more_flexible | for bagoas

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bagoas

for bagoas

There was activity in Bohemia. Jack went out daily and cut bamboo, bringing it back and leaving it in a clear area just barely removed from the other huts. He had dug holes and sank risers to keep his new hut off the ground. Snakes and bugs, he'd gotten used to them. It didn't mean he liked them.

He had finished the platform that would be the floor by Thursday with the sporadic help of Ianto. He had drawn up rough plans, but there wasn't much art to this. He'd helped build enough to know that it was walls and a roof. He had some specific ideas he mulled over as he stood and surveyed what he'd made and what he had left to do. The main thing, the most important thing, was that it be as little like his old hut as possible.

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It was a way in which we two were quite vastly different--I resisted moving on, would cling to the faded remains of whatever I had until the scent was gone from the sheets and only memory remained. I lived in Mimi's house and moved in Alexander's memory, and would collect the ghosts of those who disappeared around me like old jars. But my way was not everyone's way. "You should stay, then," I confirmed, softly.

"As if I could deny you," he replied, closing the distance so he could slip his hand around Bagoas's waist and smile down at him.

"Thanks," he continued, the word dripping warmth and genuine gratitude from his lips.

"It is what friends are for," I reminded him, leaning against him when he put his arm around me. "...I suppose this means I will have to give you something for luck."

"For luck?" He looked confused for a second as he puzzled that out. "Is that a tradition?"

"No," I answered, reaching up to tap him on the nose. "It would be a tradition to give you something to bring the blessings of God on you. But I don't think we have the same God, so luck it is."

Jack wrinkled his nose and laughed, then followed it with a nod. "Luck it is. What do I get?" he asked, eager to see what Bagoas would offer up.

Despite there being an obvious answer, I had a better one. "I think," I said, "I know the very thing. Come back with me?"

He nodded, although he arched his eyebrow in suspicion. If it was going to be the first thing he'd thought of, he trusted Bagoas to be more forthright. All he'd done was pique Jack's curiosity.

"All right," he agreed, settling his arm around Bagoas's waist before he began to walk across the area that was his new home.

I drew him along to the door of my own hut, and then inside. "Sit."

"Sit? Okay," Jack answered, looking around for a moment before he chose a spot to settle. "You're looking good. Your hair's grown out. I like it."

"It's been a long time," I answered, reaching up to finger a mid-length lock; I could not remember the last time it had been so short, before I had cut it off. "Things grow back." I knelt a moment to rummage through a drawer, and turned back toward him. "The first thing," I said, pressing a coin into his hand. One of the last Alexander had given me, but I had a handful yet, and no use for them here. "For luck."

He held it and smoothed his thumb across it, treating it like the valuable it was. Not because it was money, but because it was a gift. He licked his lips and took a moment to compose himself before he looked up again.

"Thank you," he said tenderly. "I could use all the luck I can get."

It was a traditional sort of present, to bring blessings upon the house. It was also something that was part of my home, and maybe that was the important part. I leaned in and kissed his lips. "One more thing, and I almost want to make you guess it."

"I think I can guess," Jack purred, tilting his head to kiss him back as he held the coin to his palm with his thumb and traced the curve of Bagoas's hip with light fingertips.

"Do you?" I laughed and straightened, pulling away. "I think not, this time." And I thought I should move quickly in this, before the gift itself woke up, or one of its siblings did, and gave itself away.

"Huh, not usually wrong...you might have to give me a hint," Jack chuckled as he leaned back.

My answer may have resembled a pout. "I need to be able to surprise you sometimes."

"Should I close my eyes, then?" he asked, letting his lids fall shut. "Is it...food?"

"Yes, you should," I said, and waited for him to do so. "And no, if you eat this I'll be extremely upset with you!" Puta's kittens were curled in a basket in the corner and it only took me a moment to pick out a little ball of fluff. It stretched, blinking in sleepy confusion as I deposited it into Jack's hand.

Jack opened his eyes instantly at the feeling of soft warmth...and the prick of tiny, sharp points against his hands.

"It's a..."

He watched the kitten as it stretched and looked around, then nosed against the skin that was so foreign. It was so soft and so very small. He hadn't even realized Puta was pregnant. It was a full minute before he looked up, and only after he'd pulled his hands to his chest to keep from dropping it.

"This one's for me?"

I nodded. "I am quite sure of it. You're going to need proper company, after all."

"I...am not entirely sure what to say," Jack said, grinningalmost idiotically as he looked between the kitten and Bagoas. "Thank you. It's..."

It was a kitten and had to be a boy or a girl so Jack grabbed it carefully and flipped it over to take a peek.

"She's fantastic, Bagoas. Thank you. Is she old enough? She's so small..."

It was a fact he couldn't get over. After labs and direwolves and even Banon who had grown quickly to the size she was now, he was surprised at how tiny and pliant the kitten was. Just enough to hold in his hands, really.

"She'll be old enough soon," I promised. "A few days, a week at most. She can stay here while you do." I was smiling too, at how well what had been a completely spur of the moment idea had gone.

"That works for me," he agreed. He wanted a new place before the end of the month, and that worked out just great. "It'll be nice to have a reason to come home at night when my hut's finished. You know...it's not easy to surprise me, Bagoas. This...I couldn't have guessed this in a million years."

I winked at him. "I can be full of surprises. Besides...well, they are Puta's litter. You should have one."

"Thank you, Bagoas," Jack said, yet again. His thumb moved slowly under the kitten's chin and he found that the last thing he wanted to do was put the little one down.

"How many did Puta have, anyhow? I'm not taking the only one, am I?"

I shook my head. "There are two others. I had not thought as far as finding homes for them all."

He grinned and looked down at the kitten, then stood to give her back to Puta so she could sleep with her siblings again. "It's not like they need anywhere else right now." He turned his head and his grin softened as he looked Bagoas in the eye. "They've got a nice life here, it looks like."

"I like having them," I said with a shrug and a smile. "You do not really have time for pets when you are marching. But I know--some men," and that might not have been completely accurate but was the best I could do, "who were very fond of their horses."

"I've known some men who were fond of their horses, too," Jack replied. "You can never expect what people will invest themselves in. Animals. Children. Land. Ships. Whatever...it's the same everywhere I've been."

"Maybe it is because animals are more likely to be loyal than people," I wondered. Truly, I did not know. I had only ever been truly devoted to one creature, and he had been more than a man.

"That's something I won't argue. The dog House has is obedient like you wouldn't believe," he conceded. "I never really got why people kept pets before I got here."

"Cats aren't the least bit obedient," I said ruefully, glancing over toward Puta. "But I think they're incredibly comforting when you need them."

"That sounds just like what I've been looking for my whole life," Jack smirked. "Comfort and defiance wrapped up in one deceptively pretty package."

I laughed. "I am not sure it is even defiance," I whispered, as if imparting a great secret. "It is...indifference?"

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