Fic: How The Jensen Stole Christmas
Title: How The Jensen Stole Christmas
Author: hils
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: PG
Word Count: 4650
Summary: Jared loves Christmas. Jensen hates Christmas. Now that they're living together this could cause a problem.
Notes: Written as a gift for acquiescence_ for spn_j2_xmas
Thanks to kitty_poker1 for the beta
Pretty much everyone had a crush on Jensen. It was just one of those things, like the sun rising every morning. Anyone who spent more than about five minutes in Jensen’s company came away a little bit in love with him. Which is why Jared didn’t think it was a big deal when he realised he was more than a little bit in love with Jensen himself.
When Jensen had mentioned in passing that he needed a new place to live, Jared had wondered for about five minutes whether it would be awkward having the object of his crush living as well as working with him. He’d decided not and less than a month later Jensen had moved in. Jared figured that once he came into contact with some of Jensen’s less savoury personal habits his crush would just fade away.
It hadn’t.
If anything it was even worse than before, because he got to see Jensen looking all adorable and rumpled in the morning before he’d had his coffee. That just set him off imagining what it would be like to wake up with Jensen in his bed.
It was just something he’d have to deal with. Right now there were other things he had to think about.
He looked outside at the blanket of white covering his garden and smiled. The snow was thick and undisturbed except for a couple of sets of doggy paw prints but even Harley and Sadie weren’t dumb enough to spend longer outside than was needed for them to do their business.
He loved this time of year. Everything felt so clear and fresh, and with Christmas not too far away everyone had that sense of excitement and happiness that the holidays brought.
“Fuck. Snow hasn’t melted then?” Jensen grunted as he padded into the kitchen, hair still mussed and pillow creases on his face as he poured himself a cup of coffee. Jared quickly pushed aside the images of waking up next to Jensen and smiled.
Well, okay, most people were excited and happy. Jensen had spent the last month complaining about the cold and the dark and how he missed Texas. Now he’d added complaining about the snow to the list.
Jensen let out a contented sigh as the caffeine hit his system and Jared grinned. “I take it you don’t want to come for a run with me this morning then?”
Jensen blinked at him and Jared laughed. “You should see your face right now, man.”
Jensen blinked at him again. “You’re actually going running? Outside? In that?”
“Sure,” Jared replied with a shrug. “It’s not that bad. The roads and sidewalks have been salted.”
“Yeah, but it’s still fucking freezing.” Jensen was on his second cup of coffee now and while he looked more awake, he didn’t look any less grumpy. Jared was used to it by now. They’d only been living together for a couple of months but Jared had quickly learned that Jensen was not a morning person, in any way. He wouldn’t perk up until they were on set and working. Jared had added it to the list of things he found adorable about Jensen, although he suspected Jensen would punch him in the face if he knew the list even existed.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Jared finally said and Jensen just grunted at him.
He grinned and pulled a sweatshirt on over his t-shirt. “You gonna have breakfast waiting for me when I get back?”
That, at least, cracked a smile on Jensen’s face and he chuckled. “Your sense of humor is clearly more awake than I am.”
“But Jennnnn,” Jared whined, shuffling over and resting his head on his friend’s shoulder. “I want pancakes and I won’t have time to make them when I get back.”
Jensen shrugged his shoulder to dislodge Jared’s head and poured himself a third cup of coffee. “Hey, it’s not my fault you’re nuts and think jogging in the snow is a good way to start the day.”
“You’re just jealous of my hot body,” Jared grinned. “Come on, man, you can admit it.”
“I’ll admit that I’m in awe of your enormous ego,” Jensen shot back with a smirk.
Jared laughed. “Whatever. I’m awesome and you know it. So, pancakes?”
Jensen let out a resigned sigh that Jared knew he didn’t really mean. “Fine, I’ll make some pancakes, since you’re so awesome and all.”
“You know it.” Jared beamed and bounded out of the front door, the icy wind almost knocking the breath from his lungs. He didn’t care, though. This was when he felt most alive. Just him, the breath burning in his lungs and the sound of his heart pounding as he ran.
* * *
“So, I was thinking,” Jared said as he sipped his coffee while Jensen finished making the pancakes. “We should go shopping on our next day off.”
“We just bought groceries,” Jensen pointed out, pulling several different flavours of syrup out of the cupboard to demonstrate his point. Jared smirked. As far as he was concerned there was no such thing as too much syrup.
He grabbed the chocolate and the maple and poured a generous helping of each over his pancakes, ignoring the grimace Jensen gave him. “Not grocery shopping. It’s Christmas soon and we need to get a tree and stuff.”
He was still kind of amazed at how quickly they’d become a ‘we’, although not in the way he’d hoped. They went grocery shopping every week, he’d helped Jensen put together all his furniture when he’d first moved in and lately they’d even started walking the dogs together. It was pretty awesome.
“Christmas?” Jensen frowned as he sat down and tucked into his syrup-free pancakes. “Already? Shit.”
Jensen had always been like this in the whole time that Jared had known him. Some people were Christmas people and some people weren’t. Jared was and Jensen wasn’t. He hoped that this year he’d be able to get Jensen to change his mind. He was certainly going to try.
“Yeah, I was thinking I’d cook us a turkey before we leave for the holidays. You know, have our own little Christmas here before the real thing.”
Jensen stared at him for a moment and Jared wondered if he was going to flat out refuse.
“Cook?” Jensen finally said. “You? No offense, man, but you lived on takeout before I moved in.”
“Hey, I can cook,” Jared protested with a huff. “Just because I don’t get off on it like you do...”
“Dude, before I moved in you didn’t even keep oregano in the kitchen.”
Jensen said it like Jared had committed some sort of culinary mortal sin.
“Who the hell uses oregano anyway? Apart from you,” he added when Jensen opened his mouth to answer.
“Well, you’ve just filled me with confidence,” Jensen said dryly.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Jared promised. “You’ll see.”
* * *
Jared had always loved Christmas. His momma used to tease that he had never really grown up and that he’d still believe in Santa if he could. He didn’t care. There was just something about all the decorations in the stores, all the songs on the radio and the masses of fake snow wherever he looked (because apparently the real stuff wasn’t enough for Canadians). He tried to explain this to Jensen over lunch one day but apparently he was having none of it.
“It’s not that I don’t like Christmas,” Jensen explained. “I love the time off and the chance to spend some time with my friends and family. It’s just so damn commercial, you know? The stores have had their decorations up since October and if I hear one more song about Santa on the radio I swear I’m gonna kill someone.”
Jared just smiled and nodded. He was even more determined to make sure Jensen had the best Christmas ever now.
* * *
“Do you think we’ve got enough stuff?” Jared asked with a frown, poking through the things he’d loaded into the cart.
Jensen snorted. “Dude, you’ve got enough stuff in there to open your own branch of Macy’s if you wanted.”
He grunted when Jared jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow.
“Come on, man,” Jared whined, putting Sam’s puppy eyes to full use. “I want this to be good. You could at least try and be helpful.”
Jensen sighed. “Look, I told you Christmas isn’t my thing. I’m sorry, okay?”
Jared nodded. All he wanted was to see Jensen smile. A real, genuine smile and not one of those forced ones he gave to fans when he was trying to pretend that he was having fun in a situation he really wasn’t comfortable with.
* * *
He started off small.
“I’ve made a Christmas playlist for us to listen to while we put up the decorations.”
Jensen did not look impressed. “Seriously? Do you want me to strangle you with your headphone cord?”
Jared cleared his throat. “Uh. . . no?”
“Okay then.”
Right, this was clearly going to be harder than he’d thought.
“No music?” he asked cautiously.
“No Christmas music,” Jensen clarified.
Yeah, this was definitely going to be harder than he thought.
* * *
They hit a local bar when they finished filming on the Friday before Christmas and Jared was already hatching his next master plan.
“So, you guys are doing Christmas this weekend?” Misha asked with an amused smirk. “I thought you told me there was nothing to all those rumors I read about you on the internet.”
“Fuck off,” Jensen sighed, but it only made Misha grin even more. This really wasn’t helping with Jared’s plan to get Jensen in a good mood for the holidays.
“When do you fly back to LA?” he asked, hoping a change of subject would get Misha off topic for a while.
“Monday,” Misha replied. “Why? Am I invited to the Padalecki-Ackles Christmas Special?”
Jared pretended to think about it for a moment and then turned to Jensen. “What’s a polite way of saying no?”
Misha’s grin widened. “Right. You two want to be alone, of course. I’m gonna get another drink. You guys want one?”
“Hell yes,” Jensen replied a little too eagerly, and he let out a sigh of relief as soon as Misha was out of earshot. “I really hate him.”
“No, you don’t,” Jared replied. “And you know he only says that stuff to get a reaction out of you. I swear his mom didn’t pay him enough attention as a kid or something.”
That at least got a smirk out of Jensen. “It’s like having Rosenbaum back only without Tom to keep him off our backs.”
“You like Rosey too,” Jared pointed out.
Jensen sighed again.
“Hey, I’ve got something that might cheer you up,” Jared said with his biggest smile. He needed to put his plan into action now before Jensen slumped any further. “How do you feel about ice skating?”
Jensen visibly perked up at that and Jared’s smile widened.
“Wow, I haven’t skated in years. You wanna go?”
“Sure,” Jared beamed. His plan was actually working. “I haven’t skated at all so that should amuse you.”
“Awesome.”
This time Jensen actually sounded genuinely happy and Jared marked that one down as a victory.
* * *
“Dude, you looked like Bambi. All wide eyes and flailing limbs.”
Jared was pretty sure there wasn’t an inch of him that didn’t have a bruise on it, and his face and feet were numb from the cold. It didn’t matter though, because Jensen was actually smiling. Hell, he was laughing too. The pain and the cold didn’t matter now because he’d made Jensen happy, which had been the whole point of this trip in the first place.
“Screw you,” he shot back with a good natured grin as he sipped his hot chocolate. “You know this just means you’re going to have to put up most of the Christmas decorations tomorrow because I won’t be able to move.”
Jensen shrugged. “Hey, this whole Christmas thing was your idea. If you can’t move then there’s not going to be any decorations. Sorry, man.”
Jared pouted but that just caused Jensen to raise an eyebrow and smirk. “Come on, you know I’m immune to the puppy dog thing.”
Jared sniffed and let out a small whine that his babies would have been proud of.
“Urgh, fine,” Jensen sighed, throwing his hands up in surrender. “Let’s go home. I’ll run you a nice hot bath and give you a massage and you’ll be fine tomorrow.”
He frowned. “Wow, that sounded really gay, didn’t it?”
Jared was tempted to say that he didn’t mind.
* * *
He had no idea what time it was when he woke up but it was still dark outside so he figured it must be early. For a moment he wasn’t sure what had awoken him, until he became aware of the throbbing pain in his temples and behind his eyes. Jesus Christ, he felt like shit. He muttered a curse under his breath. Jensen must have got up and turned up the heat sometime in the night because his t-shirt and pajama pants were sticking to him even after he’d kicked off the covers in his sleep.
He clicked on the lamp beside the bed and winced as the light made the pain in his head flare up. As he lurched to his feet he staggered and almost fell back onto the bed again. He took a moment to steady himself and then slowly made his way into the bathroom where he gulped down a couple of glasses of water. All it did was make him cough, which made his headache even worse.
There was no way he was going to get back to sleep while he felt like this so he carefully navigated the stairs and collapsed onto the couch, coughing weakly into his hand. At least it was cooler down here.
Harley and Sadie came to investigate the noise, Sadie quickly jumping up onto the couch and resting her head in Jared’s lap while Harley curled up at his feet.
“I’m okay,” he croaked, stroking a clammy hand over Sadie’s head. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear she was giving him an unconvinced look.
A few minutes passed and Jared was just considering sleeping where he was when he heard Jensen’s light click on just before his friend padded into the room.
“It’s the middle of the night,” Jensen said, voice rough with sleep. “What are you doing up?”
Jared was going to answer but instead he coughed, and for a minute he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to stop before he ran out of air and passed out.
“Shit, man, you sound like hell. Look like it too.”
Jensen frowned and moved over to him, laying a cool hand on his forehead. It felt wonderful and Jared toyed with the idea of asking Jensen to just stand there like that for the rest of the night.
“You’re burning up,” Jensen murmured and Jared almost whimpered when he pulled his hand away. “Have you taken anything?”
He shook his head and let out a small groan when it made him feel dizzy.
“Right, come on. Back to bed and I’ll get you some Theraflu.”
He wanted to move, really he did, but he was so tired and sore that even the thought of getting up made him want to curl up into a ball.
Jensen sighed. “Come on, man, at least help me out a little.”
He let out a small moan as Jensen wrapped his arms around him, but between them they managed to get upstairs and soon Jared was tucked up in bed with a couple of Theraflu caplets and a glass of water.
“This sucks,” Jared moaned. “Right before Christmas too.”
Jensen came out of the bathroom with a cool damp cloth and laid it over Jared’s head. It didn’t feel quite as good as Jensen’s hand but right now Jared would take whatever he could get.
“It’s still a few days until Christmas,” Jensen said gently. “You’ll be okay before it’s time to fly home.”
“Yeah, but I was gonna cook for us tomorrow and put up the tree and all the decorations.”
He was almost ashamed when he felt the tears stinging in his eyes but he’d spent so long planning this perfect Christmas for Jensen and now it wasn’t going to happen. It sucked ass.
“Hey,” Jensen said, giving Jared’s hand a squeeze. “That stuff doesn’t matter. You just need to get better, okay?”
Jared sighed and nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
“Get some sleep,” Jensen said as he clicked the lamp off. “I’ll check on you in the morning.”
Jared closed his eyes, the pills already starting to make him feel sleepy. “Thanks, man. You’re awesome.”
“I know.”
* * *
It was light when Jared woke up again, and there were two pills and a fresh glass of water on the table beside the bed. He knocked the pills back and, after giving it some thought, he decided that he felt better. Well, sort of. His fever didn’t seem so bad and his headache was gone but he still felt really damn tired.
He could hear Jensen moving around downstairs, talking in hushed tones to someone. Jared figured he must be on the phone. He usually called his folks on a Sunday to let them know he was still alive.
He closed his eyes and allowed Jensen’s voice to lull him back to sleep. It didn’t take long.
* * *
Waking up again was much less pleasant, not because he felt sick but because Harley and Sadie launched themselves onto the bed at full speed and then started to do some sort of doggy dance on his legs.
“What the hell has got you two so excited?” he groaned and sat up. The dogs just looked at him expectantly, tongues lolling and tails wagging. They probably needed to be let out.
He hauled himself out of bed, surprised that he didn’t feel half as crappy as he was expecting. Must have just been some sort of twenty four hour bug. He pulled on a pair of sweats and a clean t-shirt before heading downstairs, nearly getting knocked down by Harley and Sadie who charged after him.
“Okay, okay, I’ll let you out. Just let me. . .”
He stopped when his brain caught up with what his eyes were seeing. For a second he wondered whether he was still running a fever and actually hallucinating.
Nat King Cole was crooning The Christmas Song from Jared’s iPod jack, but what really caught his attention was the huge Christmas tree at one end of the living room. That definitely hadn’t been there when he’d been up earlier. It was fully decorated with colored lights twinkling and a couple of wrapped gifts underneath it. He recognized one of them as the present he’d bought Jensen and stored, he thought, secretly in his closet.
The whole room had been decorated. Streamers hung from the ceiling, there was tinsel around all the picture frames. It was like the dream house from Miracle on 34th Street.
“Oh, good, you’re up,” Jensen said from behind him, startling Jared so much that he actually jumped. He whirled around, any words dying on his lips as he saw Jensen smiling, an honest to God Santa hat on his head. Not only that but he was wearing the most ridiculous Christmas tie that was currently playing Jingle Bells and flashing little red lights in time to the music.
“I think I’m high on painkillers,” Jared said weakly when Jensen grinned at him.
“Maybe you should sit down and have some food,” Jensen suggested, steering Jared towards the kitchen before he had time to answer.
Even with his stuffed nose Jared could smell the cooking and his stomach let out a growl as Jensen maneuvered him into one of the chairs. When he saw the meal Jensen had prepared, his stomach let out another growl and he almost started drooling.
“Holy shit.”
The table was literally covered in food. In fact, Jared was amazed that the table legs hadn’t collapsed under the weight of it all. There was a turkey in the middle, surrounded by just about every type of vegetable you could imagine and some Jared wasn’t even sure he recognized.
“Holy shit,” he said again as Jensen poured him a glass of water. “Did you do all this by yourself?”
“Well, I had a bit of help,” Jensen admitted as he poured himself a drink and sat down. “Misha came over when I told him you were sick and gave me a hand.”
“Does that mean you don’t hate him anymore?” Jared asked with a smirk.
“Well, he has his uses,” Jensen conceded. “Turns out he’s pretty handy around the house. He did all the decorating while I was cooking.”
“I still can’t believe you did all this.” He let out a low moan of pleasure as the turkey all but melted off the fork in his mouth. “Fuck, Jensen, I’ve never tasted anything like this before. It’s amazing.”
Jensen actually blushed and Jared realized with alarm that if the table wasn’t covered in food he’d crawl across it right now and kiss Jensen senseless.
Well, shit. Apparently his crush was now slightly more than a crush.
* * *
“I don’t actually think I can move,” Jared groaned when he was finally done eating. There was still loads of food left but Jensen had said he’d promised to take any leftovers around to Misha’s hotel as a thanks for helping him out.
Jared patted his full stomach and instantly wished he hadn’t. Jensen simply smiled and lounged back in his own chair with a satisfied sigh. “You wanna open presents now?”
“You might need to help me move,” Jared groaned again.
“Well, it’s not going to be the first time,” Jensen grinned. “Come on.”
Between them they staggered over to the couch and collapsed into it.
“Do mine first,” Jared said. “I can’t move again.”
Jensen sighed and slowly climbed to his feet, crawling under the tree and emerging with both gifts. The one that Jared had wrapped wasn’t exactly neat, but it had done the job which was the most important thing. Someone had once asked him why didn’t get the stores to wrap the gifts for him and he’d been horrified by the suggestion. Half the fun of Christmas was wrapping gifts, even if you weren’t very good at it.
Jensen gave the box a hesitant shake.
“Well, that’s it broken,” Jared said and petted Jensen’s knee when his face fell. “I’m kidding. Go on, open it.”
Jensen peeled at the paper ever so carefully, making sure not to rip it. He always did this. He’d once told Jared that the paper was too nice to mess up and that if he opened his gifts carefully enough he could re-use it, yet the whole time Jared had known him he’d never seen Jensen give anyone a gift using recycled paper. He suspected Jensen’s way of opening gifts was just a mild OCD thing.
It took an age but finally Jensen got the paper off in one piece and set it down carefully on the table. “Jared, man, this is awesome!”
It was a new lens for Jensen’s camera. He’d mentioned a while back that he was thinking of getting one but he hadn’t had time to go into the store. Jared had spent a good two hours in there listening to the clerk explaining about all the different settings in way too much detail, most of which he hadn’t even understood. It was totally worth it, though, to see the beaming smile on Jensen’s face right now.
Jensen handed Jared his gift, still smiling happily. “Merry Christmas.”
Unlike Jensen, Jared tore into the paper quickly and without a moment’s hesitation, sending bits of shredded paper flying everywhere.
“Wow, Jensen. . .”
It was a photo Jensen had taken over the summer when he’d come to Jared’s place for a barbeque. Jared had been goofing around, rolling around on the lawn with Harley and Sadie when Jensen had snapped it. The photo had been mounted and framed and there was a little engraved plaque on it that read ‘Jared and family’.
“Do you like it?” Jensen asked softly and hopefully. “I wasn’t sure what to get you so. . .”
Jared really, really wanted to kiss him senseless now. It was either that or cry and there was no way he was turning into a girl over a photo.
“I love it,” was all he managed to say in a voice choked with emotion.
And I love you.
Luckily he was distracted from any spontaneous declarations of feeling by Jensen’s phone ringing. Jensen shot him an apologetic smile and answered.
“Hello? Oh, hey man. Yeah, he’s up and he loved it. Thanks for all your help. What? Where?”
Jensen got up from the crouch and started crawling around under the tree again. Jared tried to ignore the rather impressive view of Jensen’s ass he was getting.
“What?” Jensen’s muffled voice continued talking. “Oh, yeah, I’ve found it. Why do I need to. . .Hello?”
Jensen moved back over to the couch, frowning at his phone for a second before he slid it back into his pocket. He passed an envelope to Jared.
“It’s from Misha. He said we had to open it together.”
“Together?” Jared frowned, turning the envelope over in his hands. He half expected it to explode or spray them with paint or something. You never quite knew with Misha. “So are we supposed to open half each or something?”
“I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Jensen replied. “Just open it.”
Right, of course he had to be the one to open it and get covered in unicorn jizz or whatever else Misha had rigged it with.
He opened the envelope with slow care that even Jensen would have been proud of.
Nothing happened.
All that was inside was a single sheaf of paper with two words written on it.
Look up.
Their eyes both drifted towards the ceiling where a giant sprig of mistletoe was hanging above their heads.
“Huh,” Jensen said after a moment.
“Well, that’s not exactly subtle,” Jared commented, feeling his cheeks flush a little.
Jensen snorted. “It’s Misha. I don’t think subtle is in his dictionary.”
“Yeah, you have a point there.”
They both stared at the mistletoe for a few minutes, as though they were expecting it to jump down from the ceiling and bind them together until they fucked or something.
“You know,” Jensen finally said slowly. “It would be rude not to accept Misha’s gift. Especially since he helped me out today.”
For a moment Jared wasn’t really sure what Jensen was saying, but when he turned to face him with eyes wide and hopeful, a nervous smile on his face, Jared realized he wasn’t kidding.
“Yeah,” he quickly agreed. “Very rude.”
He leaned forward, hand coming up to brush at the soft hair near Jensen’s temple as their lips met.
Their first kiss wasn’t how he’d imagined it would be. In his fantasies it had always been hot and eager, usually accompanied by them tearing each other’s clothes off and fucking on the nearest available surface.
This kiss was soft and gentle and felt like the final piece of a puzzle slotting into place. The tearing of the clothes would come later, Jared was sure, but right now he just wanted to enjoy this for what it was.
It was warmth and it was home.
“Merry Christmas, Jensen.”
“Merry Christmas, Jared.”
The End.
Author: hils
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: PG
Word Count: 4650
Summary: Jared loves Christmas. Jensen hates Christmas. Now that they're living together this could cause a problem.
Notes: Written as a gift for acquiescence_ for spn_j2_xmas
Thanks to kitty_poker1 for the beta
Pretty much everyone had a crush on Jensen. It was just one of those things, like the sun rising every morning. Anyone who spent more than about five minutes in Jensen’s company came away a little bit in love with him. Which is why Jared didn’t think it was a big deal when he realised he was more than a little bit in love with Jensen himself.
When Jensen had mentioned in passing that he needed a new place to live, Jared had wondered for about five minutes whether it would be awkward having the object of his crush living as well as working with him. He’d decided not and less than a month later Jensen had moved in. Jared figured that once he came into contact with some of Jensen’s less savoury personal habits his crush would just fade away.
It hadn’t.
If anything it was even worse than before, because he got to see Jensen looking all adorable and rumpled in the morning before he’d had his coffee. That just set him off imagining what it would be like to wake up with Jensen in his bed.
It was just something he’d have to deal with. Right now there were other things he had to think about.
He looked outside at the blanket of white covering his garden and smiled. The snow was thick and undisturbed except for a couple of sets of doggy paw prints but even Harley and Sadie weren’t dumb enough to spend longer outside than was needed for them to do their business.
He loved this time of year. Everything felt so clear and fresh, and with Christmas not too far away everyone had that sense of excitement and happiness that the holidays brought.
“Fuck. Snow hasn’t melted then?” Jensen grunted as he padded into the kitchen, hair still mussed and pillow creases on his face as he poured himself a cup of coffee. Jared quickly pushed aside the images of waking up next to Jensen and smiled.
Well, okay, most people were excited and happy. Jensen had spent the last month complaining about the cold and the dark and how he missed Texas. Now he’d added complaining about the snow to the list.
Jensen let out a contented sigh as the caffeine hit his system and Jared grinned. “I take it you don’t want to come for a run with me this morning then?”
Jensen blinked at him and Jared laughed. “You should see your face right now, man.”
Jensen blinked at him again. “You’re actually going running? Outside? In that?”
“Sure,” Jared replied with a shrug. “It’s not that bad. The roads and sidewalks have been salted.”
“Yeah, but it’s still fucking freezing.” Jensen was on his second cup of coffee now and while he looked more awake, he didn’t look any less grumpy. Jared was used to it by now. They’d only been living together for a couple of months but Jared had quickly learned that Jensen was not a morning person, in any way. He wouldn’t perk up until they were on set and working. Jared had added it to the list of things he found adorable about Jensen, although he suspected Jensen would punch him in the face if he knew the list even existed.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Jared finally said and Jensen just grunted at him.
He grinned and pulled a sweatshirt on over his t-shirt. “You gonna have breakfast waiting for me when I get back?”
That, at least, cracked a smile on Jensen’s face and he chuckled. “Your sense of humor is clearly more awake than I am.”
“But Jennnnn,” Jared whined, shuffling over and resting his head on his friend’s shoulder. “I want pancakes and I won’t have time to make them when I get back.”
Jensen shrugged his shoulder to dislodge Jared’s head and poured himself a third cup of coffee. “Hey, it’s not my fault you’re nuts and think jogging in the snow is a good way to start the day.”
“You’re just jealous of my hot body,” Jared grinned. “Come on, man, you can admit it.”
“I’ll admit that I’m in awe of your enormous ego,” Jensen shot back with a smirk.
Jared laughed. “Whatever. I’m awesome and you know it. So, pancakes?”
Jensen let out a resigned sigh that Jared knew he didn’t really mean. “Fine, I’ll make some pancakes, since you’re so awesome and all.”
“You know it.” Jared beamed and bounded out of the front door, the icy wind almost knocking the breath from his lungs. He didn’t care, though. This was when he felt most alive. Just him, the breath burning in his lungs and the sound of his heart pounding as he ran.
* * *
“So, I was thinking,” Jared said as he sipped his coffee while Jensen finished making the pancakes. “We should go shopping on our next day off.”
“We just bought groceries,” Jensen pointed out, pulling several different flavours of syrup out of the cupboard to demonstrate his point. Jared smirked. As far as he was concerned there was no such thing as too much syrup.
He grabbed the chocolate and the maple and poured a generous helping of each over his pancakes, ignoring the grimace Jensen gave him. “Not grocery shopping. It’s Christmas soon and we need to get a tree and stuff.”
He was still kind of amazed at how quickly they’d become a ‘we’, although not in the way he’d hoped. They went grocery shopping every week, he’d helped Jensen put together all his furniture when he’d first moved in and lately they’d even started walking the dogs together. It was pretty awesome.
“Christmas?” Jensen frowned as he sat down and tucked into his syrup-free pancakes. “Already? Shit.”
Jensen had always been like this in the whole time that Jared had known him. Some people were Christmas people and some people weren’t. Jared was and Jensen wasn’t. He hoped that this year he’d be able to get Jensen to change his mind. He was certainly going to try.
“Yeah, I was thinking I’d cook us a turkey before we leave for the holidays. You know, have our own little Christmas here before the real thing.”
Jensen stared at him for a moment and Jared wondered if he was going to flat out refuse.
“Cook?” Jensen finally said. “You? No offense, man, but you lived on takeout before I moved in.”
“Hey, I can cook,” Jared protested with a huff. “Just because I don’t get off on it like you do...”
“Dude, before I moved in you didn’t even keep oregano in the kitchen.”
Jensen said it like Jared had committed some sort of culinary mortal sin.
“Who the hell uses oregano anyway? Apart from you,” he added when Jensen opened his mouth to answer.
“Well, you’ve just filled me with confidence,” Jensen said dryly.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Jared promised. “You’ll see.”
* * *
Jared had always loved Christmas. His momma used to tease that he had never really grown up and that he’d still believe in Santa if he could. He didn’t care. There was just something about all the decorations in the stores, all the songs on the radio and the masses of fake snow wherever he looked (because apparently the real stuff wasn’t enough for Canadians). He tried to explain this to Jensen over lunch one day but apparently he was having none of it.
“It’s not that I don’t like Christmas,” Jensen explained. “I love the time off and the chance to spend some time with my friends and family. It’s just so damn commercial, you know? The stores have had their decorations up since October and if I hear one more song about Santa on the radio I swear I’m gonna kill someone.”
Jared just smiled and nodded. He was even more determined to make sure Jensen had the best Christmas ever now.
* * *
“Do you think we’ve got enough stuff?” Jared asked with a frown, poking through the things he’d loaded into the cart.
Jensen snorted. “Dude, you’ve got enough stuff in there to open your own branch of Macy’s if you wanted.”
He grunted when Jared jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow.
“Come on, man,” Jared whined, putting Sam’s puppy eyes to full use. “I want this to be good. You could at least try and be helpful.”
Jensen sighed. “Look, I told you Christmas isn’t my thing. I’m sorry, okay?”
Jared nodded. All he wanted was to see Jensen smile. A real, genuine smile and not one of those forced ones he gave to fans when he was trying to pretend that he was having fun in a situation he really wasn’t comfortable with.
* * *
He started off small.
“I’ve made a Christmas playlist for us to listen to while we put up the decorations.”
Jensen did not look impressed. “Seriously? Do you want me to strangle you with your headphone cord?”
Jared cleared his throat. “Uh. . . no?”
“Okay then.”
Right, this was clearly going to be harder than he’d thought.
“No music?” he asked cautiously.
“No Christmas music,” Jensen clarified.
Yeah, this was definitely going to be harder than he thought.
* * *
They hit a local bar when they finished filming on the Friday before Christmas and Jared was already hatching his next master plan.
“So, you guys are doing Christmas this weekend?” Misha asked with an amused smirk. “I thought you told me there was nothing to all those rumors I read about you on the internet.”
“Fuck off,” Jensen sighed, but it only made Misha grin even more. This really wasn’t helping with Jared’s plan to get Jensen in a good mood for the holidays.
“When do you fly back to LA?” he asked, hoping a change of subject would get Misha off topic for a while.
“Monday,” Misha replied. “Why? Am I invited to the Padalecki-Ackles Christmas Special?”
Jared pretended to think about it for a moment and then turned to Jensen. “What’s a polite way of saying no?”
Misha’s grin widened. “Right. You two want to be alone, of course. I’m gonna get another drink. You guys want one?”
“Hell yes,” Jensen replied a little too eagerly, and he let out a sigh of relief as soon as Misha was out of earshot. “I really hate him.”
“No, you don’t,” Jared replied. “And you know he only says that stuff to get a reaction out of you. I swear his mom didn’t pay him enough attention as a kid or something.”
That at least got a smirk out of Jensen. “It’s like having Rosenbaum back only without Tom to keep him off our backs.”
“You like Rosey too,” Jared pointed out.
Jensen sighed again.
“Hey, I’ve got something that might cheer you up,” Jared said with his biggest smile. He needed to put his plan into action now before Jensen slumped any further. “How do you feel about ice skating?”
Jensen visibly perked up at that and Jared’s smile widened.
“Wow, I haven’t skated in years. You wanna go?”
“Sure,” Jared beamed. His plan was actually working. “I haven’t skated at all so that should amuse you.”
“Awesome.”
This time Jensen actually sounded genuinely happy and Jared marked that one down as a victory.
* * *
“Dude, you looked like Bambi. All wide eyes and flailing limbs.”
Jared was pretty sure there wasn’t an inch of him that didn’t have a bruise on it, and his face and feet were numb from the cold. It didn’t matter though, because Jensen was actually smiling. Hell, he was laughing too. The pain and the cold didn’t matter now because he’d made Jensen happy, which had been the whole point of this trip in the first place.
“Screw you,” he shot back with a good natured grin as he sipped his hot chocolate. “You know this just means you’re going to have to put up most of the Christmas decorations tomorrow because I won’t be able to move.”
Jensen shrugged. “Hey, this whole Christmas thing was your idea. If you can’t move then there’s not going to be any decorations. Sorry, man.”
Jared pouted but that just caused Jensen to raise an eyebrow and smirk. “Come on, you know I’m immune to the puppy dog thing.”
Jared sniffed and let out a small whine that his babies would have been proud of.
“Urgh, fine,” Jensen sighed, throwing his hands up in surrender. “Let’s go home. I’ll run you a nice hot bath and give you a massage and you’ll be fine tomorrow.”
He frowned. “Wow, that sounded really gay, didn’t it?”
Jared was tempted to say that he didn’t mind.
* * *
He had no idea what time it was when he woke up but it was still dark outside so he figured it must be early. For a moment he wasn’t sure what had awoken him, until he became aware of the throbbing pain in his temples and behind his eyes. Jesus Christ, he felt like shit. He muttered a curse under his breath. Jensen must have got up and turned up the heat sometime in the night because his t-shirt and pajama pants were sticking to him even after he’d kicked off the covers in his sleep.
He clicked on the lamp beside the bed and winced as the light made the pain in his head flare up. As he lurched to his feet he staggered and almost fell back onto the bed again. He took a moment to steady himself and then slowly made his way into the bathroom where he gulped down a couple of glasses of water. All it did was make him cough, which made his headache even worse.
There was no way he was going to get back to sleep while he felt like this so he carefully navigated the stairs and collapsed onto the couch, coughing weakly into his hand. At least it was cooler down here.
Harley and Sadie came to investigate the noise, Sadie quickly jumping up onto the couch and resting her head in Jared’s lap while Harley curled up at his feet.
“I’m okay,” he croaked, stroking a clammy hand over Sadie’s head. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear she was giving him an unconvinced look.
A few minutes passed and Jared was just considering sleeping where he was when he heard Jensen’s light click on just before his friend padded into the room.
“It’s the middle of the night,” Jensen said, voice rough with sleep. “What are you doing up?”
Jared was going to answer but instead he coughed, and for a minute he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to stop before he ran out of air and passed out.
“Shit, man, you sound like hell. Look like it too.”
Jensen frowned and moved over to him, laying a cool hand on his forehead. It felt wonderful and Jared toyed with the idea of asking Jensen to just stand there like that for the rest of the night.
“You’re burning up,” Jensen murmured and Jared almost whimpered when he pulled his hand away. “Have you taken anything?”
He shook his head and let out a small groan when it made him feel dizzy.
“Right, come on. Back to bed and I’ll get you some Theraflu.”
He wanted to move, really he did, but he was so tired and sore that even the thought of getting up made him want to curl up into a ball.
Jensen sighed. “Come on, man, at least help me out a little.”
He let out a small moan as Jensen wrapped his arms around him, but between them they managed to get upstairs and soon Jared was tucked up in bed with a couple of Theraflu caplets and a glass of water.
“This sucks,” Jared moaned. “Right before Christmas too.”
Jensen came out of the bathroom with a cool damp cloth and laid it over Jared’s head. It didn’t feel quite as good as Jensen’s hand but right now Jared would take whatever he could get.
“It’s still a few days until Christmas,” Jensen said gently. “You’ll be okay before it’s time to fly home.”
“Yeah, but I was gonna cook for us tomorrow and put up the tree and all the decorations.”
He was almost ashamed when he felt the tears stinging in his eyes but he’d spent so long planning this perfect Christmas for Jensen and now it wasn’t going to happen. It sucked ass.
“Hey,” Jensen said, giving Jared’s hand a squeeze. “That stuff doesn’t matter. You just need to get better, okay?”
Jared sighed and nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
“Get some sleep,” Jensen said as he clicked the lamp off. “I’ll check on you in the morning.”
Jared closed his eyes, the pills already starting to make him feel sleepy. “Thanks, man. You’re awesome.”
“I know.”
* * *
It was light when Jared woke up again, and there were two pills and a fresh glass of water on the table beside the bed. He knocked the pills back and, after giving it some thought, he decided that he felt better. Well, sort of. His fever didn’t seem so bad and his headache was gone but he still felt really damn tired.
He could hear Jensen moving around downstairs, talking in hushed tones to someone. Jared figured he must be on the phone. He usually called his folks on a Sunday to let them know he was still alive.
He closed his eyes and allowed Jensen’s voice to lull him back to sleep. It didn’t take long.
* * *
Waking up again was much less pleasant, not because he felt sick but because Harley and Sadie launched themselves onto the bed at full speed and then started to do some sort of doggy dance on his legs.
“What the hell has got you two so excited?” he groaned and sat up. The dogs just looked at him expectantly, tongues lolling and tails wagging. They probably needed to be let out.
He hauled himself out of bed, surprised that he didn’t feel half as crappy as he was expecting. Must have just been some sort of twenty four hour bug. He pulled on a pair of sweats and a clean t-shirt before heading downstairs, nearly getting knocked down by Harley and Sadie who charged after him.
“Okay, okay, I’ll let you out. Just let me. . .”
He stopped when his brain caught up with what his eyes were seeing. For a second he wondered whether he was still running a fever and actually hallucinating.
Nat King Cole was crooning The Christmas Song from Jared’s iPod jack, but what really caught his attention was the huge Christmas tree at one end of the living room. That definitely hadn’t been there when he’d been up earlier. It was fully decorated with colored lights twinkling and a couple of wrapped gifts underneath it. He recognized one of them as the present he’d bought Jensen and stored, he thought, secretly in his closet.
The whole room had been decorated. Streamers hung from the ceiling, there was tinsel around all the picture frames. It was like the dream house from Miracle on 34th Street.
“Oh, good, you’re up,” Jensen said from behind him, startling Jared so much that he actually jumped. He whirled around, any words dying on his lips as he saw Jensen smiling, an honest to God Santa hat on his head. Not only that but he was wearing the most ridiculous Christmas tie that was currently playing Jingle Bells and flashing little red lights in time to the music.
“I think I’m high on painkillers,” Jared said weakly when Jensen grinned at him.
“Maybe you should sit down and have some food,” Jensen suggested, steering Jared towards the kitchen before he had time to answer.
Even with his stuffed nose Jared could smell the cooking and his stomach let out a growl as Jensen maneuvered him into one of the chairs. When he saw the meal Jensen had prepared, his stomach let out another growl and he almost started drooling.
“Holy shit.”
The table was literally covered in food. In fact, Jared was amazed that the table legs hadn’t collapsed under the weight of it all. There was a turkey in the middle, surrounded by just about every type of vegetable you could imagine and some Jared wasn’t even sure he recognized.
“Holy shit,” he said again as Jensen poured him a glass of water. “Did you do all this by yourself?”
“Well, I had a bit of help,” Jensen admitted as he poured himself a drink and sat down. “Misha came over when I told him you were sick and gave me a hand.”
“Does that mean you don’t hate him anymore?” Jared asked with a smirk.
“Well, he has his uses,” Jensen conceded. “Turns out he’s pretty handy around the house. He did all the decorating while I was cooking.”
“I still can’t believe you did all this.” He let out a low moan of pleasure as the turkey all but melted off the fork in his mouth. “Fuck, Jensen, I’ve never tasted anything like this before. It’s amazing.”
Jensen actually blushed and Jared realized with alarm that if the table wasn’t covered in food he’d crawl across it right now and kiss Jensen senseless.
Well, shit. Apparently his crush was now slightly more than a crush.
* * *
“I don’t actually think I can move,” Jared groaned when he was finally done eating. There was still loads of food left but Jensen had said he’d promised to take any leftovers around to Misha’s hotel as a thanks for helping him out.
Jared patted his full stomach and instantly wished he hadn’t. Jensen simply smiled and lounged back in his own chair with a satisfied sigh. “You wanna open presents now?”
“You might need to help me move,” Jared groaned again.
“Well, it’s not going to be the first time,” Jensen grinned. “Come on.”
Between them they staggered over to the couch and collapsed into it.
“Do mine first,” Jared said. “I can’t move again.”
Jensen sighed and slowly climbed to his feet, crawling under the tree and emerging with both gifts. The one that Jared had wrapped wasn’t exactly neat, but it had done the job which was the most important thing. Someone had once asked him why didn’t get the stores to wrap the gifts for him and he’d been horrified by the suggestion. Half the fun of Christmas was wrapping gifts, even if you weren’t very good at it.
Jensen gave the box a hesitant shake.
“Well, that’s it broken,” Jared said and petted Jensen’s knee when his face fell. “I’m kidding. Go on, open it.”
Jensen peeled at the paper ever so carefully, making sure not to rip it. He always did this. He’d once told Jared that the paper was too nice to mess up and that if he opened his gifts carefully enough he could re-use it, yet the whole time Jared had known him he’d never seen Jensen give anyone a gift using recycled paper. He suspected Jensen’s way of opening gifts was just a mild OCD thing.
It took an age but finally Jensen got the paper off in one piece and set it down carefully on the table. “Jared, man, this is awesome!”
It was a new lens for Jensen’s camera. He’d mentioned a while back that he was thinking of getting one but he hadn’t had time to go into the store. Jared had spent a good two hours in there listening to the clerk explaining about all the different settings in way too much detail, most of which he hadn’t even understood. It was totally worth it, though, to see the beaming smile on Jensen’s face right now.
Jensen handed Jared his gift, still smiling happily. “Merry Christmas.”
Unlike Jensen, Jared tore into the paper quickly and without a moment’s hesitation, sending bits of shredded paper flying everywhere.
“Wow, Jensen. . .”
It was a photo Jensen had taken over the summer when he’d come to Jared’s place for a barbeque. Jared had been goofing around, rolling around on the lawn with Harley and Sadie when Jensen had snapped it. The photo had been mounted and framed and there was a little engraved plaque on it that read ‘Jared and family’.
“Do you like it?” Jensen asked softly and hopefully. “I wasn’t sure what to get you so. . .”
Jared really, really wanted to kiss him senseless now. It was either that or cry and there was no way he was turning into a girl over a photo.
“I love it,” was all he managed to say in a voice choked with emotion.
And I love you.
Luckily he was distracted from any spontaneous declarations of feeling by Jensen’s phone ringing. Jensen shot him an apologetic smile and answered.
“Hello? Oh, hey man. Yeah, he’s up and he loved it. Thanks for all your help. What? Where?”
Jensen got up from the crouch and started crawling around under the tree again. Jared tried to ignore the rather impressive view of Jensen’s ass he was getting.
“What?” Jensen’s muffled voice continued talking. “Oh, yeah, I’ve found it. Why do I need to. . .Hello?”
Jensen moved back over to the couch, frowning at his phone for a second before he slid it back into his pocket. He passed an envelope to Jared.
“It’s from Misha. He said we had to open it together.”
“Together?” Jared frowned, turning the envelope over in his hands. He half expected it to explode or spray them with paint or something. You never quite knew with Misha. “So are we supposed to open half each or something?”
“I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Jensen replied. “Just open it.”
Right, of course he had to be the one to open it and get covered in unicorn jizz or whatever else Misha had rigged it with.
He opened the envelope with slow care that even Jensen would have been proud of.
Nothing happened.
All that was inside was a single sheaf of paper with two words written on it.
Look up.
Their eyes both drifted towards the ceiling where a giant sprig of mistletoe was hanging above their heads.
“Huh,” Jensen said after a moment.
“Well, that’s not exactly subtle,” Jared commented, feeling his cheeks flush a little.
Jensen snorted. “It’s Misha. I don’t think subtle is in his dictionary.”
“Yeah, you have a point there.”
They both stared at the mistletoe for a few minutes, as though they were expecting it to jump down from the ceiling and bind them together until they fucked or something.
“You know,” Jensen finally said slowly. “It would be rude not to accept Misha’s gift. Especially since he helped me out today.”
For a moment Jared wasn’t really sure what Jensen was saying, but when he turned to face him with eyes wide and hopeful, a nervous smile on his face, Jared realized he wasn’t kidding.
“Yeah,” he quickly agreed. “Very rude.”
He leaned forward, hand coming up to brush at the soft hair near Jensen’s temple as their lips met.
Their first kiss wasn’t how he’d imagined it would be. In his fantasies it had always been hot and eager, usually accompanied by them tearing each other’s clothes off and fucking on the nearest available surface.
This kiss was soft and gentle and felt like the final piece of a puzzle slotting into place. The tearing of the clothes would come later, Jared was sure, but right now he just wanted to enjoy this for what it was.
It was warmth and it was home.
“Merry Christmas, Jensen.”
“Merry Christmas, Jared.”
The End.