Next Best Thing (Jared/Jensen RPS, PG)

Aug 24, 2007 21:52

Title: Next Best Thing
Rating: PG (boys cuddling only)
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Prompt: (#69 at schmoopfest) Jared's t-shirts keep going missing and he finally figures out that Jensen has been stealing them to sleep in when they're separated. That's pretty much the summary of the fic, so.
Notes: Thanks to nudaydreamer for the beta; this is entirely a piece of fluff.


On Wednesday, Jensen went over to Jared's apartment like he always did after filming was over. Usually they played video games or watched a sporting event or a manly movie on television, but this time Jensen sat cross-legged on the bed and watched Jared pack for his upcoming trip.

"Aren't you bored?" Jared asked, folding another shirt haphazardly and throwing it at his suitcase. He loved traveling, the new opportunities and adventures to discover, the new people to meet, the new places to explore, but he hated packing; folding clothes was boring and he always forgot the one most important thing he was supposed to bring, whatever it happened to be for that particular trip.

"No," Jensen said, lounging back on the bed sinfully. "Besides, I have to get my Jared time while I can, since you'll be gone until Monday."

Jared shook his head at him. "It's a family wedding, and you have solo scenes to film," he said, but he was ridiculously pleased underneath the exasperation, because it was nice to have Jensen missing him.

Jensen pouted.

"Dude," Jared said. "You're pouting. What's that about?"

Jensen tried to keep pouting and grin at him at the same time, and Jared had to tackle him to the bed in self-defense, or something too cute for words might have happened accidentally.

In the morning, after Jensen had left for the set, Jared went back to packing but couldn't find his favorite blue t-shirt, the one that was so old the writing had all faded out. Jensen might call him girly, but the shirt was really soft and super comfortable, and he wore it all the time.

In the end Jared had to leave without it or he would have missed his flight. On Monday evening, when he went to do laundry, he found it hidden at the bottom of the dirty clothes pile, and he figured he must have forgotten putting it there before he left. At least it wasn't lost.

~

Several weeks later, on a Thursday, Jared brought a shopping list to the set.

"Whatcha reading?" Jensen asked, looking over his shoulder on a break.

"Shopping list. I gotta get a bunch of stuff on my way home," Jared replied, crossing out 'grapes' and adding 'orange juice' next to it.

"Food and undershirts?" Jensen asked.

"All of my shirts are gone," Jared said, turning to look at him. "I wear them, and I put them on the laundry pile -"

"You mean on the floor?" Jensen interrupted.

"Hey, my laundry pile does not take up the entire floor," Jared protested, glaring. Jensen looked at him innocently. "Anyway, after I do laundry, there are always less of them. So I'm going to go buy more," Jared said.

"Maybe you should start getting your laundry done by someone, a service or something," Jensen suggested.

"My mother taught me how to do laundry," Jared said, a tiny bit insulted. "I know how to separate the whites and colors and everything. There are probably gremlins in the laundry machine who eat shirts, or something."

The next time Jared did laundry, he had more undershirts instead of less, which just figured, since he had bought a lot of them at the store.

~

On Friday night, the day before their week of freedom, Jensen came over to Jared's place, and instead of packing, they watched movies, ate pizza, and played old-school Nintendo while drinking beer until they were too drunk to focus on Dr Mario. Jared passed out on the couch, and woke some time later with Jensen half curled on top of him and half falling off the couch. Jared shook him partially awake and managed to move them to his bed, throwing clothes haphazardly on the floor before falling back asleep.

In the morning, Jensen woke him with barely half an hour to catch his plane. They scrambled around the room, throwing clothes into bags and running into each other.

When Jared got home he discovered he'd forgotten to pack his socks and the pajama shirt he only ever wore at home (because his parents preferred that he not walk around naked like he did in his own apartment).

Later when he talked to Jensen on the phone, Jared remarked on all his missing clothes.

"It's just that I only ever wear that shirt at home. It lives in my suitcase. Why would I have forgotten to pack it? I probably never took it out the last time!" Jared said.

"I dunno, it was pretty crazy packing," Jensen drawled. "You'll probably find it on the floor or something when you get back."

Jensen was back in Vancouver about 4 hours before Jared was, and Jared returned home to find Jensen sprawled on his couch, eating his food.

"Found your pjs," Jensen said, pointing at the coffee table where they were neatly folded. "On the floor under some other dirty clothes."

"Thanks," Jared said, carting his suitcase to the bedroom.

~

Jared and Jensen were both in Chicago on Saturday, with interviews lined up together for once. They were even booked in the same hotel, although not the same floor. When Jensen left the interview for an extra dinner with some important people, and Jared had to go to another radio spot, he passed Jensen his extra room key and said he'd meet him later that night.

At about midnight, Jared finally got back to his hotel room to find Jensen already asleep. He was curled up on the edge of the bed, hand tucked under his cheek, blankets twisted around his waist. He looked totally adorable, although Jared would have never said that out loud.

He was also wearing Jared's favorite plain black t-shirt. The one which had been missing for a month.

Jared climbed into bed next to him, pulling the covers out so he could slide under them and wrap his arms around Jensen's waist.

"Mmm," Jensen said.

"Jen," Jared said, seriously.

"Missed you," Jensen mumbled, shifting and curling around him, pushing his face into Jared's chest.

"You stole my shirt," Jared said.

"'Kay," Jensen said, worming a hand up under Jared's other black shirt, the less-awesome one.

"I want it back," Jared said.

"'m sleeping," Jensen said. "Later." He snuggled closer, sliding a leg in between Jared's, and drifted off again.

The next morning when Jared awoke Jensen was already gone, heading out to do some other interview in some other city. The black t-shirt was on the top of the laundry pile next to his suitcase.

In Vegas, two days later, Jared discovered his red t-shirt, previously in the 'clean' section, was missing.

~

"Have you seen my Texas sweatshirt?" Jared yelled to Jensen on a Saturday afternoon.

"Which one?" Jensen called back from the kitchen.

"I only have one," Jared said. "It says 'Texas' on it. It's a hooded sweatshirt. I wear it around the house on weekends. It's grey, and kind of falling apart."

"Ummmm, you mean this one?" Jensen asked. Jared stepped into the kitchen to see his missing sweatshirt currently on Jensen's body.

"Get your own sweatshirts," Jared said, attempting to pull it over Jensen's head.

"Yours is more comfortable," Jensen mumbled into the fabric.

"I'm sorry," Jared said, when he had successfully taken the sweatshirt off and could see Jensen's face. "Mine is more what?"

Jensen shrugged.

"Because you also stole my black t-shirt that one time, and then swapped it for my red t-shirt, and I am so, so onto you right now," Jared said, poking him in the chest. "You took my undershirts, didn't you? And my pajama shirt? And my favorite blue t-shirt?"

"That thing is falling apart," Jensen said, in a bad attempt to change the subject.

"Why did you take them?" Jared asked.

Jensen ducked his head and shrugged again, staring at the floor.

"You know, no real reason," he said.

"Dude, you've been stealing my clothes for months!" Jared said. "You have your own clothes, what do you want with mine?"

"They, um, smell like you," Jensen said quietly.

"So, what, you lie around and sniff them?"

"I maybe sometimes consider sleeping in them, like, when you aren't here," Jensen admitted.

Jared whacked him on the shoulder. "You're such a girl," he said, but he was smiling affectionately.

"Can we have food now?" Jensen asked plaintively.

Jared nodded, and they didn't talk about the clothes-stealing anymore. But two weeks later, when Jensen had to go home for the weekend for his mother's birthday, Jared made sure to tuck his favorite black t-shirt, worn once, into Jensen's suitcase.

fandom: rpf/rps, rating: pg, pairing: jared/jensen

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