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The high in Barrow for the last two weeks was 42°. He wasn't quite sure if he liked it better than high 80's with suffocating humidity in New York City.
Jack rubbed his hands together, thinking it was high time he bought gloves. Sure, it got cold in New York, but he never really thought he would be needing gloves in the dead of summer. The truck rumbled and shuddered as it idled, windshield fogging up with the heater struggling to rise to an acceptable temperature. It was a miracle the thing still ran; he never bothered to ask how old it was, but it was obvious that its end was coming up soon.
He pulled his jacket tighter around himself, shoved his hands through his sleeves, brought himself to the tips of his toes to draw his knees closer to his body. Really, how long did it take for that guy to get dressed?
The front door opened like it had forgotten how to.
David shambled out, dressed like he was taking a leisurely stroll in any other normal part of the country. Jack felt colder just looking at him. He huffed, abhorring the way the cold air was sucked in when the brunet opened the door. Jack offered him a playful glare, unfurling a little in his seat to fasten his seat belt.
"Do all Alaskans dress so casually in almost-freezing weather?" Jack teased. David grunted quietly, reached for the key in the ignition out of habit, and then pulled the truck into reverse.
"It's 40 out, not almost freezing," David raised an eyebrow. The heater was cooperating more now, and Jack stretched his freezing limbs. He decided not to press or tease further, instead favouring to look out the window. In the summer, Barrow was brown and green, leaning more towards brown as they got closer to actually being in the city. "City".
Barrow was a town at the very northern tip of Alaska, and David's cozy little home was stationed around a 45 minute drive westward into nothingness. You had to fly to get here, it was that small. He didn't really mind though. Being away from people was… Preferable, really. He watched boredly as the scenery went by. He had vague little landmarks committed to memory, so it wasn't terribly fun to look out the window.
There were few roads, and even fewer paved ones, so it wasn't exactly a relaxing drive. He had gone through David's collection of mix tapes hundreds of times, switching between teasing him for his music taste (or lack thereof) and laughing as they belted out cheesy 80's rock together. Jack was not a great singer, but David was even worse. He picked the one he liked the best, gently fed it through the cassette player, and leaned across the joined seat to rest his head on David's shoulder.
"Where are we going?"
"Airport."
Jack sat up straighter. They certainly weren't flying anywhere, were they? David had simply told him to get ready to go out! He didn't have a bag or a phone charger or anything but the clothes on his body! An incredulous look crossed his features, and a sound like a bear growling left the older man—a laugh, presumably.
"You don't need anything but yourself, don't worry," he assured, and Jack crossed his arms. He was far from convinced. David wasn't what you would call an organized person, but spur of the moment wasn't really his style, either.
Despite their time together, Jack still had a lot to learn about him, he supposed.
He had no idea how or when he dozed off, but jolted awake when David deliberately ran into the curb separating parking spaces. Jack straightened out so quickly his seat belt locked and almost choked him, and that great, rumbling sound came from David's chest again. He looked over with a pout and jammed his finger against the button, releasing himself and rubbing his neck.
"Ass," Jack sneered, and David reached over, ruffling his hair.
Wiley Post Airport was, laughably small. Jack wasn't sure if he would ever get used to living here. It was just, a little strange, how quaint and far away everything was.
He wondered, briefly, why they were flying commercially instead of taking the Nomad. He knew questioning David was like beating a dead horse, but that didn't stop his curiosity. If David was parking, did that mean they would only be gone for a short amount of time? Was Hal going to come get the truck? … Could Hal even drive David's truck? Could Hal… Drive?
Sure he could fly a plane, and helicopters… The fact that this thought had never occurred to him preoccupied his mind as he stood behind him awkwardly at the desk. It was better than that odd, child-like feeling he got when David dragged him around with too little information, going along with the flow. However, he did manage to zone out long enough to have no idea where they were flying to; David was tugging him along by the arm before he could get his thoughts in order.
The airport was vacant, and David's hand slowly moved down his arm until their fingers were intertwined as he led him through unoccupied space. Sure it was small, but empty buildings always felt so vast it almost made his head spin. David's hand was warm, like he always was, and Jack practically forgot they were going to be on a plane until they were at an empty security gate.
"Are we going to be gone long?" Jack asked slowly, gratefully accepting the cup of coffee being placed directly into his hands. David hummed and sat down next to him, taking time to blow a bubble with his gum and pop it before answering. It helped when he couldn't smoke. Jack didn't mind at all.
"Couple days, maybe," Jack's lip twitched, and he took a cautious sip. It was black. He wished there was a way he could just have caffeine injected directly into his body. He hated coffee. Didn't stop him from drinking it, though.
"Maybe? Didn't you just buy plane tickets?" he sighed through his nose and leaned back in the chair, staring ahead thoughtfully.
"We've got enough money to buy clothes," he muttered, scratching the back of his head. Jack rolled his eyes, scooted a little closer, and David lifted his arm so he could fit right under it.
"Should I just stop questioning it?" David hummed again, idly played with the ends of Jack's hair. Jack sipped his coffee, enjoying the warmth and ignoring the taste.
The plane was tiny. They were flying to Anchorage first, to get on to a bigger plane, of course. That's just how it went. It was an hour and 45 minutes of Jack staring out the window, the armrest pulled all the way up, huddled close to David in the freezing cold plane. It was all too humorously fitting for David, with gray invading his thick dark hair in clusters, to sit with the newspaper over his knee and a pencil in one hand. It was always, startling, to remember just how smart David was, and how much information was crammed into that head of his, considering he tended to act all-brawn-no-brains most of the time.
The plane touched down, and the pilot announced that it was an entire 23° warmer in Anchorage. Of course, 65 was still too cold for July. They stretched, shuffled out with the other handful of people on the plane, and Jack let himself be led around again. He was curious, still, of course, but he decided if David wanted to be cagey and surprise him, who was he to stop him? He even tried his best not to look at their destination when they sat down at the gate.
Of course, the boarding announcement ruined it. Jack yawned into the back of his hand, watched thoughtfully as David finished the last puzzle in the paper.
"California?" Jack asked.
"Just another stop," David huffed, eyes scanning for the closest trash can to dump the paper into. Jack nodded.
The flight to San Francisco was just over six hours, and Jack was asleep for most of it. He wished he would have known they were going to be flying all day, maybe he would have brought a book, or charged his phone a little longer. David seemed content to also pass the time by napping, so there wasn't too much of a problem, he supposed. The only problem was that he was horribly groggy by the time the plane touched down.
It was 8 o'clock at night in San Francisco. They had a two hour layover, and spent half of it eating. The food in SFO was expensive, but David didn't really seem to care. Jack never knew how much money they had at any time, but David constantly reassured him that it was enough. Hal never mentioned where Philanthropy got their money from, and he guessed he didn't really care.
His phone was dead by the time they got to the gate, so he made Snake buy him a charger and a pair of headphones while they waited. David had also picked up a sudoku book, and was leisurely filling out squares with his cheek rested on Jack's head. Jack read a couple clickbait articles before resigning to watch David's scribble numbers in empty squares.
"How do you know what number to write down?" Jack murmured, already tired enough to fall asleep again.
"Based on the placements of all the other numbers."
All his cold weather clothes were starting to feel too warm.
They were on the plane again, and he had forgotten to pay attention to where they were going. Oh well. Surprises were fun, right? He fished his phone out of his pocket, and they each took one earbud and fell asleep to the soothing sounds of Ultravox.
He woke up to the time announcement. It was 11:45 PM in Honolulu. Jack rubbed his eyes, and the act of him stretching his arms over his head took the earbud from David's ear, but the brunet did not stir. Why the hell were they in Hawaii? Jack yawned wide, and shook the brick wall next to him with both hands. David blinked his eyes open and grunted, quickly unfastening the seat belt around his lap.
They shuffled off the plane with everyone else, and Jack leaned on him heavily as they waited for the shuttle to the…hotel? Rental car place? Objective? He wasn't really sure. He didn't particularly care, either.
"Why're we in Hawaii?" Jack murmured as he watched David fumble with the position of the driver's seat. He had shed his jackets and thrown them in the back seat, rolled up the sleeves of his sweater. David looked at the clock on the dashboard, 12:34 AM, and sniffed. It was July 21st. He reached over and ruffled Jack's hair, who was zoned out and jetlagged beyond belief. Going back in time and still arriving at midnight was a goddamn trip.
"Tell you tomorrow."
Jack felt vaguely bad about falling asleep in the car, because he was sure David was tired too. The car bumped into the curb as David parked and Jack's heart leapt out of his chest. He frantically looked over to David, who was grinning at him. He rolled his eyes.
"You can wake me up normally, you know." He felt a little better after sleeping for… The clock blinked 1:52 AM at him and he shuddered. When had they even left home? Somewhere around 9 or 10 in the morning. The thought of it made him tired all over again. He'd slept for a majority of their 18 hour trip, but hey. You could never get enough sleep, right?
He didn't care if they were at a resort or a motel, he just wanted to lay his stiff joints down in a goddamn bed and sleep until not three AM Alaska time.
Their room was on the 12th floor (so, not a motel. Jack wasn't really keeping himself all too aware) and it took David four tries to open the door before he handed the key to a drowsy Jack who got it in one. It took him 10 paces to get to the bed, and he flopped down face first into the fluffy comforter. Jack kicked off his shoes, wrestled out of his sweater, and didn't bother taking his socks or pants off before he fell asleep on top of the blankets. David yawned, looking at him fondly, and shook his head slowly.
Jack awoke to brown hair tickling his nose and bright sunlight. It took him several moments to realise he was not in his own bed, and he blinked his eyes open. He had slept too much and was groggy, but he didn't really mind. He was going to be tired no matter what, so it didn't matter whether he slept too much or not at all. Jack propped himself up, and David wrapped his arms tighter around him and pulled him back down.
"Agh, Dave," Jack huffed and pushed on him, and David gave a discontented groan. "Why are we in a fancy resort in Hawaii?" David rolled over, taking Jack with him, and the blond struggled for a moment before resigning to laying his cheek against the other's chest.
"It's the 21st," David mumbled, running his fingers through Jack's hair. Jack blinked slowly.
Oh. Oh, fuck.
"It's our anniversary," Jack said plainly, sitting up and looking David in the face.
"You're pretty slow, kid." Jack huffed louder.
"You dragged me across the country and across the ocean for our anniversary, and I didn't even remember." David twirled a lock of pale blond hair around his finger and hummed. The vibrations from his chest made Jack's face tingle.
"Surprise," David said, clearly amused, and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.
"You could have at least let me pack some clothes, you know…" Jack propped himself up again, raising an eyebrow. David pretended to think for a moment.
“Like I said. We can just buy clothes here,” he shrugged, and Jack rolled his eyes, and rolled his body to lay beside the brunet. He rested his cheek on his shoulder, draping his arm over his waist, and yawned widely.
“You are so weird,” Jack sighed, content despite it all and closed his eyes, scooting a little closer. David traced gentle circles into the skin on his back, laughed.
“You love it,” he could hear the grin in his voice, and he let out a quiet snort.
“Yeah, I do. Only because I love you.” He leaned up, took a stubbly cheek in his hand, and he kissed David gently. David shifted, and then rolled over him, kissing him again and again until Jack had to squirm away to get him to stop.
“Love you, too, Jack.”