Jack arrived at his apartment to realize that he had only boxes as furniture. He facepalmed. He had completely forgotten to buy furniture. Or food. Or anything at all.
He pushed boxes and bags away. They contained stuff that had been in the basement, but that wouldn't be worked on right now at the lab.
"Fuck my li~fe," he whined, dropping to the floor next to a pile of boxes marked '?'. He couldn't remember what the hell he had packed anywhere. At that point he had just set his robots to dismantle everything and put it on boxes. Setting everything up again was going to be hell. He just knew it.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself.
And he smelled it. Spices, and vanilla, and something sharper. The scent of Chase. He jumped up, taking his metal staff from where it was attached to his leg and extended it.
"Chase I know you're here," he said, and knew right away how stupid it sounded.
Chase would not give himself away so easily. Could it be that he had left? Had he come looking for clues of where Jack had hidden Wuya? Jack took out his cell phone and called his mom's assistant. She had quickly shifted to being his own assistant, as much of the job was his now.
"Mr. Spicer?" answered a groggy voice.
"Sarah check the surveillance tapes of the house for today. Report back to me with anything you find, but do not let anyone else see them."
He didn't want the police to get involved, in case Chase had seen fit to trash his house when he didn't find Wuya.
Jack hung up before Sarah could tell him anything else, and looked everywhere around him carefully, finally noticing something on the kitchen counter. He approached it with hesitant steps.
It looked like an open box. Jack peered inside and found a letter written with perfect Chinese calligraphy.
"I took the monkey staff. You have until morning to give back Wuya."
Jack let himself relax. Chase wasn't in the apartment. The bastard had just come to piss him off.
Because of course he didn't care about a simple Shen Gon Wu like the monkey staff. He had come to get Wuya, and took it as an extra fuck you to him. Jack didn't even know why he had kept the thing anyway. He was done with hunting Shen Gon Wus. He was done with Xiaolin and Heylin both. He grabbed the letter and crushed it. Then he threw it out the window, and went on to pile enough boxes to make himself a decent surface to sleep on.
"Enjoy it!" he yelled into the night.
He hated Chase. He hated the monkey staff. And he hated himself for keeping it, and bringing it along with him.
And for keeping the house. And for keeping a cozy, small place in his heart for the idealized vision of Chase that he had revered for his entire childhood. A place where his feelings for him could resettle, once the numbing ice inside him started to melt.