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The natural skin around Jack’s mask had always been rougher than the skin underneath, seeing as it was constantly exposed. The only difference right now was that it was red and peeling off.
Rhys sat up on the bed, noticing that Jack had taken longer than usual to finish up in the bathroom. Jack’s natural skin had been a bit red but what it that bad? He swung his legs round the side of the bed and walked over to the bathroom door before pulling the handle open without thinking.
“You ok Jack? You’ve been in here for a-“ he glanced at the older man and quickly regretted his choice to enter before knocking on the door. Jack was lent over the sink with his mask on the side, prodding and poking at the burnt skin around the large patch of paler skin, with his scar on show.
Jack scrambled around quickly, grabbing his mask and trying to put it on as quickly as possible, didn’t want to spook the kid like the last person he showed his natural face.
Jack trusted Rhys with his life and was tired of having to hide his face constantly. Even when the slept Jack always hid his face by cuddling Rhys from behind or simply not facing him. Rhys didn’t want to risk pissing Jack off so he never tried to look at his face. He believed the older man would show him when he was ready. Now was that time.
“Oh crap! I’m so sorry Jack, I didn’t mean to interrupt!” Rhys panicked and turned around step backwards. Jack grabbed his wrist and stopped him in his tracks. They locked eyes for a brief moment before Jack let out a sigh.
“It’s about time I showed you kiddo,” Jack’s eyes dropped to look at the floor before pulling Rhys closer to him and placed his hand on his face.
“It’s ok if you don’t want me to see Jack, I know that you’ll show me eventually.” finally breaking eye contact and backed up slightly.
Jack placed his thumb on Rhys’ cheek before lifting it up.
“It’s about time then isn’t it? Seeing as you’ve seen my dick before my actual face it’s gotta happen soon. Besides, who else is gonna help me with this freaking sunburn?” He cracked a small smile as he lowered his hands.
The younger man proceeded to unclip the mask slowly; almost as if he was scared it was fragile and would break at any moment. He lifted the mask off and placed it back on the sink before looking back at Jack.
Rhys followed the shape of the scar from the bottom of his left cheek, it covering his milky white eye to his forehead. With the mask off his face, the sunburn he had was very apparent, the colour contrasting with his natural sun deprived skin. He followed the scar down to the other side of his face as they both stood in complete silence.
“Real pretty right?” Jack chuckled slightly, in the hopes that Rhys hadn’t been scared off. Rhys reached his hand out slightly towards the scar.
“Is it alright if I-“ Rhys didn’t even get to finish his question as Jack nodded, just glad that Rhys hadn’t ran off screaming or in fear of him.
Rhys traced the outside of the scar with his hand, trailing over Jack’s milky eye, before making its way back down to the other side. He retraced the movement he made but this time feeling the bright blue scar tissue. The scar felt a little bit like clay, cold and slightly damp but the edges of the scar were hardened and brittle.
Jack closed his eyes as he did this, the motion somewhat soothing. As Rhys stopped tracing his scar, jack opened his eyes to meet Rhys’s own, looking between Jack’s blue eye and his milky one. Could he see out of it?
Rhys cupped the older mans cheeks, before pulling him into a chaste kiss.
“You’re still as handsome as ever Jack, and nothing will change that.”
For a second Jack considered telling Rhys that he felt like the luckiest man alive. That he was grateful that he was with him and that he never felt as comfortable as he felt around the younger man. That he didn’t want any harm to come to him for as long as he was alive. That Rhys was his whole world.
“I love you so much Rhysie,” was all that he could get out, wrapping his arms around Rhys’s waist before resting his head in the crook of his neck. Rhys draped his arms around Jack’s shoulders.
“ I love you too Jack.”
They held each other for a few minutes before the sunburn on Jack’s face ached noticeably, causing Jack to break the hug. This caused Rhys to groan slightly, missing Jack’s hold on his waist.
“All this cuddling’s nice, but the whole reason I’m in here is because of this god damn sunburn.”
“You want me to-? Rhys questioned while reaching for the moisturizer Jack had on the sink counter. A huge smile cracked on Jack’s face before chuckling slightly.
“You really know how to spoil me babe. Maybe you could spoil me in the bedroom later,” His voice low and husky. Rhys blushed, feeling his face turn bright red, trying to focus on the task at hand in the hopes Jack wouldn’t notice.
“Alright Jack, just sit on the toilet seat before I change my mind,” a wild grin settling on his face. Jack moved to the toilet and put the lid down and sat, with his legs wide open. Rhys kneeled between his legs and tilted Jack’s head down so he could reach it.
Rhys flipped the cap open and squeezed the lotion into his organic hand. He dotted small blobs around the edges of Jack’s face and just as he was about to rub it in he stopped.
“You want me to rub it in everywhere?”
Jack leaned down so his lips grazed Rhys’s ear. The younger man knew that whatever Jack was going to say he would be blushing like a bride.
“You love seeing me with white stuff over my face don’t you?” Jack knew exactly how to get Rhys squirming.
Rhys pushed Jack back so that he could get to his face properly, and the older man had a wicked grin plastered to his face. Jack chuckled
“Damn Jack, didn’t know sunburn could be this bad. The moisturizer got absorbed straight away, might need to put some on every morning and night” Rhys joked, the contrast between the pale skin and the sunburnt skin
“As long as you do it I don’t mind babe, believe or not, this is really nice and soothing.” Rhys gave a light smile and put a couple more blobs of lotion onto Jack’s scar and around it. Jack put his arms around Rhys’ shoulders so he could lean forward easier.
He slowly rubbed the lotion in, starting from Jack’s chin, making his way round his face clockwise. He made sure that the edges of the scar had absorbed the lotion because god knows that Jack didn’t care for his scars properly in all the time that he wore the mask.
When Rhys finished he peppered the older mans face with soft kisses, noticing that the red skin had cooled down dramatically.
“You did a good job pumpkin, really appreciate it.” Jack gave an adoring look at Rhys and the younger man could feel his heart beating heavily against his chest. He loved knowing that he could make Jack happy. It was also a good thing to know that paying attention to his scar calmed Jack down and helped him relax.
There was no doubt that the story behind it was something that he would have to ask Jack at a different time, knowing it wouldn’t exactly be a happy story.
“You realise that you’re going to need to do this every morning and night right?” Rhys was hoping that Jack would let him do it, a nice surprise for Jack to come home to after a stressful day working. There was no way that Jack would take care of his sunburn, let alone take care of the large scar since it had burned his face.
“Well yeah dum-dum, just as long as you do it. In fact you wanna take care of my scar each day? The way you massage my face is damn amazing babe.”
This was something Rhys was more than happy to do.