FIC - Need you now... (1/1) - JANSIS

[wheelie47]

Title: Need you now…

Author: wheelie47
Rating: PG

Characters: Van and Jake
Word count: 2,499
Summary: They both agreed they wouldn’t call…

Disclaimer: Don’t own characters, am not associated in any way with ATWT or Van and Jake. No offence intended.

AN: This little Jansis popped into my head after Lady Antebellum’s ‘Need you now’ seemed to be following me around.

For newhaven183on her birthday. Happy Birthday Sue!



Jake’s eyelids grudgingly fluttered open to the darkness of his bedroom.

Desperately trying to ignore the vast empty expanse that was the other side of the bed, he flipped over onto his opposite side to check the time.

“1:15 am! Shit!”

He fleeting wondered what had woken him.

From the relentless drumming beating against his window, he could tell that the storm that had been threatening when he had come to bed… alone…. had finally broke with a vengeance.

A flash of lightening lit up the room, eerily making everyday bedroom furniture cast ominous shadows before it was gone as quickly as it came, returning the room to the normal low lighting emanating from the hallway.

Thunder crashed loudly overhead almost immediately after the lighting had faded.

“Shit!” Jake groaned again as he swung his long, sleep-pant glad legs over the side of the bed and sat up.

He cupped his face in his hands, fingers massaging his temples, letting out a resigned sigh. Jake knew it wasn’t the storm that had woken him. He only wished it was that simple. A storm would eventually blow itself out and his world would be restored to calm again.

No, it wasn’t the storm but the yearning ache in his heart… so painful he could hardly breathe sometimes… that kept him awake.

It was gonna be another long night. Just another sleep disturbed night in a seemingly never ending pattern of sleepless nights. He should be used to it by now… even the warming burn of the whiskey night cap Jake had taken to drinking each night had no effect.

Placing both hands flat on the mattress, he pushed himself up to standing. He paused to lift his arms above his head in a full body, shoulder popping, stretch to ease out the tense muscles caused by hours of tossing and turning in-between fitful snatches of sleep.

With a huff of exasperation, Jake padded over to the window and pulled open the blinds before leaning his forehead against the window pane. He rested his head there for several long minutes, his breath misting up the glass as he looked down at the street below.

The rain lashed sidewalk reminded him of the night they’d said goodbye for the last time…

…

“We can’t keep doing this, Jake. Not to each other… not to them; it’s not fair.” Van’s voice was breaking, mirroring his heart, as he cupped Jake’s face and rubbed the pad of his thumb along the prominent cheek-bone. He meant the gesture to sooth but he knew from the broken look on those handsome features that it wasn’t helping. But he couldn’t quite bring himself to pull his hand away just yet.

Jake nodded; he knew what Van was saying was true. Ever since that drunken night when alcohol had fuelled the want and the need they had both been struggling to try to deny and they’d stumbled in through Jake’s apartment door, urgently making full use of the wall, the floor and eventually the bed, they had sworn that each time would be the last. That this passion that burnt between them wasn’t fair to either Brooke or Tyler.

That night had been four months ago and there had been countless nights in-between that neither of them could resist the pull... no matter what they’d agreed.

Something had to give.

And it was the guilt of hurting their partners that finally brought them back to the harsh reality of what they were doing.

“I know,” Jake answered, his voice full of regret and heartache. “We… we should probably not be around each other for a while…” It killed him to say it but he couldn’t be around Van… couldn’t be this close to him and not want to touch him. “It’s better this way.” His voice cracked at those last words. If only they had meet sooner; when they were both single and free. He blinked away the thought; ifs, buts and maybes would do the two of them absolutely no good right now.

An unreadable expression flashed across Van’s face.

“What?” Jake asked urgently, his hand automatically reaching out to sooth away that look.

Van didn’t answer straight away, leaning into the touch with his eyes closed instead.

Then those eyelids fluttered open and the pain and regret Jake saw there nearly made his legs buckle.

“I’m… we’re moving to LA, Jake. I have to do this… have to give Tyler and me a chance. I owe him that much.”

Jake was stunned, the breath leaving his body like he’d received a blow to the solar plexus. It was bad enough that they’d agreed they shouldn’t see each other anymore but having Van in another state on the other side of the country was something else completely!

“Say something, Jake, please,” Van begged, the fear in his voice sounding clear.

Several more long moments passed before Jake could finally find his voice. “I…,” he stuttered and stopped, pausing to swallow hard before trying again. “I guess it’s for the best. Removing temptation and all that.” He tried to give the blonde a lop-sided smile to reassure him it was ok. But it fell short and the smile failed to come anywhere close to reaching his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Van breathed out. “So sorry.”

Jake could only nod, not trusting his own voice to say what he felt.

Instead, he leant forward and pressed his lips to Van’s one last time in a chaste but lingering kiss.

And then he was gone, the door to Van’s apartment closing softly behind him.

Within minutes Jake was out on the rain slicked sidewalk, the tears freely rolling down his cheeks mixing with the heavy rain drops…

…

That night had been eight months ago and they hadn’t called or seen each other since.

Jake tried to make it work with his girlfriend, he really did. But his heart was some 2,500 miles away and it was never going to work.

Brooke was the one to break it off; she wasn’t stupid and she had her suspicions, especially when her boyfriend and Van had gone from being in each others pockets most of the time to seemingly having no contact at all and Jake never wanting to talk about it.

In the end Jake thanked God that she had made it easy on him… on both of them; packing her bags one day and leaving him with a sad, “Hope you find happiness, Jake.”

But there was no chance of that, his happiness was out on the West Coast, trying to make his relationship work with someone else. And Jake knew in his heart that he had to let Van go.

So here he was… stuck; unable to move forward with anyone else and he couldn’t go back.

Jake sighed and closed his eyes, his head still resting on the cold window pane.

A sudden flash of lightening zigzagged across the darkened sky, the intense brightness visible even through his eyelids.

Flicking open his eyes, he gasped when he thought he saw a figure looking up at him from down on the street, just outside the arch of the street lamp but briefly illuminated by the fading flash of lightening.

Shaking his head as if to clear his vision, he looked again but there was nothing but the gloom of a dark rainy night. Fuck! Now he was imagining things!

Somehow unable to tear his gaze away, his mouth dropped open in shock when he saw a figure step out of the darkness into the light and raise his hand in a small hesitant greeting as if it wasn’t sure it was doing the right thing… or even sure if it should be there.

“Van?!” Jake called out in disbelief, the fact that Van couldn’t hear him seemed lost on him right then. He blinked again just to be sure the figure wouldn’t disappear into his imagination again.

But no… Van was stood there outside on the sidewalk. His hair was a little longer and plastered to the sides of his face. But Jake was certain it was him.

He stood rooted to the spot; unable to move… his brain still registering the fact that the blonde was standing outside on the sidewalk below and not in LA.

Jake still didn’t move even when he saw Van bringing his hand up to his ear. His legs only remembering that they could actually function when he heard his cell spring to life.

Lunging for it from the beside table, he brought it back with him as he stood again at the window. He hit ‘answer’ and lifted the phone to his ear.

Before Jake could talk, Van’s words came tumbling down the line as if he’d been rehearsing what he wanted to say and didn’t think he could get through it if Jake spoke first. “I… I know we agreed… said we wouldn’t call. But… I… I… need you, Jake. I… want to… I want you...”

He paused to take a breath only to be interrupted by Jake. “Come up.”

And before he could even think, he’d dashed for the door, buzzed open the entrance door and was running down the stairs to meet Van halfway, not caring that he was bare-foot and dressed only in low-riding sleep pants.

Jake stumbled to a halt when he saw Van making his way up, carrying a bulging hold-all and soaked through from the rain.

“How long have you been stood out there?” Was the first question that popped unbidden into Jake’s head. He could smell the residual cigarette smoke and alcohol and instantly knew that Van had spent a long time deciding over whether he should come here.

Van smiled uncertainly as his eyes took in the broad expanse of Jake’s toned chest before rising to meet those baby blues staring back at him. “Lost track… wasn’t sure if I should call.”

The look in Van’s eyes had Jake’s feet moving before he could think and suddenly, right there on the staircase, his arms were pulling the blonde to him and his lips were pressed hard against the mouth that he’d missed kissing so much.

Van didn’t respond at first, taken by surprise by Jake’s actions but soon he was kissing back just as hard and he’d dropped his bag to let his hands roam freely up Jake’s back to clutch at the brunette’s hair, pulling him in even closer.

Jake didn’t care that Van’s wet clothes were pressed up against his chest, making him shiver; all he could think about was the way Van felt in his arms and the way the softness of his lips contrasted with the harshness of the stubble surrounding his mouth, sending pin-pricks of arousal radiating out all over Jake’s body.

That was until a thought wormed its way into Jake’s brain. He pushed on Van’s chest a little to break the kiss. “Tyler?”

Van shook his head. “It didn’t work out. He knew my heart wasn’t in it. We broke up.” He said it simply but Jake could see that a part of Van intensly regretted what had happened.

Jake didn’t know what to say; he was sorry for Tyler but it meant that Van was single again and so was he… and the possibility took his breath away. He almost didn’t dare believe that there was a chance for them now.

He pulled on Van’s arms, tugging him back within kissing distance.

But Van held back, a hand placed on Jake’s bare chest. “Brooke?”

Jake shook his head. “We’re not together anymore. It was never going to work out, Van,” he murmured as he closed the distance between them again.

Van, reassured, attacked Jake’s oh-so-kissable lips once again. Lips parted and tongues darted in and dueled for dominance before re-discovering familiar territory.

Van shivered in Jake’s embrace and it dawned on him that the other man might actually be shivering from the cold and his damp clothes rather than the intensity of their kiss and the feel of their bodies flush against each other.

“Let’s get you out of those wet clothes,” he said a little breathlessly as he pulled back from the kiss, rolling his eyes and chuckling softly as Van’s eyebrows arched suggestively and a smirk flashed across his features.

“Before you catch a cold,” he added with a despairing shake of his head as he grasped Van’s bag with one hand and slid his palm into Van’s, linking their fingers and pulling him toward his apartment…

…

Once inside, Jake dropped Van’s bag just inside the door and shepherded the blonde into the bedroom.

He rummaged around to find a pair of sleep pants for Van to wear.

Turning around, Jake was in time to watch Van shed the last of his wet clothes on the floor.

As he handed Van the sleep-pants, Jake took a moment to admire the man’s body; eyes sweeping up along toned legs muscles, over the perfect cock nestled in his groin, up over taut stomach muscles, past the delicious dusting of chest hair to the hard lines of a stubbled jaw and those soft supple lips, and finally reaching the hazel orbs that were staring back at him. He didn’t think he’d ever get to see Van like this again.

“Like what you see?” Van smirked.

“Hell, yeah!” Jake took a step forward but then realized, as he saw a kind of relieved fatigue sweep across the blonde’s handsome features… as if it finally dawned on him that he was really here and that this was happening, that Van must be exhausted.

“Bed… now!” He ordered as he reached out and turned Van toward the bed, pulling the covers further down with one hand.

“Eager much?!” Van teased as he gratefully slid into the bed.

“To sleep!” Jake couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he settled in beside Van.

After pulling the covers over both of them, Jake tugged Van toward him and their lips met in languid kisses that spoke of the promise of shared tomorrows and that they had all the time in the world.

Van shivered again and this time Jake was pretty sure it wasn’t from the cold.

“Sleep!” he ordered again, breaking the kiss and easing onto his back.

He sighed contently as Van curled into him and he could feel the hot breath ghosting across his chest.

“Not sure I like this new bossy side… that’s my job,” Van murmured as he closed his eyes, snuggling further into the warmth of Jake’s skin.

Jake stayed awake, combing his fingers through the blonde hair, as he listened to Van’s breathing slow until gentle snores escaped his lips.

A slow smile spread across Jake’s lips as he gently pulled Van in closer, vowing he would never let him go again.

Stifling a yawn, he closed his eyes, knowing he was going to get the best sleep he’d had in a long time.

The End.

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