[Comment Fic] The Other Side of the Story (j2)
the other side of the story.
Jared/Jensen - High School AU.
PG-13 (for swearing). 2400 words.
Prompt: I fell in love with a guy in my Chemistry Class. I wrote a love story about he and I, and one day he asked to borrow my Chemistry Notes. I accidentally gave him the love story. The next day he gave me the notebook back, with a sticky note on it. "I'm in love with you too."
Jensen’s Chemistry class is for everything besides learning Chemistry.
Danneel is all about the Ivy Leagues, walking their group through her tours of the shaded quads and formal stone halls. Her parents have the money to send her to those hallowed halls of tradition and -- so Jensen’s heard -- some pretty crazy parties, and she’s going to make the most of it. Christian and Jensen treat the class like a study hall -- if Mr. Willis is perfectly willing to give them A’s with minimal effort, they’re taking advantage. They start their French projects after finishing some nonsense involving vinegar and milk -- Acid, Base, or Not! -- but soon sidetrack into talking about baseball practice.
And Jared. Well, Jared actually studies. As much as anyone can in Mr. Willis’ class, that is. At the black lab table he shares with Danneel, Christian, and Jensen, Jared’s got his little corner cordoned off with notebooks and highlighters. He’s got so many composition books, Jensen doesn’t know how he keeps them straight. Studious little bastard who isn’t at all little in reality, Jared puts them all to shame and he’s only a sophomore to their junior status. He’s on an advanced track so he can cram AP Physics and Anatomy into his senior year, or something.
Or something. As if Jensen doesn’t know exactly how Jared’s planned out the rest of his high school career down to which activities to put on his college applications. Jensen wouldn’t be surprised if Jared already has his senior prom date picked out.
But he admires the kid -- and yeah, he knows it’s wrong to call Jared ‘kid’, but Christian started it and it just made him blush so...
“What’re you writing, Jay?” Christian leans over Jared’s back.
“Just an English project for next week,” Jared says, adding a few more lines in his notebook and closing the cover.
“Overachiever,” Christian says, but it’s tolerant. Danneel latches on. “Is that the one you were telling me about? The fiction project for Ablemann’s class?”
“Yeah, it’s a little longer than I expected, but...” Jared shrugs, shoulders under black cotton reaching his ears. Black’s a good color on him, Jensen decides. Their school colors -- orange and green for the fucking Terrapins -- don’t look good on anyone, and half the time Jared’s wearing a school t-shirt, but not today. Today he’s easy on Jensen’s eyes, soft brown hair curling at his ears showing a hint of the Texas sun.
“Jay, are you meeting us after practice again?” Christian asks as the bell rings for last period.
“If Jensen doesn’t mind giving me a ride,” Jared says, throwing hazel eyes his way. Jensen has no chance.
“No problem,” Jensen says, hanging a right turn and making for his locker. Jared and Christian follow, Danneel waving as she heads for the Art corridor. “I’ll trade you a ride for the chem notes you took on chapter fifteen. I don’t think I’ll have time between practice, and I’ve gotta take Mac to some pretty-princess dance thing tonight before dinner, so --”
“I’ll give ‘em to you on the way home. I just want to recopy a few things, is that okay?”
“Awesome,” Jensen says, and the three of them fork in different directions.
They come back together in the parking lot a few hours later. Jensen's sweating under his collar thanks to a rough practice and rough words from his coach. Bastard had kept him late to impress upon his star shortstop the importance of their next game.
Don't fuck up, he'd said in not-so-many words. I got it.
Christian's slouched against the bumper of Jensen's Explorer, fingers picking at one of the bumper stickers that came with his car.
"Finally," he says. "Jay already called shotgun."
Christian folds into the backseat, tossing his gear over and into the truck. Jared tucks his backpack by his feet in the passenger seat, another bag full of printouts on his lap.
"How was yearbook?" Jensen asks as they pull out. "Get done what you needed?" Not only was Jared on his way to becoming valedictorian a few years ahead of schedule, he'd decided that wasn't enough work and signed up for the yearbook staff, earning the thankless job of Sports Editor.
"Yeah, we're ahead of our deadline, so that's good," Jared says, and Christian huffs from the backseat. "Do me a favor, kid, and give Baseball the best pages."
"And take valuable space away from the Honor Society, or from baby pictures?" Jared smiles and Jensen matches his grin. "No way."
"Fucker." Again, with affection. Christian couldn't hate Jared if he tried. Jensen doesn't bother trying -- his fate with Jared was written the day he sat down with the three best friends in Chemistry.
They bicker and complain about homework all the way to Christian's house where he hops out with little ceremony, smacking Jensen on the back of the head and kicking Jared's seat.
"Dude, careful!" Jensen yells. "Be nice to my car."
"Don't fuckin' be late tomorrow morning, Jenny!" Christian yells as a last offense before disappearing through the gate to his backyard.
Jared's house is small and unpretentious on a wide corner lot with a red maple Jensen's dad is totally jealous of out front. It's only two blocks from Jensen's house, so making Jared a part of their after-school routine had been easy. On the way there, Jensen shares what he'd hidden from Christian. His coach's harsh speech, still echoing, comes out choppy and angry. Jared doesn't wave it away; he listens and even if he doesn't say much in response, he lets Jensen vent without adding commentary which is, more often than not, exactly what Jensen needs.
"You're one of his best players," Jared says, leaning towards the middle console as Jensen makes a hard right turn. "Maybe he thinks you can handle the pressure."
"I just don't get why he thinks I don't know this stuff already," Jensen responds, pulling into an old neighborhood with big shade trees. "If I play badly, the only scholarship I'm going to get is to play for Greendale Community College."
"I'd still go and watch your games," Jared says. "But listen, there's a reason you guys are the defending state champs and it has nothing to do with your coach."
Jensen's smile is so big he nearly pulls a muscle in his face.
"Are you sure you don't want me to pick you up for school?" Jensen asks when he pulls up to the curb outside the Padalecki house.
"Nah, that's okay," Jared says, shifting his bags around so they're easier to grab. "It's on the way for my dad, plus he buys me breakfast. Can you beat that?"
"I'd go broke in a week," Jensen says and laughs. "No way." He doesn't show his disappointment. When Christian's not in the car, Jensen gets his rare time alone with Jared, getting to know each other in little ten-minute increments. Jared's smart -- he's probably got Jensen all figured out -- but Jensen has no-where near enough information yet.
"Oh, hey," Jensen says as Jared's getting out. "Can I have those chem notes? Sorry --"
"Shit, I forgot." Jared paws through his bag and plucks out a black notebook, tossing it in the Explorer's window. "Get it back to me whenever, no rush."
"Thanks." Jensen waves and Jared hurries to his front door, turning back to give Jensen a wave.
Jensen's mom boots him up to his room to study after dinner.
"No video games, Jensen. I mean it," she says, stomping her foot at the bottom of the stairs.
"Fine, I'm going!"
He wastes a minute staring longingly at his Nintendo then upends his backpack over the floor. Textbooks and notes rain over his feet and Jensen can't decide which subject is the least revolting. If he eventually chooses Chemistry, it has nothing to do with Jared's involvement.
Grabbing his own notebook, Jensen separates Jared's from the pile and picks up a pen he hopes has enough ink left to copy all of Jared's notes. He flips through the pages and comes to the last one with writing, but he's definitely not looking at Chem notes. No chapter headings or pH chart, and no color coded sections about which concepts are most likely to show up on a test.
There are only words, spreading out on page after page. Jared's cramped writing fills the college rule from margin to margin -- a story not meant for Jensen to see. He knows this because the first line has his name.
Jensen's fingers itch to close the notebook -- he gave me the wrong one! -- but his brain keeps reading from that first line on. He's immediately in another world, one of Jared's creation, where Jensen and Jared are the heroes.
As he reads, he smiles. So many little details of his life that he could have sworn Jared forgot about. Feelings and habits recounted in this story with perfect twists and turns of phrase. Jared's a brilliant writer -- he makes Jensen sound beautiful.
The real Jensen is no such thing. He's a high school junior with no ambition beyond doing enough work to pass his classes and get a baseball scholarship to UT. Jensen's got a home life that, let's face it, could be better; his parents are focused on Mac, the little angel, and Josh, the perfect first-born, leaving Jensen nowhere in the middle. They care, to a point, and Jensen doesn't blame them, but just once it would be nice...
Jensen was right about Jared; he has Jensen all figured out. The way Jared's Jensen -- his heart starts to thrum harder -- sees Jared's Jared is amazing. Like Jared is noble, self-sacrificing, and always kind. He has a purpose, unlike Jensen, one that's going to take him far.
There's something else, emotions ripped straight out of Jensen's heart and thrown down on Jared's pages. Emotions Jensen's familiar with, but he had no idea that Jared could...that Jared could see --
Jensen rested at the edge of the mattress, hand slowly reaching out and fingers sliding across the beaten knuckles of Jared’s hand, which then twitched and turned, making Jensen flinch. He realized Jared was seeking out his hand so Jensen turned his over and slid it into Jared’s.
He found Jared’s eyes and sunk down to him, skin on skin, mouth to mouth, tongues tangling as they moved together. And every bit of tension and fear over his real duty in their world dissipated and made room for the warmth and thrill of being with Jared, being with him like this.
Jensen wants to stop but his brain says no-can-do. It forces his fingers to turn the pages until the story's done and Jared's Jensen gets his happy ending.
That night, with the notebook on his nightstand -- Jensen read the entire story twice -- Jensen dreams of his own happy ending.
"I can't give you a ride tonight."
"Why the hell not?" Christian asks with half a bagel hanging out of his mouth.
"I have plans and I might need to stay late, okay?"
"Sure, man. Do you need me to pass the message on to Jay?"
"No," Jensen says too quickly, but Christian's occupied fighting his oral battle with his breakfast. "I'll tell him."
The first half of Jensen's day is an exercise in torture. He never sees Jared until Chemistry on a normal day, but this is far from one of those.
"Jared was acting all weird in Latin this morning," Danneel informs Jensen after lunch in English. "He thought you might be mad at him."
"Danni --"
"Don't worry," she says, smiling. "I didn't tell him that mad is the last thing you'd be feeling."
"You suck," he tells her.
"You wish," Danneel says. "But seriously, it looked like someone kicked him and his puppy, so be nice to him later, okay? I don't know what happened."
"I'll figure it out."
Jensen begs his English teacher for the bathroom pass five minutes before class ends. She starts to ask when Jensen grabs his bags to take with him, but he's already out the door by the time she finishes her question. The bell hasn't rung yet and it's quiet in the hallway; Jensen paces outside of the Chem lab, fretting.
He knows what he wants -- he's known since the first day of school this year -- and he can guess what Jared wants unless this entire story is some kind of joke. If Jared were the kind of guy to pull something like this, but he's not Christian. He's Jared, and he has this flawless image of Jensen in his mind that no real person could ever hope to live up to.
The question is, is Jensen willing to try?
He's the first one in the lab after the previous class files out in a rush. As if it's worth more than the paper it's written on, Jensen takes the notebook and sets it on Jared's corner, grabbing a post-it from Mr. Willis' desk and adding a quickly-scribbled note to the last page.
Jared shuffles in, stooped under a heavy weight. No smile, no greeting, he just bee-lines to his seat and looks shocked to see his notebook out on the table. He catches Jensen's eye, but Mr. Willis is outlining the remainder of their pH experiments.
Not even listening, Jared grabs the notebook and flips through the pages, eyes-wide and ready to cry, if Jensen knows him at all. He wants to reassure Jared -- to tell him it's okay, but he's quiet and let's his post-it do the talking.
Jared stops on the last page and the sounds in the room go dull to Jensen's ears. Jared reads the words; he mouths the words and Jensen watches the way his lips move.
I'm in love with you, too.
Jensen knows exactly what he'd written but for a moment he panics thinking Jared's reading it wrong -- his expression is inscrutable. But his eyes come back to Jensen and he finally deciphers the look.
Hope.
Jensen smiles and the lab's too big -- too much space between Jared and him at their table. As soon as Mr. Willis sits down and lets his students have free reign over the school's supply of chemicals, Jensen drags his stool over by Jared's, ignoring Danneel and Christian's confusion.
"Jensen, I --"
"Hey, you owe me some chem notes," Jensen says, ridiculously.
Jared stares for a second then flushes. "I'm sorry."
"No problem." Jensen taps the notebook, leaning close. "Besides," he whispers, "I really liked your story."
Laying his palm over his notebook, just brushing Jensen's fingers, Jared grins.
"Do you want to tell me about it after my practice?" Jensen asks. "I can drive you home, or we can grab dinner --"
"Yeah," Jared says, and Jensen sees that kind, noble character. "I really do."
FIN.
Story snippets are from dugindeep's Big Bang, In a Faraway Land, You'll Find Yourself, which you should all read!
Jared/Jensen - High School AU.
PG-13 (for swearing). 2400 words.
Prompt: I fell in love with a guy in my Chemistry Class. I wrote a love story about he and I, and one day he asked to borrow my Chemistry Notes. I accidentally gave him the love story. The next day he gave me the notebook back, with a sticky note on it. "I'm in love with you too."
Jensen’s Chemistry class is for everything besides learning Chemistry.
Danneel is all about the Ivy Leagues, walking their group through her tours of the shaded quads and formal stone halls. Her parents have the money to send her to those hallowed halls of tradition and -- so Jensen’s heard -- some pretty crazy parties, and she’s going to make the most of it. Christian and Jensen treat the class like a study hall -- if Mr. Willis is perfectly willing to give them A’s with minimal effort, they’re taking advantage. They start their French projects after finishing some nonsense involving vinegar and milk -- Acid, Base, or Not! -- but soon sidetrack into talking about baseball practice.
And Jared. Well, Jared actually studies. As much as anyone can in Mr. Willis’ class, that is. At the black lab table he shares with Danneel, Christian, and Jensen, Jared’s got his little corner cordoned off with notebooks and highlighters. He’s got so many composition books, Jensen doesn’t know how he keeps them straight. Studious little bastard who isn’t at all little in reality, Jared puts them all to shame and he’s only a sophomore to their junior status. He’s on an advanced track so he can cram AP Physics and Anatomy into his senior year, or something.
Or something. As if Jensen doesn’t know exactly how Jared’s planned out the rest of his high school career down to which activities to put on his college applications. Jensen wouldn’t be surprised if Jared already has his senior prom date picked out.
But he admires the kid -- and yeah, he knows it’s wrong to call Jared ‘kid’, but Christian started it and it just made him blush so...
“What’re you writing, Jay?” Christian leans over Jared’s back.
“Just an English project for next week,” Jared says, adding a few more lines in his notebook and closing the cover.
“Overachiever,” Christian says, but it’s tolerant. Danneel latches on. “Is that the one you were telling me about? The fiction project for Ablemann’s class?”
“Yeah, it’s a little longer than I expected, but...” Jared shrugs, shoulders under black cotton reaching his ears. Black’s a good color on him, Jensen decides. Their school colors -- orange and green for the fucking Terrapins -- don’t look good on anyone, and half the time Jared’s wearing a school t-shirt, but not today. Today he’s easy on Jensen’s eyes, soft brown hair curling at his ears showing a hint of the Texas sun.
“Jay, are you meeting us after practice again?” Christian asks as the bell rings for last period.
“If Jensen doesn’t mind giving me a ride,” Jared says, throwing hazel eyes his way. Jensen has no chance.
“No problem,” Jensen says, hanging a right turn and making for his locker. Jared and Christian follow, Danneel waving as she heads for the Art corridor. “I’ll trade you a ride for the chem notes you took on chapter fifteen. I don’t think I’ll have time between practice, and I’ve gotta take Mac to some pretty-princess dance thing tonight before dinner, so --”
“I’ll give ‘em to you on the way home. I just want to recopy a few things, is that okay?”
“Awesome,” Jensen says, and the three of them fork in different directions.
They come back together in the parking lot a few hours later. Jensen's sweating under his collar thanks to a rough practice and rough words from his coach. Bastard had kept him late to impress upon his star shortstop the importance of their next game.
Don't fuck up, he'd said in not-so-many words. I got it.
Christian's slouched against the bumper of Jensen's Explorer, fingers picking at one of the bumper stickers that came with his car.
"Finally," he says. "Jay already called shotgun."
Christian folds into the backseat, tossing his gear over and into the truck. Jared tucks his backpack by his feet in the passenger seat, another bag full of printouts on his lap.
"How was yearbook?" Jensen asks as they pull out. "Get done what you needed?" Not only was Jared on his way to becoming valedictorian a few years ahead of schedule, he'd decided that wasn't enough work and signed up for the yearbook staff, earning the thankless job of Sports Editor.
"Yeah, we're ahead of our deadline, so that's good," Jared says, and Christian huffs from the backseat. "Do me a favor, kid, and give Baseball the best pages."
"And take valuable space away from the Honor Society, or from baby pictures?" Jared smiles and Jensen matches his grin. "No way."
"Fucker." Again, with affection. Christian couldn't hate Jared if he tried. Jensen doesn't bother trying -- his fate with Jared was written the day he sat down with the three best friends in Chemistry.
They bicker and complain about homework all the way to Christian's house where he hops out with little ceremony, smacking Jensen on the back of the head and kicking Jared's seat.
"Dude, careful!" Jensen yells. "Be nice to my car."
"Don't fuckin' be late tomorrow morning, Jenny!" Christian yells as a last offense before disappearing through the gate to his backyard.
Jared's house is small and unpretentious on a wide corner lot with a red maple Jensen's dad is totally jealous of out front. It's only two blocks from Jensen's house, so making Jared a part of their after-school routine had been easy. On the way there, Jensen shares what he'd hidden from Christian. His coach's harsh speech, still echoing, comes out choppy and angry. Jared doesn't wave it away; he listens and even if he doesn't say much in response, he lets Jensen vent without adding commentary which is, more often than not, exactly what Jensen needs.
"You're one of his best players," Jared says, leaning towards the middle console as Jensen makes a hard right turn. "Maybe he thinks you can handle the pressure."
"I just don't get why he thinks I don't know this stuff already," Jensen responds, pulling into an old neighborhood with big shade trees. "If I play badly, the only scholarship I'm going to get is to play for Greendale Community College."
"I'd still go and watch your games," Jared says. "But listen, there's a reason you guys are the defending state champs and it has nothing to do with your coach."
Jensen's smile is so big he nearly pulls a muscle in his face.
"Are you sure you don't want me to pick you up for school?" Jensen asks when he pulls up to the curb outside the Padalecki house.
"Nah, that's okay," Jared says, shifting his bags around so they're easier to grab. "It's on the way for my dad, plus he buys me breakfast. Can you beat that?"
"I'd go broke in a week," Jensen says and laughs. "No way." He doesn't show his disappointment. When Christian's not in the car, Jensen gets his rare time alone with Jared, getting to know each other in little ten-minute increments. Jared's smart -- he's probably got Jensen all figured out -- but Jensen has no-where near enough information yet.
"Oh, hey," Jensen says as Jared's getting out. "Can I have those chem notes? Sorry --"
"Shit, I forgot." Jared paws through his bag and plucks out a black notebook, tossing it in the Explorer's window. "Get it back to me whenever, no rush."
"Thanks." Jensen waves and Jared hurries to his front door, turning back to give Jensen a wave.
Jensen's mom boots him up to his room to study after dinner.
"No video games, Jensen. I mean it," she says, stomping her foot at the bottom of the stairs.
"Fine, I'm going!"
He wastes a minute staring longingly at his Nintendo then upends his backpack over the floor. Textbooks and notes rain over his feet and Jensen can't decide which subject is the least revolting. If he eventually chooses Chemistry, it has nothing to do with Jared's involvement.
Grabbing his own notebook, Jensen separates Jared's from the pile and picks up a pen he hopes has enough ink left to copy all of Jared's notes. He flips through the pages and comes to the last one with writing, but he's definitely not looking at Chem notes. No chapter headings or pH chart, and no color coded sections about which concepts are most likely to show up on a test.
There are only words, spreading out on page after page. Jared's cramped writing fills the college rule from margin to margin -- a story not meant for Jensen to see. He knows this because the first line has his name.
Jensen's fingers itch to close the notebook -- he gave me the wrong one! -- but his brain keeps reading from that first line on. He's immediately in another world, one of Jared's creation, where Jensen and Jared are the heroes.
As he reads, he smiles. So many little details of his life that he could have sworn Jared forgot about. Feelings and habits recounted in this story with perfect twists and turns of phrase. Jared's a brilliant writer -- he makes Jensen sound beautiful.
The real Jensen is no such thing. He's a high school junior with no ambition beyond doing enough work to pass his classes and get a baseball scholarship to UT. Jensen's got a home life that, let's face it, could be better; his parents are focused on Mac, the little angel, and Josh, the perfect first-born, leaving Jensen nowhere in the middle. They care, to a point, and Jensen doesn't blame them, but just once it would be nice...
Jensen was right about Jared; he has Jensen all figured out. The way Jared's Jensen -- his heart starts to thrum harder -- sees Jared's Jared is amazing. Like Jared is noble, self-sacrificing, and always kind. He has a purpose, unlike Jensen, one that's going to take him far.
There's something else, emotions ripped straight out of Jensen's heart and thrown down on Jared's pages. Emotions Jensen's familiar with, but he had no idea that Jared could...that Jared could see --
Jensen rested at the edge of the mattress, hand slowly reaching out and fingers sliding across the beaten knuckles of Jared’s hand, which then twitched and turned, making Jensen flinch. He realized Jared was seeking out his hand so Jensen turned his over and slid it into Jared’s.
He found Jared’s eyes and sunk down to him, skin on skin, mouth to mouth, tongues tangling as they moved together. And every bit of tension and fear over his real duty in their world dissipated and made room for the warmth and thrill of being with Jared, being with him like this.
Jensen wants to stop but his brain says no-can-do. It forces his fingers to turn the pages until the story's done and Jared's Jensen gets his happy ending.
That night, with the notebook on his nightstand -- Jensen read the entire story twice -- Jensen dreams of his own happy ending.
"I can't give you a ride tonight."
"Why the hell not?" Christian asks with half a bagel hanging out of his mouth.
"I have plans and I might need to stay late, okay?"
"Sure, man. Do you need me to pass the message on to Jay?"
"No," Jensen says too quickly, but Christian's occupied fighting his oral battle with his breakfast. "I'll tell him."
The first half of Jensen's day is an exercise in torture. He never sees Jared until Chemistry on a normal day, but this is far from one of those.
"Jared was acting all weird in Latin this morning," Danneel informs Jensen after lunch in English. "He thought you might be mad at him."
"Danni --"
"Don't worry," she says, smiling. "I didn't tell him that mad is the last thing you'd be feeling."
"You suck," he tells her.
"You wish," Danneel says. "But seriously, it looked like someone kicked him and his puppy, so be nice to him later, okay? I don't know what happened."
"I'll figure it out."
Jensen begs his English teacher for the bathroom pass five minutes before class ends. She starts to ask when Jensen grabs his bags to take with him, but he's already out the door by the time she finishes her question. The bell hasn't rung yet and it's quiet in the hallway; Jensen paces outside of the Chem lab, fretting.
He knows what he wants -- he's known since the first day of school this year -- and he can guess what Jared wants unless this entire story is some kind of joke. If Jared were the kind of guy to pull something like this, but he's not Christian. He's Jared, and he has this flawless image of Jensen in his mind that no real person could ever hope to live up to.
The question is, is Jensen willing to try?
He's the first one in the lab after the previous class files out in a rush. As if it's worth more than the paper it's written on, Jensen takes the notebook and sets it on Jared's corner, grabbing a post-it from Mr. Willis' desk and adding a quickly-scribbled note to the last page.
Jared shuffles in, stooped under a heavy weight. No smile, no greeting, he just bee-lines to his seat and looks shocked to see his notebook out on the table. He catches Jensen's eye, but Mr. Willis is outlining the remainder of their pH experiments.
Not even listening, Jared grabs the notebook and flips through the pages, eyes-wide and ready to cry, if Jensen knows him at all. He wants to reassure Jared -- to tell him it's okay, but he's quiet and let's his post-it do the talking.
Jared stops on the last page and the sounds in the room go dull to Jensen's ears. Jared reads the words; he mouths the words and Jensen watches the way his lips move.
I'm in love with you, too.
Jensen knows exactly what he'd written but for a moment he panics thinking Jared's reading it wrong -- his expression is inscrutable. But his eyes come back to Jensen and he finally deciphers the look.
Hope.
Jensen smiles and the lab's too big -- too much space between Jared and him at their table. As soon as Mr. Willis sits down and lets his students have free reign over the school's supply of chemicals, Jensen drags his stool over by Jared's, ignoring Danneel and Christian's confusion.
"Jensen, I --"
"Hey, you owe me some chem notes," Jensen says, ridiculously.
Jared stares for a second then flushes. "I'm sorry."
"No problem." Jensen taps the notebook, leaning close. "Besides," he whispers, "I really liked your story."
Laying his palm over his notebook, just brushing Jensen's fingers, Jared grins.
"Do you want to tell me about it after my practice?" Jensen asks. "I can drive you home, or we can grab dinner --"
"Yeah," Jared says, and Jensen sees that kind, noble character. "I really do."
FIN.
Story snippets are from dugindeep's Big Bang, In a Faraway Land, You'll Find Yourself, which you should all read!