Redesign Me, State of the Art (Jalex)

My Mouth Is Dry With Words I Cannot Verbalize

Jack's POV

I was the first of all of us to wake up. Alex was still lying on me and Hayley had fallen asleep in the big chair on the other side of the room, computer positioned percariously in her lap. To anyone else, it would've looked like a couple of friends who had stayed up all night for fun. When in actuality, we'd been through hell just a couple of hours earlier.

I stared at the nasty bruise on his side from where Peter had kicked him. If I ever saw that dick again, I'd return the favor by connecting my fist directly with his face.

In fact, I hated the whole corporation that had done this to Alex and I. He was a wreck, physically and probably mentally too. The amount of bodily harm he endured yesterday alone was enough to make my blood boil. I decided then that it would be my job to protect Alex. If any one was going to try to hurt him from now on, they'd have to go through me first.

I looked down again at the boy laying on me, and took a minute to admire his features. The sickly pale skin he had developed yesterday was starting to go away and the warmth was returning to his cheeks. His hair, messy from lack of brushing and/or showering, was tangled and covering random parts of his face. It had been such a small amount of time since we'd actually become more than friends- whatever the label might turn out to be. Now that I was thinking about it, we had only kissed yesterday, and he had just slept in my arms for the whole night. But circumstances had changed within the last 24 hours. I assumed it was kind of like when people band together because of a traumatic experience or something. I hoped that wasn't the whole reason behind it though.

"Stop thinking. You think too much," I heard Alex whisper from beneath me. He popped one eye open and smiled. I returned his grin and leaned down, pressing a small kiss to his lips.

"How'd you know I was thinking?" I asked once our lips had separated.

"Because you move your fingers when you think," he stated. My hand froze. I had subconciously been stroking his arm ever since I woke up.

"Sorry," I mumbled, embarassed at my unrealized habit.

"Don't be. It's kind of adorable," he giggled, lifting his head up to give me a little peck.

"Get a room," the newly awakened Hayley complained, throwing a pen at us from her chair.

"We did, it's just your room," Alex replied with mass amounts of tired sass.

"I'm second guessing this decision to help you," she declared, lifting her computer and walking across the room to her desk. Setting the laptop down, she reached her arms over her head and bent her knees. I think she was trying to stretch, but it looked more like she was trying to achieve karma sutra or whatever. "Breakfast?"

"Do your parents even know we're here?" I asked.

I hadn't seen anyone last night when we carried Alex in, but had just assumed her parents were sleeping. I suddenly grasped the concept that anyone who knew where we were could potential give us away. As well as the fact that if the agency found out they had helped us, those people would automatically be added to the corporation's hit list.

"No. And they're not actually my folks by the way," she added a little bitterly. "I am the proud product of unprotected teenage tomfoolery. And lucky for you, the "'rents", Taylor and Jeremy, went to Idaho for their cousin's wedding, which I graciously decided not to attend. So come on, kitchen's this way," she jumped up, walking out of the bedroom. I was kind of shocked that she just straight up admitted that she was adopted, but if she wasn't going to make a big deal out of it, then neither was I.

Alex slowly lifted himself off of me, making a loud hissing sound from the pain that was surely emminating from his torso. I tried to help him, but he waved me off, insistent on sitting up on his own. Once we were both upright, he leaned his head into the crook of my neck and let out a heavy sigh.