Stars Fall In (Jared Padalecki/Jensen Ackles), AU - Part Three

[melungeoned]

He turns into Jensen’s driveway and slams on the brakes when he sees Jacob’s truck.

“Fuck,” he breathes, terrified tears burning in his eyes. Jacob’s home. He’s going to be in there. Jared’s gonna have to go through him to get to Jensen. He closes his eyes and rests his forehead on the steering wheel, taking a few measured breaths to try and calm down.

He always expected this, always pictured it playing out just like this. Always knew it wasn’t gonna be easy. This is just part of the plan that he always knew would happen. Just deal with it.

He turns off the truck and climbs out of it, letting the door close quiet behind him. Maybe he can put off a confrontation long enough to--

Just long enough.

The front door’s unlocked like it always is, and it squeaks when Jared pushes it open. He’s so tense it hurts to move as he slips inside, leaving the door ajar instead of closing it back all the way. It occurs to him only now that he should have brought something in with him, something to protect himself, something to intimidate with. He’s got nothing. Even left the keys in the car.

He’s a goddamn idiot.

Jensen’s mama’s at work at the library. Her little Civic was gone from the driveway, and he can smell the weak flower scent of her perfume. He thinks sometimes that he hates her almost as much as he hates Jacob, hates her fear, her cowardice, her failure to ever, ever protect her son from that monster. Jared’s dreamt of her before, of Mary Anne Ackles sitting in her favorite chair in the livingroom, the pale yellow one near the window, where her bird feeders are. In the dreams she’s always sitting there with no bones in her body, a spineless husk of a once-beautiful woman, oblivious to Jensen’s cries.

She never tries to stop Jacob, never goes into Jensen’s room to comfort him afterwards. She just makes sure she has his lunch packed the next morning, makes sure he has clean socks, makes sure he gets a haircut every few months. Like it makes up for it. Like that’s what being a mama is.

He’s glad she’s not going to get to say goodbye to him, that she’s going to feel guilty for the rest of her life that she wasn’t the one to put a stop to all of this.

But that’s always been Jared’s role in this, the one he took up years ago. That is the natural ending to this story.

The carpet muffles the sound of his trek to the hallway, to Jensen’s room. He can count on two hands the number of times he’s been inside his room his entire life. Jensen’s always preferred Jared’s house, Jared’s room, the haven they made out in the shed, the woods behind their houses. Anywhere. Anywhere but here.

Jensen’s door is cracked open and Jared isn’t breathing when he pushes it open wide enough to step inside.

He closes the door behind him and turns to face the room and Jensen is wide awake, sitting on his bed and his eyes are huge, staring right at Jared like he’s a ghost.

“Jay?” He sounds like he’s about to cry, like he can barely breathe enough to say anything at all. Jensen’s body is wound as tight as a guitar string, his hands gripping the blankets beside him. “What are you doing? What--”

Jared puts a finger to his mouth, his eyes begging Jensen not to say anything else. He crosses the room and kneels down in front of him, grabbing those hands in his own again, just like last night. Just like he will forever, from here on out.

“Jen, listen to me,” he says as soft as he can, barely loud enough to be heard. Jensen leans forward to hear him, tears standing in his eyes already. “Get up. Get some clothes packed. Just a few things, just what you need. Put your shoes on. Don’t say anything else. And be as quiet as you can. Okay?”

Jensen nods, a lump caught in his throat that he can’t seem to swallow past. He blinks a few times, his eyes glassy and that living green Jared loves so much under the swollen, raised skin. Jared stands up to let Jensen do the same, and he goes to stand guard at the door while Jensen packs.

He empties his school bag just like Jared had and stuffs an almost identical bunch of clothes in. Jared watches him, chewing nervously on the inside of his mouth, breaking skin as he does and licking at the blood. His mind flies over everything Jensen owns, over all his shirts and hoodies and comic books. He’s going to miss all of Jensen’s left-behind shirts, even the plain, faded black ones, going to miss seeing them on him.

He goes to Jensen’s clothes and roots around through the pile of clothes on the floor inside of it, grabbing that denim jacket, folding it up and handing it over to Jensen who takes it, looking a little bewildered and wondering but he stuffs it into his bag. He changes out of his sweatpants and into a pair of jeans, and Jared can’t keep his eyes off the high, round swell of his butt as it disappears under denim.

Jensen stuffs his feet into tennis shoes and hoists the bag onto his shoulder, not looking around to see if he missed anything, not getting any books or videos or anything. He looks up at Jared, worried and expectant and ready, and Jared suddenly can’t move.

A door crashes open down the hall.

Jensen crouches immediately, self-preservation kicking in and Jared goes to him, his heart in his throat, lifts him back to his feet.

“Jen, listen to me. Listen.” He pushes Jensen’s hair back from his face and forces him to meet his eyes. “Go on outside. Get in my truck. Roll up the windows and lock the doors. You hear me?”

Jensen nods but his eyes are wild, searching Jared’s face like he doesn’t recognize him, like he’s lost. Jared kisses him, hungry and fast and he takes a deep breath, not prepared for this moment at all but this is what his whole life has been heading towards. This is it. Right now.

He pulls the door open and steps into the hallway and finds himself face-to-face with Jacob Allen Ackles. His hair is matted from sleep, his eyes swollen with it, but he looks murderous. Awake enough to focus immediately on Jared.

“What are you doin’ in my house? Disgusting piece of shit!” Jacob grabs the front of Jared’s shirt and yanks him to him, the rotting-animal smell of his breath almost making Jared gag.

“Jensen, now! Go!” He watches Jacob’s eyes fly to where Jensen is behind Jared, bag clutched in his hands. Jared feels Jensen hesitate for a second and he holds his breath, waits for him to move. He closes his eyes in relief when he does, when he feels Jensen brush his back as he flies past him, when he hears him rushing through the house to the front door where it’s still cracked, waiting for him.

“Oh, no, you don’t. Oh, no, you don’t, boy.” Jacob pushes Jared back away from him to go after Jensen but Jared moves back to him, getting right in his path, their eyes locking and this time, Jared is ready.

“You ain’t gonna touch him. Not now, not ever again. It’s over.”

Jacob sneers, head jerking back on his neck in surprise. “What’d you say to me, faggot? You tellin’ me what to do? Tellin’ me how to raise my kid? Tellin’ me what to do in my own house?”

“I’m telling you what you’re not going to do to my best friend. To the person I love.” Jared’s voice is shaking in the stale air between them but it doesn’t break. He watches Jacob’s fist rear back but it all happens in slow motion, like a movie. He feels it connect with his mouth, feels the bright, hot wash of pain spread over his jaw, feels the skin of his mouth break open immediately, blood rushing eagerly to the surface.

“Shut yer fag mouth! Yer disgusting, you fuckin’ dirty queer. Goin’ straight to hell, the both of you. I’m gonna beat it right out of you, gonna beat the faggot right out of you, then I’m gonna do it to him. Again. And you ain’t gonna stop me.” Jacob shoves him and, this time, Jared goes. Slams right into the wall while his head spins. He forces his eyes to focus, forces himself to ignore the pain, to not worry about broken bones and the blood dripping down his chin.

He curls his hand into a fist, keeps his thumb on the outside just like Uncle Bobby Joe taught him so it doesn’t get broken as he rears back and lets go with all the strength in him, letting his fist connect with Jacob’s nose, just like he did with Brad Shelby that first time. Breaks Jensen’s daddy’s nose just the same way.

Jacob stumbles back, clutching his face like he’s not used to being hit back. Jared doesn’t wait for a reaction, doesn’t wait for another hit. He slips right past Jacob and just runs.

He bolts out the door and pulls it shut behind him and leaps off the side of the porch. He hears the door opening behind him, hears Jacob Ackles screaming after him and it feels like that night all over again, like he’s being chased by a monster, by wolves. But it’s different this time.

This time, the sun’s out. This time, Jared’s the one with the plan. This time, he’s gonna win.

He can see Jensen in the truck when he gets closer to it, can see the honey-bright of his hair and his beautiful, broken face. He hears the rumble of the engine from where Jensen’s already got her started and he watches when Jensen reaches across the seat and yanks the lock up just in time for Jared to rip the door open.

He pulls the door closed and slams his palm down on the lock just as Jacob’s fist comes down on the window, rattling it and making Jensen cry out next to him but it doesn’t break.

“I’ll kill you both. I’m gonna kill you both, you fuckin’ faggots!” Fists fall like hail on the window and Jared throws the truck into drive and slams his foot down on the gas, sending her lurching forward. He yanks the wheel to the left and starts to get her turned around, heading for the road.

His mama comes running out of her house just as he drives past, and he’ll never forget how she looks: hair sticking up in stubborn dark curls from when she’d fallen asleep with hairspray in it, eyeliner smudged around her eyes, wearing just a big t-shirt, her legs scrawny and vulnerable as she runs down the porch steps and toward the truck. He can’t hear her words, can’t hear what she’s saying but she’s yelling, her voice is high, a panicked screech that overpowers Jacob’s hateful bark.

Jensen is about to lose it beside him, about to pass out from fear, his entire body shaking hard enough for Jared to see it out of the corner of his eyes. He reaches over to grab one of Jensen’s hands, gripping it tight in his own as he roars out of the space between their yards and out onto the road, not daring to look back in the rearview.

He goes about sixty down the lifelong-familiar streets of Calvary, ignoring all posted speed limit signs, ignoring everything but the signs for the interstate and the way his thumb strokes over Jensen’s knuckles.

He takes the right onto I-40 East and guns it onto the exit and merges with traffic, the fear leaving his body in tiny bursts of relief. His heart is still pounding, his eyes impossibly wide and on the lookout for police cars, for Jacob’s good ol’ boy pals who would come after them, run them off the road and tumbling over a hill without thinking twice.

The truck rumbles loud, the bench seat squeaking with every pothole but the engine doesn’t miss, doesn’t hesitate. Like she’s been waiting for this day just as long as Jared has.

Jensen doesn’t move beside him until they cross into Anderson County. He eases his grip on Jared’s hand and just turns to stare at him, mouth parted for a long moment before he speaks.

“Where are we goin’?”

“Asheville.” Jared glances over at him, catches his eyes and tries to give him a smile before he has to look back at the road. “My Aunt Kelly lives there with her girlfriend. You remember them?”

Jensen nods and gives Jared’s hand a squeeze, a movement so comforting that Jared’s throat tightens. “They always bring potato casserole on the 4th of July.”

“Mm-hm. That’s them. Anyway, Uncle Bobby Joe called her yesterday. They’re gonna let us stay with them for. For awhile. Until we figure out what we wanna do.” He sounds so sure of himself, like this is a real plan, like he’s strong enough to take care of them both. Like he isn’t terrified.

Jensen doesn’t say anything for a long time. Jared can see him on the edge of his vision, can feel the weight of thoughts between them and it goes on for so long that Jared can’t stand it, has to look over.

Jensen’s crying, tears spilling down his cheeks but his cheeks are apple-round with a smile. He crawls across the seat and wraps his arms around Jared’s neck, letting his face bury in against it. Jared reaches up and rests a hand on Jensen’s head, keeps him tucked right where he is. He feels the warm spill of tears and the dampness of Jensen’s breath on his skin. He tips his head to the side and kisses the top of Jensen’s head, his fingers stroking through his hair, nails running over his scalp.

Jared’s hands are still shaking but his eyes are focused straight ahead, determination making his focus sharp, clearing his mind. This could have gone so wrong today, could have ended badly. He might not have succeeded. Could just as easily be sitting at home, clutching his license and staring out the window at that damn house, Jensen’s prison, wondering where he went wrong.

But he’s not. And Jensen’s here, right here. Soft and still small, smelling of salty tears and the earthy tang of unwashed skin, his fingers flexing and clutching at Jared’s shirt. Alive and okay and here.

“Been plannin’ this for years, Jen. Had to get this truck runnin’ because I had to get you out of there. Been savin’ money for us. Got my license this morning and came straight back to get you. I just. I just always known this was what we was gonna do. Just you and me.”

It’s quiet between them again but it’s comfortable this time. The sun is hotter than the hinges of hell overhead, and they roll down the windows to let the wind flood in. But they come back together, curled around each other as Jared guns it down the highway, headed east and away from that town that was gonna just swallow them up, gonna break every bone in their back until they just couldn’t leave.

“Thank you,” Jensen says finally, all the other words he can’t find tucked into those two. Jared tightens his arm around him and grins, grins so hard it splits his lip all over again and damn, it’s starting to hurt like a bitch. But right now, he doesn’t give a flying fuck.

They stop for lunch outside of Knoxville, get a bag of burgers and fries from Central Park and giant cups of soda and stop in an abandoned shopping center parking lot, parking under a huge shady tree and climbing into the bed of the truck to eat.

Jared wolfs down two burgers and Jensen eats one and a whole thing of fries, dipping them in ranch dressing and licking grease off his fingers. The salt stings Jared’s lip so he guzzles down half his drink and burps loud enough for it to echo off all the empty buildings around them. Jensen laughs and tucks all their food off to one side and they both take off their shoes and stretch out in the relative shade of the unkempt tree in front of them.

Jensen wraps himself around Jared and doesn’t waste any time in pressing his warm mouth to Jared’s. They make out for a good half hour, hands running all over each other, indulgent and eager with their newfound freedom. Jensen tenders Jared’s bottom lip in his mouth, sucking at the broken skin, silently apologizing for it.

“Bobby Joe told me Asheville’s real cool. That, um. That they have a ton of gay people and nobody even looks twice when two guys walk down the street holding hands.” Jared’s blushing a little as he gives his little speech, and he glances up to find Jensen smiling at him in what can only be called adoration.

“That sounds perfect.” Jensen looks drunk, like nothing could be better than this, than them full on cheap fast food, melting in the July heat in the back of Jared’s rusty old truck, headed away from Calvary. Jared grins and they meet in the middle for another kiss, and then another.

“We should go,” Jared mumbles against Jensen’s mouth, a little apologetic and a lot hesitant to break this up. “It’s about two hours to Asheville. And you can sleep on the way.”

Jensen shakes his head, sneaking in one more kiss before he sits up. “I don’t wanna miss a second of this.”

They close the bags of food up tight and climb back into the cabin of the truck, Jensen stretched out long across the bench with his head pillowed in Jared’s lap, his bare feet hanging out the open window. Their clasped hands rest on Jensen’s chest and they ramble back onto the highway, traffic more sparse now in the middle of the day.

It’s the hottest part of the day in the middle of summer with not a single cloud to be seen. The sun spreads out over the windshield and seeps in under the glass, warming even the tiny hairs on his fingers and the quiet boy curled up against him.

Jared looks down, taking a split-second but clinically accurate inventory of Jensen’s injuries and cataloging it away with every other aftermath of a beating that he’s witnessed over the years.

He’s terrified. He’s terrified that they’re going to get caught, get found. Get dragged back to Cavalry. That Jensen will be locked up in that house until he stops fighting, until there’s nothing left in him to fight with. He’s terrified that Aunt Kelly won’t really want them to stay, that he’ll run out of money. He’s scared that maybe he won’t graduate. That Jensen won’t. That Jensen will change his mind in the middle of the night and leave, run away back home, back to the only thing he’s ever really known.

“What’re you thinkin’bout?”

Jared blinks back into reality and casts his eyes down to meet Jensen’s there in his lap. The gold of the sun is spread gold and forever across his face, absolutely lighting him up, every shade of green in his eyes and every variation of purple-black and red on his beautiful face. Jared can’t help but smile as he looks back up at the road.

“Your ass.”

He tenses for the slap that Jensen gives him on the side of his thigh, but it’s gentle and partnered with a pretty flush of Jensen’s already warm cheeks.

“Ha-ha. Seriously, Jay. I know that look. Talk to me?”

Jared dares another glance down and meets Jensen’s eyes again and somehow, every single worry on his mental list just washes away, easy as you please. Because Jensen’s safe. And it really is just that simple. Every single step he took to make sure they got here, to make sure he got Jensen here, every single second of it was worth it.

“Nothin’, Jen. Promise. Just wanna make you happy.”

He starts at Jensen’s forehead and strokes up over that sun-warmed skin and into his hair, pushing it back in slow, tender drags until Jensen relaxes against him.

“Always made me happy,” Jensen sighs, his eyelashes dragging against the soft inside of Jared’s wrist as Jensen’s eyes fall closed. Jared chews on his grin until he tastes the sweet metallic tang of blood on his tongue and he sinks back against the rickety bench seat, letting his eyes rest on the horizon, even his bones focused on going west, on going away.

They’re quiet, the radio on the country station low under the rush of the wind. After about an hour, after they’ve stopped and gotten more gas and gotten back out onto the road again, Jensen’s voice breaks the silence.

“I thought he was finally gonna kill me. He’s never done what he did yesterday. That night. He. He really could’ve killed me. I don’t know what stopped him. Why he didn’t.” He reaches up to touch his neck, tracing over the bruised remains of handprints there, his eyes closed. Jared looks down at him, the threat of tears hovering behind his eyes. He rubs Jensen’s chest in slow circles, soothing the tension still pent up there. He stays quiet, lets Jensen think, lets him get this out. Because he knows him, knows there’s still more.

“I just thought about you, Jay. Just thought about the day we had. How it felt when you finally kissed me. After all the years I’ve dreamed about you doin’ just that. Thought about the way you always touch me, even when you was datin’ Diana. Thought about your hands and how good they always felt, even when you was touchin’ me and I just hurt all over, hurt so bad. It always felt good when it was you.

“And I just. I just knew I couldn’t let myself die, because I just now got you. Because you just finally looked at me like I always wanted you to and there’s so much we ain’t done yet. So many things I want to do and things I need to say to you. Like. Like how I love you back. How I always loved you back. Loved you more than anybody else in the whole world.”

Tears slip down Jared’s cheeks unnoticed and he hates how much he cries around Jensen, because of Jensen. He always has, and nobody else ever sees it. Always talks about what a tough boy he is, how strong. He’s raw inside for Jensen, always too tender when it comes to him. He pulls Jensen’s hand up to his mouth and presses a dozen kisses to it, on his fingers and his palm and his knuckles and all over the back and down to his skinny-boy wrist. He nuzzles it with his face and Jensen’s spreads his fingers out and runs them over Jared’s now-scratchy cheeks, over his kissing lips until they both calm down, until all the words spend out between them through their skin.

An empty church parking lot reveals itself seemingly out of nowhere to Jared’s right, surrounded by nothing but trees. He licks his lips as he flips on his signal and eases off the highway, his cheeks pinking a little but he doesn’t look at Jensen, doesn’t meet those eyes that are big with questions and staring straight at him.

When he kills the engine it seems like the entire world falls quiet, settles around them like blankets. Jared closes his eyes for a single second, just long enough to take a breath before he turns to Jensen, all of his movements slow and deliberate and so careful (he learned too long ago how careful to be with him) as he cups Jensen’s cheeks and melts their mouths together.

Jensen grapples for him then, fluttering fingers finding Jared’s shirt to twist and hold onto as he submits, parts his lips for Jared’s tongue and spreads his legs for the rest of him.

Jared’s hand tumbles through blond and gold and honey to find the back of Jensen’s head so he can cradle it as he turns them completely, lowering Jensen down to spread him out on the seat. He pulls back and braces himself up over Jensen to look down at him, to take in the sight of his hard nipples under second-hand cotton, his eyelashes dancing in soft falls as he looks right back at Jared.

He spreads one of his hands over Jensen’s stomach as he shifts lower, his butt hitting the driver’s side door just as his fingers span Jensen’s little belly. Jensen’s breath is hot and low and loud in the air around them and Jared curls his fingers to catch the shirt up in them, to pull it up and away and reveal the pale gold expanse of skin, the little secret hiding place of Jensen’s belly button.

A car ambles by down the road the second Jared slides his hands down to Jensen’s waist, when he pulls him up into a gentle arch to offer Jensen’s body up to himself. He kisses his belly tongue-first, lips coming down as almost an afterthought to suck a line of kisses from ribs to navel.

Jensen’s dick is straining against his jeans, pushing up desperate and instinctively needing Jared’s mouth. He runs his thumbs up along entire side of his belly button as he slips his tongue down inside of it, licking around until he knows how he tastes there, too.

“Can I have you later?” His voice is a hush over skin, thumbs spreading and rubbing over the knots of Jensen’s hipbones on his skinny waist. Jensen arches up even more, his ass coming up off the seat and Jared rains worship down on him, licking and kissing his stomach until it’s shining wet with his spit. “Really have you? Take my time with you? Please, Jen?”

Jensen is swallowing hard over and over again, his eyes squeezed shut tight but his mouth is parted and an illegal shade of pink that matches his cheeks, that matches the color now working its way down his body until he’s blushing practically everywhere. He nods though, fast and frantic and he drops his hands into the wilds of Jared’s hair, holding on as tight as he’ll let himself.

Jared smiles, pressing one last kiss to Jensen’s stomach before his fingers close in on the button of his jeans, flipping it open in under a second before he’s working the well-worn zipper down just enough so the jeans are loose on those little hips and ready to come off.

He smoothes them down right along with Jensen’s briefs, hands running hungry over the tight swell of his ass. Jensen’s dick falls heavy against his belly, completely hard and the tip that same hungry pink as his mouth. His shirt is tugged up just enough to show off one hard little nipple, and Jared runs his hand up Jensen’s body to pull and rub at it, just wanting to feel him arch up even higher.

“Jesus, Jen, look at you,” he whispers, eyes running everywhere, caught up in a sensory overload, from the pink-green-gold of Jensen’s body to the earth and salt smell of him to the rose-petal soft of his skin to the sweet rosary of sounds leaving his mouth.

He curls down then and wraps his lips around just the head of Jensen’s dick, his mouth flooding with saliva. Jensen gasps so hard it makes them both jump, his hands tightening in a painful clutch at Jared’s hair.

“Jay! JayJayJayJay.” Jensen’s mindless now, babbling with all the breath left in him, the whites of his eyes peeking through under a rush of lashes. Jared moans for it, for how beautiful Jensen is just like this, for how good his unwashed, virgin dick tastes, for how much this feels like everything he’s ever wanted.

He takes more dick into his mouth, trying to remember everything important: a lot of spit and no teeth and just breathe, those same words he’d recited to Diana what seems like years ago now. Jensen is petting him now, little whimpers leaving his mouth every time he lifts his hips to rut at Jared’s mouth. Jared touches him right back, runs soothing fingers over Jensen’s stomach and harder over his nipples while Jensen fucks his mouth, the movements shallow and stuttering, the hard ridge of Jensen’s dick catching on his lips every pull out.

Jared runs a hand down past his dick, rubbing at his balls but not wasting any time to get to what he really wants. His forefinger is dry and calloused and stained with grease but Jensen cries out when it rubs over his asshole for the first time, when it bumps over all the tight, tiny wrinkles there.

“Jay,” Jensen gasps, his voice wrecked and stuttering as he pulls pleadingly on Jared’s hair. “D-do it. Please, just a little bit. Just gimme a little bit. Please.”

Jared is breathing hard all over the light brown nest of hair around Jensen’s dick, throat working to swallow the gush of slick Jensen just squeezed out over his tongue. Spit is dripping out of his mouth and all over Jensen’s balls, and Jared runs his finger through it, getting it just wet enough that he knows he won’t hurt Jensen.

The first little push in is harder than he expects, Jensen tighter than he could have ever, ever imagined. He rubs his thumb around the rim, trying to relax it looser, his mind spinning with all the things he’s trying to do here.

“Just a little more, Jay, just a little more. God, I’m. I’m.”

Jared whines in the back of his throat as he gives another push, his finger slipping inside of Jensen to the second knuckle. He shoves his hips down hard against the seat, thrusting down hard because he can imagine how that would feel around his dick, how fucking good Jensen would feel.

Jensen wraps a hand around the base of his dick, the part that Jared’s mouth isn’t talented enough yet to take and he jacks himself hard, desperate, still thrusting up into Jared’s mouth. Jared just lets him, just forces his eyes to stay open so he can watch Jensen as he starts to shake apart, as he starts to pump his dick and spill hot into Jared’s mouth.

He wiggles his finger inside of Jensen, fucks him with it as much as he’ll let himself, pushing it in all the way as Jensen contracts around him, milking at him as much as he can, little hole clutching, greedy.

Jared swallows over and over, finally moving his mouth again when he stops focusing on Jensen’s tempting little asshole, drawing out the harsh, sobbing pleas that Jensen just can’t seem to stop making. He pulls off only when Jensen makes him, when he pushes at Jared’s head with a whine and tries to shyly twist his hips away.

Jared licks his puffy lips as he examines the mess he’s made of Jensen, eyes zeroing in on his still-twitching hole. He leans down then, trying to push Jensen’s legs apart as wide as he can while he’s still got his jeans around his knees so he can lick out and taste him, prodding curiously with the tip of his tongue.

Jensen gasps, sounding almost surprised before it settles into a breathless, tired little laugh.

“Guess I know what you want,” he murmurs, a heavy hand petting through Jared’s hair as he tries to give him more room, letting Jared get as much of a taste as he wants.

“Later.” It’s barely a grunt, for him more than Jensen but it’s a promise. He presses in tighter between Jensen’s trapped thighs so he can get his lips around that hole, getting in one good, sloppy kiss and a hard suck before he pulls back, sitting up on his haunches and panting down at Jensen spread out below him.

“Let me make it better.” Jensen’s hands are working at Jared’s pants, drawing attention to the fact that Jared is so hard that it brings tears to his eyes the second he feels the firm press of Jensen’s fingers. He just watches as Jensen gets his pants open and pulls them down, watches his face with a dark, lustful pride as Jensen takes in the sight of Jared’s dick that’s so hard it’s dripping, swaying heavy and tipped toward Jensen’s hovering hand.

“Gonna have to work to get that in me,” Jensen says, his voice so soft that Jared barely hears him over the sound of his own panting but he growls when he does, his hand moving back between Jensen’s still spread legs, fingers moving right up against his ass again.

Jensen spits in his hand as quiet and inconspicuous as he can and wraps it around Jared’s dick, giving him one good stroke down and he actually smiles when Jared thrusts his hips into that grip.

“Can I,” Jared gasps, his dick so hard he’s seeing spots in his vision and he knows that it’s going to be an embarrassingly short amount of time before he comes all over Jensen’s pretty face. “Can I finger you while you. Y-you do this?”

Jensen answers by blushing even more, shifting around on the seat to make his jeans slide down to his ankles. Jared kneads at the inside of one of his thighs before he wets his fingers in his mouth, pressing against Jensen’s asshole with his middle and ring fingers just as Jensen strains up to get both fists around Jared’s dick.

Jared moans, low and rumbling in his chest as he lets his head fall back, hips straining forward as he starts to fuck Jensen’s hands like he means it, balls slapping against his wrist, everything about his grip perfect, so fucking good.

He tips his fingers forward and nudges at that hole with both of them, pushing and pushing and not stopping until it just gives, petals open around the tips of them and lets them into the painfully tight clutch of heat Jensen keeps inside of him.

Jensen whines, pushing down onto those fingers until they both slip down to the second knuckle.

“Fuck yeah, Jen. Ohmygod.” Jared curls down then, opening his eyes just enough to find Jensen’s mouth so he can kiss him, so he can thrust into that mouth just like he’s fucking his ass and his hands. “Gonna come. I can’t wait any more. I need to.”

He stops kissing him then, their lips just rubbing together as he humps at Jensen’s fists, fucking at them hard as he starts to come, shooting thick and hot all over Jensen’s stomach. He fucks Jensen with his fingers, digs in as deep as he can get until it feels like he’s buried inside of him and nothing has ever felt this good, nothing at all.

He collapses back in his seat, fingers still lodged obsessively inside of Jensen’s ass, his head spinning as he tries to breathe normally. When he comes to again, Jensen is already wiping up the come all over himself with the napkins from Central Park. Jared cracks an eye open and Jensen looks up at him, grinning even as his cheeks flood red.

“Jay, um. Can you get your fingers out of me? I, um. I just feel. I just want my pants back up.” Jensen is busying himself with wadding up the napkins, with looking anywhere but at Jared as he talks. Jared grins lazily and thrusts into Jensen again, apparently hitting something good inside of him because Jensen’s eyes fly open wide, dragging a hot gasp from his lungs.

“Sorry. New obsession.” He gives him one last rub inside, one last little push before he pulls his fingers out, watching with relish as Jensen tries to pull himself together and get his pants back together. Jensen fixes Jared’s pants next, leaning over to press a warm, sweet kiss to Jared’s mouth as he does up the button again.

“I’m obsessed with you being in there, too.” Jensen smiles against his lips, pressing their foreheads together for just a second before he’s back in his seat, the smile never once leaving his face. Jared can’t help that he’s grinning like an absolute fool as he gets the truck started up again and gets back out onto the highway.

Jensen does fall asleep, finally, just as Jared starts through the Smoky Mountains, his arms wrapped around Jared’s right arm, cheek resting in the ditch inside of Jared’s elbow. His arm falls asleep eventually but he doesn’t dare move it, doesn’t want to wake Jensen for anything in the world.

He gets lost in Asheville and has to stop at a gas station to ask for directions. He climbs back in the car, armed with more specific directions to Sawyer Street and an ice-cold bottle of Sundrop for Jensen, the sun still blazing bright above. Jensen looks sleep-soft and groggy, and Jared grins as he leans over to kiss him before handing him the Sundrop.

“Almost there. How you feelin’?”

Jensen grunts and lifts the bottle to his mouth, drinking down a couple of gulps. He hums, sounding a little bit happier, even managing a smile aimed right at Jared’s heart. Jared goes back to see what Jensen tastes like when he’s had pop before he starts up the truck again and eases back out onto the road.

They pull into the driveway not even ten minutes later, pulling in right beside an Accord that’s only a couple years old. The house is small but well-kept, a pretty garden bubbling over with flowers of all kinds of colors, a big old dog hanging out on the front porch when they make it up there, armed with their bags and looking like the runaways they are.

Jared rings the doorbell and listens to its muffled song inside the house. The lock turns inside a few seconds later, and the dog jumps up, seizing the opportunity to go inside an air-conditioned house away from the July heat.

Aunt Kelly smiles out at them as she opens the storm door for them to come inside, and she gasps when she sees Jared’s face.

“That sonuvabitch.” She reaches up and cups Jared’s face without even a hello and he stands still and lets her, head turning this way and that as she examines him with a scowl. “Oh, I’m gonna kill that motherfucker. You just wait until--”

She gasps when she sees Jensen, letting go of Jared like he’s an afterthought. She walks over to him slowly, her hands up to her mouth as she stares at him.

Jensen ducks his head, shoulders pulling in. He clutches his bags in his fists, his voice a quiet mumble. “I’m okay, Aunt Kelly. It’s okay.”

“Sweet boy. Ohmygod. Jared.” She turns to Jared like he can give her some answers, like there’s an explanation for this besides the fact that Jensen’s daddy is a horror of a father, besides the fact that sometimes life is just like this, and Jensen’s life has always just been like this.

“I know,” Jared whispers, his tired eyes burning again with tears but he refuses them this time. He drops his bag and goes to Jensen, wrapping an arm around him just as Aunt Kelly steps in and kisses Jensen’s forehead, the movement of both of them at once making Jensen jump before he relaxes between them.

“It’s alright. You’re safe now. You hear me? That bastard ain’t gonna touch you again. I’ve got a shotgun in my bedroom, and I’m a perfect shot. And Carol works at the courthouse. She knows all kinds of lawyers, if we need ‘em, Jen. So don’t you worry about a thing.” Aunt Kelly shakes her head, her curls moving with her, the wrinkles around her eyes deepening before she sighs.

“Thank you, m’am. I-I mean, Aunt Kelly. Thank you.” Jensen honestly looks relieved, looks even more tired by the minute, the weight of the day crashing down heavy on his shoulders.

“I’m sorry, baby. Lord, I bet you both are exhausted. Listen, go take a shower, you two. Afterwards, I’m gonna take pictures of both of you, head to toe. Especially you, Jen. You never know when you’re gonna need evidence. Jared, y’all’s room is the first one upstairs. Why don’t you take your bags up there, and I’ll show Jensen where the shower is?”

They all head up the stairs, and Jared steps into the bedroom while Jen and Kelly keep going down the hall, toward the bathroom. The room is simple, a full-sized bed covered in Mamaw’s old quilts and the white curtains pushed back to let the sun in and giving a view of the little backyard and the mountains beyond.

He remembers with a start their little shed behind his house, all of the things they left inside of it, lost forever. Their blankets and his CDs and their comic books, gone. Their haven just lost. He drops the bags and sits down on the bed to bring his hands up to his face, fingers pushing in hard against his eyes. He should have remembered. Should have thought of it. Now it’s gone.

“Jay, honey?” Aunt Kelly knocks on the open door before she steps in and makes her way over to him. She sits down next to him on the bed and falls quiet, lets him pull himself together. He looks up at her finally and she gives him a sad smile, her arm falling around his shoulders. “You two have had a long day, huh?”

“Long life,” he mumbles, rubbing at his eyes over and over as she rubs his shoulder, his tense neck. He sniffles and grits his teeth for how young he sounds. “This has been happening since we were little.”

She goes stiff beside him, her hand pausing for a second before starting up again. “How long has he been beating Jensen?”

“For as long as I known him. Jen said he remembers his daddy smackin’ him when he spilled his baby food in his high chair. Since he was little.”

“Sweet boys. God, I’m just.” She shakes her head and Jared closes her eyes when he feels her kiss the side of his head. “Nevermind. Just nevermind. There’s plenty of time to talk about this. Look, let me get some pictures of your face before he gets out of the shower. I’ll take some of him when he gets out.”

Jared lets her position him in the light of the room and closes his eyes when she takes the first few pictures on her digital camera. She makes him open his eyes and look right at the camera when she takes a couple more and he glares at it, glares right at Jacob Ackles, defiant and tiredly victorious. A big ol’ fuck you because they got away. He got Jensen away.

There’s the soft sound of a throat being cleared from the door, and they both look over to see Jensen standing there, a towel wrapped around him like a girl does, his hair dripping wet and plastered to his forehead, leaving him looking small and cold and lost.

Jared jumps up and goes to Jensen’s bag, pulling out a pair of underwear for him and turning his back with Aunt Kelly to let him change into them.

“I’m gonna jump in next. Aunt Kelly’s gonna--”

Jensen’s hand wraps around Jared’s wrist and he stops talking and looks over at him, blinking at the plea in those eyes.

“Just. Can you be in here, please? While. While she.” He looks down, probably ashamed for being so needy but Jared just nods, pulling out all of his courage as he dips down to kiss Jensen on the cheek. He glances over to see if Aunt Kelly is angry about it but she’s just watching them, tears bright in her eyes, a sad smile on her lips.

“I’ll be fast, Jensen. Then you two can relax while I make dinner, okay?”

Jensen nods and takes a deep breath, stepping away from Jared and standing on his own in the middle of the room, his arms at his sides, shoulders drawn in still.

Aunt Kelly just starts, taking photo after photo of the assault to Jensen’s body: both black eyes, the gash on his forehead, his busted, tender mouth, the too-big handprints on his neck, the horrifying sprawl of bruises on his chest and arms and back, some of them front fists, some from boots. The angry oven-eye burn on his arm, his crookedly-healed fingers, the slight misshape of his badly-healed collarbone. The history of Jensen’s life told in scars and bones and blood and skin, in the dull green of his eyes, in the apologetic, downward tip of his head.

She turns the camera off when its all catalogued and she steps back, looking a little lost when she does.

“Y’all can do whatever you want before dinner. We got a hammock in the backyard between those two big oaks that’s perfect for naps. Do y’all like fried chicken?”

Jared breaks some of the tension by laughing, shuffling across the wood floor to wrap his arms around Kelly’s neck. “We’re teenagers. I promise if you ask us if we eat something, the answers’ gonna be ‘yes.’ And lots of it.”

She swats at Jared’s butt as she laughs, shaking her head when she meets his eyes. “Alright, smartass. Go take a shower. You smell like a teenager, too.”

She leaves with that, turning around in the doorway to look at them. “And boys? This is your home, too, you hear me? You do what you want, you help clean, you eat what you want. And just keep it down in here. I don’t care what you do, I just don’t wanna hear it. Got it?”

“Yes’m,” they both mumble, Jared grinning and Jensen blushing up a storm. She winks at them and pulls the door closed behind them, leaving them alone.

“I’m sorry, Jen, but I just.” He turns to him and wraps his arms around him as soon as the door clicks shut, pulling him in tight, his mouth pressed to Jensen’s temple. “God. I’ve just been needin’ to do this for two days.”

Jensen doesn’t say anything back, just wraps his arms around Jared’s waist and holds on, hides against his neck like he always does. They sway there for a long time, in the middle of the bedroom on Jared’s birthday, hundreds of miles from home. But this will be home soon. Jared can feel it.

He lets go just enough to kiss Jensen, just a soft, calming kiss to the pillow of his mouth and he has to pull back because he knows if he doesn’t that he’s just gonna guide Jensen over to the bed and take advantage of the fact that Jensen is safe and mostly naked.

“Gonna go shower. See you in a minute.”

Jensen nods and meets his eyes with a tiny smile, only letting go of Jared when Jared pulls away.

His shower takes a little longer than they usually do because the hot water feels so good on his back, on his shoulders, beating down on top of his head. He scrubs the grime of driving and summertime off his skin and rubs good-smelling shampoo into his hair until it squeaks clean. He brushes his teeth in the shower with the new toothbrush Aunt Kelly had waiting on the sink for him, and he’s so full of love and gratitude by the time that he gets out that he’s gonna cry again. Damnit.

Jensen’s not in the room when he goes back in, so he dresses quick and unpacks their bags, tucking their clothes away in two drawers and shoving the books onto the little bookcase under the window. He sets their pictures up on the dresser, lining them up beside each other carefully. He pulls a pair of socks over his chilly feet and skids gleefully to the door and down the hall.

He’s smiling by the time he jogs down the stairs, an eyebrow raising when he see Aunt Kelly at the counter, beating eggs in a bowl and Jensen sitting on the floor next to the kitchen table, scratching the neck of Aunt Kelly’s dog. He’s got a big Band-Aid on his forehead over the cut there and a bandage over the burn on his arm.

Their eyes meet the second Jensen looks up at him and Jared can’t help but grin. He crosses the room and crouches down next to him, rubbing at one of the dog’s ears.

“She said his name is Macgyver,” Jensen explains, laughing a little when the dog lifts his head at the sound of his name. “They named him that because he was real creative with the ways he managed to always get in the trash can when he was a puppy. Right, Aunt Kelly?”

“Jesus Christ, that dog.” Kelly drops a fork in the sink and turns to grin at them, giving a playful roll of her eyes. “He’ll love havin’ you two around. Don’t blame me when he comes to sleep in your room.”

Jared and Jensen look up at each other at the same time, both of them realizing at the same time that they have a room now, that they have a bed. Jensen’s cheeks pink a little before he looks away and Jared wants to growl with how fucking beautiful he is.

“We’re gonna go find that hammock, I think,” Jared announces, pushing up to his feet again. He reaches down to help Jensen up, letting their fingers lace together.

“Just go out that door there,” she nods over to the sliding glass door that leads out to the backyard as she sprinkles flour on Saran wrap on the counter. “I’ll come find you when dinner’s ready. Oh, Jensen, grab those root beers!”

Jensen gathers the two bottles of root beer waiting for them on the counter and they head outside, the sun mostly obscured by the trees growing up wild and giant in the backyard. They cross the yard to the two big trees growing close together with a pink hammock set up between them with a purple blanket tossed on it.

Jared climbs in first, keeping one socked foot on the grass to keep it steady while Jensen climbs in after him, the root beers held tight against his chest while they settle in. They both take big drinks and set the bottles on the grass beneath them. Jared burps, loud and annoying and Jensen elbows him a little when they curl up together.

Jensen rests back against Jared’s chest, the hammock cradling them and keeping them close together. Jared spreads the blanket out over Jensen a little before he wraps an arm around Jensen’s warm body, their hands finding each other again on Jensen’s chest.

They sigh in tandem and let their eyes fall closed, a lazy breeze rushing through the yard, stirring up the trees and dancing right over their tired bodies.

“Can life really be like this?” Jensen sounds like he’s half-asleep already, his voice drowsy and soft. Jared runs his thumb over Jensen’s palm, leaving the ghost of his fingerprints over Jensen’s lifeline as he opens his eyes to gaze out over the expanse of the yard.

Jared doesn’t respond, doesn’t even know how to answer. The answer is yes, because they want it bad enough. Because they’ve earned it. Because Jensen’s paid for it in blood over too many years. It's their turn.