Caution: Falling

Author's Notes: … WHEE! One review! ^_^ *hugs Duck-K* Awwww… I love Duck-K. Who else reviews my stuff always, even if it's bad?

*SHINE* This is so for her.

This one actually promises to be a fairly long AU-- Jalil-In-Leather doesn't come until the forth chapter. But we're getting there. Oh yeah, baby. :D

SLASH-- Christopher/Jalil and Ganymede/David (because it's fun)

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"Jalil, why don't toasters glow blue?" Ganymede asked his roommate the next morning.

Jalil peered over the top of the newspaper he had spread in front of him, a single dark eyebrow arching upwards. He watched tiredly as his blonde friend prodded the metal contraption-- called a toaster, although it somewhat resembled a coffee can with stickers stuck all over it, once Ganymede had "redecorated" it with magazine images. At the moment, he was currently poking at the wrinkled face of Ewan McGregor, from what Jalil suspected was an old Entertainment article.

"Why would they glow anything?" Jalil finally said, eyes turning back to his morning paper. There was a break-in on campus over the weekend, according to the front headline. Maybe they should change their locks.

Ganymede sniffed haughtily. "They glow red."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"The inside parts… the wire thingies, I mean. They glow red when they're cooking the toast and stuff." Ganymede peered down into the toaster openings, tipping it forward to get a better view. "Why can't they glow blue? It's cooler."

Jalil didn't even pause to consider this. Instead, he turned the page of his newspaper, propping both feet up on an empty chair across the table from his own. Shifting to become more comfortable, he replied, "Well, they don't. They glow red. Sometimes people don't think the way you do, Gany."

"They should." Ganymede sighed and left the toaster alone, coming over to the table to plop down into a chair next to Jalil. "It's only fair, considering I have to put up with the rest of everyone else."

A small laugh escaped Jalil, and the blonde sat back in satisfaction. Making Jalil laugh had always been a high priority for him.

"So," the blonde continued cheerfully, taking a small bite of Jalil's untouched toast, "… what's the plan for today?"

"That's my breakfast, you know." Jalil frowned at his roommate from over the paper. He didn't answer the question.

Ganymede shrugged. "You weren't eating it."

"Ungrateful bastard. Just for that, I'm not telling you what April revealed to me last night on the phone." The dark-eyed teenager smirked and stuck his head back into the paper, leaving Ganymede to gape pitifully at him.

"What?! No! Noooo, Jalil, please, come on… I didn't mean it. I'll make you new toast. I'll even scramble some eggs-- just please, please, please…"

There were few things sadder (yet undeniably irresistible) than a pouting, begging Ganymede Ryle. Even those usually immune to his oddly compelling charms couldn't last against The Look. Jalil, although used to his roommate's incessant pleading in all matters, was no exception to the rule.

Grumbling, he folded his newspaper and set it down on the table.

"Alright, alright. Stop with the lip trembling already." Jalil tossed an mock-scornful look at the blonde, before shaking his head with a smile. "Honestly, you're in your twenties, Ganymede."

"Age has nothing to do with it. Against the threat of losing my one true love due to a single instant of stealing burnt toast? I'd do anything."

"Your so called true love has a name." Jalil methodically, carefully smoothed out the wrinkles on the kitchen tablecloth. "It's David Levin. Age nineteen, majoring in Business and Economics, and one of the more recent members of the mechanic shop class you saw him at."

Ganymede listened raptly, wide green eyes brimming with anticipation. After hearing his dream boy's name, he grinned widely.

"David Levin? It's perfect. David. Ganymede and David. Ganymede and David Ryle-Levin. David and Ganymede Levin-Ryle."

A laugh bubbled up inside of Jalil, and for once, he allowed it to escape past his lips. Covering his mouth to smother the chuckles, he shook his head, black tendrils of hair falling down into his face. "You… are impossible, Ganymede."

"It's destiny, Jalil. Fate! It was foreordained that we should meet that day!"

Shaking his head in amusement at the blonde, Jalil remarked, "Well, good luck with him. He just got out of a bad relationship with some girl named Senna."

"Ouch!" Ganymede winced harshly, shoving a pale hand over his chest as if wounded. "Ah, the straight syndrome?"

"Not exactly. April said he might be open to persuasion. Just, uh, that he doesn't trust anyone remotely attracted to him now." Shrugging a narrow shoulder, Jalil twisted his mouth into a semi-smile. "Apparently, the girl messed with his brain."

"Nothing I can't fix! I'm Mr. Fixer. Oh yes, I will cure David Levin of any mistrust for romance and love." There were sparkles starting to glimmer in Ganymede's eyes-- Jalil knew it. Shaking his head at his dramatic roommate, the dark-eyed boy continued with the last bits of information he'd been able to wring out of April the night before.

"He likes boats. His father was in the Navy or something. And he's very… manly and all that. Takes high stock in doing the right thing and being courageous… y'know, not girly like you."

Ganymede cheerfully made an obscene gesture at Jalil. He smirked and returned it.

"You, Jalil, have no faith. That's your problem." Winking, the blonde stood and straightened out his back. "Mmm… David Levin, here I come! Ganymede Ryle will woo you, catch you, and keep you! True love shall not be thwarted by anything!"

Jalil rolled his eyes, smiling slightly, and picked his newspaper back up--

"And while I'm at it, I'll get you a boyfriend, too!"

--and put it back down.

"Ganymede!" sputtered the dark-eyed boy, a dark flush entering his mocha features. He tried to scowl at his friend, but the flustered look on his face ruined the effect. "I don't want a boyfriend. Whatever gave you the idea that I ever did?"

Ganymede pouted at his friend, going over to poke at the toaster again. "Why not? Boyfriends are fun. They, y'know… hug and cuddle with you. And stuff. Lots of good stuff."

"That fails to convince me whatsoever."

"Come on, you haven't been on a date in the entire time you've roomed with me," Ganymede explained sincerely. He picked up the toaster and brought it back over to the table to sit down with, leaving the long cord plugged in and trailing behind him. It was something Jalil wasn't even going to think about, considering the fact that Ganymede and toasters always equaled trouble. "And you've lived with me a long time. Since the start of college here. And not one date!"

"How do you know?" muttered Jalil, obsessively smoothing the tablecloth again. A suspicious tinge of crimson remained around his sharp cheekbones. "You've always been busy having fun with your own love life-- what's the sudden concern about my own?"

"You're my friend; friends look after each other," Ganymede stated simply.

If it had pertained to any other topic, Jalil would have been touched. As it was, however, the subject of dating had always been a sensitive one with him-- meaning, simply, that he hated to even think about it. It was a concept that was both alien and upsetting to the boy. Jalil Sherman dating someone? Having a lover or boyfriend, even, god-forbid, a one night stand…?

Oh, hell no.

"Leave it alone," Jalil repeated firmly. "I'm not interested."

"Jalil! Staying cooped up in the apartment, night after night, all alone? It's not good for you! You need to be out there in the real world-- having fun, getting together with people, learning all the best make-out points in town…"

"Sounds lovely, but I'll pass."

"Finding true love and realizing you'd like to spend the rest of your life with them! Trying to convince them that they should marry you, and that yes, adopting children is a great way of expressing devotion!"

"Thanks anyway, but no."

"Alright, we'll leave out the kids." Jalil threw the blonde a dirty look, and was rewarded with a brilliant, blinding smile. All 100 watts of Ganymede Ryle Super Charm aimed straight at him through those white teeth.

"Please, Jalil?" the blonde asked gently, smiling hopefully at his friend. The toaster lay forgotten at his hands. "I don't like seeing you so lonely all the time. Even if you think you have a good reason for it."

'You don't know my reasons for it,' Jalil thought darkly. Still. The pleading look and warm smile directed towards him made him hesitate to refuse. And really, it wasn't like anything was going to come out of agreeing a little. Just a blind date, probably, or something equally uneventful. Then his friend would be happy, and Jalil could go back to being an antisocial bookworm, delving himself back into the 'Single And Blissful' hole.

Besides. That smile made all of Jalil's cool resolve melt like butter in a spring day. He scowled at the table.

'Goddamn him.'

"Fine," Jalil said, and it seemed as though the words were forced out from a distant plain of existence. He found himself sighing in defeat. "Do whatever you want, I'll go along with it. I can't promise I'll enjoy your matchmaking attempts, though."

"YES! You will not regret this, Jalil," Ganymede promised earnestly. He looked back at the toaster with a beaming sort of pride. "I'll make sure when David and I double date with you, your guy won't be a total loser."

Jalil groaned and sank down in his seat, already wishing the chair would swallow him whole.

'I… am an idiot.'

In a final attempt at protest, Jalil weakly added, "But you still have to find a way to get David to go out with you."

Ganymede waved a hand in a gesture of dismissfulness, eyes intent now on the toaster after Jalil's agreement. He was currently trying to wedge a fork down into the spaces-- for what reasons, unknown.

"Only a matter of time, dear Jalil. Give me two more days, and he's all mine."

Of course, things were never that easy. But Jalil didn't say a thing.

Besides, the toaster was beginning to hiss.

"AUGH! You're melting the fork in there, you moron-- GANYMEDE!!!"

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To Be Continued: Next up, David and Christopher and April talk during shop class... Ganymede puts his plan into action...

And chapter four, we get to see Jalil in leather. GLEE. :D

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