Chapter Text
It was the annual Year's end party, an almost ritual event where Handsome Jack was to praise and wish luck on every employee for the upcoming year. The party room with high ceilings, gleaming marble floors and columns engraved with intricate scrawlings. It was decorated beautifully and elegantly with whites, golds and silvers. It looked expensive but not gaudy, with a ginormous chandelier, floor to ceilings windows AND a few statues of the most handsome man the CEO himself. However, Jack wasn't excited. Dressed in his casual everyday clothes the party barely begun and Jack was already bored out of his mind, he didn't want to be here but it was suggested by the board as a way to keep moral, increase work - blah blah blah. He didn't care, but honestly if it kept Hyperion on top, the board off his back about his excessive airlocking and got him an excuse to come in late the next day, he felt as though he could sacrifice at least one day.
Overall, Jack wasn't expecting anything interesting. At best he thought that maybe he could get some stress relief from some no-name fan eager to please. At worst, he'd just hear nothing but the drone of people who think they're more important than they really are try to convince Jack that their department was the best. So far the night was heading towards the worst path, no one at the party caught Jack's eye. Everyone in attendance being much older than he preferred or employees he knew were married or in monogamous relationships.
Just as Jack was starting to mentally prepare himself for a boring night there was a loud BANG and a screech of high heels skidding on the floor. He whipped his head towards the sounds hoping for something, anything, exciting to happen and was completely awestruck when he saw a gorgeous woman having a stand off with one of the guards at the front door. Walking towards her trying to get a better look, a flat chest, and -oh- she had legs longer than he ever saw a woman have with the height to match. She stood even taller than Jack with her white heels. Wearing a white dress with high slits on either side of the front exposing the entire span of her legs as well as her deliciously defined hip bones. The dress was strapless with a sharp sweetheart neckline her collarbones framed with some delicate necklaces. The top and bottom edges of the dress were both lined with this fabric that caught the light perfectly and sparkled. Her black hair was sculpted and curled without a single strand out of place and landed just above her shoulders. Her skin a soft pale, not a single mark whatsoever, unless you counted her right arm being completely cybernetic from the shoulder down. Jack didn't, the way she wore her arm was as if it were another piece of jewelry embedded in her skin, a lustrous silver that complemented the silver jeweled bracelets on her other arm.
Trying to subtly fix his hair Jack strode towards the scene, "What's going on here!?" Jack bellowed ascending the stairs leading to the entryway. The guard stood to attention his back straight, but Jack was more focused on the soft gasp that left the woman's red lips.
The guard cleared his throat before speaking, "Sir, we found out this woman didn't have a proper invitation and tried to sneak i-" Jack couldn't be bothered to hear the rest of whatever the man had to say as when he looked to the woman to his right he saw her electric blue eyes, absolutely breathtaking, he only knew one other person with similar eyes.
"Yeah okay," Jack adjusted the lapels of his coat ignoring the guard before fully turning to the woman. "You must be new here, I think I would've remembered a face and, uh, legs like those before." Jack spoke as smoothly and charmingly as he could muster with lazy gesturing to her legs, forgoing being intimidating in favour of wooing the lady.
He could see her eyes dart around and her mouth open hesitantly before attempting to speak, "I- uh," she swallowed closing her eyes briefly and sighed "Yes, I heard from a little birdie that there was this party being held that was perfect. I knew I just had to see it for myself." She spoke with a smile that squinted her eyes just enough to look genuine, her tone was sweet and flirty and the way she enunciated her words with small movements of her shoulders and neck. Jack just knew she must of grown up as a woman who was used to attention and knew exactly how to get what she wanted. With how she looked it would be ridiculous to think that others wouldn't want to please her with every wish and whim she had, it was just so very easy to get lost in her looks.
"Well gorgeous, I hope everything has been just as you hoped." Jack saw the guard shift in his peripheral as if he was trying to interrupt, Jack just waved him of with a flick of a hand and a quick glare that told him to fuck off. "Now may I be so lucky to get the name of this beautiful woman in front of me?" Ignoring the anxious feeling curling in his gut, the one he got whenever he spoke to someone especially pretty, Jack brought the woman's left hand to his mouth and kissed her just above her knuckles with a smile. It was soft, softer than he even thought possible for a mere hand.
Another small gasp escaped her lips before she softly stated, "I go by Echo," She lifted her eyes to meet Jack's and with a mischievous squint and smile that made Jack's eyebrows raise she added, "But some, call me Gorgeous." Jack couldn't help but chuckle at her statement.
"Well, Gorgeous Echo," For once Jack was glad he wore a mask as he felt his face heating up, "I'm Handsome Jack."