Author: rainyday101
Rating: pg for now but it will most likely pg13 later on
Disclaimer: besides my cd collection, and my cat nos, I own nothing. This includes the Tribe and evrything affiliated with it.
Summary: while working on a project together jack starts to rethink his opinion of ram (ramjack) SLASH
a/n: sorry for the extreme wait on the chspter but rl has been very hectic lately also i know that Ruby is very ooc in this story but its necesary for plot development. okay enough talking heres the chapter
chapter two: hugs and cold showers
Jack awoke to the pleasant feeling of a hangover.
'Wow I didn't think I drank that much' he thought to himself. To make the day even better he had a day of working with Ram and trying not to stare at him, and Ruby's plan to look forward to.
With that thought in mind he dragged himself to the bathroom for a shower. He cringed when the cold water first hit his face. 'God, what I wouldnt give for a hot shower again'.
On the bright side, all disturbing thoughts about annoyingly attractive boys, and meddlesome girls were abandoned in the face of hypothermia.
When he had brushed his teeth and got dressed he went downstairs to grab somthing to eat.
"Hi Jack" Ruby said in an infuriatingly knowing voice.
Jack looked around and once he was sure that no one was there he went over to the bar. "Ruby, please, please, please, do not do anything embaressing". "Jack come now I said last night that I wouldn't". Not feeling reassured in the least, Jack took the cereal that Ruby gave him and ate it fast knowing that if he was late Ram would be furious, which was the last thing he needed.
With that pleasent thought in mind he made his way to Ram's room which currently looked more like a junkyard then a bedroom. Ram's little nod was the only sign that he even knew Jack was in the room.
"So, ah, what are we working on today" Jack asked trying to keep his voice level. His voice was squeaky at the best of times, but this thing with Ram often made him sound like a nine year old girl.
When Ram looked up he seemed excited which made Jack quite nervous, an excited Ram often led to disaster.
"I figured it out, we were looking at it wrong. We were trying to get in through the mainframe but that's much to obvious and there were to many firewalls, which although I could have passed would have alerted him to our presence. when I figured that out I started looking for a backdoor. That's when I remembered the failsafe I personally put into all of the computer's. It ensures that I can always get into the system no matter where I am, which means I can get a detailed history of the computer without Mega knowing, since i'm the only one who knows about the failsafe."
Then Ram did somthing that was so unlike him Jack nearly passed out.
With a goofy and triumphant grin plastered on his face Ram gave Jack a hug.
Not a particulary big one but a hug nonetheless. Then seemingly realizing what he was doing Ram abruptly backed off and busied himself at the computer again.
When he noticed Jack was standing there with his jaw hanging, he got an embaresed look took over his usually superior expression.
"What? I was happy, stop gawking and sit down so I can show you the program."
Jack quickly closed his mouth and sat next to Ram careful to keep some distance between them. After that wonderfully awkward encounter the rest of the morning went good. Jack got to caught up in the program, to think about odd displays of affection from usually affectionless guys.
Of course if he had thought about it he would have realized that Ram would never let his emotions get the better of him in front of someone he didn't like and trust.
At lunch time Ruby came up and maybe it was just because Jack knew that she knew but she seemed horribally obvious to him. Then again, maybe it wasnt just him because Ram was giving her a bit of a funny look.
Jack almost groaned when he saw that Ruby had sat them at the same table.
Ram hated eating with other people and was never one to be quiet when he was displeased with something, so when Ruby sat them down together in the corner Jack was quite suprised when Ram not only didnt voice any complaints, but, for a brief moment he was pretty sure that Ram actually seemed a bit pleased that they were sitting together.
Jack quickly dismissed that as wishful thinking, after all why would Ram be happy to sit with someone that he seemed to only just put up with usually?
Jack had planned to just stay silent for the meal, however he forgot about his inability to do such a thing, especialy when he was nervous. Sure enough about five minutes in he started up with his horrendous babbling while mentally cringing at sounding like such an idiot.
Ram either didnt notice or was using a previously unknown show of tact.
In fact after about a minute of Jack-babble Ram cut in and they carried out the rest of the meal with a suprisingly comfortable conversation.
Thankfully Ruby seemed to be holding off any of the truly embaressing aspects of her 'get Ram and Jack together' plan until later. Of course if today was any indication then it was entirely possible that Jack would die of either shock, or frost bite before he could die of mortification.
When they were almost through with that days work Slade came breezing into the room clearly in a bad mood about somthing.
That somthing became clear when Lex waltzed in not a second later.
The whole fight over Ruby had only increasesd the tension in their already tense relationship. Well maybe 'relationship' wasnt the best word, 'people who only just put up with each other' also seemed a bit tame but without resorting to swears, it was the most accurate.
Lex seemed happy, which led Jack to beleive that the former sheriff had probably conned some innocent person out of thier life savings.
As it turned out he was wrong but that was not a good thing if what Slade was hollering about was any indication. "Well Ram you'll be happy to know that we have the part that you need, but if some angry techno's come around dont blame me."
Ram looked pissed. "You stole from the techno's, you idiots! Are you trying to alert Mega and his goons to where we are? This is supposed to be a covert opperation, I know that Jack and I are the only intelligent one's around here but come on!"
Jack was fairly certain at this point that he would have a heart attack by the end of the day.
Ram had just given him a compliment.
Sure it was probably unintentional but still, Ram didn't just compliment people. Jack wasn't the only one to notice Ram's odd behavior. Slade who in the entire time of knowing Ram - including when he had gotten him to walk again - had never heard Ram compliment anyone. He stored that information away for later and refocused on the problem at hand
"I'm not the genious who stole from Mega, that would Lex. Apparently one of his "sources" told him that sector eight had an unguarded warehouse full of computer parts, but when we were leaving about twenty techno's came chasing after us. We only barely got away."
Lex never one to know when to shut his mouth, spoke up. "Hey, it was a reliable source, man, it's not my fault that the techno's chose right then to start gaurding the warehouse, beside's you didn't have any problems with my source before that."
Slade just glared at him with a look in his eyes that clearly said he was about to knock Lex out.
Jack took that as his cue to leave and Ram followed him.
They went to Jack's room and played cards until Ruby came in telling them that Slade and Lex were done fighting. When she saw the two boys sitting on the bed she got an almost maniacal grin on her face which made Jack very nervous.
Deciding that it would be best to cut her off before she started he did the first thing he could think of.
He pretended to choke.
Jack being Jack, this quickly led to him actually choking.Thankfully he got everything under control before he passed out.
Once Ruby and Ram were sure that he was okay they left.
Ram's parting staement was, "breathe much Jack?" But the words didn't have any contempt in them. In fact, although it was pretty hard to decipher Ram sometime's Jack was pretty sure he had heard some concern in the former techno's voice.