Fic: RPS (Jared/Jensen): Small Small World [2/4] | NC-17 | 34570 words

[dragonspell]

Part 1 | Master Post | Art Post | Part 3




The peas were absolutely certain that this was where they needed to be. Jensen, personally, thought that the peas might be a little bit crazy. He was sure that it wasn’t their fault though. After all, they were only vegetables. Higher-order thinking skills weren’t meant to be their specialty.

They’d already spent a few hours scouring the town but at least it was actually past dawn now. Jensen had already gone through his entire pack of cigarettes. They could actually see where they were but Jensen didn’t know if this was really a good thing. “Are you sure?” he asked because the neighborhood that they were in? Jensen didn’t even want to get out of his car. This was the type of place where people got shot just for walking down the street.

“Oh, yes, definitely,” one of the smaller Del Montes said and Jensen was sure that if it would have had a neck, it would have been nodding. As it was, it was really just…swerving.

“We traced the disturbance here following the space-time dilations,” another pea said. “The contractions are definitely centering on this precise building.”

Jensen winced. “Could you make it sound a little less like labor?” he asked. Beside him, in the passenger side seat, Jared snickered. When Jensen glanced over at him, Jared shrugged.

“That was exactly what I was thinking when I came out.” Jensen arched an eyebrow and Jared clarified. “That it was a lot like birth.”

That’s right. Jared had to have emerged from the picture… Jensen’s hands itched for another cigarette. At this point, he didn’t even think that he wanted to smoke it-he just wanted to hold it, to have something to do with his hands. “How did you…” He didn’t even bother to finish the question-he couldn’t. He didn’t want to go there.

Jared, though, apparently finished it for him because he started laughing. “I imagine it involved a lot of contractions and dilations,” he said with a grin and Jensen sighed, glancing out the window. He’d had no idea that he’d been drawing such a smartass.

The building that they were sitting in front of, double-parked, was a ramshackle apartment complex, looking one step away from being condemned and Jensen was having a hard time conceiving of the idea that anyone would willingly live in it. Besides, with all the talk about “contractions” and “dilations” and “disturbances in the force, Luke!” Jensen was amazed that the building was still standing. With how the peas were talking, the thing should have collapsed ages ago.

“It’s definitely here,” one of the peas said.

“Oh definitely, definitely,” others started chiming in.

“I’m out of coffee,” one said morosely.

“And I’m hungry!”

“You just ate!”

“I did not!”

“Yes you did! You totally ate that fry in the backseat; I saw you-!”

“Enough!” Jensen gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white. “Jesus. How do you stand this?” He slid his eyes over to Jared who just smiled.

“Used to it, I guess,” he said.

“Right.” Jensen didn’t know if he should feel guilty about that one or not. After all, he was the one that had created Jared and the Del Montes. It was entirely possible that he could have made them…less chatty. “So what are we here for? I thought we were going to stop Ross.” Stop him from destroying the world or something or other. This whole scenario was just fucked up, really.

“We are,” Number One said, setting its fat body down on the dashboard. “And I’m not fat.” It squinted its little pea eyes at Jensen and Jensen swallowed. “That’s right. I can hear what you’re thinking, so stop it.” Jensen raised his eyebrows and imagined a nice pea soup. He bet that it would taste just awesome, what with all the nice fat peas he apparently had just sitting around. “That is not funny!” the pea snapped, bouncing up and down on the dashboard and, even if pea soup wasn’t funny, Jensen thought that the idea of angry pea was pretty damn hilarious.

Jared spoiled the fun by placing a hand over the top of the big pea, settling it down, and Jensen was once again caught by just how big Jared’s hand really was. And he remembered just what Jared could do with it, too… “There’s something that’s, like, uh, causing frequency shifts or something. We’ve got to find that. At least that’s how I understand it. And Ross wants whatever it is, too.”

“It’s a machine,” one of the peas said, shifting forward. It had tiny glasses perched on its face. “It’s a machine that controls the frequencies between dimensions and it is centered here in this building. We must put a stop to it before more dimensions than just ours are affected.”

“Okay…” Jensen said. He didn’t understand even half of that. He’d gotten that machine equaled bad, though, and he could grasp onto that-sort of like a pro-nature, Ferngully ad. He could get behind that. Go fairies. Or, uh, peas. “So where does Ross come in?”

“He wants to rip everything to shreds, that’s where he comes in!” Number One shouted. “Haven’t you been paying attention?”

“Actually,” Jared cut in, “I don’t think that you guys got around to telling him that.”

Number One rolled its eyes. “Of course we didn’t. We didn’t have to. He’s the one who wrote it.”

Jensen stared at the pea in amazement. “I did?” Jensen was pretty sure that he would have remembered that. Wouldn’t he have remembered that?

“Yes!” Jensen still didn’t get it and Number One sighed, sounding much put upon for a damn pea. “In Issue 2, you wrote that Ross, because of his past experiences, desires to reduce everything to chaos. You remember that?”

Jensen nodded slowly. Yeah, he remembered that. It had been an extension of his own frustration about his ex’s habits. His ex had loved neat and orderly things, everything with a place and everything in its place. Jensen’s ex hadn’t had much use for the controlled chaos that Jensen tended to thrive on and Jensen had felt like he’d been slowly suffocating. And then Tom had dared to dump him. Jensen had been dying more and more each passing day and it had been Tom who’d decided that he couldn’t put up with it. So, of course Ross liked chaos-wanted the world to be in chaos and would actively pursue that ideal instead of just sitting around and passively accepting it like Jensen had. Ross was, after all…

“But that was just an off-handed comment…” Ross had just mentioned it to Dawson, a man that he had briefly teamed up with before tossing aside like everyone else. A man that had looked remarkably like Jensen’s ex…

“Doesn’t matter,” Number One said. “It’s part of Ross.”

Then that meant, like the smoking thing that… “Do you guys build on whatever I say? Like, whatever I say goes and then it’s just like the primary directive or something?” It wasn’t too far from that to, say, the damn Borg. The replicators.

Jared frowned but it was Number One who answered. “Of course not. Sometimes we have to make our own choices. You might be good but you’re only human.” The pea bounced out the open car window, hovering over the sidewalk. “Sometimes you write some really shit lines.”

“One didn’t mean that,” Jared said quietly, his hand coming down on Jensen’s shoulder, rubbing softly. “He’s just mad because of the whole ‘fat’ thing, I think.” Jensen didn’t really hear him-he was too busy reeling from the double whammy of one, the idea that his creations were out making their own decisions without him and two, being insulted to boot. It was…It was like having teenagers. Teenagers based on doodles. He did notice, though, when Jared’s hand moved from his shoulder to his cheek, one finger stroking softly. “You’re really good.”

Jensen snapped back to himself, sucking in a harsh breath and turning his complete attention on Jared who was staring at his face. Jared’s eyes had turned greenish-probably reacting to the interior of the car. Jensen swallowed and glanced away. “Thanks,” he muttered, putting the car in park and shutting it off. He’d always been rather shy about accepting compliments but this seemed almost…wrong. Wasn’t Jared honor-bound to say that he was good or something? Because Jensen was the one that had created him? That hadn’t seemed to stop Number One, though…

“I mean it, Jensen,” Jared said and his hand curled around behind Jensen’s neck, pulling him in closer. “Really good.” Jared…Jared was kind of gorgeous. Jensen had known this from the moment that he’d created him-he’d deliberately drawn Jared to be that way, of course-but there was just nothing like being hit upside the head with the old clue-by-four. It also wasn’t escaping Jensen’s attention at the moment that Jensen had deliberately styled Jared after his idea of the perfect man-outgoing and friendly with a great sense of humor and a killer smile. Smart but not intimidatingly so-a goofball if given half a chance. Physically big and overpowering but somewhat awkward…

“Thank you,” Jensen repeated, this time more definite and slipped out of Jared’s grip before he did something stupid like kiss the man. Jared was just a drawing. At the moment, he was flesh and blood and all too real but just how long would that last? Really? It would be nine kinds of stupid to let himself get involved because Jensen knew just how hard he could go down if he let himself.

And again. Jared had to like him, right? Jensen opened the car door and escaped onto the street, leaving Jared sitting in the car. After a few seconds, Jared followed him, his face impassive again and Jensen turned towards the brick building that the Del Montes were swarming in front of. There were three simple concrete steps leading up to a dark wooden door. The building itself looked to be about six stories high, with barred windows all the way up to the top. Cars lined the street in front of it, including a canary yellow Pinto that had one red door. Its right front wheel was sitting up on the sidewalk as it had been diagonally parked in a parallel spot.

“You’re sure?” Jensen repeated again but the Del Montes didn’t bother to answer him. They just chatted amongst themselves as they picked the lock of the apartment complex.

“-left turn…can’t believe we’ve got to do this-”

“-maybe Jared will take us to a movie after-”

“-Cotton sells for-”

“-Do you think that I could eat that?”

Jensen strode into the midst of them, not even bothering to try and avoid them because he figured that they knew how to move well enough. “You’ve got pretty eyes,” one pea said and Jensen blinked at it.

“Excuse me?”

“Well you do. I think they’re your best feature.”

Another pea snorted. “No. It’s obviously his mouth.”

“Right. Jared’s always going on-”

“His eyes are pretty too! Jared says so!”




Jensen cleared his throat. “Weren’t we, uh, doing something here?” he asked, pointing at the door.

“No,” one replied. “We already finished that.”

“Just a little bit slow,” Number One sniffed as it ambled on past and pushed open the door. Fantastic. This was exactly how Jensen wanted to spend his day-breaking into apartment buildings and being randomly insulted by vegetables.

Jared stepped past Jensen, imposing without even meaning to be as he slipped by into the open doorway. His hands had come just inches away from Jensen’s body again, though maintaining a small buffer of air and Jensen had found himself wanting to lean just a little bit-enough to have Jared be touching him again.

Jensen growled at himself. Really needed to get laid. He couldn’t even focus for five damn minutes, could he? He followed after Jared and the peas, stepping inside the rundown apartment building.

The peas had hung an abrupt right, traveling up the staircase that lined the outer wall and Jared was already close to the first landing where the stairs turned to the left for another bank, his long legs easily climbing. The first stair creaked ominously under Jensen’s foot when he stepped onto it, the wood threatening to cave and Jensen swallowed hard as he screwed up his courage and started moving upward. His eyes followed along the outer wall, taking in the stacked rough-cut brick. To his left was a black metal railing, incongruous with the wood of the stairs, thin and looking like it was just barely hanging on.

Up above, a flight or so up, a door slammed and a woman began screaming in Spanish, all trilling Rs and high-pitched screeches as a man answered her, deep and growling, and Jensen stopped dead. He shouldn’t be here. He really, really shouldn’t be here. He had no idea who lived in these apartments or who he’d meet at the top-all he knew was that he was following the Del Montes and Jared: that is, a guy that he’d created and his gang of floating peas.

Jensen had been on some bad trips before, but this was really taking the cake. He half-turned on the stairs, the idea of going back to his car and leaving this whole sordid mess behind forming in his mind. As he glanced back at the door, though, it opened and a man in a black jacket stepped through, his broad shoulders scrapping against the door jamb as he leaned too far to the right. “Fuck,” the guy swore, catching himself against the wall. He caught sight of Jensen and his eyes narrowed suspiciously, probably wondering either who Jensen was or why Jensen was staring straight at him. This wasn’t the kind of neighborhood where you stared at people.

“Jensen?” Jensen jerked his head upward to see Jared peering down over the railing at him. “Are you coming?”

Jensen took one last look at the guy now blocking his exit and knew that there was only one direction that he was going to be going now: up. “Yeah,” he said and bounded up the stairs after Jared. He turned the landing quickly and left the man down below behind him.

Jared and the Del Montes stopped two floors up, stepping out into a hallway. The walls had once possibly been white but had yellowed with age into a kind of spotted butter cream with the plaster cracking in places. The peas were chatting excitedly in front of Apartment 3C.

“Is this it?”

“Yes, this is it! Can’t you feel it!”

“Dude! I don’t need to feel it, I can see it! You should really check out these glasses, man!”

“Stop going on about your glasses! It’s annoying.”

“Hey, man, cool is cool. Don’t be hatin’.”

“I’m hungry. Do you think that he’s going to have any food?”

“Or coffee? ‘Cause I’ve been out for awhile now.”

“I doubt he’s going to want to feed you,” One said, rolling its eyes as it moved to hover in front of Jared. “Knock,” it ordered.

“You mean you’re not just going to pick the lock this time?” Jensen asked, finally catching up, the words coming out hard and gasping as he tried to suck in some much needed air. He possibly needed to spend a little less time in the studio and a little more time in the gym if two flights of stairs managed to wind him. Jared wasn’t even breathing hard. Then again, Jensen thought, of course he wasn’t-Jared had the perfect body, now didn’t he? Jensen had seen to that.

“Of course we’re not,” One sniffed. “He’s in there.”

“Who’s in there?”

“The guy that invented the machine,” Jared said quietly, cutting off One before it had a chance to reply.

Jensen frowned. “Then what are we doing here? Aren’t we supposed to stop it?”

“You’re going to have to figure out how to convince him to give it up,” One replied and Jensen glared.

“And how are we going to do that?”

“You’ll figure it out, Jensen,” a quiet voice said beside Jensen’s ear. “You always do…” Jensen turned and stumbled backward because he’d been expecting one of the Del Montes. Instead what he got was a green triangle. A rather sad looking green triangle.

“What are you?” Jensen said, the words just popping out and the little triangle’s expression immediately fell. Jensen felt just a little bit guilty. “I mean…”

“…You drew me when you were drunk,” the triangle said sadly. “I’m a Del Monte.” It turned to look at a few of the Del Montes hovering behind it. “See? I told you he wouldn’t like me.”

Jesus. Did everything that Jensen had ever drawn in his life now exist? He didn’t even remember drawing the…

“He’s just more special because of it,” Jared said diplomatically, using one finger to poke at the triangle, making it smile. “Right?”

“Oh…” Jared’s eyebrows rose as the pea’s smile started to fade and Jensen finally picked up on the hint. “Yeah, sure. Of course,” he added. “Uniqueness and…all that.” His mind was still reeling with the possibilities. What about scribbles? Did those count? Were there twenty million scribbles now walking around? Stick figures? Disembodied penises?

“Now you’re just being silly,” One said and Jensen didn’t even know how to respond to that. Why wasn’t that a valid question? He thought that was a valid question. He wanted to know just what he was getting into here. “We’re wasting time. The more time we waste, the closer that Ross gets to destroying the world, remember? We really don’t have time for existential crises.”

Jensen’s jaw dropped-he was being lectured by a damn pea-but Jared cut off anything that he might have wanted to say by knocking on the door and Jensen felt a bolt of panic streak through him. The Del Montes fled en masse, giggling and streaking away like they were playing a big game of Hide and Seek as One followed at a more stately pace. Oh, Jesus. What the Hell were they going to say to the guy inside the apartment? ‘Hi, we’re here to take the evil, world-destroying machine that you invented!’? What if the guy said no? What if he had a gun or something? Jensen decided right then and there that he was buying a handgun first thing tomorrow morning. He’d never had a more crystal clear reason to get one than he’d had in the past few hours.

“Stop panicking,” Jared whispered, glancing at Jensen out of the corner of his eye as he kept himself facing the door.

“Dude,” Jensen hissed, “we don’t even know who’s in there!” He was about to die, wasn’t he? Figured. He’d lived just long enough to see his creations come to life and now they were going to get him killed. And Jensen hadn’t even made it to Europe. He was supposed to tour Europe before he died. Eat French food in some little French café, see the ruins of Rome…

“We’ll be fine,” Jared said, sounding so confident that Jensen just wanted to trust him. A smile quirked the corner of Jared’s mouth. “I’ll protect you.”

An odd little glow started in Jensen’s chest and, when the apartment door opened, instead of trying to look as presentable as possible, Jensen was caught staring at Jared. Jared’s smile grew to greet the blond-haired man who was eyeing them both suspiciously. “Hi,” Jared said, holding out a hand, “I’m Jared.”

The man in front of them didn’t look like much. Compared to Jared, actually, he looked as threatening as a kitten-that, though, might have been because of the fact that the guy was standing there in a t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants and it was awfully hard to look threatening when there were yellow ducks quacking happily all over your pants. Jensen found himself staring at them.

“Uh, Chad,” the guy said, taking Jared’s hand gingerly. “…Are you guys from the university?”

University? Jensen mouthed, his perception of the guy in front of him shifting from ‘possible sleepy thug’ to ‘overworked and underpaid grad student.’

“Yes we are,” Jared lied easily. “And we need to talk to you for a few minutes. Can we come in?”

Chad scrubbed at his hair and glanced back at the apartment behind him before shrugging. “Sure,” he said. “Don’t mind the mess.”

As soon as Jensen stepped inside, he understood why Chad had hesitated before letting them in. ‘Don’t mind the mess’ was right. Nearly every available surface was covered-some with stacks of books or papers but most with odd bits of machinery, disconnected wires and scraps of metal-and, dominating one entire half of the apartment’s living room was the oddest assortment of metal and junk that Jensen had ever seen.

It looked like Chad had raided the local junk yard and had just stacked everything on top of each other, hooking it all up together. It rose in spires and towers, some parts nearly scraping the ceiling of the rather small apartment-one topped by what he swore was a blender, others by what looked to be the remains of old phonographs. There were pressure gauges and hoses and huge cables that slunk over the couch to hook up to the main outlets and, sitting smack dab in the middle of it all, was what appeared to be a mutant toaster.

“Oh,” Chad said, moving to stand next to Jensen. “Yeah, that’s the atomic toaster. I work on it in my spare time. You guys are here to see the multi-function spectromasspedameter, though, right?”

Jensen was still staring in awe at the imposing, sprawling mess of metal but Jared was on point. “Actually, no,” he said. “We’re here to see this.”

“The toaster?” Chad asked, confused.

“That’s a toaster?” Jensen whispered.

“Well, yeah,” Chad answered, his voice starting to pick up speed. “Dude, if you want to see that, I can totally show you that. It cooks pizza in a minute flat! Here, let me show you!” He darted to the kitchen behind them, grabbing a box out of the freezer, opening it as he bounced back over to the machine. “Now watch, see, you just…” He discarded the empty box over his shoulder and brandished the frozen pizza proudly. “…drop this in like so…” Shoving the pizza into the slot, he skittered over to the far side of the room, his hand slamming down on the extremely large red button on the wall.

The machine leapt to life, twisting and turning, chugging and see-sawing. A barrel on the side began to rise and sweep from side to side as steam rose out the side. Up top, the phonograph began to pipe out blaring techno music as a little conductor’s hand rose from the belly of the machine, keeping time. The blender on the tallest spire whirled to life, crackling as it ground coffee beans into a pot underneath that sat upon a flaring furnace and, on the very edge of the monstrosity, a car engine started, roaring as it lit up a humongous light bulb and two feet-clad in two different brands of shoes-began to tap out a rhythm.

“My God,” Jensen said. He was barely able to hear himself over the cacophony of the various parts working together. The entire thing, too, was beginning to shake and the lights in the apartment were dimming. Chad shrugged apologetically.

“She’s an energy hog,” he said loudly, his voice rising over the roar of the machinery. “But this is really cool, I promise.” A spring popped loose from the middle and it shook harder. “Or, well, um… Hold on.” He left Jensen standing there as he rushed up to the machine and shoved the spring back into place. “That’s better.” Gears started to grind, the metal growling and Chad pulled a face as he reached out and rapped a canister with his knuckles. “Um, well, it all started out because I was sitting around, watching TV and I just thought, ‘hmm, I’m hungry,’” he explained nervously, absently, kicking another part of the machine as it started to scream. “And I wanted pizza but I knew that I didn’t want to wait for pizza! I mean, no one will deliver here and it takes twenty minutes to cook a frozen pizza-who has twenty minutes, right? So I said-hey! Toasters are quick! But they can’t fit a pizza! So let’s make a better toaster! It kind of just grew from there…” The metal screamed as screws started to pop loose. “Hmm…” Chad said. “Well, that’s not good…”

Jensen didn’t want to look away-he wanted to know if the damn thing was about to explode because it was full-on shuddering now-but he had to because he had to find Jared. Jared was standing three feet away, watching the hulking piece of welded scrap metal with interest. Jensen lunched for him, catching a hold of the sleeve of his plaid shirt, and he hauled him in. Jared’s attention shifted from the machine to Jensen, a bright smile crossing his face as his hands wrapped around Jensen’s.

“Dude!” Jensen hissed furiously, trying to pitch his voice so that Chad couldn’t hear it but Jared still could. “That’s the machine that could destroy the world, right? Why the Hell did we just let him fire it up?!” If that monstrosity was what was tearing a whole in the fabric of time and space then it was counter intuitive to let it run, wasn’t it?

Jared just shrugged, though. “It’s harmless like that,” he said.

“Harmless?!” Jensen demanded. “You said that it was dangerous, didn’t you? Or the peas did!”

Jared blinked. “I just know what the guys tell me, Jensen. And they said that just by being the machine is acting like some kind of…” he wobbled his hand “…time-space dilation thingy. Doesn’t matter if it’s being used or not. And this thing isn’t what Ross has planned for it.”

“What?”

“Ross has to hook it up to something else,” Jared said, shrugging again. “I don’t know what, I just know that it will be bad if he’s allowed to.”

Jensen glared at him. “You, me and the peas. We need to have a serious talk-”

A loud ding! reverberated through the room, cutting Jensen off cold and Chad whooped as the toaster button popped up, discharging its gooey contents. “See! Okay, so that was a little slow, more like two minutes, but I’m sure that that could be worked out.” Unfortunately for Chad, however, pizza was not necessarily meant to turned on its side. All the cheese had slid down to melt over the bottom portion of the crust and most of it was still apparently in the toaster, leaking out in congealed strings. Chad tapped a finger against his mouth. “And I might have to work on the cheese issue…”

“You think?” Jensen asked sarcastically and Chad gave him the point with a nod of his head.

“I’m still working out the kinks,” Chad admitted, reaching down to pull out the pizza. “But, see?” He held the now cheese-less pizza out to Jensen. “Perfectly browned.”

Jensen didn’t take the offered food-even if the crust did look perfectly browned like Chad had said. Instead, he was back to trying to take in all of the machine now that it had settled down and no longer looked like it was a seething mass about to explode. The conductor’s wand had settled back inside the machine, the car engine had turned off and, there, up on the high spire where the blender and the coffee pot had been, was a tiny hand holding out a single mug of coffee. Chad took it, sipping out of it. “I just realized,” he said at Jensen’s amazed look, “that once I had a good pizza, I’d probably want a good cup of coffee, too. And then,” he nodded to the phonograph speakers, “I’d also want some music and it all kind of just led one to another.”

“That’s…” Jensen let himself trail off because he really didn’t know how he wanted to finish the sentence. On one hand, this whole thing was ridiculous but, on the other, it was also kind of…incredible? In a really over the top kind of way?

“-Magnificent, isn’t it?” a voice finished and Jensen turned to see who was coming up behind him. Jared, though, beside him, was already bracing for impact, his body tightening, his back straightening. Out of the hallway, a man came sauntering as if he owned the place, walking into the natural light of the living room.

“Ross,” Jared growled and the man smiled.

“Jared. And…” The man turned to face Jensen, his eyes lighting up, and Jensen paled as he realized that he was coming face to face with…himself. “Jensen,” Ross purred, drawing the name out like a caress. He looked Jensen up and down, his lips curling at the corners. “Look at you…”

Ross wasn’t an identical twin-Jensen had known that he’d have to do conventions-but he might as well have been. His hair was longer, his face was a little different-freckle-less-but, if you knew what you were looking for, there was no mistaking him. Standing in front of Jensen, in a leather jacket and black jeans, was the man that Jensen had modeled not just after himself but after the man that he’d always hoped to be. Ross didn’t have Jensen’s hang-ups. Ross was the kind of guy that no one could walk over, that no one could ignore. He was the kind of guy that knew what he wanted and how to get it and had the balls to do it, too. He was Jensen but more determined, more extroverted, more confident. Sexier. Smoother. Stronger.

Jensen’s breath was coming hard and fast; his world was narrowing down to a fine point. Ross was here. Ross was alive. Jared and the Del Montes and fucking Ross…

A hand slid along Jensen’s shoulder, proprietary and claiming, and Jensen snapped into the present, his attention fixing on the hand on his shoulder, on the arm it was attached to, on Jared who was glaring at Ross. Ross didn’t seem to care about the warning in Jared’s eyes: He smirked mockingly.

“Oh, yeah, hey,” Chad said, striding in between them like he was completely oblivious to the flying sparks threatening to set the room on fire. Maybe he was. “I didn’t know that the uni was interested in the atomic toaster, Ross! You didn’t tell me that.”

Ross tilted his head at Chad. “Well, I didn’t know, either,” he said. “But you see, Jared, here. He’s got a bit of an…eye for good ideas. He leads me to the most interesting things.”

And then Jensen got it. Ross might have known where to look but he hadn’t known for what and here they were showing him. They’d led him straight to it. Jensen sucked in a harsh breath. Stupid…

“Yeah, well you’re not getting it now,” Jared said. Ross just smiled harder.

“Wait…” Chad said uncertainly, looking back and forth between them all. “You mean you guys aren’t all together?”

“’Fraid not,” Ross drawled.

“No,” Jared said, jumping in. “Ross here was about to steal your designs.”

“What?” Chad shouted, startled, turning around to fully face Ross. “Seriously? Ross, man, how could you?” he accused, sounding as betrayed as if he and Ross had been the best of friends for years and not someone he’d just met.

Ross chuckled. “Well, Chad, it was nothing personal…” And then he was up and running, bolting for the far living room window-the one without bars.

“Stop!” Jared shouted, diving for him. Ross was too quick, skating by and jumping up into the window, crouching on the ledge. He paused for half a second, half in and half out, just long enough to throw Jensen a wink and a wave-his fucking trademark-and then he was gone, plummeting to the streets below. “No!” Jared reached the window a moment too late, his hands wrapping around the trim work as he stared downward. He glanced back at Jensen for one quick second and then he was jumping out the window, too.

“Jared!” Jensen yelled, running for the window himself, galvanized into action by seeing Jared toss himself out of a third story window. Jared was fucking crazy! What made him think that he could survive a fall like that? He wasn’t made out of ink and paper anymore! He was flesh and blood and Jensen was going to see his broken and twisted body in an alley below because Jared had stupidly thought that he was still a comic book hero. And it was all Jensen’s fault.

Jensen caught himself on the window ledge, leaning over it as he peered outside. “Jared!” He saw the two story building just outside, almost connecting to the apartment complex that they were in, hidden in its shadow, and Jensen’s shoulders dropped in relief as he spotted Jared’s tall form disappeared over the side, charging down the metal stairs that were bolted to the wall with a swarm of Del Montes following his lead. He must have landed on the roof one story below instead of plummeting to his doom. “Oh thank God…” Jensen whispered and then pushed himself away, back into the apartment living room. He’d just finally gotten to meet Jared-he didn’t want to lose him just yet. And…if Jared died in the real world, what did that mean? Would that mean that he’d be “dead” in the fictional world as well? Would Small Small World no longer have a main character? Would Jensen not be able to draw him any more? Would he just stop existing? How did that work, anyway?

“You university people are crazy,” Chad said, interrupting Jensen’s circling mind, his hands coming down on Jensen’s shoulders, holding him in place. “I kind of like it.”

Shaking his head, Jensen shoved him off and ran out the door. He didn’t have time for this! He had to catch Jared before Jared managed to do something stupid. Because he would. He so would. Jared might know things about Jensen but Jensen also knew things about Jared. He knew how stupid and reckless that Jared could be-how he could act without thinking. Jensen had deliberately made him that way, only thinking of just how spontaneous it would make Jared, how different from Tom and from Jensen himself Jared would be. He’d never dreamed that it would come back to bite him, that he’d have Jared jumping out of a third story window because he wasn’t bothering to think!

Jensen pounded down the stairs, his hand gliding down the railing and using it to brace himself for the turn every time he hit a landing, turning his forward momentum into a circle to wheel himself around. A man was shouting at him-Jensen thought that he looked kind of familiar-dark and imposing-but Jensen didn’t have time to stop. He slammed out the front door and hit the street, running toward the alley he’d seen Jared climbing down into.

He turned the corner of a building, heading into an alley, shooting past the overflowing dumpsters and the trash bags that had never quite made it in, leaping over a stack of crates, and startling a stray dog out of his way. He could feel the strain of the run on his body in the pounding of his heart, in the exertion of his lungs, in the pull of his muscles but he kept going, turning down the corners that were offered him. He had to find Jared. He should have brought the car but it never would have fit down the narrow labyrinth he was losing himself in.

It was that knowledge that brought him up short. Jensen slowed down to a jog, sucking in huge gulps of air before finally coming to a stop. He was going to get lost. Maybe he already was. “Damn it,” he gasped, bending over. “Fucking God damn it…” He was just now realizing that he didn’t even have a clue if he was still heading in the right direction. What if Jared and Ross had double-backed? What if Jensen had made a wrong turn? What if, what if, what if! Jensen hadn’t even stopped to think.

A weight smashed into him, knocking him off balance and bearing him into the wall. Jensen crashed into the solid brick, the roughness tearing at his bare arms and he winced in pain as his head rebounded off the building that lined the small alley.

He didn’t have any time to recover before there was a body-as tall as him, as strong as him-pinning him to the wall, moving against him, writhing and grasping. There were hands traveling up his sides, slipping under his shirt for a tiny flash of skin against skin and then the hands were moving to pin his wrists down. Harsh breath panted at Jensen’s throat, warm and moist, as smooth skin flattened to Jensen’s cheek. Someone roughly inhaled, their nose buried under Jensen’s jaw. “You smell so delicious…” a man groaned, sounding oddly agonized and Jensen choked because he knew that voice. A tongue flicked out, swiping at the sheen of sweat on Jensen’s skin. “You taste delicious, too…”

Jensen struggled, trying to fight back, but the man-Ross-seemed to know his every move ahead of time and managed him deftly. For every twist Jensen did, every pull, Ross reacted a split second sooner. A thigh slid between Jensen’s own, pushing upwards and rubbing against him as hips ground against his own. “Want to eat you whole…” Ross breathed. “Swallow you up. Can I do that, Jensen? You’d let me, wouldn’t you? Let you and me become the same person?” They were rhetorical questions-Ross didn’t expect an answer. He was too busy nuzzling underneath Jensen’s jaw. “I could fuck you,” he said. “Right here, right now-make you scream, I’d make it so good… I want to. I want to bad.”

His purring voice was making Jensen’s insides knot up, a thrum of desire pulsing through him because, despite everything, he was turned on. He was scared and mad and turned the fuck on. What the fuck was wrong with him? The edge of fear, of desperation, just made it that much more severe. But like Hell was he going to let this happen. “Let go of me!” He twisted, trying to break free but, once again, Ross anticipated and shifted accordingly.

“You’re more perfect than I’d even ever dreamed of,” Ross whispered. His lips were directly beside Jensen’s ear, each word a puff of hot air against Jensen’s skin. “So gorgeous, so amazing… Don’t you like me, Jensen? Don’t you want to be me?” He finally pulled away, staring at Jensen with the very same eyes that Jensen saw in a mirror every morning. “I want to be you.”

Jensen stopped trying to break free, instead subsiding and sagging against the wall. Ross nuzzled him affectionately in reward before coming back to stare. Jensen waited for him to say more but Ross was apparently waiting for him. “What do you mean by that?” Jensen asked finally.

Ross rolled his eyes. “Be you, be with you, be whatever I can with you. You’re the creator, Jensen. The creator. You created me. What do you think it means?”

Jensen scowled. “I think it means that you a sick psychopath who needs to seek some help.” It was a generic comeback-one he could have said to just about anyone he didn’t like-but it was entirely the wrong thing to say. Ross slammed him against the wall again.

“And who made me like that?” Ross asked with a hard smile. “I am exactly as you made me. And I love you for it. I love you, do you hear me? I love you, Jensen. I love every perfect inch of you. Just because you’re you.” He moaned again, arching up against Jensen’s body, his hips rocking forward. “I want to touch you. I want to taste you. I want to hold onto you and never let you go.” Jensen’s wrists were released as Ross moved his hands up to grip Jensen’s face, focusing him in on Ross’s all too familiar face. “Do you know how this feels?” he asked sharply. “No. No, you don’t-how could you? To touch God…” Jensen’s eyes were widening with each word but Ross wouldn’t stop. “Most men never even get to know if their God exists but me…” Ross shuddered, his eyes closing and Jensen was too stunned to even take advantage of it. “Love you so much…” he breathed right before sealing his lips over Jensen’s, his tongue slipping inside of Jensen’s mouth.

For a moment, Jensen froze, his mind retreating right back to the question of “Is this really happening?” before he decided that it didn’t even matter-that he was being pinned against the wall against his will and it didn’t matter if it was by a formerly fictional character or not. Ross was too focused on the kiss, throwing everything he had in to it, desperate for more and he was more occupied with holding Jensen’s head in place than anything else. Jensen balled his fist and swung hard.

Ross was too close for Jensen to work up a good momentum-too much into Jensen’s space for Jensen to do any real damage-but Jensen figured that he’d at least make it as uncomfortable as possible. He hit Ross’s shoulder with every bit of strength he could find, connecting solidly and then repeating when Ross flinched but still held his ground.

After the fourth blow, Ross jerked away, pulling his shoulder out of Jensen’s immediate range as he gasped. It bought Jensen just enough space to land his next hit directly against Ross’s jaw, jerking the man’s head to the side. Ross stumbled backward, clutching at his face as his eyes locked on Jensen’s, narrowing, and Jensen knew that he was in for a world of hurt. Ross might “love” him but no one got away with hitting him. No one.

Ross took a step towards him and Jensen braced himself for impact but Ross didn’t come any closer because a man’s deep voice was barking at them to “Freeze! Police!” and Jared was pounding down the alley toward them, his face hard and determined. Behind him was the man from the rundown stairwell, as large and imposing as ever but looking even more threatening with his gun trained on them. Ross rubbed the back of his hand against his jaw and turned on his heel, running back the way that he’d come and away from Jensen. “I said stop, damn it!” the man at the back of the alley shouted, his gun following Ross around a corner before he dropped it, swearing.

Jensen half expected Jared to go streaking past but he pulled up short when he reached Jensen, stopping directly in front of him. “Are you okay?” he asked and, when Jensen didn’t answer fast enough, he repeated it. “Are you okay?”

“Yes!” Jensen said quickly. Jared was staring at him like he didn’t believe that but he would just have to because, except for a few scrapes and some wounded pride and one Hell of a mindfuck, Jensen was just fucking fine.

“You two okay?” the unfamiliar man yelled, holstering his gun. “Did he hurt you? Fucking muggers are everywhere in this neighborhood. Damn precinct’s being overrun.”

Jensen blinked at Jared as Jared turned to face the apparent cop. “Yeah. We’re fine. He didn’t take anything,” Jared said, latching onto the excuse that the cop had given them. Jensen had to admit that “mugger” sounded a whole lot better than “crazed fictional character who wants to destroy the world and possibly fuck me along the way.” …Now that Jensen thought about it, though, ‘rapist’ might just be a better fit for what Ross had apparently wanted.

The cop was walking towards them, talking about other neighborhood problems but Jensen wasn’t paying any attention because he was too busy noticing that the Del Montes were massing in the street, hovering around Jared and talking rapidly. “Shoo!” Jensen hissed. If the cop got much closer, he’d be able to see them; Jensen wasn’t sure how the man couldn’t make them out as it was.

Jared shook his head, though, his hand coming down on Jensen’s shoulder. “He can’t see them,” he whispered before turning his attention back on the officer. “Yeah,” Jared said. “It can be a bad neighborhood. Broad daylight, too.”

“Oh a few coats of paint and I think the place would look nice!” one of the Del Montes squeaked. A few others concurred while some vehemently disagreed-one pointing out that the plaid curtains in the window of the third story apartment above them were beyond help.

“Yeah. They got balls, that’s for sure,” the cop said, his face saying nothing about noticing any peas, flying or otherwise. He was close enough now for Jensen to make out the salt and pepper coloring of his beard-the little bit of gray at his temples. The man had an easy if tired smile, looking world weary despite the fact that he only had to be in his 40s. “I get so tired of it. Wished we lived in a better world. You boys sure you’re alright?”

“Just shook up,” Jared said. “Jen’s tough.” He nodded towards Jensen, the nickname falling easily off his tongue again and Jensen knew that it wasn’t the time to give him shit for it. What he didn’t know was if he wanted to give him shit about it or not and that was making Jensen pause.

“Jen, Jen, Jen!” a couple of the Del Montes chanted and Jensen had to refrain from wincing. How did Jared deal with this, anyway?

“Could see that. Got a nice right hook there,” the cop said, grinning as he held out his hand. “Name’s Jeff. Jeff Morgan. Awfully stupid to take on a mugger like that barehanded but brave, too. Can’t fault you there.” Jensen nodded-he couldn’t disagree on the stupid part: Ross was trained in hand-to-hand combat whereas Jensen certainly wasn’t-seemed like he was doing a lot of stupid things lately-and took Jeff’s hand. “You want to come down to the station and give a statement?” Jensen shook his head. Yeah, uh, no. That was really the last thing that he wanted to do. For a moment, he thought that Jeff was going to try and push the issue but then the man nodded and let go of Jensen’s hand to pull out his wallet. “Listen,” he said, pulling out a small card and pressing it into Jensen’s grip. Jensen could see that he had a lighter patch of skin around his ring finger on his left hand and he absently wondered if Jeff was divorced. If he was, it was fairly recent. The tan line was still delineated. “I’m going to give you my card and if you want to press charges or anything, you let me know. I can’t promise anything except that we’d try our hardest to find that mugger and bring him in.”

“Thanks,” Jensen said. Somehow, he was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to do any of that but it was nice of Jeff to offer.

“Yeah, thanks,” Jared repeated, wrapping an arm around Jensen’s shoulders. Jensen stared at the hand that was resting on his left bicep. It was easier than looking at Jared’s face and definitely better than demanding why Jared was so touchy-feely all of a sudden. He certainly didn’t remember drawing that into the comics and Ross’s words were echoing in Jensen’s head. Sure, Ross was a sociopath and Jared was-somewhat-normal, but what if the same thought still applied? Did Jared want to “be close to God” or whatever the Hell that Ross had been raving about, too?

The most horrible thing, though, Jensen decided, was not the possibility that Jared might be stark raving mad or that touching Jensen might be some big old power trip for him. It was the fact that Jensen was craving that touch. And he didn’t think it was egomania driving that little bit of patheticness, either, which was just downright terrifying.

Spend five years pining after a fictional character…

Jared was acting like it was nothing out of the ordinary for him to be casually slinging an arm around Jensen. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe Jensen was just overreacting. Then again, maybe Jared was just better at hiding his true opinions than Ross who didn’t give a flying fuck. “Well, thanks for your help, Officer Morgan.”

“Jeff.”

“Jeff,” Jared corrected with a smile. “We’ll definitely be more careful from now on and I really think that I should probably get Jensen here home.”

Jeff nodded. “That’s a good idea. All kinds of creeps live in this neighborhood, so you two watch out for each other. Stick to the main streets.” He shook hands with both of them and headed back out of the alley.

“When I grow up, I want to be him,” one of the Del Montes chirped and Jensen rolled his eyes. He shrugged Jared’s arm off, ignoring Jared’s disappointed look and the way that his heart panged.

“We, uh. We should get back to Chad,” Jensen said. They’d totally just left the student genius up in his apartment and God knew what he could be getting up to.

“Yeah,” Jared agreed quietly and they walked back to the apartment building in silence. Even the Del Montes were keeping quiet and Jensen didn’t want to think about what that said. They climbed the rickety stairs again and headed back to Apartment 3C.

Apparently Chad had never bothered to close the door after Jensen had shoved it open because it was sitting just how he’d left it, showing a wide open view of the junk covered apartment. Jensen wondered if Chad didn’t care about theft or, more likely, if everyone just kind of already knew that he didn’t have anything worth stealing.

Well. Unless you were a sociopathic comic book character.

Because, despite the door being left wide open, there were only two things missing from the apartment: Chad and his atomic toaster. There wasn’t a trace left of the wannabe mad scientist and the cables that had formerly been hooking the modified toaster up to the rest of the sprawling machine were dangling uselessly. “Well that sucks,” Jared said.

Jensen had to agree. This whole damn thing did indeed suck. A lot.



Part 1 | Master Post | Art Post | Part 3