Muffins 'verse | #02; Second Date
Title: Second Date
Author cocoplumb
Beta moviegeek03
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Jensen/Jared. sick!Jensen. chemo and board games because hospitals are boring.
Warnings: cancer. chemo.
Word Count: 3000
Summary: Set directly after #01; Muffins, Coffee and Chemo, Jensen and Jared go on their hospital date, which turns out to be not quite as cute and charming as Jared thought it would be.
Notes: Written as requested by you lovely people. Sadder than part #01; couldn't be avoided, chemo isn't fun no matter how you try to spin it. Also, I don't know much, if anything about specifics of chemo (I count myself very lucky in that aspect), so I didn't put too many details into this. It's about the people, not the illness, so...yeah. Enjoy!
After coffee, Jared insisted on carrying Jensen’s books and walking him home.
“Thanks for today,” Jensen said quietly with a smile when they reached his apartment building.
“It was my absolute pleasure. Thank you for letting me almost knock you on your ass and agreeing to have coffee with me,” Jared grinned. “So, what’s your view on this whole two day rule? Because I really wanna call you as soon as I get home.”
“You don’t really seem like the type to have ever followed rules,” Jensen commented with a quirked lip. He wrapped his arms around himself when a sharp breeze came down from the top of the street.
“No not really. But I kind of like you and I don’t wanna screw this up. I’m sort of renowned for destroying a potential relationship before it’s even had chance to start. I get all stupid and annoying and weird and I just start babbling and it really puts people off like, seriously man do you ever stop talking? And sometimes I do but mostly I just babble endlessly…like I’m…doing right now,” Jared cringed. He pushed his hair back from his face as another gust of wind caught them. “Did I mention I like you?”
“You did,” Jensen tried to contain his smile and he looked bashfully down at the ground as he shivered. “I should get inside before my doctor scolds me for catching pneumonia, but…” Jensen took Jared’s hand that wasn’t holding his books and pulled a pen from his pocket. With an easy smile, he wrote his number on Jared’s palm. “Give me a call, if you want to. Whenever you want to. Just give me chance to get inside my apartment first, deal?”
Jared stared with an open hung jaw at the number written in black ink that he was never washing off. Ever. “Deal,” he squeaked. “Even your handwriting’s perfect.”
Jensen snorted.
“Oh God, I said that out loud didn’t I?” Jared gasped, mortified. “I’m not usually this embarrassing. I swear I’m not.”
“I believe you. Now go away before I change my mind.” Jensen took the books back from Jared’s now sweaty grasp and took his keys from the same pocket he found the pen.
“I’ll call you,” Jared said, skipping down the steps backwards, watching Jensen walk away inside the apartment building.
Jared waited an agonizing five minutes, by which time he’d gotten about a fifth of the way home, before he called Jensen. He talked loud and happy, receiving endless irritated looks from passers by in the streets.
They talked well into the evening, Jared doing most of the talking and Jensen offering his own opinions now and then in small quiet words that made Jared’s stomach flutter like a teenage girl with a crush.
“Are we still on for that date Monday morning?” Jared asked carefully when he could sense the call was coming to an end. Jensen sounded tired, and Jared didn’t want to be the reason Jensen would indeed get that scolding from his doctor. Talking a guy further into sickness, that would be a whole new low, even for Jared.
“I’m pretty sure even if I said no, you’ll still be waiting outside my apartment when I wake up on Monday.”
“Are you going to say no?” Though he was fairly certain Jensen was joking, Jared chewed his thumbnail anxiously.
There was a quiet huff of laughter. “Yes, Jared, you can pick me up Monday morning.”
It took all the self-control Jared had to remain composed and not fist pump the air and jump up and down on his couch. “I’ll be there, half eight.”
“Sounds great.”
“Are you sure? It’s not too late is it? What about quarter past instead? I mean I really wouldn’t wanna be the reason you missed you appointment because traffic can be a bitch and parking is hell and-”
“Jared?” Jensen interrupted.
“Yeah?”
“Goodnight.”
Jared giggled. “Oh, right…goodnight.”
-
Just as promised, Monday morning Jared was waiting bright and early outside Jensen’s apartment building. He considered going up to Jensen’s door but went with his better judgement and restrained himself by staying in the car.
He didn’t have to wait long before Jensen came out. He was wearing the same black beanie Jared had seen him wearing three days previously in the coffee shop. His hoodie was grey this time though and his jeans a darker shade of blue. Jensen stuffed his hands in his pockets on the way down the building steps and the expression on his face was a sour one.
“I can’t believe you actually came,” Jensen stated through the open window Jared had rolled down while waiting.
Jared smiled wide and happy. “I always keep my promises. I’ve got a cooler full of popsicles in the trunk, and enough board games to entertain the whole children’s ward.”
“Sounds good,” Jensen chuckled quietly, hovering outside Jared’s open window.
“Get in, man. Or we’re gonna miss our reservation,” Jared joked. That one was pretty good by his standards. He felt slightly deflated when Jensen forced another huff of quiet laughter.
Jensen made his way round the car to the passenger side and got in. He strapped on his seat belt and twiddled his thumbs in his lap. “Do you need directions to the hospital?”
Jared smiled at him. “Nope, I can find my way.” He paused for a moment, “My gran died a couple of years ago and I used to visit her a lot before she passed.”
“I’m sorry.” That was the last bit of timid conversation Jensen spoke for the rest of the ride. Jared carried on enough for the both of them. He was good at talking. Didn’t know when to shut up most times his mom used to tell him. Jensen didn’t seem to mind him babbling though. He even cracked a smile at one point.
They reached the hospital and Jared dropped Jensen off at the entrance before he went searching for a parking space. The time it took to find somewhere to park and to grab the cooler and the small mountain of games from his trunk meant by the time Jared got into the hospital himself, Jensen was nowhere to be seen.
“Um, I’m looking for my friend, Jensen Ackles? He just came in for chemo,” Jared explained whilst trying to balance the cooler and games in both hands gracefully.
“He’s in bay four, just around the corner to your left.” The receptionist smiled and he smiled a thank you in return. “Do you need help with those?” she laughed at the ridiculous stack in his arms.
“No thanks, I got it.” He really did. Only tripped once on the way to bay four.
Jensen was already hooked up to tubes, wires and chemo when Jared poked his right eye through the small gap in the curtain that surrounded Jensen’s bed. The sight shocked him for a moment. It was daunting how fragile Jensen looked. It was almost too real.
“Hey,” Jensen said, smiling faintly when he noticed Jared.
“Hey!” Jared beamed, scrambling past the curtain clumsily with the games and the cooler in hand.
Jensen looked self conscious of the tubes and such surrounding him. “Sorry, I would have waited but…you know how places like this are, if you miss your reservation they give your bed away to the next customer.”
Jared threw his head back and laughed, happy Jensen had appreciated the joke earlier. He set the cooler down on the floor and dumped the games on the end of Jensen’s bed careful not to catch his toes, which were adorably curled up with his knees bent towards his chest.
“So, what first, Twister?” Jared grabbed the box with grin and Jensen smiled brightly at him.
“And my earlier statement still stands, you’re the strange person I’ve ever met.”
Jared grinned. “I’m still taking that as a compliment.” Putting aside the Twister box that he brought purely for a pun, Jared picked up Monopoly and Jensen agreed it was easy enough to play whilst attached to everything like he was.
Jensen went first, at Jared's insistence.
Jensen picked the dog and Jared picked the top hat, claiming he was classy enough to pull it off. Half an hour later, Jensen had finished his first popsicle, grape flavour, had countless tiny building pieces and a bank full of money. Jared had finished off three popsicles, had no building pieces on the board and no money to speak of what so ever.
“Are you letting me win?” Jensen said when his lead became somewhat laughable.
“No,” Jared answered in complete honesty. “Okay, I have no idea how to play this game,” he admitted. “I used to play with my brother as a kid and he always lied to me about the rules. I actually have no idea how to play any of these games.” Jared looked sheepishly at the pile he brought, most of them brand new because what self respecting twenty six year old owned that many board games?
“Well it’s a good thing my brother sucked at lying.” Jensen then proceeded to teach Jared how to really play Monopoly, starting the game over, and although Jared still lost the second time, he lost respectably.
Two hours into the chemo, Jensen was teaching Jared how to play chess. Things began to slow down and Jared’s constant word vomit had even taken a hit when he noticed the color of Jensen’s skin. His pale olive cheeks were turning a vicious sickening green and Jared really shouldn’t have thought of the phrase ‘word vomit’ because out of nowhere, Jensen grabbed a kidney dish from the side table Jared hadn’t even noticed until now, and promptly threw up. Chess pieces went flying, the wooden board clattered loudly on the floor and Jared was sure he was never going to find the black Queen as it rolled past the curtain surrounding Jensen’s bed and under a radiator.
“Oh, Jesus. I’m sorry,” Jensen croaked with saliva and other sorts dribbling down his chin. “God, this must look disgusting, I’m so disgusting. I don’t even know why a guy like you would even give a bald freak like me the time of day. You really are insane, or blind, or stupid, fuck. I didn’t mean to call you stupid.”
Apparently Jensen could babble too.
Jared shook his head. “Dude, shut the hell up, you’re a catch. Even with puke down your chin.”
A nurse came past the curtain at that moment with a calculated sympathetic expression with a roll of tissues and wipes in her hand.
“Thank you,” Jared said, taking them off her before she could attend to Jensen herself.
“Will you guys be okay?” she asked, taking the hint with the wipes. “How’s that anti-nausea IV working for you, Jensen?” She checked the IV ports and the bags of medicine hung at both sides of the bed.
“Just as great as always, Masie,” Jensen grumbled.
“Lovely to see you too, sweetheart,” she joked, taking the paper dish from him to dispose of.
Jared wiped Jensen’s chin, ignoring the bitter look in his eyes. He cleaned the front of his hoodie and offered up his own which Jensen declined. “Just gonna hurl again in like three minutes. And that’s a nice shirt.”
“You think my shirts nice?” Jared winked.
Jensen cracked a smile at the corners of his mouth. “Glad to see my puke hasn’t put a dent in your ego. Yes, it looks good on you,” he admitted.
Jared quickly tidied away what chess pieces he could find scattered on the hospital floor, then suggested watching TV.
“They never play it loud enough and it’s always on Judge Judy,” Jensen sulked.
Jared raised his eyebrows at Jensen’s pout. “Anyone ever tell you that puking really makes you cranky?”
Jared pulled back the curtain to see the TV in the corner of the large bay occupying six beds, most of them with their curtains closed and echoes of puking coming from behind them. He took a glance around the parts of the ward he could see and made a good guess he was about the only person tall enough to switch the channels on the TV. They could scold him all they liked, but without a stepladder, none of the nurses or orderlies could do much to put back what he’d altered.
He watched Jensen’s face as he changed the channels, and when a less sour expression was on the man’s face, Jared left it on that station, which turned out to be How I Met Your Mother.
“Volume up?” he asked Jensen across the gap in the room and although he looked somewhat embarrassed, he nodded.
Jared sat back down in the chair beside Jensen’s bed, one eye on the TV and the other on Jensen clutching another kidney dish in his lap. It wasn’t many minutes later that Jensen was throwing up again. He missed his sweater this time, only dribbling a little. Jared stood over the bed, handing him a wad of tissues from the box and rubbing his back with soothing words.
“It’s alright, man. You’re doing good, you’re doing good.”
For the next hour and half nothing much changed. Jensen puked, Jensen watched a little TV, Jensen puked again. Jared offered comforting words, not sure if it helping or just plain patronising, and didn’t watch TV at all.
Jensen leaned into him, exhausted when he’d finished his current bout of vomiting.
“Why don’t you try and get some sleep?” Jared suggested, feeling the weight of Jensen on him.
Jensen laid his head down without another complaint; with closed eyes, he found a hand of Jared’s and locked their fingers together. They stayed like that the entire time Jensen was asleep. Jared removed the black beanie that slowly crept up the further Jensen sunk into the pillows, revealing a soft bald head which made Jared’s heart both sink and melt.
No longer was Jensen just this cute timid shy guy Jared purposefully bumped into last week and managed to shamefully squeeze a date out of. Jensen had suddenly become a seriously ill man before him. A dying man. The reality of Jared’s stupidity and his selfishness had come crashing down over the last few hours.
-
“Are you okay?” Jensen asked, interrupting the silence on the way home.
Jared was thinking so loud that he almost didn’t hear the voice breaking through the stone wall behind his eyes. “Sorry?”
“I asked if you were okay, you’re quiet,” Jensen told him. “You’ve been more quiet in the last half hour than you have the whole time since I met you.”
“I was just thinking,” Jared said.
“Was this date all you’d expect it to be?” Jensen joked, though his smile was dark.
“I guess I was a little naïve,” he admitted faintly, still stuck in his own head. They pulled onto Jensen’s street and Jared parked outside his building. He shut off the engine, turning to Jensen and asking, “Do you have a roommate?” as the man unclipped his seatbelt.
Jensen was instantly confused. “No, what does that have to do with-”
“Who helps you with this stuff?” Jared interrupted, quite distraught. “Who comes with you to hospital appointments and chemo, and who holds your hand when you’re puking all night and hurting too much to even move?”
“Who helps me with cancer?” Jensen asked, trying to collect Jared’s frantic questions into something simple he could understand.
Jared nodded.
Jensen turned to him with a sympathetic sigh. Not as offended as he thought he should be. “Listen, Jared, it’s not that bad. What I have, it could be so much worse. They caught it early, the chemo isn’t all that strong, I’ll be having surgery in a month or so and then I’ll be fine.” He took Jared’s shaking hand from the steering wheel. “As for who helps me, my parents threw me out when I was seventeen when my best friend outed me. I haven’t seen them in years, I don’t exactly think they even deserve to know what’s going on with me. My brother comes to visit sometimes. If I really need him, he knows I’ll call. But otherwise, I can cope just fine by myself. I don’t need a babysitter, or a mother, or a glorified nurse to wipe my chin, I just…could you just be my friend?”
Jared smiled. “Sure, I can do that.”
Jensen patted Jared’s hand. “Come on, man. Can we go inside? I’m exhausted and I’m pretty sure I still have some more puking to do.”
Jared laughed and followed him inside.
The End
A/N: Requests please, I would massively appreciate it. I can't promise anything, but I for one would love to see more of this verse, I just have no clue where to take it and what to write about
> 03#: BitterSweet
Author cocoplumb
Beta moviegeek03
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Jensen/Jared. sick!Jensen. chemo and board games because hospitals are boring.
Warnings: cancer. chemo.
Word Count: 3000
Summary: Set directly after #01; Muffins, Coffee and Chemo, Jensen and Jared go on their hospital date, which turns out to be not quite as cute and charming as Jared thought it would be.
Notes: Written as requested by you lovely people. Sadder than part #01; couldn't be avoided, chemo isn't fun no matter how you try to spin it. Also, I don't know much, if anything about specifics of chemo (I count myself very lucky in that aspect), so I didn't put too many details into this. It's about the people, not the illness, so...yeah. Enjoy!
After coffee, Jared insisted on carrying Jensen’s books and walking him home.
“Thanks for today,” Jensen said quietly with a smile when they reached his apartment building.
“It was my absolute pleasure. Thank you for letting me almost knock you on your ass and agreeing to have coffee with me,” Jared grinned. “So, what’s your view on this whole two day rule? Because I really wanna call you as soon as I get home.”
“You don’t really seem like the type to have ever followed rules,” Jensen commented with a quirked lip. He wrapped his arms around himself when a sharp breeze came down from the top of the street.
“No not really. But I kind of like you and I don’t wanna screw this up. I’m sort of renowned for destroying a potential relationship before it’s even had chance to start. I get all stupid and annoying and weird and I just start babbling and it really puts people off like, seriously man do you ever stop talking? And sometimes I do but mostly I just babble endlessly…like I’m…doing right now,” Jared cringed. He pushed his hair back from his face as another gust of wind caught them. “Did I mention I like you?”
“You did,” Jensen tried to contain his smile and he looked bashfully down at the ground as he shivered. “I should get inside before my doctor scolds me for catching pneumonia, but…” Jensen took Jared’s hand that wasn’t holding his books and pulled a pen from his pocket. With an easy smile, he wrote his number on Jared’s palm. “Give me a call, if you want to. Whenever you want to. Just give me chance to get inside my apartment first, deal?”
Jared stared with an open hung jaw at the number written in black ink that he was never washing off. Ever. “Deal,” he squeaked. “Even your handwriting’s perfect.”
Jensen snorted.
“Oh God, I said that out loud didn’t I?” Jared gasped, mortified. “I’m not usually this embarrassing. I swear I’m not.”
“I believe you. Now go away before I change my mind.” Jensen took the books back from Jared’s now sweaty grasp and took his keys from the same pocket he found the pen.
“I’ll call you,” Jared said, skipping down the steps backwards, watching Jensen walk away inside the apartment building.
Jared waited an agonizing five minutes, by which time he’d gotten about a fifth of the way home, before he called Jensen. He talked loud and happy, receiving endless irritated looks from passers by in the streets.
They talked well into the evening, Jared doing most of the talking and Jensen offering his own opinions now and then in small quiet words that made Jared’s stomach flutter like a teenage girl with a crush.
“Are we still on for that date Monday morning?” Jared asked carefully when he could sense the call was coming to an end. Jensen sounded tired, and Jared didn’t want to be the reason Jensen would indeed get that scolding from his doctor. Talking a guy further into sickness, that would be a whole new low, even for Jared.
“I’m pretty sure even if I said no, you’ll still be waiting outside my apartment when I wake up on Monday.”
“Are you going to say no?” Though he was fairly certain Jensen was joking, Jared chewed his thumbnail anxiously.
There was a quiet huff of laughter. “Yes, Jared, you can pick me up Monday morning.”
It took all the self-control Jared had to remain composed and not fist pump the air and jump up and down on his couch. “I’ll be there, half eight.”
“Sounds great.”
“Are you sure? It’s not too late is it? What about quarter past instead? I mean I really wouldn’t wanna be the reason you missed you appointment because traffic can be a bitch and parking is hell and-”
“Jared?” Jensen interrupted.
“Yeah?”
“Goodnight.”
Jared giggled. “Oh, right…goodnight.”
-
Just as promised, Monday morning Jared was waiting bright and early outside Jensen’s apartment building. He considered going up to Jensen’s door but went with his better judgement and restrained himself by staying in the car.
He didn’t have to wait long before Jensen came out. He was wearing the same black beanie Jared had seen him wearing three days previously in the coffee shop. His hoodie was grey this time though and his jeans a darker shade of blue. Jensen stuffed his hands in his pockets on the way down the building steps and the expression on his face was a sour one.
“I can’t believe you actually came,” Jensen stated through the open window Jared had rolled down while waiting.
Jared smiled wide and happy. “I always keep my promises. I’ve got a cooler full of popsicles in the trunk, and enough board games to entertain the whole children’s ward.”
“Sounds good,” Jensen chuckled quietly, hovering outside Jared’s open window.
“Get in, man. Or we’re gonna miss our reservation,” Jared joked. That one was pretty good by his standards. He felt slightly deflated when Jensen forced another huff of quiet laughter.
Jensen made his way round the car to the passenger side and got in. He strapped on his seat belt and twiddled his thumbs in his lap. “Do you need directions to the hospital?”
Jared smiled at him. “Nope, I can find my way.” He paused for a moment, “My gran died a couple of years ago and I used to visit her a lot before she passed.”
“I’m sorry.” That was the last bit of timid conversation Jensen spoke for the rest of the ride. Jared carried on enough for the both of them. He was good at talking. Didn’t know when to shut up most times his mom used to tell him. Jensen didn’t seem to mind him babbling though. He even cracked a smile at one point.
They reached the hospital and Jared dropped Jensen off at the entrance before he went searching for a parking space. The time it took to find somewhere to park and to grab the cooler and the small mountain of games from his trunk meant by the time Jared got into the hospital himself, Jensen was nowhere to be seen.
“Um, I’m looking for my friend, Jensen Ackles? He just came in for chemo,” Jared explained whilst trying to balance the cooler and games in both hands gracefully.
“He’s in bay four, just around the corner to your left.” The receptionist smiled and he smiled a thank you in return. “Do you need help with those?” she laughed at the ridiculous stack in his arms.
“No thanks, I got it.” He really did. Only tripped once on the way to bay four.
Jensen was already hooked up to tubes, wires and chemo when Jared poked his right eye through the small gap in the curtain that surrounded Jensen’s bed. The sight shocked him for a moment. It was daunting how fragile Jensen looked. It was almost too real.
“Hey,” Jensen said, smiling faintly when he noticed Jared.
“Hey!” Jared beamed, scrambling past the curtain clumsily with the games and the cooler in hand.
Jensen looked self conscious of the tubes and such surrounding him. “Sorry, I would have waited but…you know how places like this are, if you miss your reservation they give your bed away to the next customer.”
Jared threw his head back and laughed, happy Jensen had appreciated the joke earlier. He set the cooler down on the floor and dumped the games on the end of Jensen’s bed careful not to catch his toes, which were adorably curled up with his knees bent towards his chest.
“So, what first, Twister?” Jared grabbed the box with grin and Jensen smiled brightly at him.
“And my earlier statement still stands, you’re the strange person I’ve ever met.”
Jared grinned. “I’m still taking that as a compliment.” Putting aside the Twister box that he brought purely for a pun, Jared picked up Monopoly and Jensen agreed it was easy enough to play whilst attached to everything like he was.
Jensen went first, at Jared's insistence.
Jensen picked the dog and Jared picked the top hat, claiming he was classy enough to pull it off. Half an hour later, Jensen had finished his first popsicle, grape flavour, had countless tiny building pieces and a bank full of money. Jared had finished off three popsicles, had no building pieces on the board and no money to speak of what so ever.
“Are you letting me win?” Jensen said when his lead became somewhat laughable.
“No,” Jared answered in complete honesty. “Okay, I have no idea how to play this game,” he admitted. “I used to play with my brother as a kid and he always lied to me about the rules. I actually have no idea how to play any of these games.” Jared looked sheepishly at the pile he brought, most of them brand new because what self respecting twenty six year old owned that many board games?
“Well it’s a good thing my brother sucked at lying.” Jensen then proceeded to teach Jared how to really play Monopoly, starting the game over, and although Jared still lost the second time, he lost respectably.
Two hours into the chemo, Jensen was teaching Jared how to play chess. Things began to slow down and Jared’s constant word vomit had even taken a hit when he noticed the color of Jensen’s skin. His pale olive cheeks were turning a vicious sickening green and Jared really shouldn’t have thought of the phrase ‘word vomit’ because out of nowhere, Jensen grabbed a kidney dish from the side table Jared hadn’t even noticed until now, and promptly threw up. Chess pieces went flying, the wooden board clattered loudly on the floor and Jared was sure he was never going to find the black Queen as it rolled past the curtain surrounding Jensen’s bed and under a radiator.
“Oh, Jesus. I’m sorry,” Jensen croaked with saliva and other sorts dribbling down his chin. “God, this must look disgusting, I’m so disgusting. I don’t even know why a guy like you would even give a bald freak like me the time of day. You really are insane, or blind, or stupid, fuck. I didn’t mean to call you stupid.”
Apparently Jensen could babble too.
Jared shook his head. “Dude, shut the hell up, you’re a catch. Even with puke down your chin.”
A nurse came past the curtain at that moment with a calculated sympathetic expression with a roll of tissues and wipes in her hand.
“Thank you,” Jared said, taking them off her before she could attend to Jensen herself.
“Will you guys be okay?” she asked, taking the hint with the wipes. “How’s that anti-nausea IV working for you, Jensen?” She checked the IV ports and the bags of medicine hung at both sides of the bed.
“Just as great as always, Masie,” Jensen grumbled.
“Lovely to see you too, sweetheart,” she joked, taking the paper dish from him to dispose of.
Jared wiped Jensen’s chin, ignoring the bitter look in his eyes. He cleaned the front of his hoodie and offered up his own which Jensen declined. “Just gonna hurl again in like three minutes. And that’s a nice shirt.”
“You think my shirts nice?” Jared winked.
Jensen cracked a smile at the corners of his mouth. “Glad to see my puke hasn’t put a dent in your ego. Yes, it looks good on you,” he admitted.
Jared quickly tidied away what chess pieces he could find scattered on the hospital floor, then suggested watching TV.
“They never play it loud enough and it’s always on Judge Judy,” Jensen sulked.
Jared raised his eyebrows at Jensen’s pout. “Anyone ever tell you that puking really makes you cranky?”
Jared pulled back the curtain to see the TV in the corner of the large bay occupying six beds, most of them with their curtains closed and echoes of puking coming from behind them. He took a glance around the parts of the ward he could see and made a good guess he was about the only person tall enough to switch the channels on the TV. They could scold him all they liked, but without a stepladder, none of the nurses or orderlies could do much to put back what he’d altered.
He watched Jensen’s face as he changed the channels, and when a less sour expression was on the man’s face, Jared left it on that station, which turned out to be How I Met Your Mother.
“Volume up?” he asked Jensen across the gap in the room and although he looked somewhat embarrassed, he nodded.
Jared sat back down in the chair beside Jensen’s bed, one eye on the TV and the other on Jensen clutching another kidney dish in his lap. It wasn’t many minutes later that Jensen was throwing up again. He missed his sweater this time, only dribbling a little. Jared stood over the bed, handing him a wad of tissues from the box and rubbing his back with soothing words.
“It’s alright, man. You’re doing good, you’re doing good.”
For the next hour and half nothing much changed. Jensen puked, Jensen watched a little TV, Jensen puked again. Jared offered comforting words, not sure if it helping or just plain patronising, and didn’t watch TV at all.
Jensen leaned into him, exhausted when he’d finished his current bout of vomiting.
“Why don’t you try and get some sleep?” Jared suggested, feeling the weight of Jensen on him.
Jensen laid his head down without another complaint; with closed eyes, he found a hand of Jared’s and locked their fingers together. They stayed like that the entire time Jensen was asleep. Jared removed the black beanie that slowly crept up the further Jensen sunk into the pillows, revealing a soft bald head which made Jared’s heart both sink and melt.
No longer was Jensen just this cute timid shy guy Jared purposefully bumped into last week and managed to shamefully squeeze a date out of. Jensen had suddenly become a seriously ill man before him. A dying man. The reality of Jared’s stupidity and his selfishness had come crashing down over the last few hours.
-
“Are you okay?” Jensen asked, interrupting the silence on the way home.
Jared was thinking so loud that he almost didn’t hear the voice breaking through the stone wall behind his eyes. “Sorry?”
“I asked if you were okay, you’re quiet,” Jensen told him. “You’ve been more quiet in the last half hour than you have the whole time since I met you.”
“I was just thinking,” Jared said.
“Was this date all you’d expect it to be?” Jensen joked, though his smile was dark.
“I guess I was a little naïve,” he admitted faintly, still stuck in his own head. They pulled onto Jensen’s street and Jared parked outside his building. He shut off the engine, turning to Jensen and asking, “Do you have a roommate?” as the man unclipped his seatbelt.
Jensen was instantly confused. “No, what does that have to do with-”
“Who helps you with this stuff?” Jared interrupted, quite distraught. “Who comes with you to hospital appointments and chemo, and who holds your hand when you’re puking all night and hurting too much to even move?”
“Who helps me with cancer?” Jensen asked, trying to collect Jared’s frantic questions into something simple he could understand.
Jared nodded.
Jensen turned to him with a sympathetic sigh. Not as offended as he thought he should be. “Listen, Jared, it’s not that bad. What I have, it could be so much worse. They caught it early, the chemo isn’t all that strong, I’ll be having surgery in a month or so and then I’ll be fine.” He took Jared’s shaking hand from the steering wheel. “As for who helps me, my parents threw me out when I was seventeen when my best friend outed me. I haven’t seen them in years, I don’t exactly think they even deserve to know what’s going on with me. My brother comes to visit sometimes. If I really need him, he knows I’ll call. But otherwise, I can cope just fine by myself. I don’t need a babysitter, or a mother, or a glorified nurse to wipe my chin, I just…could you just be my friend?”
Jared smiled. “Sure, I can do that.”
Jensen patted Jared’s hand. “Come on, man. Can we go inside? I’m exhausted and I’m pretty sure I still have some more puking to do.”
Jared laughed and followed him inside.
The End
A/N: Requests please, I would massively appreciate it. I can't promise anything, but I for one would love to see more of this verse, I just have no clue where to take it and what to write about
> 03#: BitterSweet