I do not own Xiaolin Showdown.

Jack started pacing the moment he landed in his lab. There would definitely be no sleep for him tonight, well what was left of the night. For some reason Wuya was nowhere to be seen; she had been disappearing a lot lately.

'It's okay,' he told himself. 'Clay will just think it was a dream.'

Jack shivered, the lab was often cold, and crossed his arms over his bare chest.

Oh shit! He had left the tattered remains of his shirt in the cowboy's room. Well he would just have to go and retrieve it then. Turning Jack, seeing the time on his clock, swore again. He didn't have enough time to get there before Clay woke up. Jack took several deep breathes to calm himself down.

'Time to think like the genius you are,' he told himself.

Jack figured, slash hoped, the other monks would be too scared to come after him. The problem was that he still didn't know Clay. The cowboy was an unknown variable in his equation and Jack hated those; well he loved figuring them out but he didn't have the time to do that right now. What would the monk do? Maybe he would come after Jack in anger since the goth had invaded his dream, or maybe he would come for more; Jack had left him rather unsatisfied after all. He couldn't help but blush at the memory and shook his head to focus. Maybe he would just pretend it hadn't happened.

There were too many maybes for his liking. Jack was a genius; he wanted facts and there were none in this situation.

'Well the fact that Clay is attracted to me has been confirmed,' he though as he touched the hickey on his neck.

Before anything else, though, he needed a shower. Jack got himself cleaned up and in new clothes before upgrading his security…just in case.

He could use the other monk's fears against them if they came. However he still had no idea what to do about Clay. The sad thing was that Jack knew this could go nowhere. The genius was heylin while the monk was xaiolin and neither of them was capable of changing. Would they just keep having these little moments then; kisses in the dark until they beat each other up?

Suddenly an idea struck him, one that, for once had nothing to do with Clay. The other monks would be scared out of their minds. This was the perfect opportunity to steal the rest of the wu. There would be only one guard, granted that guard would be Clay, and he could work his way around that. If he managed to steal the rest of the wu the monks would have to come find him. He would get to see Clay again and surely he would be impressed with how skilled Jack was. He would have to figure out a way to get at the wu without having to face the dragon; he couldn't fight the man and would probably just jump him instead if they were face to face alone again. Jack turned to survey what wu he had and then grinned as another brilliant idea occurred to him.

XXX

Jack couldn't believe he hadn't thought of this before; it was absolutely genius. The goth was currently standing in the monks well, curtesy of the golden tiger claws. Sure the water was almost to his neck and he was claustrophobic as well as afraid of the dark but he would deal. What he meant by dealing was releasing a little whimper and quickly using the serpents tail to slide through the wall before he began to hyperventilate. He slid through rock and dirt until he found himself at the bottom of the vault. Jack resisted the urge to cheer, which would be stupid, and slipped the falcon's eye over his, well, eye. Glancing up he released a sigh when he saw Clay sitting by the door. He took his time gathering the wu; he would have preferred getting out of there as soon as possible but he knew that ran the risk of noise. He had to make several trips before he had them all and before he left he glanced up at where Clay was. He stood there for a moment thinking, and biting his lip, before leaving the fist of tebigong behind. It would make a good apology for invading Clay's dream.

Once he was safely home he finally let out his victory cheer. He had done it; Jack now owned all the wu, and he had managed it without tripping once. He quickly proceeded to hide most of the wu around the house. The ones that he didn't particularly care about he hid behind several slightly obvious traps. The ones he wanted to keep he hid behind many subtle traps. He kept the monkey staff, shadow of fear, shroud of shadows, eye of dashi, and jetbootsu on him though. He was hoping to avoid as much of the fighting as he possibly could.

The genius was working on upgrading his jackbots when he heard the alarm go off and he quickly made his way outside. If he allowed the monks to fight in his lab they would destroy the place so he met them out on the grass instead.

"Hey xaiolin losers," he greeted them cheerfully.

Of course he was in a good mood; he had stolen all of their wu, and right out from under their noses. He couldn't help but glance over at Clay; he was hoping the cowboy would look impressed at Jack's awesomeness; instead here was an indefinable expression on his face. Jack coughed and turned his gaze back to the others. To his amusement and pleasure they were all looking a little nervous and scared.

"Give them back Spicer."

Jack's heart gave a thump when he heard Clay speak. There was something wrong with his voice though. It was painfully calm as though he was holding back anger. Jack switched his gaze back to the blond and studied him. The monk was standing tall, as handsome as ever, and was carrying the fist of tebigong.

"After all the work I went through to steal them? No way," he said incredulously.

"Then we'll take them back," the cowboy said firmly.

Jack grinned smugly.

"You can try. Shadow of Fear," he called out before anyone could stop him.

The genius cackled in delight as he watched Omi run screaming in terror. A giant squirrel of all things; it was just too funny. He ended up letting the pipsqueak distract him for too long though and he felt someone crash into him.

Once again the goth found himself pressed into the ground by Clay's weight. This time was different though as the stronger man's hands were pinning his wrists above his head. The grip was tight enough to be painful and Jack swore he could hear his bones screaming under the assault.

'I'll have bruises tomorrow,' Jack winced. 'If Clay doesn't outright break them.'

He met Clay's eyes and swallowed nervously. There was anger burning in the sea blue; Jack felt fear, a lot of it, and something else; something that was almost overshadowing that fear; a heat spreading through his lower body.

'Clay is sexy as hell when angry,' he realised.

"So, uh, hey cowboy," he said as he strained up against the extremely hard grip.

'Yeah, nope, not going anywhere.'

"What do ya think yer doin' Spicer?"

Jack peered up at him in confusion; he didn't like the pang that shot through his hear at hearing the cowboy use his last name.

"Being pinned by you," he said as though it was obvious.

Absentmindedly his body had started arching up against Clay's body. The man was moving nowhere and was providing some delicious friction that Jack was really enjoying. When he realised what he was doing he turned his head to the side in embarrassment, accidently exposing the hickey on his neck. Clay's eyes narrowed when he saw it and his grip tightened even more.

"So ya did take a stroll through my dreams."

"No!" Jack blurted and whipped his head back to the cowboy. "I mean yes but I never planned on using your fears. I just wanted to learn more about you," he said quickly without taking a breath.

Clay was studying him closely which made Jack swallow; his throat was very dry all of a sudden and he found himself trying to avoid the monk's gaze.

"And? Did ya find anything?"

"Ah, well, no," Jack admitted. "I got a little distracted."

His face reddened at the memory and to his delight he noticed a smile slowly appearing on Clay's face.

'At some point I'll have to look into these weird feelings Clay inspired,' Jack thought. 'But not today.'

The young genius could still hear Omi's screams in the background so he knew the fight was still in his favor, but he wouldn't be able to win the battle if he continued to be pinned by Clay. So, no matter how good the warrior above him felt, he needed to escape. It turned out that Jack didn't actually have to do anything because Raimundo came flying through the air and knocked Clay off of him. Jack, taking advantage of the moment, rolled to his feet.

"Jetbootsu," he called out and jumped into the air.

He made sure to stay well above their heads as he glanced around.

"Jackbots," he said absentmindedly as he surveyed the battle ground.

A huge swarm of the robots surrounded Clay to keep him busy, and away from Jack, so the goth could concentrate. The other monks were still busy running from their fears. A giant squirrel, doll, and a…jelly fish thing.

'And the monks call me messed up,' he scoffed.

Jack pulled out the eye of dashi and took careful aim. He released a cheer when raimondu went flying. The Brazilians clothes were singed as was his hair and, to Jack's delight, the monk was limping when he pulled himself to his feet. Raimondu was always the biggest jerk towards him; Kimiko was the next so Jack took aim at her. It took several tries but he managed to hit her as well.

'Really should use that archery range Mom has out back,' he thought.

He had never bothered, since his Jackbots tended to do the fighting for him, but it might help improve his aim. He almost felt bad taking aim at Omi; the little cheeseball was pathetically nice sometimes. A loud crunching noise distracted him from the little monk before he could take aim. Turning around his happy face turned into a scowling one. A little ways away Clay was pummeling his Jackbots with the fist of Tebigong.

"You shouldn't be using my present to attack my creations," Jack scolded the other monk, making sure to float a good distance above his head.

His whole body stilled as Clay shot a venom filled glare at him.

"I'll use yer gift however I like," he growled and Jack backed away quickly.

It looked like his cowboy had some anger to work out; Jack was more than happy to leave him to it. His scowl reappeared when he turned around. It looked like the other monks had finally developed a strategy. They had switched their fears so as to more effectively fight them. Jack managed to hit them a few more times with the eye, cheering each time, but it was hard. Even tired and wounded the blasted monks were fast. He was still pretty proud of his aim though and was definitely planning on practicing the skill. Unfortunately, for Jack, they managed to defeat their fears which then proceeded to fade away.

Jack had been improving his robots, which was why they had managed to hold off Clay, but they were still not strong enough to handle all of the monks. He laughed nervously when all four turned to look at him.

"Wow, would you look at the time; I have, um, some stuff to do so, uh, see ya," Jack said edging, well technically, floating backwards.

The genius let out a yelp and flew to the side when Omi jumped at him.

'How can they jump so high,' he though worriedly as he dodged another kick.

Jack felt something wrap around his foot and he released one of his patented girly screams as it dragged him down. He fully expected to hit the ground but instead landed with a whumph in Clay's arms.

'Hopefully this doesn't become a habit,' Jack thought as he anxiously looked up.

He breathed out when he saw that the anger was mostly gone. The monk must have worked it out on his robots. The genius felt a pang of hurt for his poor babies lying in pieces all over the yard. Clay made quick work of tying Jack's hands behind his back, making the albino wince. He had forgotten about the pain during the fight but his wrists were pretty damaged. There was a flash of, what might be, guilt on the warriors face but he quickly turned his gaze on the other monks.

"I'll watch em," he said. "Ya'll go search the mansion."

Raimundo and Kimiko were both glaring at him angrily. Their clothes and hair were burnt pretty badly he noticed with delight. Kimiko was better off, being the dragon of fire, but Raimundo looked awful. The previous mentioned man sneered at Jack before nodding.

"Yeah, he'll be least likely to run from you; the fucking queer."

They headed into Jack's house as he stared after them. Clay had him held from behind so the albino had to tilt his head back to look at him

"What was he talking about?" he asked angrily.

His answer was Clay's mouth crashing down on his and Jack groaned. His angle was terrible and his neck hurt but the cowboy seemed to enjoy being in control. When the monk pulled away Jack whined in annoyance. He was breathing heavily and scowled at him.

"Ya don't have ta do this Jack," Clay said suddenly.

Jack pointedly ignored the little burst of happiness at hearing his first name uttered from the other man's lips. Instead he studied Clay carefully. The monk had let out a little bit of rope so Jack's hands were still tied but he was on a bit of a leash. This allowed him to turn to face the other more easily.

"Don't have to do what?" he asked cautiously.

"This."

Clay waved his hand at the surrounding area.

"Ya don't have to be evil," he explained.

Jack just stared at him so Clay continued.

"Ya could come with us to the temple. Yer not very good at bein' evil Jack but yer talents could help a lot of people."

The genius was torn; all he had ever known was evil, but on the other hand Clay was right. He wasn't very good at it; how often did he win? The rare time he did manage a victory the monks defeated him shortly after which rendered his win null and void. And if he did go with them he would get to see more of Clay; there would be less of this sneaking around.

"Well, this was not what I was expecting," a smooth voice said.

Jack, gladly taking the distraction from his thoughts, looked up. Standing before him was a young man with long black hair; there was a greenish hue to it and he was wearing armor. Jack recognized him immediately.

"Chase Young," he squealed and tried to step forward.

Tried and failed thanks to the short leash Clay had him on and he stumbled instead. He managed to turn it into a shaky bow and was rather pleased with himself.

"You're Chase Young," he breathed. "Chase Young is in my backyard."

Any thought of Clay's proposal fled his mind as he stared at the legend in front of him.

"You're my idol."

"What in tarnation are ya doin' here Chase?"

There was a venomous tone in Clay's voice that Jack had never heard before. It made him shiver as he looked between the two of them.

"Wait? You know him?" he asked jealously.

"I heard that someone stole all the wu," Chase replied, ignoring Jack's earlier ramblings.

"That was me," Jack quickly inserted.

Chase's eyes slid over the genius slowly causing Clay to growl.

"I'm not overly impressed."

Jack visibly dropped in disappointment and sadness.

"However-"

Jack's head raised back up as he stared at Chase hopefully.

"-You are not completely hopeless. There is a little potential."

The man's golden eyes flickered towards Clay. Jack was too excited to notice but the monk glared back. Chase's lips twitched up in a smirk.

"I don't take disappointment well," he warned Jack before disappearing.

The albino stood still for a moment before turning his head to look at Clay. There was a huge grin on his face and the young man was practically bouncing.

"Did you hear that Clay," he said excitedly. "Chase Young, my hero, is giving me a chance."

"I heard all right. It was louder than a summer storm," Clay replied grimly.

Any more conversation was cut off as the other monks returned. Jack couldn't help but cackle when he saw them. They all looked horrible; Raimundo had a bleeding cut on his cheek-

'Probably from one of my arrow traps.'

- And Kimiko was limping heavily on her right side.

'Must have stepped on the nails,' Jack grinned inwardly and outwardly. 'Sometimes the old ones are the best.'

Omi, to his disappointment, was relatively fine; some bruises and cuts but nothing major. Still this was the most damage he had caused the monks in, well, ever. Raimundo stepped forward and punched him hard in the stomach causing Jack to lurch forward with a pained groan. He probably would have fallen if the rope wasn't holding him up.

"Fucking bastard," the monk snarled. "You better hope this doesn't scar."

Jack laughed through his pain.

"What? Don't want to ruin your pretty face," he mocked sarcastically.

Raimundo answered with another punch; this one to Jack's face. The goth winced as he felt his lip split and his eye bruised almost instantly. At least his nose wasn't broken.

"We should take em back to the temple."

All eyes, including Jacks, focused on the cowboy.

"What? Why?" they all chorused at the same time.

The monks in anger, even omi looked angry, Jack noticed uneasily; Jack with honest confusion.

"If we leave em he will jus' do this again. Better to keep an eye on the varmint."

Jack looked between the monks in disbelief.

"You can't kidnap me," he said. "You're the good guys."

To his alarm there was a devious glint in Raimundo's and Kimiko's eyes.

"Yes, keep an eye on him," the brazilian sneered.

Jack did not like the sound of this at all. He turned his eyes to Omi hopefully. The dragon of water was usually the easiest to persuade but the monks was looking far too thoughtful for his liking.

"Yes, I can hear your reasoning friend Clay."

"What reasoning," Jack protested. "What are you going to do? Lock me in your dungeon?"

The last bit he said sarcastically.

"Yes," Raimundo said and Jack stared at him.

"Wait…you have a dungeon?"

"Of course we don't you moron," Kimiko replied condescendingly.

"Bet I could make one though," Raimundo added with a smirk.

'They were serious,' Jack realised in horror.

"You can't take me like this," he said trying, and failing, to keep the tremble out of his voice. "I am not wearing that stupid monk suit. At least let me grab some clothes and my toothbrush."

He adapted the best puppy eyes he could and turned them on Omi. He heard Raimundo scoff scornfully but they seemed to have an effect on the smallest monk.

"Ah, well…"

"I'll take em," Clay offered.

"Good," Omi beamed. "Clay will help Jack lose clothes."

Jack's face turned bright red and Raimundo broke down laughing.

"I think ya meant find clothes pardner," Clay said in amusement.

The cowboy led Jack into the mansion and the goth couldn't resist a grin when he saw the arrows struck in the wall. Clay turned towards the basement but Jack shook his head.

"My bedroom is upstairs," he said.

The genius couldn't get far; Clay was still holding onto the rope attached to his wrists.

'I'm like a dog on a least,' he thought annoyed.

He was very much aware of the monk's heat at his back and he came to a stop in the middle of a hallway. There was a painting of his grandma on the wall and the albino let out a breath.

"Were you serious before?"

Clay tugged on the rope, turning Jack to face him. It made him feel even more like a dog but, somehow, it was exciting when Clay did it.

"More serious than a farmer in a drought," he replied.

Jack made a face at the phrasing of the answer before looking Clay in the eye. He was short enough that he could see under the hair and hat into his blue eyes.

"Will you let me come in my own power?" he asked, holding out his arms.

Clay stared at him for a moment before stepping forward. Jack held his breath as the monk gazed at him before nodding slowly. The goth broke out in a grin when the cowboy untied him and immediately stepped forward to kiss him. He hadn't planned on the kiss, it had just happened, but it was only supposed to be a thank you kiss. Clay took that sweet kiss and turned it dirty.

The cowboy's arms wrapped around Jack's waist and he dragged the genius against him. Jack gasped and Clay took advantage of the open mouth causing him to moan. The monk was warm and hard against him and he felt amazing; Jack's hands slid up, knocking the cowboy hat off, to tangle in the taller man's hair. The kiss went on until Jack managed to gasp a breath and back away a couple steps. He placed a hand on the wall to steady himself as he was feeling a little wobbly. Looking up, his breathing still heavy, he saw ruffled blonde hair and lust in those blue eyes. Jack took a moment to catch his breath before stepping closer to his cowboy, dragging his hand along the wall. He looked Clay in the eyes, red on blue, before smiling sadly.

"Sorry Clay," he said and pressed a button hidden behind his Grandma's painting.

A trap door opened beneath the cowboy's feet and he vanished down it with a yell.

"Security code: Lockdown," Jack said clearly and thick sheets of mental descended over the doors and windows.

The genius raced downstairs to his lab and turned on the camera and microphone located outside. He got there just in time to see Clay picking himself up off the ground. He was missing his hat, it had fallen off upstairs he remembered, and there was murder in his eyes.

Jack almost took a step back, in fear, when Clay headed towards the mansion; the monk had grabbed the fist of tebigong on his way and looked like he was going to bash his way back in. The thought worried Jack; he had tested the defenses against everything from gunfire to battering ram, don't ask how he had managed that, but he hadn't gotten the chance to test them against the sheng gong wu. Before he got to see a live test though, the other monks stepped forward.

"Woah cowboy," Raimundo said. "Jack's not worth it."

"He's way annoying," Kimiko added.

"If he pops back down, we will just defeat him again," Omi said confidently.

"Sides, I don't want to deal with his annoying voice at the temple," Raimundo finished.

Jack held his breath; there was a tiny flame of hope inside him as he watched Clay's face.

"Yeah, I reckon yer right," Clay responded after a moment and the flame died.

Jack knew he was annoying; pretty much everyone he ever met told him so. Still…he had hoped Clay was different; that the cowboy had liked him for him.

Clay Bailey left to return to the temple with anger burning inside him and Jack Spicer sat on the ground, leaned his back against the wall, and tried not to cry.

XXXXX

AN: Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I wasn't really feeling it and then someone on DA commented on the last chapter and suddenly I wanted to write it. I started on this about ten minutes later. This is why you should review haha.

I honestly hadn't expected this to be so long; it just kind of grew and grew on me. So there are some parts of this I like and others I am not sure on. For one: what do you think of Clay's accent? I tried to get tips from the internet but I would still like your opinion. Second: what do you think of Chase. Was he in character? I am not overly familiar with his character so I thought I should check.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.