All I Want • Alex Gaskarth (Adoption)

The Chase

When I awoke the next morning, I still feel the effects of being overly happy before I slept. I am overcome with insane happiness and incredibly cheerful. I hop out of bed and rush to the bathroom to get dressed for the day.

After all the normal morning routine of brushing hair, brushing teeth, etc I search my new clothing for an outfit for a day. I deliberate between a new All Time Low shirt or a State Champs shirt. Since I'm in a good mood, I decide to wear the ATL shirt to make Alex happy. Yesterday I told him only losers wear their merch, and how I'd be rather be dead before being caught wearing any piece of All Time Low merch. But I was a different person then, I've grown as a person in 24 hours.

I quickly dress in skinny jeans and the shirt, and bound down the stairs. My mouth drops when I catch sight of the clock which reads 8:02 am. I sigh and continue on. My mind drifts into thoughts of the previous night, when I met Austin. A smile returns.

In celebration of my good mood, I think it's best to try and make breakfast today. I am in no means a good cook, but some things I've been told that I'm not too bad at making. So taking that into consideration, I get out all ingredients to make chocolate chip pancakes. I know that Alex has whipped cream so I get that as well to top the pancakes off with.

-

The pancakes are nearly all done when I spot Alex standing in the doorway to the kitchen, stretching. I have no idea how long he had been standing there.

"Morning, sunshine," I smile at him.

He, obviously not yet fully awake, just groans at me. "What are you doing up so early? It's like..." he pauses. "Too early for socializing."

I laugh at him, shaking my head. "Well, Alex, I'd like you to know that I start school soon. You'll have to learn to get up early anyway. Rise and shine, that's my motto."

"Funny, every time I wake you up, you look just about ready to murder me."

He's not wrong. But it's also his fault - I don't want to wake up seeing his face. Talk about a bad start of a day.

I say nothing instead of all the things I could say, and hand him a plate of pancakes.

"Hey you didn't burn the place down! I might just have to make you start cooking food. Cater to my every need, young one," Alex chuckles.

"Heck no, I'd give up partway through cooking and just put rat poison in it. Then I wouldn't have to bother cooking for a needy grown-man who can't cook for himself." The look on Alex's face shows he's slightly offended, as if I'd actually poison his pancakes. His offended look instantly changes to a look of interest.

"You make me glad you're around. Oh! We have somewhere to go today. Very important."

"Alright," I tell him. "Now shut up and eat your pancakes. I spend a while making them." The clock now says 8:34 am, which means I spent around a half hour cooking and making sure they were perfect. Although I'll never tell him, I'm nervous about what he thinks of the food. I sneak glances at him while he eats, and glad to see that he's smiling. He nods to me in approval.

"These are actually really great, thank you," Alex gratefully mentions. As we finish our breakfast, I place my plate in the sink along with all the currently dirty dishes. I go and collect Alex's now-finished plate and start to wash the dishes.

Alex comes up to me at the sink and shoves me aside gently. "I'll do the dishes, go sit down. You made the food, I clean the mess. It's even." I shake my head at him, not allowing it.

"Nope. I got the dishes, why don't you go get changed? I'd rather not see you half-naked," I scrunch my nose up, pointing at him as he's not wearing a shirt. He just scoffs at me and continues the dishes. Knowing this won't end well any other way, I compromise and help him with the dishes. After rinsing and cleaning, he hands me the dishes and I dry and put them away. Very quickly, all the dishes are done and he high-fives me, saying how we make a good team. I respond with the fact that he's a loser and I'm the better half of the team.