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ganymede-princess · 2 days

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The Craving | Jack Conroy (Pt. 2)

PART 1

ship: Jack Conroy x fem!OC

warnings: n/a

summary: Jack meets a musher girl on his first day in Alaska.

word count: 2105

a/n:

written by @ganymede-princess

Mushing with Jack Conroy made the Yukon come alive. I learned that on our first day out. It was as if the cruel, gnarled landscape transformed into a land of fairies as it passed through his eyes; and slowly, slowly, I began to see it too. The rolling fields of white began to glitter as if full of diamond crumbs as he trudged across them. Stones burst up from beneath the shimmering layer and became black obelisks as he wiped away the snow, marking a witch’s way. Silent owls and scurrying lemmings turned into forest sprites under his wondrous eye. I had never known a boy to carry magic in his pocket like he did, and I felt myself consumed with a mission to protect his optimism. It became a balancing act between guarding his body or his spirit. Often, I chose the body, for what is a soul with no vessel. When I scouted out our flanks and found huge pawprints gouged into the snow and fur snagged on a scraggly gorse bush, I couldn’t bare to frighten him with tales of snapping jaws and meat-stinking spittle, so I simply berated him for falling so far behind and dragged him back to the sled. Of course, he found out soon enough and turned timid for the rest of the day.

That night, I found myself observing a fight simmering between Jack and Alex. The frontier was a cruel mistress who had made Alex short tempered and unyielding; he felt Jack’s foolhardy nature itching him like a bedbug sore, as if any scrap of optimism was an insult to the suffering he had faced. Our night began calmly enough. We tied up the dogs and gathered enough dry wood for a fire, then sat around it to eat our salt beef, beans, and dried fruit. We had rice pudding in a can too, but Alex and I agreed we ought to save it for a rainy day. After that, Skunker hung a bucket of fish over the fire to thaw for the dogs, and Jack set about brushing his teeth.

“Got that tarp a little close to the fire, don’t you?” Alex’s voice was measured, but I could sense his irritation.

“Don’t wanna freeze to death.” Jack responded cheerfully. The meal and the fire had warmed up his spirits.

Alex said nothing in response, but sat down and watched him, seemingly waiting for the thing to catch alight. I picked my teeth with my thumbnail and stayed quiet. This was a man’s game, and I had no desire to stick my nose into it.

“What’s he doin?” Skunker sat by Alex and squinted as the boy scrubbed his mouth out.

“Cleaning his teeth.” He sipped his tea, eyes still trained on the sleeping tarp.

“How’d they get dirty?”

“C’mon, Skunker, you seen me do that.” I said, trying to alleviate some of the tension. I sucked a piece of beef gristle from my teeth and pointedly pulled out my own toothbrush from my rucksack.

“Well, you’re a lady.”

“Really, I hadn’t noticed.” I filled my cup with snow and nestled it in the embers at the edge of the fire to melt. “And cavities are the manliest of illnesses, right?”

Skunker stuck his hands up in surrender, making Jack chuckle. The sound of his laugh warmed me better than the fire. I paused for a moment to admire the orange light as it flickered on his face. He turned around and spat, and in that moment his tarp caught alight. He leapt to his feet and stamped on it to no avail, but Skunker came to rescue and dumped some fish water on it. I stifled a gag at the stink of charred wool and fish guts, sticking my toothbrush in my mouth to mask it with mint. Poor Jackie. Skunker grabbed up the few fish that fell out and said his apologies.

“Told you, too close to the fire.” Alex said, eyebrows raised in a challenge.

Jack smirked, shrugged humbly and sat down to finish his teeth. Nothing seemed to faze this boy, and I could see that Alex’s goat was well and truly gotten. His bad attitude only got worse when we all shared a laugh at Jack’s frozen-solid toothbrush.

“Nice weather.” He guffawed, showing me his beautiful, stupid smile. My face broke into a grin before I could stop it and I had to quickly turn around to spit before I drooled white foam all down the front of me.

The thing that finally set Alex off was Jack having the audacity to read a book. I caught his face darkening beneath his hat, and as he rose I felt a terrible sense of foreboding. I set my toothbrush aside and crossed my arms to watch as he strode over, grabbed Jack’s pack and started scattering the books about the snow. There were heaps of them. I couldn’t believe we had been hauling around that much dead weight.

“What are you doing?” Jack hadn’t even had the chance to get angry yet.

“Only things my dogs drag are things we need.”

Jack’s eyes widened incredulously, and it took him a full second to comprehend what was happening.

“That’s my property!”

“You want ‘em?” He dropped a book right in my lap and tossed the bag at Jack. “You carry ‘em.”

“Hold it, hold it, hold it.” Skunker emerged between them, wielding the fish pail. “I’m gonna feed the dogs, fellas. You’re not gonna kill each other while I’m gone, are ya?”

“We’ll wait ‘til you come back.” Alex grumbled.

They glared at one another for a moment, then Jack sat down and kept reading, leaving his books strewn about camp. Alex started twanging his mouth harp, seemingly just to distract the boy from his book. They were both getting on my last nerve. I took a look at the book in my lap. It was brown, clothbound and had an engraving of a cat with wings and a man’s face on the front. I got to my feet and picked up another book.

“Alex is right, y’know.” I said casually, ambling over to pick up another one. “Even if I think he’s being an asshole-” I turned around and tossed the word over my shoulder. “-about it. But you should think about losin’ some of these. They’re weighin’ us down.”

Jack stayed quiet, glaring up at me in indignation. I handed him the first book and he snatched it ferociously from my hand. A surge of anger took hold of me, but I set my teeth and swallowed it. I held the next book out for him, and when he went to grab it, I pulled it away. His eyes flared, and then settled. I stared him down for a long moment before I held it out again. His hand reached gently for it, then yanked it away when he had me unawares.

“Hey!” I snarled and chucked the last book in his face. “Pick the rest up yourself if you’re gonna act like that! Ungrateful child.”

“I’m older than you!” It seemed my last comment got to him.

“Yeah, well act like it then.”

I wrapped up my sleeping mat that laid beside his and moved it to a clear spot beside the fire. I sat with my back facing him, heart hammering with wrath. I picked at my nails, chewing at the dead skin on the side of my right thumb, wishing I had something more significant to rip to pieces. I was furious to think I had let this kid grab a hold of my heart when he was still acting like a spoiled little brat. Rich city boy. I thought. Clinging to your books and your fantasies and weighing us down when every pound counts out here!

Skunker returned soon after, muttering agitatedly under his breath, leading Digger along by his harness.

“What are you mumbling about?” Alex lolled his head to the side.

“I had seven fish for seven dogs, and Digger didn't get fed.” Skunker fretted, stroking Digger’s ivory fur. “I swear there was a wolf in with the dogs! And I fed the damn thing!”

“How would a wolf get in with the dogs?” I cast a quick glance at Jack whose eyes were wide and fearful. I felt a prick of annoyance. Surely he doesn’t believe this horseshit? How green can you get?

“He’s dreaming again.” Alex assured him.

I got to my feet and picked my way over to check Digger over myself. He seemed happy enough, if a little annoyed at the absence of food.

“Maybe you mis-counted.” I offered.

“No. No, there was definitely seven.” He shook his head emphatically.

“Poor Digger. He doesn’t seem upset, though. Surely a wolf would frighten ‘em.”

“Your bitch is half wolf, maybe they’re used to the smell.”

“Maybe. Shall we give him some canned stuff?”

“Yeah.” Skunker agreed. “Be quicker to thaw.”

I looked him over one more time, and was about to go and check on Connie when I felt a hand on my upper arm. It was Jack, holding a stick of jerky and smiling apologetically.

“For Digger.” He said softly. “To keep him going ‘til his real food.”

“Thanks.” I took the stick and avoided his eyes, still annoyed with his prior rudeness and now flustered at the softness of his cheek in the firelight. I picked the jerky to pieces and fed it to Digger slowly, making him chew it.

“Um.” Jack said, still lingering beside me. I turned, not enough to see him, but enough to show I was listening. He paused for a second. “Uh, Quinn?”

“Mm?”

“I, um.” He took a deep breath and continued in a very formal voice. ”I apologise for my previous actions before, at the fire.”

I looked up at him. His eyebrows were lifted expectantly, though I read true remorse on his face.

“Okay.” I wiped the dog slobber off on the snow, cast a quick glance at the other dogs who were now happily fed and settling in for the night. Satisfied and not willing to disturb them, I marched over and took up Jack’s tarp.

“Hey!” He said, an accusatory edge to his voice. I looked up, irritated he would think I might do something to damage it, especially since it had already been spoiled with fish juice.

“Hey yourself.”

I laid the tarp out on a rock and piled a few handfuls of snow onto the stained piece, then took up a rock and started to scrape it down.

“Oh… sorry.” He ran a hand threw his hair, smiling bashfully.

“I ain’t out to get ya.” I grunted, looking down to hide the redness on my face. “What’re ya reading?”

“Oh, it’s uh, it’s called A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.” He pulled the book from his pocket and made his way over to show me. It was a thick thing, brown, with a beautiful gold illumination on the front. I looked at it close and saw it was a picture of three people on a raft, one holding what seemed to be a torch. “It’s an adventure story about a professor and his nephew who travel down a volcano into the Earth’s core, which turns out to be hollow and full of all sorts of weird creatures.”

“My… Do you s’pose it’s really like that?” I replaced the snow and scraped it down again.

“Who knows?” He chuckled. “When we were walking today I couldn’t stop imagining the snow collapsing under me and falling down into the underworld. Who knows what’s down there?”

“Well, if the volcano at Alligator Lake is any indicator, I suspect it's naught but hot gravy down there.”

“Gravy?” He giggled, tongue between his teeth. “I guess you’re right, but where’s the fun in that?”

“Nowhere, I s’pose.” I tossed away the rock and dug around in my inside pockets until I found my mother’s lavender oil. There was still a little there, so I sacrificed a drop to help mask the reek of the tarp. “You oughta read me some tonight, since I cleaned your bed up real nice. Help me sleep.”

“Sure.” His face lit up in a grin so wide I could see both rows of his teeth. “Will you move your tarp back over? I won’t be such a jackass, I promise.”

“Course you won’t.” I strolled by him on my way to collect my tarp. His eyes followed me, then my hand as it ran along his shoulder as I passed. “You might stink like one, though.”

#ethan hawke #ethan hawke x reader #jack conroy #jack conroy x reader #white fang #white fang 1991 #todd anderson x reader

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