When the Devil Came to Pluto 4/4

[tsuki_no_bara]

J2 RPS AU
PG
Part 4 of 4
Master post
Art



Jensen was stumbling out of the mouth of the cave, squinting and blinking and looking vastly confused, but otherwise no different than he had the day he vanished.

“What the fuck,” he said.

Jared laughed, unable to help himself, and grabbed Jensen's face and kissed him. The devil had kept her bargain. She'd returned Jensen to him. Jared was never, ever, as long as he lived, ever letting Jensen out of his sight again.

When he finally pulled away, his hands still on either side of Jensen's face, his own face split by the biggest, craziest smile, Jensen was staring at him, stunned.

“What the fuck,” Jensen repeated. And then, trying to free himself from Jared's hold to look around them, he added “Where the hell are we?”

“I don't know,” Jared said. “I don't care.”

Jensen raised an eyebrow.

“I got you back,” Jared went on. “We could be on the moon for all I care.”

“You got me - the fuck happened? I thought I heard someone in trouble, a girl, so I went looking for her, and then... I don't remember.” He scrunched up his forehead, apparently thinking. “Did I fall in an abandoned mine or something?”

“Something like that.” How was Jared going to explain this? Where should he start? What could he say that wouldn't make Jensen think he was crazy? “It doesn't matter. You're okay now.”

“I guess.” Jensen didn't look convinced, so Jared kissed him again. Jensen only half responded, but that was okay. It wasn't a long kiss, and he was no doubt still trying to work out what had happened to him, why he and Jared were standing outside a cave nowhere near Pluto, maybe not even in the New Mexico Territory, and why he couldn't remember where he'd been.

“We should go home,” Jensen said uncertainly.

“We should.”

Jared released him and they made their way down the hill and across the scrub until they saw the sun dropping below the horizon. But that just told them which way they were facing. It didn't tell them where they were. It didn't tell them which way was home.

Well, Jared had gone east to find the devil, so now he and Jensen should start walking west.

“Don't you have a horse?” Jensen asked. “Why are we walking?”

“I don't know where he is.”

“You what?” Jensen stopped. Jared turned to look at him and off to the side, maybe twenty feet away, was his horse, head down, calmly cropping the scrubby grass. How had Jared not seen him before?

“Harley!” he yelled. The horse's head came up and he trotted over. He must have wandered away from the little camp. But where was the camp? Where were Jared's provisions and supplies, his bedroll, his rifle?

The horse nudged Jared's shoulder.

“I'm glad to see you too,” Jared said. Jensen patted the horse's flank. Harley nudged Jared harder and took a step forward, evidently trying to push Jared ahead of him. “Where's our camp, Harley? Where did you come from?”

Harley just pushed his nose into Jared's back. Jensen stifled a laugh as Jared let himself be herded away from the devil's back door. The sun was sinking below the horizon and it was getting harder to see, but Harley knew where they were going.

The sun had vanished and the moon had risen by the time they found the camp Jared had set up what felt like a year ago. Harley went back to nibbling on the grass. Jared and Jensen built a fire, unpacked some dried meat, raisins, biscuits, and the near-empty bottle of whiskey Jared had brought, and made dinner. Jared dug out the tobacco and rolling papers so Jensen could roll himself a cigarette if he wanted.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Jensen asked eventually.

“You won't believe me,” Jared said.

“Try me.” Jensen's face was serious in the firelight, and Jared noticed suddenly that he didn't have any more of a beard than he had the day he disappeared. They'd only been a day out of Pluto then, and he only had as much stubble as he'd grown since the previous Sunday. He should have a full beard by now. He didn't.

How much time had passed for him, in the devil's cave? Had he only been down there a day or two, while weeks passed aboveground?

“The devil took you,” Jared said.

Jensen's face didn't change. He'd always been a terrible person to play poker against, for that reason. Jared had known him long enough to be able to recognize some of his tells, but no one else would ever know from looking at his face what he was holding in his hand, what he was thinking.

And Jared couldn't tell now.

“The devil took me,” Jensen repeated.

“I said you wouldn't believe me.”

“How long have I been gone?”

“Three weeks.”

“Three weeks? Shit.”

“How long did you think it was?”

“I don't know.” Jensen shrugged, his hands out, palms up. “I don't know what happened to me, why I'm here, why we're not anywhere near Pluto - are we still even in the territory? Are we in Texas?”

“I think so. Yeah. I mean, no, we're not in Texas. I went east, looking for you. I just... I knew that was the right direction.”

“How did you find me?”

Jared opened his mouth, closed it again. Asking Jensen to believe the devil took him was one thing. He believed in the devil. But asking him to believe that Jared had ridden the ghost of a Comanche pony down into a canyon and up to the devil's door? Jared was the one who believed in the potentiality of fairytales. Jared was the one who believed that somehow, somewhere, in some fashion, they could be true.

Jared believed in ghosts. Jensen never had.

“Jared? How did you know where I was?”

“A ghost pony brought me.”

Now it was Jensen's turn to open his mouth, think better of what he was going to say, and close it again. He put his plate on the ground, reached for his tobacco and papers, and idly rolled himself a cigarette.

“You don't believe me,” Jared said.

“The thing is, I think I do. This is like one of your mother's fairytales, isn't it? Boy's best friend is kidnapped by the devil, boy captures a ghost horse to get the friend back.” He laughed suddenly, surprised and amused. “I'm your damsel in distress! Jesus, Jared, you turned me into your fucking princess in peril.”

“Not on purpose.”

“No, I know.” Jensen lit the cigarette off the campfire and took a drag. He blew a slow stream of smoke off to the side and shook his head. “You rescued me from the devil. Shit. The minister's going to have a field day with this when we get back. The wages of sin, you know.”

And what sins have you committed, Jared thought, that were so bad as to bring the devil to you? You're not crazy in love with your best friend.

But how could he know that for sure? There were different kinds of love, and it took different forms for different people. Believing Jared's ridiculous - if true - story about his rescue could be Jensen's way of showing his love.

“Okay,” Jensen said eventually. “The devil stole me away like we're in some fairytale, and you found a ghost horse to take you to his front door so you could make a deal for my freedom. What did you promise him?” He sounded more curious than anything else. If the situation had been reversed, Jared would have been more worried.

“The devil was a woman,” Jared said. “Or she used to be a woman. I, um, I promised we have to go back in a year - exactly a year from now - so I can tell her stories for twenty-four hours and she can, uh, she can study you for twenty-four hours.”

“Study me?” Jensen quirked an eyebrow, then grinned. “The devil's a woman and she thinks I'm pretty?”

“No, she - Well, she might think you're pretty, but she wants to - It's because you don't look at Danneel's girls with lust. Everyone has some reaction when they see them in front of the house, or out on the streets, or in church - you know how people whisper when they come to services on Sunday - but you don't. She wants to know why.”

It sounded so strange and so incomprehensible coming out of his mouth. Jared wasn't sure he'd believe it, if he was just hearing the story now.

Jensen just shrugged again. “What did you tell her?”

“About you? I didn't tell her anything. I don't think she would've listened to me anyway. She wants to figure you out herself.”

“She's very hands-on, huh? Can't blame her.” He grinned around his cigarette. Jared wanted to insist that this was serious, that he'd been out of his mind thinking he could lose Jensen forever, that he was prepared to trade his life for Jensen to go back to Pluto, that there were a million reasons it wasn't funny, that Jensen shouldn't take it so lightly, but Jensen's grin was infectious and he was here, solid, sitting in front of a campfire next to Jared, close enough to touch if Jared wanted to.

And Jared wanted to.

“So we have to come back here in a year?” Jensen went on. “How do you even know where 'here' is?”

“I don't.” Jared scraped his knife over the bottom of the pan and gingerly licked the blade. It tasted like cast iron and the residue of hundreds of meals. “But I think I can find the spot where I saw the ghost ponies. When we get home we'll find a good map and figure it out.”

“Okay.” Jensen shook his head again, smiling a little. “This is crazy. Three weeks, really? It feels like longer, and it feels like it's only been a day. Jesus.”

He stood, stretched, walked away from the camp so he could relieve himself. Jared watched his back, afraid to look away. He was going to keep both eyes on Jensen until they got back to Pluto, even in his sleep.

They cleaned up, got ready for bed. Jared spread his blanket on the ground and when Jensen lay down next to the fire, Jared lay behind him, so close he imagined he could feel Jensen's spine against his chest, through Jensen's coat and both of their shirts. He pulled the rest of the blanket over both of them and wrapped an arm around Jensen's ribs, felt his chest rise and fall with his breath.

“I'm not going to vanish in the middle of the night,” Jensen said.

“You don't know that,” Jared said into his shoulder. Jensen just chuckled.

“You're never going to leave me alone after this, are you.” But he didn't sound bothered by that. “I can't believe you rescued me from the devil. I can't believe I even believe your story.”

“It's because you love me.”

“That must be it.”

Jensen put his hand over Jared's and laced their fingers together. Jared grinned hugely against Jensen's shoulder.

You don't drink, you don't fuck.... But it didn't matter. The devil stole Jensen away from Jared, and Jared found a way to get him back. And Jensen loved him.

They'd come back in a year and fulfill the bargain Jared and the devil made. The devil had kept her end and let Jensen go, and it was nothing to Jared to give up a day of his year, and a day of Jensen's, to pay her back. Jensen was worth that. Jensen was worth more than that.

Jared listened to him breathing now, slow and even in sleep, and wondered what he was dreaming about. Had he slept in the devil's cave? Had he dreamed? Could he have guessed Jared would come for him? He certainly knew now. Whatever trouble he was in, it couldn't be any worse than this, and whatever it was, Jared would rescue him from it.

He was Jared's damsel in distress, his princess in peril. His Rapunzel, his Sleeping Beauty, his Eurydice.

Jared chuckled. Jensen was certainly pretty enough.

I'm never going to leave you alone, Jared thought, you were right about that. You'll never shake me after this.

But he didn't think Jensen would mind.

In the morning they packed up and headed out, both of them managing to fit on the horse's back, much to his annoyance. They followed Jared's compass west, angling a little south after a while when Jared became convinced they were going to pass too far north of Pluto. Jensen said all they needed was a town, any town, and they could find their way from there, but Jared didn't want to waste time traversing the desert now that he had Jensen back.

Besides, as far as he could tell, there wasn't any civilization out here besides the two of them. There were no towns to find.

As they rode, Jared wondered what they were going to tell everyone in Pluto, once they finally got there. How could either he or Jensen explain this to Danneel and her girls, or Rob and Rich, or Eddie, or Christian?

Well, Eddie and Christian might understand. The minister would understand. The minister would be wrong, but he'd accept a version of Jared's story. The sheriff, who'd sent Jared and Jensen on the occasional mission to another town, or just to the mine to keep the peace, who'd hired them to go to Albuquerque to retrieve a crate of mining equipment - he was used to level-headed men. He'd think Jared had lost his mind, talking about kidnappings and the devil.

Brianna might believe the same version of the story that the minister did, because she'd let Jared take her crucifix, because a hidden part of her really did think the devil was abroad in the untamed parts of the world. But the rest of the girls would probably laugh, thinking this was just another tale he thought was interesting enough to tell them. Genevieve would shake her head and chuckle, humoring him. And Rob and Rich? Or Chad? They weren't even going to pretend to take him seriously, even though Rob and Rich were there when Jensen disappeared, and they knew as well as Jared did that there was nowhere for him to go, and he was too aware of the landscape to get lost or fall into a hole. Chad was just going to laugh and tease them both.

It took longer to get home than it had taken Jared to search, and when they finally crested a hill one early afternoon and saw Pluto in the distance, Jensen thought it was a mirage.

“Don't laugh at me,” he grumbled at Jared, when Jared did. “I was kidnapped by the devil because she thought I was interesting. I was down there for three weeks but it felt like a day, or a year. You're the one who believes in ghost towns. Maybe you're rubbing off on me.”

But Jared knew it was home. He wasn't sure what day it was, or what month, but he was sure that was really Pluto. It looked the same. And the lost traveler always came home, didn't he? The fairytale was a cautionary tale - don't take food from strangers, don't agree to something without being clear on the terms, be kind to old women. In the end, if you listened to your common sense and followed the rules of the world you were in, you'd be rewarded with your own bed again.

Besides, god wouldn't be so cruel as to let Jared find Jensen and then deny them the chance to go home. And from the minute he rode out of Pluto in search of Jensen, Jared had been sure that he would find him and bring him back.

Orpheus hadn't gotten a long life or a happy ending after he'd turned around to see if Eurydice was really following him, to make sure the Lord of the Underworld had really kept his bargain. But Jared had acted as if he trusted the devil, and the devil had given Jensen back. And that meant they were going to get their long life together, and their happy ending.

They rode down around the mine and into Pluto, dusty and tired and sore, getting maybe ten feet down the main street before the sheriff, of all people, walked out of the barbershop and saw them.

Jared and Jensen both wanted something to eat and drink. They wanted to wash the desert off themselves. But Jared didn't mind stopping there in the middle of the street to answer all of Sheriff Morgan's questions. He didn't think the sheriff would believe him, but now that he was home, now that he'd found Jensen and completed his quest, now that he'd met the devil and lived to tell the story - now he wanted to share.

The sheriff was followed by more people, everyone wanting to know where Jared and Jensen had been. So few people were ever found after having gone missing. Even if there was a bounty on their heads, there was always a chance they'd just vanish into the wilderness or Mexico and never be seen again. Soon there was a growing crowd in the street, people asking questions and wanting answers and praising god and suggesting criminal activities and just talking, talking, talking.

“Leave them alone,” Sheriff Morgan finally had to say, pushing the crowd aside so Jared could guide his horse down the street and to the boarding house. Jared would have stayed and repeated his story to everyone in town, but he could tell that Jensen wasn't ready to be among crowds yet, that he wanted to be alone to wash and eat and enjoy being home again. Someone must have told Miss Ferris, the landlady, that they were back, because she came outside and stood on the porch, wiping her hands on a towel and looking like she was trying not to smile.

The first thing she did, after Jared and Jensen had tied Harley to the post in front of the boarding house, was give Jensen a hug. He seemed surprised but hugged her back. Jared was next, and then she shooed them inside to wash their faces and change their clothes and oh, they owed her for the weeks they were gone.

She wouldn't let anyone follow them, much to Jensen's relief, but they hadn't been in their room five minutes before someone knocked on the door. Danneel pushed it open and stomped in, wordlessly grabbing first Jensen and then Jared in a hug.

“Miss Ferris already tried to suffocate us,” Jensen said, after she let them both go.

“You asshole,” she said, punching him on the arm. “Don't ever do that again. And you” - she rounded on Jared - “you lunatic, what were you thinking? You weren't supposed to be gone for a month!”

“I had to find him,” he explained. He hadn't meant to worry anyone - he'd only meant to get Jensen back. But he wasn't apologizing, only explaining.

“You're not even sorry.”

“Not for that.”

“You're an asshole too.”

“I'm sorry?”

She made a frustrated noise. Jared noticed out of the corner of his eye that Jensen was trying not to smile.

“This isn't funny!” Danneel practically yelled at him, having noticed as well. “Don't you look like you're going to laugh at me!”

“The devil kidnapped me, Danny,” Jensen said. “Everything's funny after that.”

“The devil...?” She gaped at him, at Jared, and then closed her mouth and narrowed her eyes at both of them. “You are both fucking lunatics and if you ever disappear like that again I will never forgive you.” And then she turned on her heel and swept out of the room, muttering to herself in French.

“What was that?” Jared asked.

“She was worried,” Jensen said. He sat on the bed.

“No, I know that, but what was she saying?”

“You mean as she left? I don't know, but I don't think it was nice.”

“We should go over there.”

“I know. I'm surprised she didn't bring all the girls with her.”

“Miss Ferris wouldn't have let them in the front door.” Jared sat on the bed next to Jensen. He was a little surprised the landlady had even let Danneel in that far, although it was more likely that Danneel had just bullied her way inside.

“I need a bath before we go anywhere,” Jensen said. He wrinkled his nose. “You need a bath too.”

“I need something to eat.” Jared's stomach rumbled. Jensen stifled a laugh. Jared elbowed him in the side. “Food first, bath second, Danny's third. We can't walk into her place looking like this.” He gestured at the pants and shirts and coats they'd been wearing for weeks straight, the dust on their boots, the fact that they were both bearded and in need of a shave.

“Bath now, food after. I don't want to get dust all over the dining room. Miss Ferris needs her own bathhouse so we can just sneak out the back and not have to talk to anyone. When we get to Danny's we'll probably disrupt business and she'll yell at us again, and I want to be clean and fed when she does it.”

“Jensen.”

“Yeah?” Jensen turned his head to look at Jared. His eyes were bright. He didn't even look tired.

“I wasn't always sure I'd find you.”

“I would've been sure, if I'd known you were looking for me.”

“How?” The territories were big, and they were both mere men, and Jared had no idea where Jensen had gone. How could Jensen be so sure Jared would find him?

“The knight always rescues the princess, right?”

Because even though the myths Jared knew ended badly for people, his fairytales had happy endings.

He leaned in and kissed Jensen on the mouth, and this time Jensen kissed back.

When Jared pulled away, he realized he was grinning to split his face. If this was all he ever got, if Jensen returning his kiss was the farthest it ever went, he would be content. It meant Jensen hadn't changed, the devil hadn't swapped him out for a changeling, and he loved Jared back.

It was enough.

“Food and drink, then bath,” Jared said, trying to get himself back on track, reminding himself that they were hungry, thirsty, and dirty, and if they showed up in Danneel's parlor looking like this, she'd kick them out and refuse them entry until they cleaned up. The girls would have to go out into the street to welcome them back.

So they changed their clothes, went downstairs to eat in the boarding house dining room, let Miss Ferris shoo away any curious boarders, and made their way to the bathhouse and then the brothel.

They did disrupt Danneel's house. Brianna even jumped off a client's lap to run over to Jared and Jensen to hug them and kiss them on both cheeks. Jared was quite surprised to find Misha and Sebastian sitting at one of the poker tables - he would have thought Alona and her entourage would have moved on to their next stop already - but they both got up to shake his and Jensen's hands.

“We are so glad you are not dead,” Sebastian said, surprising Jared yet again by actually saying something he could understand, even with the heavy accent of someone who spoke English as at least a third language, and infrequently at that. “Alona was.” He paused and looked at Misha. “Was. Cum se supne 'ingrijorata'?” Misha raised an eyebrow. “Bespokoilas.”

“Worried,” Misha said to Jared and Jensen. “She was concerned that you had taken her tale seriously.”

“She told me about a girl who was trapped in a mountain,” Jared explained to Jensen, “who would steal you away unless you knew her real name. If you could give it to her, she'd let you go and be freed herself. I thought it might help me find you.”

Jensen just shook his head, but he was smiling.

“We leave tomorrow afternoon,” Misha went on. “We rearranged things to wait for your return. Will you join us for breakfast? We would like to hear your story.”

Jensen eventually had to hide in the kitchen to escape everyone's questions. Now that he was back and standing in front of them, Sebastian and Misha didn't want to wait to find out what had happened to him. Jared was left to assuage the curiosity of everyone in the house. Even Genevieve came by, having heard they were back.

Danneel helped keep the peace, mainly by giving her girls the hairy eyeball until they left Jared alone and turned the full force of their attention back to the house's patrons.

Then Chad appeared, called Jared a mad bastard, and bought the entire house a round of drinks to celebrate Jared and Jensen's safe return.

It took days for them to explain to everyone what had happened. Everyone in town wanted to know, and a lot of people wanted to hear the story more than once. Jared told the truth - the devil did it - and his story never really changed, although the more he told it, the more he figured out how to refine it for his audience. And if only half the town only half believed him, well, they'd thought he was crazy for going to look for Jensen in the first place, so what did it matter if they thought he was crazy for the story he kept telling?

He endured the teasing and the mockery. It was easy, now that he had Jensen back, now that he knew he could walk into the underworld, make a deal with the devil for what he needed, and walk right back out again.

In a year he and Jensen would return to her cave and keep their end of the bargain. And in the meantime, he'd retell the story as often as he had to, as often as anyone wanted him to, and if it spread, well, the best stories always did.

Jared wondered if the story would travel outside of Pluto, carried on the railroad or in the back of a wagon or a stagecoach, making its way across the slowly civilizing west. He wondered if his reckless, determined actions had planted the seed for him and Jensen to become the stars of their own fairytale, the creators of a new myth. Would their story someday inspire someone else, the way Alona's story of the girl in the mountain had inspired him, misguided as it was, and would it someday save someone else, the way Scheherazade had saved him?

He hoped so. He loved the unsettled, wild west, dangerous as it could be, and he wanted to be part of its history. He'd wanted to leave his mark on it, somehow, somewhere, and these weeks of insanity - Jensen going missing, Jared going after him, the ghost ponies, the devil, the deal - might be the way to do it.

People didn't have to believe him. He and Jensen knew the truth. People just had to listen, and share.

* * *

“Tell me a story,” the devil said. “Give me your time.”

And so the young man told him about a beautiful, clever girl who distracted a great king and thereby saved the life of her sisters. Perhaps he meant to sway the devil. Perhaps it was merely the first tale that came to mind.

Who can know the devil's heart? What might help one man may hinder another, and the devil is a canny creature who does not like to lose. But the young man had faith in himself and in his love for his captive friend, and the story he told stirred something in the devil's breast.

“You will return in a year's time,” the devil told him, “and you will tell me another story. In exchange, I will let your friend go. He will follow you out of my kingdom. You will not hear his footsteps, but he will be there.”

The young man and the devil shook hands to seal their bargain, and the young man took his leave of hell.

He did not look behind him as he walked. He had no reason to trust the devil, for no man does, but he had traveled far and risked much, and he had not come such a distance, and bested such a foe, to chance losing his friend.

But both men emerged into the sunlight of the world of men. And a year later they returned so that the young man might tell the devil another story.

For the devil keeps his word, and he expects the same of you.

Author's Note