Fanfic: Not for you to take
Dec. 8th, 2014 04:11 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
nessaniel.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
nowhere_boysTitle: It's not for you to take
Summary: Jake tries to apologize to Mike.
Pairings: Jake/Felix if you squint
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~ 2300 words
Disclaimer: Nowhere Boys belongs to ABC and not me.
Author's Notes: For![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
seraphina_snape who left a wonderful prompt over at the comment fic meme (like a year ago. Yeah, sorry about that.). This fanfic contains spoilers for episode 13!
Also it was jossed heavily by the second season (damn I am slow).
It's not for you to take
The other Mike was taller, thought Jake which was perhaps a bit silly. The other Mike was living in this other world where all the tiny little details like height or hair color were the same and only the stuff that really mattered was different, like family and friends. So it made absolutely no sense that the real Mike – or rather the one Jake knew and had grown up with – would appear smaller and even more fragile than his wormhole-universe-cousin.
They were standing in the alley next to the pharmacy, a shortcut from school to the quieter streets with the small flats, and Mike looked like he was about to make a run for it. He desperately clutched his backpack to his chest, the unicorn plushy sticking out on top.
“Don't be afraid”, Jake stammered awkwardly as if he was talking to a scared animal.
“I-I'm not!” Mike practically shrieked and suddenly it dawned on Jake that maybe this Mike only appeared smaller because he was hunched over in terror, trying to vanish into the brick wall behind him.
Jake hastily took two steps back so that Mike wouldn't feel like Jake was looming over him menacingly. He wasn't used to people being this tiny. The other boys on the sports team were rather tall themselves or at least they were buff like Sam. Jake had never felt the need to restrain himself when he was with them.
Even now, that a scrawny guy like Felix and a skinny dude like Andy had proven to him firsthand what they were capable off – which was so much more than Jake with his too big hands and giant feet and oversized legs could ever hope to do – it was still a strange sight.
Nonetheless he had sworn never to hurt anyone ever again. He wanted to be a better person and there were a lot of loose ends in this world that he had to fix, starting with Mike who was still looking at him like he had just eaten a baby.
“What do you want?” he asked and Jake sighed. He had come to apologize of course, but how could he say “I saw the error of my ways because I was trapped in another dimension for about two weeks with three people I had never before considered as friends” without coming off as completely crazy?
“I...uh, I like your unicorn”, he offered, gesturing helplessly towards Mike's plushie.
“You cannot have him. Ever” came the immediate hate filled answered.
“What? No! I would never take him! By force, I mean.”
This was so not going as planned, Jake thought, and sighed, putting a rather desperate smile on his face.
“Mike, I... I just really like him alright?”
Hesitation flickered across Mike's face, like he couldn't quite believe his ears although he wanted to. He put his head down, shuffled his feet apart.
“Well. He doesn't like you!”
And with that, Mike jumped forward, rammed his head right into Jake's stomach and ran past him down the alley.
“Uff!” Jake stumbled backwards, completely surprised and stared in awe after Mike's retreating form.
This really hadn't gone as planned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
“Maybe it would have worked if you hadn't cornered him in a dark alley right after school.”
Jake scowled.
“It was four in the afternoon and I didn't corner him at all, okay?”
Felix grinned smugly and Jake wondered how much he was actually enjoying this. They were sitting in Felix' room, stuffing themselves with sweets and crackers – not because they were hungry but because the weeks in the hut had made them greedy to eat whatever they could whenever they could. Sam constantly laughed at them. “Finally you get me. Took you long enough, dudes.”
Felix shrugged. “Just saying. No matter what happened to us, the others are still convinced that we just spent some days in the woods. Two weeks aren't even that long of a time, I mean, Mike was probably glad that there was one less guy to steal his rainbow colored friend.”
Jake could see that as soon as the words left Felix' mouth he regretted them but he still chocked on his cracker. He coughed, punching against his own chest and frantically grabbing the glass next to his feet.
“Jake, I...” Felix said, but Jake just hissed angrily, while he took too big gulps of lemonade and tried not to drown himself.
“I know, okay?” he muttered angrily towards his knees. “I screwed up, alright! Big time, I know. But I want to change, really I do, and I just want to apologize. I... I don't want to hurt anybody, never again and least of all Mike who is just kind of there and would never do something to anyone and...”
Suddenly a hand sneaked up on his arm and Jake flinched, hands stopping in midair and all this anger, sadness and helplessness still on his tongue ready to spring from his lips.
“Don't”, said Felix quietly, looking at him with sad dark eyes. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I know that you are not the same anymore.”
Jake snorted, his throat becoming very tight all of a sudden. “None of us are.”
Felix smiled halfheartedly. “True.”
They were silent for a moment and Jake noticed that Felix' hand stayed on his shoulder, rubbing circles on his upper arm. It felt weirdly consoling and when Felix finally drew back his hand, nervously clearing his throat, Jake had to suppress a sigh.
“You want to apologize to Mike, right” Felix murmured, more fact than actual question.
“Of course.”
“Why.”
“What?” Jake was confused.
“Why do you want to apologize to Mike? You could always just stop harassing him and leave it at that, couldn't you?”
“B-but...” Jake was at a loss. He looked at Felix but his face bore a carefully guarded expression and Jake suddenly knew that he was being tested. He gestured around, hoping to pluck the right words from thin air. “He deserves an apology. It's... the right thing to do.”
Felix still looked at him suspiciously. “That's not all of it” he said, voice flat but not unfriendly.
Jake didn't like where this was going, but Felix' scrutinizing look made it impossible not to answer. It had only taken two weeks in another dimension for the other boy to get under his skin and it surprised Jake how much he didn't mind.
“I don't know what you mean” admitted Jake after a while. “Do you think I shouldn't apologize? I was horrible to him.”
Felix sighed but his face softened. “No, if you want to, go and apologize. But you should know that the thing you actually want – it's not for you to demand but for Mike to give, you know?”
“Do you make money by being so vague?”
“It comes with the black clothes and metal music. Mysterious goth here, remember?”
“Yeah, thought so.”
They smiled goofily at each other, until Felix cleared his throat again. He almost looked like he was blushing but that was probably due to the sudden heat in the room. Jake himself felt rather hot, too.
“I'm talking about redemption.”
“What?”
Felix rolled his eyes. “Oh forgive me, I am apparently speaking in tongues again? I meant forgiveness.”
Jake furrowed his brow. “I know what you meant, I'm not stupid” he murmured, although that was only half true. Felix seemed to sense his confusion. He hesitated for a moment, as if he was about to tell a terrible secret, then he sighed and shuffled his feet, avoiding Jake's look.
“You know... it's great that you want to apologize to Mike, really. But maybe... maybe Mike isn't ready to forgive you just yet. Give him time. He didn't see you change like I did... I mean we. Andy and Sam. He probably thinks that you are just pretending to be nice so you can have a laugh at his expense later when you expose him in front of all the other bullies and...”
Felix stopped mid-sentence, coughed and seemed to take a sudden interest in his threadbare sleeves.
Jake was staring at him incredulously.
“That's... cruel as hell” he said quietly, his head spinning from the sudden change in Felix' mood.
“I know, right?”, Felix said, trying for a casual tone, but Jake could hear the strain on his voice anyway. “Good thing I was never popular, I'd have been the devil.”
“I don't think so”, said Jake immediately. He was surprised by how much it hurt him to see Felix being so miserable and resisting the urge to hug him tightly was almost impossible. In the end, he merely took Felix' hand in his own, hiding the broken nail polish beneath his own fingers. Felix gasped, but Jake didn't let go of him. He knew Felix. Sometimes he needed a push.
After some heartbeats Felix relaxed in Jake's grip, staring at their entwined hands like a foreign object.
“You are a good...person”, Jake said earnestly, rubbing soothing circles over Felix' hot skin. It was awkward and probably not that good, but it was all Jake had to give. It had to be enough.
“Right”, said Felix, reluctantly but he didn't draw his hand away. “That's why I took you all through a wormhole with me, because I am so 'good' and not selfish at all.”
A warm fingertip touched against Jake’s wrist, unsure whether it was allowed to stay or not. A stupid grin tugged on Jake's mouth.
“You did it for your brother”, he explained as he had to Sam, back there in Phoebe's shop. “That's not selfish. And even if it was, I wouldn't care at all. You are a great guy, Felix. And a great witch.”
It was only after he noticed Felix' stunned look that Jake's brain caught up with his mouth. He blushed, tried to draw back his hand but Felix wouldn't let him.
They were silent for a moment.
Maybe he should say something else, Jake thought, something clever and witty to lighten the mood, but as Felix continued to caress his fingers, he knew that it wasn't necessary. They understood each other better without words anyway.
Felix cleared his throat.
“So I'm not...the devil?”
Jake laughed. “Not even you are that goth”, he said mockingly and as Felix' eyes lit up in amusement, Jake felt his heart double its speed for a brief moment.
Finally, Felix freed his hand, rubbed his face and smiled nervously.
“Back to the actual problem” he said softly and Jake nodded.
“I'll try to talk to Mike again”, he said. “And I'll remember what you said to me. But only...”
Felix furrowed his brow. “Only what?”
“Only when you promise me to heed your own advice”, Jake said, the words rushing out of him before he could stop himself. Not that he wanted to. “You should go to Oscar. I feel you need to pick up some forgiveness that's long overdue.”
Felix said nothing, staring at Jake like he was seeing him for the first time and when Jake got up and went to the door, he didn't try to stop him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day Jake made sure that none of the other guys from the sports team were with him when he went to find Mike during lunch break.
“Oh no, not again!” Mike said, bracing himself against the railing he was leaning against. If he had had claws, they would have been out by now, Jake imagined. “What do you want?”
“Nothing”, Jake answered. He drew a heavy breath and smiled. “Just talk.”
“I don’t want to talk to you. And neither does he”, Mike hissed, gesturing over to where the plushy was sitting next to him on the rail. “Leave me alone.”
It hurt. Badly so, as if somebody had stabbed him with a knife and was now refusing to pull it out, but Jake knew he had to soldier on though.
This wasn’t about him, he told himself. This was about Mike.
“I will”, Jake said, with a smile that only felt a little bit forced. “I just... look, Mike, I know I behaved like an idiot. I just want you to know that ... that I meant what I said yesterday. I want to apologise, alright? And if you feel like ... like you can forgive me, then just tell me, alright? I won’t bother you anymore.”
Jake looked again, grinning sheepishly. He didn’t know what else to say. The whole thing didn’t feel finished to him but Mike just gaped at him like a run over frog. Not much help from there, Jake thought.
“Anyway. See you. You too”, he added with a nod to the plushy, then he turned around and walked back to the school.
It took him until the main entrance but then he actually felt a lot better already.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When he went back to the classroom, Felix was already waiting for him at his desk.
“Hey”, he said quietly, before Jake could open his mouth. “How did it go?”
“Great”, Jake answered, eyeing Felix carefully but the shy grin that spread across his face resolved all his doubts. “How did it go for you?”
“Great” came the honest, happy and very relieved answer. “Absolutely great.”
- End
Summary: Jake tries to apologize to Mike.
Pairings: Jake/Felix if you squint
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~ 2300 words
Disclaimer: Nowhere Boys belongs to ABC and not me.
Author's Notes: For
seraphina_snape who left a wonderful prompt over at the comment fic meme (like a year ago. Yeah, sorry about that.). This fanfic contains spoilers for episode 13!Also it was jossed heavily by the second season (damn I am slow).
It's not for you to take
The other Mike was taller, thought Jake which was perhaps a bit silly. The other Mike was living in this other world where all the tiny little details like height or hair color were the same and only the stuff that really mattered was different, like family and friends. So it made absolutely no sense that the real Mike – or rather the one Jake knew and had grown up with – would appear smaller and even more fragile than his wormhole-universe-cousin.
They were standing in the alley next to the pharmacy, a shortcut from school to the quieter streets with the small flats, and Mike looked like he was about to make a run for it. He desperately clutched his backpack to his chest, the unicorn plushy sticking out on top.
“Don't be afraid”, Jake stammered awkwardly as if he was talking to a scared animal.
“I-I'm not!” Mike practically shrieked and suddenly it dawned on Jake that maybe this Mike only appeared smaller because he was hunched over in terror, trying to vanish into the brick wall behind him.
Jake hastily took two steps back so that Mike wouldn't feel like Jake was looming over him menacingly. He wasn't used to people being this tiny. The other boys on the sports team were rather tall themselves or at least they were buff like Sam. Jake had never felt the need to restrain himself when he was with them.
Even now, that a scrawny guy like Felix and a skinny dude like Andy had proven to him firsthand what they were capable off – which was so much more than Jake with his too big hands and giant feet and oversized legs could ever hope to do – it was still a strange sight.
Nonetheless he had sworn never to hurt anyone ever again. He wanted to be a better person and there were a lot of loose ends in this world that he had to fix, starting with Mike who was still looking at him like he had just eaten a baby.
“What do you want?” he asked and Jake sighed. He had come to apologize of course, but how could he say “I saw the error of my ways because I was trapped in another dimension for about two weeks with three people I had never before considered as friends” without coming off as completely crazy?
“I...uh, I like your unicorn”, he offered, gesturing helplessly towards Mike's plushie.
“You cannot have him. Ever” came the immediate hate filled answered.
“What? No! I would never take him! By force, I mean.”
This was so not going as planned, Jake thought, and sighed, putting a rather desperate smile on his face.
“Mike, I... I just really like him alright?”
Hesitation flickered across Mike's face, like he couldn't quite believe his ears although he wanted to. He put his head down, shuffled his feet apart.
“Well. He doesn't like you!”
And with that, Mike jumped forward, rammed his head right into Jake's stomach and ran past him down the alley.
“Uff!” Jake stumbled backwards, completely surprised and stared in awe after Mike's retreating form.
This really hadn't gone as planned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
“Maybe it would have worked if you hadn't cornered him in a dark alley right after school.”
Jake scowled.
“It was four in the afternoon and I didn't corner him at all, okay?”
Felix grinned smugly and Jake wondered how much he was actually enjoying this. They were sitting in Felix' room, stuffing themselves with sweets and crackers – not because they were hungry but because the weeks in the hut had made them greedy to eat whatever they could whenever they could. Sam constantly laughed at them. “Finally you get me. Took you long enough, dudes.”
Felix shrugged. “Just saying. No matter what happened to us, the others are still convinced that we just spent some days in the woods. Two weeks aren't even that long of a time, I mean, Mike was probably glad that there was one less guy to steal his rainbow colored friend.”
Jake could see that as soon as the words left Felix' mouth he regretted them but he still chocked on his cracker. He coughed, punching against his own chest and frantically grabbing the glass next to his feet.
“Jake, I...” Felix said, but Jake just hissed angrily, while he took too big gulps of lemonade and tried not to drown himself.
“I know, okay?” he muttered angrily towards his knees. “I screwed up, alright! Big time, I know. But I want to change, really I do, and I just want to apologize. I... I don't want to hurt anybody, never again and least of all Mike who is just kind of there and would never do something to anyone and...”
Suddenly a hand sneaked up on his arm and Jake flinched, hands stopping in midair and all this anger, sadness and helplessness still on his tongue ready to spring from his lips.
“Don't”, said Felix quietly, looking at him with sad dark eyes. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I know that you are not the same anymore.”
Jake snorted, his throat becoming very tight all of a sudden. “None of us are.”
Felix smiled halfheartedly. “True.”
They were silent for a moment and Jake noticed that Felix' hand stayed on his shoulder, rubbing circles on his upper arm. It felt weirdly consoling and when Felix finally drew back his hand, nervously clearing his throat, Jake had to suppress a sigh.
“You want to apologize to Mike, right” Felix murmured, more fact than actual question.
“Of course.”
“Why.”
“What?” Jake was confused.
“Why do you want to apologize to Mike? You could always just stop harassing him and leave it at that, couldn't you?”
“B-but...” Jake was at a loss. He looked at Felix but his face bore a carefully guarded expression and Jake suddenly knew that he was being tested. He gestured around, hoping to pluck the right words from thin air. “He deserves an apology. It's... the right thing to do.”
Felix still looked at him suspiciously. “That's not all of it” he said, voice flat but not unfriendly.
Jake didn't like where this was going, but Felix' scrutinizing look made it impossible not to answer. It had only taken two weeks in another dimension for the other boy to get under his skin and it surprised Jake how much he didn't mind.
“I don't know what you mean” admitted Jake after a while. “Do you think I shouldn't apologize? I was horrible to him.”
Felix sighed but his face softened. “No, if you want to, go and apologize. But you should know that the thing you actually want – it's not for you to demand but for Mike to give, you know?”
“Do you make money by being so vague?”
“It comes with the black clothes and metal music. Mysterious goth here, remember?”
“Yeah, thought so.”
They smiled goofily at each other, until Felix cleared his throat again. He almost looked like he was blushing but that was probably due to the sudden heat in the room. Jake himself felt rather hot, too.
“I'm talking about redemption.”
“What?”
Felix rolled his eyes. “Oh forgive me, I am apparently speaking in tongues again? I meant forgiveness.”
Jake furrowed his brow. “I know what you meant, I'm not stupid” he murmured, although that was only half true. Felix seemed to sense his confusion. He hesitated for a moment, as if he was about to tell a terrible secret, then he sighed and shuffled his feet, avoiding Jake's look.
“You know... it's great that you want to apologize to Mike, really. But maybe... maybe Mike isn't ready to forgive you just yet. Give him time. He didn't see you change like I did... I mean we. Andy and Sam. He probably thinks that you are just pretending to be nice so you can have a laugh at his expense later when you expose him in front of all the other bullies and...”
Felix stopped mid-sentence, coughed and seemed to take a sudden interest in his threadbare sleeves.
Jake was staring at him incredulously.
“That's... cruel as hell” he said quietly, his head spinning from the sudden change in Felix' mood.
“I know, right?”, Felix said, trying for a casual tone, but Jake could hear the strain on his voice anyway. “Good thing I was never popular, I'd have been the devil.”
“I don't think so”, said Jake immediately. He was surprised by how much it hurt him to see Felix being so miserable and resisting the urge to hug him tightly was almost impossible. In the end, he merely took Felix' hand in his own, hiding the broken nail polish beneath his own fingers. Felix gasped, but Jake didn't let go of him. He knew Felix. Sometimes he needed a push.
After some heartbeats Felix relaxed in Jake's grip, staring at their entwined hands like a foreign object.
“You are a good...person”, Jake said earnestly, rubbing soothing circles over Felix' hot skin. It was awkward and probably not that good, but it was all Jake had to give. It had to be enough.
“Right”, said Felix, reluctantly but he didn't draw his hand away. “That's why I took you all through a wormhole with me, because I am so 'good' and not selfish at all.”
A warm fingertip touched against Jake’s wrist, unsure whether it was allowed to stay or not. A stupid grin tugged on Jake's mouth.
“You did it for your brother”, he explained as he had to Sam, back there in Phoebe's shop. “That's not selfish. And even if it was, I wouldn't care at all. You are a great guy, Felix. And a great witch.”
It was only after he noticed Felix' stunned look that Jake's brain caught up with his mouth. He blushed, tried to draw back his hand but Felix wouldn't let him.
They were silent for a moment.
Maybe he should say something else, Jake thought, something clever and witty to lighten the mood, but as Felix continued to caress his fingers, he knew that it wasn't necessary. They understood each other better without words anyway.
Felix cleared his throat.
“So I'm not...the devil?”
Jake laughed. “Not even you are that goth”, he said mockingly and as Felix' eyes lit up in amusement, Jake felt his heart double its speed for a brief moment.
Finally, Felix freed his hand, rubbed his face and smiled nervously.
“Back to the actual problem” he said softly and Jake nodded.
“I'll try to talk to Mike again”, he said. “And I'll remember what you said to me. But only...”
Felix furrowed his brow. “Only what?”
“Only when you promise me to heed your own advice”, Jake said, the words rushing out of him before he could stop himself. Not that he wanted to. “You should go to Oscar. I feel you need to pick up some forgiveness that's long overdue.”
Felix said nothing, staring at Jake like he was seeing him for the first time and when Jake got up and went to the door, he didn't try to stop him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day Jake made sure that none of the other guys from the sports team were with him when he went to find Mike during lunch break.
“Oh no, not again!” Mike said, bracing himself against the railing he was leaning against. If he had had claws, they would have been out by now, Jake imagined. “What do you want?”
“Nothing”, Jake answered. He drew a heavy breath and smiled. “Just talk.”
“I don’t want to talk to you. And neither does he”, Mike hissed, gesturing over to where the plushy was sitting next to him on the rail. “Leave me alone.”
It hurt. Badly so, as if somebody had stabbed him with a knife and was now refusing to pull it out, but Jake knew he had to soldier on though.
This wasn’t about him, he told himself. This was about Mike.
“I will”, Jake said, with a smile that only felt a little bit forced. “I just... look, Mike, I know I behaved like an idiot. I just want you to know that ... that I meant what I said yesterday. I want to apologise, alright? And if you feel like ... like you can forgive me, then just tell me, alright? I won’t bother you anymore.”
Jake looked again, grinning sheepishly. He didn’t know what else to say. The whole thing didn’t feel finished to him but Mike just gaped at him like a run over frog. Not much help from there, Jake thought.
“Anyway. See you. You too”, he added with a nod to the plushy, then he turned around and walked back to the school.
It took him until the main entrance but then he actually felt a lot better already.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When he went back to the classroom, Felix was already waiting for him at his desk.
“Hey”, he said quietly, before Jake could open his mouth. “How did it go?”
“Great”, Jake answered, eyeing Felix carefully but the shy grin that spread across his face resolved all his doubts. “How did it go for you?”
“Great” came the honest, happy and very relieved answer. “Absolutely great.”
- End
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-12-10 11:01 am (UTC)Yes, yes he does! And maybe he will? The clean up scene hinted at that, I think. xD
If they need help, they'll ask and you have to trust in that.
Yeah you are absolutely right. Sorry to hear about your mum *hugs* but she seems like a great and strong person =D
no subject
Date: 2014-12-11 08:15 am (UTC)Thanks! My mum is pretty okay - the doctors back then were amazed at how much and how quickly she recovered.