Five Time Two - Part four
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I wonder what Jensen’s doing right now, Jared thought for the hundredth time since his best friend and co-star left for Los Angeles that morning. He sighed and berated himself for acting like a fourteen year old girl during the Backstreet Boys' heyday.
Damn, he was ridiculous - it was not like Jensen was never coming back, and it was not like he would be gone for long. He had said a week. They had gone without seeing each other for longer than that before.
But I could always call him any time I wanted, Jared’s irritating inner voice reminded him. That was true, but this trip Jensen had planned with Danneel was a delicate one, a way for Jensen to break things up but keep the air clear. Jared knew Jensen had let static build between Danneel and himself. He hadn’t made any attempt to see her, or expressed any particular desire to do so, for weeks now, but clearly Danneel hadn’t taken the hint, instead strongly insisting that Jensen visit her in L.A this week. Of course, Jensen saw it as a perfect opportunity of letting her down gently once and for all, yet Danneel…
Well, Jared was pretty sure she wasn’t about to give up on the man that easily. She’d be stupid to do so, Jared admitted to himself somewhat begrudgingly, but he knew Jensen didn’t love her.
Of course, Jensen never said he loved Jared instead of Danneel, but hey, a guy could only hope. Jared sighed again. His relationship with Jensen, well, his romantic relationship with Jensen, only existed in the unsaid words, the private and intimate touches, the heated looks and meaningful gestures. It was there albeit unreachable until one of them decided to grab it, and it wasn’t going to be Jared. He had no shame admitting that he was scared to be that vulnerable again. Sandy pretty much had taken that confidence away from him.
Jensen had been working every second of every day trying to give that confidence back to him. Jared had never been that close to another man, or another person for that matter, and little by little their casual touches became more pronounced, held more intent, and without Jared realizing it, they went from falling asleep together on the couch to Jensen kissing the back of Jared's neck when he was busy cooking.
Something had to give.
So Jared could admit to himself that he was the wife in this unspoken relationship, because a small jealous, insecure part of himself was scared to death that Danneel would manage to change Jensen’s mind about Jared.
Irritated, he checked his watch. Tom and Mike had still thirty minutes left before bringing the pizzas, beer and themselves here, so Jared decided to play with Harley and Sadie in the backyard. As he called his babies, he heard a noise coming from the front door. Both Harley and Sadie stopped on their way towards him and took an alert stance that made Jared raise his eyebrows. The door was closed and locked; there was no reason to panic. His gaze darted from the door to the dogs before he jumped when the unmistakeable sound of a key turning into a lock resounded loudly in the room. A second later, Harley started growling.
Before Jared could think about the situation, much less react to it, the front door opened and revealed Christian Kane, Steve Carlson and two other men Jared had never met. That didn’t stop any of them from inviting themselves into his house, and the young men watched as Steve closed the door after them.
Stunned, Jared stood frozen in shock before Sadie’s loud bark and Harley’s threatening growl snapped him right out of it.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing here? And how the hell did you get a key to my house?” Jared demanded harshly, straightening himself to intimidate them with his height, full of indignation and outrage.
The unknown men and Steve stayed silent, all three turning towards Christian, who was looking around the living room, taking in the picture of Jared’s and Jensen’s families mixed together and the other pictures of the two best friends alone. His eyes surveyed the place and the more he watched, the more Jared could see his evident disgust at the life Jensen was so obviously sharing with Jared.
It made Jared angry.
“Kane! You have one minute to explain yourself before I call the cops!”
Christian finally turned his head towards Jared and gave him a cold smile.
“Now, why would you do that, Padalecki? It’s not like me and my buds broke in. Jensen gave me the keys.”
Jared heard the words, but he didn’t believe them. Slowly, like he had to taste how they sounded coming out of his own mouth, Jared repeated them, his voice full of disbelief and unmasked hurt.
“Jensen gave you the keys? Why would he do that?”
Christian’s eyes were cold as his smile widened at the evident hurt in the younger man’s tone.
“Because he wasn’t comfortable with the idea of no one being able to come in except the two of you.”
Shocked, Jared couldn’t even form any words to respond to something so…so…
“He knows you want to fuck him.”
Jared reared back as if someone had slapped him. Bile rose in his throat and he felt like his intestines were trying to twist themselves out of his body. Those words were just so… crude, violent even, and not at all what Jared would associate with his feelings for Jensen. Worse, coming from Kane and in front of others, it was downright degrading and left him vulnerable.
But another part of him, the same part he used to immerse himself in Sam’s character, Jared realized, was keeping a cold, analytic mind about the situation, staying on edge and wary because something was off with this scene. Christian was watching him with an unnatural amount of hatred now. Jared felt a shiver run down his spine.
“See, Jensen and I, we’ve been talking about this for weeks, about this situation. This gay-domesticity crap that you are forcing on him. At the beginning, he stayed with you in your little suburban house to help you get over the way you screwed up your own wedding plans. Of course, since you’re a fucking fag, it’s not like that was going go anywhere anyway, right? Always touching Jensen, you even tried to kiss him in front of the cameras… I pity that poor girl Sandy, really…or maybe she was lucky to dump your ass first.”
Jared could feel the burning rage starting to fill his veins. That asshole… that asshole had no idea…
“But then, Jensen started to see less and less of us, his real friends, the ones who've known him for years. He was being smothered by you, always doing things with you instead of with us or his girl or even his family! Always forced to hang out with your sorry ass, and he couldn’t even say no! I mean, you two are the only leads on that show of yours - if things get screwed up between you two, then the show is done, right? I bet you play that angle to get what you want.” Kane took a deep breath to emphasize the importance of his next words and locked his gaze with Jared’s. “But no more.”
Jared realized then that Steve and one of the other guys was holding a long bag. His gaze stayed on it a minute before slowly looking at Christian’s face. He saw no mercy and no regret for what was about to occur. He only saw hatred, violence, and disgust. It made Jared sick to even be in the presence of that man.
But if Christian and his goons were about to take him down, then he was going to give them a real reason to do so and not that shit that Christian spewed. Never mind the fact that he couldn’t remember if he had a heart anymore, because it promptly disappeared at the idea of Jensen willingly handing the keys of their home over to someone who hated Jared.
“You’re a fucking psycho, Kane; there is no mystery about why you’re alone, and why you always will be. There is no reasoning with you because you’re a fucking homophobe as well, and if anyone should feel disgusted and uneasy here, it’s me. The four of you make me want to puke.”
Christian’s face slowly turned red while Steve extracted four baseball bats out of the bag. Jared could practically hear his brother’s voice in his head, “Don’t let them think they hurt you before they actually do, and even then don’t show them anything. Bullies always want it but they should never get it”.
“And let me tell you something, Jensen is the one who likes to kiss my neck every time I cook. He’s the one who caresses my hair when I fall asleep, and he’s the one who…”
Jared was cut short by a violent swing of the baseball bat into his stomach. That had to be the most violent thing that ever happened to him in his whole life. The shock, the horror, the injustice of what he was about to live through fell on him like the world's weight on the most discouraged man’s shoulder. They were here for blood and he knew it, but he was going to give them a reason.
“Jealous, possessive little bitch, ain’t you, Kane?”
This time the baseball bat hit him on the side of his head, and Jared fell on the ground with a startled cry. He was vaguely aware of one of the men locking Harley and Sadie in the closet when the dogs tried to attacked them, and worry for his babies gave him the strength to straighten up, only to be brought down again by a vicious kick in his kidneys.
As a world of pain started to steadily envelop him, insults, shameful names, and the cruelest truths were thrown at him, leaving him even more ravaged. Jared screamed, but he never begged.
Unfortunately, he never passed out either, until they deemed the attack complete and left.
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Jensen looked around the luxurious hotel room he and Danneel were staying in. He passed a weary hand over his face and darted a look at the closed door of the patio, where his girlfriend locked herself a few minutes earlier.
Jensen had reluctantly taken his flight at ten a.m. this morning and it was past noon when he arrived in L.A. He didn’t really know what to expect since Danneel had planned the whole trip to be a relaxing surprise. He was supposed to know nothing about it and just enjoy it, but he certainly wasn’t happy about staying in a romantic suite where the bed was covered by red rose petals and with two glasses of wine on the bedside table.
He pleaded fatigue and an uncomfortable flight to escape any explanation about why he wasn’t eager to get into bed with her, but even in his denial, he knew Danneel couldn’t be that oblivious. Or at least he hoped so.
The familiar guilt settled on his stomach as he thought of how much of an asshole he probably appeared to be to her right now. In his defense, every time he had tried to talk seriously to her about their relationship, she had found a way to change or deflect the conversation, even if she had to provoke a fight about other things.
Like Jared.
That seemed to be the favorite subject of Danneel’s wrath these last weeks. Her virulent rants more than once turned vicious as she made it her mission to prove to A from Z how Jensen spent too much time with his co-star. Next was how tiresome it was to hear everyone ask about Jared and Jensen instead of her and Jensen, and how Jared seemed to monopolize all of Jensen’s time. Finally, it was how Jensen never went to L.A or even to Richardson anymore, how he missed all of Kane’s concerts, and that even when Jensen was hanging out with his friends, Jared always seemed to be there as well.
More often than not, Jensen found himself biting his tongue for snapping out something particularly nasty to her. He never handled it well when someone was bad-mouthing his best friend to begin with, but hearing Jared be trashed because of choices Jensen had made, hearing him belittled like he was a unwanted burden Jensen had to deal with instead of the person he loved the most in this world, was downright impossible.
Really, it wasn’t surprising that when Jensen saw the bed, he snapped. And now Danneel was outside on the patio, sulking, he thought uncharitably, but he didn't feel very sorry. Plus now he was annoyed that he didn’t even know where the damn remote was for that big-ass wide screen on the wall.
The sound of Danneel's phone vibrating against the coffee table interrupted his dark thoughts and he marched towards it. He picked it up and a message from a unknown number came up on the screen.
At V. Moving towards the house. Will call you when it’s done.
Jensen blinked and turned towards Danneel as she entered the room still huffing. She froze when she noticed her phone in Jensen’s hand. Jensen raised one eyebrow.
“You just received a weird message from some unknown number.”
“Really?” Danneel asked, already extending her hand to grab her phone back. “Let me see… huh. Wrong number, I guess.”
She shrugged and closed her phone, putting it in her pocket. Jensen watched her without really knowing why before shaking his head. He cast a nervous glance towards the bed. Now or never, he thought.
“Listen, Danneel, I really think we need to talk.”
She gave him a shrewd look and went to retrieve some clothes from her bag.
“About what?” she asked with irritation.
“About us,” he responded, his tone even.
Danneel actually stopped what she was doing to look at him.
“Look, Jensen, this whole week is about us. I organized the whole trip to help us refocus on our relationship, now that I got you alone for two seconds without Jared side-kicking. We’ll have all the time necessary to talk about whatever you want, but right now I would really like to try the new clothes I bought and you can maybe tell me what you think? Please?”
Jensen’s jaw had twitched at Danneel’s jab about his best friend, but as he was too tired to fight her again, he nodded his assent. For the next forty minutes, he watched her try on outfit after outfit, parading sensually around the room and basically being the fantasy of every man who wasn't already in love with their soul mate.
There is no use, thought Jensen with dark amusement, as he watched Danneel scowl every time he politely turned his gaze away as she undressed. Jared is under my skin, I don’t even remember wanting anyone else… I don’t want to either. I want to go home. Time to end this.
“Danneel!”
She abruptly stopped walking and her eyes almost imperceptibly widened. Jensen pushed down his guilt and steeled himself, but before he could utter a word, his phone rang. He wanted to ignore it, just like he wanted to ignore the relief on his girlfriend’s face, but she said:
“You should take that. I’m gonna change, so don’t stay too long - we’ve got a reservation to the spa.”
Barely containing a shout of frustration, Jensen answered his phone without checking and snarled:
“What?”
“Jensen?”
Confused, Jensen looked at the screen before he brought the phone back to his ear.
“Tom? What’s wrong, dude? You sound like a wreck.”
A weak laugh, sad and broken, made Jensen tensed.
“Tom? What’s wrong?” he repeated in a low voice.
“Jen. It’s Jared... something's happened.”
And just like that, the world crashed.
