been spinning absentmindedly onto the paper that was scattered with random lyric ideas and frustrated, black scribbles.
“What is it, Jack?” he called back, trying to sound annoyed because Jack knew not to interrupt during Alex’s writing time, but really, he was thankful for the distraction.
“You gotta fucking see this!”
And now Jack was practically squealing with excitement, so maybe it was really worth taking a look.
Alex found the dark-haired boy in the kitchen of their apartment, stood behind the bench with a gleeful expression on his face and a large something in his hands.
After a quick inspection, it turned out that something was a very old, very battered Polaroid camera.
“You got a Polaroid?” Alex questioned, and he probably would have been more excited if Jack hadn’t just got his hopes up, so instead, his voice was dripping with boredom.
“Yeah, well, you know that old Op Shop down the road? Well I saw it in the window, and I thought maybe you’d like it, so I bought it, but then I decided to just try it out to make sure it works and Jesus Christ, Alex!”
Alex just stared at his boyfriend as if the boy had finally cracked. Was it really necessary to get this excited over the fact a beat-up Polaroid camera still worked?
Alex gave Jack his very well practised, unamused bitch stare, perfectly styled blond locks falling into his eyes, because he had no fucking idea what Jack was getting at.
“I appreciate the gesture and all, but was it really-”
“Look!” And that was probably the highest pitched noise to ever escape Jack’s lips, and believe him; Alex had heard a lot of squeaky noises.
Now Jack was pointing with a trembling finger to the kitchen bench, where there sat two perfectly identical pink-frosted cupcakes. At this, Alex could feel himself starting to smile, because fuck, those things were his favourite, but he still didn’t understand the hype of it all.
“And you got us some cup-”
“No!” Jack sighed dramatically, becoming increasingly annoyed with Alex’s lack of ability of reading his mind and decoding his vague descriptions. “Fucking hell, I’ll just show you.”
Jack raised the old camera to his face, closing one eye - with much difficulty, mind you, because Jack never could wink and ended up looking like his face was shrivelling up - and looking through the little hole, pointing the camera at one of the cupcakes and finger flicking the button to take a photograph.
And what happened next wasn’t what Alex had expected. He was waiting for the camera to click, the little flash to blink and the captured image to roll out.
But instead, Alex was shielding his eyes from the incredibly bright light that blasted from the flash, and if he were a scientist, he could have insisted that it was impossible for such a small globe to make such an intense, blinding light - but he wasn’t, so when the light had blinked back off after a split second and the black spots had disappeared from his eyes, he settled for a what the fuck was that?!
Jack was merely grinning, obviously well aware of what was going to happen and eyes safe from their spot behind the camera. He lowered the Polaroid, smile widening and sparks dazzling his pupils as he pointed in excitement towards the bench again.
“See!”
Alex’s weary eyes glanced back towards the cupcakes, and then his mouth was gaping, eyelids blinking rapidly to make sure the unexpected light hadn’t given him double-vision.
“What…I…how did you do that?!”
On the bench, beside the two original cupcakes, now sat a third; its frosting the same tint of pink, its peak leaning at the exact same angle.
It had fucking doubled.
“It’s the camera, Lex! It like…takes whatever you’ve taken a photo of and makes another one!”
Alex was still frozen in astonishment, caramel eyes darting between Jack, the camera and the new cupcake.
“But…that’s impossible. It has to be a trick-”
“It’s not, look!” with his free hand, Jack reached out to pick up the new cupcake, taking a generous bite and licking frosting from his lips “’s’good.”
Alex’s face stayed blank, emotionless eyes blinking a few more times before a giant grin was spreading across his face.
“That is fucking awesome! Here, give it to me, I wanna go make doubles of those jeans I could never find my size in again.”
Jack scoffed, pulling the camera out of reach from Alex’s searching hands, shaking his head.
“No way, I’m gonna go make doubles of all my Batman collectables. I could sell them for hundreds!”
Alex rolled his eyes, wondering for a second how he’d bagged himself such a geek, before he was grabbing at the camera again.
“You said you bought it for me, therefore I should get to go first!” he reasoned, both hands managing to get a good grip before Jack could pull the Polaroid away again.
“No! I bought it, so I use it!” Jack fought back, trying to yank the camera away, as Alex pulled in the opposite direction.
Neither boy realised the way the lens was tipping as they fought, nor did they realise the way Jack’s finger was slipping dangerously close to the button, and then suddenly there was a flash of bright light and Alex was crying out as he shielded his eyes again.
It took much longer for Alex’s eyes to adjust back to normal this time, pupils slowly dilating, and the first thing he saw when his vision came back was the gobsmacked look on Jack’s face.
But Jack wasn’t looking at him, Jack was looking at something directly beside him.
And Alex almost passed out when he turned to check it out.
It was him. The perfect mirror image of himself stood right next to him, exact same purple GK tee, exact same practically-painted-on jeans and exact same bewildered look on their face. As his mouth dropped and eyes scanned up and down the figure next to him, so many thoughts were rushing through his head, so many things he wanted to scream and do to Jack for doing this, but the first thing that slipped from his lips was
“Is my ass really that flat?”
And then Doubled-Alex was moving, frowning as his hand came down to cup his own ass and gave Alex the bitch stare.
“Hey! My ass is fucking fine, thank you.” Doubled-Alex snapped, arms folding across his chest “Can’t say the same for your hair though, just a hint, I can see your roots.”
The two’s bickering was interrupted by laughter, both of them turning their identical eyes to look at Jack who had the most smug, amused look imaginable plastered on his face. He looked far too pleased with himself, and the situation.
“Jack you fucking idiot, look what you’ve done!” Alex cried, gesturing to the clone “What the hell are we supposed to do with two of me?”
“I can think of a few things.” Jack smirked, eyes glinting as they flashed between the two Alexs.