Eye of the Beholder (Jack/Sky. SPD)
Title: Eye of the Beholder
Pairing: Jack/Sky
Rating: PG-13
AN: Part of the writer!Jack 'verse; set between Having the Last Word and You Can't Pick and Choose.
“What are you doing?”
Jack leant against the door to the study, taking in the very strange sight of seeing Sky on the computer; strange, because while Sky was pretty computer savvy all things considered, he rarely had any use for it. Except for now, apparently, which left Jack intensely curious. He was even more interested when Sky spun round in the chair, guilty expression on his face.
“Ah, nothing,” he said hastily, reaching back and scrabbling at the keyboard to close the window, eventually settling for pushing the screen’s off button. A mistake, because now Jack had no intention of letting this go.
“You know,” he said casually, “if you’re looking for porn I doubt you’ll find it on text-based webpages.”
Sky’s guilty expression turned into a frown. “I am not looking for porn,” he protested, then his eyes narrowed as he realised he’d just been baited.
“Uh huh,” Jack agreed easily. “Not porn. You know, if you’re feeling that frustrated I am right here.” It would be fun to see how far he could push Sky before he actually found out what he was looking for.
“And you won’t be getting any with that attitude,” Sky shot back.
Jack shrugged and strolled over to the computer, resting a hip casually against the table. “So what were you really looking at?” he asked and, unsurprisingly, Sky clammed up again.
“None of your business.”
And really? That did it. Pushing the computer screen back on he heard a strangled groan and he would have paid much more attention, if only for mocking purposes, if his attention hadn’t been taken up completely by what was on the screen. He blinked, looked again, closed his eyes again - longer this time - then opened one to examine the screen cautiously. Nope. It was still there.
“Fanfiction?” he asked in disbelief, staring at Sky in utter bewilderment.
Caught red-handed, Sky seemed to decide he didn’t have anything left to lose and shrugged. “I was following links and I got… that,” he replied, gesturing at the screen. “Although, you probably shouldn’t read it.”
“Why not?” Jack frowned. “Is it that bad?”
“Not all of it,” Sky allowed. “Some of it is actually very well written, it’s just… well, not what I think you had in mind.”
Feeling his eyebrows rising of their own accord, Jack took a closer look at the screen. Then his jaw dropped. “Tell me it’s not.”
“It is,” Sky said solemnly, resting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s Rick/Louisa.”
“How the hell did they get that?” Jack demanded. “She was in one book, that was it. And she was only on the sidelines anyway, they had hardly any interaction whatsoever. How the hell can there be… is that…? NC17? How can there be porn for it, damn it?”
“If it’s possible, it exists somewhere on the internet,” Sky replied, not unsympathetically.
“Bull,” Jack pouted. “And besides, if there’s going to be porn of any kind, it should be Rick/Jake. Or possibly Rick/Stephen. I don’t put all that subtext in for nothing, you know. And how do they even get that he’s straight anyway?”
“Because you haven’t said otherwise?” Sky suggested pointedly. “And there’s definitely been flirting of the heterosexual kind, if I remember rightly.”
Jack shrugged. “And of the flamingly gay kind as well.”
Sky shrugged as well. “Probably seen as ‘witty banter,’” he replied, adding in the speech marks with his fingers.
Jack sighed. “I’m so misunderstood.”
“Of course you are,” Sky agreed in false sympathy and Jack scowled at him. Sky was so going to pay for that one. At a suitable moment, of course.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it, I guess,” he said, straightening up and heading for the door. “Just… do me a favour? Don’t tell me about it. I don’t think I can take anymore Rick/Louisa or whatever else they’ve come up with.”
“If you start cuddling your manuscripts for their purity of vision I will lose any and all respect I have for you,” Sky informed him, expression suitably stern unless you really knew him and could see the smile dying to come out. Fixing him with a haughty expression of his own, Jack stalked out of the study and headed for the upstairs study where he kept his proof copies of everything he’d written, in case he ever needed to reference something or check a fact so he wouldn’t contradict himself.
“Rick/Louisa,” he muttered under his breath as he pulled that manuscript off the shelf. “Honestly.” He had nothing against his readers finding straight couples in his work: for all his complaints downstairs he’d actually written Rick as fairly ambiguous as regards sexuality; it gave him a lot of freedom as a writer and, disquieting as it was to his personal ethics, Rick not being out and out gay kept his books on the main shelves rather than kept solely in the GLBT section. It was one of the few times his ethics had bowed to economics, but he consoled himself with the vague satisfaction of being subversive. Really though? he thought. Louisa? Not something he would have considered. And besides, if he remembered correctly he’d been pretty heavy on the Rick/Jake subtext in that book.
He flipped through the pages until he came to the section he was thinking of, then nodded in satisfaction as he read it through. “There you go,” he said to the empty air. “Perfectly good subtext, right there. Rick/Louisa eat your heart out.”
“You do know what they say about people who talk to themselves, don’t you?” Sky asked from the doorway and Jack jumped, caught completely off guard, reflexively pulling the book closer to his body before he realised what he’d done. Sky was smirking in that incredibly irritating way of his and Jack really wanted to wipe it off his face somehow. Unfortunately no bright ideas sprung to mind. Sky always had that effect on him, damn it.
“Don’t do that,” he growled. “Practically took ten years off my life.” Mary, Mother of Jesus, how did Sky manage to do that to him? Every single time, too.
“Sorry,” Sky replied lightly as he stepped fully into the room, not sounding at all sorry, Jack noted sourly. “Are you satisfied now?” he asked, nodding at the book Jack was still clutching to him and he looked down at it in surprise; he hadn’t realised he was still holding it.
“Yes, actually,” he said. “See?” he continued, opening the book and flicking to the proper scene, handing it over in vindication. “Right there. Perfectly good Rick/Jake subtext. They’re all but gazing into each other’s eyes for God’s sake, how much more Mills and Boon do I have to get?”
“A lot more purple prose and some bodice ripping,” Sky replied absently, flipping over to the next page.
“They’re guys,” Jack responded pointedly. “They’re not going to be wearing bodices to rip off.”
“Unless they like to cross-dress, no,” Sky agreed, seemingly not paying full attention. That realisation came just before Jack’s thought processes came screeching to a halt.
“Wait,” Jack said, “you’ve actually read Mills and Boon?”
Sky looked up from the book, startled, then his cheeks went a bright shade of pink.
“I’m divorcing you,” Jack said flatly.
“We’re not married,” Sky pointed out calmly and Jack frowned.
“Fine. I’m un-cohabiting you.”
Sky grinned. “Of course you are.”
“Why the hell would you read Mills and Boon anyway?” Jack asked plaintively. Seriously? Sky had seriously read… those things?
Sky shrugged and put the book down on top of one of the bookcases. “Not much choice. Remember when I had that appendectomy?”
“Vaguely,” Jack replied dryly. He was actually pretty sure that that hospital dash would be etched into his memory for the rest of his life.
“Well, while I was recuperating there was nothing to do but read and there was nothing to read but the bodice rippers until you brought in something decent. What else was I supposed to do?”
Jack shrugged. Okay. He supposed he could live with that.
“So,” Sky prompted. “Are we still divorced?”
“Well,” Jack answered, drawing out the word as he pretended to think about it, closing the space between himself and Sky, pressing Sky lightly against the wall. “Considering the extenuating circumstances I’m sure I can overlook it this time.”
“Very magnanimous,” Sky responded dryly.
“Of course,” Jack smirked. “I’m a very magnanimous person.”
“Modest too.”
“And that. I’m very virtuous, I’ll have you know.”
“Uh huh. And not at all touched by the sin of lust.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. It’ll give me something to add to the list next time I go to Confession. Along with everything else that’s built up in the past fifteen or so years since I last went.”
“I imagine that’s a long list,” Sky said, slightly breathless now that their mouths were mere centimetres apart.
“A very long list,” Jack agreed, tongue flicking out over his bottom lip and he was extremely pleased with the way Sky’s eyes darkened in response. “And I really feel like adding to it right now.”
“I’m sure I can help with that.”
“Oh, you can. You’re practically indispensable for that, I’d say.” Nipping sharply on Sky’s left earlobe, eliciting a harsh intake of breath, Jack pulled back slightly. Then, taking Sky’s hand, he tugged him gently out of the study and towards the bedroom, the book lying forgotten on the bookcase.
Link to table
Pairing: Jack/Sky
Rating: PG-13
AN: Part of the writer!Jack 'verse; set between Having the Last Word and You Can't Pick and Choose.
“What are you doing?”
Jack leant against the door to the study, taking in the very strange sight of seeing Sky on the computer; strange, because while Sky was pretty computer savvy all things considered, he rarely had any use for it. Except for now, apparently, which left Jack intensely curious. He was even more interested when Sky spun round in the chair, guilty expression on his face.
“Ah, nothing,” he said hastily, reaching back and scrabbling at the keyboard to close the window, eventually settling for pushing the screen’s off button. A mistake, because now Jack had no intention of letting this go.
“You know,” he said casually, “if you’re looking for porn I doubt you’ll find it on text-based webpages.”
Sky’s guilty expression turned into a frown. “I am not looking for porn,” he protested, then his eyes narrowed as he realised he’d just been baited.
“Uh huh,” Jack agreed easily. “Not porn. You know, if you’re feeling that frustrated I am right here.” It would be fun to see how far he could push Sky before he actually found out what he was looking for.
“And you won’t be getting any with that attitude,” Sky shot back.
Jack shrugged and strolled over to the computer, resting a hip casually against the table. “So what were you really looking at?” he asked and, unsurprisingly, Sky clammed up again.
“None of your business.”
And really? That did it. Pushing the computer screen back on he heard a strangled groan and he would have paid much more attention, if only for mocking purposes, if his attention hadn’t been taken up completely by what was on the screen. He blinked, looked again, closed his eyes again - longer this time - then opened one to examine the screen cautiously. Nope. It was still there.
“Fanfiction?” he asked in disbelief, staring at Sky in utter bewilderment.
Caught red-handed, Sky seemed to decide he didn’t have anything left to lose and shrugged. “I was following links and I got… that,” he replied, gesturing at the screen. “Although, you probably shouldn’t read it.”
“Why not?” Jack frowned. “Is it that bad?”
“Not all of it,” Sky allowed. “Some of it is actually very well written, it’s just… well, not what I think you had in mind.”
Feeling his eyebrows rising of their own accord, Jack took a closer look at the screen. Then his jaw dropped. “Tell me it’s not.”
“It is,” Sky said solemnly, resting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s Rick/Louisa.”
“How the hell did they get that?” Jack demanded. “She was in one book, that was it. And she was only on the sidelines anyway, they had hardly any interaction whatsoever. How the hell can there be… is that…? NC17? How can there be porn for it, damn it?”
“If it’s possible, it exists somewhere on the internet,” Sky replied, not unsympathetically.
“Bull,” Jack pouted. “And besides, if there’s going to be porn of any kind, it should be Rick/Jake. Or possibly Rick/Stephen. I don’t put all that subtext in for nothing, you know. And how do they even get that he’s straight anyway?”
“Because you haven’t said otherwise?” Sky suggested pointedly. “And there’s definitely been flirting of the heterosexual kind, if I remember rightly.”
Jack shrugged. “And of the flamingly gay kind as well.”
Sky shrugged as well. “Probably seen as ‘witty banter,’” he replied, adding in the speech marks with his fingers.
Jack sighed. “I’m so misunderstood.”
“Of course you are,” Sky agreed in false sympathy and Jack scowled at him. Sky was so going to pay for that one. At a suitable moment, of course.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it, I guess,” he said, straightening up and heading for the door. “Just… do me a favour? Don’t tell me about it. I don’t think I can take anymore Rick/Louisa or whatever else they’ve come up with.”
“If you start cuddling your manuscripts for their purity of vision I will lose any and all respect I have for you,” Sky informed him, expression suitably stern unless you really knew him and could see the smile dying to come out. Fixing him with a haughty expression of his own, Jack stalked out of the study and headed for the upstairs study where he kept his proof copies of everything he’d written, in case he ever needed to reference something or check a fact so he wouldn’t contradict himself.
“Rick/Louisa,” he muttered under his breath as he pulled that manuscript off the shelf. “Honestly.” He had nothing against his readers finding straight couples in his work: for all his complaints downstairs he’d actually written Rick as fairly ambiguous as regards sexuality; it gave him a lot of freedom as a writer and, disquieting as it was to his personal ethics, Rick not being out and out gay kept his books on the main shelves rather than kept solely in the GLBT section. It was one of the few times his ethics had bowed to economics, but he consoled himself with the vague satisfaction of being subversive. Really though? he thought. Louisa? Not something he would have considered. And besides, if he remembered correctly he’d been pretty heavy on the Rick/Jake subtext in that book.
He flipped through the pages until he came to the section he was thinking of, then nodded in satisfaction as he read it through. “There you go,” he said to the empty air. “Perfectly good subtext, right there. Rick/Louisa eat your heart out.”
“You do know what they say about people who talk to themselves, don’t you?” Sky asked from the doorway and Jack jumped, caught completely off guard, reflexively pulling the book closer to his body before he realised what he’d done. Sky was smirking in that incredibly irritating way of his and Jack really wanted to wipe it off his face somehow. Unfortunately no bright ideas sprung to mind. Sky always had that effect on him, damn it.
“Don’t do that,” he growled. “Practically took ten years off my life.” Mary, Mother of Jesus, how did Sky manage to do that to him? Every single time, too.
“Sorry,” Sky replied lightly as he stepped fully into the room, not sounding at all sorry, Jack noted sourly. “Are you satisfied now?” he asked, nodding at the book Jack was still clutching to him and he looked down at it in surprise; he hadn’t realised he was still holding it.
“Yes, actually,” he said. “See?” he continued, opening the book and flicking to the proper scene, handing it over in vindication. “Right there. Perfectly good Rick/Jake subtext. They’re all but gazing into each other’s eyes for God’s sake, how much more Mills and Boon do I have to get?”
“A lot more purple prose and some bodice ripping,” Sky replied absently, flipping over to the next page.
“They’re guys,” Jack responded pointedly. “They’re not going to be wearing bodices to rip off.”
“Unless they like to cross-dress, no,” Sky agreed, seemingly not paying full attention. That realisation came just before Jack’s thought processes came screeching to a halt.
“Wait,” Jack said, “you’ve actually read Mills and Boon?”
Sky looked up from the book, startled, then his cheeks went a bright shade of pink.
“I’m divorcing you,” Jack said flatly.
“We’re not married,” Sky pointed out calmly and Jack frowned.
“Fine. I’m un-cohabiting you.”
Sky grinned. “Of course you are.”
“Why the hell would you read Mills and Boon anyway?” Jack asked plaintively. Seriously? Sky had seriously read… those things?
Sky shrugged and put the book down on top of one of the bookcases. “Not much choice. Remember when I had that appendectomy?”
“Vaguely,” Jack replied dryly. He was actually pretty sure that that hospital dash would be etched into his memory for the rest of his life.
“Well, while I was recuperating there was nothing to do but read and there was nothing to read but the bodice rippers until you brought in something decent. What else was I supposed to do?”
Jack shrugged. Okay. He supposed he could live with that.
“So,” Sky prompted. “Are we still divorced?”
“Well,” Jack answered, drawing out the word as he pretended to think about it, closing the space between himself and Sky, pressing Sky lightly against the wall. “Considering the extenuating circumstances I’m sure I can overlook it this time.”
“Very magnanimous,” Sky responded dryly.
“Of course,” Jack smirked. “I’m a very magnanimous person.”
“Modest too.”
“And that. I’m very virtuous, I’ll have you know.”
“Uh huh. And not at all touched by the sin of lust.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. It’ll give me something to add to the list next time I go to Confession. Along with everything else that’s built up in the past fifteen or so years since I last went.”
“I imagine that’s a long list,” Sky said, slightly breathless now that their mouths were mere centimetres apart.
“A very long list,” Jack agreed, tongue flicking out over his bottom lip and he was extremely pleased with the way Sky’s eyes darkened in response. “And I really feel like adding to it right now.”
“I’m sure I can help with that.”
“Oh, you can. You’re practically indispensable for that, I’d say.” Nipping sharply on Sky’s left earlobe, eliciting a harsh intake of breath, Jack pulled back slightly. Then, taking Sky’s hand, he tugged him gently out of the study and towards the bedroom, the book lying forgotten on the bookcase.
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