Survival Mechanisms
"Oh, come on," Jack wheedled. "Just one game. One game, Sky, that's it."
Sky sighed. "Fine. One game. But then we're going back to base. We have to be up early tomorrow morning."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Come on."
With that, Jack dragged Sky into the video arcade and promptly set about challenging his 2IC to a match, loser buying drinks.
Two hours later they strolled out, laughing over nothing in particular, until Jack stopped, pulling Sky with him into an empty alley and kissing him thoroughly, finally giving in to the temptation that had been taunting him all evening. Sky responded without hesitation and Jack slid his hands down the other man's back, down over Sky's ass, fingers lightly caressing. Sky's hands meanwhile tightened their grip on him, one on his waist, one in his hair, both pulling him closer. Jack knew they shouldn't be doing this, not here and not now, but Sky's taste was dizzying, making him more reckless than usual and he simply didn't care anymore. He thrust his hips forward into Sky's, grinding against the other man, making Sky groan with pleasure.
The hand in his hair dropped to his waist as Sky's fingers slid under the waistband of his jeans and brushed against bare skin. Jack hmmed appreciatively and then jerked experimentally on Sky's pants.
"Yeah," Sky whispered and Jack needed no further invitation, fumbling impatiently with the zip before it gave way, then moving on, with Sky repeating the action, the other man cursing slightly when the zip on Jack's jeans refused to co-operate. Finally though, the restrictions were gone, pooled around their feet instead of getting in the way of the really important things like getting off.
Although there was glorious friction taking over his brain, Jack was more aware than ever of Sky's presence, the other man's breath on his ear as Sky alternately moaned and gasped out words like 'yes', 'more', 'there' and 'so good, God so good', pushing Jack higher and higher. Sky would have bruises on his hips the next day from where Jack grabbing at him, but Jack knew he'd have bruises of his own, especially on his shoulders where Sky was hanging on for dear life as his body shuddered from release.
It wasn't much longer before Jack was the one hanging on, biting down on Sky's shoulder to muffle the yell he knew would come out otherwise.
"This was a really bad idea," Sky mumbled when he'd revived slightly. "Now we have to go back to base like this."
Jack groaned a little in dismay. He'd gotten out of the habit of needing to be prepared for emergencies like this one since he'd joined SPD, and even after he and Sky started getting more and more physical he'd never been caught out this way. "Clean handkerchief?" he hazarded. "Tissues?" he added reluctantly, because rough tissues on still sensitive skin? Not appealing.
Sky grumbled as he hiked his pants back up and began going through his pockets, eventually producing a rumpled, but clean, handkerchief. The expression on Sky's face when they'd finished cleaning up was priceless, holding the handkerchief by the edge between his thumb and forefinger. "That's disgusting," he noted, looking round for a bin to toss it into and coming up empty.
Jack sighed, grabbed it off him and dropped it onto a pile of rubbish bags. "There," he said, wiping his hand down the side of his jeans. "Done. What?" he added, as Sky's expression sank in.
"Equally disgusting," Sky said, his nose wrinkled slightly.
Jack frowned, then realised Sky was talking about his jeans and he shrugged. "They needed washing anyway," he replied casually, not mentioning that he'd had far worse clean-ups in his time. "Come on," he continued. "Let's just get back to base."
-----
The following day Jack followed Sky down into the parking lot that housed their squad car and Sky's bike, Sky getting ready to go on patrol. "Try not to take too long," he said casually as Sky straddled his bike, fishing out the helmet. "We got plans, don't forget."
"As if I could," Sky replied dryly. "You've only mentioned it what, five times today?"
Jack stuck his tongue out briefly and Sky gave him a wicked grin. "Be careful what you do with that tongue," he teased. "You'll need it later."
"And you'll need plenty of energy," Jack countered. "So don't wear yourself out too much." Leaning forward slightly so he could whisper into Sky's ear, Jack began detailing everything he planned on doing to Sky when the other man got back off patrol and he was pleased to note the way Sky's breath hitched and the tight grip the blue ranger had on his bike.
"Do you have any idea how hard it's going to be to ride like this?" Sky hissed when he was done. "You did that on purpose."
"Who, me?" Jack replied innocently. "Would I do that?"
"Yes," Sky snapped. "You would."
Jack shrugged carelessly as he turned and sauntered off towards the stairs. "Well, at least you'll be riding something, right?" he responded with a grin tossed over his shoulder, taking great pleasure in the outraged expression on Sky's face. He didn't need to hear the muttered curses to know Sky would get him back for this. Still, when Sky was pissed off the sex was hotter than usual so he wasn't complaining.
-----
Missing, missing, missing. Sky was missing. Snatched from right under their noses, or so it seemed, leaving Jack wanting to howl with frustration. Missing a check-in wasn't like Sky, so when the check-in time for his patrol came and went without him calling in, it was a major cause for concern. Tracing the signal from Sky's morpher had led them to his bike, which was lying on its side, none the worse for wear. Sky's helmet was on the opposite side of the road, where it seemed to have rolled after the presumed crash.
Jack paced his room, his nerves jangling, begging for something to do. Something productive that would get Sky back from wherever he'd been taken. The blue ranger had missing for almost a week now and the strain was beginning to take its toll. As of yet their search had turned up very little, most of it useless. The only lead they had came from Bridge's reading of Sky's morpher, for some reason it had been left behind - either because Sky had dropped it, or because whoever had taken him knew they could use it to find where they were.
It didn't matter though. The images Bridge had seen could be any one of a hundred places, and the longer Sky was missing, the more worried Jack became. The thing that made it worse? He couldn't tell anyone why he was worried, why Sky being missing turned his stomach to a roiling knot of nerves and frustration, why he needed so badly to find the other man. A whispered sense-memory of Sky's mouth on his, the blue ranger's fingers trailing down his arm, reflexively clenched Jack's hands into fists.
He needed to find Sky. And soon.
