Real Person Fic - J2: Winning the Endgame
Title: Winning the Endgame
Fandom: Real Person Fic - J2
Characters/Pairings: Jared/Jensen, past Jensen/OFC
Genre: Fluff
Rating: PG-13, if that.
Word Count: 4,047-I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately!
Author’s Note: Written for tamingthemuse prompt # 162 - Stalemate. I saw this prompt and I immediately thought of chess master!Jared and could not help myself. I had a pretty serious chess problem last month, so I can assure you the play Jared uses on Jensen exists. It’s called Fool’s Mate and I secretly dream of getting to whip it out on someone and feel awesome for the rest of my life. Beta’d by my heart and soul, wutendeskind. Divider found here. Also-this is the final week for my first ever tamingthemuse run! \o/!!
Disclaimer: If you found this googling yourself, quickly exit the page. That means you, Jared. I won’t be held responsible for the emotional damage. ETA 5/7/2013: Thanks to eos_rose, you can now read this in epub format here.
Summary: Jared loses a few things, but wins them all back with interest.
Last week, Jensen made a bet. It was probably a stupid bet. He knew when he made it that he was almost certainly going to lose.
There are two things in the world that Jared Padalecki is better at than anyone else Jensen has ever met. One is pressuring people into doing stupid things to defend their manhood, the other is chess. The first was how Jensen ended up in this mess and the second was the reason he was going to lose.
Stakes weren’t all that high, to be honest, but Jensen hated losing bets. They’d gotten a little tipsy last Friday after shooting wrapped and Jared started complaining that nobody would play him at chess anymore. It was true, when they’d first started filming, chess was a welcome distraction on long days when things were moving slowly. Unfortunately, it hadn’t taken long for people to figure out that if they wanted to protect their egos, they needed to hide their chess boards as soon as Jared came around. Season one wasn’t even over yet and Jared’s irresistible puppy eyes had lost their ability to win him an opponent (more like a victim) already. Sometimes Jeff caved because he was too nice for his own good, but he was so bad at chess it wasn’t even fun.
“Come onnnn, Jensen. One little game. Don’t tell me you’re too scared to lose one. little. tiny. itty-bitty game of chess.”
“’m drunk, but’m not tha drunk,” Jensen only-kind-of slurred.
“I’ll make a bet with you. Anything you want. Plleeeeaaassseee.”
“Stop with the eyes, you bastard. Oh, goddamn you. You’re going to make me clean your house again, no way.”
“Only if I win!”
“Hah, and if you don’t win?”
“That never occurred to me.”
“If you don’t win, you have to help me hook up with that unbearably hot chick you knew at that party last week. The one with the red hair and the tiny, tiny shorts.”
“Jensen’s in lloooovvveeee. Jensen’s in love with-I don’t remember her name. Hold on, give me a second.”
“Her name was Denise.”
“Oh, you talked to her?”
“No, I was standing right next to you when you were calling her Denise.”
“Dude, my memory really sucks when I’m drunk.”
“If I’m lucky, you’ll forget this conversation and I won’t have to make up for your cleaning lady’s week off.”
“Not likely, Jenny dear. But I promise not to remember to make you wear a French maid costume.” Jared put a 500 pound arm around Jensen’s shoulder and they carried on with their drinking after making plans to have the game at Jared’s house the following Tuesday.
Jensen was pretty good at chess (or at least he’d thought he was before he met Jared) and he really liked Jared, so he had kept playing for his friend’s sake long after everyone else had quit. They had to spend a lot of time together, and it was obviously something Jared really enjoyed. Jensen didn’t mind it either; he didn’t have to win everything and there was plenty he could do that Jared wasn’t as good at.
Jensen was pretty intuitive when it came to figuring people out (something people were surprised to learn because of how shy he was). He usually used this against people in games like chess and it worked out pretty well, it was how he’d managed to remain a worthy rival to Jared for so many months. Jared kind of sucked at reading people, so Jensen didn’t see it coming when Jared turned his own strategy against him.
They’d played an incredible six games that day and somehow their scene was still not ready. Jared had started the last four games the exact same way and every time had kind of looked up nervously to see if Jensen noticed. Jensen first picked up the pattern on the second go and had the moves memorized by the third. The fourth was just a safety run, and Jared confirmed his suspicions. They were called to the cameras before Jared was done setting up game seven, so Jensen took advantage of the break to snag white for the next game.
Jensen was feeling pretty sure of himself as he imitated Jared’s starting moves. Jared’s poker face was flawless; it wasn’t until his queen was in place that he let the shit-eating grin break out on his face. Jensen stared at the board in shock. He had just been checkmated in two moves and on top of that was confronted by the fact that he’d failed to see it four times.
“You tricked me!”
Jared smiled smugly.
“You planned that. That was a totally dick move!”
“All is fair in chess and war. I’m sorry, Jen, I’ve always wanted to do that to someone.”
“I don’t even feel like a man anymore. I will never play you at chess again.”
And until this bet, Jensen had kept his word.
Jensen wasn’t stupid enough to buy what Jared was selling, but he thought it was kind of adorable that Jared had tried anyway. The game was a stalemate, which was just a little too convenient, and Jared had a mischievous look looming in his eyes from the moment he’d answered the door to let Jensen in. It had been a close game, but Jared had made a mistake. Not a real mistake, Jensen had nothing left but his king while Jared was sitting pretty with two queens, a rook, his king, and a pawn that was about three spots away from becoming a third queen. It was supposed to be a pretty devastating defeat, but somehow Jensen had managed to get into one of those loophole stalemate spots. Which obviously meant Jared had thrown the game.
“Well, Jen, I hope you’re proud of yourself, I haven’t lost a game in six years.”
“But you didn’t lose.”
“I didn’t win, either.”
“So?”
“So the deal was if I didn’t win I had to help you out. It looks like I’m stuck helping you get over your fear of talking to strangers.”
And that wicked gleam in his eye only got worse.
Jared didn’t do anything half-assed. So if he promised to get Jensen a date, he used it as an excuse to throw yet another party. He invited Denise and had led a disgruntled Jensen over to her as soon as she arrived.
“Hey Denise, thanks for coming!”
“Thanks for inviting me! Your parties are always great,” Denise said as Jared enveloped her in a bear hug.
“Have you met Jensen?”
“No, I don’t think I have.”
“Well, this is Jensen Ackles. He works with me on the show, and we’re best friends. You should totally sleep with him because he’s awesome and, well, just look at him.”
Jensen nearly spit his beer allover Denise and was turning an intense shade of red. He wanted to punch Jared in the face. Denise just laughed fondly and started to bat her eyes at Jensen. Jensen was pretty sure Jared was the only person on the planet warm and open enough to make that work instead of getting them both slapped for being sleazy.
Surprisingly, Jared’s icebreaker had been exactly what Jensen needed. After assuring Denise that he had not known Jared was going to say that, they’d spent all night talking and Jensen had secured a date before the night was over.
When the party ended, Jensen crashed on Jared’s couch instead of worrying about getting home. By the time Jared woke up the next morning, the evidence of the previous night’s party had been cleaned up and the entire house looked nicer than it had in months. It was like they’d both lost the bet, but neither of them was unhappy about it.
Jensen liked Denise well enough. She was a cool girl and smoking hot, and they had been dating for about a month when season one started to wrap and Jensen was getting ready to head home for hiatus.
He and Jared were supposed to pick her up for the wrap party, but Jared was running late and he wasn’t answering his phone. Jensen called Denise and told her to head for the party without them and went to Jared’s to find out what the holdup was.
When he let himself in and had broken through the line of giant dogs hungry for his attention, Jensen headed towards Jared’s room and knocked. No answer. He opened the door and poked his head in. He could hear the water running and was a little annoyed that Jared had gotten so wrapped up in his shower-he must have been in there for at least forty-five minutes if the missed calls on his phone were any indication.
He went to the door to bang on it and tell Jared to hurry up when he heard what had distracted him for so long. Jared was singing something off one of the CDs Jensen had burned him the week before at the top of his lungs. Jared was probably the worst singer Jensen had ever heard and it was hardly recognizable, but despite the terrible delivery, he sounded so stupidly happy that Jensen had to pause just to listen. He felt his heart being held between two unnaturally giant and impossibly warm hands. That’s when he realized he didn’t want the hot girl at Jared’s party, or any girl for that matter. He just wanted to be in that shower, shutting Jared up with his mouth.
Jensen sat on Jared’s bed and cradled his head for a few minutes to try and process the information. It’s not like he hadn’t ever been into a guy before, but as soon as he’d realized it would be better for his career if he stuck to girls, he genuinely had no problem not dating guys. Jensen was perfectly happy being with women and only women; it wasn’t like he was making some huge sacrifice. But this wasn’t just sexual-Jensen was surprised to find that this crush or whatever was already pretty serious, and he didn’t even know about it until thirty seconds ago. He could see where it was going and there was no way to ignore it and keep dating girls. He was falling in Love with Jared.
“Shit,” he murmured to himself.
“What’s wrong?” Jared asked from the bathroom door. Jensen hadn’t even heard the water turn off.
I just realized I’m kind of in Love with you and now you’re standing in front of me dripping wet and half naked, Jensen thought, averting his eyes from the drops of water moving down Jared’s obnoxiously perfect chest.
“You took so damn long butchering good music that we’re seriously late for the party.”
“Shit! Jen, I’m sorry. You should have gone without me.”
“Couldn’t do that,” Jensen answered because it was the truth, even if he hadn’t known why at the time.
“Well, I’ll be down in a few minutes, ok?”
“Yeah, no problem.” Except Jensen did have a problem. A very serious problem. He used the time while Jared was getting dressed to call Denise and have the “let’s just be friends” conversation. She didn’t mind and was over it before they even got to the party.
Jared was breaking Jensen’s heart. In the year since Jensen had realized he was in Love with Jared, he hadn’t really been hurt over it until today. Sure, Jensen hated seeing Jared with all of the pretty girls and it kind of stung that no matter how many people he kissed, it was always Jared lurking at the back of his mind, but he hadn’t spent the last year wallowing in the pain of scorned love or anything. If there was anyone in the world to fall in unrequited Love with, it was definitely Jared. It couldn’t hurt because he was so affectionate and such a safe constant in Jensen’s life that he had everything he could want from a relationship (except for the sex obviously, but Jensen could sacrifice). He knew Jared would never hurt him, had never worried about it, and until today it hadn’t been a problem. But now, looking at Jared and seeing all that hurt instead of the unwavering happiness that Jensen always depended on to make his bad days better, Jensen’s heart was ripping as if he could feel everything that was bothering Jared and then some.
“Do you think it was me? Did I do something to make him run away? Do you think he hates me?”
“Jay, come on. You know those dogs love you to death. I’m sure he just got lost. He’s probably still trying to find his way home.”
“But I’ve done everything. Nobody’s seen him, nobody’s called. What if he’s…”
Jared trailed off and Jensen tried not to see the flash of terror in Jared’s eyes. In a week, Jared hadn’t let himself say it out loud yet, but it was true that Jared had tried everything in the finding-your-lost-dog handbook, and Jensen was starting to fear the worst.
“He’s fine, Jay. I’m sure he’s fine.”
Jared grunted unconvinced and snuggled a little closer to Sadie, but he seemed at least a bit pacified by Jensen’s empty assurances. Jensen wished he could help, but he knew nothing was going to cheer Jared up except getting his baby back. Then Jensen had an idea. It was unlikely, but it was something.
“You tried the park near the set, right?”
“Yeah, no response. Anyway, Harley went missing while he was at home.”
A fact everyone was already painfully clear on. Jared had been mentally beating himself up over that, as if it had happened on his watch. In reality, Jared’s cleaning lady had accidentally left the door open while she went to her car and Harley had slipped out to go exploring. Jared was being way too understanding towards her and Jensen was secretly afraid he would snap pretty soon and kill the poor woman. Aside from that concern, Jensen felt awful for Sadie. Jared was overcompensating for the loss by being paranoid, not letting Sadie out of his sight. She hadn’t been on a proper walk since Harley went missing and Jared was bringing her to set every day and keeping her in the trailer just so that he could check in on her between scenes. She was dealing with it beautifully and giving Jared all the affection she could, but it wasn’t what she was used to and Jensen was sure she was only putting up with it for Jared’s sake.
“Ok, Jared, I’m going to make a suggestion. You can say ‘no’ but just hear me out.”
Jared nodded.
“Let me take Sadie to the park while you’re doing your shots. I know you’re worried about her, but she’s going stir-crazy. I think it’ll be good for her.”
Jared looked anxious for a few seconds, then pointed to the counter where the leash was. He didn’t add a “be careful” because Jensen would be and Jared knew it. Jensen was a little overwhelmed that Jared trusted him that much and hoped against everything that his crazy plan paid off.
It was one of those rare episodes where the Winchester boys spent most of the time separate, so Jensen had a pretty decent chunk of time to kill before he had to be back on set for his scenes. Jensen was usually kind of annoyed by these days-he didn’t understand why they couldn’t schedule all of Jensen’s shots on one day and all of Jared’s shots on another day because god forbid they should get a day off-but today it worked out. If Jensen’s plan was a success, Jensen could be back in Jared’s trailer with both of the dogs just in time for Jared to get back.
Once they got to the park, Jensen let Sadie walk him more than the other way around. He hoped that Sadie would give him a hint to what it was holding Harley up because if the dog could find his way to the park, he should have been able to find his way home and Jensen couldn’t believe that Harley didn’t want to. Harley and Sadie were the luckiest dogs he’d ever seen-he was firmly convinced that if you were a good person in this life, your reward was being resurrected as Jared’s dog. The dogs rarely came to this park because, until Harley’s disappearance, they seldom came to the set with Jared. But Jensen was sure Harley would be able to get here from Jared’s house and there was no way Harley was still in Jared’s neighborhood without having been found. Everyone in the area knew Jared, everyone loved Jared, and everyone was trying to help him find his dog. Jensen’s gut told him that something had gotten Harley’s attention the last time he was here and he had used the open door opportunity to come find it.
He was about ready to give up and turn around when he realized he wasn’t at the park anymore. Sadie had wandered off into some residential neighborhood and Jensen hadn’t even been paying enough attention to know how to get back. Before he got a chance to complain, however, Sadie started to bark and Jensen would be damned if the return bark wasn’t familiar to him. He looked up just in time to see Harley being taken into a nice blue house down the street, walking at a man’s heels with a little boy running excitedly behind them.
Jensen felt a little awkward knocking, but he wasn’t exactly going to turn around now.
“Hello?” A woman answered the door, curly blonde hair piled on top of her head in a matronly fashion.
“Hi, sorry to bother you. I, umm, I couldn’t help noticing your family coming home a couple of minutes ago and, uhh…I think you may have found my dog.”
“No, sorry. No found dogs. That’s our dog, you must have just confused him. Have a nice-“
Sadie started barking animatedly and Harley immediately ran to the door to reunite with his sister.
“Actually, lady, that’s definitely Harley. He’s still got his collar on, even if you took off the tags.”
Jensen was kind of pissed at this point. The woman stepped out of the house, calling into the living room and then closing the door to keep Harley in and away from Sadie.
“John! John come here right now!”
When John opened the door and poked his head out, it was the man Jensen had seen walking Harley in just five minutes earlier. He had thin wire glasses, graying hair, and an expression that suggested he was too tired to go on living.
“Yes, dear, what is it?”
“This nice man here wants to steal Sprinkles.”
“What now?”
“I don’t want to steal anything. You have my dog. That’s just messed up.”
“Now, sir, look, we don’t want any trouble. We were going to try calling you when we found Sprinkles, but our boy has gotten really attached to him. I see you have another dog, Billy’s only eight, you know how hard it is to say no to kids.”
“My boy’s kind of attached to him, too. And it’s his dog. You’re giving him back or I’m calling the cops.”
“This is our house! You have no rights here!”
“Honey, why don’t you go inside and I’ll settle this, ok?”
She made a sour face but agreed and Jensen had a feeling they had fought over this before. John had a sorry look in his eyes, like he regretted keeping Harley now that his owner was on his doorstep telling him that another little boy was at home crying over it. Which was kind of true, as long as you were considering maturity level and not age or size.
“Look, we really were going to call. I never meant to keep him this long.” The guy was stubbornly pretending he wasn’t totally in the wrong, but Jensen could hear what he was really trying to say. I’m sorry.
“Just give me the dog,” Jensen replied firmly, hoping the man would hear the unspoken yeah, okay, forgiven.
Jared had blown his scenes today. He knew he’d blown them. He would probably have to put in another day reshooting them. He didn’t really care about that right now. He opened the door to his trailer, hoping that Jensen would be back with Sadie because he really needed to see those comforting faces-he’d just spent the day admitting to himself that Harley might be hurt or worse.
Jared was tackled as soon as he was in the trailer. He pushed the dog away.
“Not now, Harley, I’m not in the moo-“
The dog barked and jumped up on him again and this time Jared got down on his knees to wrap his arms around the dog in shock.
“You? How?”
“Sadie did all the real work,” Jensen said with a smile, watching Jared tumble with his dogs for a few seconds. Jared stood up and tried one of his tricks on Harley-not to make sure it was him, he would know the dog anywhere-but just for the familiar assurance that it was Harley and he was really back. Sadie never had the discipline for tricks.
“Pow pow!” Jared said, pretending to shoot Harley. Harley froze up and fell over playing dead, holding the pose for a few seconds, then raising his head and opening one eye as if to remind Jared that he was actually alive and waiting for a treat. Jared tossed him one and turned to Jensen. He was so happy, he could kiss him.
“Dude, I think I’m in love with you right now.”
Jensen kind of flinched and, for the second time, Jared was kind of shocked to understand him. The first time had been the chess game, but this was something bigger. Jensen was the only person who ever made sense to him without explaining his feelings; he was lucky people seemed to like him without much effort because he had no idea how to actually know what they wanted. Right now, he was pretty sure he really could kiss Jensen and he was not as surprised as he should have been to discover that he wanted to.
“Yeah, well, I’ve gotta go do my scenes now. But you three have a lovely reunion.”
Jensen was at the trailer door before Jared stopped him.
“Wait,” he begged, his fingers wrapping around Jensen’s wrist. Jensen turned to face him slowly.
“Yeah?”
Jensen’s entire face was covered by the enormous hand pressed softly against his cheek. Jared leaned in and kissed him. He didn’t deepen the kiss; he didn’t insist for more, he was just happy to feel Jensen return it. That was enough for the moment, maybe more than enough.
Jared could hear Jensen fumbling behind him for something that he was unwilling to pull out of the kiss to find. Jensen’s hands finally met the door knob and Jared felt Jensen stumble backwards out of the kiss as the door opened behind him.
“I really do have to do my scenes,” he said apologetically.
“Come over later?”
“For what? Chess? What’s the point, you always win!” But Jared could tell he was only playing around, that they were in the endgame and that it was a stalemate again, one they were both going to win.
“See you later, asshole,” Jared said giving Jensen a slight shove out the door.
Jared watched Jensen walking away, completely aware that Jensen was attempting to do the cool-guy walk-away-without-looking-back thing. He was a little disappointed when it looked like Jensen was going to make it around the corner and out of his sight without another acknowledgement.
Just a moment before successfully disappearing, Jensen turned. His smile and the accompanying crow’s feet were kind of blinding. Jared had to wonder how he’d missed noticing how beautiful that was for almost two years. Harley and Sadie barked him out of his daze, insisting he take them home; Jared couldn’t think of a happier moment in his life.
[15]
Fandom: Real Person Fic - J2
Characters/Pairings: Jared/Jensen, past Jensen/OFC
Genre: Fluff
Rating: PG-13, if that.
Word Count: 4,047-I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately!
Author’s Note: Written for tamingthemuse prompt # 162 - Stalemate. I saw this prompt and I immediately thought of chess master!Jared and could not help myself. I had a pretty serious chess problem last month, so I can assure you the play Jared uses on Jensen exists. It’s called Fool’s Mate and I secretly dream of getting to whip it out on someone and feel awesome for the rest of my life. Beta’d by my heart and soul, wutendeskind. Divider found here. Also-this is the final week for my first ever tamingthemuse run! \o/!!
Disclaimer: If you found this googling yourself, quickly exit the page. That means you, Jared. I won’t be held responsible for the emotional damage. ETA 5/7/2013: Thanks to eos_rose, you can now read this in epub format here.
Summary: Jared loses a few things, but wins them all back with interest.
Last week, Jensen made a bet. It was probably a stupid bet. He knew when he made it that he was almost certainly going to lose.
There are two things in the world that Jared Padalecki is better at than anyone else Jensen has ever met. One is pressuring people into doing stupid things to defend their manhood, the other is chess. The first was how Jensen ended up in this mess and the second was the reason he was going to lose.
Stakes weren’t all that high, to be honest, but Jensen hated losing bets. They’d gotten a little tipsy last Friday after shooting wrapped and Jared started complaining that nobody would play him at chess anymore. It was true, when they’d first started filming, chess was a welcome distraction on long days when things were moving slowly. Unfortunately, it hadn’t taken long for people to figure out that if they wanted to protect their egos, they needed to hide their chess boards as soon as Jared came around. Season one wasn’t even over yet and Jared’s irresistible puppy eyes had lost their ability to win him an opponent (more like a victim) already. Sometimes Jeff caved because he was too nice for his own good, but he was so bad at chess it wasn’t even fun.
“Come onnnn, Jensen. One little game. Don’t tell me you’re too scared to lose one. little. tiny. itty-bitty game of chess.”
“’m drunk, but’m not tha drunk,” Jensen only-kind-of slurred.
“I’ll make a bet with you. Anything you want. Plleeeeaaassseee.”
“Stop with the eyes, you bastard. Oh, goddamn you. You’re going to make me clean your house again, no way.”
“Only if I win!”
“Hah, and if you don’t win?”
“That never occurred to me.”
“If you don’t win, you have to help me hook up with that unbearably hot chick you knew at that party last week. The one with the red hair and the tiny, tiny shorts.”
“Jensen’s in lloooovvveeee. Jensen’s in love with-I don’t remember her name. Hold on, give me a second.”
“Her name was Denise.”
“Oh, you talked to her?”
“No, I was standing right next to you when you were calling her Denise.”
“Dude, my memory really sucks when I’m drunk.”
“If I’m lucky, you’ll forget this conversation and I won’t have to make up for your cleaning lady’s week off.”
“Not likely, Jenny dear. But I promise not to remember to make you wear a French maid costume.” Jared put a 500 pound arm around Jensen’s shoulder and they carried on with their drinking after making plans to have the game at Jared’s house the following Tuesday.
Jensen was pretty good at chess (or at least he’d thought he was before he met Jared) and he really liked Jared, so he had kept playing for his friend’s sake long after everyone else had quit. They had to spend a lot of time together, and it was obviously something Jared really enjoyed. Jensen didn’t mind it either; he didn’t have to win everything and there was plenty he could do that Jared wasn’t as good at.
Jensen was pretty intuitive when it came to figuring people out (something people were surprised to learn because of how shy he was). He usually used this against people in games like chess and it worked out pretty well, it was how he’d managed to remain a worthy rival to Jared for so many months. Jared kind of sucked at reading people, so Jensen didn’t see it coming when Jared turned his own strategy against him.
They’d played an incredible six games that day and somehow their scene was still not ready. Jared had started the last four games the exact same way and every time had kind of looked up nervously to see if Jensen noticed. Jensen first picked up the pattern on the second go and had the moves memorized by the third. The fourth was just a safety run, and Jared confirmed his suspicions. They were called to the cameras before Jared was done setting up game seven, so Jensen took advantage of the break to snag white for the next game.
Jensen was feeling pretty sure of himself as he imitated Jared’s starting moves. Jared’s poker face was flawless; it wasn’t until his queen was in place that he let the shit-eating grin break out on his face. Jensen stared at the board in shock. He had just been checkmated in two moves and on top of that was confronted by the fact that he’d failed to see it four times.
“You tricked me!”
Jared smiled smugly.
“You planned that. That was a totally dick move!”
“All is fair in chess and war. I’m sorry, Jen, I’ve always wanted to do that to someone.”
“I don’t even feel like a man anymore. I will never play you at chess again.”
And until this bet, Jensen had kept his word.
Jensen wasn’t stupid enough to buy what Jared was selling, but he thought it was kind of adorable that Jared had tried anyway. The game was a stalemate, which was just a little too convenient, and Jared had a mischievous look looming in his eyes from the moment he’d answered the door to let Jensen in. It had been a close game, but Jared had made a mistake. Not a real mistake, Jensen had nothing left but his king while Jared was sitting pretty with two queens, a rook, his king, and a pawn that was about three spots away from becoming a third queen. It was supposed to be a pretty devastating defeat, but somehow Jensen had managed to get into one of those loophole stalemate spots. Which obviously meant Jared had thrown the game.
“Well, Jen, I hope you’re proud of yourself, I haven’t lost a game in six years.”
“But you didn’t lose.”
“I didn’t win, either.”
“So?”
“So the deal was if I didn’t win I had to help you out. It looks like I’m stuck helping you get over your fear of talking to strangers.”
And that wicked gleam in his eye only got worse.
Jared didn’t do anything half-assed. So if he promised to get Jensen a date, he used it as an excuse to throw yet another party. He invited Denise and had led a disgruntled Jensen over to her as soon as she arrived.
“Hey Denise, thanks for coming!”
“Thanks for inviting me! Your parties are always great,” Denise said as Jared enveloped her in a bear hug.
“Have you met Jensen?”
“No, I don’t think I have.”
“Well, this is Jensen Ackles. He works with me on the show, and we’re best friends. You should totally sleep with him because he’s awesome and, well, just look at him.”
Jensen nearly spit his beer allover Denise and was turning an intense shade of red. He wanted to punch Jared in the face. Denise just laughed fondly and started to bat her eyes at Jensen. Jensen was pretty sure Jared was the only person on the planet warm and open enough to make that work instead of getting them both slapped for being sleazy.
Surprisingly, Jared’s icebreaker had been exactly what Jensen needed. After assuring Denise that he had not known Jared was going to say that, they’d spent all night talking and Jensen had secured a date before the night was over.
When the party ended, Jensen crashed on Jared’s couch instead of worrying about getting home. By the time Jared woke up the next morning, the evidence of the previous night’s party had been cleaned up and the entire house looked nicer than it had in months. It was like they’d both lost the bet, but neither of them was unhappy about it.
Jensen liked Denise well enough. She was a cool girl and smoking hot, and they had been dating for about a month when season one started to wrap and Jensen was getting ready to head home for hiatus.
He and Jared were supposed to pick her up for the wrap party, but Jared was running late and he wasn’t answering his phone. Jensen called Denise and told her to head for the party without them and went to Jared’s to find out what the holdup was.
When he let himself in and had broken through the line of giant dogs hungry for his attention, Jensen headed towards Jared’s room and knocked. No answer. He opened the door and poked his head in. He could hear the water running and was a little annoyed that Jared had gotten so wrapped up in his shower-he must have been in there for at least forty-five minutes if the missed calls on his phone were any indication.
He went to the door to bang on it and tell Jared to hurry up when he heard what had distracted him for so long. Jared was singing something off one of the CDs Jensen had burned him the week before at the top of his lungs. Jared was probably the worst singer Jensen had ever heard and it was hardly recognizable, but despite the terrible delivery, he sounded so stupidly happy that Jensen had to pause just to listen. He felt his heart being held between two unnaturally giant and impossibly warm hands. That’s when he realized he didn’t want the hot girl at Jared’s party, or any girl for that matter. He just wanted to be in that shower, shutting Jared up with his mouth.
Jensen sat on Jared’s bed and cradled his head for a few minutes to try and process the information. It’s not like he hadn’t ever been into a guy before, but as soon as he’d realized it would be better for his career if he stuck to girls, he genuinely had no problem not dating guys. Jensen was perfectly happy being with women and only women; it wasn’t like he was making some huge sacrifice. But this wasn’t just sexual-Jensen was surprised to find that this crush or whatever was already pretty serious, and he didn’t even know about it until thirty seconds ago. He could see where it was going and there was no way to ignore it and keep dating girls. He was falling in Love with Jared.
“Shit,” he murmured to himself.
“What’s wrong?” Jared asked from the bathroom door. Jensen hadn’t even heard the water turn off.
I just realized I’m kind of in Love with you and now you’re standing in front of me dripping wet and half naked, Jensen thought, averting his eyes from the drops of water moving down Jared’s obnoxiously perfect chest.
“You took so damn long butchering good music that we’re seriously late for the party.”
“Shit! Jen, I’m sorry. You should have gone without me.”
“Couldn’t do that,” Jensen answered because it was the truth, even if he hadn’t known why at the time.
“Well, I’ll be down in a few minutes, ok?”
“Yeah, no problem.” Except Jensen did have a problem. A very serious problem. He used the time while Jared was getting dressed to call Denise and have the “let’s just be friends” conversation. She didn’t mind and was over it before they even got to the party.
Jared was breaking Jensen’s heart. In the year since Jensen had realized he was in Love with Jared, he hadn’t really been hurt over it until today. Sure, Jensen hated seeing Jared with all of the pretty girls and it kind of stung that no matter how many people he kissed, it was always Jared lurking at the back of his mind, but he hadn’t spent the last year wallowing in the pain of scorned love or anything. If there was anyone in the world to fall in unrequited Love with, it was definitely Jared. It couldn’t hurt because he was so affectionate and such a safe constant in Jensen’s life that he had everything he could want from a relationship (except for the sex obviously, but Jensen could sacrifice). He knew Jared would never hurt him, had never worried about it, and until today it hadn’t been a problem. But now, looking at Jared and seeing all that hurt instead of the unwavering happiness that Jensen always depended on to make his bad days better, Jensen’s heart was ripping as if he could feel everything that was bothering Jared and then some.
“Do you think it was me? Did I do something to make him run away? Do you think he hates me?”
“Jay, come on. You know those dogs love you to death. I’m sure he just got lost. He’s probably still trying to find his way home.”
“But I’ve done everything. Nobody’s seen him, nobody’s called. What if he’s…”
Jared trailed off and Jensen tried not to see the flash of terror in Jared’s eyes. In a week, Jared hadn’t let himself say it out loud yet, but it was true that Jared had tried everything in the finding-your-lost-dog handbook, and Jensen was starting to fear the worst.
“He’s fine, Jay. I’m sure he’s fine.”
Jared grunted unconvinced and snuggled a little closer to Sadie, but he seemed at least a bit pacified by Jensen’s empty assurances. Jensen wished he could help, but he knew nothing was going to cheer Jared up except getting his baby back. Then Jensen had an idea. It was unlikely, but it was something.
“You tried the park near the set, right?”
“Yeah, no response. Anyway, Harley went missing while he was at home.”
A fact everyone was already painfully clear on. Jared had been mentally beating himself up over that, as if it had happened on his watch. In reality, Jared’s cleaning lady had accidentally left the door open while she went to her car and Harley had slipped out to go exploring. Jared was being way too understanding towards her and Jensen was secretly afraid he would snap pretty soon and kill the poor woman. Aside from that concern, Jensen felt awful for Sadie. Jared was overcompensating for the loss by being paranoid, not letting Sadie out of his sight. She hadn’t been on a proper walk since Harley went missing and Jared was bringing her to set every day and keeping her in the trailer just so that he could check in on her between scenes. She was dealing with it beautifully and giving Jared all the affection she could, but it wasn’t what she was used to and Jensen was sure she was only putting up with it for Jared’s sake.
“Ok, Jared, I’m going to make a suggestion. You can say ‘no’ but just hear me out.”
Jared nodded.
“Let me take Sadie to the park while you’re doing your shots. I know you’re worried about her, but she’s going stir-crazy. I think it’ll be good for her.”
Jared looked anxious for a few seconds, then pointed to the counter where the leash was. He didn’t add a “be careful” because Jensen would be and Jared knew it. Jensen was a little overwhelmed that Jared trusted him that much and hoped against everything that his crazy plan paid off.
It was one of those rare episodes where the Winchester boys spent most of the time separate, so Jensen had a pretty decent chunk of time to kill before he had to be back on set for his scenes. Jensen was usually kind of annoyed by these days-he didn’t understand why they couldn’t schedule all of Jensen’s shots on one day and all of Jared’s shots on another day because god forbid they should get a day off-but today it worked out. If Jensen’s plan was a success, Jensen could be back in Jared’s trailer with both of the dogs just in time for Jared to get back.
Once they got to the park, Jensen let Sadie walk him more than the other way around. He hoped that Sadie would give him a hint to what it was holding Harley up because if the dog could find his way to the park, he should have been able to find his way home and Jensen couldn’t believe that Harley didn’t want to. Harley and Sadie were the luckiest dogs he’d ever seen-he was firmly convinced that if you were a good person in this life, your reward was being resurrected as Jared’s dog. The dogs rarely came to this park because, until Harley’s disappearance, they seldom came to the set with Jared. But Jensen was sure Harley would be able to get here from Jared’s house and there was no way Harley was still in Jared’s neighborhood without having been found. Everyone in the area knew Jared, everyone loved Jared, and everyone was trying to help him find his dog. Jensen’s gut told him that something had gotten Harley’s attention the last time he was here and he had used the open door opportunity to come find it.
He was about ready to give up and turn around when he realized he wasn’t at the park anymore. Sadie had wandered off into some residential neighborhood and Jensen hadn’t even been paying enough attention to know how to get back. Before he got a chance to complain, however, Sadie started to bark and Jensen would be damned if the return bark wasn’t familiar to him. He looked up just in time to see Harley being taken into a nice blue house down the street, walking at a man’s heels with a little boy running excitedly behind them.
Jensen felt a little awkward knocking, but he wasn’t exactly going to turn around now.
“Hello?” A woman answered the door, curly blonde hair piled on top of her head in a matronly fashion.
“Hi, sorry to bother you. I, umm, I couldn’t help noticing your family coming home a couple of minutes ago and, uhh…I think you may have found my dog.”
“No, sorry. No found dogs. That’s our dog, you must have just confused him. Have a nice-“
Sadie started barking animatedly and Harley immediately ran to the door to reunite with his sister.
“Actually, lady, that’s definitely Harley. He’s still got his collar on, even if you took off the tags.”
Jensen was kind of pissed at this point. The woman stepped out of the house, calling into the living room and then closing the door to keep Harley in and away from Sadie.
“John! John come here right now!”
When John opened the door and poked his head out, it was the man Jensen had seen walking Harley in just five minutes earlier. He had thin wire glasses, graying hair, and an expression that suggested he was too tired to go on living.
“Yes, dear, what is it?”
“This nice man here wants to steal Sprinkles.”
“What now?”
“I don’t want to steal anything. You have my dog. That’s just messed up.”
“Now, sir, look, we don’t want any trouble. We were going to try calling you when we found Sprinkles, but our boy has gotten really attached to him. I see you have another dog, Billy’s only eight, you know how hard it is to say no to kids.”
“My boy’s kind of attached to him, too. And it’s his dog. You’re giving him back or I’m calling the cops.”
“This is our house! You have no rights here!”
“Honey, why don’t you go inside and I’ll settle this, ok?”
She made a sour face but agreed and Jensen had a feeling they had fought over this before. John had a sorry look in his eyes, like he regretted keeping Harley now that his owner was on his doorstep telling him that another little boy was at home crying over it. Which was kind of true, as long as you were considering maturity level and not age or size.
“Look, we really were going to call. I never meant to keep him this long.” The guy was stubbornly pretending he wasn’t totally in the wrong, but Jensen could hear what he was really trying to say. I’m sorry.
“Just give me the dog,” Jensen replied firmly, hoping the man would hear the unspoken yeah, okay, forgiven.
Jared had blown his scenes today. He knew he’d blown them. He would probably have to put in another day reshooting them. He didn’t really care about that right now. He opened the door to his trailer, hoping that Jensen would be back with Sadie because he really needed to see those comforting faces-he’d just spent the day admitting to himself that Harley might be hurt or worse.
Jared was tackled as soon as he was in the trailer. He pushed the dog away.
“Not now, Harley, I’m not in the moo-“
The dog barked and jumped up on him again and this time Jared got down on his knees to wrap his arms around the dog in shock.
“You? How?”
“Sadie did all the real work,” Jensen said with a smile, watching Jared tumble with his dogs for a few seconds. Jared stood up and tried one of his tricks on Harley-not to make sure it was him, he would know the dog anywhere-but just for the familiar assurance that it was Harley and he was really back. Sadie never had the discipline for tricks.
“Pow pow!” Jared said, pretending to shoot Harley. Harley froze up and fell over playing dead, holding the pose for a few seconds, then raising his head and opening one eye as if to remind Jared that he was actually alive and waiting for a treat. Jared tossed him one and turned to Jensen. He was so happy, he could kiss him.
“Dude, I think I’m in love with you right now.”
Jensen kind of flinched and, for the second time, Jared was kind of shocked to understand him. The first time had been the chess game, but this was something bigger. Jensen was the only person who ever made sense to him without explaining his feelings; he was lucky people seemed to like him without much effort because he had no idea how to actually know what they wanted. Right now, he was pretty sure he really could kiss Jensen and he was not as surprised as he should have been to discover that he wanted to.
“Yeah, well, I’ve gotta go do my scenes now. But you three have a lovely reunion.”
Jensen was at the trailer door before Jared stopped him.
“Wait,” he begged, his fingers wrapping around Jensen’s wrist. Jensen turned to face him slowly.
“Yeah?”
Jensen’s entire face was covered by the enormous hand pressed softly against his cheek. Jared leaned in and kissed him. He didn’t deepen the kiss; he didn’t insist for more, he was just happy to feel Jensen return it. That was enough for the moment, maybe more than enough.
Jared could hear Jensen fumbling behind him for something that he was unwilling to pull out of the kiss to find. Jensen’s hands finally met the door knob and Jared felt Jensen stumble backwards out of the kiss as the door opened behind him.
“I really do have to do my scenes,” he said apologetically.
“Come over later?”
“For what? Chess? What’s the point, you always win!” But Jared could tell he was only playing around, that they were in the endgame and that it was a stalemate again, one they were both going to win.
“See you later, asshole,” Jared said giving Jensen a slight shove out the door.
Jared watched Jensen walking away, completely aware that Jensen was attempting to do the cool-guy walk-away-without-looking-back thing. He was a little disappointed when it looked like Jensen was going to make it around the corner and out of his sight without another acknowledgement.
Just a moment before successfully disappearing, Jensen turned. His smile and the accompanying crow’s feet were kind of blinding. Jared had to wonder how he’d missed noticing how beautiful that was for almost two years. Harley and Sadie barked him out of his daze, insisting he take them home; Jared couldn’t think of a happier moment in his life.
[15]