Sidestory:
Seven Minutes
As the two whirlwinds tore out of the apartment and clattered down the stairs to the waiting cab, Jack still stood by the door, wallet in one hand, other hand raised as if offering the two bills again. Slowly, he blinked, looked down at his virtually empty wallet, and sighed. "Did I just get mugged?" he asked Jace dryly as he refolded the wallet and jammed it back into his back pocket.
"Utterly," she replied. "Never open your wallet around women. You better start calling in the sexual favours, Jackalope."
Tilting his head to one side and rubbing at the back of his neck, Jack gave her a pained look. "Jace, not funny," he replied.
Jace gave him her most innocent look. "You could if you wanted. I could pimp 'em out for you. I could wear a big hat."
Jack chuckled suddenly and crossed to her. "You've got a thing about hats," he announced.
"I do. I think it's a fetish." She rolled over onto her stomach to look up at him, propping her chin on her hands. "Especially the ones like Tyche wears... isn't this fun? Sort of like a damn slumber party."
"You want s'mores?" Jack offered, taking a seat on the bed next to her. "I think I've got the stuff." He suddenly grinned full- on. "But I draw the line at a make-over."
"Oh, damn. I think you'd look great in blush and green eyeshadow." She winked, grey eyes dancing evilly. "What about looking through your wardrobe and talking about boys?"
"Well, 'bout half of my wardrobe is on the floor," Jack chuckled. "I wasn't expecting to end up back here. As for guys..." Jack stretched out on the bed and turned his head to consider her thoughtfully. "Got any in mind?"
"Not particularly. I don't know many. Unless you want me to discuss Zach." The disgusted look on her face said most of it.
Rolling to his side, Jack somehow managed to shrug in the same motion. "I still don't know him that well. That bad?"
She rolled over onto her own side to face him. "He's dating Leta. It's absolutely foul... I mean, you have better taste than that, don't you?"
He shrugged again. "Don't know. Lately, anyway. I've been out of the dating thing for a while now."
"Don't worry. If it makes you feel better, here's my big secret; I've never even kissed." Jace smiled cheerfully. "We can be big loveless losers together, can't we, Jackalope?"
He was silent for a moment, studying her, a cautiously considering look in his green eyes. Finally, he murmured, "Nah, Jace, you'll find someone... But, uh... Well, if you want... Just to say you did, I guess..." He raised a dark eyebrow and shrugged one-shouldered. "Well, we swapped blood, right?" Noticing the look on her face, he quickly added, almost slurring the words together incoherently in his haste, "Uh, never mind, Jace... You were bitching about Zach?"
"Nuh-uh," she insisted, pulling herself up, looking at him with something related to suspicious interest in her eyes. "Zach isn't half as interesting. If I want to what?"
"Nothing." Jack rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. "Forget it. Dumb idea."
Not about to let any of that go, Jace pre-emptively rolled on top of him, raising one eyebrow. "Not about to let it go there, Jacks. My spidey sense is tingling." She gestured vaguely to the area of the scar on her neck. "What dumb idea?"
"Dumber than that one." With a carefully aimed shove, he pushed her off and sat up. "Want a drink?"
"Okay. Just water or something." She put on the big, innocent eyes look that she had spent time perfecting in the mirror and looked at him. "I'm your best bud, Jacks. What were you going to say?"
Jack rolled up into a sitting position on the bed, back to her. Then he froze, thinking. Finally, he shrugged and stood. "Water," he repeated. Starting off in the direction of his kitchenette, he muttered over his shoulder, "Just the whole... Not kissing thing."
The redhead sat up and watched him. "Well, ten million dollars says you have. I haven't. I hate watching it on romance movies. Hell, I hate watching romance movies anyway. Where the hell are you supposed to put your face?"
He shrugged, back still towards her as he filled two glasses with water. "It kinda just happens," he replied. "Things kinda fit. Like a puzzle. Usually." Turning back to face her, he half- smiled. "Okay?"
"Okay. Still seems bloody complicated." Jace inspected her fingers for cuts. "Not like I'll have to worry about that kind of stuff anyway, eh? Jace the Androgen with no romance possibility."
"Jace..." Sighing, Jack perched on the edge of the bed and handed her one glass, setting the other down on the floor and taking her free hand to continue the check for wounds. There were none serious enough for such intent examination on her part. He dropped her hand and looked up again. "Don't be an idiot."
She shook her head at him, looking at him seriously, though her lips were quirked in a half-smile. "I'm being a realist. I don't mind, Jack. But nobody's ever going to look at me and think anything other than, 'Stumpy violent bitch'. I like that. But it has it's down side. And that's the no-romance part."
"And why?" Jack cocked his head to one side. "Why not?"
"Where do we start? The me being an unpretty deformed violent whacko with the body of a pre-adolescence boy, or the me being me?"
"I'm not even going to bother with the second one there," he announced with a faint sigh. "Stupid. Completely. The first? Jace, you aren't any of that... Well, okay. Maybe a little of some of it." He half-smiled at her again. "You aren't the dog you think you are."
"Woof," Jace said sardonically. "Well, no, maybe not a dog. I'm just not very feminine."
Jack almost chuckled at that declaration. "Well, my dad said I wasn't very masculine so maybe we should swap."
It was her turn to look him over keenly. "Well, you are rather pretty, Reilly. But definitely a man."
He fidgeted under her even gaze, finally replying, "Uh, thanks. I think."
"Oh, I'm pretty comfortable in my telling apart of men and women by now." She grinned at him warmly. "But I'm not going to let you go until you tell me your idea."
Looking at her with his usual neutral face, he slowly asked, "What idea, Jace?"
"You fudged it over earlier. It had something to do with kissing. I found it intriguing, if you were too embarrassed to follow it through. What was it?"
"It was stupid like I said." Jack hunched over slightly, studying his hands and absently rubbing at a charcoal mark on a finger. "Just a thing we did as kids... It's how I got my... Well, I guess you'd call it a first kiss."
The redhead just looked at him for a while, her grey eyes enormous in her face. After a while she found her tongue and stumbled over her words. "Really? Thinking of - showing me how?"
Jack looked up, eyebrow raised. "Seven Minutes in Heaven, the game was called. Stupid, really." Either he hadn't heard her soft words or he was choosing to ignore them. "Lock two kids in a closet and count down." He shrugged. "What usually happened was alot of panting and then a quick kiss. Like I said, stupid."
"Wouldn't you asphyxiate after seven minutes with no air? Maybe it cut off oxygen to the brain. It'd explain why a lot of my generation is fucked in the head." This came out a little bit too fast.
Jack just shrugged. Then he picked up his water glass from the floor, adjusted his position on the bed silently, and sipped. Sipping with concentration, what an art form, he thought. Better that than totally make an ass of myself.
Jace sipped her own glass for a moment, more to have something to do with her mouth that wasn't talking, before commenting idly, "I wouldn't particularly want to sit in your closet, anyway. You're not the tidiest guy in eternity."
"Couldn't fit in there." Jack grinned faintly. "It still has the boxes I hid in there from that first visit."
"Hmph." She finished her water and set it down before a wry smile danced around the corners of her mouth. "'Sides, I'm not picky. Sitting on a bed's fine for me."
The customary sleepy look in Jack's eyes lifted and he stared at his friend with wide green eyes. "Huh?"
"Don't 'huh' me, Reilly." Jace seemed to steel herself inwardly. "C'mon. I'm going to need this later on in life, if you're so convinced that I'm ever going to fall in love and go all gooshy on somebody. Bet it'd hurt less than cutting me open with that kitchen knife. Show me how. I hate humiliation. Kiss me."
Cocking his head to one side, he studied her as if to check her level of seriousness. A faint frown appeared to mar his calm expression as he reached back and rubbed the nape of his neck thoughtfully. Finally, he nodded and sighed, just the slightest escape of air. Then he reached forward and gently closed her eyes with light fingers. A moment later, he cupped her chin and leaned forward, kissing her, feather-light.
Jace made a small sound in the back of her throat - it could have been in pain - feeling suddenly thirteen again, unsure and tearful and out of place. She had forgotten that she could feel so frightened; and after all, she had been the one who had asked. "O-oh," she managed stupidly before brushing her lips back across his, slightly clumsy and infinitely apprehensive.
Rocking back, Jack cocked his head again. "Jace?" he murmured. "You sure about this?" That noise she had made, it worried him. Gently, he rubbed his thumb down her jawline to get her to reopen her eyes. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. It just - never mind." She offered him up a weak smile, cheeks flushed the same colour as her hair. "Just fine. Just a shock." Jace rubbed her lips in afterthought, clinically. "Didn't think it would feel like that."
Jack shrugged, reassured by her recovery time. "Everyone's different and I might not be that good anyway," he explained. "Been a while."
She shook her head mutely, blushing even harder. "No, it was... good. Very good. Excellent. You get an a-plus."
"Uh, thanks." He grinned brightly, relief written plainly in his expression. "So... Uh, water?"
She snickered. "Thanks. The situation wasn't sweaty enough to call for a cigarette."
Jack paused, hand halfway to the shoe box where he kept his occasional cigarettes, and responded with a lop-sided smile. "Right." He pulled his hand back and studied her. Then he blinked. "Ah, water." Turning, he slid off the bed into a standing position and picked up his own glass. "Glass, Jace?"
Jace handed it to him wordlessly and watched his retreating back before breaking out into a tiny, sly grin. "Better hurry up. Your seven minutes is far from over."
The glasses hit the bottom of the sink with a faint tinkle, miraculously not breaking. Jack spun, his eyes again wide. "Huh?"
"That was a peck. You could get away giving your mama that type of kiss at Christmas." The redhead was still blushing faintly, but her eyes were determined. "I want to be kissed, damn it."
"Right," he murmured slowly. Taking a deep breath, he strode across the room and again took his seat near her on the bed. "Kissed, right."
He met her eyes for a long moment, realized that she was dead serious, and nodded to himself. Reaching out, he curled a long- fingered hand behind her neck, his thumb against the edge of her jawline, and leaned in quickly. Before I change my mind about this crazy idea, he thought. Then his mouth hit hers and he suddenly realized why he had to do this for his best friend. Firmly, he pressed his mouth against hers, unconciously mimicing what he had considered his first "real" kiss.
This time, Jace had psyched herself up to it, and one of her arms twined around his neck to touch his dark hair. She closed her eyes and leaned into him, wondering how to breathe and then realizing it didn't matter, kissing him as hard as she dared. Her mouth tasted vaguely metallic, blood having settled along her lips from the cut between them; it hurt, kissing him, but it was a feeling sorted firmly into the last of her thoughts as her fingers tightened slightly at the back of his neck.
Feeling her shiver against him, Jack cracked one eye to check on the redhead. With a start, he realized that she had been holding her breath. Damn, he forgot about that tendency to not breathe during your first kiss. He eased the pressure on her mouth, surprised when she tried to push back into it, and whispered gently, "Breathe, Jace. Through your nose." His words blew warm breath over her lips and, as she pressed forward again, his parted lips caught one of hers lightly in between.
Through her nose? She'd forgotten she had lungs, let alone anything else. Jace obeyed him and relaxed more when she was able to take in air, pressing her forehead to his in far more comfort than she had been previously. "Gotcha," she managed to whisper before trying once more; the tip of her tongue emerged as she nervously found herself licking her lips, doing the same to his in the process. "Damn. Sorry."
"No, 's okay," he muttered. Lightly, his thumb traced circles on the side of her face, attempting to relax her. When that didn't work completely, he tried another route and tentatively flicked his tongue over her pursed lips. "Okay?"
"Okay." The redhead finally relaxed fully, shuddering slightly as she kissed him again, more wetly this time. Her neck had begun to hurt - she was, after all, much shorter than Jack - so she lowered herself down, back on his bed, pulling him quite firmly with her before beginning the entire process again.
Even as she tugged him down, he kicked himself mentally. You had to watch for kinks in the neck when there was a height difference, even if you both were sitting. Realizing this, he determined to be more considerate and bent to the task of kissing her with renewed thoroughness.
Jace gave a slight sigh against his lips after a while and turned her face to bury it in his neck, nuzzling her cheek against his throat before moving her head back up to lightly kiss the tip of his nose. "That was one helluva first kiss, Reilly." Her mouth moved back down to his. "I don't know whether..." she kissed him warmly, "we should continue, because..." Jace moved, just slightly, against him - "I'll want to..."
Jack blinked and then nodded, sliding away slowly. "Gotcha," he murmured. Tracing another series of circles against her jaw, he leaned in for another quick, warm kiss. Then he rolled onto his back beside her, silent.
She curled in beside him, warm by his hip, resting her head on his shoulder. Eventually, he felt her fingers curl into his, holding his hand tightly. "...thank you, Jack."
He felt his mouth automatically curl upwards at the words. Tilting his head down towards her, he graced her with a smile that was neither lop-sided or cynical, just contented. "You're welcome, Jace." His hand tightened on her in return. "No worries," he whispered.
Her own mouth curved, and Jack saw the reason that Jace didn't smile properly much; she had dimples that were embarrassingly cute. "Did you like it?"
A soft chuckle escaped him then. "If I say yeah, do I still get to keep my arm?" he teased.
Jace winked. "I'll think about not breaking the damn thing, yes."
"Then... Yeah." Jack stared back up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "It was nice. Yeah... You?"
"A lot." She closed her eyes. "Mm... it was really nice, actually." Jace's thumb stroked small patterns on the back of his hand before she spoke up again. "Mind if I sleep with you tonight? I mean," her face coloured as she realized her bad choice of words, "not like that, but... same bed? If I force you out of yours, I'll be up half the night having a guilt trip anyway, so..."
His eyebrow shot upwards in mock-amazement. "Guilt, Jace? You?" Immediately relenting, he squeezed her hand again. "No worries, Jace, if that's what you want." He mini-shrugged with the shoulder unoccupied by his friend. "There's always the sheet and comforter division."
"Want you here." Jace's already husky voice had dropped down a note, and she had forgotten how tired she was, and Jack was warm and comforting. "Just like..."
"Like?" He affectionately kissed the top of her head.
Jace had already fallen asleep, though, the effects of mind-fiddling and fighting and a mild concussion sending her off almost immediately.
Poor Jace, Jack thought as he carefully slid his arm and shoulder from beneath her. Rough night. Quickly but silently, he managed to work the covers over top of her, tucking her in effectively. Then he sat on the edge of the bed, just watching her for a moment. Completely beat, he thought. I can't believe I just... But she... We just... Resolutely, he shook his head and then bent to the task of undoing his boots. Kicking them off, he stood and contemplated the bed. Finally, with a shrug, he shucked off his jeans and slid beneath the covers. "Night, Jace," he whispered as he squirmed into place. "Sleep well."