Born This Way - Chapter 6
Jul. 14th, 2012 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbottomsTitle: Born This Way 6
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, John, Gray, Owen, Toshiko/Tommy, Suzie, OCs
Rating: NC-17
Warnings/Contains: Supernatural themes, character death, drug references, dub-con.
Summary: Sequel to Choices - Ianto Jones was born and raised in Hell, but he isn’t feeling as demonic as usual lately—thanks to Jack Harkness. But you can’t desert Hell without consequences and suddenly Ianto’s and Jack’s happily ever after may not be so happy.
6
*~*
Idle Hands Are the Devil’s Tools
*~*
Jack
By the time we pull up to the Williams’ house, the party is in full swing. Groups of marauding teenagers stream from the cars parked along the woods at the side of the road toward the music in the backyard, whooping and shouting.
Ianto and I cross the street to where Tosh is parked.
Owen primps his spiky hair, then slides out of the backseat of Tosh’s car and elbows me. “We need to branch out—maybe crash a party somewhere else. I’m sick of this crowd.”
Tosh skirts around the car to where we’re standing. “You’re paying for the gas to get there,” she says as Tommy sweeps her long brown locks back and hooks an arm over her shoulders.
“Whatever,” Owen responds. His pale skin flushes as he presses his tongue into the ring through the corner of his lip. He shoots a glare at his brother and spins, storming up the road toward the party. Tosh shrugs and Tommy smiles at her, all tanned dimples, as they follow Owen across the street.
Ianto twines his fingers into mine. “There’s a project for your Sway,” he says with a tip of his head toward my friends’ retreating backs.
I shove him. “Yeah, right. We’re talking about Owen. Do you enjoy watching me fail?”
“I enjoy watching you do just about everything.” He grasps my hand again and we follow Owen into the milling crowd.
Mona’s band, Crash, is set up behind the house, next to the porch. The music grows louder as we get closer. I pull Ianto through the masses to where Owen, Tosh, and Tommy have stopped near the bonfire.
“I’ll get us something to drink,” Ianto says. He squeezes my hand, then makes his way to the other side of the yard, where ice chests are lined up next to the house. I catch myself staring as he goes. My belly flutters and I feel a slow smile creep across my face. God, he’s perfect.
“Alex’s on fire,” Tommy says in my ear, pulling me from my musing.
My heart leaps into my throat and my head jerks automatically to look at the bonfire, half-expecting to see a flailing Alex engulfed in flame.
Tommy rolls his blue eyes and points toward the house. “Over there,” he laughs, “with the guitar.”
I wince as I turn to where they’re set up. Even if my ex- boyfriend is useless everywhere else, behind his guitar, he’s a genius. And, I have to admit, they sound pretty good. Mona jumps up and down, her straight black hair swinging wildly behind her, belting out a perfect Avril Lavigne. She’s in torn jeans, a leather vest, and heavy black eyeliner. She looks totally different from when she’s wearing her Giovanni’s T-shirt and ponytail at work. Anybody who didn’t know would guess she was closer to twenty-five than fifteen.
“Mona sounds great,” Tommy adds; then his eyes flit to me. “But…,” he stammers, “they were much better when you were singing for them.”
I roll my eyes. “If you say so.”
When the song ends, Alex pulls his guitar off and slips his arm around Mona.
“It looks like he’s over you,” Tommy says, jabbing me with an elbow.
“Good,” I say. It seems like another lifetime when we were together, even though it really wasn’t that long ago.
I glance back at the band and realise that I don’t know them all. The bass player is a tall, well-built, black-black-haired kid whom I’m sure I’ve never seen before. I nudge Tommy. “Who’s the bass player?”
Tommy squints across the yard at the small group. “Don’t know,” he finally says.
“But I’m gonna find out,” Owen says from behind me. I start to turn, but his hand is already on my arm and he’s yanking me toward the band. His hormones are going to get him into serious trouble one of these days.
When we get to the group, Mona grins. “Where’s Maggie?”
I shrug. “Dad wouldn’t let her come.”
Owen shoulders up to her, a lascivious glint in his charcoal eyes. “Who’s the hot guy?” he says under his breath.
Mona throws a glance over her shoulder toward the rest of the band.
Alex takes the glance as an invitation to join us. He slides in next to Mona and pushes his golden brown dreads away from his soft brown eyes with the back of his hand. “Hey, Jack,” he says, draping his arm over Mona’s shoulders. I wince at the guilty pang and hope Mona’s with him because she wants to be, not ’cause I sorta threw them together.
“Hey, Alex. How’s it going?”
He nuzzles into Mona’s neck. “Great.”
I bite back the laugh before it escapes. He’s not a bad guy—mostly a geek of the Guitar Hero variety, and I sorta almost loved him—but why he’d think I’d be jealous, I’ll never understand. I’m the one who broke up with him.
When he’s finally done making his point—which is something along the lines of see what you could have had—he looks up at me. “So, you miss this?”
I crack a wide smile, not sure if he means the music or him. “No.” True on both counts.
He looks wounded for a second before recovering. “Well, you leaving the band was the best thing that coulda happened. Mona’s voice is unique—one of a kind.” Implying that mine isn’t. Which is true. “We’ve got a major label asking for a demo.”
“Holy shit! That’s great!”
Owen elbows me hard in the ribs, making me catch my breath.
“Jesus, Owen, I’m getting to it.” I rub my side and glance past Alex at the guys. “Who’s your bass guy?”
“Russell. He’s new.” Alex turns and raises a hand. The new guy lifts his gaze from the guitar he’s tuning and looks up at me with the hint of a smile, as if he knew we were talking about him. He straightens up and his eyes slide over me. Then he nods and goes back to tuning his guitar.
Alex jerks his head in the new guy’s direction as he turns back to me. “He’s the one who hooked us up with the demo. Says the guy owed him a favour.”
Even though I’m sure I’ve never laid eyes on this guy before, there’s something eerily familiar about him. I catch myself staring and drop my gaze when he looks up from his guitar again. He lifts an eyebrow at me, quirking half a smile. I turn back to Alex and Mona as heat creeps up my neck.
Mona’s eyes light up. She reaches up and gives my shoulder a gentle jab as a smile breaks across his face. “Hey! You should sing something.”
Alex’s jaw drops. “I don’t think—”
“Not gonna happen,” I say, backing away.
Mona grabs my hand in both of hers, pulling me past the stacked speakers. “Sure it is. What do you want to do?”
I tug my arm back. “Really, Mona. You don’t want to ruin your rep by having me butcher some song up here. Especially if you’ve got labels scouting you.”
Alex scans the crowd warily. “He’s right.”
“Do it, Jack!” Tosh hollers. I look to see her standing next to Owen. Tommy grins at me over his shoulder.
But just at that instant, I feel a surge of static electricity so intense that all my hair stands on end. I can almost feel it crackle over my skin.
*~*
Gray
I stay invisible and hang back from Jack’s group, skirting the woods and taking in my surroundings. Everywhere I look, couples are draped all over each other in various stages of seduction. All pretty innocent, really—no souls in danger at the moment. But as I scan the crowd, Elle’s face pops into my head out of nowhere. It’s happened a lot over the last two days, since I first saw her, and every time I think of her, an electric zing shoots through me. The same zing I felt when she passed through me in her apartment. I’ve seen her only twice. She doesn’t even know I exist. But there’s something about her that makes her hard to forget.
I settle into the trunk of an old oak tree on the edge of the yard and watch. And every time I see a couple touch each other, or kiss, I can’t help wondering what it would be like to be with Elle that way—to touch her like that. I close my eyes and let myself imagine it, how her skin would feel.
How she’d smell. Taste. I feel myself shudder and crack the back of my head sharply on the tree.
Focus.
I open my eyes. Jack’s talking to the girl in the band, and Ianto’s at the keg. He hands a beer to a blonde who’s doing her best to corner him against the porch rail. She smiles her glistening red lips at him and digs in her purse, pulling out a slip of pink paper. I watch her slide it into his pocket before she grabs another cup and starts to fill it.
Figures my brother would fall for a demonic lover boy. Heartbreak waiting to happen. Fine by me. The sooner Jack sees what he really is, the sooner he’ll dump him. Maybe I can arrange for him to find that paper….
I scan the yard again, my eyes slipping past groups of people talking and laughing, and on the outskirts of the yard, bodies pressed together in the shadows of the trees.
And Elle’s there again, in my head. I try to push her out, but she won’t leave. So I let myself go with the fantasy. I feel her pressing herself into me, driving me to want her in ways I shouldn’t. But in my fantasy, I can have her. I fold her into my arms, and when she tips her face up to mine, I kiss her. I run my hands over the curves of her body, my senses prickling at her increasing heat as she devours me with her own hands. I feel the intensity of my need for her roll through me—a dizzying wave of desire.
The buzz of my sixth sense feels like being electrocuted. Instantly, I realise the tingling in my fantasy wasn’t just from Elle’s hands. The demon buzz had been building for a while.
I lost my focus.
I don’t even stop to sense where it’s coming from—or admonish myself for my lapse. I’m across the yard in a flash, wrapping Jack in a field.
He stumbles back from his group with a gasp. “I gotta go,” he says to his friends, and turns to look for Ianto, who’s making his way over with two full beer cups.
“Your boyfriend’s crew is here,” I whisper in Jack’s ear.
“Where?” he says, his eyes wide and darting.
“I don’t know, exactly, but there’s more than one. Go.” I give him a little shove, but he’s already moving.
He catches up to Ianto. “Gray says we have to go,” he murmurs, his eyes darting around. Ianto drops the beer and grabs his hand. We walk quickly back to the car, and just as we reach the road, I see three pairs of red eyes peering out from the darkness of the woods. The dark-haired demon from Giovanni’s steps out from the shadows and watches us pass. Though she doesn’t make a move to stop us, a sharp, electric current crackles through me.
Jack’s in a defensive crouch, ready to strike out, but Ianto grabs his hand and pulls him toward the car at a run.
The demon flashes me a menacing grin. Even though I’m invisible, she knows I’m here—just as I’d have known she was here if I were paying attention. Two others, short and stocky, step out of the shadows as I back toward Ianto’s car.
What the Hell is going on? Did she come after Jack? I glance to Jack and Ianto as they dive into his car. I stare down the group of demons for a second longer, then phase into the backseat of the Shelby.
Ianto looks Hell-bent, knuckles white on the steering wheel, as he weaves around the potholes.
“You’re not going to outrun them,” I say, sinking into the backseat. My eyes shift to Jack. “Are you okay?” I ask.
“I’m fine.”
“Did they do anything to you?”
“No. Just what you saw.”
“It’s my fault.” Ianto’s voice is faint, almost a whisper.
“Ianto, stop.” Jack lays his hand on his shoulder, his face all concern.
Ianto continues to stare straight out the windshield, his face tight, jaw clenched. “I don’t think it’s safe for you to be around me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
His eyes slide to Jack and looks at him intensely for a moment, and then he blows out a sigh before turning his attention back to the road. He still looks determined, both hands tight on the steering wheel, mouth set in a hard line. But in that brief glance, I saw it.
The answer.
I watched his eyes shift from tortured to resolved. Maybe he’s not beyond doing the right thing after all. If Ianto believed he was putting Jack in danger, I think he’d leave.
With that realisation, I gain a little respect for the demon. As a matter of fact, if he weren’t a demon, I might even be able to tolerate him being with my brother.
But he is a demon.
So I know what I have to do.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2012-07-15 10:16 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-15 10:31 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-14 11:34 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-15 12:13 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-14 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-15 12:13 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-14 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-15 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-14 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-15 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-15 03:38 pm (UTC)I have been reading your work, you're magnificent!
I'm so attached to this story, the first part was so intense. I never know what will happen in the next chapter.
I will start to comment for now on, if that's ok. Warning: me english is not perfect, but I will do my best to express how much I like your work.
About the chapter: Gray is no focussed, he's not doing his job and now he wants to interfere in his relationship with Ianto! Troubles are coming! John will have to come back, maybe?
no subject
on 2012-07-15 09:16 pm (UTC)Cheers
no subject
on 2012-07-16 01:07 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-16 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-30 02:44 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-07-30 07:53 am (UTC)