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The day had just begun and already, someone had pissed him off. Sure that wasn’t the most difficult thing to do but nevertheless, his mood had been thoroughly dampened. Right after letting out a chuckle at the scream the employee had let out when being sent down the trap door hidden in his office he heard a strange noise.
Turning to the fast travel station he had had installed in his office he noticed someone was materialising through it. No one should be able to use that but him, he even coded the firewall himself to ensure it was secure. Before he could ponder anymore, a young woman had appeared, a worried look on her face as she looked around the room until her eyes locked on him.
“Who are you and how the hell did you get in here?” he called out. Yeah she was pretty cute with that confused look on her face but he could explore that once he’d assessed the threat. Though that must have been the wrong approach, as ‘the threat’ was now storming towards him.
“Who am I? Who the hell are you and what just happened?” she said, the nerves still present underneath the layers of anger in her otherwise sweet sounding voice.
“I’m Handsome fucking Jack princess,” he said as he stood from his chair “and you better calm down before I let my impulses get the best of me,”
“Where even are we?” she called out, the same tone persistent in her voice as she turned around, stopping dead in her tracks as she saw the window behind her “Is that the fucking moon?”
Slowly Jack was starting to believe her concern, bringing his own voice down to a lower volume and trying to remove the air of self centrism from his usual cadence as he asked her to take a seat across from him. She obliged, even if she was glaring at him the whole time,
“What’s your name?” he asked, more gentle this time even if he did still sound annoyed. This was taking time out of his ever important day but he couldn’t lie, he was bored and this was interesting.
After a few more seconds of shooting daggers his way, she finally responded, “Y/n,” before looking down at her lap where she picked at her nails anxiously “Where am I?”
Jack pondered for a second, does she really not know? Until he remembered the device he had recently been shown by one of his research and development team, or as Jack liked to call them regrettable and detestable. Leaning over to press a finger to the button on his desk, he called down to the department.
“Bring me that thing from earlier,” and as if they were terrified of what may happen if they took too long, two of his employees showed up promptly, panting from the rush and carrying a box in their hands. Jack gestured for them to place it on his desk and go as he began to explain “This is a lie detector,” as he pulled out a small white cube “I appreciate that you seem stressed but there are a lot of people out there who would use exactly your kind of story to get close enough to kill me,”
“How is that a lie detector?” she asked, confused as she expected the usual mess of wires common in her time.
“If you lie it’ll turn red, if you tell the truth it’ll turn green,” He responded as the cube lit up green, letting out a ding. “How did you get here?”
“I don’t know.” she replied timidly as the cube flashed green, dinging again, “Are we in space?”
Jack couldn’t help but chuckle “Asking your own questions now doll? We’re on Helios so yeah, space.” green lighting up the room again “Why are you so surprised by that?”
“Because isn’t space for trained astronauts and also if you haven’t forgotten I appeared here out of nowhere.” the girl explained, her voice raising with each word. “I just want to go home.” the box lit up green.
Jack went quiet for a moment, the smirk falling from his face. “This question is a long shot but you really seem confused by the technology here.” he began “What year do you think it is?”
“It’s 2023,” she replied, considering adding a remark about how stupid of a question that was but stopping as she found herself looking around the room dimly lit in green. Her eyes stopped once again though as they landed on Jack, now sat with a more serious look on his face, almost as if he was sad to tell her the next thing.
“It’s 2867.” He replied, his face being lit in green.
Normally, she would protest to this answer but looking back on the events of her day, the unbelievable was probably the truth.
“Can,” she started before choking back tears “Can you send me back home?”
“No,” green light.
That night, Jack had set her up in his own quarters after interrogating her some more. He was sure she was telling the truth and didn’t want anyone bothering her after the day she’d had. Not that he would ever admit it, but he liked her. Even after learning she would probably never get home, she was cracking jokes that left him with no choice but to laugh.
Over the next few days, she began to come to terms with her new life, waking up in Jack’s bed as he slept on his couch despite her arguments.
“You’re running a whole mega corporation you need the sleep more than me,” she would contest.
“I prefer the couch kiddo,” he’d say “Unless you’re inviting me to join you,”
There was no way that the Handsome Jack was going to admit he enjoyed having her waiting for him when he cam home, let alone that he was willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of his back just so she could have a better night’s sleep.
Over the next few days he started bringing her with him to his office whenever his day was slow, the company was nice.
“So what is this then?” she asked him, pulling him out of his thoughts as she pointed at the fast travel.
“It’s a teleport system, you can use it to go anywhere on Helios,” He replied, smiling as he watched her look at it with wonder before redirecting her bewilderment to the echo device he was currently making notes on. “This is an Echo, I can use it to record or write notes and send messages,”
“Oh like a phone then,” she replied as she leaned over him to take a closer look and as he looked up at her he felt his heart beating faster. No way was he going soft for her, he reassured himself, but as she sat herself down on the edge of his desk, he couldn’t do anything but watch her as his mouth curled into an unfamiliar smile, this one softer, and gentler than his signature grin. However he wasn’t the only one who noticed this, and she felt her cheeks flush into a soft pink.
Before he realised what he was doing, he had risen to his feet, stepping closer to her hesitantly before he put a hand to her face, his thumb running up and down her cheek as she looked up at him with those innocent e/c eyes. Little did they know, the fast travel had begun whirring again as she leaned up, their lips meeting in a sweet kiss.
When she opened her eyes to the lack of sensation on her lips, she was back where she was before she had met him.