Pretty Boy

Chapter Title: A Boomer of a Plan
Chapter Rating: R
Pairings involved: Jak/Jinx
Chapter Warnings: Jinx' mouth, cause he should definitely not be allowed around impressionable youth. And Jak's raging hormones, cause he definitely shouldn't be allowed around drunken boom-boys. /nods sagely/ Shounen ai themes.
Status: Continuation, 4 of ?
Short description: Jinx is drunk and even more talkative than usual. The secret of the blast bot is revealed…among other things.

"Jinx?"

Jinx had been more than sociable the whole ride back to his place. He'd been rambling on about things Jak could not even begin to understand. The younger male could only guess that it all had something to do with explosives and blowing up things in general. And although this line of conversation seemed perfectly enjoyable to the blond bomber, this along with random bouts of snort-induced giggles left Jak just a little anxious to get Jinx home.

Jinx paused to break into one of those annoying fits right in the middle of very colorful explanation of the difference between "plain ol' TNT" and eco-fueled explosives. This, of course, was in regards to the sheer amount of kinetic energy they could produce, he pointed out. Jak just wondered exactly what was so funny, but had refrained from asking. And now here they were standing outside of Jinx' front door while the older man stared blurry eyed at the keypad.

"Um… you need some help?"

Jinx just muttered something incoherent before pressing in the code a little slower and a little more forcefully than necessary. Jak just pretended not memorize the sequence.

"Ah, home sweet hole in the wall." Jinx chuckled and attempted to head up the stairs.

However, the crafty slabs of wood seemed to be more than a match for the inebriated man. Luckily, Jak was right behind him. Jak sighed and hoisted the man up, slinging one of Jinx' rubbery arms over his shoulders and securing an arm around his waist. They made their way up the stairs and into the apartment at a leisurely pace, Jinx giggling all the while.

Jak noticed that Jinx's skin seemed that much warmer in comparison to the cool night air. The smell of heated metal and sulfur still clinging to his to him; Jak thought that maybe he shouldn't have been so fond of the odor. Jak also thought that maybe he wasn't so ready to leave the other man's side.

Dark had made him more sensitive to scents. The ability had been helpful most of the time, but in this case, it was becoming more of an annoyance. Smells brought back memories, memories that prompted a warm tingle in his belly. His legs were feeling heavier. If this was any indication of his impending doom, Jak had to drop Jinx off on the nearest available surface as soon as possible. It wasn't wise to keep the man so close for too long. He might do something he'd regret… Again.

As he dragged Jinx across the room, Jak narrowly missed sending them both flailing to the hard wood floor and other such nasty looking bits of junk littering the torn linoleum. But as luck would have it they made it over to the bed where he gracelessly deposited his intoxicated burden.

"Jinx… is this even safe?" Jak asked, looking around the apartment for the second time today. The place looked even more cluttered in the dark. The glow the streetlights outside had wormed through the rotted wood that barred Jinx' windows giving him barely enough illumination to make the other man out in the shadows. Jinx was looking back at him intently or as intently as the liquor in his bloodstream would allow. "What was I thinking?" Jak started, rolling his eyes. "Of course not."

Jinx began unbuckling his boots. "Ah, Pretty-Boy, you think I'm dumb or sumthin'? Don't get it confused, sugar. Dumb people don't last long 'round explosives! " At that he burst into another fit of obnoxious giggles, kicking off his boots before leaning back on the worn bed. Jinx sighed when the hilarity, that obviously only he'd been privy to, had passed. He then set about peeling off his gloves and slinging them to the floor, pulling loose a descent sized blade he usually kept tucked against his forearm.

Jak watched him go about the motions of undressing with lazy interest. He couldn't help the smirk that appeared on his face. He wanted to stay, but he knew he shouldn't. Last week had been good, very good, but it had been a fluke. There was no way he'd be giving Jinx a chance at a repeat performance. No matter how much he'd been thinking lately that it might not be that bad of an idea.

"I'm leaving," Jak grumbled turning to head for the stairs.

"Hmm..." Jinx huffed lazily. "I though you wanted to hear how I caught that damned blast bot?"

Jak stopped in his tracks and turned around. He couldn't deny that he was interested. Precursors only knew why.

Jinx was sitting up again on the edge of the bed, his arms stretched behind him, propping him up. "It's a hell of a story, Pretty-Boy. I promise." The blond grinned at him; Jak couldn't tell if it was just sloppy or debauched. But he was leaning toward the latter. It was in the body language, Jak had seen the man in action enough to know. Not that he'd taken up the habit of watching the man. It was just the way his legs were spread; the way his shirt hung off is body. The bottom hem hiked up just enough to give Jak a view of a pale strip of skin. The top right bit slouching to the side giving him a better view of that bruise on Jinx' shoulder. Jinx winked at him and patted the empty spot next to him on the bed. "C'mere."

Jak sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. He was going to regret this he was sure. There was just something in the way Jinx had said that last word. Despite himself, his feet were moving and they weren't heading for the stairs anymore.

Jinx grinned at him and he ignored it, taking a seat where the older man had directed him and glancing at him when he didn't start right away. The blond cleared his throat, rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and scratched at his stubble-ridden chin in thought.

"Lesse… The first time I tried to snag one of those bastards…"

"The first time?"

"What?"

"Its just that I figured that since you're so…" Jak cut his eyes in Jinx' direction, smirking, "talented… you captured it the first time."

A brief chuckle, "Naw… A true pyrotechnics tech…techni… whatever…"

Jak chuckled this time, Jinx glared at him and continued. "…Takes advantage of a little thing I like to call trial and error."

Jak stared skeptically.

"Fine I'll skip those parts."

Jak raised a brow.

"You wanna hear the story or not!"

Jak opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it.

oo0oo

"Um… sir?"

"…"

"Sir?"

Jinx turned away from the chaos in front of him and frowned at the rookie Freedom Guard. "What?"

"Maybe we shouldn't be so close?"

Jinx raised a brow.

"I'm supposed to be protecting you. It was just a suggestion."

Jinx rolled his eyes. "Look, kid, I don't need to be babysat. 'Specially by you…uh…"

"Knox."

"Knox." He added with a sneer. "Tattooed Wonder didn't tell ya what I'm 'pose ta be doing out here?"

Knox just looked confused. "Um… I though you were supposed to be studying the blast bot?"

Jinx stood up dusting off his the front of his pants. Plucking his cigar from his mouth, he blew smoke in the rookie FG's direction. The kid choked back a cough prompting a bawdy laugh from the man. "Figures."

The young FG just stared at him.

"Look, just stay outta my way."

Lately, the industrial district had become a hot spot for the Krimzon Guard bots. Whoever was building these bots had the death and destruction thing down to a fine art. Now Jinx wasn't all that keen on the death bit, but the destruction--all the casualties aside--was quite impressive.

Okay, so "quite impressive" was an understatement.

But what red blooded man didn't get a hard on at the sight of ten pounds of mid grade yellow eco armored to the teeth and on legs trudging down the middle of Industrial Boulevard?

Jinx licked his lips.

It was a shame he wasn't going to be able to keep him. Sighing around his cigar, Jinx went for his bag and pulled it over his shoulders.

"Hey kid, tell the boys in blue down there that everything is set up and ta get tha hell outta there, eh."

Jinx and the kid had been following Jinx' chosen target from rooftop to rooftop for the last twenty minutes. If his calculations were right that big boy was set to blow in another ten. He was going to have to make this quick. The blond bomber stepped up on the side of the building already starting out on the thin metal grating hanging over the street below. It was going to be a rough landing even if he did aim it just right.

Looking up from his comm unit, Knox was shocked to find his charge already preparing to jump for it.

"Sir! Sir! Wha…what are you doing!" The red head was half way on the railing. Jinx was already leaning over the side dropping some strange little device down directly on top of the bomb bot. Both Knox and Jinx' eyes locked on the blast bot and the device hit home. The magnetic device stuck firmly to the huge twin gun barrels on top of the killing machine. The blast bot shuddered a bit as the usually invisible electromagnetic field flashed briefly before disappearing again.

"Eh, kid!" Jinx looked back up at Knox with sneer on his face, "What did I tell you? My name is Jinx."

And with that Jinx jumped off the railing after it.

"But…" Knox groaned. Commander Torn was going to chew his ass if Crazy Bomber Dude went and got himself killed…or accidentally blew up another one of those bots in the vicinity of a group of FGs again. The rookie soldier leaned over the side of the building and watched the guy land directly on top of the bot. He was almost a little disappointed. Maybe if the guy had landed a little bit further to the right he wouldn't have to put up with all this stress anymore.

Then of course he felt terrible for even thinking that in the first place.

Wait a minute… Had that guy actually disengaged the electro-field around that thing? Knox raised an impressed brow. Well at least the rest of the guards had gotten out of the way this time.

Truthfully, Jinx was actually a little more than surprised that that little device of his had actually worked. He hadn't gotten the chance to test it out on an actual blast bot, seeing as the things were obviously a pain in the ass to come by. He hadn't had any doubt that he aimed his jump perfectly. Though, he could only hope that upon hitting his landing that a.) he didn't get the shit shocked out of him by the unsuccessfully shorted electromagnetic field or b.) get blown to hell.

Though, what did happen wasn't completely pain free.

Jinx landed hard. His boots producing the screeching sound of metal on metal when the bottom of them scraped the steel frame of the blast bot as he tried to get his footing. Upon this scramble to not fall to his death, Jinx burned his arm on the super heated metal of the bot's twin barrels. And though he hadn't felt it full on yet, he'd just gained a nasty gash on his left side from a jutting peace of armor. All this aside, he still hadn't been electrocuted or blown to bits. It had always been the small victories that meant the most.

The bomb's detonation mechanism wasn't synched in with the electric field.

Jinx clicked his tongue and grinned in triumph. Okay, sure it was a little premature. Sure, he didn't have time to be celebrating as he only had less than ten minutes to get this behemoth open and defused, but he had been right and he quite enjoyed being right.

You could always count on the un-enterprising minds of the Krimzon Guard-- mechanized or no. If he had built this bad boy the field would have most definitely been synced with the detonation. But there was no sense in griping over something that was going to make his job easier.

Jinx inched a around the side of the bot and found that the control panel was ridiculously poorly hidden. He figured that the KGs didn't think there was much point to hiding it when you couldn't get within five feet of the damned death machine without getting the hell shocked out of you, blown to dust, or shot full of holes. Using every bit of his nonexistent flexibility to not only stay on the damned thing but also reach into his backpack and get a fucking screwdriver, he opened the panel. Jinx rolled his shoulders back like he wasn't dangling 20 feet off the ground and groaned. He was definitely going to feel all this in the morning.

But he couldn't help feeling a little giddy. After weeks of tracking these damned things he was finally going to see what these babies were made of. A satisfied grin stretched his face as the first rays of yellow eco peeked through. He hardly even noticed that the bot had stopped it clumsy scuttling and had begun its second stage assault--shooting those annoying little defrag bombs out in random directions.

Hopefully, those babies were rigged in with the big boy's detonation otherwise he'd totally be up the creek.

He had to admit, he was more than impressed when he finally realized how the whole boom bit of big boy was set up. He would almost admit to it being… ingenious. The yellow eco in side was half frozen. Which meant at one point it had been completely frozen. There was a heating mechanism that melted and then boiled it to the perfect temperature until it combusted in waves of heat and lovely destructive energy.

Jinx almost sighed.

It was a beautiful fucking thing.

It was a damned near perfect timer.

Luckily, Jinx had been prepared even for this scenario. Yellow eco didn't just freeze just because you dropped the temperature. This state required that you add something to the substance…contaminate the mixture. But in order to refreeze it-- thusly defusing the boom bit of the bot-- all he'd need to add was a little ammonium nitrate.

It all came down to a simple endothermic reaction.

After getting the newly frozen block of yellow eco out and secured in another container the timer was unless. In response, the mini bombs died in a pathetic display as the irritating beeps fizzled into nothingness.

There was a cautious silence for a moment as the Freedom Guards filed out from their hiding places, stopping to stare in shock.

"Okay, boys." Jinx grinned down at them from his perch atop his new tamed toy. "Let's pack this baby up," he said and he knocked on the lifeless mass of metal. It was then that the behemoth collapsed taking Jinx down with it.

The FGs snorted and broke into a bout of half cheers and rowdy laughter.

They were a bunch of ungrateful bastards.

oo0oo

They were both lying back on the bed staring up at Jinx' cracked ceiling, their legs dangling off the end.

"You've gotta be drunk." Jak mused, thinking there was no way that a sober Jinx would have included that last bit in his grand tale.

Jinx turned his head and muttered. "What was that?"

Jak smirked, "I said that blast bot was full of yellow eco?"

"Yeah," Jinx said. "S'not the good stuff though. Didn't see no need to keep it. So I passed the savings on to you and Commander Pussy-Whipped." He added with a chuckle.

Jak snorted, trying in vain to hold back a bark of laughter. "How'd you know that?" This was definitely not a normal response for Jak, even the teenager was aware of it, but he just wanted to know was all. He wasn't entirely sure why he was suddenly so interested in knowing more about Jinx besides what he'd seen. He wasn't sure why Jinx' knowledge of yellow eco had suddenly become so fascinating.

"Know what?" Jinx yawned. The alcohol was burning its way out of his system leaving him feeling sleepier and sleepier by the moment.

"That the yellow eco wasn't any good?"

Jinx didn't answer right away; this of course piqued Jak's interest even more.

"I dunno."

"But how'd you know the difference? You test it or something?"

"No." Jinx was starting to sound annoyed… tired and annoyed. "What's with all the questions, Blondie?"

Jinx had turned over on his belly, giving Jak a nice view of his ass. He'd never really been interested in asses much before but suddenly he was having a change of heart for some reason. But Jinx' very interesting ass aside, there was something else drawing his attention now, something written on the small of Jinx' back. Jak had reached out had grabbed the man's belt before he knew it, pulling up his shirt further to get a better look. It was a tattoo, an odd collection of letters and numbers. Jak ran a finger over the raised skin not even noticing the shudder this brought. Jinx settled back down in to the mattress, sighing contentedly and looked back at him over his shoulder.

"Don't tease, Pretty-Boy." Jinx looked almost pained.

"What does it mean?" Jak asked innocently.

Jinx crawled up further on the bed and turned back over, settling down and getting comfortable.

The sound of empty boots hitting the floor of the ratty apartment was almost loud enough to make Jinx wince. Moments later, the bed shifted as Jak made his way up. Soon he was leaning over Jinx, who was just too tired to care.

Jak just wondered why it had suddenly become so necessary for him to be closer to the other man.

"Hmm?" Jinx smiled sleepily.

"What does the tattoo mean?" But Jak's eyes were more focused on something else at the moment. He pressed his gloveless palm against Jinx' right shoulder, fingers lightly tracing the ring of indentions that had failed to heal much in the last few days. In doing so, something heavy settled in his chest. He was strangely proud that Jinx was still wearing the proof of their last encounter. This pride was quickly turning into something else however-- something warm and tingling and slowly making its way down.

Jinx chuckled. "Something tells me you don't really want me to answer that right now, Pretty-boy."

Jak's curious hand was already working its way underneath Jinx' shirt. The older man arched shamelessly into the touch. Jak smirked. Oh, how the tables had turned.