rpf: fucked-up kid
Author: ciza
Pairing: Jackson/Ashley, implied R/K
Rating: PG-13 for lots of cussin'
Summary: he’s bonkers for not making it official already.
Type: O/S
Word Count: 762
A/N: based on Broken Social Scene/Kevin Drew's Fucked-Up Kid. Written for Robfic Riter's Writers Roundtable: Table #4 of 2010, songfic challenge at withoutdrowning
For every time people say that Ashley Greene is one lovely, nice, sweet little lady, a kitten gets shot in the imaginary world of Jackson Rathbone.
It’s not that Jackson doesn’t think highly of Ashley. On the contrary, he adores her. The only person he knows that can rival his feeling for Ashley is Rob’s for Kristen and vice versa. Jackson doesn’t really care about that, though; he only cares that it means Rob won’t go after Ashley. Add this to the facts that: Taylor is underage, Edi is too friendly with Ashley, Peter is married, Kellan has known her for so long that for them to be in a romantic relationship will feel rather incestuous; and as far as Jackson knows, there is no lesbian on this set to lure Ashley with her charming and feminine ways; and Ashley is too busy to go out with anyone she doesn’t work with. Ergo, Jackson Rathbone has no rival in his quest of making Ashley his whatever.
He likes this. He doesn’t do the whole official dating thing, but he likes this. He has a policy of not dating his co-stars, but he really likes this.
He really likes her.
He’s been watching her for a while, trying to understand her mannerisms and pet peeves and, inevitably, noticing her flaws and her imperfections. That’s how Jackson knows that Ashley is not as vanilla as she appears to be. Everyone outside the cast is so interested in Kristen being weird that they consider Ashley as adorable in comparison. Which is understandable, since those people are not the person she calls up at midnight, while it’s snowing outside, to get ice cream from the local 7-11 with. Or watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and eventually re-enact the movie with, because both of them remember all Joel and Clementine’s lines. When she’s with Jackson and no one else is around, Ashley skips down the road. Ashley drags Jackson to Kristen’s room so Kristen doesn’t get lonely while Rob’s brooding somewhere. Ashley only likes the red gummi bears. Ashley doesn’t eat tomatoes if they’re just chopped up and put in a salad. Ashley can’t eat sweet things in the morning. Ashley doesn’t like being tied in a relationship. Ashley doesn’t like being anyone’s anything, if ‘anything’ constitutes something other than sister, friend or daughter. Ashley has stopped caring about rumours. Ashley tells Jackson her growing up stories, and Jackson tells her his, and they can spend whole nights together doing things instead of sleeping, although that means they will get yelled at by the make-up artists in the morning. Ashley knows that he’s a fucked up kid and she’s perfectly fine with it. Ashley never hides her own fucked-up-ness, although they really haven’t known each other for that long; and he’s gone rather obsessed about her and can’t stop gushing about her to anyone who will listen.
Jackson tells Rob this on the phone, that very morning. Rob, in return, tells Jackson he’s bonkers for not making it official already.
Everyone knows that they have a crush at each other. To deny that will be fucking stupid, really. During the filming of Twilight, Jackson wasn’t really sure if the feelings would last if they hadn’t spent so much time together. Then came promotional tours and twicons and appearances, in between Jackson’s shows and Ashley’s filming schedule, and the regular Skype session didn’t provide any answer to either of them. There were no ‘I miss you’s, let alone ‘I love you’s, but there were countless ‘I wish you were here’s. So they survived not seeing each other until New Moon started, and they were happy, and then came Italy. For some stupid reason Ashley’s phone wouldn’t work there and she didn’t bring her laptop and Jackson’s hatred towards Italy grew in proportion to how much he missed Ashley. Which was a lot. Which propels him into doing this stupid surprise thing, without consulting anyone apart from Rob - who told him the flight number from Rome to LAX.
Ashley spots him next to the car that will drive her back to her house and Rob to Kristen’s, with flowers in his hand and his heart on his sleeve. She shrieks and runs towards him, all happy and giddy and ready to come back to his arms and kills him with glorious kisses; and Jackson feels himself grinning and thinking that maybe it’s about time that he starts doing things he doesn’t usually do.
Two years.
Two movies.
Two fucked-up kids have been waiting long enough for this.