Title: Just the Same, But Brand New
Author:
discreetmathRating: PG-13
Fandom: Supernatural RPS AU
Pairing: Jensen/Misha
Warnings: Mentions of animal testing.
Word Count: 1850.
Summary: Jensen will follow Misha just about anywhere, even if it involves breaking and entering. As long as it's for a good cause, of course.
A/N: Unbetaed. Written for
this prompt on
deancaskink.
Disclaimer: These people do not belong to me, and this is all fiction.
Jensen was always a low-key guy. In high school, he got good grades, played baseball, and was generally exactly what everyone expected him to be. Even several years later, as a sophomore in college, he had kind of resigned himself to being boring. At the very least, law-abiding. Then he met Misha.
Misha Collins was all of the things that Jensen had always been too cautious to be; he was passionate, generous, and completely unconcerned with anyone else's opinions of him. He was unlike anyone Jensen had ever met, and while Jensen had always been attracted to guys in a vague, hypothetical way, Misha had made it startlingly real.
Some stroke of fate had put them next to one another in Jensen's sophomore Women's Studies course, and what had started out as a blow-off elective quickly turned into his favorite class that semester. Watching Misha debate with their professor had been endlessly interesting, and two weeks into the term Jensen was hooked. They talked quite a bit, but Misha had seemed so far beyond Jensen, both in knowledge and experience, that he didn't think he'd really made much of an impression. On the last day before finals, though, Misha had snatched Jensen's phone and programmed his number in, explaining solemnly that thinking people need to stick together, Jen, and who was Jensen to question that?
Over a year later, Misha has become one of Jensen's best friends, alongside Jared, his freshman roommate. As great as Jared is, though, he doesn't inspire the kind of feelings, romantic and otherwise, that Misha does. Not by a long shot. So, yeah, the point here is that Misha is passionate about things, and Jensen is crazy about him, and he usually follows right behind wherever Misha goes. That brings him back to the present, and the way the cuffs are digging into his wrists at the small of his back tells him that maybe that hasn't been the smartest course to take.
He glances to his left to see Misha grinning triumphantly, even though he, like Jensen, is currently handcuffed in the backseat of a police car. The guy is insane, he really is. Of course, Jensen can't think of anywhere he'd rather be at the moment, so maybe he's a little bit insane, too.
Jensen might follow Misha everywhere, but that doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have his own reasons for doing it. When Misha told him about the testing being done on the dogs at this pharmaceutical lab, he was struck with the image of his childhood Golden Retriever, and he tried to imagine a sweet, loving dog like that stuck in a cage his whole life. Misha had just quirked a questioning eyebrow at him, and it had been a no-brainer. So Jensen Ackles, straight-A student and upstanding citizen, is in police custody for burglary. Probably a host of other offenses, too, but it's hard to care when he knows that Jared's free and clear, with four attention-starved beagles in the back of a borrowed minivan on his way to Misha's uncle's house out in the country.
"That was awesome, Jen," Misha declares suddenly, yanking Jensen out of his thoughts. "I've never seen somebody quite so adept at being a diversion."
Jensen blushes at the reminder. He'd heard the security guards' boots slapping the pavement, getting alarmingly close as Misha and Jared loaded the crates up in the van. After a moment of abject panic, which was surprisingly more they're going to take the dogs back and less I'm going to get arrested, Jensen had taken off in the direction of the sound, flailing his arms and shrieking like a banshee.
It hadn't been the most elegant of tactics, but it had occupied the two security guards' attention long enough for him to hear the minivan's tires squeal as Jared and Misha made their escape. In that moment, he'd known it was totally worth it. After that, the last thing he'd expected to see was Misha, strolling casually around the corner with his hands shoved in his pockets. Jensen's near-hysterical giggling would probably have been enough distraction to afford Misha another opportunity to get away, but Misha had just thrust his wrists out with a smile.
"You'd better arrest me, officers," he'd said amiably. "I'm a criminal. I don't know who this guy is, probably just some drunk college kid, so you might as well send him on his way." It hadn't worked, not even close, but the gesture had been downright touching. And now he and Misha are getting arrested together, which Jensen assumes is probably romantic in some distant alternate dimension.
"Yeah, well, you know me, Mish. Ever adaptable." He grins, and maybe it's a bit too wide because he's still kind of giddy. Judging by the smile he gets in return, though, he doesn't think Misha is likely to hold it against him. Jensen glances out the window at where the police officer is talking to the security guards and, presumably, one of the scientists from the lab. He looks like he's taking statements, and there's no telling how long they'll be stuck in the back of this car. The seat shifts, and Jensen jumps at the feeling of Misha's arm pressed up against his. He darts a glance to his side, and he sucks in a breath when he sees Misha watching him with a calculating, curious expression.
"You know, you're a hard guy to read, Ackles," Misha tells him seriously. Jensen's about to argue, because he knows he's not exactly mysterious, but Misha keeps going. "Sometimes I think I catch you looking at me, but you never give me any real signals one way or the other. And frankly, I've had it bad for you since you sat next to me in that class sophomore year."
"I… what?" Jensen's having a hard time thinking clearly, but then, Misha just dropped one hell of a bombshell.
"Now, I was thinking I'd wait and see if you ever made a move, but you know what? I'm done waiting. Because what you just did, when you were willing to take the fall for me and Jared so we could get those dogs out -- that was the hottest thing I've ever seen."
"It was?" Jensen asks dumbly. He silently curses his sudden inability to string more than two words together, but Misha just laughs and leans closer until Jensen's eyes nearly cross from trying to watch him.
"It was," Misha breathes, and there's a second where he looks at Jensen carefully, an unspoken question. Jensen nods, just a minute tilt of his head, and that's all Misha needs before he's pressing their mouths together.
Jensen gasps, his mouth falling open, and he pushes back into Misha. He feels Misha's tongue dart out to skim across his bottom lip, and he groans in frustration. All he wants, all he's wanted for months, is to drag his fingers through Misha's disheveled brown hair. But his hands are still locked tight at the small of his back, and he can't do anything but deepen the kiss, sliding his tongue into Misha's mouth.
Saving those dogs might have been the best part of Jensen's night, but the ragged moan that Misha lets out is a close, close second.
It seems to set something off in Misha, and he slides across the seat, pressing Jensen back into the door and licking into his mouth. Jensen has a brief moment to wonder how Misha's manhandling him while handcuffed, but then Misha is easing back. He nips lightly at Jensen's bottom lip before resting their foreheads together and giving Jensen a soft, fond smile.
"So," Misha murmurs, "did I misread the situation?"
Jensen laughs and leans in to nuzzle his nose alongside Misha's.
"Nah," he chuckles, "I guess not." Misha's eyes light up, and he pushes forward into Jensen again, coaxing his mouth open easily. A sharp rapping against the window makes them jerk apart, Jensen flopping around in a seriously undignified way as he tries to get his balance back. When he looks out the window, the police officer is frowning at them and looking exasperated, which isn't exactly the reaction Jensen was expecting.
Once Jensen shifts his weight off the door and back onto the seat, the cop opens the door and scowls down at them.
"It looks like the lab doesn't want to press charges, as long as you'll sign some non-disclosure paperwork. So unless you want me to charge you with public indecency, I suggest you take this party out of my patrol car."
Jensen and Misha exchange a quick look, and Misha nods firmly. Jensen breathes a sigh of relief and turns back to the officer.
"Yeah, I think we'll take that deal," he says quickly, letting the officer tug his arm up and guide him back out of the car. He moves to the side as the cop does the same for Misha, and they stand there trying not to smile at each other as their cuffs are removed. As it turns out, the guy who runs the lab is extremely aware of the bad press they'll get if this story makes it out to the public, already having realized that they're not going to answer a single question about where the dogs are, anyway. He's apparently more worried about damage control than putting them in jail, and he begrudgingly hands over two clipboards. After reading through them twice, Misha and Jensen sign the non-disclosure forms.
They already got the dogs out, Jensen figures, and if the lab gets up to anything else like this, they'll be back. A sidelong glance at Misha catches him putting an extra copy of the form in his back pocket with a smirk, and Jensen has a feeling that the thought has already occurred to him, too.
Once they're done, and they've gotten an assortment of reprimands, they leave as quickly as possible. No reason to wait around and see if the guy from the lab changes his mind, after all. Misha sends a quick text to Jared to let him know they're all right, and then they start walking toward Jensen's apartment ten blocks away. Jared's got their transportation, and Misha's apartment is across town, so it makes the most sense.
Jensen's determined not to read anything more into it. Whatever this thing is between them, it's still alarmingly new and uncertain. He really doesn't want to press his luck by moving too fast or making any assumptions, but then Misha is reaching over, threading their fingers together, and yeah. Maybe Jensen will take another leap. Misha just has that effect on him.