RPS J2 / R: JJ do WW: The Short List
Title: Jensen and Jared Do the West Wing: The Short List
Genre: RPS J2 (er, pre-slash, really)
Rating: R - just a bad word or two
Word count: 2,800
Summary: Jared likes fish. If only Jensen knew what kind.
Notes: Gosh, help me. Part of the West Wing related stuff. I will eventually piece this together in some sort of order because I’m getting more and more ideas. This happens WAY before the last one. Title and cut from Seinfeld’s “The Chicken Roaster.”
Contrary to popular belief, it was not Jared who fell first. It was Jensen, and it was pretty much after the very first scene they filmed of the pilot. After quite a few takes, Jensen and Jared shared a wide smile and lots of laughter. And Jensen had a deadly bromantic crush. He wasn’t sure of it at first, but throughout pilot filming, it was getting stronger. Like he just wanted to hug the kid and ruffle his hair and make him laugh however and whenever he could because the noise was infectious and made Jensen feel warm and silly. Which he wasn’t always apt to do.
Jensen realized how bad it was when he moped around L.A. and had to wait a torturous amount of months until he heard that the show was picked up and he’d be working full-time with Jared. He was terribly antsy and excited and smiling for weeks between the announcement and the start of new filming.
So when he first saw Jared, he smiled and reached out for a friendly hug. “What’s up, brother?” he smirked. And the grin grew even larger when Jared laughed and full on hugged him back, palms tight to his back and squeezing.
Jensen had never been a highly affectionate man, but Jared really liked hugging. He’d allow it.
*
A week later, Jensen still feels antsy about working regularly and doing it alongside Jared. It doesn’t take long for him to want to do something for the guy. A kind of ‘congrats on us having our own TV show’ type present. He tries his best to figure out what could be done, but he doesn’t really know Jared all that well yet. Yes, they sit side-by-side in the Impala for hours on end, and they’re constantly within each other’s space and minding marks on the ground so perfectly it’s like they’ve been working together for years. But he still doesn’t really know what makes the guy tick.
Jensen starts snooping around and trying to pay attention to Jared. He doesn’t get much except he is a little too tall to function in public (he trips on everything) and he’s the most unorganized person on the planet (he’s likely to be wearing two different socks and his trailer never resembles anything tidy). So Jensen goes to Plan B, which requires him showing up way too early in the morning to be in make-up before Jared gets there.
His eyes are droopy and red from getting even less sleep than he already hates not getting. But he keeps them open enough to watch Sarah as she works perfectly around him, swiping make-up across his dark circles and adding just enough marks to show wear and tear on his face, courtesy a nasty ghost.
“So, Christmas.”
“Yeah?” she asks strangely.
“Coming up soon.”
“I wouldn’t call it soon.”
“Well, yeah,” he tries to answer well enough. It's only August and he doesn’t really know what he’s saying. There was no plan to this. All he figured is that Jared talks a lot, and they spend a good amount of time in that trailer for hair and make-up, so he’s likely talked about something interesting that Sarah picked up on. “I wanted to plan in advance.”
Sarah smirks and lets him become even more uncomfortable in the silence.
“What do you think I should get Jared?”
“Hmm?” She continues to mark up his left cheek without even looking at his eyes.
“I don’t know. I was thinking something new, different. Something he’d never expect. What kinds of things he like?”
Sarah stands up and admires her work, pushing Jensen’s chin back and forth so she can see how the paint catches the light. Absently, she says, “I dunno. Food?”
“Well, yeah,” he sighs. Jared’s eating habits are notorious on set. It takes the guy at least two - sometimes four - plates at Kraft services to survive lunch.
“Growing boy and all. He likes food.”
“Who doesn’t?” he answers tightly, trying to not move his jaw too much as she applies color to the corner of his mouth.
“Anorexics?”
“Yeah, okay. Them.”
“Why you so into this?”
Jensen barely shrugs, still trying to not move too much. “He’s a good kid. Deserves a fun gift.”
“Fun?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Just.” Sarah stands to view the fake cuts at his lip and nods when she’s happy with it. She stares right at Jensen. “You really want to do something fun?”
“Yeah. Something different.”
“He’s adopting a dog,” she offers.
“Different.”
“Dogs are different.”
“Not really.”
"It's adopted."
"Not yet."
Sarah crosses her arms at her chest and leans back on the counter in front of him. “It's different to me.”
“Yeah, great.”
“Could get him a dog collar? Bones?”
“Yeah, no.”
“Dog bowl? One of those sweaters?”
He sighs and pats his palms to the arms of the make-up chair as he stands up. “Alright, you are absolutely no help. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Mmhmm,” Jensen sounds as he’s walking out the door.
She starts putting brushes and make-up palettes back in order on the counter. “Fish.”
He stops and looks back. “Huh?”
“Guy likes fish.”
Jensen smiles because yeah, okay. He can do fish.
*
It’s nearly a full week before he can piece together some plans and find a chance for them to get out together. He makes plans at a nearby, highly reputable restaurant and he couldn’t be happier. They settle into the booth and Jared laughs awkwardly at the dark colors and modern architecture of the space. Every piece of artwork looks like abstract water animals - fish, lobsters, whales, you name it.
“Man, this place is crazy.”
Jensen smiles because Jared is all wide-eyed and laughing. He likes seeing him like this. “Yeah, Bob said he came here the first week out for locations and the Kappa-maki is really good.”
“The what?”
“Kappa …” Jensen stops, wondering if maybe he said it wrong.
“Kappa?”
“Kappa-maki?”
Jared’s voice is awkward as he glances over the menu with an even stranger face. “What’s that?”
“Uh, he said it was one of the rolls.”
“A roll?”
“Like sushi?”
Jared finally looks up from the menu. “Dude, is this all sushi?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
Jensen winces because Jared seems to become even more uncomfortable at the whole thing. “Yeah, you … you’ve had it? Right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Jensen smiles a little and goes back to his menu. Then he pauses with thought and looks at Jared. “You like it?”
“I mean, it’s not … I dunno.” Jared suddenly looks nervous, which makes Jensen even more worried. Jared goes on quickly, “Dude, no problem. I can eat … something.”
“Wait? I thought …"
"Thought what?"
*
“He doesn’t like sushi,” Jensen grunts out while Sarah moves around his head.
“I never said sushi.”
“You said fish.”
Sarah laughs. “There are plenty of other fish, you know?”
“You could have possibly told me the difference.”
“No, I couldn’t.”
“Yes, you could.” A quick pause. “What is the difference?”
“Isn’t this more fun?”
“For who?”
“Well, for me, certainly.”
“Thank you,” he grumbles
She smirks as she settles to his left, marking the corner of his lip with fake blood. “Don’t mention it.” She leans back and looks across his face, purposely avoiding his eyes. “Isn’t it more fun to find things out the hard way?”
“Absolutely not.”
“You have no sense of humor,” she murmurs, moving in close to his cheek to apply more fake wounds.
“I have a sense of humor. I actually have a very good sense of humor.”
“Mmhmm.”
“It’s not my fault you’re mean and wretched and like torturing people.”
As Sarah pulls the make-up brush across his cheek, she pushes a little hard, making him flinch.
“Okay. Sorry,” he says, only a little apologetic.
They’re relatively quiet for the next five minutes, at which point she releases him. As he takes the first step out of the trailer, she speaks. “Stick to the fishes."
"Fish?"
"Yeah."
"Seriously?”
Sarah nods. “Yeah.”
“He hates sushi.”
“You’re close.”
*
Their next day off is that Saturday and Jensen insists Jared be ready to get out of the hotel for the day. Jared doesn’t really question much (except to ask if they were going for sushi again with a twinkle in his eye), though he does talk Jensen’s ear off. Enough so that he doesn’t even realize that the car is stopped and they’re in a parking lot until Jensen stops holding up his end of the conversation - how little it was. Jared notices that Jensen’s staring out at window at the mammoth building in front of them.
“What’s this?” he asks.
Jensen smirks. “Educational and fun?”
Jared chuckles then moves enough to see the sign on the building. “Marine Center?”
“Yeah.”
“Aquarium?”
“Yeah. That cool?”
“Sure, whatever,” Jared shrugs as he gets out of the car.
Jensen frowns a tiny bit. “You’re not excited.”
“Should I be?”
Jensen looks over the roof of the car and fiddles with his keys. “I honestly don’t know,” he sighs to himself.
“I can pretend to be excited.”
“No, not that.”
“We are actors. I can act like I’m excited.” Jared’s mouth suddenly splits wide.
“You don’t … "
"What?"
"It’s cool? The aquarium?”
He shrugs easily. “It’s cool, sure.” He looks at the building then back to Jensen. “You got a thing for beluga whales or something?”
Jensen mutters to himself as they walk up to the building. He pays for two adults and he’s actually kind of pissed that Jared’s not more interested at the idea. Jensen thought this was a great idea. Like a thing they could do together and Jared could remember Jensen took me to the Vancouver Aquarium. We had the whole day to look at awesome fish.
*
“Aquarium was a bust.”
Sarah laughs.
“He said he would pretend to be excited. If it made me feel better.”
“You kids are so adorable.”
“He probably thinks I have a fish fetish.”
“Probably.”
Jensen snaps his head to face her, ignoring the new wipe of cream that was cool on his skin. “He thinks I’m crazy.”
She picks a fingernail at the make-up mistake. “You kind of are.”
“Am not.”
“You’re dying to get him fish.”
“Because you told me to!”
“I wasn’t wrong.”
“Shit,” he grumbles, knowing he’s not going to stop any time soon.
*
Jared smiles when Jensen enters his trailer. “Hey, you ever see this one?” He motions to the TV where Jared’s got Seinfeld reruns playing. “Kenny Rogers' Roasters,” he crows. “This is the best one. They trade apartments and …” Jared watches the screen then roars with laughter. “The tomato juice. He puts fucking tomato juice in the cereal!”
Jensen smiles, appreciating Jared’s laughter. “I personally like when George steals the clock so he can get the hat back.”
Jared chuckles and settles at the arm of the couch. He’s still watching the screen but talks to Jensen. “You ever do that?”
“Do what?”
“Drop something?”
"Drop?"
"At someone's house? To call them again?"
“Nah.”
“Why not?”
“Not my style.”
Jared laughs at Jensen. “You even got a style?”
“I totally have a style,” Jensen replies, a bit defensive.
“The non-existent kind?”
“Whatever,” Jensen grumbles and continues watching the episode roll on.
Ten seconds later, Jared speaks up. “What’s that?”
“What?” Jensen sees Jared nod down to his hands so he lifts the small box to Jared’s reach. He’s trying to be nonchalant, so he continues to watch the TV show as he talks. “Yeah, here.”
“What’s this?”
“Just something.”
“Wow, you’re really trying to woo me here, huh?”
Jensen looks up quickly. “What?”
“Dinner? Day trip to the fish house? Presents?”
“I’m not -"
"I'm gonna have to put out soon, huh?"
"I’m not wooing you.”
“This is wooing.”
“Is not.”
“Then what?”
Jensen grumbles, not entirely sure himself. “I dunno. We’re here and whatever.”
“Whatever?”
Jensen leans back on the other arm of the couch. He crosses his arms tight against his chest and tries to not look at Jared. “We’re working together.”
“Yes. We are.”
“Thought I’d do a good deed.”
“Okay.”
Jensen nods at the box in Jared’s hand. “Good deed. Right there.”
“For what?”
“For working together.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Jared makes a satisfied sound then lifts the box. It can’t be bigger than a mug. “What is it?”
“Open it.”
He tugs the top flap of cardboard up. “Huh.” Jared looks to Jensen, down to the box, and again to Jensen. He lifts the small glass bowl from the box and eyes the purply-bluish fish.
“It’s a beta," Jensen says a little uncomfortably.
“Yeah, I got that part,” Jared replies quite amused.
“You like … Sarah said you like them.”
“Betas?”
“Fish.”
Jared watches Jensen, waiting for more.
"She said fish."
"Sarah?"
Jensen's growing more uncomfortable in the conversation, and he becomes defensive. "I asked. I said 'what does Jared like?' And she said fish."
Jared cracks up right then. His head flips back and his mouth goes wide. The noise is loud and boisterous and if Jensen didn’t already know that Jared was laughing at him, he just may have smiled.
When Jared stops laughing, he smiles at Jensen, who winds up muttering, “Sarah said you like fish.”
He laughs again, just as full and but not as long as he did before. “The candy.”
“What?”
“The candy. Swedish Fish. She gets me bags from the candy store by her house.”
Jensen watches as Jared's laughter dies down, but the smile is still plastered on his face. “Huh.”
Jared is still chuckling and smiling, eyes bright. Jensen kind of smiles because Jared looks pretty good when he looks that happy. “I’m not sure I was supposed to figure that out.”
“Swedish fish.”
Jensen stands with a sigh. He reaches a hand to Jared. “Alright, fine. I’ll take it back.”
Jared pulls the bowl closer. “No, you won’t.”
“Yeah.”
“No. You can’t just return a fish.”
“Why not?”
“It’s cruel.”
“Really?”
“And dumb.”
“Jared.”
“It’s a fish."
"You're you."
"It’s a beta fish. I think I can keep it and take care of it just fine.”
Jensen sighs and looks around the trailer uncomfortably. There’s a commercial on the TV, which upsets him. He wishes the show was still on so they could watch that in the brief quiet. “It’s name is Gail.”
“What?”
“The fish. It’s Gail.”
Jared smirks. “You named my fish?”
“No, not me.”
“Gail?”
“Guy at the store did.”
Jared’s smile softens as he settles the fish bowl on the coffee table and moves forward. “C’mere.” He pulls Jensen into a hug with a quick thump to his back then a bit of a squeeze. “Thanks man.”
When they pull back, Jensen eyes him carefully.
“Fish,” he chuckles, shaking his head as he grabs hold of Jensen’s shoulder and squeezes.
Jensen sighs and shakes his head, trying to shake away the shame he has at the idea of sushi, the aquarium, and a beta fish. He’s really spent way too much time on this.
Jared brings the bowl up to his eyes. “Hey, Gail,” he nearly coos. His mouth breaks wide in a fun smile and he nods. “You got style, man.”
He shakes his head again and grumbles, “Alright, yeah.” Jensen moves to the door. “I’ll see ya in ten.”
“Yeah, cool.”
Once Jensen’s outside and the door is closed, he can hear Jared laughing again.
*
Jensen sleeps in for the first time in a long while, thankful that A) he doesn’t have to find early time to be alone with Sarah and scope out Jared’s likes and dislikes anymore. And B) Jared’s got more make-up than him to film with so he just needs the typical airbrush and touch-up.
As soon as he’s in the make-up trailer, he drops a package hard into Jared’s lap. “There you go, jerkface.”
Jared makes a noise at the impact and sneaks a peak down, trying to not interrupt Sarah up. He spots the 16-ounce bag of Swedish Fish in his lap. He’s laughing in seconds, a full-bodied laugh that makes Sarah screw up her work. She snaps at Jensen. “Hey! you’re no longer welcome in here!”
“Swedish. Fish,” he sounds out carefully as he glares at her. “Not sushi. Not aquariums. Not actual pet fish. Swedish!”
She shrugs with a bit of attitude. And a tiny smirk. He knows she did it all for her own enjoyment.
“You rock,” Jared says seriously with a hand up in the air.
Jensen looks at Sarah then to Jared and he mentally shrugs. Then mentally smiles because he’s finally done it right. His hand goes up and smacks soundly into Jared’s palm. Then he squeezes it for a second because this just might possibly be the coolest moment they've had so far.
Next: Shibboleth: They're bored and there are chickens.
Celestial Navigation: Jensen drives Jared to a party. Jared just drives him crazy.
Genre: RPS J2 (er, pre-slash, really)
Rating: R - just a bad word or two
Word count: 2,800
Summary: Jared likes fish. If only Jensen knew what kind.
Notes: Gosh, help me. Part of the West Wing related stuff. I will eventually piece this together in some sort of order because I’m getting more and more ideas. This happens WAY before the last one. Title and cut from Seinfeld’s “The Chicken Roaster.”
Contrary to popular belief, it was not Jared who fell first. It was Jensen, and it was pretty much after the very first scene they filmed of the pilot. After quite a few takes, Jensen and Jared shared a wide smile and lots of laughter. And Jensen had a deadly bromantic crush. He wasn’t sure of it at first, but throughout pilot filming, it was getting stronger. Like he just wanted to hug the kid and ruffle his hair and make him laugh however and whenever he could because the noise was infectious and made Jensen feel warm and silly. Which he wasn’t always apt to do.
Jensen realized how bad it was when he moped around L.A. and had to wait a torturous amount of months until he heard that the show was picked up and he’d be working full-time with Jared. He was terribly antsy and excited and smiling for weeks between the announcement and the start of new filming.
So when he first saw Jared, he smiled and reached out for a friendly hug. “What’s up, brother?” he smirked. And the grin grew even larger when Jared laughed and full on hugged him back, palms tight to his back and squeezing.
Jensen had never been a highly affectionate man, but Jared really liked hugging. He’d allow it.
*
A week later, Jensen still feels antsy about working regularly and doing it alongside Jared. It doesn’t take long for him to want to do something for the guy. A kind of ‘congrats on us having our own TV show’ type present. He tries his best to figure out what could be done, but he doesn’t really know Jared all that well yet. Yes, they sit side-by-side in the Impala for hours on end, and they’re constantly within each other’s space and minding marks on the ground so perfectly it’s like they’ve been working together for years. But he still doesn’t really know what makes the guy tick.
Jensen starts snooping around and trying to pay attention to Jared. He doesn’t get much except he is a little too tall to function in public (he trips on everything) and he’s the most unorganized person on the planet (he’s likely to be wearing two different socks and his trailer never resembles anything tidy). So Jensen goes to Plan B, which requires him showing up way too early in the morning to be in make-up before Jared gets there.
His eyes are droopy and red from getting even less sleep than he already hates not getting. But he keeps them open enough to watch Sarah as she works perfectly around him, swiping make-up across his dark circles and adding just enough marks to show wear and tear on his face, courtesy a nasty ghost.
“So, Christmas.”
“Yeah?” she asks strangely.
“Coming up soon.”
“I wouldn’t call it soon.”
“Well, yeah,” he tries to answer well enough. It's only August and he doesn’t really know what he’s saying. There was no plan to this. All he figured is that Jared talks a lot, and they spend a good amount of time in that trailer for hair and make-up, so he’s likely talked about something interesting that Sarah picked up on. “I wanted to plan in advance.”
Sarah smirks and lets him become even more uncomfortable in the silence.
“What do you think I should get Jared?”
“Hmm?” She continues to mark up his left cheek without even looking at his eyes.
“I don’t know. I was thinking something new, different. Something he’d never expect. What kinds of things he like?”
Sarah stands up and admires her work, pushing Jensen’s chin back and forth so she can see how the paint catches the light. Absently, she says, “I dunno. Food?”
“Well, yeah,” he sighs. Jared’s eating habits are notorious on set. It takes the guy at least two - sometimes four - plates at Kraft services to survive lunch.
“Growing boy and all. He likes food.”
“Who doesn’t?” he answers tightly, trying to not move his jaw too much as she applies color to the corner of his mouth.
“Anorexics?”
“Yeah, okay. Them.”
“Why you so into this?”
Jensen barely shrugs, still trying to not move too much. “He’s a good kid. Deserves a fun gift.”
“Fun?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Just.” Sarah stands to view the fake cuts at his lip and nods when she’s happy with it. She stares right at Jensen. “You really want to do something fun?”
“Yeah. Something different.”
“He’s adopting a dog,” she offers.
“Different.”
“Dogs are different.”
“Not really.”
"It's adopted."
"Not yet."
Sarah crosses her arms at her chest and leans back on the counter in front of him. “It's different to me.”
“Yeah, great.”
“Could get him a dog collar? Bones?”
“Yeah, no.”
“Dog bowl? One of those sweaters?”
He sighs and pats his palms to the arms of the make-up chair as he stands up. “Alright, you are absolutely no help. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Mmhmm,” Jensen sounds as he’s walking out the door.
She starts putting brushes and make-up palettes back in order on the counter. “Fish.”
He stops and looks back. “Huh?”
“Guy likes fish.”
Jensen smiles because yeah, okay. He can do fish.
*
It’s nearly a full week before he can piece together some plans and find a chance for them to get out together. He makes plans at a nearby, highly reputable restaurant and he couldn’t be happier. They settle into the booth and Jared laughs awkwardly at the dark colors and modern architecture of the space. Every piece of artwork looks like abstract water animals - fish, lobsters, whales, you name it.
“Man, this place is crazy.”
Jensen smiles because Jared is all wide-eyed and laughing. He likes seeing him like this. “Yeah, Bob said he came here the first week out for locations and the Kappa-maki is really good.”
“The what?”
“Kappa …” Jensen stops, wondering if maybe he said it wrong.
“Kappa?”
“Kappa-maki?”
Jared’s voice is awkward as he glances over the menu with an even stranger face. “What’s that?”
“Uh, he said it was one of the rolls.”
“A roll?”
“Like sushi?”
Jared finally looks up from the menu. “Dude, is this all sushi?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
Jensen winces because Jared seems to become even more uncomfortable at the whole thing. “Yeah, you … you’ve had it? Right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Jensen smiles a little and goes back to his menu. Then he pauses with thought and looks at Jared. “You like it?”
“I mean, it’s not … I dunno.” Jared suddenly looks nervous, which makes Jensen even more worried. Jared goes on quickly, “Dude, no problem. I can eat … something.”
“Wait? I thought …"
"Thought what?"
*
“He doesn’t like sushi,” Jensen grunts out while Sarah moves around his head.
“I never said sushi.”
“You said fish.”
Sarah laughs. “There are plenty of other fish, you know?”
“You could have possibly told me the difference.”
“No, I couldn’t.”
“Yes, you could.” A quick pause. “What is the difference?”
“Isn’t this more fun?”
“For who?”
“Well, for me, certainly.”
“Thank you,” he grumbles
She smirks as she settles to his left, marking the corner of his lip with fake blood. “Don’t mention it.” She leans back and looks across his face, purposely avoiding his eyes. “Isn’t it more fun to find things out the hard way?”
“Absolutely not.”
“You have no sense of humor,” she murmurs, moving in close to his cheek to apply more fake wounds.
“I have a sense of humor. I actually have a very good sense of humor.”
“Mmhmm.”
“It’s not my fault you’re mean and wretched and like torturing people.”
As Sarah pulls the make-up brush across his cheek, she pushes a little hard, making him flinch.
“Okay. Sorry,” he says, only a little apologetic.
They’re relatively quiet for the next five minutes, at which point she releases him. As he takes the first step out of the trailer, she speaks. “Stick to the fishes."
"Fish?"
"Yeah."
"Seriously?”
Sarah nods. “Yeah.”
“He hates sushi.”
“You’re close.”
*
Their next day off is that Saturday and Jensen insists Jared be ready to get out of the hotel for the day. Jared doesn’t really question much (except to ask if they were going for sushi again with a twinkle in his eye), though he does talk Jensen’s ear off. Enough so that he doesn’t even realize that the car is stopped and they’re in a parking lot until Jensen stops holding up his end of the conversation - how little it was. Jared notices that Jensen’s staring out at window at the mammoth building in front of them.
“What’s this?” he asks.
Jensen smirks. “Educational and fun?”
Jared chuckles then moves enough to see the sign on the building. “Marine Center?”
“Yeah.”
“Aquarium?”
“Yeah. That cool?”
“Sure, whatever,” Jared shrugs as he gets out of the car.
Jensen frowns a tiny bit. “You’re not excited.”
“Should I be?”
Jensen looks over the roof of the car and fiddles with his keys. “I honestly don’t know,” he sighs to himself.
“I can pretend to be excited.”
“No, not that.”
“We are actors. I can act like I’m excited.” Jared’s mouth suddenly splits wide.
“You don’t … "
"What?"
"It’s cool? The aquarium?”
He shrugs easily. “It’s cool, sure.” He looks at the building then back to Jensen. “You got a thing for beluga whales or something?”
Jensen mutters to himself as they walk up to the building. He pays for two adults and he’s actually kind of pissed that Jared’s not more interested at the idea. Jensen thought this was a great idea. Like a thing they could do together and Jared could remember Jensen took me to the Vancouver Aquarium. We had the whole day to look at awesome fish.
*
“Aquarium was a bust.”
Sarah laughs.
“He said he would pretend to be excited. If it made me feel better.”
“You kids are so adorable.”
“He probably thinks I have a fish fetish.”
“Probably.”
Jensen snaps his head to face her, ignoring the new wipe of cream that was cool on his skin. “He thinks I’m crazy.”
She picks a fingernail at the make-up mistake. “You kind of are.”
“Am not.”
“You’re dying to get him fish.”
“Because you told me to!”
“I wasn’t wrong.”
“Shit,” he grumbles, knowing he’s not going to stop any time soon.
*
Jared smiles when Jensen enters his trailer. “Hey, you ever see this one?” He motions to the TV where Jared’s got Seinfeld reruns playing. “Kenny Rogers' Roasters,” he crows. “This is the best one. They trade apartments and …” Jared watches the screen then roars with laughter. “The tomato juice. He puts fucking tomato juice in the cereal!”
Jensen smiles, appreciating Jared’s laughter. “I personally like when George steals the clock so he can get the hat back.”
Jared chuckles and settles at the arm of the couch. He’s still watching the screen but talks to Jensen. “You ever do that?”
“Do what?”
“Drop something?”
"Drop?"
"At someone's house? To call them again?"
“Nah.”
“Why not?”
“Not my style.”
Jared laughs at Jensen. “You even got a style?”
“I totally have a style,” Jensen replies, a bit defensive.
“The non-existent kind?”
“Whatever,” Jensen grumbles and continues watching the episode roll on.
Ten seconds later, Jared speaks up. “What’s that?”
“What?” Jensen sees Jared nod down to his hands so he lifts the small box to Jared’s reach. He’s trying to be nonchalant, so he continues to watch the TV show as he talks. “Yeah, here.”
“What’s this?”
“Just something.”
“Wow, you’re really trying to woo me here, huh?”
Jensen looks up quickly. “What?”
“Dinner? Day trip to the fish house? Presents?”
“I’m not -"
"I'm gonna have to put out soon, huh?"
"I’m not wooing you.”
“This is wooing.”
“Is not.”
“Then what?”
Jensen grumbles, not entirely sure himself. “I dunno. We’re here and whatever.”
“Whatever?”
Jensen leans back on the other arm of the couch. He crosses his arms tight against his chest and tries to not look at Jared. “We’re working together.”
“Yes. We are.”
“Thought I’d do a good deed.”
“Okay.”
Jensen nods at the box in Jared’s hand. “Good deed. Right there.”
“For what?”
“For working together.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Jared makes a satisfied sound then lifts the box. It can’t be bigger than a mug. “What is it?”
“Open it.”
He tugs the top flap of cardboard up. “Huh.” Jared looks to Jensen, down to the box, and again to Jensen. He lifts the small glass bowl from the box and eyes the purply-bluish fish.
“It’s a beta," Jensen says a little uncomfortably.
“Yeah, I got that part,” Jared replies quite amused.
“You like … Sarah said you like them.”
“Betas?”
“Fish.”
Jared watches Jensen, waiting for more.
"She said fish."
"Sarah?"
Jensen's growing more uncomfortable in the conversation, and he becomes defensive. "I asked. I said 'what does Jared like?' And she said fish."
Jared cracks up right then. His head flips back and his mouth goes wide. The noise is loud and boisterous and if Jensen didn’t already know that Jared was laughing at him, he just may have smiled.
When Jared stops laughing, he smiles at Jensen, who winds up muttering, “Sarah said you like fish.”
He laughs again, just as full and but not as long as he did before. “The candy.”
“What?”
“The candy. Swedish Fish. She gets me bags from the candy store by her house.”
Jensen watches as Jared's laughter dies down, but the smile is still plastered on his face. “Huh.”
Jared is still chuckling and smiling, eyes bright. Jensen kind of smiles because Jared looks pretty good when he looks that happy. “I’m not sure I was supposed to figure that out.”
“Swedish fish.”
Jensen stands with a sigh. He reaches a hand to Jared. “Alright, fine. I’ll take it back.”
Jared pulls the bowl closer. “No, you won’t.”
“Yeah.”
“No. You can’t just return a fish.”
“Why not?”
“It’s cruel.”
“Really?”
“And dumb.”
“Jared.”
“It’s a fish."
"You're you."
"It’s a beta fish. I think I can keep it and take care of it just fine.”
Jensen sighs and looks around the trailer uncomfortably. There’s a commercial on the TV, which upsets him. He wishes the show was still on so they could watch that in the brief quiet. “It’s name is Gail.”
“What?”
“The fish. It’s Gail.”
Jared smirks. “You named my fish?”
“No, not me.”
“Gail?”
“Guy at the store did.”
Jared’s smile softens as he settles the fish bowl on the coffee table and moves forward. “C’mere.” He pulls Jensen into a hug with a quick thump to his back then a bit of a squeeze. “Thanks man.”
When they pull back, Jensen eyes him carefully.
“Fish,” he chuckles, shaking his head as he grabs hold of Jensen’s shoulder and squeezes.
Jensen sighs and shakes his head, trying to shake away the shame he has at the idea of sushi, the aquarium, and a beta fish. He’s really spent way too much time on this.
Jared brings the bowl up to his eyes. “Hey, Gail,” he nearly coos. His mouth breaks wide in a fun smile and he nods. “You got style, man.”
He shakes his head again and grumbles, “Alright, yeah.” Jensen moves to the door. “I’ll see ya in ten.”
“Yeah, cool.”
Once Jensen’s outside and the door is closed, he can hear Jared laughing again.
*
Jensen sleeps in for the first time in a long while, thankful that A) he doesn’t have to find early time to be alone with Sarah and scope out Jared’s likes and dislikes anymore. And B) Jared’s got more make-up than him to film with so he just needs the typical airbrush and touch-up.
As soon as he’s in the make-up trailer, he drops a package hard into Jared’s lap. “There you go, jerkface.”
Jared makes a noise at the impact and sneaks a peak down, trying to not interrupt Sarah up. He spots the 16-ounce bag of Swedish Fish in his lap. He’s laughing in seconds, a full-bodied laugh that makes Sarah screw up her work. She snaps at Jensen. “Hey! you’re no longer welcome in here!”
“Swedish. Fish,” he sounds out carefully as he glares at her. “Not sushi. Not aquariums. Not actual pet fish. Swedish!”
She shrugs with a bit of attitude. And a tiny smirk. He knows she did it all for her own enjoyment.
“You rock,” Jared says seriously with a hand up in the air.
Jensen looks at Sarah then to Jared and he mentally shrugs. Then mentally smiles because he’s finally done it right. His hand goes up and smacks soundly into Jared’s palm. Then he squeezes it for a second because this just might possibly be the coolest moment they've had so far.
Next: Shibboleth: They're bored and there are chickens.
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