Running Slanted: Dragons, Cake, and Pizza
"Hey, Jack. That girl is totally checking you out, man."
Jack looked up from his plate of Belgian waffles. Dean was looking at him from across the booth of the diner, his head canted slightly to the right. Jack looked in that direction. A few tables down, a girl with short, curly black hair was staring at him. Her eyes had seemed to be trailing down toward his feet, but when he twisted around, the girls eyes snapped up, locking onto his own. She gave a weird smile.
Jack smiled back, waving and mouthing a hello before turning back to Dean, one of his three fathers. His papa, who was looking at him with an expression of unimpressed disbelief. "That's your game?" He drawled.
"My 'game?'" He and Dean were just supposed to be eating out together. He wasn't aware that he was playing a game as well.
Dean gave out a huff. "Angels and their lack of understanding... Your game." Dean gestured a hand. "Flirting."
Jack fiddled the fork and butter knife on his plate absentmindedly, still looking directly at the hunter. "I wasn't flirting," his voice isn't protesting, more like stating fact.
"Yeah, I can see that," Dean snorts. "Though, I guess that's partly my fault. You never get out of the bunker, interact with anyone."
Jack stayed silent, looking at Dean with his head tilted. He was not exactly sure what Dean was talking about, or why it was relevant.
"Basically, we're gonna have to work on your flirting skills, kid. You need the help. Bad."
"I don't understand why I need flirting skills. Is it relevant to hunting?" His hands left the silverware, instead folding into his lap, and he watched Dean with wide, doe-like eyes.
"Sometimes, yeah. But it's more of a human thing. Going on dates, hooking up with someone, the works. You'll get the hang of it, eventually."
Someone walked by their booth. It was the girl who had smiled at Jack. She walked out the door, making the bell at the top ring, without so much as glancing back at him. Dean didn't seem to notice. The hunter just turned back to his eggs and bacon. Conversation over.
Jack continued cutting the next fourth of his waffle into bite-size pieces. He poured the maple syrup over it, began eating again. The powdered-sugar covered sweetness had an odd taste when considering the uncertainty invading the nephilim's gut. It hadn't tasted like that before.
Jack and Sam were continuing their Doctor Who marathon when it happened. They had begun the marathon yesturday, and hadn't gotten very far, but had to postpone when Dean pulled Jack aside for their flirting lessons.
(What Jack had gotten from those lessons was to make who you're talking with feel good and to make yourself look good. Jack didn't understand that, though. Making someone feel good about themselves didn't strike him as something reserved for romantic relationships; it was something you did to be kind. And making yourself look good, depending on how you view it, is either being overly prideful or having good self-esteem. Jack must still have a long way to go in flirting.)
Presently, the ending credits to the Empty Child were rolling. Sam hit the pause button. Jack looked over at his father, to see him staring a bit too intensely at the screen, jaw twitching, like he was working up to saying something. Jack let the hunter take his time.
"So, Jack... what did you think of, uh, Jack?"
The nephilim squinted his eyes at Sam. "Captain Jack Harkness?" His gaze turned to the frozen screen, and he sagged against the back of the couch, not realizing he had been so tense from that cliffhanger. He pondered over his feelings for a minute more. "He lied to Rose and the Doctor, and he wanted to trick the Time Agency in order to steal their money. I think, in a way, the Agency deserved it. I wouldn't be very happy if two years of my memories were stolen. But I don't think Jack deserves to have to... be taken down to that place, morally. Stealing and lying are wrong. But I like Captain Jack," The nephilim grinned. "And we share a name, so that's pretty cool."
Sam gave out a breathy chuckle. "Yeah, yeah, true. But that's-- that's not really what I meant."
The nephilim stared at Sam, lips parted slightly, confusion painting his eyes a dark shade.
"You, you remember how Captain Jack was introduced?"
Yes, he did. The character had been looking at a specific part of Rose Tyler's body. He had patted the rear of a guy he passed on the way to save her from falling off a blimp. Jack remembered the scene because it had confused him, left him wondering why the character seemed so obsessed with... bums.
"And you were... okay with that?"
"I was a bit confused by it," Jack admitted. "But I realized what was being implied a few minutes later. I'm not bothered by it. Why would I be?"
"It's just--" Sam let out a frustrated huff. "Not everyone is okay with that kind of thing. Some people believe that- that two guys, or two girls, thinking of each other that way is, is wrong. I just wanted to make sure you..." The hunter gestured vaguely.
"It's alright," Jack reassured softly. "I don't think that way, Sam."
"No, no, I know that. I just wanted-- I wanted you to know that-- ugh, this is way harder than it should be. I wanted you to know that you don't have to hide anything from us, that you're not forced to feel a certain way. Dean... he's not homophobic, no, but he's pretty... what's the word... het... heteronormative? He kind of just assumes, and I know you and him were talking about romance the other day, and Dean probably didn't readily involve anything about... that. About being gay, or bi, or whatever else. So, just. If Dean makes you feel uncomfortable that way, or any other way, just call him out on it. He doesn't mean to act like a jerk, he just doesn't think sometimes, ok?"
Throughout Sam's monologue, Jack sat still, looking at him with curiosity and sincerity. Sam had used a few words the nephilim did not know, but the main idea had not escaped his understanding. Sam was staring, too, and their eyes were locked. "Sam..."
"Are you... like Jack? You can feel attraction to both, men and women?"
Sam flinched, looked away, something unreadable in his eyes. "I don't know. I'll need to do more research on it. On everything."
Silence for a few moments, both parties caught up in their own thoughts. Then:
"Don't... don't tell Dean about this, please? I'm still figuring things out, and..."
"I understand," Jack smiled warmly, despite the discomfort starting to shift around inside him. Discomfort at lying to Dean by ommision, but that was only part of it, and a small one at that. There was something else, something that Jack didn't quite know, that was bothering him. Something that was missing.
Sam returned the smile. "C'mon, let's start the next episode. I can't wait for you to see how this ends."
(A/N: part one isnt finished just yet. I'm posting for any constructive criticism you have, errors you've noticed, the like. Plz comment if you wish)
