#atl sickfic
Text
Pushed Too Far- All Time Low Fanfiction
Jack is concerned that Alex is pushing himself too hard.
More notes at the end.
“I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” Jack exclaimed, saying goodbye to his coworkers as he walked out of his office for the day.
As he walked over to his car, Jack excitedly pulled his phone out of his pocket, and went to Alex’s contact, before clicking FaceTime. Jack had just gotten to his car and opened his door as Alex answered his call from the bathroom of the restaurant he worked at. Jack could tell that Alex was a bit tired, which was unsurprising, since he’d gotten to work at six that morning, and it was now about five in the afternoon.
“Hey, Alex, I’m headed home from work! Are you going to head home soon, too? Maybe we could go out to dinner or something?” Jack excitedly suggested, starting his car up.
“Hey, Jack. I’m going to be here for a bit longer, I think. Someone called in, and my boss said I could get a decent bonus if I stay over for a bit. Sorry, can we maybe take a raincheck on dinner?” Alex asked, making Jack’s heart sink.
“Yeah, sure, we can try for another time. Maybe tomorrow after work? It’s going to be Friday, after all!”
“Sure, we can plan for that for now. I’ll let you know when I’m on my way home. I’m so excited to see you later. I love you so much,”
“I love you too, babe. I hope the rest of your workday goes well,”
“Thanks, Jack. I’ll talk to you later,”
Alex ended the call, and Jack sighed as he put on his favorite playlist and pulled out of his company’s parking lot. He wasn’t surprised that Alex had agreed to stay over at work, he’d been doing that quite a bit lately. Jack loved Alex’s drive and work ethic, but it was hard not getting to see him as often as he would like, particularly during the week. He was also nervous that Alex would eventually burn himself out working like this, despite Alex telling him several times that it was okay, that he was fine.
As Jack drove home, he couldn’t help but wish that Alex had a job more like his; Jack worked a typical nine to five in an office for a large company, and made decent money. Alex currently worked at a local restaurant that was down the street from their apartment complex, making minimum wage and tips. They had graduated college together just about six months ago, and Jack had a much easier time finding a job, thanks to his major in business. Alex had studied psychology with plans to go to graduate school after, which ultimately fell through, leading to him working at the restaurant.
Alex had been trying to find a better job, but was really struggling to. Jack knew that Alex would eventually land a great job, and that he would get more time with Alex once he had more of a traditional schedule, but he just had to be patient for that day to come. As he drove home, Jack sang along to the songs in his playlist, thinking of how he could spend his evening until Alex got home.
Eventually, Jack pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex, feeling relieved to be home for the day. After locking his car, Jack walked into the lobby, then took the elevator up to the third floor. Once Jack was inside his apartment, he set his bag with his laptop down by the front door, and kicked off his shoes. He changed out of his button up shirt and slacks, putting on a pair of sweatpants, and his favorite of Alex’s hoodies, then walked out to the living room.
“Hm, what to do now?” Jack muttered to himself, looking around the apartment, hoping that something would catch his eye to keep him occupied until whenever Alex would get home.
Jack eventually brought his gaze to the kitchen, deciding to cook himself dinner. He wasn’t sure what ingredients they had stocked, but after a quick look around, he decided to cook chicken alfredo, knowing it was one of Alex’s favorite meals, too. Jack connected his phone to a Bluetooth speaker, so he could listen to his playlist as he cooked. It didn’t take him very long to finish the meal, since it was fairly simple. After doing a bit of straightening up from the cooking, Jack served himself a portion, and took it out to the living room, where he sat on the couch.
He browsed the TV guide for a couple minutes, eventually deciding on a rerun of his favorite show. Once he finished his dinner, Jack brought his plate back into the kitchen, and poured himself a glass of wine. Normally, he didn’t drink alone, but he decided to make an exception for tonight. He went back out to the living room, and saw that Rian and Zack were blowing up their group text, asking if he could play a game on the Xbox with them. Jack replied to the texts, saying that he would sign on and play. He mentioned that Alex was going to be working late, so he had plenty of time to kill. Jack turned the game console on, and joined the room that Rian and Zack created. He put on his headset, and took another sip of his wine.
“Hey, Jack, what’s up?” Rian asked, as Jack got comfortable on the couch.
“Hey, man, not too much. Alex is working late at the restaurant tonight, so I’m just hanging out. How’re you doing, Zack?” Jack continued, adjusting the microphone on his headset.
“Not too much, I’m just glad to be home from work. I feel like we all work so much now, adult life blows,” Zack stated, making Jack and Rian laugh.
“It has some perks, but, I agree, the constantly needing to work to earn money thing kind of sucks,” Jack replied, as Rian started their game.
“We all need to hang out soon, Alex needs to be there too. I feel like he works the most out of all of us,” Rian pointed out.
“That’s because he does. He’s been picking up so many shifts at the restaurant lately, and he’ll come in early and stay late. He gets decent bonuses when he does that, but it’s like he’s never home,”
“That stinks, man. Are you guys, like, okay?” Zack asked, discomfort evident in his voice.
“Yeah, we’re fine. I’m fine, too. It isn’t ideal to have him out so much, sure, but we make it work. We still try to prioritize meaningful time together when we’re both off. Besides, I know this is all just temporary; he’ll eventually get a job with more traditional hours, and won’t have to work so much to get by. I just have to be patient,”
“That’s a good way to look at it. Now, enough of this conversation, we have a battle to win!” Rian exclaimed, as the countdown to the start of the game reached zero.
Jack played online for a few hours, time getting away from him. When he eventually looked at his phone, it was almost ten at night, much to his surprise. He saw a couple texts from Alex, each one saying he’d be home later than the last one. The most recent one said that he would be home by eleven, which Jack hoped was true. After saying goodnight to his friends, Jack cleaned up the living room, and put his wine glass in the kitchen sink.
He went into the bathroom and got himself ready for bed, washing his face and brushing his teeth. Jack went into the bedroom and climbed into bed, before searching for the TV remote. Once Jack finally found the remote, he put on the news, then grabbed his phone to reply to Alex’s text.
Jack: Sounds good, babe. I’m in the bedroom, but I’ll stay up until you get home. I love you.
Jack scrolled through his phone as the TV continued to play. He looked over a couple of work emails that he’d received after he left for the day, then went to his different social media accounts. If he was being honest, he didn’t really care about seeing what his friends had posted, he was just browsing to keep himself awake until Alex got home. About ten minutes until eleven, Jack felt his eyes get really heavy, but was determined to stay awake so he could at least say hello to Alex before sleeping. Jack’s eyes slowly closed, but his mind was still awake and focused on his goal at hand.
Not much later, Jack could hear the front door being unlocked then opened, but his eyes stayed shut. He could hear Alex kick his shoes off, before walking through the apartment to their shared bedroom. Despite being excited to see his boyfriend, Jack still couldn’t get his eyes to open, the sleepiness coming on quicker and stronger now. Just a couple minutes later, Jack felt a slight dip in the bed, forcing himself to use all of his remaining energy to open his eyes to see Alex, sitting on the edge of the bed and laughing.
“Hey, Alex,” Jack sleepily said, making Alex laugh even more.
“Hey, babe, sorry I’m home so late. You didn’t have to force yourself to stay up late for me,” Alex replied, his voice a bit worn out.
“I know, but I wanted to see you, even if just for a couple minutes before I crash,”
“I love you, Jack. I promise we’ll have more time tomorrow,” Alex stated, giving Jack a quick kiss.
“That sounds great to me. Hey, I made chicken Alfredo, it’s in the kitchen if you want some. What time do you have to go to work tomorrow? I want to wake up with you,” Jack said, rubbing his eyes some, trying to force himself to stay awake for just a few more minutes.
“I might get some, thanks for making that. Um, I’m going into work at seven tomorrow morning, so I’ll probably wake up around six-thirty. You don’t have to get up that early if you don’t want to, I know you don’t really need to be on the way to your job until eight-thirty,”
“No, it’s okay, I want to spend some time with you, even if it is at the crack of dawn. I’m so excited that tomorrow is Friday, do you work at all this weekend?” Jack asked, hoping the answer was no; he had worked every day since the previous Saturday, and Jack knew that Alex would need a break at some point.
“I work on Saturday, but I should have Sunday off. Tomorrow is going to be fun, though, I’m excited!” Alex exclaimed, before coughing into his arm.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, my voice is just a bit tired; it was a long day. I’m okay, don’t worry, babe. I’m going to get some of that Alfredo, but please don’t wait for me, go ahead and go to sleep. I’ll come in here when I’m done. I love you, Jack,” Alex said, kissing Jack one more time.
“I love you too, Alex. I’ll see you bright and early in the morning,” Jack replied, finally letting his eyes fall shut.
Jack shifted around in bed a bit, wanting to get more comfortable, as Alex walked out of the room, gently shutting the door behind himself. As much as he wanted to get up and spend time with Alex now, the tiredness finally won, and Jack was out like a light in minutes.
—————
When Jack woke up to the sound of a blaring alarm coming from his phone in his pitch black bedroom, he did his best to hold back an annoyed groan. He remembered telling Alex that he wanted to wake up with him, so they could spend some time together before Alex had to leave for work, but he didn’t realize how hard it would actually be to wake himself up so much earlier than he normally did. As he took a deep breath, Jack brought his arm up above his head and over towards his nightstand, haphazardly hitting around it until he found his phone.
Once his alarm was finally off, he looked over to the other side of his bed, surprised to see Alex still fast asleep. He looked at the time on his phone, seeing that it was six twenty, then remembered that Alex said he was going to get up at six-thirty. Jack decided to let Alex sleep, his phone would wake him up soon, anyway. While he waited, Jack looked through his work email, then scrolled through his Instagram feed. Eventually, Alex’s phone started to ring loudly, causing Alex to react the same way that Jack had just ten minutes earlier; swatting at his nightstand, in search of his phone.
“Fuck, that thing is so loud,” Alex muttered, his voice sounding scratchy like it had the night before.
Jack laughed at his boyfriend, then reached over Alex to grab his cell phone to turn off the alarm. Once it was off, Jack held Alex’s phone out in front of him, as Alex looked over to him with a confused expression on his face.
“Jack, what are you doing wide awake at six-thirty in the morning?” Alex asked, coughing to clear his throat.
“I told you that I wanted to get up with you this morning, remember?” Jack continued, surprised that Alex had forgotten about their conversation from the night before.
“Oh yeah, that’s right, I totally forgot. Well, I have to get up and get ready now, if you want to join me,”
Alex took a deep breath as he ripped the comforter off of himself, and sat up on the edge of the bed.
“Sure, I will. Why don’t you go ahead and shower, and I’ll make you some breakfast?”
“I’d love that. Thank you, Jack,” Alex replied, looking over to Jack and smiling at him.
“Of course, anything for you. I’ll see you in the kitchen, okay?”
Alex just nodded, before finally standing up and stretching, before walking over to the ensuite bathroom. Once Jack heard the shower water running, he made himself get up from the bed, and put his slippers on before walking out of the bedroom, and into the kitchen. Jack looked through the fridge, smiling in satisfaction when he saw eggs and microwavable bacon. After putting a few pieces of bacon in the microwave, Jack began cooking two eggs sunny side up, Alex’s favorite. Just as Jack was finishing with the food, he heard the shower water stop running, so he quickly plated everything, and set it up on the table in the kitchen.
Just as Jack was putting a glass of water on the table, Alex walked into the kitchen, dressed in his work uniform. Jack couldn’t help but sense that something was off about Alex, he didn’t seem to have the usual energy that he normally did. Sure, it could’ve been because it was six-forty in the morning, but something just didn’t feel right. As Jack took a closer look at his boyfriend, he noticed that Alex seemed to have dark circles under his eyes, and that the rest of his face seemed a bit paler than usual.
“Those eggs look great, thank you for making them for me,” Alex said, sitting down at the table.
“No problem, Alex. Hey, are you alright?” Jack asked, taking a seat across from his boyfriend.
“Um, yeah, I’m fine. Why?”
“I don’t know, you just don’t seem quite like yourself for some reason,”
“Well, you haven’t seen me up this early in a while. I’m usually not as loud and energetic at this time of day,” Alex replied, before sneezing into his elbow.
“Oh okay, I guess that’s it. I don’t blame you for being so quiet, it’s so early; I don’t know how you get up this early on a regular basis,” Jack continued, making Alex laugh.
“It’s not easy, but you get used to it after a while,”
Alex continued to eat his eggs, and Jack continued to wonder if he was just overthinking, or if something was really up with Alex, and he just wasn’t saying anything. Eventually, Alex finished his breakfast, and Jack put his dirty plate into the sink. Alex went back to their shared room to finish getting ready, and Jack washed off the plate. After a few more minutes, Alex walked into the living room to put on his shoes, and Jack made his way into the living room to say goodbye to his boyfriend.
“Thank you again for cooking me breakfast, you’re the best. I’m excited to be with you tonight,” Alex said, as Jack pulled him into a hug.
“No problem, Alex, I can do that anytime. What time are you coming back from work today?” Jack asked, as the two of them pulled away from the hug.
“I think I’ll be off around six or seven, so not much later after you get home. I’m working tomorrow, too, but I don’t need to go in until after nine,”
“That sounds good, I’m so excited to spend the evening with you. Have a good workday, Alex. I love you,” Jack replied, leaning in to kiss Alex.
“I love you, too. I’ll see you tonight!” Alex exclaimed, before walking out of the apartment, and shutting the door behind him.
After Alex walked out, Jack could’ve sworn he heard a cough, but decided that he was just overthinking again. Jack had a slow morning, getting ready at a leisurely pace, thanks to the early wake up call. When Jack did get to work, he couldn’t help but stare at the clock all day; he was ready for it to be the weekend, and he was ready to spend time with Alex. Jack kept to himself for most of the workday, working as hard as he could to get all of his tasks finished on time. When the end of the workday finally came, Jack couldn’t have been happier. He darted out of the office right at five-thirty, not bothering to say goodbye to any of his coworkers. Normally, Jack was very social at work, but today, his focus was getting home, and seeing Alex.
As Jack drove home, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and he hoped it was a text from Alex saying that he would be home within the next hour. When Jack checked his phone after pulling into the apartment’s parking, his face fell a bit with disappointment; Alex was going to be staying over until about ten that night; he’d gotten a high bonus to do so, and decided to take it. Jack wasn’t surprised, Alex stayed late on Friday nights often, since his boss always offered such a generous bonus to do so.
As Jack walked into his apartment, he couldn’t help but hope that Alex would get a more traditional job sooner, rather than later. Not only would it allow the two of them to have more time together, but Alex wouldn’t have to work so much to make a decent amount of money, which Jack desperately wanted for his boyfriend. When Jack got into the apartment, he changed out of his work outfit, and put the same hoodie and pair of sweatpants on from the day before, then went into the kitchen to heat up some of the leftover chicken Alfredo he’d made. Once he had his dinner, Jack sat on the couch, and turned on one of the Harry Potter movies, since they were being shown back to back on TV. The evening passed by quickly, yet slowly, at the same time. Jack was very invested in the movie, but he couldn’t help but constantly check the time on his phone, counting down the minutes until Alex would finally arrive.
Once it was just before ten-thirty, Jack could hear a key go into the lock of the front door, making him perk up in excitement. The door opened, revealing an exhausted looking Alex, causing the concern that Jack had felt that morning to come flooding back. Alex’s cheeks were bright red, the dark circles under his eyes looked even more prominent, and Alex just looked out of it. Jack quickly stood up from the couch, and walked over to his boyfriend.
“Alex, hey, you’re home!” Jack exclaimed, as Alex slowly shut the door behind himself.
“I am, finally. It was a pretty busy night, which I should’ve expected since Friday,” Alex replied, laughing at first, but eventually leaning into his elbow to let out a quiet cough.
“Hey, are you okay? You seem exhausted,” Jack observed, pulling Alex into a hug.
“Yeah, I’m fine, it was just a super long day; I just need to go to sleep, I think. I’m sorry for ruining our plans,”
“Hey, no, you didn’t ruin anything. It’s okay, we’ll spend lots of time together on Sunday. Are you sure that you have to go in tomorrow? You’ve worked every single day since last Saturday, and you’ve stayed over and come in early a lot this week. Well, the last few weeks, actually,”
Jack slowly started to lead Alex back to their shared bedroom. Alex knew what Jack was doing, but was too tired to protest; he was more than ready to go to sleep.
“Yeah, I do. Well, I think we’re actually going to have more than enough staff tomorrow, but I’m not going to just, like, not show up. It’ll be okay, it’s just one more day,” Alex assured, letting Jack get him settled into their bed.
“Okay, well, hopefully it’ll be a fast day. Here, why don’t you change into a clean shirt and swap those jeans for sweatpants? You’ll be more comfortable,” Jack suggested, grabbing clothing for Alex from the dresser.
“That sounds great, but I’m so tired. Can you help me change?”
Jack laughed as he helped Alex shimmy out of his jeans, and put his sweatpants on, then did the same with his top. After putting Alex’s clothes into the hamper, Jack turned off the ceiling light, and crawled into bed next to Alex. As soon as Jack got in the bed, Alex immediately latched on to Jack, putting his head on Jack’s shoulder.
“Sleep well, Alex. I love you so much,” Jack said, kissing Alex’s forehead.
“I love you, too. I’ll see you in the morning,” Alex replied, his voice already thick with sleep.
In just minutes, Alex was sound asleep, soft snores coming from him. Jack shifted around a bit to get comfortable, then shut his eyes. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right, but he did his best to push the thought from his mind. Jack closed his eyes, and fell asleep within just a few minutes, with Alex laying on him, and hugging him tightly.
—————
When Jack woke up the next morning, little fragments of light were shining through the blinds, casting abstract shapes across the room. While Jack thought the light was pretty, he couldn’t really enjoy it, because he was too focused on the fact that the bed was wet, much to his confusion. He was trying to recall of he had spilled water in the middle of the night, but he didn’t even have a glass on his nightstand. As he started to wake up more, he felt his shirt and the sheets, realizing that they didn’t just feel wet, but they felt sticky. Jack looked over to Alex, and immediately felt the familiar concern from the day before come back. Alex’s hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat, and his face was very flushed. Despite his face looking quite warm, Alex was as bundled in the blanket as he could be, shivering and shifting around uncomfortably. Jack wasn’t even sure if Alex was asleep, he looked too uncomfortable to actually be in a sound sleep.
Even though he knew Alex would likely try to fight it, there was no way Jack was going to let Alex go to work today. Knowing that getting Alex to call in would be a fight, Jack got up and walked over to Alex’s side of the bed to grab his phone; he was going to take matters into his own hands. After he picked up Alex’s phone from his nightstand, Jack put a hand to Alex’s forehead and cheeks, grimacing at how warm he felt. Sighing, Jack quietly made his way to the living room, sitting on the couch before unlocking Alex’s phone. He scrolled through Alex’s contacts, eventually finding his boss, Mike. Jack had talked to Alex’s boss before, he’d even met him a couple of times, and he was great; Jack felt confident that Alex wouldn’t be penalized for not coming in, especially considering how much overtime he’d been doing. Jack dialed the number and put the phone on speaker. After just two rings, Mike answered.
“Hey Alex, what’s up?”
“Hey Mike, it’s actually Jack, Alex’s boyfriend,” Jack started, trying to think of how to best communicate what was going on.
“Oh, hey Jack, how have you been?”
“I’ve been okay. Listen, I don’t think Alex is going to be able to come in today. When he came home last night, he was very low energy, and out of it. This morning, he hasn’t woken up yet, but he looks awful; he’s sweaty, flushed, shivering, and just looks miserable,” Jack explained, hoping that Mike would be understanding.
“Geez, I’m sorry to hear that, but I can’t say I’m surprised. He’s been really pushing himself to work crazy hours; I think he’s at the restaurant more than I am at this point. I’ll tell you what, why don’t we give Alex a week to rest and recharge? He was scheduled Monday through Friday next week, but I can get his shifts covered, and I can even pay him half of what he would’ve earned by working. It sounds like he’s got the flu or something, so he’s going to need some time to recover,” Mike proposed, a grateful smile taking over Jack’s face.
“That would actually be great, thank you so much, Mike! Alex might be a bit pissed at me for doing this behind his back, but I think he really needs a break. Thank you for being so accommodating, I really appreciate it, and I know Alex will, too,”
“No problem, he’s a great employee, and I don’t want him to burn himself out, or put his health in danger. Tell Alex that I hope he feels better soon!” Mike said, before disconnecting the call.
Jack was relieved that the phone call had gone so well, and that Alex’s boss had been so understanding. Remembering that Mike said that Alex should take a week off to recover, Jack decided to take a week off from his job, too, so he could take care of Alex, and ensure that he actually spent the time resting and recovering. Jack pulled out his own phone, and texted his boss that he was going to take paid leave for the next week to be with Alex while he recovered, but that he had his computer for just in case something urgent came up. As Jack slid his phone back into his pocket, he heard Alex start to cough a bit from their bedroom, reminding Jack that he still had to tell Alex that he was staying home today, and for the next week.
Before going back into the bedroom, Jack stopped in the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water and a Tylenol. He also grabbed the thermometer from the kitchen drawer, then went back into the bedroom. Alex wasn’t quite sitting up in bed, but he was wasn’t laying down anymore, either. His hands were over his eyes, which Jack could see were tightly shut. Alex had the blanket pulled up as far as it could go without going over his face, and he was doing his best to stifle more coughs. Jack set the water and medicine down on the nightstand, then gently sat on the edge of the bed, next to Alex.
“Hey, baby, how’re you feeling?” Jack asked, putting his hand on Alex’s side over the blanket.
“I’m fine, just a little tired. I need to get ready for work,” Alex said, his voice raspy, making him cough again.
“Alex, you’re sick, you’re staying home today,”
“No, I’m just tired from the late nights, I’m totally-“
Another coughing fit stopped Alex from getting to finish his sentence. Jack quickly helped Alex sit up more in bed, and rubbed his back as Alex slowly regained control of his breathing.
“Alex, you’re going to stay home and get some rest today, and next week. I called your boss to let him know that you weren’t feeling well, and he said you could have the whole week off to rest and recover. Also, he said that he’d pay you half of what you’d normally make for this week,” Jack explained, once Alex was able to breathe again.
“What? You called my boss? I’m okay, baby, I’m not-“
“Let’s take your temperature, then we can decide who is right, and who is wrong here, okay?”
Alex rolled his eyes as Jack handed him the thermometer. Once the thermometer was done, Jack took it as it beeped.
“It says 102.8, Alex, you’re resting this week. I brought you some medicine and water, why don’t you take it?” Jack suggested, grabbing the medicine and water to hand to Alex.
“Okay, I think I will. To be honest, I do feel really terrible. I’m freezing, but still somehow sweating, everything hurts, and I can’t breathe through my nose,” Alex said, before taking the medicine.
“I’m sorry you’re so miserable, but I’m glad you’re going to take it easy for the week; you’ve been pushing yourself hard lately. Why don’t we get you changed, and set up on the couch? I can pull it out so it’s like a bed, but I need to get these sheets off of this bed, they’re a bit soaked through,”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Alex mumbled, before sneezing into his elbow.
“It’s okay, these things happen. Come on, let’s get you changed, and set up on the couch,”
Jack helped Alex slowly get up from bed, then walked him over to their shared closet. It was a bit hard to get Alex dressed with all his shivering, but Jack eventually got fresh clothes on his boyfriend. Jack then led Alex out to the living room, and quickly pulled the couch out, then set Alex up on it, with an abundance of blankets and pillows. After handing Alex the TV remote, Jack went back into the bedroom to change the sheets. After stripping the dirty sheets, Jack quickly put on the backup set, and put the old ones straight into the washer. Once that was done, Jack went out to the living room to sit with Alex, who was wrapped up in several blankets now. Jack sat on the couch next to his boyfriend, and put his arm around Alex’s shoulders.
“You can put on whatever you want, do you need anything?” Jack asked as he got comfortable on the couch.
“Nah, I think I’m okay for now,” Alex replied, coughing as he put on a rerun of South Park.
They stayed like this for a while, Jack stroked Alex’s hair as the episode played. Towards the end of the first episode, Alex began to shift around some on the couch, raising Jack’s concerns again.
“Hey, are you okay, Alex? Are you feeling super uncomfortable again?” Jack finally asked, continuing to stroke Alex’s hair.
“Um, I think so, my stomach just hurts a bit,” Alex replied, looking down and shutting his eyes.
“Do you think you’re going to be sick?”
“I don’t think so, it feels like it’s just pain,”
“Hopefully you’ll start to feel better soon. Do you maybe want to try sitting up some more? That might help the pain go away,”
“Yeah, I guess so,”
Jack slowly helped Alex sit up more against the back of the couch, and then scooted closer to Alex, to keep him propped up.
“How’s this?” Jack asked, gently putting his hand on Alex’s leg.
“It’s good, this is actually more comfortable,” Alex replied, looking over to Jack with a grateful smile.
“Good, I’m glad to hear that. Do you want to watch another episode of the show? I think the channel is gong to keep playing reruns for several more hours,”
“Sure, that sounds good. Honestly, I might fall asleep at some point, I’m still pretty tired, even though I woke up not too long ago. Would you mind if I took a nap?”
“I wouldn’t mind at all, you need to get as much rest as you can so you can get to feeling better. I might get some chores done around the apartment while you sleep, but I’m not going to leave you here by yourself or anything,”
“I don’t want you to feel trapped here or anything,” Alex continued, coughing into his elbow.
“I won’t feel trapped, I promise. I just want to be here with you, doing what I can to help you feel better,” Jack replied, rubbing Alex’s back as he tried to regain his breath.
“You’re the best, thank you,”
“I love you, Alex. Hey, it looks like the next episode is coming on,” Jack said, pointing to the TV.
Alex lazily smiled at Jack, and Jack smiled back, before placing a kiss on Alex’s forehead. Jack hugged Alex closer to him, and they began to watch the next episode of the TV show. They stayed like this through two more episodes of the show. By the time the third was starting up, Jack felt Alex lay his head down on his shoulder.
“Hey, are you getting tired again? Why don’t you take a nap?” Jack suggested, as Alex slowly lifted his head back up.
“I think I will, my head really hurts, and I think getting some sleep might really help,” Alex replied, letting Jack help him lay down and prop his head up with pillows.
“That sounds like a good idea. I might do some straightening up, but if you need anything, just call for me, okay?”
“I will, thank you for being so great, Jack. I love you so much,” Alex said, sneezing into his elbow.
“I love you, too. Get some sleep, I’ll be in the next room over,” Jack assured, making sure that Alex was comfortable before walking into the kitchen.
Jack wanted to get some of the dirty dishes washed and put away while Alex was sleeping, so he wouldn’t have to spend time away from him once he woke up. There weren’t too many dishes piled up, but Jack decided it would be best to put away what was there, so it wouldn’t become unmanageable over the week. Once the dishes were done, Jack found a couple cans of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup in the pantry, and heated them up on the stove for Alex when he woke up. When the soup was warm, Jack left it covered in the kitchen, then went into the laundry room.
The sheets he’d put in the washer earlier that day were done in the washer, so Jack switched them over to the dryer, then took a very full laundry basket of clean clothes into their shared bedroom to put away. Normally, Jack was really good about keeping up with their laundry, but Jack had somewhat neglected it over the past couple of weeks. It took him much longer to put everything away than he expected, but he felt extremely accomplished once he was finished. After putting the laundry basket back in the laundry room, Jack went back out to the living room, where Alex was still fast asleep. Jack didn’t have any other chores that he needed to get done, so he sat on the chair next to the couch, not wanting to take any of the space on the couch from Alex while he slept. He pulled out his phone, and began to scroll through Instagram. After a little bit, he looked over to Alex, who was still fast asleep.
Jack felt bad for Alex, he looked incredibly miserable. His face was still very flushed, and he was groaning intermittently, which Jack knew meant he was uncomfortable. Jack wished that he could take Alex’s pain and discomfort away, it was hard to see the person he loved so much in this state. While he was glad that Alex hadn’t put up much of a fight about taking some time off to rest and recover, he couldn’t help but wonder why Alex had worked himself hard enough to get in this state. Sure, Alex had always had a very high work ethic, but he had never worked himself hard enough to get so sick before. Jack made a mental note to talk about this with Alex eventually, because he certainly did not want something like this to happen again. For now, though, Jack would stay silently sitting in the living room, waiting for Alex to wake up.
————
Jack had stayed sitting on the extra chair on his phone for quite a while, but eventually felt his eyes grow heavy from looking at the bright screen. He had closed his eyes to take a short nap, despite the chair not being the most comfortable thing to sleep on. Only about thirty minutes after he had drifted off, Alex slowly started to wake up, groaning as he slowly opened his eyes to see the sun shining right through the window.
As he started to feel more awake, Alex couldn’t help but notice that he had quite the headache, and it seemed to be getting more intense by the second. He started to haphazardly feel around the couch for another pillow, wanting to cover his eyes from the sun that was making his head feel worse. Eventually, he found a throw pillow, and put it over his face, tightly squeezing his eyes to block out as much light as possible. While this helped some, Alex knew that the only way he was going to get rid of his headache would be to take a pain reliever.
“Jack, hey, are you awake?” Alex finally asked, his voice weak, but just loud enough to wake Jack up from his sleep.
“Hey, Alex, how’re you feeling? Sorry for dozing off for a minute there,” Jack replied, taking a deep breath in an attempt to get his mind and body to wake up.
“It’s okay. Do you think you could get me some Tylenol, if I can even have any? I just woke up, and my head is killing me, and I’m feeling achy again,” Alex requested, coughing into the pillow.
“You can definitely have some, it’s about one in the afternoon, and you had that first dose around eight or eight-thirty. Do you still have a fever?”
“Probably, I’m still freezing, like I was earlier when you said I had one,”
Jack stood up from his chair and walked over to the couch. Upon first glance, Alex did look a bit better than before; his face wasn’t quite as flushed, and he did look a bit more rested, thanks to the three and a half hour nap he’d just taken. Jack put his hand on Alex’s forehead and cheek, delighted that he wasn't as warm as he’d been earlier.
“You’re still warm, but you’re not burning like you were earlier, which is a good sign! I’ll be right back with the medicine, and some fresh water,” Jack said, before walking into the kitchen.
Jack looked through the cabinet of reusable water bottles in the kitchen, and found a large bottle that he knew Alex liked, hoping that it would encourage Alex to keep himself hydrated for the rest of the day. Once the water bottle was filled, Jack grabbed the medicine, then went back out to the living room. Alex was sitting up a bit more now, his eyes still tightly shut as he wrapped his blanket tighter around himself.
“Here’s your water and Tylenol, why don’t you take it before you get too wrapped up in that blanket?” Jack suggested, laughing as Alex began to slowly unwrap himself from his blanket cocoon.
“That’s a good idea. Thanks for getting this for me,” Alex replied, before quickly downing the pills, grimacing as they went down his throat.
“Does your throat hurt?”
“Yeah, it feels really raw and sore. It was already like that before I went to sleep, but I guess I had my mouth open the entire time, because it feels worse now,”
Alex started to cough again, so Jack carefully grabbed the water bottle from Alex, and set it on the side table, before sitting down on the couch next to his boyfriend. He rubbed Alex’s back until he was finally able to calm himself down again. Jack scooted closer to Alex and put an arm around Alex’s shoulders, like he’d done earlier.
“I’m sorry you’re feeling so shitty, babe,” Jack said, sympathy in his voice.
“It really blows, I can’t remember the last time that I was this sick. Probably when I was a little kid, to be honest,” Alex replied, staring down at his lap.
A beat passed as Jack considered what to say next. Alex sneezed into his arm, and Jack tightened his arm around Alex’s shoulders, hugging him closer. When Alex realized this, he stared up at Jack, looking concerned.
“Is everything okay? You look nervous about something,” Jack pointed out, wondering what could’ve caused the sudden shift in Alex’s demeanor.
“I just realized, you’re, like, really close to me. I don’t want you to get whatever this is that I have. I can sleep out here until I’m feeling better, but I really-“
“Alex, don’t worry about that, I’ll be fine. Besides, I want to spend as much of this time with you as possible; we really haven’t had a whole lot of time to just hang out with each other within the past few months, y’know,” Jack pointed out, hoping to segue into the conversation that he really wanted to be having with his boyfriend, the one he’d been wanting to have for months now.
“Well, as long as you’re sure that you’ll be okay. I’ve missed just getting to lounge around with you like we did when we were in college, so I guess that’s the one silver lining to all this,” Alex replied, a small smile on his face.
“Yeah, we really haven’t had a whole lot of quality time together like this for a bit, mostly since you started working at the restaurant,”
Alex’s smile started to fade, and he looked back down, away from Jack. Jack started to worry that he’d said too much too fast; he didn’t want Alex to feel cornered into this conversation, but he certainly wanted to address why Alex had been working himself so hard for the last several months. He decided that he would let whatever Alex said next dictate how he proceeded with this conversation.
“Um, yeah, that’s true, that’s when it started to decrease. I guess working a full time adult job is hard, it makes it hard to spend time with your partner,”
Jack could tell that Alex was a bit uncomfortable, and he really didn’t want Alex to feel like he was being called out, especially if there was something deeply personal that Alex had been keeping buried. At the same time, however, Jack wanted to figure out what had been going on, and hopefully ensure that once Alex was feeling better, that he wouldn’t push himself to work so many days and hours at a time.
“Well, yeah, it can certainly make things a bit more difficult, but I think we both know that you’ve been working way more than a full time schedule; you’ve been pulling, like, eighty or ninety hour weeks for quite some time now,”
Alex shifted around, then looked up at Jack; he didn’t look scared, but he looked a bit wary. He took a deep breath, and Jack started to rub Alex’s shoulder with his hand, hoping that it brought his boyfriend some comfort.
“You’re not wrong, I definitely have been, more often than not,” Alex replied, taking a sip of his water after coughing.
“Yeah, you have been. Look, I hate to spring this conversation on you when you’re not feeling great, but this is the first time in a while that we’re both actually home and awake enough to talk about this. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about this for so long, but I think now that you overworking yourself has actually made you physically sick, we need to have this conversation. Alex, why have you been working yourself so hard? I mean, it’s been like this for so many months, I’m surprised it took your body to essentially shut down like this. I’m really not trying to call you out or anything, I just want to support you, and understand where all this is coming from,” Jack explained, trying to keep his tone as even and gentle as possible.
“Honestly, me too, I’m surprised the workload didn’t wipe me out like this sooner. I mean, there have been days I’ve gone in feeling kind of bad, but just from sleep deprivation and stuff. This is totally different; as much as I want to, I can’t work like this,”
“No, you certainly can’t, and you probably shouldn’t have risked your health to go in and work when you weren’t well rested in the past. My question still stands, though, why have you been putting yourself through hell for this job? I’ve met your boss several times, hell, I even spoke to him today. He seems like a really nice, reasonable guy, has he been, like, making you stay over or pick up a lot?”
Alex scooted himself away from Jack, so he could turn and face him directly. Jack put his hand in Alex’s, still wanting to physically show his support while Alex talked.
“No, it’s been the exact opposite. Mike has told me several times, like you have, to not push myself so hard, and to take more time off,”
“So, why haven’t you? Why have you been forcing yourself to do crazy hours when you certainly don’t need to?”
“Well, because it feels like I do need to, in order to keep up with you,” Alex finally admitted, the flush on his face deepening as he quickly looked away from Jack, who’s face was overtaken with confusion.
“Keep up with me? What do you mean by that, love?” Jack asked, tightening his grip on Alex’s hand.
“Well, you have a fancy, adult job in corporate America, making a ridiculous salary; a good ridiculous, of course. I’m a dumbass who decided to pursue a degree that you need graduate school to make money from, but still decided to drop out of graduate school. You make so much money, and I know we have so many financial goals coming up; we want to buy a house, we want to get married. Well, technically, we’re not engaged yet, but I’m hoping that’ll come down the pipeline at some point, because I really love you. But, yeah, I’m just trying to make sure that I’m doing my part, and you’re not the only one bringing in a decent amount of money for our future,” Alex explained, tears starting to form in his eyes as he spoke.
Jack leaned in, and pulled Alex into a tight hug. He knew that Alex got emotional when he wasn’t feeling well, and that admitting this was likely really hard. As Alex tried to take deep breaths, Jack couldn’t help but wonder how he hadn’t thought of this before. Sure, Alex had done a really good job of keeping it all under wraps and appearing as fine as he could be, but Jack had no idea that Alex had such a negative view of himself and his worth.
“Hey, it’s okay, you’re okay. Alex, I had no idea that you felt this way, I’m so sorry for being so oblivious for all this time,” Jack finally said, placing a kiss on Alex’s forehead after they both pulled out from the hug.
“Don’t blame yourself, I really wanted to keep all this under wraps, which is why I did everything I could to not make you think it was anything other than me just working a lot,”
“Well, I’m still sorry I didn’t notice or anything. I hate that you have such a negative view on yourself and your worth, Alex. I know you’re not in your dream job, or a career job, but that’s totally okay. You don’t have to have it all figured out right now, we’re still so young,”
“You have it all figured out, though. I had it all figured out, too, but I decided to drop out of graduate school like a fucking failure,” Alex continued, as more tears made their way down his face.
“Hey, you’re not a failure, Alex, you just decided that graduate school, and that career weren’t for you, which is totally okay. Honestly, it’s better that you decided that it wasn’t for you now, rather than after you graduated, five years and so much debt later. You’ll find your career job when it’s the right time, I promise. I know you think I’m all set for life, but I don’t know if I am. I mean, I don’t hate my job, but I don’t know if it is what I want to do long term. We’re so young, we’re figuring it all out, and that’s okay,” Jack assured, stroking Alex’s hand with his thumb.
“I guess you’ve got a point, I know that I don’t need to have my whole life together right now, but I still wish I made more without having to work so much. Like, I want to contribute to our house fund, and to our wedding fund, once we’re engaged and actually start one. You’re able to save so much each time you get paid, and I can’t do that, unless I work as much as I do. It just sucks, I don’t want you to have to contribute so much, while I contribute so little,”
Alex coughed again, then pulled his blanket up more as he shivered. Jack helped Alex place adjust his blanket, then took a deep breath.
“Alex, you don’t have to, like, match, what I put into our savings account for the future. There’s no rush for us to move into a home, or do anything like that, you don’t have to kill yourself working so much, just to put a certain dollar amount into our shared account each week. If you can only contribute, like, fifty bucks a check, that’s fine. If you can’t put anything in one week, that’s fine, too. I really want us to get a house, too, but I’d so much rather have you be happy and healthy, and have to wait a bit longer, than for you to overwork yourself and be miserable, just to contribute a certain dollar amount to our account. When you’re healthy again, I don’t want you to keep working so much, I want you to be able to enjoy life, and not feel so stressed about money. Plus, since you’ve been at work so much, it’s been harder for us to spend time together, and I miss it; I miss you,”
Alex blushed at Jack’s last comment, and Jack smiled at his boyfriend. As they looked at one another, Jack could tell that Alex was much less on edge now than he had been just a few minutes before, to his relief.
“I’ve missed spending quality time with you, too, I really have. I guess, it just felt like I didn’t deserve to unless I could meet a specific dollar amount. I didn’t want you to think I was just hanging around here, not trying to bring in more money when I could by working more. And, I didn’t want you to think that I was just trying to, like, take advantage of you or anything,”
“I never would’ve thought that, I promise. I appreciate that you want to contribute towards our house fund, and keep everything even, but you don’t need to stress yourself out too much to do it. If you can’t do exactly half, or put in as much as me, it’s not a big deal. I won’t, like, love you any less or anything, y’know?” Jack continued, offering Alex a small smile.
“Thank you for saying that, I really appreciate it. I guess I assumed that you thought the same way about me that I do, so I felt like I had to overcompensate by working crazy hours, to prove that I’m not trying to be lazy,”
Alex reached over to his water bottle and drank quite a bit of water. He then ripped his blanket off, and began to fan himself with his hand.
“Are you too warm now?” Jack asked, stifling a laugh at Alex’s sudden shift.
“Yeah, it just hit randomly, but I feel like I’m going to die of heat exhaustion,”
“Well, we don’t want that, but I don’t think that’ll happen. Just stay out of the blankets for a bit,”
“I know, I’ll be okay. But seriously, thank you for talking some sense into me, I love you so much. I really should’ve come to you about this forever ago; maybe I wouldn’t be so miserable now if I’d just done that,” Alex pointed out, coughing into his elbow.
“Maybe so, but I’m glad that we did talk about this. I love you so much, Alex, and that isn’t conditional on things like income. Besides, this job you have now isn’t your forever career, y’know? Like, you’re figuring things out, which is what you’re supposed to do in your early twenties. Sure, I have a decent job now, but I may hate it in five years and want a change, and that’s okay. You’re so smart, and so capable, and certainly not a failure. Just take everything a day at a time, and don’t put so much pressure on yourself,”
Alex looked to Jack, a huge smile formed on his face as he leaned over to hug his boyfriend. Jack gladly returned the hug, squeezing Alex as close to himself as possible. Alex did his best to hug Jack tightly, but the overall weakness he was feeling made this somewhat of a challenge. Eventually, they let go of one another, and Jack took Alex’s hands in his own.
“Thank you for being the best, and for having so much faith in me, it really means a lot. I’m going to try to give myself more grace and patience from now on, like I should’ve been doing this whole time. Also, I won’t go back to working so many ridiculous hours at my job; maybe I’ll actually have more time now to explore other options for jobs with this new free time I’ll have,” Alex stated, making Jack laugh.
“Maybe so, but don’t start overly stressing yourself about that. I should’ve mentioned this before, but I’m more than happy to help you with all this, if you’re comfortable with that. This type of stuff is hard and scary, but it doesn’t have to be so bad, especially if you have someone by your side to assist and support you through it,”
“I would love that, thank you,”
Alex broke into a coughing fit, quickly taking one of his hands out of Jack’s, and covering his mouth with it as he struggled to calm himself back down. Jack put a hand on Alex’s back, rubbing circles into it as Alex continued to cough. Eventually, Alex was able to stop, trying to conceal a grimace as he looked back over to Jack.
“Does your throat hurt even more?” Jack asked, to which Alex just nodded.
Jack stood up from the couch, and went into the kitchen. He quickly fixed Alex a cup of honey lemon tea, and brought it out to him in his favorite mug.
“Thank you, Jack. You really know how to take great care of me,” Alex gratefully said, before taking a small sip of his new drink.
“What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t? Besides, we can’t get married if I don’t know the best way to help you feel better when you have a sore throat, right?” Jack teased, smirking as he sat back down on the couch next to Alex.
“Marriage? Who said anything about marriage?” Alex teased back, carefully setting his cup of tea on the side table next to him.
“Um, you, about a million times. And me, probably just as many times. I mean, that is the plan, isn’t it?”
“That’s what I’ve been hoping for. I can’t imagine doing life with anyone else. There’s no one I want to share my highest highs or lowest lows with,”
“I feel the same way, and that’ll definitely happen, but we can talk about that more when you’re feeling well again,”
“Yeah, good idea. Like, just thinking about the future with you makes me excited, but it’s a little overshadowed by how crappy I feel right now,” Alex admitted, sneezing into his elbow.
“I can imagine. Hey, do you want to turn on another movie or something? You can take another nap if you need to,” Jack suggested, digging through the mess of blankets for the TV remote.
“Nah, I don’t really want to watch another movie now, I have a feeling that I’ll be doing a lot of that over the next few days. I kind of want to play a video game, but not actually have to do any of it myself, if that makes sense,”
“What? How do you play a game but not actually have to do anything yourself? Did your fever go back up or something, because that made no sense,” Jack stated, laughing as Alex rolled his eyes.
“I’m fine, I just didn’t say that right. I really want to play that Pokemon game we bought forever ago, but never actually got around to playing, but I just want to watch it be played. Hey, do you want to play it so I can watch and tell you what to do?”
“That’s one of the weirdest requests I’ve ever heard. You basically want to watch an interactive play through,”
Jack kept laughing as Alex thought over what Jack said, then started laughing at himself.
“Yeah, I guess that is what I want. Can we do that? I think it’ll be fun!”
“Sure, I’ll do that, just for you. Let me get the console and controllers set up,”
Jack walked over to the TV cabinet, and turned on the Switch. He grabbed his favorite controller, then went back over to the couch. After taking another sip of his tea, Alex laid back down, and snuggled himself into Jack’s side, making them both smile. As the game booted up, Jack extended his arm so he could have it around Alex, but still be able to operate the controller. As the game booted up, Alex looked up to Jack.
“Hey, thank you for taking care of me and making me get some much needed rest today, I really appreciate you looking out for me and everything,”
“Of course, Alex, you know I’m always here to support you. I love you so much, and while I wish you didn’t feel so miserable, I’m looking forward to getting to spend some time with you while you recover,”
“Me too, but hopefully the fever and shit will go away soon, that would make all this a lot more fun for me,” Alex pointed out, stifling a sneeze.
“I know, but it will if you keep resting and taking care of yourself. If you want to sleep at any point, let me know, I can always play again later,”
“Will do. Hey, the game loaded, you need to make your character!” Alex exclaimed, pointing at the TV.
Jack laughed as he let Alex direct him in making his character, and through the beginning of the story. Eventually, Jack started hearing soft snores, and laughed when he saw Alex passed out on his shoulder. Jack saved the game, then turned the console off. He hugged Alex closer to himself, then began to scroll on his phone with his free hand, and used his other to stroke Alex’s hair. They stayed like this for quite a while, but Jack didn’t mind. Sure, he would’ve loved to spend the day lounging around with Alex under better circumstances, but that didn’t matter right now; all that mattered was that they were together and had each other.
Hello! Apologies for not posting for several months now, I am currently the only person in my department at work, so I have been doing three people's jobs since January. I've recently had a few new ideas for fics, so I plan on writing and posting more going forward! I also have a few requests sitting in my inbox that I plan on getting done! I for sure could've proofread this fic a bit more, but I really wanted to get it posted (it is somewhat based on my experience the past few months). As always, please feel free to send in requests or ideas, I love writing them! Lots of love, Liv.
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Idk if they’ve been talked about on here but there’s a blog that has over 100 stories and they’re mostly atl sickfics!! The blog is atlfics :)
They have but looooong ago and it’s always good to give another shoutout!
@atlfics out here doing the MOST :) Definitely a great resource if all time low is your band of choice
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That’s kinda what happened with me as well. I’ve read prettymuch every atl sickfic there is (I’ve read all of yours more than once- they’re so good!) and I’ve started to write my own, but haven’t actually posted them anywhere as of now. But yeah, I’ve always liked hurt/comfort stories and I didn’t get into good, real ones until atl ones. That’s cool we’re kinda the same on that :)
Ah it’s nice to talk to someone in the same boat! I definitely started reading sickfics with ATL and then moved on to other fandoms and then into OCs. I know my writing wouldn’t be the same without them so I’m thankful for everyone who shares the interest in H/C and has enjoyed the stories. :)
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Through Thick and Thin- All Time Low Fanfiction
Alex tries to bottle up his feelings so he can take care of Jack when he's under the weather. Word Count: 3261
TW: suicidal thoughts
More notes at the end.
Alex sighed as he reached up into the overhead cabinet and grabbed a mug, before placing it under the spout of his Keurig coffee maker. It was a bright, beautiful Tuesday morning, but Alex wasn’t able to appreciate the day. He’d woken up thirty minutes ago and felt like he had a storm cloud hovering over him and no matter what he did, he couldn’t get it to go away.
The band had been home from tour for a few weeks now, and normally Alex loved being off, he got to live a semi normal life and catch up with friends and family back home. Also, it gave him almost unlimited time with Jack, his boyfriend of five years. Sure, they spent every day together on the road, but it was so different; they were working, and it’s hard to really act like a couple around the other people who they shared buses and hotels with.
Alex struggled with some depression, but he was normally able to shake it off and remind himself that the thoughts he would have were just thoughts, and that he had the power to stop them. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to do this today, and after battling with this for half an hour, Alex decided to surrender and let these emotions run their course. He hoped that Jack didn’t have much planned, the only thing that could make him feel somewhat better right now was his boyfriend, who was still fast asleep and snoring loudly when Alex had walked out of their bedroom half an hour earlier.
Once Alex’s coffee was ready, he slowly added in the right amount of creamer and sugar, even fixing his coffee felt like a chore. After putting the creamer back into the fridge, Alex made his way out to the living room, grabbing his phone out of his pocket before sitting on the couch. He knew that scrolling through social media would only make how he was feeling worse, comparing everyone else’s highlight reel to the way he felt right now wasn’t a smart idea, but he started to do so anyway.
After a few minutes, Alex set his phone on his leg and started staring off into space, his mind flooding with negative thoughts. These thoughts ranged from Alex telling himself that he wasn’t a good musician or boyfriend, and even got to the point where he questioned why he was alive. Alex wasn’t really suicidal, he didn’t have a plan or a real intent, but when he felt depressed like this, the passive ideations would creep from his unconscious to his conscious mind.
Alex was eventually pulled from his thoughts by the sound of coughing that slowly grew louder, and ended with Jack walking into the living room. His hair was sticking up in all different directions, he had his glasses on, and he had a throw blanket- the one normally kept at the end of their bed- wrapped tightly around his shoulders.
“Are you okay, Jack?” Alex asked, still trying to pull himself from the dark hole his mind had tried to suck him into.
“Not really, I feel sick,” Jack replied, coughing again.
“Well, come sit here with me,” Alex instructed, scooting over some to make enough room for his boyfriend to join him.
Jack slowly walked over to the couch and took a seat next to Alex. With Jack being closer, Alex was able to get a better look at his boyfriend. Jack’s face lacked color, aside from the dark bags under his eyes, adding to the overall look of exhaustion he had. Alex put the back of his hand to Jack’s forehead.
“Damn, you feel warm, Jack. What’re your symptoms?”
“Congestion, sore throat, chills, aches and that shitty cough you heard when I walked in here,” Jack listed off, sneezing.
“You’ve definitely come down with something, I’m sorry you’re feeling so bad. Do you want me to make you some tea?” Alex offered, starting to stroke Jack’s hair, despite it having a thin layer of sweat coating it.
“Tea would be good, but I don’t want you to get up and stop stroking my hair like that, it feels nice,”
“Well, I can come back and do that again, but that tea and some medicine will help you more in the long run. I’ll be right back, baby. Why don’t you turn the TV on and find something for us to watch together?” Alex suggested, handing Jack the remote from the coffee table.
“Okay, sounds good,” Jack replied, pointing the remote at the receiver and pressing the power button.
Alex went back into the kitchen and put a measuring cup full of water into the microwave, then went over to the medicine drawer, and pulled a few different things from it for Jack. Once he had all of the medicine and found Jack’s favorite mug, Alex went over to the microwave and watched the measuring cup spin on the plate, letting his mind wander like it had earlier.
Having the new task of having to take care of Jack helped Alex stay a bit more positive, but the suicidal ideations from earlier were still creeping their way back into his mind and they felt impossible to shake. This really frustrated Alex, he knew that he didn’t want to die, but his mind was still incessantly pushing this option onto him at an alarming rate.
Once the microwave beeped, Alex was briefly relieved of his thoughts, and quickly poured the water over a honey and lemon tea bag, then took everything back out to the living room for Jack.
“Here’s honey lemon tea, and a couple medicines. They’re all pills, so they shouldn’t taste bad, I know you’re a baby when it comes to that type of thing,” Alex joked, sitting down after handing Jack everything.
“Hey, I’m not a baby, I just have a refined palette,” Jack replied, taking the different medicines one at a time.
“This is coming from the guy who says McDonald’s is top tier food,” Alex continued, laughing as he started stroking Jack’s hair again.
“No, it’s only the best when you’re drunk or hungover. Who would even think to eat McDonald’s sober?”
“I guess you’ve got a point there. Hey, what did you pick out for us to watch?”
“Well, I know you wanted me to put on something that I like, but your favorite animated movie is on right now,” Jack started, coughing some again.
“The South Park movie from the 90s? I didn’t know they still air that, I thought the only place to watch it was on DVD or a bootleg site!”
“Same here, but it’s on! It just started, too,” Jack said, finally selecting the channel that was showing the movie.
Once the movie was on and the volume was adjusted, Jack and Alex situated themselves on the couch. They scooted as close to one another as possible, and Alex used one of his hands to continue stroking Jack’s hair, and wrapped the other around Jack’s body, pulling him into a hug. Jack coughed every once and a while, but he seemed able to contain it for the most part.
As the movie played, Alex started to lose focus on it and his attention went back to his mind and how he’d been feeling. When he first realized Jack was sick, he’d hoped that this would allow for him to break out of these thoughts and just focus on being a good caretaker for the day, but his mind had other plans.
Jack was laughing- sometimes coughing- along with the movie, but Alex was almost dead silent. He wanted to get lost in the movie and laugh with his boyfriend, but he just couldn’t, he couldn’t help but think about everything he’d been thinking about earlier. It took Jack thirty minutes of the movie to pick up on this, but when he finally did, he started to feel concerned.
“Hey, Alex, are you, um, are you okay?” Jack asked, coughing again.
“Um, yeah, of course I am. It should be me asking you that,” Alex replied, his fake smile accompanied by a forced laugh.
“Well, it’s just that this is, like, your favorite movie and you haven’t laughed once. Are you upset about something?”
“No, I’m all good!”
Alex probably would’ve gotten away with this lie, if his voice hadn’t quivered some.
“Alex, I’m sick, not stupid. Come on, what’s up?” Jack tried, scooting even closer to Alex and hugging him tightly.
“Nothing, it’s not a big deal. Besides, you don’t feel well, it would be selfish to make you listen to stupid shit like this while you’re sick,”
“Alex, I don’t care that I’m sick. I mean, I care in that I want to get better, but that’s not my main concern right now. I can tell something’s up, and if you bottle it up, all you’re going to do is make yourself feel worse. Actually, you’ll make me feel worse, too. Not only will I be sick, but I’ll be worried about you, too,” Jack explained, knowing he’d just said exactly what Alex needed to hear to get him to talk.
“I’ve just felt kind of down today, but it’s really not a big deal, it’s just my brain acting stupid. You matter more today, baby,” Alex eventually said, kissing Jack’s forehead.
“Well, what’s making you feel down? Maybe talking about it would help,” Jack suggested, moving his head away from Alex to cough again.
“It’s just some stupid depression stuff. Seriously, you shouldn’t be worried over me, I’ll be fine, I should be more concerned about you right now, anyway,”
“Alex, just because I’m sick doesn’t mean that your needs are neglected. Yeah, I don’t feel great, but it sounds like you don’t either, just in a different way. You’re doing a great job taking care of me, let me take care of you, too,”
Jack looked up at Alex with a serious look in his tired eyes, and continued hugging his boyfriend.
“When I woke up this morning, I just felt kind of down. There wasn’t, like, a specific cause or trigger, I just felt that way, but you know I get like that sometimes. I’ve not been able to pull my mind out of that thought pattern, so things have felt kind of dark,” Alex finally explained, his face turning a bit red out of embarrassment.
“I’m so sorry, Alex. What kind of thoughts have you been having? Like, what specifically?”
“A lot of stupid shit that I know I should be able to just talk myself out of. Things like that I’m not a good musician or boyfriend, that I can’t do things right, and some other stupid stuff,”
“What’s the other stuff that you’re calling stupid? Come on, get it out of your head, baby. You’ll feel so much better if you do, I promise,” Jack continued, coughing again.
“Okay, so I’ve not had, like, real suicidal thoughts, but I’ve been questioning why I’m here and stuff. Like, I don’t have a plan or any type of intent to carry out a plan like that, but it’s been, like, passive ideation, I guess,” Alex explained, his voice wavering as hot tears started pooling in his eyes.
“Come here, Alex,”
“We’re already pressed against each other, there isn’t anymore ‘here’ to come to,” Alex replied, weakly laughing as his tears slowly started spilling some, despite his best efforts to blink them away.
“You know what I mean,”
Jack hugged Alex as tightly as he could as Alex took deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down.
“Alex, it’s okay to cry if you need to,” Jack eventually said, starting to rub Alex’s back as they stayed in the hug.
Alex finally decided to let it all out, tears spilled from his eyes and down his face, landing on Jack’s shoulder. Jack kissed Alex’s cheek a few times, he knew he technically shouldn’t be doing that if he wanted to avoid getting Alex sick, but he figured that Alex needed to feel as loved as possible right now.
After a couple minutes, they abruptly pulled out of the hug from Jack breaking into a coughing fit. Alex was quick to wipe the tears from his eyes and rub Jack’s back as the fit took its course.
“Are you okay, Jack?” Alex asked, his voice still weak, much to his frustrations.
“Yeah, I’m fine, but we’re not finished with you yet,” Jack eventually said, blowing his nose into a tissue he’d pulled out of the front pocket of the hoodie he had on.
“We can be, it’s selfish of me to make you listen to me drone on while you feel like this,”
“No, it isn’t, I promise. What I was going to say before I started coughing, have you hurt yourself or anything, Alex? Please, answer me honestly,”
“I haven’t, and I don’t plan on it. Like, I know these are just stupid thoughts that my brain is coming up with for some reason, but they’re so intense and persistent. I wouldn’t ever act on one of them, but just the fact they exist is so frustrating,”
“I get it, baby. I’m not, like, a trained professional with mental health or anything, but we can get you connected with one. You were seeing a therapist before our last tour, right?”
“Yeah, but she moved to another state around the time we started tour and I told her I’d be fine and we didn’t come up with any type of aftercare,”
“First off, that’s poor practice to not come up with aftercare for a client, at least, that’s what I learned in that psychology class I took in high school way back when. We can work on finding you a new therapist, if you think that would help,”
“Honestly, that might be a good idea. I guess I didn’t try to do that sooner because I figured that I was good. Like, my old therapist helped a lot with these kinds of thoughts, but I thought that I’d learned all of the coping skills I needed to not get to this type of place again. Like, I don’t feel as bad as I did when I very first started seeing a therapist in high school,”
“I understand what you’re saying, but we should find someone for you to work with so we can avoid you getting really bad, y’know? Therapy isn’t just for when you’re in crisis, it’s continued care to keep you consistent,” Jack continued, coughing some.
“You’re right, I guess I should’ve made sure I was going to start seeing someone else after stopping seeing my old therapist,”
“Well, it’s better late than never, and I’ll help you find a new person who takes our insurance and is a good fit for you, baby,”
“Thank you, Jack, but we don’t have to do that today, we can wait until you’re feeling better to start with that,”
“I think I’ll take you up on that, I don’t know how helpful I can really be with that right now, anyway. I know you didn’t want to talk about this, but I’m really glad you did, Alex. I don’t want my love to suffer in silence,” Jack said, kissing Alex’s cheek again.
“I am, too. I just didn’t want you to deal with this while you’re not feeling great,”
“I’m sure that was part of it, but be honest, you also just didn’t want to talk about it, did you?”
“You really do know me well, don’t you?” Alex asked, laughing some.
“Of course I do, we’ve only known each other for, like, over a decade! Going forward, you can always come to me with this kind of thing, Alex. I might not be able to fix the problem like a professional would, but I can definitely listen and try to help. Also, if you’re ever having suicidal thoughts, even if it’s just passive ideation, I want you to tell me, okay? I could be having the worst day in history, but I’d still want to know and try to help. I don’t want to lose you, Alex,” Jack explained, coughing again.
“I will, I promise. Thank you for caring so much,” replied, kissing Jack’s forehead.
“Of course, Alex. Also, did it get colder in here, or is it just me?” Jack asked, pulling his blanket up higher.
“I think that’s just you and your chills, Jack. How’re you feeling? Did that medicine help at all?”
“Yeah, it did, I feel less achy, but I just can’t get warm, I’ve felt cold this entire time,”
“You need to tell me next time, Jack. We could’ve been snuggled up more or had a thicker blanket on this entire time,”
“Hey now, don’t you go using my words on me,” Jack said, laughing some.
“Nope, I get to do that as much as I want! That was one of those terms and conditions you signed up for when you became my boyfriend,” Alex joked, starting to laugh.
“You know what, I’ll take it if it means I get to see that amazing smile of yours. I love you, Alex, and I’m always here for you, no matter what,” Jack said, his voice cracking some.
“The same goes for you, Jack. Now, we should stop talking, I think your throat and voice are going to hate you if you keep going,”
“I think you’re right,” Jack said, before having another coughing fit.
“I’m sorry you feel so bad, Jack,”
“Eh, I got to help you some, so that helped me feel a little better. I hate that I feel so sick, if I didn’t, we’d go out and do something fun to make you feel even better,”
“You know what, just sitting here on this couch and watching movies with you all day is fun for me,”
“Good, I think that’s about all I can do right now,”
“Do you want to start the movie over? I’ll actually be able to laugh at it this time,” Alex joked, rewinding the movie to the beginning.
“Hey, could you hand me that blanket next to you?” Jack asked, pointing to a thick comforter sitting next to Alex on the couch.
“Shit, I meant to give that to you already, sorry! Here, is this better?” Alex asked, draping the blanket over the two of them.
“Much better, thank you. We can go back to the movie, but if you’re still having bad thoughts, please tell me, okay?” Jack requested, wrapping himself up tightly in the blanket.
“I will, and if there’s anything I can do for you, let me know,”
“Will do, I love you so much, Alex. Forever and always,”
“I love you too, Jack. Thank you for being you,” Alex replied, kissing Jack’s forehead again.
Alex pressed play on the movie, and the opening song started to play through the living room. Even though he still felt a little bad about making Jack listen to his problems while he was under the weather, he was glad that Jack had been willing to help him. It felt as if a fifty-pound weight had been lifted from his chest, and it was all because of Jack. Alex wasn’t sure what he did to deserve Jack in his life, but whatever it was, he’d do it a thousand times over again if it meant he’d always be with his love on the good days, the bad days, and the others that were somewhere in between.
A/N: Hi guys! I wrote this a while ago and wasn't actually going to post it, but I kind of loved how fluffy it turned out, so I decided to go ahead and put it up! I have a few other fics in the works that I plan on posting in the near future, and I'm excited to share them! As always, feel free to send in ideas or requests! -Liv
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Worth the Wait- All Time Low Fanfiction
Jack sneaks out of school to take care of his long time crush, Alex. High School AU. Word Count: 4733
More notes at the end.
“Jack, have you seen Alex? He usually gets here before you do, right?” Zack asked Jack as he took a seat on the bench in the quad they always occupied before school officially started for the day.
“I haven’t seen him, his car wasn’t in the lot, either. I hope he’s okay,” Jack replied, his sudden concern making Rian laugh.
“Dude, when are you going to man up and tell Alex that you like him? You’ve had a monster crush on him for, what, over a year now, right?” Rian asked, making Jack shove him as he held a finger in front of his mouth with wide eyes.
“Will you keep it down? We don’t need to let the whole school know about that, it’ll increase the likelihood of it getting back to Alex!” Jack exclaimed, a serious look on his face.
“I mean, wouldn’t that kind of be a good thing? Like, you’re clearly too scared to make the first move, maybe he should hear it through the grapevine and do something first,” Zack pointed out, making Jack roll his eyes.
“Zack’s got a point, dude. You’ve been carrying around this secret crush for the longest time now, you really should say something so you don’t have to keep torturing yourself about it,” Rian added.
“No, I don’t want to ruin our friendship if he doesn’t feel the same way,” Jack sternly stated.
“Well, he’s bi, and he’s always all over you, so I think him liking you back is a reasonable assumption,” Rian continued.
“It’s not worth the risk,” Jack said back.
“So, is it worth torturing yourself, then?” Rian countered.
“Why are we even talking about this? How did you guys ganging up on me even become a thing?”
“We’re not trying to gang up on you, we’re trying to help you, dude. Also, since he isn’t here, now is a great time to talk about Alex and that huge crush you have on him,” Zack smugly replied.
“You motherf-“ Jack started, before getting cut off by the five minute warning bell.
“Damn, I had a few more one-liners planned! Oh well, they’ll have to wait until lunch, assuming Alex doesn’t show up,” Rian said, laughing as Jack rolled his eyes yet again.
“Fuck you guys, I’ll see you in a few hours,” Jack said, standing up and putting his backpack on.
“Sounds good, lover boy,” Zack said, laughing with Rian as they walked off to their first shared class.
Jack went in the opposite direction to get to the precalculus class that he normally had with Alex. He really hoped that Alex would show up right on time, having to suffer through it alone was torture; Alex really did make everything better.
When he got to the classroom, most of the other students were already in their seats, talking about the previous night’s homework. Jack took his seat, noticing that Alex’s next to him was empty. After waiting a couple more minutes, Jack decided to text his friend and see what was going on.
Jack: Hey dude, you coming to school today?
Jack stared at his screen, waiting for a reply. Not much later, the teacher walked in and started class, so Jack put his phone at the top right corner of his desk, and pulled out his notebook. The lesson was on trigonometry, but Jack couldn’t have cared less about the different formulas, his mind was stuck on Alex. He of course wondered why Alex wasn’t in class, but he also thought about what Rian and Zack had said in the quad earlier.
He’d known Alex for four years now, but for the past year, he’d been head over heels in love with him. Jack wasn’t sure how his crush developed, but every time he was around Alex, he just felt happier and safe; no other friend had ever made him feel like this before. He had wanted to tell Alex about how he felt, but the possibility of ruining their friendship scared Jack, if Alex didn’t feel the same way and learned that Jack had a massive crush on him, would it scare him off? Would everything between the two of them become awkward and changed forever? Jack didn’t know, but these questions were enough to scare him into saying nothing and pretending his crush didn’t exist.
He hadn’t told Rian and Zack about his feelings, they’d figured it out on their own, and Jack had made them promise that they’d never tell Alex, which they agreed to, knowing that if Alex ever did find out, it should be from Jack. His thoughts shifted from his crush on Alex to wondering about where Alex was, he hoped that Alex was okay, wherever he was, and he hoped that he’d get a text back soon.
About halfway through first period, Jack’s phone vibrated, and he did his best to discreetly grab it and look at it without his teacher noticing.
Alex: No, I’m like really sick :/
Jack instantly felt bad, he knew that whenever Alex was under the weather, it was never something simple, it was always miserable.
Jack: Sorry to hear that man :( are you okay?
Alex: Not really, I don’t think I’ve ever been this sick. My parents are still out of town too which sucks
Jack: Maybe I can sneak out of here at lunch and come hang with you
Alex: You don’t have to commit truancy for me lol, plus I’m disgusting and look awful rn, idk if you’d really want to be around me
Jack: I bet you still look great, you motherfucker. Get some rest for now and I’ll text closer to lunch
Alex: You’re too good to me, JB
Jack smiled as he turned his phone off and put it back on the corner of his desk. He knew he was definitely going to be sneaking out at lunch, and he decided that he’d stop at the store on his way to Alex’s to get a few things that would hopefully cheer him up some.
If he could have everything his way, he’d get up and walk out of the school building right now, but he was pretty confident that his math teacher wouldn’t take too kindly to him doing that. For the remainder of first period, Jack genuinely tried his hardest to pay attention to the lesson, but he couldn’t get his mind off Alex; he was concerned that he was seemingly so sick and all alone, but he knew that obsessing over this wouldn’t make lunch time arrive any faster.
Eventually, first period finally ended and second began, leading to third and fourth, too. Throughout all of his classes, Jack’s mind wandered back to Alex, even though he was probably miserable, Jack was still beyond excited to spend the day with him. He really enjoyed doing things for others, and he thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to do just that for Alex.
The only concern he had was that Alex’s vulnerability from being sick might rub off on him and make him feel vulnerable enough to confess his feelings. Maybe Rian and Zack were right, maybe he should just tell Alex how he felt, there was theoretically a chance that Alex felt the same way. As much as Jack wanted to arrive at Alex’s and confess everything so they could spend the rest of the day snuggled up, he knew he shouldn’t do that. Of course, he wasn’t saying he wouldn’t confess his feelings, but he had to be careful and only do so if it felt right.
After three long hours, it was finally lunch time, and Jack figured that he should head over to their usual lunch table to let Rian and Zack know what he was doing before sneaking out. When he got to the table, Rian and Zack were already there, talking about their upcoming physics exam. Jack figured he had some sort of distressed look on his face, because the two of them immediately stopped talking and looked concerned once they saw Jack.
“Guys, I’m going to do something that I might need your help covering for,” Jack said, taking a seat across from his friends.
“You’re going over to Alex’s, aren’t you?” Zack asked, laughing some.
“How did you know?” Jack questioned, a tone of genuine surprise in his voice.
“Jack, what else would you be so passionate about after four classes? Surely it isn’t your homework or upcoming exams,” Rian continued, making Jack roll his eyes.
“Okay, yes, you’re right, I’m going over to Alex’s. He texted with me some during first period, apparently he’s, like, super sick and his parents are out of town, so I want to help if I can,” Jack explained.
“Well, are you finally going to confess your feelings? Obviously you’re trying to do a nice thing, but we’re dudes, we don’t, like, take care of each other like that,” Zack pointed out, laughing some.
“I mean, I want to, I want to walk in and confess how I feel so we can spend the rest of the day cuddled up on the couch or his bed or whatever, but I’m still scared to. Also, I don’t want to make him uncomfortable since he’s already not feeling great,” Jack stated, as Rian and Zack nodded along.
“I guess you have a point, man. Personally, I think if there’s a moment that feels right, you should just do it. Like, it could really make his day, you never know. Plus, I think he likes you back, you’ve seen how he looks at you, right?” Rian said, taking a bite of his lunch.
“Don’t go putting ideas in my head, if that isn’t true, I’m going to be disappointed and mad at you, dude,” Jack warned, trying to sound serious.
“I agree with Rian, I think he likes you, too. You guys just have this, like, vibe, that I’ve only seen in people who like each other. Just go through with your plan, go to his place and spend some time with him, I’m sure he’ll appreciate the company regardless,” Zack assured, making a small smile appear on Jack’s face.
“Thanks, I appreciate your all’s advice; that’s what it was supposed to be, right?” Jack joked, laughing some.
“Well, some advice and some jokes, that might be more accurate. Hey, there’s only ten minutes left of lunch, if you want to get out of here, you’d better go,” Zack pointed out, looking at the time on his phone.
“Shit, you’re right, I didn’t realize it had gotten so late. Well, I guess if anything changes, like our relationship status, I’ll let you know,” Jack said, getting up and grabbing his car keys out of his pocket.
“Sounds good, just try to have a good time, dude. Regardless of what happens with the relationship shit, he’ll appreciate that you’re spending time with him,” Rian assured, catching Jack off guard.
“Woah, Rian being supportive and not being a sarcastic asshole? Are you feeling sick, too?” Jack questioned, earning a laugh from Zack and an eye roll from Rian.
“Yes, it’s support, now go before I start cracking jokes and making you feel more nervous,” Rian said in a mock-stern tone.
Jack smiled at his friends one last time before sneaking over to the back door of the cafeteria, the one that conveniently led to the student parking lot. After assuring that no staff were able to see him, Jack opened the door, then quickly bolted out and in the direction of his car. Luckily, no one had noticed him leave, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he got in his car and shut the door.
Jack quickly started up his car then drove off campus, in the direction of the nearby Target, he hoped that it would have everything he’d need for Alex. As he drove, he listened to his favorite songs and continued thinking about Alex, and what Zack and Rian had been telling him at lunch. The more he thought about it, the more Jack wanted to confess his feelings today, he knew it was risky, but he also knew that if Alex felt the same way, it would be so worth it.
His Target trip was quick, he’d grabbed Alex a bouquet of flowers to spruce up his room, a couple cans of his favorite soup, and a cute teddy bear that he thought Alex would get a kick out of. Once he had everything, he drove in the direction of Alex’s house, which luckily wasn’t too far away from where the Target was. He felt his nerves start to kick in more, and tried taking a deep breath to alleviate them to an extent. As he drove, Jack tried to eliminate any type of expectations he had for how this afternoon would go, he knew that would likely just result in him feeling hurt or disappointed. He just had to remember his primary goal, make sure Alex was okay, and do whatever he could to help him feel better.
Eventually, Jack got to Alex’s driveway and parked behind his car. He grabbed the things he’d gotten at Target, then made his way to the front door. Jack realized he’d never told Alex he was here, or even on the way, and the thought of making Alex get up from wherever he was made him feel bad. Deciding to try his luck before calling Alex, Jack twisted the knob of the door, and was very surprised to find it unlocked. He realized that Alex had probably gotten up and unlocked it when Jack had originally texted saying he’d come over, then he wouldn’t have to get up again later.
Jack stepped inside and went into the kitchen, he set the soup cans on the counter, then found a vase under the sink, and placed the flowers in it. After a couple deep breaths, Jack made his way upstairs and over to where Alex’s bedroom was. He could hear loud coughs coming from the other side, making him feel even more sympathy for his friend.
Once the coughing stopped, Jack lightly knocked on the door before walking into Alex’s room.
“Hey, how’re you doing, Alex?” Jack asked, making his way over to Alex’s bed.
The majority of the room wasn’t too messy, but the bed and Alex’s bedside table looked awful. There were used tissues everywhere, a pot from the kitchen that Jack figured Alex had brought up for an emergency, and different cups and medicine bottles everywhere. Alex was wrapped up in about three blankets and still shivering as he watched something on his TV.
“Oh, hey, Jack. I feel really awful, to be honest,” Alex replied, his voice raspy and congested.
“I’m sorry to hear that, you look pretty miserable. I got you some stuff that’ll hopefully make you feel better, though! There are two cans of your favorite soup in the kitchen, and I grabbed some flowers to brighten up your room! Oh, I also got you this,” Jack replied, setting the flowers down before reaching into the plastic bag to get out the teddy bear.
“This is cute! Thanks, Jack, this means a lot, I-“
Alex cut himself off by starting to cough again, forcing himself to sit up as he put his elbow to his mouth. Jack quickly took a seat on the bed next to Alex and rubbed his back as he coughed. Having his hand on Alex’s back made him realize how warm Alex felt, and he knew that having all of these blankets on him would be bad news in the long run, it would just make Alex’s fever worse.
Eventually, Alex finally calmed himself down and Jack helped ease him back into the spot he’d been laying in.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize that was coming until it hit me,”
“No need to apologize, it’s okay. Hey, you’re going to hate me for this, but I think you need to ditch at least one of these three blankets,”
“What? No way, I’m already freezing as it is!”
“Alex, you’re freezing because you have a fever; if you lower that fever some, your chills will go away. At the very least, they’ll be a lot more tolerable. Come on, let’s take the top one off for a bit and see if it does any good. Also, I’m taking your temperature,” Jack insisted, pulling a blanket off of a very resistant Alex.
“You sound like a mom,” Alex muttered, coughing some.
“Well, I’d rather be like a mom and help you than ignore it and have you get worse. Trust me, you’ll thank me later,”
Jack put the blanket on Alex’s desk chair so he wouldn’t grab it again, then walked into the bathroom to grab the thermometer from the medicine cabinet. When he got back to Alex’s room, Alex was blowing his nose.
“Okay, let’s see what this says. Have you taken your temperature at all since you got sick?”
Alex just shook his head as Jack stuck the thermometer under his mouth and shivered violently. Jack felt bad, he really didn’t want to take the blanket from his friend and make him feel more miserable, but Jack knew that he’d done the right thing. After a few seconds, the thermometer finally beeped, and Alex handed it to Jack, too out of it to read the number.
“101.7, damn, that’s kind of high, Alex. I’m glad we took that blanket off of you,” Jack said, setting the thermometer down as he sat on the side of the bed again.
“Jack, I’m fucking freezing,” Alex said with a sneeze.
“I know, but I promise when your fever goes down, you’ll start to feel better. Actually, I have an idea to lower it faster, one second!”
Jack quickly stood up then went back into the bathroom and grabbed a washcloth from the linen closet. He ran it under some cold water, rung out the excess water, then brought it back to Alex’s room.
“What’s that?” Alex asked, starting to tightly hug himself some to combat his chills.
“Put this on your forehead, I think it’ll get that fever lowered,”
Jack folded it some then went to place it on Alex’s head, only for him to flinch and cover his forehead with his hands.
“That thing is fucking cold, no way it’s going on my forehead,” Alex stated, doing his best to keep his hands on his forehead as Jack pulled on them.
“Alex, will you please just try it? You’ll feel so much better, I promise,”
“On one condition,”
“What would that be?” Jack asked, rolling his eyes.
“You have to lay here with me so I can take advantage of your body heat,”
“Okay fine, whatever it takes for you to stop being so stubborn,”
Jack finally placed the cloth on Alex’s forehead, making Alex shiver even more. After taking off his shoes, he laid down next to Alex and wrapped him into a hug.
“This is better,” Alex said, looking up at Jack.
Jack couldn’t believe it, Alex was insanely sick but somehow still managed to look perfect to him.
“Hey, are you good?” Alex eventually asked, pulling Jack from his thoughts.
“Oh yeah, um, I am, why do you ask?” Jack continued, hoping Alex wouldn’t think much of what had just happened.
“I mean, you were straight up staring at me for, like, a minute. I’m sick, not stupid, so I know that was kind of weird, even for you,”
“Oh, I guess I just zoned out, sorry,”
“Are you okay, dude?”
“I’m fine, but don’t worry about me, you’re the one who’s dying right now,”
“I mean, true, but I can tell something’s up, Jack. Actually, I’ve kind of been able to tell that for a while now,” Alex continued, sounding nervous but determined to make his point.
“What do you mean?” Jack asked, trying to play dumb.
“What do you mean what do I mean? Like, I’ve caught you staring at me multiple times lately, you seem a lot more invested in what I have to say, you brought me a whole care package just now. That’s more than just a friend would do, y’know?”
“Well, what’re you trying to say, Alex?”
“Jack, do you, um, see me as more than a friend?”
Jack’s heart immediately started beating ten times faster, and he felt his palms get sweaty. Alex was right, of course, but Jack had thought he’d done a great job at hiding how he felt from Alex, but apparently he hadn’t. As Jack searched for what to say next, he couldn’t help but wonder if Alex had figured out his secret because he’d been looking for it.
“Before I answer that, I have a question for you,” Jack replied, doing his best to keep his tone even.
“What? I already asked you something, you have to answer first, that’s how this works!” Alex exclaimed, coughing some.
“Not this time! Alex, are you asking me what you’re asking, because that’s what you’ve been looking for? Like, looking for clues about what you just asked?”
“Jack, I’m not answering until you do. I’ll sit here all day and wait, it’s not like I can do much else anyway,”
Despite how sick he was, Alex had a look of determination on his face, and Jack couldn’t deny it anymore. He’d promised himself, along with Zack and Rian, that if the opportunity to finally reveal his feelings to Alex presented itself, that he’d confess how he felt; maybe it was finally time to take a leap of faith.
“Okay, um, this is a bit nerve wracking for me, so be patient. Alex, yes, I do see you as more than a friend, and I have for a while now,” Jack finally replied, doing his best to take deep breaths and stay calm.
“Can you, like, give me more detail than that?” Alex asked, laughing some as he scooted closer to Jack.
“Sure, um, where do I start? Alex, I like you, like, I like-like you, and I have for about a year now. I don’t even know what made these feelings develop, like, we’ve been friends for four years, but sometime last year, a switch just flipped in me, and I woke up and realized that I was in love with you,” Jack confessed, feeling like a fifty pound weight had just been removed from his chest.
“You’ve liked me for that long, and this is just the first I’m hearing of it?”
“Yeah, but not because I wanted to keep it from you. Like, keeping this secret has been so fucking hard, like I’ll see you get lost in a song, or be super passionate about what you’re talking about, and it’s things like that that made me fall for you. I love literally everything about you, but I kept it to myself, because I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. Like, if you didn’t feel the same, I didn’t want shit to be awkward between us; you’re my best friend, I can’t just, like, lose you, y’know? I just didn’t want to put you in an uncomfortable position, but yeah, I’ve been head over heels for you for a long time now. Hey, you didn’t answer my question, were you looking for signs that I liked you?”
“Jack, I’m speechless, but in a good way, I promise. I guess you could say that I’ve been kind of hopeful that you’ve had these kinds of feelings, too. I like you too, Jack, like, I like-like you, and have for a decent amount of time now. I didn’t tell you for the same reasons, I didn’t want things to be weird if you didn’t feel the same way, I didn’t want to lose our friendship over weird feelings. This is so great, though, we both like each other like this! Where do we go from here?” Alex asked, before bursting into a coughing fit.
Jack quickly helped Alex sit up some in his bed, then rubbed his back until he finally calmed himself down. Once Alex could breathe again, Jack handed Alex a glass of water from his nightstand, and Alex took a sip before handing it back to Jack.
“Are you okay, Alex?” Jack gently asked, still rubbing Alex’s back some.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I mean, that hurt like a bitch, but I’ll live. Back to my question, though; where do we go from here?” Alex continued, looking up at Jack with a small smile.
“I think there’s only one logical thing I can ask now. Alex, do you want to be my boyfriend?”
Even though he knew they both felt the same way, Jack was still nervous to officially ask Alex out. He had all of the assurance in the world from the conversation he’d just shared with Alex, but a year of anxiety and fear of someone finding out his secret would be hard to change.
“Yes, Jack, I’d love to be your boyfriend,”
The two of them looked at each other, huge smiles on both of their faces. Jack wrapped Alex into a tight hug, rubbing his back with one hand and stroking his hair with the other as the huge smile stayed on his face. Alex was still insanely sweaty, but Jack didn’t care, nothing would ruin this moment for the two of them.
After a few minutes, Alex pulled back to sneeze, but then looked up at Jack again, a huge smile still plastered on his face.
“I can’t believe we just became a thing while I look disgusting and feel miserable,” Alex said in a tone that Jack recognized as partly sarcastic with a hint of truth.
“You don’t look disgusting, babe. Hey, can I call you that now?” Jack asked, making their smiles grow even bigger.
“Of course, you can call me any cute nickname you want, I’ll definitely do the same, baby,”
“That sounds perfect to me. I meant what I said, though, you don’t look disgusting. You’re knocking on death’s door but still look absolutely perfect, I don’t know how you do it! As far as you feeling miserable, though, what can I do to help?”
“Honestly, you just being here helps so much. Do you think we could lay down, and I could put my head on your chest? I might fall asleep eventually, but I just want to be close to you,”
“Absolutely, lay however you’re the most comfortable,”
The two of them laid back down in Alex’s bed, and Alex put his head onto Jack’s chest, and Jack wrapped Alex into a hug.
“This is perfect,” Alex said, Jack could hear the smile on Alex’s face as he spoke.
“I’m so glad to hear that, let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you. I can’t believe this is really happening, I’ve wanted this for so, so long,” Jack breathlessly said, bringing his other hand up to start stroking Alex’s hair again.
“Me either, Jack. When I wake up, you might have to tell me about this, I’ll probably think it was a fever induced delusion,” Alex joked, making them both laugh some.
“I’ll tell you as much as you want, I’ll tell everyone all the time that the Alex Gaskarth is my boyfriend,” Jack affectionately replied, placing a kiss on Alex’s forehead.
“You’re sweet, Jack. When I’m better, we’re going on a real date to celebrate this,”
“Oh, for sure, but for now, you need to focus on resting and getting better. I’ll be here for however long you want me to be to help you, okay?”
“That sounds great to me. I think I’m going to sleep for a bit now,” Alex continued, hugging Jack tighter and closing his eyes.
“Okay, babe, I’ll be here if you need me,” Jack replied, continuing to stroke Alex’s hair.
After a few minutes, Alex was fast asleep, lightly snoring due to the congestion in his sinuses. Jack stared out Alex’s bedroom window, the huge smile still plastered on his face. He couldn’t believe it, Alex was really his boyfriend now; it almost felt too good to be true. Waiting for so long hadn’t been easy, but Jack had no doubt in his mind that this new chapter in both of their lives will have been worth the wait.
Hi guys! I posted something similar to this forever ago, but I wrote this semi recently and liked it more than I expected to, so I decided to share it! I can't believe I'm only seven fics away from having 300 posted! It blows my mind that I have so many up, and that after all this time, people still seem to enjoy them! I plan on having a new chapter of LBUA up fairly soon, and another one shot! As always, feel free to send in requests, I'd love to write your all's ideas! -Liv
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Unlucky Timing- All Time Low Fanfiction
Alex wakes up sick on his birthday, and Jack is determined to make sure the day is still great. Word Count: 6017
More notes at the end.
“I can’t believe it’s the night before your birthday, and you want to get in bed before eleven,” Jack said, laughing as he got settled into his side of the bed he shared with Alex.
“I know it’s kind of early, but I’ve felt kind of tired all day. I want to get a lot of sleep tonight, so tomorrow we can do a lot, and go out with Rian, Zack and the crew to celebrate!” Alex replied, getting comfortable on his side of the bed.
“I guess that makes sense. Are you excited for tomorrow? It’s a big day!”
“Jack, I’m turning twenty-five, it’s just a random age, it’s not like I’m entering a new decade or get some exciting new age-based privilege,”
“No, you’ll be able to rent a car now! You have to be twenty-five for that!”
“By something fun, I meant, like, getting to vote, or getting to legally drink, not something that could make our insurance go crazy,” Alex replied with a laugh that suddenly turned into a cough.
Jack helped Alex sit up, and rubbed his back until he was able to regain his breathing.
“Woah, are you okay?” Jack asked, sounding concerned.
“Yeah, I’m okay, my throat was just dry. Anyway, back to tomorrow, a few hours ago, you said you had a lot of exciting things planned for tomorrow, do I get a hint about any of it?” Alex asked, doing his best puppy dog face in hopes of making Jack fold.
“You look very cute when you do that, but no, I’m not spoiling anything. You’re just going to have to wait and find out tomorrow,”
“That’s not fair,” Alex whined, dragging out the r.
“Maybe not, but it’ll be worth it. You know I always take good care of you on your birthdays,”
“Yeah, I guess you have a point there. Well, I’m excited to see what all you have in mind. Hey, can we go ahead and turn out the lights? We can put a movie on, but I think I want to get some rest,” Alex requested, scooting a bit closer to Jack so they could cuddle.
“Sure thing. You’re the almost birthday boy, what do you want to put on?” Jack asked, grabbing the remote and turning the TV on.
“Um, I’m fine with anything. Maybe the first Hangover movie?”
“Okay, I’ll pull that up in the on-demand. Are you comfortable?”
“Of course I am, I’m snuggled into you, there’s nothing more comfortable than that,” Alex replied, making them smile at each other.
“You’re the sweetest. Sleep well, Alex, I love you,” Jack replied, giving Alex a quick kiss.
“I love you, too,”
As Jack put the movie on, Alex shifted around a bit more to get as comfortable as he could, laying his head on Jack’s chest. Alex watched the movie for a bit, until his eyes started to feel very heavy. He burrowed his head into Jack a bit more and closed his eyes, falling asleep to the beating of Jack’s heart.
————
The next time Alex woke up, it was pitch black and silent, aside from Jack’s quiet snores. He sat up some to look at the clock on Jack’s nightstand, but as soon as his upper body came out of the comforter, he started to violently shiver. Alex sank back down in the bed, and pulled the covers some. This made them come off half of Jack, but Alex didn’t really care, he was freezing and wanted to get warm.
As he laid in his blanket burrito shaking, he noticed that his head and body had dull aches, which made getting comfortable feel impossible. Alex shifted around some, trying to figure out how to lay with the aches he was feeling, and started coughing some. He quickly put his face into his pillow, not wanting to wake up Jack.
Once he calmed himself down, he went back to his mission of finding a comfortable position. He quickly realized that his pillow felt a bit damp, and felt that his hair was wet, making him aware that he was sweating some.
“You’re fucking kidding me,�� Alex whispered to himself.
He really hoped that he was just overthinking and that he’d be fine in the morning, but he knew that wasn’t likely to be the case. After shifting around a bit more, he finally found a position that was decent, and shut his eyes to go back to sleep. He continued to shiver, unable to get warm, and this kept him up for a bit longer. Eventually, pure exhaustion took over, and he was able to drift back to sleep.
————
“Shit, that thing is so loud!” Jack whispered to himself, frantically rushing to turn off the alarm on his phone.
The night before, he’d set an alarm to go off early on his phone so he could set up a few fun surprises for Alex. Thankfully, Alex was still asleep next to him, so Jack carefully got out of bed, then bolted out to the living room to get everything started.
The first thing he did was go over to the closet where they kept the cleaning supplies, a place Alex hardly ever looked in, and grabbed the bags of decorations he’d picked up the day before. Inside were streamers, balloons, and a banner that said ‘Happy Birthday’. Jack did his best to hang everything up around the living room as quietly as possible, so Alex wouldn’t be woken up from the commotion.
Once everything was hung how Jack wanted, he made his way to the basement refrigerator, and pulled out a cake that he’d picked up from Alex’s favorite bakery the day before, and put it on the kitchen counter. While he was in the kitchen, Jack quickly made two mimosas, then decided it was time to wake Alex up so he could start his special day. As Jack walked back to their shared room, drinks in hand, he heard a weird noise, he couldn’t tell what it was but it concerned him. When he finally reached their room, he saw Alex sitting up in bed, the comforter wrapped tightly around him, having a bad coughing fit.
Jack quickly set the drinks down on the dresser by the door, then rushed over to their bed, sitting next to Alex and rubbing his back as Alex continued to cough. While he waited for Alex to regain his breathing, he noticed how warm Alex felt, and saw the sweat that was dripping from his forehead and immediately realized what was going on.
“Hey, you’re okay, breathe for me, Alex,” Jack said, still rubbing Alex’s back as his breathing started to return to normal.
“Did I wake you?” Alex asked in a weak, raspy voice once the coughing finally went away.
“No, I’ve been up for a bit this morning. You don’t sound good, baby,” Jack continued, wrapping an arm around Alex, who put his head onto Jack’s shoulder.
“I don’t feel good, either. I’m freezing, my body and head really hurt, and I’m super congested,” Alex said, sneezing after.
“You definitely have a temperature, and I have a feeling that you have the flu,”
“Of course this had to happen on my birthday,” Alex mumbled in a sad tone.
“I’m sorry, Alex. Being sick on your birthday is the worst,”
Before Alex could reply, he started coughing again, and Jack held him close and rubbed his back as the fit happened.
“You’re going to hate me for saying this, but I think we need to get you looked at. If you do have the flu, you can get prescribed something that’ll make it a bit more bearable. Do you think we can get you dressed, then go do that really quick?”
“Are you kidding?”
“No, I’m serious. I think we should do that so we can know for sure what you have, and get you medication for that specific thing so you can get better faster. I know those kinds of places suck, but it’ll be worth it. Plus, it would make me feel a lot better knowing you’ve been seen by a professional. Please, can we do that, Alex? You don’t have to fully get ready, we can just put a jacket on you and some shoes, then go get it over with,”
“I guess that’s fine. Do you promise that it’ll be quick?”
“I mean, I can’t really guarantee that, you know how these places are, there could be a bunch of people or we could be the first ones to walk in. Actually, it’s a little before nine, we could be the first ones since that’s when they open. Come on, let’s get you ready, and we can go get this done, then we can come back and celebrate your big day!” Jack exclaimed, helping Alex stand up by the bed.
“Celebrate? No, today is ruined,” Alex replied, coughing again.
“Not necessarily. It may not be what you were hoping for, but we can still have a good day, even if it’s spent on the couch watching movies for hours on end,” Jack said, kissing Alex’s forehead.
Jack helped Alex put his shoes and socks on, then handed him his thick winter coat. It was the middle of December, so Jack figured it would be cold and he didn’t want Alex to have to suffer more than he already was from being cold.
“Is it cold outside?” Alex asked as Jack grabbed his phone, wallet, and keys.
“I haven’t been outside today, but it’s December. Hopefully it won’t be too bad out there, but the drive is short, so that’s good,” Jack replied.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,”
Jack walked back over to Alex and helped him down the hall and to the garage door off of the kitchen.
“What was that in the living room? It looked different in there,” Alex asked, letting Jack guide him down the steps into the garage.
“You’ll see when we get back, but it was birthday surprise number one,” Jack said, unlocking the car.
“It’s so cold out here,” Alex muttered, shivering violently as he tightly hugged himself.
“I know, baby, just be patient with me. We can turn the heat all the way up and use the seat warmers,” Jack replied, pushing all of the buttons to get the car as warm as possible.
As the car warmed up, Jack helped Alex get his seatbelt on. Once that was done, Jack backed the car out of the garage, and started on the way to the Immediate Care Center that was luckily only a five minute drive away from their house.
Halfway through the drive, Alex burst into another coughing fit, and Jack did his best to rub Alex’s back while continuing to drive the car.
“I wish I’d brought water or something, I’m sorry for forgetting that,”
“It’s all good. Do you have tissues in here?” Alex asked, holding a hand over his nose.
“Yeah, they’re in the glove box,” Jack replied, trying to open the compartment while still looking at the road.
“I can grab it, don’t crash the car over this,” Alex replied.
He shakily shifted forward and opened the glove box and found the travel pack of tissues on top of everything else. After struggling to get the pack open, he finally grabbed a tissue and blew his nose.
“This is awful,” Alex muttered, sinking back down into his seat, and hugging himself again.
“I’m so sorry, Alex. Hey look, we’re already here!” Jack exclaimed, trying to lift the mood some as he pulled into the first spot of the Care Center.
After parking the car, Jack went around to Alex’s side and helped him out of the car, and into the building. Luckily, they were the first people there.
“How can I help you guys?” The receptionist asked, looking away from her computer to talk to Alex and Jack.
“My boyfriend woke up this morning feeling under the weather. I think he has the flu, but we were hoping for a flu test to know for sure,” Jack explained, as Alex sneezed.
“Absolutely, just fill out the first two pages on this clipboard, then bring it back to me. You’re the first people here this morning, so it shouldn’t take long for you to be seen by one of our practitioners,” the receptionist explained, handing Jack a clipboard and a pen.
Jack flashed a quick smile as a thank you, then led Alex over to the seating area.
“Okay, I’m going to fill this out for you, I don’t think you’re in the headspace for this right now,” Jack said, starting on the forms.
“Thank you, I appreciate it,” Alex replied, coughing lightly.
“You can lean your head on my shoulder if you want, I know you’re worn out,” Jack offered, continuing to answer the questions.
Without saying anything, Alex put his head onto Jack’s shoulder and watched him answer everything.
“How do you know the answers to all of that? I don’t know if I’d know your answers if this were the other way around,” Alex weakly said a couple minutes later.
“Well, this isn’t my first rodeo, filling out forms on your behalf. Who do you think does this when you’re sick on tour?”
“That’s a good point. Jack, I really want to go home,”
“I know, but we won’t be here long. I just have to finish this, then we’ll get seen and we can leave. Do me a favor, can you sign the bottom line down here? I don’t want to forge your signature in front of the receptionist,” Jack requested, laughing as he handed Alex the pen.
Alex tried to sit up a bit, but felt too weak to do so. After a sneeze, he did his best to sign the line Jack was talking about. It wasn’t super legible, but it was good enough for what it was.
“I’m going to go take this back up to the desk, I’ll be right back,” Jack said, trying to get up, being stopped by Alex attempting to pull him back down.
“No, don’t go away,” Alex pathetically whined.
“I have to do this so you can get seen, so we can go. Here, snuggle my jacket for a second,”
Jack took off his jacket and gave it to Alex, then finally took the board back up to the desk.
“Thank you, you guys will be called back shortly,” the receptionist said with a smile.
After a quick thank you, Jack went back over to where Alex was sitting, and took his seat. He put an arm around Alex’s shoulders as Alex went to blow his nose.
“You’re doing great, baby. Just be patient, and we’ll be home before you know it,” Jack said, kissing Alex’s flushed cheek.
“Thank you for being here with me, sorry if I’ve been annoying about all of this,” Alex replied.
“No, you’ve not been annoying, I promise. I can tell you feel pretty miserable, so I don’t blame you at all. I’m sorry this had to happen on your birthday,”
“Yeah, what shitty timing,” Alex replied, chuckling a bit.
“Well, I’m still going to do everything I can to make your birthday as good as it can be. You’ll see, this might not be the birthday you had in mind, but it’ll still be fun!”
“You’re the best,” Alex said, coughing some.
“Alex Gaskarth?” A man in a white coat called from the door on the other side of the room.
“That’s us, let’s get you seen so we can get out of here,” Jack said, helping Alex to his feet.
“Follow me back to the last room on the right, guys,” the doctor said, holding the door open as Jack and Alex walked through it.
They slowly made their way down the hall; it took Alex a bit to get all the way to the end due to how weak and out of it he was feeling. Once they reached the room, Alex took a seat on the exam table, and Jack sat in the chair that was the closest to Alex.
“Good morning, guys, I’m Dr. Stevenson, and I’m going to do what I can to get you guys in and out, so Alex can get some rest. Before we start anything, can you confirm your date of birth, Alex?” Dr. Stevenson asked, taking a seat at his computer.
“December sixteenth, nineteen eighty-seven,” Alex replied with a sneeze.
“Perfect. I’m sorry you have to spend your birthday feeling so awful. I was told that you think you have the flu, is that correct?”
“I think he does, yes. We were hoping to get that confirmed so Alex could get prescribed some medicine that would make this a little more bearable for him,” Jack explained.
“Absolutely. I’m going to do a flu test and a strep test, just so we can know for sure. The tests take about ten minutes in our lab to develop, so after I do the tests, I’ll leave you boys here until they’re ready. Also, let me get your temperature, Alex,” Dr. Stevenson explained, walking over to Alex with a thermometer.
Alex let the doctor do what he needed to do and sat as still as he could.
“It’s reading 101.6, so it’s definitely strep or the flu. Let’s go ahead and get those tests out of the way. They’re both uncomfortable, especially the strep one, but I’ll get them done as fast as I can. Let’s start with the flu test, I’m going to stick this swab up your nose. Are you ready?”
“I guess so,” Alex replied, coughing some.
Dr. Stevenson stuck the swab in Alex’s nose, and pulled it back out quickly after. Alex coughed a bit once it was gone, but was able to calm himself down quickly.
“Okay, now for the strep test. Again, I’ll do this as fast as I can, then I’ll get these to the lab and be back within ten minutes. Let’s get this done,”
Alex nervously opened his mouth, he’d had plenty of strep tests on the road and absolutely hated them. Dr. Stevenson quickly swabbed the back of Alex’s throat, then made his way out of the room. Alex started coughing and gagging, and Jack quickly stood by his boyfriend and rubbed his back.
“You’re okay, I’ve got you,” Jack said, trying his hardest to soothe Alex.
Alex continued to cough and gag, but was visibly trying to calm himself down.
“Do you think you’re going to get sick?” Jack asked, a sense of urgency in his voice.
“No, I’m fine,” Alex choked out, finally starting to calm himself down some.
Jack continued rubbing Alex’s back and helping him sit up until he finally got control over his breathing and was okay again.
“I think I’m okay now. I forgot how much those things suck,” Alex finally said, his voice raspier from the coughing.
“Yeah, strep tests blow. You’re doing really good, I’m glad we were the first people here, they’ve moved us through pretty fast,”
“Thank god, I can’t wait to get back home and rest. I really want the big blanket, I’m still freezing,”
“Let me help with that,” Jack replied, wrapping his arm around Alex like he’d done earlier, pulling him close.
“Thank you, Jack, you’re the best. I love you,” Alex said with a sneeze.
“I love you, too. Y’know, you’re still really warm and sweaty,”
“The doctor dude said my fever was 101 point something, of course I am,” Alex cynically joked, earning a laugh from Jack.
“You’ve got a point there, Alex. We’re going to lower that fever when we finally get home,”
Before either of them could talk again, there was a knock on the door, and Dr. Stevenson walked back in holding some papers.
“Okay, both tests have developed, and it looks like you all were right, Alex has the flu. You should start feeling a little more like yourself in roughly five days. That cough you have might last a full week or two, but everything else should be gone by then. Bed rest and fluids should be your new best friends for a few days, along with that medication Jack was mentioning earlier. We happened to have some here, so take this, it’ll save you a trip to the pharmacy,” Dr. Stevenson said, handing Jack a bottle of medication.
“Thank you,” Jack replied.
“Of course. Alex will be contagious for the next few days, so be extra careful around him and don’t go out unless you have to. If you start feeling bad, Jack, you can come back here and get a flu test, don’t hesitate to do that. I think that’s all I have for you all, I hope you feel better and can still have a nice birthday, Alex,”
“Thank you, I appreciate it,” Alex replied, sneezing again.
Jack put his coat back on, then walked with Alex back out to the lobby, that was now full with other patients, then outside to the car.
“That was nice of him to give us the medicine, I’m glad I don’t have to drag you to the pharmacy, or leave you at home while I went,” Jack said, starting to drive home.
“It’s so fucking cold. Can we use the seat warmers again?” Alex asked, hugging himself tightly.
“Oh yeah, I meant to do that, I’m sorry,” Jack replied, quickly turning on Alex’s seat warmer.
“That’s already so much better,” Alex said, coughing some.
“Good. So, when we get home, do you want me to set you up on the couch in the living room? It might be a bit more fun than our room, plus I did a little decorating in there this morning,”
“Sure, that’s fine with me, I just want to be under a huge blanket and with you,”
Jack put his hand on Alex’s thigh, smiling some.
“Well, we can make both of those things happen. Also, you’re drinking a bunch of water today, that’ll help get this nasty shit out of your body sooner,”
“Do I have to?”
“You want to feel better, right?”
“Yeah, but it’s, like, a lot of work,” Alex whined, making Jack laugh some.
“It won’t be that bad, I promise. When we get inside, I’ll set you on the couch, then I’ll grab our comforter and your pillow, then we can get comfortable,”
“Thank you, Jack,” Alex said, coughing again.
“Of course, baby. And don’t worry, we’ll still try to do something fun for your birthday, and we’ll definitely plan to do something more fun once you’re feeling better,”
The two of them stayed silent for the rest of the drive, with the exception of Alex’s coughing. Eventually, they arrived back at their house, and after parking in the garage, Jack helped Alex inside, and over to the living room couch.
“It looks so good in here, Jack. Thank you for doing this,” Alex said, admiring the decorations that Jack had put up that morning.
“You’re welcome, I’m glad you like it. Hopefully, it’ll help things feel a little more festive for you. I’ll be right back, I’m going to get everything I was talking about, then I’ll come in here with you,”
Jack went into their shared room, and grabbed the comforter from their bed, then went to grab Alex’s pillow, but after seeing that it was still covered in sweat, he decided to grab his own pillow, deciding that would be better.
Next, he made his way to the kitchen and filled up the biggest water bottle he could find, hoping it would encourage Alex to drink more water throughout the day. Jack also grabbed the box of tissues from the kitchen counter, knowing Alex would need them, then he finally went back out to the living room, where he saw Alex curled up in a ball, shivering from not being under a blanket.
“Jack, it's so cold,” Alex said, coughing some.
“Here, I got the blanket from our bed, and I grabbed my pillow for you to use. I was going to get yours but it was a bit gross,” Jack replied, laughing as he set Alex up on the couch.
“I don’t want you to be stuck without a pillow,”
“Alex, we have more than two pillows in this house, I’ll be okay. Let’s get that first dose of medicine in you, are you ready for it?” Jack asked, opening the medicine bottle.
“I guess so. Does it taste bad?”
“Well, it’s a pill, so I don’t think so. Take this, then I’ll sit with you,”
Alex quickly did as he was told, clearly motivated to sit with his boyfriend. Jack set the water bottle on the table by Alex, then sat next to him and got under the blanket.
“Wait, we shouldn’t do this,” Alex said, attempting to scoot away from Jack, but was too weak to do so.
“What do you mean? Get over here,” Jack said, laughing as he reached for Alex.
“I don’t want to get you sick,”
“That is quite literally the least of my concerns right now. I don’t really want to catch this, but I care a hell of a lot more about making you feel okay than I do about getting sick. Come on, lay on my chest,”
Jack opened his arms, and Alex finally gave in and put his head on Jack’s chest, as Jack wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.
“This is really comfortable,” Alex admitted, hugging Jack with his top arm.
“Good, I’m happy to hear that. You’re really hot, baby,” Jack said, noticing that Alex felt like a space heater.
“Why thank you,” Alex jokingly said, laughing some.
“You know what I mean. I will say, I’m happy to hear you cracking jokes, though,”
Jack hugged Alex closer to him, and kissed his sweaty forehead.
“Oh, when are you leaving later?”
“Leaving, what do you mean, Alex?”
“We’re supposed to go out with the Zack, Rian and the crew, remember? I clearly can’t go, but you still can if you want to,”
“Alex, do you really think I’m going to go out while you’re this sick? Also, we were supposed to go out for your birthday, so there’s no point in going without you. We can push it back until you’re better. I’m going to be right here with you until you’re well again,”
“Oh yeah, I guess you’ve got a point there. I really did think you were going to leave, so I’m glad you’re not,”
“Of course I’m not, baby. Wait, I was saying something before you asked me that. Oh, right, you feel really warm still. How are your chills?”
“They feel a little less bad than they did earlier, but I’m still cold,” Alex replied, snuggling closer to Jack.
“Well, I’m glad there’s been at least a little improvement, I guess that medicine you took is starting to kick in. So, what should we do? I can put on a movie for us, we could play a game, I could give you a massage, we can do whatever you want, birthday boy,” Jack offered.
“Well, a massage sounds nice, but I’m too comfortable right now, so maybe later. I think a movie would be good for now. Would you be mad if I fell asleep during it? I’m feeling worn out from earlier,”
“Not at all, you need to be sleeping a lot right now. We can put on a movie, and if you fall asleep, that’s cool. What should we watch?”
“No, you pick, I picked what we watched last night. Plus, I’m not even going to be watching it,”
“Okay, Home Alone it is, then!” Jack exclaimed, making them both laugh.
“I should’ve known,” Alex replied, continuing to laugh until it turned into a coughing fit.
Jack helped Alex sit up some, then rubbed his back until the fit went away.
“This flu blows,” Alex muttered, sounding frustrated.
“I know, baby, I’m sorry you have to deal with it. Get some rest, maybe you’ll feel a little better after you take a nap,”
“Maybe so. Thank you for being here with me, I love you,” Alex said, as Jack set the movie up on the TV.
“I love you, too. Sleep as long as you want to, I’ll be right here when you wake up,” Jack replied, as the opening credits to Home Alone appeared on the screen.
Jack texted the rest of the band and their crew to let them know that the birthday celebration would have to be postponed due to Alex being sick, and everyone sent him their well wishes, which Jack knew Alex would appreciate.
Only fifteen minutes into the movie, Alex was fast asleep which was a relief to Jack. Not only was Alex getting the rest he needed, but it also gave Jack a bit of a break in taking care of Alex, which he appreciated, since he knew he was in for a long few days.
————
“Jack, where are we?” Alex groggily asked, starting to stir awake quite a few hours later.
“We’re on the living room couch, you just woke up from a super long nap. Like, you went to sleep around eleven, and it’s three thirty now,” Jack replied, stroking Alex’s hair as he started to get more orientated to everything.
“Oh, right,” Alex replied, coughing some.
“How’re you feeling?”
“I actually feel a little better. Still pretty terrible, but not quite as bad,”
“I’m so happy to hear that! Hey, you should let me get up for a second, I have a couple birthday things for you!”
“Do you really?” Alex asked, looking at Jack with a big smile on his face.
“Of course I do, I wouldn’t just not get you a gift! I’ll be right back, let me grab everything,”
Jack got up off the couch, then grabbed a few gift bags from the same closet he’d put the decorations in, and grabbed the cake box from the kitchen. Alex probably wouldn’t want any right now, but he could at least see the design before it went back into the refrigerator.
“Woah, that’s a lot of stuff,” Alex observed, as Jack set everything on the coffee table in front of the couch.
“Well, I have to spoil my boyfriend, your birthday only happens once a year! I’m going to show you your cake first, then you can open everything else,”
Jack grabbed the cake box, and took it over to Alex. As soon as Alex got a good look at the cake, happy tears formed in his eyes.
“Oh my gosh, that’s so cute! That’s us on there!” Alex exclaimed, a huge smile on his face.
On the cake, there was a scanned photo of the two of them from the last tour, surrounded by red roses made of frosting. ‘Happy Birthday Alex’ was written on the bottom of the cake in blue icing.
“I’m so glad you like it! It’s from your favorite bakery, the one across town. I know you probably don’t want any right now, so I can put it in the fridge until you’re better. It’ll be worth the wait! Okay, I got you five things, do you have a preference as to what you open first?”
“Five things? You really went above and beyond, Jack!”
“I can never do too much for you, baby. Here, open this first. You won’t be able to use it until you’re better, but I think you’ll still like it,” Jack said, handing Alex a tall bag, which he quickly opened up.
“My favorite red wine! I haven’t been able to find this in stores for the longest time! How’d you find it?”
“I have my sources. Here, open this one next,”
Jack handed Alex a small box wrapped in yellow wrapping paper with balloons on it. Inside of the box, there was a leather-bound notebook.
“Is this a new songwriting book? I’ve been needing one!”
“I remembered you’d said that, hopefully you’ll like that one,”
“I know I’ll love it!”
“Perfect, open this one next. You might even want to use it right now,” Jack said, handing Alex a medium sized bag.
“A new oversized hoodie! This feels so soft, I’ll definitely be putting it on soon!”
“I’m glad you like it. This one is more of a practical gift,” Jack said, handing Alex another bag.
“New guitar strings, I’ve been needing these, thanks, Jack!”
“Alright, here’s the last thing, the grand finale, if you will,” Jack said, handing Alex an envelope.
“I love when you give me cards!” Alex said, excitedly ripping open the envelope.
“Well, it’s more than just a card,”
Alex pulled a birthday card with cartoon llamas out of the envelope, laughing at the message on the front. He opened the card, and a few different things fell out of it.
“What’s all this?” Alex asked, coughing some.
“Read it and find out,” Jack replied, unable to contain his excited smile.
“Oh my god, Jack, no, this is too much, I-“
“No it isn’t, tell me what you see there, baby,”
“Well, I see a plane ticket to Hawaii, a receipt for a booking at a resort, and blink concert tickets. Jack, oh my gosh, this is so much, you didn’t have to do all of this for me,”
“Yeah, I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. I wanted to think of something big to surprise you with, and I couldn’t pick between a Hawaii trip and a blink concert, so I decided on both! The trip is right after the holidays, and the concert is in February, when blink’s tour starts. Do you like everything?”
“Like? Jack, I love everything, you are the best, thank you so, so much,” Alex said, pulling Jack back to the couch, and into a tight hug.
“You’re so welcome, Alex. Hopefully, that makes up at least a little for being sick on your birthday,”
“It certainly makes it more bearable. Jack, you really are the best boyfriend ever, thank you for the amazing, thoughtful gifts, and for helping me so much today. You’ve been taking such great care of me, and I really appreciate it,” Alex said, as they pulled out of the hug.
“Of course, baby. I love you so much, and I’m always going to be here, by your side,” Jack said, kissing Alex’s cheek.
“I can’t wait until I’m better and we can kiss for real,” Alex said, smiling some.
“Who said we have to wait until then?”
“Jack, what do-“
Jack cut Alex off by giving him a quick kiss on the lips, making his eyes widen.
“Jack, why’d you do that? I’m supposed to be, like, super contagious right now!” Alex exclaimed, sounding worried.
“Eh, I’d probably catch it anyway, since I don’t plan on leaving your side until you’re over this shit. Don’t worry about me, Alex, I’ll be fine. Now, why don’t we clear everything off the couch, then we can cuddle again, just like earlier?”
“That would be really nice,”
“Okay, give me a second,”
Jack quickly cleared all of the presents off of the couch, and set them on the coffee table, then sat back down on with Alex. The two of them got into the position they were in earlier, and Jack hugged Alex closer to him.
“Thank you for making this birthday fun, even though I feel shitty,”
“No problem, Alex, I’m glad it’s been better than you were expecting. Don’t worry, we’ll have a proper celebration when you’re feeling better,”
“I’m looking forward to that, but this is honestly really nice, the silver lining of being sick is I get to spend the entire day with you, snuggled up. I guess it’s a fair trade,”
“I’m glad you see it that way. Happy birthday, baby,”
Jack placed another kiss on Alex’s forehead, and they hugged each other closer. Sure, it wasn’t the birthday that either of them had in mind, but that was okay, Alex had Jack, and that was all that really mattered.
A/N: Hi guys, so I actually wrote this all yesterday, over a 10 hour period, between school and social stuff. When I had the idea for the general plot of this, I thought it would be about 3000 words, but it kind of took on a life of its own as I wrote it, and now its double what it was supposed to be. If you couldn't tell, I really enjoyed writing this, and I've also been having lots of other ideas, for things like this, and for things that are super different! As always, feel free to send in requests or ideas, I'm open to most things! Thanks for reading! -Liv
#Alex Gaskarth#Jack Barakat#Rian Dawson#Zack Merrick#ATL#all time low#sickfic#atl sickfic#atlsickfic
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Day Off- All Time Low Fanfiction
Alex wakes up not feeling well on a day he’s off from work, and Jack helps him feel better. Word Count: 2430
More notes at the end.
“Hey Alex, baby, wake up. I want to cuddle before we have to get up and get ready for work,” Jack said, trying to shake his boyfriend awake.
“Don’t feel good,” Alex mumbled into his pillow, coughing some.
“Wait, you don’t feel good? What’s wrong, Alex? Can you please talk to me?”
“Everything hurts and I’m freezing,”
Jack scooted closer to his boyfriend and immediately felt the heat radiating off of him, raising his concerns. He put a hand to Alex’s sweaty forehead, wincing when his hand made contact.
“Alex, you’re burning up, I think we should take your temperature,”
Jack went to stand, but a weak pull at his arm stopped him.
“Don’t leave me, I’ll be too cold,” Alex whined, using all of the strength he could muster to hold onto Jack.
“I’ll be right back, baby. We really need to take your temperature so I can make sure you’re okay, and that we don’t have to take you to get looked at,”
“Okay fine, just don’t be gone too long,” Alex requested, coughing some.
Jack finally got up and went into their shared master bathroom and looked through the medicine cabinet, eventually finding what he was looking for.
“Okay, put this under your tongue for me,” Jack instructed, handing Alex the thermometer.
Alex did as he was told, but started to cough again once it started beeping. He tried to sit up but was struggling some, so Jack set down the device and helped his boyfriend up, then rubbed his back until he was finally able to breathe again.
“Well, it says 100.8, so I’m going to call into work so I can take care of you, so you don’t make yourself worse,”
“No Jack, I don’t want you to have to miss work because of me. I’ll be okay, I promise,”
“Last time you said that when you were sick, you didn’t take any of the meds I set out for you, and we were close to having to bring you to the hospital. I have plenty of paid time off saved up, so I’m going to call my boss. I think you need to do the same,” Jack said, trying to find Alex’s phone.
“Actually, I was already off today,”
“Well, that’s good, then!”
“No it’s not, I wanted to use my day off to do something fun, I don’t want to spend it in bed sick,” Alex said with a pout that Jack couldn’t help but melt for.
“Hey, today might end up being better than you’re expecting, even though you’re under the weather. Let me take care of calling in, then we’ll go from there,”
Jack grabbed his phone then stepped out of the room and made the call. His boss wasn’t very understanding, but Jack didn’t really care; he had the time off saved up, and he cared a lot more about Alex than his job.
Once he was off the phone, he went into the kitchen and made Alex some hot tea, and some coffee for himself. He also got some medicine for Alex, hoping it would help him to feel at least a little better. When he got back into their shared bedroom, he saw Alex trying to look around for something, but his movements were jerky, likely due to the aches in his body.
“What’re you trying to do, Alex? Maybe I can help you out some,” Jack offered, setting down everything he’d brought up.
“I really wanted to put something on the TV, but I can’t find the remote anywhere. Well, it’s not like I really looked that hard,”
“I think it’s on my nightstand, so I’ll grab it. Let’s get you sitting up and comfortable again. I brought you in some stuff that might help you feel better, but you can’t lie down,” Jack explained, slowly helping Alex sit up in their bed.
“Is it stuff I’m actually going to like, or is it nasty tasting medicine?” Alex asked, making Jack laugh some.
“Honestly, it’s probably a bit of both,”
“Why can’t I just have the stuff I’d like?”
“Tea won’t end up making you better. Take this for me, you’ll be done with it before you know it,” Jack encouraged, giving Alex a shot of cough medicine.
“Are you sure I need this? My cough isn’t even-“
Alex cut himself off by bursting into a coughing fit, which Jack was concerned about, but couldn’t help but laugh at due to the timing.
“Right, yeah, you don’t really need this, what was I thinking?” Jack asked, still laughing as he rubbed Alex’s back.
“Shut the fuck up,” Alex mumbled, swallowing the nasty medicine.
“See, that wasn’t too bad! Take this fever reducer next, we’ve got to get your temperature down some,” Jack instructed, as Alex took the next medicine.
“Can I watch a movie and have the tea now?”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that! Here’s the tea, I’ll turn on the TV,”
Jack went over to his side of their bed and got comfortable before starting to search through the channel listings.
��Hm, it looks like the first Jump Street movie is on, does that sound good?”
“Yeah, something funny sounds great,”
Jack put on the movie, then they started watching it. Only about fifteen minutes into the movie, Jack started to feel a weird feeling coming from Alex’s side of the bed.
“Alex, are you okay? I feel this, like, weird movement happening,”
“I’m shivering because I’m fucking freezing. Can we cuddle?” Alex requested, holding out his shaky arms to his boyfriend.
Instead of scooting over to Alex, Jack put a hand to his forehead, concerned about the temperature.
“You still feel really warm, baby. Here, why don’t we snuggle for a bit while we wait for that fever reducer to kick in, but if you don’t start to cool down, then we’ll have to do something to try and lower your fever. Come over here,” Jack decided, letting Alex cling onto his side.
“This is really comfy,”
“Good, I’m glad it is. By the way, you’re really sweaty,” Jack said, laughing as he stroked Alex’s matted hair.
“I’m sorry if it’s really gross,” Alex felt his cheeks get even hotter from the embarrassment.
“It’s not don’t worry about all of that. Let’s just focus on watching the movie,”
They spent the next bit of time watching the movie, only diverting their attention when Alex coughed. Eventually, Alex fell asleep, and Jack decided to use this time to take off Alex’s blanket, since he was still way too warm, and Jack knew Alex would argue him on this if he were awake. Jack carefully pried the blanket off of his boyfriend, then went back to the movie.
This only lasted for a few minutes, Alex started to shift around some in his sleep, and wrapped himself into a tight hug in an attempt to get warm. All of his movement eventually stirred him awake, and when he realized where his blanket had gone, he stared at Jack with daggers.
“Why did you take off my blanket?” Alex asked with a sneeze.
He tried to pull the blanket back over himself, but Jack pulled it back off of him, fully taking advantage of how weak the sickness was making Alex.
“Alex, I know you want the blanket, but you’re way too hot,”
“Why thank you,” Alex cockily replied, making Jack roll his eyes.
“Yeah, that’s not what I meant, and you know that. For the record, you’re hot in that way, too, but you know what I mean. We really need to lower your fever. Wait, I have an idea, but I think you might hate me for it,”
“What, you’re not going to make me take a cold shower, are you?”
“Well, not a cold shower, per se,”
“Jack, I really don’t want to get up,” Alex whined, coughing some.
“I know, but we really need to do this, baby. I’ll be right there with you the whole time, and we’ll get it done as fast as possible, I promise,” Jack tried.
“Fine, I’ll do it, but can we go into the living room after? I kind of want to be somewhere aside from in here,”
“Sure, I can set you up on the couch out there, but we have to do this first. it won’t be so bad, we’ll keep it short, and you can change into some fresh PJs. Let’s get you into the bathroom,”
Jack went around to Alex’s side of the bed and helped him get up, then guided him into their bathroom. He sat Alex down on the toilet since he was too weak to stand on his own, then turned on the water. Once it was at a lukewarm temperature, he turned to Alex.
“Okay, I think it’s ready, let’s get you in there,”
He helped Alex get undressed, then supported him as he got into the shower.
“Holy shit, that’s fucking freezing!” Alex exclaimed, coughing some.
“It’s really not that cold, baby. Just stand in here for a few minutes so your body can cool down some. Do you want me to keep holding you while you’re in there?” Jack offered.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind; standing is kind of hard right now,”
“Okay, we can stay just like this, then,” Jack replied, positioning himself outside of the shower where he was able to hold Alex up but not get his clothes wet.
“Jack, it’s really cold and the water is hurting my skin,” Alex whined after a few minutes.
“I think you’ve been in there long enough, let’s get you dried off,” Jack said, turning off the water, then helping Alex out.
“Where’s my new PJs?”
“Shit, I forgot to grab those. Um, sit on the toilet again and dry yourself off, I’ll go get some,”
“Can I have one of your hoodies?” Alex requested as Jack walked out of the bathroom.
“Sure, baby,” Jack yelled from their room.
He grabbed Alex’s favorite hoodie of his, along with some sweats and new underwear, then went back into the bathroom, where Alex was shivering and trying to wrap his towel around himself tighter.
“Okay, let’s get you dressed, then we can go out to the living room”
Jack helped Alex into the new clothes, then walked him out to the living room.
“I actually don’t feel as cold as I did before the shower,” Alex said as Jack put a blanket over him.
“Good, that means your fever is getting lower! Should we put on another movie?”
“Actually, can we play a board game or a card game? That shower cleared my head some, I think, and I want to do something more than watching a movie,”
“If you’re up for that, then sure! Should we play Sorry?”
“Yeah, I’m ready to kick your ass at it!”
“Oh, you’re so on!”
Jack went over to the closet where they kept a bunch of different games, then pulled out the right box and took it over to where Alex was. He moved the coffee table and a chair next to the couch, then set up the game on the table. They began to play, and Jack saw a genuine smile on Alex’s face for the first time that day, making him very happy.
By the time they were nearing the end of the game, they were tied, both only needing one pawn home to win. Alex drew a five, which just so happened to be what he needed to win.
“I won! I knew I’d kick your ass at this game!” Alex exclaimed, making Jack laugh some.
“You only won by one pawn, I don’t know if that’s really ‘kicking my ass’,” Jack continued.
“You just don’t want to admit that I’m the best!”
“Oh, you think you’re so great? Maybe I’ll just go hang out with someone else, and you can take care of yourself,” Jack jokingly threatened.
“No, don’t do that! I need you!” Alex exclaimed.
Seconds later, he burst into another coughing fit, and Jack quickly moved the coffee table out of the way and sat next to Alex, helping him sit up and rubbing his back as he struggled to regain his breathing.
“That didn’t sound good, baby,” Jack sympathetically said once Alex finally stopped.
“It didn’t feel so great, either,” Alex replied, his voice sounding a bit strained. He snuggled into Jack, who promptly wrapped him into a tight hug.
“Well, you definitely aren’t burning up like you were earlier, but you’re still warm. How’re you feeling?” Jack asked, using the hand he’d felt Alex’s forehead with to stroke his hair.
“I’m kind of achy again. I don’t have those super awful chills anymore, but I’m starting to feel a bit congested,” Alex explained.
“Why don’t I make you some more tea, then I can come back out here, put a movie on, and rub your shoulders to hopefully get rid of some of those aches you’ve got?”
“I’d really like that,”
With that, Jack went back into the kitchen and quickly prepared another cup of honey lemon tea. Once it was ready, he walked back over to Alex and turned on the TV.
“Here, scoot forward some and I’ll start rubbing your back while you pick something to watch,” Jack said, sitting on the couch and starting to massage his boyfriend. After a couple minutes of channel surfing, Alex put on Home Alone.
“You put on my favorite movie?”
“Yeah, as a thank you for taking such good care of me,” Alex replied.
“You’re really sweet, baby. I’m kind of surprised it’s even on, it’s only August,” Jack said with a laugh.
“Same here, it’s not even in time for Christmas in July,”
The two of them continued to watch the movie as Alex drank his tea, and Jack rubbed Alex’s shoulders.
“Hey Jack, can we cuddle now?” Alex requested fifteen minutes into the movie.
“Sure we can, but are you sure you don’t want me to massage you anymore?”
“I really appreciate it, but I don’t want you to do that forever, your hands must be a bit tired. Besides, I really want to be hugged,”
“Well, my hands are okay, but we can definitely cuddle. Come here, Alex,” Jack replied, opening up his arms.
“Thank you for everything, Jack. I love you so much,”
“You’re so welcome, I love you, too,” Jack replied, placing a kiss on Alex’s forehead.
They stayed like this for a while; Jack stroked Alex’s hair with one hand and held him close with the other.
A/N: Hey guys, I wrote this fic a little over a month ago, and am finally getting around to posting it! I actually have a few other fics written up that I plan on posting, but I might spread them out some since finding time to write has been a bit challenging lately. I really like how this one turned out, and I think that's because I made it romantic instead of platonic! If you guys have any requests, please send them my way, I'd love to write ideas you guys want to see! Lots of love, Liv.
#Alex Gaskarth#Jack Barakat#Rian Dawson#Zack Merrick#ATL#all time low#atlsickfic#atl sickfic#sickfic#Jalex
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The Importance of Communication- All Time Low Fanfiction
Jack is confused as to why Alex is ignoring him all day. Word Count: 2523
More notes at the end.
“I feel like we’ve been on this bus forever, how much longer until we’ll be at the venue?” Jack asked his friends in the front lounge of the tour bus.
“Jack, we were told that we’ll get to the venue around two this afternoon, and it’s twelve thirty right now, so we have about an hour and a half to go,” Zack replied, laughing some at the childlike nature of Jack’s question.
“Where the fuck is Alex? He normally does a good job of occupying you in moments like this,” Rian said, only half joking.
“First off, you’re a dick, Rian. Second off, I guess he’s still in his bunk, I haven’t seen him all morning,”
“I guess he’s using this as an opportunity to sleep in. I don’t blame him, we’ve had a lot of early mornings and late nights recently,” Zack pointed out, scrolling through his phone.
“That’s true, I wish I’d done that now,” Jack said back.
“You’re not the only one,” Rian muttered, attempting to go back to the book he’d been reading.
“Man, what is this, take shots at Jack day?”
“You know we only tease you out of pure admiration,” Rian stated, laughing more. Jack gave his friend the finger, then went back to scrolling through his phone.
Only thirty minutes later, Jack started getting hungry.
“Are you guys hungry? I could really go for some food right now, and I don’t really want to wait until we finally get to the venue,” Jack said, making his friends turn their attention to him.
“Yeah, I could eat. I think we have lunch meat and bread in the fridge, do you want to make all of us sandwiches?” Rian asked, a pleading smile on his face.
“So, you were insulting me earlier, and now you want me to make you food?” Jack asked, getting up and walking to the fridge.
“Well, I mean, it would be nice,” Rian continued.
“Fine, only because it’ll give me something to do. Should I make one for Alex, too?”
“Yeah, I’d do that. I bet he’ll wake up and get ready at the last possible second, so he’ll probably appreciate having something made for him. It’ll be one less thing for him to have to rush doing,” Zack pointed out.
“Yeah, that’s a good point,” Jack said as he started to make the sandwiches.
Once he was finished, he gave his friends their food, then they all started to eat. Jack scrolled through his phone more, but couldn’t find anything that really caught his attention. Eventually, one thirty rolled around, and Alex still had yet to make an appearance.
“Should we wake Alex up? We’re going to be at the venue really soon,” Zack asked his friends, looking at the time on his phone.
“Nah, let’s give him a few more minutes. We all know he’s going to be annoying as fuck for the rest of the day if we bother him, and we already have Jack for that,” Rian replied, still looking at his phone.
“Hey!” Jack exclaimed.
“We both know I’m right,” Rian jokingly said back.
Just a few minutes later, they heard shuffling coming from the bunk area, which was followed by Alex walking into the front lounge. He was dressed and ready to go, but something seemed off about him, at least to Jack.
“Hey guys, are we almost at the venue?” Alex asked, sitting on the couch with Jack.
“Yeah, we’ll be there in about twenty minutes. You were in your bunk for a long time this morning,” Jack pointed out.
“Yeah, I just wanted to enjoy the late start to the day by doing as much of nothing as possible,” Alex replied, pulling out his phone.
“Makes sense, man. Jack made us all sandwiches for lunch, and yours is sitting on that counter if you want it,” Rian said, pointing to the sandwich.
“Oh cool, thanks, Jack. I’ll just have half of it for now,”
Alex got up and grabbed the smaller half of the sandwich, then slowly ate it over the course of the remainder of the drive.
Once they got there, they helped the crew load their gear in, and Jack could’ve sworn he saw Alex struggling some. He was considering asking Alex if he was okay, but decided that he was just overthinking it, and let it go.
“Now that everything is inside and ready to go, let’s get soundcheck out of the way,” Zack suggested.
“Yeah, let’s do that, then we can hang out in the green room for a bit,” Rian replied.
With that, everyone took their place onstage, then got started. Normally, Alex and Jack would mess around some, cracking jokes or saying nonsense into their microphones in the middle of songs, but every time Jack did this, Alex ignored it and continued playing his parts. This threw Jack off a bit, since it was so out of character for Alex, but he did his best to not let it impact his playing.
After about thirty minutes, soundcheck was finished.
“Hey, Alex, I think I saw a pool table in the green room, do you want to play one on one?” Jack excitedly asked, as they gave their techs their instruments.
“I think I’m just going to hang out solo until the meet and greet,” Alex awkwardly replied.
“Oh okay, um, are you okay, Alex? I’m just asking since things have felt a bit off, for lack of a better word,”
“Yeah, we’re all good. I’ll see you when it’s time for the meet and greet,” Alex replied, before making his way over to the backstage area.
Rian and Zack noticed the look on Jack’s face, and after quickly sharing a glance, they walked over to their friend.
“Hey, are you alright, man?” Zack asked, as they all took a seat behind the stage.
“Yeah, just a bit confused. Like, we always do stupid shit during soundcheck, you guys normally complain that me and Alex aren’t being professional enough. Especially you, Rian,”
“You’re not wrong. It was kind of nice to have a smooth, no bullshit soundcheck, but it also didn’t feel right. A big part of this band is you and Alex riffing off each other,” Rian added.
“Exactly! Then he didn’t want to hang out. Am I reading too much into this, or do you think something’s up?” Jack asked his friends.
“He’s definitely acting different, but I wouldn’t approach him. I think you have to let him go through whatever it is, then trust that he’ll come to you after. We have a lot of tour in front of us, so I’d say the road of least resistance is best,” Zack explained, giving Jack a sympathetic smile.
“I guess you’re right,” Jack mumbled.
“I agree with Zack. Hey, why don’t the two of us play pool with you? I know there’s three of us, but we can all take turns,” Rian offered.
“Do you really think a game of pool is going to make this all feel okay and normal?” Jack questioned.
“Well,” Rian trailed off, not knowing what to say.
“Eh, fuck it, let’s go play,” Jack decided, standing up.
The three of them went into the green room with the pool table and ended up playing until it was time for the meet and greet. No one interacted with Alex until then, hoping that leaving him alone would be for the best, but they seemed to be wrong, as he was still distant and didn’t talk much, even to the fans. Jack thought Alex looked out of it but tried to just focus on giving the fans a good experience.
Once the meet and greet was over, Jack went over to Alex in another attempt to spend some time with him.
“Hey, Alex, do you want to do anything before the show starts? We could get dinner or something,” Jack suggested.
“Nah, I’m just going to do my own thing until it’s time to go on. I’ll see you then, man,” Alex replied, giving an apologetic half smile before going back over to the green room he’d been in earlier.
Jack let out a sigh before going over to where Rian and Zack were.
“Well, he blew me off again. Do you guys think I did something to him? He’s acting so weird,” Jack quietly said, for just in case Alex happened to still be within earshot.
“I don’t think so, I think he’s just in a weird mood, you know he gets like this sometimes,” Rian replied.
Yeah, I think you just have to try to not let it bother you and go on with your day. What did you ask him to do?” Zack continued.
“I asked him if he wanted to get a bite somewhere before the show,”
“Why don’t the three of us go somewhere? There’s a bunch of restaurants nearby,” Zack pointed out.
“Yeah, let’s do that. You can pick out where we go, Jack,” Rian offered.
“I think there’s an old-fashioned diner close, let’s go there,” Jack decided.
The three of them made their way out of the venue and to the restaurant. They ended up staying until they had an hour before they had to be onstage, just talking about the tour they were on and where they saw the band going in the future.
When they got back to the venue, they played pool again up until it was time to go on. While they waited in the wings, no one talked to Alex, not wanting to make whatever was going on worse. On their cue, they all ran onstage and started into their first song. After they’d played through the first four songs, Jack went up to his microphone to exchange some banter with Alex.
“Holy shit, look at this crowd! I think this might be the best crowd of the tour so far!” Jack exclaimed, earning cheering and applause.
“Yeah, they’re great! This next song is called Somewhere in Neverland!” Alex replied, starting right into the song.
Jack tried to have some banter with Alex a few more times over the course of the show but was given the same minimal response every time. He tried to just focus on playing, but he’d be lying if he said that this wasn’t hurting his feelings. The two of them always had the best dynamic, and Jack wasn’t sure what had happened that made Alex act so drastically different towards him.
Once the show ended, Alex quickly disappeared from the stage, while the rest of the band hand out pics, setlists, and drumsticks. Eventually, they walked offstage, and Rian and Zack could see the hurt look on Jack’s face.
“Hey, man, do you want to go out to a bar? I think the crew was talking about doing that tonight,” Rian offered.
“Nah, I think I’m going to go back to the bus and sleep early. You guys go have fun, though,” Jack replied, looking at the ground.
“Are you sure, dude?” Zack continued.
“Yeah, I’m ready to call it a night. I’ll see you guys later,” Jack said, before turning to walk out of the venue.
There were some fans waiting by the bus, but Jack ignored them and go on, too sad to make himself talk to anyone. As soon as Jack stepped foot in the bus, he heard someone having a loud coughing fit, coming from the back lounge of the bus. Curious, Jack followed the sound to the lounge, where he found Alex, who had changed into his PJs, coughing into his hands.
He had used tissues littered around himself and was wrapped up in a couple of thick blankets. Jack felt his anger and hurt morph into worry and compassion as he sat next to his friend and put a hand on his back. Once Alex had regained his breathing, he turned to look and see who was with him.
“Oh, hey, Jack. What’s up?” Alex asked, his voice raspy.
“Well, I came on the bus to sleep early after feeling hurt that my best friend spent the day ignoring me for no reason, but now I’m starting to feel a bit concerned. What’s going on? Are you sick?” Jack asked in reply.
“Yeah, I am. I’ve felt kind of shitty all day, but now it’s a lot worse. Wait, did you say that you thought I was ignoring you all day?”
“Well, yeah, you have been. At the venue, you declined hanging out twice, and you didn’t banter with me during the show. I thought I’d done something that upset you, but I guess you were doing all of those things because you weren’t feeling well?”
“Yeah, that was why. Jack, I’m so sorry you thought I was mad at you, I promise that I didn’t intend for that to happen. Why didn’t you just come talk to me about it?” Alex asked, blowing his nose.
“I mean, you weren’t really giving off the vibe that you wanted to talk to me, or anyone, today. I didn’t want to make any anger you were possibly feeling worse,” Jack awkwardly replied.
“Shit, I guess you’re right. Jack, seriously, I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or make you think that there was something going on between us. I just wanted to be alone because of how I’ve been feeling,”
“Well, I’m glad there’s no issues between us. Also, it’s alright, I can tell you feel pretty bad. When did this start, man?”
“I woke up at, like, nine this morning and instantly felt awful. It’s progressed throughout the day, and that show made it ten times worse. I’ve been cold and achy all day, my throat has been killing me, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got a temperature,”
Jack put his hand to Alex’s forehead, wincing at how it felt.
“Yeah, you definitely have a fever. You really shouldn’t be wrapped up in those blankets if you want it to go down. Have you taken anything?”
“I know, but I’m so cold. I took some flu medicine, since I’m pretty sure that’s what this is, and a fever reducer,” Alex replied.
“Well, I think you should ditch at least one blanket. Why don’t you take one off, and I’ll stay here and watch a movie with you, so you have a distraction from feeling cold?” Jack proposed.
“You’d really rather do that than go out with the other guys?” Alex asked with a cough.
“I already told them that I’d be staying in tonight. Let’s do what I suggested, I’ll put on a movie, then you’ll give up a blanket,”
“Sounds like a plan to me,”
Jack got up and put in a DVD they both liked, then sat next to Alex on the couch. He took one of Alex’s blankets and put it over himself as the movie started on the screen. Even though the day was a little rocky, Jack was very glad to be sitting with his best friend, watching a movie they’d seen a thousand times, and he was grateful that everything was okay.
A/N: Hi guys, I wrote this back in August! I still have quite a few fics written from around then that I plan on posting, along with a few I've written over the past few weeks that I plan on sharing! Also, I have 4 requests in my ask box that I have finally started working on, and plan on posting soon! As always, I'm welcome to making that request list grow, so please send in anything you guys want to see written! Thanks for reading! -Liv
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First Date Fiasco- All Time Low Fanfiction
Jack plans a moonlit picnic for his first date with Alex, but things quickly take a turn. High School AU. Word Count: 2460
More notes at the end.
“So, Alex, who is this boy that you’re going out with tonight?” Alex’s mother asked as he rolled his eyes and put on his black jacket.
“His name is Jack, he’s in a few of my classes this year. We became friends pretty quickly into the semester, and only hung out outside of school, like, twice before realizing we were both into each other, so tonight is our first date,” Alex explained, feeling his face get hot.
“That sounds nice, dear. Do you know where he’s taking you for your date?”
“Nope, he said he wanted to keep it a surprise,”
“Well, just be careful, Alex,” his mother replied in a cautious voice.
“I’ll be fine mom, it’s Jack. Nothing bad is going to happen,”
Before Alex’s mom had the chance to reply, Alex’s phone vibrated, and he saw a text from Jack saying that he had just pulled into the driveway.
“Oh, it looks like he’s here, I’ve got to go. I’ll text if I need anything, I love you!” Alex said, rushing outside, and over to Jack’s old 2002 Toyota Corolla. As he opened the door to get inside, he felt a surge of happiness, making him grin.
“Hey, Alex, how’re you doing?” Jack asked as Alex put on his seatbelt.
“I’m doing good, I’m excited for our date! I feel like it’s been a long time coming,” Alex replied, accidentally kicking something as he went to stretch out his legs.
“What’s down here, Jack?”
“Well, I was going to keep it a surprise until we got closer to our destination, but I guess I should tell you. That’s a picnic basket, we’re going to drive up to that one mountain that overlooks the city, y’know, that tourist trap, and have a moonlit picnic. I hope that’s not too cheesy or anything, but I thought it would be really cute,” Jack explained, grateful that it was dark out, since he was most definitely blushing now.
“I love that idea, Jack! It might be a little cheesy, but in the best way! You really put some thought into this, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I did. I really like you, Alex,” Jack put his hand on Alex’s leg, sending shivers through Alex’s body.
“I really like you too, Jack. I don’t know where all of this will take us, but I’m so excited to find out along the way,”
The two of them shared a smile, until Alex’s eyes widened in fear.
“Jack, oncoming traffic!” Alex exclaimed, making Jack’s attention shift back to the road as he narrowly avoided swerving into the incorrect lane and causing an accident.
“I’m so sorry, Alex, I-“
“Don’t worry about it, but let’s save the sappy looking into each other’s eyes thing for when we get to the mountaintop,” Alex decided, taking a deep breath.
“That’s a good idea. Seriously, Alex, I’m really sorry about that, I really didn’t mean to freak you out,”
“It’s okay, we’re both fine, let’s just move past it, okay? Now, let’s talk about this mountain thing, I’ve actually never been up there,”
“Are you serious? How long have you lived in Baltimore for?”
“Since I was, um, six or seven,”
“And you’re sixteen? You’ve had more than enough time to cross this off the bucket list!”
“Well, you’re not wrong, but I’m kind of glad I haven’t been yet, since that means the first time I experience it will be with you!” Alex replied, a dopey smile on his face.
“You’re sappy, Gaskarth, but you make it cute,” Jack said, laughing some.
“You are, too, Jack. I mean, a date overlooking the city from the top of a mountain with a picnic you made? Pretty sappy to me,”
“I mean, yeah, it is. What can I say, I’m a sucker for romantic stuff. I know it probably doesn’t seem like it, based on how I present myself,”
Jack wasn’t wrong, he typically dressed in all black, had his ears pierced, and had a similar hairstyle to the guitarist of Blink-182. He didn’t look like a romantic, Alex thought, he looked like a guy in a pop-punk band, but somehow this dichotomy made him even more attractive.
“You do dress like you’re in Blink-182. Do you know who they are?”
“Know who they are? Dude, they’re my favorite band? Wait, your favorite album is Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, right?”
“Yeah, it is! I’d play it on my phone, but it doesn’t seem like your car has Bluetooth or an aux cable,”
“Well, luckily, I have it on CD! It’s in right now, I was listening to it earlier when I was driving to your house. I can put it on; we’re close to the mountain, I think it would be fun to listen to as we get up to the top if you’d be into that,” Jack suggested, turning on his stereo.
“Sure, we can do that! Dude, I’ve never driven up a mountain before, is it, like, fun?”
“Oh yeah, it kind of feels like a roller coaster, especially on the way down. But, I think it’s pretty cool both ways. Hey, here’s the entrance to the mountain!”
Jack put on the first song as they went through the entrance. At first, Alex thought the ride up was pretty, enjoying the three hundred and sixty degree view of everything, but as they approached the halfway mark, Alex noticed that the winding mountain was starting to make him feel motion sick. He started to hug his stomach and ball up, as best he could both discreetly and in a car, but Jack still caught on.
“Um, are you okay, Alex?” Jack asked, both concerned and confused.
“Yeah, I, um, my stomach just feels a bit weird. It’s no big deal,” Alex assured, completely lying.
At this point, he knew that the only way this was going to end with him getting sick, he just hoped he could make it to the top of the mountain so he could get out of Jack’s car and deal with it in private, and not embarrass himself even more than he already had at this point.
“Hm, well, there are some water bottles in the picnic basket, why don’t you grab one and take some small sips. Maybe that’ll help some,” Jack suggested, slowing down some, hoping that would do some good, too.
“Yeah, I’ll, um, I’ll try that,” Alex replied, feeling his stomach cramp up even more.
He reached at his feet for the picnic basket and put it on his lap so he could see where the water bottles were. As soon as he opened it, the smell of pasta hit him, which he normally loved, but all it did was increase the queasy feeling he had. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to take deep breaths and fight the feeling, but Jack hit a slight bump in the road, and that was it. Alex gagged and placed a hand to his mouth, which Jack immediately noticed.
“Oh shit, I’ll pull over, there’s plenty of observation decks on the way to the very top,” Jack said, frantically searching for such a place.
Alex tried to hold everything in, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to wait until the car was parked at this point. He quickly scanned the car for things he could get sick into, but there were none. Well, aside from the picnic basket. He really didn’t want to ruin Jack’s cute idea, but he figured it would be better to do that than to ruin the front seat of his car, so he reopened the lid, leaned down, and started to get sick into it.
Jack’s eyes widened and he did his best to remain calm as he pulled into the parking lot of an observation deck. He didn’t really know what to do in this situation, he didn’t know if he should try to comfort Alex or if he should just let what was happening continue, but something in him told him that he should try to help. Once the car was off, Alex looked up to Jack, his face bright red from embarrassment.
“Are you, um, finished?” Jack cautiously asked, hoping that he wasn’t embarrassing Alex.
“Nope, but I’ll-“ Alex put a hand to his mouth and exited the car before finishing his sentence. Jack grabbed his keys and followed Alex to where he walked over to.
He had rushed over to a wooded area where hopefully no one would see him, then started to get sick again. Just seconds later, Alex felt a hand on his back, which he realized was Jack’s; he felt extremely embarrassed, but couldn’t do much to remedy the situation, so he continued to get sick as Jack continued to rub his back.
Eventually, Alex was finished, but didn’t look up at Jack when he was.
“Are you done now? No rush, I just want to get an idea on how you’re feeling,” Jack carefully said, still rubbing Alex’s back.
“I think so,” Alex quietly replied, still looking down.
“Then why are you still looking down?”
“To be honest, I’m a bit embarrassed,”
“No, don’t be embarrassed, this kind of stuff happens, it’s a really windy road, I don’t blame you for getting sick like that. I’m not grossed out or anything, I promise you have nothing to feel ashamed about,”
“Yes, I do. We’ve been together for 20 minutes, and I already ruined it by getting sick, and-“
“You didn’t ruin anything, Alex. If you’re feeling better, we could get back in my car and stay at this observation deck for a bit. It may not be the top of the mountain, but it’s still really cool,” Jack suggested, trying to do or say whatever he could to make Alex feel better.
“Sure, I guess we could do that. If you really want to,”
“Of course I want to, this date isn’t over yet,”
They shared a smile, then made their way back over to Jack’s car. As soon as Alex sat down, he realized the picnic basket was at his feet, making him grimace.
“I forgot about that,” Jack stated, trailing off some.
“I’m really sorry about ruining the basket, I know you put a lot of effort into all of this,”
“Don’t worry about it, that picnic basket was five bucks at Target. The food inside of it took a little bit to make, but that’s really the least of my concerns right now. I just want to be with you, and for you to be feeling okay,”
“I appreciate that, I guess I should throw this away now,”
“I’ve got it, you just get comfortable,”
“Jack, no, I don’t want you to have to-“
“I don’t ‘have’ to do anything, I’m offering, so just let me. You get comfy, and when I get back from throwing this away, we can pretend that all of this never happened, and we can just enjoy our date,”
Alex gave a weak smile as Jack carefully grabbed the basket, and got out of the car, walking over to the wooded area from earlier. He really wanted to just throw the basket into a trash can, knowing how bad littering was, but he couldn’t find a trashcan anywhere.
After setting the basket on the ground behind the bushes, he went back to the car, where Alex was clearly deep in thought.
“Are you still thinking about it?” Jack asked, shutting the door behind him.
“Of course I am, that shit was so embarrassing,”
“This might be easier said than done, but don’t stress so much over this. It's in the past, now we can just enjoy our view!”
Jack looked out, and quickly realized that their view wasn’t the city, they were on the other side of the mountain that just overlooked darkness.
“If only I could’ve held out a little longer, we would’ve at least made it to the side of the mountain with the awesome view you talked about,”
“Wait, I have an idea! Come on, follow me!”
The two of them got out of the car, and Alex looked apprehensively as Jack got onto the hood of his car, laying down against the windshield.
“Get that look off of your face, it’s clean up here, and we can look at the stars!”
Alex did as he was told, carefully making his way up onto the hood and next to Jack. The two of them snuggled into one another, and looked up at the sky.
“I have to admit, this is really pretty,” Alex said, feeling his guard start to go down some.
“It really is, isn’t it?”
“Jack, I’m really sorry for ruining your original plans. Like, I used to get motion sick as a kid, but something like what happened earlier hasn’t happened to me in years,”
“You don’t need to apologize, Alex. Sure, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but that doesn’t matter. All I care about is being with you,” Jack replied, making Alex’s heart melt.
“I just want to be with you, too. Man, this feels like a scene from one of those cheesy romance movies,” Alex replied, laughing some.
“Well, there is something we could do to really make it like one of those movies,” Jack suggested, starting to lean in. Alex’s eyes widened, and he pulled back some.
“Shit, is this too soon? I’m sorry, Alex,”
“It’s not that, it’s just, um, I never got to wash my mouth or anything,” Alex replied, growing quieter as he continued speaking.
“That’s all that was about? I don’t care about that, come here, Alex,” Jack replied in a comforting, yet seductive way.
Alex leaned back over to Jack, and they started to kiss. Alex had been on a few dates in his lifetime, and he’d even shared a few kisses, but none of them felt as magical as this. They made out for what felt like forever and no time all at once, Jack eventually pulling away, smirking when he saw the look of desire on Alex’s face.
“You must’ve really enjoyed that. I did, too; you’re a good kisser, Gaskarth,”
“You’re pretty good, too, JB,”
“JB, hmm, I like that. Maybe we should go on more dates so you can call me that more,”
“I’d be okay with that,”
They shared a smile, then started to make out again. Alex couldn’t believe that him getting carsick led to this; he figured any type of relationship with Jack had ended as soon as he opened up that picnic basket, but he couldn’t have been happier to be wrong. Being with Jack felt right, and while tonight was not what he’d imagined, he couldn’t wait to see what came next for them.
A/N: Hi everyone! I wrote this fic a few months ago, when I started getting back into fic writing! I don't know why, but I've always really liked how this one turned out, I feel like it's a bit different than most of my previous fics structurally. Also, I can't lie, I got some of the idea for the plot from a TV show, but I think it worked well here! I officially have my first request in over a year, and I'm so excited to get that written and posted! I think it'll end up being my next work published! With that, always feel free to send in requests or even loose/unstructured concepts, I'd love to write what you guys want! Thanks for reading! -Liv
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Stubborn- All Time Low Fanfiction
Alex gets sick on tour but refuses to let it get in his way. Word Count: 2061
More notes at the end.
“Jack, I’m literally fine, will you stop worrying so much?” Alex asked Jack as they cleared their things out of the green room of the studio they’d just recorded a couple of interview segments in with the rest of the band.
“Hey man, all I’m saying is that you don’t sound like yourself, so much so that even our interviewer noticed it,” Jack countered, putting on his jacket.
“Well, we’ve never met her before today, so that doesn’t count. I’m just having a little congestion from allergies, so it’s no big deal. Now, will you please stop acting like a helicopter parent over me so we can walk out to the car so we can get to the venue on time for soundcheck?”
“I guess so. I have all of my stuff, so I’m ready whenever you are,”
The two of them quickly made their way through the studio and outside to the car service, where Rian and Zack were already waiting.
“It took you guys long enough,” Rian sarcastically stated, not bothering to look up from his phone.
“Yeah, yeah, just scoot over so Alex and I can get in,” Jack replied. He sat in the middle next to Rian, giving Alex the seat behind the passenger.
They’d been on tour for a few weeks now, and it had been a blast so far. The gigs had been great, the fans were incredible, and the memories they were making were easily the best part. Alex had been going out with the rest of the band and crew more than he had on previous tours, and he knew that all of the partying would eventually take a toll on him.
That morning he’d woke up to a slight headache and some congestion but didn’t want to think too much of it. Jack seemed to think that this meant that Alex was getting sick, especially since he was developing a bit of a cough as the day went on, but Alex was positive that his friend was wrong. He knew that he could tell when he was starting to feel under the weather, and now wasn’t one of those times, he was sure of it.
The ride was mostly silent, aside from some coughing from Alex, which Jack made sure to give him a glare over. Alex rolled his eyes at his friend and tried to ignore the soreness that was worsening in his throat. Once they got to the venue, they started right into soundcheck.
Normally, Alex enjoyed this part of the day, mostly because they were able to goof off some while still getting their work done, but this time wasn’t as fun. He had a hard time reaching some of the higher notes that normally didn’t give him very much trouble. Alex did his best to make it work, but eventually a high note made his voice crack, sending him into a coughing fit. The rest of the band quit playing, and Jack and Zack went over to Alex, Jack rubbing his friend’s back.
“Are you sure you’re alright, man? You do sound a bit sick,” Zack stated once Alex was able to calm himself down.
“This is just allergies, guys. If I were really coming down with something, I’d no doubt know about it,” Alex replied, clearing his throat.
“If you say so. I’d say we’re done with soundcheck anyway, right?” Rian asked from behind his drumkit.
“Yeah, let’s just go in the green room for now. I want to look up the bars around here, I feel like this would be a great party city, especially if some of the fans over twenty-one came, too. That was so fun when we did that a few cities back!” Jack exclaimed, as everyone made their way offstage and to the green room.
The time until the show passed by fairly quickly; Rian and Zack took some time to themselves to talk on the phone with family, Jack left to do some exploring, according to him. Alex stayed in the green room the whole time, and he couldn’t deny that he noticed himself start to feel worse as time progressed. His coughing was becoming much more frequent, his headache was stronger, he felt more congested, and his body was a bit sore, leaving him to feel generally more worn down, and bordering sick. At this point, Alex knew that he was coming down with something, but he didn’t want to give it much thought; they had a show to do, and a few thousand fans to make happy.
When everyone met up at the stage entrance right before it was time to go on, Alex didn’t say anything to anyone, hoping to get through the show without raising too much concern from his bandmates. The show went alright, but Alex was a bit upset knowing that it probably could’ve- and should’ve- gone better. His voice got worn down very quickly, partly from using and, and also from coughing more and more as the show went on. His headache had gotten worse from the bright lights, loud music and screaming fans, and it caused him to mess up on some of his guitar parts from a lack of concentration.
By the very end of the show, Alex was sweating profusely, despite also shivering and being unable to make himself feel warm. Feeling like a shell of who he was before the show, Alex left the stage as fast as he could so he could go back onto the bus, away from all of the madness.
After having some fun with the fans, Jack, Zack, and Rian made their way offstage.
“Where the fuck did Alex go? He’s going to miss out on going to the bars if we can’t find him within the next few minutes,” Zack said, setting down his bass.
“Well, maybe he’ll catch up to us eventually. Jack, do you want to go ahead and head out with Zack and I?” Rian offered.
“Nah, you guys go ahead, I’ve got some things to tend to,” Jack replied.
“Suit yourself. If you come out, text us so we can let you know where we are,” Rian said back.
“Will do, you guys have fun,”
Jack went back to the green room to grab the few things he’d left there during the show, also grabbing what Alex had left behind, knowing Alex wasn’t going to come back to get it himself. Once he had everything, he made his way over to the tour bus. As he walked up the steps, he heard loud, harsh coughs and cringed at how painful they sounded.
Alex was sitting at the kitchen table with his head down as his coughing fit continued. Jack dropped what he was holding and took a seat next to his friend then rubbed his back until the fit finally went away, causing him to look up.
“So, are you still going to try to convince me that you’re not sick, or are we finally past that?” Jack sarcastically asked.
“I guess I don’t have much of an argument now, do I?”
“You didn’t even have one earlier, man. How’re you feeling?”
“To be honest, pretty bad. I’m freezing, everything hurts, my head is pounding, and my throat feels like it’s on fire from all of the coughing,” Alex explained, sneezing.
“That sounds pretty brutal. Why are you out here instead of in your bunk or in the back, watching a movie on the couch?”
“Well, I really wanted to get some tea or medicine, but we don’t seem to have either. I didn’t have the energy to go all the way to the back, so I sat out here,” Alex explained, wiping his nose with his sleeve.
“We’re going to get you to the back, but I have something for you first,”
Jack got up and went over to his bunk, then grabbed a Walgreen’s bag, and finally took it over to where Alex was sitting.
“What’s all this?”
“Well, even though you thought I was being dramatic earlier, I could tell that you were starting to come down with something. Remember how I left the venue for a bit? There’s a Walgreen’s right down the street from here, so I walked there and picked up a few things for you,”
“Did you really do that for me?”
“Yeah, I did. Someone had to make sure you’d be taken care of, and it certainly wasn’t going to be you,” Jack joked, earning an eye roll from Alex.
“You can keep the sarcasm to yourself,”
“Sorry, you know I joke about everything. Anyway, I got you that honey lemon tea you really like, some cough drops, fever reducers, tissues, and some medicine to help with your congestion,” Jack said, pulling everything out of the bag.
“Thank you for doing this, man, I really appreciate it,” Alex said, giving his friend a weak smile.
“Of course, dude. Why don’t you go change into something more comfortable, then go into the back and set yourself up on the couch? I’ll make you some tea and get the medicine,”
“That sound great,”
Alex stood up, then slowly went to the bunk area to change, and Jack got started on his tea. As he heated it up, he could hear Alex coughing, and he felt bad for his friend. While he knew Alex wasn’t fully well earlier on in the day, he certainly didn’t expect for Alex to get so sick so fast.
Once everything was done, he took it all to the back, where Alex was laying on the couch, shivering with no blanket covering him.
“Here, take this, I’ll be right back,”
Jack handed Alex what he’d brought into the room, then went to Alex’s bunk and grabbed his comforter. When he got back, he draped the blanket over his friend.
“Thanks, Jack,” Alex said with a sneeze. Jack took a seat next to Alex, then put a hand to his forehead.
“Man, you feel pretty warm,” Jack pointed out.
“That may be true, but I’m freezing,” Alex replied, sounding sad. Jack scooted closer to his friend and extended his arm so Alex could latch on.
“Here, come closer so you can stay warm,”
“No way, man. I don’t want to get you sick. Besides, weren’t you looking forward to going out to the bars and partying tonight?”
“I was, but being here with you is way more important right now,”
“I’ve been sick and alone on tour feeling much worse than this before, I’ll be fine,”
“Maybe so, but I don’t want you to have to do that this time. I’m going to stay right here with you,” Jack stated, making Alex smile as he finally took Jack up on his offer, and snuggled into him.
“Well, thanks, I really do appreciate it. If I get you sick, you can’t complain since you suggested this,” Alex said, partly joking.
“I’ll be fine, I’m not concerned about that at all. I just want you to feel better so tour can be fun for you again,”
“Same here, man. Being under the weather on the road is the worst,”
Another coughing fit struck Alex, and he stayed burrowed into Jack’s side as he coughed as he coughed, and Jack rubbed his back.
“Man, you really don’t sound good,” Jack said, sounding concerned.
“I don’t feel much better than I sound. Hey, can we put something on?”
“Oh yeah, let’s see what’s on,”
Jack grabbed the remote from the shelf behind him and turned on the TV. After some browsing, he found a movie that they both liked and put it on. About ten minutes into the movie, Alex looked up at Jack.
“What is it?” Jack asked, laughing some.
“Thank you for being here with me and taking care of me,”
“No problem, man, you know I’m happy to do it. You just focus on getting some rest so you can feel better,”
Alex turned back to the direction of the TV and continued to watch the movie. Not very far into it, Alex fell asleep, lightly snoring from the congestion.
Jack considered sneaking back to his bunk to go to sleep, but he couldn’t bring himself to disturb his friend by leaving. He got a bit more comfortable on the couch then closed his eyes, happy to be helping his best friend.
A/N: Hey guys, it's been a while since I published a sickfic! I wrote this full fic, as well as another one yesterday and decided to post this one first since the other one deals with mental health, like many of my other recent fics have! This one was very fun to write, hopefully it's not too much like my previous works! As always, please send in requests, I love bringing your ideas to life, and am happy to write whatever you all want! I hope you enjoyed this fic, thank you for reading! Lots of love, Liv.
#all time low#Alex Gaskarth#Jack Barakat#Rian Dawson#Zack Merrick#ATL#sickfic#atlsickfic#atl sickfic
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Liquid Happiness- All Time Low Fanfiction
When Alex is forced to go out with his friends while feeling depressed, he decides to drink his sadness away. Word Count: 2473
TW: Alcohol
More notes at the end.
“Okay, so what exactly is the plan for tonight?” Zack asked, walking into a Mexican restaurant with Alex, Rian, and Jack.
“I say that after we eat here, we walk over to the main strip and just bar hop for as long as we feel like it. I think most places around here have last call between one and three in the morning, so we’ll be able to stay out for a long time!” Rian replied.
“That sounds like fun to me, what do you think, Alex?” Jack asked, turning to his best friend.
“Yeah, sounds good,” Alex said, forcing a smile onto his face. He could’ve sworn that he saw a suspicious look on Jack’s face but hoped that he was just seeing things.
The past month had been a lot for Alex for a few different reasons, so when Jack proposed that the four of them should go out for a real night on the town, everything in Alex wanted to decline the invite. The only reason he’d agreed to go was because he didn’t want anything to seem out of the ordinary; him skipping out would be a major red flag, and he was well aware of this.
For Alex, tonight was all about survival, and his plan was to use alcohol to accomplish this. He was going to get plastered, and even though he knew he’d regret it the next morning, he didn’t care. It was going to make tonight more bearable, and that’s all that really mattered.
The four of them were immediately seated, and their waiter came over soon after.
“Good evening, guys, what can I get you all to drink?” he asked, pulling out his pen and notepad.
“I think we’d all like a water, and we’re going to order alcoholic drinks, too. I’ll take a mojito,” Jack replied.
“Same for me,” Rian continued.
“I’ll take whatever beer you have on draft,” Zack added.
“Let’s see, I’ll take a Corona, and also a double shot of tequila,” Alex finished, earning looks from his friends as the waiter walked off.
“Damn dude, you know we’re going to be out drinking, like, all night, right?” Jack asked, laughing some.
“Yeah, that’s kind of a lot for pregaming,” Rian added.
“It’s really not that much, you guys are just acting like buzz kills!” Alex exclaimed; his enthusiasm extremely forced.
Everyone laughed for a minute, then dropped the subject. Their waiter came back with their drinks and took their food orders. As soon as he walked away, Alex quickly downed his tequila, slightly wincing as it burned his throat.
A conversation about tour started while they waited on their food, but Alex couldn’t get himself to really get into it, despite how hard he tried. He couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling off, so he did what he always did in social situations he felt insecure in; focused on drinking a lot.
By the time their food had arrived, Alex had drank his tequila shot, along with two full beers. No one said anything but Alex noticed the slightly concerned looks on his friends’ faces.
“Let’s dig in!” Jack exclaimed, trying to ignore the elephant in the room.
Alex ended up having one last beer with his food, so by the time they’d paid and were leaving, Alex was buzzed. He wasn’t totally shitfaced, but he was certainly a little past being tipsy. The strip they wanted to go on was a couple blocks away from the restaurant, and Alex walked behind his friends on the way, since he was a bit too gone to really know where he was going.
The first bar they’d planned on going to had a club like atmosphere to it; there was a large bar that wrapped around the perimeter, and it had a bunch of tables and booths, completed by a huge dance floor in the middle of everything. Since it was open seating, they made their way to a booth in the back that put them close to the bar, while also giving them a little more privacy.
“Hey guys, since you’re so close to the bar, I’m just going to walk over here to get your orders throughout the night! What can I get you all?” the bartender asked with a smile.
Everyone ordered a beer, and while they were ordering, Alex read over the menu, trying to decide what drink would be the most helpful for his mission of getting plastered.
“I’ll take a Long Island iced tea,” he finally said, setting down the drink menu.
“Damn Alex, you’re really not messing around tonight!” Zack exclaimed, laughing some.
“Yeah, are you sure that you’re not going to overdo it?” Rian asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’ll be fine, guys. We came out here to have a good time, right?” Alex asked, doing his best to speak clearly so he didn’t seem too far gone.
“That’s true, guys!” Jack excitedly replied.
Seconds later, their drinks were all brought out, and Alex immediately got started on his. A conversation about tour was started, and Alex genuinely tried to participate in it, but he couldn’t bring himself to stay actively engaged because of the thoughts floating around in his head. He really wanted them to stop so he could try to enjoy his time with his friends, but his mind was a hell of a lot louder than his friends’ voices were, even though the alcohol made them louder.
Alex drank his drink fast, and the bartender brought him out another as soon as she noticed the first one was gone, so Alex continued guzzling them down. Just an hour after they’d arrived, Alex had finished three Long Island iced teas, and was pretty far gone. His friends had only drank the beers they’d started with, and one mixed drink, so they were certainly feeling their liquor, but they could still hold a conversation and function. The bad thoughts still bounced around in Alex’s head, but they were less frequent now, and Alex couldn’t really focus on them.
When the bartender brought out his fourth drink, Jack slid the drink to his side of the table before Alex could take his first sip.
“Hey, that’s mine, dude!” Alex slurred, trying to grab for his drink. His vision was spinning from the alcohol, so he wasn’t really reaching in the right direction.
“I think you need a little break from these, man,” Jack reasoned, concern evident on his face.
“You’re so right, man! Hey Ms. Bartender, come over here!” Alex requested, sloppily waving her over.
“What can I do for you, sweetie?” she asked.
“My friend took my drink; can you bring me a margarita?” Alex asked, struggling to keep his vision focused on the bartender.
“Bring him a water too, please,” Rian added, a serious look on his face.
“I’m literally fine, dude, but I guess some water would be good,” Alex considered.
“I’ll be right out with that!” the bartender replied, before going back over to the bar.
“Alex, are you alright?” Zack asked.
“What do you mean?” Alex continued, worried that his friends knew what was going on.
“Well, you’ve kind of just kept to yourself and have been pounding drinks all night,” Jack continued.
“Guys, I’m all god, I’m just trying to have fun and party!” Alex exclaimed, forcing a smile to make his argument seem more convincing.
His friends let it go after that, knowing they couldn’t have a proper conversation with Alex while he was this inebriated. Alex sipped at his water, but mainly worked on his margarita while everyone else continued their conversation from earlier.
Eventually, a girl around their age walked up to their table and asked Zack to dance with her, which he excitedly agreed to.
“Hey, we should all go dance, too!” Rian exclaimed, mostly hoping to get Alex away from the bar for a little bit so he could slow down some.
“That does sound fun, come on, Alex!” Jack added, catching on to Rian’s plan.
“Nah, I want to stay here. Besides, I need a new drink!” Alex slurred, waving around his now empty margarita glass.
“You can get another later but come dance for now! We did come here so we could do some dancing, remember?” Jack tried.
“Fine, just for a little bit,” Alex finally agreed, as Jack helped him stand up from the booth.
He normally enjoyed dancing at clubs like this, but the noise in his head made this seem like some daunting task, instead of a fun time with his friends. The three of them made their way to the center of the dance floor, and Jack and Rian immediately started busting out their best moves. Alex was too far gone to pull off any moves that required even the most minimal amount of concentration, so he mostly swayed along to the music.
After just a few minutes, Alex started to feel his stomach do flips from all of the alcohol he’d put into it. He knew that he would end up getting sick, but he hoped that he’d be able to hold off for just a little while longer. The nausea continued to intensify, and Alex looked around the club for the bathroom, so he’d be prepared when the inevitable happened. He started to feel dizzy from all of the booze, and saw his vision get cloudy, which only intensified how sick he was feeling.
“Isn’t this so much fun?” Jack yelled to Alex, trying to be louder than the music.
Alex just nodded, not trusting himself to speak while his stomach churned so painfully. He spent the next few minutes trying to convince himself that he was fine, but when he started to feel the contents of his stomach rise into his throat, he knew that he wasn’t fine, and that he had to get to the bathroom as fast as possible.
Without saying anything to his friends, Alex quickly put a hand to his mouth, then started to make his way through the crowd, and over to the bathroom. The drunken haze he was in certainly didn’t do him any favors, as it made getting to the bathroom take longer because he kept going the wrong way.
Alex barely made it into the bathroom in time to run over to the last stall and sit over the toilet, before he started to gag, getting sick seconds later. As he continued to get sick, he eventually felt a hand on his back, which he discovered was Jack’s when he finally caught a break and looked up.
“Jack, what’re you doing in here?” Alex weakly asked.
“Well, Rian and I saw you sprint over here with a hand over your mouth and knew that this wouldn’t be good. He’s got a sensitive stomach, and I usually help you with shit like this. You haven’t gotten sick from drinking like this since, like, we released Nothing Personal, yknow,” Jack pointed out, a look of suspicion and confusion on his face.
“Well, I guess we’re just old now,” Alex said, desperately trying to brush off what Jack had said, even if he had a point.
“Yes, we definitely are, but you were hitting the booze really hard tonight, man. Not only that, but you were mixing your liquors, which, I know you know better than to do,”
“What’s your point?”
Before Jack got a chance to continue, Alex quickly leaned back over the toilet, starting to get sick again. Jack rubbed Alex’s back, hoping that it was helping some. Eventually, Alex had noting left to bring up but bile, causing him to dry heave until tears pricked at his eyes.
Once Alex reached a stopping point, he wrapped his arms around his stomach, and looked up at Jack.
“Sorry about that,”
“Don’t apologize, better out than in. Now, back to what I wanted to talk about. Alex, are you okay? Like, you’ve pounded booze and have hardly talked all night, which is extremely unlike you. Is something going on?” Jack asked, sounding as concerned as he looked.
Alex really wanted to lie and say that he was fine, but he knew he’d been busted at this point. Also, maybe having some help would be a good thing.
“No, I’m not okay,” Alex admitted.
“Why? Is something going on? Did something happen?”
“I’ve just been really down lately. Like, I just wake up and feel this sense of impending doom, and like nothing matters. Somedays it’s not that bad, but on other days, I can barely get out of bed. I feel like my brain is making me drown, and I can’t get it to stop” Alex explained, starting to cry.
“Alex, I had no idea, man. Is that why you got so plastered tonight?”
“Well, yes and no. I really didn’t want to come out tonight because of how I’ve been feeling, but I didn’t want to not go and have you guys suspect something was up. The reason I rank so much is because I wanted to get so fucked up that I could get out of my head and try to have fun, and, well, survive the night. It sort of worked for a bit, but now I just feel the same sadness, but with some dizziness on top. Also, this is the sickest I’ve ever felt in my entire life,”
“Alex, I wish you would’ve just talked to me or one of the other guys, we would’ve tried to help,”
“I should’ve, I’m sorry that I didn’t. Things have just been so hard,”
Alex’s tears started to pick back up, so Jack wrapped him in a hug, and they stayed like this for a few minutes.
“Well, now that I know, I want to help you, and we can start tomorrow. No offense, but you’re too hammered for that right now. Everything is going to be okay, I promise,”
“Thanks, Jack,” Alex said with a small smile.
“Let’s get you home, you’re in for a rough hangover. I’ll get us an Uber to your house,” Jack said, helping Alex up.
“No, I don’t want you to give up your night for this,”
“I don’t mind, and you need someone with you, you can barely walk or stand up,”
“I guess you have a point, thanks, man,”
Jack gave Alex a small smile, then helped him out of the club and to the sidewalk in front of it. As he got the Uber sorted out, Alex looked around. It was a beautiful night, which Alex was still able to appreciate, even if it was a bit hazy. He wasn’t sure how the next day would go with his depression but having Jack by his side would make it that much easier.
Alex looked up at the stars, truly admiring them for the first time in a long time.
A/N: Hey guys, I wrote this last week and actually really like how it turned out! I still have a few fics prewritten and they range over a decent amount of plots/topics, so get excited! As always, I'll gladly take requests if you have them! Thanks for reading! Lots of love, Liv.
#Alex Gaskarth#Jack Barakat#Rian Dawson#Zack Merrick#ATL#all time low#HurtComfort#atlsickfic#atl sickfic#sickfic
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Mutual Aid- All Time Low Fanfiction
Jack has a craving to drink after maintaining a period of sobriety, and enlists Alex’s help. Sobriety/Recovery AU. Word Count: 2320
TW: Alcoholism
More notes at the end.
“Damn it, how am I totally out of cold and flu medicine?” Alex asked himself as he hopelessly stared into the medicine cabinet in his bathroom.
Earlier in the day, Alex had noticed that he felt a bit off, but shrugged it off as being the normal fatigue he felt after All Time Low finished up a massive North American tour. As the day went on, Alex had only continued to feel worse, and now he was fairly certain that he’d come down with the flu, or at least something similar. He was having chills, his throat was sore, his congestion was through the roof, and his body hurt. While he hadn’t gotten around to taking his temperature yet, he knew he had a fever. He’d also developed a cough, which made his voice raspier throughout the day.
While he really didn’t have the energy to go out to the store, he knew that he needed to, so he’d have a chance at getting over this in a timely manner. Alex coughed more as he slowly changed out of the PJs he’d had on all day, and into jeans and a shirt, then attempted to brush through his hair to look slightly more put together. After he made his way into the living room, his phone started to ring so he dug it out of his pocket to see that Jack was calling.
Normally, when Jack called out of the blue like this, it was because he was having a hard time staying away from a drink and needed Alex to talk him down some. Alex cleared his throat and took a seat before finally accepting the call.
“Hey Jack, what’s going on?” Alex asked, glad that his voice came out sounding normal.
“Hey Alex, I hate to bother you, but, um, I’m having a really hard time not drinking right now. I don’t even have any booze at my house, but I’m so tempted to just go to the store and get something, literally anything since I’m so different. I understand that this might be a total inconvenience and you’re more than welcome to say no if you need to, but do you think that you could come over and spend the night? I really don’t think I can be alone right now, and I’m most comfortable asking you for help since this is all still so new,” Jack explained, talking a mile a minute.
Even though Alex just wanted to get in bed and sleep forever, or at least until he was feeling better, he knew that he couldn’t just say no to Jack. Besides, Jack might already have the medicine he needed, which would be a plus.
"Sure, I can come over to your place. I can leave now and be there in a few,” Alex replied, covering the phone so he could cough some.
“Thank you so much, man. I seriously appreciate this more than I can explain. I’ll see you when you get here!” Jack excitedly replied.
“Cool, I’ll see you in a few,”
Alex hung up the phone, then went back over to his room and threw a few things into a duffel bag. Once he was certain that he had everything, he got into his car, then drove to Jack’s house. The headache he’d started to develop made it much harder to focus on the road, but he did his best to ignore it so he could get to Jack’s as fast as possible.
While driving, he also decided that he wouldn’t tell Jack that he wasn’t feeling well, at least not at first. Jack really needed to be the one with the attention and concern on him since he was still fragile with his sobriety. Alex knew that Jack would likely figure out that something was up with him, but he hoped that he’d be able to keep it under wraps for a while.
Once Alex got to Jack’s, he had one last coughing fit in his car, hoping to get it all out for now, then grabbed his things and went over to the front door and rang the doorbell. The door opened up just seconds later, and Alex saw a very disheveled looking Jack, raising his concerns.
“Hey Jack, how’re you doing?” Alex asked, as Jack let him inside, and they made their way to the living room.
“Well, I’ve definitely bene better. This craving is kind of strong, and it started right before I called you. I think it came from being a bit bored, since boredom is one of my main triggers when it comes to cravings and urges. Wait, you look a little different, are you okay? You seem, like, out of it,” Jack noticed, eyeing Alex up and down.
“What? I’m all good, man! Nothing to worry about here! I came for you, so don’t worry about me. Now, how can I help?” Alex asked, hoping Jack would follow his lead in changing the subject.
“Oh okay, sorry for making assumptions. I mean, just you being here is really helpful in and of itself. I think that-“
Alex cut Jack off by starting to cough loudly, concerning Jack. He quickly went over to Alex and rubbed his back, which made him notice how warm Alex felt.
“Alex-“
“I’m fine, don’t worry,” Alex tried, his voice sounding almost shot.
“No dude, that didn’t sound good, and you feel kind of warm. Are you sick?”
Alex sighed, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to convince Jack that he was fine now.
“Yeah, I am. I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with me, but I feel really flu-like. Achy, chills, sore throat, a cough, which you now know about,” Alex explained.
“Shit dude, if I’d known you were feeling so bad, I wouldn’t have asked you to come over. You need rest, why did you say yes when I asked over the phone?”
“Well, sobriety is still so new for you, and I did promise you that I’d be here for you every step of the way, especially when you needed help. Besides, you’ve been doing so good, and I can tell you’ve been feeling better, so I didn’t want you to relapse. I promise that I’ll be fine, I just want to be here for you, man,” Alex sincerely stated.
“Damn, you’re a really good friend, dude. Well, is there anything I can do to help you feel better?”
“Well, some cold and flu medicine would be great. I’m all out at home and was actually just about to go to the store and get some when you called. Do you have anything here that I could take?”
“No, I never restocked on that stuff after the last time I was sick. I could go to the store and get you some,” Jack offered.
“We can go together,” Alex decided, sneezing.
“No, you should stay here and rest,”
“I’m going, I don’t want you to get tempted by the booze aisle. I’ll be fine, don’t worry. I know you want to take care of me, but I came here to do that for you. We can also get you something for dinner and some soup for me while we’re out. Come on, let’s both go,”
“I mean, we can, I just don’t want you to force yourself to go out because of me,”
“I’ll be okay, let’s just get going so we can come back and put on a movie or something,”
“Alright, let’s do it!”
The two of them got up and went out to Jack’s car. Luckily, Jack lived very close to a grocery store, so it was a quick car ride. When they got there, they grabbed Alex’s medicine, then went over to the soup aisle.
“If you want, you can go get something for dinner while I pick out some soup,” Alex suggested.
“I think I’m just going to get something from here, too. I don’t really want to walk past the booze aisle, and I’d have to if I were going to find something else,” Jack explained.
“Sounds good to me, man,”
Once they’d picked out their soups, they went to a self-scan kiosk, and scanned everything. When the final price came up on the screen, Alex reached for his wallet, but Jack stopped him as he pulled out his own.
“I’ve got it, Alex,” Jack offered.
“What? No, most of this stuff is mine, and it’s kind of pricy,” Alex continued, coughing some.
“I want do this as a thank you, please let me, man,”
“As long as you’re sure. Thanks, Jack,” Alex replied, they shared a smile as Jack put his card into the machine. They went back out to Jack’s car then Jack drove them back to his place.
“You go ahead and get comfortable on the couch, and I’ll heat up the soup and get the medicine sorted. Do you want to pick out a movie to watch?” Jack suggested, grabbing the bags from the backseat of his car.
“Sure, I think I’m going to put on something more comfortable than these jeans, then I’ll do that,” Alex replied, following Jack inside.
Alex grabbed his bag from the living room, then quickly changed in the bathroom. When he was done, he put his bag in Jack’s guestroom, then went into the living room and got under a thick blanket. He turned on the TV and started to browse through the guide, eventually seeing that the first Hangover movie was on.
Right as he was going to select it, he decided against it; it was a movie that they normally both enjoyed, but since Jack had considered relapsing only an hour before, he figured that it wouldn’t be a good selection and continued to look through the guide. Eventually, he found that 21 Jump Street was on, and while it still sort of had to do with drinking, Alex knew it was one of Jack’s comfort movies, and put it on.
Meanwhile, Jack was in the kitchen heating up Alex’s soup. He decided he’d eat his later, he wanted to focus on making sure that Alex was okay first, and he wasn’t really that hungry yet. Once the soup was done and he had the medicine ready, Jack put everything onto a tray and walked it out to Alex.
“Alright, here’s some soup and medicine. Hey, 21 Jump Street, good choice, man!” Jack excitedly exclaimed, handing Alex the tray before sitting down on the couch.
“I know it’s one of your favorite movies. I’m glad it happened to be on!” Alex replied, coughing some.
“Here, take that medicine so you can work on getting rid of that shitty sounding cough, dude,”
Jack pushed the medicine closer to Alex on his tray.
“Will do,” Alex quickly took everything that Jack had set out for him, cringing at the awful taste.
“How’re you feeling?” Jack asked, starting to get more comfortable.
“Not great, but also not really worse compared to earlier, so I guess that’s good. I really hope I don’t have the flu, but that’s what it feels like this is. How’re you feeling, man? Is that craving still feeling really strong?”
“Honestly, I almost forgot about it from being worried about you. Being in the store and knowing how much booze there was made me a bit uncomfortable, but ever since we got home it’s not been a problem. I guess taking care of you felt like the more important thing for my mind to focus on,” Jack replied, laughing some.
“Hey, whatever works, right? I’m just glad your craving died down, I can only imagine how intense that shit must feel,” Alex said, coughing some.
“Yeah, it really does just kind of come out of nowhere and hits you like a damn semi-truck. Even though I feel bad that you came here while feeling so shitty, I’m glad you did. I tried so hard to distract myself from that craving, but nothing I was doing was working. I actually considered taking a walk or hike somewhere, but I’d have to drive to a park or trail for that, and I didn’t trust myself to drive anywhere, and not end up at the liquor store,”
Jack’s face turned a bit red, and he started to look down at his hands.
“Hey, you don’t need to be embarrassed about that, dude. I think it’s good that you could identify that you needed to be with someone to be safe. You’re in early sobriety, so that’s really not surprising, dude. I’m glad that you can identify those thoughts and feelings before they get strong enough to cause a relapse. Maybe once I’m feeling better, we can take walks or hikes when you’re having cravings, or just in general. I remember reading that exercise is really good for people in early recovery because it causes those hormones to get produced by your brain, so it can curb your craving and help your brain to heal faster,” Alex explained, before starting to eat his soup.
“I actually read that, too. I’d be down to do that when you’re better. Hey, thanks for taking such good care of me with all of this sobriety stuff. It’s really fucking hard, but having you helping and supporting me helps to make it feel a little more manageable,”
“Thank you for taking care of me right now. I’m glad you asked for help, I would’ve been miserable if I were dealing with this at home by myself,”
They shared a smile before turning the movie up and starting to watch it. Jack was glad that Alex was there to help him, and he was glad to be helping out his friend. He knew that if he were still drinking and were loaded right now, he wouldn’t have been able to be there for Alex. Being helpful felt good, and he considered it to be a gift of sobriety.
A/N: Hey guys, so I wrote a slightly different version of this fic, and it's different enough that I'll eventually upload it, but not for a while so everything can feel new to you guys! I have a few more fics prewritten and quite a few ideas (thank you, Tumblr prompt blogs), but please feel free to send in requests if you have any! Lots of love, Liv.
#Alex Gaskarth#Jack Barakat#Rian Dawson#Zack Merrick#all time low#ATL#Jalex#sickfic#atlsickfic#atl sickfic#alcohlism
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Busy Week- All Time Low Fanfiction
Despite feeling overworked and under the weather, Alex accompanies Jack to a house party. High School AU. Word Count: 1446
More notes at the end.
“So Jack, you promise that you won’t be drinking tonight? I don’t know if I believe that,” Jack’s mom said as Jack put on his jacket in the kitchen.
“No mom, I’m just going to Rian’s house with Alex and Zack. We’re just going to do band stuff, and probably watch a movie. We’ve all been super busy this week, especially Alex, so we’ll just want to relax and not do much. You have nothing to worry about,” Jack assured, picking up his car keys.
“If you say so. Have fun, and if you need anything, my phone is on,”
“Sounds good, mom. I’ll see you tomorrow in the morning, or the afternoon. Bye!” Jack quickly made his way out to his car and started to drive to Alex’s before his mom could ask him anymore questions. He hadn’t been entirely truthful with his mom, he was going to hand out with the ret of the band, but it was going to be at a huge house party hosted by a senior, and they would definitely be drinking.
The only truthful thing that Jack had told his mom was that he hadn’t seen Alex much that week. Alex had to work everyday right after school until close, which was a lot more than when he normally worked during the semester. After working, Alex had to stay up to work on homework, then somehow still wake up for school the next day. Jack wasn’t sure how Alex had been doing that for an entire week, but he admired his friend’s drive, even if he had been looking a bit worn out at the end of the week.
When Jack got to Alex’s, he parked then let himself in, before making his way up to Alex’s bedroom. Alex was sitting at his desk, working on an assignment, but Jack quickly noticed that Alex didn’t look like himself. His face was pale, aside from his very flushed cheeks and dark bags under his tired looking eyes.
Once Alex noticed Jack standing in his doorway, he shut his laptop and stood up.
“Hey, you’re finally here!” Alex exclaimed, his voice rough and scratchy. He tried to clear his throat, which just made him start to cough, and he did his best to suppress this as quickly as possible.
“You don’t sound too good, are you sick, man?” Jack asked as Alex changed into a different shirt.
“Nah, I’m fine, just some allergies,”
“But your voice sounds like it’s practically gone,”
“Yeah, that’s just from being a little sleep deprived. Whenever I’m physically tired, my voice is always the first thing to get messed up,” Alex nonchalantly explained.
“Are you sure you want to go out tonight then? Maybe you should just get some rest,” Jack suggested.
“No, I’ll be okay, and I’ve been looking forward to this all week! Let’s go!” Alex exclaimed with a big smile.
“Well, as long as you’ll be alright, let’s go! My car is in the driveway,”
The two of them made their way through Alex’s house, then back out to Jack’s car. As they drove to the house where the party was, Jack noticed Alex hugging himself and shivering some, despite the fact that it was a warm night. Jack decided to not mention it, not wanting to piss off Alex, and hoping that if Alex were really feeling bad, he’d say something.
“We’re finally here! This is going to be the best night ever!” Alex exclaimed with a sneeze.
“Let’s go inside!”
They walked inside, quickly finding a group of their friends sitting in the living room. Jack was acting like his normal fun self, but he couldn’t help but notice that Alex had very low energy compared to how he normally acted at parties. While everyone was talking and having a good time, he kept to himself, barely interacting with the group.
Eventually all of their friends wanted to go play drinking games in the basement, and Jack told them that he and Alex would catch up in a few minutes, and to go ahead and start playing without them.
“What did you do that for? I figured you’d want to go and play pong or something,” Alex said, coughing some.
“Normally, I’d be all over that, but I think we should leave. I can tell you’re not feeling great,”
“Jack, I’m fine, you don’t have to give up being here just because I’ve had a long week. I’m okay,”
“No, you’ve hardly talked, I’ve only seen you take one sip of that drink, and you just don’t look like yourself. How do you honestly feel?”
“Well, not great, if I’m really being honest. Going home does actually sound great, but I don’t want you to have to give up your Friday night for me,”
“I won’t be giving anything up, we’ll still hang out, it just won’t be here. Come on, let’s go to your house,” Jack said, standing up.
“Okay, I’m accepting defeat now,” Alex said, following Jack back out to his car. During the drive, Jack noticed Alex shifting around in his seat some.
“Are you okay? You’re shifting around a lot,”
“I’m just a little achy, and having a hard time getting comfortable. Sorry if I’m being distracting or anything,”
“No, you’re fine, I just wanted to see what was going on,”
Before he could speak, Alex started to cough again, and Jack put a hand to his friend’s forehead once he calmed himself down again.
“You feel a bit warm, dude. I’m glad we left that party, you really need to rest,”
“I guess this will teach me to not overwork myself again. I got, like, two hours of sleep every night this week. I started feeling kind of shitty two days ago, and it’s gotten a lot worse since then” Alex admitted, hugging himself some.
“Well, we’re just about to be at your house, and you can finally give yourself a break,” Jack said, finally turning down Alex’s street.
After parking the car, they went inside, Alex went to change into some comfier clothes while Jack worked on setting up the living room for the two of them. He grabbed extra blankets and pillows from the linen closet in the hall, then made his friend some hot tea in the kitchen.
By the time Jack went back into the living room with the finished tea, Alex was on the couch, trying to get comfortable with the pillows and blankets.
“I made you some tea, hopefully it’ll help with your throat and voice,” Jack said, handing Alex the mug.
“Thanks, I really appreciate it. Sorry for being the reason we left early,” Alex replied, taking a sip of the drink.
“Don’t apologize, I really don’t mind. You need to take a breather, you actually look sleep deprived and a bit unwell,”
“I thought the same when I looked in the mirror earlier, but I was hoping that I didn’t really look that bad. Now that I’m finally sitting down and taking a pause, I can tell how bad I feel. I’m achy, cold, and my throat is killing me,” Alex explained, before coughing some.
“And you’ve got that cough going on, too. That reminds me, we should text Rian and Zack and tell them that band practice is off tomorrow,” Jack said, pulling out his phone.
“Well, I don’t know if we have to cancel it,”
“Alex, you barely have a voice, that should be enough of a reason to cancel. You just need to rest this weekend, and I’m going to stay with you to make sure that you actually do,”
“I don’t want to throw off your whole weekend, man,”
“You wouldn’t be, I didn’t actually have any other plans aside from the party tonight. We can just relax and watch movies, and hopefully by Monday when we have to go back to school, you’ll be feeling better,”
“Well, as long as you’re up for that, I’d really like that. Thanks for caring so much, Jack,” Alex said with a small smile.
“Of course, you’re my best friend, man. Hey, let’s turn on a movie!”
“Sounds good to me, I might fall asleep soon, though,”
“That’s fine, get all of the rest you need, man,” Jack replied, turning on the TV. He put on a movie that they both really liked, then got himself comfortable on the other side of the couch.
Not much later, Alex was asleep, his congested snores filling the room. Jack continued to watch the movie, it wasn’t the Friday night he thought he’d have, but he didn’t mind since he was still able to spend it with his best friend.
A/N: Hey guys, I've been meaning to post for a while now! I've been having weeks like Alex's in this fic, which is why it's taken me forever to get another fic up! I've been working on a few other fics in my spare time that will hopefully be going up soon, too! As always, please send in requests if you have them, I love bringing your all's ideas to life! Thanks for reading, it means the world. Lots of love, Liv.
#Alex Gaskarth#Jack Barakat#Rian Dawson#Zack Merrick#ATL#all time low#Jalex#sickfic#atlsickfic#atl sickfic
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Songwriting and Shows- All Time Low Fanfiction
Jack helps Alex write a song while on tour. Word Count: 2088
More notes at the end.
“Hey Alex, I think Zack and I are going to grab an early lunch before we have to be in the venue for soundcheck and everything, do you want to join us?” Rian asked, walking into the front lounge of the bus, where Alex had been writing out some song ideas for the past hour.
“I think I’m going to pass for now. Jack said he wanted to do some writing with me today, so I want to be here whenever he finally wakes up,” Alex replied.
“Okay, no problem. Why don’t we bring you guys some food so you can eat something after soundcheck?” Rian offered, as Zack walked into the lounge.
“That would be great, actually. You know I’m not picky, and I bet Jack would be fine with anything, too,”
“Cool, well we’ll be at the venue on time, see you guys around two,” Zack said, as he followed Rian off of the bus.
Alex considered waking Jack up so they could finally get to work, but he knew how hard it could be to get a good amount of sleep on the road, so he decided to just let him be. He got up from the table and walked over to the kitchenette, wanting a second cup of coffee. Once his coffee was done, he went back over to the table, and reopened his songbook, continuing to work on the melody he’d started before talking to Rian.
About twenty minutes later, he heard a groan come from the bunk area, and figured that meant that Jack was finally walking up. After a few more minutes, footsteps started to come out to the front lounge, as Jack finally walked over to where Alex was.
“Hey, you’re finally up! I’ve been playing around with some verses and melodies, but I definitely still want your help putting all of it together,” Alex excited explained, as Jack started to make himself a coffee.
“That sounds great, man. I’m excited to see what you’ve come up with,” Jack replied in a raspy voice.
Before Alex could say anything, Jack started to cough, but quickly calmed himself down.
“That didn’t sound good, neither did your voice. I think you’re coming down with something,”
“Nah, I’m not. It’s just my allergies,”
“Are you sure? You look pretty exhausted, now that I’m really taking a good look at you,”
“I’m sure, I always get bad allergies around this time of year, I’ll be fine. Now, let’s talk about something important; your song,” Jack suggested, sitting at the table with Alex.
“Cool. Oh, by the way, we have to be in the venue at two, so we can work until about one thirty,”
“Sounds good, so is this song-“
Jack cut himself off with a coughing fit, and Alex rubbed his friend’s back until it finally went away.
“As I was saying, is this song upbeat, or more of a ballad?”
“Um, I was thinking upbeat, but I’d want it to still work acoustically. I have this storyline of these two people in their hometown who want to break out of it and do something with their lives, and really want to express themselves. I was kind of thinking about the two of us when I started to write it,” Alex explained, showing Jack his songbook.
“I like it so far. Do these two characters have names?”
“Well, I was playing around with words that really express us as individuals, and as a band, but when we were, like, fifteen. Reckless and brave keep bouncing around in my head. I just have to figure out how to get it to fit in the song in a decent way,”
“Well, let’s figure it out!” Jack exclaimed, sneezing. For the next two hours, the two of them continued to work on the song, getting it close to finished.
At one thirty, Alex shut his songbook.
“Hey, we need to get ready for the day, you can have the first shower, if you want,” Alex offered.
“That sounds good, I’ll try to be quick,” Jack said, his voice even raspier now than it had been earlier.
He quickly made his way out of the front lounge, leaving Alex still sitting at the table. While Jack got ready, Alex could hear him coughing even more, and could tell that he was getting worse. Alex knew that Jack was just going to keep saying he was fine at this point.
Eventually, Alex started to get ready, and he walked out to the front lounge to leave at one twenty-five, and saw Jack sitting on the couch, looking at something on his phone.
“Are you ready to go into the venue?” Alex asked,
“Yeah, let’s do it,”
Jack got up, and the two of them started to make their way over to the back door of the venue.
“Oh, Rian and Zack said they were going to bring us some food from the place they got lunch at,”
“That’s good, since we don’t have much time in between our soundcheck and meet and greet,”
They finally walked into the venue, and saw Rian and Zack already onstage, with their instruments.
“Let’s get this done, I want the food you guys brought us!” Alex exclaimed, as he grabbed his guitar, and walked onstage.
Jack followed Alex, and they started their soundcheck. Overall, it went well, aside from Jack’s coughing, which was becoming much more frequent.
“That was really good, I think the show is going to be great. Jack, you’ve been coughing a lot, are you okay?” Rian asked as soon as they finished.
“Yeah, just some allergies,” Jack replied, his voice even worse now.
“Well, as long as you’re sure. Our meet and greet starts in about an hour from now,” Zack stated, as they all walked offstage and took off their instruments.
“Sounds good, I think I’m going to work on that song some more while I eat, I’ll be in the green room,” Alex decided, before making his way over to the room where his food was.
For the next hour, Alex ate his lunch, and worked on his song. By the time he had to head to where the meet and greet was, the song was almost perfect.
Once the hour had passed, he went out to the main room of the venue, and saw his bandmates, and he could see that Jack looked even more exhausted. He really wanted to ask him if he was sure that he was okay, but he knew it would have to wait until after their meet and greet at this point.
“Now that Alex is finally here, we can go over to the picture backdrop,” Rian pointed out, as the four of them went over to where they were supposed to be and started meeting fans.
This was something they all loved to do, but everyone could tell that Jack didn’t seem as into it as he normally was.
After a little more than an hour had gone by, their meet and greet was over, and they went into a green room backstage. They hung out with their opening band and crew, talking and playing drinking games.
Once it was showtime, Jack’s voice was practically gone, but he was still telling people that he was fine, and that it wasn’t a big deal.
“Okay, let’s go have a great show, and since tomorrow is an off day, we can stay out at the bars around here really late!” Alex exclaimed, seeing his bandmates’ faces light up at that idea.
Seconds later, they took the stage and immediately started into their first song.
Throughout their set, the fans gave off an incredible energy, it felt like more than normal. This energy surge gave Alex something to play off of for the entire show. He exchanged less banter with Jack because of this, and he started to forget how concerned he’d been for Jack earlier in the day.
Once they’d finished their last song, Alex decided that he wanted more, and they played tow more songs, and Dear Maria for a second time, so they could still close with it. After this, Alex threw his pics and setlist into the crowd, and stayed onstage to interact with them for quite a while.
“Come on, man, we have to get going,” Rian eventually said to Alex, hoping that he’d listen.
“Shit, I guess you’re right, let’s go,” Alex replied.
After a few more waves, Alex walked offstage with Rian and Zack, quickly realizing that Jack wasn’t with them.
“Wait, where’s Jack? I never saw him leave the stage,” Alex pointed out.
“I never did, either I’m not sure. Hey, I think we’re going to go ahead and go to the first bar on the strip, text us when you’re on the way,” Zack said, as he walked off with Rian.
Alex decided to check the bus for Jack, unsure of where else he would’ve wandered off to, so he went out of the venue, and made his way over to the bus.
“Jack, are you in here?” Alex asked once he got on the bus.
He never got a response, but he did hear some coughing coming from the back lounge, so he made his way over there. When he got there, he saw Jack laying on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket, watching something on the TV.
“Hey man, how’re you feeling?” Alex sat down with his friend.
“Not great. I really did think that this was just allergies, but I realized that I was wrong during the show. Everything feels so much worse,” Jack explained, coughing some.
“You look worse now, too. When did you come to the bus?”
“I came here right after we finished the very last song. Those extra songs you wanted to do were kind of a lot for me, but those fans definitely deserved it. Sorry for sneaking off, but I had an awful headache, and just couldn’t stay out there any longer,”
“No need to apologize for that. To be honest, I kind of forgot that you weren’t feeling great, the energy from the crowd gave me such a rush, and it slipped my mind. It’s a good thing we have a day off tomorrow, so you can rest. Hey, do you want some tea? It’ll probably help your throat some,” Alex suggested.
“That would be great, but don’t feel like you have to stay here with me. If you want to go out with Rian and Zack, go ahead,”
“Nah, I’ll stay here with you for tonight. You’ve done the same for me quite a few times, so I’m glad I can do this for you now,” Alex replied, making them both smile.
“Well, that sounds great, thanks, Alex,”
“No problem, I’ll be right back,”
Alex got up from the couch, and made his way to the kitchenette. While he waited for the water to heat up, he texted Rian and Zack to let them know that he’d be staying in with Jack for the night.
Once the tea was ready, he grabbed both mugs, since he’d made some for himself, then went back to the back lounge.
“Thanks for making this for me, Alex, I appreciate it,” Jack said, before taking a sip of the tea.
“You’re welcome, hopefully it’ll help you feel a bit better,”
“I hope so, and I hope it helps with my voice, too. It hasn’t been this shot in a very long time,” Jack continued, coughing after.
“You should really stop talking so it doesn’t get worse. We can just watch what you had on before I got here,”
Jack grabbed the remote and turned the show back up, and they started to watch it.
Eventually, Alex turned to Jack, and noticed that he was shaking.
“Dude, are you shivering?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, it’s freezing in here,”
“No, it’s not, that’s just you. Why don’t I sit closer and try to warm you up?”
“No, I don’t want you to-“
“Shh, rest your voice. I’ll be fine, just scoot over some for me,”
Alex moved closer to Jack, and let him get comfortable next to him.
“Isn’t this better?” Jack just nodded, not wanting to use his voice again.
“That’s what I thought. Just focus on getting some rest,”
The two of them stayed silent, and Jack eventually fell asleep on Alex’s shoulder. Alex didn’t want to move and wake up his friend, so he got as comfortable as he could, before drifting off, as well.
A/N: Hey guys, this was an idea I got from a quote prompt blog! I'm going to try to post more often, even though school is getting a bit more intense. As always, please send in requests if you have them, I always love writing them. Thanks for reading, it means the world. Lots of love, Liv.
#Alex Gaskarth#Jack Barakat#Rian Dawson#Zack Merrick#ATL#all time low#atlsickfic#atl sickfic#sickfic
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Blanket Fort- All Time Low Fanfiction
Jack and Alex build a blanket fort together. High School AU. Word Count: 1682
More notes at the end.
“I’m not sure when I’ll be at home, mom, I’m going over to Alex’s to hang out with him. He stayed at home today because he wasn’t feeling great, and his parents aren’t home, so I’m going to keep him company for a bit,” Jack explained over the phone as he made his way over to his car from the main building of his high school.
“Sounds good, Jack. If you’re not home in time for dinner, I’ll make sure some is saved for you. Remember, it’s a school night, so be home by ten,” Jack’s mom replied, making him roll his eyes some.
“Don’t worry I will. I’ll see you later,”
Jack hung up his phone, and slid it into his pocket, as he finally got to his car. After turning up his stereo, he drove out of the parking lot, and in the direction of the grocery store, so he could pick up a few things for Alex. After a couple of Blink songs played, he pulled into the lot, and went inside. Jack hated shopping and looking around at things in stores, so he already knew exactly what he was going to get.
Once he’d gotten what he wanted, he stood in line at the self-checkout, verifying that he had everything he’d planned on getting. When a self-checkout opened up, he went over to it, and quickly scanned his things before going back out to his car. Alex’s house wasn’t too far from the store, and a lot of the after school traffic had gone away while Jack had done his shopping, so it didn’t take him much time to get to Alex’s street.
Jack pulled into the driveway, then took his phone out of his pocket, and opened up his text conversation with Alex.
Jack: I’m here.
Alex: Cool, the door is unlocked.
Jack grabbed the groceries from his passenger seat and went up to the front door. He walked inside and could hear the TV in the living room playing, so he made his way over there.
Alex was on the couch, under a thick blanket, and looked very tired and out of it. His eyes had dark circles under them, and generally looked tired, his face was a bit pale, aside from his flushed cheeks.
“Hey Alex, you look awful!” Jack exclaimed, laughing some.
“Wow, thanks, Jack,” Alex replied, his voice raspy.
“You don’t sound good either. How’re you feeling?”
Jack sat down in a chair next to the couch, setting the groceries at his feet.
“I’ve been better. I think I’ll be okay by band practice on Friday, but I’m definitely not going to school tomorrow, or anything,”
Alex sat up some, as he started to cough.
“Well, don’t push yourself to go to practice if you’re still not feeling great on Friday. You seem pretty out of it,”
“You’re not wrong there. I’m freezing, my throat is killing me, and I just generally feel awful,” Alex explained, taking a sip of his water that was sitting on the coffee table.
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound very fun. Hey, off topic but I got you some stuff at the store! Want to see what it all is?”
“Sure, that sounds great,”
“So, I got you some canned soup, it’s chicken noodle, which I was about eighty percent sure you liked. I also got you some Gatorade since I know you like that when you’re not feeling great. Also, I got you some ninety second microwave rice pouches, since they’re really good. Oh, and I saved a fun surprise for last! Guess what it is!” Jack said, an excited look quickly taking over his face.
“I don’t know, what is it?” Alex asked in reply.
“Well, I walked down the toy aisle, and found this little stuffed dog! I know it’s probably kind of lame, but I thought you might like it, so when you’re here alone during the school day tomorrow, you can kind of have a companion,”
Jack handed Alex the dog, which made a smile appear on his face.
“Nah, it’s not lame, I appreciate it, man,” Alex replied, coughing some.
“I’m glad you like it. So, what have you done today?”
“You’re looking at it. I think I’ve only gotten up from the couch, like, twice today, since I’ve just not had the energy to do it more. I really wanted to make myself a super comfortable fort setup, which is what I’d always do as a kid when I wasn’t feeling great, but I don’t have the energy for it. Well, not enough energy to do it solo, anyway,”
“Why don’t we build one together? As long as you’re feeling up for it, of course,” Jack offered, sounding excited.
“That would be fun, and a lot easier with a second person,”
“I’m going to put the groceries in the kitchen, assuming you don’t want anything now. Can you manage to start the fort yourself?
“Yeah, I think so. I’ll do my best,”
Jack got up, and took the bags into the kitchen, deciding to set them on the counter, not sure where everything was supposed to go. He walked back out to the living room, and saw that Alex was now sitting up in the middle of the couch, with his head down.
“Hey, are you okay, man?” Jack asked, quickly taking a seat next to his friend.
“Kind of. I tried to get up to start putting the pillows and cushions on the floor, but started to feel weak and dizzy, so I sat back down. Sorry for not starting the fort,”
“No need to apologize, man. Why don’t I build it myself, so you can keep resting?”
“That would be perfect, thanks for doing that,” Alex replied, smiling some.
“No problem, I’ll get started, but I have to warn you, I’m pretty damn awful at this type of thing, so don’t expect perfection or anything,”
“Just do your best, anything will be perfect to me,”
Jack got up from the couch, and grabbed all of the pillows and cushions in the room, and set them on the floor, arranging them in the most logical places he could. Next, he grabbed some extra blankets from around the room, and used the furniture to make them drape into a fort. He made sure to put the most supportive and comfortable blanket on the floor, so it wouldn’t be hard and uncomfortable for Alex’s back.
Once the inside was set up, Jack crawled out of the fort, and went over to where Alex was on the couch.
“I think it’s done! Do you want some help in?” Jack asked, holding out his hand.
“That would be great!”
Alex slowly got up from the couch, and let Jack guide him into the fort, so he wouldn’t lose his balance from being dizzy. Once they were inside, Jack helped Alex get as comfortable as he could, then turned the TV back on, since he’d been sure to include it inside of the blankets when he’d built the fort.
“Thanks for doing all of this, Jack. It’s a hell of a lot more fun than just laying on the couch,”
“No problem. Hey, get under this blanket so you stay warm,” Jack said, placing one of the extra blankets on top of Alex.
“I’m still cold, will you sit closer to me?”
“Sure, just tell me where to sit so you can be as comfortable as possible,”
Jack scooted closer to Alex, and ended up sitting right beside him, and getting under the blanket as well. As soon as Alex knew that Jack was comfortable, he put his head on Jack’s shoulder, making Jack laugh some.
“What’re you laughing at? This is extremely comfortable,” Alex defensively stated, before coughing some.
“Nothing, you just get super clingy when you’re not feeling great,” Jack replied, still laughing some.
“If you don’t like it, I’ll just-“
“No, just stay the way you are, I’m glad you’re comfortable,”
“Thanks, this is actually the coziest and warmest I’ve felt all day. I’m glad you came over,”
“I’m glad I did, too, school fucking sucked without you, man,” Jack admitted.
“Oh please, we only have a few classes together, as well as lunch, surely it couldn’t have been that awful,”
“No dude, it really was! We both know school isn’t really my thing, goofing off in class with you is one of the only things that makes it tolerable. Today was super boring, and even kind of annoying,”
“How was it annoying?”
“I had a lot of pointless busywork in some of my classes, and we had a quiz in our history class that I totally forgot about. We had to trade and grade them, like always, and since you weren’t there, I had to trade with someone I don’t really know. I fucking bombed the quiz, so they probably think I’m really stupid. It shouldn’t bother me so much, I guess,” Jack explained, awkwardly laughing some.
“You’re not stupid, Jack. Maybe a bit forgetful, but not stupid. I would’ve tanked that quiz, too. Don’t worry about it too much, it’s not worth it,”
“You’re right, it’s just one quiz,”
“Exactly, and we’re going to be rock stars one day, so grades and school shit won’t even matter,”
Alex sneezed, then pulled the blanket off of Jack some, so he could cover himself more.
“Hey, stop hogging the blanket!” Jack exclaimed, starting to laugh again.
“I’m the sick one here, I need it more than you!”
“I guess you have a point there. Hey, do you want to watch something so you can get a nap in?” Jack asked, picking up the remote.
“Sure, but I have a condition,”
“What is it?”
“Don’t get up, I’m comfortable like this,” Alex replied, coughing some.
“I won’t, don’t worry. Just focus on getting some rest,” Jack replied, as he put on a movie, they both liked.
Alex fell asleep within minutes, and Jack was glad he could be in a poorly built blanket fort with his best friend, just relaxing and spending time together.
A/N: Hey guys, I got the idea for this from a prompt blog! I meant to post it about three days ago, but life kept getting in the way, so I'm excited to finally get it up now! As always, please send in requests if you have them, I'd love to write more of your all's ideas! Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll have another new fic up soon! Lots of love, Liv.
#Alex Gaskarth#Jack Barakat#Rian Dawson#Zack Merrick#ATL#all time low#sickfic#atl sickfic#atlsickfic
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Midterm Week- All Time Low Fanfiction
Alex is under the weather during midterm week. College AU. Word Count: 2120
More notes at the end.
“Dude, I fucking hate midterm week, why do we have to have big exams in the middle of the semester? Aren’t our finals enough?” Jack asked, as he walked back to his dorm with two of his suitemates, Rian and Zack.
“I guess not. I hate how intense the workload gets in this week of the semester,” Zack replied.
“I do, too, but it could be worse, we could be Alex right now,” Rian pointed out, making them all laugh some.
“Rian’s right, it seems like Alex’s midterms have been rough, he’s been staying up until, like, three in the morning every night for the past week. I’m actually a bit worried about him,” Jack explained, as they finally reached their building.
Once they walked in, they made their way over to the elevator, so they could ride up to the fifth floor.
“Honestly, same here, it seems like he’s really pushing himself,” Rian replied.
The ride upstairs was silent after this, and once they got to their floor, they went over to their suite. Jack opened up the door and let them in, and when they walked in, they saw Alex sitting on the couch in the living room.
He had a thick blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and he was staring at his laptop. Jack could see that he looked very stressed out and exhausted, which only concerned him more.
“Hey Alex, how’s your studying going?” Zack asked, as the three of them all sat down in the living room.
“Oh, hey guys, what’s up? I’ve been studying for the same exam for the past two hours, and all of it still makes almost no sense. I started to get a headache from looking at my screen, which has just made it harder to focus,” Alex explained, his voice a bit raspy.
“Maybe you should take a little break, the fact you made your head hurt so much isn’t good,” Rian replied.
“Nah, I don’t need to do that, it’s just a headache. Besides, I’ve still got so much to do before I can sleep tonight, so I’d rather just get it all done at this point,” Alex replied, coughing some.
“Are you sure you can’t just call it a night now? You sound and look like you’re getting sick,” Jack continued.
“I don’t feel the greatest, but it’s not a big deal, I’ll be okay, since I kind of have to be. It’s midterm week, I don’t have time to sleep off a cold, or whatever this is. Once this week is over, I’ll be able to take better care of myself again. I think I’m gong to go in my room and study for now. You can go in whenever, Jack, I just want to sit at my desk since all of my books are there,”
Alex grabbed his laptop and blanket, then made his way into the room he shared with Jack.
“He’s going to burn himself out. Well, more than he already has,” Zack stated, as Rian turned on the TV.
“You’re probably right about that, dude. I think tomorrow is his last cray busy day, so hopefully he’ll try to get some rest after that,” Jack replied.
“I hope so. Oh, I meant to tell you guys, I won’t be here after class tomorrow, I’m going home for the weekend,” Rian stated.
“I am, too. I forgot that tomorrow is already Friday, I meant to mention that earlier in the week,” Zack added.
“That sounds nice. I guess I’ll be staying here with Alex, and make sure that he takes care of himself and rests this weekend,” Jack replied, as Rian put on a show that they all liked.
After about an hour, Jack decided that he should go into his room for the night, since he had some work to get done. Also, he wanted to try to encourage Alex to sleep at a reasonable time that night.
“See you guys in the morning,” Jack said to Rian and Zack, as he got up, and went into his room.
Alex was sitting at his desk, working on something at his laptop.
“Hey, dude, how’s the studying going?” Jack asked, taking a seat at his desk.
“It’s alright. I stopped studying for my Art History exam about twenty minutes ago, and I’ve been trying to look up graduate school programs ever since. I have to turn in some information abut five programs by midnight tonight, and I’ve only gotten one fully done so far,” Alex explained, breaking into a small coughing fit.
“I see, do you want any help with that? Maybe I can research a couple different programs and find the information you need to turn in for your class,” Jack offered.
“I appreciate you wanting to help me, but I think this is something that I have to do on my own, since I could end up going to one of these schools in a couple of years,”
“No problem, is there anything else I can do for you? I just don’t want you to have to stay up super late to do homework again like you’ve been doing all week,”
“I don’t think I have anything that’s just busywork that you could do for me. Everything I have to do is kind of big, so I really need to do it. I’ll be okay, I can function on just a few hours of sleep,”
“I know you think you can, but that doesn’t mean that you should. You seem exhausted, and you really don’t sound good,”
“I’ll be okay, it’s just a cold. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to rest a lot and sleep this shit off this weekend, but I just have too many important things to worry about right now,” Alex explained with a sneeze.
“If you say so. Hey, Rian and Zack are both going home for the weekend. Maybe since it’ll just be the two of us, we can have a fun, relaxing weekend together here,”
“That sounds great, but don’t feel like you have to spend the whole weekend with me. If there’s a cool party that you want to go to, don’t let me stop you from going,”
“I don’t think there’s any good parties this weekend, and I wouldn’t want to go solo anyway,”
“Oh, okay, sounds good then. Hey, I’d love to keep talking, but I really have to get a lot of shit done, do you mind if we stop this conversation, and I put my headphones in?” Alex asked, already pulling his headphones out of his backpack.
“Yeah, no worries, man. Good luck with your homework and studying,” Jack replied, opening up an assignment on his computer.
Over the next couple of hours, the two of them worked on various assignments. As time went on, Jack could tell that Alex’s coughing was getting worse, which worried him some. He hoped that Alex would be able to get a decent amount of sleep that night, since he had a couple of tests and a presentation the next day, but Jack knew that this was unlikely.
Once it was close to one, Jack decided to call it a night, figuring he could use the weekend to finish up the things he had left to do. Jack packed up his backpack, then quickly got ready to go to sleep. Alex watched Jack crawl into his bead and forced himself to get up and turn off the overhead light and use his desk lamp instead.
Jack checked a few things on his phone before putting it down and closing his eyes. As he started to drift off, he hoped that Alex would be able to get some rest soon.
------------------------
“I’m so glad that midterms are over now, this midterm week really sucked. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to go home and be with my family,” Rian said as he walked through the aisles of the grocery store right off campus with Zack and Jack.
“Me too, dude. I’m glad we all came here first, though. I really need some caffeine for the drive home,” Zack replied.
“It sounds like you guys are going to have nice weekends. Hopefully, Alex will actually rest now that everything is finally over. I didn’t sleep much last night because he kept coughing, and he ended up staying up until almost four,” Jack explained, grabbing some canned soup to take back for Alex.
“That sounds awful for both of you. I hope he feels better over the weekend,” Zack stated.
“Same here, that’s why I got all of this stuff. I think I’m ready to go, if you two are,” Jack decided, looking through his basket to make sure he had everything he wanted.
The three of them went over to the self-checkouts, and quickly purchased everything they got, then they walked out to their cars.
“I’ll see you guys Sunday night,” Zack said to his friends.
“You guys be safe driving home,” Jack replied.
“Will do, good luck with Alex,” Rian added, as the three of them got into their cars.
Jack listened to his favorite album as he drove back to his dorm. In just minutes he pulled into the parking lot, then grabbed his groceries, before walking in and going up to his floor. He was fairly certain that Alex was done with his classes for the day, since it was pretty late in the afternoon, so he expected to see Alex when he got to the dorm.
As Jack walked off of the elevator, he searched in his pockets for his key, and found it right as he got to his door. When he walked in, he saw Alex laying on the couch under a blanket, watching something on the TV.
“Hey Alex, how’re you doing?” Jack asked, setting the groceries down on the counter.
“Not great, I feel terrible,” Alex replied in a raspier voice.
“Yeah, I bet. How were your exams and that presentation?”
Jack took a seat at the end of the couch as Alex sat up some.
“It was all okay, I guess. My voice sounded just like this during my presentation, so I bet I’m going to get points off for not speaking clearly, since my professor is an asshole like that. My philosophy exam went well, but it was all multiple choice, and we went over all of the questions in class the last time we met. The Art History exam didn’t go so well, though,” Alex explained.
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, that’s the stuff I was trying to study last night when I had that killer headache, so I didn’t retain a lot of it. I don’t think I failed, but I definitely didn’t do as well if I would’ve if I didn’t feel so awful,”
Alex coughed some, then drank the water he had on the coffee table.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll have other opportunities throughout the semester to boost your grade from whatever it is now. I’m glad you’re done with everything for a bit, so you can just rest and relax this weekend,”
“I actually have more shit that I should really work on, but I don’t think I’ll be able to focus, since my brain is so annoyingly preoccupied with how bad I’m feeling,”
“I get what you’re saying, but I think that you really just need to rest for a bit. I know you want to be productive and get a lot done, but just let yourself relax for the weekend. Having a cold doesn’t make you weak, or whatever, it just means that you need some time off from working so hard,” Jack stated.
“I guess you’re right, I definitely don’t want to overdo it or anything. Thanks for talking some sense into me, man,”
Alex smiled some in thanks, which Jack returned.
“No problem, man. I don’t have too much to worry about this weekend, so I’m going to stay here with you, and do what I can to help you feel better. I went to the grocery store right after class and picked up some soup and stuff for you,”
“Thanks, Jack, I really appreciate that,” Alex said, before coughing more.
“No problem. Why don’t we go back to watching what you had on earlier, so you can rest your voice some?” Jack suggested.
“Sounds good, there’s a South Park marathon on right now, if that’s cool with you,”
“That sounds great, let’s watch it!”
Alex turned on the TV up some, and they began to watch the episode that had just started. Both of them were glad that they could spend the weekend together if it be spent entirely on the couch.
A/N: Hey guys, I got the idea for this from a quote prompt blog!! I've still got quite a few ideas to work with, but please send in requests if you have them!! I love writing what you all want to read, so please send in ideas if you've got them! Thanks for reading, it really means the world. Lots of love, Liv.
#Alex Gaskarth#Jack Barakat#Rian Dawson#Zack Merrick#ATL#all time low#sickfic#atl sickfic#atlsickfic
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