Chapter Text
Gabriel awoke to the sound of breathing. Blinking the sleep from his eyes he stared around the room. It was a normal hotel room. What then? He shifted his head around, and what was that? He was sure he had just heard his pillow groan.
Oh right. That wasn’t a pillow. Or rather it was a human pillow.
“Hey...” His pillow began to speak. “You awake?”
“Yeah… I think.”
Jack chuckled. “Facetious as always, I see. You mind moving? I kinda need to piss.”
Gabe whined, but obliged him, shifting his head from Jack’s lap.
“Thanks.”
Jack sat up, and wandered haphazardly to the bathroom. Gabriel just lay there and watched. It was a view worth savoring, and for once he did not have to worry about being called out for it. They had spent the night together, so Gabe felt fully entitled to do some tasteful admiring.
The bathroom door shut behind him, which was a disappointment. There went his entertainment.
Not to waste any of his precious time, Gabe leaned over, off the bed and rummaged around in his rucksack for the antiquated Nokia that Nina had given him before they left. Having a criminal for a sister, it seemed, really did pay.
Turning it on he went immediately to the menu for contacts. One listed number shone from the tinny screen, reading Big Rico’s Pizza and Chicken Shop. Yet it was a mobile number. Gabe grinned and sent a text through.
It read: [Morning sweet princess.]
The phone buzzed almost immediately.
[Its 6 in the afternoon here u dolt]
Gabe grinned and texted back.
[after your bedtime isnt it?]
[haha real funny u shit. How did flight go? u and j safe?]
[all fine. Having a lie in actually.]
[gr8. hows lover boy?]
[in good spirits. He should be, he got laid]
There was a slight pause before the next text.
[with u?]
Gabe rolled his eyes. What, wasn’t it obvious enough already?
[who else ;)]
Has he just used an emoji? Was he getting ill or something? Shameful.
Then the response.
[em and marie just got back! gtg, congrats o n the sex comrade]
Gabe smiled to himself and put the phone down.
As if by magic, Jack chose that very moment to reappear, standing squarely in the bathroom door.
“Gabriel.” He said, and did Gabe detect nerves in that voice? Even if he didn’t, full names were a bad sign. But Gabe wasn’t going to prepare for the worst case scenario. He liked to think he had a little more faith than that.
“That’s my name.” Gabe acknowledged.
“So, about last night.” He faltered.
“Yes?”
“I just wanted to check if you… uh… remember everything? I mean, we did drink quite a bit, so if you don’t, then I-”
“You wanna know if I remember sucking your dick, champ?” Gabe’s lips curled into a triumphant grin.
Jack’s face flushed, but to his credit, he retained his composure. “Why’d you have to say that and then call me ‘champ’? That sentence was going so well.”
“Because I knew I’d make you blush if I did.” Gabe bit his lip. “And you just look so sweet all red and embarrassed like that.”
Jack groaned. “You’re incorrigible, Gabe.”
“Please.” Gabe smirked. “You can’t get enough of me.”
“I do. But you’re still incurably wicked.” Jack strode over to the bed, collapsing down upon it and squirming over to where Gabe lay.
“You stole the warm bit!” He challenged. “Traitor.”
“And the worst bit? I don’t even regret it.” Gabe kissed him, quickly and sweetly. “Look, now we’re going to have to cuddle up together to keep warm.”
“Or I could get up and put some clothes on.” Jack suggested slyly. “Because I’m sure that would warm me up too.”
Gabe wrapped his arms around Jack’s neck.
“Don’t you dare.” He warned. “I need you right here.”
“Hmmm.” Jack pretended to waver. “I dunno sweetheart, those clothes look pretty inviting to me.”
“You have me in the palm of your hand Jack, and you’d neglect me for clothes? I’m distressed.”
Jack frowned.
“Well, I can’t have that. I suppose clothes will have to wait.”
-- - --
When the both of them finally tumbled out of bed the sun was already high in the sky. Reluctantly, Gabe let his sweetheart finally put some clothes on.
“What do you mean, you only have shorts?” He demanded crossly as Jack rifled through his dented suitcase, clothes strewn everywhere.
“I live in the fucking desert Gabe! What do you expect me to have in my wardrobe, seven parkas?”
Gabe pouted. “You get up on the wrong side of bed eh, jackass? Fine, you can borrow some of my jeans.”
He picked up a clean pair of jeans from the top of his own suitcase (which was neatly packed, unlike Jack’s) and chucked it at him.
Jack unthreaded the belt from his old, discarded pair of jeans and wove them into his new pair, trying them on for size.
“All your jeans have a real weird fit, Gabe.” He complained.
“Yeah, that’s because every pair of trousers I own has to go through trial by thighs.”
“Trial by what now?”
“My thighs. Every time I buy a new pair of trousers I gotta go through this whole process of breaking them in so that they’ll fit around my legs. It’s damn inconvenient.”
“Why not just buy the size up?”
Gabe scoffed loudly. “Are you kidding me, Jack? Wear loose trousers? Trousers that aren’t- aren’t form fitting? What kind of a pitiful fool do you think I am? Jack! Tight jeans are essential to my look, these bad boys need to fit like a goddamn second skin! Jack- Jack! I have great thighs and you’re sure as hell I’m gonna show them off! They’re my best feature!”
Jack leaned into him, curling around the arch of Babe’s back, kissing the back of his neck.
“Every feature is your best feature, babe.”
Gabe laughed. “You shameless flirt. Flattery will get you everywhere.”
“Good to know.” Jack murmured into the collar of Gabe’s shirt. His hand ran down Gabe’s side, clenching itself around Gabe’s left thigh with a tentative squeeze. “But I’m serious, you know. Every part of you that I’ve touched feels fantastic. I’m certain that if I ever saw you, I’d think you were the most gorgeous man I’d ever laid eyes on.”
Gabe hummed contentedly.
“That said,” Jack added, “those thighs? Incredible.”
“Shouldn’t you be packing?” He teased. “We need to be out of here in fifteen minutes, you know.”
“Why the rush?” Jack groaned. “Surely a few more minutes can’t hurt.”
“You’re the one who has to apologise to my sister if she has to pay for another night in this hotel because we couldn’t keep our hands off each other for long enough to check out at the proper time.”
“Come on, it can’t be that late.”
“Jackie, it’s quarter to twelve.”
“Shit.” Jack breathed. “Okay, I’ll get back to packing.”
To his word, he did, though Gabe couldn’t deny that the temptation to just go to hell with it all and spend the day in bed was very strong.
As he finished up, Gabe did a quick once-over of the hotel room to make sure they hadn’t left anything in the now thoroughly untidy bedroom.
They made check-out three minutes before twelve, much to the chagrin of the man on desk, who seemed even more personally offended by their presence than before.
“We received several noise complaints about your room last night.” He scowled.
Gabe stared him, down, hoping that the fact that Jack was hanging off him like a baby koala did not detract from his menacing aura.
“How lucky for you that we’re leaving then, isn’t it?” He said, face not betraying even a flicker of emotion.
He tossed his keys onto the desk and turned to leave.
“Sweetheart, do you mind getting off me for a second? I can’t walk like this.”
Jack didn’t move.
“John! Please, shift.”
Jack shuddered, and detached himself.
“Sorry hun. Got a little too comfortable.”
Gabe kissed him then, right in the middle of the lobby in front of their horrified cashier.
He gave the disgusted clerk a wink and strode out of the front door, Jack in tow.
-- - --
A hot panini and two train tickets later, and the two of them were sat together in the slightly threadbare interior of a train, painted in the questionable colour scheme of purple and yellow.
“Be glad you’re blind, Jackie.” He joked as they whizzed past scenes of open countryside, “Because the exterior on this thing is hideous.”
Jack nudged his leg. “Shouldn’t that be John in public?”
“Come on, there’s like nobody on this train. And it’s not like you’ve been calling me Rafael.”
“Well, I don’t like acting like it’s anyone but you who I have feelings for. I don’t know this Rafael guy. I like you, and only you.”
Gabe yawned, and surreptitiously wrapped his arm around Jack’s shoulder.
“Then can’t I say the same? I want my Jackie.” He reasoned.
“Yeah, but my name is actually John, soo…”
“What?”
Jack looked up, surprised. “What? I told you didn’t I?”
“You did not.”
“Oops. Yeah, that’s me, Jonathan Alistair Morrison. But I started going by Jack when I left home. Wanted to differentiate myself somehow. So obviously, I chose an equally boring name and went from there.” He joked.
“Jeez, I really can’t see you as a Jonathan. It doesn’t suit you at all.”
“Suppose I grew out of it, which was for the better. Not sure my father would agreed though, if he knew. He was always very particular about the name. He had his reasons of course, but I didn’t understand them at the time. I just didn’t like the name.”
“Any particular reason?”
Jack chuckled. “Well, for starters it was a family name, so about a quarter of my entire family were John, Jonathan, Johnny or Nathan. Didn’t exactly make you feel unique.”
“I can understand that.” Gabe agreed. “Everyone wants to stand out a little bit.”
“Mhmm.” Jack nodded. “I did a lot of teen angsting over little things like that, felt like the whole town was just holding me back. I bet I’ve made my childhood sound really terrible to you, but it wasn’t actually so bad. People were nice enough to me, my parents loved me even if they weren’t the most perceptive or empathetic. Even coming out, you know, that was dreadful but they would’ve gotten over it. Truth is, I wanted a reason to leave, and I wanted for them to feel guilty for giving me shit about my sexuality.”
“Yeah?” Gabe asked, squeezing Jack tighter.
“I don’t know why I’m telling you this.” Jack admitted. “I don’t do this kind of stuff as a rule, I don’t want to regret things. I am where I am and that’s my responsibility and I just have to deal with those things. That’s my business alone. But there’s just something about you that actually makes me want to tell all those things, and hope that you sympathise.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that, sweetheart.” He cooed. “Tell me everything you want to, and I swear I’ll listen. I’ll listen to everything that you want me to. We’re here for each other, Jackie. No exceptions, no excuses.”
A slow smile spread across Jack’s features, lighting them up one by one.
“So… do you remember when we were talking, back in Willsdale? I mean, it was just one silly conversation but you said maybe, when you came back we could go travelling, and maybe, you know… visit them? I mean, not that we’re in the same circumstances now, but say one day we did manage to go back there, do you think we could… do you think I could visit them?”
“As soon as we’re back in the U.S, whenever that may be, I’ll take you there. And wherever else you wanna go as well, just you and me.”
Jack practically threw himself into Gabe’s arms.
“I’d love that.” He stretched himself out on the long row of empty seats, resting his head in Gabriel’s lap.
“Hey, you don’t think we’re moving too fast, do you?”
Gabe shook his head.
“Nah. I think we’re doing just fine.”
“You do?” Jack looked a little surprised. “Not even a bit?”
“If it works for us I don’t give a shit. Just go with it, right? Besides, things are bound to go fast. We’re gonna be seeing a whole lot of each other in future, y’know?”
Jack nodded earnestly.
“Sorry. Nervous, you know. Long time- very long time since I’ve done this.”
Gabe shrugged.
“You’ll be fine. No point in holding back in case you do something wrong. Things go wrong no matter what, so just embrace it. We can all only do our best, you know.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “You know, you seem… different today, Gabe. Very chilled. It’s quite disturbing.”
“Funny.” Gabe snorted. “Actually, I do feel different. In a way, I think I’ve just stopped caring.”
“Given up have you? Reassuring.” Jack frowned as the train clattered through a tunnel.
“No, nothing like that. Maybe I just think it’s time that I stopped worrying about everyone and just got on with things. Everything’s just going to happen, after all. Whatever it ends up being.”
Jack smiled. “That’s a good outlook to have.”
“Mmmm.” Gabe hummed in agreement as Jack cuddled up to him on the scuzzy train seat. “Say, what does a guy have to do do to get a kiss around here?”
The answer, it turned out, was remarkably little.