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He wasn’t all that different, he just… was completely ignorant and innocent. He was like a toddler, it was kind of adorable if Mark was being completely honest with himself.
“What is a… what did you call it again?”
“Dog, Jack. That is a dog.”
“Dog!” Jack swooped down to look closer at Chica, a dog he had just adopted earlier that day. He sniffed and tilted his head to the side in much the same way that she did and Mark couldn’t help but want to scratch the back of his ear, just to see what he would do. “What purpose do they serve?”
“I’m sorry?” Mark was still getting used to Jack’s unending amount of questions, though it was expected. Jack was an alien after all, a very cute alien that Mark wanted to kiss into the next galaxy, but an alien nonetheless.
“Did I not phrase it correctly?” Jack asked, looking up at Mark worriedly then flipping through the dictionary he constantly held in his hands.
Jack had initially landed in an open field in the middle of nowhere Ireland when he came to Earth and had made the mistake of thinking that Irish was the only language in which people of the planet spoke. When Mark had found him, wondering along down the streets of L.A. on a Rainy night, he could barely understand him. Eventually he had gotten the message across that he was a very long way from home, lost, and hungry. He had no idea how Jack had gotten from point A to point B, but Mark had taken him in anyway.
Immediately, he had noticed quite a few strange things about Jack. He knew how to work some of the basic things in the house like the shower, microwave, and a few other things but had no idea what to do with anything else. They had an odd way of communication which made teaching him how the toaster work exceedingly difficult, but eventually, they got through it unharmed. The first time Jack had made toast all on his own, even if it was slightly too crispy, he gave Mark such a radiant smile that he could feel his heart jump out of his chest and do a little dance between his feet.
The day after the toaster incident, Mark had bought him an Irish to English dictionary.
A week into Mark slowly teaching him English as well as how to survive in his house, Jack sat him down on the couch and confessed what he was using stunted and mispronounced words and vague hand gestures.
They sat for hours piecing his story together, but eventually, Mark got the gist of it: Jack was an alien, sent here in peace to learn more about the planet and how it worked.
Mark hadn’t believed him at first, but things started to make a lot more sense. The questions, the inability to understand a toaster, the weird fascination he had with old movies. Honestly, after Jack let him inside his ship – an actual true life space ship - he couldn’t really deny the truth any longer.
After deciding to help him, Mark had taken to going out on walks with Jack and they just talked about anything and everything. Mark answered all of his question in any way he knew how and any type of information Mark gave him Jack would scribble down on a notebook he bought within the first month of his arrival.
Shaking his head, Mark brought himself back to the present, “Dogs? They’re mostly pets or companions, but sometimes they’re service dogs. Used to help the disabled.”
“So they’re intelligent?” He asked, looking up at Mark with wide blue eyes and a glittering smile.
“Um…” He really needed to stop that. Mark lost track of his brain when Jack looked at him like that. “Well they’re not dumb.”
Jack plopped down on the floor and Chica pressed her nose into his shoulder. Not knowing what to do, Jack placed his head on top of hers.
Mark wanted to enjoy the scene set out for him, but he interrupted, opting to help Jack, “Pet her. She likes that.”
Jack lifted his head to look at Mark, then he tilted his head to the side adorably and Mark’s heart was going to give out fuck.
“Here, I’ll show you.” He said, bending down to rub gently behind Chica’s ears. He moved his head down to her back when she looked at him happily and started to wiggle.
“So…” Jack began, obviously having a hard time processing everything he was witnessing, “You just… rub on her? And it makes her happy?”
“It sounds weird to say it like that, but yeah, essentially.”
Mark froze at the sudden feeling of fingers in his hair. He blushed scarlet as those fingers began to scratch gently behind his ear, just as he had with Chica.
“What are you doing?” he asked, sounding weak and breathless even to his own ears.
“I wanted to know if humans reacted the same way as dogs do.” He said simply, moving his hand down to the nape of Mark’s neck and rubbing gently.
Okay so Mark was going to die. Right there on the floor. Jack wanted to pet him? “Okay, that’s fine, but I have to warn you, not many humans like to be touched. And don’t touch anyone else without consent okay?”
“Oh!” Jack’s hand snatched away and he almost wanted to ask him to put it back, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable!”
“It’s alright. I don’t mind. You can pet me, but no one else okay?” he wanted a portal to another dimension to open up and swallow him whole Jesus tap-dancing Christ what was he saying? Jack was still very much like a child and Mark couldn’t just take advantage of that and oh no he was a terrible person.
“Okay!” Jack responded happily, placing his hand right between Mark’s shoulder blades and rubbing, “It’s not like I would want to touch anyone else anyway.”
Mark smiled and blushed so hard he got a little light headed. Yup. Jack was going to put him in an early grave.