Holy cow! You guys reviewed amazingly fast! Maybe I should post at 7:00 in the afternoon more often :P
Thanks to: dreamcatcher33, Valandil Eluch, Pip3, and kipperoo453 for all of the great reviews.
Title: Open Door
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: See chapters 1, 10 and/or 20
Jack woke sticky and covered in God knows what. Ennis was in the shower, he could hear the water running, see the steam coming from the open bathroom door across the hall. He remembered when he and Lureen lived together, she would never leave the bathroom door open, shut it if he was in the bathroom and left it open. He and Ennis were more married than him and Lureen, and they had only lived together for two weeks.
The water turned off and he could hear Ennis' large feet slip on the tub. "Jack!" He had to yell from all the way over there to be heard.
"Yeah?"
"Yer awake?"
"Duh...dummy, I wouldn' answer if I wann't."
"Jack ass," Ennis chuckled as he walked into the room, towel around his waist and a wet wash cloth in his hand. He perched himself on the bed and beckoned Jack to him. Jack scooted over, let Ennis wipe the goo off his stomach. Ennis was gently, maneuvering his way around the cuts he had put in the flesh. He finished quickly, let Jack finish the job, afraid that if he cleaned anywhere else it would result in another dangerous impromptu sex session.
His shirts were all out in the truck, God damn it. His punishment for making Jack hurt again was having to go outside in his underwear. At least it was warm and he almost lived in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully, no wanderers would be driving by and he'd be safe. He tugged on some clean boxers, boring ones that Jack had shoved at the bottom of the drawer. He liked the exciting ones with prints on them, why he did, Ennis never understood. Seemed childish to him, but he wore them anyways, to make Jack happy. Let Jack shove his underwear to the back of the drawer, lived with having a cow on his ass.
He ran outside, the sky was dark, only the stars and moon to watch him get his laundry when he was almost naked. He stood on his toes and reached to the side of the truck bed where the basket sat, picked it up and ran back inside, stubbing his toe on the way in. "Shit!"
He set the basket down on their bedroom floor, pulled out the clean clothes and bedding and set it next to a still naked Jack on the bed. Then he picked up all their dirty clothes from the floor and threw them in. "Help me make the bed?"
"Of course, jus' lemme put some-" Ennis beat him to it, walking to the drawer, pulling out another pair of print-less shorts and tossing them towards the bed. "Thanks, bud." He tugged them on before climbing off the bed. "Jus' put the girls' clothes in a pile over there, I'll fold them after we make the bed."
"Thanks." He could hear Ennis gratefulness in the response. What was in there that he wouldn't want to fold?
"Sure thing." He spoke quietly as he tugged the white sheets toward the corner, carpet burning his knees when he shuffled over to get the opposite one.
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Jack turned out to be right. Not that he liked it. But after they finished making the bed, Ennis left the room, got his bottle of whiskey and stationed himself in front of the fire place, as though waiting for the cold logs to ignite on their own. Jack sat on the floor, pile of clothes looming to his left. He tugged on the first shirt, the pile toppling down. "Shit." But it wasn't so bad. He had time to think while he folded Francine's little pink underwear, he hummed while he clipped Ennis' (or his?) jeans to a hanger.
Around 1:30 at night, when he was just about done folding, he heard Ennis stagger into the room and fall on the bed. He crawled over, pulled off the man's boots and jeans (why Ennis had seen fit to get dressed just to get drunk in their living room was beyond Jack) then undid the buttons on his shirt and slipped it off his arms. "Ennis, sit up, so I can take your shirt off a yeh."
"Ngggh..." He mumbled and leaned his head on Jack's shoulder, let the man finish undressing him and lay him back down. Jack tugged the quilt up over him and kissed his mouth, tasting the liquor that left an awful aftertaste, accompanied by a splitting headache. He knew Ennis would be no good tomorrow morning.
After that he zipped up Jr. and Francine's bags, set them by the bedroom door and climbed in bed with his guy.
"Tomorrow morning we can go talk to Alma, when we drop off the girl's cothes."
"Ugh." Ennis grunted, rolled over, and vomited over the edged of the bed.
Jack rubbed his back, chuckled and ran his fingers through the other man's dirty blond hair. "At least you didn' ralf on the clean bed, huh?"
"Nng..." Ennis mumbled again and let his head fall to the white pillow, his snoring drowning out anything else Jack might have said.