FIC: All the Amenities (CW RPS, Jared/Jensen)
Title: All the Amenities
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: PG-ish, maybe R for language
Wordcount: 3000
Notes: Written for chasingtides for spn_j2_xmas, with the prompt of everyone's reactions to the Js moving in together. I hope you enjoy it! Many thanks to prillalar for beta.
All the Amenities
"Just so you know, I refuse to be domesticated," Jensen said, when Jared made pancakes and bacon and little fruit cups the day after he moved in. It was even better than IHOP. "Crappy hotels and a transient lifestyle are what acting's all about."
"Dude, you're over thirty," Jared said. "I think that only works when you're still, you know, young."
He already had an extra toothbrush in the guest bathroom, so it was a matter of hanging his clothes in the closet and buying drapes for the doors in his bedroom that led out to the backyard. Jared put up those kid fences all around his bedroom door to keep the dogs out, which took them twenty minutes to knock down.
"Oh, you love them," Jared said, and took the fences out to the garage.
It didn't matter much during shooting; they used the house to shower and sleep and sometimes eat. "Makes sense," Cliff said, when he dropped them both off at Jared's, and Jensen figured it did. If he and Jared hadn't killed each other after last week's three-hour and twelve-take scene, they weren't going to do it over orange juice.
"Maybe it's like a college thing," Mackenzie said, when he flew home the first week of fall hiatus.
"We're not sitting around getting high to John Lennon," Jensen said, sorting through the pile of boxes he'd shipped from L.A. when his lease ran out.
"You're pretty lame for someone with his own TV show," she said. "I'm just saying, isn't the whole point of being an adult having your own place?"
"It's called convenience," Jensen said. He opened up another box. He could just trash it all-it wasn't like he'd missed having any of it or was lacking on the necessities in Vancouver. Mostly it was a lot of rolled up vintage posters that Tom bought him a few years back, some clothes that didn't fit him anymore, some things Danneel bought for his place when they first started going out, like kitchen utensils that actually worked, a couple throw pillows and a blanket, and some stuff she'd bought for him, too, that he figured he should keep even though they hadn't talked in three months.
He still packed up most of it and shipped it to Vancouver, taking the rest to Goodwill.
"You're totally nesting," Jared said, when Jensen flew back north and the boxes showed up.
"Oh, fuck you," Jensen said.
****
Tom wasn't around, so Jensen called up Jason, who Tom introduced over the summer when they needed a fourth, and talked him into playing a round even though it was overcast and not much over sixty. They made it nine holes, bagged the back nine and got lunch at the clubhouse, only a few other people there looking out over the grey sky and green lawn.
Jason was in real estate-he'd sold Tom his condo-so they talked about that for a bit, the foreclosure rates and the steals Jensen could get if he was in the market, which Jensen was pretty sure he wasn't. "So how do you guys work out the money?" Jason asked. "Because you could totally swing that as an investment if you're paying rent, or even think about buying in for half."
"Uh," Jensen said, because it had never actually come up.
"Well, let me know if you ever want to look," Jason said, and gave Jensen his card.
"I'm thinking about buying," Jensen said, back at the house. It was his turn to cook that night, which meant either Thai takeout or pasta. Tonight it was fettuccini.
Jared looked up from the crossword, which he insisted on doing in pen even though it always ended up a mess. "Buying what?"
"You know, a house," Jensen said. His sauce was boiling, so Jensen turned down the heat and gave it a stir. "I talked to Jason-you met him at Tom's party. He's showing me a couple of places."
"Oh," Jared said. He chewed the end of his pen, shook his head. "Man, house buying sucks. Seriously. Let me know if you need moral support."
"Sure," Jensen said.
"It's not a bad idea," his dad said, when Jensen called home that night. "You should think about it, look around. You can't live with friends forever."
He had a point. Sooner or later Jared was going to find another Sandy, and Jensen had already lived through roommates and relationships and the resulting meltdowns. He didn't want to go through that with Jared.
He called Jason and met up with him that weekend. Jason showed him some neighborhoods, they talked about price. They walked through three properties that Jason thought might suit, then another four when they didn't. Jason got quieter and quieter. By the end of the day he wasn't saying anything at all, so Jensen had him stop at a bar he knew and bought him a drink.
"So you really don't want to buy a house," Jason said, sucking back the cosmo the bartender brought.
"No, I really do," Jensen said, though he wasn't at all sure.
"Okay," Jason said. "Then you need to do some research, figure out where and what you want, how much you're willing to spend. Then give me a call."
When he got back to the house, he found Jared reading in the other living room that they never used, stretched out on the couch. It was a ridiculously long one that still wasn't long enough, and Jensen pulled at his feet so he could sit down on the other end.
"House hunting sucks," Jensen said.
"Man, I told you," Jared said. He propped his feet on Jensen's thigh. "I thought you were all anti-house, anyway."
"I'm not anti-house," Jensen said. "Houses are investments. It's purely financial. And by the way, I should probably be paying you rent."
"You could wash the dishes," Jared said. "And wear one of those french maid outfits."
"In your dreams," Jensen said. He picked the lint off Jared's socks. Jared poked him with his toe. "So it's cool if I stick around here for a while?"
"I'll get you a duster," Jared said.
****
Jared took off for L.A., dropping the dogs off with the service he used while they were shooting. Jensen slept for a couple of days, went grocery shopping, borrowed a couple of Jared's books. It was weird in the house without Jared and the dogs, and he didn't know if it was that it didn't feel like his place, like he was just visiting, or if it just wasn't the same house without them.
"Leaving tomorrow," Jared said, when Jensen called him at the end of the week. "Chad and I are driving up from L.A."
"Oh, Jesus," Jensen said.
"We're bringing Nutclopse, too. I won't be offended if you decide you have some pressing family obligation to go to."
"I'll just hide out in my room," Jensen said.
Jared and Chad arrived in Chad's jeep and a thousand miles of road dust. Jared jumped out first. "I'm gonna pick up the dogs from Lisa's," he said, so it was Chad and Jensen in the driveway, Chad looking as much as an ass as Jensen remembered. His dog slid by them to pee in the front bushes.
"Nice digs," Chad said, when they went inside.
"You want something to drink?" Jensen asked. Chad shrugged, so he pulled out a couple of beers.
"So what, you're hanging out here until you find a place?" Chad said, taking the beer and not waiting for Jensen to answer. "That's great, seriously. I mean, I'm sure Jared appreciates it. Like a rebound relationship without the hassle, you know?"
"Okay," Jensen said, thinking: what the fuck, because Chad was looking around the house like its entire existence pissed him off, like Chad was jealous. "I'm sure it's just short term," he deadpanned. "You know, till I find a place."
"Uh-huh," Chad said.
Sadie and Chad's dog almost had it out when Jared got back, then called some sort of truce that involved mutual butt sniffing and curling up on one end of the couch. Jensen kicked both their asses at Wii golf, then left Jared and Chad in the living room arguing about the GM bailout, which he knew well enough to stay out of.
Jared knocked on his door a couple hours later. "I think Chad's jealous," Jensen said, when Jared came in and sat down on the bed.
Jared laughed and leaned back on his elbows, his arm pressing against Jensen's calf. "Man, he totally would be. He kinda hates you, rags on you all the time. But you secretly love him, right?"
"I really don't," Jensen said.
"Aw, he knows I love you best," Jared said. He picked up The Road, which Jensen had borrowed a few days ago and was finding a slog. "This book is awesome."
"You and Oprah," Jensen said.
They went out the next night with some of the crew, and everyone seemed to really like Chad, so Jensen holed up at the bar with Genevieve, who was trying to get him to invest in art. "Seriously, you've got to check out this place, they had a Saviola in there for a steal."
Jensen took the card she handed him, but he was mostly watching Jared and Chad over in the corner with Kevin and Kit, Jared cracking up at something Chad said, and it was weird being on this side of things. It was weird to even think that, because it meant he wasn't any different from Chad.
"How's it going at the house?" Genevieve asked.
"Good," Jensen said. "Jared sweats like a motherfucker, and he leaves his socks all over the place. But, you know, good."
"Sounds divine," Genevieve said. She put her empty glass down on the bar. "Listen, I'm taking off; I told Nicki I'd meet her over on Lonsdale. You need a ride?"
Jensen glanced over at Jared and Chad, the laughing fuckers, and it looked like they were settling in for a while. "Sure," he said.
Genevieve had a tiny Prius with zero leg room, but it actually rode decently, even if she drove ten miles an hour because she was afraid of ice.
"It's Vancouver," he said, after they inched through another intersection.
"We had a snowstorm!" she said. "Don't you dare give me grief about my driving. I've seen you freak out when it rains."
It was nice hanging out with someone else for a change, even if there wasn't much time for conversation before Genevieve was pulling up the driveway. "Nice place," she said admiringly.
"Yeah, we need to have everyone over one of these days," Jensen said.
The dogs heard him when he walked in and started whining and scratching at the laundry room door, so he gave in and let them out, telling Harley what they did in Canada to dogs who didn't behave. Somehow they all ended up on the couch, even Chad's dog, watching the last hour of Dr. Zhivago.
"Undomesticated, my ass," Jared said, when he and Chad finally showed up.
"Don't even," Jensen said.
****
Maybe it was because they were shooting again, the first week spent with his circadian rhythms shot to hell and a grudge against the world, but everything was off and Jensen couldn't figure out why.
"How are things at the house?" Misha said, in between scenes while they were waiting for lighting.
"Uh, fine?" Jensen said, because Misha was into things like balance and meditation and internal dynamics, or however he put it when they first met. He'd talked Jared into doing the whole house feng shui. Jensen couldn't tell the difference. "Same as always."
It was more like a low-grade restless itch that he'd felt before, thinking about future projects and moving on to the next thing, but he didn't think it was Supernatural or the work they were doing. Maybe it was just winter, the short days and long schedule, and the way everything seemed to be plodding along relentlessly.
"It's Ainsley's birthday next week," Jared said, stretched out on Jensen's bed like it was his own, which Jensen guessed it kind of was. "We should get her something."
"Hm," Jensen said. He shifted on the bed next to Jared. "Anything in mind?"
Jared shrugged and stretched, and Jensen was absolutely not checking out the way his shirt rose above the waistband of his jeans. "We can look for something over the weekend."
Gen and Nicki took him out a few nights later, talking him up to a couple women they knew from the bar until he ended up buying a drink for someone Nicki had worked with on a job last year. She was kind of startlingly hot and not at all aware of it, and after twenty minutes, Jensen knew a green light when he saw it.
"You want to take off?" she asked, and Jensen hesitated, thought about Jared back at the house.
"I'd better make it an early night," he said, and took the number she gave him.
He was up early the next morning because he kept forgetting to close the drapes on the glass doors. Jared was already outside with the dogs, playing one of those weird games Jensen hadn't figured out yet, and Jensen watched them until Jared disappeared from view and he could hear him whistling the dogs inside.
"Everything good?" Jared said, when Jensen made it into the kitchen and turned on the coffee maker, which was this ridiculous model Jared bought that did everything except add water, even though Jared never drank coffee.
"Grand," Jensen said.
****
Jensen would catch Jared looking at him, in between takes or when they went back to their trailers, or during lunch when Jared's eyes flicked to Jensen then away. They were in Jared's trailer running lines when Jared put his hand on the back of Jensen's neck, like he was just being friendly, then Ainsley came to get them for the scene.
"Chad called," Jensen said, when Jared got back from the bathroom in the middle of some movie about a priest and a prostitute in Minneapolis, Jensen wasn't sure exactly because he'd stopped following it thirty minutes ago. He handed Jared his phone, retrieved from a crack in the couch.
Jared tossed it on the coffee table. "I'll call him later."
Jensen didn't know what it was they were doing, but it put a sheen on everything, like a current under his skin. He kind of hoped Jared knew because Jensen felt like he was flying blind. "You two seem to be handling things well," Jim said, and it took Jensen a second to work out what he meant.
"Yeah," he said, watching Jared as he walked through a scene with Kim. "It's been good."
They were coming home from location, Jensen half asleep because they'd been up until two the night before trying to get a clean shot, and leaning a little more than necessary on Jared's shoulder. "Jensen," Jared said, and Jensen could barely hear him over the cranked-up heat and hiss of wet road outside.
"Hm," Jensen said, because he really was almost asleep. Jared didn't say anything else, but he turned his head toward Jensen, his mouth dry on the side of Jensen's forehead with a little scratch of stubble, until Cliff pulled into the driveway.
****
"There's a fax here from your realtor," Jared said, when Jensen got back from the gym. Jensen took the sheaf of papers from him: property listings, a brief note from Jason, a lot of stuff about bedroom size and ocean views and high-end kitchen remodels.
"Oh," Jensen said, and turned the papers over in his hands. He couldn't quite meet Jared's eye, but Jared wasn't looking at him, anyway.
"Am I crazy, here?" Jared asked, and then Jensen did look up to stare at him.
"What?"
"I just-you gotta help me out, Jensen. What do you want?"
Jensen wanted a lot of things, but they were amorphous things, like happiness and maybe a successful career in something other than horror. "I don't know," he said. "What do you want?"
"I want this," Jared said. "The house, us living together. And, you know. Whatever else comes with that."
Jensen didn't know what whatever else was, but then Jared took the faxed papers from him and put them down on the kitchen island, tilted his head up and kissed him. Jared's mouth was warm on his, his heart beating as fast as Jensen's, and whatever Jensen had been expecting, it both was and wasn't exactly like this.
"Okay," Jensen said, when Jared pulled back and he could speak normally again. "Maybe you're not crazy."
"Yeah, I didn't think so," Jared said. "I mean, you've been checking out my ass all week."
"You wish, Padalecki," Jensen said, but he kept his hand on Jared's hip and leaned into the warmth of Jared's thigh against his, solid and not going anywhere, and he was starting to see the appeal of this whole domesticity thing.
****
"You guys are making me puke," Genevieve said at the wrap party, when Jared grabbed Jensen's hand and Jensen maybe squeezed it a little, wondering if he could get away with kissing him or if Kripke would have conniptions that his stars were sleeping with each other.
"What, too hot for you?" Jensen said.
"Oh please, you're like Care Bears," she said.
Jared had delusions of culinary interest after mainlining Top Chef, so they went to Granville the next day. Jensen personally thought Jared was full of shit, but he figured it'd be entertaining up to the point where he had to actually eat any of it. It really was, Jared haggling with the sellers and waffling about freshness, and he picked up at least three vegetables that Jensen had never heard of.
"Aren't you taking this a little far?" he asked, when they finally stopped for coffee.
"What," Jared said, and knocked knees with him under the table. Jensen stretched his leg out until his calf rested against Jared's. "Maybe I don't want to eat pasta every night for the rest of my life."
"You should be so lucky," Jensen said.
END
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: PG-ish, maybe R for language
Wordcount: 3000
Notes: Written for chasingtides for spn_j2_xmas, with the prompt of everyone's reactions to the Js moving in together. I hope you enjoy it! Many thanks to prillalar for beta.
All the Amenities
"Just so you know, I refuse to be domesticated," Jensen said, when Jared made pancakes and bacon and little fruit cups the day after he moved in. It was even better than IHOP. "Crappy hotels and a transient lifestyle are what acting's all about."
"Dude, you're over thirty," Jared said. "I think that only works when you're still, you know, young."
He already had an extra toothbrush in the guest bathroom, so it was a matter of hanging his clothes in the closet and buying drapes for the doors in his bedroom that led out to the backyard. Jared put up those kid fences all around his bedroom door to keep the dogs out, which took them twenty minutes to knock down.
"Oh, you love them," Jared said, and took the fences out to the garage.
It didn't matter much during shooting; they used the house to shower and sleep and sometimes eat. "Makes sense," Cliff said, when he dropped them both off at Jared's, and Jensen figured it did. If he and Jared hadn't killed each other after last week's three-hour and twelve-take scene, they weren't going to do it over orange juice.
"Maybe it's like a college thing," Mackenzie said, when he flew home the first week of fall hiatus.
"We're not sitting around getting high to John Lennon," Jensen said, sorting through the pile of boxes he'd shipped from L.A. when his lease ran out.
"You're pretty lame for someone with his own TV show," she said. "I'm just saying, isn't the whole point of being an adult having your own place?"
"It's called convenience," Jensen said. He opened up another box. He could just trash it all-it wasn't like he'd missed having any of it or was lacking on the necessities in Vancouver. Mostly it was a lot of rolled up vintage posters that Tom bought him a few years back, some clothes that didn't fit him anymore, some things Danneel bought for his place when they first started going out, like kitchen utensils that actually worked, a couple throw pillows and a blanket, and some stuff she'd bought for him, too, that he figured he should keep even though they hadn't talked in three months.
He still packed up most of it and shipped it to Vancouver, taking the rest to Goodwill.
"You're totally nesting," Jared said, when Jensen flew back north and the boxes showed up.
"Oh, fuck you," Jensen said.
****
Tom wasn't around, so Jensen called up Jason, who Tom introduced over the summer when they needed a fourth, and talked him into playing a round even though it was overcast and not much over sixty. They made it nine holes, bagged the back nine and got lunch at the clubhouse, only a few other people there looking out over the grey sky and green lawn.
Jason was in real estate-he'd sold Tom his condo-so they talked about that for a bit, the foreclosure rates and the steals Jensen could get if he was in the market, which Jensen was pretty sure he wasn't. "So how do you guys work out the money?" Jason asked. "Because you could totally swing that as an investment if you're paying rent, or even think about buying in for half."
"Uh," Jensen said, because it had never actually come up.
"Well, let me know if you ever want to look," Jason said, and gave Jensen his card.
"I'm thinking about buying," Jensen said, back at the house. It was his turn to cook that night, which meant either Thai takeout or pasta. Tonight it was fettuccini.
Jared looked up from the crossword, which he insisted on doing in pen even though it always ended up a mess. "Buying what?"
"You know, a house," Jensen said. His sauce was boiling, so Jensen turned down the heat and gave it a stir. "I talked to Jason-you met him at Tom's party. He's showing me a couple of places."
"Oh," Jared said. He chewed the end of his pen, shook his head. "Man, house buying sucks. Seriously. Let me know if you need moral support."
"Sure," Jensen said.
"It's not a bad idea," his dad said, when Jensen called home that night. "You should think about it, look around. You can't live with friends forever."
He had a point. Sooner or later Jared was going to find another Sandy, and Jensen had already lived through roommates and relationships and the resulting meltdowns. He didn't want to go through that with Jared.
He called Jason and met up with him that weekend. Jason showed him some neighborhoods, they talked about price. They walked through three properties that Jason thought might suit, then another four when they didn't. Jason got quieter and quieter. By the end of the day he wasn't saying anything at all, so Jensen had him stop at a bar he knew and bought him a drink.
"So you really don't want to buy a house," Jason said, sucking back the cosmo the bartender brought.
"No, I really do," Jensen said, though he wasn't at all sure.
"Okay," Jason said. "Then you need to do some research, figure out where and what you want, how much you're willing to spend. Then give me a call."
When he got back to the house, he found Jared reading in the other living room that they never used, stretched out on the couch. It was a ridiculously long one that still wasn't long enough, and Jensen pulled at his feet so he could sit down on the other end.
"House hunting sucks," Jensen said.
"Man, I told you," Jared said. He propped his feet on Jensen's thigh. "I thought you were all anti-house, anyway."
"I'm not anti-house," Jensen said. "Houses are investments. It's purely financial. And by the way, I should probably be paying you rent."
"You could wash the dishes," Jared said. "And wear one of those french maid outfits."
"In your dreams," Jensen said. He picked the lint off Jared's socks. Jared poked him with his toe. "So it's cool if I stick around here for a while?"
"I'll get you a duster," Jared said.
****
Jared took off for L.A., dropping the dogs off with the service he used while they were shooting. Jensen slept for a couple of days, went grocery shopping, borrowed a couple of Jared's books. It was weird in the house without Jared and the dogs, and he didn't know if it was that it didn't feel like his place, like he was just visiting, or if it just wasn't the same house without them.
"Leaving tomorrow," Jared said, when Jensen called him at the end of the week. "Chad and I are driving up from L.A."
"Oh, Jesus," Jensen said.
"We're bringing Nutclopse, too. I won't be offended if you decide you have some pressing family obligation to go to."
"I'll just hide out in my room," Jensen said.
Jared and Chad arrived in Chad's jeep and a thousand miles of road dust. Jared jumped out first. "I'm gonna pick up the dogs from Lisa's," he said, so it was Chad and Jensen in the driveway, Chad looking as much as an ass as Jensen remembered. His dog slid by them to pee in the front bushes.
"Nice digs," Chad said, when they went inside.
"You want something to drink?" Jensen asked. Chad shrugged, so he pulled out a couple of beers.
"So what, you're hanging out here until you find a place?" Chad said, taking the beer and not waiting for Jensen to answer. "That's great, seriously. I mean, I'm sure Jared appreciates it. Like a rebound relationship without the hassle, you know?"
"Okay," Jensen said, thinking: what the fuck, because Chad was looking around the house like its entire existence pissed him off, like Chad was jealous. "I'm sure it's just short term," he deadpanned. "You know, till I find a place."
"Uh-huh," Chad said.
Sadie and Chad's dog almost had it out when Jared got back, then called some sort of truce that involved mutual butt sniffing and curling up on one end of the couch. Jensen kicked both their asses at Wii golf, then left Jared and Chad in the living room arguing about the GM bailout, which he knew well enough to stay out of.
Jared knocked on his door a couple hours later. "I think Chad's jealous," Jensen said, when Jared came in and sat down on the bed.
Jared laughed and leaned back on his elbows, his arm pressing against Jensen's calf. "Man, he totally would be. He kinda hates you, rags on you all the time. But you secretly love him, right?"
"I really don't," Jensen said.
"Aw, he knows I love you best," Jared said. He picked up The Road, which Jensen had borrowed a few days ago and was finding a slog. "This book is awesome."
"You and Oprah," Jensen said.
They went out the next night with some of the crew, and everyone seemed to really like Chad, so Jensen holed up at the bar with Genevieve, who was trying to get him to invest in art. "Seriously, you've got to check out this place, they had a Saviola in there for a steal."
Jensen took the card she handed him, but he was mostly watching Jared and Chad over in the corner with Kevin and Kit, Jared cracking up at something Chad said, and it was weird being on this side of things. It was weird to even think that, because it meant he wasn't any different from Chad.
"How's it going at the house?" Genevieve asked.
"Good," Jensen said. "Jared sweats like a motherfucker, and he leaves his socks all over the place. But, you know, good."
"Sounds divine," Genevieve said. She put her empty glass down on the bar. "Listen, I'm taking off; I told Nicki I'd meet her over on Lonsdale. You need a ride?"
Jensen glanced over at Jared and Chad, the laughing fuckers, and it looked like they were settling in for a while. "Sure," he said.
Genevieve had a tiny Prius with zero leg room, but it actually rode decently, even if she drove ten miles an hour because she was afraid of ice.
"It's Vancouver," he said, after they inched through another intersection.
"We had a snowstorm!" she said. "Don't you dare give me grief about my driving. I've seen you freak out when it rains."
It was nice hanging out with someone else for a change, even if there wasn't much time for conversation before Genevieve was pulling up the driveway. "Nice place," she said admiringly.
"Yeah, we need to have everyone over one of these days," Jensen said.
The dogs heard him when he walked in and started whining and scratching at the laundry room door, so he gave in and let them out, telling Harley what they did in Canada to dogs who didn't behave. Somehow they all ended up on the couch, even Chad's dog, watching the last hour of Dr. Zhivago.
"Undomesticated, my ass," Jared said, when he and Chad finally showed up.
"Don't even," Jensen said.
****
Maybe it was because they were shooting again, the first week spent with his circadian rhythms shot to hell and a grudge against the world, but everything was off and Jensen couldn't figure out why.
"How are things at the house?" Misha said, in between scenes while they were waiting for lighting.
"Uh, fine?" Jensen said, because Misha was into things like balance and meditation and internal dynamics, or however he put it when they first met. He'd talked Jared into doing the whole house feng shui. Jensen couldn't tell the difference. "Same as always."
It was more like a low-grade restless itch that he'd felt before, thinking about future projects and moving on to the next thing, but he didn't think it was Supernatural or the work they were doing. Maybe it was just winter, the short days and long schedule, and the way everything seemed to be plodding along relentlessly.
"It's Ainsley's birthday next week," Jared said, stretched out on Jensen's bed like it was his own, which Jensen guessed it kind of was. "We should get her something."
"Hm," Jensen said. He shifted on the bed next to Jared. "Anything in mind?"
Jared shrugged and stretched, and Jensen was absolutely not checking out the way his shirt rose above the waistband of his jeans. "We can look for something over the weekend."
Gen and Nicki took him out a few nights later, talking him up to a couple women they knew from the bar until he ended up buying a drink for someone Nicki had worked with on a job last year. She was kind of startlingly hot and not at all aware of it, and after twenty minutes, Jensen knew a green light when he saw it.
"You want to take off?" she asked, and Jensen hesitated, thought about Jared back at the house.
"I'd better make it an early night," he said, and took the number she gave him.
He was up early the next morning because he kept forgetting to close the drapes on the glass doors. Jared was already outside with the dogs, playing one of those weird games Jensen hadn't figured out yet, and Jensen watched them until Jared disappeared from view and he could hear him whistling the dogs inside.
"Everything good?" Jared said, when Jensen made it into the kitchen and turned on the coffee maker, which was this ridiculous model Jared bought that did everything except add water, even though Jared never drank coffee.
"Grand," Jensen said.
****
Jensen would catch Jared looking at him, in between takes or when they went back to their trailers, or during lunch when Jared's eyes flicked to Jensen then away. They were in Jared's trailer running lines when Jared put his hand on the back of Jensen's neck, like he was just being friendly, then Ainsley came to get them for the scene.
"Chad called," Jensen said, when Jared got back from the bathroom in the middle of some movie about a priest and a prostitute in Minneapolis, Jensen wasn't sure exactly because he'd stopped following it thirty minutes ago. He handed Jared his phone, retrieved from a crack in the couch.
Jared tossed it on the coffee table. "I'll call him later."
Jensen didn't know what it was they were doing, but it put a sheen on everything, like a current under his skin. He kind of hoped Jared knew because Jensen felt like he was flying blind. "You two seem to be handling things well," Jim said, and it took Jensen a second to work out what he meant.
"Yeah," he said, watching Jared as he walked through a scene with Kim. "It's been good."
They were coming home from location, Jensen half asleep because they'd been up until two the night before trying to get a clean shot, and leaning a little more than necessary on Jared's shoulder. "Jensen," Jared said, and Jensen could barely hear him over the cranked-up heat and hiss of wet road outside.
"Hm," Jensen said, because he really was almost asleep. Jared didn't say anything else, but he turned his head toward Jensen, his mouth dry on the side of Jensen's forehead with a little scratch of stubble, until Cliff pulled into the driveway.
****
"There's a fax here from your realtor," Jared said, when Jensen got back from the gym. Jensen took the sheaf of papers from him: property listings, a brief note from Jason, a lot of stuff about bedroom size and ocean views and high-end kitchen remodels.
"Oh," Jensen said, and turned the papers over in his hands. He couldn't quite meet Jared's eye, but Jared wasn't looking at him, anyway.
"Am I crazy, here?" Jared asked, and then Jensen did look up to stare at him.
"What?"
"I just-you gotta help me out, Jensen. What do you want?"
Jensen wanted a lot of things, but they were amorphous things, like happiness and maybe a successful career in something other than horror. "I don't know," he said. "What do you want?"
"I want this," Jared said. "The house, us living together. And, you know. Whatever else comes with that."
Jensen didn't know what whatever else was, but then Jared took the faxed papers from him and put them down on the kitchen island, tilted his head up and kissed him. Jared's mouth was warm on his, his heart beating as fast as Jensen's, and whatever Jensen had been expecting, it both was and wasn't exactly like this.
"Okay," Jensen said, when Jared pulled back and he could speak normally again. "Maybe you're not crazy."
"Yeah, I didn't think so," Jared said. "I mean, you've been checking out my ass all week."
"You wish, Padalecki," Jensen said, but he kept his hand on Jared's hip and leaned into the warmth of Jared's thigh against his, solid and not going anywhere, and he was starting to see the appeal of this whole domesticity thing.
****
"You guys are making me puke," Genevieve said at the wrap party, when Jared grabbed Jensen's hand and Jensen maybe squeezed it a little, wondering if he could get away with kissing him or if Kripke would have conniptions that his stars were sleeping with each other.
"What, too hot for you?" Jensen said.
"Oh please, you're like Care Bears," she said.
Jared had delusions of culinary interest after mainlining Top Chef, so they went to Granville the next day. Jensen personally thought Jared was full of shit, but he figured it'd be entertaining up to the point where he had to actually eat any of it. It really was, Jared haggling with the sellers and waffling about freshness, and he picked up at least three vegetables that Jensen had never heard of.
"Aren't you taking this a little far?" he asked, when they finally stopped for coffee.
"What," Jared said, and knocked knees with him under the table. Jensen stretched his leg out until his calf rested against Jared's. "Maybe I don't want to eat pasta every night for the rest of my life."
"You should be so lucky," Jensen said.
END