Gamma Jack X childhood friend!reader (she/her pronouns, no use of y/n)
cw: might have incorrect grammar or misspellings (sorry!); mild blood and injuries; a smidge of angst but nothing too serious; Jack being annoying and down bad; he might be ooc but who gaf??
a/n: I hope you all like my debut post, I am SO scared posting this lmfao. Writing this feels like using a defibrillator on the Gamma Jack fandom. This is lowkey long, but I have a LOT to say about this man, so buckle up.
Thinking about Gamma Jack, who almost combusts when he realizes he likes you, his childhood friend. He’s liked you for a long time, he thinks. All of his weird behavior around you begins to make sense. He understands why he hangs onto every word you say, drinking in your image like you’re the only glass of water on a scorching hot day; he understands why he feels electrified whenever you touch him, sending shivers down his spine; but most of all, he understands why seeing you date other guys causes him to tear his hair out.
The revelation rewires Jack’s brain chemistry. All of a sudden, his fan club doesn’t matter too much anymore. The girls hanging off of him become irrelevant. He talks about you to the other supers who tease him, saying he’s got it bad for you. Jack can’t get you out of his head and it drives him crazy. He wants you; he needs you. However, he hasn't the faintest fucking idea on whether or not you like him back.
Thinking about Gamma Jack, who you’re sure is possessed from how he’s acting. When he’s at your apartment he floats behind you like a lost puppy, flirting with you more than usual. Jack carries your things, practically hangs off of you, and shoots overly obvious winks your way. Not that you mind, of course.
You’ve liked Jack since you were children. However, you never gave any legitimacy to the possibility that he likes you back. Not until now, that is.
You always chalked up Jack’s attempts to woo you as just part of his personality. Recently you’ve sensed something change, though. A shift in his demeanor and speech that makes him sound genuine when he says that you’re the prettiest girl he’s ever laid eyes on. But you don’t ask Jack anything or confront him. You don’t want to be wrong and mess up your friendship, causing you to drift apart forever. Besides, he has plenty of people who want to date him. Why on Earth would he want you?
Thinking about Gamma Jack, who sometimes talks like you’re already together. He tells the news host about a special someone when they ask if he’s dating anybody on live television. She’s got the prettiest eyes, the hottest laugh, and the cutest smile, he says. Jack winks at the camera, sending all of the others watching the program swooning. But you stay rooted in your chair, unable to break eye contact with Jack on the screen.
He approaches you after and presses to see if you watched the interview. When you say yes he’s over the moon with excitement. He’s glad you did, Jack says, and claims that it was important for you to see it. Whatever that means. There’s no way he was talking about you on T.V, right?
You're starting to suspect that something’s definitely wrong with Jack. Maybe he’s caught a cold or something, because he looks red in the face and is uncoordinated when you ask him to help you pick out a dress. Regardless, you trust Jack’s judgment when it comes to clothes. He’s obsessed with fashion and how he looks, so why wouldn’t you ask him for help?
It’s one of Jack’s days off of being a hero when you go shopping, and he walks aside you clad in civilian clothing. Whenever you hold any garment up to yourself you see his powers spark in his eyes. Green flickers where the blue of his irises are, and he doesn’t even realize that he’s starting to float in mid-air. You have to yank him down and remind him that you’re in public.
Thinking about Gamma Jack, who re-analyzes every interaction you’ve had since you were kids. He lays awake at night, tossing and turning without sleep as he thinks. Every time you talked to him, looked at him, all of it comes to his mind. Jack bolts up in bed in horror, mouth agape when he comes to a daunting realization.
Jack remembers all the times you leaned on him, trusted him with your secrets, and cried on his shoulder. He thinks about how you were the only person as kids who he trusted to talk about his powers with, and how he loved it when you praised him. There were times where Jack would stay up at night, just like he is now, grinning stupidly while he thought about you.
Was there something between you two this whole time? Is he really that fucking stupid?!
He repeats how he'll ask you over and over again in his head before he forgets the idea. What if you don't like him? Jack has never worried about confessing to someone before. But for the first time, he's scared. No, Jack won't ask you. He dramatically decides to keep his feelings deep inside, and then one day he'll die.
Thinking about Gamma Jack, who despite being an attention whore, starts to ignore the crowds of women around him in favor of paying attention to you. He shows off for you by lifting heavy objects, disintegrating obstacles and showing how strong he is. He wants to gauge your reactions, despite his decision to never ask you out.
Jack is a total preener, as you’ve known for ages. But something about how he starts to flaunt around for you specifically makes you feel like a female bird. And dammit, his strategies are working on you.
The real kicker is when you’re injured in a villain's attack on the city. Gamma Jack spots you from the air, noticing you on the sidewalk with other frightened civilians. He swears his heart stops when he sees you. Your leg has major lacerations and blood drips from a wound on your head. Jack’s chest tightens, breaths coming out in short, painful bursts as he flies down to you.
You yell in fear when he lands, scaring the hell out of you when he hits the ground so hard that he cracks the concrete. Jack stumbles to you, demanding to know what happened before you point to the cloud of smoke down the street. A villain showed up, you claim, and blew up a nearby building. You were unlucky enough to get caught in the crossfire. While Jack’s hands check you for more injuries, he feels a pit start to form inside. He wrangles his emotions, desperate to not make the situation even worse.
Overexertion of one’s powers and the consequences of high-strung emotions have always been a threat to most supers. Some supers pass out, while others can seriously injure themselves or others if their abilities get out of control. Jack’s weakness, he’s learned over the years, is when his emotions explode all of a sudden. Except the consequences of this are lethal to both himself and the entire city. If Jack deals with something traumatizing and distressing enough, he could detonate. Metroville would be leveled. And for the first time in a long time, seeing you injured and on the verge of passing out, Jack feels himself on the verge of exploding.
Thank God you’re here, he thinks. You bring him back down to Earth, jostling him by the shoulders and calling his name. The villain is still at large. He needs to focus. But your hand trembles on his shoulder, your blood smearing onto his suit--
Gamma Jack stays out late that night while you’re transported to Metroville General Hospital. Working alongside a few other supers, he finds the fucker that hurt you and delivers justice. The villain puts up a fight, but he’s no match against Jack’s unbridled rage. The other supers need to yank him off the suspect, telling Jack to pull himself together. Safe to say the bastard will be living at least half of his remaining life behind bars, even if Jack wants to send him to an early grave.
Jack visits you in the hospital on the next day and brings you the biggest bouquet of flowers you’ve ever seen. He’s in his civilian clothes again, praying that nobody recognizes him. He doesn't need to get mobbed by his fan club right now.
He places the bouquet onto a counter when he slips inside your room, bantering back and forth with you to lighten the mood. But the revelations from last night still stick with him. You’re the only one that can undo his perfectly crafted mask, and you’re also the only one who can calm him down. He can’t tell if he’s scared of that fact or not. But what Jack does know is that the feelings he has for you now are unbearable.
(When you finally get out of the hospital you agree to let him fly you home from work for at least a week. Perhaps that will soothe his nerves a bit.)
Thinking about Gamma Jack, who has a panic attack when you tell him what that dress you picked out the other day is for. You’re going on a date with a guy from your work. The thought of you holding hands, snuggling up to, and smooching another person makes Jack want to pass out.
The urge to beg you to go out with him instead is stronger than the force of a thousand suns. How is he supposed to make that happen without being an asshole? Jack doesn’t typically care if he hurts someone’s feelings. But you? He’d rather die than hurt you.
Thinking about Gamma Jack, who throws himself into his hero work to distract from the foreign feeling of yearning. Never in his nonchalant life has he ever pined for someone from a distance. He’s left to stew in this unfamiliar feeling and does the one thing he knows best to fight it off. Jack beats the living hell out of villains, throwing the strongest ones through buildings and mercilessly disintegrating any weapons they have. The tabloids report that Gamma Jack is on a roll, sweeping up crime like it’s nothing. He should be proud of himself, but the pit in his heart grows instead.
Jack sits on the roof of a skyscraper one night, fresh off the streets and bone tired from beating back villains. His hands have a tremor - for Christ’s sake - from all of the fighting he’s been doing night after night. Jack doesn’t know how much more of this he can take, and it takes a lot for him to admit something like that. He’s alone with his thoughts for once. There are no villains or explosions to drown out how he feels now.
Thinking about Gamma Jack, who doesn’t just like you, he concludes. He loves you. He loves you more than anything in the whole wide world. You’re smart and funny, and you always know how to cheer him up after a rough day. The both of you know each other like the back of your hands. You’ve memorized each other's favorite foods, your work schedules, and the kind of music you like. You know Jack’s fears, his secrets, and the nitty-gritty details of his childhood. He adores every aspect of you, even the parts you hate. And he wants to give you the rest of him that he hasn’t handed you yet.
Jack craves you like a starved animal. He could have his sight and hearing taken and still find his way back to you from the way his heart tugs in your direction. He loves you so much that he’ll do anything for you, even if it means having to grin and bear it while you go out with another man.
Then the unthinkable happens two nights later. Your date stands you up.
Gamma Jack gets a phone call around nine on that fateful evening, and he’s slow to answer. He’s just got back from patrolling the city and wonders who the hell is calling him at this hour. Jack goes as stiff as a ramrod at the sound of your voice, in distress and clearly holding back tears. You’re begging him to come over without explanation.
He doesn’t bother to change out of his hero suit before flying over to your apartment. Jack almost forgets his mask in the chaos, barely slapping it on his face before he leaves. He throws open his window and takes off like a bat out of hell. The time it takes to fly to your place is cut in half from how fast he rushes over. He floats up to your window and taps on it, relieved to see you physically unharmed as you let him in.
You’re clad in the dress you picked out with Jack, and he almost trips over his own feet when landing inside. If the circumstances were different Jack would have fallen to his knees and worshipped the ground you stand on. However, he’s too preoccupied with the situation at hand to care.
You tell him what happened: your date never showed up, and you have to see him at work tomorrow. You’re embarrassed and sad above all else. Tears threaten to spill over but you force them back, putting on a strong front. But Jack knows you better than anyone else. You’re hurting, and he feels the same amount of agony as you.
Jack weighs going to jail if it means beating the shit out of the guy who stood you up. He hugs you tightly, his heart breaking in two when he hears you sniffle. He sits you down on a chair and his anger bubbles over at the situation.
Insults come flying out of his mouth about the guy, cursing him out as you nod along in your chair. He barely registers what he’s saying when he affirms, “I’d never do that to you. Anyone would be lucky to have you.”
“You mean that?” you ask, voice wobbling with emotion. Jack looks at you like you’re crazy. What are you talking about, ‘does he fucking mean that?!’ Of course he does! You’re the most attractive woman on the planet! Do you seriously not see what he sees in you?
He nods dumbly in response, shocked at your own surprise. “Wh-- are kidding me? Yes, I mean that. You’re a real catch, doll.”
You open your mouth before snapping it shut, forcing yourself to be quiet. Jack gives you a pressing, quizzical look before you sigh. “I almost keep telling you something,” you say, voice breaking as you stare at him. “But I don’t want to ruin us.”
Jack feels like he’s floating on air as his breath catches. He has to glance down to make sure he’s still literally on the ground. Something twinges inside him, willing him to action. He inhales deeply and does the scariest thing he’s ever done.
He swallows his pride and takes a leap of faith. “I can’t keep doing this," he blurts.
“Doing what?”
Jack kneels in front of you and takes your hands in his, holding them like they’re porcelain. “I keep practicing what to say to you, but it never sounds right. I’m terrified though that you’ll never know. Promise you won’t laugh at me, alright?”
You look at Jack with a tenderness that nobody’s offered him in his entire life. Your watery eyes let a single tear run down your cheek and a lump forms in Jack’s throat at the sight of it.
He brings your hands up to rest the back of your fingers against his forehead, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground. “Baby, I love you so, so much. It’s killing me. Please, let me fix this. Let me take you out on a date tonight, I can’t stand seeing you cry,” he pleads.
For a moment, Jack thinks you’re about to reject him. But instead, you move your hands to cup either side of his face. You lift his gaze up and he gulps, hating how he feels like putty in your hands. You bring him closer, at near eye level as you glance at his lips.
“Jackie,” you whisper, laying the nickname thick with emotion. “Can I kiss you?”
His face lights up, a weight lifted off his shoulders. Jack leans forward in tandem with you, lips crashing together as you hold his face. Jack moves to lean over you, one of his hands finding the back of your neck as the other grips the arm rest of the chair you’re on.
His fingers threaten to break the chair, and he can feel his powers humming throughout his whole body in excitement. Both of you are consumed by raw, unfiltered passion. Your fingers tangle in his hair and Jack has to choke down a whimper.
Time slows to a crawl, and you both break the kiss gasping for air. Jack feels lightheaded. He’s delirious and drunk and aching for more. Your giggle snaps him back to reality, and his eyes flutter open.
“What?” he breathes, attempting a cocky smile that fools nobody. “Is that a yes to the date?”
“Jack,” you laugh, “you’re floating again.”
