A/n: Short chapter y'all, but I hope you enjoy. The usual disclaimer applies, I don't own Dark Angel or anything affiliated with them or Fox.
I LOVE YOU, YOU HATE ME, WE'RE A HAPPY FAMILY
"I really hate you."
"The feeling is quite mutual, I can assure you, though on my good days, I actually like you, for some odd reason I can't understand. Hmm…must be some anomaly in my genetic makeup."
"Shut up, Jack!"
It shouldn't have happened, but it did anyway, and it wasn't even funny to begin with, but a sudden visual was too much to pass up. Jace couldn't help the snorting laughter that bubbled forth from some hidden reservoir buried miles beneath her surface. She tried to cover her mouth with her hand, but to her horror and dismay, another of those giggling snorts came out in rapid succession.
Jack just looked over at her in some awe and no great surprise. One, he couldn't truly remember the last time he'd heard Jace laugh so freely, and so unexpectedly. Two, he didn't know she could snort. Once he got over his surprise, he found he kind of liked it, and he wanted to hear it again. He narrowed his eyes in thought, pursing his lips.
"I know you're not laughing at me because of our…mutual feelings?"
"Hell no," was the quick and immediate response, along with another snort, but this one was in disdain and not the reaction he was hoping for.
"Oh, then you're laughing because of my anomaly?"
"You have an anomaly?" and Jace started to snort-laugh again. "This is not acceptable!"
"I know…you making a joke, who would have thought?"
"Jack!" Jace came the closest she ever did to wailing and having a Vada-esque hissy fit, complete with almost stamping her foot.
"You don't think?" Jack asked with too innocent eyes and Jace started laughing, this time full-blown laughter and not the snorting kind. Jack was fascinated, deciding he liked this version of laughter even better than the other.
"Can't you ever be serious?" she finally could get out.
"I try not to," he admitted, some of the humor leaving him.
The pair was eating lunch, sitting together under a tree to ward off the hot Georgian sun. The day was partly overcast but not even well into the afternoon and it was hot and muggy and sticky as if the air were a tangible thing. There wasn't any wind that the two could make out, so it just made the heat and humidity seem that much more oppressive.
Jace and Jack had been left alone, partly because their class was filled with a bunch of snobs, and the majority in that they had the tendency to argue quite spectacularly and no one wanted to get caught in the crossfire. Their transgenic brethren had given them a wide berth, but everyone was close enough that they wouldn't miss much of the drama, hoping for a good fight.
And they could and would give it to them, given the proper circumstance. Jace had grown up some in the past couple years, her gangly form slowly starting to show the innate slender and litheness, her soft shorn hair having grown out, the color of dark chocolate. She was catching up to Vada, Eva, and Tinga in the budding department, though it was obvious she wouldn't ever be all that greatly endowed. She and Tinga were the tallest of the girls, already able to meet Zack and Seth and Zane in the eye, something she hadn't been able to do for some time.
Jack was the slightest bit shorter, but no one noticed that, as his or her attention were brought to his build. While he'd never become the powerhouse combat models Zack and Seth were, or the lanky, thin slenderness of Zane, he was kinda stuck in the middle like Ben. At first glance, one would think he wasn't all that powerful, and underestimate his strength but Jack was quick and packed enough power in his punch that others would think twice.
He was not really that much to look at right now, the picture of your average American eleven-year-old boy, going to school. He didn't have any arresting, striking features like unusually colored eyes or exotic skin tone. He had normal looking pale skin of Anglo-Saxon heritage, and pretty common bluish-gray eyes.
What he lacked in obvious attraction was made up for in his personality. While normally pretty easygoing and a prime suspect for class or unit clown, he was very smart and extremely determined. Once he went after something, he didn't give up until he reached his objective, or learned what errors he made and went back and corrected his mistakes.
"Really?" Jace was surprised. She looked over at her sibling more closely, really looking at him, as if for the first time.
Jack merely looked up and met her gaze, nodding once, looking away while softly answering, "Really. You're just too stuck on pleasing Zack and doing everything so perfect, so by-the-book, so exact…you don't see me."
Jack's voice held a sorrow that Jace had never heard before, and she was cut to the quick, even as her face flamed at the mention of her desire to please Zack. So maybe she was by the book, and precise, and very efficient at what she did. Isn't that what they were supposed to be?
So why do I feel so rotten about Jack's feelings? Jace contemplated, frowning.
Troubled, there was a few moments silence as Jace sat there, openly studying her companion. After a few minutes of this, Jack started to smile, and he turned amused eyes to his unit mate.
"My face is the same as it was this morning, last I checked, unless you're scathing words opened some wounds I was not aware of?" he mocked, placing one hand on his cheek in a feather light touch, the other placed over his heart theatrically. His eyes were comically wide and effectively conveyed shock and horror.
Jace found it funny. She started to laugh again and on a sudden impulse, she leaned over and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek that was exposed.
"You're kinda cute when you do that," she admitted, feeling an unusual bashfulness come over. Ducking her head with an embarrassed smile, she left in a sudden bout of shyness, leaving a shocked Jack behind.
"Wow," was all he managed to think of or to put into words. But when the bell rang and all the kids started to head back inside, there was a pleased and tender smile adorning his lips.
