Chapter One.
Jack met his soul-mate in the same way most people do, by complete and utter accident. He had been traveling back to his home after a good hunting season, when he saw him limping towards the caravan Jack had gotten from his last kill, a small makeshift family of Gypsies.
He strangled the father while the two girls watched before he slit the older ones throat, the other one he gutted. He chuckled thinking of how the younger one had the audacity to vomit on the floor and he made her clean it up before he put her out of her misery. Jack leaned against the door of the vehicle, taking a break to stretch his legs before he heads back home for the summer.
No one even looked for them. Transients were easy, you could literally get away with murder if no one knows they're missing. He looked back at the boy who he decided to dub, Cupcake in lieu of a name. He's just his type; pretty, young, and so fucking desperate. Part of Jack wants to keep him, the other part of him wants to kill him. The part that wants to keep him is surprisingly winning. It's weird, he's never really wanted to keep one before. With this kid though, the urge to put his thumb against cupcakes pulse points and kiss him hard and feel his hammering heart beat overwhelms the normal compulsion to crush his windpipe and watch the light go out of his eyes.
"Can you help me?" Cupcake looks a mess, Jack thinks and he feels a pang of jealousy for not being the one to cause it. His longish hair was sitting askew, covering half of his tear-track stained face.
His over-sized sweater threadbare and torn in a few places, the material sagged off of his shoulder revealing a litter of ugly bruises and cuts over the nice blue tattoos he has. He's only got one arm, but no prosthesis, he might have not realized if it weren't for the sewn over side where his arm should have been.
"I-I normally...Normally I wouldn't ask but-" he pauses, shifts through his pockets, pulling out a carefully folded up napkin. "I have money! I just need a ride and-" Jack grabbed the extended wrist, he's about to tell him to put that chump change back in his pocket. Instead, he's pleasantly surprised at the glow the touch gives. So that explains it, he thinks, Big bad Handsome Jack's got a soul-mate, Nish'll have a field day with this one.
"Well, would'ya lookit that." he mutters to himself, Cupcake hadn't noticed it. He scrapes his nail over Cupcake's pulse point and he flinches, but it melts into a content sigh when he realizes that Jack doesn't intend to hurt him.
"Get in cupcake." he orders opening the door of the vehicle. He allows himself a small chuckle as the younger man stumbles over his own lanky legs as he gets into the caravan.
Wow this kid is either really trusting, really naive or just doesn't care if he lives through the night. Judging by the bruises and cuts all over Cupcakes slim form, he wouldn't blame him if he was at least passively suicidal.
He sits on an old mattress, folding his hands in his lap demurely as if he's a doll waiting for some kind of command to wind him up. Jack moves to sit next to him, without notice he grabs his wrist again and Cupcake gasps, Jack thinks its cute.
He's a skittish, broken little thing and that just makes Jack want to take care of him. He wants to put those pieces back together and turn him in to something beautiful. Make him something better than he was.
"You're my…?" he trails off but he's sure Jack gets the message.
"Sure thing, sweetheart. You and me." he assures, clapping a hand on his shoulder in what he hopes would reassure his younger partner, "We're gonna have a nice long talk about all of this, alright?"
He lets Cupcake sit next to him while he drives so he can ask his Soulmate-apparent everything he needs to know. "Name, cupcake?" Cupcake mumbles something, and Jack reiterates it, "Speak up."
"Rhys." he repeats, a little bit too loud. "What's yours?" he adds, when Jack tells him it's a pretty name.
"Jack. How old are you?" he's pretty sure that Rhys is an adult, but just barely. Jack looks over at him, Rhys is just as tall as him but still so very tiny. Probably malnourished, his clothes were literally falling off of him. Jack makes a mental note to get some of those calorie shakes and some better fitting clothing for him on his next stop.
"Um, I turned eighteen about a week ago. My parents. They um, they threw me out on my birthday so..."
"Why would they go and do something stupid like that?" the older man grumbles, but he thinks that he might just pay them a visit in the future. Rhys shrugged, not sure how to tell Jack the ugly truth of it.
Well, my step-father would get drunk and rapes me sometimes. I tried to tell my mother and she screamed at me about how I'm a filthy little liar, how I'm a whore, and all I want to do is ruin her life and punish her.
That sort of thing doesn't seem like something he wants to divulge to Jack, no matter how relaxing the other mans mere presence is. He wonders if that's how it is with soul-mates, all consuming. If so he can empathize with the instability his mother felt after his dad died.
"What did you do for a week?" he asks, softer than he usually would, "You know since they kicked you out on your birthday..?"
"I've been trying to get a ride to Helios for the last week but I haven't had any luck." the last person he had gotten a ride from had been handsy at best. Objectively speaking, he had tried to rape him and beat him black and blue when Rhys had fought him off.
"Well it's a good thing I found ya then, huh?" at Rhys' confused glance he added, "Cause, i'm gonna take extra good care of ya, Babydoll." Jack grinned wolfishly at him, and Rhys allowed himself a tiny smile.