Disclaimer: Buena Vista Entertainment owns the rights to Power Rangers SPD. This story involves characters and concepts from PRSPD.

The Seduction of Schuyler Tate
by Starhawk

Chapter 1

They filed out of the lounge in their pajamas, Commander Cruger looming behind them like some sort of benevolent watchdog as he sent them off to bed. Sky stepped to one side, letting the girls pass in front of him. Jack was dragging his feet, a disturbingly convincing shuffle that barely overtook Sky despite the fact that he was standing still, and Sky couldn't help watching.

Jack caught his eye, of course. Goofy white pajamas with red lining, loose linen that made him look all of ten years old, and a preoccupied expression that disappeared the second he saw Sky looking. His face lit up with a smile, a wink, and a jerk of his head in the direction they were all going anyway.

The invitation was unmistakable. To him and to anyone else watching, which right now included their commanding officer. Sky rolled his eyes, unable to hide a smile, because Jack had no shame. Okay, so they obviously weren't going to get a chance to talk once Cruger left, because Cruger wasn't leaving. But to imply that they were bunking together was just...

"'Night, Jack," Syd said, stifling a yawn as she waved her stuffed elephant over her shoulder.

Z paused outside Jack's door, bumping knuckles with him. "'Night, bro," she said quietly, and he smiled.

"'Night." Then he raised his voice as she turned away and called, "G'night, Syd! 'Night Bridge!"

Bridge came back with something that was probably best left undeciphered, and Jack turned his smirk on Sky. "Do I get a kiss good night?"

"Oh, shut up," Sky muttered, and the habit still made Jack chuckle. He hadn't quite been able to cure himself of it, even--especially?--when Jack started kissing him every time he said it.

With a sigh, Sky gave in to the inevitable and leaned down to kiss Jack briefly. "You're really obnoxious," he whispered, aware that Cruger's ears would have no trouble picking it up.

Jack's breath of laughter gave no indication that he knew they were being overheard. "You couldn't love anyone who wasn't," he murmured in return.

He had to admit that the evidence was on Jack's side there. "Lucky for you," he muttered. He didn't bother to say good night.

"Sweet dreams," Jack called after him, and only the fact that the commander was standing right there kept Sky from flipping him off.

The girls' door was already closed when he walked past, but Bridge had left theirs open for him. He was curled up on his bed, and Sky took a moment to orient himself with the light from the hallway before letting the door close. He made his way to his own bed in the dark, turning to lean against it for a long moment before sitting down.

So Cruger thought they'd done better than A Squad. Because they hadn't been captured. Unfortunately, the longer Sky thought about that reasoning, the more he had a problem with it. They had been captured, after all. Several times. They'd just managed to get each other out of it, time and again.

If it came down to it, the only thing B Squad really had that A Squad didn't was support. They had the resources of an entire SPD base at their disposal. They were fighting in a friendly environment, one that wouldn't kill them if they stumbled, or had to eject, or got lost or separated from the team. Backup was literally seconds away any time, all the time.

"Hey," Bridge's voice said, not sounding at all sleepy. "Jack wanted to talk to you."

Sky lifted his head automatically, but his eyes hadn't adjusted to the dark yet. Bridge was just a shadow in the room, dimly outlined by the city lights through the window. He hadn't moved since Sky came in.

"Jack always wants to talk to me," Sky told him. It didn't come out quite as mocking as he'd meant it to.

"Yeah," Bridge agreed, like he didn't even consider the possibility Sky might not be serious. "More tonight, though. And not just because it's night, either. Although he does totally want to get you in bed, so. Watch out for that."

Sky shifted uncomfortably. They had a rule about talking while someone was trying to sleep, but he supposed he hadn't technically laid down yet. It could reasonably be assumed that he wasn't trying to sleep while he was still sitting up.

"I think he was waiting for you in the lounge," Bridge's voice continued. "Something bad happened today. With Commander Cruger. He wanted to talk to you about it."

Sky frowned, but he didn't bother to ask how Bridge knew. Even he'd thought Jack was a little weird with Cruger tonight. Too stiff, too formal, avoiding his gaze when he wasn't talking... little things that Sky could have put down to the hour. Or to worry about what the commander thought of them. Anything, really.

Except that they stood out enough to be noticeable, and Jack actually covered pretty well. Some things, at least. Things like discomfort, uncertainty, insecurity--they just weren't part of his persona.

Anger, though. Jack had never been good at hiding that. Frustration. Impatience. Things that Z could talk him down from. Things that had shown in his expression the moment Cruger appeared in the doorway.

Sky stood up. "I'll be back," he told Bridge.

He was almost to the door when he heard Bridge mutter, "Uh-huh."

Sky shook his head, but he didn't check his stride. That turned out to be a mistake, because he made it a significant way down the hall before he realized the commander was still standing outside the lounge. It was disconcerting enough that he almost stopped, but lack of confidence never got anyone anywhere.

So he strode past the girls' room and was almost to Jack's door before Cruger spoke. "I thought I told you to get some sleep, Cadet."

He had nothing to apologize for. "Left my pillow in Jack's room, sir."

Because even if he had, what business was it of Cruger's anyway? Was he baby-sitting them now? So he'd come to check on them when he heard them in the B Wing lounge--they all knew where the likeliest place on base was for him to have heard them from, and no one had asked what he was doing in Kat's lab this late at night.

Sky let himself in, hoping Jack had heard him in the hallway and really hoping that he wasn't about to be thrown out for barging through the door. He couldn't stand there in the hallway and knock with Cruger staring at him. Especially after he'd just implied that he was sleeping with his team leader.

There was a light on in Jack's room. He was on his bed, comic book across his knees like it had fallen there when he'd sat up. The reading light between the beds created sharp shadows, making Jack's pajamas look brighter and his skin darker. He was watching the door with an intent expression that turned to happy surprise when Sky walked in.

Sky had never told him, but he could remember the first time he'd noticed Jack looking at him like that. For a few days afterwards, he had even kept count. Starting the afternoon he gave Jack his morpher back after using it to bring in Mirloc, he'd counted those smiles until he couldn't remember whether he was on twelve or thirteen. He'd gone with twelve, lost count again at fifteen, and then at twenty he'd given up.

"Sorry," he said under his breath. "I should have--" He jerked his thumb at the door, grimacing apologetically. "Knocked."

Jack always knocked. Even when the door was open, he knocked. And he didn't come in until Sky looked up, acknowledging his presence with his eyes.

Jack was grinning now, and he shook his head. "Would've ruined the effect," he whispered, and this time it was obvious he knew Cruger might be listening. "Nice entrance, by the way."

Sky shrugged, folding his arms for lack of anything better to do with them. "Bridge said he thought you wanted to talk."

"Figures," Jack murmured. He let himself fall back on the bed, one arm thrown dramatically over his eyes. His voice was louder as he asked, "So this is what it takes to get you in here, huh?"

Sky frowned, but he didn't have a chance to say anything before Jack groaned. "So..." The word was long and drawn out, and Jack shifted on top of his bed. "So not fair, Sky."

He definitely wasn't talking quietly enough. Sky found himself lowering his voice even further in an effort to remind him. "Jack, I'm not--"

Jack made a sound that was not entirely unlike a moan. "Oh yeah," he sighed, easily loud enough to drown out Sky's words. "That's really good."

Sky's eyes widened as Jack braced one foot against the bed, groaning as he turned his head from side to side, right arm still covering his face. He took an involuntary step back when Jack arched up, making unmistakably obscene noises. "What the fuck," he breathed, knowing Jack wouldn't hear him.

"Sky!" The cry brought him forward, unwilling to listen and unable to tear his eyes away. Jack wasn't even touching himself--not that he wanted him to--but his voice was very, very convincing. "I want--"

Sky clapped a hand over his mouth, turning the rest of the sentence into an indistinct mumble. This was followed by another groan, and it took more control than he would have liked to ignore that sound. "What are you doing!" Sky hissed, not ready to lift his hand until Jack made eye contact.

Jack licked his hand.

He was embarrassed to admit that his fingers flexed, bringing his palm closer to Jack's tongue and earning him a bite in the process. He made a sound that wasn't anything like talking, and now, finally, Jack lowered his arm. Eyes bright, dancing with laughter, his hand captured Sky's and held it so he could suck Sky's fingers into his mouth.

Sky yanked his hand away, wishing he hadn't worn his thin sweats. Opening his mouth to demand an explanation, he stopped short when Jack laid one finger over his lips. His own lips. Then he pointed at the door.

Sky followed his gaze numbly. Cruger was in the hallway. Or he had been.

Jack rolled off of the bed in one smooth and relatively quiet motion. He tangled his fingers in Sky's t-shirt and tugged him along as he padded softly toward the door. Sky had all he could do not to trip over him.

They paused just inside the door and Jack let it slide open, leaning out into the hall in a ridiculously unsubtle fashion. Sky found himself leaning out after him, bracing his arm against the opposite side of the doorframe and looking toward the lounge. The hallway was empty.

They glanced at each other and Jack grinned. "Score one for B Squad Red and Blue," he crowed, lifting one fist and offering it to Sky.

He jammed his fist into Jack's a little harder than was absolutely necessary. "The only scoring was you in your masturbatory fantasies," Sky told him.

"Disappointed?" Jack teased. "Next time you can join me."

Sky glared at him. "I'm going to bed."

"Hey," Jack said quickly, dropping the smirk. "I didn't mean to embarrass you. I'm sorry, okay?"

He hesitated. Jack didn't look uncertain, because that wasn't what he did, but he did look sorry. Sky let a smile crack his serious expression. "It was kind of funny," he admitted.

"Yeah, well." Jack was grinning again. "See if you still think so tomorrow when Cruger assigns us to the mud swamp. On our lunch break."

"You mean the private unsupervised obstacle course in the middle of nowhere where everyone comes out looking like they've been mud wrestling?" Sky raised an eyebrow at him. "That's the last place he'll be sending us after tonight."

"Doesn't sound so bad when you put it like that," Jack drawled. "Maybe we should request it."

"Hard as it may be to believe," Sky said, rolling his eyes, "I actually have issues with getting naked in the mud."

He heard the words come out of his mouth and he was still surprised he'd said it. He expected an immediate inquiry about where he would get naked, but instead of a leer he got a look of feigned innocence and the retort, "Who said anything about getting naked?"

The attempt at civility didn't last long enough for Sky to even open his mouth. "I can get you off with your clothes on," Jack continued, and there was the leer. "No problem."

The problem was that, especially after Jack's too-brief display tonight, Sky had no doubt it was true. And he couldn't deal with that right now. "I'll leave," he threatened, taking a step toward the door.

"Okay." Jack held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, if not actual apology. "I can be good."

That he had a much harder time believing. But he stayed anyway, because he didn't really want to go. And, he told himself, because if Jack wanted to talk about something then it was probably important.

Jack backed away from the door, waving at the bed opposite his. "Met with the commander this afternoon," he remarked, sitting down on his own bed.

Sky frowned. First, because Jack had left it to him to close the door--or not. The gesture was old-fashioned enough to almost be insulting. Second, because if that was Jack's opening, then Bridge was right. Something had gone down with Cruger, and anything that was still bothering Jack hours later didn't bode well for the team.

He closed the door and went to sit down. He had to shove one of Jack's coats out of the way to do it. The man was obsessed with jackets, but Sky had only teased him about it once before Z had yanked him aside and calmly informed him that the next time he said a word about Jack's clothes she would hurt him.

Jack still wasn't used to being able to buy whatever he wanted. He didn't like to spend money on unnecessary things, Z said, so he just bought the necessary things. Over and over again. Sky could only assume that this explained why Jack's room looked like a PlanetAid staging area, but he had gotten the message and he didn't say anything.

"He wanted to talk about--" Jack stopped, then started over, and Sky looked up in surprise as he just repeated, "He was saying..."

Jack kept on staring at the floor. "A Squad," he said at last. "He doesn't think they're coming back."

Sky kept his expression as neutral as he could. "They've been MIA for months."

Jack lifted his head, dark eyes catching his gaze, and Sky had no idea how to interpret what he saw there. There were times when Jack was inscrutable at best, and this was one of those times. There was nothing that could have prepared him for what Jack said next.

"He wants to promote me, Sky."

His mouth dropped open, but no words came out. This was a joke. It had to be a joke, clearly, Jack was just playing with him. Yeah. Hilarious.

"He must have known," Jack was saying. "All the stuff, the weapon, this thing that Grumm is building. Cruger knew. He knows something's coming, and whether A Squad is still out there or not, he knows they're not going to be back in time to face it."

Jack looked away, staring at the window, opaque with light from the inside. "It's us, Sky. It's all down to us now. And when Cruger sends for backup, he wants SPD to be reinforcing his front line team, not a group of second-ranked cadets."

"What--" Sky tried to get his sentences together. "Why you?" he asked bluntly. "Who else? You can't be A Squad alone."

"I told him," Jack said quietly. "I told him it was my team or nothing. And if I accept it, if I let him do this, then he wants you to be my second-in-command.

"He's willing to bump Syd up, too," Jack added. "But he says Bridge isn't A Squad material, not yet. Z either. He wants Sam and Kat to take their places."

Sky could only stare at him.

"I know," Jack said, glancing back at him with a small smile. "Of course you should be Red Ranger. I don't know what he was thinking."

"Sam and Kat?" Sky burst out. "That's ridiculous! Sam is from 2040; his Power is barely even compatible with ours and he can't take an order to save his life. Or anyone else's. And Kat shouldn't even be let out of this building; she's trouble on a stick with a carrot!"

Jack actually chuckled, relaxing in the face of his outrage, which was just one more thing that made Sky completely crazy. His hair, his smile, white pajamas and mismatched grey socks. And the man had the nerve to laugh at him when he pointed out the obvious.

Completely. Fucking. Crazy.

"Trouble on a stick with a carrot?" Jack was saying, giving him a grin that put his secretive smile to shame. "Where do you get these things?"

Sky loomed over him, not even sure when he'd stood up. "Tell me you didn't agree to this," he demanded.

Jack snorted. "Your overwhelming faith in me means a lot," he said, pushing himself up off his bed so he could stare back without staring up. As much. "I told you before, B Squad moves up together or we don't move up at all."

He remembered. Easy to say, harder to do. Especially when that promotion was staring you right in the face. And the new A Squad would have to come from somewhere.

"The commander's not going to take no for an answer," Sky said, frowning.

"Make up your mind, Sky." Jack was watching him with an intent look that was full of everything he'd never asked. "Pull me in or push me away, but I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving any of you. I'll quit before I let them--"

Whatever else he might have said was swallowed by Sky's mouth on his, a desperate kiss meant to deny any possibility of losing Jack. He'd been trying not to think about it ever since he'd realized how badly the meteor mission had messed him up... but Jack was Jack, and death wasn't the only thing that could take him away from Sky. Who knew what he would do if Cruger gave him an ultimatum?

Who knew what he was doing if Cruger already had?

"Jack." He tried to make his voice stern, but he'd run out of breath somewhere in there and his traitorous body insisted that kissing was much more important than talking. He could barely hold back long enough to form the words. "What did he say?"

"Huh?" Jack's questioning sound was all he got out before Sky's hands closed on his arms, holding him carefully in place as his mouth resumed its quest to know everything about Jack's. This was good. This was slow and unhurried and calmer than the panic that the word "quit" had instilled in him.

This wasn't how Jack kissed. He was as sweetly inept at long and lazy as he was hotly insistent at fast and dirty. Sky made sure he mouthed Jack's lower lip, his upper lip, both corners, biting Jack's tongue gently when it tried to get ahead of him. Jack made a sound, like his little show earlier hadn't been entirely baseless, and the thought that he might be anything like that in bed made Sky's grip on his arms tighten.

Jack's hands found his hips, sliding just under his t-shirt to rest on his skin, and the heat of his fingers was fast and overwhelming and Sky gasped into his mouth. It was too much, it gave away more than he meant to, but it had been a long time since he'd felt anyone's hands on him the way Jack's were right now. He held as still as he could, trying to adjust, trying not to tear Jack's stupid long sleeves off in an effort to reciprocate.

"Jack," he growled. "Tell me what Cruger said. When you--" Jack's fingers spread easily, casually, starting to crawl up his sides like he wasn't wearing a t-shirt at all. "When you told him," he finished weakly.

"Seriously?" Jack's voice was annoyingly even while his hands played across skin so sensitized to his touch that Sky thought he should probably stop this right now. Jack was barely holding on to him and he felt like he was on fire, flushed and grateful and more than a little frightened at how easily this could all go to hell.

"You want to talk about him?" Jack mumbled, leaning closer until he couldn't even remember why they weren't kissing. "Now?"

Oh, how he hated that mouth. He licked Jack's lips, tongue welcomed inside instantly, wet heat so tempting that it had been weeks since he could listen to Jack talk without daydreaming of the place where those words were coming from. Since the cabin, since the day he'd woken up with Jack on top of him and he'd traded escape for a kiss... that was how long he'd known what he was missing, and every night since he'd wondered how much of that morning Jack remembered.

Jack's hands had slid around behind him, stroking and flexing against his back, silent encouragement for him to step closer. Pull me in or push me away, Jack had said, and he clearly wanted to be pulled in. He wanted their chests pressed up against each other, arms tangled around each other, making out with more than just mouths... kissing like it was going somewhere.

Sky pushed him back, just a little, just enough that he could breathe. Hands still on Jack's arms, keeping him exactly where he wanted him: not too far--not too close. He could get lost in Jack. He knew that; he'd known it ever since Jack had made his interest known. He still wasn't sure he could afford to let it happen.

He was no longer sure he had a choice.

"Yes," he muttered, because it was important. "Now. I want to know."

Jack's fingers curled against his skin, fighting their natural urge to hold on. "He said I could have a couple days to think about it." He sounded out of breath, but he wasn't too distracted to understand what Sky was asking. "I told him I didn't need five minutes."

Sky let go of his arm without thinking, reaching for the collar that rose and fell with his breathing, red lining dark where it folded over to reveal skin underneath. He slid his fingers into the opening, backs of his knuckles pressed against the space under Jack's collarbone. Jack didn't even pause.

"He said to take the time anyway--to talk to you," he added, and Sky could feel thumbs stroking along his skin even as his hands stayed still. "Think he thought you might talk me into it?"

It came out more like a question than a statement. "No," Sky said shortly, just in case it was a question. Jack stayed where he was. Jack's loyalty was to this team, not some cobbled together A Squad, and anything that weakened Jack's ties to SPD was unacceptable.

"Not to be a jerk about it," Jack said, and he was catching his breath now, regaining his focus, staring at Sky like a few more seconds and he might have him analyzed all the way through. "But why not?"

Sky lifted his hand from the red collar to braided hair, fingers sliding under it, pushing it out of the way as he lowered his head to kiss Jack's temple, the top of his cheek, all the way back to his ear. A couple of days. Two days before Cruger realized that no one was going to change Jack's mind, that he really would--

"You've wanted that A Squad spot since before I knew you," Jack said softly, tilting his head a little as Sky mouthed his ear.

Want you more, Sky thought. He was careful not to say it aloud.

"Now you're all upset," Jack continued, "because Sam and Kat--who are already Rangers, by the way--might get it with you?"

He let his teeth graze Jack's earlobe, a warning that made Jack draw in a quick breath. "I'm fucking tired of hearing Sam's name," he whispered. "I don't care who's on A Squad as long as B Squad doesn't split up."

One of Jack's hands had pushed his t-shirt all the way up to his shoulderblade, and he

kept himself from leaning back into that touch through sheer force of will. He couldn't move, not if he wanted to keep kissing... not without being closer than they already were. And not kissing was currently not an option.

"This," Jack murmured, his head falling back as Sky kissed along his jaw and licked a couple of times against his throat for good measure. "From the guy who told me squads don't last forever..."

Jack didn't seem to know what to do with all this attention, but he hadn't made any attempt to stop it. "Maybe I was wrong," Sky said softly, capturing Jack's mouth again and taking his slow trail of exploration back inside.

He remembered saying that, and he regretted it. Not because it wasn't true, but because it had just made Jack say "forever" while Sky was trying to show him what kissing could be. What closeness was when now was all you needed, instead of the constant rush to get to later.

When forever felt like something you could reach out and touch.

Jack was gasping, clearly struggling for air and just as clearly unwilling to stop this, and that was a trust Sky couldn't remember him giving to anyone. Giving himself up, trusting them not to let him drown. Relinquishing control to Sky--who had to force himself to draw back, to ease off.

"It's like swimming," he whispered, smiling against skin, licking Jack's cheek while he waited for him to catch up. "Don't try to breathe normally. Get whatever you can when you come up for air--"

"You and your swimming," Jack muttered, turning his head to meet Sky's mouth with his own. And this was Jack's kiss, impatient and hard and hot enough to make him ache in every place they weren't touching. Which, unfortunately, was most of them.

A mistake Jack corrected by stepping into him, hands sliding up his back, sleeves ticklish and itching against his skin. And this time Sky did arch into him, chest to chest, the contact easing his restlessness and hot hands keeping him close even as Jack pressed into him. Holding him up, leaning too far, he took a stumbling step backwards as Jack's damned mouth completely distracted him.

The spare bed hit him in the back of the legs but he managed to stay upright. Until Jack moaned into his mouth, surging forward, swinging one knee up onto the bed beside him as he sat awkwardly down. "Back," Jack gasped, still pushing, but no, he wasn't going anywhere if Jack was going to climb on top of him--

Which he did, in his lap a moment later, knees braced against the bed on either side. Sky had to lean back to keep from overbalancing, arms snaking around Jack to hold onto him, and then they were falling onto the mess of clothes and blankets that covered the spare bed. Jack slid his hands free as they went down, catching himself heavily on his elbows and grinning down at Sky.

"Better," he said, black braids framing his face as his breath ghosted hot across Sky's skin. "This would be a great time for a camera."

"This would be a great time for you to shut up," Sky panted, and only when Jack's grin widened did he realize his mistake. Because Jack didn't hesitate to lean down, his body solid and warm as he pressed Sky into the mattress and kissed him like he didn't need to breathe.

Sky arched up, shifting recklessly, well aware that Jack was as turned on as he was. He moaned as Jack's hips ground into his, no sympathy for the whimpers that followed the hard thrusts of Jack's tongue because Jack had asked for it, Jack had done this. Jack had pushed them onto the bed and now Jack was the one who was losing it.

He thought. Until that mouth left his and Jack was pulling away, shoving himself up, straddling Sky clumsily on the bed. The renewed pressure on his groin made his hips jerk, involuntary, uncontrollable, and he let his hand fall to his mouth, biting down on his fist to stifle his cry.

Jack shifted again, deliberately this time, smirking down at him. "It's like swimming, Sky," he teased. "Don't try to breathe normally. Just get whatever you can--"

Sky groaned, bucking against him, hands clenching in whatever was underneath him. "Please just shut up," he muttered, not caring about discomfort or eavesdroppers or anything except the feeling of Jack on top of him.

"Mmm," Jack murmured, and the sound alone made Sky close his eyes. "Sorry," he added. "Can't do that right now."

Then he moved again, a quiet moan followed by an incongruous, "Ow," and Sky could feel him trying to get his knee away from the side of the bed. Since Sky's body was perfectly happy with the situation, he didn't see any reason to help.

"I swear," Jack's voice grumbled, "these beds are specifically designed to keep people from having sex on them."

His eyes opened, and he found Jack staring down at him with an unreadable expression. Not just lust, not apology, not nerves... maybe a combination of all three, hidden behind that veil of neutral intensity. Because who knew what Jack was thinking when he looked like that?

"No," Sky said, rough and aching and so afraid when he pushed himself up on his elbows to stare back. "You just have to work a little harder at it, that's all."

Jack's mouth twitched, eyes wandering over Sky with a quiet affection that didn't look sexual at all. "Does everything here have to be a training exercise?" he wondered aloud.

They could do so much better than this. More space. No pajamas. Deliberate positions, instead of whatever they fell into when Jack was impatient--he was fast and hot, but Sky thought he might have just enough control to teach someone like Jack the pleasures of a slow burn.

"Want some instruction?" he said softly. His heart was pounding in his ears. He wondered if Jack really had any idea... How much he was putting on the line here. How much this meant to him.

Jack's playful smile was easy and endearing, but Sky could tell his counter was serious. "Do you want sex tonight?" he asked.

Did he want it every night from now until the end of time?

"Yes," Sky whispered.

"Then yeah," Jack said, still smiling down at him. "Bring it on."

Sky just stared at him, well aware that he couldn't ask again but not sure Jack had answered what he really wanted to know. Maybe he didn't even know what he really wanted to know. But he trusted this. He trusted Jack. And it had been a long time coming, but he thought he was finally starting to trust him and Jack together.

"I suppose you want me to get off of you," Jack said at last.

"Want" might not be exactly the right word. "Something like that," Sky muttered, letting his head fall back. A few minutes to move the beds, pull each other's clothes off, and they could be right back here. And a lot more comfortable.

Elbows still braced underneath him, he wasn't prepared for Jack to lean down and press a kiss into his mouth. The forward thrust ground their hips together and he choked on a moan, trying to be quiet, trying not to let on that Jack only had to be there to make him crazy. But he couldn't hold himself still.

Jack grunted, shifting his weight to one side. Then, abruptly, he broke away, fingers fisting in Sky's t-shirt even as he rolled over next to him. "I'm gonna have bruises from this stupid bed," he complained breathlessly.

Sky found himself chuckling, pushing Jack away, laughing at his petulant tone and his rucked up shirt and his braids going everywhere as he collapsed on his back. "Get off the bed," he ordered. "It's not going anywhere with you on top of it."

Jack pouted up at him. "Why can't I get off on the bed?" he wanted to know.

"Apparently because you're kind of a wuss," Sky informed him. "Get up and help me, or get up and get naked, I don't really care which."

"Getting up's not a problem," Jack drawled, stretching out on the bed as soon as Sky rolled off of it. "I'm all up."

"I'm hearing a lot of talk," Sky said, pulling his t-shirt off over his head and throwing it at Jack. "But I'm not seeing a lot of action."

Jack sat up, narrowing his eyes at him. "Oh, you're going to pay for that."

"Really?" Sky skirted the other bed just in case he was serious, bracing his foot against the bottom and leaning sideways into it. "This from the guy who can't figure out how to ride without hurting himself? I'm so scared."

"You're such a fucking bastard," Jack snapped, but his eyes were alight with mischief. He was vocal, the sound of voices obviously a turn-on for him, and Sky was happy to oblige.

"You wish," Sky said, smirking at him.

Jack actually laughed, and for some reason that got him off of the bed when nothing else would. "True," he agreed, sweeping the clothes off of the mattress into a heap on the floor. He snatched the SPD issue comforter away just as Sky slammed the other end of his bed into place, trapping two of the blankets.

"You know this is gonna be totally obvious," Jack warned, shaking the comforter out and swinging it over the mattress again. "There's no way I'm getting up in the middle of the night to move these beds back."

"It's already the middle of the night," Sky pointed out, "and I don't see you helping move them in the first place. So no, I wasn't really expecting that to happen."

"Are you staying?" Jack asked, pausing. He was direct, casual, like it didn't matter one way or the other. That had better be a cover, Sky thought.

"I don't move furniture for no reason," he said.

Jack's smile was brilliant and beautiful. Sky stopped, caught, and swallowed hard. A couple days. Forty-eight hours to make this thing too strong for Jack to walk away from. He couldn't think about it. Desperation only drove people away.

"Clothes," he said roughly, because he was dying to do it himself but he was pretty sure Jack would test his control a thousand times before the night was over and he might as well take what advantages he could get. "Off."

Of course, the last time Jack had done what he was told was probably when he was half-asleep and thoroughly bribed. This time he was neither, and he swung onto the bed and crawled across it, stalking Sky without apology. "Help me with that?" he teased, a dark look from under wayward braids.

Sky let out his breath in surrender. "Oh yeah," he whispered. Reaching out, he really meant to go for the shirt, loose and white and just begging to be pulled off, but he found his hands cupping Jack's face instead.

"I love you," he breathed, too quietly to hear, but Jack read the words on his lips.

"Love you too," Jack murmured, leaning in until his mouth was a breath away and the words were more of a caress than a sound. "Not leaving, Sky."

"Shut up," Sky said, closing his eyes.

Jack kissed him.

He was so lost. No choice, no turning back, he was in this thing with Jack until something Jack did ended it. Because he couldn't. He didn't even know what it would take anymore. All he could do was stop pretending he had any control over it and let it go where it would.

He'd never been good at letting go. Even later, with the light off and Jack's breathing evening out into the steady rise and fall of sleep, he found himself reluctant to roll over and pull the other comforter up over his shoulder. He traced aimless patterns on Jack's skin in the dark, close and warm, and he wasn't sorry that Jack had fallen asleep before he knew what it took for Sky to do the same.

It was Jack pressed up against him when he woke, stiff and startled by the lack of an alarm, and he jerked upright in search of a clock. He had to twist all the way around to find it, a little digital thing that had gotten knocked over on the table at the end of the bed. 6:34.

He'd slept four minutes past the time his alarm should have gone off, which was disturbing for several reasons. Mainly because he usually woke up ten minutes before it, and four hours of sleep or not, his body was attuned to that time. One night with Jack and his schedule was already off.

And Bridge was probably ready to kill him by now. Unless he'd already killed Sky's alarm. Even so.

Jack mumbled something that could have been--well, anything. Sky glanced down and found Jack's head on his pillow, curled over the middle and least comfortable part of their improvised double bed. Eyes slitted to let in the smallest amount of light possible, Jack's voice was thick with sleep as he mumbled, "What's your policy on cuddling?"

Sky had to smile, relieved and more than a little charmed by the question. "Cuddling is good," he said softly.

"Good," Jack repeated, his hand sliding under the pillow and tugging it a little closer as he closed his eyes. Sky could feel the other hand, clumsy against his hip, more sweet than suggestive as Jack murmured, "C'mere."

"It's six thirty-five," Sky said, not immune to the invitation.

"Mmm." Jack sounded happy about it. "Plenty of time."

"It's late," Sky corrected. "It's after six-thirty, Jack."

Jack dragged his eyes open again and blinked blearily up at him. Seeming to realize he was serious, he rolled over onto his back and lifted a hand to rub at his eyes half-heartedly. "What," he muttered, "could you possibly have to do between now and eight o'clock that would take an hour and a half?"

"Shower," Sky reminded him, pushing his comforter toward Jack and easing himself off of the bed. The naked thing might take some getting used to. He usually had a lot more on when he rolled out of bed in the morning. "Clothes. Breakfast."

"Takes fifteen minutes," Jack mumbled, burrowing deeper into his own comforter. "Even with a shower... which, by the way, why?"

Sky eyed him as he walked around the beds in search of his sweatpants. "Did you just ask why you should take a shower?"

There was a long moment before Jack said, "Actually, I think I just asked why you're so mental about mornings." The words were clear enough, even if his head was now buried in his own pillow. "But yeah. Same idea."

Sky rolled his eyes. "Cruger complains about Kat's perfume even when she isn't wearing any. I think his sense of smell is up to this challenge."

Jack threw the edge of his comforter down and stared at Sky over the corner of his pillow. "Cruger complains no matter what Kat does because he's forgotten how to date. He thinks giving her a hard time is how normal people show affection."

Sky paused, raising an eyebrow in his direction. "It isn't?"

Jack's lips twitched, which was somehow more distracting now that he knew what they could do. Especially when Jack was watching him get dressed. "We're not normal, Sky. No one on this base is normal."

Sky shook his head, pulling up his pants and cinching the drawstring. "He's not going to say anything to Kat. Not until he gets closure about his wife."

Jack groaned, throwing his hands up over his head and stretching dramatically. "That's what Z says. His wife died ten years ago--how can he still need closure?"

Sky watched Jack's body arch against the bed, his shoulders dimpling the pillows and the comforter sliding low across his hips. He was tempted to just yank it off, but he thought that could be misinterpreted as "being mental about mornings," so he reluctantly restrained himself. There was still plenty to see.

"What are the chances of me convincing you to come back to bed?" Jack's voice was suddenly speculative, and Sky shook it off.

"Not good," he said. "Unlike your chances of getting a reaction from Cruger as soon as he runs into you."

Jack stretched again, yawning this time, and Sky couldn't look away. Even when Jack glanced his way, his sly look giving way to amusement as their eyes met. "You practically walked past him to get into my room last night," he pointed out. "I think he has a pretty good idea what's going on."

Sky snorted. "Yeah, thanks to you."

Jack only smiled. "Maybe I like having people know."

Well, that certainly wasn't going to be an issue. Between the noise they made, the rearrangement of Jack's room, and the fact that Sky had a roommate, no one would be left wondering for long. Least of all the base commander.

Still. If it mattered to Jack...

"If you want to send a message," Sky said at last, "there are other ways of doing it."

Jack eyed him with obvious interest. "Oh?"

"Give me your soap," Sky told him. "And your shampoo."

Jack grinned, but he lifted one hand to point at his head. "Does it look like I shampoo this?"

Sky blinked. He had no idea what Jack did to his hair. "Do you put anything on it?"

Jack pushed himself up on his hands, blinking around the room and then shaking his head once. He ran a hand through his braids to make them lie mostly flat, then pointed past Sky at the shelves behind him. "Moisturizer and oil in the plastic bag on the end," he said, stifling another yawn.

Sky gave him a skeptical look. "Oil?" he repeated.

Jack groaned, leaning toward the edge of the bed and catching himself just quickly enough to make it look deliberate. "I had to fall for a white guy," he muttered. Levering himself up off of the bed, he took the comforter with him and had to shove it back. It ended up half on the floor, pooled by his feet, and he stepped out of it with a total lack of concern for what he wasn't wearing.

"I'll do the shower thing with you," he was saying, "on two conditions. One, you do my hair afterwards. And two, you don't let this give you any ideas about me having some kind of relationship with your alarm clock. Internal or otherwise."

He was too interested in watching Jack to worry much about alarm clocks right now. But when Jack turned to look at him, raising his eyebrows, he realized he was supposed to say something. "Uh--"

"Don't worry," Jack said, reaching up to muss Sky's short hair with a smirk. "I don't trust you to do anything complicated."

"You oil your hair?" Sky blurted out. It was the only remotely coherent thing he could come up with when Jack was standing there, right there in front of him, naked and talking about showers.

"Yup." Jack patted his cheek indulgently. "And you won't be able to get it off your hands for the rest of the day."

He stepped past Sky, scooping up his pajamas as he went. He shook them on in a matter of seconds, loose shirt hanging a little lopsided over his shoulders, bright red towel a splash of color as he grabbed it and turned back to Sky at the door. "Don't have an extra towel," he said, grinning at what Sky suspected was a sort of dazed expression on his face. "Meet you in the bathroom?"

Towel. Right. He nodded, because he needed to go back to his room anyway to... get a towel. Bridge didn't usually drag himself out of bed until after seven. It would be fine.

It would have been more fine if Jack hadn't let him walk out of the room in just his sweatpants. He made it halfway down the hall before he passed Syd, clad in a fluffy pink bathrobe with her hair wrapped up on her head, already well into her morning routine. Her eyes flicked over him, and she clucked her tongue.

"What," she said, her voice full of reproach, "Jack doesn't have any extra shirts?"

The words didn't really register until he was past her. The fact that he'd left his shirt in Jack's room caught up with him a second later, and he was already turning around when he realized she'd been kidding. B Squad had apparently been waiting for him to hook up with Jack for some time, after all.

He shrugged, turning back toward his own room with a small smile. Message sent.