America's Son - Two
Pro & 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5, Epi, Notes
::
The Ackles were a name in Texas before Jensen’s father was elected, after that it was impossible to have much anonymity. Jensen grew up surrounded by people and well known by the masses.
When he wasn’t in Texas being the governor’s son, he was on the Massachusetts coast, being one of the elite Ackles clan. It was neither a small brood, nor poor, or anything remotely close to un-influential.
For all the name recognition he had, he should have been more present in the media, but he usually was in the shadows. He was never really recognized as much as his brother or cousins were.
That changed in a blink. When he was fifteen, he saved a young girl who was caught in an undertow and thus emerged into the harsh glare of the public eye. From that moment on, he was the darling of the family. He was the good one, the untouchable one. He was the hero, the quiet and mysterious one. The one that was lauded for sainthood.
For most pre-pubescent boys it would have been too much, but he handled it with stunning grace. He didn’t give it much credence, but his family noticed. The world noticed.
He was the one that idle whispers pointed to as the next great Ackles.
That was when he started to help out with his father’s office, going to fundraising events, becoming the voice about and for young America.
He couldn’t even vote when he started speaking at rallies, calling for the young people to speak out loud and clear for the country that they would one day inherit.
There wasn’t anyone who couldn’t point to him as a good honorable young man. Occasionally he got tired of being always ‘on’, but that was when he found refuge in his family’s home, he found no need to go out like other kids, he had enough being seen, sometimes he jus wanted peace.
He believed in every word he said, all the hopes he held out to his peers, but sometimes it was easier to breathe in his home, than in front of people. It was a little bit of a relief to have somewhere to go where he wasn’t the center of attention.
When he turned sixteen, everything changed for him internally when he kissed Bobby Franco on the beach in Massachusetts.
He spent two years agonizing over life, over that one kiss, over what it meant, and doing his best to pretend it didn’t happen. It was easier than he thought it would be.
When he was eighteen, his immediate family sat him down. They talked for a while, but he didn’t know what it was about at first. They told him that how he wanted to live was his choice, and they would support him no matter what.
He was actually embarrassed to admit that it took him half an hour to realize that they were telling him, in the middle of their big Texas house, that they were okay with him being gay.
When he had realized what it was they were saying, he nearly died of twelve kinds of embarrassment. What he found was the most embarrassing part was the fact that he had done such a poor job of hiding what he thought was his secret.
His mother started setting him up with Texas’ eligible gay bachelors, both of the ones that were out and under twenty-one. It was the longest four months of Jensen’s life. He was never happier to be going to Harvard, getting away from his family’s overly enthusiastic embracement of his sexuality. Publicly it was kept quiet, but really it was fairly well known. There was a lot of “wink wink nudge nudge” going on and Jensen, who was used to being the one who didn’t stand out for anything except for what he put out there, tried his best to ignore the subtext.
At nineteen he went to Cambridge. While he was a stone’s throw away from the seat of his family’s nucleus and in his brother’s neighborhood. Josh was Boston’s most eligible bachelor and being fast tracked into the state senate.
Entering into his senior year Jensen knew that he’d soon fall under the demands of the family.
So, Jensen sat there, three and a half years into his time at Harvard, feeling the clock ticking towards the inevitable, most of him really looking forward to it.
He stared down at his books, trying to return to what he knew. It wasn’t happening. This weekend there had been something new; Jared Padalecki had brought something more into his carefully constructed world.
It was unsettling to say the least.
Jensen stretched, still sore, his shirt rubbing against the bite marks on his shoulders.
His body felt like something new and different, like it was waiting to stretch into a new form.
::
Jared was surprised to find how much his life had changed in the last hour. Well his life had changed over the course of the weekend, or at least he thought it did, but the final metamorphosis was with the revelation that Jensen Ackles was his mystery man.
He spent too long agonizing over what to do and coming up with many scenarios of how he was going to screw this up before he even know what ‘this’ was. Finally he stopped mentally berating himself and picked up the phone.
He still held his breath as the phone rang.
“Miss me already?” A light voice inquired on the other end of the line.
That was the voice, warm and welcoming. Jared hadn’t imagined this weekend happening.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jared asked, trying to be cool, calm and collected, but he was eighteen and not even a year out of his parents house so even he knew, it came out a little childish.
But that was really all he had in his arsenal.
He heard a long sigh.
“So you know,” Jensen said resignedly.
Jared jumped up and down, waving his arms around wildly, but he managed to keep his voice even. “You’re Jensen Ackles.”
“I’m just Jensen,” Jensen sighed.
Jared couldn’t leave it alone. “You’re a lot more than I thought you were, and you weren’t starting that low.”
Jensen was silent and Jared didn’t know if Jensen was over him already. He sounded like a petulant child and Jensen was Jensen Ackles.
”I wanted you to like me for me,” Jensen said after a moment. “People tend to get freaky or press happy when they find out who I am, especially people from Texas.”
Jared swallowed, because that was direct and to the point. He liked direct and to the point. He really didn’t do subtle; he usually got all turned around and lost in it.
“Yeah,” Jared said. “Well, I’m not press happy. I wouldn’t really know how one would go to the press even if I wanted to, not that I want to in any way, just so you know. I mean I’m not really going to make a big deal of this if you’re trying to lay low or something. I really just didn’t know who you were.”
“And now?” Jensen asked.
Jared paused, there seemed to be a great weight on this, but he didn’t know what he was supposed to say, so he just spoke his mind. “I’m just a little intimidated by your family and your bank account. Actually, I’m absolutely terrified. Which is gonna make it hard, because I was intimidated by you just being hot library guy.”
There was a long pause and suddenly, Jensen was laughing. “Dear sweet lord! Are you for real? I’ve never met anyone so open and honest to my face.”
“We’re on the phone,” Jared replied, feeling a little like he was speaking in circles. “The point is that you’re, well, you could have anyone. I’m just some eighteen-year-old from Texas. You sure you want to continue it? You don’t have to; I’ll just chalk it all up to the most unbelievable weekend of my life and probably compare every other hookup it from now on. No hard feelings.”
Jensen laughed again. “You’re something else. I don’t want to stop; I mean I don’t want this to be the last time I get to talk to you. I want to talk to you more.”
“Okay,” Jared said letting out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding.
:::
It took Jensen two weeks before he realized that he had to ask Jared out on a date. It had taken him another three days to actually ask him out, even though they studied side by side every day. They spent time together, but Jensen wanted to make sure that Jared knew what this was. He was a little cautious, expecting to be proven wrong. There was something great about Jared that he half expected to disappear. He was waiting for Jared to be not as brilliant and shiny.
But Jared never seemed to fade.
Finally, Jensen asked him out.
“I’d like to take you out on a date,” Jensen said on the phone because he was never going to be able to do it to Jared’s face.
“Okay,” Jared said, not quite getting it.
“Like a real date,” Jensen pushed.
“Sure,” Jared said sounding like he had no idea what was going on.
“I’m going to pick you up and buy you dinner,” Jensen went on.
“Jensen,” Jared interrupted. “I know what a date is, I’ve been on a few. I’d love for you to take me out.”
Jensen felt like a bigger ass, but he was bound and determined to do it right. He felt there was significance.
Jared had accepted, but now Jensen had a bigger problem. He wasn’t all that experienced in the dating arena. In fact, he had never really been on a date that his mother hadn’t set up or that didn’t taken place within the walls of his own house.
“This is hilarious,” Chris said, lounging on the sofa. He was throwing a ball in the air as Jensen searched the Internet.
“You are so helpful,” Jensen said. He would have rolled his eyes if they weren’t glued to the screen. “You’re either a bum and draw the girls in with the attitude or you flash the family connections. I don’t know how you even think you can help.”
“I’m amused,” Chris said. “This is probably the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Jensen looked up at him incredulously. “My dating is the best thing that has ever happened to you? I feel a little sorry for you.”
Chris laughed as he picked up his guitar. “I think I’m going to compose an ode.”
Jensen got up and took the guitar from him. “You’re not composing any odes. You will be as normal as you can be, and you’re going to help me figure out where to go and what to do.”
“Awww, Jensen is going out on his first date! Are you positive I can’t call your mom?” Chris asked.
“You do that and I will kill you,” Jensen informed him cheerfully as he returned to his research.
“What about the ski house in Vermont,” Chris suggested.
Jensen groaned turning back to Chris. “I’m trying NOT to flaunt things.”
“Things?” Chris snickered. “Like the fact that the family has several houses and a few private jets? Or maybe the fact that your immediate family has corporation status and that we rank fairly high on the Fortune 500? You mean things that make your everyday ridiculous to the average man who is not us?”
“Yeah, that,” Jensen sighed. “I want to ease him into it.”
“I think that he’s aware,” Chris pointed out. “Taking him to a hotdog stand might be low balling it a bit.”
“I’m going to find a happy medium,” Jensen muttered, turning back to his computer.
Chris watched him trying to find something to do with Jared on their ‘first’ date.
“I’m impressed with him,” Chris finally said. “He’s got you doing something besides studying, after a weekend of keeping you from studying. From what I’ve heard from Chad, I’m totally going to approve of this guy.”
Jensen looked at him. “From what I’ve heard from Jared, I suspect that I’m not going to like you hanging out with Chad very much”
Chris threw his head back and laughed. “I love this game. Let’s find you a good compromise.”
:::
“Nice car,” Jared said, his hand out the window as they cruised along the highway.
Jensen shrugged at his brother’s Audi. “Not mine.”
“Your life comes real pretty,” Jared said admiringly.
Jensen shifted, uncomfortable at all this talk about his life.
“Where we going?” Jared asked, changing the subject.
“We’re going to this great seafood place on the Cape,” Jensen told him, grateful. “It’s just benches by the water. They cook it all in this big pot, potatoes and corn with these spices. It’s just to die for.”
Jared just gave a little smile.
For a few minutes, they drove in silence.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Jared asked suddenly, smiling at Jensen. “I know you’re doing government and pre-law and you have all that family stuff, but what do you want to be?”
Jensen laughed. “I have no clue. I feel like I got on this track when I was born and I’ve never really thought to deviate. It’s just the way my life has played out so far.”
There was a little smile on Jensen’s lips and Jared reached out and touched his hand on the shifter.
“Do you like it?” Jared asked, running a finger over Jensen’s knuckles.
“Would I sound stupid if I say I do?” Jensen asked sheepishly. “I really like that this is my life. I like the potential it has. If I say that the track I’m on is because of who my family is, then it seems like it’s something that is just happening to me. Like I’m just taking what is handed to me without thinking about it. Like my life is a passive bit of luck. But the truth is that this is the path that I want to be on. I like it.”
Jared huffed. “No, you’re not stupid. You’re lucky. I’m jealous.”
Jensen looked over at him and smiled. “You don’t think that it’s a cop out?”
“You doing what you love?” Jared asked simply.
“I think so,” Jensen admitted.
“Then that is very cool,” Jared said, turning to give Jensen one of his radiant smiles.
“What do you love?” Jensen asked, wanting to know more about the man next to him.
Jared looked at him seriously. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”
Silence descended and they watched the world fly by. The rest of the ride was spent in comfortable silence, neither saying anything, just enjoying the company.
“I like economics,” Jared confessed later as they were sitting at a picnic table by the water, watching dinghies float towards the dock. “I mean I adore it. I love the way numbers work their ways into systems and it just makes complete sense to me.”
“That is very cool,” Jensen smiled, leaning his chin on his hand.
“Don’t make me geek out,” Jared warned, but he proceeded to get very excited and tell Jensen about what one of his latest classes was about. He spoke about it in a way most people would talk about winning the lottery or meeting their latest celebrity crush.
“That is weird,” Jensen told him with a smile that meant anything but.
The huge smile on his face was real and bright. He understood little of what Jared was talking about, but he adored the enthusiasm with which he spoke.
“Chad thinks so, too,” Jared muttered, almost shyly at Jensen’s approval.
“Chris says that Chad is hardly someone that you should take life advice from,” Jensen remarked. “I have only been given vague, second hand information, but that guy sounds unpredictable and a little wild. How in the world did you become friends?”
Jared laughed at that. “He found me at orientation and he decided then and there that we needed to be friends. Only Chad knows why. He’s pretty connected and well off, he did some kind of mojo and got our roommates to switch places. All of the sudden we’re living together and he’s nominated himself as my cruise director. I don’t have time to make other friends and he’s pretty handy. He always knows stuff to do or places to go and other things like that. I don’t know what his end game is, but I’m good for the ride.”
Their drinks came and Jared sipped at his soda.
“Why Harvard?” Jensen asked. “I mean I know it’s in my blood to do it, but why did you come here?”
“Because I wanted to see if I could,” Jared answered truthfully. “My parents told me I could do anything, that I could be anything. I am testing that theory.”
Jensen just watched him, and got a brief taste of Jared’s zest for life. He saw how Jared ate, talked and listened at everything as if he was actually completely present and open to all of the conversation, to any food, to the words out of his mouth. And he did it all with a mischievous little grin. There was something irrepressible about Jared, new and fresh and completely alien.
Jensen didn’t understand Jared’s willingness to experiment with things that he didn’t know about. It was as foreign to Jensen as it was daunting, but it was attractive like nothing else.
“How’s it working out?” Jensen asked cautiously, as if Jared’s head might explode from all the trying.
Jared smiled. “It’s hard, but I’m keeping at it. I guess I can let you know if it works or not in three years if I graduate.”
Jensen let his grin spread over his face, it made him feel giddy and a little out of control. Jared factored into it, and together they created a whole safe orbit around themselves.
“I don’t know how to date,” Jensen admitted suddenly, knowing he was a totally klutz at the whole process, but willing to try. He was going to be damned by that smile anyway. “I don’t know how to fit you in. I study, I work out, I occasionally attend family events, but I don’t know how the hell I am supposed to date you, but I want to. I really, really want to.”
“Me?” Jared asked honestly surprised. “Is it because I kick ass at stalking?”
Jensen reached out, and for the first time in his life he engaged in PDA, lacing his fingers through Jared’s.
“Maybe,” Jensen admitted. “Or maybe it was fate. Maybe it was just two horny guys who needed to get out more. All I know is that I think that this awesome; I want to make time for it. I’ve never felt like this. Actually I don’t think that I’ve ever felt so much in my life. I’d like to see what happens”
“Okay then,” Jared said, his smile blinding as he squeezed Jensen’s hand. “I’m on board.”
The waitress showed up, placing their lobsters in front of them.
Jared gaped at the red crustacean before him.
“Umm Jensen,” Jared began in a small voice cautiously poking at the tail. “How do I eat this thing?”
:::
“Chris told Jamie that you have a boyfriend,” was the first thing that came from the other side of his phone.
“Hello, dear brother,” Jensen said in a mocking tone, trying to read and talk at the same time. “I thought that you were supposed to be doing whatever it is a DA does. I assume whatever it is, it comes with tights and a secret identity the way people talk about you.”
“Tights are your thing,” Josh snorted. “So boyfriend, the first one. I’m doing research of the proper way to approach him. You know, I want to be intimidating, but not intimidating enough to make him think that I think that you are a girl like Mackie, or to make me come off as a homophobic asshole.”
“You’re so generous and politically correct,” Jensen replied absentmindedly.
“Tell me about him or I’m giving mom a call and then you’ll have to tell her the details,” Josh stated practically. “I can make it easier on you.”
“Wow,” Jensen said incredulously. “Taking lessons from Mackenzie on blackmail?”
“Oh yes,” Josh said gleefully clapping his hands together. “I’m calling her right after this phone call. She’s very helpful.”
“Right,” Jensen sighed. “I only get a week before the cousins tell the older generation anyway.”
“A week is a very long time,” Josh told him.
Jensen groaned. “His name is Jared and he’s from Texas.”
:::
Jensen managed to keep most of the family at bay for the rest of the spring semester. Neither he nor Jared had ample free time. They still managed to spend a lot of time studying together, in the library and at Jensen’s house, before and after being naked. They ran together at obscenely early hours of the morning, Jared enticing Jensen out of bed with the promise of free coffee.
It was as if they skipped the whole early dating process and ended up just being together. Jensen got a few months of just living day to day with someone he was crazy about, For the first time he wasn’t always thinking about his future, he was just thinking about being there with Jared.
But there were times when it would all rear it’s ugly head and Jensen would have events and speaking engagements, where people would ask what he was going to do with the rest of his life. He had known the answer to that, he still knew the answer, but being with Jared gave him pause. It was worse when those in the know tried to set him up with their sons, and the clueless tried to set him up with their daughters.
Jensen wasn’t the only one feeling the pressure though. Jared was completely overwhelmed by the things that seemed to come so easily to Jensen, namely a different style of living. The little things, like how to use what forks and spoons at the fancy dinner Jensen took him to so they could celebrate their one-month anniversary. They agreed that Jared didn’t want to go to the functions that were almost a family requirement.
It made what was between them only theirs, and sweeter some how.
However, with graduation looming over his head, Jensen knew that time was beginning to run short. He was going to have to choose to continue his relationship in the real world, namely introducing him to Ackles family, or he was going to have to end it.
Ending it didn’t really seem to be any kind of option though.
He liked Jared, more than was probably healthy. Jared was always around; Jared’s things were in his room, and Jensen couldn’t get enough of him.
If he had to be honest with himself, he knew that he was on the verge of declaring his undying love in skywriting or something equally as embarrassing. He was beginning to listen to love songs and think that they knew what they were talking about. In a matter of months, Jared had seeped into his pores.
Gratefully, he knew that Jared felt the same way. Being apart from one another was something that they couldn’t manage very well. But, there was something that kept nagging at him, something he desperately wanted to avoid.
Jensen knew that the family would become involved sooner or later. The fact that Jared was middle class and a guy dating Jensen wouldn’t matter to most of them, but Grandma Ackles would be a challenge.
Ultimately her decision could make or break a relationship. If she disapproved it was very cold. If she approved then she had a new project. There was a joke in the family about the ‘Ackles Prep Finishing Program.’ Grandma Ackles loved to preen and prep the girlfriends and boyfriends of her grandchildren so that they could potentially shine like jewels on the family crown. She didn’t expect anybody to understand their family and the dynamics; she just wanted nice people for her grandchildren. She would fit them into the Ackles mold easily enough, that is, if they got through the introductory examination.
But that’s not what Jensen was mostly afraid of.
It wasn’t about Jensen’s family liking Jared. Everyone loved Jared. And the family had very liberal attitudes, so the fact that Jared was the son of a schoolteacher and an accountant wasn’t insurmountable.
What scared Jensen was that one-day, Jared would realize how much Jensen was not the son of regular people. Jensen was afraid that when Jared figured it out the vastness of the family, he would bolt.
At times, if Jensen was honest with himself, he didn’t know what it was that people saw in him. If he wasn’t just shy of perfect, he didn’t know what people would like about him. He could put on the shiny and glittery Jensen, but when it came right down to it, he didn’t know what was at the core. But Jared seemed to know.
Jared even liked whatever it was, and Jensen was willing to trust him a little bit because he hadn’t shown Jared anything else but the real Jensen, whatever that was, and Jared still kept coming back for more.
They were studying on the grass the day just before finals, which Jensen was under no illusions he would ace, when he looked over at Jared. Jared paused and looked up from his book, grinning goofily.
Jensen’s heart stopped, as it typically did when Jared smiled. He wanted to capture these moments, the ones when he was so goddamned happy that this man existed. It happened when he saw Jared naked, or when he saw Jared move, or when he listened to Jared talk. It was pretty much a constant thing. Jensen occasionally wondered if this was going to affect his health.
“I’m very, very rich,” Jensen said, reaching out to touch Jared’s jaw line. “My family is very, very influential.”
“And you are very, very modest,” Jared informed him.
“I’m in love with you,” Jensen told him, terrified to find how true it was. “I don’t want you to say it back. Not now. We’re having a weekend of celebration for me after graduation. Come to the compound and decide if you still want to be with me, as soon as you truly begin to understand what you’re getting yourself into.”
Jared grinned at him. “You’re a strange guy, Jensen Ackles. So, let me get this straight, you want me to meet your family and then I can tell you that I love you too?”
“Exactly,” Jensen stated matter-of-factly.
Jared leaned in to kiss him. “You are the most awesome thing in the world. Hasten in the family so I can get back to my relationship.”
Jensen swallowed, because part of him knew that it just couldn’t be this easy.
:::
Jensen was the only one graduating this year so the celebration held at the compound was for him, and only him. He didn’t know how he managed to do it; with just first cousins alone, there were usually multiple people that were graduating at many different levels of education in any given summer. But the only one who was close enough was Chris, and he was taking the five-year program.
There were seventy family members in and out for the ‘Weekend of Jensen.’ And that was because a quite a few members of the family couldn’t make it.
Which made the whole bringing-Jared-home thing that much more intimidating.
Jared was quiet when he saw the house--which was pretty much four houses and half a dozen bungalows for various purposes--the fields, and the private stretch of ocean.
“This is my life,” Jensen said softly, not looking at Jared.
“Kind of shabby,” Jared remarked, trying to keep the awe out of his voice. “Not even one tennis court in sight.”
Jensen made a face and cleared his throat. “They’re behind the second guest house.”
Jared’s mouth formed an ‘O.’
Jensen reached for his hand.
“Welcome to my home,” Jensen said, trying to put determination in his voice, leading him out to the family festivities.
Jared was by his side, playing football, eating ridiculous dinners, and celebrating. Jared managed not to look like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights, except for the moment when Jensen introduced his parents. Jared put on his best manners, but he was unable to string together more than a few works at a time.
After a day it seemed as if Jared was settling, calmer around the Ackles brood. Jensen knew that the moment of truth was coming, he didn’t inform Jared of the truly daunting moment He just let him be happy and free around the family.
Grandma Ackles came out with her parasol, a tiny sweet looking old woman, and looked up at Jared. She had just flown in from London where one of the cousins had just had a baby. She looked fresh and crisp as always.
“Well, aren’t you a big one,” she said in her prim voice.
“Hello, ma’am,” Jared said properly, almost bowing to her slightly.
She smiled, and Jensen knew it was the warm real one that she reserved for people she genuinely liked. Jensen watched the appraisal as she took Jared’s hand. “Walk with me for a bit.”
Jared looked back at Jensen who made no move to follow, just nodded and gestured for him to keep going.
Josh walked up to Jensen and held out a beer. “Now that was cruel.”
“What was I supposed to say?” Jensen sighed. “’The most important person that you are going to meet is my grandmother and she is probably going to nicely poke and prod you to see if you can be cultivated’?. Jared is awesome, but if he knew that she was the ultimate test and the parents weren’t, then he would freak out and be horrible. All that he knows is that this is my nice, little grandmother and he’s going to charm her pants off.”
“She’s wearing a skirt,” Josh pointed out dryly.
“Whatever,” Jensen said, eyes never leaving their forms as Jared leaned down to the small woman’s ear.
When Grandma Ackles returned Jared, he was blushing a bit, but Jensen could see in her eyes that she was hatching a plan. Jensen was sure that the plan was definitely going to be how to rub the rough edges off of Jared. Jensen wasn’t sure that he wanted the rough edges worn away though. He liked Jared just as he was.
But the smile on her face was enough, it was going to be okay.
“I’ve brought him back,” she announced. “Also he is going to be coming here for the Fourth of July, I told him that he could bring you, Jensen.”
With that she moved back toward the house.
Jensen grinned and punched Josh in the arm. “Told you so.”
Jared just looked confused. “What is going on?”
:::
Jared refused to speak to Jensen because he could not believe that Jensen had put him through that kind of situation without telling him that it was some kind of test. He was pissed. He’d walked away and Chris had gone after him.
“He’s just mortified,” Chris whispered. “I’ll explain it to him.”
And Jensen just stood there, watching Chris take off.
Jensen had nothing else to do but sit on the beach and wait. He leaned back on one of the Adirondack chairs and felt the sun, waiting for Jared to come back.
“Hello, Jensen,” a voice said as its owner sat down next to him.
Jensen sat up a little straighter, it was always the reaction that he had when his grandfather spoke.
“Hi, Grandfather,” Jensen said automatically.
His grandfather smiled, that smile that always seemed to know more than everyone else.
“I’m glad I’ve found you,” his grandfather said. “I’ve been meaning to speak to you.”
“Yes, Grandfather,” Jensen said obediently.
His grandfather laughed. “Oh, Jensen! Don’t tell your cousins, but you might be my favorite.”
Jensen looked shocked.
“Don’t look like that, son,” his Grandfather said. “It isn’t hard. You remind me so much of my brother, you’re so much like Jack.”
Jensen nodded. They didn’t really talk about his great uncle. He had been president and had been shot.. They didn’t talk about him much, not as the myth and definitely not as the martyr. There were occasional stories in the family of a very real man who used to pull pranks and who kicked everyone’s butt at football, but bringing up Jack as more than a relative was something that wasn’t condoned.
“You’re smart, but not so smart that you can’t relate to people. You have principles, but you don’t see the world in black and white,” his grandfather said appraisingly. “You’ve got it son. You’re just like Jack, goddamned annoyingly perfect.”
His grandfather paused and for a moment looked like he was lost in thought, a small smile on his face, before becoming the mighty patriarch again. “I can talk the tar out of the road, but I’m not Jack. I just don’t have that spark. Your father has it. We all thought he might try, but he fell in love with your mother and when his time came, her father was going through a messy divorce so he never ran. He loves your mother more than he loves his career.”
Jensen smiled a little, because he knew how he had grown up.
His grandfather continued. “Your brother is a good man, but your brother doesn’t see enough, he only sees things in black and white. Most of the family wants what you have. Some of us just love the power that comes with it, and some of us just know how to get things done, and we’re better behind the scenes. The thing is Son, you are the total package, you’re the one.”
Jensen swallowed.
“You want it and you are good at it,” his grandfather said. “And you’re also the person I would follow.”
Jensen just stared at him, feeling like the sun had dried up his brain cells. That was the one thing that he has always wanted to hear, this was the one thing everyone in the family, and quite possibly half the world, wanted to hear about themselves.
And it was for Jensen’s ears alone.
“Grandpa,” Jensen said, trying to be calm despite his wild emotion. “You do know I’m gay.”
His grandfather gave him a wry smile. “That would explain you sharing a room with the young man who was escorting your grandmother.”
Jensen blinked, he was totally not used to his grandfather being sarcastic.
His grandfather grinned and, suddenly, Jensen was a grown up and his grandfather was giving him respect. “Why the do you think that Massachusetts has legalized gay marriage? When we figured on you being gay we had to normalize it.”
Jensen’s calm shattered and his jaw dropped. “You had Massachusetts legalize gay marriage because you found out I was gay?”
His grandfather thought for a minute. “There was a lot of people who wanted it, I couldn’t have done anything if there weren’t, but I might have finessed some things. So if you want to be self-centered and make it simplistic, then yes.”
Jensen just looked at him, trying to figure out his grandfather’s plan. “You did this to pave the way. The first part of acceptance is normalization.”
His grandfather just looked at him. “I saw who you were becoming and I wanted to give you the best chance. It’s yours and we will do everything in our power to make it happen if you so choose. Keep your nose clean and in thirty years, you can have whatever you want.”
Jensen just sat there dumbstruck. His grandfather patted his knee comfortingly and moved to stand up.
“How far?” Jensen asked, feeling a little nervous.
His grandfather gave him a smooth as butter grin. “As far as you want to go Jensen.”
Jensen continued to sit there completely dumbfounded.
He had just been given the world
:::
Jared had gone off with Chris, and some of the other more rambunctious cousins, and come back all smiles and slurs.
“I forgive you,” Jared announced loudly falling down next to Jensen on the sand. Jensen arranged him so they were cuddling in front of the bonfire blazing in front of them. Jared was both pliable and flailing, so it was an interesting task.
Jared poked him. “Seriously, Chris made some good points. You have a biiiiiig family and they’re freaky, but I like Grandma Ackles. She told me to call her that. Chris said that I’m now the standard and that I’m a good one.”
“Oh, really?” Jensen said giving Chris a glare.
“Shhhh,” Jared said, pulling Jensen’s face back to him. “Don’t be angry, Chris just pointed out that I’m a favorite now and all the other boyfriends that you bring home will be compared to me, Perfect, perfect me!”
Jensen looked down at him and pushed some of the long strands away from his forehead before kissing his brow.
Jared was so excited; his hands came up and pulled Jensen’s head to his greedily. He kissed sloppily, tasting like beer and a little like pot.
“Get a room,” somebody, probably Chris, called, as a projectile came zooming through the air.
Jensen pulled back. “How about we do that?”
Jared just grinned. “Yes, please.”
Jensen pulled Jared up out of the sand; wolf whistles from the cousins followed them as they moved away from the group. Jensen flipped them off and took his unsteady boyfriend away towards the guesthouse where they were staying.
::
“You’re a hard person to carry up the stairs,” Jensen said as Jared tugged at his shirt and sloppily kissed his neck.
Drunk Jared was very handsy, as Jensen well knew, but drunk, handsy Jared was nearly impossible to sneak down the hallway to their bedroom. But he managed it, running into only one aunt.
“Your shirt is broken,” Jared said uselessly tugging at Jensen’s shirt, which refused to unbutton under Jared’s not so dexterous hands.
He pouted so pretty that Jensen felt it in his toes.
Jensen sat him on the bed and began to remove his own shirt.
“Hmm,” Jared said licking his lips.
“You want a strip tease?” Jensen teased, slowly pulling the shirt off.
Jared grinned and nodded enthusiastically. “I want to watch you get all naked. I want you to help me. I want you to be in me.”
Jensen froze and his breath caught in his throat. They had played around this subject, but they hadn’t breached it totally. Jensen wanted to, but he wasn’t going to push it.
“I want you to be the first,” Jared said. “And now you love me because it is okay, so now it is okay for you to do it.”
Jared looked up at him, as always so ready for something he didn’t know, waiting for Jensen to show him how to do it, trusting Jensen explicitly. That kind of faith made Jensen unable to say no, it crawled under his skin along side the constant wanting that went along with Jared.
“Please?” Jared asked huskily, breathing heavily at the weight of Jensen’s stare.
Jensen was on him, pulling at his clothes, sucking his collarbone, nipping at his bony shoulder. Jared’s breath was already coming hard.
“I’ll make it so good,” Jensen promised, reaching for Jared’s belt.
“I know,” Jared said happily. “God, I want you so much.”
Jensen shucked him of his clothes and their bodies pressed together, skin on skin, hard cocks teasing each other.
“I want you,” Jared said again, reaching up Jensen’s back, pulling them together so there wasn’t anything between them.
Jensen tried to hold onto what little coordination he still had because Jared’s clumsy touches were already making him lose his mind. Jensen had no idea how he was going to get in him with any kind of finesse and last more than a second.
But he sure as hell was going to give it the best try he could.
::
It had been the most explosive moment of Jensen’s life. Jared had been so wanting, so out of his mind, his mouth babbling over with dirty talk that he usually held back. Jared’s fingerprints were bruises on Jensen’s back. Jensen’s lips and shoulder’s were bitten with Jared sized bites, and when Jared had come Jensen so far beyond being able to hold on any longer. He was very sure that the top of his head had blown off.
He didn’t know how he was ever going to move again.
Conversely, Jared was one of those people who wanted to climb Everest after an orgasm.
It was just Jensen’s luck that, after he had expended every ounce of patience that he had to make Jared’s first time excellent, Jared was ready to fly to the moon with the power of his own enthusiasm.
“That was awesome,” Jared glowed. “Can we do that again?”
Jensen was face down in the mattress, dead.
“Sure. Start without me,” Jensen mumbled into the mattress. “I’ll catch up.”
Jared laughed and got up and began to do push-ups.
Jensen was barely able to move his head enough to look over at Jared. “You are drunk, and probably a little stoned, you had a dick in your ass for the first time and you’re doing push-ups?”
“Aww baby,” Jared laughed, huffing through his push-ups. “You always give the sweetest pillow talk.”
“You can go run around the courts,” Jensen said, moving face down again. “Tire yourself out.”
That was when the push-ups stopped. Jared didn’t move and Jensen managed to move his head to make sure that Jared hadn’t dropped dead.
“You’re really, really rich and powerful,” Jared said, staring off into space. “I just had sex with you with five hundred ears of your rich and powerful family listening.”
“I hope I don’t have that many family members,” Jensen replied sleepily.
Jared moved to peer over the edge of the bed and poked him in the shoulder. “Stop quipping. You got me drunk because you knew it was the only way that I would have sex with you in this house.”
Jensen lifted his head and looked at him seriously, one hand cupping Jared’s cheek. “You regret it?”
“No!” Jared exclaimed immediately. “That part was beyond awesome, and once you get feeling back in your body you are going to do it again.”
“Stop rewriting history then,” Jensen told him with a yawn. “You got scared of my grandmother and got drunk and stoned and made me do a strip tease.”
Jensen went back to being face down and was almost asleep, and Jared finally crawled back into bed.
“I voted for your father,” Jared said randomly, obviously continuing a conversation that Jensen was unaware of ever having. “He’s somebody who grew up hearing about and now today he was asking me what classes I’m taking and about my family, and not in that superficial surface way. Your uncle, who is a senator I’ve seen on TV, told me that he could get me a summer internship, last minute, at Boston’s top brokerage. Your cousins have had scandals all over the world and they’re all here, and I’m pretty sure one of them brought a prince home.”
“I’d like to say that it doesn’t usually happen, but I would be lying,” Jensen said with a sigh, expecting Jared to suddenly star fuck him or pull away.
Instead Jared just snuggled into him and made a face.
“Really, sometimes I expect to wake up from this fairy tale,” Jared informed him. “I really thought when I came out at fifteen that my life was over. However, I met a handsome prince and I’m just going to keep dreaming and embrace this until it ends.”
“Will you really?” Jensen asked, pulling Jared into him, totally relieved.
“Yep,” Jared said. “Don’t worry--you are far from perfect. You are totally a beast in the morning, you’re completely unreachable when you open your books, and I think that you are the world’s biggest slob.”
“I think you’re exaggerating,” Jensen grumbled sleepily, after all the adrenaline and worry was fading he found that he was totally exhausted.
“I think I’m getting to know you, Jensen Ackles,” Jared said kissing his forehead. “And this is my fairy tale, don’t shit on it. Can I tell you I love you yet?”
Jensen curled into him. “Yeah, let’s be in love.”
::
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