Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He felt strange. Uncomfortable. His eyelids felt pretty heavy and it was hard to open his eyes. He immediately closed them again because of the blinding lights right above his face. Where the hell was he? The last thing he could remember was that he followed Rhys into his way too tiny office for work…

“It looks like he’s awake!” he heard an unknown voice saying.

“Jack, Sir, can you hear me?”

“Stop talking so freaking loud.” he answered, opening his eyes again.“And dim this awful light!”

Someone followed his instructions and Jack sat up. Looking around he realized he was in a laboratory. It smelled sterile, the tiled walls were plain white and the lights were still pretty bright. “Where the fuck am I?” he demanded to know, looking straight into the face of an unknown man.

“Sir, we were able to bring you back to life… Well, sort of. We managed to transfer you into your own body, since you were stuck in the head of this company guy, maybe you remember that…” the man answered confident.

Wait… What? He needed a moment to process this information.

Whoever this guy was, he managed to transform him into his own body? But Rhys told him he died… Well more or less, his original self died, he was just an AI – even if he didn’t felt like one at all. Jack looked down, watching his hands and bare legs resting on the table. He touched his own skin and it felt pretty real. Hey, he could finally touch things!
A big grin appeared on his face as his hands reached for the neck of the man in front of him. He needed this, after all this frustration with Rhys!

But the man dodged away. “Sir, it’s not a good idea to kill me! I’m… I’m just one of the few scientist who brought you back and can he…help you!” he said scared.

“Yadda yadda yadda, so tell me, why am I alive? How is this possible? And hurry up, since I’m back now, I’m sure I have a lot of work to do!” he explained grumpily.

“Well, we were able to extract your AI data from the echo-system of Rhys and transferred it to our computers. Since you were gone, we scientist worked on a lot of prototypes and were able to build an android that looks exactly like you did before… And we even shaped your face without the scar!” the man answered proudly.

“So I don’t need this stupid mask anymore?”

“Only if you wish to…”

“Great news, finally someone did a great job on here… I think right now, I don’t wanna kill you… So tell me, am I like… human again? Whole? And secondly, where the hell is Rhys now?”

“Yeah, your body functions like the one of a human. Since the system needs energy, you have to eat and drink and sleep as any living being. But I guess you’re a lot stronger now and we managed to include a few extras into your body. You’re owning one of the newest echo mechanisms we are capable of producing at the moment, which we are really proud of!”

What awesome news these were! Jack sure would know how to use this well.

“Yeah and where the hell is that idiot I was stuck in now?”

“He should be in his own room where he lived before. He seemed kind of happy to be back to normal. Sir, do you feel good? Anything odd? I need to know this before you can leave.”

“I never felt as great as now…” Jack said, an evil grin taking over his face. “Daddy’s back in business!”

***

Rhys lay tiredly on his sofa in his tiny flat. Whatever the scientist had done to him, it was exhausting and he was happy it was over.
He was quite shocked when the security men came into his office and dragged him into the laboratories on Helios. They told him that they’d get Jack out of his Echo system and if he didn’t cooperate they’d just cut all the mechanical parts out. Even without this threat, he would have kept still - he’d be more than happy if he had his head for himself again!

They connected him to one of their computers and told him to hold still. He felt strange, his skin itched and he began to sweat because of being nervous and then there was this electric shock that knocked him out again... Just like the first time when he injected the ID card from Nakayama.

When he woke up they just sent him back to his flat, told him that he should rest for a day and if he would happen to feel sick he should come back. There were no informations that were telling him if it worked or what would happen next. What would they do with the AI…

But now he lay there, his head empty. No hologram that only he could see. No annoying Jack that got on his nerves. On one side it was relieving on the other side there was just something missing…

Rhys thought about calling Vaughn. It would have been a good distraction, but while thinking about it, he fell asleep.

He woke up to a knocking on the door. A pretty heavy knocking to be honest… Confused he got up to open the door.

Then he screamed.

The boy greeted him with a scream. Well I’m used to this, Jack thought. Rhys moved back, still screaming, tripping over his own feet and falling right onto the ground. It made Jack laugh. Stupid little Rhys!

“Are you happy to see me again, pumpkin?”

Rhys swallowed visibly. Wasn’t the procedure before not stressful enough ?

Jack entered the flat while looking around. It was way too tiny for his preferences.

The younger man stood up carefully, trying to keep a distance between him and Jack. It was not that foolish, considering that Jack was now able to choke him – which was the first thing he tried when they met each other.

“Oh cupcake, you’re such a crybaby!” Jack chuckled

“What the fuck… How… I mean, how can I see you? I thought… No… Shit!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not in ya head anymore. Guess we're both happy ‘bout that, pumpkin. I finally have my own body. Not that yours was bad, but… well I prefer not sharing it like that.”

Rhys had to sit down. Did the scientist destroy something in his head?

“Oooh, don’t bother ya pretty head with too many thoughts.” Jack sat down on the armchair in front of Rhys. “I’m not here to kill or hurt ya. Well, not yet. I know, people don’t think of me like that, but I came to thank you. For kinda bringing me back, ya know.

And I think I kinda owe ya something. You wanna have a better flat than this? More money or a better job? Just tell me, daddy will handle this, since I’m back to reign this pile of junk again.

God, you should have seen the stupid faces of the peeps who recognized me! Might kill some of them just for their glances tho…”

Rhys just stared at him as well. He couldn’t deny that Jack was really quite handsome without his mask… “I know I’m pretty princess, you can stop staring. Or should I kill ya first? I think it would be an honor to be the first victim after the comeback of Handsome Jack!” he laughed.

“I… Sorry that’s just a lot to process… I guess I need some time for that…” Rhys stuttered.

Jack studied the boy from head to toe. He was still wearing those ugly space socks. But he kind of liked the scared expression on his face. He got up and the younger man winced.

“I call ya, pumpkin, okay? Hope you made up ya mind until then.”

Jack ruffled through the hair of Rhys, destroying that perfect style of him and leaving the boy in a complete mess behind. He loved confusing him like this… I might not be done with him yet…, Jack thought, closing the door behind him. But now there was a lot of other things he had to take care of first…

Chapter Text

It didn’t take long until everyone on Helios knew that Handsome Jack was back for real. Jack made sure that everyone who said something else would believe it. He even took care of them himself. And when their lifeless bodies floated around in space after being thrown out the airlock, all rumors died pretty fast.

Rhys was happy that Jack just announced he was back, without any details. He never mentioned Rhys in one of his speeches that everyone could hear on Helios through their echo.
He didn’t have to call Vaughn after Jack’s visit. He knocked right on his door, a few minutes after Jack held his first speech.

“Bro, you have to explain this to me.” was the first thing he said, when Rhys opened the front door. They sat down on the couch and Rhys told him everything he knew. Vaughn couldn’t believe what happened just like Rhys.
“And now he said he owes you something? Okay that sounds more than creepy.”
“Yeah, but I did kind of help him to get back. I just don’t know if that was a good thing to do. I mean, those vault hunter had a reason to kill him, didn’t they?” Rhys was concerned.
“Sure they did. He did a lot of evil things to everyone.”
“But still he’s kinda a hero…”
“Rhys, please… I thought we were trough this whole fanboy stuff?” Vaughn shook his head in disbelieve.
“I know I know… I just have to make up my mind. Kinda sure those scientist mixed up something in my head.”

***

Jack loved having his own body! It was absolutely perfect. So powerful and strong! Choking useless workers was never that easy. After a few days he’d forgotten that this was not a normal body, but just an android. But since he was in Rhys head, he never felt like a mere AI. He was Handsome goddamn Jack!

After visiting little Rhysie he announced his comeback. First on Helios. And when the time was right, Pandora with its bandits, trash and those shitty vault hunters would get to know it too! For now it would be easier to stay quiet until he had a plan to revenge his death.

In the first he week found out a lot. Hyperion was still the market leader, but they haven't even reached their maximum yet. There was a lot of useless stuff going on and they threw out a lot of money. So one of his first acts was to kick out a bunch of useless people. Which was a lot of fun and Jack had missed that really.
After having another talk with the scientist that had put him back into his body, he learned to control a few thing with his new echo device. Now he knew how useful this has been for Rhys! After eight days he still hadn’t heard anything from that nerd. That’s why he send someone with a note to him. He was serious when he told him, that he’d owe him something. And as if he wanted to be in someone’s dept!

***

Rhys sat in front of his computer, working on another data-mining project his department head had given him right on that day when he was back on Helios. Not that he wasn’t good at his job, but he got kind of bored of it, even though his cybernetics made it a lot easier. He was scanning new data about an eridium contract, when someone stopped right next to him and threw an echo on his desk. Before Rhys could ask, the guy went off again, without any explanation. He unlocked the echo with a swipe of his hand. A text popped up:

“Hey kiddo,did you already get tired of me? I’m still waiting for your call. You know why… Guess you had enough time to think what you want… You know what? I give you one last day, I’ll cancel an appointment for tomorrow. Visit me at my office at lunch time! -Handsome Jack”

Well, that was… surprising. Rhys put the echo down and massaged his temples. Since Jack visited him in his apartment he thought about his offer a lot. It even kept him awake at night sometimes. Okay maybe that wasn’t because of the offer but because of Jack in general.
He felt some kind of intimacy when Jack was captured inside his head… Sometimes he still felt monitored by that man. That was why he put most of his Handsome Jack posters down. At least the ones above his bed… Okay, there was still one, right next to his head when he lay down. And that was quite shabby. He might have used it for one or two things, when Jack was still alive but way out of his reach…
Rhys head turned bright red when he thought about it. He shook his head, but the thought that now he was somehow close to him wouldn't go away.
Okay Rhys, don’t freak out. Breathe. What are you going to do?, he tried to calm himself.

He looked at his monitor. A better job would be great. Or at least a bigger paycheck. What else? The insurance of never getting killed by Jack? He just had to think about all the people that got airlocked the last days. It was good, that Jack gave him at least one more day to think about everything.

In the evening when Rhys went to bed, he already knew that getting enough sleep this night would be more or less impossible. His room was only lit by the stars, outside in space and in front of his window.
He looked to his left where the poster hung and had to sigh.
Because he still wasn’t sure if the scientist messed with his head.
Of course Vaughn was right, that Jack killed a lot of people and was insane. But when he thought back to Pandora, there were even more maniacs and killers… And at least Jack wanted to do something against them. Wanted to make Pandora a better place.
And then Rhys new what he wanted. Ever since, he wanted to be the head of Hyperion. And since Jack was back and that was an impossible goal now, he could help Jack to achieve his dreams.
If that wasn’t a way too big wish for Hyperion’s number one. Still his mind wandered around a lot and way too late he finally fell asleep.

And that was a bad thing. He simply overslept and woke up shortly before lunch. He still felt drowsy – only until he looked at the time.
With a little scream he hectically put on some clothes, styled his hair and more or less ran to the elevator that brought him to Jacks office. While going up he tried to catch his breath and adjusted his clothes and hair while looking at his reflection in the mirror.
He hoped he wouldn’t be too late. If Handsome Jack called for you, you should better be on time.

The lift door opened and Rhys stared directly into the face of a security guard.
“Name?” the guy asked. “Ehh...I’m… Rhys. Jack send…”
“I know, you can pass.”, the security said and stepped away, letting Rhys walk to the door that separated him and Jack. Shyly he knocked. Shortly after that the door suddenly opened and Rhys could enter. It shut right behind him, so he wouldn’t have the chance to flee.

***

Jack sat behind his desk, elbows laid on the table so he could rest his head on his hand. It was funny to observe Rhys right from the beginning when he entered his office. That kid flinched visibly when the door shut right behind him; his eyes opened wide in shock.

“Come on cupcake, I don’t have all day. And stop being so freakin’ sheepish, I won’t eat you…” Well, not yet, he added in his thoughts. He never let him out of his sight and gestured Rhys to sit on the chair in front of his desk.

“You don’t look too happy to see me, pumpkin. What’s up? Afraid of being airlocked? You don’t have to be, you kept me alive, so I will keep you alive, alright?”
Rhys seemed to get a bit more comfortable.
Jack sat up, putting his feet onto the desk and crossing his hands behind his head. “What ’ya think of my office? Pretty neat right?”
Rhys looked around.
“Yes. Actually I’ve been here before… They made tours around Helios to honor you.”
“And being one of my admirers, of cause you had to visit. Hahaha, I like your loyalty! So then, back to business, 'cause I’m a busy man, ya know. What do you have in mind, how can I do ya a favor?” he said, smiling at Rhys. The kid seemed to struggle.

“I… So I thought about… Well…”
“Oh damn pumpkin, come on just spit it out.”
“Well I’d like to be partners with you. I want to do more than just data-mining. I want be part of “the real Hyperion” if you know what I mean…” the younger man said and actually got the guts to look directly into Jacks eyes.

For a few seconds, Jack was stunned by those mismatched eyes; got lost in them. Then he cleared his throat.
“Well… I can see where this is coming from. And down on Pandora I told ya, we’d be partners… I just don’t think….” he rubbed his chin,
“Oh buddy, Hyperion can only have one CEO and that’s me, but how about you being my assistant? You sure could help me with some decisions and since I had to throw my last one out into the lovely space, you sure would be an awesome help for the old Handsome Jack?
What do ‘ya say? Deal?”

 Rhys scratched his head. “How… how about the payment?”
“Smart question! Enough to get a way better apartment then this tiny one ya own right now… And well, some better clothes? What’s even with this half striped shirt?” Jack askes skeptically but also grinning.
“I just like it, it… it’s one of my favorites… Okay and when can I start to work?”
“How about, when you wear another shirt?” Jack said with a flirty undertone. “You have to look good if you want to represent Hyperion with me, sugar!”
“Then I’ll guess I’m going to change, Sir.”
“For you, it’s just Jack, dum dum. We’re partners, right?”
“Okay…” it was obvious that Rhys was weirded out.
“Shoo, Rhysie! We have work to do!” Rhys stumbled out of the office and Jack was more than pleased with how this conversation turned out. The kid was smarter that he sometimes seemed to be.

Chapter Text

„Neat.“ said Jack, checking out Rhys from head to toe. The younger man had changed his blue half striped shirt with a wine-red one, the red tie replaced with a black one.
“Now you look decent enough to be my partner, kiddo. Come on, lemme show ya your new office. I know, it’s nothing against mine, but I guess it’s better than any of the little rooms you have to share down there.”
Jack knew how it felt to work there. Even he had started at the bottom as a shitty code-monkey - and look where he was now!

He put his arm around Rhys' shoulders, pulling him to his side. Jack could smell the scent of Rhys, a fresh nuance of soap and a little bit of perfume and he kinda liked it. “Ya know, you don’t have to be so stiff. Relax Rhysie, I thought we were past this?”

***

Rhys found it difficult to relax being so close to Jack. He broke out in a cold sweat and hoped the older man wouldn’t smell it. Jack himself smelled pretty pleasing, Rhys was sure he used some perfume to cover the smell of his cigarettes.

The CEO led him into a room that adjoined his own office. It was a bit bigger than a normal sized room and the desk in the middle of it faced a full windowed wall as well as in Jack's office. The other door there would lead him into a storage room, Jack explained.
“So, this is where you work. Guess you don’t pity a room for yourself, pumpkin? Tho I guess you don’t have to stay here a lot 'cause I will mostly need your help. While we’re on it… I’m having a meeting now and you’re going to join me, darling.”
Rhys blushed. “What, right now?”
“Didn’t you want to take part in bigger business? Get yourself together, cupcake!”

Jack and Rhys went to the block with the meeting rooms; the president’s arm was still draped on Rhys shoulders. They entered a room where a few people had already taken a seat. Jack took place at the head of the table and gestured his assistant to take the seat right next to him.
“Who’s missing? I want to start, we’re pretty busy!” Jack demanded to know.
“On… only Nixon is missing.” a woman stated.
“Okay, he’s not that important. First of all: This is Rhys and he’s my new assistant, so you better pay him some respect. Just like you do to me! Anna, how’s it going on Pandora? Are the supplies and troops enough or do they need more down there? I still can’t believe you just called everything back after I was gone…”

Jack seemed totally bored when the woman started to explain everything. Here and there he gave Rhys a hint to jot something down. In contrast to Jack, he thought it was interesting what Anna had to say.
She told them that the troops started to ‘clean’ old facilities owned by Hyperion, but that there was just a little progress.

***

Jack was absolutely bored. Yes, of course there was a lot of work and so on, but Anna had a talent to lose herself in details. And the other few men were even more twaddlers. He was more than happy that Rhys was there to take notes.

It got more interesting as Nixon finally stumbled into the meeting room. His arms were loaded with echotabs and he struggled to keep them in place.
“I’m… I’m so sorry! There was a fire in our department and…”
“Just shut up, Nixon. It would have been better if you’d been burnt down there as well. Useless shithead.”
“I... I’m so sorry, Sir! But I gathered some important information down there! I… here.” Nixon placed them on the table in front of Jack.
“These are about what happened inside the vault and…”

Jack stood up vehemently. “Wrong. Place.” He stated through clenched teeth. Than his eyes wandered through the room, watching each of his employees and stopped and looked at Rhys. “Bring them into my office, kiddo.” Rhys did as he was told and left the meeting room with a quick pace.

The CEO waited until he was completely gone.
His face turned red when he started to scream: “Are you fucking stupid? All of you? Anna, don’t bring up so much useless information! I want more troops and less bandits down there, okay? I was just gone for a few months and that place is full of rats again! Go, do your work!” Anna and the hand full of other men rushed out of the room, obviously afraid for their lives. Jack's yelling never meant anything good.

“And you, Nixon, you absolute shithead!” Jack grabbed the man by his collar. “How dare you mention the vault in here?”
“But, Sir, everybody knows about the vault and…”
“EVERYBODY KNOWS?” He pushed the man against the table.
“And you weren’t nice enough to tell me before? Did anyone else see those?” Jack pointed at the place the echos had laid.
“NO! Just… Me and Jones, who archived them!” Nixon sweat terribly and his face had turned as white as chalk.
“Good, this will make it a lot easier!”

Jack left the room with blood stained clothes. He ordered the security guard on the floor to send someone from the cleaning staff to the meeting room. Then he set off to visit Jones in his office.

***

Rhys put down the stack of echotabs on Jacks desk. He wasn’t sure what else do to with them. Was he allowed to look at them? What were they about?
Better not, he thought, Jack wouldn’t like him to stick up his nose in stuff he wasn’t concerned in. But he switched on his echoeye and gave them a quick scan. It informed him, that the data was marked as top secret. “Okay, yeah, I should totally leave them be.”
After looking around the big office, he chose to go to his own new office and check that out.

A scan there revealed that Jack had placed a camera inside the office. What a jerk! That guy wasn’t in his head anymore and would still be able to watch him all the time. At least at work…

The brunette took a seat at the desk and turned the computer on. It seemed Jack had ordered someone to move Rhys’ own computer from his old office over here. He hoped Jack hadn’t seen his desktop wallpaper, since it was the ruler of Hyperion himself, who posed on there. Rhys changed it quickly into a picture of buttstallion.
With no work to do for now, he just stared out the big window, looking straight at Pandora’s moon, Elpis.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, when Jacks' voice let him jump in his seat.
“Stop lazing around, cupcake! Come into my office.”
It seemed to come from a speaker somewhere.
Of course he followed the order.

Jack had changed his outfit. He didn’t wear all his layers anymore, just a plain white shirt, the first buttons still open; Rhys had to force himself not to stare at the smooth skin that peaked through. The CEO held a lit cigarette in his left hand and looked moody. The echotabs that Rhys had stacked tidily on the desk where now scattered all over the floor.

“Are… are you alright?”
“What? Oh yeah… Just thinking…” He took a puff of his cigarette.
“Did ya get all the important data earlier? Those guys never learn to reduce their goddamn input. Always talking way too much.”
“I did! I already organized them into a document on my computer.” Rhys was proud of himself. At least that was something useful he had done while Jack was away.

“Great. There should be a cloud anywhere on your computer. You can put it there.” Jack still seemed to be absorbed in his own thoughts. “Anything important happened after I was gone?”
 “Just the usual stuff… Nothing to talk about.”

The usual stuff… So just airlocking Anna and the rest, Rhys thought. “Don’t overexert ya pretty little head, Rhysie. I just put Nixon in his place and then checked what happened to that burning department. Which you can continue the next days. I don’t know how much they messed up down there.” Jack stub out the cigarette.

“But for today you can leave. I have to work on something on my own.” When Rhys left Jack’s office he couldn’t get over the fact that his boss somehow seemed to be sad.

Chapter Text

The new assistant of Hyperion’s ruler sat at his coffee table, in his living room. Rhys stared down at his hands, his mechanical one opening and closing. It faltered for a mere moment. He knew he had to oil it again, since he did that the last time before he went down on Pandora and the sand and hot weather weren’t the best conditions for his arm.

He stood up to take the little parts apart and cleaned them with his flesh hand. There were still some sand corns stuck between them. It took a while to detach everything, clean and oil it and then put it back on. Rhys was quite happy he had learned to do this procedure himself and didn’t have to rely on the crazy scientist who installed his echo-eye and mechanical arm.

After that he began to prepare some dinner. It was strange to be at home so early. He couldn’t get over the fact that Jack had seemed so strange. Kinda sad and somehow exhausted. The scattered echotabs indicated that he must have been angry before that. Did he watch them? What were they showing that made Jack get so furious? Rhys remembered his face in the meeting room. The clenched teeth, red face, his eyes bugging inside their holes. The brunette really hoped the business men were okay.

***

Jack didn’t sleep that night. He tried to but he awoke two times sweaty and with a racing heart, bad dreams bugging his sleep. Eventually he got up and tried to keep himself busy with work, so his mind wouldn’t wander back to the dreams.

The last time he had bad dreams was after Angel’s death. And he was Handsome Jack. Handsome Jack didn’t have bad dreams. At least he told that himself. He wasn’t weak; he was a hero!

But after all, Jack was still a human being with feelings and everything that comes along with that. It was the night Jack learned that even if he owned an android body now, he still had to deal with that crap. The next thing he’d do would be kicking the ass of those stupid scientists!

They said they’d work on something after Jack visited them the next day, after throwing one of them into space. At least their scared faces amused Jack. As well as the face of Rhys when he arrived at his office. Jack didn’t know why, but the clumsy, sheepish boy improved his mood a lot.

He shooed him around his office more than needed, just to watch him running around, getting all nervous when heaving to deal with his boss.

***

Was Jack just bored or why did he give him the stupidest requests?

Rhys got a bit angry when Jack ordered him for the 10^th time in whatsoever to get him coffee. He didn’t spend one minute in his own office!

“Get me some copies of that… More coffee! Write that down for me, pumpkin...” It surprised Rhys that he didn’t ordered him to clean the whole office.

He was pretty exhausted when he came home. He just ate something, took a quick shower and fell into his bed.

The next days weren’t that different. No time to relax in between. And Rhys was unsure if that was the fate of being with Jack at the top of Hyperion or if the CEO was just mean and wanted to anger him.

But after a week, Rhys noticed a change in Jack. Spending so much time with him, there were moments when Jack seemed to be inattentive, sometimes just gazing into the depth of his office, just dwelling on thoughts.

That day his boss just chilled in his chair, slurping his 5^th coffee Rhys had brought him.

And he looked so tired. So so tired and anemic. Was he getting sick? Could an android body even get sick? He gathered his courage and stood next to the CEO.

“Are you okay, Jack? I don’t want to sound rude but you look quite sick…” He said carefully.

“It’s okay, I know I look like shit, pumpkin. Just tired. I… I don’t sleep that well these days.”

“Can I do something? I mean… Should I get someone from the labs to look after you? Maybe something is…”

“I already told them they better get that body working again or they take a break outside of Helios.” He took a deep breath.

“What do you do, when ya can’t sleep, cupcake?”

Did Handsome Jack just ask him for advice?

“Well, sometimes a hot bath does wonders. Or I drink some tea. Just try to calm down a bit…”

“Honey, it’s not like I can’t sleep. I… That’s going to stay between me and you, okay? I trust ya…”

“Of course!” Jack really trusted him. Wow… Rhys felt honored.

“Okay, Rhysie. Because I don’t think this fucking space station needs to know that I’m having…”

He put his coffee down and looked up, right into Rhys mismatched eyes, “That I’m having nightmares…”

***

Jack felt relieved when it was out of his system. Yeah he told those scientist that he had them, but hell, he wouldn’t tell them what they were about. But he was sure, he could trust Rhys. That guy had brought him back to Helios. Made him live again. Let him stay in his messy head! And he knew he entitled him as his hero…

The CEO had destroyed the echotabs Nixon had bought him – except for one.

He unlocked a drawer in his desk and gave it to Rhys.

“Watch it… I might kill you however, if you tell anybody about it…”

Jack watched the younger man unlocking and carefully watching what happened on the screen. He didn’t like the sounds and advised him to make it less noisy.

Rhys’ eyes widened in shock and disgust. His mouth closed and opened, unable to comment what he saw.

“Yep. That’s me on the video. And the fucking bandits… Inside the vault of the warrior, that should have saved Pandora with my help… and yeah…”

“Then you’re getting killed…” Rhys said quietly, giving the echo back to Jack.

“It’s not nice seeing yourself getting killed, Rhysie. I can guarantee that now.”

“And that’s why you can’t sleep?”

“It’s… like a phantom pain? I can feel getting killed there again, in my dreams. And those thoughts… How were those bandits capable of killing me? Fuck, I’m not supposed to feel like that! I’m a badass.  A hero!”

Rhys didn’t know what to do. Precarious he placed his flesh hand on Jack's right shoulder, applying just a bit of pressure. Jack gave him an astonished gaze.

“Jack, that’s the past. You’re not dead and you are a badass. Would those bandits be able to get back after they’d be dead? Probably not – but you did! And now you’re here and I can help you to make Pandora a better place… It’s okay to feel lost sometimes… I guess you know how I felt down there on Pandora, stuck with you inside my head and those bad guys all around me.

I… I’m not good at motivational speeches, but…”

“Wow, I didn’t know you love me that much!” Jack joked but secretly he felt relief.

“No… Thanks, kiddo. I appreciate your words. I will think of them later…” He reached for Rhys’ hand on his shoulder with his own and patted it lightly. It felt soft and warm and it was the first skin contact he had in this new body, while not killing the other person.

***

For a moment, time seemed to stand still; both men looking at each other, holding their hands.

Than Rhys became aware that this was a quite an intimate moment between them. He jolted, blushed heavily and withdrew his hand fast.

Jack just laughed really loud.

“Get me another coffee, Rhysie.”

Jack seemed to be more normal after that. His coffee intake sunk drastically and he didn’t shoo him around that much anymore. He even gave him more important jobs to do and started to really rely on his opinion at meetings and so on.

One day the scientists came to Jacks office and told him, there might be a way to erase any feelings from his body and reduce the amount of sleep Jack needed, but the CEO seemed to be fine.

Rhys was sure Jack would have beaten those men up after that, but when Rhys was there, Jack was a lot calmer.

However, sometimes there were still some bodies floating around outside of Helios, but they had reduced a lot.

Chapter Text

Jack seemed to be unusual motivated when Rhys entered the office.

The boss sat in his big chair, reading a paper which he put down when he noticed Rhys; his face lightened up and he gave him a broad grin.

“There’s my favorite man! Rhysie!”

Rhys sure was confused. What was going on? He walked over and handed Jack his coffee.

“Rhysie we have so much work to do! Here, I want you to read all of this and put it into the computer and archive it correctly.” He handed him an enormous stack of papers. “Anna did her job really well. You’ll read it shortly.”

The brunette just nodded and took the paper to his own office. The first pages were a pain in the ass. Lots and lots of numbers and analyses. Rhys barely understood what they were about. It was even harder to put them all in the system, without transposed numbers. Those were printed out before, so why did he have to write them again?

It took him a few hours until he caught up to the interesting part.

The location “Opportunity” was cleaned properly. No bandits left. There is currently a full battalion deployed. It is planned to send more troops to build the foreseen main camp.

The whole article informed about the plans for Opportunity. The city that was once built to be the home of the richest and most powerful families in the galaxies, would now be continued to be extended and used as a military base to spread Hyperion’s troops over Pandora.

A lot of information about the state of the city was mentioned. Many parts were destroyed and had to be repaired before more troops could be positioned there.

Rhys cracked his neck, yawned and stretched when he was finally through the whole stack. His eyes hurt, at one point he had started to just scan the papers with his echoeye and imported the information like that into the computer system. His stomach growled in hunger…

***

At first Jack had a lot of work to do himself. He had read the core information of Anna’s report himself and then had a few meetings and had to call one of the troop commanders down on Pandora via echo. He felt like he was on top of the world because they finally made real progress and he loved when things went his way.

After that he opened the security system on his computer and logged into the camera at Rhys’ office. He wasn’t sure why, but it was fun to watch the younger man work. Jack put his face into his hands and leaned closer to the screen. The camera was placed in an angle he was able to watch right into the other man’s face. He had to admit, Rhys’ face was pretty handsome as well. And he had found to admire those heterochromatic eyes of him. Though the brown one was is favorite.

Jack chuckled when Rhys yawned. He looked abstrusely cute.

The CEO clicked a button at his screen that activated the speaker in Rhys office. “Hey cupcake? You’re done?”

Rhys jumped in his seat, which made Jack laugh even more.

“Oh my god, Jack! Do you have to scare me so much?”

“Come down, princess. I’m hungry, you wanna join ya boss for lunch?”

Rhys looked angry into the camera, than raised a single brow.

“You mean dinner, did you even check the time?” Then he stood up and rushed into Jack’s office.

“I skipped my breaks for that, it’s your shot to pay.” Rhys pouted when he stood in front of his boss’ desk.

“As if I could reject that prompt when you’re making a face like that, pumpkin.” Jack cooed. He intended to shock Rhys and it worked.

The other man’s face turned bright red.

“What do ya want? I wouldn’t pity a good pizza with lots of cheese and chilies.”

Rhys seemed to be weighing the pros and cons of pizza and came to the conclusion, pizza was good. “Good. But no pepperonis, I don’t like spicy things.” “Even though you work with me?” Jack cracked and earned an eye-roll from his assistant.

Jack bought Rhys to his favorite pizza place. It had been some time since he gave him the glory of his presence, normally he had stayed long at the office and had ordered take out. He totally forgot that he had been gone for a few months. The place had changed a lot. Well, not the place itself, it was still modern but cozy and the employees were still hot, but they had changed the most important thing: the menu.

“What do you mean, you don’t serve the Triple spices with extra cheese anymore? There was a reason for naming it Handsome Jack! The waitress’ pretty face turned into a scared expression as Jack got louder. “I...I’m sorry, I’ll ask the cook if he can… do something!” She quickly walked away. “Isn’t she cute?” The CEO stretched and laid his arms on the backrest of his bench.

***

Rhys sat across from Jack, shaking his head. “It’s unnecessary to scare her so much, Jack.”

“Pff, but where’s the fun then? Rhysie, we worked all day, it’s time to relax a bit!” Jack really had an amazing mood today.

“Yeah… About work, I…”

“Nananana, not now, Rhysie. Relaaaaax!”

The girl came back, bringing a bottle of wine and bread sticks.

“These… are a present from the house. For..for the inconvenience! The cook said he can make you the Handsome Jack, Sir…”

“Ahh! Great! Was that so hard, kitten?” She blushed, trying to avoid looking at Jack and gave Rhys a shy smile instead.

“What would you like, Sir?”

“I, um… Ehr… Just a simple Margarita?”

The girl nodded and hurried away again.

“Did you see how she looked at you?” Jack teased.

“You made her nervous.” Rhys snorted.

“I think, she thinks you’re cute, pumpkin. She’s not wrong tho.”

“JACK!” Rhys blushed way harder than the waitress. 

“Aww! I’m just being honest with you, cupcake!” Instead of giving a reply, the assistant started to nibble on a breadstick, arguing with Jack was more or less useless.

Jack swirled the wine inside his glass, when his sight fell on Rhys, eating the breadstick. Lost in thoughts, the younger man nibbled on the head of the stick; with hooded eyes, he just gazed into nothing. Jack didn’t exactly know why, but his breath quickened and just couldn’t stop him from looking at the younger man’s lips. He felt his dick twitch.

This feeling was not new, but it caught him totally off guard. 

He was quite relieved when the girl came back, serving them their pizzas and taking away his attention from Rhys and his stupid, cute mouth.

Rhys felt watched, when he bit into his pizza, the hot cheese dripping onto his chin, the dough nicely crispy. He darted a glance at Jack, while using a napkin to wipe the cheese from his chin, finding the source of his discomfort. The older man sat across from him, chewing on his own pizza, but his eyes were glued to his assistant.

“Is there still something on my face?” Rhys asked. Jack shook his head, unusual quiet.

So they sat there, just eating, surrounded by the bustling noises of a crowded restaurant. At some point Rhys realized, Jack didn’t eat the pizza crust - a pile them stacked on his plate. Handsome Jack was a freaking, maniac murderer who didn’t back away from anything, but he wouldn’t eat the crust? Jack gave him a questioning face.

“You don’t eat the crust?”

“I hate it. It’s dry, dusty and unnecessary salty and just wrong… I swear if Pandora has a taste, it would taste like pizza crust.” Rhys choked on his food, a warm laughter escaping his lungs. That just sounded so stupid, Rhys couldn’t help himself. At first Jack felt offended, but the laughter was so innocent and heartwarming, he just had to laugh himself, eyes still on Rhys face and losing himself in contemplation of the boy in front of him.

***

Later, when Jack was alone in his apartment, finally laying in his giant bed, he recalled the scene. The clear laughter echoing in his ears.

Since the kid was around, Jack felt better. More relaxed… Happier.

This night, the CEO didn’t dream about vicious vault hunters, death and betrayal, but about his private assistant.

And his skillful, cute, little mouth of him…

Chapter Text

“Cupcake, I want you to come over and bring me another coffee!” Jack demanded through the speakers in Rhys’ office. The younger man rolled his eyes. “What? I just brought you one like… 10 minutes ago!”

“Aaaaaand? I want another one, come on Rhysie. I’m busy and it’s your job.”

Rhys snorted. The CEO was so goddamn annoying today. Actually since they went for lunch a week ago, but today it was really intense.

He got up and tramped into Jack's office, cursing quietly. Jack said he was busy, but Rhys was certain, that the paper stacks on his desk were much higher than on Jack’s. He had to organize them by importance and which he could handle himself or which were going to Jack’s desk. A lot of requests were sent in by different departments these days. It had taken Hyperion a while to adjust to Jack’s coming back, but now the productivity was higher than it had ever been the last months.

The assistant took his time to make the coffee in the nearby kitchen, exploiting the free time to calm down a bit. He got quite the headache from all that work; massaging his temples, he waited for the coffee machine to finish up. He reached for the cupboard to grab one of the biggest cups, when he heard a noise behind him. Alarmed, he turned around to stare directly into the face of his boss. The other man was suddenly so close, Rhys could feel his breath on him.

“Booh!” Jack chuckled. And Rhys jumped, letting go of the cup that shattered in tiny pieces when hitting the ground.

“GOD DAMN!”

“You said my name, pumpkin?” Gosh, he’s full of himself, Rhys thought. “Do you have to scare me so much?” He looked down to his boss, the brunette being just a few inches shorter than him. “I love it, you always scream like a little baby, Rhysie.”

“What… What are you even doing here? I thought you had work to do?”

“I do, cupcake. And one of my duties is to keep a wary eye on my little assistant, right?” He had his typical smug grin on his face, Rhys had started to kinda like. It suited his attitude perfectly. He remembered when he and Vaughn had tried to imitate it before, but had failed bitterly.

“Sorry, your coffee still takes some time. The machine is a bitch today and…” Jack caught his chin between his thumb and pointer, catching Rhys in surprise. He gave the older man a questioning look.

Jack’s face grew closer and closer, staring intensly into Rhys eyes...

“J…Jack?” Rhys voice awoke him from his trance and he let go of his face. “Ya scared, cupcake?” He played it off, hiding he had lost control of himself for those few moments that actually felt like hours.

He turned around on his heels, waving with his hand while leaving the kitchen. “Just, bring me my coffee, okay? Hur… Hurry up, we have work to do!” He said, his voice kind of huffy.

Rhys was more than confused. Did his mind trick him, or did it actually look like Jack was going to kiss him? He felt his face getting hotter and hotter; the picture of Jack getting even closer than before appearing in his head and then really kissing him. Rhys shuddered and turned to fill another cup with coffee as the machine had finally finished it’s work. Those thoughts were just wrong...

It was not the first time for Rhys to imagine how it would feel like to kiss Handsome Jack, hell no. But it weirded him out, to think about it now when he was so close to Jack. And even so close for it happen for real. It really had looked like this in the kitchen. Rhys had to remind himself to remain a poker face, when he gave Jack the gigantic cup. “This should last for a while…” He grinned and went back into his own office.

***

Jack watched Rhys leaving his office, returning to his own work. He exhaled loudly, finally relaxing and sinking into his big, comfy chair.

He didn’t know what had made him do this. Following the kid, watching him leaning on the kitchen counter and cursing about the coffee machine.

Again, Jack didn’t have much sleep this night. Not because of those nightmares -
they had lessened a lot - but because his own PA was bugging him in them. Well, they weren’t exactly nightmares… Jack was the last man in this fucked up universe who’d call sex dreams nightmares. But why do they have to be about his assistant? Not that he didn’t already test how his new body would react to any kind of stimulation, but he was still surprised to notice his tented boxer this morning.

Jack had assumed the kiddo had already jerked off to him, like a lot of other people who admired him seemed to do, but that it would ever be the other way around, would have never come to his mind.

Since then he couldn’t take his eyes off of Rhys. He had him running around a lot, though they both had a lot of paperwork to do. But all he wanted was to have Rhys close. And that made him not only angry, but really really confused. He just had to follow him into the kitchen, happy that the other one only registered him watching, when he accidently made a noise.

Maybe he really should have just kissed him, like he had desired at that moment. Just out of curiosity. To see what the other man would have done. And maybe Jack had gotten rid of that weird feeling that made his stomach do flip flops since they were out for lunch.

Holy shit, get yourself together!, Jack told himself quietly, taking a big sip of his coffee. He grinned noticing the big cup. Rhys really didn’t want to get bugged again for coffee, hm? Well, time for both of them to get some work done. Jack had an idea he had to put into action.

***

It was nearly finishing time, when Jack switched the camera in Rhys office on – only to be welcomed by the picture of a kitten.

Confused he switched it on and off, but there was still only the cat. He realized that Rhys had covered the cam with one of those stupid motivational Hyperion posters. He hesitated for a moment – then he stood up, stretched and made his way into Rhys’ office. Finally another reason to bother the younger man, he caught himself thinking.

The office was empty. No sight of the younger man. Confused, Jack looked around. His desk was messy, covered with different stacks of papers, a lonely cup still filled with now cold coffee. The computer desktop showed lots of opened windows; it seemed Rhys had left in the middle of work.

Then Jack noticed the slightly ajar door that lead to the little storage room. Quietly he slipped through the door. The room was poorly lighted, a few shelves were stuffed into the tiny room, containing old files and office supplies. Jack could detect the silhouette of Rhys behind one of the shelves and sneaked behind him, again a smug grin on his face.

Rhys browsed through a file with old statistics about an old eridium mine that was stated in one of their newer reports. Totally sunken into the text, he didn’t notice Jack appearing behind him and screamed in shock when the other man laid his hands on his shoulders turning him around so they faced each other.

“Calm down, kiddo.” Jack said calm and searched for Rhys’ heterochromatic eyes, smiling when the other one returned the gaze. “Jack?” he whispered. “You’re a real pain in the ass, you know that, pumpkin?” He sounded kind of angry but was still smiling.

“I…I’m sorry, what did…” Rhys was cut off by Jack crashing his lips onto his, a small huff escaping the older man. It was totally something Rhys didn’t expected. Jack kissed him forcefully and with an urgency as if he’d die without it. Rhys didn’t know what to do, his mind went blank and the file slipped from his hand. Jack grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer, worrying Rhys bottom lip with his teeth.

And finally Rhys gave in and kissed him back; lost himself in the feeling of those smooth lips. He shoved his hands into the dark locks of Jack and sighed. As weird as this situation was right now, it was one of Rhys secretly kept dreams coming true.

Jack slipped his tongue between Rhys lips and got a moan as a response, the hands on his hair gripping even tighter. The older man chuckled into the kiss. Damn, yeah, he had totally needed to do this. He didn’t regret doing this at all, his frustration had grown too much over the last days. He embraced him hungrily, his hands wandering up and down Rhys’ back.

But suddenly, Rhys turned stiff in his arms. Instead of grabbing his hair, he tried to push him away, muffled tones escaping his mouth until Jack finally backed off, a confused expression on his face. Rhys face was bright red, his hair messy and he tried to avoid Jacks sight.

“Hey, ya okay?” Jack asked, trying to catch Rhys chin between his fingers and forced him to look at him. The younger man shook his hand of, ducked away under one of Jack's arm and ran out of the room, leaving Jack behind perplexed…

Chapter Text

Rhys ran, even though his legs felt like pudding. Even when a part of him wanted to stay and enjoy that kiss. Enjoy the closeness to Jack.

But something in his stomach didn’t felt right. Something in the back of his head had screamed that it was wrong. That being too close to Jack was dangerous. Besides that working with Jack was especially dangerous.

He left their office and jumped into the elevator that would bring him down to the floor with his apartment. When the door finally closed, his legs gave in and he sat down on the ground, catching his breath.

He touched his lips with his flesh hand, still feeling the kiss lingering on them. When he caught his picture in the mirrored wall of the elevator, he quickly turned his glance to the ground. He looked like a mess.

The elevator cleared its way and Rhys got up, his knees still weak. Somehow he made it into his flat, closing the door and slipping onto the couch. Shit shit shit – what if he’d made Jack angry in such a way that he’d kill him now? Why did Jack even do that in the first place? Yeah he flirted with him like, all the time. But Jack flirted with everyone!

What if Jack had deeper feelings for him? Or did he just toy with him? Just to have a little fun with his assistant? There were so many questions in his head!

His echo vibrated in his pocket, announcing a new message. With a grunt he let it fall between the cushions of the couch. It was a message from Jack. No. No he wouldn’t look at his message to see what he wanted. Instead he dialed Vaughn’s number. His friend answered instantly.

“What’s wrong, bro?” he just asked. “Uh, how do you know…?” Rhys was confused. “Rhys, we haven’t talked in a while. There must be something wrong, if you call me now. And at this particular time.”

It was already past dinner time. “Can… Would you come over?”

“I’ll bring pizza, bro! Gonna be right there.” Vaughn said. As if he’d ever let his best friend down. Rhys knew he had a few minutes, so he made sure he didn’t look as awful as he felt.

***

Half an hour later and Vaughn sat next to Rhys on the couch, the TV showed a random but muted show and a large pizza sat on top of the coffee table. “Tell me straight what's up, buddy.”

Nervously Rhys brushed through his hair; he didn’t know where to start.

They haven’t seen each other in a while, since Rhys had to do so much at work. So he just started right there.

He told Vaughn everything. How Jack made him run around a lot and how stressful the job as his PA was. That they grew together quite well, but that it still felt weird for Rhys.

“And it seems as if he really trusts me now. But I’m not sure. Sometimes he’s a real creep and that freaks me out. He makes me so nervous, bro. I don’t know what to do!” Rhys said, stuffing the last piece of pizza into his mouth.

“Well… So you don’t trust him?”

“Yes and no. Gosh, I wish it would be that easy.” He paused, thinking. “But… I think he’s hitting on me.” He blushed, still not sure how to describe this whole situation.

“Like… He’s starting to like you? Wouldn’t be the first guy, Rhys…” He grinned. “And it’s Handsome Jack, right? That guy is totally weird.”

Rhys sighed and told him what had happened today. He talked about Jack’s visit in the kitchen, the stares and finally – that weird, but oh so wonderful kiss.

Damn! No, it was wrong!, Rhys tried to convince himself.

Vaughn shook his head in disbelieve and patted Rhys’ shoulder in a calming manner. “You seem pretty upset.”

“You don’t say, bro. I… I just don’t know what to do? I… On one hand, I liked it? I like him, he’s still my hero and working with him shows me how much he just wants to improve this fucked up universe. His ways to achieve it, are questionable sometimes, but let me say, he really is a genius!”

Vaughn smiled at him, nodding and gesturing him to go on. Rhys was so happy to have a friend like him. Who listened to his weird thoughts.

“But… On the other hand, I have to think about all the lives he took. About all the bad stuff Fiona and Sasha had told us when we were down on Pandora… I... also found a lot of nasty shit in the archives. About questionable experiments and stuff, I don’t even want to go into detail about it…  Well and he’s my boss and… I always wanted to be close to him and now, when I’m able to, it…”

“It scares you?” Vaughn asked, already opening his arms to hug his friend.

“Yes. Yes it does.”

***

Jack tried to contact Rhys a few times on his echo, but the kid ignored him. He considered visiting him, but Jack was not stupid. Rhys wanted to be alone. Maybe it had been a stupid idea to kiss him. Maybe the younger man didn’t like him as much as Jack had thought. He had rushed it too fast. He shut down their offices and went home himself.

After taking a hot and long shower, Jack stood in front of his bath mirror, his hands supporting his weight on the sink, he stared at his own face. It was still weird seeing it without the mask or the scar. Kinda vulnerable, since he always hid his true face after the incident in the vault. Slowly he traced his lips with his pointer, he could still feel the kiss on them. Amazing what the scientist had done to this body.

After that he quickly fell into his bed. He still felt angry and frustrated, the shower didn’t relax him as much as he had hoped it would.

By this time he was sure he should have waited. Should have observed the way Rhys was acting towards him. The kiss didn’t seem as great as it did before. But he had wanted it so badly and the opportunity was just too perfect not to do it.

It took Jack a lot of time to finally fall asleep, his mind a mess of regret but also joy. He knew tomorrow would be awkward between them both. Maybe he should talk with him about the kiss. On the other hand, Handsome Jack was not that much of a fan of words rather than actions.

That night, the nightmares returned.

Again, he saw the vault. The warrior waiting for him to take its control – to make Pandora a better place. The air was too hot and the splashing lava made hissing noises, when it hit the stone structures.

Then Jack noticed another person in the room. Yet he couldn’t recognize who it was, but the person definitely wasn’t there the last times. And Jack always had the same dream over and over…

Then he realized the dream was somehow generally different. Normally he’d see the vault in all his glory in first person, but now it was like he’d look from above.

The angle changed and suddenly he looked right into the face of the person. Rhys beautiful face was illuminated by the glowing, hot lava around him. He looked shocked and scared, his eyes wide open, while he stared at the enormous body of the warrior in front of him.

Jack wanted to tell him to leave, tried to touch him, but he seemed to be bodiless, doomed to watch what would happen next.

“YOU!” someone screamed and again his viewing angle switched. He immediately recognized the red haired, tattooed woman that rushed towards Rhys; her face grimaced in sheer hatred. Using her phaseshift , she was right next to the boy and grabbed him aggressively by his arm.

“WHERE IS JACK?” she demanded to know. Rhys jolted and hissed in pain as her nails dug deep into his flesh arm.

“I don’t know!”

“LIAR! You just want to protect him! You know he’s a murderer. He killed my friend and his daughter! He wants to use this,” she pointed towards the warrior, “to kill us all!” She shook him wildly and all Jack wanted was to jump in between them, rip off her hand from Rhys’ arm and throw her into the lava. Wanted to kill her – the threat to Rhys. To his Rhys!

Lilith pulled a gun from her side and held it against Rhys side. “I know you helped him!” She hissed and poked the barrel deep into his ribs. “Tell me where he is and I will spare your life.”

Rhys cried out in pain when she shoved him onto the ground and held him down with one foot, still pointing the gun at him.

Jack screamed. He screamed at the siren, to stop her from killing the boy. Yelled death threats towards her, but of course nobody could hear him, there was no way to help the boy. Rhys struggled but finally shook off Lilith's foot and got up, jumping towards Lilith while the woman was still screaming at him. “Don’t you dare touch me! Where’s Jack? God damn!”

Jack felt unbelievable helpless. Damn, he wanted to rip the woman that had killed him apart and who was now assaulting his… assaulted Rhys.

They started to wrestle with each other.

Rhys punched her pretty hard with his metal hand and Jack cheered for a mere moment – when suddenly everything seemed to fall apart.

A shot was fired and time slowed down. Rhys eyes widened in shock when the bullet hit him right in the chest and blood splattered towards Lilith, a groan of pain escaping Rhys open mouth. The woman seemed to be surprised as well when Rhys tried to hold onto her, falling towards the ground when he couldn’t get any grip.

As his body hit the ground, Jack screamed one’s head off, accompanied by a shout of the warrior.

“LIIIIIIIIILIIIIIIIIIIIIITH!”

Jack jumped waking up from his sleep and screamed, his hands painfully grabbing his sheets. Tears and sweat were streaming down his face. Everything around him was dark, no vault, no siren – and no Rhys, only his lonely and cold bedroom.

Everything was just a dream, he realized, sobs leaving his mouth.

His chest hurt like hell and he felt terribly empty.

Rhys… Seeing Rhys die was even more terrifying than his usual nightmares. It took a while until his heart started to beat in a normal pace again.

Confused, Jack looked at the time. It was the middle of the night.

Great, he was certain he wouldn’t go back to sleep like this, the images of Rhys dying still too alive on his mind.

He got up, took another shower to get rid of all the cold sweat and then returned to his office; now more than convinced that he had to put his plan he was working on for a while into reality.

***

Vaughn had decided to sleep on the couch for this night so Rhys wouldn’t have to be alone. They stayed up really late and Rhys wasn’t sure if he should go to work the next day. Seeing Jack would be acting weird, after this kiss.

But he was quite sure that missing work would only worsen it. When he said ‘Good Night’ to his bro and got to bed, he still couldn’t sleep. Pictures of Jack's face being so close, his smell and again, the feeling of those lips came to his mind. Slowly they mingled with thoughts about experiments and bandits, until Rhys finally fell into a light sleep of exhaustion.

When his alarm went off in the morning, all he wanted was to hide under his blanket and sleep again. But he knew, he couldn’t.

After a quick shower, he was still pretty tired but felt a bit fresher. Vaughn was already gone, but he had left a note on the couch.

“If something's up, don’t hesitate and just call me anytime, bro! Please try not to get airlocked okay?”

Oh yeah, he hoped Jack wouldn’t kill him after just leaving like that.

Before entering the office, he made himself and his boss a big cup of coffee, certain that both of them would need it.

But when he actually got into Jack’s office, there was no sign of the CEO. His desk was, in contrary to the usual scene, tidy and the computer was turned off.

Was there an early meeting or something similar?, Rhys asked himself while rushing into his own office. No sign of Jack either.

Rhys was sure there was a mess on his desk when he had left the day before. But that was gone. What was going on? He took a big sip of his milky coffee and booted his computer. Someone had left a note on his desktop, Rhys opened:

“Heya kiddo! I’m off for work on Pandora! You have to run the show for a few days up there, ok? If there’s something important, call me on my echo. I trust you so please don’t blow this fucking space station up, while I’m gone!! There’s a list of things you have to do online. Show me you’re really worth this position!

Oh and Rhys… We’ll talk as soon as I’m back – Jack”

What the hell was going on? So Jack just left him alone with Helios? The list of tasks was slaying and Rhys was sure, he would never get that done in time… How long would Jack even be gone? What business was calling him down on Pandora? And what does he want to talk about?

The kiss? So many questions plopped up Rhys’ mind and he knew, he couldn’t bother Jack until he would return to Helios.

***

While Rhys was discovering Jack’s absence, the CEO finally arrived with his shuttle at Opportunity. He had thought a lot while he had tidied up their offices and wrote Rhys a note. Maybe he should have waited and discussed his decisions with his assistant. But on the other end he was relieved to have a reason to avoid the other man, until his mind was back to normal.

The door of the shuttle opened and Jack could instantly smell the dry air of Pandora. He adjusted his layers of clothes he was known for and stepped out of the ship, cheered on by the soldiers that waited for him to stir up the planet with him again.

Chapter Text

Rhys had to admit, it was pretty peaceful without Jack sitting in his neck and getting on his nerves. Without him watching Rhys all the time and especially showing up behind and scaring him. Or… kissing him…

Jack was already two days gone and the cybernetic man had finally calmed down about the incident. He was rather curious what Jack wanted to talk about. Until now, they didn’t have any contact.

Rhys was on the echo with someone from R&D, his legs rested on his desk that was a chaos again, when a man bursted into his office. He was panting really hard since he seemed to have run all the way.

“Sir? We… There is a problem at the hangars! I…” Rhys gritted his teeth and slicked his hair back.

“I’m sorry, I’ll call back.” He told the scientist he talked to on the echo, then turned to the employee that had entered his office.

“What’s the problem? Stay calm.”

The young man's face was distorted with panic. “There… A strange spaceship crashed into our hangars and now bandits are entering Helios!”

“Bandits? Are you sure? Is the security informed?” “Yesyes, but we need permission to activate the turrets and shoot them!”

Rhys stood up and left the man behind him, rushing towards Jack's computer where he had permissions to the cameras everywhere on Helios.

The hangar was a mess. The hangar gates were shut down, screaming people were running around in panic, shots were fired which brought other new people to the ground, adding to the already dead bodies on the ground; blood spreading over the floor.
A masked psycho jumped in front of the camera Rhys was spying on, screaming something that sounded like ‘Rip the metal flesh! Kill the eyes!’ before destroying the camera, taking Rhys’ view on the situation.

Shaking his head, Rhys immediately took his echo and dialed an emergency number.
He sent heavier armed guards into the hangers and called the department that was responsible for the turrets on Helios, since Rhys didn’t have direct permission to activate them.
Damn, Jack would have been able to directly operate. Of course there would be a problem like this when the CEO wasn’t around. But Rhys could handle this as well.

He’d make sure that Hyperion would stay the same.

***

That shit planet was still a mess, but nobody had prepared Jack for how Lynchwood would look like after he was gone. When Nisha was there, there was at least some type of order but now the city was filled with rats, assugly psychos and shit eating skaggs.
Not that other bandits weren’t ugly but Jack was totally weirded out, when he examined a pile of dead bodies his soldiers gathered to clean the city. Had those bastards mated with skaggs or what?
Their faces were grotesque and their hands looked more like claws than hands.
“Make sure you send some of them to the laboratories. They look totally fucked up. Something’s not right with them.” Jack spat on one of the bodies while ordering a soldier.
“Yes sir!”

Jack returned to his own caravan, trying to clean himself from diverse bodily fluids. All day long they had fought against masses of bandits and creatures and he was getting tired.
This new body was great. It was faster, stronger and able to take more than his “human” body, but after a full day of working and fighting hard, even the android was getting tired.

The night started to set above the wasteland, thousands of stars and the purple light of Elpis spreading its glow upon the base of the Hyperion troops.
Jack felt good. His plan was to spread Hyperion's forces all over Pandora and gain enough power to attack the, what appeared to be the capitol of the bandits, Sanctuary.
The CEO growled. This shitty city was still flying around, accommodating the vault hunters he hated so much. They would pay for what they had done. This time it would be them getting killed!

Jack went to bed, trying to get some rest. He wondered how Rhys was doing. It was the first time thinking about the younger man, since today had been so busy. He shuffled around in his bed, closing his eyes and imagined Rhys laying right next to him.

His heterochromatic eyes stared right into his own, a smile on his lips. Jack’s hand was in his messy hair, combing it roughly. Damn how much Jack actually wanted to destroy this always slick looking hair of his assistant! He was only two days gone and he already missed this beautiful face and even his witty comments. They had to work faster, clean whole Lynchwood so the export to other places on Pandora would be faster and easier and Jack would be able to return to Helios.

He wished he could talk to Rhys. To talk with him about… Well he actually hated to admit it, even when it was just to himself, but Jack wanted to talk about feelings. Rhys made him feel weird and how should the ruler of Hyperion work properly, when those butterflies started to party in his belly, whenever his clumsy assistant was around?

Jack pressed his face hard into his pillow, trying to get rid of the feeling in his belly and trousers. Not again. And definitely not while he took a break on the battlefield!
He forced himself to get up, getting his echo and searching for Rhys’ number. It took some time until the other man picked up.

***

Rhys was totally stressed. The bandits left an unbelievable mess before the last one of them was finally shot down. They had made it out of the hangars and messed with some of the cubicle offices. It would take some time to clean everything up.

It was getting late and Rhys was still at his office, trying to array his desk, while talking with one of the security managers. He was tired, his moves shaky and unsteady.
It had taken them awhile to kill all the bandits and bring the hurt employees to the medic station. Rhys himself wasn’t hurt, he had organized most of the actions from his office, but it was still intense. He surely didn’t want to mess up and proof Jack that he was useless being at the top of Hyperion.

“So yeah, of course the men and women who got hurt badly will get a few days off and the families who lost a member will be informed. I will send you the exact informations and instructions tomorrow, okay?” he told the other man.
“Yes, Sir. Then, I’ll get going. Good night, Sir!” He nodded as a greeting and left Rhys’ office.
With a sigh, Rhys let himself fall into his comfy desk chair. He stretched and yawned, when his echo rung.

“Bro, you won’t believe how tired I am!” The cybernetic man yawned into the phone.
“Oh yeah. But beside that, you are okay, right? I didn’t hear anything from you and you didn’t answer my messages so me and Yvette got a little bit worried.”
“Thanks. I was so stressed, I didn’t have time to answer. I’m sorry for that.” Rhys scratched his neck.
“Today morning I was so happy that everything was working out so well, since Jack is on a mission on the nacho planet , but then this happened. I don’t think anything worse could have happened!”

Don’t say that or karma will get you by the balls for that.” Vaughn laughed.
“Are you still working?”
“Yes, kinda. I had so much work with getting the bandits, I didn’t have time to do the stuff that is slowly piling up on my desk…”
“You should get yourself an own assistant.” Vaughn chuckled.
“Probably…” His echo signaled that he was called by another number.
“There is someone else trying to reach me, bro. I have to go, I guess it’s one of the damaged departments…”
“Take care. call me if you need me.”

“Thanks, good night, bro.”

Rhys ended the call and switched right to the new number.
“Hyperion head office, assistant Rhys speaking, how may I help?”
“Wow cupcake, you don’t need to be so formal towards me, sweetcheeks.” Jack laughed.
“I can hear you blushing through the phone, hahaha!”

“Jack? Why are you calling? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, pumpkin. Everything is working out as planned. How’s it going up there on Helios?”

“Ehr…” Rhys caughted slightly. “Well, technically everything is.. fine. More… or less.”
“Did ya finally throw someone outta the airlock or why are you getting so flustered?”

“We might have gotten a little bandit problem up here, today…” Rhys gritted his teeth.
“A what? What happened? Why didn’t you call me?”

“I… I was able to manage it by myself. A spaceship managed to crash into one of Helios’ hangars and create fear and chaos. A… I have to admit a few people got killed. I couldn’t do anything, everything was a bit slow because I didn’t have direct permission to the turrets and so on… I… I’m so sorry, I…”
“But are you okay?”
“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine!”
“Good. Don’t hurt ya little head by thinking too much, those people where just shithead employees. I can replace them easily.”
“Still…”

“Yeah, I know you are softer than me, kiddo.”

Then the line went still. Nobody was talking and Rhys started to feel uncomfortable.
“I… I thought you were busy and I should call you only when there’s an emergency?”
“You didn’t even call me when those bandits attacked you, pumpkin.”
“Oh… you’re right. Uhm.. Can I ask you something? What you are doing on Pandora? Your message wasn’t really informative.”
“Just cleaning this shitty planet. I think I’ll be back in two to three days. Think you can wait that long for me, baby?”

Rhys blushed. Jack calling him baby reminded him of this awkward kiss.
“Yes. Don’t worry.” He tried to sound as controlled as he could.
“Good.” Jack hummed and Rhys stomach made flip-flops. “Then I’ll see you in a few days.”
“Stay safe.” Rhys wished him, but Jack had already hung up.

Chapter Text

It took Jack a full week to get back to Helios. The shuttle landed while Rhys was waiting for it in the big hangar, a bit frightened but also excited. He wondered if Jack thought that he did a good job.
With a loud hiss the shuttle door opened and gave view to a bright grin, owned by the CEO of Hyperion; arms akimbo, straddle-legged he stood right in the doorframe.

“Papa’s back home!” He shouted. A few employees eyed him with a stupid face before resuming work. Sentences like these were typical for Jack but they didn’t get the chance to hear them for a while due to Jack’s death. Of course no one was talking about Jack's death anymore. Everybody knew Jack would know if they would do so.

“Rhysie! So nice to see ya face again! You alright?” Jack said, spreading his arms and then actually hugging Rhys. The younger man felt quite uncomfortable but didn’t dare to speak up.
“I am. You seem to be good as well…” “It’s good to be home. That planet seemed to get even worse when I was… away... “He pointed at the corpses, a group of soldiers were transporting out of the shuttle. “Those bandits mated with skaggs or something. So ugly, god dammit! Ew, no, bring them to those crazy scientists downstairs. Get them out of my view!” He shooed the soldiers away, still kind of hugging Rhys; having his right arm draped around the shoulders of Rhys.
“They… look disgusting.” “You don’t have to tell me, kiddo.” Jack laughed and started to walk out of the hangar, guiding his assistant with him.
“That hangar looks quite clean again.” “It took us a… moment… There was a big enough mess to keep the stuff busy though.” Jack just laughed it off. He was used to messes.

***

“So tell me, cupcake, what are all those papers on my desk?”
“Work, Jack.” “I could have guessed that by myself, but thank you. Could ya get a bit more into details tho?” He looked disgusted. Jack was tired after killing all those bandits and conquering Lynchwood. Actually he just wanted to take a long, long nap.
“The right paper stack just needs your signature. It’s about the accident a few days ago. The left.. well those are important reports you have to read through.”

Rhys smiled shyly. He was still just an assistant and those were things only Jack was allowed to make decisions about.
“My signing?” Jack read quickly through the first sentences on the upper paper.
“Wait, are those what I think they are?” “Yes Jack, those are sympathy cards to the families of your dead employees.” Jack bursted into laughter.
“Hahahahaha! Nice joke, cupcake! Hahah! Hyperion and sending sympathy cards, hahaha!”

Rhys gulped. “Well…” He blushed a bit. “I just thought it would be a good idea. It would give Hyperion a better public image.”
“Doesn’t Hyperion have a good image now?” “It’s known for your strict regime, Jack. To say it… nicely.”
“You mean it’s known for me killing all those people that get on my nerves and can’t do their given work properly?” Rhys thought if it was alright to affirm this and decided a subtle nod was an okay answer to that.

“Well… You’re my partner, right? I trust in your decision, the bandit incident showed me that I can do that, so let’s just try this for once.” Jack said while he clicked with a pen and then started to actually sign the papers with a messy handwriting.
“But since you wrote them and you’re my partner, I want you to sign them as well, kiddo.”
He said and slid the first paper across the table towards where Rhys was sitting.
Rhys rolled his eyes. That meant he wouldn’t get out of Jack’s office for another while…

***

“So kiddo…” Jack said while taking a sip of his coffee, mumbling the words into the cup. “Could you tell me what you did in my back room last week?”
Rhys nearly messed up his writing, his heart making a jump in his chest. A short flashback of him standing in the staff room, searching for information and then the weird kiss played in the back of his head. He tried to hide his surprise but Jack noticed it anyways. The kid was just too easy to read most of the time. “Chill cupcake. I just wanna know! No need to get scared.” He tried to calm him down.

“I… I researched something about an eridium mine that was stated in one of our latest deals… The department head told me that you moved some of the records to your personal office. I didn’t wanna snoop around or something.” He fumbled with his pen nervously.
“And what did you find?”
“Informations of the vault where… with… with the warrior. I didn’t read them all the way though. I…” Jack had put his pen down with a rather loud smack.

“You already know what happened there. I showed you myself.” “Yes.”
“Can we agree, that you just ask me, before you snoop around here? I said the room doesn’t have to bother you, when you got this job…” Rhys felt guilty. He should have at least asked his boss about the files he needed.
“I’m sorry, Jack.”
Was that why Jack had kissed him? Was it a game? Was it some kind of punishment?
“Is that why…” He just needed to know.
“Is that why you kissed me? To, I don’t know, shock me? Punish me? Because it worked then…”

Jack stared at Rhys. That would explain why he was surprised and fled, right?
“Er… Actually no.” He wanted to be honest. Now Rhys looked confused. “Then why…?”
“Simply because I wanted to. I felt like doing it for a while and then it just happened. You’re dancin’ all day around me with that cute face, how could I resist you? You didn’t seem to like it though.”
“You surprised me! Do you think it’s funny to get so close to somebody?”
“I didn’t know this. Neither did I intend this. I just like you and wanted to…” Jack stopped talking when Rhys choked loudly on his own breath, grabbing the desk plate to steady himself.

Jack didn’t seem to notice what he just said. Rhys clearly had. “I just like you…” Okay, calm down Rhys, he told himself but he was not able to. He had said it so suddenly and out of nowhere.
“Kiddo, ya okay?” Rhys shook his head.
“Damn, just breathe, you idiot!” Jack said, rushing to Rhys side and patting his back.
With a deep breath, Rhys finally sucked in some air.
The touch of Jack’s hand felt like an electric shock, even through his clothes.

“I’m okay… Just… Eh, just choked on my own breath I guess…”
„You’re quite a clumsy fellow, sweet pie. Well, what did I want to say?” Again, Jack clicked with his pen and it made Rhys even more nervous.

“You wanted to say how much you like me.”
“Did I?” Jack laughed, but then his expression changed to a more serious face. “Well it’s true, right? I mean you got me into my own body and back on Helios. You’re my PA, of course I would like you.”
“And do you kiss all of your PA’s?” Rhys asked boldly.
“If they have a pretty face and ass like yours, why wouldn’t I?” the CEO gave him a wink.
“Was it that bad? Can’t I like you?” “Ah, no! That’s not… So this isn’t a joke?”
“Rhysie, you are stupid.” Jack took him by his shoulders and rotated his chair, so that Rhys would fully face him.
“I like ya. You’re pretty and even if you’re clumsy as hell, you’re kinda cute.”

The younger man was forced to look into the mismatched eyes of Jack. Just for a little moment he wondered, if the eyes of this body had the exact colour as the one before the incident. His breath quickened again, when Jack leaned closer and his face was just centimetres away from his own.
“Thanks?”
So the kiss wasn’t a mistake. Jack had wanted the contact. Jack was… attracted to him?
He still wasn’t sure if this was just a joke, but he actually wouldn’t complain about Handsome Jack liking him. Damn, his younger self would’ve freaked out.

But now, after everything that had happened down on Pandora, he wasn’t sure anymore, if this was a good thing. Yeah, Jack was his hero, but as Vaughn had said, he did have his negative site.
“Just thanks?” Jack raised his right eyebrow in concern. “Baby, I’m pouring my heart out to you, and all you say is thanks?”
Rhys could feel Jack’s breath on his face. Was it breath? Could Jack’s new body actually breathe? He didn’t know how the other’s new body worked at all!

“How about ‘I like you too, oh handsomest of handsome Jacks!’? Or don’t you like me back? Studies say 10/10 people would like to date Handsome Jack. Or kill him. Depends on who you ask.”
Rhys huffed. “There might be a time where I would have loved to hear this.” Rhys admitted.

“So you really don’t like me back?”
“I didn’t say that. Why are we even talking about this?” Rhys asked a bit annoyed because this was kind of embarrassing. He didn’t feel like admitting having a crush on the person that was actually right in front of him right now. Or ever.
“God damn, because I want to feel those lips again!” Jack nearly cried out. He reached forward, his hands lingering above Rhys cheeks, but not touching, kind of waiting for the others affirmation.

Rhys forced himself to stop thinking. Yes there was bad stuff about Jack. But all he saw right now was the good Jack. The Jack, that actually asked for his permission to kiss him.

He closed his eyes, all he wanted was to do what his heart was telling him to do. And that was letting this crush keep going and burn through him.

A few seconds later, warm lips crushed onto his. Jack had gotten on his knees next to the sitting Rhys, his big hands grabbed the other one’s maroon coloured hair and pulled him into his embrace. It was a hungry, forceful kiss Rhys was dragged into. Open mouths, Jack’s tongue that seemed to examine every centimetre of Rhys’ mouth. Their teeth clattered together, when Rhys started to reply the kiss. Engaging into the tongue fight, his hands found Jack’s shoulders and clawed into them.
It had been a long time since someone had kissed him like this. All he could feel was need and affection from Jack through the kiss. How long had he actually wanted to do this?
Stop thinking, Rhys had to remind himself. Let Jack guide you.
And that’s what he did.

He didn’t know how long it had taken them to get back to reality, finally parting and trying to catch their breaths. Both their faces flushed red, with glossy eyes, they looked at each other.
“Damn cupcake. I would’ve admitted liking you sooner, if I’d known ya could kiss like that.” Jack chuckled. “Now please don’t run away and let’s do this again?”

All Rhys did was grab Jack by his collar and drag him into another wild kiss.