Fic: Missing Piece of the Puzzle, Jared/Jensen/Genevieve NC-17 3/?
Title: Missing Piece of the Puzzle
Fandom: Supernatural RPF
Pairing: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki/Genevieve Cortese
Chapter: 3/?
Length: 6053
Rating NC-17
Warnings/Kinks dub-con, mpreg, dystopia, sort of slave fic
Summary In a world where women can no longer have children, genetically engineered Omegas fill this function- if you can pay the price (and live with the consequences.) Jared and Gen are happily married, and buying Omega Jensen Ackles for the birth of their child seems like the perfect solution. The only downside is that Omegas can't survive the birth of a child- and that by design they degenerate after a certain age. Not that Omegas know this.
Notes Based on this prompt. With thanks to Tipsy Kitty for her time and edit! This is now all caught up.
Chapter 1, 2, 4
The next few weeks do nothing to change this initial impression. The thing is about Jensen, is that he's nothing like either of them had expected before getting an Omega. Nothing at all. He's everything the leaflets and the brochures say of course. Gorgeous, attentive, and he fucks like a dream come true, and they found all that out all in the first day. It's the extra stuff that's confusing as hell- on top of his excellent qualities he's weird. Jared picks up on it first, because Jared's the one who has always been the more unsure of the two that they should get an Omega in the first place.
It starts when they find Jensen in the books. They're technically Jared's but Gen reads them more often- Jared gets his fill of words on a daily basis, whereas Gen finds a sensual pleasure in reading in bed, feeling the pages against her hands. It barely matters what the books are, she's read two hundred year old Star Trek tie-in novels with the same pleasure as the limited edition poetry of Vivianne Anoue. It's become a bit of a thing between them, Gen buys them for Jared, and then reads them out in bed. They aren't exactly expensive items, but it's something intimate, something personal between them, not something most people have any more. Why bother when you can have ten thousand books on a data-pad? Finding Jensen in them is to say the least a surprise. The books that the Omegas had had at the farm, had been of the mass produced plasticated ones, alphabet books, fairytale stories and the like.
He's not stupid, they've been warned of that already, although he's more than a little naive, in a way that makes Jared laugh, and Gen run a hand through his hair, and pull him down for a kiss. He asks permission before he does most things, it's something that's clearly been ingrained in him, as deep as anything will go. But books are different. Jared first realises this when he comes across Jensen in the upstairs bedroom where he spends a lot of his time while Jared and Gen work. He's kneeling by the display cabinet, and in his hands he's holding, like it's the rarest treasure in the world, an abridged children's copy of the Three Musketeers, printed in 2031 by Penguin-Random, and he's about forty pages in it, eyes moving like he can't stop reading. When Jared coughs to get his attention, Jensen shoots up and drops the book, and then bends to pick it up, to brush at its cover ineffectually like he might have damaged it.
"Sorry," he says, and Jared can't resist that slightly crooked smile, replaces the book on the shelf and kisses Jensen, who instantly kisses back with enthusiasm, winds his arms round Jared, and Jared can't explain the odd little leap of his heart that takes place, when Jensen does that. Everything reasonable tells him this means nothing, that kisses sweet as they are can never be anything real, but they don't feel like that. He breaks away with a last kiss, and Jensen smiles at him again. "I couldn't resist," he says in explanation, gesturing at the book, and Jared doesn't have the heart to say no.
Gen catches him the next day, cross-legged in the garden, sun beating down on his head as he devours the final pages of 'The Sergeant's Hello' the worst romance novel she's ever read. Jensen reads faster than anybody she's ever met, like he's afraid something will snatch it away, and as she says to Jared she kinda wonders what the farm must have been like, because she and Jared have never done anything to cause such a reaction. It's the fifth or sixth time, they've found him at it between them, and that merits a discussion they both think. So they ask Jensen to remain in his room a little bit, while they chat.
"We're not supposed to let him are we?" Jared said glumly. The heaps of literature that had been downloaded onto their plas-sheets had been very clear on that point. While stimulation of the Omega was admirable and beneficial to a certain extent, beyond that it could be damaging. Keep them at the level of learning they leave the farm with was the general advice, and constant reading wasn't something Class B's did. Jensen seemed to be bucking that trend with relish though.
"No," replied Gen, poking at the place mat on the table. "But it can't hurt surely? And it makes him so happy. It seems cruel to take that away from him, when it really is harmless. Perhaps we should just keep an eye on what he reads? Nothing upsetting, nothing that could disturb him. It's probably fine as long as he doesn't read anything new." The implications go unsaid. Books that are printed on paper are pre-Omega, pre-Reformation. They're safe. It's what comes after that could harm Jensen's peace of mind.
"I guess," Jared said, doubt heavy in his voice, but the memory of how happy Jensen had looked kneeling on the floor with a book on his knee prevented him from carrying his doubts further. Jensen always looked happy, always smiled but there'd been an extra fascinated gleam in his eyes at that moment, and Jared just couldn't take that away.
"Let's sort through them," Gen said. "That way we'll know what he's reading."
As it turned out that was probably quite necessary. The side effect of teaching Omegas that one day they would be given to the one person, couple or group who would be everything they needed in life, is that there wasn't much room for black and white in how they thought. Things were good, or they were evil, and that had been backed up by the short simplistic tales (carefully amended naturally, sanitised for their consumption) that formed the majority of their reading material. It took Gen and Jared a little bit of time before they realised that Jensen viewed most of what he read as history ot as fiction, that he didn't understand most of what happened within the pages of most books was untrue.
The shock had been something to behold, his jaw had dropped when he realised that The Three Musketeers (and D'Artaganon) weren't actual historical figures had been funny and rather sad, his first response contributed to that. "You mean they're lies?" he'd said, forehead creasing as he tried to take that in. "But lying is bad."
Jared had been put in charge of trying to explain that one to Jensen, while Gen had tried to stifle her laughs. Patiently, he explained that making things up for entertainment was different from lying, though as a result of the long involved conversation Jensen became an extreme skeptic when confronted with any book at all. Since neither Gen nor Jared had much of an interest in history or in non-fiction books there weren't so many books that came under that heading, so telling Jensen it was all stories wasn't hard.
Like most good intentions though, intending to filter out the books suitable for Jensen's consumption had fallen by the wayside. Since at last count they'd purchased 311 books it was a bit daunting to consider reading through each of them in an effort to remember all the content (they were rather justifiably proud of their collection- apart from major antique collectors most people didn't even bother owning one physical book and many people didn't read at all.) So Jensen was allowed free rein through the three cases that displayed the books, and after a time it became less odd to see him reading constantly- a set of ancient leather bound dictionaries always close at hand for the hundreds of words he had no conception of even, especially since he'd drop them in a second if he thought Jared or Gen wanted him, not even putting in a bookmark to show where he'd left off.
And if Jensen began to change, well that wasn't unusual. He might not be a Class A, but he was top tier B and they'd been warned that he wouldn't stagnate, that his capacity for learning and understanding was immense- and geared towards making their Omega owning experience the best. As he'd said once while massaging Gen's feet with a small frown of concentration, he just wanted them to be happy- the happiest they could be. Apparently for Jensen this didn't just involve being the best lay he ould be. It meant unobtrusively insinuating himself into every corner of their lives, until Jared found that brainstorming without Jensen in the room was actually harder. He read so much- everything he could get his hands on- that he generally had some quaint idea or solution that he could back up by referencing whichever book he'd skimmed it from, like some ambulatory fiction reference encyclopedia. So when Jared was struggling with Killer Jaws II, it was Jensen with reference to Sherlock Holmes who provided the shark's motivation (after all, the only sharks that existed anymore were the genetically modified ones that swam toothless and harmless so who the hell knew what motivation they had?)
And he'd figured out how to fix the air conditioning system in hours, wedged halfway into the house's quite literally antique computer system that ran through the walls, proving that his hands were useful in more than ways than one. With him around things just ran smoother than they had before.
The weeks flew past- they'd acquired Jensen in June, and it was now fading into October, and the inevitable check-in arrived. "Nothing big," said the smooth voice tucked into the curve of Jared's ear. "We just wanted to confirm that your Jensen is satisfactory in every way, and remind you that the deadline for a refund is fast approaching."
"Thanks," Jared said, a little more curtly than he'd intended, but then Jensen was curled up at the other end of the sofa, nose deep in 'The Deep Secret of Angapalod,' the trashy fantasy series that Gen had purchased volumes two and four of from a little antique market in New York for a non-birthday occasion, and he really didn't want him to hear any part of this discussion. He made as though to stand up, but with the uncanny knowledge Jensen often had, he was up before Jared, saving him the trouble, pacing towards the kitchen while Jared focused on the conversation at hand.
He'd pinpointed the voice as Robin, who clearly dealt with follow-up as well as persuading people to buy the Omegas in the first place, and who gave him a quick run-down of what would be expected at the six month point of ownership. "He's eligible for standard body-mods once you're definitely keeping him," the smooth voice pointed out. "Ear pieces, internal tracking, even the more expensive options if those are wanted- cornea implants, a cortex enhancer for pleasure modes including the feedback kind though we don't recommend that between Omegas and humans to be honest with you. You're also required- you and Genevieve both- to attend a counselling session once again on the 16th."
Jared noted it, feeling oddly defensive and prickly though he couldn't have explained why, anymore than he could've explained why he didn't want Jensen to hear the conversation between him and Robin. "Sounds good," he said, "anything else I should know?"
"Just that we'd appreciate an update when you start considering trying for a baby. You've got plenty of time of course- three years in total should you choose to take advantage of it, but it's good to start planning now."
Jared mechanically agreed, and then put an end to the call with an absentminded touch, feeling peculiarly unsettled. It wasn't that he'd forgotten precisely what Jensen was there for, but it'd drifted to the back of his mind mostly. Still they had time, at least another two years before Jensen started to degenerate, before the impossible-to-conquer degradation of his genes and his body began to happen. For the amount you paid, he couldn't help thinking, you might get a child but you didn't get all that much time.
Later that night while he was cooking in the kitchen, Gen frowning at the screen of her palm-piece, he told her casually the Farm had called, and they had an appointment on the 16th, and she sighed a little with frustration. "I just hope we don't get the same woman," she said, not having taken a shine to their first counsellor.
Jensen was in the obsolete dining room as always, eating his own food, and Jared made sure the door was shut before he continued. "They want us to start thinking about when we're going to have Jensen impregnated."
Gen stared at her hands for a moment. "Not yet," she said softly. "We still have time don't we?" Jared nodded, overwhelmed with relief that she felt exactly the same way. "I'm not ready for a baby in the house yet," she said, "I thought I was but I'm not." It was a blatant and transparent lie- a baby in the house would hardly make a difference and if things got too tough there were also people willing and able to foster for a bit, anxious to have the chance to look after a baby even if only for a little bit of time. But Jared seized on it with relief, and knew Gen relaxed when he did.
"You're right," he replied, and felt the pressure lift a little. If Gen had said she did want the baby right now, he didn't know what he'd have done, because he really wasn't ready for this to change yet.
That night he tells Jensen to fuck him for the first time, though he's not entirely sure if the two things are related. It's been so long since he's had this, and all he can do is close his eyes and enjoy. He and Gen used to do this occasionally, then Jensen had arrived and everything had been shaken up, their sex life radically altered around the addition of a third factor. He's missed it, he knows that much, cants his hips upwards from where he lies on the bed face down while Gen tilts his head up to kiss him, brings him through it like she always does, the near-pain of being pushed beyond his limits, the push-pull of wanting to pull back from way too much sensation, and forge through into it.
Jensen is gentle since it's not like he can be anything else, and it's Gen who changes that, who whispers into his ear what Jared needs. The slick smooth slide of fingers into him is replaced by Jensen's mouth, strong strong hands holding him apart as Jensen pushes his tongue heedless of the lube, only focused on making this as good as it can be, and it is good in a way he had expected and in a dozen other ways beside. He can't describe how it makes him feel to let Gen see him like this rather than being the person doing it to him, or how it feels to know that it's Jensen with his pretty mouth, and inhuman-ness pushing into him with everything he has, rougher and harder now, letting Jared fuck back onto his tongue and then imperceptibly his fingers. It's too much and not enough at the same time, sort of how it feels to watch the way Jensen pleases Gen.
When Jared's so hard he's dripping and squirming on the sheets to try and bring himself off, Jensen finishes and nudges up tight and close behind him, solid warmth and adoration in a way that Jared can't think about too closely. It's Gen's hoarse whisper that does it. "Do it," she says, words almost broken, a hitch in her breath as she watches them, a buzzing toy clamped between her thighs (another thing they haven't had much use for,) and Jared wishes he could go down on her, but he's pretty sure that the moment Jensen gets his dick into him, he's going to lose most coherent thought.
Jensen isn't small, and it's been long enough since Jared has done this, that he feels like he's being pulled apart when Jensen finally pushes in. Gen was right though, he loved it like this, feeling every inch, the struggle of his body to resist and then finally relax, how deep it felt when finally Jensen had sheathed himself smoothly. He ruts his own dick against the bed sheets, wishes he'd had the forethought to be on hands and knees for this instead, and then Jensen is pulling him up and back, hands almost unbelievably strong against him, moving him like it's easy, until they're wedged together, Jared supported by his shaky arms and by Jensen, and he can't quite believe this is happening. The only sound he can make out is what he can only describe as a breathless gulp, as Jensen pushes into him with solid little punches of his hips, and Jared just wants more. Squirms back a little until he's got a solid balance and jerks at his dick, adding the raw slipside of it to the sparking thats running through his body.
He lets his head sink, doesn't even try and keep it up, rocks against the penetration disrupting the rhythm of Jensen's strokes but hardly caring, hot hard pressure deep inside him, and he can barely take it. He can feel the pressure building up in him, tugs at his cock faster and harder, wants to come exactly like this, wipe clean the rest of the day, the rest of how difficult everything seems to be becoming so slowly. When he finally gets there, it's like everything's clear for a second, mind wiped of all thoughts as he falls into it.
He half expects Jensen to pull out after Jared has come, but he's surprised in this as in so many other things. Jensen just pushes in deeper, right on the edge of too much, overloading Jared's still raw nerves with sensation, fucks him slower now but no less hard until Jensen comes as well.
Something about that was different but Jared was too tired, and too fucked out to pinpoint exactly what it was. Instead when Jensen had finished, he let himself flop down with a sigh, and was rewarded by Gen scrambling down to be next to him. "You okay?" he asked her, feeling suddenly guilty. Usually they got off together- they'd fucked Jensen individually of course but only ever rarely, and this was out of their pattern. She curled closer to him, and he felt her smile against his arm.
"Yeah I'm good," she said, "I don't think you know what you looked like with him. Wouldn't want to do it every night, but it was still pretty scorching."
Jensen is following his usual pattern, cleaning up and straightening the room before he joins them on the bed, curling at the end as usual, a warm and heavy weight there, that they barely even notice anymore. He never sleeps in his own room.
The next day is when things start to go to shit though Jared doesn't pinpoint that until long after. It starts when Gen has to fly off for a conference. She can work from home most days- isn't like she needs to see her co-workers to do a good job, and technology means that vid calls can bring people together around the world in an instant. Given the shrinking of the world's population, it's no longer commercially viable to run huge business centres in cities. Sometimes though in a bid to impress, GMs get called in for mass meetings in whichever tropical hot-spot has taken the CEO's fancy. Usually partners are welcome, but Jared's got a deadline coming up and has declined the opportunity.
She kisses them both before she leaves, a long kiss for Jared, and a hesitant peck on the cheek for Jensen when she tells him, she'll be back soon. Jared immerses himself back into work-mode, bashing out as many words as he can without compromising the over-all quality. He's so deep into it that the hours fly past, and the only indication that Jensen is there at all is the occasional drinks that appear on the desk from time to time. When finally he comes out of his work-induced daze, he looks round for Jensen but sees nothing. He gives a quick shout but when Jensen doesn't come, he heads up the stairs to the bedroom where Jensen generally hides out with a book when he's not in use or curled up in the study. There's no-one there though, and Jared can't help a frown from creasing his face a little.
He searches the rest of the house, even pops a head into Jensen's nominal room. There's no Jensen there, but there is a corner of a book poking out from under the bed, and that's unusual enough to make Jared worried. Jensen cares for books with the same passion that he puts into looking after Jared and Gen in any way that he can. He'd never leave one on the floor. He draws the book out fully, looks at the title with a puzzled frown.
If this is a man,' t reads, black text on a white background. No picture, just the title and the name of the author- Primo Levi. He's never heard of it, doesn't remember when Gen had bought it as she must have done. It's certainly not one of the ones she’d read out loud to him. Giving in to curiosity he poked under the bed some more and withdrew four or five other ones, neatly stacked together and pushed to the back, none of the titles familiar bar The Three Musketeers hich is the first book he remembers seeing Jensen reading. With a growing sense of unease he puts them up on the small bedside table, and searches through the house some more. It takes a bit of time before he checks out in the garden, where truth be told he hadn't expected to find Jensen. It was surprisingly cold out there, and Jensen in his thin white clothing would be chilled through.
Despite that though Jensen's out there, book clutched in his hands, shoulders bowed over it, and it takes Jared several horrible seconds to realise that Jensen is crying. That he's bent over the book crying in silence. Any one of the oddities would've been nothing- Jensen liked being outside, and Jared had cried himself a time or two over some of the things that Gen read out to him.
But there's something chilling about this, the combination of the grey sky, the slight cold, the contrast of Jensen in white against the rest of the world as he cries that strikes to his bones, and Jared doesn't leap forward. Jensen isn't sobbing, if Jared hadn't been close enough to see the tears he wouldn't have thought anything was wrong, it's like the tears are just running down his face as he turns the pages, an organic expression of feeling. When he finally steps forward, Jensen hears him almost instantly, and almost drops the book in fright. He swipes his arm roughly over his face, and stands instantly. "I'm sorry," he says helplessly, as though he doesn't know what he's apologising for.
"It's okay," Jared says, and takes another cautious step forward. This isn't covered in the manual- no one has ever told him what he has to do if an Omega starts crying, and he wonders if the subject has ever even come up before. "Why were you crying?" he asks, doesn't put his arms around Jensen, feeling alien and alone all of a sudden, as though Jensen's tears had tapped into some fear Jared had inside himself, that he can't even name, deep and persistent though it was.
"Is it real?" Jensen asks, extends the book he's been reading towards him, and Jesus Jared recognises the books now. He'd bought them for Gen, a rare switch-up of their usual pattern, on some online house-auction site, under the impression that he was buying some cheesy romance novels, only to discover when they'd arrived that actually they were mostly historical books- ten of them, and pretty grim reading, covering material that was generally unknown now unless you were a historian. All the wars and petty fights of the past kind of blended into one as compared to the enormity of the Reformation after all. Humanity had done terrible things, but when faced with complete and utter extinction all else had faded.
Now he's faced with an Omega asking him if it's real nd he doesn't know how to explain the past when he barely knows anything about it himself. He's seen some of the media pieces, knows dry names of wars (from World War I, World War II, the Iraq War, the Iran conflict, the Coalition, the Chemical War and all the rest) but details elude him. He tries for sensible. "What are you upset about?" he asks instead. "What did it say?"
Jensen shrugs, like he doesn't have words to explain, looks down at the book in his hand. "It's terrible," he says quietly. "Did people actually do that? Did they actually lock people away because they were different and then kill them?"
"Yeah," Jared said, fumbling for words. "They did I guess. Look Jensen, it's not worth upsetting yourself over. It was over centuries ago, people don't do things like that any-more." He steps forward tugs the book gently from Jensen's hands. "Honestly," he says, "that was a shameful time for the world, but we'd never do anything like that again to anyone." He doesn't know how much it helps, but Jensen visibly settles himself, wipes across his face again, and comes back indoors, lets Jared put him near the heater to warm through, and drinks something hot, though he doesn't pick up a book.
The rest of the day is quiet;- Jared manages to get his project finished, then gets through to Gen on the compu rather than just through his earpiece, so that Jensen can say hi as well. He knows the instant that she sees them, that she can tell that something's wrong, but he smiles at her still, lets her know silently he'll tell her when she returns, and Jensen is nothing but smiles, asks her if she's liking the weather, and listening with interest to her description of the hotel.
That night, Jared misses the warmth of Gen beside him, feels oddly cold and alone in bed even just for the one night, and pulls Jensen up to sleep beside him rather than at the foot of the bed. Imagines Gen snuggling in, around them both and feels his heart gripped tight for a moment in a way he can't think about too closely. When Jensen falls asleep easily, Jared murmurs on the small light and picks up If this is a man nd begins to read. By the time he's too tired to finish, he wants to cry himself though he doesn't understand why.
When he wakes up the next day, it's to Jensen's soft breathing, and radiating warmth, and he doesn't want to move from the bed at all, would stay in all day if he could get away with it, curled up beside Jensen, waiting for Gen to come home. But then he shifts, and the spine of the book from the night before pokes him in the back, and the heavy rush of sadness returns and it's not something he can deal with, not right now, so he buries his face against Jensen, breathes in deep and tries to forget about it. To remember what he'd said to Jensen- it was done with, so far in the past most people didn't even remember that there had been World War II let alone what had happened during it. It failed to convince though, and with a resolute hand he knocked it off the bed. It might have been a present but that wasn't going to protect it from being thrown away.
Jensen shifted at the movement, and opened his eyes sleepily. "Morning," he said, and Jared felt better already at that, and even more so when Jensen's hand found his morning hard-on.
"Morning," he murmured back, arching a little into the touch, enjoying the slowness of it, the care with which Jensen always touched him. "Sleep well?" he asked as Jensen licked his palm and sped up his strokes, always knowing the best, the fastest way to get him off.
"Uh huh," Jensen replied, clearly distracted as he brought Jared off in an almost embarrassingly short amount of time, ducking down before the end to swallow the resultant come in a way that had Jared almost laughing at the forethought.
"You really on't like wet patches do you?" he said, and Jensen grinned at him, flopping back down beside him, unselfconsciously hard himself now in a way that Jared couldn't help but notice, even though Jensen would never purposely bring it to his attention. With lazy touches he made him shiver and fall apart in a satisfyingly short amount of time. Afterwards when they were finally up, Jared went into the kitchen to make breakfast for himself, and set out Jensen's food-stuff for him. When Jensen picked it up to carry into the dining room as usual, Jared stopped him. “You can eat in here if you like,” he said, feeling obscurely embarrassed. Jensen blinked at him, but sat back down to spoon it in. It looked disgusting, but Jensen ploughed his way through it eventually, and looked at Jared.
“What do you want me to do today?” he asked as usual, clearly expecting the usual ‘whatever you like.’
Jared shrugged. “I thought maybe we could talk,” he said uncomfortably.
“We do talk,” Jensen said, not arguing but puzzled.
“I know,” replied Jared, finding it difficult to explain what he meant. They did talk, but never about Jensen. They talked of plot points between them for Jared’s thriller pieces, and Gen batted back ideas with him, and they both liked explaining what should be the obvious to an intrigued Jensen, and of course there was always sex. But Jensen himself was just there on the outside of it all. “I wanted to ask you about before you came here.”
Jensen’s brows drew together instantly. “I’m not supposed to talk about it,” he said, and managed to make even that flat no sound charming and apologetic. “I’m happy to be here, I’m happy that you picked me to give you a child, and that’s all there is to tell.”
Jared pushed on though he wasn’t sure why. “Please Jensen, I really want to know.” He looked straight at the Omega, feeling bad for doing this but knowing that Jensen couldn’t prevail against being asked so directly. He was surprised when Jensen twitched his gaze away, and refocused somewhere else, mouth still stubbornly closed. “Did something bad happen to you there?” he said, feeling his way through the conversation.
Jensen looked back at him, and Jared was unnerved by the sudden depth of the feeling there, the way that Jensen almost laughed, the side of his mouth twitching up. “No,” he said briefly. “It was absolutely fine,” and Jared is reminded strongly once again and not for the first time that Jensen isn’t tupid in any sense of the word. He’s naive and trusting, but he isn’t stupid. This is he first time though, that that knowledge doesn’t please him but sets off an aimless kind of dread. All he can think about is the books under Jensen’s bed, the worn one lying beside their shared bed upstairs, and the tears on Jensen’s face.
These are the perils of being a writer he thinks, and tries to laugh it off as an over-active imagination. He's building a mountain out of a mole-hill, blowing it out of proportion in his mind as though there was something that he was missing. Jensen is drinking back his water now, purposefully not looking at him, and Jared feels a sudden irrational annoyance at him. "If you won't tell me what it was like there," he says, knows he sounds almost petulant, "what do ou want to talk about?" He watches the faint flicker of hurt wing its way across Jensen's face, and the conflicting emotions it leaves in its wake.
"Anything you want," he replies smoothly, having clearly decided that descending back into strict protocol is the way to deal with Jared behaving like a child. He folds his hands together, and tilts his head to one side to look at Jared. "We can talk about your book if you like?" he says it with a smile that isn't reflected in his eyes.
The words are innocuous, the intent isn't. Only Gen knows about that book, buried beneath a thousand other projects, a ridiculous and stupid attempt to replicate an art-form that was practically lost these days- no money in it after all. Well and apparently Jensen now, and Jared's pretty furious at that. Jensen isn't allowed near the compu, that's in the terms of the contract that Jared and Gen had signed. He's never to be given access to the net, to a compu-point or to anything that might lead him to knowledge of exactly what he is. In fact they were negligent not to have voice-locked everything against him. "How do you know about that?" he asks, tries to keep the anger out of his voice. Jensen's clearly still shaken from yesterday, and Jared should make allowances for that he knows, especially when this is his fault anyway.
"Lucky guess," Jensen says, and with anyone else Jared would have said he was being snide. Jensen didn't lie though, not ever. Number one rule drilled in deep. Omegas don't lie. Jared relaxes. If Jensen says it, it's true, and he lets the anger drain away, though he's still a little pissed.
"I don't want to talk about it," Jared says, aware now that he's the one on the back foot. Jensen is moving around the kitchen area now, back tense and straight as he tidies the few things away. It's bizarre having this kind of tension between them- Jensen's been with them for months and it's never happened before, there's never even been the most minor hint of conflict. If he'd been asked before this, Jared would have said it was impossible. He wonders uneasily if this is normal, but he's never even heard of this in the past, and he thinks it might be something to ask the counsellor when Gen returns from her trip.
The rest of the day is strained and awkward, on Jared's side at least. Jensen behaves exactly the same as always- endlessly helpful and precise, sticks around close rather than vanishing out of the room, like he doesn't even notice there is anything wrong.
That's the start of it, that day. Jared can't look at Jensen the same way anymore, and his unease translates itself to Gen when she comes back, a little bit tanned and revitalised and hugs them both. Jensen without any bidding goes to his room afterwards to let them talk, polite as always, and Jared tries to explain to her what the problem is. Gen listens like she always does, forehead wrinkling as she tries to take it in.
"You mean he just wouldn't say?" she asks eventually, looking troubled. "Do you think I should ask him?"
"It wouldn't do any good I think," Jared replied, "he just didn't want to say. He's been told not to, and I know we've been told not to ask, but I was curious." Gen ruffles her hand through his hair, stretching up on tiptoe to do so.
"Curiosity killed the cat," she reminds him dryly, the old-fashioned phrase making him smile, as he finished the tag.
"Satisfaction brought it back," he pointed out, and pulled her close. "I think it should just be us tonight," he said into the side of her neck. "A proper welcome home."
Chapter Fou
Fandom: Supernatural RPF
Pairing: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki/Genevieve Cortese
Chapter: 3/?
Length: 6053
Rating NC-17
Warnings/Kinks dub-con, mpreg, dystopia, sort of slave fic
Summary In a world where women can no longer have children, genetically engineered Omegas fill this function- if you can pay the price (and live with the consequences.) Jared and Gen are happily married, and buying Omega Jensen Ackles for the birth of their child seems like the perfect solution. The only downside is that Omegas can't survive the birth of a child- and that by design they degenerate after a certain age. Not that Omegas know this.
Notes Based on this prompt. With thanks to Tipsy Kitty for her time and edit! This is now all caught up.
Chapter 1, 2, 4
The next few weeks do nothing to change this initial impression. The thing is about Jensen, is that he's nothing like either of them had expected before getting an Omega. Nothing at all. He's everything the leaflets and the brochures say of course. Gorgeous, attentive, and he fucks like a dream come true, and they found all that out all in the first day. It's the extra stuff that's confusing as hell- on top of his excellent qualities he's weird. Jared picks up on it first, because Jared's the one who has always been the more unsure of the two that they should get an Omega in the first place.
It starts when they find Jensen in the books. They're technically Jared's but Gen reads them more often- Jared gets his fill of words on a daily basis, whereas Gen finds a sensual pleasure in reading in bed, feeling the pages against her hands. It barely matters what the books are, she's read two hundred year old Star Trek tie-in novels with the same pleasure as the limited edition poetry of Vivianne Anoue. It's become a bit of a thing between them, Gen buys them for Jared, and then reads them out in bed. They aren't exactly expensive items, but it's something intimate, something personal between them, not something most people have any more. Why bother when you can have ten thousand books on a data-pad? Finding Jensen in them is to say the least a surprise. The books that the Omegas had had at the farm, had been of the mass produced plasticated ones, alphabet books, fairytale stories and the like.
He's not stupid, they've been warned of that already, although he's more than a little naive, in a way that makes Jared laugh, and Gen run a hand through his hair, and pull him down for a kiss. He asks permission before he does most things, it's something that's clearly been ingrained in him, as deep as anything will go. But books are different. Jared first realises this when he comes across Jensen in the upstairs bedroom where he spends a lot of his time while Jared and Gen work. He's kneeling by the display cabinet, and in his hands he's holding, like it's the rarest treasure in the world, an abridged children's copy of the Three Musketeers, printed in 2031 by Penguin-Random, and he's about forty pages in it, eyes moving like he can't stop reading. When Jared coughs to get his attention, Jensen shoots up and drops the book, and then bends to pick it up, to brush at its cover ineffectually like he might have damaged it.
"Sorry," he says, and Jared can't resist that slightly crooked smile, replaces the book on the shelf and kisses Jensen, who instantly kisses back with enthusiasm, winds his arms round Jared, and Jared can't explain the odd little leap of his heart that takes place, when Jensen does that. Everything reasonable tells him this means nothing, that kisses sweet as they are can never be anything real, but they don't feel like that. He breaks away with a last kiss, and Jensen smiles at him again. "I couldn't resist," he says in explanation, gesturing at the book, and Jared doesn't have the heart to say no.
Gen catches him the next day, cross-legged in the garden, sun beating down on his head as he devours the final pages of 'The Sergeant's Hello' the worst romance novel she's ever read. Jensen reads faster than anybody she's ever met, like he's afraid something will snatch it away, and as she says to Jared she kinda wonders what the farm must have been like, because she and Jared have never done anything to cause such a reaction. It's the fifth or sixth time, they've found him at it between them, and that merits a discussion they both think. So they ask Jensen to remain in his room a little bit, while they chat.
"We're not supposed to let him are we?" Jared said glumly. The heaps of literature that had been downloaded onto their plas-sheets had been very clear on that point. While stimulation of the Omega was admirable and beneficial to a certain extent, beyond that it could be damaging. Keep them at the level of learning they leave the farm with was the general advice, and constant reading wasn't something Class B's did. Jensen seemed to be bucking that trend with relish though.
"No," replied Gen, poking at the place mat on the table. "But it can't hurt surely? And it makes him so happy. It seems cruel to take that away from him, when it really is harmless. Perhaps we should just keep an eye on what he reads? Nothing upsetting, nothing that could disturb him. It's probably fine as long as he doesn't read anything new." The implications go unsaid. Books that are printed on paper are pre-Omega, pre-Reformation. They're safe. It's what comes after that could harm Jensen's peace of mind.
"I guess," Jared said, doubt heavy in his voice, but the memory of how happy Jensen had looked kneeling on the floor with a book on his knee prevented him from carrying his doubts further. Jensen always looked happy, always smiled but there'd been an extra fascinated gleam in his eyes at that moment, and Jared just couldn't take that away.
"Let's sort through them," Gen said. "That way we'll know what he's reading."
As it turned out that was probably quite necessary. The side effect of teaching Omegas that one day they would be given to the one person, couple or group who would be everything they needed in life, is that there wasn't much room for black and white in how they thought. Things were good, or they were evil, and that had been backed up by the short simplistic tales (carefully amended naturally, sanitised for their consumption) that formed the majority of their reading material. It took Gen and Jared a little bit of time before they realised that Jensen viewed most of what he read as history ot as fiction, that he didn't understand most of what happened within the pages of most books was untrue.
The shock had been something to behold, his jaw had dropped when he realised that The Three Musketeers (and D'Artaganon) weren't actual historical figures had been funny and rather sad, his first response contributed to that. "You mean they're lies?" he'd said, forehead creasing as he tried to take that in. "But lying is bad."
Jared had been put in charge of trying to explain that one to Jensen, while Gen had tried to stifle her laughs. Patiently, he explained that making things up for entertainment was different from lying, though as a result of the long involved conversation Jensen became an extreme skeptic when confronted with any book at all. Since neither Gen nor Jared had much of an interest in history or in non-fiction books there weren't so many books that came under that heading, so telling Jensen it was all stories wasn't hard.
Like most good intentions though, intending to filter out the books suitable for Jensen's consumption had fallen by the wayside. Since at last count they'd purchased 311 books it was a bit daunting to consider reading through each of them in an effort to remember all the content (they were rather justifiably proud of their collection- apart from major antique collectors most people didn't even bother owning one physical book and many people didn't read at all.) So Jensen was allowed free rein through the three cases that displayed the books, and after a time it became less odd to see him reading constantly- a set of ancient leather bound dictionaries always close at hand for the hundreds of words he had no conception of even, especially since he'd drop them in a second if he thought Jared or Gen wanted him, not even putting in a bookmark to show where he'd left off.
And if Jensen began to change, well that wasn't unusual. He might not be a Class A, but he was top tier B and they'd been warned that he wouldn't stagnate, that his capacity for learning and understanding was immense- and geared towards making their Omega owning experience the best. As he'd said once while massaging Gen's feet with a small frown of concentration, he just wanted them to be happy- the happiest they could be. Apparently for Jensen this didn't just involve being the best lay he ould be. It meant unobtrusively insinuating himself into every corner of their lives, until Jared found that brainstorming without Jensen in the room was actually harder. He read so much- everything he could get his hands on- that he generally had some quaint idea or solution that he could back up by referencing whichever book he'd skimmed it from, like some ambulatory fiction reference encyclopedia. So when Jared was struggling with Killer Jaws II, it was Jensen with reference to Sherlock Holmes who provided the shark's motivation (after all, the only sharks that existed anymore were the genetically modified ones that swam toothless and harmless so who the hell knew what motivation they had?)
And he'd figured out how to fix the air conditioning system in hours, wedged halfway into the house's quite literally antique computer system that ran through the walls, proving that his hands were useful in more than ways than one. With him around things just ran smoother than they had before.
The weeks flew past- they'd acquired Jensen in June, and it was now fading into October, and the inevitable check-in arrived. "Nothing big," said the smooth voice tucked into the curve of Jared's ear. "We just wanted to confirm that your Jensen is satisfactory in every way, and remind you that the deadline for a refund is fast approaching."
"Thanks," Jared said, a little more curtly than he'd intended, but then Jensen was curled up at the other end of the sofa, nose deep in 'The Deep Secret of Angapalod,' the trashy fantasy series that Gen had purchased volumes two and four of from a little antique market in New York for a non-birthday occasion, and he really didn't want him to hear any part of this discussion. He made as though to stand up, but with the uncanny knowledge Jensen often had, he was up before Jared, saving him the trouble, pacing towards the kitchen while Jared focused on the conversation at hand.
He'd pinpointed the voice as Robin, who clearly dealt with follow-up as well as persuading people to buy the Omegas in the first place, and who gave him a quick run-down of what would be expected at the six month point of ownership. "He's eligible for standard body-mods once you're definitely keeping him," the smooth voice pointed out. "Ear pieces, internal tracking, even the more expensive options if those are wanted- cornea implants, a cortex enhancer for pleasure modes including the feedback kind though we don't recommend that between Omegas and humans to be honest with you. You're also required- you and Genevieve both- to attend a counselling session once again on the 16th."
Jared noted it, feeling oddly defensive and prickly though he couldn't have explained why, anymore than he could've explained why he didn't want Jensen to hear the conversation between him and Robin. "Sounds good," he said, "anything else I should know?"
"Just that we'd appreciate an update when you start considering trying for a baby. You've got plenty of time of course- three years in total should you choose to take advantage of it, but it's good to start planning now."
Jared mechanically agreed, and then put an end to the call with an absentminded touch, feeling peculiarly unsettled. It wasn't that he'd forgotten precisely what Jensen was there for, but it'd drifted to the back of his mind mostly. Still they had time, at least another two years before Jensen started to degenerate, before the impossible-to-conquer degradation of his genes and his body began to happen. For the amount you paid, he couldn't help thinking, you might get a child but you didn't get all that much time.
Later that night while he was cooking in the kitchen, Gen frowning at the screen of her palm-piece, he told her casually the Farm had called, and they had an appointment on the 16th, and she sighed a little with frustration. "I just hope we don't get the same woman," she said, not having taken a shine to their first counsellor.
Jensen was in the obsolete dining room as always, eating his own food, and Jared made sure the door was shut before he continued. "They want us to start thinking about when we're going to have Jensen impregnated."
Gen stared at her hands for a moment. "Not yet," she said softly. "We still have time don't we?" Jared nodded, overwhelmed with relief that she felt exactly the same way. "I'm not ready for a baby in the house yet," she said, "I thought I was but I'm not." It was a blatant and transparent lie- a baby in the house would hardly make a difference and if things got too tough there were also people willing and able to foster for a bit, anxious to have the chance to look after a baby even if only for a little bit of time. But Jared seized on it with relief, and knew Gen relaxed when he did.
"You're right," he replied, and felt the pressure lift a little. If Gen had said she did want the baby right now, he didn't know what he'd have done, because he really wasn't ready for this to change yet.
That night he tells Jensen to fuck him for the first time, though he's not entirely sure if the two things are related. It's been so long since he's had this, and all he can do is close his eyes and enjoy. He and Gen used to do this occasionally, then Jensen had arrived and everything had been shaken up, their sex life radically altered around the addition of a third factor. He's missed it, he knows that much, cants his hips upwards from where he lies on the bed face down while Gen tilts his head up to kiss him, brings him through it like she always does, the near-pain of being pushed beyond his limits, the push-pull of wanting to pull back from way too much sensation, and forge through into it.
Jensen is gentle since it's not like he can be anything else, and it's Gen who changes that, who whispers into his ear what Jared needs. The slick smooth slide of fingers into him is replaced by Jensen's mouth, strong strong hands holding him apart as Jensen pushes his tongue heedless of the lube, only focused on making this as good as it can be, and it is good in a way he had expected and in a dozen other ways beside. He can't describe how it makes him feel to let Gen see him like this rather than being the person doing it to him, or how it feels to know that it's Jensen with his pretty mouth, and inhuman-ness pushing into him with everything he has, rougher and harder now, letting Jared fuck back onto his tongue and then imperceptibly his fingers. It's too much and not enough at the same time, sort of how it feels to watch the way Jensen pleases Gen.
When Jared's so hard he's dripping and squirming on the sheets to try and bring himself off, Jensen finishes and nudges up tight and close behind him, solid warmth and adoration in a way that Jared can't think about too closely. It's Gen's hoarse whisper that does it. "Do it," she says, words almost broken, a hitch in her breath as she watches them, a buzzing toy clamped between her thighs (another thing they haven't had much use for,) and Jared wishes he could go down on her, but he's pretty sure that the moment Jensen gets his dick into him, he's going to lose most coherent thought.
Jensen isn't small, and it's been long enough since Jared has done this, that he feels like he's being pulled apart when Jensen finally pushes in. Gen was right though, he loved it like this, feeling every inch, the struggle of his body to resist and then finally relax, how deep it felt when finally Jensen had sheathed himself smoothly. He ruts his own dick against the bed sheets, wishes he'd had the forethought to be on hands and knees for this instead, and then Jensen is pulling him up and back, hands almost unbelievably strong against him, moving him like it's easy, until they're wedged together, Jared supported by his shaky arms and by Jensen, and he can't quite believe this is happening. The only sound he can make out is what he can only describe as a breathless gulp, as Jensen pushes into him with solid little punches of his hips, and Jared just wants more. Squirms back a little until he's got a solid balance and jerks at his dick, adding the raw slipside of it to the sparking thats running through his body.
He lets his head sink, doesn't even try and keep it up, rocks against the penetration disrupting the rhythm of Jensen's strokes but hardly caring, hot hard pressure deep inside him, and he can barely take it. He can feel the pressure building up in him, tugs at his cock faster and harder, wants to come exactly like this, wipe clean the rest of the day, the rest of how difficult everything seems to be becoming so slowly. When he finally gets there, it's like everything's clear for a second, mind wiped of all thoughts as he falls into it.
He half expects Jensen to pull out after Jared has come, but he's surprised in this as in so many other things. Jensen just pushes in deeper, right on the edge of too much, overloading Jared's still raw nerves with sensation, fucks him slower now but no less hard until Jensen comes as well.
Something about that was different but Jared was too tired, and too fucked out to pinpoint exactly what it was. Instead when Jensen had finished, he let himself flop down with a sigh, and was rewarded by Gen scrambling down to be next to him. "You okay?" he asked her, feeling suddenly guilty. Usually they got off together- they'd fucked Jensen individually of course but only ever rarely, and this was out of their pattern. She curled closer to him, and he felt her smile against his arm.
"Yeah I'm good," she said, "I don't think you know what you looked like with him. Wouldn't want to do it every night, but it was still pretty scorching."
Jensen is following his usual pattern, cleaning up and straightening the room before he joins them on the bed, curling at the end as usual, a warm and heavy weight there, that they barely even notice anymore. He never sleeps in his own room.
The next day is when things start to go to shit though Jared doesn't pinpoint that until long after. It starts when Gen has to fly off for a conference. She can work from home most days- isn't like she needs to see her co-workers to do a good job, and technology means that vid calls can bring people together around the world in an instant. Given the shrinking of the world's population, it's no longer commercially viable to run huge business centres in cities. Sometimes though in a bid to impress, GMs get called in for mass meetings in whichever tropical hot-spot has taken the CEO's fancy. Usually partners are welcome, but Jared's got a deadline coming up and has declined the opportunity.
She kisses them both before she leaves, a long kiss for Jared, and a hesitant peck on the cheek for Jensen when she tells him, she'll be back soon. Jared immerses himself back into work-mode, bashing out as many words as he can without compromising the over-all quality. He's so deep into it that the hours fly past, and the only indication that Jensen is there at all is the occasional drinks that appear on the desk from time to time. When finally he comes out of his work-induced daze, he looks round for Jensen but sees nothing. He gives a quick shout but when Jensen doesn't come, he heads up the stairs to the bedroom where Jensen generally hides out with a book when he's not in use or curled up in the study. There's no-one there though, and Jared can't help a frown from creasing his face a little.
He searches the rest of the house, even pops a head into Jensen's nominal room. There's no Jensen there, but there is a corner of a book poking out from under the bed, and that's unusual enough to make Jared worried. Jensen cares for books with the same passion that he puts into looking after Jared and Gen in any way that he can. He'd never leave one on the floor. He draws the book out fully, looks at the title with a puzzled frown.
If this is a man,' t reads, black text on a white background. No picture, just the title and the name of the author- Primo Levi. He's never heard of it, doesn't remember when Gen had bought it as she must have done. It's certainly not one of the ones she’d read out loud to him. Giving in to curiosity he poked under the bed some more and withdrew four or five other ones, neatly stacked together and pushed to the back, none of the titles familiar bar The Three Musketeers hich is the first book he remembers seeing Jensen reading. With a growing sense of unease he puts them up on the small bedside table, and searches through the house some more. It takes a bit of time before he checks out in the garden, where truth be told he hadn't expected to find Jensen. It was surprisingly cold out there, and Jensen in his thin white clothing would be chilled through.
Despite that though Jensen's out there, book clutched in his hands, shoulders bowed over it, and it takes Jared several horrible seconds to realise that Jensen is crying. That he's bent over the book crying in silence. Any one of the oddities would've been nothing- Jensen liked being outside, and Jared had cried himself a time or two over some of the things that Gen read out to him.
But there's something chilling about this, the combination of the grey sky, the slight cold, the contrast of Jensen in white against the rest of the world as he cries that strikes to his bones, and Jared doesn't leap forward. Jensen isn't sobbing, if Jared hadn't been close enough to see the tears he wouldn't have thought anything was wrong, it's like the tears are just running down his face as he turns the pages, an organic expression of feeling. When he finally steps forward, Jensen hears him almost instantly, and almost drops the book in fright. He swipes his arm roughly over his face, and stands instantly. "I'm sorry," he says helplessly, as though he doesn't know what he's apologising for.
"It's okay," Jared says, and takes another cautious step forward. This isn't covered in the manual- no one has ever told him what he has to do if an Omega starts crying, and he wonders if the subject has ever even come up before. "Why were you crying?" he asks, doesn't put his arms around Jensen, feeling alien and alone all of a sudden, as though Jensen's tears had tapped into some fear Jared had inside himself, that he can't even name, deep and persistent though it was.
"Is it real?" Jensen asks, extends the book he's been reading towards him, and Jesus Jared recognises the books now. He'd bought them for Gen, a rare switch-up of their usual pattern, on some online house-auction site, under the impression that he was buying some cheesy romance novels, only to discover when they'd arrived that actually they were mostly historical books- ten of them, and pretty grim reading, covering material that was generally unknown now unless you were a historian. All the wars and petty fights of the past kind of blended into one as compared to the enormity of the Reformation after all. Humanity had done terrible things, but when faced with complete and utter extinction all else had faded.
Now he's faced with an Omega asking him if it's real nd he doesn't know how to explain the past when he barely knows anything about it himself. He's seen some of the media pieces, knows dry names of wars (from World War I, World War II, the Iraq War, the Iran conflict, the Coalition, the Chemical War and all the rest) but details elude him. He tries for sensible. "What are you upset about?" he asks instead. "What did it say?"
Jensen shrugs, like he doesn't have words to explain, looks down at the book in his hand. "It's terrible," he says quietly. "Did people actually do that? Did they actually lock people away because they were different and then kill them?"
"Yeah," Jared said, fumbling for words. "They did I guess. Look Jensen, it's not worth upsetting yourself over. It was over centuries ago, people don't do things like that any-more." He steps forward tugs the book gently from Jensen's hands. "Honestly," he says, "that was a shameful time for the world, but we'd never do anything like that again to anyone." He doesn't know how much it helps, but Jensen visibly settles himself, wipes across his face again, and comes back indoors, lets Jared put him near the heater to warm through, and drinks something hot, though he doesn't pick up a book.
The rest of the day is quiet;- Jared manages to get his project finished, then gets through to Gen on the compu rather than just through his earpiece, so that Jensen can say hi as well. He knows the instant that she sees them, that she can tell that something's wrong, but he smiles at her still, lets her know silently he'll tell her when she returns, and Jensen is nothing but smiles, asks her if she's liking the weather, and listening with interest to her description of the hotel.
That night, Jared misses the warmth of Gen beside him, feels oddly cold and alone in bed even just for the one night, and pulls Jensen up to sleep beside him rather than at the foot of the bed. Imagines Gen snuggling in, around them both and feels his heart gripped tight for a moment in a way he can't think about too closely. When Jensen falls asleep easily, Jared murmurs on the small light and picks up If this is a man nd begins to read. By the time he's too tired to finish, he wants to cry himself though he doesn't understand why.
When he wakes up the next day, it's to Jensen's soft breathing, and radiating warmth, and he doesn't want to move from the bed at all, would stay in all day if he could get away with it, curled up beside Jensen, waiting for Gen to come home. But then he shifts, and the spine of the book from the night before pokes him in the back, and the heavy rush of sadness returns and it's not something he can deal with, not right now, so he buries his face against Jensen, breathes in deep and tries to forget about it. To remember what he'd said to Jensen- it was done with, so far in the past most people didn't even remember that there had been World War II let alone what had happened during it. It failed to convince though, and with a resolute hand he knocked it off the bed. It might have been a present but that wasn't going to protect it from being thrown away.
Jensen shifted at the movement, and opened his eyes sleepily. "Morning," he said, and Jared felt better already at that, and even more so when Jensen's hand found his morning hard-on.
"Morning," he murmured back, arching a little into the touch, enjoying the slowness of it, the care with which Jensen always touched him. "Sleep well?" he asked as Jensen licked his palm and sped up his strokes, always knowing the best, the fastest way to get him off.
"Uh huh," Jensen replied, clearly distracted as he brought Jared off in an almost embarrassingly short amount of time, ducking down before the end to swallow the resultant come in a way that had Jared almost laughing at the forethought.
"You really on't like wet patches do you?" he said, and Jensen grinned at him, flopping back down beside him, unselfconsciously hard himself now in a way that Jared couldn't help but notice, even though Jensen would never purposely bring it to his attention. With lazy touches he made him shiver and fall apart in a satisfyingly short amount of time. Afterwards when they were finally up, Jared went into the kitchen to make breakfast for himself, and set out Jensen's food-stuff for him. When Jensen picked it up to carry into the dining room as usual, Jared stopped him. “You can eat in here if you like,” he said, feeling obscurely embarrassed. Jensen blinked at him, but sat back down to spoon it in. It looked disgusting, but Jensen ploughed his way through it eventually, and looked at Jared.
“What do you want me to do today?” he asked as usual, clearly expecting the usual ‘whatever you like.’
Jared shrugged. “I thought maybe we could talk,” he said uncomfortably.
“We do talk,” Jensen said, not arguing but puzzled.
“I know,” replied Jared, finding it difficult to explain what he meant. They did talk, but never about Jensen. They talked of plot points between them for Jared’s thriller pieces, and Gen batted back ideas with him, and they both liked explaining what should be the obvious to an intrigued Jensen, and of course there was always sex. But Jensen himself was just there on the outside of it all. “I wanted to ask you about before you came here.”
Jensen’s brows drew together instantly. “I’m not supposed to talk about it,” he said, and managed to make even that flat no sound charming and apologetic. “I’m happy to be here, I’m happy that you picked me to give you a child, and that’s all there is to tell.”
Jared pushed on though he wasn’t sure why. “Please Jensen, I really want to know.” He looked straight at the Omega, feeling bad for doing this but knowing that Jensen couldn’t prevail against being asked so directly. He was surprised when Jensen twitched his gaze away, and refocused somewhere else, mouth still stubbornly closed. “Did something bad happen to you there?” he said, feeling his way through the conversation.
Jensen looked back at him, and Jared was unnerved by the sudden depth of the feeling there, the way that Jensen almost laughed, the side of his mouth twitching up. “No,” he said briefly. “It was absolutely fine,” and Jared is reminded strongly once again and not for the first time that Jensen isn’t tupid in any sense of the word. He’s naive and trusting, but he isn’t stupid. This is he first time though, that that knowledge doesn’t please him but sets off an aimless kind of dread. All he can think about is the books under Jensen’s bed, the worn one lying beside their shared bed upstairs, and the tears on Jensen’s face.
These are the perils of being a writer he thinks, and tries to laugh it off as an over-active imagination. He's building a mountain out of a mole-hill, blowing it out of proportion in his mind as though there was something that he was missing. Jensen is drinking back his water now, purposefully not looking at him, and Jared feels a sudden irrational annoyance at him. "If you won't tell me what it was like there," he says, knows he sounds almost petulant, "what do ou want to talk about?" He watches the faint flicker of hurt wing its way across Jensen's face, and the conflicting emotions it leaves in its wake.
"Anything you want," he replies smoothly, having clearly decided that descending back into strict protocol is the way to deal with Jared behaving like a child. He folds his hands together, and tilts his head to one side to look at Jared. "We can talk about your book if you like?" he says it with a smile that isn't reflected in his eyes.
The words are innocuous, the intent isn't. Only Gen knows about that book, buried beneath a thousand other projects, a ridiculous and stupid attempt to replicate an art-form that was practically lost these days- no money in it after all. Well and apparently Jensen now, and Jared's pretty furious at that. Jensen isn't allowed near the compu, that's in the terms of the contract that Jared and Gen had signed. He's never to be given access to the net, to a compu-point or to anything that might lead him to knowledge of exactly what he is. In fact they were negligent not to have voice-locked everything against him. "How do you know about that?" he asks, tries to keep the anger out of his voice. Jensen's clearly still shaken from yesterday, and Jared should make allowances for that he knows, especially when this is his fault anyway.
"Lucky guess," Jensen says, and with anyone else Jared would have said he was being snide. Jensen didn't lie though, not ever. Number one rule drilled in deep. Omegas don't lie. Jared relaxes. If Jensen says it, it's true, and he lets the anger drain away, though he's still a little pissed.
"I don't want to talk about it," Jared says, aware now that he's the one on the back foot. Jensen is moving around the kitchen area now, back tense and straight as he tidies the few things away. It's bizarre having this kind of tension between them- Jensen's been with them for months and it's never happened before, there's never even been the most minor hint of conflict. If he'd been asked before this, Jared would have said it was impossible. He wonders uneasily if this is normal, but he's never even heard of this in the past, and he thinks it might be something to ask the counsellor when Gen returns from her trip.
The rest of the day is strained and awkward, on Jared's side at least. Jensen behaves exactly the same as always- endlessly helpful and precise, sticks around close rather than vanishing out of the room, like he doesn't even notice there is anything wrong.
That's the start of it, that day. Jared can't look at Jensen the same way anymore, and his unease translates itself to Gen when she comes back, a little bit tanned and revitalised and hugs them both. Jensen without any bidding goes to his room afterwards to let them talk, polite as always, and Jared tries to explain to her what the problem is. Gen listens like she always does, forehead wrinkling as she tries to take it in.
"You mean he just wouldn't say?" she asks eventually, looking troubled. "Do you think I should ask him?"
"It wouldn't do any good I think," Jared replied, "he just didn't want to say. He's been told not to, and I know we've been told not to ask, but I was curious." Gen ruffles her hand through his hair, stretching up on tiptoe to do so.
"Curiosity killed the cat," she reminds him dryly, the old-fashioned phrase making him smile, as he finished the tag.
"Satisfaction brought it back," he pointed out, and pulled her close. "I think it should just be us tonight," he said into the side of her neck. "A proper welcome home."
Chapter Fou