Omaha
Art Title: Lead Me Home
Prompt Number: R2035
Artist:apieceofcake
Fic Title: Omaha
Author: hunters_retreat
Fandom/Genre: RPS, Postapocalyptic
Pairing(s): Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 3000+
Summary: When the world went cold, everything went crazy. Jensen took to the road and he hasn't stopped moving since. It might be more dangerous making it alone, but Jensen chooses the company he keeps and when and he doesn't answer to anyone. It's a lonley path but a series of murals found on the wayside, make Jensen think he just might have found something worth keeping still for.
Author's Note: Written for the spn_reversebang. The art is absolutely amazing and I was so lucky to be able to pick this piece up from apieceofcake. I am so sorry for the lateness of this one. I got really sick a few weeks ago and missed a couple posting dates but I'm getting resecheduled and back up and this is the first of the postings I've been able to make. Hope you enjoy it!
Author's Note #2: Now with a timestamp! New Letters
Funny, how when the world began to burn, it all went cold. Ash filled the skies and snow followed after. For years, it followed. Jensen kept on the move, scavenged when he could and made the best out of what he could. It’d been three months since he’d seen another person. It’d been seven months since he’d seen someone that wasn’t looking for a way to part Jensen from his hard earned stores, as limited as they were.
The night grew even colder as Jensen stumbled into the town. The markers told him he was moving in the right direction but he always feared he’d miss one and lose the trail completely. He had nothing but the trail anymore. What the Burn and Cold hadn’t killed, the Mercs had. Jensen had been on the road for two years now and he figured he’d be on it for the rest of his life. Everyone had to have something to hold onto in the hard times and the hope at the end of the path was what Jensen had.
He’d found the first painting by accident, a large mural on the side of a building when he’d shot down a side street to hide from a pack of wild dogs. It was a young man as he stumbled wearily through the town, headed towards the west. The sky had been a shade of blue that they rarely saw anymore and the man on the road had looked back over his shoulder, as if it was an invitation for Jensen to follow along with him.
Jensen had decided to take it as a sign and he’d gone west. Some days the trail backtracked and others it pressed on, but Jensen had never veered from the course since he’d taken it.
Jensen began to leave his own notes behind as well. The first time he’d felt stupid but after four months of tailing the guy, Jensen felt he owned him a little of his own trials and tribulations. Every few weeks there was another painting on a wall somewhere, a little bit of the guy’s story left for Jensen to see. Jensen began to leave notes in old cans, set beside the paintings. The path started to backtrack more once Jensen started and he felt vindicated as he left his thoughts behind in aluminum.
He didn’t know the man he chased or where he was headed, but Jensen continued to follow anyway. He smiled as he stumbled down the street and was greeted with a smiling face. The young man had painted his story on the town’s welcome sign, an elegant J signed at the bottom. In the painting, his jacket had holes but he had new boots. Jay had led Jensen to a sporting goods store that hadn’t been entirely empty. Jay obviously hadn’t found a jacket there, but Jensen had. He’d spent two days in the store’s warmth, a series of snares set to catch enough food to last him a few more days on the road, before he’d followed along again.
He’d taken the time to scavenge through the store and he’d found a new backpack, a mismatched pair of gloves, and a whet stone. Once upon a time he would have thought it was nothing, but that was before the Burn. Now, it was a treasure.
Jensen found a small café that overlooked the city sign and went in through the broken door. It had probably been a nice place once, the sort of place Jensen might have visited before it all turned to hell. He’d give his left arm for a cup of coffee, or a hot cocoa. He’d almost been ready at the last market he’d found. An offer of a warm meal and drink, a warm bed. The price had been the person joining him in that bed though and he wasn’t quite ready to sell his body for the warm and the almost forgotten comforts. He wasn’t afraid to admit that he’d been tempted though.
Jensen walked through the café to make sure there were no surprises and looked for anything useful. He found some scraps of paper and brushed the dirt off the counter with his sleeve. He carefully flattened the pages against the counter’s edge and took them back out to the front.
He grabbed a chair and pulled it upright in front of a table and took a seat. It was almost like life before as he took out his canteen and took a sip. He capped the canteen and put it away before he spread out the paper he’d found. Inside his bag he pulled out a stick and his lighter. They were his most treasured possessions and he smiled to himself as he lit the end of the stick and watched it blacken to charcoal.
When it was cool enough, Jensen touched the charcoal to the paper and began to write another note for his artist friend.
Jay,
One of these days I’m going to catch up with you. It would be nice to get a chance to walk with someone. I know we don’t always get the chance to stay when we want, but maybe sometime soon you could wait up for me? I’m at this little cafe. There’s a couch in the back where a staff lounge used to be. Gonna sleep there tonight. If we circle around this way again someday, I might stay in this town a day or two to check it out. Looks like a nice place. I hope wherever you are tonight that you found someplace warm. It’s been warmer lately. Is that why we’re headed this way, Jay? Anyway, I hope you find a warm jacket somewhere in case it starts to turn true cold again. I worry about you. If you stopped leaving me pictures, where would I go? I wouldn’t have anyone to chase after and I’m not about to turn back to the Gaintown Market and take up residence there. The coffee would be nice, but I think I prefer your company to the type of people they wanted me to visit. Keep safe and keep painting for me.
Jen
**
Jensen knew what he saw. He hated it, but he knew. He dropped down to a crouch and turned his head to get the scope of it all but his heart was heavy and his breath came shallow. The blood was dried, perhaps a day before, maybe more. Jensen wasn’t a tracker but he’d learned a lot since the Cold began. Anyone who lived outside of the Markets had.
A human had been attacked by a dog pack. Jensen couldn’t hear anything except the faint rustle of the wind in the dying trees but he kept his eyes open just in case. He stood and continued to scan the area to try to understand what had happened. He couldn’t jump to conclusions. People didn’t usually survive from a dog attack but Jay could have, if the blood was even Jay’s at all. Jensen had survived a wild dog attack and that had been back in the beginning, before he’d known how to survive. It had been instinct and he’d just been lucky that the three dogs had all been starved and half to dead before they’d attacked.
Jay was smart and strong. He’d have found a way. In the two years he’d been following, nothing had ever stopped the artist and Jensen couldn’t believe this had.
He dropped to his knees near an alley entrance and nearly sobbed as he found signs of human footprints leaving the area. He didn’t think about what he was doing, but he followed the footprints. He knew where he was, recognized the damn town that he’d found so charming two weeks before. He didn’t know why Jay had circled around again this time. Sometimes, he wondered if Jay was trying to find him, if he thought Jensen would wait for him there. He’d thought about it but he could never stop moving so long as Jay was. He could never take the risk that Jay would move on without him.
The footprints moved away from the west and towards the east side of town. He moved quicker, aware of the dying light and knew he would have to stop if he didn’t find an answer soon. Even if the blood was old, Jensen couldn’t help but worry that Jay was bleeding out somewhere, waiting for his help. It was irrational but then so was his obsessive drive to follow an unknown artist across the Heat-Forsaken country.
Three blocks down, Jensen found signs that someone had rested for a while and there were bloody rags left behind. He followed along, grateful that there hadn’t been any new snowfall in the past few days. The tracks were easy to follow and Jensen moved even after it became dark. It was dangerous to have an uncontained light but Jensen risked his flashlight to continue on.
An hour later, he stopped and stared at the building in front of him. He turned behind to see the painting on the welcome sign and looked down to see that the tin can he’d left with his letter was gone. The café was dark and ominous with his fear and he swallowed against the lump in his throat because the tracks led straight in and there were none leading out.
Jensen let out a deep breath and turned off his flashlight before he walked to the door. He waited a moment as his eyes adjusted to the full dark again and then entered quietly. There was nothing different from what he’d seen the last time he’d been there but he listened to the quiet until he was sure nothing was moving.
He walked past the counter and down the hallway towards the office and staff lounge. A long couch lined the far wall and Jensen bit his lip as he saw the figure lying asleep, covered in a ratty blanket. Jensen stepped closer but the figure didn’t move.
Fear moved him again and Jensen stopped when he got close enough to touch. He nearly did, but then he dropped to his knees and saw the way the man’s chest moved with each breath. Jensen closed his eyes for a second, thankful that he hadn’t found a corpse, and then crouched down to run the back of his hand over the other man’s forehead.
Jay stirred in his sleep but his eyes didn’t open. Jensen gave himself a moment to feel for Jay’s temperature but he didn’t feel warm. He rested his head against the edge of the couch for a moment then turned around and leaned back against it. He was tired from the day’s tracking and his nerves were fried. He couldn’t leave Jay, and he knew it was the artist from the pictures he’d done of himself - even if he didn’t do himself justice. Jay was beautiful . He closed his eyes with the intention of staying awake through the night to guard the man that was as close to a friend as Jensen had anymore.
Jensen fell asleep immediately.
**
Jensen blinked his eyes against the bright light and groaned as he tried to get rid of the kink in the neck. He stretched until his back popped but something touched the nape of his neck and Jensen scrambled away quickly.
He turned and found himself halfway across the room from the artist. The young man was looking at him with wide eyes as he sat up on the couch.
“Uh … hi. It’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you,” the other man said in a soft voice.
Jensen had never tried to imagine what Jay sounded like, but the voice sounded right on him. Warm and full of emotion. Jensen stared at him, unable to speak. He’d been chasing Jay for two years. Now that he was sitting across from him, he didn’t know what to say.
“I’m Jared.”
“Jared?” Jensen felt the words in his mouth and it broke the hesitancy in him. He smiled at the man in front of him. “It fits you. I tried to figure out what the J stood for and I was never right. I just started to call you Jay in my head.”
“And Jen?”
“Jensen,” he answered quickly. “Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
“I can’t believe you’re here.”
“There was blood,” Jensen pressed as he got up from the floor. “I was going to try to wake you last night but you weren’t feverish and I didn’t see any signs of fresh blood.”
“I’m okay. I ran into a pack of dogs at the edge of town. I managed to get away from them but I hit my head when I had to jump up onto a fire escape. You know what they say about head wounds.”
Jensen moved in then and began to run his fingers thought Jared’s hair. He didn’t think about it until he was already doing it but Jared didn’t tell him to stop. His hair was matted and dirty but there was nothing oozing as he checked the young man’s skull. He found the bump and the harder edge of a scab and he let out a sigh of relief.
“I was afraid you’d been bitten. No telling what you might get out there these days, especially from a bite.”
Jared smiled. “You were worried about me.”
“Course I was. I can’t very well follow you if you die on me. Then where would I go? I’m just out here following you.”
Jared’s smile faltered as he looked up at Jensen. “Really? You’re just following me?”
“What? You think I leave notes for other random strangers I might pass along the way?”
Jared looked down at his hands. “But I never told you where I was going.”
“I know. You know those platitudes people used to say all the time? I figured this one was pretty accurate. It’s about the journey, right? So long as I was moving, it didn’t matter where. All I knew was…” he was suddenly aware of how close he was to Jared but he didn’t want to step away.
“… you were my only friend in the world and I couldn’t stop following you.”
Jared let out a small laugh. “There were so many times when I just wanted to give in, but I remembered that first note I found. I backtracked into this abandoned military base because I’d lost something there, and you had left a letter for me. I realized about a year ago that you always left letters for me when my paintings were out in the open. Whenever I left one in an alley or inside a building, you just moved on.”
“It just seemed like you felt safer in those places so it was more likely you’d come back.”
“Of course I did. As soon as I realized what you were doing. What else would I do? You’re my best friend and you have been for the past year and a half. Who else would follow me through this mess?”
Jensen took a step back and laughed. “Where are we headed then, Jared?”
Jared looked around them and opened his arms wide. “Looks like as good a place as any to me. What do you say, Jensen? Should we make ourselves a home here?”
Jensen watched Jared for a few minutes and realized the other man was completely serious. No matter that they’d just met, Jared trusted him enough to want to keep him close. Jensen wanted nothing more. He’d joked about it in his last letter but Jared seemed to take it seriously.
“I think it’s in need of some TLC, but this town could be a great fix ‘em upper.”
Jared laughed. “We could stay here until we find a place to make our own permanently?” Jared moved closer to Jensen.
Jensen couldn’t help the way his eyes moved over Jared, but Jared seemed to be no better than Jensen himself. He leaned in closer to Jared as well. “We could head out after breakfast and see if we could find a place better equipped for the two of us.”
“I think that would be a great idea, Jensen. I’m not sure if I’ll always be able to stay still, not after the years of moving all the time, but I’m willing to give it a try. What do you say?”
Jensen nodded. “I think you’ve got a partner, Jared.”
“A partner?”
Jensen realized the way that could have sounded and he looked at Jared and realized that the other man was fishing for something. He wasn’t sure what Jared wanted, but Jensen had walked a long, lonely road. He was willing to take whatever path Jared wanted him too.
“You tell me what you need, Jared. I’ve been following you for two years. I walked into this town and I was afraid I’d lost you.”
“Your last message? It sounded nice. Coming back here, getting to know an area. It’s close enough to a market that we could make the trip if we needed to. The thing is, I need a friend. Someone to watch my back, to help find a way to make it here, but I think you and I are something more.”
“Something more? Like what?”
“I think maybe you and I could be better than friends. I think you and I could be something else, if you’re interested.”
Jensen stepped closer to Jared and Jared reached a hand out to grip his hip, pulling him in tighter. Jensen smiled as he looked up at Jared. “Something else? I think I might be interested in this something else.”
Jared brushed his lips over Jensen’s for their first kiss and Jensen melted against the other man’s body. For the first time in years, he felt warmed to the soul and as they parted, he dropped his forehead to Jared’s. “I’m so glad I stopped to find you, Jensen,” Jared whispered.
Jensen looked up at Jared with a smile. “I’d have followed you to the ends of the Earth, Jared. Just glad I only had to follow you to Omaha.”
Prompt Number: R2035
Artist:apieceofcake
Fic Title: Omaha
Author: hunters_retreat
Fandom/Genre: RPS, Postapocalyptic
Pairing(s): Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 3000+
Summary: When the world went cold, everything went crazy. Jensen took to the road and he hasn't stopped moving since. It might be more dangerous making it alone, but Jensen chooses the company he keeps and when and he doesn't answer to anyone. It's a lonley path but a series of murals found on the wayside, make Jensen think he just might have found something worth keeping still for.
Author's Note: Written for the spn_reversebang. The art is absolutely amazing and I was so lucky to be able to pick this piece up from apieceofcake. I am so sorry for the lateness of this one. I got really sick a few weeks ago and missed a couple posting dates but I'm getting resecheduled and back up and this is the first of the postings I've been able to make. Hope you enjoy it!
Author's Note #2: Now with a timestamp! New Letters
Funny, how when the world began to burn, it all went cold. Ash filled the skies and snow followed after. For years, it followed. Jensen kept on the move, scavenged when he could and made the best out of what he could. It’d been three months since he’d seen another person. It’d been seven months since he’d seen someone that wasn’t looking for a way to part Jensen from his hard earned stores, as limited as they were.
The night grew even colder as Jensen stumbled into the town. The markers told him he was moving in the right direction but he always feared he’d miss one and lose the trail completely. He had nothing but the trail anymore. What the Burn and Cold hadn’t killed, the Mercs had. Jensen had been on the road for two years now and he figured he’d be on it for the rest of his life. Everyone had to have something to hold onto in the hard times and the hope at the end of the path was what Jensen had.
He’d found the first painting by accident, a large mural on the side of a building when he’d shot down a side street to hide from a pack of wild dogs. It was a young man as he stumbled wearily through the town, headed towards the west. The sky had been a shade of blue that they rarely saw anymore and the man on the road had looked back over his shoulder, as if it was an invitation for Jensen to follow along with him.
Jensen had decided to take it as a sign and he’d gone west. Some days the trail backtracked and others it pressed on, but Jensen had never veered from the course since he’d taken it.
Jensen began to leave his own notes behind as well. The first time he’d felt stupid but after four months of tailing the guy, Jensen felt he owned him a little of his own trials and tribulations. Every few weeks there was another painting on a wall somewhere, a little bit of the guy’s story left for Jensen to see. Jensen began to leave notes in old cans, set beside the paintings. The path started to backtrack more once Jensen started and he felt vindicated as he left his thoughts behind in aluminum.
He didn’t know the man he chased or where he was headed, but Jensen continued to follow anyway. He smiled as he stumbled down the street and was greeted with a smiling face. The young man had painted his story on the town’s welcome sign, an elegant J signed at the bottom. In the painting, his jacket had holes but he had new boots. Jay had led Jensen to a sporting goods store that hadn’t been entirely empty. Jay obviously hadn’t found a jacket there, but Jensen had. He’d spent two days in the store’s warmth, a series of snares set to catch enough food to last him a few more days on the road, before he’d followed along again.
He’d taken the time to scavenge through the store and he’d found a new backpack, a mismatched pair of gloves, and a whet stone. Once upon a time he would have thought it was nothing, but that was before the Burn. Now, it was a treasure.
Jensen found a small café that overlooked the city sign and went in through the broken door. It had probably been a nice place once, the sort of place Jensen might have visited before it all turned to hell. He’d give his left arm for a cup of coffee, or a hot cocoa. He’d almost been ready at the last market he’d found. An offer of a warm meal and drink, a warm bed. The price had been the person joining him in that bed though and he wasn’t quite ready to sell his body for the warm and the almost forgotten comforts. He wasn’t afraid to admit that he’d been tempted though.
Jensen walked through the café to make sure there were no surprises and looked for anything useful. He found some scraps of paper and brushed the dirt off the counter with his sleeve. He carefully flattened the pages against the counter’s edge and took them back out to the front.
He grabbed a chair and pulled it upright in front of a table and took a seat. It was almost like life before as he took out his canteen and took a sip. He capped the canteen and put it away before he spread out the paper he’d found. Inside his bag he pulled out a stick and his lighter. They were his most treasured possessions and he smiled to himself as he lit the end of the stick and watched it blacken to charcoal.
When it was cool enough, Jensen touched the charcoal to the paper and began to write another note for his artist friend.
Jay,
One of these days I’m going to catch up with you. It would be nice to get a chance to walk with someone. I know we don’t always get the chance to stay when we want, but maybe sometime soon you could wait up for me? I’m at this little cafe. There’s a couch in the back where a staff lounge used to be. Gonna sleep there tonight. If we circle around this way again someday, I might stay in this town a day or two to check it out. Looks like a nice place. I hope wherever you are tonight that you found someplace warm. It’s been warmer lately. Is that why we’re headed this way, Jay? Anyway, I hope you find a warm jacket somewhere in case it starts to turn true cold again. I worry about you. If you stopped leaving me pictures, where would I go? I wouldn’t have anyone to chase after and I’m not about to turn back to the Gaintown Market and take up residence there. The coffee would be nice, but I think I prefer your company to the type of people they wanted me to visit. Keep safe and keep painting for me.
Jen
**
Jensen knew what he saw. He hated it, but he knew. He dropped down to a crouch and turned his head to get the scope of it all but his heart was heavy and his breath came shallow. The blood was dried, perhaps a day before, maybe more. Jensen wasn’t a tracker but he’d learned a lot since the Cold began. Anyone who lived outside of the Markets had.
A human had been attacked by a dog pack. Jensen couldn’t hear anything except the faint rustle of the wind in the dying trees but he kept his eyes open just in case. He stood and continued to scan the area to try to understand what had happened. He couldn’t jump to conclusions. People didn’t usually survive from a dog attack but Jay could have, if the blood was even Jay’s at all. Jensen had survived a wild dog attack and that had been back in the beginning, before he’d known how to survive. It had been instinct and he’d just been lucky that the three dogs had all been starved and half to dead before they’d attacked.
Jay was smart and strong. He’d have found a way. In the two years he’d been following, nothing had ever stopped the artist and Jensen couldn’t believe this had.
He dropped to his knees near an alley entrance and nearly sobbed as he found signs of human footprints leaving the area. He didn’t think about what he was doing, but he followed the footprints. He knew where he was, recognized the damn town that he’d found so charming two weeks before. He didn’t know why Jay had circled around again this time. Sometimes, he wondered if Jay was trying to find him, if he thought Jensen would wait for him there. He’d thought about it but he could never stop moving so long as Jay was. He could never take the risk that Jay would move on without him.
The footprints moved away from the west and towards the east side of town. He moved quicker, aware of the dying light and knew he would have to stop if he didn’t find an answer soon. Even if the blood was old, Jensen couldn’t help but worry that Jay was bleeding out somewhere, waiting for his help. It was irrational but then so was his obsessive drive to follow an unknown artist across the Heat-Forsaken country.
Three blocks down, Jensen found signs that someone had rested for a while and there were bloody rags left behind. He followed along, grateful that there hadn’t been any new snowfall in the past few days. The tracks were easy to follow and Jensen moved even after it became dark. It was dangerous to have an uncontained light but Jensen risked his flashlight to continue on.
An hour later, he stopped and stared at the building in front of him. He turned behind to see the painting on the welcome sign and looked down to see that the tin can he’d left with his letter was gone. The café was dark and ominous with his fear and he swallowed against the lump in his throat because the tracks led straight in and there were none leading out.
Jensen let out a deep breath and turned off his flashlight before he walked to the door. He waited a moment as his eyes adjusted to the full dark again and then entered quietly. There was nothing different from what he’d seen the last time he’d been there but he listened to the quiet until he was sure nothing was moving.
He walked past the counter and down the hallway towards the office and staff lounge. A long couch lined the far wall and Jensen bit his lip as he saw the figure lying asleep, covered in a ratty blanket. Jensen stepped closer but the figure didn’t move.
Fear moved him again and Jensen stopped when he got close enough to touch. He nearly did, but then he dropped to his knees and saw the way the man’s chest moved with each breath. Jensen closed his eyes for a second, thankful that he hadn’t found a corpse, and then crouched down to run the back of his hand over the other man’s forehead.
Jay stirred in his sleep but his eyes didn’t open. Jensen gave himself a moment to feel for Jay’s temperature but he didn’t feel warm. He rested his head against the edge of the couch for a moment then turned around and leaned back against it. He was tired from the day’s tracking and his nerves were fried. He couldn’t leave Jay, and he knew it was the artist from the pictures he’d done of himself - even if he didn’t do himself justice. Jay was beautiful . He closed his eyes with the intention of staying awake through the night to guard the man that was as close to a friend as Jensen had anymore.
Jensen fell asleep immediately.
**
Jensen blinked his eyes against the bright light and groaned as he tried to get rid of the kink in the neck. He stretched until his back popped but something touched the nape of his neck and Jensen scrambled away quickly.
He turned and found himself halfway across the room from the artist. The young man was looking at him with wide eyes as he sat up on the couch.
“Uh … hi. It’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you,” the other man said in a soft voice.
Jensen had never tried to imagine what Jay sounded like, but the voice sounded right on him. Warm and full of emotion. Jensen stared at him, unable to speak. He’d been chasing Jay for two years. Now that he was sitting across from him, he didn’t know what to say.
“I’m Jared.”
“Jared?” Jensen felt the words in his mouth and it broke the hesitancy in him. He smiled at the man in front of him. “It fits you. I tried to figure out what the J stood for and I was never right. I just started to call you Jay in my head.”
“And Jen?”
“Jensen,” he answered quickly. “Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
“I can’t believe you’re here.”
“There was blood,” Jensen pressed as he got up from the floor. “I was going to try to wake you last night but you weren’t feverish and I didn’t see any signs of fresh blood.”
“I’m okay. I ran into a pack of dogs at the edge of town. I managed to get away from them but I hit my head when I had to jump up onto a fire escape. You know what they say about head wounds.”
Jensen moved in then and began to run his fingers thought Jared’s hair. He didn’t think about it until he was already doing it but Jared didn’t tell him to stop. His hair was matted and dirty but there was nothing oozing as he checked the young man’s skull. He found the bump and the harder edge of a scab and he let out a sigh of relief.
“I was afraid you’d been bitten. No telling what you might get out there these days, especially from a bite.”
Jared smiled. “You were worried about me.”
“Course I was. I can’t very well follow you if you die on me. Then where would I go? I’m just out here following you.”
Jared’s smile faltered as he looked up at Jensen. “Really? You’re just following me?”
“What? You think I leave notes for other random strangers I might pass along the way?”
Jared looked down at his hands. “But I never told you where I was going.”
“I know. You know those platitudes people used to say all the time? I figured this one was pretty accurate. It’s about the journey, right? So long as I was moving, it didn’t matter where. All I knew was…” he was suddenly aware of how close he was to Jared but he didn’t want to step away.
“… you were my only friend in the world and I couldn’t stop following you.”
Jared let out a small laugh. “There were so many times when I just wanted to give in, but I remembered that first note I found. I backtracked into this abandoned military base because I’d lost something there, and you had left a letter for me. I realized about a year ago that you always left letters for me when my paintings were out in the open. Whenever I left one in an alley or inside a building, you just moved on.”
“It just seemed like you felt safer in those places so it was more likely you’d come back.”
“Of course I did. As soon as I realized what you were doing. What else would I do? You’re my best friend and you have been for the past year and a half. Who else would follow me through this mess?”
Jensen took a step back and laughed. “Where are we headed then, Jared?”
Jared looked around them and opened his arms wide. “Looks like as good a place as any to me. What do you say, Jensen? Should we make ourselves a home here?”
Jensen watched Jared for a few minutes and realized the other man was completely serious. No matter that they’d just met, Jared trusted him enough to want to keep him close. Jensen wanted nothing more. He’d joked about it in his last letter but Jared seemed to take it seriously.
“I think it’s in need of some TLC, but this town could be a great fix ‘em upper.”
Jared laughed. “We could stay here until we find a place to make our own permanently?” Jared moved closer to Jensen.
Jensen couldn’t help the way his eyes moved over Jared, but Jared seemed to be no better than Jensen himself. He leaned in closer to Jared as well. “We could head out after breakfast and see if we could find a place better equipped for the two of us.”
“I think that would be a great idea, Jensen. I’m not sure if I’ll always be able to stay still, not after the years of moving all the time, but I’m willing to give it a try. What do you say?”
Jensen nodded. “I think you’ve got a partner, Jared.”
“A partner?”
Jensen realized the way that could have sounded and he looked at Jared and realized that the other man was fishing for something. He wasn’t sure what Jared wanted, but Jensen had walked a long, lonely road. He was willing to take whatever path Jared wanted him too.
“You tell me what you need, Jared. I’ve been following you for two years. I walked into this town and I was afraid I’d lost you.”
“Your last message? It sounded nice. Coming back here, getting to know an area. It’s close enough to a market that we could make the trip if we needed to. The thing is, I need a friend. Someone to watch my back, to help find a way to make it here, but I think you and I are something more.”
“Something more? Like what?”
“I think maybe you and I could be better than friends. I think you and I could be something else, if you’re interested.”
Jensen stepped closer to Jared and Jared reached a hand out to grip his hip, pulling him in tighter. Jensen smiled as he looked up at Jared. “Something else? I think I might be interested in this something else.”
Jared brushed his lips over Jensen’s for their first kiss and Jensen melted against the other man’s body. For the first time in years, he felt warmed to the soul and as they parted, he dropped his forehead to Jared’s. “I’m so glad I stopped to find you, Jensen,” Jared whispered.
Jensen looked up at Jared with a smile. “I’d have followed you to the ends of the Earth, Jared. Just glad I only had to follow you to Omaha.”