The Love That Remains Masterpost - J2 Big Bang 2016
Title: The Love That Remains
Author: lullysg
Artist: 2blueshoes
Betas: kazluvsbooks & buticankarriyou
Pairing: Jared Padalecki/Jensen Ackles
Other characters: Chad Michael Murray, Christian Kane, Danneel Harris, Steve Carlson, Milo Ventimiglia, Stephen Amell, Sophia Bush, Alona Tal, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jared and Jensen's families
Genre: RPF AU
Rating: NC17
Word Count: 109k
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and I only borrowed names. I don't own any of those characters, unfortunately.
Warnings: a note before warnings - I want to say that, even though it has a lot of warnings, this fic is kinda light overall, there's nothing too graphic, so if you don't have any triggers, I'd like to ask you to skip the warnings, because they spoil the story a great deal, so I think it would be way nicer to go for it while in the dark. It's up to you!
drama, homophobia, intolerant family, coming out, teen angst, drug addiction and withdrawal symptoms, suicide attempt, first time, religious issues, faith, hurt!Jensen, hurt!Jared, hurt/comfort, permanent injury, gunpoint, kidnapping, non-con, mention of minor character death, lots of romance
Summary: It’s a story about loss. About an 11 year old boy who falls in love with a boy with blue hair at a summer camp. This is a story about how both boys part ways too soon, but change each other’s lives forever. This is a story about dreams.
About how, years later, a guy meets a homeless man, is drawn to him in a way he can’t explain, and feels an inexplicable need to help him. A story about how the heart knows, even when the eyes don’t. This is a story about destiny.
There’s a boy named Jared and there’s another named Jensen, and this is their story. How they lost and found each other, and how they must battle their inner demons, have faith in themselves and in one another. This is the story about two boys fighting to finally have the happy ending they’ve been dreaming about their entire lives, and to find their own definition of happiness. It’s a story about love.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - Epilogue
Art Masterpost / Ao3
Soundtrack on 8tracks / Youtube
Notes:
The idea for this fic came to me more than one year ago, even before my last big bang was posted (funny story, I was outlining this one while the fics were being claimed by artists). The story of this fic is the most important thing I've ever written because it's very personal, based on an event that happened in my real life. A couple years ago or so, I made a post on Tumblr sharing my story, about how I met a special boy when I went to summer camp at 11 years old, and never forgot about him. A couple people told me that it would make an amazing fanfic, and that thought stayed with me. I’ve been thinking about turning it into J2 since then, but it had to be pretty damn good for me to write it. I even considered writing a ficlet, but gave up on it, it had to be a big story. So last year, I came to my Wifey and told her about this idea for a fic, a young Jared meeting Jensen at a camp and falling in love with him. We both did some brainstorming to create a good story with a strong plot, specially to what should happen to the boys after they grew up. So I’ve been dedicating myself to this story for the past year, making it as special as it needs to be because it means the world to me. I wanted to write a story where the boys loved only each other for their whole lives. This is my love letter for Jared and Jensen.
So now, I want to thank a few people:
First of all, I would like to thank my Wifey Karri buticankarriyou, who was the first person to hear about this, who gave me amazing ideas that made the story much better (a lot of what you'll read here came from her!), who was always there to help me when I needed it, for cheering me up through it all, for becoming my second beta in the end even though it wasn't planned for this one, giving her 'okay' for the story to be posted and simply for being there from the first idea to "the end". This story wouldn’t exist without you, thank you for another amazing partnership.
Sarah, for saving me a lot of research time, helping me specially in the technical aspects (I won’t get into details as not to spoil it), providing me with accurate informations so I could be as real as possible in what I was gonna write. Also Heather, for helping me as well, cheering me up through it all and for being the first person to read it and give me feedback, telling me it didn’t suck.
Kaz kazluvsbooks, for being an awesome beta, making suggestion and additions to make the story even better. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this and for the hard work!.
My amazing artist 2blueshoes for choosing my story and creating incredible art for it that made me emotional. Thank you for giving life to my words.
Wendy for hosting this challenge one more year, thank you for the hard work and the opportunity.
Any inaccuracies you might find in this story are my own fault. I took some poetic licenses here and there so I could make the story the way I wanted. Some scenes you read here, from the camp part to be specific, were based on events that happened in real life, about 16 years ago. Others were created or modified by me so Jared and Jensen could have their own original story. And of course, apart from the camp, the rest of the fic is completely fictional, not being based on real life events.
PS 1: I borrowed the name of the camp from the real one that I went to, I just translated it. The bar Fitzsimons really exists, but the original one is situated in Dublin, Ireland and it’s called Fitzsimons of Temple Bar. I lived there for a period of my life and I used to hang out at Fitz.
PS 2: The original title of this fic was As Long As You Love Me, from the Backstreet Boys song, which I love. After thinking a lot and coming up with some options, I chose a new one, which sums up the story perfectly. But I still used the original title and other parts of the song as the titles for the three parts of the story.
So anyway, I wrote this story mainly because I wanted to give my own story a happy ending, in the ways I could. So The Love That Remains is dedicated to the person who inspired it in the first place. I haven’t seen him in more than 16 years, I’m sure he’s happy somewhere out there, but to this day, a part of him remains with me, and forever will.
Wherever you are, this one is for you, R. Thank you for noticing me and for the hug in the porch. I still hope I can bump into you someday and give the real story a continuation as well.
*All the feedback is very much appreciated! I'd love to hear your thoughts about this story!*