Chapter Text
“Hurry up!” Alex yelled, looking behind to Miles who was bent over, clutching the split in his side. “Mi.” He called, and Miles tried to straighten himself, huffing and puffing with sweat sticking his hair to his forehead.
“Go on without me.” He called in reply, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. His chest was rising and falling rapidly and he sat down on the grass to gain his breath. “Go on!” He exclaimed between pants as Alex rolled his eyes and jogged back to the Scouser, hauling him up with an arm over his shoulders.
“I made a promise to never leave you and that applies in all instances.” Alex said, Miles’ lips curling into a small smile at his words. “Even if we are going to lose.” He laughed and Miles shot him a glare. “It’s fine, it’s fine.” He laughed and pressed a kiss to his temple. At that, Lily and James ran past laughing. James, much to Alex’s annoyance, turned around and gave them the bird. Now 24 and as tall and lean as Alex had always wanted to be, his brother laughed and then continued to chase after their sister with a grin
Whilst they had never decided to do a forest expedition all the other times they had visited the caravan park, Alex’s mum had decided it was the perfect way to let out some steam now they were all that bit older. Alex and Miles had, initially, been up for the challenge. How difficult could a 5k through very hilly forest be? Very, it turned out.
Already Alex had fallen down several hills, they had come very close to throwing themselves off a cliff face, and Miles’ was head to toe in mud from a very Vicar of Dibley-esk puddle moment. But it was fun, a lot of fun, but also far more exertion than either of them had done in some time.
“Alright, I’m good, I’m good.” Miles puffed and they started a slow jog, fingers intertwined as they slipped down an incredibly steep, muddy bank together. Their rings clinked together as they ran, grip tightening when Alex could feel Miles beginning to struggle. Soon, the clearing was in sight; it was the boost of energy that they both needed to sprint towards where their family was stood. Penny was already laughing at the sight of them, bent double as the two men approached and grabbed a bottle of cider each from the coolbox.
“Well, you sure look like you gave it a good go.” Penny chuckled as the two sat down on the grass, Alex resting his head on Miles’ shoulder and fighting to take off his muddy trainers and socks. “And second isn’t bad!” James was shirtless and swigging from a bottle of water. He grinned at the two cheekily as they ditched their muddy t-shirts.
“Not bad for two ageing rockers.” Darren added from his deck chair, making the two chuckle.
“Thirty three isn’t aging, we’re just beginning.” Miles added, ruffling Alex’s hair with a dirty hand.
“Should have done better with all that running about you do on stage.” James pointed out, and there was soon a smell, muddy sock being thrown directly at him. It squished against his collar and Alex laughed loudly, his brother quickly flinging the sock back towards them. It slapped across Miles’ shoulder, leaving a wet, muddy mark. He groaned and fished it off, placing it on the floor beside Alex.
“Let’s not drag me into this, yeah.” He chuckled, the group looking up as the others ran through the clearing. Oscar was limping, and Lisa was even muddier than Miles. “Oh no.” Miles laughed, getting up to check on Oscar. They sat down with the siblings and helped themselves to drinks. The barbecue had just been lit and Alex felt relaxed for the first time in a long while. He laid down on the damp grass and let out a relaxed sigh.
His mind wandered to the last time he was here, to when he met Miles and how they had kissed in the very woods they’d just trekked through. He regretted what happened, of course he did, but as he looked over to him through a squinted view, he was more than happy they had found each other again. It had been seven years, seven long happy years of falling in love with him, finding something new and more beautiful in him every day. He wanted to feel like that for the rest of his life, and with Miles at his side he knew he would.
Alex laid and stared up at the sky. It was warm for September, a light breeze cooling him down from the 5k sprint, but the sun kept his cheeks rosy. The band had finished touring five days before, an unbelievably busy summer of touring far and wide across the world. But standing on stage at Castlefield Bowl, staring out across the northern crowd, it was like no other gig in his life had ever mattered. He was nervous for the first time in years, but as the opening chords for Do I Wanna Know rang through the stadium, they slipped away. Everything was as it was meant to be, and as he looked off stage to where Miles was standing in the wings smiling back at him, everything felt okay.
“Is my foot going to fall off?” Oscar asked sheepishly, and Miles chuckled, holding ice against his swollen ankle. "I don't want to have just one foot Miles!" He whimpered and looked up at Miles with a pout.
“Don’t worry la, you’re not going to lose it. You’ve probably just sprained your ankle. You can still hobble, right?” He asked. Oscar nodded and looked up to his mum. “You’ll be alright kidda.” He smiled, Lisa taking over the ice holding so he could return to Alex.
Miles flopped onto the grass beside him, just in time to see Taylor and Leah jog through the clearing. They were relatively unscathed and mud free, a slick of mug on Leah’s leg but otherwise sparkling clean. They greeted the group with smiles and then settled down on the grass with beers in hand.
“You’re very clean.” Alex mused, looking to his cousin. “Sure you didn’t take some kind of short cut?”
“If we did that we would have come first, wouldn’t we.” Taylor pointed out with a smile, taking her hair down from the high ponytail. “We found a proper track so just wandered it for a bit.” She added and laid back on the grass. “And we’re not muddy and sweaty like you guys. Ugh, chest.” She chuckled and turned away from the two men.
“Well, all the fun is in getting lost an’ muddy, though.” Miles pointed out as he swigged his cider. “Just a walk otherwise.”
“Yeah, exactly. That’s what we were going for.” Leah grinned and Alex flopped back onto the grass, tangling his fingers with Miles’ as his mum dished out the sandwiches from the cool box.
It had taken a while. Beyond the morning of his birthday, Miles and Alex had taken things slowly. Miles had had Alex on Tipsy Talk which started a spiral of rumours after their endless flirting, but it had still taken months for them to become official. Alex was all over the country touring, and it was impossible to be alone together for any longer than a night, but it never broke them. They finally whispered I love you under the linen of a hotel room somewhere in Glasgow, wide awake with the adrenaline from the gig some five months after reconciling. But it had made it all the more special, for Alex to not care when he was outed by the British press the day they played Glastonbury, a photo of him and Miles kissing at side of stage of The Strokes when they had headlined the Friday night, sat high on the scaffolding with the rest of the Monkeys and their girlfriends. They had cried, Alex had had a panic attack before they took to the stage, but the pride flag blowing high above the audience had given Alex the confidence he had needed as he scrummed the opening chord of When The Sun Goes Down.
That had been a year into their relationship, a year of laying low and acting like strangers in public. But everyone knew, of course they did, Alex could hardly keep his hands off his boyfriend when they were behind closed doors. They had had some close scrapes, money sent to The Sun to stop them from publishing the most horrifically slanderous article their men had ever read the day the Monkey’s second album was due to be released. But there was nothing they could do aside from stare at their phones and embrace, whisper that it was going to be okay.
And it was okay - it was always going to be okay! They knew the public weren’t the press and Alex just needed to have the band there to support him and it was all going to be okay. If he could sing Still Take You Home with the same meaning he did a day before then it would all be fine. Miles stood side of stage with a smile that not once dared leave his face. That sight was all Alex ever needed.
“We’re releasing an album.” Alex said over the barbeque. The sky was darkening as they readied for dinner. They had set up between their two caravans, a long bed of blankets covered the grass and the family sat eating their burgers and basking in the last of the day’s warmth. “A month or two, we wanted to do something together, spend more time with each other…” He gave Miles a smile as they finished dishing up the burgers. “Obviously we’re not telling that many people, don’t want to ruin the surprise and all but… Well…” He chewed his lip and placed the last burger down in front of his boyfriend.
“You’re our family, so you deserve to know. And what better place to tell you than where we met.” Miles said, slicking the burger with ketchup and mustard and then placing it with the others. “Obviously I’m not piggybacking off of Al’s success just to make me own like, but we just wanted to do something together. We’ve been writing for each other, with each other, for so long that it just seemed right.” He sat down on the floor beside where Alex had settled himself and wrapped an arm around him.
“That sounds wonderful, it’ll be good for you two to get to spend the time together.” Penny smiled and Alex fiddled with the ring that had hugged his middle finger for the last ten years. “I suppose you’ve not really been up to much recently Miles, it’ll be good to keep yourself busy.” Whilst his YouTube career had long been flushed down the drain in favour of a more private life that had been teared from him for the first few months of his and Alex’s public relationship, Penny was right. He was getting bored, a little stir crazy in their ridiculous Chelsea townhouse. There was only so many time he could walk the highstreet in a day before people got suspicious.
“Yeah, yeah that’s the plan. It’s been good to be recording and that, I mean I’d been writing for people, Alexandra and that, but getting to do it ourselves is going to be nice.” Miles said as Alex continued to look at his ring. Miles wrapped an arm around him and kissed his temple. “It’s an adventure.” He smiled and Alex tugged his ring off.
Taylor, who had been keeping a close eye on them over the last three days, grinned to herself and poked Leah far too aggressively. They watched as it happened in slow motion. The sky was deep orange as Alex turned and got to his knees, clutching the ring Miles had given him a decade before in his palm. Miles turned with furrowed brows and smiled at Alex. His shirt was unbuttoned to just below his pecs and the gold chain still rested against his tanned collar.
He remained the most incredible, beautiful man Alex had ever met.
“Well, so long as you can promise me that no matter how terrible the record sales are for this, you’re never going to leave my side. That the promise we made that cold morning after we met again still remains, that I am never going to leave you again. Miles, I want you to have this back in return for becoming my husband.” Alex’s words were slow and nervous; he was acting on impulse and his heart and head were coaching him on. As Miles’ face lit up and a chorus of gasps broke the calm of the evening, Alex had never been so sure of anything in his entire life. Miles chewed his lip and looked at the ring in Alex’s palm.
“Alright, but if the record does shit it’s all your fault. On that agreement, yeah I’ll be your husband.” The same smooth calmness, the northern cheekiness bubbling below the surface, the voice that Alex wanted to wake up to for the rest of his days, said. Alex slipped the ring onto his finger, and he pulled him in for a kiss, foreheads pressed and arms around each other as Alex’s, their, family clapped them excitedly. Penny was already crying, and Taylor was fast to wipe the tear that dripped from her lashes.
“Ugh you’re so cringy.” Lily laughed and James grinned from her side.
“Get a room you two.” He added, giving his brother a wink. A half eaten burger swooping through the air and splodging ketchup onto the middle child’s t-shirt sent them all into laughter. But Alex and Miles sat looking at each other the same way they had the first time they had kissed just a ten minute walk away.
“I love you, Alex.” Miles whispered to him beneath the cackling laughter of aunt Lisa. “But I was serious about it being your fault if the record does shit.” He broke into a grin and Alex pounced, sitting upon Miles’ lap and kissing him like he had never kissed before.
“Darling, my mistakes were made for you.” He laughed and Miles laughed, silenced only by the lips that met his once more.
The End.