We Go Together ~ (Jalex)

If dreams only last for a night, how long do nightmares last..?

People watched as a skinny figure moped down the street, hands in pockets, head hung forward and hair covering the majority of his face. He was all gangly looking as his slow walk progressed into something perhaps a little sadder. No one cared to identify the young male and instead watched him disappear from sight across the horizon line of their vision.

Alex didn't really seem to care for who saw him right now, he was too caught up in his head and replaying the moments he had lived through with Jack. He just couldn't quite understand why it was he had been so careless in front of that man. He knew that the lockets had supernatural powers but he didn't realise just how easily people could succumb to its matchmaking antics.

Even someone like Alex.

He couldn't get the image of Jack's figure in the shower out of his mind and couldn't seem to forget his smile when he heard Alex didn't know what an airing cupboard was. It was almost hot. Almost.

But Alex didn't do attraction, and he didn't do relationships of any kind, but when he did, it was for selfish gain. Then again, there was Kellin, the man who's name had been scrawled neatly on the scrap of paper delivered with Alex's escape. He was maybe the closest thing that Alex had to a friend or a brother if he was really pushing it, but he was replaceable. He had to be. If Alex let feelings get in the way of anything he had planned, he would get set back and he could get caught. Feelings were dangerous, so maybe Jack being an asshole was a good thing, no strings attached, early severed ties, everything was fine. Alex didn't need to worry about Jack getting hurt.

That thought stopped Alex in his tracks. "I don't need to worry about Jack getting hurt." He mumbled out loud and chuckled softly before firmly placing his right palm on his forehead in frustration. What was he thinking! He'd need to forget Jack as soon as he possibly could, the golden caskets containing their hearts were already affecting Alex too much, and it needed to stop. At this rate, Alex might need to dispose of Jack himself. He was a distraction and a liability. If anyone after Alex, the cops or other crooks, knew of his love affair, Jack would be doomed, so what's a better way to die than to go at your lover's hand? Not that they're quite lovers yet, and Alex was planning on keeping it that way.

It would be stupid to think they could be anything more. But a little voice in the back of Alex's mind still wondered 'what if things had been different?'

Before he could completely snap out of his daze, a pair of hands emerged from behind Alex, coming from nowhere in particular, one hand covering Alex's mouth tight, while the other pulled on his chest, guiding him into an alleyway off to the side of the pavement.

~*~

It didn't take long for Jack to fall asleep in a desperate attempt to forget about the days events. The crevices of his mind were far more appealing than the thoughts that led back to Alex. Except only, the crevices of his mind had decided to betray him this fateful slumber.

Jack was in his bed, but only it didn't smell like his bed. It had a sickly sweet smell to it that he couldn't quite pin point. He couldn't decide whether he liked it or not. His sheets were a wine red, not a colour he'd typically pick for bed sheets of his own. He closed his eyes and rolled over, his pyjamas shirt slightly choking him in the process, hoping to bury the sweet smell in his pillow, but he hit a brick wall instead... a squishy brick wall. He opened his eyes tentatively to see Alex looking at him through his eyelashes. He had a murderous grin, blood stained teeth glistening in the dim light of the room. Jack's heart skipped a beat at the mere sight of the devil. "Don't be afraid Jack." Alex cooed, a bloody hand making a reach to his face. Frozen in plain fear, he let Alex's thumb wipe over the apple of his cheeks. "What a beautifully mortal face." He continued, his hand grazing over every feature of Jack's face. "It would be a shame to ruin-" Alex paused and dug his nails into Jack's supple pink skin. "Such.. a.. pretty.. face." With each word, Alex pulled his nails gradually down the side of Jack's cheek before finishing his sentence and making one more pull to leave four deep red lines running from the underneath of his right eye to his chin. Jack still couldn't move. He howled in pain, and tried to grab at his face, but Alex had other plans. He grabbed Jack's wrist firmly in his hand and tossed himself so he was straddling Jack's chest, a knife in his other hand. "Sorry Jack, maybe in another life." He spoke, with an ounce of pity lacing his tone. He raised the knife above his head readying it before Jack's forehead, before brashly swinging it down and narrowly missing, instead grazing his ear where Alex had thrust the blade into his pillow. He hung his head, dangling his wild brown mop of hair in Jack's eyes then fell limp, resting his own forehead against Jack's suddenly bare chest. They sat like that for a minute or so, listening to each others heavy heartbeats. This time when Alex lifted his head and locked eyes with Jack, his eyes looked child like and innocent. He bent back down and kissed just above jacks left nipple, earning a soft sigh from the man underneath. "You can wake up now." He whispered.

As if on cue, Jack woke with a start, drenched in sweat and eyes slightly damp. He breathed for a couple of minutes before regaining some stability back from his quickly fading nightmare. Or was it a dream? Was it a nightmare of Alex murdering him brutally, or was it a dream of the good still left within the infamous Gaskarth? He sat upright and glanced down at his chest where Alex had just been, wondering if it had even been a reality, and somehow Alex was in fact in his bed. To no surprise, he wasn't. There was still a tingling above his nipple from Alex's kiss, that made Jack desperately itch until it went away.

He felt like showering again, but refrained from doing so. It can't be healthy showering that many times in one day, and he came to terms with the fact he'll get used to it soon enough. In the not too distant future he'll be able to block out every little sickly touch and every murderous glance. For the time being, what Jack needed to focus on was getting some kind of rest so he could go into work tomorrow. Taking another sick was never going to be a good idea, he knew he'd lose his job, and then what-? His life would become married to a murderer, and homeless. He shivered.

Besides, he had a soul mate now, his bosses will finally look at him different, and they don't need to know who the guy is. He'll come up with a very pretty girl named Alexis, easy to remember, harder to trip up. Or maybe he should just tell them he found her but she had died. That had been a problem in some cases of the soulmates 'curse', as Jack often saw it, though all optimism for the necklaces had drained completely now. Some people would visit a graveyard before getting an unexpected pull to the ground, and their lockets becoming fused.

The worst luck were the people who found their soulmates just before they died. But those people were always weird. The ones bonded to the dead weren't held to any godly contract. They could date who they want within that community, they could have flings with people who hadn't yet found their soulmates, in fact, they seemed a lot more carefree now that Jack really thought about it. Part of him maybe wished he wasn't tethered to someone, because as long as he had Alex, the lockets would be doing everything in their power to keep them together.

But right now, he was alone, and for once, the quiet hum of the boiler being the only sound in the house beside his breathing, it felt comfortable and peaceful. He finally felt happy as his mind drifted back into the pits of darkness.