Jack Spicer never thought he'd be saying this, but his life was pretty awesome. It had been a little over a month since Chase had placed the dragon ring on his finger and promised Jack forever. A week after the first attempted date, they went out again and Jack had managed to snag a rapist for Chase to murder.
It hadn't been that bad, but Jack would have to remember to plug his ears and breathe through his mouth the next time. And wear something that didn't hold bloodstains.
After Chase was done splattering the human across the pavement in every direction, the dragon lord had been so riled up that they'd skipped dinner and teleported straight home for a night of passionate sex.
The next week had been-Jack's eyes rolled up and he moaned in the back of his throat- sushi night. It was- wow – oh god – just incredible. The albino youth swore he'd come five times. Silk cords and ball gags and soy sauce, oh my.
Flying his experimental jet back home, Jack had to shift quickly as he got half a stock just thinking about it.
Landing a jet with one hand was tricky, so Spicer forced his thoughts away from sliced ginger and seaweed. He'd never smell wasabi again without popping a boner.
One week ago they'd gone out rapist hunting in Miami again and had run into none other than Dry Clean Only and Phooka. Apparently the blonde's name was Matty and he now had Phooka under his thrall.
The kelpie had been hotly embarrassed, partly because he was enjoying being Matty's boyfriend, but mostly because of the way Chase pointed at him and howled with laughter for ten minutes straight. In spite of that, the four had hung out together for a few hours.
Jack and Matty had danced and enticed two men away from the club for what they called a 'Sugar and Spice Party'. The fresh young teens, one gothy in leather and the other irresistibly cute in pure white, lured their newfound companions to a secluded beach. A few minutes later, Jack and Matty returned to the club alone. About twenty minutes later, Phooka and Chase joined them; Phooka looking like he'd enjoyed a good meal and Chase looking like he'd just enjoyed himself.
Jack hated to admit it, but Matty was like a girlfriend he could talk shop with.
What about the vicious monster you're dating?
Oh really? Yours does that, too?
They're all the same, those inhuman deities. And he always hogs the covers.
Tell me about it. Hey, how far does yours let you go when you're being rape bait? Mine barely lets me get touched and then it takes forever to convince a slime ball to come with you!
Oh, just spill some vodka on your shirt and reel around like you're really drunk. That works every time.
The girlfriend vibe solidified when Matty saw Jack's ring. The blonde had let out a squeal that could shatter glass and started peppering Jack with questions about the wedding.
By this time, Chase and Phooka had returned. Jack hadn't known what to say. He stammered something about not knowing if they were going to have a ceremony when Chase piped up.
"Would it please you?"
Spicer was starting to recognize this phrase as being code for: I want to spoil you, but I'm way too cool to do it spontaneously so I'm pretending to do it for amusement.
All he had to do was say yes and Chase would cave.
Jack had said yes.
So now the goth genius was officially engaged to the greatest evil mastermind of all time, he had a honkin' big rock to prove it, and to top it all off, he had just beat Raimundo in a Showdown and all he had to do was tell the Brazilian he had a fabulous ass.
Watching the Dragon of the Wind recoil in horror and flee screaming like a girl had just made Jack's day. Anything that happened after this was icing on the cake.
Homophobes were fun.
Oh, and Matty had sent him pictures he had taken that night! Jack had looked through a few of them on the computer, but then the Shen-Gong-Wu alert had gone off. Jack had just hit 'print all' and left them to it. They should be done by now, though.
Jack carefully piloted the jet in for a vertical landing through his secret escape hatch. Popping open the cockpit, the albino youth gathered his new wu and climbed down.
All right; all he had to do was lock the new wu away, grab some clean clothes, pick up the pictures and then he'd head back to Chase's place. He practically lived there now, anyway.
Spicer's train of thought quickly derailed when he saw the slender form of a woman with long, blonde hair sitting at his work desk, crying.
"Mom?" Jack asked. "I thought you weren't supposed to be back from India until the weekend. Hey, what's the matter?"
Mrs. Spicer held up a photograph.
Jack felt a blush creep across his face.
"Oh."
Immortalized in an 8 x 10 glossy was a shot of Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius, dressed up like first prize at a fetish party, sitting on the lap of Chase Young, Eternal Master of Darkness, dressed like an extremely sensual fashion plate.
They were kissing.
Well, no, that wasn't right, Jack reflected, floundering around for something to say. Kissing could be innocent. In the photo, Jack and Chase were Frenching. You could see their tongues intertwined from three feet away.
Speaking of things you could see, Jack had slipped his hand inside Chase's loosely buttoned shirt and was fondling the dragon lord's nipple. Chase had one hand on the inside of Spicer's thigh; he could have been sliding it up or down; Jack knew from memory it was going up. He supposed he should have felt lucky Matty hadn't snapped the shot thirty seconds later.
Jack didn't feel very lucky at the moment, particularly because he realized with a start that not only did this little snippet of recent history illustrate his sexual preferences in real world color to his mother, but his photograph-self was also sporting a blatantly obvious hard on.
To his mother.
"Sssssoooooo . . . . . . . how was India?"
Jack had thought it couldn't get worse. He was oh so wrong. When his mom insisted on going through each and every picture in the stack, seeing each one before Jack even got a chance to, it got worse. When his dad got home, apparently called in by his hysterical mother, things definitely got worse.
In a sort of numb shock, Jack wondered what that phone call had been like.
'Jonathon, oh my God, our baby boy kisses men! Come home so we can both freak out at him!'
Still in the same floating sense of detachment, Jack pulled the stack of pictures towards himself and started to look through them.
Matty was a good photographer; he only had some tiny little digital camera, but he managed to capture a lot of good clear shots despite the dim lights of the club and the beach.
Jack stopped at one particular photograph.
Chase and Jack had paused leaving the club. The light of the doorway was just barely visible behind Jack, giving just enough illumination to add a highlight to his tight black clothes. The goth teen's pale skin was glowing under the flash; it was almost looked overexposed. It gave Jack a faint halo.
Chase, on the other hand, was away from the light. His black hair and dark clothes blended seamlessly into the darkness. Only his face and the flashes of skin at his throat, hands, and stomach stood out clearly.
The Evil Mastermind and deadly Tai Chi Master, who could kill with a touch, had slipped his arm around Jack's waist and leaned in to kiss the youth tenderly on the temple. What really struck Jack was how happy Chase looked.
For his part, Jack was grinning broadly. He had been caught by surprise by the temple-kiss, but loved every minute of it and it showed.
'I look so happy.' Jack thought. 'We both do. Matty was saying all night how we looked so in love. Why are my parents so angry about this?'
"I'll have to frame this one," Jack muttered aloud.
"What did you just say?!" His father snapped. He had been yelling at Jack for the last ten minutes, but the goth genius had stopped listening after the first thirty seconds.
"I'll . . . frame this one." Jack repeated, looking up.
His father barely glanced at the picture in his son's hands before wrenching his face away as if it were hard-core gay porn. Jack felt a spark of anger start somewhere deep inside.
"And to think; I was worried you were turning out to be some anti-social loner. Now it turns out you've been sleeping around with strange men!" Jonathon Spicer spat, shuddering.
"'Sleeping around'?" Jack repeated. The spark grew to a flame. "I'm not a whore! I'm only ever with Chase!"
"After all we've done for you, Jackie; this is how you repay us?" His mother whimpered, reentering with a cup of coffee in her hand. Jack was sure it was heavily spiked with something.
"Well, I can't help who I love." The albino teen said apologetically.
"Love? Love?" Cecilia Spicer repeated in disbelief, gesturing to the scattered pictures on Jack's desk. "Do you think this is what love looks like?"
Jack studied the photo in his hands.
Happy Jack, delighted with the affection he was receiving. Happy Chase, pleased beyond all measure at the mate he had chosen.
"Well, yeah." Jack answered honestly.
Both of his parents stared as if he'd said: 'What's so bad about genocide?' Jack flipped the picture around, showing what he could practically see leaping off of the page.
"Don't you see how happy we are? I'm in a steady, monogamous relationship with someone I love very much! What's wrong with that? I love Chase!" Jack stabbed a finger at the picture. "We love each other! Can't you see that?!"
Jack's dad turned away, putting one hand over his eyes. But his mom saw. Not necessarily what Jack wanted her to see, but she saw. One well-manicured hand shot out and grabbed Jack by the wrist of his pointing hand.
His left hand.
The one with the big honkin' rock on it.
For several long minutes, Cecilia just stared.
"Tell me that's not an engagement ring." Jonathon begged, looking out from between his fingers.
"Ah . . . I -I was going to tell you before the wedding." Jack lied, licking his lips nervously.
Jack's father put both hands on his head. For a minute Jack thought he was crying. His mom had yet to react to anything, but she still stared at his ring with an intensity that was almost frightening.
"Ming dynasty . . ." She murmured.
"What?" Jack asked.
Cecilia's fingers flew to the ring, but Jack clenched his fist and kept it anchored securely.
It wouldn't come off. That was what Chase had meant when he said the ring would never leave Jack's finger; it could not be physically removed from his digit. Jack had found that out the first time he tried to bathe after Chase had proposed. It was a magic ring, after all. But that didn't mean his mom couldn't tear his finger up trying to yank it off.
"That has to be a reproduction! The diamond alone is worth a mint!" She cried, trying to wiggle the dragon ring around. "Let me see the maker's mark!"
"No! Mom, stop it! Ow!"
The mother and son scuffled half-heartedly. Cecilia Spicer was a well-known dealer in Asian antiquities; Jack should have known she'd spot the ring for the incredibly rare thing it was.
"A Ming dynasty ring this size went at Christie's for two million U.S. Dollars last year and it wasn't half this well-preserved! And that one didn't have any gemstones!"
"Yeah, Chase is filthy stinking rich; does that make it better?" Jack asked scathingly.
Cecilia ignored the sarcasm, shoving her untouched coffee cup into Jack's other hand. The albino youth had to drop his picture to keep it from getting coffee slopped all over it.
"There's places that can help." Jonathon said quietly.
"Help what?" Jack asked over his mother's head.
Cecilia had given up trying to pull the ring off and had produced a jeweller's glass from nowhere, studying the ring in minute detail. Jack sighed, taking a swallow of her untouched coffee. No sense in letting caffeine go to waste.
"They help . . . boys like you with your . . . problem." Mr. Spicer said, half to himself.
"Oh, y'mean like FFLAG?" Jack asked, downing more coffee.
The emotional turmoil of the last couple of hours had left him feeling tired. He'd like a nice cuddle-nap on Chase's chest, but it looked like he was going to get a cup of coffee. It did taste kind of odd, though; his mom had probably ground some of her anti-depressants into it instead of just liquor. Jack wasn't going to pass up the Prozac.
"FFLAG?"
"Yeah; Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays? It's like a support group."
"For us?" Jonathon seemed taken aback that Jack would suggest that his parents were the ones that would have to adjust.
"Yeah; what were you talking about? Ow! Mom, easy with the nails!"
"Four million if it's a penny!" Mrs. Spicer declared. "Maybe we should rethink this, Jonathon."
"Way to be a gold digger, Mom." Jack snorted, sucking down more coffee.
"If he can waste a four million dollar ring on Jack, what other resources does he have?" Cecilia asked, spreading her hands. "It's something to think about."
"They can't get married. Not legally!" Jonathon snapped at the same time Jack yelled:
"Waste a ring on me?"
"And no heirs! Don't forget about that!"
"I hate kids anyway!" Jack declared.
Snorting at the stupidity of it all, Jack drained the last of the coffee. This was completely stupid: he was gay. He was in love with Chase Young and Chase Young was in love with him. None of that was going to change, so why was he wasting breath arguing about it?
Shaking his head slightly, Jack took another look at his ring. Four million, huh? And it would bind him and Chase for all eternity and by Chase's claim, protect him from harm. Jack hadn't seen the last put to the test, but he had won a Showdown without getting totally pummelled. That was something. That was . . . . Jack shook his head again, feeling dizzy. His vision suddenly swam.
"Geez, Mom," he slurred, feeling drunk. "What'dya put in thish coffee?"
Jack felt his knees buckle, but they seemed miles away. He tried to put one hand on his desk to steady himself, but his hand landed on the pile of photographs and skidded as the pictures went flying. The albino youth pitched forward, slamming his head on the corner of his work desk with enough force to shatter one lens of his goggles. The force of the impact spun him around. Jack landed face up on the floor of his lab, surrounded by photographs of himself and his lover.
Mr. and Mrs. Spicer watched this dispassionately.
"Lightweight." Mrs. Spicer muttered.
"So, do you think it would work?" Jonathon asked, as if his only son hadn't just received a savage blow to the head. "If his boyfriend is as rich as he claims, he would have the means to stop us."
Cecilia considered this for a moment, eyeing her unconscious child.
"The boyfriend isn't here now."
As luck would have it, it was the first time in hours that Chase Young hadn't been watching Jack's every move. Jack had headed back to his own house to see to his creations and get fresh clothing. Then the Shen-Gong-Wu had revealed itself and Jack had left to battle the monks for it.
Chase had watched all of this with his Eye Spy Orb, chuckling as Jack sang and danced around his house when he believed himself alone, quietly cheering when Jack fought his Showdown, and fighting back a hot stab of jealousy when Spicer appeared to be flirting with the Xiaolin Dragon of the Wind.
Raimundo's subsequent reaction to this, followed by Jack's wicked laughter had assured Chase that the whole performance was designed to unnerve the young leader. It had worked splendidly, too.
Chase had almost gone to train when Jack was flying home, but the youth kept shifting and groaning in his seat. At one point he had even reached down the front of his trousers and adjusted himself, which prompted Chase to do the same. The dragon lord had wondered if he were going to be privy to some hot self-pleasure and the voyeur in him cheered, but then Jack's parents had been home.
A tedious argument followed and Chase had finally left his lover be and moved on to more interesting pastimes.
Like picking out Jack's new wardrobe.
As cute as his beloved could be in his ragged coat and clunky boots, Jack Spicer would soon be his husband and the prince of Chase Young's black heart. It was time he dressed as such. Jack had adjusted quite well to Chase dressing him in sensual outfits when they went out on their dates, now they would see how well he took being dressed regally.
Chase Young stroked his hands over a bolt of exquisite black brocade with geometric accents of gold and red and thought how well it would bring out Jack's eyes.