Love Like an Icelandic Volcano [ 3/4 ]
Title: Love Like an Icelandic Volcano
Genre: J2 RPS, AU
Pairing: Jensen/Jared
Rating: NC-17 lite
Warnings (overall): Language, Schmoop (My name is Q Blackheart, and I’m a schmoopoholic), Sex
Word Count: 21,000
Disclaimer: Fiction not fact. All these beautiful guys and gals belong to themselves. Jensen and Jared belong to each other, we all know that :D Only the words are mine. No malice intended; all my fics are borne from love everlasting.
Summary:
Apparently, when volcanoes erupt in Iceland, they not only throw the world into chaos, but once the embers burn themselves out and the dust settles, love rises from the ashes.
Read my Author's Notes for a little more background on what inspired this story. This fic is complete and will be posted in four parts during the course of the week.
Comments = Love!
| Master Post |
He should have known it couldn’t last: this taciturn truce, this undeclared détente between them since he had agreed to come and stay with Jensen. He just hadn’t expected it to all go to pot on a winding dirt road, in the midst of a sudden torrential downpour that resulted in Jensen’s Jeep getting stuck in the mud.
“I said push, goddammit!” Jensen yelled at him over the sound of the rain as it came down on them in sheets, soaking through their supposedly waterproof jackets until no part of their bodies was left dry, especially since they had been at this for half a fucking hour already. “What use is it being as big as a fucking tree when you only have the strength of a teenage girl?”
Jared gnashed his teeth together, still hanging on to the last vestiges of their tentative armistice. “I am pushing!”
“Push fucking harder!”
“Jesus Christ, Jensen, you are wearing on my last nerve!” Jared shouted. “Shut up before I make you shut up.”
The wheels of the Jeep abruptly stopped spinning as Jensen stalked around the front of the vehicle from where he had been trying to simultaneously steer and press on the gas and push it through the muddy patch in the road. “You were saying?” he taunted, his chest heaving and his eyes flashing green fire as he stepped right into Jared’s face.
Jared’s hand fisted at his sides, but he closed his eyes and took a long, steady breath before speaking again. “Look. This isn’t going to work with just the two of us pushing, so calm the fuck down and stop taking out your frustration on me!”
“It would work if you actually made a bloody eff… mmphf!” Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by Jared clamping his mouth over Jensen’s, smothering his tirade in one fell swoop with a kiss that was incensed and frenzied, a clash of teeth and tongues in a searing hot battle for dominance.
It took him about ten seconds to realize that he could have just as efficiently shut Jensen up with a hand pressed over his mouth. Or a punch to his face. Oh well. Next time, perhaps. This current method was far too highly effective to change course now.
Jared pulled away when the sound of bleating registered in his brain. Hands still clenched in Jensen’s jacket, Jared turned to see an flock of sheep trundling their way up the road in their direction. He smiled; where there were sheep, there was usually a shepherd, especially if the large flock was being driven along the roads. He looked back at Jensen; Jensen, whose mouth was still a little puckered from the kiss, his eyelashes spiky and wet as he blinked distractedly through the rain streaming down his face, the look in his eyes dazed as he stared off into space.
Jared suppressed the urge to snigger; his kisses tended to have that effect on people.
Okay, that was an outright lie. His kisses were usually okay, but none of the people he had ever kissed before had looked like this afterwards, he thought, delighting in the stunned look on Jensen’s flushed face. It went straight to his cock and made him want to puff out his chest and stand at least a foot taller. Teenage girl, his ass.
Jared Padalecki was the man, and it was about time Jensen Ackles realized that.
The drive back to the cottage was slow and silent, Jensen refusing Jared’s every attempt at conversation until Jared just gave up and stared out of the window, marvelling at the rain misting over and blanketing the lush green scenery they had passed on their way out earlier in the day.
The uncomfortable silence continued well into the evening, Jensen disappearing to help out in the inn and Jared choosing to nurse his frayed nerves at the bar, chatting to the patrons and the bartender, enjoying the quiet country ambiance in the room until it was almost time to turn in for the night. He had returned to the cottage and changed for bed by the time Jensen walked in the back door, freezing when he saw Jared in the kitchen.
Jensen bit his lip as Jared watched, waiting for what, he wasn’t quite sure. “So I guess I’m sorry.”
“You only guess?” Jared asked slyly, holding onto his smile and breath of relief that maybe things could go back to being friendly. Jared was a friendly guy; friendly he could do.
“Right. I was an arse,” Jensen said, looking at him finally and sighing. “I apologize.”
“Apology accepted.” Jared wondered if he should apologize himself, for kissing Jensen, even though the last thing he was, was sorry.
“Mike called me,” Jensen informed him, “they’re spending the night in Mallaig and they’re going to take the ferry out in the morning.”
“You gonna take them on a tour of the island too?” Jared asked teasingly, and Jensen smirked.
“At least there’ll be four of us to push the Jeep if we get stuck,” Jensen joked as he grabbed the kettle and filled it at the sink before plugging it in. “Do you want some cocoa? I usually like some before bed.”
Jared grinned that that; and pursed his lips to keep from commenting on how freaking cute that was. “Yeah, okay.”
“Watch the water, yeah? I’ll just go change out of these clothes,” Jensen told him, disappearing into his bedroom for a few minutes while Jared took a seat at the table, pulling the bag that he had left there towards him.
“You said you liked my first book, right?” he asked Jensen when he walked back in; they had discussed it on the ferry ride over to the island, Jared pleasantly surprised to find that Jensen had read his work, and apparently with relish. Jared handed over what was in his hand at Jensen’s nod, Jensen’s eyebrow tilting up questioningly.
“It’s an advance copy of my second book; thought you might like to read it,” Jared said, his voice nonchalant, his feelings anything but, for quite suddenly, Jensen’s opinion mattered to him.
“Seriously?” Jensen asked in awe.
“Yeah,” Jared said, his face flooding with embarrassed warmth. He cleared his throat. “I… I signed it for you. So. You can keep it.”
He felt the smile Jensen flashed at him right down to his toes. “Thank you, Jared!”
“You’re welcome.” Jared ducked his head, feeling absurdly shy. God, he was being ridiculous and much like the teenage girl Jensen had accused him of being. Luckily, Jensen was too distracted by the book and the whistling kettle to notice.
They sat in companionable silence after that, sipping their hot drinks and discussing the book, Jared promising not to spoil Jensen under threat of bodily harm, and they ended up talking well into the night. By then the topic of conversation had veered off into books in general, movies and music after that, before finally meandering down memory lane.
“Do you regret it?” Jensen asked him a good two hours later; they had been reminiscing about one of the many times Chad had gotten their little group of friends into trouble.
“What? Ever becoming friends with Mayhem?”
“No,” Jensen smirked, “although that is a valid question. No. I meant… Genevieve.”
Jared breathed in deep and let it out slowly. “I used to,” he said softly, staring down into his empty mug, “especially after we moved back to the States. Some days it was all I could think about. But then a year went by, and then another, and another after that and it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind anymore, you know? But the idea of her…”
“Unattainable, but perfect for you…”
“Exactly!” Jared exclaimed, surprised that Jensen got it. He must have gone through the same thing with Danneel, Jared mused. “That was it exactly.” He exhaled loudly. “That first night, what you said to me…”
“That maybe you didn’t want it enough?” Jensen shook his head and looked at the book in his hands, the book he had been absently stroking since Jared had given it to him. “I’m sorry. I had no right to say that. Sometimes, I just shoot my mouth off…”
“That’s why I was so pissed off at you. You didn’t say anything I wasn’t already thinking. Years ago, even.” Their gazes collided over the rims of their cocoa cups. “I mean, I built her up in my head until even she didn’t have a hope of competing with my idea of her…”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Jensen said, his eyes boring into Jared’s, unflinching understanding radiating in their depths, and honest to goodness, Jared had no idea Jensen had felt that strongly about Danneel.
“When I saw that ring on her finger and that smile on her face when she looked at Mark…” Jared trailed off, picturing it all in his head again; the dinner their first night in London, sightseeing around the city in the days that followed, watching the love of his life in love with someone else. “I mean, that’s always been what I wanted. To be able to look at someone like that. To feel what she was feeling, because it was written right there on her face; a blind person could have seen it.”
“She did look happy and in love,” Jensen agreed quietly, his mouth quirking up at the corners. “So did Sandy and Chad - who knew?”
Jared laughed. “Yeah. Sandy and Chad took me a while to get used to as well. But they work, you gotta hand it to them for taking a chance on each other.”
“Or Sandy for taking a chance on Chad and Chad thanking his lucky stars,” Jensen quipped.
“Pretty much,” Jared gamely agreed. “Now, we just need to work on Mike and Tom.”
“And you and me…”
Jared’s eyes snapped to Jensen’s at that. “What?”
Jensen coughed, his face suffusing with colour. “I meant, the pretend you-and-me. Because of Mike and Tom.”
“Oh.” Oh. Yeah, that. Jared had forgotten about that in the excitement and chaos of the day gone by. “Right.”
The next minute or so passed without either of them saying a word. They were looking at each other though, both of them lost in their own thoughts and it should have been uncomfortable but strangely, it was anything but. Jensen finally heaved a sigh and stood, taking their mugs to the sink and washing them, then grabbing his book. Jared rose from the table and waited, Jensen locking the back door and turning off the lights in the kitchen, leaving them standing in the dimly lit hallway.
“So,” Jensen said, his voice barely a whisper as he worried his bottom lip between his teeth. Jared stopped breathing as the air between them crackled. “You’re all right then? About Genevieve, that is?”
Yeah, Jared hadn’t thought about Genevieve even once in all this time, ever since that stupid volcano erupted, and certainly not until Jensen had brought her up in conversation a few minutes ago. “I’ll live.”
Something in the way he said it, a little wry humour in his words, made Jensen smile. “Good. I’m glad.” His eyes darted off to the side, to a point on the wall beyond Jared’s shoulder. “I was afraid you would be hurting still…”
“I’m not,” Jared assured him, finding that the words rang true in his head and in his heart. “I’m over her.”
Jensen chuckled. “And when were you under her?”
“Shut up and stop quoting Friends, you giant ass.”
Mischief sparked to life in Jensen’s eyes. “Don’t worry, you’re still young. You’ll find your Rachel eventually.”
“Rachel doesn’t do it for me anymore,” Jared jabbed him in the ribs for his cheek as he backed him up against the wall, “now Chandler, on the other hand? Chandler’s hot.”
“Chandler, huh?”
“Mmm-hmm. Smart, funny, kind of a jackass? Sound like someone you know?”
Jensen’s breath caught. “Wh… what?”
Jared leaned in closer. “I think we should practice for tomorrow.”
“Practice?” He gulped, those green eyes widening. “Practice what?”
“The show we’re putting on for Tom and Mike,” Jared muttered, his gaze moving from Jensen’s eyes to his mouth and back again as he pressed closer, leaning his forearm against the wall behind Jensen, using the few inches he had on Jensen to loom above him. Because, Jesus, watching him talk for the past two hours left Jared with a hankering to taste those lips again, to feel that tongue slide against his, hot and heavy and damn near perfect. “I think you should kiss me goodnight.”
“Umm…”
“Yeah. This works a lot better if you don’t speak…” Jared practically sighed out the words, his mouth closing over Jensen’s before he was done with the last syllable of his sentence, the words lost in that breathy space between their lips. Jensen melted into the wall as Jared’s chest pushed into his, his hands curling into the hem of Jared’s t-shirt, a soft moan sounding at the back of his throat that made Jared want. When he finally tore himself away, it was with great reluctance.
“Goodnight, Jensen,” he said, his voice hushed and intimate. “See you in the morning.”
“The airports are still closed,” Mike informed them by way of greeting as they met him and Tom off the ferry the next morning. “Fucking volcano. In this age of modern technology, how the fuck does shit like this happen?”
Tom heaved a beleaguered sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Mother Nature is mightier than artificial intelligence.”
Mike stared him down. “Was I talking to you?”
“I was trying to spare Jensen and Jared the trouble,” Tom retorted, “I’m used to dealing with your sorry ass; they’re not.”
“Well, do me a fucking favour,” Mike growled, “and shut the fuck up. I am so sick of hearing your voice, I swear, one more word and I’ll…”
“You’ll what, Mikey?” Tom taunted. “I’m bigger than you, asshat! I can twist you into a fucking pretzel if you took me on and you know it!”
“Oh, that’s it!” Mike sputtered, dropping his bag and lunging for Tom, and it was only thanks to Jensen’s quick reflexes yanking him back and Jared’s sheer size stepping in front of Tom that stopped them from beating each other bloody right there on the docks.
“For fuck’s sake, Mike!” Jensen huffed. “The hell is the matter with you two?”
Mike looked beyond frustrated when he looked at Jensen. “I want to kill him,” he said, shaking his head in bewilderment. “I love him, but I want to rip him to shreds sometimes!”
Jensen rolled his eyes as he and Jared shared a look, both of them ignoring the gaping look of surprise on Tom’s face. “Let’s just go home, guys. We’ll grab some lunch, calm down and go for a walk or something. Christ.”
Jared made sure he walked in between Tom and Mike as they made their way back to the cottage, but once they were there, he couldn’t help but ask, hoping to clear the air, or at least find some neutral ground between these two warring factions. “Seriously. What went down between you two, huh?” he couldn’t help asking. “You used to be best friends. Jesus, you’re practically family.”
Tom snorted derisively. “He’s an asshole and he treats me like shit. That a good enough reason for you, Jared?”
“Dude, you just heard him say he loves you!”
“Lies,” Tom muttered viciously. “He thinks he knows better than me. Like he’s the boss of my freakin’ life!”
“You need someone to keep your freakin’ life in order, dickhead!” Mike growled in response from Jared’s other side, as Jensen scrubbed a hand down his face.
“My own damn fault for being so accommodating in the past,” Tom continued, ignoring Mike completely. “He got so used to telling me what to do, he still thinks he can get away with it now when I’m almost thirty fucking years old!” He turned on Mike to shout those last words at him. “You can’t tell me who I can and cannot date!”
“I can if the jerk is just out to get his hands on your father’s fortune, you little shit!”
“Raphael wasn’t like that!”
Mike directed his response to Jared and Jensen. “He picks up this Latino twink at some gay club and suddenly they’re soulmates or some shit. I swear to God, I wanted to rip that fucker’s throat out!”
Tom bristled. “You’re just jealous because you’re too old to get ass like that!”
“I am just a year older than you!”
“Yeah, but you look like you’re ten years older than me!”
Whatever response Mike had been about to make was silenced by his jaw clamping shut, a vague, almost hurt look in his eyes. He recovered quickly. “That’s because dealing with you on a daily basis stresses me out. I have a freakin’ ulcer because of you!”
“No one’s making you stay with me like a goddamned bodyguard, Mike!”
“I promised your dad that I would take care of you and that’s what I’m doing.”
“Then you better ask daddy for a raise,” Tom spat, “and extra health benefits, because I’m going to make your life miserable.”
“My life is already miserable, jerk-off!” Mike snarled at him, shoving Jensen out of his way to get to Tom. Jensen moved to restrain him, but Jared looped an arm around Jensen instead, bringing his back flush against his chest and mouth close to Jensen’s ear as Mike and Tom faced off in the middle of Jensen’s cozy kitchen.
“Carnage, remember?” Jared whispered, hating the worried look on Jensen’s face but instinctively knowing that Mike and Tom needed to settle this where they could lean on friends afterwards for support. Jensen reluctantly stilled in his arms.
“You get paid to babysit me!” Tom scoffed. “Poor little rich kid, right? Such a chore, Michael. I almost feel sorry for you.”
“You should! It is a chore! You think it’s easy to just stand back and watch you party your life away?”
“It’s my life. You don’t get a say in it.”
“Oh my God,” Mike huffed, every muscle in his body pulled taut in anger. “I love you, you son of a bitch. You mean the world to me, Tommy. I would kill to keep you safe and just because I care enough to say something about the way you’ve been living this past year…? Reckless, with no care for your own safety, doing crazy ass shit, getting into trouble with the cops, sleeping around like there’s no tomorrow, fucking anything with a tight ass - you think that’s not cause for concern?”
“I’m saying it’s not your concern!” Tom spat.
“Your life is my concern!” Mike shouted, enraged. “I’m the one who’s always been there for you, you ungrateful bastard! Your life is mine!”
Tom got right in his face after that. “Not anymore. So mind your own damn business and while you’re at it? Fuck. Off.”
For Mike, breathing hard, seething with rage, it was the last straw. And before Jensen or Jared could move, he pulled back and hammered his fist into Tom’s face, the force of it sending Tom sprawling to the floor, clutching his jaw in agony.
“Shit,” Jared muttered, going for Tom as Jensen restrained Mike again. They needn’t have bothered because Tom, tears springing into his shocked eyes as he looked up at an already contrite Mike, just stood and practically ran out the back door in his haste to get away.
Mike slumped in Jensen’s arms, falling to his knees as the fight seeped right out of him. “Michael, you moron,” Jensen breathed in the sudden quiet of the room, “he loves you just as much as you love him.”
Mike laughed, staccato and mirthless. “He sure has a funny way of showing it.”
“You’re in love with him, Mike. You always have been.”
“He’s like my brother…”
“Don’t give me that shit! We’re not kids anymore! Why in hell do you think the crap he pulls makes you so crazy? Do you even believe he does half the shit you just accused him of? Does that even sound like Tommy to you? Sounds more like he’s trying to get your attention!”
“It’s not like that…”
“It’s exactly like that!” Jensen shook his head. “You two need to come to some sort of understanding here, Mike. Either admit that you’re in love and kiss and make up or put as much distance between you two as geographically possible and get the fuck over him, because he has a point. Whatever the fuck he does with his life is none of your goddamn business.”
“Before you say it,” Jared stalled Mike when he opened his mouth, “we’re not taking sides here. It’s the truth. Maybe you two need to put some distance between you. Maybe it’s what Tom needs to see how much you mean to him, and maybe it’s what you need to step back from smothering him.”
Mike stared from one to the other, gaping slightly. “When did you two join forces and become relationship gurus?”
Jensen groaned and buried his face in his hand. “Can we focus on you, please?”
Mike’s response was cut short by the back door being thrown open, the wind outside slamming it against the wall, causing it to shudder on its hinges, as Tom fell across the threshold soaking wet, his dark hair plastered to his head, his blue eyes rimmed with red, a huge puddle forming at his feet as he stood there looking lost and forlorn. He sniffed, his bottom lip protruding in the mother of all pouts. “Stupid Scottish weather,” he mumbled.
There was about two seconds of pin-drop silence before Jared snorted and Jensen snickered. A second later Mike was laughing too, getting to his feet and closing the distance between him and Tom in a flash, his arms winding around the taller man’s waist in a hug, studiously ignoring the fact that he was getting wet too. Tom huffed, hiding his face in the crook of Mike’s neck as he huddled close.
“I’m sorry, Tommy,” Mike breathed, his hand caressing Tom’s jaw where he had hit him.
“S’okay,” Tom muttered grumpily. “I deserved it.”
“Yeah, you did,” Mike agreed. “I probably do too. You wanna take a swing at me?”
“Nah, I’m good. Raincheck?”
Mike chuckled. “’Kay.” He reached up and kissed Tom on his bruised jaw, gentle and lingering, and when he pulled back, Tom was staring down at him in shock.
“What was that for?”
Mike shrugged, seemingly nonchalant. “Jensen said we should kiss and make up.”
“That was a pretty pathetic excuse for a kiss, Mike,” Jensen jeered as Jared bit his lip to suppress his smile.
Tom, who was focused solely on Mike, agreed. “Pathetic. Try it again,” he ordered, his voice barely above a whisper. Mike didn’t need to be told twice.
And then one moment they were staring soulfully at each other and suddenly in the next, they were kissing: open mouths, harsh breaths, slow and deep, hot and passionate. It made Jared squirm and Jensen look anywhere but directly at them.
That was so not a first kiss, Jared thought to himself. They’d all obviously been mistaken about these two and their messed up relationship. Whatever had transpired in the past though, Jared fervently hoped they could get over it and be happy together. Or happy apart, whatever worked best. He was just grateful that he and Jensen weren’t that far gone.
He and Jensen. Right. They didn’t have a relationship. Other than a pretend one for the benefit of the kissing couple in front of them which, since they were kissing, effectively rendered their ruse moot.
Jared sighed, starting with surprise when Jensen tugged him into the living room. They collapsed side by side on the sofa.
“Well, that’s a start,” Jensen muttered and Jared just nodded in response, slouching further down into the cushions, leaning his head on Jensen’s shoulder, yawning widely.
“All their fighting tuckered me out,” he bemoaned. That and the fact that they had gone to bed at three in the morning and woken up at seven. Jensen chuckled, his arm moving until it rested around Jared’s shoulders, Jared snuggling a little closer, seeking Jensen’s body heat despite the crackling fire not five feet from where they sat. “How about a nap?”
“Sounds good,” Jensen said, trying to smother his yawn but not succeeding. Jared’s eyes were falling shut by the time Tom and Mike walked into the room, Tom shirtless and huddled in Mike’s dry jacket.
“So it’s really true,” Mike remarked, “the moment you become a couple, you start trying to pair off all your single friends too.”
“Huh?” Jared asked, not really paying attention to anything other than Jensen’s warmth next to him.
“Dude,” Jensen drawled with a lazy smirk, his accent making the word sound stupidly posh and supremely condescending, “and this applies to both of you: when in doubt, don’t fight… fuck.”
“Fuck what?” Tom asked, blinking in confusion.
“Each other,” Jensen clarified sleepily, and Jared giggled. In the manliest manner possible, of course.
“That’s Jensen’s solution to everything,” he said, squinting up at their friends.
Tom looked taken aback. “Holy shit.”
“I know, right?” Mike agreed, to what exactly, Jared wasn’t sure.
“I thought they were fucking with us just to get us here!”
“Me too, but you should have seen them,” Mike told Tom, “like one united front with the relationship advice.”
“Yeah? Christ. Finally!”
“The fuck are you talking about?” Jared asked, yawning again, Mike and Tom catching it too. Jensen had already dozed off beside Jared, his head lolled back against the sofa cushions.
“Jesus, Jared, if you had pig tails, and I think maybe one year you did, Jensen have been pulling on them, trying to get you to notice him!” Mike exclaimed.
Jared snorted softly, whispering so he wouldn’t wake Jensen. “Don’t be ridiculous! He was always panting after Danneel Harris. Little Miss Perfect.” Jared couldn’t quite repress his grimace as he remembered the two of them together in high school.
“Dude, are you an idiot?” Mike huffed. “You’re the reason it didn't work with her! That's why he moved back to London."
"No way!" Jared exclaimed in a harsh whisper, his mouth clamping shut when Jensen stirred next to him, so he soothed him back to sleep by rubbing his chest, actually sticking his tongue out at Tom and Mike and their superior, smug faces. Who the hell were they to talk? "Danneel left him."
Mike looked a little exasperated. "Jared, Jensen dumped her."
"That's not what I heard..."
"Well, then you heard wrong." And huh, Jared wondered. Where had he heard that? He shook his head to clear it. He'd think about this later.
“Go take a hot shower before you freeze to death,” he muttered to Tom, before looking at Mike. “Take the first room on the left. Jensen and I are in the bedroom down the hall.”
“How very domestic of you,” Mike sneered playfully.
“Yeah, Jared,” Tom agreed with a snicker, “when should we start calling you Mrs. Ackles?”
Both he and Mike cackled gleefully as they dodged the cushion Jared threw at them, disappearing down the corridor to the guestroom. The one they were sharing. Without any complaints. Jared smiled smugly to himself. Whether what had happened this morning was just a bandaid solution to more serious issues or the beginning of an actual compromise between them, at least the tension that had built since they had arrived in London had finally dissipated, and as far as he and Jensen were concerned on that front: mission accomplished.
Too bad it hadn’t required any more pretence on their parts. Jared actually pouted a little at that, but then he remembered: there was still tonight. When they shared a bed, and oh, the possibilities were endless.
Unfortunately for Jared though, Jensen showed absolutely no inclination of exploring those endless possibilities as they turned in later that night. Sure, they were exhausted from a full day of hiking and feasting and making merry at the inn’s bar. Jared wasn’t even sure he was capable of getting it up, he was so pleasantly hammered. But he would have made a valiant effort for Jensen; the man was almost inhumanly pretty, and just the thought of his sinful mouth on any part of Jared’s body caused him to twitch in his sweats. And he got even prettier when he was slightly sloshed. Or was that because Jared was sloshed himself?
Whatever. The point was, Jensen was fucking pretty. And when Jared walked into the bedroom from the bathroom just as Jensen was taking off his button-down to switch it for a comfier t-shirt to sleep in, he took one look at Jensen’s bare chest, toned and smooth and freckled, and promptly lost his power of speech.
“Today was good, right? I mean, would I be wrong if I said that we’re sort of on the road to becoming friends?” Jensen asked, his voice hushed and hesitant as he pulled back the blankets and climbed into bed, carefully avoiding Jared’s eyes. His words broke Jared’s reverie and propelled him into movement and into bed as well. He smiled though.
“You wouldn’t be wrong.”
“Oh. Good. Excellent,” Jensen paused. “Umm… You realize that it’s not going to be easy being friends with me.”
Jared’s eyebrows rose at that. “You don’t say?”
“I have a short fuse…”
“Goodness, I never noticed…”
“You’ll have to keep forgiving me…”
“I have a very magnanimous sort of personality. I’m sure we’ll manage,” Jared quipped cheekily.
Jensen stuck his tongue out at Jared and Jared kind of wanted to suck on it. “You also realize that the only reason I’m actively pursuing you…”
“You’re actively pursuing me?” Jared asked innocently, biting the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing.
“Er… your friendship, that is…”
“Oh. That’s all right, then. Do carry on…”
Jensen sighed at his teasing tone, but gamely continued, “the only reason is so I can get advance copies of all your future novels. I find myself rather addicted to your writing.”
“Damn. Why didn’t I see that coming?”
“You’re a bit oblivious, Jared.”
“Thank you, Jensen,” Jared retorted. “Did you get a chance to read the second one yet?”
“Only a quarter of the way through, although I already like it better than your first. Your characters are much more fleshed out now.” Jensen smirked at him. “Also, I have to say that I really like your hero: the snarky, smart, foul-mouthed, hot-tempered, badass but with a heart of gold, Detective Jaysen Anders.” Jared blinked at him blankly, the veritable picture of innocence. “Sound familiar?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Mmm-hmm. I also like his feisty partner, Jordan Palmero,” Jensen remarked, “she’s a good foil for him, but then again, I always did have a thing for leggy brunettes with fabulous hair.”
Jared snorted, quite unable to contain his laughter. “Any resemblance to real persons, either living or dead, is purely coincidental, so you can’t sue me.”
“Why would I want to do that?” Jensen teased. “I’m honoured… Also, you made you a girl. What’s not to like?”
“Shut up,” Jared laughed, jabbing Jensen in the ribs. “It was unintentional,” he confided honestly, “I didn’t even notice it until Sandy and Chad pointed it out. And by then it was too late to change anything.”
“Did you want to change it? Him? Jaysen?” Jensen asked, his eyes boring into Jared’s. Jared shook his head sheepishly. “I won’t sue if you dedicate all your future works to me, your inspiration. Your muse.”
Jared chuckled, bumping into his shoulder. “Dream on, dude.”
They lay there quietly lost in their own thoughts for a few moments before Jensen spoke again, this time around a yawn. “Mike and Tom seemed okay today, right?”
“Yeah,” he managed to say. He shook his head to try to clear it of the Jensen-induced fog that was permeating into him, seeping under his skin and settling there. "I was thinking that maybe Mike's finally seeing him."
“They've known each other since they were in diapers," Jensen argued. “Of course he’s seen him.”
"I meant that Mike's been looking at him all their lives but maybe he's only just now really seeing him!"
“Well, I think he’s always seen him. And he’s seen the way Tom feels about him. He’s just too noble to do anything about it because Tom’s rich and he’s not. I mean sure their families are friends, but in the end Mike’s dad still works for Tom’s.”
“Or that.” Jared paused, the wheels in his head turning maniacally. “You think they’re ever going to see what they’re missing?”
Jensen levelled him with a sardonic stare. “You think we could stop talking in italics?”
“Jerk,” Jared chuckled.
“Bitch,” Jensen countered, smile tugging at his mouth. “Think they’ll make it?”
“I hope so,” Jared answered sincerely, “they’re good for each other.”
“Hmm.”
“They said the same thing about us.”
“What? That we’re good for each other? But we weren’t even really doing the fake fuckbuddies thing.”
“They were talking about the past.”
“Oh.”
“Did you know that everyone thought that about us?”
“Thought what about us?”
“That we should be together and stuff.”
“And stuff?” Jensen teased.
“Jensen.”
“Jared,” Jensen mocked, and Jared found himself smiling in spite of himself. Jensen sighed, the sound almost wistful in the dark. “Makes sense. We did argue a lot. That could have been misconstrued as foreplay.”
“Foreplay?”
“Just a theory of mine.”
“Did… did you ever consider…?”
“The only person you ever saw was Genevieve.”
“Yeah,” Jared breathed, for this first time in his life regretting his silly schoolboy obsession with the girl. “I was a fucking idiot.” Silence. “Jensen? I left the door wide open. Where’s my insult?” He pouted in the dimness of the room. “I feel cheated.”
Jensen chuckled. “My momma always said: if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” Jensen parroted, mimicking his mother’s southern accent flawlessly. Whatever else he was going to say though, was interrupted by his phone beeping on the bedside table. Jensen grabbed it, and his entire demeanour became strangely subdued all of a sudden, his earlier smile slipping right off his face. Jared turned to him in concern.
“What is it?”
The look on his face was carefully blank when he met Jared’s gaze. “The airports are reopening tomorrow.”
Oh. Right. Apparently, it was time to head back home to Texas. Back to normal, back to reality. And back to his life without Jensen.
Somehow that thought wasn’t as welcome as it had been two weeks ago.
Genre: J2 RPS, AU
Pairing: Jensen/Jared
Rating: NC-17 lite
Warnings (overall): Language, Schmoop (My name is Q Blackheart, and I’m a schmoopoholic), Sex
Word Count: 21,000
Disclaimer: Fiction not fact. All these beautiful guys and gals belong to themselves. Jensen and Jared belong to each other, we all know that :D Only the words are mine. No malice intended; all my fics are borne from love everlasting.
Summary:
Apparently, when volcanoes erupt in Iceland, they not only throw the world into chaos, but once the embers burn themselves out and the dust settles, love rises from the ashes.
Read my Author's Notes for a little more background on what inspired this story. This fic is complete and will be posted in four parts during the course of the week.
Comments = Love!
| Master Post |
He should have known it couldn’t last: this taciturn truce, this undeclared détente between them since he had agreed to come and stay with Jensen. He just hadn’t expected it to all go to pot on a winding dirt road, in the midst of a sudden torrential downpour that resulted in Jensen’s Jeep getting stuck in the mud.
“I said push, goddammit!” Jensen yelled at him over the sound of the rain as it came down on them in sheets, soaking through their supposedly waterproof jackets until no part of their bodies was left dry, especially since they had been at this for half a fucking hour already. “What use is it being as big as a fucking tree when you only have the strength of a teenage girl?”
Jared gnashed his teeth together, still hanging on to the last vestiges of their tentative armistice. “I am pushing!”
“Push fucking harder!”
“Jesus Christ, Jensen, you are wearing on my last nerve!” Jared shouted. “Shut up before I make you shut up.”
The wheels of the Jeep abruptly stopped spinning as Jensen stalked around the front of the vehicle from where he had been trying to simultaneously steer and press on the gas and push it through the muddy patch in the road. “You were saying?” he taunted, his chest heaving and his eyes flashing green fire as he stepped right into Jared’s face.
Jared’s hand fisted at his sides, but he closed his eyes and took a long, steady breath before speaking again. “Look. This isn’t going to work with just the two of us pushing, so calm the fuck down and stop taking out your frustration on me!”
“It would work if you actually made a bloody eff… mmphf!” Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by Jared clamping his mouth over Jensen’s, smothering his tirade in one fell swoop with a kiss that was incensed and frenzied, a clash of teeth and tongues in a searing hot battle for dominance.
It took him about ten seconds to realize that he could have just as efficiently shut Jensen up with a hand pressed over his mouth. Or a punch to his face. Oh well. Next time, perhaps. This current method was far too highly effective to change course now.
Jared pulled away when the sound of bleating registered in his brain. Hands still clenched in Jensen’s jacket, Jared turned to see an flock of sheep trundling their way up the road in their direction. He smiled; where there were sheep, there was usually a shepherd, especially if the large flock was being driven along the roads. He looked back at Jensen; Jensen, whose mouth was still a little puckered from the kiss, his eyelashes spiky and wet as he blinked distractedly through the rain streaming down his face, the look in his eyes dazed as he stared off into space.
Jared suppressed the urge to snigger; his kisses tended to have that effect on people.
Okay, that was an outright lie. His kisses were usually okay, but none of the people he had ever kissed before had looked like this afterwards, he thought, delighting in the stunned look on Jensen’s flushed face. It went straight to his cock and made him want to puff out his chest and stand at least a foot taller. Teenage girl, his ass.
Jared Padalecki was the man, and it was about time Jensen Ackles realized that.
The drive back to the cottage was slow and silent, Jensen refusing Jared’s every attempt at conversation until Jared just gave up and stared out of the window, marvelling at the rain misting over and blanketing the lush green scenery they had passed on their way out earlier in the day.
The uncomfortable silence continued well into the evening, Jensen disappearing to help out in the inn and Jared choosing to nurse his frayed nerves at the bar, chatting to the patrons and the bartender, enjoying the quiet country ambiance in the room until it was almost time to turn in for the night. He had returned to the cottage and changed for bed by the time Jensen walked in the back door, freezing when he saw Jared in the kitchen.
Jensen bit his lip as Jared watched, waiting for what, he wasn’t quite sure. “So I guess I’m sorry.”
“You only guess?” Jared asked slyly, holding onto his smile and breath of relief that maybe things could go back to being friendly. Jared was a friendly guy; friendly he could do.
“Right. I was an arse,” Jensen said, looking at him finally and sighing. “I apologize.”
“Apology accepted.” Jared wondered if he should apologize himself, for kissing Jensen, even though the last thing he was, was sorry.
“Mike called me,” Jensen informed him, “they’re spending the night in Mallaig and they’re going to take the ferry out in the morning.”
“You gonna take them on a tour of the island too?” Jared asked teasingly, and Jensen smirked.
“At least there’ll be four of us to push the Jeep if we get stuck,” Jensen joked as he grabbed the kettle and filled it at the sink before plugging it in. “Do you want some cocoa? I usually like some before bed.”
Jared grinned that that; and pursed his lips to keep from commenting on how freaking cute that was. “Yeah, okay.”
“Watch the water, yeah? I’ll just go change out of these clothes,” Jensen told him, disappearing into his bedroom for a few minutes while Jared took a seat at the table, pulling the bag that he had left there towards him.
“You said you liked my first book, right?” he asked Jensen when he walked back in; they had discussed it on the ferry ride over to the island, Jared pleasantly surprised to find that Jensen had read his work, and apparently with relish. Jared handed over what was in his hand at Jensen’s nod, Jensen’s eyebrow tilting up questioningly.
“It’s an advance copy of my second book; thought you might like to read it,” Jared said, his voice nonchalant, his feelings anything but, for quite suddenly, Jensen’s opinion mattered to him.
“Seriously?” Jensen asked in awe.
“Yeah,” Jared said, his face flooding with embarrassed warmth. He cleared his throat. “I… I signed it for you. So. You can keep it.”
He felt the smile Jensen flashed at him right down to his toes. “Thank you, Jared!”
“You’re welcome.” Jared ducked his head, feeling absurdly shy. God, he was being ridiculous and much like the teenage girl Jensen had accused him of being. Luckily, Jensen was too distracted by the book and the whistling kettle to notice.
They sat in companionable silence after that, sipping their hot drinks and discussing the book, Jared promising not to spoil Jensen under threat of bodily harm, and they ended up talking well into the night. By then the topic of conversation had veered off into books in general, movies and music after that, before finally meandering down memory lane.
“Do you regret it?” Jensen asked him a good two hours later; they had been reminiscing about one of the many times Chad had gotten their little group of friends into trouble.
“What? Ever becoming friends with Mayhem?”
“No,” Jensen smirked, “although that is a valid question. No. I meant… Genevieve.”
Jared breathed in deep and let it out slowly. “I used to,” he said softly, staring down into his empty mug, “especially after we moved back to the States. Some days it was all I could think about. But then a year went by, and then another, and another after that and it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind anymore, you know? But the idea of her…”
“Unattainable, but perfect for you…”
“Exactly!” Jared exclaimed, surprised that Jensen got it. He must have gone through the same thing with Danneel, Jared mused. “That was it exactly.” He exhaled loudly. “That first night, what you said to me…”
“That maybe you didn’t want it enough?” Jensen shook his head and looked at the book in his hands, the book he had been absently stroking since Jared had given it to him. “I’m sorry. I had no right to say that. Sometimes, I just shoot my mouth off…”
“That’s why I was so pissed off at you. You didn’t say anything I wasn’t already thinking. Years ago, even.” Their gazes collided over the rims of their cocoa cups. “I mean, I built her up in my head until even she didn’t have a hope of competing with my idea of her…”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Jensen said, his eyes boring into Jared’s, unflinching understanding radiating in their depths, and honest to goodness, Jared had no idea Jensen had felt that strongly about Danneel.
“When I saw that ring on her finger and that smile on her face when she looked at Mark…” Jared trailed off, picturing it all in his head again; the dinner their first night in London, sightseeing around the city in the days that followed, watching the love of his life in love with someone else. “I mean, that’s always been what I wanted. To be able to look at someone like that. To feel what she was feeling, because it was written right there on her face; a blind person could have seen it.”
“She did look happy and in love,” Jensen agreed quietly, his mouth quirking up at the corners. “So did Sandy and Chad - who knew?”
Jared laughed. “Yeah. Sandy and Chad took me a while to get used to as well. But they work, you gotta hand it to them for taking a chance on each other.”
“Or Sandy for taking a chance on Chad and Chad thanking his lucky stars,” Jensen quipped.
“Pretty much,” Jared gamely agreed. “Now, we just need to work on Mike and Tom.”
“And you and me…”
Jared’s eyes snapped to Jensen’s at that. “What?”
Jensen coughed, his face suffusing with colour. “I meant, the pretend you-and-me. Because of Mike and Tom.”
“Oh.” Oh. Yeah, that. Jared had forgotten about that in the excitement and chaos of the day gone by. “Right.”
The next minute or so passed without either of them saying a word. They were looking at each other though, both of them lost in their own thoughts and it should have been uncomfortable but strangely, it was anything but. Jensen finally heaved a sigh and stood, taking their mugs to the sink and washing them, then grabbing his book. Jared rose from the table and waited, Jensen locking the back door and turning off the lights in the kitchen, leaving them standing in the dimly lit hallway.
“So,” Jensen said, his voice barely a whisper as he worried his bottom lip between his teeth. Jared stopped breathing as the air between them crackled. “You’re all right then? About Genevieve, that is?”
Yeah, Jared hadn’t thought about Genevieve even once in all this time, ever since that stupid volcano erupted, and certainly not until Jensen had brought her up in conversation a few minutes ago. “I’ll live.”
Something in the way he said it, a little wry humour in his words, made Jensen smile. “Good. I’m glad.” His eyes darted off to the side, to a point on the wall beyond Jared’s shoulder. “I was afraid you would be hurting still…”
“I’m not,” Jared assured him, finding that the words rang true in his head and in his heart. “I’m over her.”
Jensen chuckled. “And when were you under her?”
“Shut up and stop quoting Friends, you giant ass.”
Mischief sparked to life in Jensen’s eyes. “Don’t worry, you’re still young. You’ll find your Rachel eventually.”
“Rachel doesn’t do it for me anymore,” Jared jabbed him in the ribs for his cheek as he backed him up against the wall, “now Chandler, on the other hand? Chandler’s hot.”
“Chandler, huh?”
“Mmm-hmm. Smart, funny, kind of a jackass? Sound like someone you know?”
Jensen’s breath caught. “Wh… what?”
Jared leaned in closer. “I think we should practice for tomorrow.”
“Practice?” He gulped, those green eyes widening. “Practice what?”
“The show we’re putting on for Tom and Mike,” Jared muttered, his gaze moving from Jensen’s eyes to his mouth and back again as he pressed closer, leaning his forearm against the wall behind Jensen, using the few inches he had on Jensen to loom above him. Because, Jesus, watching him talk for the past two hours left Jared with a hankering to taste those lips again, to feel that tongue slide against his, hot and heavy and damn near perfect. “I think you should kiss me goodnight.”
“Umm…”
“Yeah. This works a lot better if you don’t speak…” Jared practically sighed out the words, his mouth closing over Jensen’s before he was done with the last syllable of his sentence, the words lost in that breathy space between their lips. Jensen melted into the wall as Jared’s chest pushed into his, his hands curling into the hem of Jared’s t-shirt, a soft moan sounding at the back of his throat that made Jared want. When he finally tore himself away, it was with great reluctance.
“Goodnight, Jensen,” he said, his voice hushed and intimate. “See you in the morning.”
“The airports are still closed,” Mike informed them by way of greeting as they met him and Tom off the ferry the next morning. “Fucking volcano. In this age of modern technology, how the fuck does shit like this happen?”
Tom heaved a beleaguered sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Mother Nature is mightier than artificial intelligence.”
Mike stared him down. “Was I talking to you?”
“I was trying to spare Jensen and Jared the trouble,” Tom retorted, “I’m used to dealing with your sorry ass; they’re not.”
“Well, do me a fucking favour,” Mike growled, “and shut the fuck up. I am so sick of hearing your voice, I swear, one more word and I’ll…”
“You’ll what, Mikey?” Tom taunted. “I’m bigger than you, asshat! I can twist you into a fucking pretzel if you took me on and you know it!”
“Oh, that’s it!” Mike sputtered, dropping his bag and lunging for Tom, and it was only thanks to Jensen’s quick reflexes yanking him back and Jared’s sheer size stepping in front of Tom that stopped them from beating each other bloody right there on the docks.
“For fuck’s sake, Mike!” Jensen huffed. “The hell is the matter with you two?”
Mike looked beyond frustrated when he looked at Jensen. “I want to kill him,” he said, shaking his head in bewilderment. “I love him, but I want to rip him to shreds sometimes!”
Jensen rolled his eyes as he and Jared shared a look, both of them ignoring the gaping look of surprise on Tom’s face. “Let’s just go home, guys. We’ll grab some lunch, calm down and go for a walk or something. Christ.”
Jared made sure he walked in between Tom and Mike as they made their way back to the cottage, but once they were there, he couldn’t help but ask, hoping to clear the air, or at least find some neutral ground between these two warring factions. “Seriously. What went down between you two, huh?” he couldn’t help asking. “You used to be best friends. Jesus, you’re practically family.”
Tom snorted derisively. “He’s an asshole and he treats me like shit. That a good enough reason for you, Jared?”
“Dude, you just heard him say he loves you!”
“Lies,” Tom muttered viciously. “He thinks he knows better than me. Like he’s the boss of my freakin’ life!”
“You need someone to keep your freakin’ life in order, dickhead!” Mike growled in response from Jared’s other side, as Jensen scrubbed a hand down his face.
“My own damn fault for being so accommodating in the past,” Tom continued, ignoring Mike completely. “He got so used to telling me what to do, he still thinks he can get away with it now when I’m almost thirty fucking years old!” He turned on Mike to shout those last words at him. “You can’t tell me who I can and cannot date!”
“I can if the jerk is just out to get his hands on your father’s fortune, you little shit!”
“Raphael wasn’t like that!”
Mike directed his response to Jared and Jensen. “He picks up this Latino twink at some gay club and suddenly they’re soulmates or some shit. I swear to God, I wanted to rip that fucker’s throat out!”
Tom bristled. “You’re just jealous because you’re too old to get ass like that!”
“I am just a year older than you!”
“Yeah, but you look like you’re ten years older than me!”
Whatever response Mike had been about to make was silenced by his jaw clamping shut, a vague, almost hurt look in his eyes. He recovered quickly. “That’s because dealing with you on a daily basis stresses me out. I have a freakin’ ulcer because of you!”
“No one’s making you stay with me like a goddamned bodyguard, Mike!”
“I promised your dad that I would take care of you and that’s what I’m doing.”
“Then you better ask daddy for a raise,” Tom spat, “and extra health benefits, because I’m going to make your life miserable.”
“My life is already miserable, jerk-off!” Mike snarled at him, shoving Jensen out of his way to get to Tom. Jensen moved to restrain him, but Jared looped an arm around Jensen instead, bringing his back flush against his chest and mouth close to Jensen’s ear as Mike and Tom faced off in the middle of Jensen’s cozy kitchen.
“Carnage, remember?” Jared whispered, hating the worried look on Jensen’s face but instinctively knowing that Mike and Tom needed to settle this where they could lean on friends afterwards for support. Jensen reluctantly stilled in his arms.
“You get paid to babysit me!” Tom scoffed. “Poor little rich kid, right? Such a chore, Michael. I almost feel sorry for you.”
“You should! It is a chore! You think it’s easy to just stand back and watch you party your life away?”
“It’s my life. You don’t get a say in it.”
“Oh my God,” Mike huffed, every muscle in his body pulled taut in anger. “I love you, you son of a bitch. You mean the world to me, Tommy. I would kill to keep you safe and just because I care enough to say something about the way you’ve been living this past year…? Reckless, with no care for your own safety, doing crazy ass shit, getting into trouble with the cops, sleeping around like there’s no tomorrow, fucking anything with a tight ass - you think that’s not cause for concern?”
“I’m saying it’s not your concern!” Tom spat.
“Your life is my concern!” Mike shouted, enraged. “I’m the one who’s always been there for you, you ungrateful bastard! Your life is mine!”
Tom got right in his face after that. “Not anymore. So mind your own damn business and while you’re at it? Fuck. Off.”
For Mike, breathing hard, seething with rage, it was the last straw. And before Jensen or Jared could move, he pulled back and hammered his fist into Tom’s face, the force of it sending Tom sprawling to the floor, clutching his jaw in agony.
“Shit,” Jared muttered, going for Tom as Jensen restrained Mike again. They needn’t have bothered because Tom, tears springing into his shocked eyes as he looked up at an already contrite Mike, just stood and practically ran out the back door in his haste to get away.
Mike slumped in Jensen’s arms, falling to his knees as the fight seeped right out of him. “Michael, you moron,” Jensen breathed in the sudden quiet of the room, “he loves you just as much as you love him.”
Mike laughed, staccato and mirthless. “He sure has a funny way of showing it.”
“You’re in love with him, Mike. You always have been.”
“He’s like my brother…”
“Don’t give me that shit! We’re not kids anymore! Why in hell do you think the crap he pulls makes you so crazy? Do you even believe he does half the shit you just accused him of? Does that even sound like Tommy to you? Sounds more like he’s trying to get your attention!”
“It’s not like that…”
“It’s exactly like that!” Jensen shook his head. “You two need to come to some sort of understanding here, Mike. Either admit that you’re in love and kiss and make up or put as much distance between you two as geographically possible and get the fuck over him, because he has a point. Whatever the fuck he does with his life is none of your goddamn business.”
“Before you say it,” Jared stalled Mike when he opened his mouth, “we’re not taking sides here. It’s the truth. Maybe you two need to put some distance between you. Maybe it’s what Tom needs to see how much you mean to him, and maybe it’s what you need to step back from smothering him.”
Mike stared from one to the other, gaping slightly. “When did you two join forces and become relationship gurus?”
Jensen groaned and buried his face in his hand. “Can we focus on you, please?”
Mike’s response was cut short by the back door being thrown open, the wind outside slamming it against the wall, causing it to shudder on its hinges, as Tom fell across the threshold soaking wet, his dark hair plastered to his head, his blue eyes rimmed with red, a huge puddle forming at his feet as he stood there looking lost and forlorn. He sniffed, his bottom lip protruding in the mother of all pouts. “Stupid Scottish weather,” he mumbled.
There was about two seconds of pin-drop silence before Jared snorted and Jensen snickered. A second later Mike was laughing too, getting to his feet and closing the distance between him and Tom in a flash, his arms winding around the taller man’s waist in a hug, studiously ignoring the fact that he was getting wet too. Tom huffed, hiding his face in the crook of Mike’s neck as he huddled close.
“I’m sorry, Tommy,” Mike breathed, his hand caressing Tom’s jaw where he had hit him.
“S’okay,” Tom muttered grumpily. “I deserved it.”
“Yeah, you did,” Mike agreed. “I probably do too. You wanna take a swing at me?”
“Nah, I’m good. Raincheck?”
Mike chuckled. “’Kay.” He reached up and kissed Tom on his bruised jaw, gentle and lingering, and when he pulled back, Tom was staring down at him in shock.
“What was that for?”
Mike shrugged, seemingly nonchalant. “Jensen said we should kiss and make up.”
“That was a pretty pathetic excuse for a kiss, Mike,” Jensen jeered as Jared bit his lip to suppress his smile.
Tom, who was focused solely on Mike, agreed. “Pathetic. Try it again,” he ordered, his voice barely above a whisper. Mike didn’t need to be told twice.
And then one moment they were staring soulfully at each other and suddenly in the next, they were kissing: open mouths, harsh breaths, slow and deep, hot and passionate. It made Jared squirm and Jensen look anywhere but directly at them.
That was so not a first kiss, Jared thought to himself. They’d all obviously been mistaken about these two and their messed up relationship. Whatever had transpired in the past though, Jared fervently hoped they could get over it and be happy together. Or happy apart, whatever worked best. He was just grateful that he and Jensen weren’t that far gone.
He and Jensen. Right. They didn’t have a relationship. Other than a pretend one for the benefit of the kissing couple in front of them which, since they were kissing, effectively rendered their ruse moot.
Jared sighed, starting with surprise when Jensen tugged him into the living room. They collapsed side by side on the sofa.
“Well, that’s a start,” Jensen muttered and Jared just nodded in response, slouching further down into the cushions, leaning his head on Jensen’s shoulder, yawning widely.
“All their fighting tuckered me out,” he bemoaned. That and the fact that they had gone to bed at three in the morning and woken up at seven. Jensen chuckled, his arm moving until it rested around Jared’s shoulders, Jared snuggling a little closer, seeking Jensen’s body heat despite the crackling fire not five feet from where they sat. “How about a nap?”
“Sounds good,” Jensen said, trying to smother his yawn but not succeeding. Jared’s eyes were falling shut by the time Tom and Mike walked into the room, Tom shirtless and huddled in Mike’s dry jacket.
“So it’s really true,” Mike remarked, “the moment you become a couple, you start trying to pair off all your single friends too.”
“Huh?” Jared asked, not really paying attention to anything other than Jensen’s warmth next to him.
“Dude,” Jensen drawled with a lazy smirk, his accent making the word sound stupidly posh and supremely condescending, “and this applies to both of you: when in doubt, don’t fight… fuck.”
“Fuck what?” Tom asked, blinking in confusion.
“Each other,” Jensen clarified sleepily, and Jared giggled. In the manliest manner possible, of course.
“That’s Jensen’s solution to everything,” he said, squinting up at their friends.
Tom looked taken aback. “Holy shit.”
“I know, right?” Mike agreed, to what exactly, Jared wasn’t sure.
“I thought they were fucking with us just to get us here!”
“Me too, but you should have seen them,” Mike told Tom, “like one united front with the relationship advice.”
“Yeah? Christ. Finally!”
“The fuck are you talking about?” Jared asked, yawning again, Mike and Tom catching it too. Jensen had already dozed off beside Jared, his head lolled back against the sofa cushions.
“Jesus, Jared, if you had pig tails, and I think maybe one year you did, Jensen have been pulling on them, trying to get you to notice him!” Mike exclaimed.
Jared snorted softly, whispering so he wouldn’t wake Jensen. “Don’t be ridiculous! He was always panting after Danneel Harris. Little Miss Perfect.” Jared couldn’t quite repress his grimace as he remembered the two of them together in high school.
“Dude, are you an idiot?” Mike huffed. “You’re the reason it didn't work with her! That's why he moved back to London."
"No way!" Jared exclaimed in a harsh whisper, his mouth clamping shut when Jensen stirred next to him, so he soothed him back to sleep by rubbing his chest, actually sticking his tongue out at Tom and Mike and their superior, smug faces. Who the hell were they to talk? "Danneel left him."
Mike looked a little exasperated. "Jared, Jensen dumped her."
"That's not what I heard..."
"Well, then you heard wrong." And huh, Jared wondered. Where had he heard that? He shook his head to clear it. He'd think about this later.
“Go take a hot shower before you freeze to death,” he muttered to Tom, before looking at Mike. “Take the first room on the left. Jensen and I are in the bedroom down the hall.”
“How very domestic of you,” Mike sneered playfully.
“Yeah, Jared,” Tom agreed with a snicker, “when should we start calling you Mrs. Ackles?”
Both he and Mike cackled gleefully as they dodged the cushion Jared threw at them, disappearing down the corridor to the guestroom. The one they were sharing. Without any complaints. Jared smiled smugly to himself. Whether what had happened this morning was just a bandaid solution to more serious issues or the beginning of an actual compromise between them, at least the tension that had built since they had arrived in London had finally dissipated, and as far as he and Jensen were concerned on that front: mission accomplished.
Too bad it hadn’t required any more pretence on their parts. Jared actually pouted a little at that, but then he remembered: there was still tonight. When they shared a bed, and oh, the possibilities were endless.
Unfortunately for Jared though, Jensen showed absolutely no inclination of exploring those endless possibilities as they turned in later that night. Sure, they were exhausted from a full day of hiking and feasting and making merry at the inn’s bar. Jared wasn’t even sure he was capable of getting it up, he was so pleasantly hammered. But he would have made a valiant effort for Jensen; the man was almost inhumanly pretty, and just the thought of his sinful mouth on any part of Jared’s body caused him to twitch in his sweats. And he got even prettier when he was slightly sloshed. Or was that because Jared was sloshed himself?
Whatever. The point was, Jensen was fucking pretty. And when Jared walked into the bedroom from the bathroom just as Jensen was taking off his button-down to switch it for a comfier t-shirt to sleep in, he took one look at Jensen’s bare chest, toned and smooth and freckled, and promptly lost his power of speech.
“Today was good, right? I mean, would I be wrong if I said that we’re sort of on the road to becoming friends?” Jensen asked, his voice hushed and hesitant as he pulled back the blankets and climbed into bed, carefully avoiding Jared’s eyes. His words broke Jared’s reverie and propelled him into movement and into bed as well. He smiled though.
“You wouldn’t be wrong.”
“Oh. Good. Excellent,” Jensen paused. “Umm… You realize that it’s not going to be easy being friends with me.”
Jared’s eyebrows rose at that. “You don’t say?”
“I have a short fuse…”
“Goodness, I never noticed…”
“You’ll have to keep forgiving me…”
“I have a very magnanimous sort of personality. I’m sure we’ll manage,” Jared quipped cheekily.
Jensen stuck his tongue out at Jared and Jared kind of wanted to suck on it. “You also realize that the only reason I’m actively pursuing you…”
“You’re actively pursuing me?” Jared asked innocently, biting the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing.
“Er… your friendship, that is…”
“Oh. That’s all right, then. Do carry on…”
Jensen sighed at his teasing tone, but gamely continued, “the only reason is so I can get advance copies of all your future novels. I find myself rather addicted to your writing.”
“Damn. Why didn’t I see that coming?”
“You’re a bit oblivious, Jared.”
“Thank you, Jensen,” Jared retorted. “Did you get a chance to read the second one yet?”
“Only a quarter of the way through, although I already like it better than your first. Your characters are much more fleshed out now.” Jensen smirked at him. “Also, I have to say that I really like your hero: the snarky, smart, foul-mouthed, hot-tempered, badass but with a heart of gold, Detective Jaysen Anders.” Jared blinked at him blankly, the veritable picture of innocence. “Sound familiar?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Mmm-hmm. I also like his feisty partner, Jordan Palmero,” Jensen remarked, “she’s a good foil for him, but then again, I always did have a thing for leggy brunettes with fabulous hair.”
Jared snorted, quite unable to contain his laughter. “Any resemblance to real persons, either living or dead, is purely coincidental, so you can’t sue me.”
“Why would I want to do that?” Jensen teased. “I’m honoured… Also, you made you a girl. What’s not to like?”
“Shut up,” Jared laughed, jabbing Jensen in the ribs. “It was unintentional,” he confided honestly, “I didn’t even notice it until Sandy and Chad pointed it out. And by then it was too late to change anything.”
“Did you want to change it? Him? Jaysen?” Jensen asked, his eyes boring into Jared’s. Jared shook his head sheepishly. “I won’t sue if you dedicate all your future works to me, your inspiration. Your muse.”
Jared chuckled, bumping into his shoulder. “Dream on, dude.”
They lay there quietly lost in their own thoughts for a few moments before Jensen spoke again, this time around a yawn. “Mike and Tom seemed okay today, right?”
“Yeah,” he managed to say. He shook his head to try to clear it of the Jensen-induced fog that was permeating into him, seeping under his skin and settling there. "I was thinking that maybe Mike's finally seeing him."
“They've known each other since they were in diapers," Jensen argued. “Of course he’s seen him.”
"I meant that Mike's been looking at him all their lives but maybe he's only just now really seeing him!"
“Well, I think he’s always seen him. And he’s seen the way Tom feels about him. He’s just too noble to do anything about it because Tom’s rich and he’s not. I mean sure their families are friends, but in the end Mike’s dad still works for Tom’s.”
“Or that.” Jared paused, the wheels in his head turning maniacally. “You think they’re ever going to see what they’re missing?”
Jensen levelled him with a sardonic stare. “You think we could stop talking in italics?”
“Jerk,” Jared chuckled.
“Bitch,” Jensen countered, smile tugging at his mouth. “Think they’ll make it?”
“I hope so,” Jared answered sincerely, “they’re good for each other.”
“Hmm.”
“They said the same thing about us.”
“What? That we’re good for each other? But we weren’t even really doing the fake fuckbuddies thing.”
“They were talking about the past.”
“Oh.”
“Did you know that everyone thought that about us?”
“Thought what about us?”
“That we should be together and stuff.”
“And stuff?” Jensen teased.
“Jensen.”
“Jared,” Jensen mocked, and Jared found himself smiling in spite of himself. Jensen sighed, the sound almost wistful in the dark. “Makes sense. We did argue a lot. That could have been misconstrued as foreplay.”
“Foreplay?”
“Just a theory of mine.”
“Did… did you ever consider…?”
“The only person you ever saw was Genevieve.”
“Yeah,” Jared breathed, for this first time in his life regretting his silly schoolboy obsession with the girl. “I was a fucking idiot.” Silence. “Jensen? I left the door wide open. Where’s my insult?” He pouted in the dimness of the room. “I feel cheated.”
Jensen chuckled. “My momma always said: if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” Jensen parroted, mimicking his mother’s southern accent flawlessly. Whatever else he was going to say though, was interrupted by his phone beeping on the bedside table. Jensen grabbed it, and his entire demeanour became strangely subdued all of a sudden, his earlier smile slipping right off his face. Jared turned to him in concern.
“What is it?”
The look on his face was carefully blank when he met Jared’s gaze. “The airports are reopening tomorrow.”
Oh. Right. Apparently, it was time to head back home to Texas. Back to normal, back to reality. And back to his life without Jensen.
Somehow that thought wasn’t as welcome as it had been two weeks ago.