OTA

[logan_echolls]

His knuckles connected with skin, and for the first time in days, Logan felt alive.

He honestly couldn't remember what the fight had started over, but it had begun in a bar and spilled out onto the street in a matter of moments. He wasn't winning, Logan was sure of that, but he honestly didn't care. Even as he crashed to the pavement and the other man's boot made contact with his gut, Logan only laughed through the pain.

His lip was bleeding, and his cheek was already bruised- Still, the fight wasn't slowing down at all, and likely wouldn't end until someone stepped in- Or one of them stopped breathing.

Comments

[im_torchwood]

Jack opened the paper bag with the medical supplies and began to lay things out.

"Come here. Let me see to that. You'll get an infection if we don't clean you up," he said, trying to put dreams out of his mind...and failing.

[logan_echolls]

Logan went to the mini bar and grabbed a beer first, but eventually made his way over to Jack and sat down across from him.

[im_torchwood]

Jack soaked a gauze pad and then took Logan's hand. There was something achingly familiar in the weight of the man's hand and Jack paused for a moment before setting to the task of cleaning his wounds.

[logan_echolls]

Logan felt it too, his fingers curling slightly, as if they itched to hold on.

"You find an apartment here yet?" he asked, clering his throat and opening his beer with his free hand.

[im_torchwood]

"The place I work for set me up with a place," he replied, carefully dabbing Logan's knuckles. Then he moved the gauze and gently blew on them to dry them.

He wasn't sure what possessed him to do that.

[logan_echolls]

Logan tensed, then pulled away slightly.

"Right, that's... That's cool, man," he said awkwardly. "You want a beer?"

[im_torchwood]

"Sure," he said. He rarely drank anything other than water but at the moment a beer sounded like a very good idea.

[logan_echolls]

Logan nodded, and as soon as his hand was wrapped, he moved to grab Jack a beer.

"You ever been to Hawaii? Like, uh, recently or whatever?" he tried curiously. "Somewhere tropical, with a jungle, and, like... A beach. Not like the beaches in Cali though."

[im_torchwood]

Jack wanted to say no, because he hadn't been anywhere tropical in ages, but something stopped him and he gave Logan a quizzical look.

"You surf?" he asked, rather than answer.

[logan_echolls]

"I- Yeah. I surf. Or I used to. Not easy to catch a wave in London," Logan replied, looking at Jack and wondering where that question had come from.

"Did we surf together once?" he asked.

[im_torchwood]

Jack shook his head, denying that, and he struggled to grasp anything else. All he could think of was the man before him in black neoprene, open to his waist. Tanned. Hair mussed and dried crisp with salt. He could see it and then just as quickly the vision passed and he was lost.

"No," he said. "I don't surf."

[logan_echolls]

Logan wilted slightly at that, then forced a smile and a shrug.

"You should. There's nothing better than sunrise and that first wave," he said, handing Jack the bottle, then sitting back down.

[im_torchwood]

"It must be hell for you living here. You can't exactly surf the Thames," Jack noted.

[logan_echolls]

"It's not great," Logan admitted. "And I don't get to the shore very often. ...I don't go anywhere that often any more."

[im_torchwood]

"Because of school?" he asked.

[logan_echolls]

Logan shook his head no, then shrugged.

"I might drop out anyway though. It's not really working out."

[im_torchwood]

"What would you do if you weren't going to school? Going to buy a rail pass and bum around Europe for a year?" he asked.

[logan_echolls]

"Honestly? I'll either wind up back in Neptune, or the Navy," Logan shrugged. "You know, if I don't end up dead first."

[im_torchwood]

"Well if tonight's fight is any indication..." Jack said, but let it trail off.

He paused, buying time with a sip of beer.

"Why the Navy?"

[logan_echolls]

"It just makes more sense to me than the army, I guess," Logan shrugged. " but, whatever, we've been talking about me all night. ...What's your deal? You got a family or whatever? Wife and kids?"

[im_torchwood]

"No. I've got a job. I just broke up with my boyfriend before I moved. It...made sense," he said. "I've got no idea how long my company wants me in London and I couldn't ask him to wait for me."

[logan_echolls]

"Oh," Logan replied, clearly a little surprised to hear the other man was gay. "Right, cool."

[im_torchwood]

Jack smiled.

"Thank you for not saying you're sorry. I hate when people do that," he said, smiling softly.

[logan_echolls]

Logan offered a soft laugh, finishing his beer and shaking his head.

"I know all about how 'sorry' is usually the last thing you want to hear, man."

[im_torchwood]

Jack nodded and took another long drink of his beer.

And then he found he...didn't know what to say. He wanted to say a dozen things, but nothing coalesced into anything that made sense.

So he looked at his bottle.