Fic: Ups and Downs [J2]
Praise Jebus, I've written something.
Title: Ups and Downs
Summary: Jensen takes his nephew to the Inventors’ Fair and meets a cute, dorky roller-coaster builder.
Wordcount/rating: ~1500 words, PG
A/N: I was the mood for a cheerful, meet-cute J2 story, so I wrote one myself. Inspired by James Horecka and his Dragon’s Flight at this year’s Maker Faire.
Disclaimer: This is complete fiction and should not imply any actual correlation with the real world whatsoever.
“Hey, look, Uncle Jens,” Logan said, and dashed across the paved walkway. Jensen turned to follow, his way slow against the masses of people walking down the path. When his sister-in-law had suggested taking Logan to the inventors’ fair one weekend, Jensen had expected it to be too dry and boring to engage Logan for long. Apparently his nephew’s attention span (and interest in the obscure details of building crazy gadgets) had improved since the last time Jensen had gotten to spend much time with him. They’d been there four hours already and Logan was still raring to go. Jensen, on the other hand, was starting to flag. He wondered if he could convince Logan to head next to something that would take them by the beer concession he’d caught a glimpse of a few minutes ago.
Eventually, Jensen managed to angle across the flow of traffic and made it to the other side of the wide path. Logan was standing in front of a miniaturized roller coaster, talking excitedly to one man while another stood nearby. “Can I ride it?,” Logan asked.
“Sorry, son, we’re just demonstrating it today,” the man said. He was taller than Jensen, bearded and looked to be in his late 30s. “Go stand over there, though, and you can watch,” he continued, pointing toward the other end of the short track.
Logan ran over, and Jensen perused the roller coaster. It was made of wood, with two rails and a sleigh-like seat made out of painted plywood. As they watched, the other man standing behind the coaster - a bit younger than the man who’d spoken, but just as tall - pulled the seat up to the high point at the beginning of the track, the muscles in his arms flexing. As he released it, it sped over a hill, back down the other side and then slowed as it reached the end of the track, also sloped up. The motion reminded Jensen of that old-fashioned arcade game where you had to roll a bowling ball over a set of metal rails. Roll it too gently, and it wouldn’t make it over the first hill; roll it too hard and it would hit the back and roll right back to the starting point.
“Awesome!”, Logan exclaimed.
“Thank you,” the older man said with a smile.
“Very cool,” Jensen said to the man, agreeing with Logan.
“Thanks,” he said. “My kids love it, as you can imagine. Jared was the real genius, though, he designed it,” he said, gesturing at the younger man, who walked over to them.
“You helped,” Jared protested, smiling.
“I follow directions very well, you mean,” the older man said. “I’m Jeff, and this is my brother Jared, the mechanical genius. My kids think he’s the best uncle ever, of course, now that my backyard hosts their very own roller coaster.” He offered his hand, and Jensen shook it, then took Jared’s.
Logan interrupted before Jensen could introduce himself. “How come you don’t build me something like that, Uncle Jens?”
Jensen laughed, realized his hand was still held in Jared’s (firm, calloused) one, and pulled it away to ruffle his nephew’s hair. “I’m Jensen, and this demanding guy is my nephew Logan. You’ve raised the bar on awesome unclehood here, dude, I’m not sure I can measure up any more.”
“Sorry ‘bout that, man,” Jared said with a smile, and Jensen felt a sudden, surprising yank of attraction which he quickly suppressed. Not the time or the place, self.
“It’s really an easy build, though, actually,” Jared was saying, and Jensen forced himself to pay attention to Jared’s words, not the detail of how his eyes crinkled when he smiled. “It’s just a series of 4x6’s for the under-structure, and a little steaming of the rails to get them to curve. That was the hardest thing to get right, honestly, but once I built a jig it was a lot easier, and I just got the casters from Grainger. The 4 inch ones are the main ones, and they’re silicone, and there are 2 inch ones on the sides, to keep the coach online.”
Jensen was nodding as if he’d followed each point that Jared had made, even though half of them had gone over his head.
“I could help you,” Logan offered, earnestly. “We could do it this summer, when I’m out of school.”
“Uh, maybe,” Jensen equivocated. He hadn’t built anything since shop class in middle school, and that’d been years ago. “We’ll have to see how your mom would feel about a giant wooden thing in your backyard first.”
They said goodbye, as Jared and Jeff went off to talk to a crowd that had just arrived at the roller coaster display. “Hungry, buddy?,” Jensen asked his nephew.
“Yeah!”
So Jensen got his beer, and he was happily sitting down a few minutes later, enjoying the pressure off his aching feet. He gnawed at a piece of beef on a stick as Logan sat beside him on a bench, chattering and eating a hot dog with ludicrous amounts of ketchup, which ringed his mouth.
Jensen was reading the event schedule flyer when Logan’s chatter broke off, and he said ”Hi.”
Looking up, Jensen saw the younger man from the roller coaster display - Jared - standing in front of them with a cup of lemonade in one hand and a corn dog in the other.
“Hi.” Jensen echoed his nephew’s greetings.
“Hi, Logan, Jensen,” Jared said. “Um, I don’t think you guys took my card? Uh, if you’re interested in the plans for the roller coaster, or something smaller maybe? I’ve got a blog with all these projects. I’m a mechanical engineer, but I just do this kind of stuff for fun.”
“Yeah, sure,” Jensen said, nodding. When a few seconds elapsed with the two of them still staring at each other, Jensen raised an eyebrow. “Card?”, he prompted, hyperaware of Logan observing them closely, uncharacteristically silent.
Jared twitched. “Oh, right.” He looked at his hands and then hurriedly handed his lemonade to Jensen. Jensen nearly dropped the condensation-covered cup but recovered, watching as Jared dug in the front pocket of his worn jeans and pulled out a creased business card. They traded the lemonade and the card awkwardly.
“Thanks, man,” Jensen said.
Jared nodded. “Um, my email’s on there, so email me if you want to um, stay in touch or whatever.” He coughed lightly. “I better get back, or Jeff will kill me if it gets busy again. See you ‘round, Logan.” He waved with the hand holding a corn dog, then turned and left.
Jensen stared as Jared’s broad back disappeared into the crowd. OK, that was *flirting*, he was sure of it. Awkward, nerd flirting, but still flirting.
“Is he gonna be your boyfriend?,” Logan asked.
“What? No, we just met.”
Logan shrugged. “It’d be awesome if he was. He could build me a roller coaster.”
Jensen laughed. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. You ready to get going?” He swallowed the last of his beer, and as he stood, made sure he put Jared’s card safely into his pocket. He smiled wryly as Logan grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the Hall of Robots. His feet might hurt, but at least he’d gotten the number of a cute and dorky mechanical genius out of the deal.
Title: Ups and Downs
Summary: Jensen takes his nephew to the Inventors’ Fair and meets a cute, dorky roller-coaster builder.
Wordcount/rating: ~1500 words, PG
A/N: I was the mood for a cheerful, meet-cute J2 story, so I wrote one myself. Inspired by James Horecka and his Dragon’s Flight at this year’s Maker Faire.
Disclaimer: This is complete fiction and should not imply any actual correlation with the real world whatsoever.
“Hey, look, Uncle Jens,” Logan said, and dashed across the paved walkway. Jensen turned to follow, his way slow against the masses of people walking down the path. When his sister-in-law had suggested taking Logan to the inventors’ fair one weekend, Jensen had expected it to be too dry and boring to engage Logan for long. Apparently his nephew’s attention span (and interest in the obscure details of building crazy gadgets) had improved since the last time Jensen had gotten to spend much time with him. They’d been there four hours already and Logan was still raring to go. Jensen, on the other hand, was starting to flag. He wondered if he could convince Logan to head next to something that would take them by the beer concession he’d caught a glimpse of a few minutes ago.
Eventually, Jensen managed to angle across the flow of traffic and made it to the other side of the wide path. Logan was standing in front of a miniaturized roller coaster, talking excitedly to one man while another stood nearby. “Can I ride it?,” Logan asked.
“Sorry, son, we’re just demonstrating it today,” the man said. He was taller than Jensen, bearded and looked to be in his late 30s. “Go stand over there, though, and you can watch,” he continued, pointing toward the other end of the short track.
Logan ran over, and Jensen perused the roller coaster. It was made of wood, with two rails and a sleigh-like seat made out of painted plywood. As they watched, the other man standing behind the coaster - a bit younger than the man who’d spoken, but just as tall - pulled the seat up to the high point at the beginning of the track, the muscles in his arms flexing. As he released it, it sped over a hill, back down the other side and then slowed as it reached the end of the track, also sloped up. The motion reminded Jensen of that old-fashioned arcade game where you had to roll a bowling ball over a set of metal rails. Roll it too gently, and it wouldn’t make it over the first hill; roll it too hard and it would hit the back and roll right back to the starting point.
“Awesome!”, Logan exclaimed.
“Thank you,” the older man said with a smile.
“Very cool,” Jensen said to the man, agreeing with Logan.
“Thanks,” he said. “My kids love it, as you can imagine. Jared was the real genius, though, he designed it,” he said, gesturing at the younger man, who walked over to them.
“You helped,” Jared protested, smiling.
“I follow directions very well, you mean,” the older man said. “I’m Jeff, and this is my brother Jared, the mechanical genius. My kids think he’s the best uncle ever, of course, now that my backyard hosts their very own roller coaster.” He offered his hand, and Jensen shook it, then took Jared’s.
Logan interrupted before Jensen could introduce himself. “How come you don’t build me something like that, Uncle Jens?”
Jensen laughed, realized his hand was still held in Jared’s (firm, calloused) one, and pulled it away to ruffle his nephew’s hair. “I’m Jensen, and this demanding guy is my nephew Logan. You’ve raised the bar on awesome unclehood here, dude, I’m not sure I can measure up any more.”
“Sorry ‘bout that, man,” Jared said with a smile, and Jensen felt a sudden, surprising yank of attraction which he quickly suppressed. Not the time or the place, self.
“It’s really an easy build, though, actually,” Jared was saying, and Jensen forced himself to pay attention to Jared’s words, not the detail of how his eyes crinkled when he smiled. “It’s just a series of 4x6’s for the under-structure, and a little steaming of the rails to get them to curve. That was the hardest thing to get right, honestly, but once I built a jig it was a lot easier, and I just got the casters from Grainger. The 4 inch ones are the main ones, and they’re silicone, and there are 2 inch ones on the sides, to keep the coach online.”
Jensen was nodding as if he’d followed each point that Jared had made, even though half of them had gone over his head.
“I could help you,” Logan offered, earnestly. “We could do it this summer, when I’m out of school.”
“Uh, maybe,” Jensen equivocated. He hadn’t built anything since shop class in middle school, and that’d been years ago. “We’ll have to see how your mom would feel about a giant wooden thing in your backyard first.”
They said goodbye, as Jared and Jeff went off to talk to a crowd that had just arrived at the roller coaster display. “Hungry, buddy?,” Jensen asked his nephew.
“Yeah!”
So Jensen got his beer, and he was happily sitting down a few minutes later, enjoying the pressure off his aching feet. He gnawed at a piece of beef on a stick as Logan sat beside him on a bench, chattering and eating a hot dog with ludicrous amounts of ketchup, which ringed his mouth.
Jensen was reading the event schedule flyer when Logan’s chatter broke off, and he said ”Hi.”
Looking up, Jensen saw the younger man from the roller coaster display - Jared - standing in front of them with a cup of lemonade in one hand and a corn dog in the other.
“Hi.” Jensen echoed his nephew’s greetings.
“Hi, Logan, Jensen,” Jared said. “Um, I don’t think you guys took my card? Uh, if you’re interested in the plans for the roller coaster, or something smaller maybe? I’ve got a blog with all these projects. I’m a mechanical engineer, but I just do this kind of stuff for fun.”
“Yeah, sure,” Jensen said, nodding. When a few seconds elapsed with the two of them still staring at each other, Jensen raised an eyebrow. “Card?”, he prompted, hyperaware of Logan observing them closely, uncharacteristically silent.
Jared twitched. “Oh, right.” He looked at his hands and then hurriedly handed his lemonade to Jensen. Jensen nearly dropped the condensation-covered cup but recovered, watching as Jared dug in the front pocket of his worn jeans and pulled out a creased business card. They traded the lemonade and the card awkwardly.
“Thanks, man,” Jensen said.
Jared nodded. “Um, my email’s on there, so email me if you want to um, stay in touch or whatever.” He coughed lightly. “I better get back, or Jeff will kill me if it gets busy again. See you ‘round, Logan.” He waved with the hand holding a corn dog, then turned and left.
Jensen stared as Jared’s broad back disappeared into the crowd. OK, that was *flirting*, he was sure of it. Awkward, nerd flirting, but still flirting.
“Is he gonna be your boyfriend?,” Logan asked.
“What? No, we just met.”
Logan shrugged. “It’d be awesome if he was. He could build me a roller coaster.”
Jensen laughed. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. You ready to get going?” He swallowed the last of his beer, and as he stood, made sure he put Jared’s card safely into his pocket. He smiled wryly as Logan grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the Hall of Robots. His feet might hurt, but at least he’d gotten the number of a cute and dorky mechanical genius out of the deal.