Work Text:
“Do you think we could bring David?” Alex asked the moment Zahra informed him and Henry, his official boyfriend, about an upcoming interview they had scheduled.
“They want you to play with puppies, not the dog you already have. They could just look at your Instagram or the millions of YouTube compilations for that.” Zahra sounded final, with no arguing or exception-making insight. He should have known that when he answered the phone to the sound of her typing aggressively. He didn’t push any further.
Alex had moped around the Brownstone for a full two days after his phone call with Zahra. When Henry finally was able to pry out of Alex about what had him so moody and why he seemed so upset, Alex responded with his face in David’s fur, “We are doing one of those Buzzfeed fan question interview videos. The one with puppies.” Alex couldn’t miss the way Henry’s face lit up with excitement. Alex let up on his hold on David a little to look up at Henry. Alex had a vague memory of Henry talking about rewatching one of those videos while they talked on the phone once. It could have been before they got together, or maybe after. He’s not sure. “You always wanted to do one right?”
Henry happily nodded. “They seemed really low stress. Nothing like any interview I’d done before.”
“Ah. Well, bad news. We can’t bring David.”
Henry tilted his head at Alex as he didn’t seem to understand. “Is that why you are so distraught, Love?”
“Yes! We are going to come home, smell like other dogs, and David is going to think we don’t love him anymore.”
“And that’s why you haven’t put him down?”
Alex smirked, “Are you jealous?”
Henry’s eyebrows shoot up into his hair, “No! That’s absurd.”
“Awe, you want cuddles too, don’t you.”
Henry laughed. “I’m not opposed to the idea.” And so they cuddled until Henry got up to collect the take-out they ordered and Alex continued to mop.
It wasn’t until the week before the interview when Alex figured out what would make filming a video of cute puppies with his hot boyfriend better for him. “Matching pajamas.”
Henry, who was in the middle of working on his manuscript, raised a single eyebrow but didn’t look at Alex. “Huh?”
“We are going to wear matching pajamas to do this interview.” Alex gasped, more ideas popping into his head, “Pajamas with David’s face all over it! No, we dress up as David! Wait, God no. Uh, oh! We could wear those classic red plaid pajamas but where white people embroider their initials, we get David’s face embroidered.”
“I see… but why?”
“So we can keep David’s memory with us. Duh.”
“Alex, he’s not dead.”
“Please! Think of how cute it would be! The people would love it. I bet your Grandmother would like some positive media coverage, and what’s more positive than trending number one on Twitter for matching Christmas pajamas with your dog’s face on it? I can’t think of anything.”
“Okay, we can do it! You’re a mense, but I’m on board.”
Alex jumps up and hugs Henry around the shoulders, “I love you I love you I love you!”
The actual interview was actually really fun. When they arrived in their matching outfits, all of the staff laughed and told them not to change a thing because it was perfect, even if they did clash with the soft purple backdrop. Alex beamed.
One of the first questions they were asked from the bowl of mystery folded papers was “Can you two do impressions of one another.”
“Oh hell yeah!” Alex exclaims excitedly.
“Oh hell yeah!” Henry repeats in a flat American accent, and he laughs when Alex looks at him in disgust.
“I do not sound like that!” He picks up a puppy who is not much longer than his hand and brings it to his face so they are eye to eye. “Can you believe he just said that? He’s so rude to me. He just thinks,” Alex breaks out his horrific British accent which Alex thinks is amazing because a British accent is second nature to all Americans, “he’s loads of fun but he’s just rude.”
Henry, back in his perfect posh prince accent, responds, “I am loads of fun, don’t you think so?” He points the last part to the two puppies in his lap.
“Okay, next question. Hen, you pick.” As Henry reaches into the bowl, another puppy jumps up to paw at his hand, stopping Henry from reaching forward.
“Oh, you are so adorable.” He pets the puppy softly until it’s uninterested then continues the task at hand, “What is your current favorite show? Mine is The Great British Bake Off.”
“The Great British Bake Off,” Alex repeats in his faux British accent before answering himself with a wicked smile, “The Crown,” Henry groans and rolls the question into a ball and throws it at his face. “I’m joking, I’m joking! Uh, what am I into right now? I typically don’t watch a lot of television. I watch Parks and Recs a bunch with my sister and I watch Bake Off with Henry, so probably one of those.”
“You love watching C-SPAN of government proceedings.”
“Does that count? Wait, does that make me boring? Oh, God, I’m old.”
“Alright, let move on before Alex goes into a crisis,” Henry cuts in turning to Alex to give him a loving smile, “You pick.”
The puppy Alex was holding refused to leave his lap and keep trying to eat the question which delighted Alex to no end. “Awe, okay buddy. Can I read this question, please? Okay, thank you!” He coughs to clear his throat and uses the small pup as a pretend microphone, “Mr. Prince of Wales, who is your biggest celebrity crush?”
Henry laughs and blushes, “I’m guessing when you say celebrity crush, you mean someone whom I could never meet, or never meet again, but find attractive currently? If you are asking about a celebrity who I actually adore and have really romantic feels for,” Henry gestures towards Alex. Alex laughs. “To answer the former question, I don’t think I’ve had a celebrity crush in quite some time, but I did have a short-lived fascination with Jude Law when I was younger.”
“You’re joking, right? You are basically his mini-me.”
“I am not.”
“I’m dating a narcissistic.”
“I am not,” Henry insists. “Next question.”
“I didn’t answer!” Alex laughs.
“I don’t want to give you another chance to turn this back to me. What’s your favorite way to eat potatoes? I quite enjoy chips.”
“Boring. Tater tots. Oh! What can you spoil about your upcoming project? Well, I don’t have any projects at the moment unless you mean my college essay due next week, but I don’t think y’all care about that. Hen?”
The cameraman focuses solely on Henry for the first time this entire interview but Henry doesn’t seem to mind. He looks incredibly proud. “Great question, thank you to whoever asked it. I can’t say much at the moment, but my good friend Percy Okonjo and I are setting up four shelters worldwide for disenfranchised queer youth. A lot of things are still up in the air at the moment, but everything is coming together amazingly and we are quite excited to get them up and running.”
The wrap-up shortly after that and Alex makes him and Henry go to a dressing room and change for David’s sake. When the video airs, Alex tweets a picture of David with the top trending hashtag, which happens to be ‘PJS AND PUPPIES’.