Born This Way - Chapter 15
Aug. 3rd, 2012 06:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbottomsTitle: Born This Way 15
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.
15
*~*
Hell’s Bells
*~*
Ianto
Gray seems to be taking his assignment more seriously in the last three days. I’ve had Jack test him, calling for him at random moments, and he’s always been there. This morning I’m less worried. Jack’s with his family at church and the chance that Suzie—or any other demon—is going to follow him in there is pretty slim. Not that the whole religion thing is going to scare us off. It’s just too hard not to laugh out loud. Not a wise tactic when you’re trying to blend.
There’s a knock on my door, and I’m hoping maybe Jack blew off church. But when I open it, Elle stands in the hall with a white cereal bowl. “Hey. I ran out of milk, and my Froot Loops aren’t happy about it. Can I borrow some?”
“No problem,” I say, swinging the door wide. She slides in under my arm and I push it closed.
“Thanks. I’m starving and the only thing I’ve got is Froot Loops. Pretty pathetic, huh?”
I open my refrigerator and show her the contents: a nearly empty litre of milk, half a stick of butter, a mostly empty carton of eggs, a lonely slice of leftover pepperoni pizza wrapped carelessly in plastic, and a paper box from Ming’s Oriental Garden containing God only knows what. “Not so pathetic,” I say with a smile.
She smiles back, and for the first time, I notice that she’s actually rather attractive. She’s pulled her hair back this morning so I can get a good look at her face. Even with no makeup, she’s a classic beauty.
“Grab a bowl and a couple spoons. I’ve got plenty of Froot Loops to go around.” She puts her bowl on the table and runs out into the hall, leaving the door open. She’s back in a minute with a generic box of Fruit Rings. I toss a bowl onto the table and she fills it then divvies up the last of the milk between the two bowls.
She sits in the chair across from me and peels off her extra large pullover. Underneath, she’s wearing a pair of faded denim shorts with a low-cut, nearly transparent white tank top, and a black bra underneath.
So, wow!
“Is that new?” I say, gesturing to her outfit.
She smiles shyly. “Yeah. Jack helped me find some good deals.”
I never would have guessed that body lurked under all her usual frump. She rests an elbow on the table and cradles her cheek in her hand. I catch myself staring at her cleavage, which is enhanced by the gesture, and force my eyes to the orange, green, and yellow loops floating in the bowl in front of me. I’m totally flustered, my thoughts a tangled mess.
“So, is he around?”
“Who?”
“Jack.” I hear the smile in her voice, but I still don’t look up.
“Church. He’s at church.” I clear my throat. “So, when do classes start?” I ask, watching the tip of my spoon bob the floating loops one by one.
“Six weeks. Hopefully I’ll have enough money put away from my job by then to pay for books.”
“Yeah hopefully. That’s about when Jack’s classes start too. We’ll be leaving for London in a month.”
“That’s a big move. You excited?”
I look up and work to glue my eyes to Elle’s face. “It will be good for us to start fresh somewhere away from here.”
My eyes follow her fingers as they move from her cheek to the strap of her bra, peeking out from under the tank top. “We all need a fresh start sometimes,” she says, her voice soft and low.
“Mmm,” I agree, focusing back on my bowl and scooping a spoonful of cereal into my mouth.
“What are you going to do in London?”
“Not sure yet,” I say between mouthfuls. “Maybe look for a job.”
“Doing…?”
“Good question.”
“You should look into modelling. The big shops are in London. Some good agencies too.”
I look up at her and laugh.
“You think I’m joking?” she says with raised eyebrows.
I pull my eyes away from her. “Yes.”
“Well, I’m not. You’ve got a look that people would drool over—dark and dangerous.”
I lift my eyes back to hers. Her look isn’t so bad either. And as she locks her gaze on mine, something primal stirs in me. I’m seeing something in her gaze that I shouldn’t be. “We’ll see,” I say, lifting my bowl from the table. I stand and walk over to the sink, focusing on rinsing my bowl. I clear my mind of everything but Jack’s face. When I’m back under control, I push away from the counter and turn toward her. “I’ve got to get to the library.”
She pulls herself out of the chair. “Thanks for the milk.” She goes to pick up her bowl, but ends up knocking it to the floor, where milk and cereal splash and scatter. “Shit!” She stoops down and starts scooping the soggy cereal back into the bowl.
I grab a wad of paper towels and crouch down beside her to sop up the milk. When her hand brushes mine, a shudder races through me. I pull my hand away and pretend I didn’t just feel the most carnal desire I’ve ever experienced.
“Sorry,” she purrs.
“No problem. I’ve got it.” I wave her off, but I can’t look at her.
She stands and pauses at the door. “If you’re looking for something to do after work, I’ll be around.”
She closes the door behind her and I drop back onto my butt on the floor. I sit here forever, trying to breathe and figure out what the Hell just happened.
*~*
Jack
“This guy is to die for,” Owen says into the mirror as he twists the ring in his swollen lips. He swoons slightly. Now that’s something I’ve never seen him do before.
“We’ve been together every night since Thursday,” he continues, “and last night, in the back of his hearse, he sucked—”
“Too much information, Owen,” I say, holding up my hand. “Don’t you think maybe things are moving a little fast?”
He gives me the patented Owen glare in the mirror. “I mean, you just met him.”
He spins, hands fisted on his hips. “You’re one to talk. It wasn’t that long ago that you were making out with not one, but two hot guys.”
My heart spasms at the thought of John, and I drop my eyes. “That was different.”
“Only because there were two of them—which makes you twice as bad as me.”
I lift my eyes back to his. “And, it was just kissing.”
A lascivious smile pulls at his lips and he raises his eyebrows at me. “But not anymore…”
Heat creeps up my neck.
“I knew it!” he bellows in triumph.
I shake my head and sink into my desk chair. “So how was that party you and Elle went to?” I sound only half as spiteful as I mean to.
He strides over to my bed, where he flings himself onto my pillows. “Amazing.” But then his grin pulls into a scowl. “Until Elle dragged me out of there.”
“And you said Elle brought a guy?” I say, interested despite myself.
“Yeah. He was pretty hot too. He’s got this wavy dark blond hair, kinda like yours but longer, and these gorgeous blue eyes. I think Elle’s diggin’ on him.”
I smile at the thought of shy Elle diggin’ on someone. “What was his name?”
“Gray.”
My breath catches in my throat. Holy shit! How many Grays who look like me could Elle possibly know? “Really…?”
I try to wrap my mind around that. Ianto was right. Gray was out partying with Owen and Elle while Suzie was stalking me in my driveway.
Owen lifts his head and quirks an eyebrow. “Do you know him?”
“Yeah. He’s a friend of Ianto’s.” Not to mention my brother/guardian angel. “That’s how Elle met him.”
“Well, I would have taken a run at him if it wasn’t for Russell, but…well…you’ve seen Russell. He’s oh-so-tasty.” He sits up and wiggles his eyebrows.
“And a good kisser, from the looks of your lips.” I smirk at him.
A lascivious smile curls his swollen lips, and his eyes spark. “Uh-huh. He’s very good with his mouth.”
I hold up my hand again, warning him to stop there. “So, are you hooking up again?”
“Tonight, at the Zone.”
“Okay if Ianto and I come?”
He looks wary for just a second. “Sure. I guess. So, are you heading over to Ianto’s?”
“No. He’s at the library this morning then he’s meeting me at Grandpa’s.”
He scoots to the edge of the bed. “Can you give me a ride on your way?”
“You want a ride to Ianto’s?”
“Elle’s.”
“Oh. What are you guys up to?”
He flops back onto the bed. “Just hanging out.”
I wait for my invitation, but it’s obviously not coming. “Take the bus,” I say, my voice bitter.
He rolls onto his hip and props himself on an elbow. “What’s your problem? You’re going to your grandpa’s. You just said.”
“Don’t know. I guess I thought we’d hang out before I have to go.”
“We are. Then I’m gonna hang out with Elle.”
“Fine,” I huff. “Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.”
He hauls himself off the bed, glares at me, then pulls the phone from his pocket. I turn, grab a random book from my stack, and pull it open. I stare at it as Owen storms out of my room. But before the door slams behind him, I hear him say, “Hey, Tosh. I need a ride to Elle’s.”
*~*
Ianto
The library is always quiet on Sundays. I’ve got less than half an hour to go before I can head to Jack’s grandpa’s when I look up from the computer screen and see Owen and Elle come wandering through the library doors.
Owen looks up and smiles at the surprised expression on my face. The library’s not his typical hangout.
Elle’s still in her tank top and shorts, so I glue my eyes to Owen. I step out from behind the desk as Estelle scowls. “Afternoon.”
Owen sidles up, too close, as usual. “Hey, Ianto. Whatcha working on?”
I wave an arm at the computer. “Cataloguing the new arrivals.” I glance at Elle, then back at Owen. “Is there something I can help you find?”
Owen elbows Elle. “No, thanks. Just researching a theory that Elle has.”
I look at Elle with a raised eyebrow. “A theory?”
“It’s nothing.” She loops her arm through Owen’s and starts to pull him toward the computer stations. “We can find what we need on our own.”
Owen cranes his head over his shoulder and grins as Elle pulls him away. “See ya.”
They huddle together at a terminal and search the catalogue for several minutes, then disappear into the stacks. When they re-emerge ten minutes later, they have three large books. Two of them, I recognise and am intimately acquainted with: Demon Lore and a modern translation of The Lesser Key of Solomon. The third, a more modern text on black magic, I know only in passing.
They spread the books on a table and hover over them, whispering and snickering. Two or three times, they burst out laughing, and Estelle shuffles over to hush them. Despite the fact that Estelle’s tiny frame would probably blow away in a stiff breeze, in her library domain, she’s intimidating enough that they don’t laugh again until she’s gone.
Estelle pulls her cardigan tight around her and takes a slow sweep through the high stacks, straightening books in her obsessive-compulsive way; then she shuffles back to the desk. She glowers at Owen and Elle on her way by.
I walk over and see a small notebook on the table between them. Elle jots something into it as I approach, but she closes it before I can get a good look. I slide my hip onto the edge of the table. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
Elle looks up at me, and a smile plays at the corners of her mouth. “We’re good, thanks.”
“Speak for yourself.” Owen elbows her, and that signature lascivious grin spreads across his face. “I’ll always take a little librarian with my books.”
“I’ll get Estelle, then. She’s the little one,” I say, peering past Owen at The Lesser Key of Solomon. The page they have it open to involves Earthly demon conjuring and manifestation. A load of crap, really. There’s no ritual required, as the book would suggest. We just show up where we want to, when we want to. Not too much a mortal can do about it either way.
“Let me know if there’s anything else you need,” I say, and push off the table. They watch me walk back to the counter.
“Kids these days,” Estelle says when I return, forgetting that, as far as she knows, I am one. “They have no respect for anything.” She catches herself, and her scowl shifts to a fleeting smile. “Well, some of them, anyway. You’re an old soul, Ianto.” Her scowl returns as she looks past me at Owen and Elle. “Devil worshippers, probably,” she says, tugging on the chain around her neck and fingering the cross.
There’s nothing I can do about the smile that pulls at my lips. “Why would you say that, Estelle?”
“That book—Modern Black Magic. They were copying down the pentacles in it. I don’t understand kids’ fascination with vampires and demons. The darker, the better. It’s all they want to read about. What happened to the classics?”
“There are some dark classics. Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe,” I say, sticking to authors who aren’t older than the building, and making a mental note to ask Jack to find out what Owen’s up to.
She shakes her head. “The world’s going to hell in a hand-basket, and this generation—” She sweeps a hand toward the others. “—is taking us there.”
My smile widens. “We’ll see.”
Just then, the door swings open and Suzie strides in. She grins at me and takes a slow circle of the library. When her eyes find Elle and Owen, her stride slows and she looks momentarily surprised. She flashes me another chilly grin and leaves.
All the pretty young things.
With a quick glance at Elle, I heave a guilty sigh. “You know what, Estelle? You might be right.”
Owen and Elle scrape back their chairs. Elle looks at me out from under her long, dark lashes as she flips her hand through the lore book; then they file out the door behind Suzie. I go to their table to re-shelve their books and find the lore book open to the story of Adam and Lilith. I read through the story of Adam’s first wife—how she left
The first succubus.
Some things, the mortals got right.
“What the Hell are you two up to?” I say to myself as I close the book.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2012-08-03 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-08-03 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-08-03 12:18 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-08-03 07:11 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-08-03 12:57 am (UTC)I think Gray may have some explaining to do now that Jack's knows where he was while he was left to deal with Suzie alone.
no subject
on 2012-08-03 07:13 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-08-03 01:34 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-08-03 07:11 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-08-03 03:08 am (UTC)She's turning people away from Jack.
And that last part! What is going on? Let me guess: more troubles!
no subject
on 2012-08-03 07:15 am (UTC)no subject
on 2012-08-04 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2012-08-05 01:37 am (UTC)As for Owen, that boy is headed for trouble and he really has no idea.