Episode 221: Seed (Jace)

Jace hated being that guy that sat on the couch waiting for someone to come home. He hated it, but he did it because Corban’s promotion was huge. Life changing. It was everything Corban had wanted.

He didn’t know when Corban would show up. He’d been promoted to in charge, so there was a chance it was just going to be a few years before they saw each other again.

Still, he couldn’t help it. He waited on the couch and found books to read and crosswords to pretend to do, though his answers amused him.

He clipped his toe nails, because he hadn’t done that in awhile.

He tuned his guitar and sharpened his guitar pick, which was now useless for playing but would have made an awesome mouse-sized death frisbee.

He thought about cooking, but the kitchen was clean and he didn’t want to mess that up.

Pretty much, he did nothing except check the door a thousand times. They needed a pet or something to keep him occupied.

After a few hours, he stood up and called himself an idiot and pathetic. He went to the closet and pulled out a top secret bag and started knitting stuff for the charity Niels had set up.

No one had to know. He’d learned it from his mom, and picked up the patterns the charity used for their blankets and stuffed animals.

As he worked, he felt the tension easing out of his back. Corban was fine, wherever he was. If he wasn’t, he would have said something by dragon or whatever.

Walkie-doggie…

They needed a dog. Dogs were good pets. It could carry notes between them, if it were a magic dog.

Jace stitched a dog. He made it an awesome dog with a black spot like a patch over its left eye, like a pirate.

It kept him busy, while he waited for Corban to come home and tell him how his day had gone.

He tried to think about his own day, what he could say he did. The truth was, with Niels a mess they weren’t doing much of anything. No new songs, no recordings. He’d had the idea to work on video games but he just hadn’t gotten there yet. He was too excited for the promotion.

He hadn’t even played games that night.

With his saggy knit puppy in hand, he turned to face the big tv that filled a wall of their living room.

“We need a life,” he told the dog. He set it on the table beside him and picked up a controller.

Games. That would kill some time.

He pulled out a notepad and began writing things down as he played – things he liked, things he wanted to change. This would be fun.

Some time later, the knob on the door turned. He didn’t hear it, but it had to have because Corban was standing at the side of the couch looking at him.

Jace was way too into Corban. He had tattoos everywhere and this I can do anything attitude, except at home he was soft and comfortable to just be with.

“Hey,” Corban said. He set his sword and belt down.

Jace crossed the room, the red screen filling the tv. Whatever, he’d go back to his last save point.

He kissed Corban; pulled him closer. “Hey. How was work?”

He missed the smell of sweat and mint and whatever else was layered to make Corban Corban.

“Good. They just got a whole bunch of kids, six year olds. I have to find someone who wants to die for a little, or do it myself. I have a headache.”

“I can do it,” Jace replied before he could think.

In reality, he had wanted to laugh at the headache bit, because Corban thrived off of mental buzz. He got headaches when it was too calm and quiet, if ever.

But volunteering to die worked too. Corban needed help, and Jace needed something to do. Plus his mom was dead and Niels had died that day already, so it would be equal in some way.

It sucked being a no one next to Niels. Not that Jace needed the fame, but he wanted to pull his weight not be a package on the Niels Express.

Li was content being one of those packages, enjoying the ride as she always put it.

Eddie was his own species.

“Really?” Corban said, his voice pitched. “You want to?”

“Maybe,” he said, to be neutral. He didn’t really want to die, but he wanted the rest of it. Plus he could see his mom, if there was time.

“What do I have to do?” Jace asked. “Aside from die.”

“Oh, that. You want to die?” Corban sat on the couch and leaned back. “Okay.”

What had Corban been talking about?

He racked his brain.

Six year olds, no. Death.. Apparently not.

Six year olds.

Kids.

Fuck he was a douche.

“Do you want the kids?” Jace asked.

It was a leap from knit dog to kids, but the more he thought about it the more he could imagine running laps around the couch, chasing tiny feet that fit in ridiculously small shoes, blowing raspberries on their sides as he flipped them in the air.

He could see it.

Fuck. Now he wanted kids too. Why couldn’t it have been a simple death thing.

“We can handle kids,” Jace added.

“I don’t know.” Corban pushed his shoes off and put his legs on the coffee table/knitting station. He looked over at the dog and let out a huff of air, like a laugh except he was too tired to.

Jace sat in the corner and pulled Corban’s legs onto his lap. He started massaging up the pant leg, making sure Corban’s feet and calves felt relaxed.

“I was thinking about it,” Corban admitted.

No shit.

Jace ran his middle finger nail up Corban’s foot, and watched his toes stretch in response.

“Why do you want to die?” Corban asked. “I mean… thanks. I’m just surprised, cause I don’t want to.”

Back to death. No he didn’t want to die, but someone had to. He wanted to come back from death and be the guy that was useful.

“You need someone to,” he replied. “It’s temporary and I’m easy to kill. Why not?”

“How do you want to die?” Corban asked.

“Kiss of death?” he joked. No way was he going to try and get near Talise in that way. “I don’t care. Not drowning. I’ve heard that sucks.”

He wanted to die the easy way, whatever that was, but he suspected by fact of dying there wasn’t much of an easy way, just ways that hurt less or were faster. Fast was his preference, if he was going to do this.

“If Spence helped, we could make it painless,” Corban offered, reading his mind.

Jace crawled over Corban and kissed him. “Then, when I get back, can we talk about space for kids?”

Corban kissed him back, too long. “Kids?”

Jace was almost certain Corban wanted them a ton more than he was letting on. Jace pulled away and trailed his hand down Corban’s body as he did. Once nestled back into his corner of the plush cream couch, he resumed the massage. “Why not? Niels, Li, and Eddie has kids. It’ll be fun. And six is past the worst stage.”

Niels adored Johanne now that she was older. He loved his other kids, but they came with a slew of words groaned between profanities some days too. Six sounded like a good age for them, a person with a template to work with.

“I need to tell you I love you more,” Corban said.

Yeah, and they needed to get engaged and married. Jace wanted as conventional as possible, and the kids were there already.

“There’s a thing, a seed, you have to take to Drey to give Greg when he dies,” Corban added, more business-toned.

Corban slipped his hand into Jace’s. Jace felt the weight of something small and light in his hand and clutched it. “Got it. I can manage that.”

They both got up, and shoes went on. Death was happening.

Before they left the room, Jace pivoted so Corban would smack-kiss into him.

Except Corban expected it and grinned. He kissed Jace first.

“I love you, too,” Jace said between kissed.

Corban smiled and let him into the hall. “There’s thirty of the boys. Lonan and Auberon have some kind of plan for most of them, but I don’t think they’d mind if we took one or two.”

“Thirty?” Where did they get thirty boys from? That was trafficking level shit.

“We should talk with them,” Jace commented. If there were thirty in a group, and they were all close, taking one or two would be weird. It would be like picking them off, segregating them. If Lonan and Auberon wanted a herd they should keep them all.

Except then Corban wouldn’t get his kids. Jace wouldn’t either. They’d be kidless, and it would somehow be a hole that they never had before.

“There’s going to be homeless infants soon too,” Corban pointed out.

Mind reader.

Jace glowered at him to see if he would notice, but Corban just kept walking. Fine, just a sexy boyfriend.

Almost fiance.

Almost husband.

Unless he said no, but if he was going to he wouldn’t want kids. Jace had this, he just had to plan the perfect proposal, after he died.

“We’ll see,” Jace said. Babies were a whole different game, but he wanted family, whatever shape it came in, with Corban.

“Okay.” Corban opened the door to a cell.

Spence was waiting with a bunch of stuff, ready to kill and revive him.

A chill swept down Jace’s spine. This was real. He was going to die.

He was going to see his mom.

Corban had stopped walking, enough to give Jace the time to run or whatever. He didn’t, though, he kept walking.

Jace wanted a dog still. Even if they had kids. Kids needed a dog, something to cuddle with. And matching pirate knit dogs, for however many they adopted. Two would be good.

“Hey, what’s up?” Spence asked.

“I need you to help kill me,” Jace informed him.

Why was there so much stuff around there? What had happened.

He needed to talk to Corban more.

“If anything else weird happens tonight, you’re going to have to tell me what I’m on,” Spence joked.

Corban laughed. “There’s a present for Drey, someone has to take it to him.”

“What’s so special about it?” Jace asked.

He knew better than to ask, but he had to.

“No idea. Aadya gave it to Greg before he went off to die,” Corban replied.

“So no one is sane,” Spence joked. “You should lie down.”

Jace stared at him for a second, then flopped onto the pentagon that was on the floor. Spence touched it up.

He waited while Spence did a few things. The ceiling was boring, but he tried to think through the kids thing. It would be a big shift, but his life was pretty boring at the moment.

Niels was going to be cutting back on the band again, if not disbanding it.

Spence drizzled some stuff on Jace, and started talking.

Jace thought about the tours and all the band stuff while his mind drifted further away. He felt heavy and light at once.

And then he realized he had stopped breathing. The world had gone black.

He thought Drey, with his pointy white hair like the king and his pale skin. He was thinner, like everything Meldrick had been squeezed into a less wide space.

And he was there, in front of Drey, inside of a giant building full of dust and some other stuff – books and metal figurines and chess boards and pieces.

“Lovely.” Drey set down one of the metal things. “May I help you?”

That must have been code for go away, I hate visitors.

“I have something for you.” Jace checked his hand. Somehow the seed had made it. Dying was trippy.

He looked back at Drey. This was too easy. He needed a test, to make sure he wasn’t giving the magical seed to some random dead guy.

“You’re that guy right? That people name other people after?”

“I can’t say that people have ever named children after me. I hope not.” He extended his hand to Jace. “I’m Drey.”

Oh yeah, there were tons of kids named after him. Even Aadya had.

“You’re going to hate Dreya,” Jace joked. He shook Drey’s hand with the seed in hand. “I have something for you to pass along. A gift from Aadya to a guy who is about to show up, Greg.”

He had neglected to ask why Greg was dying, and where he was, or for any details about Greg.

Eh. If Corban wanted to tell him he would.

Drey withdrew his hand and looked at the yellow bead.

“A seed. I’ll be sure to pass it along.” He poofed the seed away and Jace almost screamed.

He was too cool for that.

“What is your name?” Drey asked.

“Jace.”

“They’re killing people casually now?”

Jace shrugged. “This was important. I volunteered.”

If he wasn’t able to go back to life, it would suck. But he wouldn’t take the choice back. Whatever was going on was bigger than him.

“Do you have any other errands? Questions? Political statements? Interpretive dances?”

“One more stop,” Jace replied.

“Enjoy.”

“Thanks.”

He left, because Drey was someone else’s person. Jace knew he had better things to do. He imagined his mom, with her curly brown hair. He hoped she had hair here, not bald like she hated.

“Jace?”

He turned. There she was.

“Mom.” He hugged her. “I’m okay, first of all. I know it doesn’t make sense, but I’m okay. I’m alive.”

She looked at him, skeptical.

He laughed and hugged her tighter. “I missed you. How do you feel here?’

She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Jace. You worry too much. I feel fine.”

“Really?”

“I’m dead. Suffering ended.”

“Well,” Jace shrugged with a hidden grin. “You could have ended up somewhere worse.”

His mom laughed. “I missed you too, Jace.”

“I can’t stay long, I’m not dead enough to hang out for more than a few minutes, but I had to see you.”

“Why are you here?”

“I had to see someone, my sister-in-laws dad. Important stuff.”

“Sister-in-law?”

“Yeah. That girl Niels married. She’s pretty cool. Dragon princess.”

“What about you?”

She moved toward a large canvas and picked up a brush. She began painting salmon jumping up a waterfall. The painting was about 20 feet tall. There was a river etched in wildflowers and sprinkled on the rocks along the falls.

“I’m getting married,” Jace told her.

She turned to him, “Married?”

“Yeah.” Jace smiled, a stupid crooked smile. Pure content filled him, knowing she’d know.

“His names Corban.”

“His.” She painted the body of one of the salmon in one firm stroke, then began working on it with some blues and whites to refine the edges.

“Yeah. Li didn’t work out.”

She laughed. “Duh. You and Li were never more than good friends. So, tell me about him while you can.”

Jace sat on the white washed cement floor. “He’s like a commander, in charge of a…”

“Jace,” she interrupted. She pushed her hair back behind her ear. “I want to know who he is, for you.”

Jace watched her for a second, trying to think of how to say everything in a few moments. “He ties his shoes like you always tried to make me. Two bunny ears, looped around, when he wears them. His hands feel like raindrops sometimes. He asked me out by blocking a doorway with a giant axe. He has tattoos.” Jace imagined them on his own body. His mom came over and started looking at them all.

“What else?” she asked.

“He wants kids. I want kids.”

She laughed. “Good luck.” She picked the brush up again and continued painting.

“I wish you could meet him, see everything.”

“I wish I could too.” She sighed. “But he gave me you, this time with you.”

Corban’s voice echoed through the room. His mom looked up, then back to him. “You have always made me proud, and I’m glad you haven’t given up.”

“Never, mom.” He hugged her. “That’s him.”

She looked up again and smiled. “So, we met.”

Jace smiled, an idea flickering across his mind. He took his mom’ hand and transported her to Drey.

“This is my mom. She wants to hitch a ride.”

“A ride where?” his mom asked.

“Drey will explain everything.”

“I will?” Drey asked.

Jace grinned, and followed Corban’s voice. With some luck, his mom would have a second chance.

He woke to lips, soft and welcoming.

He kissed Corban back. “All taken care of. He’s whiter in person.”

“He was nice,” Jace added.

Corban stood and offered his hand. “I hope so, because the rest are nuts.”

Jace laughed. When he slid his hand into Corban’s, he could tell it was missing a ring. He’d never noticed before, but now he couldn’t notice anything else.

“Kids?” Corban asked.

“Kids,” Jace agreed.

He had a lot of living to do, and he wanted every second Corban offered. At least today, Jace had taken one burden off of him.

“Have fun,” Spence yelled into the hall.

They would. Kids, a proposal, marriage, life.

Jace wrapped his arm around Corban’s back. Corban had the kingdom, but Jace had Corban. No questions, just love.

<- Episode 220 | Episode 222 ->