Fic: Rainbow Connection. AU RPS. Jensen/Jared. NC-17. 1/4
Title: Rainbow Connection
Author: felisblanco
Pairing: Jensen/Jared, Danneel/Genevieve (Past Jared/Sandy and Jensen/Joanna)
Word count: 32.840 words
Rating: NC-17
Warning: Kid!fic. Yeah, I went there. Mentions of child molestation that didn’t happen, but the words might possibly trigger, so just to be on the safe side, beware.
FYI Joanna is a horrible person in this fic. Sorry, someone had to be the bad guy. Tom Welling isn’t too lovely either. And Chad is his usual douchey self. To be honest, this fic is filled with the usual clichés (Jared’s giant dick, Jensen having a not so healthy relationship with coffee, Danneel being kickass, etc.) but you know, clichés are clichés for a reason and it’s not just because the writer is lazy. I just happen to love those particular clichés.
Summary: Struggling university student Jared gets a job at a daycare center fighting dirty diapers and trying to convince the kids he’s not a giant monster who’s going to eat them. Especially little Marie who is his favorite, possibly because her daddy happens to be hot as hell.
Author’s note: By longstanding tradition I’m posting fic on New Year’s Eve. And as an early birthday present for winchestergirl because it’s her birthday on Friday. <3 Title from the song with the same name, sung by Kermit and Miss Piggy. Just because. Unbeta’d and all that. Also on AO3.
“You’re kidding, right? Babysitter? You’re gonna be a fucking babysitter?”
“It’s a daycare center,” Jared told Chad for the fifteenth time at least and rinsed the suds off the last plate in the sink. “It’s not the same.”
“Whatever.” Chad waved his hand dismissively. “Dude, just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you have to cut your dick off. Babysitting is for twelve year old girls.”
Jared sighed and pulled the plug, draining the sink of its now rather murky soap water. It was closing in on midnight and everyone else was already gone home, leaving the two of them to finish cleaning up at the Pasta Basta restaurant, downtown LA. As usual that meant Jared cleaned up while Chad slouched in a chair, annoying him.
“It’s not babysitting,” he huffed and grabbed the sponge, wiping down the sink. “I’ll be teaching them stuff.”
“Yeah, like how to poop their pants and pour oatmeal over their head. Seriously, man, I have nephews. They’re like monkeys, except uglier.”
“How does that not surprise me?” Jared muttered but Chad didn’t seem to hear him.
“You better shower and change before you get home, man. I don’t want some stinking baby cooties on our couch.”
Jared turned around, spattering drops of water into Chad’s face as he shook the sponge at him. “Hey, I put up with you smelling off incense and lube every time you get home from The Pleasure Planet. Not to mention the “extra” jobs you do behind the counter.” He shook his head as he wrung out the sponge and then dried his hands on a dishtowel. “At least cooties are better than crabs.”
Chad choked on his gum, coughing and spluttering until he finally looked up, dark pink in the face, eyes widened in shock. “How did you know about that?”
Jared blinked. He suddenly itched all over. “I didn’t. I was joking. Seriously, you got crabs?”
Chad blushed even deeper. “No.” He stood up, grabbing his jacket. “Are we done here or what?”
“You got crabs. Dude, that’s so… Really?” Jared couldn’t help laughing. “Oh man, you’re such a whore.”
“Fuck you.”
“You wish,” Jared shot back. He rolled his eyes when Chad made his the-only-reason-I-put-up-with-the-whole-gay-thing-is-because-you’re-my-best-friend-but-don’t-shove-it-in-my-face expression, because seriously Jared had had to suffer through too many stories of Chad’s sexcapades for him to have any reason to be so prissy.
“At least I have a dick to whore around with, pussy,” Chad said obscenely, grabbing his crotch like he really had anything to brag about.
“For now. The way you’re going at it it’s bound to turn black and fall off any day now.” Jared gave him a smug smile. “And I have a dick, remember, or do you want to compare sizes again? Sure you can stand the humiliation?”
Chad scowled. “Shut up. I have a huge dick, man. What you have is a freak of nature. Beside, you never use it so it’s a total waste of meat.”
“I use it,” Jared said defensively. “Just because I don’t sleep around with every pretty face I see…”
“You haven’t had sex in over a year, man. And you haven’t had…” Chad lifted his hands, crooking his fingers. “… ‘gay’ sex ever.”
Jared rolled his eyes, grabbing his own jacket from the hook by the door. “You know, gay is actually a real word. You don’t have to ‘air-quote’ it,” he said, mimicking Chad’s stupid gesture.
“Whatever. Besides, until you fuck someone in the ass you’re not really gay.”
Jared briefly fought the urge to hit Chad over the head, but really, giving in was so much more satisfying.
“Ow! What the fuck, man?”
Jared gave him a pointed look. “It’s not just a sex thing, asshole. It’s… It just is, ok? And I am. Trust me, I am.”
“I still say it’s just your brain frying from having sex with Sandy. Dude, she was hot. Why the hell did you ever break up with her?”
Seriously, how many times had Chad’s mom dropped him on his head? “Gay, remember? That kinda makes the whole girlfriend thing inappropriate.”
“Yeah, yeah. So… really? Babysitting?”
Jared pushed Chad out the backdoor of the small restaurant and locked it behind them with a groan. It was going to be a long walk home.
---------
He was late. He was late and they were gonna hate him. Just take one look at him and BAM, no more job. Because seriously, like Chad had pointed out to him repeatedly, who would hire him to look after their kids? He was like the exact opposite of everything he was sure parents were looking for as a responsible role model for their children:
A gay guy who had absolutely no experience working with kids, except to look after his nephew and nieces sometimes when he was home in Texas. Twenty, and only a freshman in college because life, or more specifically money, hated him. Not his fault he got hit with the flu from Hell his first year and missed most of his exams. Took him another year to dig himself out of that particular financial hole.
Especially considering he kept losing his jobs for reasons totally out of his control. Like the store manager’s daughter crushing on him and having him fired when he didn’t want to sleep with her. (Hello! He had a girlfriend! At the time. And then, later, he was gay, so really, not in any girl-fucking mood.) Or the time Chad set fire to the pizza place they were both working at. Or the time they got caught smoking weed in the backroom of the bowling alley. (They were on a break!) Or the time Chad…
Hmm… He was starting to see a pattern. Well, Chad wouldn’t be working here so maybe he got a chance after all.
Plus, this time he had a plan. And even if his plans had a tendency to go completely wrong, he really couldn’t afford screwing up this whole babysi-… daycare thing. So a simple but strict plan was in order.
1) Instantly put stop to any sexual tension that might come up. He wasn’t vain, but he wasn’t oblivious either. And for some reason girls tended to find the whole too tall and awkwardly clumsy thing attractive. Boys, unfortunately, not so much. Hence the no dating.
2) No Chad. He loved the guy, in a totally ‘I wouldn’t suck your dick, even if you paid me’ way but he still was a douche and bad things kept happening whenever he was around. Like losing jobs.
3) No weed. Not that he would ever smoke anything with lots of little kids around anyway, but it was a good rule to have for any job really, he knew that now.
4) And this was the most important rule of all, don’t tell anyone he was gay.
He wasn’t unaware of the irony that dumping rule number four would probably take care of rule number one but he couldn’t take that chance. He’d heard enough moronic comments about all gay men being pedophiles to realize this wasn’t the right place to be waving the rainbow flag. He had no wish to get fired before he even started. So even if it sucked stepping back into the closet, at least while he was working, it seemed to be the only option.
Despite Chad’s constant comments on the matter Jared knew he wasn’t what people would call flamboyantly gay. Ok, so yes, he did like a hint of color in his wardrobe, and that color might be a bit on the pink side, but hey, pink was the new black! Everyone said so. And maybe he had a tendency to be over affectionate with people, guys and girls alike, but he was just a very tactile person. That wasn’t a gay thing, that was just a Jared thing. And he didn’t care what Chad said, liking whipped cream and sprinkles in his coffee was not girly at all, it was just his sweet tooth talking.
Bottom line, unless he outright told people, he didn’t really seem to register on their gaydar. Whether they were gay or straight.
Jared paused. Did straight people have a gaydar? Or should that technically be considered a straightdar? He frowned in thought then shrugged. Whether they had or not, everyone seemed to think Jared was as straight as an arrow. He’d had to tell his mother three times that he was gay and still she’d kept on repeating, “But you’re so tall.” Then again, the only other gay man she knew was Jared’s cousin Chris and truth be told, he was a little on the short side. Not that anyone ever dared to tell him that. For being a gay midget he was one scary son-of-a-bitch.
But really, sometimes Jared wondered if he should just take a day to walk around wrapped up in the rainbow flag and nothing else, just to get the whole ‘coming out’ thing over with. He was getting pretty tired of having the same, “No, really, I am,” conversation over and over again.
Didn’t help that, as Chad loved to repeatedly point out, he hadn’t even kissed a guy yet so he had no proof. Like maybe secretly taken pictures - or possibly a video would be better, considering how easy it was to manip pictures these days? - of him making out with someone. All he would need was one guy, any guy really, to kiss him in front of a camera and voilà! Proof! Then even his mother would have to give up and stop trying to hook him up with their neighbors’ daughters.
(On second thought maybe that video idea wasn’t such a good one. At least not with Chad in the house. Jared didn’t really want his mother stumbling across a video of her son doing naked gay things on YouTube. The one with him dancing at Kristen’s party had been bad enough.)
He’d tried to get Chad to kiss him in the middle of campus but Chad was an awful best friend who valued his (rather delusionally proportioned) manhood more than Jared’s gayness. Seriously, sometimes Jared wondered why he hadn’t kicked Chad out the minute he climbed into the neighborhood playground sandbox and started pouring mud over Jared’s head eighteen years ago. In some ways Chad was like herpes; impossible to get rid off and screwing up a number of potential dates just by his presence. If he weren’t so damn loyal and really the best friend Jared had ever had, not to mention good at videogames, Jared probably would have killed him a long time ago.
He was finally at the gate leading to the playground that surrounded the daycare center. It was attached to a pretty sturdy fence and he eyed it warily, wondering if its purpose was to keep the children in or hypothetical kidnappers out. A very disturbing image of the daycare’s teachers pressed up against the fence, crying for someone to rescue them from hundreds of kids biting their legs, suddenly popped into his head. He blinked. It wouldn’t be that bad, would it? This wasn’t Gatlin, Nebraska. In fact, he was pretty sure there wasn’t a cornfield within a hundred miles radius.
Satisfyingly reassured Jared pushed open the gate and walked up the sandy concrete path leading to an old house. It was a two-store building with a small tower adding an extra third level, if only with one room that had windows on all sides. It had yellow painted wooden walls with white windowpanes and doors and had obviously been remodeled from its original purpose as a rather modest family home. The playground had one big sandbox with shovels and buckets lying beside rather pathetic looking sandcastles, a small climbing castle with a slide, a seesaw, a small merry-go-round and some swings. A couple of tricycles had been abandoned at the side of the path and a lone mitten lay on the small patch of grass.
Jared paused and looked around. The swings were staying mercifully still. Really, there were few things as creepy as playgrounds, he thought. If that merry-go-round made any attempt at turning on its own he was getting out of there faster than you could say Jack Nicholson.
Maybe it was time he laid off the horror movies…
Jared could hear sounds through the open windows: laughing, screeching, crying; the kind of noises that had most guys his age running in the opposite direction. The idea was tantalizing. He hesitated with his fingers gripping the doorknob. It felt stupid being scared of kids that hardly came up to his kneecaps but fuck, he kinda was. Hanging out with his two cousins for a few hours wasn’t anything like having to be in a room full of kids all day. And these were really tiny kids. Like only a couple of years old maybe.
What if Chad was right and all they did was poop their pants and pour oatmeal over their heads? Really, was he cut out to deal with that? And more importantly, could he handle the responsibility? A little kid’s life in his hands. Literally every time he had to pick one up. Being clumsy wouldn’t be cute anymore when he’d dropped a kid on its head and given it brain damage.
On the other hand he was really, really broke…
What the hell. Basically it was just playing with kids all day, right? He couldn’t really screw that up, could he?
Taking a deep breath Jared turned the knob and stepped inside.
Twenty minutes later he followed Samantha, the woman who ran the daycare center, out of her office. He was now even more nervous, his stomach filled with fluttering butterflies as he stepped over the random rubber boots and knitted mittens littering the floor. Sand stuck to the bottom of his socks, his shoes left dutifully by the door as requested. He’d have to get himself some flip-flops or something. He stepped into a small puddle of mud and grimaced as the dampness soaked through his sock, making his toes squishy wet. She noticed his expression and smiled apologetically.
“They just got in again from playing outside. We haven’t mopped the floors yet.”
He nodded and she gave him another smile, sweeping her hand across the small hall.
“Every child has a shelf and hook where they keeps their things. Most parents make sure to label their kid’s clothes with their name but stray things are gathered in the basket over there. Breakfast is around 8:30, lunch… well, now. Afternoon snack is around three o’clock. Most days the children go outside for about two hours in the morning, then after lunch they nap and…” She caught the increasingly dazed look on his face and smiled. “Well, you’ll get the hang of it soon enough. Now, this is where you’ll spend most your time.”
She’d stopped outside a door that had RAINBOWLAND spelled out in bright cut-out letters on the front. Jared just barely kept from rolling his eyes. How ironic. He could hear laughing and screaming on the other side, the racket enough to make his head hurt. This whole idea was starting to seem worse and worse.
She seemed to read his mind again because she smiled and said, “You’ll get used to it after a few days. Soon enough you’ll stop noticing.”
He nodded dutifully, even if he doubted that very much.
“In here we have the youngest children, one to three years old. You do realize what that means?”
He nodded again, braving a smile. “Lots of poop.”
She laughed. “Well, yes. But it also means they are at a very important developing stage. Walking, talking, learning to play with others… It’s all a big part of becoming social beings as well as individuals.” She raised her eyebrows at him, whether in challenge or offering him a way out he wasn’t sure. “It’s a big responsibility. You really think you are ready to handle it?”
Jared swallowed. He didn’t feel ready to handle one kid, let alone a dozen or however many they were in there. Sounded like a whole zoo of monkeys.
“I think I’m willing to try,” he said, trying to sound confident. “I mean, I did train my dogs after all. And they didn’t even have diapers.”
She gave him a disapproving glare. “They are not dogs, they are children.”
“I know, I was just…” Jared blushed. Damn. His jokes had a tendency to fall short on pretty much everyone except Chad and Megan, his little sister. Which probably said more about their maturity than his comic talents.
“My momma always says I’m great with kids,” he assured her. “I’ve babysat my nephews a lot of times. And I have a roommate who has the brain capacity of a five year old,” he added, again trying to lighten the mood.
Her eyes warmed immediately. “You never mentioned. That is so nice of you, participating in such a program.”
Oh man. Chad was gonna kill him. “Uh… yeah. Well, someone has to.” He tried to look solemn.
She gave him another smile and then nodded toward the door. “You ready?”
He swallowed and put on his brightest grin. “Yep.”
She opened the door and the noise level skyrocketed. He almost stepped back in shock and when she motioned him inside he took a deep breath before following.
There were little kids everywhere. Sitting on the floor, climbing on the small chairs and crawling under the tables. Jared couldn’t remember ever seeing so many children gathered together in one room. It was rather terrifying.
Samantha clapped her hands to get their attention, as well as of the two girls currently laying the table ready for lunch.
“Hey. This is Jared. He’s going to be working with us. Everyone say, ‘Hello, Jared.’”
Twenty pairs of bright eyes traveled up his body. And up and up, getting wider and wider, until all the children sat dumbfounded on the floor, necks cracked as far back as they could go, staring up at him.
“Hello,” Jared said and waved awkwardly.
The children blinked and then, as if on cue, they all opened their mouths and high pitched screaming pierced the air. Jared stared in horror as the room erupted into a state of chaos with children scurrying in all directions, disappearing under chairs and tables, or in one case, a toy box, and a little girl clapped her hands over her eyes, wailing for her mommy.
“What? What did I do?” he asked in panic, dropping his voice down to a whisper when his words only made them cry harder.
“Maybe you should get down.”
He looked at Samantha, blinking in confusion at the rather amused look on her face. “What?”
She smiled and shook her head. “You’re a giant, Jared. Imagine what you look like to them. Sit down on the floor and just wait. They’ll come around soon enough.”
Oh. He sank down to the floor as slowly and carefully as he could, folding his legs and hunching his back to make himself as small as possible. The screaming subsided some and Samantha gave him an approving nod before turning to the girls. “I leave him in your hands. Don’t scare him off on his first day, ok?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of him,” said the dark haired girl, giving him a wicked grin and waving Samantha off. “I’m Sophia, by the way, and this is Alli.”
Alli waved at him, continuing to set the table with brightly colored plastic plates, cups and utensils. He waved back cautiously, aware of dozens of wide eyes staring at him. They were mostly quiet by now but somewhere to his left he could still hear someone sobbing wetly, like there was a river of snot pouring from the kid’s nose. He was too afraid to move to look over and see if it was really as gross as it sounded. The small girl had stopped crying for her mommy and was peeking through her fingers, eyeing him suspiciously as if Jared might mistake her of being on the menu.
“Hey. Shouldn’t I…” He lowered his voice even further when the little girl now tried to cover her ears as well as her eyes, rather unsuccessfully considering how small her hands were. “Shouldn’t I help you with that?” he whispered.
Alli laughed. “Nah. You just sit there and try to look friendly.”
“I am! I’m very friendly. I’m like the friendliest guy ever.” He dared a quick look around, horrified by the fear in the children’s eyes. “Why are they so scared of me?”
“Well…” Sophia tilted her head and studied him. “You’re about ten feet tall. You’re a stranger. You’re a man…”
He wasn’t sure whether he should feel insulted or not. “They’re scared of me because I’m a guy?”
She shrugged. “Not that many in this neighborhood that have both parents. And we don’t get many guys working in this field. It’s a shame really, the kids could use a positive male model.” She gave him a grin as she put giant jugs of juice on the table. “Guess that will be your job.”
Jared swallowed. Positive male model? That didn’t really sound like him. “Uhm… okay.” He looked around, smiling hesitantly at the sea of small faces. “How do I do that?”
“Well, the fact that you willingly signed up to work here is enough to give me faith that you’ll do just fine,” she answered, pouring juice into each mug. “Ok, kids. Lunchtime! Come sit down.”
A few came running immediately but most of the kids just continued to stare at Jared, apparently too afraid to move. He shifted on the floor and they shrunk back even further. “Maybe I should just…” He scooted over until he was sitting with his back against the wall, as far from the tables as possible. “This better?”
“Give them time,” Alli said reassuringly. “Took me two days before any of them wanted to talk to me.”
She lifted up the small girl who was still hiding her face behind her hands and carried her over to her seat. “Here you go, sweetie. Meatballs, your favorite!”
The girl peeked down at the plate through her fingers and after a moment’s hesitation grabbed her fork in one chubby hand and started stuffing her mouth, the other hand still covering half her face and eyes darting to Jared every few seconds. He gave her a smile and she almost choked on her food. Damn. This wasn’t going well.
“They didn’t all scream in fear though, did they? When you started, I mean,” he asked hopelessly, feeling more out of place than ever in his life.
“No, but three kids peed on me in one week.”
Ok, that sounded worse than the screaming. Although chances were he would get his fair share of bodily fluids as well.
He looked up when Sophia handed him a pink plastic plate carrying a mountain of spaghetti and meatballs. “Here. Want juice or water?” she asked as she turned back to the table.
He stared at the plate in his hands, the smell making his stomach growl. “We get food?”
She turned around and looked at him. “You don’t know anything about this job, do you?”
He blushed. “No. I mean, I know there’s poop and stuff. Right?”
“Oh yeah. Plenty of poop,” she laughed. “I’m not gonna lie, it can be exhausting. But it ain’t without its perks. You’ll see.”
He nodded. “Yeah, happy smiles and such, right?”
She shrugged. “I was more thinking free food and naptime, but whatever rocks your boat.”
Jared sat up straighter. “We get to take naps?”
Suddenly this whole thing sounded a lot better.
----------
When the alarm rang butt-fuck-early Friday morning Jared’s first instinct was to murder the offending clock in the most gruesome way. Possibly involving a sledgehammer. Instead he rolled over and blindly reached out with one hand, slamming the alarm off before collapsing on his back, bleary eyes blinking up at the ceiling. He was totally exhausted and just the thought of getting up was enough to make him want to weep.
He was working at the daycare center three days a week, the restaurant every night except Sundays, and he had two assignments to finish before his class on Monday. For the hundredth time that week he wondered if he’d possibly been suffering from a brief moment of insanity when he decided to apply for a second job. Especially this kind of job.
The kids still wouldn’t talk to him. Hell, most of them cowered in fear if he tried to come anywhere near them. Every time he stood up to his full length at least a third of them started crying and the rest backed away, staring up at him with huge eyes. They still hadn’t managed to convince Michael to come out from under the toy box he’d been using as a hiding place. And little Marie still screamed for her mommy every time he tried to talk to her. It was a wonder the daycare center hadn’t had a mob of angry parents march up, ready to lynch him for making their kids dream about a giant Padalecki coming to eat them every night.
So far he’d only been working afternoons but Fridays were going to be his full days and he was dreading it. Nine hours of screaming children running away from him in fear. Oh joy.
He grumpily got up and padded barefoot to the bathroom, ignoring Chad who was sitting on the toilet, flipping through some skinny magazine while going about his business. Jared hoped it was limited to peeing.
“Mornin’,” he grumbled sleepily.
Chad jerked awake and frantically attacked him with the magazine. “Dude, I’m on the can! Get your gay ass out of here.”
“Fuck off, Chad. I’m late. I have to take a shower.”
He dropped his boxers, smirking at Chad’s horrified squeak, and then he turned on the water and stepped under it, not waiting until it turned warm. Better to wake him up anyway.
“We have rules, man! No naked bathroom sharing and no jerking off when…”
Jared tuned out Chad’s muttering while he lathered up his hair and then did a quick shower shave, hoping he wasn’t missing any obvious spots. He was just turning off the water when Chad’s rambling finally paused and then there came a bright whistle.
“Holy shit! Hey, isn’t this Sandy? Oh wow!”
“What?” Jared stuck his head out from behind the shower curtain, sweeping wet hair from his eyes. “Where?”
“Here,” Chad said gleefully and raised the magazine, unfolding the center. “Shit. Remind me why you broke up with her again?”
“Gay. G.A.Y. Ring a bell?” Jared growled, trying to grab the magazine. “Gimme that!”
“Nuhuh. Man, she was hot with her clothes on but this… Holy fuck.” Chad leered sordidly then yelped when Jared hauled him off the toilet and put him in a headlock, bare ass in the air. “Get off me! You’re fucking naked, asshole! And wet! Stop molesting me, you fucking pervert!”
“Give me the magazine or I’ll put your head down the damn toilet. Which… Yeurgh! What the hell did you eat yesterday?”
“Ok, ok! Take it!” Chad thrust the now wrinkled magazine at Jared and desperately tried to haul up his pants that were sliding down to the floor. “You’re a fucking asshole, Jared. Let me go!”
Jared let go off him with an evil laugh that died quickly when he finally got a decent look at the picture Chad had been ogling. Fuck. It was Sandy. More or less naked and spread out across the centerfold. His fingers left wet prints on the pages, somehow making the whole thing seem even more sordid. Shit.
It had been a year since they broke up but he still felt protective of her and the thought of thousands or even millions of dirty men like Chad jerking off to her picture... Dammit! And she hadn’t even told him. He felt ridiculously hurt.
“Can I have it back? Yo, Jarhead! I paid good money for that!”
“You stole it from your work,” Jared said drily, crumbling the magazine in his hand. “And no, you can’t have it back.”
“I’ll just steal another,” Chad bit back. “Dude, she’s not your girlfriend anymore. What do you care?”
“I care, ok? I… Fuck you, Chad. You wanna steal another, then fucking steal another. But don’t bring it here. I don’t want to see it.”
He violently ripped up the magazine and stormed into the small kitchen, thrusting the tattered pages into the trash. Slimy spaghetti and onions slid across Sandy’s naked ass, glowing unnaturally tanned on the glossy page, and he fought the urge to grab the bag and run with it out into the dumpster. Heaving for breath he looked up and found Mrs. Jenkins, their elderly neighbor, standing at her own kitchen window, watching him with wide eyes. Suddenly she grinned and gave him a little wave, one eye closing in a wink. He frowned. Wha-?
He looked down. He was completely naked and their window had no curtains.
Instead of giving into the urge to cover himself he smiled stiffly back and then turned around and stalked into the bedroom. What was one old lady seeing his dick (and now ass) compared to thousands of men ogling Sandy’s… everything?
He pulled on his last clean pair of underwear and his most comfortable jeans. He’d learned fast enough that old and comfy was the way to go with this job. Not that he really owned any tight designer clothes, he kinda needed money for that, but spending most of his day on the floor, crouching or crawling, gave him, or rather his balls, a whole new perspective on what counted as comfy. He reached into the drawer for a clean t-shirt, seeing as the one he’d worn yesterday was now covered in fingerpaint and ketchup, but came up empty handed. He groaned. Better put laundry on the top of his to-do list.
“Chad, can you lend me a t-shirt?” he shouted while sifting through his pile of dirty whites and coming up with a pair of socks. They could stand to be worn another day, they didn’t smell that bad.
“I can,” came the smug answer from the doorway. “Question is: Do I want to? Magazine-stealing pervert.”
Jared gritted his teeth but managed to plaster an apologetic smile on before turning around. “Look, I’m sorry. It just threw me, is all. And you were being a sleaze, drooling over her like that, right in front of me.”
Chad pouted but then he shook his head and disappeared into his own room, returning a moment later with a puke green t-shirt in his hand.
Jared groaned. “Aw, c’mon. Not that one!”
“It’s the only clean one I’ve got,” Chad said smugly and threw it at his head. “Wear it or bare it, dude.”
“Funny.” Jared glared at the offensive article of clothing before pulling it on with a scowl. “I hate you.”
“You love me,” Chad replied and winked. “Have fun at work, hon.”
Jared stared at himself in the mirror and then sighed, reaching for a hoodie. Not like anyone would see it anyway.
The daycare center was unusually quiet when he got there, seeing as none of the kids had arrived yet. Sophia was already there though, making coffee in the small room they had named ‘The Refuge’ which had one old armchair, a tiny table, an even tinier fridge, a coffee machine and just enough room that Jared could reach between the walls with his arms stretched out. She gave him a smile as he yawned his “Mornin’,” and then proceeded to pour him coffee.
“Thanks,” he said gratefully and took the mug from her hand. He fumbled slightly and coffee sloshed over the rim and over the front of his hoodie.
“Shit! Shitshitshit!”
She grabbed the mug from him as he frantically wiped at his sweater. “Take it off, quick. Before it soaks through and burns you.”
He hurriedly complied, completely forgetting the t-shirt he was wearing underneath.
“What the hell?!”
He looked up to find her staring at him in shock. “What?” Then looked down and froze. His front read: “I support single moms.” It had a picture of a stripper.
“No!” He looked up, wide-eyed. “Nonono! It’s not mine! I had to borrow from my roommate.”
She glared at him, obviously not believing him. “You can’t wear that here! What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“I had nothing else! He had nothing else! I’m sorry!”
“You’re gonna be a whole lot of sorry if you don’t take that t-shirt off right now!”
He took a step back from her venomous glare and bumped into the wall. Ow. “Well, what the hell am I supposed to wear?”
She shook her head angrily and then fetched her bag from the hook behind the door. “I always have an extra in case someone throws up on me or something.” She pulled out a t-shirt and threw it at him. “Here. Put this on.”
He looked down at it in horror. It was bright pink. With a picture of a unicorn running under a rainbow. And sparkling letters that read: STARLET.
“You’re kidding.” He met her eyes. “You’re not kidding.”
She shook her head, an evil smirk on her face. “Wear it or bare it, babe.”
He stared at her. “You’re not related to anyone named Chad, are you?”
She frowned. “No. Why?”
“No reason.” He looked back down at the t-shirt in his hand and then sighed before pulling off his own. It made his slicked back hair fall forward and when he impatiently swept it from his eyes, he caught her staring at him with a look he recognized too well.
“Done ogling?” he asked angrily and she had the decency to blush. Not that he usually minded people looking at him but it wasn’t even eight o’clock yet and so far it had been just one naked disaster after another.
“Sorry.” She gave him a small smile. “Not every day a hot guy strips in front of me, you know.”
This time it was his turn to blush. “Shut up.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She checked the clock and sighed. “The first ones will be here shortly. Hurry up. I got to go make breakfast.”
He rolled his eyes and pulled on the t-shirt. Snug was putting it mildly. More like it was painted on him. And short enough to show off his belly button. “Oh man. I look ridiculous! I can’t wear this!”
“Stop complaining. You look cute.”
She grinned and then turned on her heels, heading for the tiny kitchen facility. Jared wanted to beg her to please, please help him find something else to wear but just then he heard the front door slam shut. Damn. He peeked out into the hall and was met with the cutest sight ever.
Little Marie was struggling to pull off her boots without pulling her thumb out of her mouth. It wasn’t going too well and Jared couldn’t help smiling as she frowned in annoyance. She was quickly becoming his favorite, mostly because she reminded him so much of his little sister when she was this age, way too many years ago. He was gunning for her approval even more than from the others and it was starting to depress him how badly it was going. He wasn’t used to people not liking him. And to be feared like that, even by a two year old, was not something he could let go.
He glanced down at his t-shirt. Marie did have a thing for pretty horses… It was worth a shot.
“Hey,” he said and walked cautiously out of The Refuge and toward her.
She looked up, her eyes wide, and then she was screaming at the top of her lungs, “Daaaadaaaa!”
“Whoa!” He reached for her, sighing when she skittered away. “Hey, it’s okay. Sweetie, don’t be scared.”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Jared jerked away from the child currently trying to crawl under the wooden bench along the wall and looked up, meeting a pair of very angry green eyes glaring at him.
The man grabbed Jared’s arm, yanking him up to his feet and pushing him away. “Who are you? Get the hell away from my daughter!” he growled in a deep menacing voice that would under other circumstances have made Jared shiver. And it kinda did, although more with fear than anything else.
“What? No!” he sputtered, raising his hands and taking another step back. “I work here! I’m… I’m Jared. I work here! Seriously.”
The man eyed him suspiciously but at least he didn’t look like he was about to punch Jared in the face anymore. “Then why is she so afraid of you?” he asked, indicating Marie who was peeking at them from under the bench, eyes big and wide, and looking like she was about to start crying any minute.
Jared blinked. “Uh… Because I’m big and scary and they all seem to think I’m a monster?” He ran his fingers through his hair, which made the t-shirt scoot up his stomach. Damn. He tugged it down desperately. “I’m not. I swear.”
“Never seen you before,” the man said curtly and bent down to fetch little Marie from under the bench. “Come here, baby,” he cooed, voice suddenly warm and soothing. “It’s alright.”
“I just started a few days ago,” Jared explained as the man hoisted Marie up in his arms and started stroking her hair, trying to calm her down. “I’m… Look, I’m sorry. It’s not like I scare them on purpose. I’m just… big,” he finished lamely. He tilted his head, puppy eyes in full mode. “Marie, it’s Jared. Remember Jared?”
“No,” she said stubbornly and hid her face in her father’s neck. “Dada.”
Her ‘dada’ gave Jared a pointed look.
Jared took a deep breath. “Ok. Ok. Sophia?” he said as loud as he dared. “Need some help here.”
She came out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a dishtowel. “What’s the matter? Oh, hi.” She smiled at the man whose scowl diminished somewhat. “Something wrong?”
“This man works here?” Marie’s dad asked, jerking his head toward Jared.
Sophia raised her eyebrows at Jared and then shrugged. “He’s trying. So far he spends most of his time crouching on the floor.” At Jared’s glare she grinned. “Well, you do.”
He opened his mouth to protest but then sighed in defeat. “Yeah, I do.” He turned to the man and put out his hand. “Jared Padalecki. Nice to meet you.”
The man scowled at him a moment longer but then he relaxed and shifted the child in his arms before accepting Jared’s outstretched hand. “Jensen Ackles. Marie’s dad.”
They shook hands. Jensen’s grip was firm, his fingers slender and strong, and Jared swallowed. Even if he towered over the man by a good four inches, Jensen Ackles, with his piercing green eyes and clenched jaw, wasn’t someone he’d like to meet in a dark alley. Sure, he was handsome enough, in a serial killer kinda way, but how on earth he had fathered such a sweet beautiful child as Marie was a mystery. His wife must look like an angel, Jared concluded.
As if reading Jared’s thoughts Jensen let go of his hand and stepped back, looking him over with a scowl as he clutched Marie tighter, her face buried in his neck. His gaze fastened on Jared’s chest, eyes widening slightly and then suddenly his face broke into the most wicked grin, instantly throwing all of Jared’s earlier thoughts out the window. Oh, Jensen Ackles was deadly alright, no doubt about that. Jared was feeling quite faint already.
“Like unicorns, do you?”
Jared could feel himself turn beet red and he tugged at the t-shirt, trying to make it reach his jeans. “There was an accident. A coffee accident. I…”
“No, no. No need to explain. I’m sure they’re fascinating creatures,” Ackles said with a smirk that made Jared’s stomach flop, then nudged his daughter. “Hey, sweetie. Look, a unicorn! Your favorite!”
She turned her head slightly, one eye glancing at Jared. Then she suddenly straightened up and smiled, one chubby finger pointing at Jared’s t-shirt. “Ucon,” she said happily. “Ucon.”
Jared smiled back. Hah, not such a stupid plan after all. He was so gonna win her over. “Yes. Unicorn. Hey, we could read that book. The one you like so much.”
“Claire and the Unicorn,” Mr. Ackles said and when Jared looked up at him he was gazing at his daughter with such adoration Jared felt his heart melt. “Man, she loves that one.”
Jared found himself smiling stupidly, wondering how the scary serial killer had managed with one smile to transform into the cutest thing ever. And he didn’t need Chad there to tell him how horribly gay that thought was. No crushing on the parents, he reminded himself. Especially not the straight, married ones.
“Yeah. Every time Sophia reads it to the kids, Marie crawls into her lap. She doesn’t want to miss a thing.” He tugged his t-shirt down again. “Look, Mr. Ackles…”
“Jensen, please. Mr. Ackles is way too formal for a kindergarten. Plus it makes me sound old. And, well, like my dad.” Jensen flashed him another smile and Jared’s knees threatened to give in. Damn.
“Ok,” he said, smiling back. “Jensen. And I’m Jared.” His heart skipped as Jensen nodded, silently mouthing his name as if he was trying it out. “Look, I know some of the kids… ok, most of the kids, are scared of me but… I’m sure they’ll come around. Well, Sophia seems to think so. They’re just not used to having someone like me around.”
“A lover of unicorns?” Jensen asked somberly but Jared could see he was trying hard not to laugh.
Damn, this blushing thing was getting old. He kept his smile though, hoping Jensen hadn’t noticed. “No, I mean because I’m a stranger. And tall. And, you know, a guy.” God, he sounded moronic.
Jensen raised one eyebrow. “Last time I checked I was male. And I might not be ten feet tall like you but I’m not exactly a midget. The kids aren’t scared of me.”
“Well, no. But you’re also Marie’s daddy.”
Jensen looked down at the girl still clinging to him. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.” He smiled softly. “Marie, honey? You want Jared to read to you about Claire and the unicorn?”
She looked over at Jared, thumb stuck in her mouth, and nodded. “Ucon,” she said and smiled.
“Ok then. Say goodbye to daddy now.”
He tightened his hold on her as she sloppily kissed him on the mouth, closing his eyes for a second before silently handing her over to Jared. Jared smiled reassuringly at him as she wrapped her chubby arms around his neck, and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get her back soon enough.”
Jensen’s lips tightened and the cold look was back on his face. “Her mother will pick her up,” he said curtly. Then he leaned up to kiss Marie on the cheek before turning on his heel and walking out. Jared stood staring at the closed door, breath caught in his throat, the smell of coffee and sandalwood still lingering in the air, the soft brush of Jensen’s hair still tickling his cheek.
Marie followed his gaze, her mouth turning downwards. “Dada,” she said sadly and Jared hugged her tighter.
“Hey, it’s okay. Let’s find that book, shall we?” He turned around to find Sophia standing in the doorway to the kitchen, watching him with a smile. “What?”
“I told you they would come around.”
“One of them. And I’m not sure how long it will last.”
She shook her head. “Nah, once you’ve got ‘em you’ve got ‘em for life. Or at least until they start school.” She tilted her head and studied him thoughtfully. “So, you’ve met Marie’s dad.”
Jared found himself blushing. Damn, what was it with him lately? “Yeah. Seems nice enough.”
“Uhuh.” She raised one eyebrow. “That why you’re blushing?”
Crap. “I’m not blushing,” he said defensively, face turning an even deeper red.
“Hey, it’s okay. We all have a crush on him. He’s a…” She hesitated, eyeing Marie. “… ‘nice’ guy.” She fanned herself and grinned wickedly. “Wouldn’t mind him being my ‘daddy’, if you know what I mean.”
“My dada,” Marie piped up, glaring at her.
Now it was Sophia’s turn to blush. “Yeah, sweetie. Of course he is. When he’s allowed,” she added, lips thinning.
Jared was just about to ask her what she meant when the door opened and three kids came bustling in, followed by their somewhat sleepy-looking parents. Jared gave them a reassuring smile as they eyed him warily and carried Marie away to Rainbowland, leaving it to Sophia to handle the meet and greet. He had a unicorn story to read and a little girl’s heart to win over.
By the time breakfast was ready he had most of the kids sitting in a circle around him, Marie planted firmly on his lap, as he read one story after another. They all stared at him, eyes wide and mouth open as they hung on to every word. From unicorns he’d moved on to greedy caterpillars and then lost puppies, acting out all the voices and making faces that had the kids shrieking with laughter. From the toy box in the corner even Michael was peeking over the rim, listening intently. Who’d have thought wearing a pink glittery unicorn t-shirt would make such a difference? Clearly he had some shopping to do.
They ate porridge and then it was playground time. As Jared leaned against the wall, wearing the now dry but still stained hoodie, and watched the kids bang each other over the head with shovels and eat mouthfuls of sand, he couldn’t help smiling. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad job after all.
“Having a good day, finally?”
Sophia bumped her shoulder into his arm, smiling brightly, and he smiled back.
“Yeah. Finally.”
“Told you,” she said smugly.
“Yeah, yeah.” He watched Isaac try to plant a kiss on Marie’s cheek and then get a face full of sand for his trouble. He hesitated but his curiosity soon won over. “So… What did you mean, ‘when he’s allowed’? About Marie’s dad, I mean.”
She followed his gaze and made a face, nose scrunching up adorably. “Marie’s mom. She’s kind of a bitch.”
Jared blinked. “Are you allowed to say that?”
“Are you gonna run and tattle on me to Sam?” she bit back.
“No. I just… Why is she a bitch?”
She shrugged. “She just is. Been trying to get the court to ban Jensen from seeing Marie. Even accused him of molesting her.” She nodded at Jared’s shocked look. “I know. That man loves Marie more than anything. He’d never do anything to hurt her. The CPS didn’t find any evidence whatsoever and she finally had to withdraw her accusations, claiming she must have read it wrong. Yeah, right. By then it had been almost a year and Marie’d forgotten her own dad, being so young. It was heartbreaking watching him trying to win her love back. Today is the closest I’ve seen them.”
He knitted his eyebrows in thought. “Wait… A year? Marie’s barely two! Her mother accused Jensen of molesting his one year old daughter?”
“Yep.”
The grim look on Jensen’s face suddenly made sense. “Holy shit. Who the hell does that? And why?”
She shrugged. “If you ask me I’d say she felt humiliated when he left her and so decided to have her revenge.”
Jared frowned. “He was the one who left? Even if they had such a young daughter?” Married to a bitch or not, that did seem like a sucky thing to do.
“Well, he couldn’t very well stay married to her after she outed him and all,” Sophia snorted. “Talk about awkward.”
Jared blinked. What? “He’s gay?” he asked cautiously.
Sophia glanced up at him. “Well, yeah. Seriously, you didn’t realize?” She shook her head. “Aren’t you guys supposed to have a feeling for this kind of thing?”
He froze. “What? What do you mean, ‘you guys’?”
She tilted her head and looked at him, raising one eyebrow. “You really gonna make me say it?”
Jared stared back at her, the knot in his stomach tightening. “You knew?”
“Honey, it’s pretty obvious,” she said gently. “You haven’t looked at my boobs even once since you started working here. And no straight man could resist the power of these babes.” She pushed forward her pretty impressive rack.
He didn’t know what to say. Finally he stammered, “You, you don’t mind? That, that I’m… I mean… I thought…” He felt slightly faint.
“Mind? Why would I mind?” She looked deeply insulted and he really didn’t know what to say.
“I don’t know. Because I’m working with kids and… I don’t know,” he repeated lamely, voice trailing off as her face darkened. “I know what people say. I just didn’t want…” He swallowed. “I really needed this job, ok? I was afraid if I told you guys, you wouldn’t want me.”
She glared at him and even if he knew she wasn’t really mad at him but more at what had made him do it, he still felt ashamed. “I’m sorry. And for the record, I am out. Just… not here.” He paused. “Well, I guess now I am.”
Her anger dissolved and she reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “Sweetie, no one here is gonna give you any crap about that. Alli has a gay brother, Ben’s got two moms. And Marie… Well, we all would much rather Jensen got custody over his daughter than her bitch of a mother. No one cares, Jared. I promise.”
He nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat. He hadn’t really realized how crippling it had been, going back into the closet, after finally getting out of it. “Ok,” he said. “Thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She settled against the wall again, and together they watched the kids play. “So,” she said after a while. “That really was your roommates t-shirt.”
Jared groaned. “If you ever met Chad you wouldn’t even have to ask that question.”
She chuckled. “Lets hope I never do. Sorry if I overreacted. It’s kind of a sore spot for me.”
“Single moms?”
She hesitated, then shrugged. “Stripping to pay for food for your kid. My mom used to do that. And… more.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
He processed that for a moment and then said, “She must have loved you very much.”
She looked up at him, startled. “Yeah. Yeah, she did.” She bit her lip. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he asked, surprised.
“For not being an asshole.”
“Oh that. Well, you’re welcome,” he said as his eyes drifted back to Marie who was now pouring a whole bucket of sand over Isaac’s head. Jared’s lips twitched into a grin. Seemed she had inherited more than her father’s pretty green eyes, she had a temper to match as well.
It was a nice day. Jared closed his eyes against the sun for a moment before opening them again and looking around, for the first time feeling relaxed enough to see it as something more than just a place of work.
The old house had been turned into a daycare center about ten years ago. That was probably what made it feel less like a storage place for kids and more like a home. The rooms were small with low ceilings and he’d bumped his head into the doorframes at more than one time. It had creaky stairs and bad plumbing but you could almost feel the spirits of its old inhabitants still lingering and the kids seemed to feel secure and happy there.
The daycare center was divided into two departments, Rainbowland which held the youngest kids, age one to three, and Sunshineland which was for kids from four to six.
“Dude, ours is far better. They don’t get our naptimes down in the Sunshine state,” Alli had said with a grin when Jared asked her if it was just as exhausting working with the older kids. “Also those kids, they talk way too much. About stuff you really don’t want to have to talk about.”
“Like Barbies?” Jared had asked with horror.
“More like, ‘Where do babies come from?’ and whether God is a man or a woman,” Alli had said and laughed at his even more horrified expression. “I’m telling you, the longer they stay mute, the better. Kids, man. They’re far too smart for their own good.”
Jared wasn’t too sure of that. He’d been there a whole week before they figured out he wasn’t gonna eat them. How was that for smart?
The sun and heat was making him sleepy and he closed his eyes again. Alli was right about one thing, naptimes were awesome. Who knew it would be so good to lie down with a bunch of kids and sleep for an hour or two? Not that they were really supposed to sleep, rather just help the kids settle down and then spend the time thinking about educational upbringing or whatever until it was time to wake them up again. Yeah, that didn’t work. Once you were lying down, surrounded by tiny warm bodies and the sounds of sniffling and soft snoring it was pretty much impossible to stay awake.
They had small mattresses to lie on that were spread on the floor in one of the rooms and then each kid had their own pillow and blanket and a soft toy to snuggle up with. Jared needed two mattresses and still his feet were on the floor knees down and the two blankets he got only covered about two thirds of his body. Not that it mattered. As soon as his head hit the weak excuse for a pillow he was out like a light, sleeping so soundly that Alli and Sophie had to shake him awake when it was time to get up. Of course they usually had kids pressed up against them on all side, snuggling up like kittens, while Jared got his space all to himself. In fact he was surprised the kids had dared to fall asleep with him in the room, seeing as they all seemed to think he was a monster.
Jared sighed. Getting little Marie to accept him had been a huge step but most of them were still wary of him and even if they were just little kids he couldn’t help feeling a bit resentful. Not his fault he was so damn tall. And a guy. Really, weren’t they a bit too young to be discriminating like that?
He was thrown out of his musings when something banged hard into his shin and he let out a little yelp of pain as his knees buckled from the impact. “Jesus fu-”
Sophia elbowed him and he managed to bite his tongue at the last moment. David, a four year old from Sunshineland, was staring up at him from his tricycle, openmouthed.
“Say sorry, David,” Sophia chastened him and he looked over at her, then mumbled something that didn’t sound anything like sorry, turned the bike and cycled away.
“You okay?” she asked Jared as he sank to the ground, rubbing his shin, and he nodded even if his leg was throbbing painfully. And the kids thought he was evil? Monsters, that’s what they were, the lot of them. Little stinky evil mons-
“Jad, ow,” said a small voice and he looked up just in time to get a wet sandy kiss on his mouth from a concerned looking Marie. “Ow, ow,” she repeated and patted his leg, sending renewed stabs of pain up his spine.
“I’m okay, sweetie,” he managed to grit out between clenched teeth. “You just go play now.”
She pouted but then got a determined look on her face and before he could stop her she had grabbed her shovel and ran to where David was struggling to get his tricycle over a heap of sand, and proceeded to bang him over the head, making him tumble off and hit the ground with a distinct thud, followed by a high pitched scream.
The peace was gone after that.
David, who was old enough to know how to play the sympathy card to the max, screamed and clutched his head, tears streaming down his face. The shovel had left a tiny red mark and he had sand on his face from tumbling off the bike but otherwise he seemed perfectly fine. From the agonized screams though one would think he’d gotten his leg bitten off by a lion. One of the girls from the Sunshineland, Rachel Jared thought her name was, was trying to calm him down. She rolled her eyes when he only screamed louder, which told Jared this probably wasn’t the first time little David took a drama fit.
Marie was still livid, swinging her shovel at David from where Jared held her back, yelling, “Ba, ba Daid! Donn hut Jad!”
Jared wasn’t sure whether to be scared of her or kiss her.
“Marie, stop it,” he said firmly, wrestling the shovel from her hand. “Calm down.”
She shook her head, but then she suddenly slumped in his arms and started crying pitifully. Jared pulled her tighter, giving Sophia an exasperated look. He knew he was supposed to tell Marie off for attacking the boy but she was just so tiny and cute and… just look at those big green eyes, flooding with tears! How was he supposed to resist that?
“Jared…” Sophia warned but he ignored her and pulled the little girl tighter.
“It’s okay, baby,” he whispered soothingly as he rocked her in his arms. “Don’t cry. It’s alright.”
Sophia rolled her eyes but she was biting her lips, obviously trying to keep from smiling.
Marie finally calmed down and before long she was back playing in the sandbox, seeming to have completely forgotten the whole thing.
Jared leaned against the wall and watched her, smiling when the tower she was trying to build collapsed and she proceeded to smash it further with the shovel, yelling at it in pretty much the same way she’d been yelling at David earlier. Yep, she sure had her daddy’s temper.
Sophia snorted beside him and he look over at her. “What?”
“You’re such a pushover, Padalecki.”
Jared blushed. His little nieces and nephews always had him wrapped around their fingers too. Not his fault he hated seeing people crying. Especially tiny little people who had huge wet eyes and wobbly lips. Deadly weapons, that’s what those kids were. And they knew it, the little bastards.
“Am not,” he grumbled but she just laughed at him.
As naptime came around all the kids were rubbing their eyes, Jared included. He stretched out on his side at his usual place along the far wall, the thin mattresses doing little to keep the hard wooden floor from bruising his hip, the two blankets only covering him from his shins to his mid-chest. He yawned as he listened to Sophia and Alli quietly sing some lullaby (his own efforts had been shot down the first day, seeing as they did little to calm the kids down and were more likely to give them nightmares) and shifted the thin pillow until it was wedged between his head and his bent elbow. Not the most comfortable sleeping arrangement he’d ever had but Jared was used to falling asleep under weird circumstances, like in class or waiting at the bus stop, or, in one case, on his bike. That one has ended with a sprained wrist, a cut on his forehead, and a very confused looking nurse as he tried to explain how he’d managed to ride his bike down a flight of stairs and into a fountain.
He was just about to slip into deep sleep when something warm nudged against his stomach and when he opened his eyes he saw a sleepy Marie curling up beside him, her blanket clutched in her tiny fists. Something in his chest clenched and he had to fight not to put his arms around her and pull her even tighter. He glanced up at the girls and saw Alli was asleep but Sophia was smiling softly and when she caught his eye she grinned and gave him a thumb up. He closed his eyes, smiling, and was just about to drift to sleep when he felt tiny fingers fumble at his cheek and then grab hold of his ear. He cracked one eye open. Marie had a thumb in her mouth, sucking on it in her sleep while her other hand held on to his ear, rubbing the earlobe and tugging on it every now and then. She looked so cute he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The movement was weirdly soothing and before long his eyes drifted close again and he was lost to the world.
The rest of the day went by fast but despite that he was exhausted when the parents started showing up, one by one, to pick up their kids. He had to admit he was curious to see what Marie’s mom, Jensen’s apparently bitch ex-wife, looked like but somehow between tidying up and changing Isaac’s very yucky diaper (they were all convinced his parents had trained him to do all his business at the daycare, because seriously, that kid had dubious accurate timing when it came to these things) he managed to miss her. Well, he’d have plenty of opportunity later.
Chad was out when Jared stumbled through the door close to six. He groaned and eyed his bed longingly but his shift at the restaurant started in an hour and he had to shower and change his clothes before that. Thankfully Chad had for once kept his word and done laundry, probably more because he was afraid Jared would raid his drawers for clothes and find the porn hidden there than out of consideration. As if Jared didn’t already know about the stash. And as if he’d ever touch anything Chad had had his horny and no doubt sticky fingers on. Yuck.
Chad rushed through the door five minutes before they had to head out, muttering about some chick who’d apparently ripped him a new one when he’d accidentally bumped into her.
“Accidentally?” Jared asked dubious. “Don’t tell me. She had nice boobs and you ‘fell’ on them.”
Chad tried to look affronted but the leer kinda gave him away.
“Oh man, how am I ever friends with you?” Jared groaned. “Dude, you’re lucky she didn’t have you arrested for sexual harassment.”
“It was an accident!” Chad said indignantly. “I said I was sorry and she clocked me with her bag. Which was fucking heavy, I’ll let you know. I should have her arrested for assaulting me with a deadly weapon.”
For a moment Jared flashed back to little Marie hitting David with her shovel and couldn’t help snorting. “Whatever. Hurry up, we’re gonna be late. Again.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Chad traded his ratty t-shirt for the white shirts they were required to wear and hurriedly buttoned it up. “Fuck, I hate Fridays.”
“At least you don’t have to work tomorrow.” Jared yawned and rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m seriously beat.”
“You’re gonna kill yourself with all that work, you know. One day I’m gonna find you dead in the living room, stinking up the place. Know how hard it is to get the stink of death out of the carpet?”
“Thanks for the concern,” Jared huffed. “I’ll try and drop dead in the street instead.”
“You better.”
Continued in Part 2
Author: felisblanco
Pairing: Jensen/Jared, Danneel/Genevieve (Past Jared/Sandy and Jensen/Joanna)
Word count: 32.840 words
Rating: NC-17
Warning: Kid!fic. Yeah, I went there. Mentions of child molestation that didn’t happen, but the words might possibly trigger, so just to be on the safe side, beware.
FYI Joanna is a horrible person in this fic. Sorry, someone had to be the bad guy. Tom Welling isn’t too lovely either. And Chad is his usual douchey self. To be honest, this fic is filled with the usual clichés (Jared’s giant dick, Jensen having a not so healthy relationship with coffee, Danneel being kickass, etc.) but you know, clichés are clichés for a reason and it’s not just because the writer is lazy. I just happen to love those particular clichés.
Summary: Struggling university student Jared gets a job at a daycare center fighting dirty diapers and trying to convince the kids he’s not a giant monster who’s going to eat them. Especially little Marie who is his favorite, possibly because her daddy happens to be hot as hell.
Author’s note: By longstanding tradition I’m posting fic on New Year’s Eve. And as an early birthday present for winchestergirl because it’s her birthday on Friday. <3 Title from the song with the same name, sung by Kermit and Miss Piggy. Just because. Unbeta’d and all that. Also on AO3.
“You’re kidding, right? Babysitter? You’re gonna be a fucking babysitter?”
“It’s a daycare center,” Jared told Chad for the fifteenth time at least and rinsed the suds off the last plate in the sink. “It’s not the same.”
“Whatever.” Chad waved his hand dismissively. “Dude, just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you have to cut your dick off. Babysitting is for twelve year old girls.”
Jared sighed and pulled the plug, draining the sink of its now rather murky soap water. It was closing in on midnight and everyone else was already gone home, leaving the two of them to finish cleaning up at the Pasta Basta restaurant, downtown LA. As usual that meant Jared cleaned up while Chad slouched in a chair, annoying him.
“It’s not babysitting,” he huffed and grabbed the sponge, wiping down the sink. “I’ll be teaching them stuff.”
“Yeah, like how to poop their pants and pour oatmeal over their head. Seriously, man, I have nephews. They’re like monkeys, except uglier.”
“How does that not surprise me?” Jared muttered but Chad didn’t seem to hear him.
“You better shower and change before you get home, man. I don’t want some stinking baby cooties on our couch.”
Jared turned around, spattering drops of water into Chad’s face as he shook the sponge at him. “Hey, I put up with you smelling off incense and lube every time you get home from The Pleasure Planet. Not to mention the “extra” jobs you do behind the counter.” He shook his head as he wrung out the sponge and then dried his hands on a dishtowel. “At least cooties are better than crabs.”
Chad choked on his gum, coughing and spluttering until he finally looked up, dark pink in the face, eyes widened in shock. “How did you know about that?”
Jared blinked. He suddenly itched all over. “I didn’t. I was joking. Seriously, you got crabs?”
Chad blushed even deeper. “No.” He stood up, grabbing his jacket. “Are we done here or what?”
“You got crabs. Dude, that’s so… Really?” Jared couldn’t help laughing. “Oh man, you’re such a whore.”
“Fuck you.”
“You wish,” Jared shot back. He rolled his eyes when Chad made his the-only-reason-I-put-up-with-the-whole-gay-thing-is-because-you’re-my-best-friend-but-don’t-shove-it-in-my-face expression, because seriously Jared had had to suffer through too many stories of Chad’s sexcapades for him to have any reason to be so prissy.
“At least I have a dick to whore around with, pussy,” Chad said obscenely, grabbing his crotch like he really had anything to brag about.
“For now. The way you’re going at it it’s bound to turn black and fall off any day now.” Jared gave him a smug smile. “And I have a dick, remember, or do you want to compare sizes again? Sure you can stand the humiliation?”
Chad scowled. “Shut up. I have a huge dick, man. What you have is a freak of nature. Beside, you never use it so it’s a total waste of meat.”
“I use it,” Jared said defensively. “Just because I don’t sleep around with every pretty face I see…”
“You haven’t had sex in over a year, man. And you haven’t had…” Chad lifted his hands, crooking his fingers. “… ‘gay’ sex ever.”
Jared rolled his eyes, grabbing his own jacket from the hook by the door. “You know, gay is actually a real word. You don’t have to ‘air-quote’ it,” he said, mimicking Chad’s stupid gesture.
“Whatever. Besides, until you fuck someone in the ass you’re not really gay.”
Jared briefly fought the urge to hit Chad over the head, but really, giving in was so much more satisfying.
“Ow! What the fuck, man?”
Jared gave him a pointed look. “It’s not just a sex thing, asshole. It’s… It just is, ok? And I am. Trust me, I am.”
“I still say it’s just your brain frying from having sex with Sandy. Dude, she was hot. Why the hell did you ever break up with her?”
Seriously, how many times had Chad’s mom dropped him on his head? “Gay, remember? That kinda makes the whole girlfriend thing inappropriate.”
“Yeah, yeah. So… really? Babysitting?”
Jared pushed Chad out the backdoor of the small restaurant and locked it behind them with a groan. It was going to be a long walk home.
---------
He was late. He was late and they were gonna hate him. Just take one look at him and BAM, no more job. Because seriously, like Chad had pointed out to him repeatedly, who would hire him to look after their kids? He was like the exact opposite of everything he was sure parents were looking for as a responsible role model for their children:
A gay guy who had absolutely no experience working with kids, except to look after his nephew and nieces sometimes when he was home in Texas. Twenty, and only a freshman in college because life, or more specifically money, hated him. Not his fault he got hit with the flu from Hell his first year and missed most of his exams. Took him another year to dig himself out of that particular financial hole.
Especially considering he kept losing his jobs for reasons totally out of his control. Like the store manager’s daughter crushing on him and having him fired when he didn’t want to sleep with her. (Hello! He had a girlfriend! At the time. And then, later, he was gay, so really, not in any girl-fucking mood.) Or the time Chad set fire to the pizza place they were both working at. Or the time they got caught smoking weed in the backroom of the bowling alley. (They were on a break!) Or the time Chad…
Hmm… He was starting to see a pattern. Well, Chad wouldn’t be working here so maybe he got a chance after all.
Plus, this time he had a plan. And even if his plans had a tendency to go completely wrong, he really couldn’t afford screwing up this whole babysi-… daycare thing. So a simple but strict plan was in order.
1) Instantly put stop to any sexual tension that might come up. He wasn’t vain, but he wasn’t oblivious either. And for some reason girls tended to find the whole too tall and awkwardly clumsy thing attractive. Boys, unfortunately, not so much. Hence the no dating.
2) No Chad. He loved the guy, in a totally ‘I wouldn’t suck your dick, even if you paid me’ way but he still was a douche and bad things kept happening whenever he was around. Like losing jobs.
3) No weed. Not that he would ever smoke anything with lots of little kids around anyway, but it was a good rule to have for any job really, he knew that now.
4) And this was the most important rule of all, don’t tell anyone he was gay.
He wasn’t unaware of the irony that dumping rule number four would probably take care of rule number one but he couldn’t take that chance. He’d heard enough moronic comments about all gay men being pedophiles to realize this wasn’t the right place to be waving the rainbow flag. He had no wish to get fired before he even started. So even if it sucked stepping back into the closet, at least while he was working, it seemed to be the only option.
Despite Chad’s constant comments on the matter Jared knew he wasn’t what people would call flamboyantly gay. Ok, so yes, he did like a hint of color in his wardrobe, and that color might be a bit on the pink side, but hey, pink was the new black! Everyone said so. And maybe he had a tendency to be over affectionate with people, guys and girls alike, but he was just a very tactile person. That wasn’t a gay thing, that was just a Jared thing. And he didn’t care what Chad said, liking whipped cream and sprinkles in his coffee was not girly at all, it was just his sweet tooth talking.
Bottom line, unless he outright told people, he didn’t really seem to register on their gaydar. Whether they were gay or straight.
Jared paused. Did straight people have a gaydar? Or should that technically be considered a straightdar? He frowned in thought then shrugged. Whether they had or not, everyone seemed to think Jared was as straight as an arrow. He’d had to tell his mother three times that he was gay and still she’d kept on repeating, “But you’re so tall.” Then again, the only other gay man she knew was Jared’s cousin Chris and truth be told, he was a little on the short side. Not that anyone ever dared to tell him that. For being a gay midget he was one scary son-of-a-bitch.
But really, sometimes Jared wondered if he should just take a day to walk around wrapped up in the rainbow flag and nothing else, just to get the whole ‘coming out’ thing over with. He was getting pretty tired of having the same, “No, really, I am,” conversation over and over again.
Didn’t help that, as Chad loved to repeatedly point out, he hadn’t even kissed a guy yet so he had no proof. Like maybe secretly taken pictures - or possibly a video would be better, considering how easy it was to manip pictures these days? - of him making out with someone. All he would need was one guy, any guy really, to kiss him in front of a camera and voilà! Proof! Then even his mother would have to give up and stop trying to hook him up with their neighbors’ daughters.
(On second thought maybe that video idea wasn’t such a good one. At least not with Chad in the house. Jared didn’t really want his mother stumbling across a video of her son doing naked gay things on YouTube. The one with him dancing at Kristen’s party had been bad enough.)
He’d tried to get Chad to kiss him in the middle of campus but Chad was an awful best friend who valued his (rather delusionally proportioned) manhood more than Jared’s gayness. Seriously, sometimes Jared wondered why he hadn’t kicked Chad out the minute he climbed into the neighborhood playground sandbox and started pouring mud over Jared’s head eighteen years ago. In some ways Chad was like herpes; impossible to get rid off and screwing up a number of potential dates just by his presence. If he weren’t so damn loyal and really the best friend Jared had ever had, not to mention good at videogames, Jared probably would have killed him a long time ago.
He was finally at the gate leading to the playground that surrounded the daycare center. It was attached to a pretty sturdy fence and he eyed it warily, wondering if its purpose was to keep the children in or hypothetical kidnappers out. A very disturbing image of the daycare’s teachers pressed up against the fence, crying for someone to rescue them from hundreds of kids biting their legs, suddenly popped into his head. He blinked. It wouldn’t be that bad, would it? This wasn’t Gatlin, Nebraska. In fact, he was pretty sure there wasn’t a cornfield within a hundred miles radius.
Satisfyingly reassured Jared pushed open the gate and walked up the sandy concrete path leading to an old house. It was a two-store building with a small tower adding an extra third level, if only with one room that had windows on all sides. It had yellow painted wooden walls with white windowpanes and doors and had obviously been remodeled from its original purpose as a rather modest family home. The playground had one big sandbox with shovels and buckets lying beside rather pathetic looking sandcastles, a small climbing castle with a slide, a seesaw, a small merry-go-round and some swings. A couple of tricycles had been abandoned at the side of the path and a lone mitten lay on the small patch of grass.
Jared paused and looked around. The swings were staying mercifully still. Really, there were few things as creepy as playgrounds, he thought. If that merry-go-round made any attempt at turning on its own he was getting out of there faster than you could say Jack Nicholson.
Maybe it was time he laid off the horror movies…
Jared could hear sounds through the open windows: laughing, screeching, crying; the kind of noises that had most guys his age running in the opposite direction. The idea was tantalizing. He hesitated with his fingers gripping the doorknob. It felt stupid being scared of kids that hardly came up to his kneecaps but fuck, he kinda was. Hanging out with his two cousins for a few hours wasn’t anything like having to be in a room full of kids all day. And these were really tiny kids. Like only a couple of years old maybe.
What if Chad was right and all they did was poop their pants and pour oatmeal over their heads? Really, was he cut out to deal with that? And more importantly, could he handle the responsibility? A little kid’s life in his hands. Literally every time he had to pick one up. Being clumsy wouldn’t be cute anymore when he’d dropped a kid on its head and given it brain damage.
On the other hand he was really, really broke…
What the hell. Basically it was just playing with kids all day, right? He couldn’t really screw that up, could he?
Taking a deep breath Jared turned the knob and stepped inside.
Twenty minutes later he followed Samantha, the woman who ran the daycare center, out of her office. He was now even more nervous, his stomach filled with fluttering butterflies as he stepped over the random rubber boots and knitted mittens littering the floor. Sand stuck to the bottom of his socks, his shoes left dutifully by the door as requested. He’d have to get himself some flip-flops or something. He stepped into a small puddle of mud and grimaced as the dampness soaked through his sock, making his toes squishy wet. She noticed his expression and smiled apologetically.
“They just got in again from playing outside. We haven’t mopped the floors yet.”
He nodded and she gave him another smile, sweeping her hand across the small hall.
“Every child has a shelf and hook where they keeps their things. Most parents make sure to label their kid’s clothes with their name but stray things are gathered in the basket over there. Breakfast is around 8:30, lunch… well, now. Afternoon snack is around three o’clock. Most days the children go outside for about two hours in the morning, then after lunch they nap and…” She caught the increasingly dazed look on his face and smiled. “Well, you’ll get the hang of it soon enough. Now, this is where you’ll spend most your time.”
She’d stopped outside a door that had RAINBOWLAND spelled out in bright cut-out letters on the front. Jared just barely kept from rolling his eyes. How ironic. He could hear laughing and screaming on the other side, the racket enough to make his head hurt. This whole idea was starting to seem worse and worse.
She seemed to read his mind again because she smiled and said, “You’ll get used to it after a few days. Soon enough you’ll stop noticing.”
He nodded dutifully, even if he doubted that very much.
“In here we have the youngest children, one to three years old. You do realize what that means?”
He nodded again, braving a smile. “Lots of poop.”
She laughed. “Well, yes. But it also means they are at a very important developing stage. Walking, talking, learning to play with others… It’s all a big part of becoming social beings as well as individuals.” She raised her eyebrows at him, whether in challenge or offering him a way out he wasn’t sure. “It’s a big responsibility. You really think you are ready to handle it?”
Jared swallowed. He didn’t feel ready to handle one kid, let alone a dozen or however many they were in there. Sounded like a whole zoo of monkeys.
“I think I’m willing to try,” he said, trying to sound confident. “I mean, I did train my dogs after all. And they didn’t even have diapers.”
She gave him a disapproving glare. “They are not dogs, they are children.”
“I know, I was just…” Jared blushed. Damn. His jokes had a tendency to fall short on pretty much everyone except Chad and Megan, his little sister. Which probably said more about their maturity than his comic talents.
“My momma always says I’m great with kids,” he assured her. “I’ve babysat my nephews a lot of times. And I have a roommate who has the brain capacity of a five year old,” he added, again trying to lighten the mood.
Her eyes warmed immediately. “You never mentioned. That is so nice of you, participating in such a program.”
Oh man. Chad was gonna kill him. “Uh… yeah. Well, someone has to.” He tried to look solemn.
She gave him another smile and then nodded toward the door. “You ready?”
He swallowed and put on his brightest grin. “Yep.”
She opened the door and the noise level skyrocketed. He almost stepped back in shock and when she motioned him inside he took a deep breath before following.
There were little kids everywhere. Sitting on the floor, climbing on the small chairs and crawling under the tables. Jared couldn’t remember ever seeing so many children gathered together in one room. It was rather terrifying.
Samantha clapped her hands to get their attention, as well as of the two girls currently laying the table ready for lunch.
“Hey. This is Jared. He’s going to be working with us. Everyone say, ‘Hello, Jared.’”
Twenty pairs of bright eyes traveled up his body. And up and up, getting wider and wider, until all the children sat dumbfounded on the floor, necks cracked as far back as they could go, staring up at him.
“Hello,” Jared said and waved awkwardly.
The children blinked and then, as if on cue, they all opened their mouths and high pitched screaming pierced the air. Jared stared in horror as the room erupted into a state of chaos with children scurrying in all directions, disappearing under chairs and tables, or in one case, a toy box, and a little girl clapped her hands over her eyes, wailing for her mommy.
“What? What did I do?” he asked in panic, dropping his voice down to a whisper when his words only made them cry harder.
“Maybe you should get down.”
He looked at Samantha, blinking in confusion at the rather amused look on her face. “What?”
She smiled and shook her head. “You’re a giant, Jared. Imagine what you look like to them. Sit down on the floor and just wait. They’ll come around soon enough.”
Oh. He sank down to the floor as slowly and carefully as he could, folding his legs and hunching his back to make himself as small as possible. The screaming subsided some and Samantha gave him an approving nod before turning to the girls. “I leave him in your hands. Don’t scare him off on his first day, ok?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of him,” said the dark haired girl, giving him a wicked grin and waving Samantha off. “I’m Sophia, by the way, and this is Alli.”
Alli waved at him, continuing to set the table with brightly colored plastic plates, cups and utensils. He waved back cautiously, aware of dozens of wide eyes staring at him. They were mostly quiet by now but somewhere to his left he could still hear someone sobbing wetly, like there was a river of snot pouring from the kid’s nose. He was too afraid to move to look over and see if it was really as gross as it sounded. The small girl had stopped crying for her mommy and was peeking through her fingers, eyeing him suspiciously as if Jared might mistake her of being on the menu.
“Hey. Shouldn’t I…” He lowered his voice even further when the little girl now tried to cover her ears as well as her eyes, rather unsuccessfully considering how small her hands were. “Shouldn’t I help you with that?” he whispered.
Alli laughed. “Nah. You just sit there and try to look friendly.”
“I am! I’m very friendly. I’m like the friendliest guy ever.” He dared a quick look around, horrified by the fear in the children’s eyes. “Why are they so scared of me?”
“Well…” Sophia tilted her head and studied him. “You’re about ten feet tall. You’re a stranger. You’re a man…”
He wasn’t sure whether he should feel insulted or not. “They’re scared of me because I’m a guy?”
She shrugged. “Not that many in this neighborhood that have both parents. And we don’t get many guys working in this field. It’s a shame really, the kids could use a positive male model.” She gave him a grin as she put giant jugs of juice on the table. “Guess that will be your job.”
Jared swallowed. Positive male model? That didn’t really sound like him. “Uhm… okay.” He looked around, smiling hesitantly at the sea of small faces. “How do I do that?”
“Well, the fact that you willingly signed up to work here is enough to give me faith that you’ll do just fine,” she answered, pouring juice into each mug. “Ok, kids. Lunchtime! Come sit down.”
A few came running immediately but most of the kids just continued to stare at Jared, apparently too afraid to move. He shifted on the floor and they shrunk back even further. “Maybe I should just…” He scooted over until he was sitting with his back against the wall, as far from the tables as possible. “This better?”
“Give them time,” Alli said reassuringly. “Took me two days before any of them wanted to talk to me.”
She lifted up the small girl who was still hiding her face behind her hands and carried her over to her seat. “Here you go, sweetie. Meatballs, your favorite!”
The girl peeked down at the plate through her fingers and after a moment’s hesitation grabbed her fork in one chubby hand and started stuffing her mouth, the other hand still covering half her face and eyes darting to Jared every few seconds. He gave her a smile and she almost choked on her food. Damn. This wasn’t going well.
“They didn’t all scream in fear though, did they? When you started, I mean,” he asked hopelessly, feeling more out of place than ever in his life.
“No, but three kids peed on me in one week.”
Ok, that sounded worse than the screaming. Although chances were he would get his fair share of bodily fluids as well.
He looked up when Sophia handed him a pink plastic plate carrying a mountain of spaghetti and meatballs. “Here. Want juice or water?” she asked as she turned back to the table.
He stared at the plate in his hands, the smell making his stomach growl. “We get food?”
She turned around and looked at him. “You don’t know anything about this job, do you?”
He blushed. “No. I mean, I know there’s poop and stuff. Right?”
“Oh yeah. Plenty of poop,” she laughed. “I’m not gonna lie, it can be exhausting. But it ain’t without its perks. You’ll see.”
He nodded. “Yeah, happy smiles and such, right?”
She shrugged. “I was more thinking free food and naptime, but whatever rocks your boat.”
Jared sat up straighter. “We get to take naps?”
Suddenly this whole thing sounded a lot better.
----------
When the alarm rang butt-fuck-early Friday morning Jared’s first instinct was to murder the offending clock in the most gruesome way. Possibly involving a sledgehammer. Instead he rolled over and blindly reached out with one hand, slamming the alarm off before collapsing on his back, bleary eyes blinking up at the ceiling. He was totally exhausted and just the thought of getting up was enough to make him want to weep.
He was working at the daycare center three days a week, the restaurant every night except Sundays, and he had two assignments to finish before his class on Monday. For the hundredth time that week he wondered if he’d possibly been suffering from a brief moment of insanity when he decided to apply for a second job. Especially this kind of job.
The kids still wouldn’t talk to him. Hell, most of them cowered in fear if he tried to come anywhere near them. Every time he stood up to his full length at least a third of them started crying and the rest backed away, staring up at him with huge eyes. They still hadn’t managed to convince Michael to come out from under the toy box he’d been using as a hiding place. And little Marie still screamed for her mommy every time he tried to talk to her. It was a wonder the daycare center hadn’t had a mob of angry parents march up, ready to lynch him for making their kids dream about a giant Padalecki coming to eat them every night.
So far he’d only been working afternoons but Fridays were going to be his full days and he was dreading it. Nine hours of screaming children running away from him in fear. Oh joy.
He grumpily got up and padded barefoot to the bathroom, ignoring Chad who was sitting on the toilet, flipping through some skinny magazine while going about his business. Jared hoped it was limited to peeing.
“Mornin’,” he grumbled sleepily.
Chad jerked awake and frantically attacked him with the magazine. “Dude, I’m on the can! Get your gay ass out of here.”
“Fuck off, Chad. I’m late. I have to take a shower.”
He dropped his boxers, smirking at Chad’s horrified squeak, and then he turned on the water and stepped under it, not waiting until it turned warm. Better to wake him up anyway.
“We have rules, man! No naked bathroom sharing and no jerking off when…”
Jared tuned out Chad’s muttering while he lathered up his hair and then did a quick shower shave, hoping he wasn’t missing any obvious spots. He was just turning off the water when Chad’s rambling finally paused and then there came a bright whistle.
“Holy shit! Hey, isn’t this Sandy? Oh wow!”
“What?” Jared stuck his head out from behind the shower curtain, sweeping wet hair from his eyes. “Where?”
“Here,” Chad said gleefully and raised the magazine, unfolding the center. “Shit. Remind me why you broke up with her again?”
“Gay. G.A.Y. Ring a bell?” Jared growled, trying to grab the magazine. “Gimme that!”
“Nuhuh. Man, she was hot with her clothes on but this… Holy fuck.” Chad leered sordidly then yelped when Jared hauled him off the toilet and put him in a headlock, bare ass in the air. “Get off me! You’re fucking naked, asshole! And wet! Stop molesting me, you fucking pervert!”
“Give me the magazine or I’ll put your head down the damn toilet. Which… Yeurgh! What the hell did you eat yesterday?”
“Ok, ok! Take it!” Chad thrust the now wrinkled magazine at Jared and desperately tried to haul up his pants that were sliding down to the floor. “You’re a fucking asshole, Jared. Let me go!”
Jared let go off him with an evil laugh that died quickly when he finally got a decent look at the picture Chad had been ogling. Fuck. It was Sandy. More or less naked and spread out across the centerfold. His fingers left wet prints on the pages, somehow making the whole thing seem even more sordid. Shit.
It had been a year since they broke up but he still felt protective of her and the thought of thousands or even millions of dirty men like Chad jerking off to her picture... Dammit! And she hadn’t even told him. He felt ridiculously hurt.
“Can I have it back? Yo, Jarhead! I paid good money for that!”
“You stole it from your work,” Jared said drily, crumbling the magazine in his hand. “And no, you can’t have it back.”
“I’ll just steal another,” Chad bit back. “Dude, she’s not your girlfriend anymore. What do you care?”
“I care, ok? I… Fuck you, Chad. You wanna steal another, then fucking steal another. But don’t bring it here. I don’t want to see it.”
He violently ripped up the magazine and stormed into the small kitchen, thrusting the tattered pages into the trash. Slimy spaghetti and onions slid across Sandy’s naked ass, glowing unnaturally tanned on the glossy page, and he fought the urge to grab the bag and run with it out into the dumpster. Heaving for breath he looked up and found Mrs. Jenkins, their elderly neighbor, standing at her own kitchen window, watching him with wide eyes. Suddenly she grinned and gave him a little wave, one eye closing in a wink. He frowned. Wha-?
He looked down. He was completely naked and their window had no curtains.
Instead of giving into the urge to cover himself he smiled stiffly back and then turned around and stalked into the bedroom. What was one old lady seeing his dick (and now ass) compared to thousands of men ogling Sandy’s… everything?
He pulled on his last clean pair of underwear and his most comfortable jeans. He’d learned fast enough that old and comfy was the way to go with this job. Not that he really owned any tight designer clothes, he kinda needed money for that, but spending most of his day on the floor, crouching or crawling, gave him, or rather his balls, a whole new perspective on what counted as comfy. He reached into the drawer for a clean t-shirt, seeing as the one he’d worn yesterday was now covered in fingerpaint and ketchup, but came up empty handed. He groaned. Better put laundry on the top of his to-do list.
“Chad, can you lend me a t-shirt?” he shouted while sifting through his pile of dirty whites and coming up with a pair of socks. They could stand to be worn another day, they didn’t smell that bad.
“I can,” came the smug answer from the doorway. “Question is: Do I want to? Magazine-stealing pervert.”
Jared gritted his teeth but managed to plaster an apologetic smile on before turning around. “Look, I’m sorry. It just threw me, is all. And you were being a sleaze, drooling over her like that, right in front of me.”
Chad pouted but then he shook his head and disappeared into his own room, returning a moment later with a puke green t-shirt in his hand.
Jared groaned. “Aw, c’mon. Not that one!”
“It’s the only clean one I’ve got,” Chad said smugly and threw it at his head. “Wear it or bare it, dude.”
“Funny.” Jared glared at the offensive article of clothing before pulling it on with a scowl. “I hate you.”
“You love me,” Chad replied and winked. “Have fun at work, hon.”
Jared stared at himself in the mirror and then sighed, reaching for a hoodie. Not like anyone would see it anyway.
The daycare center was unusually quiet when he got there, seeing as none of the kids had arrived yet. Sophia was already there though, making coffee in the small room they had named ‘The Refuge’ which had one old armchair, a tiny table, an even tinier fridge, a coffee machine and just enough room that Jared could reach between the walls with his arms stretched out. She gave him a smile as he yawned his “Mornin’,” and then proceeded to pour him coffee.
“Thanks,” he said gratefully and took the mug from her hand. He fumbled slightly and coffee sloshed over the rim and over the front of his hoodie.
“Shit! Shitshitshit!”
She grabbed the mug from him as he frantically wiped at his sweater. “Take it off, quick. Before it soaks through and burns you.”
He hurriedly complied, completely forgetting the t-shirt he was wearing underneath.
“What the hell?!”
He looked up to find her staring at him in shock. “What?” Then looked down and froze. His front read: “I support single moms.” It had a picture of a stripper.
“No!” He looked up, wide-eyed. “Nonono! It’s not mine! I had to borrow from my roommate.”
She glared at him, obviously not believing him. “You can’t wear that here! What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“I had nothing else! He had nothing else! I’m sorry!”
“You’re gonna be a whole lot of sorry if you don’t take that t-shirt off right now!”
He took a step back from her venomous glare and bumped into the wall. Ow. “Well, what the hell am I supposed to wear?”
She shook her head angrily and then fetched her bag from the hook behind the door. “I always have an extra in case someone throws up on me or something.” She pulled out a t-shirt and threw it at him. “Here. Put this on.”
He looked down at it in horror. It was bright pink. With a picture of a unicorn running under a rainbow. And sparkling letters that read: STARLET.
“You’re kidding.” He met her eyes. “You’re not kidding.”
She shook her head, an evil smirk on her face. “Wear it or bare it, babe.”
He stared at her. “You’re not related to anyone named Chad, are you?”
She frowned. “No. Why?”
“No reason.” He looked back down at the t-shirt in his hand and then sighed before pulling off his own. It made his slicked back hair fall forward and when he impatiently swept it from his eyes, he caught her staring at him with a look he recognized too well.
“Done ogling?” he asked angrily and she had the decency to blush. Not that he usually minded people looking at him but it wasn’t even eight o’clock yet and so far it had been just one naked disaster after another.
“Sorry.” She gave him a small smile. “Not every day a hot guy strips in front of me, you know.”
This time it was his turn to blush. “Shut up.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She checked the clock and sighed. “The first ones will be here shortly. Hurry up. I got to go make breakfast.”
He rolled his eyes and pulled on the t-shirt. Snug was putting it mildly. More like it was painted on him. And short enough to show off his belly button. “Oh man. I look ridiculous! I can’t wear this!”
“Stop complaining. You look cute.”
She grinned and then turned on her heels, heading for the tiny kitchen facility. Jared wanted to beg her to please, please help him find something else to wear but just then he heard the front door slam shut. Damn. He peeked out into the hall and was met with the cutest sight ever.
Little Marie was struggling to pull off her boots without pulling her thumb out of her mouth. It wasn’t going too well and Jared couldn’t help smiling as she frowned in annoyance. She was quickly becoming his favorite, mostly because she reminded him so much of his little sister when she was this age, way too many years ago. He was gunning for her approval even more than from the others and it was starting to depress him how badly it was going. He wasn’t used to people not liking him. And to be feared like that, even by a two year old, was not something he could let go.
He glanced down at his t-shirt. Marie did have a thing for pretty horses… It was worth a shot.
“Hey,” he said and walked cautiously out of The Refuge and toward her.
She looked up, her eyes wide, and then she was screaming at the top of her lungs, “Daaaadaaaa!”
“Whoa!” He reached for her, sighing when she skittered away. “Hey, it’s okay. Sweetie, don’t be scared.”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Jared jerked away from the child currently trying to crawl under the wooden bench along the wall and looked up, meeting a pair of very angry green eyes glaring at him.
The man grabbed Jared’s arm, yanking him up to his feet and pushing him away. “Who are you? Get the hell away from my daughter!” he growled in a deep menacing voice that would under other circumstances have made Jared shiver. And it kinda did, although more with fear than anything else.
“What? No!” he sputtered, raising his hands and taking another step back. “I work here! I’m… I’m Jared. I work here! Seriously.”
The man eyed him suspiciously but at least he didn’t look like he was about to punch Jared in the face anymore. “Then why is she so afraid of you?” he asked, indicating Marie who was peeking at them from under the bench, eyes big and wide, and looking like she was about to start crying any minute.
Jared blinked. “Uh… Because I’m big and scary and they all seem to think I’m a monster?” He ran his fingers through his hair, which made the t-shirt scoot up his stomach. Damn. He tugged it down desperately. “I’m not. I swear.”
“Never seen you before,” the man said curtly and bent down to fetch little Marie from under the bench. “Come here, baby,” he cooed, voice suddenly warm and soothing. “It’s alright.”
“I just started a few days ago,” Jared explained as the man hoisted Marie up in his arms and started stroking her hair, trying to calm her down. “I’m… Look, I’m sorry. It’s not like I scare them on purpose. I’m just… big,” he finished lamely. He tilted his head, puppy eyes in full mode. “Marie, it’s Jared. Remember Jared?”
“No,” she said stubbornly and hid her face in her father’s neck. “Dada.”
Her ‘dada’ gave Jared a pointed look.
Jared took a deep breath. “Ok. Ok. Sophia?” he said as loud as he dared. “Need some help here.”
She came out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a dishtowel. “What’s the matter? Oh, hi.” She smiled at the man whose scowl diminished somewhat. “Something wrong?”
“This man works here?” Marie’s dad asked, jerking his head toward Jared.
Sophia raised her eyebrows at Jared and then shrugged. “He’s trying. So far he spends most of his time crouching on the floor.” At Jared’s glare she grinned. “Well, you do.”
He opened his mouth to protest but then sighed in defeat. “Yeah, I do.” He turned to the man and put out his hand. “Jared Padalecki. Nice to meet you.”
The man scowled at him a moment longer but then he relaxed and shifted the child in his arms before accepting Jared’s outstretched hand. “Jensen Ackles. Marie’s dad.”
They shook hands. Jensen’s grip was firm, his fingers slender and strong, and Jared swallowed. Even if he towered over the man by a good four inches, Jensen Ackles, with his piercing green eyes and clenched jaw, wasn’t someone he’d like to meet in a dark alley. Sure, he was handsome enough, in a serial killer kinda way, but how on earth he had fathered such a sweet beautiful child as Marie was a mystery. His wife must look like an angel, Jared concluded.
As if reading Jared’s thoughts Jensen let go of his hand and stepped back, looking him over with a scowl as he clutched Marie tighter, her face buried in his neck. His gaze fastened on Jared’s chest, eyes widening slightly and then suddenly his face broke into the most wicked grin, instantly throwing all of Jared’s earlier thoughts out the window. Oh, Jensen Ackles was deadly alright, no doubt about that. Jared was feeling quite faint already.
“Like unicorns, do you?”
Jared could feel himself turn beet red and he tugged at the t-shirt, trying to make it reach his jeans. “There was an accident. A coffee accident. I…”
“No, no. No need to explain. I’m sure they’re fascinating creatures,” Ackles said with a smirk that made Jared’s stomach flop, then nudged his daughter. “Hey, sweetie. Look, a unicorn! Your favorite!”
She turned her head slightly, one eye glancing at Jared. Then she suddenly straightened up and smiled, one chubby finger pointing at Jared’s t-shirt. “Ucon,” she said happily. “Ucon.”
Jared smiled back. Hah, not such a stupid plan after all. He was so gonna win her over. “Yes. Unicorn. Hey, we could read that book. The one you like so much.”
“Claire and the Unicorn,” Mr. Ackles said and when Jared looked up at him he was gazing at his daughter with such adoration Jared felt his heart melt. “Man, she loves that one.”
Jared found himself smiling stupidly, wondering how the scary serial killer had managed with one smile to transform into the cutest thing ever. And he didn’t need Chad there to tell him how horribly gay that thought was. No crushing on the parents, he reminded himself. Especially not the straight, married ones.
“Yeah. Every time Sophia reads it to the kids, Marie crawls into her lap. She doesn’t want to miss a thing.” He tugged his t-shirt down again. “Look, Mr. Ackles…”
“Jensen, please. Mr. Ackles is way too formal for a kindergarten. Plus it makes me sound old. And, well, like my dad.” Jensen flashed him another smile and Jared’s knees threatened to give in. Damn.
“Ok,” he said, smiling back. “Jensen. And I’m Jared.” His heart skipped as Jensen nodded, silently mouthing his name as if he was trying it out. “Look, I know some of the kids… ok, most of the kids, are scared of me but… I’m sure they’ll come around. Well, Sophia seems to think so. They’re just not used to having someone like me around.”
“A lover of unicorns?” Jensen asked somberly but Jared could see he was trying hard not to laugh.
Damn, this blushing thing was getting old. He kept his smile though, hoping Jensen hadn’t noticed. “No, I mean because I’m a stranger. And tall. And, you know, a guy.” God, he sounded moronic.
Jensen raised one eyebrow. “Last time I checked I was male. And I might not be ten feet tall like you but I’m not exactly a midget. The kids aren’t scared of me.”
“Well, no. But you’re also Marie’s daddy.”
Jensen looked down at the girl still clinging to him. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.” He smiled softly. “Marie, honey? You want Jared to read to you about Claire and the unicorn?”
She looked over at Jared, thumb stuck in her mouth, and nodded. “Ucon,” she said and smiled.
“Ok then. Say goodbye to daddy now.”
He tightened his hold on her as she sloppily kissed him on the mouth, closing his eyes for a second before silently handing her over to Jared. Jared smiled reassuringly at him as she wrapped her chubby arms around his neck, and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get her back soon enough.”
Jensen’s lips tightened and the cold look was back on his face. “Her mother will pick her up,” he said curtly. Then he leaned up to kiss Marie on the cheek before turning on his heel and walking out. Jared stood staring at the closed door, breath caught in his throat, the smell of coffee and sandalwood still lingering in the air, the soft brush of Jensen’s hair still tickling his cheek.
Marie followed his gaze, her mouth turning downwards. “Dada,” she said sadly and Jared hugged her tighter.
“Hey, it’s okay. Let’s find that book, shall we?” He turned around to find Sophia standing in the doorway to the kitchen, watching him with a smile. “What?”
“I told you they would come around.”
“One of them. And I’m not sure how long it will last.”
She shook her head. “Nah, once you’ve got ‘em you’ve got ‘em for life. Or at least until they start school.” She tilted her head and studied him thoughtfully. “So, you’ve met Marie’s dad.”
Jared found himself blushing. Damn, what was it with him lately? “Yeah. Seems nice enough.”
“Uhuh.” She raised one eyebrow. “That why you’re blushing?”
Crap. “I’m not blushing,” he said defensively, face turning an even deeper red.
“Hey, it’s okay. We all have a crush on him. He’s a…” She hesitated, eyeing Marie. “… ‘nice’ guy.” She fanned herself and grinned wickedly. “Wouldn’t mind him being my ‘daddy’, if you know what I mean.”
“My dada,” Marie piped up, glaring at her.
Now it was Sophia’s turn to blush. “Yeah, sweetie. Of course he is. When he’s allowed,” she added, lips thinning.
Jared was just about to ask her what she meant when the door opened and three kids came bustling in, followed by their somewhat sleepy-looking parents. Jared gave them a reassuring smile as they eyed him warily and carried Marie away to Rainbowland, leaving it to Sophia to handle the meet and greet. He had a unicorn story to read and a little girl’s heart to win over.
By the time breakfast was ready he had most of the kids sitting in a circle around him, Marie planted firmly on his lap, as he read one story after another. They all stared at him, eyes wide and mouth open as they hung on to every word. From unicorns he’d moved on to greedy caterpillars and then lost puppies, acting out all the voices and making faces that had the kids shrieking with laughter. From the toy box in the corner even Michael was peeking over the rim, listening intently. Who’d have thought wearing a pink glittery unicorn t-shirt would make such a difference? Clearly he had some shopping to do.
They ate porridge and then it was playground time. As Jared leaned against the wall, wearing the now dry but still stained hoodie, and watched the kids bang each other over the head with shovels and eat mouthfuls of sand, he couldn’t help smiling. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad job after all.
“Having a good day, finally?”
Sophia bumped her shoulder into his arm, smiling brightly, and he smiled back.
“Yeah. Finally.”
“Told you,” she said smugly.
“Yeah, yeah.” He watched Isaac try to plant a kiss on Marie’s cheek and then get a face full of sand for his trouble. He hesitated but his curiosity soon won over. “So… What did you mean, ‘when he’s allowed’? About Marie’s dad, I mean.”
She followed his gaze and made a face, nose scrunching up adorably. “Marie’s mom. She’s kind of a bitch.”
Jared blinked. “Are you allowed to say that?”
“Are you gonna run and tattle on me to Sam?” she bit back.
“No. I just… Why is she a bitch?”
She shrugged. “She just is. Been trying to get the court to ban Jensen from seeing Marie. Even accused him of molesting her.” She nodded at Jared’s shocked look. “I know. That man loves Marie more than anything. He’d never do anything to hurt her. The CPS didn’t find any evidence whatsoever and she finally had to withdraw her accusations, claiming she must have read it wrong. Yeah, right. By then it had been almost a year and Marie’d forgotten her own dad, being so young. It was heartbreaking watching him trying to win her love back. Today is the closest I’ve seen them.”
He knitted his eyebrows in thought. “Wait… A year? Marie’s barely two! Her mother accused Jensen of molesting his one year old daughter?”
“Yep.”
The grim look on Jensen’s face suddenly made sense. “Holy shit. Who the hell does that? And why?”
She shrugged. “If you ask me I’d say she felt humiliated when he left her and so decided to have her revenge.”
Jared frowned. “He was the one who left? Even if they had such a young daughter?” Married to a bitch or not, that did seem like a sucky thing to do.
“Well, he couldn’t very well stay married to her after she outed him and all,” Sophia snorted. “Talk about awkward.”
Jared blinked. What? “He’s gay?” he asked cautiously.
Sophia glanced up at him. “Well, yeah. Seriously, you didn’t realize?” She shook her head. “Aren’t you guys supposed to have a feeling for this kind of thing?”
He froze. “What? What do you mean, ‘you guys’?”
She tilted her head and looked at him, raising one eyebrow. “You really gonna make me say it?”
Jared stared back at her, the knot in his stomach tightening. “You knew?”
“Honey, it’s pretty obvious,” she said gently. “You haven’t looked at my boobs even once since you started working here. And no straight man could resist the power of these babes.” She pushed forward her pretty impressive rack.
He didn’t know what to say. Finally he stammered, “You, you don’t mind? That, that I’m… I mean… I thought…” He felt slightly faint.
“Mind? Why would I mind?” She looked deeply insulted and he really didn’t know what to say.
“I don’t know. Because I’m working with kids and… I don’t know,” he repeated lamely, voice trailing off as her face darkened. “I know what people say. I just didn’t want…” He swallowed. “I really needed this job, ok? I was afraid if I told you guys, you wouldn’t want me.”
She glared at him and even if he knew she wasn’t really mad at him but more at what had made him do it, he still felt ashamed. “I’m sorry. And for the record, I am out. Just… not here.” He paused. “Well, I guess now I am.”
Her anger dissolved and she reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “Sweetie, no one here is gonna give you any crap about that. Alli has a gay brother, Ben’s got two moms. And Marie… Well, we all would much rather Jensen got custody over his daughter than her bitch of a mother. No one cares, Jared. I promise.”
He nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat. He hadn’t really realized how crippling it had been, going back into the closet, after finally getting out of it. “Ok,” he said. “Thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She settled against the wall again, and together they watched the kids play. “So,” she said after a while. “That really was your roommates t-shirt.”
Jared groaned. “If you ever met Chad you wouldn’t even have to ask that question.”
She chuckled. “Lets hope I never do. Sorry if I overreacted. It’s kind of a sore spot for me.”
“Single moms?”
She hesitated, then shrugged. “Stripping to pay for food for your kid. My mom used to do that. And… more.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
He processed that for a moment and then said, “She must have loved you very much.”
She looked up at him, startled. “Yeah. Yeah, she did.” She bit her lip. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he asked, surprised.
“For not being an asshole.”
“Oh that. Well, you’re welcome,” he said as his eyes drifted back to Marie who was now pouring a whole bucket of sand over Isaac’s head. Jared’s lips twitched into a grin. Seemed she had inherited more than her father’s pretty green eyes, she had a temper to match as well.
It was a nice day. Jared closed his eyes against the sun for a moment before opening them again and looking around, for the first time feeling relaxed enough to see it as something more than just a place of work.
The old house had been turned into a daycare center about ten years ago. That was probably what made it feel less like a storage place for kids and more like a home. The rooms were small with low ceilings and he’d bumped his head into the doorframes at more than one time. It had creaky stairs and bad plumbing but you could almost feel the spirits of its old inhabitants still lingering and the kids seemed to feel secure and happy there.
The daycare center was divided into two departments, Rainbowland which held the youngest kids, age one to three, and Sunshineland which was for kids from four to six.
“Dude, ours is far better. They don’t get our naptimes down in the Sunshine state,” Alli had said with a grin when Jared asked her if it was just as exhausting working with the older kids. “Also those kids, they talk way too much. About stuff you really don’t want to have to talk about.”
“Like Barbies?” Jared had asked with horror.
“More like, ‘Where do babies come from?’ and whether God is a man or a woman,” Alli had said and laughed at his even more horrified expression. “I’m telling you, the longer they stay mute, the better. Kids, man. They’re far too smart for their own good.”
Jared wasn’t too sure of that. He’d been there a whole week before they figured out he wasn’t gonna eat them. How was that for smart?
The sun and heat was making him sleepy and he closed his eyes again. Alli was right about one thing, naptimes were awesome. Who knew it would be so good to lie down with a bunch of kids and sleep for an hour or two? Not that they were really supposed to sleep, rather just help the kids settle down and then spend the time thinking about educational upbringing or whatever until it was time to wake them up again. Yeah, that didn’t work. Once you were lying down, surrounded by tiny warm bodies and the sounds of sniffling and soft snoring it was pretty much impossible to stay awake.
They had small mattresses to lie on that were spread on the floor in one of the rooms and then each kid had their own pillow and blanket and a soft toy to snuggle up with. Jared needed two mattresses and still his feet were on the floor knees down and the two blankets he got only covered about two thirds of his body. Not that it mattered. As soon as his head hit the weak excuse for a pillow he was out like a light, sleeping so soundly that Alli and Sophie had to shake him awake when it was time to get up. Of course they usually had kids pressed up against them on all side, snuggling up like kittens, while Jared got his space all to himself. In fact he was surprised the kids had dared to fall asleep with him in the room, seeing as they all seemed to think he was a monster.
Jared sighed. Getting little Marie to accept him had been a huge step but most of them were still wary of him and even if they were just little kids he couldn’t help feeling a bit resentful. Not his fault he was so damn tall. And a guy. Really, weren’t they a bit too young to be discriminating like that?
He was thrown out of his musings when something banged hard into his shin and he let out a little yelp of pain as his knees buckled from the impact. “Jesus fu-”
Sophia elbowed him and he managed to bite his tongue at the last moment. David, a four year old from Sunshineland, was staring up at him from his tricycle, openmouthed.
“Say sorry, David,” Sophia chastened him and he looked over at her, then mumbled something that didn’t sound anything like sorry, turned the bike and cycled away.
“You okay?” she asked Jared as he sank to the ground, rubbing his shin, and he nodded even if his leg was throbbing painfully. And the kids thought he was evil? Monsters, that’s what they were, the lot of them. Little stinky evil mons-
“Jad, ow,” said a small voice and he looked up just in time to get a wet sandy kiss on his mouth from a concerned looking Marie. “Ow, ow,” she repeated and patted his leg, sending renewed stabs of pain up his spine.
“I’m okay, sweetie,” he managed to grit out between clenched teeth. “You just go play now.”
She pouted but then got a determined look on her face and before he could stop her she had grabbed her shovel and ran to where David was struggling to get his tricycle over a heap of sand, and proceeded to bang him over the head, making him tumble off and hit the ground with a distinct thud, followed by a high pitched scream.
The peace was gone after that.
David, who was old enough to know how to play the sympathy card to the max, screamed and clutched his head, tears streaming down his face. The shovel had left a tiny red mark and he had sand on his face from tumbling off the bike but otherwise he seemed perfectly fine. From the agonized screams though one would think he’d gotten his leg bitten off by a lion. One of the girls from the Sunshineland, Rachel Jared thought her name was, was trying to calm him down. She rolled her eyes when he only screamed louder, which told Jared this probably wasn’t the first time little David took a drama fit.
Marie was still livid, swinging her shovel at David from where Jared held her back, yelling, “Ba, ba Daid! Donn hut Jad!”
Jared wasn’t sure whether to be scared of her or kiss her.
“Marie, stop it,” he said firmly, wrestling the shovel from her hand. “Calm down.”
She shook her head, but then she suddenly slumped in his arms and started crying pitifully. Jared pulled her tighter, giving Sophia an exasperated look. He knew he was supposed to tell Marie off for attacking the boy but she was just so tiny and cute and… just look at those big green eyes, flooding with tears! How was he supposed to resist that?
“Jared…” Sophia warned but he ignored her and pulled the little girl tighter.
“It’s okay, baby,” he whispered soothingly as he rocked her in his arms. “Don’t cry. It’s alright.”
Sophia rolled her eyes but she was biting her lips, obviously trying to keep from smiling.
Marie finally calmed down and before long she was back playing in the sandbox, seeming to have completely forgotten the whole thing.
Jared leaned against the wall and watched her, smiling when the tower she was trying to build collapsed and she proceeded to smash it further with the shovel, yelling at it in pretty much the same way she’d been yelling at David earlier. Yep, she sure had her daddy’s temper.
Sophia snorted beside him and he look over at her. “What?”
“You’re such a pushover, Padalecki.”
Jared blushed. His little nieces and nephews always had him wrapped around their fingers too. Not his fault he hated seeing people crying. Especially tiny little people who had huge wet eyes and wobbly lips. Deadly weapons, that’s what those kids were. And they knew it, the little bastards.
“Am not,” he grumbled but she just laughed at him.
As naptime came around all the kids were rubbing their eyes, Jared included. He stretched out on his side at his usual place along the far wall, the thin mattresses doing little to keep the hard wooden floor from bruising his hip, the two blankets only covering him from his shins to his mid-chest. He yawned as he listened to Sophia and Alli quietly sing some lullaby (his own efforts had been shot down the first day, seeing as they did little to calm the kids down and were more likely to give them nightmares) and shifted the thin pillow until it was wedged between his head and his bent elbow. Not the most comfortable sleeping arrangement he’d ever had but Jared was used to falling asleep under weird circumstances, like in class or waiting at the bus stop, or, in one case, on his bike. That one has ended with a sprained wrist, a cut on his forehead, and a very confused looking nurse as he tried to explain how he’d managed to ride his bike down a flight of stairs and into a fountain.
He was just about to slip into deep sleep when something warm nudged against his stomach and when he opened his eyes he saw a sleepy Marie curling up beside him, her blanket clutched in her tiny fists. Something in his chest clenched and he had to fight not to put his arms around her and pull her even tighter. He glanced up at the girls and saw Alli was asleep but Sophia was smiling softly and when she caught his eye she grinned and gave him a thumb up. He closed his eyes, smiling, and was just about to drift to sleep when he felt tiny fingers fumble at his cheek and then grab hold of his ear. He cracked one eye open. Marie had a thumb in her mouth, sucking on it in her sleep while her other hand held on to his ear, rubbing the earlobe and tugging on it every now and then. She looked so cute he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The movement was weirdly soothing and before long his eyes drifted close again and he was lost to the world.
The rest of the day went by fast but despite that he was exhausted when the parents started showing up, one by one, to pick up their kids. He had to admit he was curious to see what Marie’s mom, Jensen’s apparently bitch ex-wife, looked like but somehow between tidying up and changing Isaac’s very yucky diaper (they were all convinced his parents had trained him to do all his business at the daycare, because seriously, that kid had dubious accurate timing when it came to these things) he managed to miss her. Well, he’d have plenty of opportunity later.
Chad was out when Jared stumbled through the door close to six. He groaned and eyed his bed longingly but his shift at the restaurant started in an hour and he had to shower and change his clothes before that. Thankfully Chad had for once kept his word and done laundry, probably more because he was afraid Jared would raid his drawers for clothes and find the porn hidden there than out of consideration. As if Jared didn’t already know about the stash. And as if he’d ever touch anything Chad had had his horny and no doubt sticky fingers on. Yuck.
Chad rushed through the door five minutes before they had to head out, muttering about some chick who’d apparently ripped him a new one when he’d accidentally bumped into her.
“Accidentally?” Jared asked dubious. “Don’t tell me. She had nice boobs and you ‘fell’ on them.”
Chad tried to look affronted but the leer kinda gave him away.
“Oh man, how am I ever friends with you?” Jared groaned. “Dude, you’re lucky she didn’t have you arrested for sexual harassment.”
“It was an accident!” Chad said indignantly. “I said I was sorry and she clocked me with her bag. Which was fucking heavy, I’ll let you know. I should have her arrested for assaulting me with a deadly weapon.”
For a moment Jared flashed back to little Marie hitting David with her shovel and couldn’t help snorting. “Whatever. Hurry up, we’re gonna be late. Again.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Chad traded his ratty t-shirt for the white shirts they were required to wear and hurriedly buttoned it up. “Fuck, I hate Fridays.”
“At least you don’t have to work tomorrow.” Jared yawned and rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m seriously beat.”
“You’re gonna kill yourself with all that work, you know. One day I’m gonna find you dead in the living room, stinking up the place. Know how hard it is to get the stink of death out of the carpet?”
“Thanks for the concern,” Jared huffed. “I’ll try and drop dead in the street instead.”
“You better.”
Continued in Part 2