Fic: Love In Four Acts part 2
Title: Love In Four Acts part 2
Characters/Pairing: Jensen/Jared, Steve Carlson, Chris Kane, Tom Welling, Mike Rosenbaum, Eric Kripke, Robert Singer
Rating: R
Warnings: Swearing
Word Count: 10,636 words in two parts.
Disclaimer: Anyone you know the name of I do not own.
Summary: If Jensen could have just learned to control his anger then he wouldn't be in the position he's in now. But then again if he had learned to control his anger, he wouldn't have ever known Jared as anything other than that klutzy kid.
A/N: Written for arlad who requested "klutzy drama geek!Jared, detention-forced-to-act Jensen" over at The Fall Fandom Free-For-All. Also this is not beta'd
Act Three - Hope Floats
“So you and the kid huh?”
Chris’s voice was casual but Jensen caught the undercurrent of curiosity in his voice. He rolled his eyes and tucked his cell between his shoulder and ear as he dug through the pile of shirts he had thrown on his bed.
“The kid is named Jared.” He muttered as he pulled a dark green shirt out of the pile and grinned. Jared had said he liked the color on Jensen. “And I’m not sure what you’re hinting at. Jay and I are just friends.”
“Now it’s Jay?”
“Jesus Chris you’re like a dog with a bone. Yes Jay. I call him Jay just like I call you Chris instead of Christian. There’s no ulterior motive involved.”
He could still hear the disbelieving laugh as he dropped his cell on top the shirts on his bed so he could pull on the one in his hand. He told Jared he would pick him up at seven and he was already running late. If he didn’t move his ass and leave his place in five minutes, he wasn’t even going to get to Jared’s until shortly after seven and they had dinner reservations at Pete’s.
Not that they were going on a date, he was just taking a friend out for his birthday, and over the last couple weeks they had become friends. That’s all and no there wasn’t anything weird about taking Jared out for his birthday, he done the same with Chris and Steve countless times but for some reason neither Chris nor Steve could see it.
But there wasn’t anything else, at least not from Jared’s side. He was willing to admit, at least to himself, that maybe once he got to know Jared that he found himself falling for the younger kid. Maybe he was catching himself looking forward to rehearsals so that he could spend time with him. Maybe he had initiated more and more activates for them to do together and Jared seemed more than happy to go along with it. But it was because Jared was a nice guy, a great guy, and a close friend.
Jensen sighed, who was he kidding? Yes Jared was all those things but he wanted so much more. But no matter how may hints he dropped, Jared just kept keeping him at arms length and he wasn’t stupid enough not to know what that meant. But at least he could count himself as one of Jared’s friends.
“Jensen? Jensen!”
He scrambled forward and scooped the cell up from his bed. “Yeah?”
“What you dreaming about the ki…about Jared now too?”
“Piss off Chris.” He felt his face flush, even if he hadn’t been dreaming about Jared he was thinking about him and this wasn’t the first time one of his friends had called him on it. “I was pulling my shirt on.”
“Dude you were naked while talking to me?”
He laughed at the almost squeak in his friend’s voice. “You wish prev. Just pulling an over shirt on.”
“Sure.” He drawled, “Anyway where are you and your friend going tonight?”
“If I tell you are you and Steve going to show up?” He slipped out of his room and jogged down the stairs.
“Now why would we do that?”
Chris sounded far to innocent to be anything other than guilty.
“Oh I don’t know. Could be because you’re hoping to catch us in our big gay love that you refuse to believe is not happening.”
Jensen stuck his head into the living room as he past. “Okay I’m going.”
His mother looked up from the magazine she was reading. “Have a good evening dear.”
He smiled at her, “Thanks momma.”
“Home by Midnight, you’ve got school tomorrow.”
He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and checked his watch. He was going to have to push the speed limit to get to Jared’s now. “Yes daddy.”
He turned from the door and sprinted towards the front door. “I gotta go Chris or I’m going to be late.”
Chris laughed, “Well I certainly wouldn’t want Jared pissed at you or me for making you late for your date.”
“Friends Chris. Just friends.” He said it slowly and as clearly as possible, not sure which one of them he was trying to convince.
Jared stuck his head under the tap in the bathroom sink and resisted the urge to tilt his head and drown himself.
This was such a bad, bad idea. He never should have agreed to let Jensen take him out for his birthday as just friends.
Not when he still wanted more. And it had only gotten worse since they had actually taken the time and become friends.
He wanted Jensen, wanted him so bad that he was now imagining him flirting with him, over-thinking things his friend had said, seeing innuendo where there wasn’t any.
Shit he was so screwed.
The only bright side to this whole messed up situation was that he was only turning sixteen, not eighteen and there was no way in hell he looked old enough to fool any server. Therefore no booze, no getting even slightly drunk and no alcoholic courage to make him do something stupid, like kiss Jensen.
He squeezed the excess water from his hair before running a towel over it.
He was already doing stupid things, like the fact that this was the fourth time he had wet down his hair in the hopes that this time it would behave a little better than the last time he had tried.
So, so screwed.
Jared ran his fingers through his hair before he glanced at his watch and his heart rate picked up again.
Jensen should be there any second. So basically, he had about one minute to pull his shit together and pretend to be the friend that Jensen was to him. Because the thing was, he did value his friendship and if that was all he was going to get from him then he would take it.
It would kill him to do anything that would risk that, especially since they had found that they had so much in common. Not that he didn’t have things in common with Chad or any of his other friends but there was just something about Jensen, something about him that brought an ease to Jared that he didn’t get from anyone else.
He sometimes wondered if they did have a relationship if that would make everything smoother for them but he always pushed the thought away. That wasn’t going to happen, Jensen liked him as a friend, seemed to enjoyed spending time with him but he wasn’t interested in a kid and really that’s all Jared was, a klutzy, kid.
He turned to exit the bathroom and ran into the doorframe with his forehead.
“Jesus Christ!” He groaned and rubbed at the spot he just knew would be bright red.
Yup, one big klutzy kid.
The front doorbell rang and irrational or not he hoped Jensen would offer to kiss his booboo better.
Act Four - A Lot Like Love
Jensen watched Jared pace the stage, back and forth, back and forth. It had been like this for the last half hour, since everyone else had left for the night. A part of him wasn’t exactly annoyed but was seriously starting to wonder if he shouldn’t break the silence between himself and Mike and get Jared some downers or pot or something to mellow him out but the other part of him was just worried he was going to end up giving himself a heart attack.
“Jay.” He called softly as he watched him spin, again, on his heel and make another circuit of the stage.
“What am I doing?” Jared muttered, just loud enough for Jensen to make out the words.
“What do you mean?”
Suddenly Jared stilled and turned to face Jensen. “I’m not an actor Jen. I have no fucking clue what I’m doing here. What if I forget all my lines? What if I fall off the stage? Shit why didn’t they make you my stand in?”
He moved forward and, surprisingly, dropped gracefully to sit at the edge of the stage. “I’m not doing this.” He shook his head, “Forget it. Marcus can go on tomorrow night.”
Jensen sighed, “Jay it’s just nerves.” He risked Jared brushing him off again and moved to stand between his friend’s spread thighs. Gingerly he rested his hands on his friend’s thighs. “You’re going to be great. You know all your lines backwards and forwards. You got all your cues down. Everything will go off without a hitch just you wait and see.”
Jared stared at him for a long moment of silence before he glanced down at his spread hands, high on his thighs. “Jen?” His voice was tight, breathless.
Oh fuck! Something must have shown in his eyes, or of course maybe it was simply the fact that he had gone way over the line of friendship when he had got up in Jared’s personal space and then laid his hands on him.
He tried to step back but Jared’s hand snaked out and his fingers twisted tight in his t-shirt.
Jared was going to hit him now and he was going to lose a friendship he valued so very, very much. All because his heart ached at the sound of desperation in Jared’s voice and he wanted, needed, to show him how much he believed in him.
“I’m sorry Jay.” He spit out quickly, hoping to salvage his friendship. “You were just so upset and I…I just wanted…”
Jared pulled him tight against him, “Just…” He took a deep breath and leaned in.
Jensen’s mind went blank and it took him a moment before the thought of maybe responding to something he had wanted for so long even managed to filter through the fog of shock. By the time his libido managed to kick-start his response, Jared was pulling back, regret and apology warring for dominance in his eyes.
“Shit!” Jared groaned, “Shit Jen.”
It was his turn to grab the front of Jared’s t-shirt and stop him from getting up and slipping away.
“For having the balls to kiss me?”
“No, for…” Jared blinked, “Wait…you wanted…it’s okay that I…?”
Jensen grinned, “More than.”
Jared smiled back, “Well okay then.” And then pulled him back in to share a longer kiss.
“What the fuck!”
They broke apart and Jensen spotted Tom standing at the edge of the stage.
“Tommy.” He sneered. He might have to play nice during school hours but like hell was he going to do so after school, especially when he was interrupting something that Jensen had been craving for so, so long.
“What is it your life’s mission to seduce straight boys?”
“Straight boys?” Jared echoed as he turned to look back at Tom.
“Yeah like you. Like me.” Tom growled and stepped onto the stage. “I’m guessing Jensen never told you. He and I were pretty good friends until he decided that I was going to be a conquest for him.”
“Conquest!” Jensen snarled, “Oh fuck you Tommy! Seems to me that it was you that started messing with me. You are the one that came onto me. You were the one that said you wanted a relationship and you were the one that ended it when your daddy threatened to cut you off.”
Jared pulled away, stood up and strode across the stage to stand directly in Tom’s space. “Let me get this right. You claim you’re straight even though you were dating Jen?”
Tom snorted, “I wouldn’t call what we were doing as dating.”
“Neither would I.” Jensen admitted before he sneered, “More like getting off by fucking you over every available surface. And let me tell you it’s a good thing you’re pretty ‘cause you’re shit in bed.”
“Screw school!” Tom screamed and tried to lunge past Jared as Jensen jumped up on the stage but Jared caught him by the arm and dragged him back to face him.
“Jen wait!” He yelled.
And although Jensen really, really wanted to mix it up with the other senior, instead he stilled a foot behind Jared, pretty certain that was as close as he could get to Tom without punching him.
“Jared I like you,” Tom growled, “But let me the fuck go.”
Jared shrugged and pushed him back. “Get out of here Welling.”
“What!”
“You heard me.” Jared’s voice was low, dangerous and Jensen felt a small thrill work through him.
Not the time! He silently reminded his overactive libido.
“You’re seriously not taking his word over mine?” Tom demanded. “Come on Jared, we’ve been in Drama club together since the beginning of the year, you know me.”
“No I don’t think I do.”
“Jared he’s a liar and a slut and he likes to seduce innocent straight boys. It’s all a…”
Jensen never got to here exactly what it all was because at that point Jared swung at Tom and solidly connected with his jaw.
“Son of a bitch!” Tom snarled, holding a hand to his jaw and shooting dark looks at them. “No fighting in school Jared you know that.”
“What are you going to do Welling?” Jared laughed darkly, “Go to Kripke? Go ahead I don’t give a fuck.”
Jensen figured now might be a good time to step in, he might not care if he got expelled for fighting but he’d be damned if that was going to happen to Jared.
“Actually I think you should.” He taunted as he snaked his arm around Jared’s waist. “’Cause I think it’s about time we clear the air with the man don’t you think Tom? Let him know the reasons behind my need to beat the shit out of you all the time.”
Tom narrowed his eyes and started backing away. “Fuckers.” He snarled, “I’ll make sure everyone knows about this Jared. Make sure everyone knows you’re a fag.”
Jared threw his head back and laughed, “And?”
Tom ground his teeth together, “We’ll see.”
Jensen rolled his eyes, “Fuck off Tom.”
He spun on his heel and with a flick of his middle finger back at them, disappeared backstage and presumably out the backdoor of the drama room.
Jared turned and leaned against Jensen. “Sorry kind of lost my temper there.”
Jensen shrugged, “He was looking for it. If you hadn’t punched him I would have.”
He leaned his forehead against his shoulder. “That’s why you two have been fighting all year? Because he fucked you around?”
Jensen brought his other arm up to join the other around Jared’s waist and felt Jared mirror his actions. “Not exactly. Tom’s going to be a closet case for the rest of his life and it and the fact that my parents, who he always thought were more straight laced then his, accept me for who I am, piss him off.”
“That’s kind of sad.”
Jensen nudged his temple until Jared looked up at him. “Yeah but it’s his choice.”
He nodded slowly but kept quiet.
“Hey Jay?”
He raised an eyebrow but stayed relaxed in his arms. “Hmm?”
“You…uh…going to go caveman on every asshole we encounter?”
Jared turned bright red but didn’t drop his gaze. “Only the ones that insult my boyfriend.”
Jensen grinned, “Boyfriend?”
Even seeing the smile on his face, apparently he couldn’t help but fidget. “If that’s okay?”
Jensen leaned in and kissed him chastely, “More than.”
Fin.
Back to Part One