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Alexander woke up early, John sleeping face down beside him, arm thrown over Alexander at an awkward angle. Alex grinned widely considering the day he'd planned. He slid out of bed and brewed himself a pot of coffee, turning the kettle on for John. He hopped up on the counter and checked twitter to make sure nothing terrible happened in the world overnight. Checked his email, nothing. Unusual. He figured that Washington wouldn't bother him knowing how much Washington himself wanted to take some time and enjoy his wife's company. Alex poured himself a cup of coffee, relishing the first, almost too hot sip, and poured a mug of tea to steep for John before going to wake him.
"Morning, sunshine." Alex set the mug on John's bedside table and kissed the tip of his nose.
"Mmm." John rolled over and clapped a hand to his face.
"Wake up!" Alexander demanded with an almost childlike petulance, "it's your birthday! Wake up!" Took a deep drink from his coffee.
John blinked and yawned widely, nose crinkling, all of his teeth on display, he sat up and Alexander handed him the mug.
"Hi." He sniffed and wiped his face, ran a hand through his hair, messy curls knotted wildly around him, took a drink of tea.
"Good morning!" Alexander could barely contain himself.
"This is really good. What is it?" John looked skeptically into the tea.
"It's called the October 28th blend. I custom ordered it. All your favourites in one. Rose and mint, just a little bit of orange, French vanilla, a white tea base."
"What? You made this?"
"Well, I mean, I told them what to put in it basically, It's from the tea store downtown that you like so much."
John blushed and looked away, biting his lip.
"How are you so sweet to me?"
"Well, Jack, you don't make it difficult, you're smart and funny, and so easy on the eyes, shall I go on?"
John couldn't hold back embarrassed giggles, "stop,"
"No, I don't think I will, I rather like the sound of my own voice. Let's see, what else do I love about my husband? Oh well, there's the way that your hair gets all tangled in the morning like it is now, there's the way you bite your lip when you feel silly about taking compliments, there's your incredible eye for photography, your compassion, the way you love animals, the way you dance with me and pull me out on the dancefloor, when you try and start fights about social inequality after a few too many drinks, when you think you can rap after a few more drinks. The way your eyes look when you wear certain colours-"
"Alex!" John whined and threw himself into the pillows.
Alexander jumped on top of him, put his face close to his ear, "the way you take care of me, when you bring me a quart of egg drop soup when I'm sick, how you've stuck by me through so much thick and thin."
"Alex!" His voice was muffled by the pillows.
"There's a way you can shut me up." Alexander said, almost a taunt, "but until then, oh, there's the face you make when you accidentally drink my coffee thinking it's your tea, or how you'll give almost anyone a bear hug that knocks them over."
John made a high pitched squeal and turned away from the pillows and planted a kiss on Alex's mouth, he tried to keep talking into John's mouth. John laughed into the kiss and kissed him harder. They pulled away.
"Are you done?" John was beet red, his freckles competing with the saturation on his face. Alexander adored the effect he'd had.
"For now, now get dressed, we have a big day."
They got ready to go, John laboured over packing his camera bag, making sure that he had enough back up batteries.
"Did you take your meds?" The cloud that hung over them, even on vacation. Alex bit back a snarky response.
"Thanks for the reminder, be right there."
In the car Alexander navigated while John drove, a hand on his thigh. John placed his hand over Alex's in his lap.
"Where are we going?"
"First to get some breakfast."
"And then?"
"Can't tell you."
"Ugh, the suspense!"
Breakfast was delicious, the Penny Cluse cafe, a busy little dive. After a bite of John's gingerbread and banana pancakes, Alex regretted his choice of polenta and eggs, even though it was also delicious. John admonished him for not getting something with syrup. 'We're in Vermont.' he repeated over and over.
The drive after breakfast was short. They neared Waterfront Park and Alexander told him to turn in to the long parking lot.
"Alright, do you get it yet?"
The two-story building materialized before them, John read the name, "ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain?"
Alex beamed, "mhm!"
"Okay? What is it?"
Alexander recited the description he'd memorized from the website, "a 30,000 square foot lake aquarium and science center."
John's mouth curled into a grin, "what?" He drew the word out into several syllables.
"Oh, yeah, I'm good." Alex blew a kiss at him.
"Well, come on, let's go!"
They walked into the museum and got tickets. They strolled through the first exhibit, mostly just fish, though John commented on the vegetation in the tanks. A turtle poked its head out from between rocks and John beamed a grin at Alexander and pointed to it. Alex shook his head and continued meandering, reading every plaque he could find. He laughed, and beckoned John over.
"Look, babe, it's you." He pointed at the plaque and read it aloud, "the Stinkpot Turtle."
John rolled his eyes, "really?"
Alexander shrugged and wrapped his arms around John's waist, "got some freaky looking claws. Mmm mmm, I don't mess with that thing."
John tried to find each of the animals in the tank, "there's one… and there's one, that's another one."
Alex stopped paying attention to the marine life and breathed in John, tucked his cheek against John's shoulder blade, swaying them slightly. After the better part of twenty minutes they went to another exhibit, John prattling on about vegetation and aquatic conditions, Alexander didn't understand most of it, but John sounded so pretty when he talked that he tried his best to listen. Alexander stopped to admire a fat snake sitting coiled in a tank, he leaned in close.
"Think I can talk to him?" Alex quirked an eyebrow.
"You're no parseltongue."
"Hey, Slytherin pride," he turned to the snake, "ha sha sa, sssss." The snake didn't move.
"Okay, that's not even what parseltongue sounds like. I feel like that was racist to snakes."
"Whatever, he's just a hater like you."
"I'm not a hater."
"Yup, you're a hater, a Slytherin hater."
"Well, that's just because Slytherin is the worst, they're mostly just terrible people."
"Wow, pretty bold statement there, Mr. Light and Love."
"Well, not Snape. Snape's cool. Gryffindor is where it's at."
Alex laughed a sharp staccato, ha! "I don't know where you get this impression that you're a Gryffindor, you're totally a Hufflepuff."
"What, no way! Gryffindor pride, baby."
"Only cause you've got the whole lion mane thing going on."
John rolled his eyes and they moved to the next exhibit. They spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon walking the halls of the aquarium, John's freckles looked beautiful under the muted blue light. Alex posted up on a bench with John's camera bag and scrolled twitter, letting John pace between the tanks.
"Alex, guess what?"
"What?" Alexander looked up.
"You can adopt a turtle."
"No." Alex thought of all the trips to Petco, the turtles sunning themselves in Central Park that he'd had to pull John away from, "no pets."
"No no no no, listen, you don't like adopt-adopt them, it's symbolic. For ecology."
"I'm intrigued."
On their way out they stopped at the front desk and asked about the adoption program, a friendly older docent talked them through the process, Alex eagerly swiped his debit card.
"What would you like to name her?" The docent handed them a picture of the turtle.
"Frances." John decided instantly.
"That's a terrible name." Alex cackled.
"I like it. It's sweet." John countered and wrote it on the sheet.
The docent handed them the picture as well as a tiny plush turtle. They walked hand in hand to the car, John put the stuffed turtle on the dashboard.
"Pretty cute." John laughed.
"You sure are."
"Oh, stop, lunch?"
"Even better."
Alex navigated them to their next destination, the Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory.
"Alex, you're spoiling me."
Alexander got out of the car, "good."
They went on a tour of the factory and sampled sea salt dark chocolate and bought enough chocolate for their own stockpile and enough for their friends, Alex got a thank you basket for Angelica and one for Lafayette for letting them use the cabin and car respectively.
They sat in the car and ate their chocolates together. John's phone rang, facetime from Lafayette, he answered and Alex crowded into the frame so they could both talk to him.
"Bon anniversaire. Happy happy birthday!"
"Thank you, hi!" John waved.
"How is you trip, mon amis?"
"Amazing!" John cheered.
"It's been great." Alexander agreed.
"The car is good enough, no?"
"It's perfect. Thank you so much."
"We're gonna get freaky in the backseat later." Alex said deadpan.
"Well, someone should, I am far too tall." Lafayette shrugged.
"Look!" John held up the little plush turtle.
"You have made a friend." Lafayette smiled.
"Okay, but hold on, he named it Frances." Alexander couldn't pull the judging tone out of his voice.
"What is wrong with this name? I do not understand why a name meaning 'of France' could ever be bad."
"It's a terrible name, and it's basically like from Deadpool."
John rolled his eyes. Lafayette asked them what else they'd done and they filled him in. Hercules stuck his head in front of the camera, blocking out Lafayette, "Laurens, my man, happy birthday!"
"Thanks, Herc."
"Having fun up there?"
"So much fun. Alex did a great job planning."
"Seems like it, be safe. Have fun."
The four waved goodbyes to each other with a final round of happy birthdays to John.