FIC: We gotta get out of this place 2/?
TITLE: We gotta get out of this place aka the one where Infeld sends them on a team-bonding trip, people get drunk and watch Ted and there's a lot more to Jared than meets the eye.
AUTHOR: mina93
PAIRING: Peter / Jared
RATING: PG-13
NOTES: If you have trouble imagining the lake house, I imagine it as the one from the movie Grown Ups.
SPOILERS: General Season One & Two. SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE TED.
DISCLAIMER: Obviously not mine. Won't be making any money off this.
FEEDBACK: Yes, need it, I am not above begging.
It was still early when Jared had come back from his swim and dragged Peter out of bed, saying something about “quality time” before everyone else would wake up.
“Hurry up, loser!” Jared shouted as they ran towards the shed where they kept the four- wheelers.
“I hate running!” Peter shouted after him “And so do you, this place has changed you, have you been possessed by some creepy ghost while we’ve been here?” he asked as he finally caught up with Jared as he unlocked the shed. “Did a very fit guy, die here or something?”
Jared turned to him as he opened the wooden door “Are you saying I’m not fit?”
“Well…” Peter said, tipping his head back and forth.
“Shut up, you’ve never complained before.”
Peter laughed as Jared threw him the keys to the red four-wheeler. “You’re gorgeous, Jare.” He said teasingly. “The prettiest there is.”
“Yes, I know.” Jared said as they both struggled to actually get the vehicles out of the shed and towards the road.
They were both grateful that the rest of the group was exhausted so Pindar and the girls decided to stay at the cabin to catch some sun and Infeld and Damien had taken the boat out do some fishing, which meant that Peter and Jared could do something fun by themselves.
“Are you ready?” Jared asked as he got up on the ATV and started the engine. The engine purred a couple of times.
“Born ready!” Peter answered as he grinned at his partner.
“That was my catchphrase!”
“We can share it.” Peter said as he put on his helmet and took off, leaving Jared with a cloud of dust surrounding him.
“Asshole!” he shouted after him, putting on his own helmet and following Peter.
He quickly caught up to him, and as Peter sort of swayed a little while driving, Jared started wondering if Peter had actually driven a ATV before, he knew he’d driven a motorcycle though, so he couldn’t be that bad on something with four wheels on it, could he?
Jared drove right past him and as he suspected, Peter tried to drive past him again. It quickly became a race, and while Jared had the skills and actual brain cells to realize that he should slow down as they approached a bump in the road, Peter did not and ended up flying up in the air, his hands still holding onto the ATV, and when he landed on his ass on the vehicle again, he almost slid off.
“Slow down!” Jared shouted, but Peter must have heard “Hit the breaks as hard as you can!” Cause that was what he did, and even though he managed to swirl and actually stop the ATV, he still fell off the side as it came to a stop.
“Shit!” Jared hissed as he stopped his own vehicle and threw his helmet on the ground, running over to Peter, the fall hadn’t looked too bad, but Jared’s heart still felt like it would beat out of his chest.
When he reached Peter, he was tugging off his helmet and groaning.
“Shit, shit, shit.” Jared muttered as he took in the shape of Peter, his pants were dirty, and it had ripped on the side of his thigh, but he didn’t look seriously injured. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“Only my pride.” Peter answered as he brushed dirt off his jeans. Jared let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“Thank God.”
Peter smirked “Worried about me, Jare?”
Jared smacked him in his arm “You never get hurt, okay, so I’m not really sure what to do if you ever do, you know, get hurt.” He answered, and he might have rambled a little bit.
Peter didn’t answer; instead he just sneaked his hand around Jared’s neck and met his lips in a hard kiss. Jared moaned on reflex, and then whimpered a bit (but in a very manly way!) when Peter pulled away again.
“You are pretty awesome, you know that?” Peter asked, and Jared didn’t know where that came from, since all he had done in a situation where Peter was potentially injured, was panic.
“Off course I know, come on, let’s get you up.” Jared said as he got up from the ground and helped Peter to his feet, only for the other man to let out a: “Ow, ow, ow!” and clutch to Jared desperately.
“What, are you okay?” Jared asked again, looking up and down at Peter, expecting to see blood somewhere.
“My hip.” Peter groaned “And my thigh, god!” he said, like he was dying.
“Oh my God!” Jared exclaimed, holding onto Peter.
Peter just looked at him with a pained look “Do something, you were pre-med!”
“Right.” Jared answered “Get back down.” He said and helped him sit back down and lean against the ATV, the engine of it was turned off, when had that happened? Had Peter done that? Had he done that? Wow, Peter getting injured was not working well with his brain functions.
“Okay, let’s see.” Jared said carefully as he started feeling and probing Peter’s leg, even though he actually didn’t know what he was doing.
“Ow!” Peter said, when Jared brushed against his ribcage.
“Your ribs hurt?”
Peter nodded and Jared lifted his shirt to see a bruise starting to form, he carefully felt the skin and prodded the bones underneath.
“Ow, what is it with you doctors and pressing until it hurts?” Peter asked and Jared rolled his eyes at him.
“I’m not a doctor.” Jared said “But it would have been cool though, Dr. Franklin.”
“I could’ve been dating a doctor.” Peter agreed and Jared laughed.
“A lawyer and a doctor? Never would have worked.” He said and laid his palm flat against Peter’s side. “Doesn’t seem like everything is broken, it’s gonna be sore for a while though.”
Peter sighed and nodded towards his leg “What about my leg?”
“I can’t really take a good look at it from here.” Jared said as he tried feeling around Peter’s hip, taking a firm hold of both of them, feeling if there was any difference.
“It’s not too bad, now.” Peter said “Except when you do that!” he said and swapped Jared’s hand away.
“You were the one who wanted me to look at you!” Jared argued “Now shut up, and help me get your pants off.”
“What?”
“When did you get shy?” Jared asked “I have to take a look at your thigh”, he said and unbuttoned Peter’s jeans and slid his zipper down.
“Now hold onto me and help me.”
It was easier than expecting getting Peter’s jeans down and around his ankles.
“We’ve had a lot of practice.” Peter joked.
“I’m just happy you’re wearing underwear.” Jared remarked as he took a hold of Peter’s thigh, gently feeling for any swelling.
“Please, you were hoping I’d gone commando.” Peter said as he looked down to where Jared was massaging his thigh. “You know, this could be considered foreplay.”
“You have a pain kink I don’t know about?” Jared asked as he let go of Peter’s thigh and leaned back on his heels. “You might have pulled a muscle, doesn’t look too bad though, and your hip just took a bad hit, should be okay.”
“God, Damien is gonna have a field day with this one.” Peter said as Jared helped him put his pants back on.
“We can make up a cool story, with a bear, and aliens.” Jared said as he helped Peter to his feet, for once, Jared was happy about being shorter than Peter cause it made it easier for the other man to lean on him.
Peter slid his arm around Jared’s neck and Jared sneaked one hand around his waist. “You ready to get back?”
“What about the ATV’s?” Peter asked.
“They’ll be fine, it’s a private road and no one ever comes down here, I’ll get Carmen with me to get them later.” Jared said as they started their way back to the lake house “You okay?”
“Yeah” Peter answered “Slightly embarrassed though.”
Jared snorted “This is by far the stupidest any of us has done during the last twenty years.”
“Yeah, but we haven’t been a couple for twenty years.” Peter said while looking down at the ground, and didn’t that make Jared stop dead in his tracks. Peter was insecure? Peter, the most gorgeous man on earth who had more confidence than anyone Jared knew, was insecure? Wasn’t that Jared’s job? And wait, did he just say couple?
“Couple?”
Peter looked up and met Jared’s eyes, opening his mouth a couple of times before figuring out what to respond “Aren’t we?”
Jared thought he looked completely dumb where he stood, gaping at Peter. “Yeah, I mean, sure, I just, it hasn’t been established.”
“But that’s cool?”
“Sure, yes.” Jared answered a little too fast, making Peter grin. “I don’t want things to change between us though, you don’t have to feel like you have to impress me or whatever.” He said as they started walking again. “I’m supposed to be the overly confident, yet secretly insecure one, remember?”
Peter remembered the first time they’d gone to bed together. They had been slightly drunk and to be honest, a little giggly as clothes had been thrown across the floor and then Jared had gotten nervous and all kinds of thought had come rushing through his head about Peter not really wanting him and how everything would be ruined, and off course Peter had seen right through him and read his mind and told him to stop being an idiot.
“You’re an idiot.” Peter said and Jared laughed, obviously thinking about the same thing. The two of them just fit in a way that nobody else understood.
“You’re different when you’re out here.” Peter said with a small smile.
“I know.” Jared said “I don’t know why, I remember trying my hardest to not be around my parents when we were out here, so I started swimming and-“
“Drawing?” Peter cut him off “I never knew you did that.”
Jared blushed a little “I don’t do it, it was just a way to keep myself occupied.”
“So we’re both artists.” Peter said with a huge grin “They should make a movie about us.”
“I’d see it.” Jared answered.
---
“Oh, god, what did you guys do?” Carmen asked when they finally got back to the cabin, Jared helping a limping Peter inside.
“There was a bear.”
“And aliens.”
--
“Come on, let me see one!” Peter said as he followed Jared around the bedroom as the other man was looking for the car keys.
“For the last time, no!” Jared answered as he threw the pillows from the bed and onto the floors. “Where are the keys?”
“Don’t know, come on, you’ve heard my songs.”
“It’s not the same thing, and you should be resting your leg, sit down.”
“Damien got to see them.” Peter said grumpily, completely ignoring Jared, the pain was barely noticeable, which meant that he probably hadn’t pulled a muscle as it was more important to him to annoy Jared than to rest. Jared raised his eyebrows at him.
“Karp was snooping.” Jared answered, holding up the car keys which he had found under the matrass.
“You said you like to draw when you’re out here, come on, you can draw me!” Peter said and then quickly added “Draw me like one of your French girls, Jare.”
“That’s creepy!” Jared stated as he pointed accusingly at Peter before leaving the room.
“I found the keys, let’s go!” He yelled loud enough for the entire cabin to hear them.
--
Infeld had wanted to see the town, even though Jared had argued that it wasn’t much to see, especially on a Sunday.
Jared said they could take the boat, but after the canoe incident, they all decided it would be safer driving, with Jared and Damien in separate cars.
When they finally got there, Carmen looked outside the window with raised eyebrows “This is it? It’s kind of cute.”
“Yeah, right, I’m not even sure there’s a parking spot here.” Jared said as he looked around, most of the people here took their boats to the town or lived near enough to walk, some even had horse drawn carriages, there was a couple of parking spots next to the old windmill that had been restored into a motel though.
“I can’t believe we didn’t go here the last time I was at the lake house.” Peter said as he got out of the car. “I would love to see Leonard walking around in his fancy suit, buying food at…” he looked around the place before spotting a place “.., Earl’s groceries, parcel and posts.”
Jared snorted as they walked over to the others. “So, what do you want to do?” he asked as he clapped his hands together.
“I’m starving.” Carmen groaned “And it actually looks like a lot of the places are open, look, even the post office, and oh, look, a fudgery!”
Jared scratched his head “Yeah, I know, most of the stores are open all week during this time of the summer.” He said, he’d only told Infeld a lot would be closed so he could go back to sleep after playing doctor and patient with Peter, and not the fun way either, or..., well.
“Excellent, do you recommend anything, Jared?” Infeld asked.
“Sophie’s is pretty good.” Jared said as he pointed down the street.
--
“Hey, table for- “ Was all Damien was able to say as they walked into the restaurant before someone broke him off.
“Jared Franklin, as I live and breathe!” a middle aged woman with brown hair said as she embraced the man.
“Hey, Sophe.” Jared answered, smiling awkwardly at Peter while receiving the bear-hug. “How have you been?”
“Just great, everything’s great!” She answered with a huge grin “Hey, Tom! Look who’s here!” she shouted and a man behind the counter looked up from where he was chatting with a customer and looked over at them before breaking out in a huge smile himself.
“Jared!”
“Hey, Tom!” Jared waved at the man.
“What are you doing up here?” Sophie asked and taking in the group he was with “Sorry, where are my manners, who are your friends?”
“Stanton Infeld, a pleasure.” Infeld said as he kissed her hand.
“My, oh, my, there’s not a lot of fella’s like you up here.” She answered with a blush.
“These are my colleagues” Jared said “This is Hanna, Carmen, Damien and Peter.”
She stopped looking at Infeld then and took in Peter “Peter Bash?”
Peter looked a little taken back “Eh, yes, nice to meet you.”
“Jared’s told me all about you, come on, let’s get you guys a table, I just made my famous apple pie, Jared.”
---
“How does she know me?” Peter whispered as they were seated a table.
“Jared talked about you when he was a kid.” Sophia answered, jeez, did that woman have good hearing or what?”
“Really?” Peter asked, and looked smugly at Jared, who rolled his eyes.
“Sure did, he ran away from the cabin one time, he can’t have been older than 12, and Tom and I found him walking aimlessly alongside the road, cold and grumpy, so we let him hide out in here for a while, I swore, he ate a whole pie by himself.”
“I was hungry.” Jared protested “I had been walking for at least forty minutes.”
Hanna laughed at that, along with Peter.
“Anyway, he started talking about how he couldn’t wait to get back home, and about his friend, Peter, and how they had adopted an injured seagull who would probably die if Peter was to take care of it for the rest of the summer.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that!” Peter said “You were so mad when you got home and I had let Doris back out!”
“Doris?” Damien asked. “So, basically, you two have always been insane?”
Carmen hit his arm then and he looked accusingly at her before she raised her eyebrows and he just sighed in defeat.
“I’ll be right back with your food.” Sophie winked at them before leaving the table.
“We didn’t order anything.” Hannah said with a confused look upon her face “We didn’t even get a menu.”
“Trust me; you’ll like what she brings you.” Jared answered.
And they did.
“These are the best pancakes I’ve ever had!” Carmen said around a mouthful as she poured more syrup on them. “You don’t get them likes these in LA.”
“And this chicken is delicious.” Damien said “Thank you.” Sophie smiled and rubbed Jared’ shoulder.
“And how are you liking that pie, Jared?”
“As good as I remembered it.” He answered and slapped Peter’s hand away when he tried to take a bite. “Get your own pie.”
“Come on, give me some pie!” Peter said and tried again, this time Jared only watched him carefully.
“Okay, but not too big of a bite!” He said “Let me have some of your cobbler then.”
“No way, I saved the best for last!”
“It’s all the same!”
“No, it’s not!”
“For goodness sake.” Sophie said “I can bring you some more, it’s on the house, you haven’t changed a bit, Jared!”
--
After lunch they decided to go their separate ways, everyone wanting to see different things in town. Carmen and Pindar made their way to the fudgery while Damien and Hannah went to check out the fish market and Infeld wandered off to who knows where, leaving Jared to show Peter around.
“So that’s the bakery.” Jared pointed at a pink little house near the park.
“It says ‘Hardware Store’.” Peter said.
“I know.” Jared answered “And over there they have the local produce market every Saturday, we should have went there yesterday, oh, and over there they sell the best jam in the world, I ate two jars of it in 10 minutes once and ended up throwing up on Gertie’s front door, that was not good for the customers.”
“Gertie?”
“She owns the store.”
Peter smiled “You’re like a totally different person out here.”
Jared’s smile faded a little “Is that a bad thing?”
Peter shook his head “No, it’s just, I thought I knew everything about you.”
Jared looked kind of guilty at that.
“It’s nice to know you can still surprise me.” Peter said and nudged him in the side, making Jared smile again. “Come on, let’s go get some of that jam you were talking about.”
“Yeah!” Jared said “How’s your leg?”
“It’s okay.” Peter said, he was still limping a bit, but the painkillers he’d taken with breakfast had helped “My ribs are pretty sore though.”
“I can imagine.” Jared answered “They looked pretty bruised.”
“By the way, I asked Sophie if she could make us some pie for the way back, she was happy to, we’ll pick it up tomorrow morning.”
Jared grinned hugely “You’re awesome, I love you!” he blurted out in a laugh before realizing what he had said, once he did, a look of panic spread across his face.
“What did you say?” Peter asked, turning around and facing Jared.
“Nothing, I just said, you’re awesome, cause you are, and it’s just… great.”
“Yeah, great.” Peter said “You love me!” he said mockingly, jabbing his finger in Jared’s shoulder.
Jared completely brushed him off with a “off course, you’re my best friend.”
“You love me, you love me forever and ever!” Peter continued his mocking.
“Shut up!” Jared said as he stormed off, clearly annoyed.
Peter laughed and jogged after him, not caring about the pain in his hip as he did so, “Admit it, admit that you love me!”
“Never!”
AUTHOR: mina93
PAIRING: Peter / Jared
RATING: PG-13
NOTES: If you have trouble imagining the lake house, I imagine it as the one from the movie Grown Ups.
SPOILERS: General Season One & Two. SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE TED.
DISCLAIMER: Obviously not mine. Won't be making any money off this.
FEEDBACK: Yes, need it, I am not above begging.
It was still early when Jared had come back from his swim and dragged Peter out of bed, saying something about “quality time” before everyone else would wake up.
“Hurry up, loser!” Jared shouted as they ran towards the shed where they kept the four- wheelers.
“I hate running!” Peter shouted after him “And so do you, this place has changed you, have you been possessed by some creepy ghost while we’ve been here?” he asked as he finally caught up with Jared as he unlocked the shed. “Did a very fit guy, die here or something?”
Jared turned to him as he opened the wooden door “Are you saying I’m not fit?”
“Well…” Peter said, tipping his head back and forth.
“Shut up, you’ve never complained before.”
Peter laughed as Jared threw him the keys to the red four-wheeler. “You’re gorgeous, Jare.” He said teasingly. “The prettiest there is.”
“Yes, I know.” Jared said as they both struggled to actually get the vehicles out of the shed and towards the road.
They were both grateful that the rest of the group was exhausted so Pindar and the girls decided to stay at the cabin to catch some sun and Infeld and Damien had taken the boat out do some fishing, which meant that Peter and Jared could do something fun by themselves.
“Are you ready?” Jared asked as he got up on the ATV and started the engine. The engine purred a couple of times.
“Born ready!” Peter answered as he grinned at his partner.
“That was my catchphrase!”
“We can share it.” Peter said as he put on his helmet and took off, leaving Jared with a cloud of dust surrounding him.
“Asshole!” he shouted after him, putting on his own helmet and following Peter.
He quickly caught up to him, and as Peter sort of swayed a little while driving, Jared started wondering if Peter had actually driven a ATV before, he knew he’d driven a motorcycle though, so he couldn’t be that bad on something with four wheels on it, could he?
Jared drove right past him and as he suspected, Peter tried to drive past him again. It quickly became a race, and while Jared had the skills and actual brain cells to realize that he should slow down as they approached a bump in the road, Peter did not and ended up flying up in the air, his hands still holding onto the ATV, and when he landed on his ass on the vehicle again, he almost slid off.
“Slow down!” Jared shouted, but Peter must have heard “Hit the breaks as hard as you can!” Cause that was what he did, and even though he managed to swirl and actually stop the ATV, he still fell off the side as it came to a stop.
“Shit!” Jared hissed as he stopped his own vehicle and threw his helmet on the ground, running over to Peter, the fall hadn’t looked too bad, but Jared’s heart still felt like it would beat out of his chest.
When he reached Peter, he was tugging off his helmet and groaning.
“Shit, shit, shit.” Jared muttered as he took in the shape of Peter, his pants were dirty, and it had ripped on the side of his thigh, but he didn’t look seriously injured. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“Only my pride.” Peter answered as he brushed dirt off his jeans. Jared let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“Thank God.”
Peter smirked “Worried about me, Jare?”
Jared smacked him in his arm “You never get hurt, okay, so I’m not really sure what to do if you ever do, you know, get hurt.” He answered, and he might have rambled a little bit.
Peter didn’t answer; instead he just sneaked his hand around Jared’s neck and met his lips in a hard kiss. Jared moaned on reflex, and then whimpered a bit (but in a very manly way!) when Peter pulled away again.
“You are pretty awesome, you know that?” Peter asked, and Jared didn’t know where that came from, since all he had done in a situation where Peter was potentially injured, was panic.
“Off course I know, come on, let’s get you up.” Jared said as he got up from the ground and helped Peter to his feet, only for the other man to let out a: “Ow, ow, ow!” and clutch to Jared desperately.
“What, are you okay?” Jared asked again, looking up and down at Peter, expecting to see blood somewhere.
“My hip.” Peter groaned “And my thigh, god!” he said, like he was dying.
“Oh my God!” Jared exclaimed, holding onto Peter.
Peter just looked at him with a pained look “Do something, you were pre-med!”
“Right.” Jared answered “Get back down.” He said and helped him sit back down and lean against the ATV, the engine of it was turned off, when had that happened? Had Peter done that? Had he done that? Wow, Peter getting injured was not working well with his brain functions.
“Okay, let’s see.” Jared said carefully as he started feeling and probing Peter’s leg, even though he actually didn’t know what he was doing.
“Ow!” Peter said, when Jared brushed against his ribcage.
“Your ribs hurt?”
Peter nodded and Jared lifted his shirt to see a bruise starting to form, he carefully felt the skin and prodded the bones underneath.
“Ow, what is it with you doctors and pressing until it hurts?” Peter asked and Jared rolled his eyes at him.
“I’m not a doctor.” Jared said “But it would have been cool though, Dr. Franklin.”
“I could’ve been dating a doctor.” Peter agreed and Jared laughed.
“A lawyer and a doctor? Never would have worked.” He said and laid his palm flat against Peter’s side. “Doesn’t seem like everything is broken, it’s gonna be sore for a while though.”
Peter sighed and nodded towards his leg “What about my leg?”
“I can’t really take a good look at it from here.” Jared said as he tried feeling around Peter’s hip, taking a firm hold of both of them, feeling if there was any difference.
“It’s not too bad, now.” Peter said “Except when you do that!” he said and swapped Jared’s hand away.
“You were the one who wanted me to look at you!” Jared argued “Now shut up, and help me get your pants off.”
“What?”
“When did you get shy?” Jared asked “I have to take a look at your thigh”, he said and unbuttoned Peter’s jeans and slid his zipper down.
“Now hold onto me and help me.”
It was easier than expecting getting Peter’s jeans down and around his ankles.
“We’ve had a lot of practice.” Peter joked.
“I’m just happy you’re wearing underwear.” Jared remarked as he took a hold of Peter’s thigh, gently feeling for any swelling.
“Please, you were hoping I’d gone commando.” Peter said as he looked down to where Jared was massaging his thigh. “You know, this could be considered foreplay.”
“You have a pain kink I don’t know about?” Jared asked as he let go of Peter’s thigh and leaned back on his heels. “You might have pulled a muscle, doesn’t look too bad though, and your hip just took a bad hit, should be okay.”
“God, Damien is gonna have a field day with this one.” Peter said as Jared helped him put his pants back on.
“We can make up a cool story, with a bear, and aliens.” Jared said as he helped Peter to his feet, for once, Jared was happy about being shorter than Peter cause it made it easier for the other man to lean on him.
Peter slid his arm around Jared’s neck and Jared sneaked one hand around his waist. “You ready to get back?”
“What about the ATV’s?” Peter asked.
“They’ll be fine, it’s a private road and no one ever comes down here, I’ll get Carmen with me to get them later.” Jared said as they started their way back to the lake house “You okay?”
“Yeah” Peter answered “Slightly embarrassed though.”
Jared snorted “This is by far the stupidest any of us has done during the last twenty years.”
“Yeah, but we haven’t been a couple for twenty years.” Peter said while looking down at the ground, and didn’t that make Jared stop dead in his tracks. Peter was insecure? Peter, the most gorgeous man on earth who had more confidence than anyone Jared knew, was insecure? Wasn’t that Jared’s job? And wait, did he just say couple?
“Couple?”
Peter looked up and met Jared’s eyes, opening his mouth a couple of times before figuring out what to respond “Aren’t we?”
Jared thought he looked completely dumb where he stood, gaping at Peter. “Yeah, I mean, sure, I just, it hasn’t been established.”
“But that’s cool?”
“Sure, yes.” Jared answered a little too fast, making Peter grin. “I don’t want things to change between us though, you don’t have to feel like you have to impress me or whatever.” He said as they started walking again. “I’m supposed to be the overly confident, yet secretly insecure one, remember?”
Peter remembered the first time they’d gone to bed together. They had been slightly drunk and to be honest, a little giggly as clothes had been thrown across the floor and then Jared had gotten nervous and all kinds of thought had come rushing through his head about Peter not really wanting him and how everything would be ruined, and off course Peter had seen right through him and read his mind and told him to stop being an idiot.
“You’re an idiot.” Peter said and Jared laughed, obviously thinking about the same thing. The two of them just fit in a way that nobody else understood.
“You’re different when you’re out here.” Peter said with a small smile.
“I know.” Jared said “I don’t know why, I remember trying my hardest to not be around my parents when we were out here, so I started swimming and-“
“Drawing?” Peter cut him off “I never knew you did that.”
Jared blushed a little “I don’t do it, it was just a way to keep myself occupied.”
“So we’re both artists.” Peter said with a huge grin “They should make a movie about us.”
“I’d see it.” Jared answered.
---
“Oh, god, what did you guys do?” Carmen asked when they finally got back to the cabin, Jared helping a limping Peter inside.
“There was a bear.”
“And aliens.”
--
“Come on, let me see one!” Peter said as he followed Jared around the bedroom as the other man was looking for the car keys.
“For the last time, no!” Jared answered as he threw the pillows from the bed and onto the floors. “Where are the keys?”
“Don’t know, come on, you’ve heard my songs.”
“It’s not the same thing, and you should be resting your leg, sit down.”
“Damien got to see them.” Peter said grumpily, completely ignoring Jared, the pain was barely noticeable, which meant that he probably hadn’t pulled a muscle as it was more important to him to annoy Jared than to rest. Jared raised his eyebrows at him.
“Karp was snooping.” Jared answered, holding up the car keys which he had found under the matrass.
“You said you like to draw when you’re out here, come on, you can draw me!” Peter said and then quickly added “Draw me like one of your French girls, Jare.”
“That’s creepy!” Jared stated as he pointed accusingly at Peter before leaving the room.
“I found the keys, let’s go!” He yelled loud enough for the entire cabin to hear them.
--
Infeld had wanted to see the town, even though Jared had argued that it wasn’t much to see, especially on a Sunday.
Jared said they could take the boat, but after the canoe incident, they all decided it would be safer driving, with Jared and Damien in separate cars.
When they finally got there, Carmen looked outside the window with raised eyebrows “This is it? It’s kind of cute.”
“Yeah, right, I’m not even sure there’s a parking spot here.” Jared said as he looked around, most of the people here took their boats to the town or lived near enough to walk, some even had horse drawn carriages, there was a couple of parking spots next to the old windmill that had been restored into a motel though.
“I can’t believe we didn’t go here the last time I was at the lake house.” Peter said as he got out of the car. “I would love to see Leonard walking around in his fancy suit, buying food at…” he looked around the place before spotting a place “.., Earl’s groceries, parcel and posts.”
Jared snorted as they walked over to the others. “So, what do you want to do?” he asked as he clapped his hands together.
“I’m starving.” Carmen groaned “And it actually looks like a lot of the places are open, look, even the post office, and oh, look, a fudgery!”
Jared scratched his head “Yeah, I know, most of the stores are open all week during this time of the summer.” He said, he’d only told Infeld a lot would be closed so he could go back to sleep after playing doctor and patient with Peter, and not the fun way either, or..., well.
“Excellent, do you recommend anything, Jared?” Infeld asked.
“Sophie’s is pretty good.” Jared said as he pointed down the street.
--
“Hey, table for- “ Was all Damien was able to say as they walked into the restaurant before someone broke him off.
“Jared Franklin, as I live and breathe!” a middle aged woman with brown hair said as she embraced the man.
“Hey, Sophe.” Jared answered, smiling awkwardly at Peter while receiving the bear-hug. “How have you been?”
“Just great, everything’s great!” She answered with a huge grin “Hey, Tom! Look who’s here!” she shouted and a man behind the counter looked up from where he was chatting with a customer and looked over at them before breaking out in a huge smile himself.
“Jared!”
“Hey, Tom!” Jared waved at the man.
“What are you doing up here?” Sophie asked and taking in the group he was with “Sorry, where are my manners, who are your friends?”
“Stanton Infeld, a pleasure.” Infeld said as he kissed her hand.
“My, oh, my, there’s not a lot of fella’s like you up here.” She answered with a blush.
“These are my colleagues” Jared said “This is Hanna, Carmen, Damien and Peter.”
She stopped looking at Infeld then and took in Peter “Peter Bash?”
Peter looked a little taken back “Eh, yes, nice to meet you.”
“Jared’s told me all about you, come on, let’s get you guys a table, I just made my famous apple pie, Jared.”
---
“How does she know me?” Peter whispered as they were seated a table.
“Jared talked about you when he was a kid.” Sophia answered, jeez, did that woman have good hearing or what?”
“Really?” Peter asked, and looked smugly at Jared, who rolled his eyes.
“Sure did, he ran away from the cabin one time, he can’t have been older than 12, and Tom and I found him walking aimlessly alongside the road, cold and grumpy, so we let him hide out in here for a while, I swore, he ate a whole pie by himself.”
“I was hungry.” Jared protested “I had been walking for at least forty minutes.”
Hanna laughed at that, along with Peter.
“Anyway, he started talking about how he couldn’t wait to get back home, and about his friend, Peter, and how they had adopted an injured seagull who would probably die if Peter was to take care of it for the rest of the summer.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that!” Peter said “You were so mad when you got home and I had let Doris back out!”
“Doris?” Damien asked. “So, basically, you two have always been insane?”
Carmen hit his arm then and he looked accusingly at her before she raised her eyebrows and he just sighed in defeat.
“I’ll be right back with your food.” Sophie winked at them before leaving the table.
“We didn’t order anything.” Hannah said with a confused look upon her face “We didn’t even get a menu.”
“Trust me; you’ll like what she brings you.” Jared answered.
And they did.
“These are the best pancakes I’ve ever had!” Carmen said around a mouthful as she poured more syrup on them. “You don’t get them likes these in LA.”
“And this chicken is delicious.” Damien said “Thank you.” Sophie smiled and rubbed Jared’ shoulder.
“And how are you liking that pie, Jared?”
“As good as I remembered it.” He answered and slapped Peter’s hand away when he tried to take a bite. “Get your own pie.”
“Come on, give me some pie!” Peter said and tried again, this time Jared only watched him carefully.
“Okay, but not too big of a bite!” He said “Let me have some of your cobbler then.”
“No way, I saved the best for last!”
“It’s all the same!”
“No, it’s not!”
“For goodness sake.” Sophie said “I can bring you some more, it’s on the house, you haven’t changed a bit, Jared!”
--
After lunch they decided to go their separate ways, everyone wanting to see different things in town. Carmen and Pindar made their way to the fudgery while Damien and Hannah went to check out the fish market and Infeld wandered off to who knows where, leaving Jared to show Peter around.
“So that’s the bakery.” Jared pointed at a pink little house near the park.
“It says ‘Hardware Store’.” Peter said.
“I know.” Jared answered “And over there they have the local produce market every Saturday, we should have went there yesterday, oh, and over there they sell the best jam in the world, I ate two jars of it in 10 minutes once and ended up throwing up on Gertie’s front door, that was not good for the customers.”
“Gertie?”
“She owns the store.”
Peter smiled “You’re like a totally different person out here.”
Jared’s smile faded a little “Is that a bad thing?”
Peter shook his head “No, it’s just, I thought I knew everything about you.”
Jared looked kind of guilty at that.
“It’s nice to know you can still surprise me.” Peter said and nudged him in the side, making Jared smile again. “Come on, let’s go get some of that jam you were talking about.”
“Yeah!” Jared said “How’s your leg?”
“It’s okay.” Peter said, he was still limping a bit, but the painkillers he’d taken with breakfast had helped “My ribs are pretty sore though.”
“I can imagine.” Jared answered “They looked pretty bruised.”
“By the way, I asked Sophie if she could make us some pie for the way back, she was happy to, we’ll pick it up tomorrow morning.”
Jared grinned hugely “You’re awesome, I love you!” he blurted out in a laugh before realizing what he had said, once he did, a look of panic spread across his face.
“What did you say?” Peter asked, turning around and facing Jared.
“Nothing, I just said, you’re awesome, cause you are, and it’s just… great.”
“Yeah, great.” Peter said “You love me!” he said mockingly, jabbing his finger in Jared’s shoulder.
Jared completely brushed him off with a “off course, you’re my best friend.”
“You love me, you love me forever and ever!” Peter continued his mocking.
“Shut up!” Jared said as he stormed off, clearly annoyed.
Peter laughed and jogged after him, not caring about the pain in his hip as he did so, “Admit it, admit that you love me!”
“Never!”