Jace stared down despairingly at the two-foot stack of paper on his desk.  It had been quite a week.  Perhaps he shouldn’t have spent half of it on a different plane, but he’d felt it fairly important that he investigate some of the rumors he had heard about goings-on on Zendikar.  On the other hand, he could hardly tell that to Lavinia, which meant a lot of sneaking around and dodging awkward questions, and, in the end, being ridiculously behind on his paperwork, while trying to pretend he wasn’t. He sighed and reached for his pen.

By the time he had signed a third of the towering stack of documents—and, if he was honest with himself, read only half of that—Jace’s hand was starting to hurt from gripping the pen, and his stomach was cannily trying to seduce him into pausing for a snack. And, while Jace had always firmly believed that the mind was the master of the body, that was really only helpful when the mind wanted to resist the body.  He lowered his head to the desk with a sad, bored little thump.  He needed to get this done.  He didn’t want to sit through another lecture from Lavinia, who had been getting more and more frazzled as the Festival of the Guildpact drew near. On top of a tripling in the number of permit requests, Lavinia had been dragged into an Azorius committee established to determine whether or not to move the date of that celebration to line up with the running of the Implicit Maze and Jace’s realization of the Guildpact.  Jace was glad that this particular discussion had been ruled to be one in which he had a conflict of interest, even though he truly had no interest at all.

Jace groaned and leaned back in his chair, shutting his eyes for a moment and tried to rub the aches out of his forehead. As much as he wanted a break, he wasn’t going to take one yet.  This needed to be finished.  He opened his eyes again just in time to be scared half to death by a bright flash of light, which was followed almost directly by a heavy peal of thunder.  “Well, this is going to do wonders for my concentration,” he said to himself morosely.

He glanced out the window, where heavy, purple storm clouds had piled into a threatening and somewhat awe-inspiring shape on the horizon.  Lightning flashed again, spidering across from one cloud to the other, and the sight was enough to draw a sudden breath and an unconscious smile from the mindmage.  Maybe he could take just a minute or two to watch the show. 

A bolt of lightning struck so blindingly close that Jace felt the vibrations of the thunder rumble through him, leaving him dazed and blinking, pink spots in front of his eyes and an uncomfortable tightness growing in the front of his trousers. He paused. An uncomfortable…what? Why? 

He reached a panic hand down his front, then groaned, gasped, and bit his lip. Why was he—reacting like this—to a natural phenomenon?  Why was he—

Jace ground his teeth and dropped his forehead to his desk again, this time with significantly more force.  Damn Ral Zarek. Damn Ral Zarek and his habit of electrocuting him during sex.  Jace wriggled uncomfortably and, moving his chair to the other side of his desk to keep his back to the window, tried to get back to his paperwork. After a few minutes of biting his lip every time the thunder rolled over him, he gave up. It was no use trying to ignore it. Moreover, he had apparently drawn blood, and already dripped some onto a Rakdos permit request. Somehow, he thought they wouldn’t mind.

With a muffled curse, he turned back to the window in time for another three bolts to strike the edge of the Tenth District.  Jace moaned in time with the thunder and guiltily undid his trousers to give himself better access, then paused.  While Lavinia had walked in on him and Ral in the throes of passion before, that was no reason to tempt fate.  He also wasn’t sure what sort of message she would get if she found him like that in front of a stack of signed papers.  Darting across the room, he locked the door quickly and returned to his seat.

As he guiltily slid his hand down his front, his eyes fell on the remaining mound of paperwork.  I really, really shouldn’t, he thought wretchedly, but another rumble of thunder drew another moan from his throat.  But I’m really, really going to.  It won’t take that long.

Tentatively, eyes half-open so he could still see the storm, Jace sighed and reached for his penis, just in time for another shock of lightning to roar wildly across the sky.  A stab of desire shot through his gut as he imagined the feeling of lightning dancing through his limbs, crackling and dizzying and—damn him—exquisite.

“Oh, Krokt,” Jace whispered helplessly, beginning to work his hand up and down his shaft. He hadn’t seen Ral in days, on the grounds that he had already wasted enough of the week chasing rumors on another plane.  His lover wasn’t exactly good for his productivity.  Jace’s hips jerked as he worked his hand up and down, the frantic pleasure contracting the world around him.  Lightning sizzled down outside, faster and faster, and Jace quickened his pace to match, thunder blocking the sound of his own cries from his ears.

Jace arched his back and gasped uncontrollably, clinging desperately to his chair with one arm as the lightning pounded down mercilessly.  Thoughts of Ral bubbled up, and he welcomed them greedily. Thoughts of the Izzet mage’s tongue sliding across his chest, the hands sliding down his thighs—Jace released the chair and slapped his hand over his mouth to muffle his own howls.

He could feel his blood pulsing beneath his hand, in counterpoint to the storm raging outside, and his rhythm became erratic.  Finally, as a bolt struck nearly right outside his window, he climaxed with a cry of pleasure, letting himself collapse backward into his chair, sweaty and trembling.

After a moment, he heard a knock, and he began to panic.  Had Lavinia heard? Or was she just here for—as the knock came again, he realized that it wasn’t at the door.  Someone was knocking on glass, which would mean the window, which would mean—he grabbed at his sticky trousers, trying to cover himself. Ral Zarek stood outside, waving happily, as the clouds cleared abruptly—far too abruptly for them to have gathered naturally in the first place.  Incandescent with rage and embarrassment, Jace flung himself out of his chair, promptly tripped over his own trousers and fell flat on his face. He heard the window open, and a moment later, heard Ral’s laughing voice as the storm mage stooped over him. “Are you planning to rise, Guildpact?  I mean, I suppose one could say you already did that, but—”

“Shut up. I hate you,” Jace said irritably into the carpet.  “I’m—contemplating my place in the universe.  I did that on purpose.”

“Then it was a very skillful bluff,” Ral said, and patted him on the head.

“You’re not supposed to be here.  I’m trying to get work done,” Jace complained.

“You were working yourself to death.  Even Lavinia was worried.  I promised her I’d make sure you took a break.”

“She didn’t mean it that way and you know it!” Jace raged, finally managing to get himself upright and embarking on the arduous quest of regaining his dignity. He decided to start by getting his trousers back on.

Ral grinned at him again, reached out and carefully took Jace’s chin.  “Why, Guildpact,” he breathed.  “I was simply trying to distract you with a display of nature’s breathtaking beauty. You can hardly blame me for your perversions.”

Jace gulped and gaped at him.  “Wh-what?” A tiny spark jumped from Ral’s finger to Jace’s nose, and the Guildpact shivered.  “I really hate you,” he grumbled.

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Ral said cheerfully, moving in to kiss Jace. For a brief, wonderful moment, Jace allowed himself to be lost in the kiss.  All too soon, though, he pulled himself away with a sigh.

“I’d really better finish off this paperwork,” he said regretfully.

“I’m sure you’ll work better now that you’ve had a break,” Ral said sympathetically, patting him on the shoulder.  “Don’t worry, you’ll barely notice that I’m here.”

Jace sighed again.  Still, he reflected philosophically, at least ignoring his lover for a week had not resulted in any major structural damage.  This time.