Baby, Just Hold On - Chp. 2
Title: Baby, Just Hold On
Author: Jamie jamieall_over
Pairing: Jalex
Rating: NC-17 Overall
Warnings: Mpreg
Six Years Ago
An eighteen-year-old Jack Barakat looks around the front room of Gemstone Records, mind fuzzing with boredom. He's been working here for nearly a year now, and he honestly can't remember a time where he'd been so god damn bored.
None of the bands that he'd made friends with in his time of manning the front desk were scheduled to record today, and from the looks of it, the only person who had any sort of appointment was some guy named Alex Gaskarth.
Jack hadn't been given a specific time of his arrival, but he knew that someone had paid for him to use one of the studios down the hall for as long as he wanted-until closing, at least.
It was only ten in the morning, and while Jack had pulled into the parking lot at eight, Gemstone doesn't close until six. He didn't know what to do anymore, per se. He was the one to answer emails, greet the people who walked through the door, and make sure that calls were placed and transferred to where they were supposed to go. Today, though, there'd only been two calls, six emails and no one to walk through the front door. Well, no one to walk through the front door yet.
Needless to say, it was unusual how quiet everything was.
There were producers in most of the studios, but they were mixing things that had already been recorded, and they didn't often socialize with Jack. And really, since no one was lined up to record but some kid, was he even needed? He could've been asleep in bed at this time; it's not like he actually knows how to use any of the equipment or anything.
He was considering his options, about to just grab his things and walk out the front door-not that anyone would notice his disappearance anyway-when said door opened and a guy clad in skinny jeans, a leather jacket and a grey beanie stepped inside.
Jack took only a moment to look him over, silently decreeing him one of the most attractive people he'd ever seen. And that was saying quite a bit, considering he'd met Mark Hoppus.
Yeah, that Mark Hoppus.
He wasn't letting anyone get away without knowing that little tidbit of useless information.
"Sorry, dude, we're closed," Jack said because, honestly, they may as well have been. The only ones who would be here today were the producers and himself. He'd totally forgotten about the day-long appointment, though.
The other guy's face fell a little before his features twisted with confusion. He didn't say anything, just reached around to grab something from his back pocket.
Jack was a little confused at first, especially when he pulled out a folded piece of paper and opened it before staring down at it, thick eyebrows, which were only partially visible under the bangs hanging from his beanie, drawing together as he read whatever was printed across the page. The guy looked back up to Jack, same confused expression, and then he was walking out the door, paper still in hand.
Jack, thinking that was the end of it, leaned back in his seat, stretching so much the back of the chair almost snapped off. It probably would one day, since that was a pretty much routine move, but for then it was still intact and in perfect working condition. He allowed his eyes to slip closed, but it was only momentarily before he heard the front door opening right back up again. He peeked his right eye open, already knowing who it would be to walk through.
"Dude, closed," he reminded him firmly, and the guy bit his lip-which is something that should most definitely be considered illegal-as he stepped closer, holding the paper out for Jack to take.
"My, uh... I'm supposed to be recording things today?" he stated, but it sounded like more of an inquiry. "I... The address is the same on the paper as it is outside? And, I mean, everything in here says Gemstone, so..."
"We don't have anyone set up f-" Jack started, stopping when he read the name printed along the top right hand corner: Alex Gaskarth.
"Oh, fuck, sorry," he said, placing the paper on his desk and standing. "They told me about you, but I’m going out of my mind in here. Just, um, follow me. Do you need anything?"
Alex shook his head, smiling easily and Jack may have almost swooned. But only almost. He was on the job and had to be professional.
Jack led Alex through a doorway that opened out to a hall, more doors, which led to studios, positioned on either wall. About halfway down and to the right was a door that was slightly ajar, which was the company's universal sign for 'I'm not too busy, send someone in.'
"Hey, Dylan," Jack said, stepping over the threshold and beckoning Alex forward, "this is Alex and he's supposed to be here for the day. Can he record in here with you?"
Dylan looked up, giving a half nod before turning back to his computer and adjusting whatever he’d been working on before. Jack didn't know and honestly, he didn't care as long as it sounded awesome in the end.
"I'll be out front if you need me," Jack called over his shoulder as he headed back out to his desk, being sure to close the door behind him.
Minutes melted into an hour, which felt like days, and Jack still only had to deal with another few emails and phone calls asking about appointments and future meetings. It was all too bland, not having bands come and go, but it was also a little exciting: due to the abnormally silent atmosphere, he was able to hear Alex's voice.
It's not often that that happens, what with the fact that usually the few sounds he can hear are drowned out by others trying to overpower each other, and it sounded like the door-the one he'd closed-was opened once more.
Jack didn't dwell on it, didn't really care all that much, especially when Alex was practically serenading him with a voice more intoxicating than Patrick Stump’s.
Every now and again, the singing would die out and be replaced with regular talking, and no matter how much he strained to hear, how close he’d creep towards the entryway to the hall, Jack couldn’t catch what was being said. It was probably something he wouldn’t understand either, pitches and tones and ‘try it this way instead.’
One hour turned into two, and it was almost time for Jack’s lunch break. He was considering just skipping it, sticking around so that he wouldn’t miss Alex’s voice. He hadn’t really heard anything in a while, though, so he was kinda confused as to where the boy had gone. Jack hadn’t seen him pass, and he would know because there was no way in hell he’d miss a good look at that ass in those jeans.
He had a faint thought that maybe Dylan had killed him for doing something he wasn’t supposed to, like singing in the wrong key or whatever producers get mad over, but then Alex was walking out and moving to stand in front of Jack, the counter separating them. Alex looked a little sheepish, but he smiled widely nonetheless.
“So, Jack,” he started, but the younger held his hand up to stop him.
“I never told you my name,” he stated simply, and Alex visibly flushed a deep red.
“I asked Dylan, and he told me,” he explained, and Jack nodded for him to continue with what he needed to say. “Well, I was just wondering if you’d like to go get some lunch or something? Since this place is ‘closed,’ and you’re ‘going out of my mind in here,’ and all. I mean, you don’t have to or anything, but I just figured, that, like, I don’t know, maybe you’d wanna, like…”
Alex trailed out there, teeth pressing into his bottom lip hard as he put his best effort into holding eye contact as a way to not seem as nervous as he truly was-it totally had the opposite effect, though. In the end, his gaze moved down to the ground, and Jack could tell he was wringing his hands out in front of his body, just where he couldn’t see.
“Yeah,” Jack eventually answered after going over the pros and cons, “I’d like that.” Clearly Alex was attracted to him, even if it were just a little bit, or he wouldn’t be such a mess asking him on an unofficial date, and Jack, lonely and single Jack, was definitely attracted to him right back. Really, he didn’t see a downside.
And he was maybe gonna put a bullet through his skull if he had to sit there in his boredom any longer.
“Yeah?” Alex inquired hopefully, smile returning and lip being let go from the hold his teeth had on it.
“Yeah,” Jack repeated, standing and stretching from his seat. “Lemme just go tell Dylan that I’m going on my bre-”
“Just go,” the producer said, walking out and plopping himself down in Jack’s seat, spinning the chair around as he waved his hand in the direction of the door. “We’ll be fine without you for an hour.”
Jack was gonna comment on how his breaks were only ever thirty minutes, but then Dylan was giving him this look, this piercing look. The young boy wasn’t really sure what it meant, but he at least understood that he had better take the opportunity he was given and run with it.
He didn’t say anything about it, tried not to make any facial expressions that would indicate he was confused, and merely walked around the counter to stand next to a still-grinning Alex. Jack smiled back, waving his hand towards the front door as a way to tell Alex that he was ready to go.
They were almost out the door, so close Jack could practically feel the sunshine and cool fall air pressing against his skin. However, that was when Dylan decided to call him back in.
“I’ll be right back, uh, don’t go anywhere, I guess? I mean, you can wait outside if you’d like; I’ll, uh, yeah.. I'll be right back,” Jack said, and Alex nodded, moving out the front door with another smile.
“What do you want?” Jack groaned, only partially joking with his impatient tone. Seriously, he had an extremely fucking cute, talented boy out there waiting to go on a kinda-sort of date, and he was stuck in here, talking to Dylan.
Yeah, he definitely had a problem with that.
“I just wanted to actually tell you to not fuck this up. From what I’ve gotten from him, he’s a really nice kid. I may not know a lot-or really anything at all-about you, but he must be your type since you agreed to go out with him, and I think everyone deserves someone. So, yeah, don’t fuck this up,” Dylan said, shrugging and reclining back in Jack’s chair, moving it around by gently kicking his feet against the legs holding it up.
Jack couldn’t help but smile at that. It was true: he and Dylan knew next to nothing about each other. That didn’t stop Jack from favoring him above the other producers that worked at Gemstone; at least Dylan acknowledged him a bit more than they ever did.
“I’ll try not to,” was all he answered, and then he was spinning on his heel and practically running out to the boy waiting for him on the sidewalk.
“Ready to go?” Alex questioned when he noticed the taller’s presence, and Jack nodded, beginning to walk down the road away from the other boy. “Where’re you going? Cars are this way,” Alex called, jogging after his unofficial date.
Jack shrugged before turning to flash a grin at Alex. “There’s a Panda Express just around the corner, and I have an hour with you, so why not make the best of it?” And that must’ve been just the right thing to say because it had Alex blushing, grinning and looking down at the ground as they made their way to the fast food restaurant.
--- ---
Days passed, and Alex would come in every early afternoon for an officious date with Jack, even though he was in no way prompted to. They both enjoyed each other’s company, and honestly? Jack could see himself falling in love with him, getting married and living their lives out with a big house, kids, maybe a few dogs. He’d learned that Alex wanted kids more than anything, preferably a boy and a girl.
“If I ever have a girl,” he’d said when they were once talking about the subject, “I think I’d name her something that sounds pretty and isn’t common, y’know? Something like, I don’t know, Perspicacity. Isn't that a pretty word?”
Jack had not a single clue what that word meant, if it was even a real word at all, but he nodded because yeah, that was pretty cute. He could come up with some adorable nicknames for it, but his favorites were hands down Cass and Cacity.
“And if I were to have a boy,” he continued, pausing to think it over, as though he hadn’t made up his mind when it came to that, “I’d probably name him something like Ashley or Courtney; something that isn’t necessarily an uncommon name in general, but not really found among boys.”
Jack thought it was one of the greatest things he’d ever heard, and not just because of the reasoning behind each name, but also because of how the light in Alex’s eyes brightened when he talked about kids, how animated he’d get and how he’d zone out, this look of absolute happiness drowning out his features as he imagined his future.
They weren’t boyfriends or anything yet, no. Jack didn’t want to rush headlong into something and end up fucking everything up, so he kept things slow. It was hard, though, watching this beautiful boy of only nineteen express how he felt towards being a dad and having his own little family.
He was literally everything Jack had ever wanted since he was, like, ten, and then some, constantly finding new means to shock Jack in the most magnificent of ways with his views and opinions. They’d only known each other for about three months when Jack knew that Alex was the one he planned on spending the rest of his life with.
The only problem? They still weren’t even dating. They would hold hands, hug, and kiss each other on the cheek a little more than often to just be friendly, but that was as far as it ever went.
Jack decided one afternoon when Alex came to get him for lunch that he was going to change that, and while they sat down at the Panda Express that they’d silently proclaimed as their own, he brought up the proposition of a true, genuine date later on that evening.
Alex nearly choked on his orange chicken, but when he was able to breathe again, face flushed with embarrassment from almost killing himself after being asked out, he grinned and nodded.
From that first date and then on out, it only seemed to escalate.
The first real date was just the beginning of many, and somewhere along the line, they’d fallen in complete love.
Alex moved in with Jack after about a year of steady dating, and waking up every morning next to each other just seemed to get even better than the last.
Jack was the one to propose on Alex’s twenty-fourth birthday, and they got married a little more than a year later. If he could’ve, he’d have asked Alex to marry him a mere few months after they’d moved in together, but he wanted to wait a little longer. Not because he was scared of rejection or things not working out, but because he wanted to give Alex only the best, which was a little hard to do on the salary he made from still working the front desk at Gemstone.
Nearly a year and a half after the proposal, the two got married. The wedding was modern yet extravagant, a wooden dance floor under the stars and lanterns illuminating the reception-which took place in Alex’s parents backyard, partly because it was free and partly because it was big enough to hold all of their friends for a few hours. Canopies made of different silks and laces were set up over the tables, thin enough for the full moon to be seen through them.
That week, two days into their honeymoon, well… One thing led to another, and now seven months down the road, neither man could be happier with his life, with how everything has just seemed to fall into place. Sure, maybe Alex getting pregnant wasn't part of the immediate agenda, but neither would trade it for the world.
Jack can’t even look at his husband, big tummy barely hidden by oversized shirts with a pair of baggy sweatpants and messy hair, without feeling this strong sense of utter pride and pure love rush through his veins, a need to protect and do everything he can to make sure his man and child have the best lives he can possibly give them. He doesn’t understand why someone so sweet, so talented and endlessly gorgeous, would want to be with him, and he isn’t going to fuck up and lose him to anyone else because he knows that Alex could have anyone he wants.
And as for Alex? He feels like he’s the absolute luckiest man in the world to have gotten such an amazingly perfect person to fall in love with him. Someone who would drop everything to make him happy, someone who would go to the ends of the Earth if it meant he would smile, and he couldn’t ever have asked for anyone better; Jack was the best the world had to offer, he was sure of it. He doesn't care that they live off the slightly-above minimum wage salary that Jack earns, because the love of his husband is all that he truly needs.
If there’s any one thing that they both want for their son, it’s that he takes after the other.
Author: Jamie jamieall_over
Pairing: Jalex
Rating: NC-17 Overall
Warnings: Mpreg
Six Years Ago
An eighteen-year-old Jack Barakat looks around the front room of Gemstone Records, mind fuzzing with boredom. He's been working here for nearly a year now, and he honestly can't remember a time where he'd been so god damn bored.
None of the bands that he'd made friends with in his time of manning the front desk were scheduled to record today, and from the looks of it, the only person who had any sort of appointment was some guy named Alex Gaskarth.
Jack hadn't been given a specific time of his arrival, but he knew that someone had paid for him to use one of the studios down the hall for as long as he wanted-until closing, at least.
It was only ten in the morning, and while Jack had pulled into the parking lot at eight, Gemstone doesn't close until six. He didn't know what to do anymore, per se. He was the one to answer emails, greet the people who walked through the door, and make sure that calls were placed and transferred to where they were supposed to go. Today, though, there'd only been two calls, six emails and no one to walk through the front door. Well, no one to walk through the front door yet.
Needless to say, it was unusual how quiet everything was.
There were producers in most of the studios, but they were mixing things that had already been recorded, and they didn't often socialize with Jack. And really, since no one was lined up to record but some kid, was he even needed? He could've been asleep in bed at this time; it's not like he actually knows how to use any of the equipment or anything.
He was considering his options, about to just grab his things and walk out the front door-not that anyone would notice his disappearance anyway-when said door opened and a guy clad in skinny jeans, a leather jacket and a grey beanie stepped inside.
Jack took only a moment to look him over, silently decreeing him one of the most attractive people he'd ever seen. And that was saying quite a bit, considering he'd met Mark Hoppus.
Yeah, that Mark Hoppus.
He wasn't letting anyone get away without knowing that little tidbit of useless information.
"Sorry, dude, we're closed," Jack said because, honestly, they may as well have been. The only ones who would be here today were the producers and himself. He'd totally forgotten about the day-long appointment, though.
The other guy's face fell a little before his features twisted with confusion. He didn't say anything, just reached around to grab something from his back pocket.
Jack was a little confused at first, especially when he pulled out a folded piece of paper and opened it before staring down at it, thick eyebrows, which were only partially visible under the bangs hanging from his beanie, drawing together as he read whatever was printed across the page. The guy looked back up to Jack, same confused expression, and then he was walking out the door, paper still in hand.
Jack, thinking that was the end of it, leaned back in his seat, stretching so much the back of the chair almost snapped off. It probably would one day, since that was a pretty much routine move, but for then it was still intact and in perfect working condition. He allowed his eyes to slip closed, but it was only momentarily before he heard the front door opening right back up again. He peeked his right eye open, already knowing who it would be to walk through.
"Dude, closed," he reminded him firmly, and the guy bit his lip-which is something that should most definitely be considered illegal-as he stepped closer, holding the paper out for Jack to take.
"My, uh... I'm supposed to be recording things today?" he stated, but it sounded like more of an inquiry. "I... The address is the same on the paper as it is outside? And, I mean, everything in here says Gemstone, so..."
"We don't have anyone set up f-" Jack started, stopping when he read the name printed along the top right hand corner: Alex Gaskarth.
"Oh, fuck, sorry," he said, placing the paper on his desk and standing. "They told me about you, but I’m going out of my mind in here. Just, um, follow me. Do you need anything?"
Alex shook his head, smiling easily and Jack may have almost swooned. But only almost. He was on the job and had to be professional.
Jack led Alex through a doorway that opened out to a hall, more doors, which led to studios, positioned on either wall. About halfway down and to the right was a door that was slightly ajar, which was the company's universal sign for 'I'm not too busy, send someone in.'
"Hey, Dylan," Jack said, stepping over the threshold and beckoning Alex forward, "this is Alex and he's supposed to be here for the day. Can he record in here with you?"
Dylan looked up, giving a half nod before turning back to his computer and adjusting whatever he’d been working on before. Jack didn't know and honestly, he didn't care as long as it sounded awesome in the end.
"I'll be out front if you need me," Jack called over his shoulder as he headed back out to his desk, being sure to close the door behind him.
Minutes melted into an hour, which felt like days, and Jack still only had to deal with another few emails and phone calls asking about appointments and future meetings. It was all too bland, not having bands come and go, but it was also a little exciting: due to the abnormally silent atmosphere, he was able to hear Alex's voice.
It's not often that that happens, what with the fact that usually the few sounds he can hear are drowned out by others trying to overpower each other, and it sounded like the door-the one he'd closed-was opened once more.
Jack didn't dwell on it, didn't really care all that much, especially when Alex was practically serenading him with a voice more intoxicating than Patrick Stump’s.
Every now and again, the singing would die out and be replaced with regular talking, and no matter how much he strained to hear, how close he’d creep towards the entryway to the hall, Jack couldn’t catch what was being said. It was probably something he wouldn’t understand either, pitches and tones and ‘try it this way instead.’
One hour turned into two, and it was almost time for Jack’s lunch break. He was considering just skipping it, sticking around so that he wouldn’t miss Alex’s voice. He hadn’t really heard anything in a while, though, so he was kinda confused as to where the boy had gone. Jack hadn’t seen him pass, and he would know because there was no way in hell he’d miss a good look at that ass in those jeans.
He had a faint thought that maybe Dylan had killed him for doing something he wasn’t supposed to, like singing in the wrong key or whatever producers get mad over, but then Alex was walking out and moving to stand in front of Jack, the counter separating them. Alex looked a little sheepish, but he smiled widely nonetheless.
“So, Jack,” he started, but the younger held his hand up to stop him.
“I never told you my name,” he stated simply, and Alex visibly flushed a deep red.
“I asked Dylan, and he told me,” he explained, and Jack nodded for him to continue with what he needed to say. “Well, I was just wondering if you’d like to go get some lunch or something? Since this place is ‘closed,’ and you’re ‘going out of my mind in here,’ and all. I mean, you don’t have to or anything, but I just figured, that, like, I don’t know, maybe you’d wanna, like…”
Alex trailed out there, teeth pressing into his bottom lip hard as he put his best effort into holding eye contact as a way to not seem as nervous as he truly was-it totally had the opposite effect, though. In the end, his gaze moved down to the ground, and Jack could tell he was wringing his hands out in front of his body, just where he couldn’t see.
“Yeah,” Jack eventually answered after going over the pros and cons, “I’d like that.” Clearly Alex was attracted to him, even if it were just a little bit, or he wouldn’t be such a mess asking him on an unofficial date, and Jack, lonely and single Jack, was definitely attracted to him right back. Really, he didn’t see a downside.
And he was maybe gonna put a bullet through his skull if he had to sit there in his boredom any longer.
“Yeah?” Alex inquired hopefully, smile returning and lip being let go from the hold his teeth had on it.
“Yeah,” Jack repeated, standing and stretching from his seat. “Lemme just go tell Dylan that I’m going on my bre-”
“Just go,” the producer said, walking out and plopping himself down in Jack’s seat, spinning the chair around as he waved his hand in the direction of the door. “We’ll be fine without you for an hour.”
Jack was gonna comment on how his breaks were only ever thirty minutes, but then Dylan was giving him this look, this piercing look. The young boy wasn’t really sure what it meant, but he at least understood that he had better take the opportunity he was given and run with it.
He didn’t say anything about it, tried not to make any facial expressions that would indicate he was confused, and merely walked around the counter to stand next to a still-grinning Alex. Jack smiled back, waving his hand towards the front door as a way to tell Alex that he was ready to go.
They were almost out the door, so close Jack could practically feel the sunshine and cool fall air pressing against his skin. However, that was when Dylan decided to call him back in.
“I’ll be right back, uh, don’t go anywhere, I guess? I mean, you can wait outside if you’d like; I’ll, uh, yeah.. I'll be right back,” Jack said, and Alex nodded, moving out the front door with another smile.
“What do you want?” Jack groaned, only partially joking with his impatient tone. Seriously, he had an extremely fucking cute, talented boy out there waiting to go on a kinda-sort of date, and he was stuck in here, talking to Dylan.
Yeah, he definitely had a problem with that.
“I just wanted to actually tell you to not fuck this up. From what I’ve gotten from him, he’s a really nice kid. I may not know a lot-or really anything at all-about you, but he must be your type since you agreed to go out with him, and I think everyone deserves someone. So, yeah, don’t fuck this up,” Dylan said, shrugging and reclining back in Jack’s chair, moving it around by gently kicking his feet against the legs holding it up.
Jack couldn’t help but smile at that. It was true: he and Dylan knew next to nothing about each other. That didn’t stop Jack from favoring him above the other producers that worked at Gemstone; at least Dylan acknowledged him a bit more than they ever did.
“I’ll try not to,” was all he answered, and then he was spinning on his heel and practically running out to the boy waiting for him on the sidewalk.
“Ready to go?” Alex questioned when he noticed the taller’s presence, and Jack nodded, beginning to walk down the road away from the other boy. “Where’re you going? Cars are this way,” Alex called, jogging after his unofficial date.
Jack shrugged before turning to flash a grin at Alex. “There’s a Panda Express just around the corner, and I have an hour with you, so why not make the best of it?” And that must’ve been just the right thing to say because it had Alex blushing, grinning and looking down at the ground as they made their way to the fast food restaurant.
--- ---
Days passed, and Alex would come in every early afternoon for an officious date with Jack, even though he was in no way prompted to. They both enjoyed each other’s company, and honestly? Jack could see himself falling in love with him, getting married and living their lives out with a big house, kids, maybe a few dogs. He’d learned that Alex wanted kids more than anything, preferably a boy and a girl.
“If I ever have a girl,” he’d said when they were once talking about the subject, “I think I’d name her something that sounds pretty and isn’t common, y’know? Something like, I don’t know, Perspicacity. Isn't that a pretty word?”
Jack had not a single clue what that word meant, if it was even a real word at all, but he nodded because yeah, that was pretty cute. He could come up with some adorable nicknames for it, but his favorites were hands down Cass and Cacity.
“And if I were to have a boy,” he continued, pausing to think it over, as though he hadn’t made up his mind when it came to that, “I’d probably name him something like Ashley or Courtney; something that isn’t necessarily an uncommon name in general, but not really found among boys.”
Jack thought it was one of the greatest things he’d ever heard, and not just because of the reasoning behind each name, but also because of how the light in Alex’s eyes brightened when he talked about kids, how animated he’d get and how he’d zone out, this look of absolute happiness drowning out his features as he imagined his future.
They weren’t boyfriends or anything yet, no. Jack didn’t want to rush headlong into something and end up fucking everything up, so he kept things slow. It was hard, though, watching this beautiful boy of only nineteen express how he felt towards being a dad and having his own little family.
He was literally everything Jack had ever wanted since he was, like, ten, and then some, constantly finding new means to shock Jack in the most magnificent of ways with his views and opinions. They’d only known each other for about three months when Jack knew that Alex was the one he planned on spending the rest of his life with.
The only problem? They still weren’t even dating. They would hold hands, hug, and kiss each other on the cheek a little more than often to just be friendly, but that was as far as it ever went.
Jack decided one afternoon when Alex came to get him for lunch that he was going to change that, and while they sat down at the Panda Express that they’d silently proclaimed as their own, he brought up the proposition of a true, genuine date later on that evening.
Alex nearly choked on his orange chicken, but when he was able to breathe again, face flushed with embarrassment from almost killing himself after being asked out, he grinned and nodded.
From that first date and then on out, it only seemed to escalate.
The first real date was just the beginning of many, and somewhere along the line, they’d fallen in complete love.
Alex moved in with Jack after about a year of steady dating, and waking up every morning next to each other just seemed to get even better than the last.
Jack was the one to propose on Alex’s twenty-fourth birthday, and they got married a little more than a year later. If he could’ve, he’d have asked Alex to marry him a mere few months after they’d moved in together, but he wanted to wait a little longer. Not because he was scared of rejection or things not working out, but because he wanted to give Alex only the best, which was a little hard to do on the salary he made from still working the front desk at Gemstone.
Nearly a year and a half after the proposal, the two got married. The wedding was modern yet extravagant, a wooden dance floor under the stars and lanterns illuminating the reception-which took place in Alex’s parents backyard, partly because it was free and partly because it was big enough to hold all of their friends for a few hours. Canopies made of different silks and laces were set up over the tables, thin enough for the full moon to be seen through them.
That week, two days into their honeymoon, well… One thing led to another, and now seven months down the road, neither man could be happier with his life, with how everything has just seemed to fall into place. Sure, maybe Alex getting pregnant wasn't part of the immediate agenda, but neither would trade it for the world.
Jack can’t even look at his husband, big tummy barely hidden by oversized shirts with a pair of baggy sweatpants and messy hair, without feeling this strong sense of utter pride and pure love rush through his veins, a need to protect and do everything he can to make sure his man and child have the best lives he can possibly give them. He doesn’t understand why someone so sweet, so talented and endlessly gorgeous, would want to be with him, and he isn’t going to fuck up and lose him to anyone else because he knows that Alex could have anyone he wants.
And as for Alex? He feels like he’s the absolute luckiest man in the world to have gotten such an amazingly perfect person to fall in love with him. Someone who would drop everything to make him happy, someone who would go to the ends of the Earth if it meant he would smile, and he couldn’t ever have asked for anyone better; Jack was the best the world had to offer, he was sure of it. He doesn't care that they live off the slightly-above minimum wage salary that Jack earns, because the love of his husband is all that he truly needs.
If there’s any one thing that they both want for their son, it’s that he takes after the other.