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 it took so long but i went camping and they dont really have computers in the woods unfortunatly. in fact i was rather disgruntled to find out that they dont have anything electronoic in the woods (big pout) anyways i tried to make it a litle longer then usual in repentance
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chapter five: the plan stan
Jack threw the book he was reading at the nearest horizontal surface not really caring if it got there or not.
After all, one couldn't really be expected to be neat when the most rational thought in your head was, 'I wonder if six' o' clock is to early to be morning.' Then again knowing Ram six'o'clock probably was a probably a perfectly acceptable time, and after all it's not like he had actually given Jack a precise time to meet him.
All he had said was 'in the morning' which was rather vague.
Jack was fast realizing how obbsesion could cause you to lose you mind, like that movie that he had watched once with his father before the virus, fatal somthing or other.
At the time he hadn't really understood how someone could care about someone that much, and had been more upset that the bunnies got hurt then anything else.
Then again he had been ten years old, so it wasn't like he could really be expected to be horribaly impressed by a movie that didn't even have any explosions or chase scenes in it.
This chain of thoughts quickly led to a place that Jack didn't like to think about very often-his life before the virus.
It always depressed him to remember his father. They had become close after his mother had died when he was six. Somtimes it had seemed like they were working out the world together, and often at the same maturity level.
Unbidden came a memory of when he was eight years old, and his father had taken him to see a very scary movie. That night he had woken up screaming from a horrible, vivid nightmare, and his father had let him sleep with him, and even though at eight he had liked to believe that he was all grown up and that he didnt need anyone he had allowed himself to be rocked back to sleep by his father.
The next day his father bought him one of those mini planetariums that shone stars onto your walls. He had been asking for one forever, but his dad had always said that they were to expensive. Although he hadnt realized it at the time, looking back now he knew that it was his fathers way of protecting him.
Jack would have rebelled at the idea of a nightlight so even though he really didn't have the money for it his father had gotten him an acceptable way of keeping the monster in his closet far away.
Jack had been eleven when the virus came and although Selene did her best to mother everyone, it just wasn't the same.
Sometimes when it was late and he was lying in bed he would remeber the sounds of his father getting ready for work early in the morning and the strong smell of cofee in the air. It was both comforting and unbelievably sad to remember all the little things that he had taken for granted back then and would never get back.
Jack had always liked to have other people take care of him. He might be very inteligent, however he was also quite immature and got himself into trouble with a frequency that was, quite frankly alarming.
Why Ram was willing to participate in whatever the hell this was, was completly beyond him. In fact he quite preferred not to think about it because that just might jinx it and Ram was bound to find out what a bad idea this was even without Jack creating bad omens.
Jack looked at the clock again, seven 'wow didn't think that I had been thinking that long.'
Considering that he could hear the distintive clicking and clacking of a keyboard being typed on he decided that it was probably safe now to go and help Ram with the morning scan.
Jack stopped outside Ram's room and after a minute of fierce arguing with himself knocked.
"Come in"
Ram sounded slightly distracted but not irritated so Jack decided to take that as a good sign and opened the door.
The sight that greeted him was not entirely unlike an after picture from a hurricane. Computer parts were scattered everywhere, and it looked as though there were about ten different projects being worked on if the vague piles were anything to go by.
In the middle of this disaster area was Ram sitting at his desk and glaring at the computer screen as if it had just done him a great personel injustice.
Cautiously Jack made his way over to his usual spot next to Ram stopping to remove a spare hard drive from his seat.
"Hi"
Ram finally looked up and gave a brief smile."Hi, it's a good thing I asked you to come over today because I think I know what Mega's planning."
As he was talking he put his hands on his neck, discreetly massaging the muscles there, as if he didnt want Jack to see any signs of weakness. When Jack noticed that, he noticed how tired Ram looked and how every few minutes his stomach would growl lightly.
Clearly Ram had been working on this straight through the night. Deciding that the only thing mentioning it would achieve would be a glare and denial, he just asked what was wrong.
"Well you know how he was barcoding everyone?"
At Jacks nod Ram continued. "It looks like he's decided to take it one step further. Now you need to talk to one of Mega's goons and get thier permission before you can go outside, and even then you have to get back before curfew or your branded a traiter and left outside to deal with the zootists."
Jack was floored. He had thought that the punishment system had been Mega's ultimate low but apparently he could sink just that little bit further.
"And people are just listening?"
Ram gave him one of those 'how dense can you be' looks, that he seemed to have patented.
"Would you argue with the person keeping the crazies out, the power on, and makeing sure you have food?"
"Well no, but if that person was also making me a prisoner then I might have somthing to say about it."
"Your forgetting that on top of Mega's 'good will' he also has the ability to zap you into thinking his way, thanks to that wonderful little punisment sytem that you built him."
Jack felt like he had been punched.
He had, had to build it in order to get Mega to trust him. Besides, with him designing it he could make it so that a minimum of pain could be ensured.
Ram must of noticed his desolute look because he reached over and awkwardly patted Jack's arm "I know why you did it, and if you hadn't someone else would have, so don't bother feeling bad about it."
Although that was true it didn't make Jack feel any better, but he offered up a small smile in appreciation of Ram's attempt at comfort.
Thier eyes locked and almost impeceptably they started to lean closer.
Jack wasn't really thinking to clearly, so when Rams lips met his, it didnt even occur to him to worry about bad breath, or how bad of a kisser he was, or any other awkward thoughts. He just leaned in and kissed Ram back.
This unlike last nights, could definatly be classified as a kiss.
In fact if there were mirrors in the room Jack was fairly certain there would be steam covering them. Ram put one hand on the back of Jack's head and the other on his thigh. At some point Ram ended up on Jack's lap after sitting on different chairs became to uncomfortable for them.
They were so caught up in what they were doing, that they didn't notice the door open.
They did however hear two gasps of shock, and plates falling to the floor and breaking into hundreds of little pieces.
They jerked thier heads up to see the delighted face of Ruby and the amused face of Slade.