Part One Jensen is nowhere to be seen when Jared wakes up around noon the next day, so he goes down to the cafeteria to have some brunch and then takes the car out to Everest. Jensen never really answered about whether it was okay or not, but at this point Jared doesn’t really care. He just needs to see the real Jensen, touch his hand, talk to him for awhile without the ghost self being around.
Room 204 is empty except for Jensen when Jared gets there, and he’s relieved. He doesn’t really want to have another face down with Jensen's brother; he just wants to sit by the bed for a while. Of course he’s only been there for ten minutes when the door opens and Jensen's parents walk in. Pale faced and shaking, Jared goes through the boyfriend routine again, waiting for the hard words to start flying.
Nothing of the sort happens, though. Jensen's father shakes his hand, remarks on how tall he is and asks him what he’s studying. Jensen's mother gives him a cookie-smelling hug and tells him it’s nice to see him. Jared feels like crying and wishes it wasn’t all a fucked up dream. He says he’s going to leave, but they convince him to stay and take him out for coffee after the incident.
Jensen's mother has apparently been itching to talk to someone close to Jensen, and she babbles on and on about her son. Jared can’t help but to like her, she’s sweet and pretty, like Jensen. Jensen's father looks stern, but he tries really hard to be civil and understanding, and Jared wishes Jensen was around to see it.
It’s obvious they’ve been struggling to come to terms with their son’s sexual orientation, and that Jensen's accident made them realize that having a gay son was better than having no son at all. Jared learns more about Jensen's accident than he ever cared to know and they apologize profusely for not getting in touch with him, even though they didn’t even know he existed.
When he gets back to the dorm, Jared is just fucked up enough to tell the whole story to Chad before he conks out, dead asleep. He wakes up sometime later to dark pressing against the windows and Jensen sitting cross-legged on his bed.
“I saw you with my parents today,” Jensen says, when Jared opens his eyes. “I… thank you.”
Jared blinks, not sure what to say, his tongue feeling like a fuzzy dead thing in his mouth.
“I was burned once, when I was still young and naïve. I thought it was forever, but he was just another player, using his age and statue to get what he wanted from me. I was sixteen and I thought the world was ending… I got through it, though, and I swore to myself I would never fall in love again, never put my heart out there for someone else to stomp on. So I became that guy, using my looks and charms to get sex when I wanted it, never fucking the same person twice, never letting anyone know me. I probably could have kept going like that forever until I lost my good looks, and charm would no longer get me anything. At which point I would have ended up bitter and alone, cursing myself for never taking a chance. Then I had the accident and suddenly I’m standing beside my body thinking for sure I am dead and that the afterlife really isn’t all they cranked it up to be.”
Jared smiles a little, scrubbing a hand over his bloodshot eyes.
“So I wander around aimlessly, visiting my friends and family, roaming around campus… finding out what people really thought about me. It’s amazing the things people say about you when they think you’re out for the count. ‘Cock teasing bitch’ was among the nicer things I heard. Then I met you…”
Jared licks his lips, pulling himself further up on the pillows, wondering where this is going. He glances over towards Chad’s bed to find it empty - a note taped to his nightstand says Chad is out with the guys. Chad has been avoiding their room as much as possible lately and Jared can’t say he doesn’t understand. At least Jared can see Jensen all the time, so he knows when he’s around. Chad is amazingly self-conscious and the thought of having an invisible watcher ought to freak him out.
“To be honest,” Jensen says, “you’re not really the type of guy I would normally go for. You sweet innocent virgin types get attached too easily.”
Jared snorts. Tell him about it, he is the one that managed to fall in love with a fucking ghost, after all.
“But it was so nice to have someone that could see me, hear me, so I took to following you around and somewhere along the way I got to know you, and even worse, I let you know me until I looked at you one day and realized you are the best friend I ever had. Chris and Steve are great, and we’ve had lots of fun, but I never really let them in. They know some, guessed others, but they don’t know.”
Jensen shakes his head and chuckles a little. “So maybe this whole thing is a punishment, or maybe it’s a reward. But I do know one thing as fucked up as it is, I wouldn’t want to change a single thing about the last couple of months. I wasn’t lying the first night I met you… If I had spotted you in the bar, when I was still up and walking, I would have sucked your cock in the bathroom and if I were lucky, I would have made you fuck me afterwards. And the next time I spotted you, I would have looked the other way and I would never have gotten to know you.”
Jared feels hyped up, like his heart is too big for his chest and he fists his hands at his sides to keep them from trembling. He doesn’t know what Jensen is trying to say, but he hopes, dear god how he hopes, that maybe Jensen feels the same way about him as he does about Jensen.
“I keep hoping,” Jensen continues, his voice going so soft it’s almost a whisper, “that I’ll wake up one day and finally get to kiss you, hold you like I want to, be the first one to show you what love is all about… because Jesus Christ, Jared, as fucked up and stupid as it is… I love you.”
They both hold their breath for a few seconds, waiting for something to happen, like Jensen getting sucked back into his body, but life isn’t a romance novel and no bells are chiming in background.
“Well…” Jared says after a few seconds. “I love you, too.”
They look at each other and then they start laughing, the sound unnaturally loud in the dark room and if there’s an edge of desperation to it, they both pretend it’s not there.
*
Jensen suddenly disappears on a Thursday, in the middle of an animated discussion about whether the first or second Terminator movie is the best, and on Friday morning Jensen's mother calls to tell Jared that Jensen finally woke up. She’s tearing up as she tells him that Jensen is doing well, despite the circumstances, and that the doctors are expecting him to recover fully.
Her voice turns more solemn when she says that Jensen doesn’t seem to remember him at the moment, but that the doctor says that short-term memory loss is normal and he’s still welcome to come for a visit. Jared feels as if his heart has been ripped out of his body, and he dully tells her to give Jensen his phone number and ask him to call if he suddenly remembers Jared. Not even once in his wild fantasies about Jensen waking up did he think that Jensen might not remember what happened while he was in the coma.
Somehow he gets through finals season, leaning on Chad for support, and for once his friend doesn’t bitch and moan about it, just makes sure that Jared studies from the right books, eats and sleeps. Then it’s summer break and Jared goes back home, spending the entire time with his grandmother, crying against her shoulder when it becomes too much to keep inside.
He sleeps with his phone on the pillow, hoping against hope for a call, but as the weeks pass, he stops hoping. Through Chris he knows that Jensen is well on his way to full recovery, but that he is in full on bitch mood. Jared can hear that Chris is feeling sorry for him, so he disconnects the call as quickly as he can.
He goes back to school three days before the semester starts, only to learn that Chad asked to be put in another room. He calls Chad to ask about it and Chad gives him some bullshit answer about Jared's life being a little too exciting for him. Chad assures him they are still friends, though, and Jared just feels like crawling into a hole and dying. He feels sorry for whoever moves in and has to deal with his mood, but he just can’t shake it off. He misses Jensen like a limb and to know he’s alive and well out there only soothes him for a minute.
The new roommate moves in one day later while Jared is out having coffee with Chad, who is trying to make up for his rather abrupt move. His stuff is all set up in the space that used to be Chad’s, but the guy himself is nowhere to be seen. Jared couldn’t care less, throwing himself on the bed and burying his face in the pillow, thinking solemnly about choking himself.
The door opens behind him, but Jared doesn’t move. He doesn’t feel like being the forthcoming one in this relationship, if the new guy wants to be friends he better fucking work on it. Jared is sick and tired of putting his heart on the line and getting nothing back.
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate the view,” a familiar voice says behind him, “but I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing your pretty face.”
Jared turns around so abruptly he ends up flat on his ass on the floor, not that he cares one single bit, because Jensen is leaning against the wall with a pretty, pretty smile on his pretty, pretty face. He looks just as Jared remembers him, if a little thinner and worn around the edges, but he’s smiling and looking straight at Jared and that makes all the difference in the world.
“Jensen,” he says dumbly, unable to stop staring.
“Jared,” Jensen mimicks, still grinning.
”I… What are you doing here?”
Jensen licks his lips. “I heard there was a vacancy.”
Jared scrambles to his feet, his heart pounding so hard it feels as if he’s run a marathon. “You’re my new roommate?”
“Yup… Only one that didn’t mind housing with your weirdo ass.”
Jared's eyes narrow. “You planned this.”
“Uh huh.”
“For how long?”
“About ten minutes after they let me out of bed.”
“I thought you didn’t remember me.”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Jensen says, looking ashamed. “When I woke up I was in full freak out mode, and I regretted every pretty word I said to you, so I pretended to not remember you because I’m a fucking coward.”
“You’re not freaking out anymore?”
Jensen smiles. “Only because you’re still on the other side of the room while I am right the fuck here.”
Jared doesn’t need any more prompting than that, and he closes the distance between them with two long steps. His hands tremble as he lifts them to Jensen's face, cupping hollowed cheeks in the palms of his hands. Jensen's muddy green eyes flutter shut and his mouth parts on a sigh. Jared braces his fingers against Jensen's jaw and tips his head back.
A faint smile graces Jensen's lips and Jared just looks at him, admiring his pretty, pretty face and the freckles scattered over his nose and cheekbones. He still can’t believe Jensen is really there and he bends down, inhaling the air Jensen exhales, pulling the scent of coffee, mint and Jensen deeply into his lungs.
“Sap,” Jensen says softly and when Jared opens his eyes, he finds Jensen watching him. He’s so close that Jared can see every speckle of dark green in his eyes and if he wanted to, he could count every hair of Jensen's thick eyelashes.
“You’re really here,” Jared replies, unable to hide the tremble in his voice.
“Sorry it took me so long,” Jensen answers and then he finally closes the distance between them, pressing his soft pink lips against Jared's.
If Jared would have let himself think about it, their first kiss is the moment he would have feared the most. He’s not exactly what one would call experienced, and he hasn’t really kissed anyone since the LGBT Mega Party Mike hosted in his freshman year, and that had just been an awkward moment of too much teeth and too little tongue.
He’s been harboring a sneaking suspicion that maybe he’s a horrible kisser for years, but with Jensen he can’t seem to do anything wrong. He presses a rapid succession of feathered kisses to Jensen's parted lips before licking his way inside, letting his tongue taste and explore everything that is Jensen, marvelling at his unique taste, the slick feel of his gums, the bumpy hardness of his teeth and the slight rasp of his tongue.
Jensen shivers a moan against his mouth and Jared has to pull away, sucking air deeply into his lungs. He can’t stay away for long, though, pressing their lips together again as soon as he’s managed a few deep breaths. This time Jensen takes control of the kiss, plunging his tongue deeply into Jared's mouth as his arms go around Jared's neck.
After that, things becomes a little hazy for Jared in a flurry of tongues, lips and gasped breaths. He’s harder than he can ever remember being, but doing something about it would mean taking time away from kissing Jensen and he can’t have that right now. So he ignores the heavy throbbing beat of his blood-thick cock in favor of Jensen's flushed skin against his palms, Jensen's desperate breaths against his face, and the oh so wonderful lips moving against his.
It’s Jensen who finally pulls away, untangling his fingers from Jared's hair and leaning back against the wall, panting so desperately for breath that Jared's suddenly afraid he’s going to pass out.
“Do you need to sit down?” he asks, hardly recognizing his own voice.
Jensen chuckles, pushing away from the wall to wrap his arms around Jared again. “I think,” Jensen murmurs against his ear, his voice a husky rasp, “that what I need is for you to blow me.”
Jared drops to his knees without the slightest hesitation, bringing his hands up to frame Jensen's slim hips, his eyes trained on the very visible bulge tenting the front. A hand in his hair makes him look up to meet Jensen's soft eyes.
“I was just kidding,” Jensen says weakly, his hips twitching when Jared presses his thumbs against too sharp hipbones.
“Want to,” Jared murmurs, pressing his face against the rough denim of Jensen's jeans, making him moan brokenly. His entire body is thrumming with need, his hands shaking hard as he moves them to Jensen's fly.
Jensen groans again, his knees giving out on him, making him slide down the wall and land in an ungraceful sprawl. “I might need to sit down after all,” Jensen says, laughter dancing in his voice.
Jared laughs softly, leaning in to steal another drawn out, messy kiss, one of his hands moving to daringly cup Jensen through his jeans, drawing the most delicious, breathless moans from Jensen's lips.
They end up in a tangle on the floor, and Jared forgets about the blowjob in favor of just forcing his hand into Jensen's already too tight jeans, pulling him off fast and messy, while eating Jensen's moans with impatient lips. Jensen's fingers dig into Jared's hair, his body painting an arch as he comes with Jared's name of his lips, the sound of it almost enough to push Jensen over the edge, as well.
“Beautiful,” Jared murmurs, as he kisses Jensen through the aftershocks, his hand unwilling to let go of Jensen's sticky, softening cock.
Jensen finally swats Jared's hand away with a broken groan, capturing Jared's come slick fingers in his own and bring them up to his mouth, cleaning them thoroughly with content little cat licks. Jared makes an embarrassing little sound, pressing his aching cock against Jensen's hip.
Jensen swiftly rolls them over, fusing their lips together in another kiss, sharing the taste of his come with Jared. It should be disgusting, but it’s pretty much the hottest thing Jared ever experienced and when Jensen's hand finds the bulge of his erection, squeezing roughly, he’s gone.
He comes so hard his vision whitens for a few moments while stars go off in his head and his cock pulses time and time again, sending ripples of pleasure through his tense body. He finally relaxes back against the floor and opens his eyes, finding Jensen watching him with a peculiar look on his face.
“I don’t get it,” Jensen says, looking dazed and a little confused as he lifts a hand to cup Jared's cheek. Jared just blinks at him, wondering what it is Jensen doesn’t get. How they ended up on the floor maybe, or the whole out of body experience that brought them together.
“You’re just this… gigantic dork,” Jensen continues. “Your hair is ridiculous, your nose too sharp and maybe a little on the big side. You never had sex and your taste in movies leaves a whole lot to be desired… and yet…” He smiles, his thumb brushing over Jared's cheekbone. “You’re the most beautiful thing I ever saw.”
Jared smiles, unable to be insulted by Jensen's words when he has that soft, wondrous look on his face. “I think it’s called love,” he says, hope and maybe just a tiny fear of rejection coloring his voice.
“Yeah,” Jensen says, his face lighting up in a down right silly smile. “I think so, too.”
Jared pulls him down for another kiss and it’s just as good as the earlier ones, but without the urgency of sexual frenzy. It’s slower and softer, their tongues tangling leisurely while their lips move against one another. Jared isn’t sure where they are going from here, except maybe somewhere more comfortable than the floor, but he knows that he’s found his happily ever after and he intends to hold onto it with all his might.
He might be a virgin and Jensen a pretty-faced player, but together, he is sure, they can make it work and somewhere along the way he might even lose his virginity for real.
The End