An Unexpected Arrival

"But..." Jack started, but his words left him, and he could only caress the young fae's face.

"It's okay to try," Skye whispered and closed his eyes and pushed his face into his palm, before he opened his big blue eyes to gaze at him.

Jack moved close to the young fae, and felt his hot breath against his lips, and closed his eyes as he leaned closer -

An alarm screeched from under the couch, which made Skye leap backward across the futon, and jerked Jack's attention away. After a moment of realization, he screamed an expletive and dove under the couch to pull a phone out.

There were multiple items that Jack had stashed around his apartment that were useful in the event that the ProAm government discovered that in Apartment 617 lived someone who believed that people should be free from their oppressive Program, but who they had simply labelled 'a terrorist.'

This phone wasn't connected to the usual cellular network, but an entirely different one, and the only reason it would ring is because someone from that network of cells wanted to speak to him.

It would not be good news. Jack put the phone up to his ear and headed toward the kitchen.

The voice on the other side was crisp and clear. "The Electric Eye looks down on you. Full tac inbound, ETA twenty minutes."

A brief pause.

"Maybe less," the voice admitted. "You have been compromised."

Jack pulled open a cabinet and reached deep in the back of it to remove a coffee can, which he took to the front door.

The voice continued. "The compromise is with you right now and can probably hear everything I'm saying."

Jack locked eyes with Skye, as he opened the door. The fae catboy looked ready to burst into tears and looked away, confirming that he was listening. "Get your pants on and go to the office!" Jack barked at him, before he continued to the voice. "Intentional?"

"Probably accidental. He's a criminal, and his council traced him to your apartment."

Jack went outside and pulled a small vent off the wall next to his door, put the coffee can in on its side with the lid facing out, and then closed up the vent and went back inside.

"So why the team? Why not just pick him up?" he asked as he walked into the kitchen.

"Oh, you mean like they saw him sitting there casually on your monitor?"

Jack stopped in his tracks as Skye watched him from the hall and squeezed the phone so tight the glass on the front cracked. That was what had bugged him in the shower - he forgot to update his monitor feedback loop to include footage of him and Skye doing normal roommate things.

Instead, the "monitor" would show him, by himself, doing normal things with not a single fae creature in sight. If one looked closely at the footage, it wasn't hard to detect the telltale signs of a feedback loop.

A monitor feedback loop meant you were Off Program. Being Off Program meant ProAm would send a team of agents in full tactical gear to your door. Unlike the catboy, he was not destined for prison.

"A word of warning. Intentional or no, fucking watch him. His kind can make things... happen," the voice added before it finished with, "X-Ray, Yankee, Four, Seven, Seven, Bravo, Whiskey, Happy Hunting."

Jack threw the phone as hard as he could, and it shattered against the wall, before he yanked the silverware drawer out of the kitchen and threw it behind himself. "Fuck!" he bellowed as he reached into the empty drawer slot and pulled out a toothed metal tool.

Skye pressed himself against the wall as he walked past him and into the office. He slid open the closet door and jammed the metal tool into a well-disguised hole in the wall. Skye slowly walked into the office behind him.

"Skye, you're going to have make a very hard decision, very quickly, and it's probably going to be very permanent." He jimmied the tool a bit. "Option one, you hide in here and let the officers arrest you. They will take you back to your council, or whatever. You know better than me what that means."

He banged on the wall, and a large ka-thunk signaled that he'd unlocked whatever he meant to unlock. He flipped the tool around and used the flat part on the back to pry open a hidden door, and he threw it open.

"Option two," he said as he ducked into the hidden room behind the closet. "You come with me. I'm gonna kill a few people. And then we're going to meet some very bad people fighting for a good cause. And once you go into that life, there's no walking away. I definitely can't guarantee your safety. You've got about five minutes to figure it out."

Jack quickly slipped on a plate carrier and secured it, then loaded it with ammunition for his short, suppressed rifle. He cleared the rifle, slapped in a magazine, racked it, then put the sling around his shoulder. He attached a belt, grabbed a handgun, loaded it, and slammed it into the holster on his right, then attached a couple of grenades to the front of his vest.

He turned to Skye who squeezed his own waist tight while his lip quivered. The catboy nodded and spoke shakily. "I don't need five minutes. I'm staying with you. Fate brought us together. I know it'll work out."

Jack slung an arm around his waist and bent his head down. "In case this goes wrong, I want you to know something." And he pressed his lips against Skye's, kissing him hard.

Skye threw his arms around Jack's gear, and pulled him as close as he could, kissing him back just as hard.

Jack broke the kiss and smiled, while Skye beamed back at him, and wiped away tears. "Thank you," the fae whispered.

"Don't thank me yet, I need to get you out of here alive," Jack said and walked back and grabbed a set of headphones. He held them out toward Skye and added, "You're lucky I have a spare pair. Sorry I don't have a spare plate carrier."

Skye furrowed his brow and looked at the headphones, then pointedly look at Jack who noticed that they would not work on Skye's ears. He sighed and handed Skye a very fancy pair of earbuds. "These won't work as well on you as they will on a human, but we'll need to get something custom later."

Skye nodded and put in the earbuds, and then Jack handed him a motorcycle helmet. "Flatten your ears or whatever, you need to put this on."

Skye nodded and slipped on the motorcycle helmet. It did not particularly match his yellow sundress and short pants.

"I suspect I look like an idiot," Skye muttered.

"That's just your ass kicking outfit," Jack said as he attached the headphones to a helmet and strapped it on. He keyed his mic, "Your earbuds will pick up your voice, and we're on the same channel, so you can hear me, and I can hear you, no matter what."

Skye asked, "Is it going to be loud?"

"Unbelievably, but the helmet should mute it," Jack replied, as he grabbed a pair of explosive slap charges. He grabbed a backpack and handed it to Skye. "Wear this."

Skye strapped it on and shifted uncomfortably. "It's heavy."

"Yeah, it wasn't really meant for you, but I can't wear it now."

He headed out of the office, fully kitted out, and placed the slap charges against the wall next to his door. He gestured at Skye to crouch down behind the kitchen counter, and he crouched next to him.

"Skye. When I say run, you run. When I say stop, you stop. Don't open any doors, and don't ask "why". What, how, where, all fine, but don't question my judgement. Not till we're safe," Jack whispered.

Skye simply nodded.

Jack pulled his phone out and opened up the camera app to see the hall in front of his door. Six men came silently down the hall and stacked up on his door. They weren't supposed to form a line like that, but they were, which was helpful. He yanked two detonators out of his vest and looked at Skye then shook his head once. Skye huddled down, and Jack detonated the explosives.

The first thing to go off was the coffee can in the vent, which fired an explosively formed lance of metal into the team, before the slap charges detonated at approximately head height. Once the instant passed, the hall was filled with smoke, debris, and bodies.

"Follow!" Jack commanded and ran through the shattered remains of the door. He fired a quick burst at one of the team members that was struggling to get up and headed to a metal door down an adjoining hall. He paused a moment at the door, and slid it open quickly, sweeping his barrel as he did so.

The cement stairwell was empty.

"Keep your hand on me," Jack told Skye, who immediately grabbed his vest. Jack headed down the stairs, checking over the railing repeatedly, checking the doors, and taking each step carefully, but hurriedly.

Before long he was in the basement. They emerged from the stairwell into a parking garage, and Jack jogged along with Skye between the cars. A van came roaring up the ramp and slammed on its brakes. Jack pointed to the ground, "Stay low!"

He opened fire on the van, which was loud, but not the usual booming gunshot. When the tactical squad returned fire though, the thunderous booms filled the cement garage.

Jack signaled Skye, "That way! Go! Stay low!" as he knew they couldn't stay in one place. He dropped a couple of the agents chasing him, but there would be more coming. He yanked an incendiary grenade from his vest, pulled the pin, and tossed it at a car behind him.

The explosion filled the garage with smoke and fire, setting off sprinklers.

They sprinted through the garage, until he got to tarp that he yanked off and threw behind himself. Beneath the tarp was a black sports motorcycle which Skye marveled at.

Jack climbed on and started it up, and Skye saw that there was a seat behind him and climbed on. Jack backed the motorcycle out and turned it around. As he disconnected the sling from his rifle, he spoke to Skye over the comms. "As soon as we get past these guys, I want you to climb around to the front of me. Without falling off. Can you do that?" After a moment of silence, Jack added, "I can't hear you nod."

"Oh! Yes sir!"

Jack was really going to have to talk to him about the sir thing at some point, and he revved the engine and tore off through the garage, and toward the van. He fired a few shots in the direction of the agents, and then holstered the rifle on a special holster on the side of the gas tank.

Skye slipped around him as he rode, but nearly fell off with the weight the backpack. Jack grabbed the strap with one hand and muscled Skye onto the gas tank, steering one handed for just long enough to secure him.

The agents fired at the pair and Jack could feel the sledgehammer impacts of bullets hitting his rear plate, before he tore out of the garage, and onto the street.

Jack pulled into the parking lot of the motel and stopped in front of the front desk. The pain in his shoulder was a burning ache that had exhausted him from driving the motorcycle. If he got off the motorcycle, he might not make it all the way into the lobby and back out.

"Skye," he spoke through the comms. "Get off the bike."

Skye climbed off the back of the bike and stood next to him, his hands clasped together anxiously.

Jack nodded, "Take the helmet and pack off." Skye did so and handed them both to Jack, who continued. "I need you to get the key for our room. You go in there, he'll say X-Ray Yankee to you. You say - listen, this is important - you say four, seven, seven, bravo, whiskey. And if he doesn't respond with 'Happy Hunting' then... bad shit."

Skye swallowed and nodded.

"Repeat it back to me. What's he gonna say first?"

"X-ray Yankee."

"And then?"

"I say four seven seven bravo whiskey, and he replies with happy hunting."

Jack nodded again then said, "As soon as he says happy hunting, let me know."

Skye nodded and walked inside. If this went wrong, Jack wasn't sure he was going to be able to help from here. He knew he couldn't lift his left arm, and definitely couldn't hold a rifle with it, so he was going to do this one handed.

He heard Skye through his headset. "Four seven seven bravo whiskey."

And then silence. He squeezed the pistol grip of the rifle holstered next to his gas tank as he stared through the tattered remains of broken blinds at the exchange that happened in lobby. It was too long, he'd have to -

"Happy hunting," Skye murmured as he ran out of the lobby to the motorcycle. "He said it."

Jack breathed a sigh of relief and gestured for the catboy to climb on the back. The room was a short drive away, and he was thankfully able to park directly in front of it.

"Go open th'door," Jack mumbled, grabbed his rifle and slung it around his good shoulder, then grabbed the pack and dragged it into the room. He dropped it next to the bed.

"Are you okay?" Skye asked in a shaky voice.

Jack nodded and gestured to the bag. "First aid kit," he said. He just needed to get this armor off, and then he could figure out what went wrong with his shoulder. He yanked the lower right strap, used his good arm to awkwardly pull out the lower left, and then he yanked the right shoulder which disconnected it and caused the armor to awkwardly fall of his left, wrenching his shoulder.

He shouted something loud and obscene, and jerked his body around to the bed. He looked down at his shoulder, but he couldn't see anything. He heard some kind of hiss, or felt it?

He couldn't catch his breath. He laid back on the bed as he tried to inhale with both lungs, but one of them felt bad, which somewhere in his mind he knew what that was. His adrenaline was flagging, and he couldn't really think.

"Nuu... numo," he tried to gasp out to Skye, to explain the problem. But Skye was instead pulling his shirt off for some reason. It wasn't the time for this, he couldn't breathe, he needed first aid.

"Stop flailing!" Skye said firmly and grabbed his chest with one hand, and his back with the other.

Something was happening, but Jack couldn't really tell what, so he just squeezed his eyes closed. Warmth spread through his chest and shoulder - not unpleasant at first, it just felt like dipping into a hot tub. But then the water got warmer, and warmer, until it felt like his shoulder was on fire, and he roared upright into the seated position, as his adrenaline spiked again.

Jack twisted his head around to look at his shoulder, and feel it, when he saw the remains of a bullet on the bed. Skye was next to him, exhausted but wearing a wide smile.

"Hey," Skye said warmly. "I hope it helped."

Jack remembered back to the burned finger, and he quickly kissed Skye for a few seconds, before he broke it. "How'd you do that?"

"I was... very full of mana," Skye said, blushing a dark red.

Jack nodded, and looked at the old TV that sat on the dresser and faced the bed. Off to one side there sat a small fridge on the floor. The room was very sparsely decorated, otherwise.

"One of their bullets missed the plate. Pneumothorax. I think you might've saved my life," Jack said.

"Considering... everything, it was the least I could do."

"Why the fuck did this happen?" Jack asked as he pulled his helmet and headphones off and tossed them aside. "You did kind of come in my life and fuck it all up, so I'd appreciate an honest answer."

Skye looked down and played with the hem of his dress. "I'm sorry, sir. I really am. I just... I'm sorry, I didn't mean for," Skye started and then broke down in tears.

Jack wrapped an arm around his lithe waist and tugged him close so he could kiss the top of his head. He could've asked a little nicer, he supposed.

Skye turned to his chest, hugging him tight, and eventually was able to control his sobbing. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"I'm sorry, Skye. I shouldn't have been so harsh."

The catboy swallowed. "You're right though. I... I fucked your life. And it's all my fault!" he cried and shook his head, as a sob tore through him. "I'm sorry! Please don't send me away! It was just one wish!"

Jack furrowed his brow, and pulled Skye away from him so that he could look into his face. Those beautiful blue eyes were wet and reddened from the sobbing. "Skye, I want you to look at me. I'm not going to send you away, okay? But I still... I want to know what happened, okay?"

Skye sniffled. "I wished to Fate for someone to protect me, and... and to care for me. And Fate answered! It answered, and that's why it chose you!"

Jack furrowed his brow. 'The fae can make things happen,' his contact told him.

"Skye, I don't really know what that means. Wishes don't do anything in my world."

Skye snapped his eyes wide open, the shock of that statement startling him out of his mood. "What? You mean you can't cast a wish to Fate?"

"No, what does it do?"

"It makes a thing happen."

Well, yeah. But. He sighed.

"Is that why they're after you?" he decided to ask, instead.

Skye shook his head, then nodded and shook his head again. "Sort of, yes. It's illegal, but they're really after me because I saw something I shouldn't have seen. I told you, I was a courier. Well, I was visiting the Gravis Duchy, and this wolf, he was a diplomat named," then he growled a name, "and he liked to uh... sometimes take me to a back room. And... and you know," he said with a blush.

"Oh, I'm sure you hated that," Jack couldn't resist adding, with a wide grin.

Skye laughed and shook his head. "He wasn't as good as you."

Jack laughed, "Thanks, I appreciate that."

Skye swallowed then and turned serious. "On my way out of the backroom, I saw... the Duchess having sex with a wolfkin. Not her husband." He paused a moment and added, "She's a very very powerful fae."

Jack sighed and shook his head. "Fucking politicians. The fucking same on your world and mine."

"Does that happen here?"

"Oh, worse than that," Jack said with a nod. "In truth Skye, it's not just you. I'm one of the people fighting the politicians here. And I'm the reason they sent a bunch of fucking killers to my apartment. If they just wanted to grab you, they would've sent a couple of agents to arrest you. But they figured out what I was."

"Because I showed up, and you didn't change something. That's what that guy said, right?"

"Well, I mean, yes."

"So, if I hadn't showed up, you would still be there."

Jack tugged the corner of his mouth. "It's not your fault, Skye."

Skye hung his head and whispered, "I think it is."

"I'm exhausted, and filthy, and I think we should take a shower," Jack said quietly.

They were both moving slow as they stripped their clothes off and set them aside. They hung them up as they were wet from both sweat and the sprinklers in the garage.

The shower was small with just enough room for them to stand next to each other. Jack washed Skye's hair, massaging the shampoo into his scalp. He soaped up the young fae's body, and scrubbed his arms, and then chest. He noticed that he had absolutely no body hair anywhere on him.

He crouched low to clean his legs and scrub his soft ass. The catboy's butt and thighs were distractingly thick and sexy. Jack stood up, and enveloped Skye in his arms as he soaped him up from behind, his hands running down to scrub his crotch, and clit and pouch.

Skye gasped in delight and leaned his head back against him. "You treat my clitty so nice," he purred. "Now, my turn."

Jack grinned and turned around in the shower and let Skye scrub him up and down. The catboy made sure to be very careful around the huge bruises on his back, which weren't healed from his magic.

"Still tender back there," Jack mused. "Does your magic just heal bad wounds?"

"Yeah, and sometimes it still leaves really nasty scars. I'm... I'm just an apprentice, of sorts. The masters can make it so like it never happened." The fae ran his fingers down his back, tracing along some of the scars on his back.

"Yeah, I could've used those masters back in the day," he said, then turned around so that Skye could continue to clean him. Eventually all that was left was his cock, which Skye paid special attention to.