Fanfiction: J2 - So Much More (Or How Jensen Learned not to be Such a Judgmental Prick) 1/?
Title: So Much More (Or How Jensen Learned Not to be Such a Judgmental Prick)
Author: conclusivelead.
Fandom: J2 RPS (AU).
Rating: Right now, PG-13.
Genre: Romance/Humor/Drama.
Warnings: Just Ridiculousness, Incorrect Geography, & Blatant Misuse of a Celebrity. So far, anyway.
Word Count: ~1700.
Challenge/Inspiration: The idea was taken from a prompt issued by willow_fae_20. The original prompt can be found right hurr.
Obviously I added my own personal touch by making it a bit more drastically AU and putting the boys into a school setting as well as creating a situation in which Jensen and Jared are already acquainted and do not get along.
Okay, Jesus - it's taking me so long to write this fic and I really have no idea why. The prompt was issued forever ago. I was like, “Oooh! Me! Pick me!” and then took forever to actually write the motherfucking thing. I promised myself I’d get this finished before they started packing out our house. Yeah. They packed us out more than a week ago and I'm still only on the 4th chapter. BUT - I really wanted to get the first chapter up because I've recieved such a positive response from my flist about the idea.
BEWARE: this is unbeta'd.
Summary: “I’d rather keep my inexplicably flaming homosexuality under wraps for the unforeseeable (read as: next five months or so) future.” It makes sense that the best, most qualified party to identify a case of puppy love is, well, a puppy. Or, in the case of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, two puppies. Harley and Sadie brought their owners together; the rest is up to them, which may prove difficult seeing as Jensen would like to stay in the closet, thank you very much. Jared, however, is convinced that he can be very persuasive. J2; AU: high school.
So Much More (Or How Jensen Learned Not to be Such a Judgmental Prick)
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” - Mother Teresa
I.- In Which Jensen "Meets" Jared, Rushes Off, Meets Him Again (For Real This Time), and Forms an (Entirely Unreasonable) Opinion
Friday, February 27th, 2009
8:46 AM
Richardson High School - Richardson, Texas
Jensen was late to class - again.
Only this time, it really wasn’t his fault. His Adv. Chemistry teacher had held him back after class so they could discuss whether he’d be exempt from the quarter final. Apparently, he’d missed the required average by two points and the man wasn’t exactly known for his leniency. Therefore Jensen - who was the smartest person in that entire class, might he add - was going to have to study for a test that on principle he shouldn’t have to take in the first place.
So naturally he wasn’t exactly in the best mood when he first ran into Jared Padalecki.
Literally, he ran into him.
One minute, the bespectacled teen was rushing through the hallways, silently calculating how many more seconds he had left until final bell, then next - BAM! He was slamming right into someone much larger than himself.
For a moment, he and the mysterious appearing man were teetering wildly, Jensen on his toes and the other guy on his heels, and then they were falling, forward for Jensen and backward for whoever-it-was; they landed in a heap of tangled limbs and pained groans.
“Ooooooouuuuch,” groaned a disgruntled voice, which, other than the whole ‘disgruntled’ part was actually rather harmonious. “Geez…”
Jensen forced himself onto his elbows and glanced down at his ‘attacker.’ He looked kind of familiar, which could have meant he just looked like every other jock-type in the entire school or that Jensen had seen him around somewhere at one point or another or maybe he even knew him from a class…
But he really had no time to stop and consider because just then the bell rang; Jensen scrambled to his feet, threw a hurried “Sorry!” over his shoulder, and rushed away, leaving a very disoriented Jared Padalecki in his wake.
Friday, March 6th, 2009
12:30 PM
Richardson High School - Richardson, Texas
The second time the two met, Jensen was just finishing up his lunch in the cafeteria on a Friday afternoon. His friend Tom had decided that it was time he eat lunch with him, since he’d been spending the last couple of weeks sitting with his other, more athletic friends. They were sitting in something very like companionable silence, even though Jensen was rather intent on getting away as quickly as possible because geez, this was awkward.
It’d been a while since their last alone-time, and while it looked like Tom’s mind was wandering, Jensen’s head was stuck clearly in the here-and-now. He was trying very hard not to blush, and for a while he’d been succeeding admirably, but then Tom did this little shoulder stretch and whoa, there it was: Jensen was in Blush City.
He wasn’t sure why this was such a big deal. He’d pretty much decided he was over it all, but there was no way Jensen could deny it - Tom was a pretty attractive guy.
He cast a tentative glance over at his old friend but quickly averted his gaze back to the macaroni-and-slop-surprise that was falling over onto his tray when one of Tom’s friends appeared at the black haired boy’s shoulder.
“Hey,” greeted the newcomer, grinning charmingly. “We were wondering where you’d gotten to, Tommy.”
‘Tommy?’ Jensen silently asked himself. ‘Since when does he go by Tommy?’
He couldn’t help but think of a bald baby with a huge head running around in a blue shirt and diaper and was momentarily thrown back to his younger days in front of the television, watching Nickelodeon for hours on end. Then he somehow remembered being twelve and calling Tom Tommy. He’d earned a black eye for his trouble. Weird how things changed when you grew up.
“Hey, Jay,” Tom answered cheerily, participating in this weird-hand-clasp-slash-handshake-thing that they managed to pull off very artfully but would have left Jensen a big mess of confused hand placement and zero hand-eye coordination. “Figured ya’ll would be cool without me for an hour.”
He laughed appropriately.
Jensen just sat where he was, desperately trying to disappear into his own shadow. He was kind of hoping that he could get through this without an awkward introduction and bogus sociability, but goshdarnit, there Tom went -
“Hey, lemme introduce you. Jared, this is my pal from way back, Jensen Ackles.” Tom and Jared turned to Jensen expectantly, as though he was supposed to put on a smarmy grin and straight out chest bump Jared in some strange masculine greeting ritual. As it was, Jensen sat where he was and gave Jared a lame little wave, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
There was a weird silence (‘Not my fault, they could speak up whenever they want!’ Jensen insisted to himself), and then Jared was sliding onto the bench beside Tom and across from Jensen. He was just settling his elbows and forearms down on the table when Tom stood up. Jensen shot him a panicked look.
“So, uh, I gotta go to the john real quick,” he explained, doing that irresistible shoulder stretch that had Jensen drooling in his pasta (or was that potato?) “Try not to talk him to death, Jensen.”
‘Ha ha. So funny. I’m overcome with the hilariousness of that statement. Really.’
Tom departed and another, even more splendidly awkward silence ensued. For a moment, they were both quiet: Jensen moved his unidentifiable school lunch around and Jared sat wordlessly, studying him closely and, if it was possible, making Jensen even more uncomfortable than before.
Then - it happened.
“Hey.”
Jensen had no idea why this person was trying to chat him up (Sympathy? Pity? The strange notion that a friend of Tom’s was his friend too?) but he didn’t really care. He pretended not to have heard and continued to push his peas around.
“Hey. Hey.”
‘Ignore him, Jensen. Just ignore him. La la la, pushin’ peas! I’m pushin’ peas!!!’
“Hey.” Jared’s voice was insistent this time and Jensen’s ode to the peas he was currently pushin’ died mid-verse.
“What?” he queried, finally looking up. His hand stilled and the peas did too.
“You’re that one guy.” Jared looked as though he has had some sort of righteous epiphany. He also kind of looked…annoyed.
Jensen blinked blankly. “Um…yes, I suppose that’s - er - a correct assumption. I am a ‘one’ in that I’m a singular human being and I am a ‘guy.’”
“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” Jared answered in a voice that obviously said he didn’t appreciate Jensen’s smart assy-ness. “You’re that dude that ran me down the other day, aren’t you?”
‘Ooooooooh.’ Suddenly Jensen knew where he’d seen him before. He was…that one guy…
“Ooh,” said Jensen. “Um….”
Jared arched an eyebrow. “Is that all you can say - ‘oh?’ You nearly gave me a concussion.”
Somehow Jensen thought this was probably something of an exaggeration, but he kept his head down nonetheless. “Um.”
“Is your vocabulary limited to ‘oh’ and ‘um?’” he asked, leaning forward and attempting to catch Jensen’s eye.
Jensen mumbled a quick “No!” under his breath, blushing wildly and fidgeting under his intense look. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose - a nervous habit.
“No? Then speak, man; explain to me just why you made me late to class last week!” Jared turned his head a bit to the side and muttered under his breath, “Never mind the near-death experience.”
Well, Jesus; if Jared stopped shouting at him like that, Jensen thought he might be able to at least formulate a barely audible reply - which was a big deal for him.
The goading continued for another few minutes: Jared glared and Jensen cowered.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” the taller boy demanded earnestly, slamming his fists onto the tabletop.
Okay, enough.
“Look - I was in a really bad mood that day, okay?! I was having a hard time and Mr. Warschmaster knew that but he wouldn’t bump my grade up and I’m probably going to fail the stupid exam on principle so excuse me if I wasn’t looking where the hell I was going because Mr. Warschmaster knew I would be late to class but then you were coming around the corner and by the way, you weren’t looking where you were going either, so it was kind of doomed from the start!”
Jensen was panting by the end of it all, and he was pretty sure his cheeks were red, but for once in his life he felt alive - empowered, even.
Jared was gaping at him like he was a complete moron, hazel eyes wide and mouth open. It was the first time Jensen had stared directly into the other boy’s face and it took a moment for the strange feeling in the pit of his stomach to register: attraction. The red in Jensen’s cheeks crept higher and he pressed the feeling away, unwilling to admit to it even in his head.
And then he was saved because the bell was ringing and it was an excuse - a sweet, sweet excuse! Jensen pushed up from the table, forgetting the tray of half-eaten food, and raced off, undoubtedly leaving a shell shocked Jared in his wake.
Jensen poured through a million different thoughts, not sure what to think and trying not to think the things he really shouldn’t be thinking - especially things that involved Jared’s broad shoulders. He was thrown back to when they’d had their little run-in and suddenly he realized that even then he’d felt something…even if it was just the poke of Jared’s elbow in his chest.
And despite the insurmountable attraction that was having a freaking rodeo in his chest, Jensen felt something like resentment.
But it wasn’t that Jensen hated Jared - it was that he didn’t understand him, and Jensen didn’t like anything he didn’t understand….
…even if, apparently, he could lust for it.
‘All in all,’ he thought as he made his way to class, ‘the dude’s a douche even if he is hot…and it doesn’t matter because I’m never going to have to deal with him again.’
TO BE CONTINUED.