Battle of the Lightbulb | 1/14 | NC17
Title: The Battle of the Lightbulb (or The Perils of Shared Living) | Part One
Author :Meh_Forget_It
Beta: Wolfish_Willow
Fandoms: RPS
Warnings: Slash, m/m sexual relations, strong language,
Rating: NC17
Summary: Jared thought moving in to an apartment just off campus with four other guys in his second year of college was an amazing idea. It’s not long before he realises that it really wasn’t. Thankfully he has his insane best friend to keep him grounded and his childhood friend who lives in another apartment… and whose housemate is hot.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anyone, given they’re real people… And as of April 2010, owning people is illegal in Britain. Shame. So this didn’t/isn’t/won’t happen. Again, shame.
Pairing: Jared/Jensen, slight Mike/Misha
Characters: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Michael Rosenbaum, Tom Welling, Chad Michael Murray, Richard Speight Jnr, Christian Kane, Danneel Harris, Genevieve Cortese, Mark Sheppard…
Status: Complete
Word Count: 2,152 words (this part)
Masterpost
Note One
Jared, second year student and all around, annoyingly optimistic, Literature student (meaning, admittedly, that he spent a majority of his time with his nose in books… or head in the clouds) had thought that living in an apartment with four other guys would be awesome. It was just off of campus, the rent was reasonable, it was in a decent part of town and best of all, they all got their own rooms. No more getting back from the library to find a sock on the doorknob. Not that that had happened all that often.
Still, as the first year of college reached an end, he and his roommate, Misha, had decided to see if they could find somewhere to live in their second year. And they had found the apartment they now lived in. However, before they finalised anything, they had had to decide and agree on whom they would also be living with. And that was clearly where they made the mistake.
Jared had brought in his two friends, Chad and Jason. The former of which had been close friend of Jared’s since their High School years, and the latter being someone he had shared most of his freshman classes with and was doing the same major as. Misha had also taken some classes with Jason, and brought in Milo, whom he was doing the same major as.
They got on. And so they signed the lease and then went home for summer, all happy that they had somewhere to live the next year. Of course, that’s pretty much where the happiness clearly ended. Turns out that he and Misha got along and could live with one another reasonably well. The other three?
It had taken three weeks of living together before someone clearly snapped, but the proof that it had happened was now apparent. And stuck to a light-switch.
The note that Jared was now looking at was clearly proof to back up all the theories that being friends was easy until you had to actually live with them. Or that Misha’s paranoid ramblings about global warming and appliances striking back - that one time they had some dodgy weed - wasn’t quite so paranoid or insane.
Jared glanced at the bright yellow post it note and then blinked slowly. He wasn’t entirely sure who had written it, though it wasn’t Misha’s handwriting, so he could cross him off the list. However, he had classes to get to, and so he really didn’t have the time to ponder on it. Which was probably not the best thing to do. But really, he didn’t have time for this kind of thing.
So he grabbed his bag, turned away from the baffling note left in the main room of the apartment under the light-switch, and walked out of the apartment, making sure to close the door quietly so he didn’t wake up anyone that may have still been asleep.
Chad. That was the first thing that came to Jared’s mind when he got back from his classes for the day and found another note left under the first one. It was Chad’s handwriting and it was just… Chad.
Sighing, he shook his head and then noticed Misha standing by the door to the kitchen, nibbling on his lower lip.
“The shit’s going to hit the fan, isn’t it?” Misha asked when he saw Jared looking at him. Jared snorted mirthlessly and then shook his head.
“No idea. Maybe this is a one time thing?” And there was Jared’s undying optimism cropping up. Though judging by the look on Misha’s face, he clearly thought it was just Jared showing that he was actually rather stupid.
“Yes. Possibly. It is worrying that the author of the first note seems to feel the need to give a voice to the inanimate electrical devices of the world. I should study them,” Misha muttered, and Jared grinned at him before he shook his head. Misha? Misha was currently planning on doing a psychology major.
The ‘currently’ was added in there because, by Jared’s last count, Misha had changed his major seven times. Though the psychology choice seemed to be lasting the longest. Jared was beginning to think that maybe this time he would actually stick with it.
“You think that’s a good idea? Because even from the note, I can tell that whoever wrote it wasn’t in a very hospitable mood,” Jared pointed out lightly as he walked past Misha into the kitchen, having dumped his bag on the sofa as he passed it.
“You do have a point. I think we should go out and get very drunk tonight. I can never sleep when I’m stuck with a foreboding feeling in my stomach. Alcohol helps numb those types of feelings,” Misha commented as he hopped up to sit on the counter. “Sex also helps.”
Jared, having spent a year with Misha, was completely used to these sorts of offhand comments and thus only choked a little on the water he’d just sipped. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he raised an eyebrow at the other guy.
“I think alcohol might help. You’re right. Drinking. We should go drinking. I don’t have classes or work in the morning. You?” Jared asked, leaning against the side and watching as Misha seemed to watch something only he could see.
“Nope, no classes and I still have yet to find a job. Though, the last place I applied to is looking promising.”
“Cool. Let me have a shower and get ready, then we can leave about seven? We inviting the others?”
“I don’t really feel the need to spend the night in the ER this early into the semester. Maybe we should just sneak out,” Misha commented lightly, jumping off the counter and walking to the door.
“Good point,” Jared conceded, and they both left the kitchen and walked to their separate rooms. Jared hoped that Misha was right and the alcohol would rid him of the feeling of foreboding he was currently left with.
Note Two
Jared jerked awake when the door to his bedroom was quickly opened and then shut again. Groggily, Jared pushed himself up to sit in his bed and saw a wide-eyed Misha leaning against his door.
“Meesh?”
“Shh! The shit has hit the fan,” Misha whispered, silently and quickly walking from the door to sit on the bed next to Jared.
That was one thing that made people wonder about their friendship actually. Their complete lack of regard for personal space. Neither one had a problem with randomly hugging the other, or, as they were now, sharing a bed with the other. Regardless of their state of dress.
“What’s happened?” Jared asked, glancing at his door warily. It had been a little over a week since the first and only two notes had been left behind, and though things had felt a little strained in the apartment for a few days after, eventually things got back to normal again. So Jared had put the notes to the back of his mind and Misha had conceded that for once, Jared’s optimism may have not led them wrong.
Clearly, both were stupid.
“There was a new note left on Chad’s door,” Misha whispered, handing Jared the note he had managed to grab before he fled into Jared’s room. Jared read it and snickered, before handing it back to Misha. “Yeah, I thought it was funny too, as did Jason and Milo. Chad though? Apparently he brought someone back with him last night, and found the note on his door then.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah. So Chad is now angry at Milo for cockblocking him, accusing him of being jealous. Which Milo didn’t appreciate. I felt it wise to hide out in here once Jason escaped to his job,” Misha muttered, and Jared nodded, glancing at his alarm clock and seeing that it was only six in the morning, meaning Jason would be three hours early for work. Clearly he was dedicated to his job at the library.
“How long will we have to hide in here? I have my own job to get to,” Jared whispered after they had both sat in silence for a good ten minutes. Misha shrugged and looked at him.
“Can I come with you?”
“Sure, why not. I’ll even try and sneak you free coffee,” Jared said with a wide grin, getting a wider one in return from Misha.
“See, this is why we are friends. You pay me with coffee. That’s how friendships are formed. What time do you start?”
“Eight.”
“Right. So we hide in here for the next hour, then get ready to leave. Then we sneak out and hope to not be caught in any crossfire. Do I still have clothes in here?”
“Yeah, second drawer down,” Jared said with a nod to his chest of drawers in his room, not even blinking at another reason people raised eyebrows at their relationship. Even Mike had questioned him on it once, and he’d never actually met Misha.
“Good. Jared…” Misha started as he lay back in Jared’s bed, hands resting on his stomach. Jared moved to lie next to Misha on his side and looked at him questioningly.
“Hmm?”
“We need a plan.”
“A plan?” Jared asked, wondering where Misha was actually going to go with this. With Misha, it truly could have been anywhere.
“We need a plan for what to do when things get really bad. Because, as much as I love your optimism, I think it’s gonna get a lot worse, and not better,” Misha said bluntly, and Jared had to agree with him on that one. Even his optimistic view on life could see that.
“Like a fallout plan?”
“Exactly. So… any ideas. Because I don’t have any. At all,” Misha admitted with a wide-eyed grin. Jared snickered and shook his head, before frowning as a thought struck him.
“Actually… I might.”
“Oh? Share with the class, Jared,” Misha told him, shifting to root through Jared’s bedside table drawer, and then moving to lie back on his back He handed one of the Twizzlers he’d grabbed to Jared and chewed on the other one, looking at him steadily.
“Well, two. I’ve got two ideas. The first one, our jobs. I generally work in the mornings, and some afternoons. You always work nights. So, I figure we can hide out at either ones work place,” Jared stated, chewing on a piece of candy as he looked to Misha for his thoughts on the idea.
“Okay… That’s possibly a good idea. Though, you’re kind of like a huge puppy. You gonna fit in with my place of work?” Misha asked him with a wicked grin, bright blue eyes gleaming with mischief as he watched Jared cough and then shift.
“Sure. Why not?”
“Uh huh. Fine, I’ll agree to this, but you have to wear a collar for the first week at least. I don’t want to be responsible for you being molested by some scary dom.”
“I’m six, five,” Jared deadpanned, and Misha actually snorted and looked at him, completely unimpressed. “Fine. I’ll agree to the plan.”
“Good little Sub,” Misha said, shifting to awkwardly pat Jared on the head, before he shifted to get comfy again and looked at Jared seriously once more. “So what’s your other plan?”
“Mike.” Mike was Jared’s friend from back in San Antonio, Texas. He was four years older than Jared and was, admittedly, the main reason for Jared having chosen to go to San Francisco for college. Though he denied it when his mother had asked him if that had been the case. Still, Mike and Jared had been friends since Jared was five, and Jared knew that Mike would allow him and Misha to hide out at his house.
“Mike? Your best and oldest friend, Mike?”
“Yeah. Should things go to hell and neither of us is working, we hide out at Mike’s place. His housemate sounds like he’d be fine with it,” Jared said with a shrug, not sounding all that sure even to his own ears. Of course, Jared had never actually met Mike’s housemate, though he was fairly certain his name was Jen or maybe Jenny. Or something to that affect.
“Right…” Misha said, eyeing him suspiciously before they both jumped at the sound of a door banging shut, and the eyed the door to Jared’s room warily. “Think Milo is leaving with Chad’s body, to hide it somewhere?”
“Nah. Chad’s a pre-med student. If anyone’s killed anyone, it’s Chad killing Milo.”
“You do have a point. So… Mike’s?”
“Mikes.”
Part Two
Author :Meh_Forget_It
Beta: Wolfish_Willow
Fandoms: RPS
Warnings: Slash, m/m sexual relations, strong language,
Rating: NC17
Summary: Jared thought moving in to an apartment just off campus with four other guys in his second year of college was an amazing idea. It’s not long before he realises that it really wasn’t. Thankfully he has his insane best friend to keep him grounded and his childhood friend who lives in another apartment… and whose housemate is hot.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anyone, given they’re real people… And as of April 2010, owning people is illegal in Britain. Shame. So this didn’t/isn’t/won’t happen. Again, shame.
Pairing: Jared/Jensen, slight Mike/Misha
Characters: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Michael Rosenbaum, Tom Welling, Chad Michael Murray, Richard Speight Jnr, Christian Kane, Danneel Harris, Genevieve Cortese, Mark Sheppard…
Status: Complete
Word Count: 2,152 words (this part)
Masterpost
Note One
Jared, second year student and all around, annoyingly optimistic, Literature student (meaning, admittedly, that he spent a majority of his time with his nose in books… or head in the clouds) had thought that living in an apartment with four other guys would be awesome. It was just off of campus, the rent was reasonable, it was in a decent part of town and best of all, they all got their own rooms. No more getting back from the library to find a sock on the doorknob. Not that that had happened all that often.
Still, as the first year of college reached an end, he and his roommate, Misha, had decided to see if they could find somewhere to live in their second year. And they had found the apartment they now lived in. However, before they finalised anything, they had had to decide and agree on whom they would also be living with. And that was clearly where they made the mistake.
Jared had brought in his two friends, Chad and Jason. The former of which had been close friend of Jared’s since their High School years, and the latter being someone he had shared most of his freshman classes with and was doing the same major as. Misha had also taken some classes with Jason, and brought in Milo, whom he was doing the same major as.
They got on. And so they signed the lease and then went home for summer, all happy that they had somewhere to live the next year. Of course, that’s pretty much where the happiness clearly ended. Turns out that he and Misha got along and could live with one another reasonably well. The other three?
It had taken three weeks of living together before someone clearly snapped, but the proof that it had happened was now apparent. And stuck to a light-switch.
The note that Jared was now looking at was clearly proof to back up all the theories that being friends was easy until you had to actually live with them. Or that Misha’s paranoid ramblings about global warming and appliances striking back - that one time they had some dodgy weed - wasn’t quite so paranoid or insane.
Jared glanced at the bright yellow post it note and then blinked slowly. He wasn’t entirely sure who had written it, though it wasn’t Misha’s handwriting, so he could cross him off the list. However, he had classes to get to, and so he really didn’t have the time to ponder on it. Which was probably not the best thing to do. But really, he didn’t have time for this kind of thing.
So he grabbed his bag, turned away from the baffling note left in the main room of the apartment under the light-switch, and walked out of the apartment, making sure to close the door quietly so he didn’t wake up anyone that may have still been asleep.
Chad. That was the first thing that came to Jared’s mind when he got back from his classes for the day and found another note left under the first one. It was Chad’s handwriting and it was just… Chad.
Sighing, he shook his head and then noticed Misha standing by the door to the kitchen, nibbling on his lower lip.
“The shit’s going to hit the fan, isn’t it?” Misha asked when he saw Jared looking at him. Jared snorted mirthlessly and then shook his head.
“No idea. Maybe this is a one time thing?” And there was Jared’s undying optimism cropping up. Though judging by the look on Misha’s face, he clearly thought it was just Jared showing that he was actually rather stupid.
“Yes. Possibly. It is worrying that the author of the first note seems to feel the need to give a voice to the inanimate electrical devices of the world. I should study them,” Misha muttered, and Jared grinned at him before he shook his head. Misha? Misha was currently planning on doing a psychology major.
The ‘currently’ was added in there because, by Jared’s last count, Misha had changed his major seven times. Though the psychology choice seemed to be lasting the longest. Jared was beginning to think that maybe this time he would actually stick with it.
“You think that’s a good idea? Because even from the note, I can tell that whoever wrote it wasn’t in a very hospitable mood,” Jared pointed out lightly as he walked past Misha into the kitchen, having dumped his bag on the sofa as he passed it.
“You do have a point. I think we should go out and get very drunk tonight. I can never sleep when I’m stuck with a foreboding feeling in my stomach. Alcohol helps numb those types of feelings,” Misha commented as he hopped up to sit on the counter. “Sex also helps.”
Jared, having spent a year with Misha, was completely used to these sorts of offhand comments and thus only choked a little on the water he’d just sipped. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he raised an eyebrow at the other guy.
“I think alcohol might help. You’re right. Drinking. We should go drinking. I don’t have classes or work in the morning. You?” Jared asked, leaning against the side and watching as Misha seemed to watch something only he could see.
“Nope, no classes and I still have yet to find a job. Though, the last place I applied to is looking promising.”
“Cool. Let me have a shower and get ready, then we can leave about seven? We inviting the others?”
“I don’t really feel the need to spend the night in the ER this early into the semester. Maybe we should just sneak out,” Misha commented lightly, jumping off the counter and walking to the door.
“Good point,” Jared conceded, and they both left the kitchen and walked to their separate rooms. Jared hoped that Misha was right and the alcohol would rid him of the feeling of foreboding he was currently left with.
Note Two
Jared jerked awake when the door to his bedroom was quickly opened and then shut again. Groggily, Jared pushed himself up to sit in his bed and saw a wide-eyed Misha leaning against his door.
“Meesh?”
“Shh! The shit has hit the fan,” Misha whispered, silently and quickly walking from the door to sit on the bed next to Jared.
That was one thing that made people wonder about their friendship actually. Their complete lack of regard for personal space. Neither one had a problem with randomly hugging the other, or, as they were now, sharing a bed with the other. Regardless of their state of dress.
“What’s happened?” Jared asked, glancing at his door warily. It had been a little over a week since the first and only two notes had been left behind, and though things had felt a little strained in the apartment for a few days after, eventually things got back to normal again. So Jared had put the notes to the back of his mind and Misha had conceded that for once, Jared’s optimism may have not led them wrong.
Clearly, both were stupid.
“There was a new note left on Chad’s door,” Misha whispered, handing Jared the note he had managed to grab before he fled into Jared’s room. Jared read it and snickered, before handing it back to Misha. “Yeah, I thought it was funny too, as did Jason and Milo. Chad though? Apparently he brought someone back with him last night, and found the note on his door then.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah. So Chad is now angry at Milo for cockblocking him, accusing him of being jealous. Which Milo didn’t appreciate. I felt it wise to hide out in here once Jason escaped to his job,” Misha muttered, and Jared nodded, glancing at his alarm clock and seeing that it was only six in the morning, meaning Jason would be three hours early for work. Clearly he was dedicated to his job at the library.
“How long will we have to hide in here? I have my own job to get to,” Jared whispered after they had both sat in silence for a good ten minutes. Misha shrugged and looked at him.
“Can I come with you?”
“Sure, why not. I’ll even try and sneak you free coffee,” Jared said with a wide grin, getting a wider one in return from Misha.
“See, this is why we are friends. You pay me with coffee. That’s how friendships are formed. What time do you start?”
“Eight.”
“Right. So we hide in here for the next hour, then get ready to leave. Then we sneak out and hope to not be caught in any crossfire. Do I still have clothes in here?”
“Yeah, second drawer down,” Jared said with a nod to his chest of drawers in his room, not even blinking at another reason people raised eyebrows at their relationship. Even Mike had questioned him on it once, and he’d never actually met Misha.
“Good. Jared…” Misha started as he lay back in Jared’s bed, hands resting on his stomach. Jared moved to lie next to Misha on his side and looked at him questioningly.
“Hmm?”
“We need a plan.”
“A plan?” Jared asked, wondering where Misha was actually going to go with this. With Misha, it truly could have been anywhere.
“We need a plan for what to do when things get really bad. Because, as much as I love your optimism, I think it’s gonna get a lot worse, and not better,” Misha said bluntly, and Jared had to agree with him on that one. Even his optimistic view on life could see that.
“Like a fallout plan?”
“Exactly. So… any ideas. Because I don’t have any. At all,” Misha admitted with a wide-eyed grin. Jared snickered and shook his head, before frowning as a thought struck him.
“Actually… I might.”
“Oh? Share with the class, Jared,” Misha told him, shifting to root through Jared’s bedside table drawer, and then moving to lie back on his back He handed one of the Twizzlers he’d grabbed to Jared and chewed on the other one, looking at him steadily.
“Well, two. I’ve got two ideas. The first one, our jobs. I generally work in the mornings, and some afternoons. You always work nights. So, I figure we can hide out at either ones work place,” Jared stated, chewing on a piece of candy as he looked to Misha for his thoughts on the idea.
“Okay… That’s possibly a good idea. Though, you’re kind of like a huge puppy. You gonna fit in with my place of work?” Misha asked him with a wicked grin, bright blue eyes gleaming with mischief as he watched Jared cough and then shift.
“Sure. Why not?”
“Uh huh. Fine, I’ll agree to this, but you have to wear a collar for the first week at least. I don’t want to be responsible for you being molested by some scary dom.”
“I’m six, five,” Jared deadpanned, and Misha actually snorted and looked at him, completely unimpressed. “Fine. I’ll agree to the plan.”
“Good little Sub,” Misha said, shifting to awkwardly pat Jared on the head, before he shifted to get comfy again and looked at Jared seriously once more. “So what’s your other plan?”
“Mike.” Mike was Jared’s friend from back in San Antonio, Texas. He was four years older than Jared and was, admittedly, the main reason for Jared having chosen to go to San Francisco for college. Though he denied it when his mother had asked him if that had been the case. Still, Mike and Jared had been friends since Jared was five, and Jared knew that Mike would allow him and Misha to hide out at his house.
“Mike? Your best and oldest friend, Mike?”
“Yeah. Should things go to hell and neither of us is working, we hide out at Mike’s place. His housemate sounds like he’d be fine with it,” Jared said with a shrug, not sounding all that sure even to his own ears. Of course, Jared had never actually met Mike’s housemate, though he was fairly certain his name was Jen or maybe Jenny. Or something to that affect.
“Right…” Misha said, eyeing him suspiciously before they both jumped at the sound of a door banging shut, and the eyed the door to Jared’s room warily. “Think Milo is leaving with Chad’s body, to hide it somewhere?”
“Nah. Chad’s a pre-med student. If anyone’s killed anyone, it’s Chad killing Milo.”
“You do have a point. So… Mike’s?”
“Mikes.”
Part Two