Work Text:
Clang.
“Crap.”
Clang.
“Double crap.”
Clang.
“Shit!”
From the second level of the sparring room, Chase Young watched as his lover tried and failed to land various throwing knives into a wooden board four yards away. Jack had been at this for one hour now with little success, and the lack of instant gratification soured Jack’s mood. Even though some of the knives managed to actually hit the board, many more of them either missed it entirely or scattered into other corners of the room.
He closed his eyes and sighed when he heard a yowl from down below. Sounds like Jack almost hit one of his warriors. Again.
Time to intervene.
Jack was none the wiser as Chase made his way down the stairs and across the marble floor, coming to a stop right behind him.
“Jack.”
Said man cursed as another knife clipped the edge of the target. He turned to look behind him.
“Oh, hi Chase! Just uh...practicing with those throwing knives you got me, haha. “
“Yes, I can see that.” Chase kept his tone level, his eyes glancing behind Jack as he saw his warriors sneak out of the training grounds. “And how is that going?”
“Uh…” Jack’s eyes flickered toward the target. “Not too well, actually.”
That much was obvious, but Chase kept his mouth shut, not wanting to make Jack feel worse than he probably already did. Jack apparently took Chase’s silence as an invitation to keep going.
“I’ve been doing this forever and I still suck at it. I keep missing the target.” Jack’s tone was more deflated than frustrated. Clearly, repeated failures had taken their toll on his confidence. “I wish that I had power over metal or something. That would make this so much easier.”
Debatable. While control over metal would probably assist Jack in knife throwing, it would also introduce new...complications into his training. From his statement alone, Jack seemed to forget about all of the training that would need to go into gaining mastery over an element. The ability to fully control an element wouldn’t appear overnight, and Chase suspected that any elemental training would end up just like Jack’s knife throwing training at first. With the redhead defeated and doubting his own abilities.
“Perhaps so, but it’s best not to rely on elemental abilities, lest they become a crutch. You can become a fine warrior without them.” Chase said. And it was true. Elemental powers or not, Jack had plenty of untapped potential. He just needed to be properly mentored.
“But it would be so cool though, Chase…” Jack sighed. He suddenly perked up, a grin spreading across his face. “Hey...do you think that-”
“While it’s not impossible for you to develop elemental powers later in life, I’m afraid that any abilities most likely would have manifested by now.” Chase bit the inside of his lip, frowning at the way his words wiped the joy from Jack’s face. He didn’t want to crush Jack’s hopes, but he deserved an honest answer. Not a sugar coated one that would delay the inevitable disappointment.
“So there’s no way that I can have power over metal?”
“It’s not impossible, just...unlikely.” Chase said. His gentle tone did little to soften the blow. Jack still looked like a kicked puppy and it made Chase feel like shit.
“However, with-”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. With the proper training, I won’t need to rely on any crutches like elemental powers.” Jack’s tone was still deflated, but it now had an undertone of bitterness. Chase sighed.
"I understand that it’s not the answer that you want to hear, but it is true.”
“I know.” Jack said. He sighed before straightening up. “Okay, no big deal, I can work through this. Easy peasy. I won’t even need elemental powers when I have sickass knife throwing skills.”
Chase quirked an eyebrow. It seemed like Jack was trying to convince himself more than anyone. He watched as the redhead got into position to throw another knife. Jack placed his left foot in front of the rest of his body, using his right hand to pick up a knife. He drew his right arm back and threw.
Jack cursed under his breath as another clang echoed in the training room. Then another. And another. Chase’s gaze trailed each knife from the moment Jack picked it up to the moment the metal left Jack’s hand. Most of the knives ended up on the floor, but one did manage to stick, although it was at a steep angle. Out of the corner of his eye, Chase saw Uzoma retrieving the fallen knives. He held a hand out to stop him.
Chase turned to Jack once more, looking closer at the other man’s hand as another knife left it.
Ah. That was the problem.
“Hold on, Jack.” Chase said.
“Huh?” Jack turned toward Chase, lowering his arm. “What’s wrong?”
Your technique.
The immortal bit back the blunt response before it actually made it out of his mouth. While the response would have been truthful, it probably would have done more damage to his lover’s self esteem, which is something that he wanted to avoid.
Instead, Chase just decided to let his actions speak for themselves. He came up behind the shorter man, sliding his arm up Jack’s right arm and wrapping his hand around Jack’s own pale one. The other body stiffened against his own.
Chase peered down at Jack. Then at his own arm. Oh. His armor. It was probably making Jack uncomfortable. He magiked the metal away, but Jack’s form stayed just as rigid.
“What is it?” he asked. Chase readjusted himself, pressing his torso closer to Jack’s back.
“You- we- we’re really close.” Jack stammered. Chase scoffed behind him.
“There’s no need to be so timid. We’ve had skin to skin contact before.” he deadpanned.
“You’re not helping, Chase!”
“Let’s just focus on the task at hand.” Chase ignored Jack’s little hiss, maneuvering the pale arm that he cradled. “Now, your posture is good. However, I’ve noticed that you have a habit of flicking your wrist when you actually throw the knives, which may be why some of your efforts have been...unsuccessful.”
He drew their intertwined arms back, making sure that Jack’s wrist stayed straight.
“As you throw the knife, keep your wrist straight and let it slide out of your hand. If you flick it, the knife has a higher chance of over rotating, which may cause it to ricochet off of your target instead of embedding itself into the target. Now...”
Chase pulled their arms back and took aim.
Pluck.
“Huh?” Jack stared at the knife sticking out from the wooden board. It wasn’t in the middle, but it was at least on the board, which was a massive improvement. Chase nodded.
“Let’s try once more.” he said. Then they threw another. And another. And another. And more until Jack was successfully hitting the target on his own.
“You’re a quick learner.” Chase said, taking a step back to give Jack more room to navigate. The other man grinned.
“Well, it helps that I have a great teacher. How do you know so much about knife throwing, anyway?”
“When you’ve lived for as long as I have, you have the opportunity to learn quite a few things.” Chase said. Technically, it wasn’t a lie. He really had taken the time to learn many new talents over the last few centuries. He just didn’t tell Jack that the main reason why he researched knife throwing was because the redhead showed an interest in it.
“Maybe someday I’ll be an expert like you huh?”
“With the appropriate training, yes.” Chase nodded. He frowned when Jack started spinning the end of one of the knives in his hand.
“Man, this is so cool…” Jack mused.
“Be careful with those. They aren’t toys. You can harm yourself.” Chase frowned as Jack continued his ministrations.
“Don’t worry about it, everything’s good.”
Jack’s bravado lasted for all of half a second more before he swung the knife right out of his grip. When he made a wild grab to try to catch the falling knife, Chase rushed forward and slapped Jack’s hand away.
“Are you mad?” Chase hissed. “Reaching for a falling knife, what if you hurt yourself?”
“Uhh….Chase?”
“What?”
“You’re not doing that, are you?”
“Doing what?” Chase shifted his focus, toward a spot about a yard away that held Jack’s focus.
In that spot, the knife that Jack dropped was floating in the air.
“I…um..” Words failed Chase as his gaze stayed locked on the knife. It shouldn’t have been possible. As far as he knew, no current players in the Xiolin-Heylin conflict had control over metal and there was no Shen Gong Wu that would give anyone those abilities either.
Chase swallowed as he thought back to his earlier conversation with Jack. There hasn’t been a Dragon of Metal in centuries, and yet there was no other explanation for this aside from Jack awakening as one. No matter how unlikely it was. He sighed.
Looks like Jack had once again beaten the odds and gone against Chase’s own expectations.
“No. I’m not responsible for the floating knife over there.” Chase finally said.
They both stood in silence.
“I have powers over metal!!” Jack cheered, pumping two fists in the air. The knife followed suit, shooting up into the air and embedding itself into the ceiling above.
“Oops…” Jack cringed. Chase only sighed and shook his head. As if he needed any more evidence that Jack was controlling the knife’s movements.
“Your first task will be getting the knife down from there, Jack.”
“Ye-yeah. No problem, I’ve got this!” Jack gave him a wink before turning his attention to the knife once more. Chase could already see the gears turning in Jack’s head. His earlier disappointment was long forgotten in the face of new possibilities.
These new powers would no doubt introduce new complications into Jack’s training, but...Chase decided that it would be worth it, just to see the smile on Jack’s face.