One Stocking At A Time (J2, PG)
Third spn_masquerade fic claim, which turns out to be for the same prompter as the last. snickfic you were nearly right about this one too...
It is a very silly ficlet, but a happy one.
Title One Stocking At A Time
Pairing Jared/Jensen
Rating PG
Words 2168
Prompt Jared has a great job up at the North Pole. He's a were-reindeer - which means he can fly and only has to work one grueling 24 hour shift per year. But it's August, so he's bumming around see the sights and slowly amping up his training regimen for Christmas. He meets and falls in love with human Jensen only to discover that Jensen *gasp* isn't a believer!
Jared loves the summer. In spring, he’s recovering. Winter is just a bust entirely. And Autumn always feels sort of heavy. Loaded with preparation, with expectation. What will be the hot new toys this year? Anything bulky and heavy, and Jared’s job will get a whole lot tougher. But he knows the older reindeer prefer that to the trend, worrying, year on year, toward virtual gifts. If the sacks get lighter, just a few gift tokens, sticker packs, novelty toys to fill out a stocking, and the real gifts stop being reindeer-deliverable, the whole Santa delivery mode just might need revising. Would they still need two full reindeer teams then? Would Santa still need reindeer at all?
It’s hard to imagine, but maybe someday the world will just watch virtual Santa tracked by Norad, and then go send v-gifts and vouchers to buy more e-products and nobody, anywhere, will leave out carrots and sherry for the guy who comes down the chimney and the reindeer who fly him there. Which would suck. People need legends that they can touch.
Also, and okay this is maybe selfish, but being a were-reindeer isn’t that big of an advantage, career-wise, if you can’t get the Santa gig. Jared’s strong, but his need to go four-legged and chew grass every 24th to 26th of the month isn’t, you know, that helpful in retail or financial services. Sure, most employers are more were-aware than they were, but your traditional were works on phases of the moon, and having to cope with an employee whose were is powered by sheer human belief and the calendar is just a little much.
So. Jared loves his job, and his job is also good for Jared, even if it knocks him out for basically four months either side of the Big Day. Summers are just important. He needs to get out there, have some fun, start eating right and building up. And also, it’s the best time for him to meet people. Because his schedule’s a toughie, romance-wise. He’s not the love-and-leave type, but that’s been the best way the past few years. Have a great summer, meet a great dude, and say goodbye when the nights start to darken and the mornings freshen up. Then it’s onto the protein shakes and interval training, and life gets serious again.
This year, Jared’s seriously thinking he might break that tradition, though. Jensen’s just awesome. They’ve had two months of moving from flirting to frantic sex and now into the comfortable feel where their days revolve around each other, and it makes them both happy. Jared wakes early, but that just means he can do the coffee run before Jensen starts his morning awakening growl. They’ve swum, gone horse-back riding, fished, and explored the local towns, film festival, car rally and all.
Jensen’s academic timetable means he gets Jared’s need for short-term summer fun, too. “Yeah. This is the year I get tenure, I think,” he says. “Which means applications and ass-kissing and a fuckton of new projects to show what I can do. Summer’s like rehab for me.” He still spends hours per day working on his book, but that suits Jared fine. He can’t sit about idle the whole summer. It just works. And though when they both go back to the daily grind, it wouldn’t be so easy, of course, it might just work, because they’d always know there would be another summer coming.
Also, and maybe this should be the first thing on Jared’s mind, he’s pretty much head over heels for Jensen. They fit, he’s awesome, he seems to feel the same way about Jared (nothing has been said, but Jensen’s face lights up when he spies Jared in town, and when they’re not together outside working hours he texts pretty much constantly, which Jared takes as, you know, promising). Sooooo.
“You, uh, you have any plans for the autumn?” says Jared. He knows the answer, but it’s a warmup to move on to some Important Talking.
“Work,” says Jensen, gloomily. “Got to make an early impact. Also, looks like a heavy teaching load this semester, which is not helping. I’m gonna be no good at anyone for a while there.” He looks at Jared with something that’s more like regret (“Wish I could see more of you”) than a brush off (“So, you know, it’s been fun.”)
Jared nods. “Yeah. Autumn’s a big time for me, too. All the way to Christmas, really. You know what you’re doing for the holidays?”
Jensen shrugs. “Work, I guess. Everyone else will be doing the capitalist family bullshit thing, and some of the libraries will close, but it’s usually a good time to get ahead.”
“You… don’t like Christmas,” Jared says. He tries not to let it become too needy. He fails. Jensen wrinkles his nose, adorably, but that’s not the point right now.
“It’s cool, for people with kids, I guess. I wish they didn’t lie and all, but it’s nice for the little ones. I suppose.” He sounds really unenthused. “I mean, I get that your job means Christmas is important, so you know, whatever you gotta do. But-“
“What do you mean, lie?” asks Jared. (Who is in no place to sound offended, because Jensen thinks Jared works in Christmas events management, on account of it never in the world being a sexy introduction to a new dude to introduce yourself as Santa’s reindeer.)
“Oh, you know, all that fat man with presents, flying moose, all that shit.”
“It’s reindeer,” says Jared, and walks out.
Look, it’s a big deal to him, okay? He needs space to think.
The next day, Jensen texts him. You okay? Sorry if I was grumpy. I get that Christmas is a big deal for you.
For you. Jared imagines his life with Jensen (and okay, it’s not the first time, shut up). Jensen bitching about Christmas, Jared working his ass off alone while he still can, and then when he reaches retirement age, not celebrating Christmas at all. Just going to the damn library when it’s open and-). It’s not good.
But Jared has an ace in the hole, of course. None of it’s a lie. He juuuuust needs to find the right moment to mention that.
“Hey,” he says, dropping down by Jensen’s table in Great Beans. Jensen usually takes a break in writing about now, so even with the laptop in evidence it’s probably cool.
“Hey,” Jensen returns, pushing aside the pile of reference books and shutting the laptop cover. Jared takes that as a very good sign. “Glad you’re here, I was worried I’d really pissed you off.”
“Nope,” says Jared, which is sort of lying, but never mind. “I wanted to think about it a little, though. Christmas means a lot to me.”
He pauses while the waitress brings his latte. It has a hoofprint design in the froth. She winks. Jared’s not exactly in the closet about the were thing, okay? Especially not here, where people know him well. Jensen doesn’t notice. Again.
“Jen, I was wondering, is there a special reason why you don’t like Christmas?”
Jensen shrugs. “It’s never been that important for us. All that turkey, after Thanksgiving? Meh. And mom and dad never did the Christmas stocking thing. They told me about Santa being a lie all along. I was pretty unpopular at kindergarten for that one.”
Jared gulps. That’s like the worst fear of the reindeer community. Parents that don’t pass the dream along. It spreads, the lack of belief. Dozens of kids probably lost their belief just because of Jensen’s parents. And some of them wouldn’t have played along, recapturing the magic as their presents arrived, complete with sooty footprints by a blocked, unused chimney, and rough toothmarks in the carrots left for the reindeer. Some would have been lost. Like Jensen.
“Okay,” he says. “I have to tell you something. It’s not exactly a secret, but… we don’t talk about it much.”
Jensen nods, serious and supportive, like Jared’s about to talk about some weird cult thing or a Christmas-related condition and- “I’m one of Santa’s reindeer,” says Jared.
There’s a long silence. Jensen looks first confused, then as if on the edge of laughter, and then- Then he looks angry. “Jay, I don’t get why you’d say something like that.”
“Because it’s true. People will tell you, the ones that know.” Jared waves at the hoofprint on his latte. “Lemme break it down. I’m a were-reindeer. You know about were, right?”
Jensen nods, impatiently. “Sure, full moon, animal transformation, all that. Characteristics may manifest in human form, usually modified by human behavioural norms. I paid attention in health class, Jared.”
“Okay. So, that’s me. Except were-reindeer are more of a Christmas-based phenomenon. We transform for those dates, every month. The whole full moon thing? Not us. And if we’re lucky, we get recruited to work for the Big Guy.”
“The big guy? Santa?” Jensen puts the heels of his hands against his eyes, a mixture of rubbing in disbelief and blotting Jared out. It hurts. “Jay… I’ve never heard anything so crazy in my life.”
“Come back to my place,” says Jared. Which, in the circumstances, is pretty big of him, he thinks. “I’ll convince you.” He gulps down his latte, and waves at the waitress. “Gina? You want to tell Jensen about my secret double life?”
Gina winks. “First rule of Santa’s reindeer, right? We don’t talk about Santa’s reindeer. Except for how you always do. And for how Jonny P saw you on the Hendersons’ roof a couple Christmases ago.”
Jensen blinks, and follows Jared out of the store.
Jared’s evidence is mostly, you know, work stuff. Payslips and training schedules. Target weight and fitness goals, diet sheets from the health guys. Reconditioning at Schumberg spa, which has been rehabilitating exhausted reindeer since the 1860s. There are photos, sure, but Jared-the-reindeer doesn’t look exactly like Jared-the-human, obviously, so there’s an element of trust.
Jared talks. Jensen listens, and reads, and shakes his head. “Okay,” he says, after a while. “Tell me about being were. I haven’t seen you manifesting reindeer characteristics, exactly?”
“We love woods, and mountains, and getting out in the open,” Jared says. “And my nose works weird, but that’s sort of specialist as a characteristic. And I get really horny in autumn, but, you know, the job means that’s not really an option. I like mushrooms?”
Jensen’s actually laughing. “Seriously? A weird nose and getting horny? That’s it?”
“I’m a human,” Jared says, annoyed. “Mostly. You want me to butt my head against other males and mark my territory? I went to Berkeley!” He pauses to think. “I can’t transform for another six days, so I guess I can’t show you anything that’ll really convince you- Oh. Wait. I can fly!” Duh.
Jensen’s mouth actually falls open. It’s not a sexy look, but it is satisfying. Take that, unbeliever. “Come with me, onto the roof. And no, I’m not high, and I won’t kill us both. Just- Let me take you flying, Jen?”
There must be a little part of Jensen that believes, he notes. Because he’s following Jared like he’s not entirely crazy to do so. Scrambling up to the rooftop, he holds Jared’s hand looking over the edge. “Promise you’re not crazy, Jay? Because I think- I think I want to believe you.”
“Hold on,” says Jared. “Just by the belt is fine. You’ll see.” The whole flying thing, like the dates of his were manifestation, is powered by human belief, and he’s never dropped a person yet. He steps off the roof.
Jensen screams, and Jared stores that up for later mockery, but he has enough to do right now stabilising and finding his core. Dammit, it’s the wrong time of year for showing off. But he powers forward, and soon Jensen’s flying like Superman, hands in Jared’s belt-loops, legs streaming out behind. “Oh my god, oh my god,” Jared hears faintly, as he pumps arms and legs hard, “I’m flying!”
He comes into land pretty soon, and Jensen flings arms around him. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you,” he says. “And I’m so glad.” Jared’s pretty used to Jensen being cool, if not outright snotty. This guy looks like an excited kid, and he loves him for it.
Sitting back in Jared’s house, Jensen confesses. “I hated Christmas, because I always wanted it to be true. Seemed like it was true for other kids. But we never got the magic. I’m sorry I was a dick about it.”
Jared kisses him, slow and sweet. “You can get the magic back, Jen. I can’t be with you for Christmas Day, but I’ll be with you before and after, if you want. We can have holiday magic all you like. And if you leave out your stocking, we’ll drop by. Just don’t wait up to see the Big Guy. He hates that.”
Jensen kisses him right back.
It is a very silly ficlet, but a happy one.
Title One Stocking At A Time
Pairing Jared/Jensen
Rating PG
Words 2168
Prompt Jared has a great job up at the North Pole. He's a were-reindeer - which means he can fly and only has to work one grueling 24 hour shift per year. But it's August, so he's bumming around see the sights and slowly amping up his training regimen for Christmas. He meets and falls in love with human Jensen only to discover that Jensen *gasp* isn't a believer!
Jared loves the summer. In spring, he’s recovering. Winter is just a bust entirely. And Autumn always feels sort of heavy. Loaded with preparation, with expectation. What will be the hot new toys this year? Anything bulky and heavy, and Jared’s job will get a whole lot tougher. But he knows the older reindeer prefer that to the trend, worrying, year on year, toward virtual gifts. If the sacks get lighter, just a few gift tokens, sticker packs, novelty toys to fill out a stocking, and the real gifts stop being reindeer-deliverable, the whole Santa delivery mode just might need revising. Would they still need two full reindeer teams then? Would Santa still need reindeer at all?
It’s hard to imagine, but maybe someday the world will just watch virtual Santa tracked by Norad, and then go send v-gifts and vouchers to buy more e-products and nobody, anywhere, will leave out carrots and sherry for the guy who comes down the chimney and the reindeer who fly him there. Which would suck. People need legends that they can touch.
Also, and okay this is maybe selfish, but being a were-reindeer isn’t that big of an advantage, career-wise, if you can’t get the Santa gig. Jared’s strong, but his need to go four-legged and chew grass every 24th to 26th of the month isn’t, you know, that helpful in retail or financial services. Sure, most employers are more were-aware than they were, but your traditional were works on phases of the moon, and having to cope with an employee whose were is powered by sheer human belief and the calendar is just a little much.
So. Jared loves his job, and his job is also good for Jared, even if it knocks him out for basically four months either side of the Big Day. Summers are just important. He needs to get out there, have some fun, start eating right and building up. And also, it’s the best time for him to meet people. Because his schedule’s a toughie, romance-wise. He’s not the love-and-leave type, but that’s been the best way the past few years. Have a great summer, meet a great dude, and say goodbye when the nights start to darken and the mornings freshen up. Then it’s onto the protein shakes and interval training, and life gets serious again.
This year, Jared’s seriously thinking he might break that tradition, though. Jensen’s just awesome. They’ve had two months of moving from flirting to frantic sex and now into the comfortable feel where their days revolve around each other, and it makes them both happy. Jared wakes early, but that just means he can do the coffee run before Jensen starts his morning awakening growl. They’ve swum, gone horse-back riding, fished, and explored the local towns, film festival, car rally and all.
Jensen’s academic timetable means he gets Jared’s need for short-term summer fun, too. “Yeah. This is the year I get tenure, I think,” he says. “Which means applications and ass-kissing and a fuckton of new projects to show what I can do. Summer’s like rehab for me.” He still spends hours per day working on his book, but that suits Jared fine. He can’t sit about idle the whole summer. It just works. And though when they both go back to the daily grind, it wouldn’t be so easy, of course, it might just work, because they’d always know there would be another summer coming.
Also, and maybe this should be the first thing on Jared’s mind, he’s pretty much head over heels for Jensen. They fit, he’s awesome, he seems to feel the same way about Jared (nothing has been said, but Jensen’s face lights up when he spies Jared in town, and when they’re not together outside working hours he texts pretty much constantly, which Jared takes as, you know, promising). Sooooo.
“You, uh, you have any plans for the autumn?” says Jared. He knows the answer, but it’s a warmup to move on to some Important Talking.
“Work,” says Jensen, gloomily. “Got to make an early impact. Also, looks like a heavy teaching load this semester, which is not helping. I’m gonna be no good at anyone for a while there.” He looks at Jared with something that’s more like regret (“Wish I could see more of you”) than a brush off (“So, you know, it’s been fun.”)
Jared nods. “Yeah. Autumn’s a big time for me, too. All the way to Christmas, really. You know what you’re doing for the holidays?”
Jensen shrugs. “Work, I guess. Everyone else will be doing the capitalist family bullshit thing, and some of the libraries will close, but it’s usually a good time to get ahead.”
“You… don’t like Christmas,” Jared says. He tries not to let it become too needy. He fails. Jensen wrinkles his nose, adorably, but that’s not the point right now.
“It’s cool, for people with kids, I guess. I wish they didn’t lie and all, but it’s nice for the little ones. I suppose.” He sounds really unenthused. “I mean, I get that your job means Christmas is important, so you know, whatever you gotta do. But-“
“What do you mean, lie?” asks Jared. (Who is in no place to sound offended, because Jensen thinks Jared works in Christmas events management, on account of it never in the world being a sexy introduction to a new dude to introduce yourself as Santa’s reindeer.)
“Oh, you know, all that fat man with presents, flying moose, all that shit.”
“It’s reindeer,” says Jared, and walks out.
Look, it’s a big deal to him, okay? He needs space to think.
The next day, Jensen texts him. You okay? Sorry if I was grumpy. I get that Christmas is a big deal for you.
For you. Jared imagines his life with Jensen (and okay, it’s not the first time, shut up). Jensen bitching about Christmas, Jared working his ass off alone while he still can, and then when he reaches retirement age, not celebrating Christmas at all. Just going to the damn library when it’s open and-). It’s not good.
But Jared has an ace in the hole, of course. None of it’s a lie. He juuuuust needs to find the right moment to mention that.
“Hey,” he says, dropping down by Jensen’s table in Great Beans. Jensen usually takes a break in writing about now, so even with the laptop in evidence it’s probably cool.
“Hey,” Jensen returns, pushing aside the pile of reference books and shutting the laptop cover. Jared takes that as a very good sign. “Glad you’re here, I was worried I’d really pissed you off.”
“Nope,” says Jared, which is sort of lying, but never mind. “I wanted to think about it a little, though. Christmas means a lot to me.”
He pauses while the waitress brings his latte. It has a hoofprint design in the froth. She winks. Jared’s not exactly in the closet about the were thing, okay? Especially not here, where people know him well. Jensen doesn’t notice. Again.
“Jen, I was wondering, is there a special reason why you don’t like Christmas?”
Jensen shrugs. “It’s never been that important for us. All that turkey, after Thanksgiving? Meh. And mom and dad never did the Christmas stocking thing. They told me about Santa being a lie all along. I was pretty unpopular at kindergarten for that one.”
Jared gulps. That’s like the worst fear of the reindeer community. Parents that don’t pass the dream along. It spreads, the lack of belief. Dozens of kids probably lost their belief just because of Jensen’s parents. And some of them wouldn’t have played along, recapturing the magic as their presents arrived, complete with sooty footprints by a blocked, unused chimney, and rough toothmarks in the carrots left for the reindeer. Some would have been lost. Like Jensen.
“Okay,” he says. “I have to tell you something. It’s not exactly a secret, but… we don’t talk about it much.”
Jensen nods, serious and supportive, like Jared’s about to talk about some weird cult thing or a Christmas-related condition and- “I’m one of Santa’s reindeer,” says Jared.
There’s a long silence. Jensen looks first confused, then as if on the edge of laughter, and then- Then he looks angry. “Jay, I don’t get why you’d say something like that.”
“Because it’s true. People will tell you, the ones that know.” Jared waves at the hoofprint on his latte. “Lemme break it down. I’m a were-reindeer. You know about were, right?”
Jensen nods, impatiently. “Sure, full moon, animal transformation, all that. Characteristics may manifest in human form, usually modified by human behavioural norms. I paid attention in health class, Jared.”
“Okay. So, that’s me. Except were-reindeer are more of a Christmas-based phenomenon. We transform for those dates, every month. The whole full moon thing? Not us. And if we’re lucky, we get recruited to work for the Big Guy.”
“The big guy? Santa?” Jensen puts the heels of his hands against his eyes, a mixture of rubbing in disbelief and blotting Jared out. It hurts. “Jay… I’ve never heard anything so crazy in my life.”
“Come back to my place,” says Jared. Which, in the circumstances, is pretty big of him, he thinks. “I’ll convince you.” He gulps down his latte, and waves at the waitress. “Gina? You want to tell Jensen about my secret double life?”
Gina winks. “First rule of Santa’s reindeer, right? We don’t talk about Santa’s reindeer. Except for how you always do. And for how Jonny P saw you on the Hendersons’ roof a couple Christmases ago.”
Jensen blinks, and follows Jared out of the store.
Jared’s evidence is mostly, you know, work stuff. Payslips and training schedules. Target weight and fitness goals, diet sheets from the health guys. Reconditioning at Schumberg spa, which has been rehabilitating exhausted reindeer since the 1860s. There are photos, sure, but Jared-the-reindeer doesn’t look exactly like Jared-the-human, obviously, so there’s an element of trust.
Jared talks. Jensen listens, and reads, and shakes his head. “Okay,” he says, after a while. “Tell me about being were. I haven’t seen you manifesting reindeer characteristics, exactly?”
“We love woods, and mountains, and getting out in the open,” Jared says. “And my nose works weird, but that’s sort of specialist as a characteristic. And I get really horny in autumn, but, you know, the job means that’s not really an option. I like mushrooms?”
Jensen’s actually laughing. “Seriously? A weird nose and getting horny? That’s it?”
“I’m a human,” Jared says, annoyed. “Mostly. You want me to butt my head against other males and mark my territory? I went to Berkeley!” He pauses to think. “I can’t transform for another six days, so I guess I can’t show you anything that’ll really convince you- Oh. Wait. I can fly!” Duh.
Jensen’s mouth actually falls open. It’s not a sexy look, but it is satisfying. Take that, unbeliever. “Come with me, onto the roof. And no, I’m not high, and I won’t kill us both. Just- Let me take you flying, Jen?”
There must be a little part of Jensen that believes, he notes. Because he’s following Jared like he’s not entirely crazy to do so. Scrambling up to the rooftop, he holds Jared’s hand looking over the edge. “Promise you’re not crazy, Jay? Because I think- I think I want to believe you.”
“Hold on,” says Jared. “Just by the belt is fine. You’ll see.” The whole flying thing, like the dates of his were manifestation, is powered by human belief, and he’s never dropped a person yet. He steps off the roof.
Jensen screams, and Jared stores that up for later mockery, but he has enough to do right now stabilising and finding his core. Dammit, it’s the wrong time of year for showing off. But he powers forward, and soon Jensen’s flying like Superman, hands in Jared’s belt-loops, legs streaming out behind. “Oh my god, oh my god,” Jared hears faintly, as he pumps arms and legs hard, “I’m flying!”
He comes into land pretty soon, and Jensen flings arms around him. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you,” he says. “And I’m so glad.” Jared’s pretty used to Jensen being cool, if not outright snotty. This guy looks like an excited kid, and he loves him for it.
Sitting back in Jared’s house, Jensen confesses. “I hated Christmas, because I always wanted it to be true. Seemed like it was true for other kids. But we never got the magic. I’m sorry I was a dick about it.”
Jared kisses him, slow and sweet. “You can get the magic back, Jen. I can’t be with you for Christmas Day, but I’ll be with you before and after, if you want. We can have holiday magic all you like. And if you leave out your stocking, we’ll drop by. Just don’t wait up to see the Big Guy. He hates that.”
Jensen kisses him right back.