J2 | You Hit Me Once, I Hit You Back | R
Title: You Hit Me Once, I Hit You Back
Words: 2495
Warnings: References to past violence
Notes: Written for spnspringfling for dephigravity's prompt "When push comes to shove." Big thanks to kelleigh for all the help while she was here, making sure I finished this a few hours before the deadline! Title from Florence + The Machine's "Kiss With a Fist."
They’ve been best friends for twenty-some years and a lot has happened. Hundreds of drunken binges, dozens of nights crashing on one another’s couch, thousands of phone calls. There have also been disagreements, big and small. Like who buys the next round, who cheats worse at flag football, and who’s the biggest baby about hangovers and colds. Plenty of moments that come and go, but the most memorable are the fights.
Three knock-down, drag-out, tear-clothing, bleed-on-one-another fights. Jared’s mom has always expressed her concern over how vicious they get with one another. Jensen’s mom, too, but with a little less concern and a lot more cynicism.
Like now, when she’s standing over Jensen while he sits on the closed toilet seat and winces when she dabs alcohol to his split lip.
He winces, sucks in a harsh breath. She just shakes her head.
“You were seven when he tossed you to the ground,” she says idly, watching her work but not really looking at him.
Jensen groans and tries to move away, but she grabs his jaw to keep him in place.
“Kid threw you down into the wood chips and kicked them right in your eye. All over stupid kickball.”
He sighs and fidgets on the toilet, trying to right his shoulders. He’s 24 and yes, he lives at home, but he’s also a college graduate, full-time legal assistant, and more than capable of handling himself. Besides, he doesn’t need her recounting a second-grade fight. “It wasn’t kick-”
“Oh really? You tellin’ me Jared didn’t throw your ass down after you pegged him in the face?”
Okay, it really did happen like that. After Jared had knocked a ball deep into left, he’d run around the bases and cackled at Jensen as he rounded second. When Jensen nabbed the cut-off throw, he aimed right for Jared’s head instead of the third baseman. Seconds later, Jared dragged Jensen across the playground and into the woodchips, the whole class following to watch.
“If this is another Jared’s a bad influence conversation, you can have it by yourself.” He hisses and flinches away when he feels the alcohol burn at the gash in his cheek.
His mom smirks and aims the now-bloodied cotton ball at him. “You gonna keep mouthing off?”
Jensen promptly shuts up and lets his mother tend to his wounds.
***
“Oh, sweetie, look at you,” Jared’s mom whines the second he’s in the kitchen
Jared sighs, though he secretly loves the immediate attention. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah, you should totally see the other guy,” Megan snips as she comes up behind him.
“Shut up,” he grumbles.
“What happened?” his mom asks as she leads him to sit at the kitchen table. She moves hair off his face then looks at him sternly. “Why were you fighting?”
“I’m fine.”
She moves his face in all directions. Surely she can spot every cut on his cheeks, forehead, and chin because she raises her eyebrow at him. “Who’d you fight?”
“I wasn’t fighting.”
She disappears for a bit, returning with her hands full of medical supplies, then she’s working to clean his face and wincing every time he does. “JT, who did you fight?” she ask with soft, motherly comfort he can’t ignore.
“No one.”
“Jensen,” Megan drops in.
“Megan!” he shouts.
Megan glares right back at him. “Not my fault I had to pick you up because he knocked you out and left you on your ass.”
His mom, on the other hand, looks sad and broken at the news. “Oh, Jared, no, not with Jensen.”
“It’s fine. Not a big deal,” he argues.
She spreads antiseptic gel over his eyebrow, which had split open with Jensen’s … fourth or fifth hit. Jared kind of lost track once they were on the ground. “Not a big deal like when you were eighteen?”
“No, mom,” he whines, because he’s not up for travelling down memory lane.
“And he dragged you out of the car and threw you over the hood?”
Jared turns his eyes down and reluctantly corrects her. “It was the trunk. And we were totally fine after.”
They were, once Jared returned the four hundred dollars he owed Jensen. It was a nasty fight, sure, especially as they stopped on the side of a highway in Arizona and Jared had just admitted he “accidentally” gambled away the remainder of their road trip money at the casino the night before.
His mom sighs and gives him the typical disappointed motherly eyes. “What is with you two? Going at it like that? Rabbid like animals?”
“It’ll be fine. Always is.”
“You’re never fine,” she chides him. “You’re always sitting back and accepting it all. Gotta stand up for yourself, Jared!”
He feels punished and admonished, so he nods and softly says, “I will.”
“Real soon.”
***
It’s been three days. Jensen still can’t stomach Jared’s name on his caller ID or texts. Everyone around him, all their friends, have been huffing and lecturing because this is the longest they’ve gone without talking, texting, or emailing.
Three days is a big deal in their world. Jensen isn’t sure how to handle it. Isn’t sure how to answer all the questions about why they were fighting, who started it, who’s going to end the freeze-out.
Jensen’s certainly not up for doing it. He’s not at fault, no way, no how. Jared is. Most definitely.
It was Jared who went overboard the second he heard Jensen hooked up with Matt the weekend before. They’d all been hanging out comfortably in Danneel’s basement, surrounded by friends and food and beer. Maybe Jensen shouldn’t have been smug about it - you just need to get laid, Jay - but it was Jared who threw the first punch, nailing Jensen in the mouth then taking him to the ground.
Jensen spent most of the fight (pathetically) in a ball, covering his face, all while Jared went at him like a packed bag. Once Jensen gained the leverage to flip them over, he nailed Jared between the eyes.
Chad and Aldis yanked them apart, forcing Jared into the bathroom and Jensen out of the house and on his way home.
Jensen figures the people who deserve apologies are Danneel and her mom for the mess of their house. He ignores Danneel’s text that he apologize to Jared. How was he supposed to know Jared had any interest in Matt? Why the hell is he holding Jensen responsible for that? They’ve been friends for 22 years and never before has Jared had a hard time holding a secret. Jared can’t blame him for not being able to read his mind.
It brews and builds in Jensen’s mind and he’s stewing on his way to Danneel’s to apologize. Then it stops and falls away when he spots Jared sitting on the front steps to the house, head ducked down, hands hanging off his knees, all defeated and tired.
Jensen slows down and considers turning back for home when Jared glances up and sits straight, face unreadable. But maybe that’s just because of all the bandages.
Shit.
Jensen immediately feels awful for laying a hand on Jared. Even in self-defense. It’s not like he enjoys seeing Jared like this.
He bites the bullet and keeps heading Jared’s way, even takes the stairs and sits down next to him, uncomfortably silent.
“Hey,” Jared mumbles.
“Hey,” Jensen stupidly replies. Then he winces when he sees the deep purple under each of Jared’s eyes and the tape across his nose. “So,” he says, awkwardly motioning towards Jared’s face.
“It’s broken,” Jared supplies. He takes a few moments to look over Jensen’s cuts and bruises, and huffs. “You look like shit.”
Jensen is well aware they both do and chuckles as much as he can without opening the cut on his mouth again. Danneel had said it was the nastiest fight she’d ever seen. For a girl who lives on UFC, that’s pretty bad. “Anyone tape it? We could make some money.”
Jared snorts. “I don’t think so. But Chad insists we reenact it.”
“I think we put that in the 'no' pile.”
“Yeah, I’ve already told him that.”
Jensen nods and looks across Danneel’s neighborhood. It’s good they’re talking, but he’s still feeling a little wired from the mental fight he’s been building for the last few days. Him virtually arguing against Jared being petty and jealous about Matt, about Jared’s inability to just freaking talk to him instead reacting so harshly.
“I didn’t know you liked Matt.”
“I didn’t know you wanted him,” Jensen says right over Jared and suddenly they look at each other, then awkwardly smile.
“I don’t want him,” Jared admits, looking over his hands.
Jensen can see the scrapes and nicks in Jared’s knuckles and mentally matches them up to the ones on his own face. “Then what’s the deal?” he asks carefully. Because seriously.
Jared glances away and softly claps his hands together. “My mom thinks there’s something wrong with us. The way we fight like this.”
“We’ve had three fights in twenty years. Pretty darn good, I’d say,” Jensen jokes to lighten the mood.
After a few seconds, Jared turns back towards Jensen and gets this high-eyebrow, pinched-face kind of look to him. “It wasn’t about Matt.”
Jensen thinks on it and shrugs. “Then what the hell did I do?”
That seems to be all Jared needs for the dominoes to fall because he rambles. “Twenty-two years of being best friends and only three fights means we’ve had a lot of really good memories. And there’re a lot of moments I don’t ever wanna forget followed by a year or two now of times I wish I hadn’t kept my mouth shut. My momma said I have to stand up for myself now.”
Jensen is so confused all he makes out is, “She wants us to fight?”
“No, it’s just that, hearing you slept with Matt pissed me off like you have no idea.”
Jensen motions at his own battered face. “I have some idea.”
Jared frowns then murmurs, “I’ve been in love with you. For years, but only conscious of it for a few now.”
“You, wow,” Jensen spits out immediately. He stands and walks down the steps, spins on the sidewalk like he’s about to walk away but knows he can’t. “I can’t even … wow, Jared. Years?” he asks, stressing the words. He feels like he’s lost any understanding of who Jared is. He thought he could read the guy inside and out, and here they’ve had this … thing going unspoken for years.
Jared shrugs and gets that puppy look in his eyes, but it’s ridiculous framed by his scraped skin, puffy cheeks, and the bandages on his nose.
Jensen laughs as something nervous bubbles up and shakes his head. He can’t put a name to it, but he’s always had this inexplicable pull to Jared, the need to be right next to him, in his space, to have Jared inside his days and nights, too.
He knows it’s really fucking sad that it took a round of ultimate fighting to get there, but he supposes it’s best than to have never arrived at all.
Shaking his head, Jensen walks back up the stairs. He stops between Jared’s knees, tweaking the tip of Jared’s nose. It makes Jared wince, which makes Jensen laugh, as if he didn’t know that would hurt. He kind of doesn’t care that it does, really. This is still Jared’s fault.
“Should’ve told me,” Jensen says.
“I did,” Jared replies pathetically.
“Without your fists.”
Jared nods his head around like he doesn’t want to give in, yet can’t help it. “Well, yeah. I know. I’m sorry.”
“And without my mom having to lecture me,” Jensen insists.
Jared glances up. “Yeah, me, too.”
“I’d rather have your mom’s lecture than mine. She rehashed the kickball fight.”
They stare until Jared snorts. “She basically told me to buck up and admit I love you.”
“I like hers better,” Jensen replies, small smile warming his face.
“You would,” Jared chuckles then stops, absolutely serious. “You like her idea?”
The moment feels heavy and thick with this big expression between friends who are unconscionably close. Jensen can’t think of the right words so he slowly nods and leans down. Hesitantly sets his mouth to Jared’s, carefully rests his hand on Jared’s shoulder to steady himself. Jared opens his mouth, wraps his lips around Jensen’s, then tilts his head, forcing them to bump noses. They wince, curse, and quickly separate.
“Bad idea,” Jensen grumbles, touching his nose.
Jared has one huge hand covering his face as he moans in pain. Maybe misery because when he removes his hand, he looks wrecked, tortured even. “Bad idea?”
Jensen’s stomach twists up and he quickly shakes his head. “Not a bad idea, just bad timing. Really awful, shitty timing for a fight that somehow got us to realize a few really good things.”
“You know,” Jared starts thoughtfully. “We can do things that don’t involve kissing.”
“Yeah, but if I keep wincing or smiling, this cut’s never gonna heal,” he replies, pointing at his mouth.
“I meant like hanging out. Dinner or something.” Jared glares. “How easy do you think I am?”
Jensen scoffs. “Like misunderstanding that is a bad thing.” Before Jared can argue, Jensen leans in and mumbles, “Shut up now,” and kisses him again. This time he’s mindful of how their heads move or how deep into the kiss they get.
And it’s good. Better than good. It’s fabulous in a way that Jensen wants to crawl into Jared’s lap. Jared’s hands on Jensen’s hips say that they’re on the same page.
“This was not how I expected you two to make up,” Aldis says dryly from behind Jensen.
Jensen backs away, hiding his smile by wiping his hand over his mouth.
“It’s exactly what I expected,” Danneel adds from beside Aldis.
“Shut up,” Jensen grunts. Then he’s smiling again because Jared still has a hand on his hip. It feels comfortable, nice, like something just snapped into place. To Danneel, he says, “Hey, I’m sorry about-”
“Just don’t do it again,” she waves off. “The fighting I mean. The kissing should happen a lot more often. And deeper.”
“Excuse me?” Jared cuts in.
She smirks as she and Aldis pass them up the stairs. “It’s good you guys finally got your act together.”
Jensen waits until they’re alone again and sets his hand over Jared’s, still at his waist. “We got our act together,” he nods.
“I promise to never hit you again,” Jared says suddenly serious.
“Good, because I don’t like looking like this.”
Jared laughs and pulls Jensen in, arms around Jensen’s waist, looking up at him. “Yeah, you’re real hard on the eyes.”
It occurs to Jensen that his lips has split open again, but he doesn’t really care anymore. He just keeps smiling.
Words: 2495
Warnings: References to past violence
Notes: Written for spnspringfling for dephigravity's prompt "When push comes to shove." Big thanks to kelleigh for all the help while she was here, making sure I finished this a few hours before the deadline! Title from Florence + The Machine's "Kiss With a Fist."
They’ve been best friends for twenty-some years and a lot has happened. Hundreds of drunken binges, dozens of nights crashing on one another’s couch, thousands of phone calls. There have also been disagreements, big and small. Like who buys the next round, who cheats worse at flag football, and who’s the biggest baby about hangovers and colds. Plenty of moments that come and go, but the most memorable are the fights.
Three knock-down, drag-out, tear-clothing, bleed-on-one-another fights. Jared’s mom has always expressed her concern over how vicious they get with one another. Jensen’s mom, too, but with a little less concern and a lot more cynicism.
Like now, when she’s standing over Jensen while he sits on the closed toilet seat and winces when she dabs alcohol to his split lip.
He winces, sucks in a harsh breath. She just shakes her head.
“You were seven when he tossed you to the ground,” she says idly, watching her work but not really looking at him.
Jensen groans and tries to move away, but she grabs his jaw to keep him in place.
“Kid threw you down into the wood chips and kicked them right in your eye. All over stupid kickball.”
He sighs and fidgets on the toilet, trying to right his shoulders. He’s 24 and yes, he lives at home, but he’s also a college graduate, full-time legal assistant, and more than capable of handling himself. Besides, he doesn’t need her recounting a second-grade fight. “It wasn’t kick-”
“Oh really? You tellin’ me Jared didn’t throw your ass down after you pegged him in the face?”
Okay, it really did happen like that. After Jared had knocked a ball deep into left, he’d run around the bases and cackled at Jensen as he rounded second. When Jensen nabbed the cut-off throw, he aimed right for Jared’s head instead of the third baseman. Seconds later, Jared dragged Jensen across the playground and into the woodchips, the whole class following to watch.
“If this is another Jared’s a bad influence conversation, you can have it by yourself.” He hisses and flinches away when he feels the alcohol burn at the gash in his cheek.
His mom smirks and aims the now-bloodied cotton ball at him. “You gonna keep mouthing off?”
Jensen promptly shuts up and lets his mother tend to his wounds.
***
“Oh, sweetie, look at you,” Jared’s mom whines the second he’s in the kitchen
Jared sighs, though he secretly loves the immediate attention. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah, you should totally see the other guy,” Megan snips as she comes up behind him.
“Shut up,” he grumbles.
“What happened?” his mom asks as she leads him to sit at the kitchen table. She moves hair off his face then looks at him sternly. “Why were you fighting?”
“I’m fine.”
She moves his face in all directions. Surely she can spot every cut on his cheeks, forehead, and chin because she raises her eyebrow at him. “Who’d you fight?”
“I wasn’t fighting.”
She disappears for a bit, returning with her hands full of medical supplies, then she’s working to clean his face and wincing every time he does. “JT, who did you fight?” she ask with soft, motherly comfort he can’t ignore.
“No one.”
“Jensen,” Megan drops in.
“Megan!” he shouts.
Megan glares right back at him. “Not my fault I had to pick you up because he knocked you out and left you on your ass.”
His mom, on the other hand, looks sad and broken at the news. “Oh, Jared, no, not with Jensen.”
“It’s fine. Not a big deal,” he argues.
She spreads antiseptic gel over his eyebrow, which had split open with Jensen’s … fourth or fifth hit. Jared kind of lost track once they were on the ground. “Not a big deal like when you were eighteen?”
“No, mom,” he whines, because he’s not up for travelling down memory lane.
“And he dragged you out of the car and threw you over the hood?”
Jared turns his eyes down and reluctantly corrects her. “It was the trunk. And we were totally fine after.”
They were, once Jared returned the four hundred dollars he owed Jensen. It was a nasty fight, sure, especially as they stopped on the side of a highway in Arizona and Jared had just admitted he “accidentally” gambled away the remainder of their road trip money at the casino the night before.
His mom sighs and gives him the typical disappointed motherly eyes. “What is with you two? Going at it like that? Rabbid like animals?”
“It’ll be fine. Always is.”
“You’re never fine,” she chides him. “You’re always sitting back and accepting it all. Gotta stand up for yourself, Jared!”
He feels punished and admonished, so he nods and softly says, “I will.”
“Real soon.”
***
It’s been three days. Jensen still can’t stomach Jared’s name on his caller ID or texts. Everyone around him, all their friends, have been huffing and lecturing because this is the longest they’ve gone without talking, texting, or emailing.
Three days is a big deal in their world. Jensen isn’t sure how to handle it. Isn’t sure how to answer all the questions about why they were fighting, who started it, who’s going to end the freeze-out.
Jensen’s certainly not up for doing it. He’s not at fault, no way, no how. Jared is. Most definitely.
It was Jared who went overboard the second he heard Jensen hooked up with Matt the weekend before. They’d all been hanging out comfortably in Danneel’s basement, surrounded by friends and food and beer. Maybe Jensen shouldn’t have been smug about it - you just need to get laid, Jay - but it was Jared who threw the first punch, nailing Jensen in the mouth then taking him to the ground.
Jensen spent most of the fight (pathetically) in a ball, covering his face, all while Jared went at him like a packed bag. Once Jensen gained the leverage to flip them over, he nailed Jared between the eyes.
Chad and Aldis yanked them apart, forcing Jared into the bathroom and Jensen out of the house and on his way home.
Jensen figures the people who deserve apologies are Danneel and her mom for the mess of their house. He ignores Danneel’s text that he apologize to Jared. How was he supposed to know Jared had any interest in Matt? Why the hell is he holding Jensen responsible for that? They’ve been friends for 22 years and never before has Jared had a hard time holding a secret. Jared can’t blame him for not being able to read his mind.
It brews and builds in Jensen’s mind and he’s stewing on his way to Danneel’s to apologize. Then it stops and falls away when he spots Jared sitting on the front steps to the house, head ducked down, hands hanging off his knees, all defeated and tired.
Jensen slows down and considers turning back for home when Jared glances up and sits straight, face unreadable. But maybe that’s just because of all the bandages.
Shit.
Jensen immediately feels awful for laying a hand on Jared. Even in self-defense. It’s not like he enjoys seeing Jared like this.
He bites the bullet and keeps heading Jared’s way, even takes the stairs and sits down next to him, uncomfortably silent.
“Hey,” Jared mumbles.
“Hey,” Jensen stupidly replies. Then he winces when he sees the deep purple under each of Jared’s eyes and the tape across his nose. “So,” he says, awkwardly motioning towards Jared’s face.
“It’s broken,” Jared supplies. He takes a few moments to look over Jensen’s cuts and bruises, and huffs. “You look like shit.”
Jensen is well aware they both do and chuckles as much as he can without opening the cut on his mouth again. Danneel had said it was the nastiest fight she’d ever seen. For a girl who lives on UFC, that’s pretty bad. “Anyone tape it? We could make some money.”
Jared snorts. “I don’t think so. But Chad insists we reenact it.”
“I think we put that in the 'no' pile.”
“Yeah, I’ve already told him that.”
Jensen nods and looks across Danneel’s neighborhood. It’s good they’re talking, but he’s still feeling a little wired from the mental fight he’s been building for the last few days. Him virtually arguing against Jared being petty and jealous about Matt, about Jared’s inability to just freaking talk to him instead reacting so harshly.
“I didn’t know you liked Matt.”
“I didn’t know you wanted him,” Jensen says right over Jared and suddenly they look at each other, then awkwardly smile.
“I don’t want him,” Jared admits, looking over his hands.
Jensen can see the scrapes and nicks in Jared’s knuckles and mentally matches them up to the ones on his own face. “Then what’s the deal?” he asks carefully. Because seriously.
Jared glances away and softly claps his hands together. “My mom thinks there’s something wrong with us. The way we fight like this.”
“We’ve had three fights in twenty years. Pretty darn good, I’d say,” Jensen jokes to lighten the mood.
After a few seconds, Jared turns back towards Jensen and gets this high-eyebrow, pinched-face kind of look to him. “It wasn’t about Matt.”
Jensen thinks on it and shrugs. “Then what the hell did I do?”
That seems to be all Jared needs for the dominoes to fall because he rambles. “Twenty-two years of being best friends and only three fights means we’ve had a lot of really good memories. And there’re a lot of moments I don’t ever wanna forget followed by a year or two now of times I wish I hadn’t kept my mouth shut. My momma said I have to stand up for myself now.”
Jensen is so confused all he makes out is, “She wants us to fight?”
“No, it’s just that, hearing you slept with Matt pissed me off like you have no idea.”
Jensen motions at his own battered face. “I have some idea.”
Jared frowns then murmurs, “I’ve been in love with you. For years, but only conscious of it for a few now.”
“You, wow,” Jensen spits out immediately. He stands and walks down the steps, spins on the sidewalk like he’s about to walk away but knows he can’t. “I can’t even … wow, Jared. Years?” he asks, stressing the words. He feels like he’s lost any understanding of who Jared is. He thought he could read the guy inside and out, and here they’ve had this … thing going unspoken for years.
Jared shrugs and gets that puppy look in his eyes, but it’s ridiculous framed by his scraped skin, puffy cheeks, and the bandages on his nose.
Jensen laughs as something nervous bubbles up and shakes his head. He can’t put a name to it, but he’s always had this inexplicable pull to Jared, the need to be right next to him, in his space, to have Jared inside his days and nights, too.
He knows it’s really fucking sad that it took a round of ultimate fighting to get there, but he supposes it’s best than to have never arrived at all.
Shaking his head, Jensen walks back up the stairs. He stops between Jared’s knees, tweaking the tip of Jared’s nose. It makes Jared wince, which makes Jensen laugh, as if he didn’t know that would hurt. He kind of doesn’t care that it does, really. This is still Jared’s fault.
“Should’ve told me,” Jensen says.
“I did,” Jared replies pathetically.
“Without your fists.”
Jared nods his head around like he doesn’t want to give in, yet can’t help it. “Well, yeah. I know. I’m sorry.”
“And without my mom having to lecture me,” Jensen insists.
Jared glances up. “Yeah, me, too.”
“I’d rather have your mom’s lecture than mine. She rehashed the kickball fight.”
They stare until Jared snorts. “She basically told me to buck up and admit I love you.”
“I like hers better,” Jensen replies, small smile warming his face.
“You would,” Jared chuckles then stops, absolutely serious. “You like her idea?”
The moment feels heavy and thick with this big expression between friends who are unconscionably close. Jensen can’t think of the right words so he slowly nods and leans down. Hesitantly sets his mouth to Jared’s, carefully rests his hand on Jared’s shoulder to steady himself. Jared opens his mouth, wraps his lips around Jensen’s, then tilts his head, forcing them to bump noses. They wince, curse, and quickly separate.
“Bad idea,” Jensen grumbles, touching his nose.
Jared has one huge hand covering his face as he moans in pain. Maybe misery because when he removes his hand, he looks wrecked, tortured even. “Bad idea?”
Jensen’s stomach twists up and he quickly shakes his head. “Not a bad idea, just bad timing. Really awful, shitty timing for a fight that somehow got us to realize a few really good things.”
“You know,” Jared starts thoughtfully. “We can do things that don’t involve kissing.”
“Yeah, but if I keep wincing or smiling, this cut’s never gonna heal,” he replies, pointing at his mouth.
“I meant like hanging out. Dinner or something.” Jared glares. “How easy do you think I am?”
Jensen scoffs. “Like misunderstanding that is a bad thing.” Before Jared can argue, Jensen leans in and mumbles, “Shut up now,” and kisses him again. This time he’s mindful of how their heads move or how deep into the kiss they get.
And it’s good. Better than good. It’s fabulous in a way that Jensen wants to crawl into Jared’s lap. Jared’s hands on Jensen’s hips say that they’re on the same page.
“This was not how I expected you two to make up,” Aldis says dryly from behind Jensen.
Jensen backs away, hiding his smile by wiping his hand over his mouth.
“It’s exactly what I expected,” Danneel adds from beside Aldis.
“Shut up,” Jensen grunts. Then he’s smiling again because Jared still has a hand on his hip. It feels comfortable, nice, like something just snapped into place. To Danneel, he says, “Hey, I’m sorry about-”
“Just don’t do it again,” she waves off. “The fighting I mean. The kissing should happen a lot more often. And deeper.”
“Excuse me?” Jared cuts in.
She smirks as she and Aldis pass them up the stairs. “It’s good you guys finally got your act together.”
Jensen waits until they’re alone again and sets his hand over Jared’s, still at his waist. “We got our act together,” he nods.
“I promise to never hit you again,” Jared says suddenly serious.
“Good, because I don’t like looking like this.”
Jared laughs and pulls Jensen in, arms around Jensen’s waist, looking up at him. “Yeah, you’re real hard on the eyes.”
It occurs to Jensen that his lips has split open again, but he doesn’t really care anymore. He just keeps smiling.