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1
"Here, I- I could do it. Here, quick quick quick, kiss me."
How had Jacob ended up here? Maybe he should have expected it, given the nature of the aberration and Lucas' almost obsessive interest in it - but really, he hadn't thought he would just volunteer like that.
"Lucas," he let out, exasperated. He'd already kissed Hedy - an unfortunate necessity for the case - but Lucas too? Too much.
Lucas had the nerve to direct that slightly sheepish but unabashed grin at him. "Don't worry, I swear, I won't tell anyone."
He resisted the urge to sigh. "Lucas, we already-"
Being the annoyance he was, Lucas instantly interrupted him. "No because I would- I would never want to pressure you into doing anything you don't want to do, but I mean... Buuut, I mean, if everyone else is already out here getting kiiiissed..."
"Lucas!" The boy was incorrigible. It was getting ridiculous. "We used Hedy's Pep Step. I kinda... punched it... into Toby's throat. So it should work!" Jacob paused. "At least to track the ride. The electrodes came off in the water."
"Oh." How anyone could make a single syllable sound so utterly put-out was a mystery to Jacob.
He tried to ignore it, continuing, "So, mission accomplished anyway! Good, right?"
"Yeah. I- I guess." And with those words came the biggest set of despairing, pleading puppy eyes Jacob had ever seen. Ugh. It shouldn't have been possible to look that- That cute. Not even in a 'cute boy I'd kiss' way - or cute person, in general; Jacob had experience enough, and he wasn't picky - but more in a 'cute animal' way. Except, not quite... Maybe, on second thoughts, Lucas was kinda cute in a kissable way. It was, quite frankly, ridiculous. He knew he was thinking that word a lot, but he couldn't help it. Lucas was ridiculous(ly cute, insisted his stupid subconscious).
He let out a huff. "Oh, come on, don't look at me like that. That should work, right?"
"Well, to be honest, I'm feeling kinda bummed. I never got to see it," came the predictable reply. "I took the lead on this one and I still don't even know what Toby looks like." It was- Yes, he was going to say it again, it was ridiculous how despondent Lucas sounded.
"He's a big, ugly, animatronic turtle, Lucas, you're not missing much," he informed his coworker tiredly. "Just a giant turtle who could swim. And. Fly?" He considered it for a moment. "And there's a grim reaper, for some reason. And this other turtle with great legs."
"Ohhh, come on. Now I really want to see it!"
Yeah, on second thoughts, maybe he should've cut down on the details if he wanted Lucas to back down. "Sorry, bud."
"You know, the offer for that kiss is still on the table..." Lucas said, his words lowering to a mumble Jacob thought might have been meant to sound seductive...? Or possibly they was meant to sound just as odd as they did, given they were accompanied by an exaggerated wiggle of the eyebrows.
He shot it down immediately - maybe a bit more vehemently than strictly necessary. "No! Lucas, I've already kissed enough coworkers for one day."
"Aw, Kane, but this is probably my only chance to see it!" That stirred vague feelings of guilt in Jacob's gut, though he was sure that was exactly what that excited, pleading but frustrated tone was calculated for. He seemed innocent enough, but oh boy did he know how to turn on the charm when he needed it. (Although 'charm' might not have been the right word.)
Then, all at once, Lucas deflated. "No, it's- it's fine though, sorry. Like- Like I said, I would never want to pressure you. All good. Really. Let's go." He half-turned away to head back to Hedy in the car.
That gave Jacob more than a vague gut feeling. Something in him, somehow, just hated hearing the genuine disappointment that coloured his coworker's - his friend's tone. Who cares anyway? He had nothing to lose.
"You know what, Lucas?" he said, waving his hands in the air. The boy turned back to him, hope sparking in his eyes. "It's been an insane day anyway. Screw it."
He leaned forward, and pressed his lips to Lucas'.
He wants to see the aberration, Jacob reminded himself as he pulled away. There was no reason for Lucas to reciprocate, especially when it was basically a peck and that was all that the aberration seemed to usually need anyway.
Lucas' face, though, told a different story. He looked gobsmacked. Jacob had never thought he'd witness him speechless that like that, but for a moment, only air came out of the boy's mouth. His cheeks had rapidly reddened to almost the hue of an unripe cherry. Jacob had to hold back a chuckle. Has he never been kissed before?
After a second more - "Woah, Kane." Lucas gathered himself. "That was- That was good. Are you- Are you wearing chapstick?"
"Uh, thanks?" Jacob blinked. It was odd, really, how... "Somehow that made things feel sorta balanced again." He paused, registering the question. "And yeah, it's Vanilla Total Hydration."
There was a second of silence as Lucas whipped his head around him in eager anticipation. Then, he threw his arms up. "Ugh, I still can't see it!"
Yeah. Jacob had already resigned himself to that. "Sorry, bud. Let's go check on Hedy."
That was that, and he thought no more of it.
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2
"Okay, everyone got that?" Jacob looked around the room, making eye contact with each team member to ensure they understood the brief he'd just given. If half of that security was to make sure none of them seemed suspicious of his possible change in method of briefing, or - though he hoped not - his sudden incompetence at it, then, well, only Eli knew that.
Hedy nodded, and dragged Val up by an arm as they left, Val muttering "Since when did we turn into Ghostbusters?"
Eli got up a moment later, circling the table to watch as Lucas set up the equipment he would need. It was a standard job for him, apparently - hacking into some security system or other in a museum known for its exceptional cyber security. Maybe a little harder than usual, but he'd spent the last ten minutes assuring everyone he could do it, so Jacob wasn't going to doubt him.
He watched absent-mindedly as Lucas assembled his gear. It was quite inspiring, he had to admit, watching the other buzz about his equipment in his enthusiasm to get started - even if he knew part of it was just that constant need to feel useful that always seemed at the heart of Lucas' work. There was a vivacity there that couldn't be ignored.
When the systems began to load, and Eli was gesturing for Jacob to follow him out to have a chat before they started, Lucas snapped out of his preoccupation. He raised his head and looked up at Jacob. A feeling of apprehension washed over Jacob even before the words came out of Lucas' mouth.
"Kaaaane... Can I get a kiss?"
Eli froze by the door. Despite something in him having anticipated it, Jacob still spluttered. "Wha- What? Why?"
Lucas continued, apparently oblivious to his embarrassment. "For luck!" he exclaimed, as if it was just that simple. "This is gonna be a tough job. Not- I mean, not anything I can't handle, buuut..."
Jacob could feel his face heating up, and fixed his eyes on the set in front of Lucas to avoid catching Eli's amused expression in the corner of his eye. With as much finality as he could, he said, "No, Lucas, I'm not going to kiss you." 'Again' went unsaid; he'd avoided adding it to the case report, and none of them had seen any reason to mention it to the rest of the team after the event. Now, he was sorely regretting the absence of any strict no telling policy.
Lucas pouted. "Pleeease?" And there are the puppy-dog eyes again. "For luck. Just one."
"Lucas, you're going to make us late. Hedy and Val and probably wondering where we are," he tried through half-gritted teeth. If he was honest, he wasn't that dead set against it on principle - it would just be a peck, and he'd done it before anyway, not that big of a deal - but Eli was there. And no way was he going to give the man any more ammo for teasing him.
"Just once. And I won't pester you again."
Incorrigible. Ridiculous. Jacob sighed. "Promise?" I can't believe I'm agreeing to this.
Lucas lit up in an instant. "I promise!"
Another sigh, and then - no use dragging it out. He walked over to Lucas, laid a hand on the back of his chair, and leant down.
One moment and another speechless Lucas later, he straightened up again. This time, he didn't hold back a subtle, not unkind laugh at the other's expression.
Lucas blinked, cleared his throat, and then asked uncertainly, "Uh.. Flavour?"
"Spearmint." Jacob tried his best not to sound sheepish as he parted Lucas awkwardly on the shoulder and turned away.
He was sure he wasn't imagining the smug look in Eli's eyes as they walked out.
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3
"Right, so." Jacob stood up and looked around at his coworkers. "Let me get this straight. There's another carnival aberration on the loose - except it's a Ferris wheel this time, and it's always there - and every single one of you is afraid of heights?"
Eli, Max, Val, and Hedy all nodded their heads guiltily. Lucas tilted his head, and raised his hand slightly. "I'm, uh, not scared of heights..."
Jacob couldn't believe it. He turned to Hedy, affixing her with a pleading look. "Hedy. This is true, right?" The others might not have understood, but Hedy of all people - having been part of that other carnival operation - surely wouldn't lie about that sort of mission. His last resort-
She gave him a nonchalant shrug, and nodded her head in confirmation.
He sighed, ready to accept it - then, he whipped around to Eli. "Reyes," he all but thundered. "Since when have you been scared of heights?"
At least Eli had the decency to look a little sheepish. "There was an... incident, Kane," he said gently but firmly.
"What, since yesterday?"
Eli looked him dead in the eyes. "Since yesterday."
He turned. "Max?"
Max' only answer was a set of raised eyebrows.
He let out an exasperated noise. After a moment, he slumped back down into his seat. "Fine," he said. "You know what? Fine. I can't be bothered to argue with any of you."
Of course, Lucas had to speak up immediately after. "Um..." He shrank back when everyone's eyes turned to him, but continued anyway. "So, correct- correct me if I'm wrong, but... The, uh, the aberrant Ferris wheel appears to everyone..." He began to cross the points off on his fingers. "Functions as normal... unless... a couple kisses at the top of the ride... and then they hallucinate, what, a fall? A really big fall?"
"Unending," Hedy corrected in a gentle but tired tone. "Until they establish contact with each other again."
Eli added, "It doesn't have to be another kiss, although that has worked. Previous cases show hand contact or even contact with clothes works as well."
"What's the point of it, then?" Jacob exploded again. "If everyone comes back anyway. Besides, can't it just be-" He made vague, complicated hand gestures "-from the outside?"
Max sighed. He said roughly, "It doesn't work like that, Kane."
"So I'm going to have to kiss Lucas." He resolutely ignored Eli mouthing "again" in the corner of his vision.
Lucas piped up. "It's only for the mission." Everyone gave him the side-eye for stating the obvious, and he backed down again.
There was a long, long silence, before Jacob stood up slowly. "Alright," he said wearily. "Come on, team. Let's get moving."
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Sitting on the weathered, stained wood on his side of the Ferris wheel pod, listening to the ride creak around him, Jacob was infinitely glad he'd never been susceptible to motion sickness. Jordan would have had a much worse time, being rocked back and forth in the air as they were - but thankfully, as much as the others believed he was, he wasn't actually Jordan.
Lucas, on his own side, didn't seem all that bothered either. In fact, he actually seemed to be enjoying it. His right leg jiggled as he tapped his foot against the floor excitedly, looking out of the window with a sparkle in his eyes.
Jacob chuckled. It was- He had to admit, it was cute. "You like... Ferris wheels, then?"
"I love heights," Lucas said without looking away from the view unfurling beneath them. "It's- It's just, breathtaking, seeing everything below us like this. You know?"
Jacob couldn't help but agree - it was a pretty impressive sight. Something they hadn't picked up on about the aberration beforehand, it seemed, was that the land looked so much further down from inside - far more than should have been possible, given the small objective bright of the wheel from an onlooker's perspective.
Far down... They were almost at the top.
He turned back to Lucas, and cleared his throat. "So. Plan. We get to the top, we, uh, we kiss, we fall, you do the- the thing with your- device... then reach out for each other. Keep your eyes open, yeah?"
Lucas nodded quickly. "Yep!"
For a moment, Jacob wondered why Lucas was so... nonchalant, about it. Surely he didn't make it a habit to go around kissing his coworkers? But then again, the current incident made it three times he had kissed Jacob specifically, so...
He allowed himself to muse absent-mindedly on that for a second, before his curiosity got the better of him, and he asked, "There haven't been many cases like this, right?" He couldn't remember when Lucas had joined the team, but he presumed he'd read up on previous aberrations - it seemed the sort of thing Lucas would do - so he hoped his perhaps uncharacteristic ignorance wasn't too obvious.
Lucas wrenched his eyes from the view to meet Jacob's. "What... Ferris wheels?"
"No..." More hand gestures. Jordan had always told him he was too much of a visual talker.
Oddly enough, Lucas seemed to understand perfectly. He cracked a grin. "Ohhh, kissing aberrations?" Jacob nodded bashfully. "Nah. This is only the- the second? that I've been on."
Right...
A moment later, Lucas added, seemingly on an unrelated note, "I- I'm not happy that Hedy or Val are scared of heights- I, I mean, that must be pretty horrible for them, I can't imagine that - but I'm, uh, I'm kind of glad it's not them."
Jacob blinked. "Uh... You mean, together, or...?"
"What?" It seemed to take a moment for Lucas to process what he meant. "No, I- I mean aside from them clearly having their own thing going- I meant with me."
"O...kay..." Jacob paused. "Is that... a personal thing against Hedy and Val, or...?"
This time it was Lucas who blinked. "Uh, no? I'm... kind of... -actually I'm not kind of, I'm very- Gay. I'm gay."
"Oh." What exactly was Jacob supposed to say to that? He himself had never come out to anyone - not formally, at least. He'd just... dated. Guys, girls. Jordan hadn't batted an eye, aside from his general aura of "I don't get it" that could have been Jordan being aroace, and could have just been Jordan not liking people in general. And Eli had his... He didn't really know what Eli had going on. Anyway - running through his own mind like that, it was much too long before he realised that Lucas had opened up to him about something personal, and so far he had only stared.
"Oh," he related, dumbly, before he got his brain back on track. "Oh, well, I'm bi so it would be kinda hypocritical of me to be homophobic...?"
To his relief, Lucas only let out a small... He had to call it a giggle. "Yeah, I meeean, I kinda gathered, from the whole... previous two kisses... and that time with Hedy... You know?"
"Right, right." Well. There were... worse ways that could have gone, he supposed.
Turning his attention back to the view, Jacob's eyes widened. Oh. The case. He'd forgotten about the case for a moment. They were a hair's breadth off of the peak of the wheel.
He scooched over in his seat, and pasted the space next to him. "Here, Lucas, sit here. It'll be easier to re-establish contact if we're closer." Lucas swapped over obligingly.
Jacob shuffled himself around to face his friend in preparation. His eyes meet Lucas'. His eyes look like a painting, he considered absent-mindedly. Like... The light on the sea at midday.
He felt his cheeks heat up as he became aware of his thoughts, and resisted the urge to physically shake his head. Instead, he cleared his throat. "Are we at the top yet?"
Lucas' eyes flickered to the view behind Jacob, and he nodded.
They both leaned forward. Jacob planted a hand on the seat to steady himself, as Lucas lay a hand on his arm, as if he didn't know where to put it.
This time, Jacob found himself thinking distinctly: I wouldn't mind doing this again.
This time, he didn't push it away.
It took longer than expected for the aberration's ability to take effect - maybe Lucas had misjudged the angle of the pod - but after what should have been an awkward moment as they both stared into each others' eyes, the floor was suddenly ripped from underneath them, and they were torn apart.
It was odd, the pitch blackness around them, level in each direction so that Jacob only had Lucas as a point of reference. Speaking of, Lucas seemed... actually to be enjoying the fall. He was beaming, his arms spread out like a bird as they fell unendingly. Jacob watched him in something he would admit, this time, was fond amusement, before remembering that they probably needed to actually neutralise the aberration.
"Lucas," he said finally. "Have you got the..." Gestures were harder at what seemed like almost terminal velocity - it was odd, now he thought about it, he easily he could breathe and speak - but the confused signals he attempted to define Lucas' device with seemed understandable enough, as a moment later, Lucas' eyes lit up in understanding. He took the service out of his pocket, and pressed... flicked... did whatever he needed to do with it.
The blackness began to shatter around then.
Jacob reached out his hand-
-and suddenly, they were back on earth.
When they found their bearings again, Lucas smiled sheepishly. "Ah... Flavour?" he squeaked.
Jacob rolled his eyes, and smiled. "Strawberry."
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+1
It was a hot day. An unnecessarily hot day, in Jacob's opinion. And of course, it being the law of the universe, that was the day the team had to be stuck inside for hours while they waited for an update on their last case.
They sat around the table in the briefing room - or, on the table, in Val's case - in various states of dress and composure. Eli lounged on his chair in the corner, stretching his legs on the desk in front of him, wearing a semi-vacant expression that Jacob recognised as the face he made when he was attempting to 'beat the heat' through mind over matter. Max, looking irritatingly comfortable in nothing less than his normal clothing, cast a smug look around the room as the others practically dripped into the floor.
The girl, for their part, had hastily abandoned whatever hot clothing they'd turned up in for tank tops and shorts, taking turns fanning each other with a crudely folded piece of paper Lucas had made with the materials lying around. Now that Jacob looked closer, he didn't know how he hadn't seen their connection before...
On the subject of Lucas - he seemed probably the most infuriatingly at ease. Clad in casual t-shirt and shorts of his own, he tapped away at whatever program or project he was currently working on, blissfully unaware of the heat that was devastating everyone else.
Or - it seemed the heat was affecting him, judging by the slight darkening of his hair, and the flush of his cheeks. Maybe he just didn't notice it?
Jacob chuckled to himself quietly, before he realised he was staring, and looked away.
Then looked back. After all, he didn't have a reason to be ashamed of looking, did he? I mean, he reasoned with himself, I've kissed him three times now. Two of those he initiated. And after both, too - it seemed safe to say, by now, that Lucas was interested.
And it occurred to Jacob in that moment, that he could do more than just look, if he wanted to. At least, his heat-addled mind thought it was a good idea.
"Lucas," he drawled out from his place across the room.
Lucas snapped out of the zone in an instant, his head whipping up at his name. "Kane?"
"Over here." The words were accompanied by a lazy, but this time recognisable, hand gesture.
No one else spared them their attention as Lucas sidled around the table and made his way to Jacob, a questioning look in his eyes.
Jacob smiled. Too hot to stand up, he simply waited until Lucas was close enough, before taking his arm and pulling him into a kiss.
He felt, more than saw, Lucas' confusion, which quickly turned to enjoyment as he reciprocated.
In a moment, all too soon, they separated.
As soon as his head was back in gear again, he fixed Lucas with a quizzical look, which the boy returned with a smile.
"Cherry," Lucas said.
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BONUS
It was an embarrassingly long time - Lucas was to blame, if you asked Jacob, for being too cute with his whole face red and his eyes sparkling - before Jacob's senses tuned back in to the rest of the team. When it finally happened, he froze, bewildered.
What seemed to be absolute chaos had descended on the briefing room. Hedy was letting out uncharacteristically boisterous noises of delight, grinning in a way that was frankly disconcerting, while Val groaned at her pitifully. Jacob could swear he saw money change hands.
Eli, on the other hand, was smirking in his corner, arms crossed over his chest triumphantly, as Max trudged over and begrudgingly handed him what appeared to be a fifty dollar note. Jacob caught a muttered "Why did I ever get involved?" as the man walked past him, accompanied by a frankly murderous glare that he couldn't remember having particularly earned that day.
It was only when Val shot him a murderous glare of her own, moaning "C'mon, Kane, you couldn'ta waited two more days to kiss ya boyfriend in front of us?" that he finally understood.
"You betted on us?" he spluttered, looking around at the guilty - and not-so-guilty, from both the winners - faces surrounding the table. He let out a sigh, and turned his head to bury himself by Lucas' convenient arm next to him.
A small, nervous giggle from above him made him look up. Lucas' eyes met his for a moment. Then Jacob watched in horror as Eli sauntered over, took a crinkled note from Lucas' palm, and sauntered back.
Jacob stared up at his- his boyfriend? He liked the sound of that, he'd have to ask Lucas later - at Lucas with betrayal in his eyes.
If Lucas' expression had been sheepish before, it was double that now. "I, uh," he began. "I- didn't think you'd..."
Jacob sighed. And before Lucas could continue, he pulled him into another kiss.