Among Us - Chapter 4
<< Chapter 3
It's an elaborate and extensive game of gay chicken.
It's a thousand and one casual touches, a thousand and one scenes spent entirely too close too each other, seeking advice and comfort.
It's taunting and tempting, and it's three long months of dancing around each other, tiptoeing, trying, testing boundaries. There's hugs, there's the occasional grab for the other one's hand or elbow to pull him into the back room or just somewhere else. There's a very heartfelt confession on Jason's part, along the lines of “I'm glad I met you.”
To which Dmitri nods and smiles and says, “Me too,” in such a sweet voice that Pam almost gets a heart attack at the precious face Jensen made in reaction to it.
Her words, not Jensen's.
The fans on twitter are hyped, if the tweets both Misha, Jensen and the showrunner receive every day - among the ever-present haters, of course, because it's the internet - are anything to go by. It goes as far as Misha finally tweeting back, 'You're not crazy,' which makes the headlines of a couple gossip sites.
They get drunk together one evening, after going to Susan's birthday party together, and nothing happens, but barely. Jason stumbles through the door of their apartment, Dmitri hot on his heels with one hand still on Jason's hip, and when Jason turns around he manages to push Dmitri up against the door, closing it in the process.
Pam makes sure to set that scene perfectly.
Jensen's eyes roaming over Misha's body. Eyes, nose, jaw, neck, lips, lips, lips. A soft smile, hooded eyes, and Jensen wants and he doesn't even know any more where Jason begins and he ends, but he wants.
Just like that first night.
He's hard in his pants and Misha doesn't comment on it, although he clearly noticed, if the wide-eyed, hungry look and the way he licked his lips afterwards are anything to go by.
Maybe because Misha subtly tilts his hips forward, rubbing his clothed erection against Jensen's thigh.
Jensen doesn't need to fake the sigh that leaves him in a rush of real arousal and breathless euphoria. God, how he wants this. How had he denied himself this for so long? Right, because it wasn't a good idea to make this thing with Misha a thing.
The ridiculousness of that particular thought only hits Jensen right then, with Misha in his arms, rubbing himself against his thigh, moaning silently, his breath hot puffs of air against Jensen's tingling lips.
This started to become a thing without ever getting awkward.
No matter the ridiculous amount of flirting going on between them so openly, no matter how easy it always has been to just touch Misha for a scene, no matter how much they still want into each other's pants and don't even try to hide it.
“Fuck,” Jensen groans under his breath.
“Cut!” Pam interrupts them, her usual lopsided smirk on her face as she throws her ponytail back over her shoulder. She walks up to them as Jensen takes a step back and her smile is still firmly in place when she says to both of them, “You're doing great. Just. At least try to act subtle.”
Jensen is pretty sure that his face is the color of a tomato and his skin is the degree of the sun's surface.
So they act out the scene the way they're expected to: slow, teasing, Jason leaning in to almost kiss Dmitri, but in the end it's just both of them hesitating, swaying on their feet, their noses brushing, breath mingling, mind-blowing, scorching hot roll of Dmitri's body into Jason's.
“I'm proud of us,” Misha announces afterwards, after a deep sigh.
“Why?” Jensen asks, just to humor Misha.
“Because,” Misha winks at him and turns around.
It's been three months and if anything could describe Jensen's current situation, it's utterly frustrating unresolved sexual tension. Both in and out of character.
They still hang out after work a lot of the time, going for dinner and drinks, mostly just the two of them now since Jared moved on to bigger, better, newer things. It's good, Misha's good for him, Jensen knows. He doesn't take any of Jensen's bullshit and he's quick with a witty reply, sometimes laced with sexual innuendo.
How had he not seen that this was a thing?
***
“So,” Susan starts as she falls down into the cushions of Jason's couch.
Dmitri is downstairs, managing the coffee shop since he announced that Jason worked too much and he'd take care of things for an evening per week, not realizing that this left Jason with basically nothing to do. Except gossip with Susan for exposition and recap scenes.
“What's going on with you and Dmitri?” she asks, then takes a pointed sip from her glass of wine.
Jason coughs on his beer for dramatic reasons, then says entirely unconvincing, “Uh, nothing?”
It's like a dejá vù of that conversation he had with Jared about Misha.
Susan just tilts her head, a move that says, you can't fool me, so don't even try.
“I'm not lying, there's really nothing,” Jason reassures her with a little sigh at the end.
“But you wish there was?”
Another sigh. “God knows this never happened to me before, but I do. I mean look at him, he's--” Jensen gestures, trying to find the word that the script said.
“-- gorgeous,” Allison finishes for him, bless her heart. “I know.”
Jason stares at his hands, picks at a cuticle beside his index finger. “I don't know what to do about it. How do these things work with guys?”
“Well, not much different than with women.”
“Yeah, and here I thought that was complicated enough already,” Jason snorts.
“Just show him,” Susan advises with a gentle smile. “You might be surprised.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” Jason replies a bit irritated.
“I'm pretty sure that your feelings are mutual, judged by how he behaves around you. Seriously, you two are one step away from being the adorable domestic gay couple of the neighborhood. All that's missing is you confessing and calling him cute nicknames.”
Jason averts his eyes, thinks about calling Dmitri 'honey' or 'darling', and promptly starts laughing.
“Thanks,” he says to Allison.
“Just do it,” she adds with her eyebrows high on her forehead.
***
It's not a confession that Jensen gets to act out with Misha ten days later.
It's a whole episode centered around them, around their casual everyday coffee dates in the afternoon and hanging out on the couch in the evening. A whole episode of them bickering with each other - “You don't need to treat me to ice cream, come on, I can pay for--” - “I wouldn't pay for it if I didn't want to or couldn't afford to.” - of Susan giving them suggestive looks, of Jason touching Dmitri every chance he gets, casual little touches to his shoulders, to his sides, to the small of his back.
It all hits an abrupt and taciturn end in the evening.
They return home for the night, sober, for the record, and Jason takes Dmitri's coat to stow it away in the wardrobe while Dmitri puts their shoes away. They both drop their keys in the bowl beside the door, hands almost brushing. They head into the kitchen, and Jason wordlessly hands Dmitri a bottle of cool water from the fridge-- and in that simple move, the magic is sparked.
Their fingers meet against the bottle, but Dmitri doesn't pull away. Instead, he looks at Jason, eyes locking, staring, taking it all in. Hoping.
It's pure instinct when Jason pulls Dmitri in to kiss him.
Just, straight to the point, kisses him. There's going to be sappy music accompanying this moment when it airs, and it'll be cheesy and people will freak out about it, depending on which side of the fans they're on.
Misha makes the kiss nice and slow and deep, and Jensen loves that, so he responds in kind. When they pull apart, Jensen groans, “Misha.”
Pam hollers from the sidelines. “Now if Jensen would've used the correct name, we'd print that. Still rolling.”
Jensen feels Misha's lips against his, both familiar and new, chapped and full and he wants those lips in other places. They kiss, definitely longer than necessary, just for the hell of it and because it feels that good. It's like the first time in a way that they're two pieces of a puzzle just having waited for being joined, clicking from the moment they met.
But Misha is grinning now, lips drawn into a smile against Jensen's, the vibration of a light chuckle making Jensen wanton and needy.
There's the part that says, 'Fuck, I missed this. Do you have any idea?'
There's the part that says, 'I love kissing you.'
There's the part that says, 'I still want you.'
Jensen hopes, he hopes so much that he can fix this. Because it's Misha and by god if he even doubted for a second that Misha's feelings for him might have disappeared after more than four months that Jensen had him wait, he's mistaken. It's all there, right there in the way Misha's kissing him. He's never been good with explaining himself or his feelings, so Jensen chooses the easiest way - answering Misha by how he kisses him.
He just hopes the kiss says everything.
When they break apart, Jensen has never heard Pam utter the word 'Cut,' so awestruck.
“More,” Misha groans, pulling Jensen in close again, hands fisted into his collar.
Jensen tries to deflect by turning his head but doesn't get that far, because Misha has cupped his face in his hands and pulls him in to kiss him again.
Jensen practically hears Pam rubbing her palms with delight.
“Jay,” Misha mumbles against his lips.
“Not now,” Jensen says and pulls Misha's bottom lip between his teeth, nibbling carefully before pulling back. “Later,” he whispers, barely loud enough for Misha to hear.
“Okay,” Misha agrees, slumping against the kitchen counter at his back. He mouths 'Fuck,' so that only Jensen can see it, and Jensen is still too busy picking his jaw up from the floor.
Jensen huffs in agreement, wipes the back of his hand over his tingling lips. Misha watches him, so intensely, so affectionately, that Jensen can just stare and wonder and, “Still?” he asks, quietly.
Misha shrugs, seeming embarrassed as he ducks his head, but when he looks back up, it's with a suggestive, hopeful smile on his lips.
Jensen breaks into a grin.
Misha does, too.
“Guys,” Pam steps up to them with a bright smile. “I'm happy for you two, but can we just finish the scene before you start tearing each other's clothes off in front of the camera? We are a family show, after all.”
“I guess we can do that,” Jensen states, embarrassed.
Misha winks at him when Pam turns around.
They mess up the scene five times just to get more takes of kissing each other.
***
They can't get back to Jensen's apartment soon enough afterwards.
By some mysterious rule, they calm down as soon as the door has closed behind them, though, and Jensen takes a deep breath before he sits down on the sofa.
“So, what's the plan?” Misha asks softly when he takes a seat beside Jensen, knees knocking against each other's.
“Well, I'd hope that we could start over, you know. Start for real, this time,” Jensen tries.
“And it took you half a year to figure that out?” Misha quirks an eyebrow at him, and Jensen knows it's only half a joke.
“It took me half a year to realize that I want to try this and make the best of it.”
Misha clucks his tongue and shakes his head, a tiny smile on his lips. “You're a cruel man, Jensen Ackles.”
“I'm sorry, I am,” Jensen sighs, then adds, “Maybe you should leave me waiting for three months in return. I'll wait, promise.”
Misha grins, but then throws his leg over Jensen's thighs, slides into his lap.
And yes, Jensen has had women do that to him, but he's never had a lapful of guy, six feet and change of him, broad and muscled with stubble on his cheeks and a wild gleam in his eyes. He's done for, so, so very done for, because he's in love with this guy, because he's in very gay love with Misha's very gay face.
As if that didn't just slay Jensen and as if that didn’t make him need to grab onto Misha's thigh and hip and hold on for dear life, Misha leans in right then to whisper into his ear, “Well, I hate to break it to you, but contrary to popular belief, I am not an angel of the lord, and I surely am no saint. I couldn't wait another second.”
And with that, Misha captures his lips, kisses him until Jensen is smiling and shuddering and so happy he can barely breathe.
***
Another round of promoting the show over Christmas break, another round of interviews.
“Tell us something random about Jensen, Misha?”
“Sometimes... we will be at dinner sometimes, and Jensen goes, 'C'mon, bring it out, Dmitri.'”
***
Meanwhile, in the interview beside that one.
“Honestly, I love you Misha, it's from the bottom of my heart that I say that. I love you.”
THE END
<< Chapter 3 | Masterpost
It's an elaborate and extensive game of gay chicken.
It's a thousand and one casual touches, a thousand and one scenes spent entirely too close too each other, seeking advice and comfort.
It's taunting and tempting, and it's three long months of dancing around each other, tiptoeing, trying, testing boundaries. There's hugs, there's the occasional grab for the other one's hand or elbow to pull him into the back room or just somewhere else. There's a very heartfelt confession on Jason's part, along the lines of “I'm glad I met you.”
To which Dmitri nods and smiles and says, “Me too,” in such a sweet voice that Pam almost gets a heart attack at the precious face Jensen made in reaction to it.
Her words, not Jensen's.
The fans on twitter are hyped, if the tweets both Misha, Jensen and the showrunner receive every day - among the ever-present haters, of course, because it's the internet - are anything to go by. It goes as far as Misha finally tweeting back, 'You're not crazy,' which makes the headlines of a couple gossip sites.
They get drunk together one evening, after going to Susan's birthday party together, and nothing happens, but barely. Jason stumbles through the door of their apartment, Dmitri hot on his heels with one hand still on Jason's hip, and when Jason turns around he manages to push Dmitri up against the door, closing it in the process.
Pam makes sure to set that scene perfectly.
Jensen's eyes roaming over Misha's body. Eyes, nose, jaw, neck, lips, lips, lips. A soft smile, hooded eyes, and Jensen wants and he doesn't even know any more where Jason begins and he ends, but he wants.
Just like that first night.
He's hard in his pants and Misha doesn't comment on it, although he clearly noticed, if the wide-eyed, hungry look and the way he licked his lips afterwards are anything to go by.
Maybe because Misha subtly tilts his hips forward, rubbing his clothed erection against Jensen's thigh.
Jensen doesn't need to fake the sigh that leaves him in a rush of real arousal and breathless euphoria. God, how he wants this. How had he denied himself this for so long? Right, because it wasn't a good idea to make this thing with Misha a thing.
The ridiculousness of that particular thought only hits Jensen right then, with Misha in his arms, rubbing himself against his thigh, moaning silently, his breath hot puffs of air against Jensen's tingling lips.
This started to become a thing without ever getting awkward.
No matter the ridiculous amount of flirting going on between them so openly, no matter how easy it always has been to just touch Misha for a scene, no matter how much they still want into each other's pants and don't even try to hide it.
“Fuck,” Jensen groans under his breath.
“Cut!” Pam interrupts them, her usual lopsided smirk on her face as she throws her ponytail back over her shoulder. She walks up to them as Jensen takes a step back and her smile is still firmly in place when she says to both of them, “You're doing great. Just. At least try to act subtle.”
Jensen is pretty sure that his face is the color of a tomato and his skin is the degree of the sun's surface.
So they act out the scene the way they're expected to: slow, teasing, Jason leaning in to almost kiss Dmitri, but in the end it's just both of them hesitating, swaying on their feet, their noses brushing, breath mingling, mind-blowing, scorching hot roll of Dmitri's body into Jason's.
“I'm proud of us,” Misha announces afterwards, after a deep sigh.
“Why?” Jensen asks, just to humor Misha.
“Because,” Misha winks at him and turns around.
It's been three months and if anything could describe Jensen's current situation, it's utterly frustrating unresolved sexual tension. Both in and out of character.
They still hang out after work a lot of the time, going for dinner and drinks, mostly just the two of them now since Jared moved on to bigger, better, newer things. It's good, Misha's good for him, Jensen knows. He doesn't take any of Jensen's bullshit and he's quick with a witty reply, sometimes laced with sexual innuendo.
How had he not seen that this was a thing?
***
“So,” Susan starts as she falls down into the cushions of Jason's couch.
Dmitri is downstairs, managing the coffee shop since he announced that Jason worked too much and he'd take care of things for an evening per week, not realizing that this left Jason with basically nothing to do. Except gossip with Susan for exposition and recap scenes.
“What's going on with you and Dmitri?” she asks, then takes a pointed sip from her glass of wine.
Jason coughs on his beer for dramatic reasons, then says entirely unconvincing, “Uh, nothing?”
It's like a dejá vù of that conversation he had with Jared about Misha.
Susan just tilts her head, a move that says, you can't fool me, so don't even try.
“I'm not lying, there's really nothing,” Jason reassures her with a little sigh at the end.
“But you wish there was?”
Another sigh. “God knows this never happened to me before, but I do. I mean look at him, he's--” Jensen gestures, trying to find the word that the script said.
“-- gorgeous,” Allison finishes for him, bless her heart. “I know.”
Jason stares at his hands, picks at a cuticle beside his index finger. “I don't know what to do about it. How do these things work with guys?”
“Well, not much different than with women.”
“Yeah, and here I thought that was complicated enough already,” Jason snorts.
“Just show him,” Susan advises with a gentle smile. “You might be surprised.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” Jason replies a bit irritated.
“I'm pretty sure that your feelings are mutual, judged by how he behaves around you. Seriously, you two are one step away from being the adorable domestic gay couple of the neighborhood. All that's missing is you confessing and calling him cute nicknames.”
Jason averts his eyes, thinks about calling Dmitri 'honey' or 'darling', and promptly starts laughing.
“Thanks,” he says to Allison.
“Just do it,” she adds with her eyebrows high on her forehead.
***
It's not a confession that Jensen gets to act out with Misha ten days later.
It's a whole episode centered around them, around their casual everyday coffee dates in the afternoon and hanging out on the couch in the evening. A whole episode of them bickering with each other - “You don't need to treat me to ice cream, come on, I can pay for--” - “I wouldn't pay for it if I didn't want to or couldn't afford to.” - of Susan giving them suggestive looks, of Jason touching Dmitri every chance he gets, casual little touches to his shoulders, to his sides, to the small of his back.
It all hits an abrupt and taciturn end in the evening.
They return home for the night, sober, for the record, and Jason takes Dmitri's coat to stow it away in the wardrobe while Dmitri puts their shoes away. They both drop their keys in the bowl beside the door, hands almost brushing. They head into the kitchen, and Jason wordlessly hands Dmitri a bottle of cool water from the fridge-- and in that simple move, the magic is sparked.
Their fingers meet against the bottle, but Dmitri doesn't pull away. Instead, he looks at Jason, eyes locking, staring, taking it all in. Hoping.
It's pure instinct when Jason pulls Dmitri in to kiss him.
Just, straight to the point, kisses him. There's going to be sappy music accompanying this moment when it airs, and it'll be cheesy and people will freak out about it, depending on which side of the fans they're on.
Misha makes the kiss nice and slow and deep, and Jensen loves that, so he responds in kind. When they pull apart, Jensen groans, “Misha.”
Pam hollers from the sidelines. “Now if Jensen would've used the correct name, we'd print that. Still rolling.”
Jensen feels Misha's lips against his, both familiar and new, chapped and full and he wants those lips in other places. They kiss, definitely longer than necessary, just for the hell of it and because it feels that good. It's like the first time in a way that they're two pieces of a puzzle just having waited for being joined, clicking from the moment they met.
But Misha is grinning now, lips drawn into a smile against Jensen's, the vibration of a light chuckle making Jensen wanton and needy.
There's the part that says, 'Fuck, I missed this. Do you have any idea?'
There's the part that says, 'I love kissing you.'
There's the part that says, 'I still want you.'
Jensen hopes, he hopes so much that he can fix this. Because it's Misha and by god if he even doubted for a second that Misha's feelings for him might have disappeared after more than four months that Jensen had him wait, he's mistaken. It's all there, right there in the way Misha's kissing him. He's never been good with explaining himself or his feelings, so Jensen chooses the easiest way - answering Misha by how he kisses him.
He just hopes the kiss says everything.
When they break apart, Jensen has never heard Pam utter the word 'Cut,' so awestruck.
“More,” Misha groans, pulling Jensen in close again, hands fisted into his collar.
Jensen tries to deflect by turning his head but doesn't get that far, because Misha has cupped his face in his hands and pulls him in to kiss him again.
Jensen practically hears Pam rubbing her palms with delight.
“Jay,” Misha mumbles against his lips.
“Not now,” Jensen says and pulls Misha's bottom lip between his teeth, nibbling carefully before pulling back. “Later,” he whispers, barely loud enough for Misha to hear.
“Okay,” Misha agrees, slumping against the kitchen counter at his back. He mouths 'Fuck,' so that only Jensen can see it, and Jensen is still too busy picking his jaw up from the floor.
Jensen huffs in agreement, wipes the back of his hand over his tingling lips. Misha watches him, so intensely, so affectionately, that Jensen can just stare and wonder and, “Still?” he asks, quietly.
Misha shrugs, seeming embarrassed as he ducks his head, but when he looks back up, it's with a suggestive, hopeful smile on his lips.
Jensen breaks into a grin.
Misha does, too.
“Guys,” Pam steps up to them with a bright smile. “I'm happy for you two, but can we just finish the scene before you start tearing each other's clothes off in front of the camera? We are a family show, after all.”
“I guess we can do that,” Jensen states, embarrassed.
Misha winks at him when Pam turns around.
They mess up the scene five times just to get more takes of kissing each other.
***
They can't get back to Jensen's apartment soon enough afterwards.
By some mysterious rule, they calm down as soon as the door has closed behind them, though, and Jensen takes a deep breath before he sits down on the sofa.
“So, what's the plan?” Misha asks softly when he takes a seat beside Jensen, knees knocking against each other's.
“Well, I'd hope that we could start over, you know. Start for real, this time,” Jensen tries.
“And it took you half a year to figure that out?” Misha quirks an eyebrow at him, and Jensen knows it's only half a joke.
“It took me half a year to realize that I want to try this and make the best of it.”
Misha clucks his tongue and shakes his head, a tiny smile on his lips. “You're a cruel man, Jensen Ackles.”
“I'm sorry, I am,” Jensen sighs, then adds, “Maybe you should leave me waiting for three months in return. I'll wait, promise.”
Misha grins, but then throws his leg over Jensen's thighs, slides into his lap.
And yes, Jensen has had women do that to him, but he's never had a lapful of guy, six feet and change of him, broad and muscled with stubble on his cheeks and a wild gleam in his eyes. He's done for, so, so very done for, because he's in love with this guy, because he's in very gay love with Misha's very gay face.
As if that didn't just slay Jensen and as if that didn’t make him need to grab onto Misha's thigh and hip and hold on for dear life, Misha leans in right then to whisper into his ear, “Well, I hate to break it to you, but contrary to popular belief, I am not an angel of the lord, and I surely am no saint. I couldn't wait another second.”
And with that, Misha captures his lips, kisses him until Jensen is smiling and shuddering and so happy he can barely breathe.
***
Another round of promoting the show over Christmas break, another round of interviews.
“Tell us something random about Jensen, Misha?”
“Sometimes... we will be at dinner sometimes, and Jensen goes, 'C'mon, bring it out, Dmitri.'”
***
Meanwhile, in the interview beside that one.
“Honestly, I love you Misha, it's from the bottom of my heart that I say that. I love you.”
THE END
<< Chapter 3 | Masterpost