Chapter Text
Rhys felt like an idiot once again. He was sitting there at the bar in a pub, playing with the ice in his drink as he watched his friends drunkenly try to fight with the jukebox in the corner. Yvette wanted to have something to dance to. Vaughn wanted something to sing to. Rhys sighed and stared into his very non-alcoholic drink. He had agreed to be the designated driver that night after what happened last time. He shuddered as he remembered vodka being poured into his belly button as he insisted that the cute blond from the other side of the bar took a body shot from him. Never again, he thought to himself.
Finally a song started to fill the bar, accompanied by a loud whooping from Vaughn and Yvette as they made their way to the small dance floor the establishment seemed to have. Rhys gave them a small wave as Vaughn tried to mime lassoing him in an attempt to get him dancing. Rhys shook his head and wondered how he had managed to get such nerdy friends. On the one han, he regretted his decision to stay sober this night out. On the other, he knew he could be very delicate the morning after a night out. He didn’t really fancy doing that and seeing as Vaughn drove last time, this seemed like the least he could do.
Rhys bobbed his head to the music, his thoughts drifting back to college and the parties that he went to there. Being weirdly good at beer pong had helped him so much back then but now it was more of a redundant skill. Rhys was aware of someone leaning next to him, trying to get to the bar over his stool, but he didn’t really care. He was too busy reminiscing.
“Listen up, cupcake!”
Rhys snapped out of his introspection to see the guy who was leaning on the bar next to him terrifyingly close to his face. Rhys nearly fell off the stool as he tried to put distance between the stranger’s face and his. “Wha-?”
Before Rhys could finish, the stranger spoke again, “I asked you what’re you drinking, sweetcheeks?”
“I’m the designated driver, so I’m not.”
“Oh pffffffffft,” the stranger made a dismissive gesture, “you can have one drink. Anything in moderation is OK!”
“Sadly, the police aren’t too fond of that rule. You seem like you’re-”
The stranger suddenly held his hand out to stop Rhys from talking and placed a hand on his own mouth. Rhys thought he was gonna throw up and made to stand up. The stranger composed himself and started laughing.
“Oh I really got ya there didn’t I, cupcake?” Rhys crossed his arms and tried to look annoyed but truthfully, the stranger was kinda funny. It made it harder for Rhys to be mad.
“Now, what does one call a leggy brunet like yourself?” The stranger was leaning on the bar, swaying slightly with the question.
“Rhys.” The young man kicked himself for telling the stranger his actual name.
“Well Rhysie, name’s horny and I’m Jack. Wait…” Rhys saw the cogs turning in Jack’s head before the man burst into laughter at his own Freudian slip.
Rhys couldn’t help but crack a smile at the man who was still swaying slightly despite the death grip he had on the bar. The bartender still refused to come up to the pair, obviously seeing that someone was too drunk to keep drinking. Rhys took it upon himself to try and get the other guy a cab or something.
Rhys looked around to locate his friends to find them no longer dancing, but doubled over and laughing at something that probably wasn’t as funny as the pair was making it out to be. This, Rhys knew, was a clear sign that the night was over and he needed to get them home ASAP.
Rhys turned back to Jack (that was his name, right?) and waved his hand in front of the man’s face to get his attention. Jack snapped out of the drunken stare he was doing and looked at Rhys, a smirk starting to form on his lips. “I’m gonna call you a cab, alright? Where do I need to order it for?”
“Rhysie! Rhysssiiiieeeeeeeeeeee… You can’t get me a cab, no self-respecting cab driver would let this drunk asshole in their car!” Jack took both of his hands off the bar at that point to gesture at himself and nearly fell over in the process. Rhys thankfully managed to catch him before he could actually hurt himself or the people around him. Unfortunately, Jack was right. Rhys had been in less of a state than the man in front of him and had been refused by cabs.
Rhys ran his hand across his face and resigned to the hand that fate had dealt him. He grabbed Jack and took the man’s weight across his shoulders. The pair shuffled their way over to Rhys’s still giggling friends to try and bundle them out of the bar.
“Yvette, Vaughn, we got a new friend who’s gonna come home with us.” Jack looked up and gave a drunken two-fingered salute at the pair.
Vaughn and Yvette immediately stopped giggling and tried to look composed as their friend stood before them. Leaning on each other, the pair somehow managed to stay upright and not fall into a fit of giggles despite the smirks that kept forming on their faces.
“A friend you say, hmm?” Vaughn poked a finger at Rhys.
“Yes Vaughn, just someone who needs help. Now get in the car. It’s late and I am not looking forward to you two being hungover.”
The pair huffed and started to complain but Rhys raised an eyebrow and the two drunks settled down and joined arm-in-arm to leave the bar and make their stumbling way to the car. Rhys smiled fondly as they skipped out of the door and gave a small wave to the bartender as he lugged Jack with him.
Rhys unlocked the car in advance and his two friends barreled into the back and fought for the middle seat. Rhys shook his head and shoved Jack into the back, settling the dispute by leaving Vaughn in the middle. The accountant was still celebrating his victory when Rhys slid into the driver’s seat and started the car. The radio spray to life and so did the almost passed out Jack.
“Holy shit this song!” Jack started to sing very loudly. Too loudly for this late at night. Vaughn and Yvette spared no time in joining in, attempting and very much failing at a three part harmony with Vaughn try his best at a falsetto. Rhys shook his head but couldn’t keep the smile off of his face.
It was, thankfully, a short journey to Rhys and Vaughn’s shared apartment and it seemed as if Jack was staying, looking at the state of him.
Rhys opened the door of his car and the three drunk people fell out and giggled as they lay on the floor. Rhys sighed and grabbed Jack by the hand and placed an arm over his shoulders to support the older man. Yvette and Vaughn had managed to stand up and joined in with Rhys supporting Jack on one side, Vaughn on the other, and Vaughn holding up Yvette.
Getting everyone up the stairs was, interesting to say the least. For some reason, Yvette thought that the railing was her best friend and refused to let go for a solid couple of minutes. After Rhys had finally convinced her that they could order pizza if she moved, the whole squad managed to get into the apartment.
Vaughn and Yvette went for the sofa and immediately fell asleep. The joys of being drunk, Rhys thought to himself. Jack, on the other hand, had other ideas.
The older man pushed Rhys against the door as soon as it was closed, not caring if the other two were watching or not.
“J-Jack!” Rhys flushed at the sudden display of dominance.
Jack moved his face to Rhys’s ear and whispered, “Don’t worry kiddo, Daddy’s gonna take care of you…” Rhys felt his dick twitch and almost succumbed to the older man’s advances. However, his sense of decency held out for a moment longer.
“You’re too drunk for this.” Rhys said matter-of-factly. Jack let out a short exhale of breath and smirked, “Well, yeah kiddo. Why do you think I talked you into taking me home. You’re cute and I’m drunk so let’s get this on!”
Jack ghosted his mouth across Rhys’s, just out of reach, and Rhys arched his back involuntarily to try and make contact. Rhys cursed himself mentally. Jack smirked and lowered his head just enough for a chaste kiss. Rhys whined when the other man pulled away again and took some action of his own; pulling Jack’s collar so that their lips could meet properly. Rhys knew what he was doing was wrong, but damn the guy was hot and willing so sue him.
Jack pulled away and Rhys tried to follow but Jack lewdly ground his hips against the younger man, causing a soft moan to fall from his lips. Rhys looked into Jack’s eyes for the first time that night and saw that, like him, they were heterochromatic but with green and blue instead of brown and blue. However, now, the pupils were dilated with lust. Rhys grabbed Jack’s hand and lead him to his bedroom. Jack followed behind and hit the door frame with his arm as he walked in. Being drunk meant that he didn’t really care, though.
Jack shut the door behind him and took Rhys’s face into his hands. Rhys tried to look demure but the tent in his trousers was telling a very different story. Jack went in for a kiss and arched his body against Rhys’s. Rhys pulled Jack’s body flush to his and groped Jack’s ass to which he earnt a loud moan against his mouth. Jack walked forwards, mouth never leaving Rhys’s, and pushed them both onto the bed. Jack started trailing kisses down Rhys’s jaw. Rhys lifted his head to allow Jack access to his neck when suddenly everything stopped.
Rhys looked down to see that Jack had passed out on top of him. Rhys’s legs were starting to go numb because the circulation was cut off from his legs still dangling off the end of the bed. Jack was now snoring lightly against Rhys’s neck so he didn’t really have the heart to move him.
Oh boy, Rhys thought to himself,this is gonna take a lot of explaining tomorrow.
At some point during the night, Jack had crawled his way up the bed and was now drooling into Rhys’s nice pillowcases. Rhys looked down at the man and really got to study him for the first time, drool and all. Jack had a very nasty scar bisecting his face but it seemed to add to his uniqueness. Rhys already knew that Jack also had heterochromia, it was kind of hard to miss, but the scar somehow went unnoticed. Jack had an amazing jawline and an amazing body to match. Rhys smiled to himself, knowing that something nearly happened was enough to keep him content for the time being. Rhys dropped off the glass of water and aspirin next to the note he left on the bedside table. The note explained who Rhys was, where he was, and that breakfast was on the way if he wanted it.
With one last look, Rhys walked out of the room and made his way into the kitchen. The apartment he shared with Vaughn had an open plan feel to it which was nice for such a cheap place. Therefore, his preparation of breakfast stirred his two friends who were crashed on the couch. The smell of bacon and eggs wafted throughout the place as Rhys started cooking them. However bad his cooking skills actually were, it was still incredibly hard to fail at making eggs and bacon.
A groan from the couch let Rhys know that someone was at least slightly awake and in search of sustenance. Rhys giggled to himself and placed two glasses each with aspirin next to it on the breakfast bar. Vaughn was the first to arrive and slump onto a stall to sit at the bar. Vaughn took the painkillers and downed the water in one go before resting his head on the counter and groaning again.
“Never again?” Rhys joked. He got yet another groan in reply. Rhys placed the first plate of food in front of his best friend and picked up Vaughns hand to place a fork into it. Vaughn sat up enough to start eating and grunted an approval around the food in his mouth.
Rhys plated up dish number two and left it on the small coffee table in front of their sofa in a hope that Yvette would wake up to the smell of food. It seemed like the plan worked as her head popped up above the sofa and eating sounds made their way to his ears.
Like a whirlwind on speed, Jack appeared from the bedroom, seemingly unaffected by the sheer amount of alcohol that he had consumed the night before. The man stopped in the front room to see three pairs of eyes staring at him, mouths agape. Jack attempted to regain some composure but failed considering how crumpled his clothing was.
“Who was the cute one with the long legs I was talking to last night?” After no response from the three people Jack just raised an eyebrow, placed one hand on his hip and waved the other, silently demanding an answer. Vaughn and Yvette simply pointed over at Rhys who was standing with a spatula in hand.
“Why, thank you. Wasn’t so hard was it?” Jack strode over to where Rhys was standing, gave him the piece of paper back that Rhys had written a note on. “Sadly sweetcheeks, I gotta say no to the breakfast. I’m a busy man, see, but I do wanna leave ya with something. Got your phone?”
Rhys, still dumbstruck at how unaffected Jack was, simply gestured to his phone on the counter which was charging. Jack picked it up, unlocked it whilst complaining that Rhys didn’t have a passcode and that it was essential to have that sort of thing these days, and entered something on the phone. With that, Jack turned on his heel and left the apartment.
“What the fuck dude?” Vaughn spoke after a short time of stunned silence.
“What do you mean what the fuck? He was too drunk to get home on his own! You know how i am with waifs and strays.” Rhys turned back to making his own breakfast, slightly sad at the fact Jack hadn’t stayed for breakfast.
“Handsome Jack…” Yvette piped up.
“That's certainly how I'd describe him. Did you see his jawline? Like, damn that thing could cut-”
Rhys was interrupted by Vaughn thrusting his phone in his face. It was an image of the front cover of TIME magazine with the very man who had just strode out the apartment plastered on the front. The caption was: First Hyperion, now the world: How did Handsome Jack do it?
“Holy shit…” Rhys turned away from Vaughn’s phone and went over to his own. Jack, wait no, Handsome Jack had left his phone off of charge but unlocked on a contact screen. Rhys had Handsome Jack’s mobile number on his phone. Handsome Jack had saved his number to Rhys’s phone as HJ with some rather obscene emojis after it. Rhys just laughed at his phone, ignoring the fact that his bacon was burning and wondered what the hell he’d gotten himself into by being nice to a famous stranger in a bar.