Soccer Timestamp | A Most Awesome Valentine's Day | PG
I wasn't planning on writing this or even posting fic for a lil while but LJ notified me that it's twofourteen's birthday today, and then this totally popped into my head as I fell asleep last night. I should totally not be writing fics right now but I couldn't stop.
Sooooooo with great hugs to Anna! I present:
Title: A Most Awesome Valentine's Day
Words: 2,400
Rating/Warning: PG/Total schmoop
Summary: Mama said I should make valentimes for whoever I want
Construction paper covered the kitchen table, patches of red and pink and white and … brown. Because Nathan insisted in some manly colors, and brown was the color of dirt, and nothing was more manly than playing in it.
Jared chuckled and shook his head but continued helping Nathan create his own valentines. For his mom, his teachers, and Marie Ward, who he insisted was not his girlfriend. She just laughed at all his jokes and he thought he owed her one for being that nice.
Again, Jared chuckled while assisting with drops of Elmer’s glue to attach stars to hearts as big as his own hand and more hearts to even bigger circles.
After a good pile of scraps was swept to the edge of the table, Jared brought the garbage over to clean the surface, but Nathan had other ideas. He snagged the last pack of construction paper and yanked sheets out with a large flourish and slapped them to the table.
“One more.”
“For who?” Jared asked flatly, distracted by Nathan being so on target with his new plan.
“Well, two more.”
His son didn’t explain further, just tucked his tongue into the side of his mouth as he pressed a blue crayon hard to the center of a pale blue sheet. It took a few seconds until Nathan had formed the first few letters, but when Jared saw it, his stomach clenched and his heart sped up.
JENSEN
Jared sat next to Nathan and laid a soft hand to his back. “Hey, peanut, you don’t have to.”
Nathan sat up on his knees, huddling over his work as he used his safety scissors to cut out crooked and misshapen stars and moons in black and gold. “Mama said I should make valentimes for whoever I want.”
“It’s valentine, buddy.”
“That’s what I said,” Nathan insisted, then said, “And I’m making one for Jensen, because I want to. And you should, too.”
The chuckle this time was mangled by the warmth spreading across his chest. “Okay, so, if you’re gonna make one for him,” he started, trying like hell to not sound so emotional about it. “You oughta put a few soccer balls on there.”
Nathan shot him a rather ugly look for a nine-year-old. “I know, Dad.”
Jared raised his hands in defense and leaned back in his chair. He stayed quiet as he watched Nathan glue the shapes in place all by himself then grab the black crayon and draw blocks over the shapes that he’d suspected to be moons. His last move was to haphazardly sketch green lines across the bottom, and there it was. A few soccer balls looked like they were bouncing through grass, just as Nathan had apparently planned.
Sitting up with the sheet in his hand, Nathan grinned. “All done!”
“What about some hearts?” Jared asked as he leaned forward to take the sheet.
Nathan swung away so Jared couldn’t reach it. “Nuh-uh! You can put hearts on your valentime, but mine stays blue. It’s Jensen’s favorite color anyway.”
“It is, huh?” he chuckled back, ignoring Nathan’s full comment.
“He wears it a lot. And you always tell him he looks nice in it.”
Well, he does, Jared thought, but didn’t dare say.
“Let’s bring it to him now!”
Jared cleared his throat with an awkward laugh. “We can’t do that right now.”
“Why not?” he asked with a pout.
“He’s at school.”
“It’s eight o’clock at night!” Nathan complained. “What’s he doin’ at school so late?”
Jared scooted closer, running a hand through Nathan’s unruly hair and ruffling it up even more, laughing when Nathan whined and batted his hand away. “He’s chaperoning the school dance.”
Nathan sat back in his chair, kicking his feet out and managing to look up at Jared a few times before asking, “How come we weren’t invited?”
“Because we don’t go to that school.”
“But we know Jensen.”
“I know, peanut,” Jared returned softly, hand even softer over the back of Nathan’s neck. “But it’s not the same thing.”
“Well,” he asked on a long syllable. He sat forward again and held Jensen’s valentine in front of him. “When will we see him next?”
Jared flinched with the question then schooled his face into something more innocent. He had plans to see Jensen throughout the week for dinner or late meet-ups, as they’d been doing for a good two years now. But Nathan would be back at Sandy’s, and the next time Jared had him long enough to spend time with Jensen … well, it would certainly take away a good deal of meaning in the valentine.
He checked the clock and winced. Nathan’s bedtime was slowly creeping up on them and he’d have to bring Nathan back to Sandy. Both parents had always been respectful and honored what was best for Nathan at all times, and Jared couldn’t find the courage to stretch this night out any more than he already had.
Nathan, on the other hand, had other plans. He turned his lips down into a rather pathetic frown and widened his eyes as far as they would go. “We really can’t?”
“I’m sorry, Nathan,” Jared said, as apologetic as he could get.
But Nathan still had the big guns to pull out. His eyes started to shine in tears and his lips fell even further down his face. “Really?”
Only a few seconds passed before Jared rose and lightly swatted at Nathan’s head, knowing he’d been had but also kicking himself for having no will power against his son’s best kicked puppy face. “Your mother’s gonna kill me.”
There was a quiet Yes! hissed in victory, but Jared did his best to ignore it.
*
When they reached the high school, Jared instantly worried at the collar of his button-up. It was a relatively clean, dark blue thing. Yet, the sight of students hanging in the hallways and inside the gym dressed in colorful cocktail dresses and nice suit jackets put him on edge. He grabbed at Nathan’s hand, squeezing more with embarrassment for actually showing up like this, with his son in tow, when the dance was still in full swing.
But then he had to cut off a laugh because, at the sweets table, he saw Jensen. Jensen was dressed up in a dark button-up opened at the neck and an even darker suit jacket kept open and utterly surrounded by a line of admirers - both coworkers and students - trying to talk to him.
“Ugh, really?” Nathan grunted.
Jared patted his head with a smile. Apparently Nathan didn’t like watching people hit on Jensen any more than he liked watching Jared innocently flirt with soccer moms.
Nathan looked up to Jared. “Can we just go give this to him? Why’re we out here?”
“Because he’s busy,” Jared replied quietly as he continued to watch Jensen graciously deal with the attention.
“Can I help you?” a woman asked as she approached Jared from the side.
Both Jared and Nathan flinched at her sudden appearance, and Jared chuckled to himself for being alarmed by a rather unintimidating, young woman who was also dressed up in a subtle skirt and top. And he figured her to be another chaperone.
Nathan spoke first: “We’re here for Jensen. I have a delivery.”
Jared bit into his lip and nearly rolled his eyes before pulling Nathan in front of him, hands tight to his shoulders to keep him in place as he prepared to cover up the rather formal announcement. But she just crouched before them and smiled at his son. “Are you Nathan?” When Nathan nodded enthusiastically, her smile turned incredibly warm and she grabbed his hand to shake. “Hi, Nathan. I’ve heard so much about you. Jensen talks about you all the time.”
“All the time?” Jared asked slowly.
She looked up and smiled just as sweetly to him. “Well, okay, not all. But a fair amount of the time.” She turned back to Nathan and shook his hand again, this time playfully with an exaggerated motion, which made Nathan smile and nearly giggle. “I’m Danneel. I work with Jensen.”
Jared immediately eased up and laughed at himself, having heard her name dropped on enough occasions to understand that she and Jensen were the equivalent of work spouses, always together and helping one another out at school. He dumbly said, “This makes so much sense,” and then added on, “I’m Jared.”
Danneel smirked at him. “Hi, Jared.” She went back to Nathan and carefully held the other end of his valentine. “This is so cool! Did you make this yourself?”
“This one, yeah,” Nathan started slowly before rattling on excitedly about all the other ones his dad had helped him make throughout the night, and ended the whole story with, “But I did Jensen’s all by myself. With my own scissors and glue, and I picked all the colors, too.”
“Man, he’s really gonna love this,” she nearly gushed in return, showing off her greatest people skills and obvious talent for being a supportive teacher. “You want to bring it to him?”
Nathan and Jared both looked inside the gym, and while Jared winced, it was Nathan who sounded worried. “Right now?”
“You came all this way, right?” Danneel stood, straightened out her skirt, and reached for Nathan’s hand. When he wouldn’t take it, she wiggled her fingers and grinned. “C’mon, buddy.”
Nathan looked to Jared and all he could do was nod back at his son. Himself, he was afraid to go in there and create any kind of scene for Jensen in front of coworkers and students. So he stayed where he was and watched Danneel lead Nathan through the crowd until they found Jensen, who simply smiled at her then dropped his sights down and looked wholly shocked in an odd way.
Jared watched as Jensen took the offered valentine, scanning the front and back not once or twice, but three times before he spoke, carrying on a conversation with Nathan that Jared had no clue on given how Jensen’s face betrayed nothing. Jensen looked over the valentine again and then around the gym until his eyes landed on Jared in the hallway. Jared offered a small wave that Jensen answered with a short nod, which did nothing to ease Jared for showing up right then.
Jensen said a few more words to Nathan then leaned down and pulled him up and into his arms, hauling Nathan’s tall frame as easily as he has before. Nathan settled at Jensen’s hip as Jensen finally smiled, and his face finally showed his emotion as he admired the valentine.
After a few rounds of introducing Nathan to Jensen’s surrounding coworkers, Jensen wove through the crowd, Nathan still at his hip, and met Jared in the hallway. He put Nathan down as he softly raved, “I can’t believe you guys are here,” with a hand swiping over Nathan’s head and the other still holding the valentine so he could look at it.
“Nathan insisted,” Jared chuckled awkwardly.
“Do you like the valentime?” Nathan asked hesitantly.
Even as Jared softly sighed at Nathan continually mispronouncing the holiday, Jensen grinned at Nathan. “Yes, I do. I really like your valentime. You wanna come with me to put it up?”
“Do we get to see your room?” Nathan asked with a surprising amount of excitement.
“Yeah, let’s go check out my office,” Jensen replied as he motioned down the hall and led them there.
Once inside the small but adequate office, Nathan and Jensen got to work figuring out where on Jensen’s cork board the valentine would look best. Jensen guided Nathan onto his desk and together, they found a spot where only a few notes would be covered up. As Nathan held it in place, Jensen put push-pin to cork to tack it up.
The whole time, Jared was staring at the framed photo at the edge of Jensen’s desk, facing inward. He finally picked it up and logged all of the pee-wee kids in the team photo and he easily recognized Nathan, age seven.
Jared kept his eyes on the photo but he still heard Jensen direct Nathan to his desk chair and give him a baseball score sheet and permanent markers to draw with. As Nathan colored in diamonds and squares with blue, red, and green ink, Jensen rounded the desk to stand next to Jared.
“I can’t tell if this is creepy,” Jared started.
“It’s totally not,” Jensen insisted quietly, with a small elbow to Jared’s side that drew a smile from Jared. “It’s the only way I could put something in here.”
“No, yeah, I get that,” Jared replied, ignoring the obvious lump in his throat. “I just … I’m surprised.”
Jensen turned and sat at the edge of his desk to face Jared. “Of what?”
Jared waved the frame at Jensen. “Of this.” Once he put it back to its place, he smiled lightly. “Of Danneel, and her saying you talk about Nathan all the time. And you putting that up there,” he finished while motioning to Nathan’s artwork and resolutely looking away so he could pretend he was not tearing up with the thought of this evening going as it had.
“Well, you’re gonna have to deal with it,” Jensen said, playfully. He grabbed Jared’s hands and squeezed, and when Jared looked at him, Jensen winked. “I’m not going anywhere. So keep crying. It only gives me more ammunition to mock you.”
Even while snorting and shaking his head to defy Jensen’s words, Jared squeezed back on Jensen’s hands. “Why’re you so mean?”
Jensen stood and smiled warmly as he closed the distance between them. “Because it’s easy.” He leaned close enough to kiss with soft, dry lips, both doing their best to not make a sound as Nathan was still distracted with making elaborate, colorful designs with shaded shapes on the page. “Thank you for coming by,” Jensen murmured when he pulled back.
Jared nodded and smiled. “He insisted.”
“He’s a smart kid,” he said as he looked over his shoulder to grin at Nathan. “I wonder where he gets it from.”
When Jared protested with an indignant, “Hey,” Jensen laughed and leaned back in to kiss him again.
Sooooooo with great hugs to Anna! I present:
Title: A Most Awesome Valentine's Day
Words: 2,400
Rating/Warning: PG/Total schmoop
Summary: Mama said I should make valentimes for whoever I want
Construction paper covered the kitchen table, patches of red and pink and white and … brown. Because Nathan insisted in some manly colors, and brown was the color of dirt, and nothing was more manly than playing in it.
Jared chuckled and shook his head but continued helping Nathan create his own valentines. For his mom, his teachers, and Marie Ward, who he insisted was not his girlfriend. She just laughed at all his jokes and he thought he owed her one for being that nice.
Again, Jared chuckled while assisting with drops of Elmer’s glue to attach stars to hearts as big as his own hand and more hearts to even bigger circles.
After a good pile of scraps was swept to the edge of the table, Jared brought the garbage over to clean the surface, but Nathan had other ideas. He snagged the last pack of construction paper and yanked sheets out with a large flourish and slapped them to the table.
“One more.”
“For who?” Jared asked flatly, distracted by Nathan being so on target with his new plan.
“Well, two more.”
His son didn’t explain further, just tucked his tongue into the side of his mouth as he pressed a blue crayon hard to the center of a pale blue sheet. It took a few seconds until Nathan had formed the first few letters, but when Jared saw it, his stomach clenched and his heart sped up.
JENSEN
Jared sat next to Nathan and laid a soft hand to his back. “Hey, peanut, you don’t have to.”
Nathan sat up on his knees, huddling over his work as he used his safety scissors to cut out crooked and misshapen stars and moons in black and gold. “Mama said I should make valentimes for whoever I want.”
“It’s valentine, buddy.”
“That’s what I said,” Nathan insisted, then said, “And I’m making one for Jensen, because I want to. And you should, too.”
The chuckle this time was mangled by the warmth spreading across his chest. “Okay, so, if you’re gonna make one for him,” he started, trying like hell to not sound so emotional about it. “You oughta put a few soccer balls on there.”
Nathan shot him a rather ugly look for a nine-year-old. “I know, Dad.”
Jared raised his hands in defense and leaned back in his chair. He stayed quiet as he watched Nathan glue the shapes in place all by himself then grab the black crayon and draw blocks over the shapes that he’d suspected to be moons. His last move was to haphazardly sketch green lines across the bottom, and there it was. A few soccer balls looked like they were bouncing through grass, just as Nathan had apparently planned.
Sitting up with the sheet in his hand, Nathan grinned. “All done!”
“What about some hearts?” Jared asked as he leaned forward to take the sheet.
Nathan swung away so Jared couldn’t reach it. “Nuh-uh! You can put hearts on your valentime, but mine stays blue. It’s Jensen’s favorite color anyway.”
“It is, huh?” he chuckled back, ignoring Nathan’s full comment.
“He wears it a lot. And you always tell him he looks nice in it.”
Well, he does, Jared thought, but didn’t dare say.
“Let’s bring it to him now!”
Jared cleared his throat with an awkward laugh. “We can’t do that right now.”
“Why not?” he asked with a pout.
“He’s at school.”
“It’s eight o’clock at night!” Nathan complained. “What’s he doin’ at school so late?”
Jared scooted closer, running a hand through Nathan’s unruly hair and ruffling it up even more, laughing when Nathan whined and batted his hand away. “He’s chaperoning the school dance.”
Nathan sat back in his chair, kicking his feet out and managing to look up at Jared a few times before asking, “How come we weren’t invited?”
“Because we don’t go to that school.”
“But we know Jensen.”
“I know, peanut,” Jared returned softly, hand even softer over the back of Nathan’s neck. “But it’s not the same thing.”
“Well,” he asked on a long syllable. He sat forward again and held Jensen’s valentine in front of him. “When will we see him next?”
Jared flinched with the question then schooled his face into something more innocent. He had plans to see Jensen throughout the week for dinner or late meet-ups, as they’d been doing for a good two years now. But Nathan would be back at Sandy’s, and the next time Jared had him long enough to spend time with Jensen … well, it would certainly take away a good deal of meaning in the valentine.
He checked the clock and winced. Nathan’s bedtime was slowly creeping up on them and he’d have to bring Nathan back to Sandy. Both parents had always been respectful and honored what was best for Nathan at all times, and Jared couldn’t find the courage to stretch this night out any more than he already had.
Nathan, on the other hand, had other plans. He turned his lips down into a rather pathetic frown and widened his eyes as far as they would go. “We really can’t?”
“I’m sorry, Nathan,” Jared said, as apologetic as he could get.
But Nathan still had the big guns to pull out. His eyes started to shine in tears and his lips fell even further down his face. “Really?”
Only a few seconds passed before Jared rose and lightly swatted at Nathan’s head, knowing he’d been had but also kicking himself for having no will power against his son’s best kicked puppy face. “Your mother’s gonna kill me.”
There was a quiet Yes! hissed in victory, but Jared did his best to ignore it.
*
When they reached the high school, Jared instantly worried at the collar of his button-up. It was a relatively clean, dark blue thing. Yet, the sight of students hanging in the hallways and inside the gym dressed in colorful cocktail dresses and nice suit jackets put him on edge. He grabbed at Nathan’s hand, squeezing more with embarrassment for actually showing up like this, with his son in tow, when the dance was still in full swing.
But then he had to cut off a laugh because, at the sweets table, he saw Jensen. Jensen was dressed up in a dark button-up opened at the neck and an even darker suit jacket kept open and utterly surrounded by a line of admirers - both coworkers and students - trying to talk to him.
“Ugh, really?” Nathan grunted.
Jared patted his head with a smile. Apparently Nathan didn’t like watching people hit on Jensen any more than he liked watching Jared innocently flirt with soccer moms.
Nathan looked up to Jared. “Can we just go give this to him? Why’re we out here?”
“Because he’s busy,” Jared replied quietly as he continued to watch Jensen graciously deal with the attention.
“Can I help you?” a woman asked as she approached Jared from the side.
Both Jared and Nathan flinched at her sudden appearance, and Jared chuckled to himself for being alarmed by a rather unintimidating, young woman who was also dressed up in a subtle skirt and top. And he figured her to be another chaperone.
Nathan spoke first: “We’re here for Jensen. I have a delivery.”
Jared bit into his lip and nearly rolled his eyes before pulling Nathan in front of him, hands tight to his shoulders to keep him in place as he prepared to cover up the rather formal announcement. But she just crouched before them and smiled at his son. “Are you Nathan?” When Nathan nodded enthusiastically, her smile turned incredibly warm and she grabbed his hand to shake. “Hi, Nathan. I’ve heard so much about you. Jensen talks about you all the time.”
“All the time?” Jared asked slowly.
She looked up and smiled just as sweetly to him. “Well, okay, not all. But a fair amount of the time.” She turned back to Nathan and shook his hand again, this time playfully with an exaggerated motion, which made Nathan smile and nearly giggle. “I’m Danneel. I work with Jensen.”
Jared immediately eased up and laughed at himself, having heard her name dropped on enough occasions to understand that she and Jensen were the equivalent of work spouses, always together and helping one another out at school. He dumbly said, “This makes so much sense,” and then added on, “I’m Jared.”
Danneel smirked at him. “Hi, Jared.” She went back to Nathan and carefully held the other end of his valentine. “This is so cool! Did you make this yourself?”
“This one, yeah,” Nathan started slowly before rattling on excitedly about all the other ones his dad had helped him make throughout the night, and ended the whole story with, “But I did Jensen’s all by myself. With my own scissors and glue, and I picked all the colors, too.”
“Man, he’s really gonna love this,” she nearly gushed in return, showing off her greatest people skills and obvious talent for being a supportive teacher. “You want to bring it to him?”
Nathan and Jared both looked inside the gym, and while Jared winced, it was Nathan who sounded worried. “Right now?”
“You came all this way, right?” Danneel stood, straightened out her skirt, and reached for Nathan’s hand. When he wouldn’t take it, she wiggled her fingers and grinned. “C’mon, buddy.”
Nathan looked to Jared and all he could do was nod back at his son. Himself, he was afraid to go in there and create any kind of scene for Jensen in front of coworkers and students. So he stayed where he was and watched Danneel lead Nathan through the crowd until they found Jensen, who simply smiled at her then dropped his sights down and looked wholly shocked in an odd way.
Jared watched as Jensen took the offered valentine, scanning the front and back not once or twice, but three times before he spoke, carrying on a conversation with Nathan that Jared had no clue on given how Jensen’s face betrayed nothing. Jensen looked over the valentine again and then around the gym until his eyes landed on Jared in the hallway. Jared offered a small wave that Jensen answered with a short nod, which did nothing to ease Jared for showing up right then.
Jensen said a few more words to Nathan then leaned down and pulled him up and into his arms, hauling Nathan’s tall frame as easily as he has before. Nathan settled at Jensen’s hip as Jensen finally smiled, and his face finally showed his emotion as he admired the valentine.
After a few rounds of introducing Nathan to Jensen’s surrounding coworkers, Jensen wove through the crowd, Nathan still at his hip, and met Jared in the hallway. He put Nathan down as he softly raved, “I can’t believe you guys are here,” with a hand swiping over Nathan’s head and the other still holding the valentine so he could look at it.
“Nathan insisted,” Jared chuckled awkwardly.
“Do you like the valentime?” Nathan asked hesitantly.
Even as Jared softly sighed at Nathan continually mispronouncing the holiday, Jensen grinned at Nathan. “Yes, I do. I really like your valentime. You wanna come with me to put it up?”
“Do we get to see your room?” Nathan asked with a surprising amount of excitement.
“Yeah, let’s go check out my office,” Jensen replied as he motioned down the hall and led them there.
Once inside the small but adequate office, Nathan and Jensen got to work figuring out where on Jensen’s cork board the valentine would look best. Jensen guided Nathan onto his desk and together, they found a spot where only a few notes would be covered up. As Nathan held it in place, Jensen put push-pin to cork to tack it up.
The whole time, Jared was staring at the framed photo at the edge of Jensen’s desk, facing inward. He finally picked it up and logged all of the pee-wee kids in the team photo and he easily recognized Nathan, age seven.
Jared kept his eyes on the photo but he still heard Jensen direct Nathan to his desk chair and give him a baseball score sheet and permanent markers to draw with. As Nathan colored in diamonds and squares with blue, red, and green ink, Jensen rounded the desk to stand next to Jared.
“I can’t tell if this is creepy,” Jared started.
“It’s totally not,” Jensen insisted quietly, with a small elbow to Jared’s side that drew a smile from Jared. “It’s the only way I could put something in here.”
“No, yeah, I get that,” Jared replied, ignoring the obvious lump in his throat. “I just … I’m surprised.”
Jensen turned and sat at the edge of his desk to face Jared. “Of what?”
Jared waved the frame at Jensen. “Of this.” Once he put it back to its place, he smiled lightly. “Of Danneel, and her saying you talk about Nathan all the time. And you putting that up there,” he finished while motioning to Nathan’s artwork and resolutely looking away so he could pretend he was not tearing up with the thought of this evening going as it had.
“Well, you’re gonna have to deal with it,” Jensen said, playfully. He grabbed Jared’s hands and squeezed, and when Jared looked at him, Jensen winked. “I’m not going anywhere. So keep crying. It only gives me more ammunition to mock you.”
Even while snorting and shaking his head to defy Jensen’s words, Jared squeezed back on Jensen’s hands. “Why’re you so mean?”
Jensen stood and smiled warmly as he closed the distance between them. “Because it’s easy.” He leaned close enough to kiss with soft, dry lips, both doing their best to not make a sound as Nathan was still distracted with making elaborate, colorful designs with shaded shapes on the page. “Thank you for coming by,” Jensen murmured when he pulled back.
Jared nodded and smiled. “He insisted.”
“He’s a smart kid,” he said as he looked over his shoulder to grin at Nathan. “I wonder where he gets it from.”
When Jared protested with an indignant, “Hey,” Jensen laughed and leaned back in to kiss him again.