TITLE:
Sunbow,
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: R-ish
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by
people with a lot more money
Author’s Voice of Warning (aka Author’s Note):
English is not my first language; it’s German. This is the best I can do. Any
mistakes you find in here, collect them and you might win a prize
FEEDBACK: Loved
BETA: okami_myrrhibis
I don’t know where this bunny came from, but it hung around for months until I
actually wrote this fic.
It’s been written. Bunny is happy.
Don’t sue me.
Enjoy.
*hides*
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Three days. Three days to himself. No job, no pressing personal matters to
attend to. Just three days to do what he wanted, even if it meant stay in bed
all day.
Time to go out for a ride.
Maybe pack his gear and spend time in the mountains. Oh, yeah, that sounded
cool. It wasn’t too hot throughout the days yet, the nights weren’t freezing
any more, and he knew a few spots where even a storm could be out-weathered
should one surprise him.
Yes, camping sounded fine.
Now all he needed to do was convince his partner of that.
Jace Marshall rolled out of bed, scratched himself, stretched, took in the
glorious early morning, and headed for the bathroom. Twenty minutes later he
was showered and shaved and ready to rumble, so to speak.
According to the empty spot he had found at his side in bed this morning, Cade
was already up and about. It was typical. The man was a morning person. As well as a night owl. How he did it was beyond Jace.
Following the smell of coffee he padded down into the kitchen, still smiling. There
was the usual chaos on the couch table from last night. Crumbled up chips bag,
empty popcorn bowl, beer cans, all empty too. His stack of National Geographic
magazines was piling high next to ‘his’ spot on the couch, and the Planet Earth
DVD was still in the DVD player.
The kitchen looked almost spotless. There was a used coffee mug – Cade’s – and
a read newspaper on the table. The coffee pot was still half full and Jace made
a beeline for it, filling his own mug and enjoying the routine morning caffeine
boost.
His gaze fell out the kitchen window onto the hard-packed ground in front of
the farm building. Taking his coffee, he stepped out onto the porch, breathing
in the crisp air. Goose bumps crawled over his arms, but he didn’t go back
inside for a jacket. Jace simply stepped into a sun spot and shivered a little
as he warmed up.
The old barn was casting shadows that would soon dwindle away until late
afternoon. Jace kept his car in there, an old white 1981 Porsche 935 Turbo that
was still running faithfully. He kept tinkering with it and it hadn’t deserted
him yet. Cade’s Mustang was usually parked beside it. It was the complete
opposite, being a new model, gleaming black, but also the pride of its owner. And
he could be proud. Jace had no idea how his lover had managed to get his hands
on the rare S281 RF Supercharged, but Barrett knew people who knew people who
again knew of people who might be able to get him what cars he wanted. Legally, of course.
Cade could spend whole weekends with his car, talking about engines, brakes,
drivelines, aerodynamics, tweaking that, getting more horsepower out of this,
and Jace listened to it all with a fine smile. That smile usually grew a lot
wider when he recalled making out in that sleek, black car, or on it.
Jace loved his home. He had inherited it from his great-grandfather years ago,
but hadn’t moved in until five years back. Ever since
starting his job in Sunbow, a small but thriving Montanan town. He had
grown up in such a town, then gone off to college, then joined the Army, only
to come back here not much later.
First Lieutenant Jace Marshall had retired after twelve years of service and
had turned to working whatever jobs came his way. Financially he wasn’t all too
bad off. The government had paid well for Jace’s work, something he couldn’t
talk about most of the time, something that was so covered up, it didn’t even
exist. That his last job had almost killed him and handicapped him for future
government work had helped in the money department, too. He had been set with
quite an amount of money.
It helped to have a second income, though.
Speaking of which…
Jace smiled as he discovered the steadily moving shape in the distance that
soon became a human being. Barrett Cade was the town’s Sheriff. He had grown up
together with Jace, they had been to the same school, just two classes apart,
but unlike Jace he had stayed in Sunbow to become first Deputy and then Sheriff
himself after old Ben Prowl had retired.
And Sunbow never had a more attractive one, Jace mused, smiling widening.
Not that any of the female, or male, population had a chance. Cade might not be
the world’s romantic man, he never showed affections in public, he came across
as hard-assed as Jace’s old captain in the Army, but underneath all that cold
and distant exterior lay something only Jace had ever touched.
They had been together for almost as long as Jace had been back. Before that it
had been an on and off affair. A wild one, too. Filled with passion and fights for dominance in each encounter.
Jace was a hard-assed soldier, Cade was a tough-nut cop.
Square hole, round peg, he thought. But they fit. By God, they fit. It
was amazing.
What was even more amazing was the acceptance in town. Mayor Orrin Paxton had
only raised an eye brow when Sheriff Cade had moved in with Jace, and over a
beer had asked him what had taken them so long.
Barrett raised an eyebrow as he discovered Jace, dressed in his sweats and a
ratty gray t-shirt, and stopped on the porch. He was in his running outfit and
Jace appreciated how it looked on the other man. Sleek, black, dangerous… so
much like his car, so much like the cop he was.
Damn, he was one sexy man.
“Up already?”
Jace grinned. “Sun woke me. I was thinking about going up into the mountains. Maybe
swing by old Cooper’s place. See if he needs something.”
And listen to the old man’s war stories, Jace thought to himself. No one knew
how much of it was true or how much Cooper had made up. He seemed to believe
everything he told whoever was willing to listen.
“Three days off and you want to run off into the wilderness,” came the disinterested comment.
“It’s relaxing.”
It got him a snort and Cade walked inside. Jace trailed after him. He watched
the lithe, athletic form of his lover as Cade shed his sweat jacket and he felt
something stir at the sight of the t-shirt clad back. Barrett kept fit because
of his job and it showed. By God, it showed just deliciously well.
They had had so little time together lately. Cade had been busy in town since
someone had taken a knife to some cattle and horses, trying to mutilate them. He
had caught the guy – some deranged lunatic from two towns over, high on a new
drug called EnergonX – after three weeks of non-stop investigation. It hadn’t
helped that Jace had had two out of town jobs, helping a neighbor set up a new
fence and then drive a herd of cattle onto the new grounds just before that.
Yesterday had been the first night spent together. Not that much had happened. Barrett
had been too tired and Jace had been more than content to watch his lover
sleep. The hard lines in the sharply defined face smoothed out when Cade
relaxed and he sometimes made soft noises in his sleep when Jace touched him.
Not that he would ever admit to them. At least verbally.
His body language was enough, though. Three stressful weeks had finally taken
their toll and Barrett had fallen asleep on the couch, been barely awake enough
to get upstairs, and then just coordinated enough to let Jace steer him to bed.
Jace knew that should there have been a situation demanding his lover’s alertness,
Cade would have been fully awake in seconds, no matter what, but this was their
safe haven.
“Interested?” Jace now asked.
Cade turned and ran dark eyes up and down Jace’s body.
“I could be tempted,” was the dark reply.
And that voice did the rest. Shit!
“Really? What’d I have to do?” Jace asked.
A strong hand grabbed him, pulled him close. “Stay.”
“Wasn’t this about tempting you into going camping with me?”
Damn, it was always hard to ignore Cade’s body. He had seen it in all its glory
so many times before, but the past draught had made Jace highly sensitive to
his own needs.
“Tempt me.”
His free hand was clutching the back of the sweaty shirt, black, Cade’s
favorite color, and Jace looked into the dark brown eyes – a contrast to his
own gray-blue ones. There was a taunting smile in there, lips curing in that
devilishly handsome face, and he felt his own
answering smile.
“You sayin’ we should stay here?”
“I’m saying,” Barrett drawled.
Then his lips were on Jace’s and the other man reacted with the same fervor and
strength, giving as good as he got, teeth and lips and
tongues dueling. When they finally separated, both looked flushed and there was
an unholy light in Cade’s eyes.
“Still want to leave?”
“Well… you might have to tie me down…”
“That can be arranged.”
Okay, now there was definitely more than a rush. His whole body was taking
interest.
Barrett laughed. “You are kinky, Jace.”
“I learned from the best.”
Cade’s finger’s were suddenly under his shirt and trailing over his skin,
making him squirm. They found his scars unerringly, following their jagged
path. Jace was starting to breathe harder. As disfiguring as they were, having
Barrett touch them this way had always been quite erotic. He still remembered
the look in those hard eyes the first time Cade had seen them after his
honorable discharge from the Army, when they had lain together in Cade’s bed. It
had been a frightening expression that had softened into something neither had
ever spoken out loud.
Jace had known that this might truly last between them then and there. A week later Barrett had moved in.
“Three days?” Cade now asked.
“Three days,” Jace confirmed, suppressing a groan when one hand slid under his
sweat pants and squeezed his ass.
“Then we should make the best of it.”
“Probably.”
Cade was kissing him again, pushing him back against the wall, demanding and
taking over control. Jace let him – for now. He knew he would have more than
ample chance to return the favor, and when his pants pooled around his ankles
and his lover was on his knees in front of him, he forgot all about control and
just let himself feel what he had missed for almost two months.
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Barrett studied the naked man with him in bed. They did that a lot, lying
together, running hands over the other’s skin. Cade had grown addicted to the
easy contact, to the warmth in his lover’s eyes, the way the slender form moved
with him, moved for him, under him, above him… the way Jace was at his side, no
matter what.
His fingers touched the jagged lines on his partner’s back and sides. Scars had
remained of the terrible injuries that had nearly killed the one person who had
touched him deeper than anyone else ever before or after. The scars showed
Barrett just what Jace had gone through on his last assignment, what had nearly
killed him, but he had come out stronger.
He ran explorative finger tips over the marks, drawing a little hitched breath
out of the man sharing his bed with him. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss
against the closest scar, letting his tongue bathe it briefly before drawing
back and looking into those brown eyes.
Cade had never asked what exactly had happened. He could read it in
Moving in together had been like a natural next step to Jace’s return. Their
prior encounters, mostly pure sex, some snuggles, a too short good-bye, then
months of no contact, had come together into this: an equal partnership. A
relationship that ran much deeper than just fuck buddies. Maybe it had been the
sight of those scars, a vivid picture of how close Cade had come to losing this
man, that had finally made him make his move. Maybe it
had just been this long, long time of too little contact.
Cade had never understood just what the handsome guy girls lusted after had
seen in him. Jace had been popular in school. Two years
younger, bright, athletic, intelligent, the all-out good boy. Of course
he had gotten into trouble, but what boy hadn’t? Barrett hadn’t been the most
out-going personality; still wasn’t, even in his job. He had repelled more
people than he had attracted as bed-partners, but Jace hadn’t been deterred by
his manners. He had actually courted him.
Cade smiled a little.
Yes, Jace Marshall had courted Barrett Cade, and he had finally had success. A
brief one-night stand had blossomed into something neither had wanted to
define, had held tight over the years, and when Jace had come back from his
Army time, Cade had been ready to have him here forever.
Harmonious times like these were too few. They knew how to fight, they had
their own heads, they bickered and loved and yelled
and made up and shared living space like every couple. Cade had made a vow to
himself to be with this man, to share everything with him, weather all storms,
and while they had both expected one over their rather open style of being a
couple, there had only been mild rumblings. Those had quieted down a long time
ago.
Jace sighed and turned, smiling lazily at Barrett. Those bright blue eyes were
a sin. With a hint of gray, bright and open and filled with
life. He leaned down and kissed his lover’s lips.
“Lunch?” Jace asked when they parted.
“You cooking?”
“Only if you’re up for frozen pizza ‘cause I doubt I could get us
anything more complicated without burning it.”
Barrett chuckled and kissed him again. “I like pizza.”
“You eat everything that doesn’t run away on the count of three,” Jace teased.
It got him a growl, but Jace pulled him into a passionate kiss, pulling him
closer, skin to skin, and Barrett let him lead.
When they parted those bright blue eyes were darker now. “Pizza it is. But I
need a shower first.”
With that he slipped out of bed, giving Cade a very good view of the tanned
body. He grinned appreciatively.
No, he had no idea what he had done to attract this special man, but he would
do anything to keep him. Jace was his and he was possessive, he knew. Not
easily jealous, though.
The sound of the shower told him that Jace was cleaning up, so he slid out of
bed and slipped into his clothes. He walked down into the kitchen, rooted
through the freezer, found two ham and mushroom pizzas, and fired up the oven.
Leaning against the counter, his eyes gazed out the window. It was sunny
outside, perfect, wonderful, just another day. He would enjoy the time he had
with his lover before Jace’s next job took him out of town for two days. It was
never long, but Cade had come to like company in the evening, share couch
space, talk about work, listen to Jace’s voice as he
recounted his own day.
So… familiar. So normal.
He liked it.
Because he loved Jace,
Simple as that.
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A spring storm changed all plans. Jace wouldn’t go out to Jack Wheeler’s place
to lend a helping hand or two. Wheeler and his ‘business partner’ Logan Grim
owned an old ranch a few miles out of town and had steadily turned it into a
junkyard. Wheeler called it an artist’s place, since he and Grim were hammering
away at the old junk and turning it into rather respectable looking, giant
metal monsters. Dinosaurs, Jack told Jace proudly. And it was going to be a
So far only tourists who actually got lost around here came to see the art, but
Wheeler had made it into a tiny guide as an ‘off the beaten path’ attraction. He
was immensely proud of it.
Their passion for old junk had cost Jack his wife already, but he didn’t seem
to mind. He was happy tinkering around, trying to get his contraptions to move,
make noise, and find someone to put him on a permanent map of
Jace slipped through the door, which was almost blown out of his hands, and
shut it firmly, leaving the howling winds outside. He had secured the barn and
taken a look around the house, just to make sure. The storm would last all day,
according to the forecast, and only get worse. This was usually the time they
holed up.
Cade was on the radio, talking to one of his deputies in town. He was dressed
in his old jeans and an even older long-sleeved tee. Washed so often already
that the pattern on the chest had faded into nothing. Black hair tousled, a hint of beard shadow… Jace knew he was close to
drooling.
“Trouble?” he asked instead.
“Not yet. I’m on call.
“Cool. We’ve got all the snack food that’s bad for us, a still working cable
connection, and nothing to do but wait out the storm.” Jace grinned. “How about it?”
Cade raised one brow. “You are insatiable, you know that?”
“I was talking sports channel and movies!”
It got him a snort. “Right.”
“Buuuut,” Jace continued, hooking a finger into the hem of his lover’s
jeans to pull him closer. “I’m open for suggestions.”
“You always are.”
They kissed slowly, with just the bare hint of tongue, and Jace watched the
hard features soften. He knew the others would never believe it possible for
Barrett Cade to be like this, but he did. It was all that counted. People still
wondered what he saw in the Sheriff, how he could live with a man who so rarely
cracked up emotionally. Cade was good in his job, liked by his deputies and not
feared, hard but fair. Jace knew there was someone else underneath and that was
the man he loved.
In the end it was snuggling together on the couch, watching a game, arguing
about tactics and foolish moves and who was the best team this year. Barrett
fought him over the remote control to see the end of a race until Jace
surrendered, laughing.
There were no calls for the Sheriff the rest of the day or throughout the night
as the storm roared around them, shaking the house, rattling at the windows,
drowning out the sounds coming from the bed room.
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And now to give you an idea who is who in case you didn’t figure them out:
Jace Marshall – Jazz (the last name came from reading up on Jazz on Wikipedia
and seeing that in some alternate version he was supposed to be called
Marshall). G1 Porsche alt mode as his car
Barrett Cade – Barricade; hence the Mustang in the barn
Jack Wheeler – Wheeljack
Logan Grim – Grimlock; you did get the dinosaur hint, right?
Orrin Paxton – Orion Pax/Optimus Prime
Old Cooper – Kup
Sunbow – the production company from the G1 cartoon
Ben Prowl – do I have to spell it out? Prowl
Drumheller – a real place in Alberta/Canada. Been there, saw the dinos,
went to
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HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!