Two Monsters and Hyperion Yellow
Maya looked on with soft, understanding eyes. She knew the two needed their space. The scene drew up emotions from the Siren that were unexpected and foreign.
She drew in a deep, whisper of a breath and let her shoulders fall.
She was exhausted from the exert of energy. Her muscled felt stretched, limp, and used. She felt heavy, tired.
"Axton..." She whispered, her voice light and strained.
Axton looked up to meet Maya's tired eyes as he continued to cradle Jack.
"If you need anything, you know where to find me." She breathed tiredly, looking over the two men softly.
Axton simply nodded and offered her a small, grateful smile. A smile that voiced everything he could not express through words. A smile that addressed this favor that could never possibly be repaid. A favor beyond what friends ask of each other. He could never be able to thank her properly, not in all the days that he lived. This went beyond the lines of friendship. Maya was a saint.
"Thank you." Axton whispered, eyes wet with shed tears, voice cracking at the words.
Maya smiled tiredly at the commando.
"I will check on you in the morning if you want?" She said her eyes so very soft, motherly, loving.
Axton nodded.
"I'd like that." He assured her.
With a small nod, Maya turned and was gone.
A heavy silence was beginning to settle over the room now. Seconds before it had been filled with terrible, terrible sounds...and now everything seemed to still. The machine laid dormant again, its inner workings dying, the life fading from them.
Jack made no sound as Axton held him.
His fingers dug into Axton's shirt harshly, as if he feared that Axton could fade away at any second.
Axton made a move to lean away and Jack's hands clenched frantically.
"N-no, no, don't leave me..." Jack stuttered, fear rising like bile up from his throat.
Axton rubbed a gentle hand over the crumpled man's shoulder blades.
"I'm not. I promise. I'm not going anywhere." Axton whispered soothingly.
"Can you stand?" Axton asked softly.
Jack shook his head pitifully.
"That's ok, I've got you...let's get you cleaned up, ok?" Axton whispered in Jack's mud caked ear.
Jack nods again, words failing him miserably.
Axton gently snakes his strong arms around the thin man, cradling him tenderly, lifting him to his heavy chest as if he weighs nothing.
He's so filthy.
His hair stiff with mud in some places, and soaked with water in others. Dirty water streaked down Axton's wrists and dribbled off his elbows.
He leaves a trail of muddied water in his wake as he takes Jack away.
Takes him away from the machine that birthed him to life once more.
Jack weakly hangs his arms around Axton's thick neck, his eyes barely open, lids falling over them tiredly.
His body is alive, blood rushing through his veins...but he's so weak. So very weak, and so very tired.
Exhausted, is a better word. His body strained from the overworking of life being thrust back upon it. His body was dormant, done, ready for decay...and now it was forced into hosting a soul once more.
Jack's tired blue eye looked up at the commando through dirty locks of hair. Axton's eyes were tired too.
But tired for entirely different reasons.
Exhausted from the worry. Exhausted from the thought that Jack would not be returned to him.
Exhausted from the thought that Jack may not be able to stay. He was alive. Axton had taken all the right steps, followed the book as close as possible...but would it be enough? Could something still go wrong?
Could he possibly lose Jack again?
Axton's fingers tightened on the slender man as he carried him to the bathroom.
He didn't want to think like that...but he had to. He had to be prepared for anything. The first few hours were crucial. He had to make sure Jack was carefully monitored.
Axton pulled the shower door back and carefully turned the nobs, all while cautiously juggling Jack's weakened form.
When the water ran warm Axton gently set Jack down on the bathroom floor. Jack looked like a frightened child, unwilling to leave Axton's protective arms. Terrified of everything around him. The living world was alien now, and he was out of place.
Jack's fingers clutched Axton's shirt for dear life, eye wide as he looked at Axton, unwilling to let the commando's grip leave him.
Axton offered him a soft, genuine smile.
"I'm right here. Just gotta get you out of these clothes." Axton whispered to the scared man.
Jack's fingers reluctantly loosened, eye searching Axton, as if to make sure he was being truthful.
Axton reached down and stripped the jacket off Jack's shoulders. He dropped it onto the floor with a wet, sick, undesirable, slap. His clothes were wet with earth, blood, and who knew what else.
The stench of death clung to them like a heavy drape.
The smell alone was enough to make any sane soul gag.
Axton did his best to ignore the smell.
But it was putrid, and only seemed to grow in intensity as he pulled back the clothing layers.
Axton gently tugged Jack's shirt off, Jack weakly lifting his thin arms, allowing the soaked clothing to leave him.
The shirt was the worst.
The last shred of clothing between Jack's flesh and Axton eyes.
It had soaked up the worst of the blood from the gunshot. What was once orange was now a dark, threatening, maroon.
Axton balled it up and tucked it underneath the growing pile of shed garments. Jack didn't need to see that.
Not now at least.
Jack sat hunched over, struggling to keep his eyes open, a pitiful frown set upon his face as Axton slipped each of his shoes off his chilled feet.
Axton was gentle in the taking of clothing. Slowly taking each piece from Jack's now shivering body.
Axton hauled Jack up by his shoulders and let him lean heavy on him as he drew down his tattered jeans and undergarments.
Jack whimpered in the cold, legs shaking violently, threatening to go out again.
Axton grabbed him protectively to stop him from teetering over.
Jack's lip was still bleeding a little from the first spill, he didn't need another one.
Axton gently sat Jack down in the shower's streaming water, steam now billowing up from the tile flooring.
Jack leaned hard on the stoney colored tiling and his body seemed to unravel at the offering of warmth.
Axton looked over Jack with loving, concerned eyes. Watching him as if he were a newborn child, and all the world was dangerous to him.
Axton looked down at himself, he was just as disgusting as Jack had been. The stench of grave robbing clung to him like an unwanted guest.
He grimaced and began stripping out of his clothes.
He added them to the stinking pile in the bathroom corner and joined Jack in the arm, running water.
He closed the glass door and gently eased himself down into a crouching position beside Jack.
Axton gently pulled Jack into his lap, allowing him to settle between his knees and lean hard on his broad chest.
"There. Better?" Axton whispered softly in Jack's ear.
Jack nodded slowly.
The motion was weak, and strained, his neck heavy with the need for rest.
His body begged for it.
Axton lathered Jack's hair with shampoo and massaged the suds into his wispy brown locks. Jack sighed outwardly at the advancement.
He seemed to melt into Axton's touch.
Put at ease by his gentle, working fingers.
Axton continued down Jack's body, soaping him, washing him, the memories of the night washing down the drain in the form of muddied, crimson water.
Once Jack and himself were clean Axton just allowed the moment to hang there.
Jack rested his cheek into the crook of Axton's neck, as if needing to be closer to him. Not wanting to be any farther from Axton than this.
Needing to feel the commandos heartbeat thrumming just underneath the flesh. Needing to feel that he is here, present in the very moment Jack needed him most.
Axton soothes his hand through Jack's wet, freshly clean hair.
He smells like lavender.
Maya's borrowed shampoo because Axton had run out and was too lazy to buy more meant form men. So thick, fragrant, lavender it was.
If Jack had been himself, Axton was sure he'd have made some snide comment about it. Axton wished he would.
Jack's snark was greatly missed at the moment as he laid crumpled against Axton's chest.
Axton immediately wondered...if Jack would ever be the same. Or would he just be the shell of a man that crossed the line between life and death and saw the horrors and would never recover from that.
What had he seen?
On the other side...
Axton frowned against Jack's scalp.
Only time would tell if Jack would ever really be ready to explain what all he'd experienced after the living world.
Axton had no way of knowing that Jack that he had brought back. Would he be the Jack Axton had fallen for in the first place? Or the Jack that had spiraled downward into a place of insanity that he could not be dragged from.
Axton refused to let that happen again.
He would not let that darkness take Jack again.
Axton's fingers ran down Jack's slender shoulders thoughtfully, exploring the form beneath.
Jack was thin. Much thinner than Axton had remembered.
Jack had been formidable when he and Axton had first collided what felt like so long ago. His toned abdomen heaving against Axton's in the front seat of the Hyperion vehicle.
Axton's palms had run up his torso, bundling Jack's clothing around the tops of his wrists, pushing it up the CEO's chest.
Jack had snarled out some comment about "You like what you see kiddo?" and Axton had ignored it.
Back then he'd still hated Jack.
Hated him and wanted him in the same breath and the matter of the fact gave him a sick feeling in his stomach. Jack had still made him feel a little ill when he thought too much about it.
But in that front seat, in that moment, where Jack sat spread across Axton's lap like a king to a throne, Axton had forgotten that hate.
Axton had pressed Jack into the glovebox meanly, bigger and heavier than the Hyperion overlord. But Jack had pushed back, strong, unpredictable and just as fucking mean. The first kiss was a power struggle. Teeth bumping a little too hard, tongues forcing down throats, hands grasping hair and flesh alike just attempting to find something to hold onto.
Axton remembered the bruises from that time. They'd blossomed like ugly purple and red flowers across his back, his shoulders, and his torso where Jack had kneed him and he wasn't exactly sure if had been an accident or not.
But god he remembered how desperate Jack had looked. How he had completely come apart for Axton's viewing pleasure as the commando had stroked his hard flesh feverishly. How he'd forced the CEO to come so hard he'd practically passed out. Axton buried to the hilt in Jack's ass, the ring of flesh squeezing around his base over and over again as Jack had come all over the commando's chest, the window and his own shirt. It was so fucking shameless.
Axton smiled fondly into Jack's hair.
"You need sleep. Let's get you to bed." Axton breathed tiredly.
He helped Jack up, but ultimately decided on just carrying the pitiful man again. Getting him to the bed would have taken ages if let walk on his own two feet.
Axton laid Jack down on the heavy comforters and fetched a t-shirt and some sweat pants.
They were a little too big for the thin man, but the would have to do.
Axton pulled the sweatpants onto Jack with little help from the other man, who was already drifting in and out of sleep.
Axton tucked the covers around Jack's form and the tired man curled into the warm bedding, sighing out slowly.
Axton slipped in beside him, arms curling around the slighter man's already sleeping form. Axton knew Jack was already gone into the folds of sleep, but he just felt the need to say it.
"I missed you..." Axton whispered against the shell of Jack's ear.
Jack did not stir, nor hear the comment.
Maybe it was better that way.
Axton knew it was said.
And god was it ever true.
Axton's eyes rolled beneath their lids.
His body fought away the oncoming awakening with all that it had. His soul was desperate to cling to the sleep that he had not had in days. The absence of sleep had left his body struggling along, empty and hollow. Tired and needing to just...sleep.
Axton's eyelids fluttered open slowly, softly, weakly.
Morning sun blurred his vision and caused him to blink rapidly. He winced at the unexpected brightness.
A small grumble of a moan reminded him that he was not alone in the large bed.
Axton looked over to the opposite side of the bed, the side closest to the window.
The lump of blankets was bathed in pearly light, illuminating the moment in yellow rays.
The pile of comforters groaned and shifted slowly.
Axton reached over to pull back the covers ever so slightly, only to be met by the squinted up glare of a freshly awoken Jack.
Jack's eyes pulled shut and he curled under the blankets away from the new sunlight.
He rubbed the man through the comforters, touching Jack's shoulder lightly.
"You hungry?" Axton asked leaning over Jack's form.
Jack muttered something from underneath his tangle of sheets and comforters that sounded to be a type of yes.
Axton looked on fondly at the other man as he curled back to sleep.
Axton slipped on a pair of boxers modestly, and yanked the door open leaving Jack to rest.
He locked the door behind him...just in case.
Axton padded down the stairwell at a fast, jovial pace, taking two or three steps at a time.
The house was bustling with noise, voice rising and falling and footsteps padding around the hard wood flooring.
Axton immediately wondered what time of day it might be...
Axton rounded the corner to find the table set with not breakfast, but lunch. Salvador and Krieg were eating in the living room, sharing a bag of chips noisily.
Maya was humming and fixing herself a sandwich, Zero not far from her as per-normal. The guy followed her like a shadow. Obsessed with her, crooning over her, but then again who wouldn't? Maya was a beautiful as they came. Her heart swelling with love and kindness for others. Her's eyes always sparkling with wonder and concern for those in need.
She looked up as Axton approached, a small smile breaking across her lips. The secret of what they had done hung between their gaze.
Both knowing.
Neither telling.
"Well good afternoon commando." She said smiling.
"Feeling better? Sleep is good. You needed the rest to regenerate." Zero mused displaying a smiling hologram in the commando's direction.
Axton nodded.
"Yeah I'm feeling a lot better now. So what's for lunch?" Axton said leaning on the counter.
Suddenly there was a hard slap to Axton's left ass cheek.
He yelped and turned around rubbing his buttocks.
"How's about we have a slice of that sweet ass for lunch?" Gaige screeched laughing so hard Axton thought the weird redhead might pass out.
"God damn it Gaige would you quit!" Axton bellowed.
"Oh c'mon you big party pooper! I haven't gotten to mess with you in like four days! I missed that nice bubble butt!" Gaige cackled as she danced passed him, grabbed an apple off the counter and headed off to join Salvador and Krieg in the den.
"That's why you shouldn't wear form fitting boxers around the house." Maya chuckled lightly finishing her lunchtime creation.
Axton rolled his eyes and went about making lunch of his own.
He fixed himself a sandwich adorned with turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, the works. Then went about making a second. Just ham and cheese. Nothing else.
Jack was a picky son or a bitch.
He liked nothing more on his sandwiches than the bare minimum.
Maya smiled at him and the two sandwiches.
Axton returned the small gesture and was gone, taking his lunch to eat "alone".
Axton unlocked his door and pushed it open with his shoulder, carefully balancing each plateful of lunch.
The lump in the bed seemed to have not moved.
Axton gently sat Jack's plate on the bedside table and then eased himself onto the bed's edge.
The mattress dipped with the commando's presence and the sleeping form underneath the comforters groaned in annoyance.
Jack slowly sat up, the blankets pooling around his chest as he did so.
He squinted at Axton, eyes tired, hair a tangled mess from sleeping on it wet.
Axton just smiled at him.
"Brought you food." Axton said nodding toward the bedside table.
Jack looked at the food, scrutinizing the plateful of sandwich, chips and an apple.
Without another word Jack was leaned over, dragging the plate toward him. He set the food in his lap and went about stuffing it in his mouth as fast as possible.
Normally Jack ate like a bird. Picking at it delicately, always refusing to use his hands. Manners were important to the former Hyperion CEO...but those seemed to go out the window rather quickly with the onset of near starvation. Technically his body had not had food in three days.
He was absolutely famished.
Jack swallowed obscenely, the almost completely consumed sandwich in one hand, and too many chips in the other.
"Slow down you're gunna choke." Axton mused at the other man.
Jack only looked at Axton sheepishly over his meal.
He acted as if someone could take the food from him at any second.
Fearful that he would not be able to keep the meal in the end.
Axton could sense the fear, and hesitation in Jack's eyes.
The nourishment seemed so much more precious to Jack than Axton fully understood.
Axton slowly shuffled across the bed to sit next to the brown haired man.
He put one arm around Jack's shoulder and rubbed it soothingly.
A little bit of food clung to Jack's lip as he frowned at Axton.
The commando smiled gently and wiped the crumbs away with the pad of his thumb.
They sat there in silence for a few moments. No words needed between the two men. Axton was ok with just sitting, just being there.
He knew not what was going on in Jack's head. What he had been through...
"They didn't let us eat." Jack whispered softly, staring down at the food, his blue eye glossy and unmoving.
Axton looked at him with, furrowed, concerned eyes.
"Who didn't...?" Axton whispered touching Jack's cheek.
Jack shook his head violently.
His face screwed into an expression of utter terror and pain. His eyes squeezed shut and his teeth gritted, lips pulling back over clenched white teeth. He tried to hold them back. But they came anyway.
The tears.
Heavy and warm as they slid down Jack's scarred cheeks.
They collected in the deep hollows of the blue scar, wetting the taught skin delicately.
Axton set his plate aside to pull Jack close to him.
Jack wilted around him, shuttering with sobs, falling apart in the commando's arms.
Axton hugged him close, feeling Jack's body convulse into rattling tears.
Jack's slender fingers scraped over Axton's back, almost a little too roughly.
The man seemed frantic to cling to Axton, for fear that Axton might suddenly just fade away.
Like he was only a temporary thing.
Only here for a moment before he would be gone.
This was only for a second in time. If Jack blinked the man would be gone.
The only thing he cared about would be gone.
The only person he could cling to in his time of need.
Jack sobbed shamelessly into Axton's shoulder, burying his face in the crook of his neck.
Axton shushed him softly.
Seeing him like this was harder than he ever could have expected.
Handsome Jack did not cry.
Handsome Jack did not show emotion of any kind.
Handsome Jack felt nothing.
No love.
No sorrow.
Handsome Jack was hollow.
Yet...here he was falling apart at the seams in Axton's heavy arms, and all the commando could do was watch.
"I'm so sorry Jack...it's all my fault." Axton breathed against Jack's rushing pulse.
If he had just been there for him.
If he had just talked to him...
If he had just tried harder.
Maybe...just maybe Jack would not have fallen apart.
But as hard as Axton tried to convince himself that all this was true...he knew it was not.
He had tried.
He had talked to him.
He had been there for him.
After Angel's death...Axton had tried.
Going against his better judgement and his own sanity he had thrown out all concerns for his own safety.
He had gone to sanctuary.
Fully knowing what may have become of him, he went anyway.
He stood there at the big gates, turret's sites all aimed at him. Little red dots decorating him like a tree in december.
The wind had whipped around his form, blowing an icy chill through his hair. He went unarmed.
Not a blade on him to so much as save his soul if things turned for the worst.
It was the stupidest decision he had ever made, and yet he had to.
He had to do this.
The Hyperion workers had come, they slammed him to the ground and Axton had tasted the sharp, metallic hint of blood as he bit his cheek on impact.
The ground was cold as they forced his face into the dirt, and the metal handcuffs snapped around his wrists proved even colder.
He had gone without a fight.
Oh what had become of him?
A Vault Hunter, reduced to this by such a stupid thing...as love.
They'd taken him away, hauling him, pushing him, shoving him like an animal being taken to slaughter. He had followed, willingly to the butchers door. Ready to die. Ready to sacrifice his meat.
Ready to give it all.
Bleed out in the shining tile floor to please his purpose.
They'd chained him to the floor, forcing him to kneel. Such a lowly pose, sitting there bowing to an empty room.
They'd stripped him naked.
They'd beat him.
He took the punches to the face, the beatings of heavy sticks across his back, the slap of a flogger to his rear.
He'd taken the bruises, the cuts, the broken ribs.
He'd taken it all.
He wasn't sure if he would live through it. He'd gone into it knowing that.
But love made people stupid with determination.
He just needed to see him.
Just once.
Then maybe...maybe he could convince him to stop all this.
All this madness.
Day's had passed, and he remained chained to the floor, lying in a puddle of his own blood and shame.
On the third day, a presence had filled the doorway.
A presence that Axton would know anywhere, and yet at the same time he did not recognize it.
This time...he was different. The man standing in the doorframe. He was different in this breath. In this moment.
"Jack"
Axton had rasped out the name as if he were begging for his life.
He stared up at the taller man through his one good eye. The other was swelled shut, the socket clearly fractured, blood pooling around the injured eye.
Jack had just looked down upon the broken man, his cold gaze sweeping over the scene before his feet.
"Jack please"
Axton had begged, his pride diminishing and his emotion taking over.
Jack just stood there, accessing what was once, his lover.
Or still was.
It was hard to tell.
Jack wasn't sure.
He was unsure of everything now.
He hated everything.
Nothing made sense.
He had nothing to live for.
Why would the stupid man come back to him now.
After everything he had done?
He'd betrayed him.
He was supposed to love him.
How could he kill his only daughter and then come back.
The toe of Jack's shoe had collided with Axton's gut hard, digging into the soft, injured flesh.
Axton had cried out pitifully, his voice echoing through the room.
"No, Jack, Jack please..." Axton had whispered, tears clinging to the corners of his eyes.
Jack still said nothing.
Thin lips of the mask a hard line across his sharp features.
"You killed her." He whispered finally.
Axton shook his head frantically, looking up to Jack for some sort of mercy.
"Jack no, I know you meant well...but Angel...Angel had to die..." Axton pleaded.
"DON"T SAY HER NAME! DON'T YOU SAY HER NAME! MY BABY'S NAME DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE ON YOUR FILTHY TONGUE!" Jack had yelled.
He was on Axton before he'd even finished his last sentence.
His fingers wrapped around Axton's throat, clenching down like vices.
His eyes were wild as he looked down at the struggling man.
They seemed to glow like wicked orbs set in his skull. Shimmering with hate, with confusion, with sadness.
He was falling apart, and all Axton could do was watch. See the man that Jack had become.
Feel him as he squeezed the very life from Axton's lungs.
Jack could feel Axton's rising pulse beneath his thumbs, crushing them against the commando's windpipe.
He was clenching too hard.
Too rough.
Too violently.
Too long.
But he didn't care.
He needed this.
He needed to pay.
Pay for what he had done to his little girl.
He'd trusted the Vault Hunter.
He'd loved him...
How could he betray him so?
How could he do such a thing?
Take away a fathers baby?
Take her away as if she meant nothing.
She was Jack's baby.
His baby girl.
Now she was gone.
Gone forever.
Gone.
Axton's face was turning blue with lack of oxygen, Jack's cruel, big, hands unforgiving in their purpose.
He was gasping for the air that did not exist.
Struggling against Jack's stronger form as the CEO pinned him to the floor.
They had been in this position many times before. Taken in the throws of lust and love and need for each other. But now, now here they were as Axton possibly took his last, labored breaths.
"Jack...no matter what...I still love you...I always will..." Axton had rasped through short, strangled breaths.
Jack's eyes had widened, eyebrows drawing up slowly.
He no longer looked like the deranged psychopath that he was...
In that moment he just looked...lost.
A man that had lost it all.
His daughter, his planet, his sanity.
He had nothing left.
Yet...he did.
He had Axton if he was willing to accept him.
Axton was willing to be there.
Jack's grip had loosened just as the edges of Axton's vision had began to get fuzzy and blurred.
Axton could feel the blood rushing in his ears, and he took a heavy breath.
Drawing it in desperately.
Jack had sat there for a moment, confusion and pain settling over his face.
"No." Jack had whispered.
He'd gotten up suddenly, crossing the room at a hurried pace, only to pause at the door.
"I never loved you." Jack had hissed over his shoulder.
Then he was gone.
Leaving Axton there, lying on the floor, hurt and bleeding.
Through all the beatings, and all the pain, and the strangling...those words had hurt the most.
Hurt more than any gunshot wound. More than any wound from any creature lurking the Pandoran surface. More than all the poison the world could offer.
That hurt the most.
Jack had let Axton go.
Thrown him away like you would spoiled garbage.
He no longer wanted the lingering memories of what had once been between the two men.
That was how it had to be.
Axton clutched Jack's shivering body closer.
"Jack, Jack why are you crying?" Axton whispered softly running his hands through Jack's tangled morning hair.
Jack drew in a sharp, shaking breath.
"I-I want this one to be real...but I know it's not. I know I only have a little while..and then...then you'll be gone...I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I never meant to hurt you I shouldn't have done what I did! I'm just human I made so many mistakes I'm sorry! I loved you so much and I should have listened to you and I didn't! It's always like this! Always the same! Over and over and over again! I can't take it anymore! I just want you back I just want everything back!" Jack yelled his pupil blown and full of terror, his nails digging into Axton too hard.
Axton pressed Jack to him tighter, fighting against the struggling man who was spiraling into a full on panic attack.
"Jack I'm not going anywhere! I don't know what your talking about! This isn't a dream it's real! Look at me!" Axton said sternly.
He forced Jack to look into his eyes harshly.
"No-No! You'll be gone! Just like always!" Jack cried woefully.
Axton pressed his forehead against Jack's and rocked him softly.
"I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here." Axton whispered as he kissed Jack's hair.
The minutes passed by and Jack seemed to relax in Axton's arms.
"See. I'm still here." Axton said gently.
Jack wiped his eye with back of his slender hand.
"I-it-it's real this time?" Jack stuttered pitifully.
Axton nodded and kissed along Jack's tear stained, scar ridden face.
"C-Can you help me walk to the bathroom...I don't know if I can stand..." Jack whispered ashamed.
Axton smiled into Jack's scalp.
"Of course sweetie." Axton said getting up and helping Jack to stand.
Jack wobbled and teetered his legs weak and unsteady as he leaned hard against Axton's outstretched arms.
"I'm sorry..." Jack whispered looking at Axton his face pale and his eyes puffy.
Axton shook his head.
"No need to be sorry." Axton said offering Jack a gentle, understanding smile.
Jack took a few steps, Axton guiding him and offering his strength as a crutch for the weakened man.
Axton's sweatpants drooped a little and threatened to fall off Jack's hip.
Axton tenderly reached down and hefted them up.
Jack looked down at his clothing and grimaced.
The sweatpants were brown, with a Jackobs logo sprawled down the left leg.
"Really? You dressed me in Jackobs sweatpants?" Jack snarled giving Axton an appalled look.
Axton laughed heartily and shook his head.
"Sorry I didn't have them in Hyperion yellow." He chuckled smiling widely.
There he was.
A small sliver of the Jack that Axton knew all too well.
No matter how weak, and broken, he was still in there...somewhere.