Mixing Business With Pleasure - Standalone
Title: Mixing Business With Pleasure
Author: Blink-sum-new-muse
Rating: R
Fandom: CW RP
Summary: Jensen and Jared play pawns for their fathers who are businessmen. Marriage and drama ensue.
Disclaimer: I do not own Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Chris Kane, or any of their families. I also don't own Futurama. Fiction is the word, and the words are mine.
Status: Finished.
Notes: This was not in any way planned, totally inspired by spn_harlequin and therefore is quite ridiculous in places. But I think it's enjoyable.
Jared holds his hand out, polite as ever just like his mama taught him, hopes his unhappiness isn't too obvious.
"Charmed," Jensen murmurs, taking his hand and kissing the back of it instead of shaking it. Their parents laugh, obviously amused by this display of what Jared considers to be arrogance.
"Well, we'll leave you two to get acquainted, then," Jensen's father proclaims loudly. "We won't hurry back." He looks at his son, winks and takes his wife's arm. Jared barely manages to disguise the disgust he feels when Jensen winks back.
"So, it's just us," Jensen states when their parents have left, out for their night of dinner and dancing and planning the lives of their offspring because god forbid Jared and Jensen actually get any say in it. "You want a beer?"
Jared shakes his head, but Jensen's already turned and is on his way to the kitchen halfway through the question, so he doesn't see it. Jared trails behind, trying not to heave the long-suffering sigh that's so desperate to creep out. He doesn't say anything when Jensen hands him a bottle anyway, just looks down at it and turns it in his hands. Doesn't look at Jensen.
"How d'you wanna do this?" Jensen asks, studying the younger man. He notes his unease; doesn't mention it. He notes his attractiveness - he'll definitely be mentioning that. If he's got to have a husband then he's not giving up bragging rights.
"Huh?" Jared asks, looking up. If it was anyone else, Jensen would think they were being coy, hinting at the innuendo that was laced automatically in his words, but Jared really doesn't look like that's his game. He mostly looks tired and fed up.
"Get to know each other," Jensen clarifies, with a small smile that fades when Jared looks away from him again, turns the bottle in his hands, picks at the label. "I mean, you wanna play twenty questions or what?" He's leaning with one arm on the counter-top, the other holding his beer. His legs are crossed at the ankle and his white shirt is open-necked, with the first few buttons undone. He's wearing old, faded jeans, and he's barefoot. It's not a look his father likes on him, but it's one he knows makes people feel more comfortable, because it seems as though he's being open with them, if his shirt and his posture say so.
But it's not working on Jared, because Jared's not looking at him, and for once he doesn't think it's because Jared's terribly attracted to him and trying to hide it. That happens a lot - not that he can say he minds. It's fun to mess with people's heads, turn them on until they can barely think straight and then suddenly close down, quick goodbye, get out of there. They never know what hit them.
Jared's obviously taken his father's advice when it comes to dressing up. He's wearing a dark suit, stupid in the Los Angeles heat, with a white shirt buttoned all the way up and at the collar. He's also wearing a tie. Jensen can't remember when the last time he wore a tie was; he has to be practically wrestled into them by either his mother or his nana, and even they know well enough to do it at only the most dire of occasions. These days he tries simply not to show up at any of his father's social things - that way, he doesn't have to dress up and pretend he's enjoying himself listening to all his father's aged friends talk about oil and stock markets and shares and the affairs they're having with their housekeepers.
Jensen might be more inclined to listen if they were having affairs with their pool boys, but if that's the case, they're keeping it quiet.
"What's the point?" Jared sighs, sounding like he's trying to hide his exasperation but not doing a very good job. "We've got...forever to find out about each other. Or until our parents die, anyway."
Jensen starts a little at that, but he's smooth enough to cover it almost instantaneously. Not that it matters, because Jared isn't paying him any mind anyway. "I get the feeling you're not too happy about this," he ventures, raising an eyebrow.
"Are you kidding me?" Jared asks, finally meeting his gaze with an unhappy face. "I think it sucks."
"Then why are you agreeing to it?" Jensen frowns.
Jared glares. "I didn't," he says, sounding like a child who's about to throw a tantrum. "I wasn't asked. I was just told." When both of Jensen's eyebrows raise, he looks even more put out, if that's possible. "You mean you got a choice?"
"Well...yeah," Jensen shrugs, feeling a little uncomfortable. "I mean, they were going to pick for me, but if I said no to their choices, which I did at the first two, they wouldn't have forced them on me."
"What if you said no indefinitely?" Jared asks.
Jensen would be surprised, if it weren't for the fact that he hasn't stopped being surprised since this kid opened his mouth. "I'm not that stupid," he replies.
Jared sighs. "You'd get disowned too?" He sounds weary. Jensen gestures vaguely to a chair, watches as the other man drops down into it, sprawls about everywhere, seems to take up half the huge kitchen just with his legs, and then his words penetrate.
"No, course not," Jensen answers, taking the seat opposite Jared at the table. "I'd just lose the majority of my inheritance and be frowned upon forever. And quite frankly, getting frowned at all the time is getting a little depressing. So I said yes."
Jared's jaw actually drops, and Jensen wants to laugh because he doesn't think he's ever seen that outside of cartoons, but he doesn't think Jared'd take it too well. "You mean you had a choice?" he asks. "And you chose this?"
"What's so wrong with this?" Jensen asks, a little nervous of the answer. Perhaps Jared's going to say he's a serial killer or a rapist or a transsexual or something. That would really suck. After years of his parents trying to push women on him, they finally accept that he's gay and then when they agree he can marry a guy instead, they work it out so it's actually a woman. He could see that happening.
"We've never met before!" Jared exclaims, hands flying out to the sides, beer barely staying within the grasp of his fingertips. "We've never even seen each other before and we're supposed to get married in two weeks. It's insane. This is the twenty first century, this shit just doesn't happen any more."
"Except apparently it does," Jensen laughs. This guy is...well, he obviously knows nothing about business. "Look, who cares?" he attempts to offer some comfort, maybe so Jared will stop trying to glare a hole through him. "We don't actually have to be married, not properly. Well, we have to act it for a while because I'm pretty damn sure my father's paid my staff to let him know if they see anything going on that isn't between us, but after a while things'll cool off and we'll be able to pretty much have our own lives. I'll go back to sleeping in whoever's bed I might end up in and you can go back to...doing whatever it is you do."
"What happens when you want to marry someone else?" Jared questions, looking like he's sulking. "For love?"
Jensen gives him this incredulous look. He really knows nothing. Kid lives in a fairy tale. "Trust me, I will never want to marry for love," he assures Jared. "For one, I don't believe in it, and two, if it's true it's just fucking stupid. Look at all the dumb things people do in the name of love. Romeo and Juliet, both killed themselves cause they thought the other one was dead. People move countries and give up their jobs and all sorts of crazy shit. If I ever did fall in love, which is incredibly unlikely because I don't think it even exists, I will not marry someone and allow them access to everything in my life, only for them to abuse my trust and shit all over me afterwards. Probably taking my cars with them."
"That is the most cynical, depressing thing I have ever heard," Jared says in a small voice. He's staring at Jensen like you might look at a puppy that's been kicked to death.
Jensen shakes his head. "Kid, you got a lot to learn," he says.
"From the sounds of it, I'm not the only one," Jared retorts.
* * * * *
They're married [civil ceremony-ed, really] two weeks later, surrounded by more business associates of their parents than family and friends and that makes the reception almost as dull as one of their daddies' functions. They make the rounds a few times with smiles plastered on their faces, but only Jared knows that Jensen's is down to some really good pot and he's kinda jealous.
Finally they've done enough socialising for it to be deemed acceptable for them to want to slip away, so they do so, saying good night to their parents. Jared ignores the grins that pass between his new husband and father in law, finds it harder to ignore the sad look on his mama's face as he walks away, hand in hand with Jensen, but manages to do so only because it's partly her fault he's in this mess anyway. If either of them had learned how to stand up to his daddy long ago, this wouldn't have happened. But she brought him up to be the obedient son and now he is, to a fault.
Jared is rarely thankful for all the things that his papa's money buys, but he is when he realises they're eighteen floors up from the party still going strong downstairs and consequently can't hear a damn thing. Their honeymoon suite is huge and entirely unnecessary. Jensen doesn't seem to mind, dropping pieces of his clothing everywhere along the way to the bed as though he's trying to fill the room up, and then sprawling with a loud sigh of contentment on top of the covers.
Jared follows a little more demurely, loosening his belt and tie and toeing off his shoes when he reaches the bed's end, climbing up carefully to lie down next to Jensen because he has to. Obviously, this is the only bed anyone will think they'd need. Luckily for him it's huge, so he can manage to relax mostly without even touching Jensen.
"You know," Jensen starts, sounding conversational, "My dad'll probably know if we don't consumate our marriage. And he wouldn't be very happy."
Jared turns his head, feeling outraged, but Jensen's grin is wide and belies the fact that he's just teasing. Jared hits him in the stomach anyway, takes comfort in the way he draws his knees up and practically squeaks. "Jerk," Jared smiles, despite himself.
"I'm serious!" Jensen laughs, and the word 'oxymoron' comes to the front of Jared's mind. "He's probably set up cameras everywhere, asked the maids to check if we've used any of the lube..."
"They leave lube in here?" Jard sounds both interested and faintly disturbed.
"It's the honeymoon suite," Jensen replies. "It's California. Of course they leave lube."
Jared just shakes his head and turns away, stares up at the ceiling. Silence reigns for less than a minute before Jensen opens his mouth again.
"What'd you want to be when you were a kid?" he asks.
The younger man smiles. "Baseball player," he replies. "When I was four. Then a teacher when I was seven...and I'm pretty sure I wanted to be a chef at some point, too." He sounds vaguely confused by this memory and Jensen giggles, because it's funny and he's high and whatever. Jared laughs too, because it was a strange ambition for a small boy who could barely make toast.
"When'd you know you were gonna be part of the business?" Jensen asks, and that draws a frown as he'd half-expected.
"Always," Jared says softly. He doesn't need to mention that that's something he never wanted. He'd thought when he was younger that he would, maybe, grow into wanting it. His mama had said he would. But he never had and he still hasn't, even at the age of twenty one, even after having married simply for business. He suddenly feels an overwhelming urge to cry because this whole thing is ridiculous. He's throwing his life away for something he doesn't even want - never has wanted.
He curls up on his side, facing away from Jensen, but the older man saw it coming and he follows the movement. "Hey," he says, nothing else, rolls over so he's spooned behind Jared and puts an arm around him to rest firm on his stomach, and then Jared can't hold it any longer. He lets out one sob and then another, mostly just gasping breaths but a few tears too, for the fact that he's spent his entire life working for this and he still doesn't like it, hates it some days and now he won't get a chance at living for love either, but the one tiny good thing about this is Jensen isn't telling him he's an idiot or ignoring him, he's acknowledging him and allowing him to cry and somehow that just makes him cry harder.
"Did you ever want this?" Jared asks when he finally gets his breathing under control, still facing away. Jensen's head is on the pillow behind him; he can feel the man's breath on the back of his neck.
Jensen doesn't need to ask whether he means the marriage or the job or the whole package. "Not really," he answers, honestly. "I never really yearned for it, not like my dad. But I didn't not want it either, it's an easy life for me, right? I show up to an office two days a week, sign some things, go home and let my employees do everything for me. I pretend to get married to some hot guy and talk loudly to anyone who'll send the info back to my father about how great the sex is." Jared laughs at this, knows it was meant for him. "In return I get to do pretty much whatever I want, whenever I want."
"Whoever you want," Jared adds in an undertone, and Jensen snorts, slapping his hand lightly on the stomach it's been resting on.
"Got a sense of humour in there after all, huh?" he grins. "Yeah, whoever. Well, when my dad stops sniffing around."
"What's that about, anyway?" Jared asks, finally turning over. He doesn't miss the fact that when he's facing Jensen, the other man's arm is still around him, now resting gently on his back. It feels good there. "I mean, with my dad it was just about the money. Great business opportunity and whatever, nothing to do with me except I'm good bait. But why the hell did your dad wanna set this up?"
Jensen feels a fleeting sadness at the knowledge that Jared's basically been used as a pawn by his father in order to gain in business with no regard to his son's feelings, but he knew that'd be the case, anyway, from the moment his parents started bringing him 'applications' from potential husbands. They were put together like a creepy mix of CVs and dating agency profiles; glossy photographs of men in expensive suits coupled with paragraphs of, "Richard enjoys waterskiing and jogging, but does not allow his hobbies to detract from his work." Jensen couldn't care less about how much time Richard spent doing business.
That was why he'd agreed to meet Jared in the end, because Jared's application came with a photo of him laughing his head off at something another man [his brother, Jensen guessed] was telling him, and his profile described how he worked six days a week but always made sure he took his dogs for two runs a day himself. Jensen knew the applications had all been put together by professional businessmen, but something about Jared's seemed honest, somehow, and he suspects that Jared's father had realised that at the end of the day, Jensen would be vetting these men, not his father. Gerry Padalecki was nothing if not a shrewd businessman. Jensen has to hand it to him. Doesn't want to, though, because he's the reason Jared's been crying for the past few minutes.
But Jensen smirks as he thinks upon the question. "He thought my...extra-curricular activities were making him look bad," he replies. "Apparently a couple of people were hesitant about makin' deals with him because they figured if he can't control his son, how can he control a company, right? So he wanted me to make it look like I'm settlin' down, play it straight, so to speak, for a while and then when the heat's died down I can pretty much go back to business as usual. Not that he said that, but," and he grins, "He and I both know he can't control me for shit."
Jared smiles and frowns together, holds back the thought that Alan had done pretty damn well seeing as he'd managed to talk Jensen into marrying a guy he'd just met. He suspects if Jensen's dad really cared about his son sleeping around rather than the image that presented, he'd find a way to stop it, but he doesn't mention it.
"Wouldn't a woman look better then?" he asks instead.
"Tried it for years," Jensen shrugs, "But I think they gave up when the parents of the women they forced on me stopped speaking to them. I didn't do anything to 'em," he hastens to add, as Jared's expression begins to darken. "Just happened to mention how grateful I'd be if they'd concoct some stupid story about me bein' a pig or a womanizer or whatever and no way in hell would they touch me. It's amazin' how easy a diamond necklace can get a woman to lie to her daddy."
Jared grins, then. "You're every bit the businessman your dad is, y'know?" he says.
Jensen laughs. "Yeah, but it's much more fun to use it my way than his way."
"What's your way?"
"I get to marry a guy, for one...and I talk other guys into bed with me. Get my friend's band gigs at places that wouldn't otherwise look at them. And generally get people to adore me." He grins at this, a grin which they both know can only be described as adorable, and he isn't surprised when Jared laughs and pushes his shoulder.
Jensen lets the motion carry him, thumps down on his back on the bed. Jared remains on his side, staring down at the other man. He thinks if he was going to be married to someone for business, at least this will be bearable.
* * * * *
"And will your husband be joining you tonight, sir?" The waiter is paid to be all smiles, but Jared can tell he actually likes them. Whether it's because of the two hundred dollar tips or their winning personalities [or maybe Jensen's fucked him at some point, who knows?] Jared isn't sure, but he isn't much bothered anyway.
"I should hope so," Jared replies with a smile which widens when he notices Jensen entering the dining room. "Yeah, here he is."
"Hey," Jensen greets them, slips a fifty into the waiter's hand as easy as breathing, just to secure their service will be nothing less than impeccable. The waiter smiles, slips away into the background until the exact second they're ready to order. Jensen drops into the seat opposite Jared's, notices the woman at a nearby table glancing over at him with a haughty expression, remembers he's not dressed for dinner. Grins, and rolls his shirtsleeves up.
Jared is amused, looks over his shoulder at the woman and knows exactly what Jensen's doing. It's nothing he'd do himself - he doesn't have the guts, which is why his feet are currently feeling much too enclosed in two hundred dollar shoes - but he takes enjoyment in Jensen doing it.
"Dunno what she's so worried about," Jensen plays innocent. "I'm wearin' dress pants. Coulda come straight from the pool."
"If you ever come into dinner in here wearing only your bathing suit, I will divorce you on the spot," Jared tells him, trying to chastise without laughing.
"Who says I'd be wearing a bathing suit to swim?" Jensen smirks, and then laughs when Jared is clearly embarrassed. "Aw, don't tell me you never done it?"
Jared looks scandalised. "Are you kidding? My dad would murder me!"
"But your daddy don't own you no more," Jensen exaggerates a Southern drawl till it's almost painful. "I do, Jared Ackles, and I make sure my man does what I say."
"That's so creepy," is Jared's only response, and Jensen laughs so loud the woman two tables over actually coughs in disgust. It's seen as impolite to make such an outward display of aversion to someone else's behaviour, but apparently Jensen's being happy has crossed her boundaries. Jensen is delighted.
"Seriously though," he says once he's finished laughing, "Skinny dipping is somethin' everyone should get to do. We'll go...maybe in Texas. Not much chance of getting followed by the press there."
"Why Texas?" Jared asks, surprised.
Jensen shrugs. "Haven't been in a while. Your family's from there too, right?"
"Yeah, San Antonio," Jared nods. "But I haven't been since I was a kid."
"Good a time as any," Jensen smiles. "Ready to order?"
Over dinner they make loose plans for the rest of their honeymoon - something which will last for an indefinite period of time anyway, so it's not like they're in any rush - and decide that Texas is definitely on the cards. Jared isn't sure about the whole skinny dipping thing, but he figures if Texas doesn't have hotels that make him dress for dinner like he's going to a wedding, it's worth it. Jensen mentions hiring a ranch and horse riding, but Jared's pretty sure he's joking.
By the time they finish eating the grumpy woman is long gone, but Jensen still makes a production of undoing the top button of his pants, relieving the pressure on his stomach somewhat. Jared tries to tell him not to, can't quite get the words out. So when they stand up to leave, Jensen moves just quick enough to be able to trap Jared before he can get away, and he loosens the tie and pulls it over Jared's head in one fell swoop. Undoes the top button even as Jared cries, "Jensen!" in as quiet an outraged voice as he can manage, and stops when he gets to the third because Jared looks like he might hyperventilate sometime soon.
"Calm down, princess," is all Jensen says, and he leaves the tie on the table as he wraps an arm around his husband's waist, leads him out of the room. The waiter smiles after them, leaves it a minute or two before he goes to collect the huge tip he knows is there underneath the side plate, tucks the tie into his pocket before anyone can see. Figures they're not the type to mind much if someone jerks off fantasising about them. Or at least the shorter one.
Jensen wonders, in the elevator, as he leans casually against the wall and Jared stands stiffly next to him - deliberately not catching the operator's eye because he's convinced the man is laughing over how ruffled he appears - just how far Jared would've let him undress him before he did anything other than sputter and turn red. He'd not even put his hands on Jensen's arms, or anything, just stood there and took it. They'd fallen into a pretty physical - for two people that weren't having sex, anyway - relationship without so much as blinking, but hugs and arms around the shoulder and even wrestling on the bed were all things that Jared seemed to like. Being undressed in a swanky hotel dining room evidently wasn't.
Jensen's smile fades as he realises Jared's probably been programmed into obedience from birth, by the same man that essentially sold him. He could fuck the guy and he'd probably do nothing other than whine about the brand of condoms. Jensen would find this funny, but he can't. It's just too sad.
* * * * *
They've been married for nine days when Jared thinks it must be the heat. Or that's what he'd like to think, but the fantastic air conditioning in their room begs to differ. They're standing by the door, just about to go down to the pool when Jensen gets a call from his father, one that basically tells him he's got to get to a meeting in central L.A. an hour away, right now, or his ass'll be in a sling.
Jensen sighs as he snaps the phone shut. Jared doesn't even try to pretend he hasn't been listening to both sides of the conversation because he knows if it was truly private, Jensen would've left the room. He's easy like that; makes things black and white. "I gotta go," he says, trying to appeal to the slightly sad look on Jared's face. "Probably be back around midnight, if I can talk them into doing what he wants. Depends how good my game is."
"Okay," Jared replies, trying not to look too downhearted because it's just a few hours and this is just the guy he only met a few weeks ago [and sure they're married, but what else about this has been normal?] and he knows Jensen has to do this sometimes because you don't disobey your daddy, you just don't. But they've spent the last week and some change together, almost all day every day, and it's weird to suddenly...be apart. Or you know, he just wants someone to horse around with in the pool and it's boring on your own. Whatever.
"See you later," Jensen smiles, and then Jared might have imagined it but he's almost sure there was a pause, then, a pause which apparently said in flashing neon lights, "YOU HAVE TO KISS HIM NOW" so he did, like any husband might kiss his spouse when they're separating. Except he's not any husband. He's in a sham marriage to the son of an excellent businessman.
But Jensen doesn't seem to mind, kisses back, and then he just smiles when they separate, Jared's eyes kind of wide and his expression saying he's going to start freaking out some time soon [Jensen learnt that expression pretty soon in] and he just says, "Well, that's new," and grins, gives Jared a quick hug which is more just slapping him on the back once. "Later," he repeats, because he really can't afford to wait around and make his daddy any more annoyed.
By the time he gets back, Jared has just about managed to convince himself that it's okay not to freak out because it's damn sure Jensen won't be. He'll be standing in some boardroom somewhere in a suit that costs more than it does to feed an entire family in Rwanda for a year, pointing to graphs, talking his smooth logic talk filled with hidden messages to sway people's opinions, smiling the smile that says, "C'mon, you know you want to agree with me."
Jared has always been more about the analytical side of things, like numbers and paper and plans more than people and prefers facts over opinions, but maybe it's time to take a leaf out of Jensen's book. They're in pretty much the same situation here but so far Jensen's taken it all in his stride, easy smiles and talking about skinny dipping while Jared's been sulking and freaking out, so. He breathes in deep and explains to himself that in relationships which have no obvious boundaries, sometimes you accidentally cross them. If they were married before they'd even hugged, it really isn't a big deal that they just kissed.
Jensen's probably kissed hundreds of people.
For all his business skills, Jared can't for the life of him work out why that thought irks him so much, so he gives up thinking on it and settles down to watch Futurama.
* * * * *
"You weren't kidding," Jared states flatly as the truck rolls to a stop just metres away from a large, clear pool of water. The lake is hidden by trees everywhere except where it meets the dusty path they just drove to it, and he's thankful, but...
"Do I look like a kidder?" is Jensen's answer. He's taking his shirt off even as he steps out of the cab, tosses it onto the seat beside him. Reaches down to unlace his boots and is almost finished with his socks before he decides to address the younger man again. "C'mon, I didn't come here just to strip for you."
That gets him the desired response. "Fuck you," Jared exhales, sounding worn down, and evidently he is on this topic because he pulls his shirt over his head in one fast movement.
Jensen can't pretend to hide the admiration he feels when he gets a look at Jared's chest for the first time [and wouldn't, anyway, because what'd be the point?]. Kid sleeps in T-shirt and boxers, changes in the bathroom, never mind the fact that Jensen says he only isn't sleeping nude because he doesn't want to embarrass the kid [Jared had laughed, but didn't say anything else, so he continued to do so] and he's changed with the maid in the room before.
"You work out then?" he questions, raising his eyebrows in lieu of a catcall as he figures that'll be less likely to freak the other man out, but...there it is, the blush that spreads up his shoulders and neck before it gets to his face. Jensen's actually quite amazed he's got that much blood to go spare.
"I spend too much of my time sitting in an office chair," Jared offers quietly as he pushes his jeans down, tries not to think about Jensen standing on the other side of the truck, now totally naked, even if he is talking to him. "And I eat a lot, so it'd be too easy to put on unnecessary weight."
"A lot is an understatement," Jensen laughs. "But apparently it's not doing you too much harm." He slams his door shut, heads for the water.
Jared watches him from behind almost in a daze, stares at his ass until Jensen calls, "You comin' then?" and that's when he realises he's probably not supposed to be doing that [although he isn't totally sure, because he still hasn't quite figured out the social rules for being married to someone who you were obviously attracted to and who was obviously attracted to you but who you only met a week before the wedding]. So he shuts his own door and follows, trusting that Jensen knows him enough not to turn around before he's waist-deep in the water.
Jensen is, as ever, the perfect fake-husband, and waits until he feels Jared's presence behind him before he turns.
"Doesn't it feel different?" he asks, in a way that would sound cocky if he wasn't so excited. Jensen just loves doing stuff that other people hate him doing. He's a social exhibitionist - i.e. if society thinks what he's doing shouldn't be displayed, he wants to do it on live international television.
"Yeah," Jared replies, frowning a little at the weird sensation. "My balls won't stay still."
Jensen laughs at how confused he sounds saying that, is pleased when Jared grins back instead of blushing and looking away.
They swim and horse around in equal measures, float for a while until Jared has the thought that people flying overhead might see them and is too freaked out to do it any more. Jensen points out that they're nowhere near a flight path, but Jared's thoughts had already strayed to, "If Jensen turns his head he can see me naked," and it was too late. The older man lets it go, is even comfortable with Jared not being comfortable, which is something he envies him for.
One of their many fights ends up with them facing each other, laughing as they fight to get their breath back, and when they do Jensen notices just how good Jared looks with the sun shining on his hair like that, and he's never been a man of much restraint when it comes to things like this so he puts his arms around Jared's shoulders, drags him closer easily in the water, waits just long enough to see that Jared isn't totally revulsed by this and leans in.
They kiss for way longer than Jensen is used to without some sexual act being included; just kiss and touch each other a lot, but not even really sexually, just...stroking, and holding, and kind of tender like Jensen isn't used to, either. Jared's done this before but not with men he's only known a month or so...never, obviously, with a man he's just married. So there's no protocols for either of them to follow, which means mostly that Jensen gets to lead the way by making it up and Jared's going to follow because Jensen seems to know how to do this sort of thing and enjoy it.
When they finally separate Jensen decides it's time to leave the lake because it's starting to get colder as the sun dips behind the trees, and he doesn't really want either of them to catch pneumonia before their barbecue and bonfire tonight. As he wades towards the shore, half pulling Jared behind him as he goes, he's surprised to discover that he's not even that hard. He enjoyed himself, he's sure, but apparently the message didn't get sent to his dick. Weird, but Jensen doesn't do freaking out real good, so he shrugs it off.
* * * * *
It's a few days later when his dick wakes up. Specifically, the point at which Jared exits the bathroom wearing a towel and he's only just woken up anyway, so he can't be expected to have full control of his body, but apparently his dick is more than enough awake because hello.
"Jeez," he grunts, and then when Jared turns to look at him, vaguely registering he said something, "C'mere."
Jared obeys automatically, as usual, but isn't expecting to get dragged down onto Jensen. Jensen's left hand is hot and sure on his neck, while the right one busies itself guiding him into place to settle between Jensen's thighs. He takes in a sudden breath when he realises exactly what he's lying on, but Jensen doesn't blink, simply guides his mouth back again and okay, whatever.
Jared is not going to argue. Especially not when Jensen moves to untie the knot in the towel, finally gets it away and then takes Jared's dick in his hand. By then it'd definitely become interested in joining the party, so Jensen doesn't have to work too much to get it to reach full hardness.
Around the time it does, some of Jared's blood manages to get back up to his brain and he realises that Jensen's probably pretty uncomfortable, and surely it's his job as a husband to make sure that isn't happening, so he tries to get rid of Jensen's boxers without disengaging their mouths, gets them to his knees before realising they aren't going to get any further and decides that doesn't matter anyway. He moans at the feel of Jensen's weight in his hand, would be embarrassed except Jensen's been making these little breathy sounds for a bit now and you know...whatever. They're married, it's cool.
"You are too fuckin' hot," Jensen informs him gruffly when they separate momentarily for oxygen, but before he can reply, "Likewise," Jensen's tongue is back in his mouth again and then he forgets what he was going to say anyway.
A few seconds after Jared comes, Jensen does, and when the younger man grumbles playfully about needing another shower now, Jensen just laughs. Inside he's gleeful, because Jared isn't freaking out, isn't acting like a robot, is apparently as interested in him as he is in Jared.
* * * * *
Two weeks later in Oklahoma, where they're visiting Jensen's friend Chris, the one with the band, there is a very weird moment in a bar. Chris is up on stage and Jared is enthralled as the man does his thing, wishing he could be that effortlessly cool and also doing what he wants with his life rather than...this. Except he reminds himself that the last month or more hasn't actually been that bad, and if it was going to be like this forever he could deal with it. But they call it a honeymoon period for a reason, so he doesn't want to hope just yet.
Jensen would be similarly engaged except for the man who suddenly appears on his right, talking too loud and too bright for this song and that's when Jensen realises he's seen this guy before, when Chris played in L.A., doing their merch. Apparently the guy's become somewhat of a permanent fixture with the band's crew.
He's asking if Jensen's the guy that's good friends with Chris, haven't they met before and Jensen agrees, remembers wanting to fuck this guy's brains out but he couldn't at the time due to unforseen complications involving stupid friends and way too much tequila. But right now, Chris is up on stage, getting high off all the admiration and he won't even notice if they slip away for a bit, surely.
Except Jared will, and suddenly without even thinking about it Jensen closes off, shuts down, like he does when he doesn't really like someone but he's had fun messing with them. "I'm sorry, have you met my husband?" he asks, literally pulling Jared into the conversation, and within a few awkward sentences the guy is gone.
Jared looks slightly confused. "You don't like him or somethin'?" he asks, reading Jensen's intentions to get the guy to go the hell away pretty easily.
Jensen shrugs, uneasy for once since he can't explain it. "Just bugging me," he answers and removes his hand from Jared's waist because suddenly it feels too right there. Which of course is ridiculous, but so is everything else in Jensen's life.
* * * * *
Jared is thinking about how he might actually be falling in love with Jensen after he gets off the phone to his mama. He'd done nothing but talk about how great Jensen was and how funny he was and how good he was to Jared and how generally fucking perfect he was. So he's quite ready to admit this to himself until the thought that Jensen had said he didn't believe in love comes crashing into his brain, slow and subtle as a freight train, and he's filled with a horrible feeling of despair, not unlike the way he felt when his daddy had told him he was to be married off to a man he'd never met.
He spends the next four days avoiding Jensen, not touching Jensen, not talking to Jensen, not believing in the adage that absence makes the heart grow fonder, thinking desperately about the nonspecific point in the future when Jensen had said they'd go back to normal, Jensen sleeping around and him doing...whatever it was he did. Falling in love, and those sorts of crazy things. With people who were most definitely not Jensen.
Jensen spends the next four days confused, hurt, trying to get him to talk or just even look at him, because Jared manages to give that up by the second day. Jared sleeps on the couch and is up before Jensen every day, supposedly asleep before he returns. They eat together but that's it, because they're in New York and keeping up appearances here is almost as paramount as it was in California.
* * * * *
Finally Jensen breaks, and when Jensen breaks, he veritably shatters. He's been nothing but cool, calm and collected ever since Jared's know him, always had the upper hand, always read everyone perfectly but suddenly he's shaking Jared awake and looking distraught, and Jared honestly thinks somebody must have died or something before Jensen yells, "I can't fuckin' take this any more, Jay! What the hell did I do?" He drops to his knees by the couch, looking for all the world like a child who's asking why his pet dog's gone to heaven without him and Jared just isn't the sort of guy to ignore that.
"Nothing, I-" he is wide eyed and terrified and stunned that he's had this much power over a guy that doesn't do love, does hookups, has the world in the palm of his hand.
Jensen is just as confused over it but he's not gonna think about it like Jared would; he's just gonna act on it. Which is how come he's practically crying.
"If I did nothing then why the hell won't you look at me?" Jensen replies desperately before Jared can get an excuse out, and then he adds, "I love you, you idiot, and this fuckin' hurts!"
If Jensen's expression is anything to go by, this admission is as much of a shock to him as it is to Jared, but he only has a second or two to process it before Jared is leaning forward, grabbing his face with huge hands and kissing him. It starts out chaste and happy but descends quite easily into hot and heavy and okay, make up sex is definitely something Jensen's willing to try out.
* * * * *
Two days later Jared wakes up boiling hot to find that Jensen has lit a fire in their room. He wasn't even aware that the fireplaces worked because really, who trusts rich people with minibar access and fires? But apparently they do, and before Jared can ask what the hell he's doing, Jensen is dragging him out of bed to stand in front of it. Then he kneels down, and Jared is just too sleepy to try and think any more so he concentrates on watching the scene instead of trying to analyse it.
"Jared Ackles," Jensen says solemly, holding one of Jared's hands in his as he speaks, "I can't ask you to marry me, because we already did that. So I'm gonna do the next best thing. Would you do me the honour of burning our pre-nups?"
Jared's laugh is long and loud and he thinks if anything is ever normal again, he'll be quite upset. "I'd be glad to," he replies, pulls Jensen to his feet and when Jensen hands him the documents, he smiles wide before he throws them into the fire.
Pic//Blink-sum-new-muse
Author: Blink-sum-new-muse
Rating: R
Fandom: CW RP
Summary: Jensen and Jared play pawns for their fathers who are businessmen. Marriage and drama ensue.
Disclaimer: I do not own Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Chris Kane, or any of their families. I also don't own Futurama. Fiction is the word, and the words are mine.
Status: Finished.
Notes: This was not in any way planned, totally inspired by spn_harlequin and therefore is quite ridiculous in places. But I think it's enjoyable.
Jared holds his hand out, polite as ever just like his mama taught him, hopes his unhappiness isn't too obvious.
"Charmed," Jensen murmurs, taking his hand and kissing the back of it instead of shaking it. Their parents laugh, obviously amused by this display of what Jared considers to be arrogance.
"Well, we'll leave you two to get acquainted, then," Jensen's father proclaims loudly. "We won't hurry back." He looks at his son, winks and takes his wife's arm. Jared barely manages to disguise the disgust he feels when Jensen winks back.
"So, it's just us," Jensen states when their parents have left, out for their night of dinner and dancing and planning the lives of their offspring because god forbid Jared and Jensen actually get any say in it. "You want a beer?"
Jared shakes his head, but Jensen's already turned and is on his way to the kitchen halfway through the question, so he doesn't see it. Jared trails behind, trying not to heave the long-suffering sigh that's so desperate to creep out. He doesn't say anything when Jensen hands him a bottle anyway, just looks down at it and turns it in his hands. Doesn't look at Jensen.
"How d'you wanna do this?" Jensen asks, studying the younger man. He notes his unease; doesn't mention it. He notes his attractiveness - he'll definitely be mentioning that. If he's got to have a husband then he's not giving up bragging rights.
"Huh?" Jared asks, looking up. If it was anyone else, Jensen would think they were being coy, hinting at the innuendo that was laced automatically in his words, but Jared really doesn't look like that's his game. He mostly looks tired and fed up.
"Get to know each other," Jensen clarifies, with a small smile that fades when Jared looks away from him again, turns the bottle in his hands, picks at the label. "I mean, you wanna play twenty questions or what?" He's leaning with one arm on the counter-top, the other holding his beer. His legs are crossed at the ankle and his white shirt is open-necked, with the first few buttons undone. He's wearing old, faded jeans, and he's barefoot. It's not a look his father likes on him, but it's one he knows makes people feel more comfortable, because it seems as though he's being open with them, if his shirt and his posture say so.
But it's not working on Jared, because Jared's not looking at him, and for once he doesn't think it's because Jared's terribly attracted to him and trying to hide it. That happens a lot - not that he can say he minds. It's fun to mess with people's heads, turn them on until they can barely think straight and then suddenly close down, quick goodbye, get out of there. They never know what hit them.
Jared's obviously taken his father's advice when it comes to dressing up. He's wearing a dark suit, stupid in the Los Angeles heat, with a white shirt buttoned all the way up and at the collar. He's also wearing a tie. Jensen can't remember when the last time he wore a tie was; he has to be practically wrestled into them by either his mother or his nana, and even they know well enough to do it at only the most dire of occasions. These days he tries simply not to show up at any of his father's social things - that way, he doesn't have to dress up and pretend he's enjoying himself listening to all his father's aged friends talk about oil and stock markets and shares and the affairs they're having with their housekeepers.
Jensen might be more inclined to listen if they were having affairs with their pool boys, but if that's the case, they're keeping it quiet.
"What's the point?" Jared sighs, sounding like he's trying to hide his exasperation but not doing a very good job. "We've got...forever to find out about each other. Or until our parents die, anyway."
Jensen starts a little at that, but he's smooth enough to cover it almost instantaneously. Not that it matters, because Jared isn't paying him any mind anyway. "I get the feeling you're not too happy about this," he ventures, raising an eyebrow.
"Are you kidding me?" Jared asks, finally meeting his gaze with an unhappy face. "I think it sucks."
"Then why are you agreeing to it?" Jensen frowns.
Jared glares. "I didn't," he says, sounding like a child who's about to throw a tantrum. "I wasn't asked. I was just told." When both of Jensen's eyebrows raise, he looks even more put out, if that's possible. "You mean you got a choice?"
"Well...yeah," Jensen shrugs, feeling a little uncomfortable. "I mean, they were going to pick for me, but if I said no to their choices, which I did at the first two, they wouldn't have forced them on me."
"What if you said no indefinitely?" Jared asks.
Jensen would be surprised, if it weren't for the fact that he hasn't stopped being surprised since this kid opened his mouth. "I'm not that stupid," he replies.
Jared sighs. "You'd get disowned too?" He sounds weary. Jensen gestures vaguely to a chair, watches as the other man drops down into it, sprawls about everywhere, seems to take up half the huge kitchen just with his legs, and then his words penetrate.
"No, course not," Jensen answers, taking the seat opposite Jared at the table. "I'd just lose the majority of my inheritance and be frowned upon forever. And quite frankly, getting frowned at all the time is getting a little depressing. So I said yes."
Jared's jaw actually drops, and Jensen wants to laugh because he doesn't think he's ever seen that outside of cartoons, but he doesn't think Jared'd take it too well. "You mean you had a choice?" he asks. "And you chose this?"
"What's so wrong with this?" Jensen asks, a little nervous of the answer. Perhaps Jared's going to say he's a serial killer or a rapist or a transsexual or something. That would really suck. After years of his parents trying to push women on him, they finally accept that he's gay and then when they agree he can marry a guy instead, they work it out so it's actually a woman. He could see that happening.
"We've never met before!" Jared exclaims, hands flying out to the sides, beer barely staying within the grasp of his fingertips. "We've never even seen each other before and we're supposed to get married in two weeks. It's insane. This is the twenty first century, this shit just doesn't happen any more."
"Except apparently it does," Jensen laughs. This guy is...well, he obviously knows nothing about business. "Look, who cares?" he attempts to offer some comfort, maybe so Jared will stop trying to glare a hole through him. "We don't actually have to be married, not properly. Well, we have to act it for a while because I'm pretty damn sure my father's paid my staff to let him know if they see anything going on that isn't between us, but after a while things'll cool off and we'll be able to pretty much have our own lives. I'll go back to sleeping in whoever's bed I might end up in and you can go back to...doing whatever it is you do."
"What happens when you want to marry someone else?" Jared questions, looking like he's sulking. "For love?"
Jensen gives him this incredulous look. He really knows nothing. Kid lives in a fairy tale. "Trust me, I will never want to marry for love," he assures Jared. "For one, I don't believe in it, and two, if it's true it's just fucking stupid. Look at all the dumb things people do in the name of love. Romeo and Juliet, both killed themselves cause they thought the other one was dead. People move countries and give up their jobs and all sorts of crazy shit. If I ever did fall in love, which is incredibly unlikely because I don't think it even exists, I will not marry someone and allow them access to everything in my life, only for them to abuse my trust and shit all over me afterwards. Probably taking my cars with them."
"That is the most cynical, depressing thing I have ever heard," Jared says in a small voice. He's staring at Jensen like you might look at a puppy that's been kicked to death.
Jensen shakes his head. "Kid, you got a lot to learn," he says.
"From the sounds of it, I'm not the only one," Jared retorts.
* * * * *
They're married [civil ceremony-ed, really] two weeks later, surrounded by more business associates of their parents than family and friends and that makes the reception almost as dull as one of their daddies' functions. They make the rounds a few times with smiles plastered on their faces, but only Jared knows that Jensen's is down to some really good pot and he's kinda jealous.
Finally they've done enough socialising for it to be deemed acceptable for them to want to slip away, so they do so, saying good night to their parents. Jared ignores the grins that pass between his new husband and father in law, finds it harder to ignore the sad look on his mama's face as he walks away, hand in hand with Jensen, but manages to do so only because it's partly her fault he's in this mess anyway. If either of them had learned how to stand up to his daddy long ago, this wouldn't have happened. But she brought him up to be the obedient son and now he is, to a fault.
Jared is rarely thankful for all the things that his papa's money buys, but he is when he realises they're eighteen floors up from the party still going strong downstairs and consequently can't hear a damn thing. Their honeymoon suite is huge and entirely unnecessary. Jensen doesn't seem to mind, dropping pieces of his clothing everywhere along the way to the bed as though he's trying to fill the room up, and then sprawling with a loud sigh of contentment on top of the covers.
Jared follows a little more demurely, loosening his belt and tie and toeing off his shoes when he reaches the bed's end, climbing up carefully to lie down next to Jensen because he has to. Obviously, this is the only bed anyone will think they'd need. Luckily for him it's huge, so he can manage to relax mostly without even touching Jensen.
"You know," Jensen starts, sounding conversational, "My dad'll probably know if we don't consumate our marriage. And he wouldn't be very happy."
Jared turns his head, feeling outraged, but Jensen's grin is wide and belies the fact that he's just teasing. Jared hits him in the stomach anyway, takes comfort in the way he draws his knees up and practically squeaks. "Jerk," Jared smiles, despite himself.
"I'm serious!" Jensen laughs, and the word 'oxymoron' comes to the front of Jared's mind. "He's probably set up cameras everywhere, asked the maids to check if we've used any of the lube..."
"They leave lube in here?" Jard sounds both interested and faintly disturbed.
"It's the honeymoon suite," Jensen replies. "It's California. Of course they leave lube."
Jared just shakes his head and turns away, stares up at the ceiling. Silence reigns for less than a minute before Jensen opens his mouth again.
"What'd you want to be when you were a kid?" he asks.
The younger man smiles. "Baseball player," he replies. "When I was four. Then a teacher when I was seven...and I'm pretty sure I wanted to be a chef at some point, too." He sounds vaguely confused by this memory and Jensen giggles, because it's funny and he's high and whatever. Jared laughs too, because it was a strange ambition for a small boy who could barely make toast.
"When'd you know you were gonna be part of the business?" Jensen asks, and that draws a frown as he'd half-expected.
"Always," Jared says softly. He doesn't need to mention that that's something he never wanted. He'd thought when he was younger that he would, maybe, grow into wanting it. His mama had said he would. But he never had and he still hasn't, even at the age of twenty one, even after having married simply for business. He suddenly feels an overwhelming urge to cry because this whole thing is ridiculous. He's throwing his life away for something he doesn't even want - never has wanted.
He curls up on his side, facing away from Jensen, but the older man saw it coming and he follows the movement. "Hey," he says, nothing else, rolls over so he's spooned behind Jared and puts an arm around him to rest firm on his stomach, and then Jared can't hold it any longer. He lets out one sob and then another, mostly just gasping breaths but a few tears too, for the fact that he's spent his entire life working for this and he still doesn't like it, hates it some days and now he won't get a chance at living for love either, but the one tiny good thing about this is Jensen isn't telling him he's an idiot or ignoring him, he's acknowledging him and allowing him to cry and somehow that just makes him cry harder.
"Did you ever want this?" Jared asks when he finally gets his breathing under control, still facing away. Jensen's head is on the pillow behind him; he can feel the man's breath on the back of his neck.
Jensen doesn't need to ask whether he means the marriage or the job or the whole package. "Not really," he answers, honestly. "I never really yearned for it, not like my dad. But I didn't not want it either, it's an easy life for me, right? I show up to an office two days a week, sign some things, go home and let my employees do everything for me. I pretend to get married to some hot guy and talk loudly to anyone who'll send the info back to my father about how great the sex is." Jared laughs at this, knows it was meant for him. "In return I get to do pretty much whatever I want, whenever I want."
"Whoever you want," Jared adds in an undertone, and Jensen snorts, slapping his hand lightly on the stomach it's been resting on.
"Got a sense of humour in there after all, huh?" he grins. "Yeah, whoever. Well, when my dad stops sniffing around."
"What's that about, anyway?" Jared asks, finally turning over. He doesn't miss the fact that when he's facing Jensen, the other man's arm is still around him, now resting gently on his back. It feels good there. "I mean, with my dad it was just about the money. Great business opportunity and whatever, nothing to do with me except I'm good bait. But why the hell did your dad wanna set this up?"
Jensen feels a fleeting sadness at the knowledge that Jared's basically been used as a pawn by his father in order to gain in business with no regard to his son's feelings, but he knew that'd be the case, anyway, from the moment his parents started bringing him 'applications' from potential husbands. They were put together like a creepy mix of CVs and dating agency profiles; glossy photographs of men in expensive suits coupled with paragraphs of, "Richard enjoys waterskiing and jogging, but does not allow his hobbies to detract from his work." Jensen couldn't care less about how much time Richard spent doing business.
That was why he'd agreed to meet Jared in the end, because Jared's application came with a photo of him laughing his head off at something another man [his brother, Jensen guessed] was telling him, and his profile described how he worked six days a week but always made sure he took his dogs for two runs a day himself. Jensen knew the applications had all been put together by professional businessmen, but something about Jared's seemed honest, somehow, and he suspects that Jared's father had realised that at the end of the day, Jensen would be vetting these men, not his father. Gerry Padalecki was nothing if not a shrewd businessman. Jensen has to hand it to him. Doesn't want to, though, because he's the reason Jared's been crying for the past few minutes.
But Jensen smirks as he thinks upon the question. "He thought my...extra-curricular activities were making him look bad," he replies. "Apparently a couple of people were hesitant about makin' deals with him because they figured if he can't control his son, how can he control a company, right? So he wanted me to make it look like I'm settlin' down, play it straight, so to speak, for a while and then when the heat's died down I can pretty much go back to business as usual. Not that he said that, but," and he grins, "He and I both know he can't control me for shit."
Jared smiles and frowns together, holds back the thought that Alan had done pretty damn well seeing as he'd managed to talk Jensen into marrying a guy he'd just met. He suspects if Jensen's dad really cared about his son sleeping around rather than the image that presented, he'd find a way to stop it, but he doesn't mention it.
"Wouldn't a woman look better then?" he asks instead.
"Tried it for years," Jensen shrugs, "But I think they gave up when the parents of the women they forced on me stopped speaking to them. I didn't do anything to 'em," he hastens to add, as Jared's expression begins to darken. "Just happened to mention how grateful I'd be if they'd concoct some stupid story about me bein' a pig or a womanizer or whatever and no way in hell would they touch me. It's amazin' how easy a diamond necklace can get a woman to lie to her daddy."
Jared grins, then. "You're every bit the businessman your dad is, y'know?" he says.
Jensen laughs. "Yeah, but it's much more fun to use it my way than his way."
"What's your way?"
"I get to marry a guy, for one...and I talk other guys into bed with me. Get my friend's band gigs at places that wouldn't otherwise look at them. And generally get people to adore me." He grins at this, a grin which they both know can only be described as adorable, and he isn't surprised when Jared laughs and pushes his shoulder.
Jensen lets the motion carry him, thumps down on his back on the bed. Jared remains on his side, staring down at the other man. He thinks if he was going to be married to someone for business, at least this will be bearable.
* * * * *
"And will your husband be joining you tonight, sir?" The waiter is paid to be all smiles, but Jared can tell he actually likes them. Whether it's because of the two hundred dollar tips or their winning personalities [or maybe Jensen's fucked him at some point, who knows?] Jared isn't sure, but he isn't much bothered anyway.
"I should hope so," Jared replies with a smile which widens when he notices Jensen entering the dining room. "Yeah, here he is."
"Hey," Jensen greets them, slips a fifty into the waiter's hand as easy as breathing, just to secure their service will be nothing less than impeccable. The waiter smiles, slips away into the background until the exact second they're ready to order. Jensen drops into the seat opposite Jared's, notices the woman at a nearby table glancing over at him with a haughty expression, remembers he's not dressed for dinner. Grins, and rolls his shirtsleeves up.
Jared is amused, looks over his shoulder at the woman and knows exactly what Jensen's doing. It's nothing he'd do himself - he doesn't have the guts, which is why his feet are currently feeling much too enclosed in two hundred dollar shoes - but he takes enjoyment in Jensen doing it.
"Dunno what she's so worried about," Jensen plays innocent. "I'm wearin' dress pants. Coulda come straight from the pool."
"If you ever come into dinner in here wearing only your bathing suit, I will divorce you on the spot," Jared tells him, trying to chastise without laughing.
"Who says I'd be wearing a bathing suit to swim?" Jensen smirks, and then laughs when Jared is clearly embarrassed. "Aw, don't tell me you never done it?"
Jared looks scandalised. "Are you kidding? My dad would murder me!"
"But your daddy don't own you no more," Jensen exaggerates a Southern drawl till it's almost painful. "I do, Jared Ackles, and I make sure my man does what I say."
"That's so creepy," is Jared's only response, and Jensen laughs so loud the woman two tables over actually coughs in disgust. It's seen as impolite to make such an outward display of aversion to someone else's behaviour, but apparently Jensen's being happy has crossed her boundaries. Jensen is delighted.
"Seriously though," he says once he's finished laughing, "Skinny dipping is somethin' everyone should get to do. We'll go...maybe in Texas. Not much chance of getting followed by the press there."
"Why Texas?" Jared asks, surprised.
Jensen shrugs. "Haven't been in a while. Your family's from there too, right?"
"Yeah, San Antonio," Jared nods. "But I haven't been since I was a kid."
"Good a time as any," Jensen smiles. "Ready to order?"
Over dinner they make loose plans for the rest of their honeymoon - something which will last for an indefinite period of time anyway, so it's not like they're in any rush - and decide that Texas is definitely on the cards. Jared isn't sure about the whole skinny dipping thing, but he figures if Texas doesn't have hotels that make him dress for dinner like he's going to a wedding, it's worth it. Jensen mentions hiring a ranch and horse riding, but Jared's pretty sure he's joking.
By the time they finish eating the grumpy woman is long gone, but Jensen still makes a production of undoing the top button of his pants, relieving the pressure on his stomach somewhat. Jared tries to tell him not to, can't quite get the words out. So when they stand up to leave, Jensen moves just quick enough to be able to trap Jared before he can get away, and he loosens the tie and pulls it over Jared's head in one fell swoop. Undoes the top button even as Jared cries, "Jensen!" in as quiet an outraged voice as he can manage, and stops when he gets to the third because Jared looks like he might hyperventilate sometime soon.
"Calm down, princess," is all Jensen says, and he leaves the tie on the table as he wraps an arm around his husband's waist, leads him out of the room. The waiter smiles after them, leaves it a minute or two before he goes to collect the huge tip he knows is there underneath the side plate, tucks the tie into his pocket before anyone can see. Figures they're not the type to mind much if someone jerks off fantasising about them. Or at least the shorter one.
Jensen wonders, in the elevator, as he leans casually against the wall and Jared stands stiffly next to him - deliberately not catching the operator's eye because he's convinced the man is laughing over how ruffled he appears - just how far Jared would've let him undress him before he did anything other than sputter and turn red. He'd not even put his hands on Jensen's arms, or anything, just stood there and took it. They'd fallen into a pretty physical - for two people that weren't having sex, anyway - relationship without so much as blinking, but hugs and arms around the shoulder and even wrestling on the bed were all things that Jared seemed to like. Being undressed in a swanky hotel dining room evidently wasn't.
Jensen's smile fades as he realises Jared's probably been programmed into obedience from birth, by the same man that essentially sold him. He could fuck the guy and he'd probably do nothing other than whine about the brand of condoms. Jensen would find this funny, but he can't. It's just too sad.
* * * * *
They've been married for nine days when Jared thinks it must be the heat. Or that's what he'd like to think, but the fantastic air conditioning in their room begs to differ. They're standing by the door, just about to go down to the pool when Jensen gets a call from his father, one that basically tells him he's got to get to a meeting in central L.A. an hour away, right now, or his ass'll be in a sling.
Jensen sighs as he snaps the phone shut. Jared doesn't even try to pretend he hasn't been listening to both sides of the conversation because he knows if it was truly private, Jensen would've left the room. He's easy like that; makes things black and white. "I gotta go," he says, trying to appeal to the slightly sad look on Jared's face. "Probably be back around midnight, if I can talk them into doing what he wants. Depends how good my game is."
"Okay," Jared replies, trying not to look too downhearted because it's just a few hours and this is just the guy he only met a few weeks ago [and sure they're married, but what else about this has been normal?] and he knows Jensen has to do this sometimes because you don't disobey your daddy, you just don't. But they've spent the last week and some change together, almost all day every day, and it's weird to suddenly...be apart. Or you know, he just wants someone to horse around with in the pool and it's boring on your own. Whatever.
"See you later," Jensen smiles, and then Jared might have imagined it but he's almost sure there was a pause, then, a pause which apparently said in flashing neon lights, "YOU HAVE TO KISS HIM NOW" so he did, like any husband might kiss his spouse when they're separating. Except he's not any husband. He's in a sham marriage to the son of an excellent businessman.
But Jensen doesn't seem to mind, kisses back, and then he just smiles when they separate, Jared's eyes kind of wide and his expression saying he's going to start freaking out some time soon [Jensen learnt that expression pretty soon in] and he just says, "Well, that's new," and grins, gives Jared a quick hug which is more just slapping him on the back once. "Later," he repeats, because he really can't afford to wait around and make his daddy any more annoyed.
By the time he gets back, Jared has just about managed to convince himself that it's okay not to freak out because it's damn sure Jensen won't be. He'll be standing in some boardroom somewhere in a suit that costs more than it does to feed an entire family in Rwanda for a year, pointing to graphs, talking his smooth logic talk filled with hidden messages to sway people's opinions, smiling the smile that says, "C'mon, you know you want to agree with me."
Jared has always been more about the analytical side of things, like numbers and paper and plans more than people and prefers facts over opinions, but maybe it's time to take a leaf out of Jensen's book. They're in pretty much the same situation here but so far Jensen's taken it all in his stride, easy smiles and talking about skinny dipping while Jared's been sulking and freaking out, so. He breathes in deep and explains to himself that in relationships which have no obvious boundaries, sometimes you accidentally cross them. If they were married before they'd even hugged, it really isn't a big deal that they just kissed.
Jensen's probably kissed hundreds of people.
For all his business skills, Jared can't for the life of him work out why that thought irks him so much, so he gives up thinking on it and settles down to watch Futurama.
* * * * *
"You weren't kidding," Jared states flatly as the truck rolls to a stop just metres away from a large, clear pool of water. The lake is hidden by trees everywhere except where it meets the dusty path they just drove to it, and he's thankful, but...
"Do I look like a kidder?" is Jensen's answer. He's taking his shirt off even as he steps out of the cab, tosses it onto the seat beside him. Reaches down to unlace his boots and is almost finished with his socks before he decides to address the younger man again. "C'mon, I didn't come here just to strip for you."
That gets him the desired response. "Fuck you," Jared exhales, sounding worn down, and evidently he is on this topic because he pulls his shirt over his head in one fast movement.
Jensen can't pretend to hide the admiration he feels when he gets a look at Jared's chest for the first time [and wouldn't, anyway, because what'd be the point?]. Kid sleeps in T-shirt and boxers, changes in the bathroom, never mind the fact that Jensen says he only isn't sleeping nude because he doesn't want to embarrass the kid [Jared had laughed, but didn't say anything else, so he continued to do so] and he's changed with the maid in the room before.
"You work out then?" he questions, raising his eyebrows in lieu of a catcall as he figures that'll be less likely to freak the other man out, but...there it is, the blush that spreads up his shoulders and neck before it gets to his face. Jensen's actually quite amazed he's got that much blood to go spare.
"I spend too much of my time sitting in an office chair," Jared offers quietly as he pushes his jeans down, tries not to think about Jensen standing on the other side of the truck, now totally naked, even if he is talking to him. "And I eat a lot, so it'd be too easy to put on unnecessary weight."
"A lot is an understatement," Jensen laughs. "But apparently it's not doing you too much harm." He slams his door shut, heads for the water.
Jared watches him from behind almost in a daze, stares at his ass until Jensen calls, "You comin' then?" and that's when he realises he's probably not supposed to be doing that [although he isn't totally sure, because he still hasn't quite figured out the social rules for being married to someone who you were obviously attracted to and who was obviously attracted to you but who you only met a week before the wedding]. So he shuts his own door and follows, trusting that Jensen knows him enough not to turn around before he's waist-deep in the water.
Jensen is, as ever, the perfect fake-husband, and waits until he feels Jared's presence behind him before he turns.
"Doesn't it feel different?" he asks, in a way that would sound cocky if he wasn't so excited. Jensen just loves doing stuff that other people hate him doing. He's a social exhibitionist - i.e. if society thinks what he's doing shouldn't be displayed, he wants to do it on live international television.
"Yeah," Jared replies, frowning a little at the weird sensation. "My balls won't stay still."
Jensen laughs at how confused he sounds saying that, is pleased when Jared grins back instead of blushing and looking away.
They swim and horse around in equal measures, float for a while until Jared has the thought that people flying overhead might see them and is too freaked out to do it any more. Jensen points out that they're nowhere near a flight path, but Jared's thoughts had already strayed to, "If Jensen turns his head he can see me naked," and it was too late. The older man lets it go, is even comfortable with Jared not being comfortable, which is something he envies him for.
One of their many fights ends up with them facing each other, laughing as they fight to get their breath back, and when they do Jensen notices just how good Jared looks with the sun shining on his hair like that, and he's never been a man of much restraint when it comes to things like this so he puts his arms around Jared's shoulders, drags him closer easily in the water, waits just long enough to see that Jared isn't totally revulsed by this and leans in.
They kiss for way longer than Jensen is used to without some sexual act being included; just kiss and touch each other a lot, but not even really sexually, just...stroking, and holding, and kind of tender like Jensen isn't used to, either. Jared's done this before but not with men he's only known a month or so...never, obviously, with a man he's just married. So there's no protocols for either of them to follow, which means mostly that Jensen gets to lead the way by making it up and Jared's going to follow because Jensen seems to know how to do this sort of thing and enjoy it.
When they finally separate Jensen decides it's time to leave the lake because it's starting to get colder as the sun dips behind the trees, and he doesn't really want either of them to catch pneumonia before their barbecue and bonfire tonight. As he wades towards the shore, half pulling Jared behind him as he goes, he's surprised to discover that he's not even that hard. He enjoyed himself, he's sure, but apparently the message didn't get sent to his dick. Weird, but Jensen doesn't do freaking out real good, so he shrugs it off.
* * * * *
It's a few days later when his dick wakes up. Specifically, the point at which Jared exits the bathroom wearing a towel and he's only just woken up anyway, so he can't be expected to have full control of his body, but apparently his dick is more than enough awake because hello.
"Jeez," he grunts, and then when Jared turns to look at him, vaguely registering he said something, "C'mere."
Jared obeys automatically, as usual, but isn't expecting to get dragged down onto Jensen. Jensen's left hand is hot and sure on his neck, while the right one busies itself guiding him into place to settle between Jensen's thighs. He takes in a sudden breath when he realises exactly what he's lying on, but Jensen doesn't blink, simply guides his mouth back again and okay, whatever.
Jared is not going to argue. Especially not when Jensen moves to untie the knot in the towel, finally gets it away and then takes Jared's dick in his hand. By then it'd definitely become interested in joining the party, so Jensen doesn't have to work too much to get it to reach full hardness.
Around the time it does, some of Jared's blood manages to get back up to his brain and he realises that Jensen's probably pretty uncomfortable, and surely it's his job as a husband to make sure that isn't happening, so he tries to get rid of Jensen's boxers without disengaging their mouths, gets them to his knees before realising they aren't going to get any further and decides that doesn't matter anyway. He moans at the feel of Jensen's weight in his hand, would be embarrassed except Jensen's been making these little breathy sounds for a bit now and you know...whatever. They're married, it's cool.
"You are too fuckin' hot," Jensen informs him gruffly when they separate momentarily for oxygen, but before he can reply, "Likewise," Jensen's tongue is back in his mouth again and then he forgets what he was going to say anyway.
A few seconds after Jared comes, Jensen does, and when the younger man grumbles playfully about needing another shower now, Jensen just laughs. Inside he's gleeful, because Jared isn't freaking out, isn't acting like a robot, is apparently as interested in him as he is in Jared.
* * * * *
Two weeks later in Oklahoma, where they're visiting Jensen's friend Chris, the one with the band, there is a very weird moment in a bar. Chris is up on stage and Jared is enthralled as the man does his thing, wishing he could be that effortlessly cool and also doing what he wants with his life rather than...this. Except he reminds himself that the last month or more hasn't actually been that bad, and if it was going to be like this forever he could deal with it. But they call it a honeymoon period for a reason, so he doesn't want to hope just yet.
Jensen would be similarly engaged except for the man who suddenly appears on his right, talking too loud and too bright for this song and that's when Jensen realises he's seen this guy before, when Chris played in L.A., doing their merch. Apparently the guy's become somewhat of a permanent fixture with the band's crew.
He's asking if Jensen's the guy that's good friends with Chris, haven't they met before and Jensen agrees, remembers wanting to fuck this guy's brains out but he couldn't at the time due to unforseen complications involving stupid friends and way too much tequila. But right now, Chris is up on stage, getting high off all the admiration and he won't even notice if they slip away for a bit, surely.
Except Jared will, and suddenly without even thinking about it Jensen closes off, shuts down, like he does when he doesn't really like someone but he's had fun messing with them. "I'm sorry, have you met my husband?" he asks, literally pulling Jared into the conversation, and within a few awkward sentences the guy is gone.
Jared looks slightly confused. "You don't like him or somethin'?" he asks, reading Jensen's intentions to get the guy to go the hell away pretty easily.
Jensen shrugs, uneasy for once since he can't explain it. "Just bugging me," he answers and removes his hand from Jared's waist because suddenly it feels too right there. Which of course is ridiculous, but so is everything else in Jensen's life.
* * * * *
Jared is thinking about how he might actually be falling in love with Jensen after he gets off the phone to his mama. He'd done nothing but talk about how great Jensen was and how funny he was and how good he was to Jared and how generally fucking perfect he was. So he's quite ready to admit this to himself until the thought that Jensen had said he didn't believe in love comes crashing into his brain, slow and subtle as a freight train, and he's filled with a horrible feeling of despair, not unlike the way he felt when his daddy had told him he was to be married off to a man he'd never met.
He spends the next four days avoiding Jensen, not touching Jensen, not talking to Jensen, not believing in the adage that absence makes the heart grow fonder, thinking desperately about the nonspecific point in the future when Jensen had said they'd go back to normal, Jensen sleeping around and him doing...whatever it was he did. Falling in love, and those sorts of crazy things. With people who were most definitely not Jensen.
Jensen spends the next four days confused, hurt, trying to get him to talk or just even look at him, because Jared manages to give that up by the second day. Jared sleeps on the couch and is up before Jensen every day, supposedly asleep before he returns. They eat together but that's it, because they're in New York and keeping up appearances here is almost as paramount as it was in California.
* * * * *
Finally Jensen breaks, and when Jensen breaks, he veritably shatters. He's been nothing but cool, calm and collected ever since Jared's know him, always had the upper hand, always read everyone perfectly but suddenly he's shaking Jared awake and looking distraught, and Jared honestly thinks somebody must have died or something before Jensen yells, "I can't fuckin' take this any more, Jay! What the hell did I do?" He drops to his knees by the couch, looking for all the world like a child who's asking why his pet dog's gone to heaven without him and Jared just isn't the sort of guy to ignore that.
"Nothing, I-" he is wide eyed and terrified and stunned that he's had this much power over a guy that doesn't do love, does hookups, has the world in the palm of his hand.
Jensen is just as confused over it but he's not gonna think about it like Jared would; he's just gonna act on it. Which is how come he's practically crying.
"If I did nothing then why the hell won't you look at me?" Jensen replies desperately before Jared can get an excuse out, and then he adds, "I love you, you idiot, and this fuckin' hurts!"
If Jensen's expression is anything to go by, this admission is as much of a shock to him as it is to Jared, but he only has a second or two to process it before Jared is leaning forward, grabbing his face with huge hands and kissing him. It starts out chaste and happy but descends quite easily into hot and heavy and okay, make up sex is definitely something Jensen's willing to try out.
* * * * *
Two days later Jared wakes up boiling hot to find that Jensen has lit a fire in their room. He wasn't even aware that the fireplaces worked because really, who trusts rich people with minibar access and fires? But apparently they do, and before Jared can ask what the hell he's doing, Jensen is dragging him out of bed to stand in front of it. Then he kneels down, and Jared is just too sleepy to try and think any more so he concentrates on watching the scene instead of trying to analyse it.
"Jared Ackles," Jensen says solemly, holding one of Jared's hands in his as he speaks, "I can't ask you to marry me, because we already did that. So I'm gonna do the next best thing. Would you do me the honour of burning our pre-nups?"
Jared's laugh is long and loud and he thinks if anything is ever normal again, he'll be quite upset. "I'd be glad to," he replies, pulls Jensen to his feet and when Jensen hands him the documents, he smiles wide before he throws them into the fire.
Pic//Blink-sum-new-muse