Bulletproof: epilogue and notes
part ten
Six months later
At sunrise, the sky over the Arizona desert is pale cyan, fading out to white. There's a low bank of clouds along the horizon and a single saguaro casts a long shadow along the cracked, dusty earth. Jared swings the driver's door open and hangs his legs out, easing out the cramp, all without taking his eyes off his Sudoku. He only looks up now and then to make sure he can still see Jensen, standing out there, camera held loose in his hand.
Jared watches him for a moment, taking in the way his t-shirt clings to him and the scuff of dirt up the back of the leg of his jeans, then calls out, "You're s'posed to be taking pictures, baby."
Jensen looks around at him, and there's a sudden burst of sunlight when he turns his head, a perfect halo.
"I am," he says.
Jared is unmoved by his apparent bad temper because he is aware that he can put him in a much better mood very easily just as soon as he wants. There's not a soul out here to see anyway if Jared should decide, as he so often does, that what Jensen needs is to be bent over the hood of the truck and given a good, hard fuck.
"Of something other than me," he clarifies. "I'm guessing your sponsors were thinking of you coming up with something other than Fifty Million Pictures of Jared Padalecki on the Highway."
As Jensen strides back over to the truck, Jared closes his puzzle book and tosses it into the back with their bags in order to give him his full attention.
"Shut up. I have…" Jensen's goes quiet, frowning with concentration, and Jared watches him scroll through the pictures on his camera. The constant exposure to the sun has brought out the freckles across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose and Jared is still in the first flush of falling in love with each and every one of them. "Huh. I have forty seven pictures of you doing Sudoku, two of you pissing by the side of the road, three of that bug bite on your ass, one of you trying to rub lotion on the bug bite and… Yeah, one of that motel we stopped at the first night."
Jared raises an eyebrow, looking doubtful.
"I don't remember the motel being particularly worthy of a photo," he says.
"That's 'cause you're not an artist, baby," Jensen says, flashing him a grin. "You stick to the acting. Leave the pretty pictures to the professionals, 'kay?"
Jared catches him by the front of his t-shirt and tugs him closer. When he kisses Jensen, he can taste the sweetness of the fruit juice he'd been drinking by way of breakfast before they stopped by the side of the road, can smell the citrus tang of his soap from the shower this morning. His skin is warm from the sun and there's the rasp of stubble on his face because Jensen's not bothering too much with shaving.
"You gonna take some pretty pictures of me when we get home?" Jared whispers when he draws back, before ducking back in to nip the curve of Jensen's lower lip until it's swollen and wet. "You know Geri's kind of got her hopes pinned on some tasteful nudity, right? Only way I could talk her into letting me out of doing a movie this summer."
"Sorry, don't think I can manage that. You plus nudity ain't ever gonna be tasteful in my eyes, Jay. Gonna be goddamn pornographic. Think of the raw materials I'm working with."
"Yeah," Jared says, doing his best to sound unimpressed while he grins like crazy. "You know Geri wants this photoshoot published, right? Published as in… other people seeing 'em?"
Jensen waves a hand dismissively. "Well hell, if other people are seeing 'em, we're using the Sudoku shots. Now c'mon, let's go find you some real breakfast, yeah? Before you start gnawing off your own foot."
"See? That's why I love you. Nothing to do with you being so awesome and hot and all. It's that you respect my relationship with food."
Jared tucks his legs back into the truck and reaches down to turn the keys in the ignition. But Jensen is still leaning up against the truck, one eyebrow raised meaningfully. When Jared looks at him, uncertain and confused, Jensen shakes his head.
"Budge over, Jay. S'mine turn to drive."
Jared only hesitates a moment before, grinning, he slides across the seat and lets Jensen climb in behind the wheel. He props his head up on the rest as the engine shudders into life. And as they take off down the highway, the sun is just rising up into the sky.
~end
Notes:
Many thanks to rivers_bend for her awesome beta work, and for putting up with all my linguistic eccentricities (including obsessive car-naming). All remaining mistakes are my own. Huge thanks also to thehighwaywoman, without whom this piece really would not exist. And love to catdancerz for the endless support and cheerleading. ♥
I have been blessed to have wanttobeatree as my artist, for she has produced beautiful artwork and been all enthusiasm and loveliness. Please do go tell her how fantastic she is. And I am so very grateful to greenspine and _emeraldgreen for not disowning me when I said I wanted to write rps. ♥
And thanks to wendy and audrarose for the epic task of organising this big bang, and to my entire f'list for reassurance and love when I was wibbling. ♥
Lastly, thank you to you for getting this far. ♥
Six months later
At sunrise, the sky over the Arizona desert is pale cyan, fading out to white. There's a low bank of clouds along the horizon and a single saguaro casts a long shadow along the cracked, dusty earth. Jared swings the driver's door open and hangs his legs out, easing out the cramp, all without taking his eyes off his Sudoku. He only looks up now and then to make sure he can still see Jensen, standing out there, camera held loose in his hand.
Jared watches him for a moment, taking in the way his t-shirt clings to him and the scuff of dirt up the back of the leg of his jeans, then calls out, "You're s'posed to be taking pictures, baby."
Jensen looks around at him, and there's a sudden burst of sunlight when he turns his head, a perfect halo.
"I am," he says.
Jared is unmoved by his apparent bad temper because he is aware that he can put him in a much better mood very easily just as soon as he wants. There's not a soul out here to see anyway if Jared should decide, as he so often does, that what Jensen needs is to be bent over the hood of the truck and given a good, hard fuck.
"Of something other than me," he clarifies. "I'm guessing your sponsors were thinking of you coming up with something other than Fifty Million Pictures of Jared Padalecki on the Highway."
As Jensen strides back over to the truck, Jared closes his puzzle book and tosses it into the back with their bags in order to give him his full attention.
"Shut up. I have…" Jensen's goes quiet, frowning with concentration, and Jared watches him scroll through the pictures on his camera. The constant exposure to the sun has brought out the freckles across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose and Jared is still in the first flush of falling in love with each and every one of them. "Huh. I have forty seven pictures of you doing Sudoku, two of you pissing by the side of the road, three of that bug bite on your ass, one of you trying to rub lotion on the bug bite and… Yeah, one of that motel we stopped at the first night."
Jared raises an eyebrow, looking doubtful.
"I don't remember the motel being particularly worthy of a photo," he says.
"That's 'cause you're not an artist, baby," Jensen says, flashing him a grin. "You stick to the acting. Leave the pretty pictures to the professionals, 'kay?"
Jared catches him by the front of his t-shirt and tugs him closer. When he kisses Jensen, he can taste the sweetness of the fruit juice he'd been drinking by way of breakfast before they stopped by the side of the road, can smell the citrus tang of his soap from the shower this morning. His skin is warm from the sun and there's the rasp of stubble on his face because Jensen's not bothering too much with shaving.
"You gonna take some pretty pictures of me when we get home?" Jared whispers when he draws back, before ducking back in to nip the curve of Jensen's lower lip until it's swollen and wet. "You know Geri's kind of got her hopes pinned on some tasteful nudity, right? Only way I could talk her into letting me out of doing a movie this summer."
"Sorry, don't think I can manage that. You plus nudity ain't ever gonna be tasteful in my eyes, Jay. Gonna be goddamn pornographic. Think of the raw materials I'm working with."
"Yeah," Jared says, doing his best to sound unimpressed while he grins like crazy. "You know Geri wants this photoshoot published, right? Published as in… other people seeing 'em?"
Jensen waves a hand dismissively. "Well hell, if other people are seeing 'em, we're using the Sudoku shots. Now c'mon, let's go find you some real breakfast, yeah? Before you start gnawing off your own foot."
"See? That's why I love you. Nothing to do with you being so awesome and hot and all. It's that you respect my relationship with food."
Jared tucks his legs back into the truck and reaches down to turn the keys in the ignition. But Jensen is still leaning up against the truck, one eyebrow raised meaningfully. When Jared looks at him, uncertain and confused, Jensen shakes his head.
"Budge over, Jay. S'mine turn to drive."
Jared only hesitates a moment before, grinning, he slides across the seat and lets Jensen climb in behind the wheel. He props his head up on the rest as the engine shudders into life. And as they take off down the highway, the sun is just rising up into the sky.
~end
Notes:
Many thanks to rivers_bend for her awesome beta work, and for putting up with all my linguistic eccentricities (including obsessive car-naming). All remaining mistakes are my own. Huge thanks also to thehighwaywoman, without whom this piece really would not exist. And love to catdancerz for the endless support and cheerleading. ♥
I have been blessed to have wanttobeatree as my artist, for she has produced beautiful artwork and been all enthusiasm and loveliness. Please do go tell her how fantastic she is. And I am so very grateful to greenspine and _emeraldgreen for not disowning me when I said I wanted to write rps. ♥
And thanks to wendy and audrarose for the epic task of organising this big bang, and to my entire f'list for reassurance and love when I was wibbling. ♥
Lastly, thank you to you for getting this far. ♥