Chapter Text
“JACOB!” My eyes flew open and I frantically scanned the room, trying to find another weapon to save the bloody cowboy. Oh. I was in my apartment in bed. Just another dream, I tell myself, even though I know it won’t ever feel any less real. I reach for the bedside to spare a glance at my phone. 4:26 am. Well, at least I made it most of the night this time. I tell myself not to, but I can’t help opening up the find my friends app on my phone just to make sure he’s okay. Once I see the little blue dot at the corner of Grove Avenue and Second Street, I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding and put my phone down.
As I get up and shuffle to the kitchen to start coffee, I spare a glance at the window. It’s miserable outside, dark clouds of rain lightly pattering on the window, the kind of day that’s meant to be spent in bed, but there’s a world to save, so I don’t think I’ll be getting the day off. I sip my coffee and mindlessly scroll through my feed to kill some time. Around 5:12 I decide to go ahead and go to the Library and get a jump start on the day, nobody will be there anyway. I walked into the annex and hung up my coat, walking to my desk without even looking up.
“Hey.” Stone’s voice made me jump ten feet in the air and whirl around with my hands up to the direction of the foreign sound. He looked amused, but put his hands up in surrender anyway. “Sorry, thought you saw me,” was all he said, but he had a smirk on his face, little prick. “I didn’t bloody see you, mate. You nearly gave me a heart attack… jesus. Announce yourself for god’s sake.” My heart was still racing, although now I’m not sure if it was from Jacob’s husky morning voice or the heart attack he just gave me. “What are you doing here so early anyways?” he asked me, getting right to the point as usual. “I could ask you the same thing, mate.” I couldn’t very well tell him I had had a nightmare about him dying in that bloody video game when he didn’t even know I remembered it, now could I? So, time to play defense.
“I’m always here at 5:30,” he responded coolly. Damn, busted. “Couldn’t sleep,” I shrugged and started to walk away, hoping the conversation was over. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. A hand on my arm stopped me though, and I turned partially to face him, eyebrows raised. His hand was warm through the fabric of my shirt and I tried to steady my breathing. “Do you wanna talk about it?” his expression hadn’t changed, and for a second, I considered telling him but then I saw the pity in his eyes. Oh hell no, we’ll be having none of that. So, I plastered a fake smile on and said, “Nothing to talk about mate,” pulling my arm from his grasp roughly and leaving the room.
Damn cowboy, making me lie to him. I mean, technically I didn’t but I basically did. Ugh, why did he have to give me that look? I mean, I’m more than capable of handling myself. I’ve handled myself for quite some time actually. Just because I’m not as old as they are doesn’t mean they can treat me like their kid brother. I moped around the annex for a little while before deciding that I needed to go back to the work room with everyone else just in case something happened. When I got there, Baird and Cassandra were already at their desks, but I didn’t see Stone. There was a piece of paper face up on his desk though, with his neat handwriting on it. ‘Went to write, round table in ancient literature, call if you need me. -Jacob’
I played games on my phone for a while at my desk and even helped Cassandra with some research (ok well, kind of, I handed her books and read her directions while she worked, but that counts) before I was officially bored. And I really wanted to see what Jacob was doing. Also, I felt bad for being mean to him this morning, I needed to at least see that he was okay. Just as I was about to go make up a reason to go get him, the clippings book came to life. Cassandra and I walked over to it and started reading. It seemed pretty standard, people were shrinking over in the middle of nowhere Minnesota. Baird went to get Jenkins and he came in and looked at the clippings book, brow furrowed.
When he was done reading, he knew what to do, he said it was some kind of lightbulb that must be in a street lamp or a city hall that’s causing people to shrink after 24 hours of seeing the light. He said it would be easy to spot and grab, but he needed to make an anecdote for the affected before we left and that would take him an hour and then we could go. “Okay, someone go get Stone and fill him in so we can—” Before Baird could even finish the sentence, I said, “I’ll go,” and practically ran to the ancient literature section.
Jacob was so into the book he was reading that he didn’t notice me come into his little study hole of the library. So, I just leaned up against the bookcase and waited. For fifteen minutes. God, he was clueless. He was cute though, his nose scrunching up adorably whenever he read something that didn’t click or he didn’t know. I watched him with ease, forgetting my actual reason for being there in the first place. Finally, he looked up and jumped, making the chair wobble comically. I was just about to go help him when it looked like he was going to fall but he grabbed the table just in time.
He pulled his headphones out and glared at me. “Jesus, man, how long have you been standing there?” I was now grinning from ear to ear, “Fifteen minutes.” He looked me over for a minute and I assumed he would get madder, I don’t know, swear a little, but he just… smiled saying, “I guess that’s payback from earlier then, huh?” I nodded, but felt myself deflate a little at the mention of this morning. I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing him dying over and over again in my nightmare. Maybe he’ll drop it. No such luck.
“I’m sorry about this morning too by the way, I shouldn’t have pried like that. It’s none of my business, I was just… uh I was just… worried about you.” His words were quiet, but charged. I don’t think I hid my surprise very well, but damn I was floored. Jacob was worried about me? It took me a second to realize I needed to respond. “It’s uh... it’s alright, mate.” So, what did that mean? That he was worried about me as a friend or… no I’m sure that’s all it was. “Good, so we’re good?” I heard him ask and all I could do was nod. My hands were sweaty. When did it get hot in here? I shoved my hands in my pockets so he couldn’t see them shake slightly. Then he got up.
At first, I thought I was going to catch a break and maybe this conversation was over, but he wasn’t turning to leave. He was walking toward me. My eyes widened in realization that he was getting really close to me. He stopped with just enough space between us to not cross any lines. I could still run. “Jones,” his voice was low and almost gravelly. I felt myself shudder a little, praying that he didn’t notice. “Yes?” I choked out, trying to keep my voice steady. He took a step forward. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. I gulped. “What do you think about that?” he asked and I could feel his breath on my face. “Huh?” I heard him ask a question, but I couldn’t tell you what he’d said. I was too busy trying to memorize his every feature.
He smelled clean, like fresh laundry, which is not what I was expecting. I mean, it was a pleasant surprise, but I always imagined him smelling like dirt and old leather. I looked at his features. His eyes were blue, but light and airy like the sky, not deep the ocean like I originally thought. He had a small scar in his left eyebrow, not noticeable unless you’re right there. I looked at the smile lines around his eyes and only then did I notice he was smiling at me slightly, like he was amused. I involuntarily stole a glance at his lips. “Huh, what?” I repeated, trying to school my facial expression.
“Me worrying about you, what do you think about that?” he repeated calmly. Just as I was about to respond, one of his hands came up and moved a stray strand of my hair behind my ear. I gasped a little, and he heard it, eyes shining with a look of wonder, as if he didn’t know he could reduce me to a puddle of mush if he kept going like he was. His hand stayed where it was, frozen for a second, then came down to rest on the side of my cheek. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. I swallowed, realizing he was still waiting on a response. “Uh... that’s your prerogative I guess, mate.” I tried to rely on my trademark snarky comeback method. He didn’t buy it. Not even a little bit.
He threw his head back slightly and laughed a little, leaning in even closer to me when he stopped laughing. Two could play at this game. I smirked at him, and took a small step forward making us toe to toe, winding my arms around his neck and running my fingers through the hair at the base. I felt him shiver and his eyes went almost wild. “Actually, I think you should worry about me more often,” I whispered, lowering my voice and then giving him a little wink for good measure. That was all it took. “You don’t have to tell me twice,” he pulled me to him by the shoulders and smashed his lips to mine. I felt myself smile into the kiss, returning it eagerly, raking my tongue across his bottom lip, begging for entry. He granted it and as we kissed, I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began.
He slid his tongue across my teeth and I lost it, moaning a little and pulling slightly on the hair that I still had hold of. He pulled back slightly and I immediately thought maybe I’d gone too far, but his eyes were hungry. He let go of my shoulders and grabbed the front of my shirt, lifting me up a little and shoving me back against the bookshelf. Then… he growled. Like a literal snarl. I felt my mouth drop open just a little bit and I hoped I wasn’t drooling. He pressed up against me, pinning me to the bookshelf with his body. I took the opportunity to hop up a little and wrap my legs around his waist. He bent to kiss me again, but this time, he didn’t stop at my mouth, he leaned down even further and started kissing my neck, in the crevice where my ear and jaw connected. I moaned again, leaning back and to the side giving him access.
Jacob started sucking and biting my neck, soothing the little bruises with his tongue. Oh my god that felt good, I shifted my hips a little, rubbing my crotch against his involuntarily. He put a hand up to steady himself and then bit my earlobe and sucked in a breath. Jesus, does he realize he’s perfect? I mean, I swear, that man could reduce me to whimpers if he wanted to. Just as I was about to start the dirty talk with something along the lines of ‘Wanna ride something different, cowboy?’ I heard Colonel Baird coming down the hall. “Stone? Jones? Are you in here?” Jacob looked white as a sheet. I pushed him back a little, dropping to the floor, and distanced myself a few feet from him, bringing up my jacket collar to cover the glorious purple bruises I know will be there any second. I ran a hand through my hair and then looked over at the cowboy. He was a mess.
I stepped out of the little study hole and greeted Baird, “He’s just getting his stuff, I filled him in, we’ll be there in a few minutes.” She looked skeptical but must have decided it wasn’t worth it to argue with me today because all she said was “Okay, good. I was beginning to wonder why you two were taking so long.” I watched her walk back down the hallway and then came back in to the little hideaway, leaning up against the bookcase opposite Jacob, arms crossed. Then I burst out laughing. His hair was a mess, there were a couple of buttons undone on his flannel, and his jeans hung low from where I’d jumped into his arms. He scowled at me, frantically trying to fix his hair and button his shirt and pull his pants up all at the same time.
“It’s not funny, man! Some of us don’t have cat-like reflexes, ok?!” I walked over to him, smoothing his hair and buttoning his shirt back. He still had a scowl on his face, but his eyes smiled. “Hmm, you haven’t seen anything yet, mate.” I gave him a quick peck and a slap on the ass. His eyes widened and he made grabby hands for me, but I was already gone. I waited on him in the hall, filling him in on the way to the workroom. We separated when we got there and I had to keep my jacket on all day to keep from showing the others all the fun we had in the stacks. Damn, that man was frisky. I couldn’t stop smiling though.