#RHYS' GODDAMN SOCK. MY GOD

[postmodern-blues]

first listen to rhys and ianto’s excellent barbecue: a saga

I’m just gonna put all my thoughts in order while I listen to this audio and do my homework. I’ll tag it for spoilers, but I’ll also put everything below the cut in case you haven’t listened to it yet <3 um also i do a lot of swearing be warned...

last warning, yall, lots of spoilers and quotes ahead:

Rhys’s friends call him RHYSIE and I Am So Soft For This.

“I’m making my Special Sauce” god if Jack were here....

I love how Torchwood writers can’t even find a way to write RHYS in a straight way. He’s so cute and AHSDHGHFDAS I LOVE THIS SO FAR

the meat jokes.... already.... let’s hope serentiy Ianto does not resurface

IANTO! my god I have missed my boy. HE IS BACK

Oh my god... oh my fuck.... he’s so CUTE i might need to take a breather.... dude....

Gwen looking out for Ianto, inviting him to Rhys’s stuff. DID SOMEONE SAY FOUND FAMILY HMMMM

“lads, lads, lads” I WENT FERAL WHEN I HEARD THIS IN THE TRAILER

“Jack’s sorry he couldn’t come” hhhhhhhh one sausage comes off the barbecue and he’d be like “this is quite homoerotic” HAIJFODHS

Rhys come on,,,, baby,,,,, do not be homophobic about this

I get the feeling I might be going too crazy about this,,, WE’RE ONLY FIVE MINUTES IN

godDAMNIT THIS IS THE SHIT I’VE BEEN CRAVING EVER SINCE GHOST TRAIN afdsohfs

Ianto brought Chardonnay....

“Except Banana boat, he’s a bit thick” AGFDKHDGS R H Y S

oh shit alien things are happening

“yes, RHYS, I know how to discuss my TOP SECRET work at a social event” he’s fucking ICONIC

“you have an inability to call each other by your proper names” my sister is just like this tho... she calls all her friends by anime character names.. little bit better than ‘sticky jeff’ but not much

Ianto being oblivious to Rhys’s gender role shit is just,,,, I STAN HIM

If Ianto and Rhys do not take a ride in the pink car by the end of this audio I’m suing

jkjk but that would be so great wouldn’t it

godDAMNIT i love this audio

"we.... don’t” yet again, it is the 21st century, and torchwood is sooo not ready

“It’s the BOYS’ barbecue” rhys and his friends seem like they have a very cute queerplatonic relationship. wonder if they wear socks when they’re doing “barbecues”

who the fuck is steven.... whAT IS GOING ON

“I don’t know him THAT well, but there’s no way he would call me love” u sure abt that rhysie

“if u run headfirst into an invisible wall, at least let me FILM it on my phone” these two i stfg

this ‘time bubble’ concept has SO MANY FIC POSSIBILITIES why is big finish spoiling us-

jack and gwen going for pizza instead of being at work AHHDOFDGSHK 

oh my GOD THE CALLBACK TO DISSECTED!!!!! this is like when gareth called back to The Last Beacon in Dinner and a Show AHHHH

I am reminded about martha and gwen,,, i am happy,,, the PARALLELS

these two arguing dude the TENSION.. the SUBTEXT

“god help you if you ever hear about pink wine” SFIHOJADHGF 

i swear half my commentary here is me quoting something funny and then keyboard smashing

Ianto is fucking ANNIHILATING Rhys here and by extension gender roles. Goddamnit THIS is the conversation we needed. I love him so much can you tell

“you LOVE each other” I’ve only had this audio for about half an hour but if anything fucking happens to it, i’ll kill everyone in the room and then myself

i don’t think you understand how goddamn adorable rhys is about his friends

“thank fuck none of them are here right now” mate my man badger calls you RHYSIE i don’t think it would affect them

I am so thankful Jack isn’t here because oh my g o d this would be an hour long block of innuendos. this whole audio is just exposing the very prominent homoerotic tendencies of straight men

sometimes, and by that i mean all the time, i wonder if my family hears me listening to big finish and wonders if i’m actually just watching porn. and honestly I think it would be a whole lot less embarrassing if i just told them i was watching porn instead of “yeah it’s this scifi thing these characters are trying to make a hole in an invisible time force field thing. are they gay? no, well, i mean, yes, but not like that! welllll, a little bit like that, but it’s NOT PORN”

“what the hell was that rhys? You Absolute Idiot.” AHHH THESE TWO

“let’s stuff it full of sausages” 

GWEN AND IANTO TELLING EACH OTHER STORIES ABOUT THEIR IDIOT HUSBANDS IS MY LIFEBLOOD FUCKKKKKK

“back pocket” THIS IS SENDING ME BACK TO MY SHERLOCK FANDOM DAYS (fucking remember john getting sherlock’s phone out of his coat that he was wearing? that’s what this is)

Rhys pretending to be Steven (Stephen?) is,,,,, oh my god,,, this is too fucking intense

god i feel so bad for rhys,,, seriously

ohmygodddddd

this took a serious turn I was not prepared for

also gwen wanting rhys to talk to ianto is,,, ughhhh i ship gwen/rhys sooo hard

rhys- baby- oh my godohmygodohmygod

im like,,, IM CRYING BRO THIS IS

“I DO love them” hhhhhh

the special sauce thing is sending me im sorry

“can we rescue the beer?” RHYS

‘Ianto you beautiful man, you did it!” THEY!!! THEY!!!!!!

i wanna make it clear that i don’t ship rhys and ianto but i think they are so cute as friends

guys im in tears right now

the way rhys goes from not wanting ianto here to not wanting him to leave,,, um its a simple arc but i’d also do anything for it

RHYS AND GWEN RHYS AND GWEN RHYS AND GWEN ANDHDHSGHFAOSDLSDLHD

“OH HE’S ADORABLE WHATS HE CALLED?” me when i first saw Ianto Jones onscreen

“he’s a colleague of the missus,,,,,, and a friend” why don’t you just shoot me in the head hm

rhysie,,, baby,,, holy shit you need to go to therapy,,, just like,,, have a chat with janet the weevil and see how you feel after

funny how rhys fucking williams is handling loss so much better than ANY of torchwood. like jack got PREGNANT after losing owen+tosh. Ianto started having sex with his immortal boss after losing his girlfriend. healthy coping mechanisms? who is she?

they let rhys say fuck a lot in this audio and that is Very Sexy of Them

“bunny has run away with my tie” h e s s o f u c k i n g p r e c i o u s

“lads lads lads” AHHHHHHHHH

this audio. is. so good. so cute. so sad. BIG FINISH YOU DID IT AGAIN YOU SEXY BASTARDS YOU!!!!

#torchwood #big finish #rhys and ianto's excellent barbecue #audio spoilers: rhys and ianto's excellent barbecue #audio spoilers: the barbecue one #big finish spoilers #big finish ranting #i loved this one can you tell #torchwood big finish #ianto jones #rhys williams #gareth david lloyd #kai owen #cw: swearing

[dragonbagel]

Bonded - Part 6

someone give vaughn a medal for putting up with rhys’ bullshit. [read it on ao3 here]

The deal with Atlas was approved within the week, and Hyperion had no shortage of praise for Rhys because of it. The new SMG had cornered the market, and the combination of raking in profit and sticking it to Torgue made all facets of Hyperion very, very happy. According to Vaughn, all of accounting was buzzing with excitement, and he might have told his coworkers that he’d helped convince Rhys to support the deal. But even if he had done that (not that he was admitting to anything), Rhys shouldn’t be upset because Vaughn would be able to buy way more video games for their apartment if he got that promotion he’d been eyeing.

Rhys had just laughed and told him that he’d better get his gracious roommate the new Fallout game when it came out as a thank-you gift, to which Vaughn had grumbled that Rhys was already making way more than him. Rhys countered that Yvette was draining his bank account with all the free lunches she’d mooched. Vaughn, of course, denied Rhys’ claim and, as if to prove his point, had snatched the check the next time the trio had gone out to eat.

In the weeks since his million dollar deal, Rhys had spent more time inside his office than out of it. Janey had started wearing sneakers to work due to how often she had to walk files into Rhys’ office from her desk outside, and Rhys was all but drowning in partnership proposals. Once he’d realized his secretary actually had programming background herself, he imparted onto her the all-important task of throwing out any paperwork that wasn’t worth considering. He promised he’d pay her extra for it, especially since he knew that she was saving up for her wedding (which Rhys was now, unfortunately, going to be forced to attend).

Even with Janey’s assistance and a bottomless cup of coffee, however, his schedule remained swamped. He found himself running from one meeting to the next, taking a break only to attempt to sort through the mess of folders covering his usually pristinely organized desk. It seemed like everybody wanted something from him; which, if he was being honest with himself, was what he’d always wanted. Attention from the higher-ups, not to mention actual respect, had been his goal since he’d first realized there was a life outside of simply surviving on Pandora. To live and work at the same rank as those who wouldn’t hesitate to take and abuse him in selfish pleasure if they knew who he truly was, to surpass those who thought they were better than him-- that was what he’d always ached for.

If achieving that meant suffering through a definitely illegal amount of overtime and pushing his friendships and boyfriend a bit further down on his list of priorities, then goddamnit he’d trudge through it.

It also helped that they’d basically given up on looking for the alpha attacker, all the research they’d done coming up blank. Nobody had checked into a hospital with a stab wound that night, and it wasn’t like Rhys had some superhuman GPS connection. Jack, naturally, had scoured the entire station-- but with no identifying mark, the alpha was indistinguishable from the other thousands of the same endotype on Helios. Rhys had all but repressed the incident with both intentful and unconscious effort, and coupled with his non-normal mental state during the incident, he found it easier to ignore the now-healing scar on the back of his neck and simply wait for it to go away. And work was the perfect way to do so.

“Seriously bro, when was the last time you ate?”

Rhys looked at Vaughn, shrugging since his mouth was far too stuffed with pizza to respond.

Vaughn sighed, the epitome of a disappointed parent. “You’re gonna work yourself to death! Besides, you need to keep your strength up for tomorrow.”

Rhys furrowed his eyebrows, swallowing the food in his mouth that was more cheese than bread. “What’s tomorrow? Because if you’re trying to make me go to your gym again with you, it’s not happening.”

His roommate stared at him in disbelief. “You’re shitting me, right?”

Rhys shifted in his seat at their sad excuse for a dinner table, which was covered in stains and propped up by old textbooks underneath an unbalanced leg. He was clearly forgetting something, although for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what it was. Rather than continue to sit with his mouth slightly agape like an idiot, he made to grab another slice of the extra large pizza he’d mostly smashed on his own. Vaughn, however, grabbed his wrist, causing both Rhys and his stomach to groan in protest.

“Your heat, bro. It’s supposed to start tomorrow.”

Rhys felt the muscles in both his hand and jaw go limp with realization. “N-no,” he stammered. “No, I have so many meetings scheduled and--”

Vaughn sighed. “Have you really not been keeping track?”

Rhys shrugged sheepishly. “I’ve been kinda busy lately, in case you haven’t noticed.”

Vaughn rolled his eyes. “Well, better go clear your schedule. I’m dropping you off at Jack’s tomorrow.”

Rhys opened up his schedule on his ECHOeye as he managed to pry another slice of pizza from the box, sending an apologetic message to Janey as he notified her that he’d be leaving early tomorrow. Because he’d be fine to attend his morning meeting and pick up the most recent batch of paperwork, right?

“Henderson’s gonna kill me,” Rhys grumbled, because it seemed there was always another level of the bureaucracy above him.

“I’m sure his boss’ boss’ boss will forgive him,” Vaughn said, snagging a piece of pizza before Rhys could devour the entire thing.

The omega sighed, already preparing a multitude of excuses to use tomorrow. He’d used “my mom’s in the hospital” last time, and “I have to go to a funeral” was so cliche. He figured saying he needed a break was more than believable, especially since he received no shortage of comments about how he was “working himself to death.”

“Don’t worry, I already reminded Jack,” Vaughn said, not without a hint of bitterness.

“You’re the best,” Rhys said, smiling and rising from the table to stand. He knew Vaughn still didn’t trust Jack, although this arrangement was far more enjoyable for the both of them.

“Yeah, I know,” Vaughn replied, taking the now-empty pizza box and tossing it in the trash. “Now go get some sleep.”

Rhys groaned. “It’s barely even eleven!”

Vaughn stared at him with dead eyes, pointing to the digital clock on the microwave. “That literally says ‘one,’ Rhys. It’s one in the morning!”

“What?” Rhys asked, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands. “N-no, I’m pretty sure that says eleven!”

“Great, now he’s going blind,” Vaughn muttered to himself, dragging Rhys towards his bedroom as the omega tried to dig his heels into the rug in protest.

“Wait, Vaughn, I have work to finish!”

The beta grunted under Rhys’ weight; while he was on the slimmer side, his height wasn’t something to be ignored. “I swear to God Rhys if you don’t get your ass in there now I’m calling Yvette.”

Rhys immediately stop struggling as the threat’s intended fear settled in; although Yvette was one of his best friends and not very much on the muscular side, she could be a stone-cold order-giving bitch when she needed to. Rhys had seen workers so desperate to cling to their jobs that they’d actually taken her up on her dismissive demand to lick her boots. She always managed to bring up those top-alpha horror stories at the most opportune moments, such as when she and her friends were out at a restaurant waiting for the bill.

“Alright, fine, I’m going,” Rhys said as he raised his arms in surrender.

Vaughn followed him closely behind as he stepped into his room, clearly still annoyed. Rhys pulled a duffle bag out from underneath his bed and laid it on top of the blanket before unzipping it. He might as well get the packing out of the way now, especially if he wanted any relief from Vaughn’s crippling judgment.

The beta was now pacing, his nose wrinkling every few moments as he inhaled. “Rhys,” he said, the look on his face a mixture of amusement and annoyance. “Your room smells like a goddamn carton of Sunny-D.”

The omega laughed at that, real tears springing to his eyes due to what he chalked up to be his exhaustion rather than Vaughn’s characteristically awful humor.

“Sorry bro, can’t help it,” he said, wiping a stray tear from the corner of his eye as he morphed his features into an over-exaggerated sexy leer. “Guess that’s what makes me such hot shit.”

Vaughn pantomimed gagging, which only spurred Rhys on further. “Don’t tell me you don’t want to get with this,” he said, stretching out his left leg and resting his arm on it in a perfect “paint me like one of your French girls” pose.

The beta just grimaced again, although Rhys could see a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Even if I wanted to tap that,” Vaughn started, his speech speeding up as Rhys raised an eyebrow at the statement, “which, let’s be perfectly clear, I don’t, Handsome Jack would kill me 50 times over if I so much as thought about getting it on with you.”

“You can just call him ‘Jack,’ y’know,” Rhys said as he opened his closet door. “He’s basically your other roommate.”

“There’s no room in this broom closet for both another person and all your hair products,” Vaughn said with a snort, to which Rhys took very serious offense.

“Hey!” he said in protest. “Don’t insult the hair.”

Vaughn rolled his eyes. “Just shut up and pack, wouldja? I’d like to get some sleep tonight.”

Rhys scoffed. “I do know how to pack a suitcase on my own, y’know.”

“I am not schlepping out to Jack’s again because you forgot your toothbrush.”

“It was one time!” Rhys said, blushing. Why had he ever thought Vaughn would let him live that one down?

“Yeah, yeah,” Vaughn said, waving him off.

They decided to split up the work, with Rhys tackling the clothes (he was very particular about his socks) and Vaughn getting, well, basically everything else. Rhys wasn’t exactly great at taking care of himself, and Vaughn felt like an overprotective parent as he filled a bag with the necessities: medication, toothbrush, mouthwash, hairbrush, cooling lotion. He even threw in some condoms for good measure, although Jack usually took care of things in the sex department.

“Seriously Rhys?” Vaughn said as he came back into the bedroom to see Rhys frozen and staring off into space.

“Wha?” the omega said, turning around to face Vaughn.

The beta scowled as he dropped the bag of toiletries he’d gathered into Rhys’ suitcase, which had been filled with not much more than a few pairs of socks and obnoxious yellow boxers. “I thought you said you knew how to pack.”

“I do,” Rhys said with a nod, although his attention clearly wasn’t focused.

He sounded drunk, and if Vaughn hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought Rhys had blown off his ridiculously small amount of responsibilities to get wasted. However, when Vaughn had been rummaging through the bathroom, he’d seen that Rhys had already taken his medication for that night-- which meant his heat was starting.

Much like birth control, Rhys' suppressors supplied a week of less medicated pills intended to help his body go through the necessary heat less frequently and much less intensely. After all, it was never good to leave one’s hormones bottled up and out of whack for too long.

“Alright bro, let’s get you to bed,” Vaughn said, clearing off a space amidst the blankets for Rhys to crawl into. “You can finish packing in the morning.”

Rhys frowned in confusion. “I finished packing.”

Vaughn groaned. “Rhys, underwear isn’t what I meant by clothing.”

The omega shrugged. “It’s not like I’ll be wearing much else while I’m there.”

Vaughn gagged, shoving Rhys with a disgusted “TMI bro, TMI.”

Rhys laughed, always amused at Vaughn’s reactions whenever anything even remotely sex-related came up in conversation. The only time Rhys really got the dirt on Vaughn and his girlfriend was when the beta was drunk, and even then he kept it as unexplicit as possible. Rhys thought it was cute, especially in comparison to Jack’s compulsive need to share every detail about their sex life.

“I left you some clothes on your bed, by the way,” Rhys said as Vaughn turned to leave.

Vaughn snorted, knowing that the omega was asking him to sleep in his clothes in order to rub his scent on them. “You’re not seriously thinking of going to work tomorrow, are you?”

Rhys shrugged, pulling his t-shirt off due to the already setting-in fever to reveal his tattoos as Vaughn shielded his eyes. “I have an early meeting, plus I wanted to pick up work to do while I’m out.”

Vaughn gave him a blank stare, pursing his lips as he thought it over.

“Fine,” he said, shaking his head in disapproval yet knowing Rhys was also an adult and could make his own decisions, stupid as they might be. “I’ll take you home when I go on lunch break.”

Rhys smiled. “Thanks bro.”

“Yeah, don’t mention it,” Vaughn said, waving off the affection. “Just don’t complain if your clothes look wrinkled tomorrow, it’s not my fault they don’t fit.”

Rhys laughed as the beta left the room, still grumbling to himself about Rhys being an idiot. He removed his cybernetic arm to charge it along with his phone before turning off the light, lying in the darkness as the heat began its torturous crawl through his body.

Damn, this week was going to suck.

#rhack #rhack fic #rhack tftbl #rhys the company man #handsome jack #vaughn the money man #omegaverse #bonded #trash writing

[dragonbagel]

Retrograde - Part 7

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

[while i’m working on those requests from everyone i figure i might as well post this update so here ya go. comments/feedback is appreciated!]

[possible trigger warning for this part]

Jack looked up at a sharp knock on the door. “Come in,” he said, clearing his throat and ending the call with Tim. The door creaked open and Sasha appeared, a smug look on her face and an accidental smear of purple sparkles on her cheek. “The key’s done. The paint’s drying now, but in a few hours it should be ready to go.”

“We don’t have a few hours,” Jack said harshly.

Sasha placed her hand on her hip, raising her eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

“Are you deaf?” Jack snapped, Rhys’ pained expression on the forefront of his mind. “We don’t have time to literally watch paint dry.”

“And here I thought we were pretending not to hate each other,” Sasha replied sourly. “You asked me to make the key and that’s what I’m doing. If I say the paint needs time to dry, the paint needs time to dry.”

“He can’t wait that long!” Jack said before realizing his slip-up. “I mean, we can’t wait that long.”

Sasha simply stared at him, studying the way his fists were clenched and his gaze was anxiously darting towards his ECHOcomm, now resting on the bed. She could also see his eyes were rimmed in red. “What’s going on, Jack? What’s wrong with Rhys?”

Jack didn’t respond for a moment, clearly wrestling with his thoughts. “Can I--can I ask you something?”

“Uh, sure?” Sasha said, confused and a bit annoyed that he hadn’t answered her question.

“What happened on Pandora? To Rhys, I mean,” he clarified.

Sasha stared at him, biting her lip. “He didn’t tell you?”

Jack shook his head, his expression slightly hurt.

“I don’t really know if it’s my place…” Sasha said, trailing off.

“Please,” Jack said quickly. “I need to know. I need to know how to help him.”

Sasha could see the desperation written all over his face, his concern clearly genuine. “Okay,” she said finally, and Jack’s relief was instantaneous. “I don’t know everything, but I’ll tell you what I do. You’re, um, probably gonna want to sit down for this.”

Jack grimaced before sinking onto Sasha’s bed, not even bothering to argue. He crossed his arms over his chest, the shield he always wore attached to his hip shifting as he fidgeted.

“I’ve known Rhys since high school back in New Haven. It was a shithole, yeah, where on Pandora wasn’t? Besides, it was relatively safer than a lot of places.” Jack nodded, listening intently. “His family didn’t have a lot of money, and that’s saying something, because New Haven is known for being dirt poor. He was smart, though. Too smart for his own good. For all the time he spent with his nose in a textbook, he couldn’t see what was happening right in front of him.”

Jack’s mask kept his expression falsely neutral, and Sasha’s stomach churned at her inability to figure out what he was thinking.

“We started dating when we were seventeen,” she continued, trying to rush through any mention of their relationship so Jack wouldn’t go off again. “Things were pretty normal back then. We went to school, spent time with friends, snuck into clubs--kid stuff, y’know?”

Jack nodded mechanically, although “kid stuff” had never been a part of his life story--his grandmother had made sure of that.

“He never talked about his family, and I never asked. I didn’t think about it. God, I wish I’d thought to ask,” Sasha said, swallowing thickly. “But by the time I found out it was too late. The... damage had already been done.”

She paused to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye; it had been a long time since she’d thought about this shit, much less talked about it. But if Jack could help Rhys deal with what had happened in a way that didn’t involve getting blackout drunk, then the least she could do was talk. Plus, maybe it’d distract him long enough for the key to finish drying.

“His parents worked for a bandit leader named Vallory. I’d heard horror stories about her, but most of us considered her to be no more than an urban myth. Yeah, most people in New Haven were sketchy-- Hell, my dad raised me and my sister to be con artists-- but the shit Vallory did was on a whole other level.

“Rhys’ family had no money, but they wanted him to get an education, to get off that god-awful planet, so they struck up a deal. I’m not sure if he even knew at first, but once he found out, he blamed himself and he... he just wasn’t the same after that.”

Jack’s blue and green eyes were still trained on Sasha’s face. “Is that when he started drinking?”

Sasha looked a bit taken aback at Jack’s forwardness. “He... told you about that?”

Jack shook his head, chuckling. “Honey, I first met Rhys drunk out of his mind at a bar. Then I met him a second time there. And a third. Kid was a goddamn sponge.”

Sasha scowled slightly at the thought of that.

“Rhys and I were still dating at the time, for almost a year actually, but it didn’t feel like it,” she said, pausing to look at Jack and wondering if she should just skip over this part of the story. When he didn’t look like he was about to burst into flames of jealousy, she cleared her throat and continued.

“He stopped spending nights at my place, wouldn’t return my texts or calls. He still worked with me and Fiona on cons sometimes, but it wasn’t the same; he was there as an obligation, not because he wanted to be. I’d try talking to him, but,” she paused, trying to reign her emotions back under control.

“But he’s a stubborn asshole when he wants to be,” Jack supplied, earning a snort of agreement from Sasha.

“I don’t know everything that went on at that time,” Sasha admitted, sitting down softly onto the bed next to Jack. “I didn’t even know how bad it was at first.”

Jack’s ears perked up at that, and a mixture of anger and worry flitted across his face before it was absolved back into a stony neutrality. “What do you mean, ‘how bad it was’?”

Sasha gulped. “Rhys’ parents, they missed a drop. They couldn’t fulfill the contract and, well, Vallory wasn’t happy. She took them as hostages and made Rhys... do things in order to get them back.”

“What sort of things?” Jack growled, his voice low.

“I-I don’t know exactly,” Sasha stammered truthfully. “It was some sick sort of deal; he had to earn her back the money they’d lost, or she’d,” she trailed off, sliding her fingers horizontally across her throat.

Jack got the message. “So he stole some crap for her, and it fucked up his head. Is that what this is all about?”

Sasha regarded him warily, quirking an eyebrow with a pitying look on her face.

“What?” Jack snapped, that ferocity back in his eyes.

“He worked for her for years, Jack. For years,” she said, shuddering at the way the words tasted in her mouth. “Like I said, he was smart. And she knew that.”

Jack’s fists were clenched at his sides again, knuckles turning white. “Sasha,” he grit out from between his teeth. “What. Did. She. Make. Him. Do?”

Sasha maneuvered around the question, knowing that no answer she could give would be satisfactory; Hell, she didn’t even know completely what had happened herself. “Rhys started disappearing for days and then coming back absolutely shit-faced. We--our friends and I--were worried about him, especially when he kept avoiding us like the freaking plague. So we went to his apartment to check on him, y’know?”

Jack nodded slowly, although he was clearly still tense.

“We didn’t know anything then, so when we went in there we were half expecting him to be studying for the college classes he was taking or doing some other weird shit like sorting his socks. I even thought he might’ve been cheating on me.”

Jack’s flinch at her last sentence had her speeding to continue, once again aware of why they were in this shitty predicament in the first place.

“But the place was empty. It looked like nobody had been there for weeks, everything covered in dust, cupboards practically bare. We knew his family had no money, but this--this was different. I went into Rhys’ room to see if he’d left a note about where he was or anything, but the place looked like a goddamn crime scene.

“There were bloodstains in the floor, and more empty liquor bottles than the rest of New Haven combined probably went through in a year. I told everyone else to go home, that there was nothing to see. His room was just... private, I guess, and I didn’t want to betray him like that.”

“You still loved him?”

Sasha looked taken aback at Jack’s sudden question, especially by the lack of malice in his voice. “Yeah, I did. I really did.”

Jack nodded slowly at her response before gesturing for her to keep speaking.

“There was this folder on his bed,” she said, her voice even more cautious. “Vallory must have given it to him, because it wasn’t his handwriting, and it sure as hell wasn’t schoolwork.”

“What was in it?” Jack said, restrained anger seeping out from every syllable.

“Files,” she said shortly, struggling to string together the words to describe the impossible. Shit, what had she gotten herself into? “Not like coding or anything. They were profiles on people, bandit leaders and the like. Corporate execs too. I couldn’t read everything-- there was blood all over the fucking place--but there was a lot of, um, personal information on them.”

Jack clenched his jaw. He thought he knew where this was going, but didn’t want to interrupt Sasha.

“Physique, salary, connections, resume, frequent hangouts--it even had their allergies listed! It also,” Sasha paused, steeling herself for Jack’s reaction to what she was about to say next. “It also described what they preferred... sexually.”

Jack let out a hiss of breath he didn’t realized he’d been holding, his jaw muscles tensing despite his effort to calm them. He’d always had his suspicions about Rhys sleeping around, especially after one night of very, very drunken confessions and a subsequent two-day hangover. But enjoying hooking up was one thing; being forced to have sex for some bandit bitch-lord’s power play was very, very different.

Had that been why he’d been so submissive to Jack’s advances? Did he think he had to be? Jack felt his stomach tighten in fear; What if Rhys saw him as just another douche to get on his back for in his climb up the corporate ladder? If what Sasha was insinuating about his essentially forced prostitution was correct, Jack wouldn’t even blame him.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Sasha said, cutting Jack off from his thoughts, which were quickly turning murderous. “And I don’t know for sure if you’re right. Like I said, Rhys was dead-set against telling me anything.”

Jack had started to fidget, wanting nothing more than to talk to Rhys and beg him to please, please tell him the truth. How much more was Rhys hiding from him?

“Jack,” Sasha said, pulling his attention back to her. “There’s more.”

He shuddered, not sure how this horror story could get any worse and definitely not wanting to find out the manner in which it did.

“Rhys called me one night. It had to’ve been 3 a.m. at least. We hadn’t talked in months at that point, and I’d basically given up on him. Given up on us. We’d mutually broken it off, although nothing official; I mean, we hadn’t been on a date in a year, what else was I supposed to think?” Sasha said, her cohesiveness starting to spiral. “But I--I answered him anyways. I was worried, to say the least. And when he talked to me… something about it wasn’t right.”

Jack was biting his lip to keep from interjecting himself into the conversation, from making a stupid comment to lighten the mood in a completely immature way if only to keep himself from feeling all these dumb… feelings.

“He was slurring his words really badly, and he kept saying he was sorry, over and over again. When he said he was at home, I told him I would meet him there. Something was up, I knew it. I made him promise not to hang up on me, but he just kept apologizing, saying it was all his fault. I don’t think I’ve ever driven that fast in my entire fucking life.”

Even though it was in the past, Jack’s heart was slamming in his chest at Sasha’s words. He’d seen Rhys scared and vulnerable, not to mention drunk as hell, but nothing like what she was describing. Did Rhys not trust him with this kind of shit? He was his boyfriend, for fuck’s sake.

“When I found him, that shit… it was straight from a nightmare,” Sasha said, either ignoring or not registering Jack’s discomfort. “He’d fallen on the floor trying to get in bed, and was waving a half-empty bottle of vodka in his hand. And his right arm, it was just gone. Vanished. Blood everywhere. It reeked, even with the bandages he’d put on it,” she paused, looking like she might throw up. “I asked him what happened, and he just said that she killed them. That was it. Then he puked all over the floor.”

Jack was feeling quite nauseous himself, especially as he thought about Rhys’ cybernetic arm. He’d told Jack that he’d had it surgically removed when he volunteered for the cybernetic program, not that someone had literally blown it off. He swallowed thickly, which was painful with his dry throat.

“I think,” Sasha began, working to quell the trembling in her voice; it was clear she was still emotional about the whole ordeal. “I think Vallory finally killed his parents, and then tried to off him too. It fucked him up, all of it. There--there were pills too, when he threw up. He was passed out so I couldn’t ask, but I think he…”

She couldn’t bring herself to finish her sentence, but Jack could easily tell what she was getting at. Rhys, his sweet, confident (albeit sometimes assholeish) boyfriend, was so desperate and distraught that he’d tried to end his life. The thought alone almost made him completely lose his composure. But heroes didn’t cry, he reminded himself sternly. Heroes didn’t cry.

“I cleaned up the floor, bathed him, got him into bed. He woke up sometimes during all that, but he wasn’t making any sense. When he finally curled up in bed, I was pretty damn exhausted myself, practically passed out the second I hit the couch. And when I woke up, he was gone. I haven’t seen him since--at least, not until last week. He must’ve come up to Helios, started a new life for himself. I was happy for him, I really was. Not so happy when I realized that he’s still… dealing with this shit.”

Jack had remained silent during the end of her tale, and stayed quiet for a few minutes after she finished. Nothing made sense, and everything, everything was falling apart.

“Can I, um, have a minute?” he asked, looking slightly desperately at Sasha.

She nodded. “I’ll be in the kitchen with Nisha if you need anything.” She looked a bit shaken up herself, but that was nothing some tea (and serious repression) couldn’t fix.

Once he heard the door close behind Sasha, he let her words sink into him again. And damn if it didn’t hurt worse than every fucking bullet he’d taken. Rhysie, he thought to himself. Rhysie, Rhysie, Rhysie.

Then, although he’d never admit it to anyone, he buried his face into a pillow and cried.

#rhack #rhack fic #rhack tftbl #rhys the company man #handsome jack #sasha the kid sister #drug mention #suicide mention #alcohol mention #retrograde #trash writing

[dragonbagel]

Retrograde - Part 6

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

[thank u all for interacting, i rly appreciate it!]

Jack had never met Sasha before, but he already knew he hated her. He’d only seen her in one of Rhys’ old photos that he took out when he was feeling nostalgic, although Jack knew that he kept it in the nightstand drawer on his side of the bed.

Sometimes, when Rhys wasn’t home, Jack would carefully take it out and look at it. Although he’d never say it to Rhys, he loved the goofy smile that he wore on his face in the photograph. It was the same one he wore whenever Jack cracked a stupid joke or said he loved him, but it looked different on his younger features. He had to have been no older than 17 when the photo was taken, sprawled out on a couch with his friends. One of them, a girl in a weird hat whose paleness nearly rivaled Rhys’, had her arms folded in mock annoyance. The blonde next to her, whom Jack recognized as Athena’s girlfriend Janey, was cracking a wide grin that showed off her braces. A Hispanic-looking kid could be seen lurking in the background, a bandana holding his ponytailed hair from his face and thick goggles hanging around his neck. He appeared to be laughing at what someone had said off camera. Jack wished he could ask Rhys what had been so funny– he knew that Rhys still remembered– but Rhys wasn’t particularly fond of talking about his life on Pandora, and Jack didn’t want to push him.

And then there was Sasha, whose mere presence pissed him off. She was on the couch next to Rhys, snuggled against his side. He had his right arm wrapped around her shoulders– his real arm, not the cybernetic one he had now– and Jack felt a twinge of jealousy. When was the last time Rhys had held him like that? He ached to be near him, to lean against his chest, to breathe in the sweet smell of his skin. After the fight, it was like he’d forgotten how to live on his own. He made a mental note to work in some extra cuddle time when this whole ordeal was over. But first, he thought grimly to himself, he needed Sasha’s help.

“Is this the place?” Nisha asked, nodding in the direction of the closed apartment door in front of them. Jack nodded, checking one last time that the coordinates matched up before slamming his fist against the door.

“Open up, sweet cheeks! There’s a fucking emergency!” he shouted, ignoring Nisha’s quite obvious eye roll.

After a moment, the door cracked open a little, and Jack could see a bright green eye staring at him from within the darkened interior. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Handsome goddamn Jack, pumpkin,” he said as he threw his weight against the door, forcing it to open and knocking Sasha backwards in the process.

“What the fuck?” Sasha yelled, reaching towards her ankle to grab her pistol and force these lunatics out of her apartment.

She hadn’t even managed to get the safety off before she felt a gun press against the back of her skull, the unmistakable sound of a bullet clicking into the chamber causing her to drop her weapon and slowly raise her hands in surrender.

“Alright, you win,” she snapped. Jack signaled to Nisha, who’d managed to slip through the door behind Jack unbeknownst to Sasha. She pouted at Jack before lowering her weapon.

“So then, now that you’ve broken into my apartment, what do you want from me?” Sasha asked, eyeing Jack and Nisha suspiciously.

“We want…” Jack faltered, unsure of what to say. “We want your help.”

Sasha snorted. “With what?”

Jack remained silent, beginning to fidget. There was a piece to this puzzle Rhys had created that he couldn’t see, but he wasn’t exactly the type to ask for help.

“There’s been a kidnapping,” Nisha said finally, shrugging at Jack’s immediate glare. “What? We don’t have enough time for you to swallow your entire ego.”

Jack continued to glower, but Sasha cut in. “I’m sorry, but what does this have to do with me?”

“Listen, honey, I wish you weren’t involved, I really do,” Jack said, stepping closer to Sasha to make his height advantage clear. “But unfortunately, Rhys wanted his Pandoran trash whore involved in this little operation.”

Sasha’s hand came down across Jack’s face with a sharp crack before he could even react, grinding his mask against his always-sensitive scar. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”

Jack snarled, recoiling. “You think I don’t know about you and Rhys? About you putting your filthy hands all over my boyfriend?”

There was a murderous glint in Sasha’s eyes as she responded. “I always knew you were dense, but I never thought you’d be such an idiot.”

She walked closer to Jack, jabbing her finger against his chest. “If you think you can bust in here asking for my help then accuse me of messing around with my ex, then you need to get to get your head checked.”

Nisha placed her hands on Jack’s shoulders and slowly dragged him backwards before he actually started getting violent. “I’m sorry Sasha, Jackie here just gets a little… overprotective.”

Jack still looked like he wanted to strangle her, but at least he hadn’t pulled out his gun. The rational part of him (as small as it was) knew that Rhys was as good as dead if he killed her, but oh, what he wouldn’t give to wrap his fingers around her throat.

“Why don’t you go take a seat and let us gals chat,” Nisha said, herding Jack over to the armchair in the corner of the apartment. He didn’t reply, pressing his lips into a thin line. He sunk into the seat, thrumming his fingers against the armrest. His eyes were dark and unfocused, the image of Rhys’ bloodied face imprinted in his pupils as his tortured screams filled his ears.

“How can you stand that asshole?” Sasha said to Nisha as she stepped into the kitchenette. She wrinkled her nose. “How can Rhys stand him?”

Nisha shrugged, leaning against the countertop. “He’s not always that bad.” She paused, thinking. “Actually, yes he is. He’s just not this aggressive to people he doesn’t consider his enemies.”

“And what did I do to earn a spot on his hit list?” Sasha asked, filling a chipped purple mug with hot water before plopping a tea bag into it.

Nisha stared at her, her face growing serious. “He’s convinced himself that Rhys cheated on him with you.”

Sasha looked ready to interrupt and argue but Nisha quickly continued. “I know you didn’t, so no need trying to convince me. Unlike Jack, I can see past my own nose.”

Sasha chuckled at that, beginning to relax as she took a sip of her tea.

“Jackie, he just… he’s in deep. He loves that kid more than Hyperion itself, although he’d never admit it. And now that he might lose him, he’s blaming anyone he can so that he doesn’t have to take it all out on himself. Although,” she said, shooting a worried look in Jack’s direction. “I don’t think it’s working all that well.”

Sasha took another sip, considering. “So you both came all the way out here so he could use me as a punching bag?”

“God no,” came an obnoxiously cocky voice. “I’ve got an entire team of slackers in R & D I could yell at and airlock if I wanted to.”

The girls stared at Jack as he stepped into the room, his mask readjusted on his face and his features composed. “We really do need your help, pumpkin. And we’re in a bit of a time crunch.”

Jack launched into a quick rundown of the past 24 hours, impressively managing to keep his anger to a semi-normal level. “So, basically, he sent us here to find you,” he concluded.

Sasha’s face had paled, her fingers tightly clutching the mug.

“Do you know what he meant? About the vault key?” Nisha asked.

Sasha nodded, something dark and unreadable in her expression. “He wants us to create a fake. That way they’ll give us his location and we can make the trade.”

Jack gaped at her. “As much as I’d love for that to work, that son of a taint would see right through it, and none of us would be seeing a very happy ending.”

Sasha bit her lip before shaking her head. “I’ve done it before.”

Jack raised his eyebrows before letting out a low whistle. “Seriously?”

Sasha set her mug down onto the counter before walking over to the nearby closet, the other two trailing behind her. “It was one of the last cons Rhys helped me pull off before he came up to Helios, that’s how he knows it’ll work,” she explained as she began to rummage through the stacks of cardboard boxes inside.

“Hold up,” Jack said, folding his arms over his chest. “Cons?”

Sasha nodded as she found the box she was looking for, hoisting it up with a grunt and carrying it to the kitchen table. “Your boyfriend wasn’t always a goody-two-shoes programmer,” she said as she removed the box’s lid and dumped out its contents unceremoniously.

“I wouldn’t exactly say he’s a goody-two-shoes,” Jack said with a smirk, wagging his eyebrows.

Nisha socked him in the shoulder. “You’re disgusting.”

The nauseous looks on both her and Sasha’s faces caused him to laugh, the first time he’d done so in what felt like forever; at least, since the forever after he’d fought with Rhys.

“So you’ll help?” he asked.

Sasha nodded. “But I’m doing it for Rhys, not you. No offense, but you’re still an asshole.”

Jack shrugged. “None taken.”

“Then let’s get to work!” Nisha said, clapping her hands together before lifting up the lump of molding clay now laying on the table. “I’ll make the base and you do the decorating?”

“Sure,” Sasha replied, pulling out brushes, a few bottles of shiny-looking paints and a…flamethrower?

“What about him?” she asked, jerking her thumb towards Jack.

“I’m gonna call Tim Tams for a status update,” he said, sliding his ECHOcomm out from his jacket pocket. “Besides, you don’t want me messing around with all this arts and crafts shit. Rhys forced me to take a painting class with him once and I almost burned the room down.”

“Alright then,” Sasha said, readjusting her headband to keep her dreadlocks out of her face. “You can talk in my room for some privacy. Plus, I don’t need your annoying voice distracting me.”

Jack nodded, although a bit of his previous anger resurfaced as he glanced towards the bedroom. He grit his teeth to keep himself from making a snide comment, not wanting to break their still precarious truce. He fumbled to select Tim’s name from his contact list, pressing down just a bit too hard on the screen as he headed into the other room.

Sasha must’ve noticed, because she called his name, causing him to look at her over his shoulder. “I didn’t mess around with Rhys.” When Jack didn’t respond, she continued with a grin. “Besides, he always was lousy in bed.”

Jack cracked a slight smile at that. “Oh, honey, I’d beg to differ.”

He turned to slip into Sasha’s bedroom completely, closing the door behind him and leaving the two girls in the kitchen to continue with their work. He felt extremely uncomfortable, not just because he was in a stranger’s most private room, but also because a part of him still imagined Rhys tangled in the plain linen sheets. Even though Sasha had flat-out denied it, a part of Jack continued to feel ill at the image of someone other than himself seeing Rhys in such an intimate way.

“Hey Tim,” Jack said as a projection of his doppelganger’s face materialized from his phone.

Tim gave a small salute before rolling right into a status report. “Wilhelm was able to get a reading on the guy who nabbed Rhys. I’m sending you the info now.”

Jack raised his eyebrows at the file he’d just received, quickly opening it. “Hugo Vasquez, eh?”

Tim nodded. “Head of programming department.”

“He even looks like a douche,” Jack said, scowling. “Do you see that ridiculous combover?”

“I’m having Wilhelm try to get a read on his location,” Tim said, abstaining from Jack’s rude humor as usual. “He’d also looking into his computer files.”

Jack nodded, already planning out the precise way in which he’d kill him. After weeks of torturing, of course. He deserved no less after what he’d done to…

“How’s Rhys?” Jack asked, immediately feeling his heart stop at the nervous look on Tim’s face.

“Tim,” he repeated, his expression darkening. “How’s Rhys?”

“He’s, um, well,” Tim stammered, focusing most of his attention on avoiding eye contact. “You see, he’s–”

“Please!”

Tim froze at the sound, quickly turning to look over his shoulder.

“Please don’t! Please! I’ll do anything!”

Jack’s pulse quickened as he took in the sounds of Rhys’ pained cries. “Let me see him.”

Tim looked like he wanted to argue, but decided he valued his life a little too much and carried the ECHOcomm over to the arm. Wilhelm was nowhere to be seen, having determined that hunting this Vasquez character would be much easier to catch via his personal computer files rather than the crazy hacking maze he’d set up. Instead, a large projection of Rhys was the only thing Jack could see, and he immediately felt sick.

“They didn’t mean to! I swear, they didn’t mean to!” Jack watched Rhys shout. “I’ll finish the job, I’ll finish hundreds of jobs if you just stop hurting them!”

Rhys was struggling against his bonds, his single hazel eye blown wide and pupil dilated. There were tears staining his cheek, although they were barely visible amidst the dried blood.

“Who’s he talking about?” Jack hissed at Tim, his eyes still glued to Rhys’ face.

Tim shrugged, looking helpless. “I don’t know. There’s– there’s nobody in the room with him, Jack. That Vasquez guy hasn’t been here in hours.”

“M-mom!” Rhys shouted, his voice hitching as more tears fell. “No! You bitch! H-how c-c-could y-” he broke off into sobs again.

Jack stared forward, his features unmoving. “Is he asleep?” he asked finally.

Tim shook his head. “No, he’s been up for about an hour. At first he was just repeating the stuff about Sasha and the key, but now…” The confused, helpless look on his face spoke for itself. “Why do you ask?”

“He, um,” Jack said as he began to fidget with the corners of his mask. “He sometimes has these nightmares, wakes up yelling and all that jazz, and it just, well, it sounds a helluva lot like this.”

Tim seemed to think for a moment before suddenly disappearing from the corner of the screen, the sound of furious typing filling the speakers. Jack waited, raising his eyebrows.

“Y-you liar! You said if I did it you’d l-let them g-go, you promised. You pr-promised!”

Jack chewed on his bottom lip anxiously. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to comfort Rhys, to hold and soothe him like he did whenever Rhys woke up crying in the middle of the night. He’d never gotten any real information from Rhys about them, but he had enough of a brain to know that they had something to do with Pandora, something to do with the portion of Rhys’ life that he kept buried from everyone, even from Jack.

“I got it!” Tim said triumphantly, appearing back in front of the camera with a very familiar grin. “It’s some sort of synthetic eridium-based drug, basically a hallucinogen.”

Jack didn’t respond, the tightness in his chest worsening.

“It says here that it’s super hard to find, even on the black market,” Tim continued, reading off the database screen. “The only known mass underground producer was Atlas, and we all know what happened to them.”

Jack quickly nodded, already tuning Tim’s voice out as his hearing honed in on Rhys’ cries. I’m coming for you, babe, he thought as he felt something wet forming in his eyes (which was actually impossible, since Handsome Jack never cried; he didn’t even know if he had tear ducts). Don’t you worry.

#rhack #rhack tftbl #rhack fic #rhys the company man #handsome jack #sasha the kid sister #rhys x jack #timothy lawrence #nisha the lawbringer #borderlands #trash writing #retrograde