The Palace of Pleasure

After letting that pass Jack took one last look at the reflection of a dancer and dressed, finding his shorts weren't fitting so well but not saying anything. It was a constant problem, dealing with too small clothes. Jack always made sure Jensen had a full wardrobe before ever considering spending for himself and good, college worthy garb wasn't cheap so Jack was still making due with high school era clothes that were shorting to show their age.

Dressed, he made a quick breakfast of eggs and toast, Tiff giving him a quick kiss as he delivered the plate while she was in the middle of a voice call with the newspaper crew. Heading to the living room, he ate and thought about work later. If even he noticed how his face was, they would too. And yet, tapping one of his feet to the beat of a song only he heard, it didn't seem to matter. If Tiff didn't mind then why should he?

Finishing his food, Jack returned to the bedroom and started checking his clothes, finding two pairs of shorts that fit better and only a single pair of jeans. That wasn't an expense he planned on and the part of his brain that had raised a child far too smart for his own good started running numbers and situations. No darkness crossed over his face as before, no brow furrowing or lips flattening out as his Mother's did when he gave her bad news. Instead his lower lip slid forward slightly as he looked at a spot in the carpet that had been there when they first moved in, Jack looking like he was pouting more than thinking.

Not knowing what his thinking face now was, Jack still figured after bills were paid there would be enough scratch for at least another pair of jeans, as shorts weather wasn't going to last much longer. He wasn't going to ask Tiff for help in buying clothes as she always picked out a shirt or pair of jeans to buy with her own money anytime they went clothes shopping together.

That done and planned out, Jack checked his phone then sent a text to Jensen, catching his face in the black mirror of the phone when he powered the screen down. Jack looked as free as he felt and that thought made him smile, doing wonderful things to his face that he didn't see, pocketing the phone before then. The clothes that didn't fit were put in a trash bag and placed by the door, waiting to be dropped off at a local second hand store. Dishes were done, the kitchen cleaned and then Tiff was out of the office, chatting about how she had to fight the urge to tell her coworkers that her boyfriend was hot.

"Maybe that's why I didn't show my BeAuTiFuL FaRcE before now, I didn't want to be your trophy boy!" He said in a warbling falsetto, Tiff pointing and roaring at him in mock outrage.

"Oh, I'll make you into a trophy boy! Just hold still!" She ran into the kitchen and Jack surprised even himself by jumping the counter, landing on the other side with the finesse of a practiced dancer before darting into the office and slamming the door behind him. After much shouting and empty threats, he let her in and Tiff instantly kissed him right there in the doorway. There was nothing else to do, no more distractions and with his work over an hour away, Jack spoke once her lips were no longer on his.

"Do you mean it?" He asked, heel of his right foot rising and falling to the beat of the song, the part he had danced to with that stranger. It was her Jack was thinking of but not in a way that detracted from Tiff, no, far from it.

"Mean what?" She asked, clearly puzzled, still slightly unable to believe this was Jack holding her.

"The... All of it." He said, failing to find the words he wanted and Tiff just gave him further visible confusion before nodding.

"Yeah, why?" Tiff asked and Jack, still holding her, waddled them to the couch and he fell over backwards, liking her weight being on him.

"I..."And then instead of trying to use slippery, fanciful words Jack grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up, Tiff getting the idea and helping it off. His hair was pulled back up the collar and it spilled forth once the garb was free of him, flowing in waves that Tiff stared at before Jack got her attention.

Jack still had no idea what to say about his chest aside that it was tight and even appeared as much today. He had a flash of the woman's breasts bouncing as he'd danced with her and a shocking stab of betrayal nearly made him crawl out of the room and beg everything off. The dance he had done felt almost as personal as this but that idea faltered as soon as Tiff gave one of his nipples a slow, maddening tweak.

In fact, anything that wasn't feeling her attention on his chest didn't matter much at all as he gasped and moaned through gritted teeth, unable to explain why this was good and bordered on pain but was still so very enjoyable.

Tiff was moaning as well, looking up at him with blue eyes that relished all she saw, licking at his areola with a cartoonish gusto that Jack might have laughed at had he seen it. But he was lost, lost in the song that was playing stronger in his head and the urge to dance, to feel that freedom was rising but not all consuming as it had been.

Unable to help herself, she undid the tight waist on his shorts and pulled his length free, her hand being tickled by unkept bush but that didn't distract Tiff from taking the whole thing in her mouth and Jack didn't last long once she did that. He called out and twitched as she swallowed the result of her actions, finding all those little motions and red cheeks just as good as what she drank down. Pulling his underwear up, if only to give Jack some measure of modesty, Tiff went to the kitchen for a glass of water and by the time she returned, he was already breathing deep and steady, out like a light.

That too, made her feel pretty damn good about herself. Sipping her water, she went to the office and tried to type the interview but kept getting distracted by what had just happened replaying in her head, seeing those plush lips open wide, the beauty mark under them seeming more prominent now, as if resenting being ignored for so long. Finally she stood and went back out to where he was crashed on the couch, opening the camera on her phone and snapping a few pictures after turning the volume down so the shutter snap wouldn't rouse Jack.

No shirt, baggy shorts undone and showing plain underwear, Tiff thought he looked like a tomboy that just had a good ol' time with a secret someone. A smile surfaced as she thought about the freak out Jack would have had walking in on one of Jensen's many girlfriends like that, pants open and lacking a shirt. She returned to her computer, giggling and checking the new pictures on her phone, still finding it hard to believe that all it had taken was that charming little shit Jensen to leave for Jack to lighten up this much. Hard to believe but not impossible, she thought while seeing his now sweet face turned to the left, beauty mark under those lips calling out to her even in picture form.

Jack's internal alarm roused him, blaring that he had fallen asleep in the middle of the day and was late for work. And it took time for him to check his phone given how his pants were around his knees. Still, yanking them up, he couldn't really feel too bad if he ended up late. But his internal clock had been wrong and Jack still had thirty minutes to spare. Heading to the bathroom he washed up and splashed water on his face, once more seeing what might have been a dancer looking back at him.

Shivering, unable to help it even with the song playing in his head, Jack made sure he had keys, wallet and phone before hugging Tiff goodbye for the night. She brushed the mark by his mouth and he didn't turn away as she feared but appeared thoughtful, as if he knew what she touched and what it meant.

Jack indeed knew and touched it himself while locking the front door and walking in the pouring sunlight of a hot summer day. One night when Jack had been young he waited up for his Mom to come home from her second job, showing her a magazine borrowed from a kid in his class. Young Jack had marked a page that had a picture of a tall woman wearing an orange, yellow and red armored spacesuit with the helmet off, revealing blonde hair and a pretty yet serious face. And that's where he pointed, ignoring all the other pictures and words on the page.

"She's got a thing like us. What is that?" Jack had been teetering on the edge of sleep but was so curious about learning what he, his Mom and now this Samus woman had in common he'd stayed awake after bedtime to find out.

"Well, it's a mole but is called a beauty mark on girls." She had said, looking at the lady in armor before handing it back to him. "Where did-"

"Borrowed it." Jack said, knowing she was about to ask if he's spent money on an useless magazine. "But what is it called when a boy has it?" He asked and something in his voice must have tipped off his Mom about what he didn't want to hear. Granted, there was no way she was in the mood to deal with a tired, curious, and seriously stubborn kid, especially after working a double that day.

"You can call it a beauty mark but just between us Jackie." She said, smiling and it drew attention towards her own beauty mark, along with making her look less tired. "Okay? We'll be beauty buds and it's our little secret." Jack had hugged her then, smelling the reek of the restaurant she'd just driven home from and felt better with her arms about him.

"Okay! Good night Mom." He'd said, taking care to close the magazine so none of the pages ripped. There was no spare money for video games and as such, Jack didn't care about them. But seeing that lady had made him so curious and his Mom was the only other person he knew to ask such questions. At that age, she might as well have known everything.

"Good night beauty bud." She said, poking the mark below his lips and he smiled, loving her with the wild ferocity only children seemed capable of. Now, Jack held an equal amount of respect along side all that love for the woman who had busted her ass for an entire decade to ensure two fatherless kids were taken care off.

Sitting in the car, that memory having played out in a flash, Jack got the key in the ignition and rolled the engine over that always protested having that done to it. It obeyed and he got driving to work, humming but the tune didn't match what was on the radio. He thought about dancing and Tiff and secret beauty buds before arriving and using the back alley to get into the restaurant, clocking in and tying an apron about his waist.

"Hey, Jack Off! Where ya been?!" Another cook called and Jack grinned while still facing the wall, tying his hair out of the way and putting a baseball cap on. Everyone was so used to him coming in early to get a head start on the supper rush that being on time might as well have been running late. Just like his Mom said, no good deed goes unpunished.

"Getting my beauty sleep." Jack said while turning around, the other caustic cooks watching him approach with distrust. They knew just as much as he did that pretty people went up front and now, for some reason, he was one of those.

"Gawd damn! That ain't no joke! Didja finally take that shit ya been holdin' in the last 4 years?!" Travis, a ripcord thin guy in his 50's shouted and Jack laughed so hard he nearly fell over, giving Travis the high five he was owed for that one. And just like that, it was fine. The other cooks gave him crap, the servers peeked in the back before a brave one asked and Jack recited Travis's joke and got another round of laughs. And then when the time came Jack worked, his brain switching on the focus and drive that had helped get his family though hard times because those never ended when your Dad doesn't come home and even his beaten up truck is gone in an instant, leaving behind only a pillar of smoke that signaled for far too many families that hard times had come to stay.

The kitchen might have been stressful but it wasn't bad, not the root cause of giving Jack the sort of pained, grim expression that made strangers steer clear of him. He even found the groove of it matched the song playing in his head, how the orders came fast, then slowed up before speeding towards a climax, guitar solo then the slow fade out of the ending. Only in a kitchen there was clean up after the night was done where as the song had the luxury of finishing with no mess, no fuss.

At the end of the night he waved good bye to the other cooks and thanked the owner for giving him two days off in a row to get Jensen moved.

"Least I could do, Jack. Now git, I need to lock up." His gruff boss said, not commenting on how Jack looked and he found that amusing. Why would he care? Jack worked hard and it showed. The simple purity of being treated like everyone else was more to his liking and the restaurant boss was good for it.

Walking to his car in the clear, warm night, Jack reached for his keys and paused, turning around in a hurry and finding no one there. But, for an instant, Jack thought he heard that song again. Only now that he was listening all Jack heard was a dog barking and some jackass gunning it close by. The thought of The Palace made him reach for his wallet and open it, finding the ticket with the two stamps on the back.

"Room 6 unless the music's not to my liking. Then, Room 7." Jack said to no one before tucking the ticket and wallet away and starting his car. The drive was short and uneventful, Tiff happy to see him but already laying in bed, having written most of the day while he was gone and her brain was mush. Jack showered, dried off and didn't dress, instead laying down beside Tiff and watching as those blue eyes flickered open, then closed. Open, if only barely, a whispered sweet nothing and then closed. Closing his own eyes with lashes just as thick and heavy as Tiff's, Jack slipped into REM sleep fast and then smoothly exited it just as quickly hours later when his bladder commanded him to.

Taking care of the call of nature, Jack once more dressed, grabbed what he needed and quietly left the apartment, finding he was liking these too early times out on the town. At least, during the weekdays. It was quiet and still, each other vehicle a fellow traveler he wanted to give an unseen wave to for braving the night.

The usual spot on the usual street was empty. No other cars drove by he got out and locked up. Jack walked down the sidewalk, past stores he had no use for right then until he reached the unmarked door that was opened with out hesitation. This close, Jack wasn't sure if he actually could hear music or if he was just that eager. This close, he figured it didn't matter as he walked up the steps and slid his ticket through the gap in the dark glass of the teller booth.

"Oh, someone's going to have quite a night!" The same voice that previous had confirmed his entrance into The Palace spoke before the door unlocked and bid him to enter. "Enjoy but I don't think that's going to be a problem." Jack took the ticket back, not sure what to make of that but not caring either. Inside the dark, cramped room he thought there was a slight beat coming behind the door before him, the still locked one with no handle.

In more of a hurry now, Jack slid the ticket under this window as well and tried to be patient while waiting to be let inside.

"Huh, okay." A more sultry female voice said and Jack once more felt that stare on him, made all the worse by not knowing who it was. "Here is your outfit, change and leave your current clothes here then knock twice, I'll let you though." What he thought at first was a cake pan was pushed under the teller window before a metal safety door was slammed shut behind the glass, making him jump with the ugly clatter of it rolling down. He'd seen the sort in malls that rolled down from the ceiling and locked away the stores from the rest of the building but didn't figure a place as peaceful as The Palace needed them.

Approaching what the teller had pushed out, Jack found his ticket resting on top of a bunch of dark colored fabric in the shallow container. He picked it up and move it side, one of his fingers catching a wide band at least a foot across, black and lacy. Jack had never seen such a thing before and found it had some stretch to it, a design on one side that reminded him of the busts the dancer's here displayed. Next he looked down into the dish and what he saw next made Jack turn a shade of red not even Tiff had seen before.

One of the benefits of being beauty buds with his Mom had been hanging out with her right after school before she took off to the restaurant to wait tables. Then, she put on makeup, 'Fishing for tips' as she called it. He watched her put color around her eyes, then on the eyelid before applying lipstick, not aware of her watching him in the mirror. Once, she called him over in a soft tone and Jack had gone, wondering what this might be. He was at least 12 then, old enough to feel the thrill of the forbidden when she asked if he wanted to try it in that same barely there voice. A nod was the answer and she didn't have to tell Jack to pucker up, he already was, eyes closed. So that slightly sticky deep red ran over his lips and then he rubbed them together like she always did, knowing all of the steps by heart.

Without speaking, Jensen was in the other room watching TV, his Mom had knelt down and turned her head so that a cheek was presented to him. He pecked a kiss on it and marveled at the shape and color he had left behind, feeling a lightness in his midsection that Jack would lose and become a stranger to in time.

She had poked his beauty mark, grinning and Jack looked at the mirror, not seeing the dour person hard times would force him to become but... Something else. Someone else. A Kleenex was offered to him and Jack reluctantly wiped the red off his lips, knowing that Jensen would have questions and he wasn't equipped to answer them. Not even Mom seemed ready to have that talk so he made sure all trace of that red was gone before she whispered in his ear, her breath hot in the small bedroom.

"One day, I hope you find another beauty bud who will do this for you. Would you like that?" She asked and Jack had to fight back tears for unknown reasons before nodding. She looked at him with sharp eyes that had seen the paperwork informing her about the pitiful insurance settlement for the death of her husband, eyes that hadn't wept but instead went hard in a way Jack would understand only a year later. Right then, she only saw a child who didn't have a father and wondered how her late love might have reacted to Jack asking about beauty marks and knew how to put on lipstick from watching her so closely five days out of the week.

"Alright, supper's ramen, make sure the burner is turned off when your done and have Jensen in bed by 9. Okay?" She said in her normal voice, informing Jack that this special time was done and now it was back to business as usual. And yet he had to take a second before answering her.

"Okay." With that, she guided him back into the living room with Jensen, who for once wasn't getting into trouble but instead watching an episode of Power Rangers. Jack sat beside him as Mom left, not paying much attention to the fights, monsters or jokes. He didn't have much of a taste for the giant robot finale either. All that caught his eye was one of the girl Rangers at the end, who was wearing some sort of lipstick. Not deep red but none of the guys were wearing any at all. None of the guys had beauty marks either.

Blinking away the past, Jack picked up the tube of lipstick and pulled the cap off, twisting the bottom until the, what else, dark red color emerged. Setting that by the ticket, he pulled out a mini skirt with a black and red checkered pattern, eyeing the length and knowing it wasn't going to be long enough for his liking. Under that was a pair of panties that were the color Jack expected by now and he reached out with a shaky hand, pausing right above the underwear.