(This is my first House of Night fanfic! I love this series, so much. I just finished Tempted, it was really depressing. Anyway, I tried to keep close to the character's personalities. And no I'm not saying Jack Twist is a cry-baby, just that he's over-emotional at times. I love Jack and Damien, they're my favorite couple in the series so far. Next to Zoey and Heath. Anyway, enjoy the fic. Oh, side-note: this is like what happens while the kids are all still at the nuns place. I hope it makes sense...)
"Jack, will you please stop fidgeting? The more you move, the more it's gonna hurt..." young Damien Maslin said as he, carefully, tried to remove the giant wad of chewed up gum from his fidgeting boyfriend's hair.
"It hurts," Jack said, tears slowly rolling down his pink cheeks.
"How did you even get it this stuck in your hair?" Damien asked as he tugged on the gum, frowning when Jack flinched in pain.
"I'd rather not say..." Jack said, his cheeks going bright pink. Damien sighed, he knew what that meant. Jack has a sweet tooth, one of the things Jack loved was candy. He always had some kind of candy in his mouth, most of the time it was Peppermint gum. It wasn't unusual for him to fall asleep with gum in his mouth.
"I hope this teaches you to stop falling asleep with gum in your mouth," Damien muttered, causing Jack's cheeks to go even pinker. Jack's eyes widened and he let out a yelp of pain when Damien gave the gum another tug, "This isn't gonna work," Damien said before placing his hands on his hips, "We're gonna have to cut it out-"
"No!" Jack exclaimed before jumping up off the chair and turning to face Damien.
"We can't just leave it in there, Jack..." Damien said.
"There has to be another way!" Jack said, his lower lip trembling; which caused Damien to frown. Damien opened his mouth, but was cut off by the sound of their door opening. They turned around to see Aphrodite standing at the doorway, her arms crossed and an annoyed expression on her face. She was wearing an over-sized t-shirt that Damien and Jack both knew belonged to Darius, and they could see the straps of her bra.
"Your scaring the hell out of the twins," she snarled. She then rolled her eyes when both of them gave her a question mark look, "All they can hear is," she cleared her throat and did a very bad impression of Jack's voice, "'Ow, Damien! It hurts! Ow! Stop, your hurting me!'" Jack's cheeks instantly went from pink to a dark shade of red. Damien's mouth was hanging open.
"Do they think I was..." he trailed off.
"Duh, and they say your the smart one," This time it was Damien's cheeks that went red. Just then Erin, with Shaunee right behind her, entered the boys room.
"We weren't scared," Shaunee snapped.
"We just didn't want to be traumatized if we had come in here and they," she gestured to Damien and Jack, "Really were doing the nasty."
"So you sent me in instead, how sweet," Aphrodite said sarcastically, the twins smiled innocent smiles at her. Aphrodite turned and looked a the two boys, "Not that I care or anything, but if you guys weren't doing the nasty as they and Mrs. Never-Cusses always say, then what were you doing?"
"Yeah...Jack you look like you just witnessed a murder," Erin said, looking at Jack's tear-stained cheeks.
"Jack got gum stuck in his hair, and I've been trying to get it out," Damien answered.
"You were really screaming like that over gum in the hair?" Shaunee asked, raising a dark eyebrow. Damien looked at his boyfriend.
"Show them," he said. Jack hesitated before turning his back to the three girls and lowering his hands. All three of them gasped in horror. They had expected it to be a little piece of gum, but what they saw was a big piece of gum tangled up in ALOT of Jack's hair.
"Fall asleep with gum in your mouth again?" Erin asked, looking at the piece of gum.
"Does everyone know I do that?" Jack asked, his cheeks going even redder.
"Yeah," all three girls said at the same time.
"You girls know a lot about hair," Damien frowned when each girl idly ran there figures through their hair, Erin ran her fingers through her long straight blonde hair, Shaunee through her wavy dark (almost black) hair, and Aphrodite through her long wavy blonde hair, "Maybe you guys can help him?" the three girls looked at one another- well, Aphrodite looked at the twins and they looked right back at her – before looking back at them.
"Sure, we'd love to help," Erin said.
"Okay, just remember. Jack really cares about his hair, so don't do anything crazy."
"We won't, don't worry," Shaunee said before she and Erin grabbed both Jack's arms and pulled him out of the room. Damien was about to followed when Aphrodite put her hand on his chest and pushed him back.
"You, stay," she said before turning and walking out of the room, closing the door behind her. Damien just stood there, wanting nothing more then to go after them. But he knew Aphrodite would yell at him and make him go back to the room the nuns had given him. So instead, he simply sat down on the edge of his bed and waited...
Damien was awoken from his sleep by the sound of the door slamming. When he opened his eyes, he was really surprised to see that the room was almost completely dark. "Hello...?" he asked, trying to wake up. He looked over and looked at the digital on the table that was in between the beds. He'd been asleep for a good two hours.
"It's me," Damien felt relief wash over him when he heard his boyfriend's voice, "I didn't mean to wake you..." Damien' frowned, Jack sounded like he'd been crying.
"Honey, you okay? You sound like you've been crying..." Damien said before reaching over and snatching the matchbox and candle off the table.
"No!" Jack yelled before ripping the matchbox out of Damien's hands and throwing it across the room, "Y-y-you can't see me!"
"Jack I'm sure you look great," Damien said as he stood up, his eyes slowly becoming used to the darkness.
"They did something horrible to my hair...you can't see it till it looks normal again," Jack said, he sounded like he was crying. Damien slowly walked around the room, his arms outstretched in front of him. After a few seconds, his hands brushed against the fabric of Jack's sweater. He grabbed hold of the sweater and pulled Jack to him. He turned Jack around so that he was facing him.
"I don't care how your hair looks," Damien said truthfully, "I only care about you..." Damien leaned forward and kissed Jack softly on the lips, "You should know that by now," Jack remained silent, "You could be completely and freakishly deformed, and I wouldn't care."
"Really?" Jack asked as he sniffled and tried to stop from crying.
"Really," Damien said, smiling, "So...can I see what they did? I'm sure it doesn't look as bad as you think," Jack hesitated a few seconds before moving away. Damien stood there, listening as Jack carefully made his way over to the bed the matchbox was resting on. Nearly a minute had passed before Jack managed to find the box. He then turned to Damien, who he was able to almost see now that his eyes were used to the dark. He held out his hand.
"Candle please..." Jack said, nervousness filling his voice. It was then that Damien realized he had still been holding the candle. He handed it over to Jack. After lighting a match, Jack lit the candle; causing light to slowly fill the room. After blinking a few times, Damien turned and looked at his boyfriend. His jaw dropped, "You hate it!" Jack cried out, covering his face with both hands.
"No, no!" Damien said, quickly going over to his boyfriend and wrapping his arms around him, "It's just...different, that's all," Damien said. Before, Jack's blonde hair was shaggy and stuck up in random directions, making the kid look like he had just rolled out of bed. Now...now it was gone. All gone. Nothing left but mere short stubble. "I told them not to do anything crazy..."
"They couldn't get the gum out!" Jack said, more tears rolling down his cheeks. He threw his arms around Damien, "So they cut it out, and they cut it short! They tried to even out the rest of it. And they just kept going shorter and shorter and shorter till there was almost nothing left!" Jack sobbed, "Now I look horrible!"
"No, you don't!" Damien said before pulling Jack away and looking at him again. He didn't look too bad, he had the perfect head shape for the hairstyle. And, even though he'd never tell Jack, his ears now stood out much more but it just made him look extremely adorable, "You look unbelievably adorable,"
"Really?"
"Yes! Now don't cry," Damien reached over and wiped the remaining tears off Jack's cheek, "Tomorrow, I'll talk to the girls. But for now," he smiled, "Lets get some sleep," he led Jack over to his bed and the two of them laid down together. Jack snuggled up against Damien, who smiled before putting his arm protectively around him. "Goodnight Jack, I love you."
"I love you too, and thanks for making me feel better," Jack said. And then, after Damien reached over and put the candle back out, the two went to sleep.