J2_everafter fic: And the Violets are Blue-ing in the Green, Part 2
Back to Part One (in case you wanna)
Jared's on duty on Friday afternoons -rookie hazing, Kristen calls it- and he doesn't really get why until he's two hours in and ready to smash his head against the desk until something breaks.
Chad's off somewhere, getting shot down by the neighborhood's surprisingly intelligent cats, and it's just Jared and his birds. Justin's head is drooping a little.
"Slow day?"
Jared's head snaps up as Jensen comes in through the connecting door, and he mimes shooting himself in reply to Jensen's question.
Jensen chuckles a little. "Yeah, me too." he drags a stool over to the counter, smiling and looking at Jared through his eyelashes. "I figured, if you were being bored out of your skull over here and I was doing the same thing over there, might as well be bored out of our skulls together."
Jared can't argue with that kind of logic. He grins companionably. "Can we play inane guessing games?"
Jensen groans. "Oh God. I was asking for this, wasn't I?"
He's smiling as he says it, though, so Jared isn't too worried. "Pretty much."
*
Half an hour later, Jensen's broken into his not-so-secret stash of candy and is carefully fishing out a red gummy bear, his features taut with concentration. Finally, he says, "Octopus."
Jared cackles gleefully. "Bzzt. Wrong again! Man, you suck at this." he snatches the bowl of candy back and begins shovelling down mouthfuls. Their shoulders bump together, but Jensen doesn't seem to notice, so Jared just keeps his there, just brushing Jensen's. "Try again. Two more guesses to go, and then your immortal soul will be mine. Mine!"
It says a lot about how Jensen's either a masochist or really fond of Jared, that he doesn't kick Jared out then and there. It's probably the former, but Jared decides to be grateful anyway.
Jensen strokes one of his butterflies' wings distractedly as he thinks. Jared thinks the butterfly in question might actually be purring.
"Okay...dolphin."
"Dude." Jared protests. "Dolphins don't even have-"
"Excuse me?"
Jared slowly turns to face the door, absently underlining his mental note to remind Kristen to buy a goddamn chime for that door already, when he sees a familiar brilliant smile.
"Jared, right?" Sandy McCoy asks, smiling widely.
Jared nods, possibly too fast, because his neck begins to ache. He wonders whether he's still grinning like a lunatic. "And you're Sandy."
She giggles. "See, we're both memorable people. We have that in common." She looks around a little. "Where's your, um, cat?"
Jared shrugs. "Around, probably."
There's a brief, awkward pause while Jared's mind races, trying to come up with something that wasn't either characteristically awkward - “So you’re wearing jeans, huh? Cool, me too. We’re like twins or something.”- or just downright dumb.
Someone clears their throat and Jared starts. Right. Jensen. He'd forgotten.
"Sandy, this is Jensen. He co-owns the shop." Jared says quickly. "Jensen, Sandy McCoy."
Much to his surprise, they eye each other from a distance, rather than hug and start a spiel about how hard it was to be fabulous all the time, like Jared had been half-expecting. He watches Jensen curiously, noting how his shoulders had tensed and his expression was closed-off and polite.
He'd had his suspicions that Jensen was cripplingly shy, despite the way he'd acted when he and Jared first met. Jared has the feeling Jensen was actually so out of it when he met Jared that he didn't even register that he was talking to a weird stranger on a broom.
Now, on home turf, there's a certain way Jensen's eyes duck and swerve and come back to Jared, as if for assurance. Jared doesn't even try telling himself it isn't a little gratifying. Jensen's adorableness was a force of its own.
Sandy's a bit better, her eyes warm and still filled with laughter as they go from Jensen to Jared and then back again. Something in her expression shifts, but she doesn't stop smiling. Jared can't figure it out. "Good to meet you, Jensen."
Jensen smiles politely. "You too."
Jared just raises an eyebrow at Jensen, who ignores him.
“Um, I hate to sound rude,” Sandy says suddenly, when the awkward gets so loud Jared begins to wonder if he should maybe juggle something just for entertainment’s sake. “But is that seriously a grasshopper on your shoulder?”
“Mantis,” Jared and Jensen correct reflexively in unison, and roll their eyes at each other. Jensen adds, “It’s not the worst by far, anyway.”
Jared smirks. “Yeah, you shoulda seen the otters.”
“Effing enormous, they were,” Jensen adds somberly.
“Yeah?” Sandy asks, her eyes twinkling.
Jared nods seriously. “They were about to impregnate the cat.” He widens his eyes for effect.
Sandy’s smile falters, but Jensen looks as if he’s actually chewing on the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing, so Jared doesn’t let up. “But we gave them a lot of candy and sent them to a sugar coma. Then we beat them with baseball bats.”
Jensen’s face splits into a huge grin. “So the moral of this story is, don’t smoke pot before coming to work.”
They burst out laughing, Jensen pretending to roll his eyes and Jared nudging his shoulder. Sandy laughing, too, by the time Jared sticks his tongue out at Jensen, so he has to shuffle his feet and clear his throat a little to maintain the illusion of dignity.
"So I was thinking, since you were so efficient last time," Sandy says, patting Jared's hand a little, "I thought maybe you could help me out, too."
Jared sits up. "Of course," he tries not to sound too enthusiastic, and thinks he succeeds, for most part.
"See, my grandma lives way out, in the backwoods, you could say." She hefts a basket to the counter, and Jared wonders how she'd carried it all this time. It was roughly half his size, which meant it was almost bigger than Sandy herself. Women. Jared would never understand them.
He eyes it apprehensively. "Let me guess. You want me to deliver this."
She laughs. "Got it in one. What gave it away?"
Jared shrugs and preens. "Momma says I'm very observant."
Jensen snorts, and his arm brushes against Jared's, just a brief, warm flare of contact. Sandy keeps smiling at him, so Jared's basically feeling warm fuzzies all over, and doesn't think twice about accepting the job.
"Really? You could do that? It's just that she lives so far away, you know, and the road is really crappy, and just last year I was telling Mom how the only way to get there was to fly over." She stops, and blushes crimson. "I'm sorry, I'm babbling, aren't I?"
Jared grins. "Not really. You should see me when I get started. Ask Jensen."
Jensen sighs, long and put-upon. "I'll never figure out what I did to deserve that two hour long rant about unicorn racism."
Sandy giggles into her hand, and JC joins in, singing some more Nirvana. Jared shoots them an indulgent look, and tentatively picks up the basket.
It's not as heavy as it looks, but it's heavier than an average toddler. He weighs it on the scales near the counter, and shouts the figure out to Jensen, who quickly whips up a bill for Sandy. Jared eyes the digits on the scale for a moment.
He hasn't told Jensen or Kristen yet, but he actually has a limit to what he can balance on a broom. Since he's bigger than average, the additional weight he can handle was rather limited, and as a result, Sandy's basket really toes the line.
"Anything wrong, Jay?" Jensen asks. Sandy pauses midway into her exit from the shop.
Jared looks up, grins. "Nah. I'm peachy."
Sandy holds her arm out, smiling invitingly. "Walk me out?"
Jared nods. "Watch my spot for me!" he calls to Jensen, who rolls his eyes.
"Yeah, I'll have to beat the customers off with a stick." Jensen gestures grandly at the dismally empty view of the street, and Jared and Sandy chuckle.
Chad looks up from his perch on the fence once they're outside, and leaps off and strolls over languidly. Sandy doesn’t seem to notice. She bites her lip and looks up at Jared through her eyelashes, which, cute. “So there’s this party,” she says, smiling a little sheepishly. “It’s actually my birthday today, and it would be amazing if you could come.”
Jared’s eyes widen. At his side, Chad hisses, “If you fuck this up I will fucking claw you to death and feed you to the roaches.”
“Um. That sounds,” he casts his mind for something to say.
“Like a damn good time,” Chad supplies.
“…fun,” Jared says. “That sounds like fun. When is it?”
“Seven.” She offers, her smile still bug light-bright. “You know my address, right?”
Jared nods. For some reason, his brain is steadfastly refusing to supply him with passable comebacks. He blames it on the insects. “Uh-huh.”
“Great!” She beams, and Jared wonders if this is what he was like all the time. Surely he didn’t smile this much. She winks, for good measure. "Seven o'clock, Jared. Don't forget." Then, she bites her lip, like she's remembered something. "And you should bring Jensen, too."
"Okay," Says Jared, confused. Sandy doesn't look as thrilled as she seemed before at the prospect. "I'll have to ask."
She smiles encouragingly. "You do that." She leans up -Jared even has to bend down a little once he's figures out what she wants to do- and kisses him on the lightly cheek.
Jared watches her leave, his fingers reaching up dazedly to touch where her lips had grazed his skin.
He fucking loves this town.
When he goes back inside, Jensen's switched on the TV and Jared's mostly grateful because that means Jensen doesn't see how hard he's blushing. He'd never live that shit down. "Whatcha watching. Jen?"
"Weather channel." Jensen says, unsurprisingly. Jensen's an even bigger geek than Jared when it comes to stuff like that, and he manages to make it seem endearing. Jared really has got to ask Jensen how he swings that, because whenever Jared gets his geek on and watches the weather channel for obsessively long hours, he gets clawed in the side by Chad.
Plus, they have crap reception here, so it’s not like they can watch anything they want, anyway.
"Anything interesting?" Jared asks, settling in his abandoned seat and frowning a little. When had Jensen moved away? If Jared remembered right, they had been constantly bumping against each other, casual and easy. It had been nice.
He tries to surreptitiously inch his chair closer to Jensen's. Jensen times it beautifully; just a hint of a smile and moving his stool away from Jared as he begins to speak. Jared pouts.
"Storm's coming, Jay." Jensen says, nodding at the TV screen, where the weatherman is flailing around. "This afternoon."
Jared blinks at him, dismayed. "What? But that's when I-" he looks at the landmine of a basket lying on the counter. "Oh, crap."
Jensen looks from him to the basket, his eyes widening slowly. "Oh no no no no no. No no no. Absolutely not. No no no." he shakes his head as he says it, his eyes fixed firmly on Jared's.
Jared chews his lower lip and tries not to seem too miserable. If there's anything he learned pre-training, it's to trust the weather channel with his life.
"If I go in and get out really fast," he begins, but Jensen's shaking his head again. He's going to be dizzy if they keep this up, Jared muses in a vague sort of way.
"No, man, it's in like an hour or so." Jensen nodded at the window and sure enough, there were a couple of dark, spindly clouds in the middle of the fluffy white ones. It was unnecessarily ominous, Jared thought.
What Jensen said next, however, was the most incomprehensible thing to have happened to him yet. "We'll take my car."
Jared gapes at him. "And do what? Skip town so that Sandy can't hunt me down in vengeance for not delivering her basket?" and she'll be perfectly nice as she does it, too; Jared knows the type. She'd flambé him alive while singing campfire songs and he'll like it. He buries his face in his hands. "I'm screwed."
"No you're not." Jensen says firmly. "Shut up and listen. I've got a plan."
*
Jensen's plan is to drive up to whatever part of the forest track in that they can, and for Jared to fly the rest of the way. That way, he tells Jared, the time he'd be exposed to the storm would be lessened significantly.
Jared finds it kind of incredibly cute, the way Jensen actually uses the word 'lessened', but he keeps that observation to himself. Jensen looks very serious about this, making Jared think that if he were given enough time, Jensen would have a PowerPoint ready and everything.
Chad, on the other hand, calls them both a couple of idiots and that no one should be that desperate to get laid. He further adds that in no way is he waltzing into a storm with no one but a guy who talks to butterflies and a failed witch for protection, and stalks off. Jared ignores him.
"Dude, I'm not dragging you out into a storm with me." Jared says, choosing to focus on the biggest loopholes of Jensen's master plan first and work his way downwards.
Jensen gives him a steady look. Jared notes, somewhat in awe, that Jensen really does have the greenest eyes on the planet. He'd forgotten, somehow. They were the first -and only, considering how he had been freaking the fuck out, focusing on keeping his broom straight - thing he'd noticed, back when they'd first met.
Said green eyes blink at him, and Jared shakes himself out. "You were saying?"
"I was saying, I'm not dragging you through miles of forest when it's not even your job." Jared says firmly.
Jensen shrugs. "It kinda is." at Jared's skeptical look, he adds, "I mean, I did promise to help out."
Jared bites his lip and doesn't bring up the fact that Jensen had already given him a job and a place to stay. He just stares at Jensen, long and hard, trying to call him out, and Jensen stares back serenely, eyebrows arched slightly.
Finally, Jared blinks, and Jensen crows. "Road trip!" he cries, sounding impossibly chirpy. His butterflies flap a little, like he's got confetti in his hair.
And that's when it hits Jared. No warning at all, no heart-stopping moment of stillness. No fireworks, and Jared's kinda disappointed by how low-key it all is, once he gets to thinking about it.
But the fact remains; he is in love with Jensen Ackles.
"Oh," he says, and Jensen pauses on his way to the back, and raises his eyebrows questioningly.
Jared looks at him speculatively. Jensen's got butterflies in his hair and food coloring streaked across his face. He looks like he always does, gorgeous and shyly friendly and familiar.
Jared sighs, accepting. Jensen’s awesomeness was a force unto its own. "Whatever. Let’s get this show on the road.”
Jensen rolls his eyes, and goes upstairs. Jared realizes he’s smiling when he comes back.
*
Jensen's car is big and conspicuous and looks like it might have been a lovely shade of periwinkle blue back when his great-grandfather bought it secondhand. Jensen, however, refuses to listen to Jared's constructive criticism and tells him to shove his goddamn broom in the backseat and get in already.
"Pushy," Jared observes snippily.
"I choose not being caught in a biblical rainstorm over not hurting your delicate feelings." Jensen says, as he turns the engine on. It sounds like a very rusty vacuum cleaner and Jared wonders whether it really is a car, and not some sort of medieval electrical appliance. Possibly a Hoover.
"Is your car a Hoover in disguise?" Jared asks before he gets in.
"Says the guy who goes around on a broom." Jensen retaliates, deadpan. "The new generation of cleaning appliances doubling up as transportation. I like the way you think, Mr. Padalecki."
"Why thank you, Mr. Ackles." Jared bats his eyelashes at Jensen, and Jensen rolls his eyes.
They pull out of the driveway without actually hitting the mail box, and Jared sits back and tries to think happy thoughts. The way Jensen pretty much has free reign on the horn and the frequent splutters of the engine don't help at all. Jared finally closes his eyes and directs a prayer towards whatever deity responsible for watching over witches in cars with lunatics, and hopes for the best.
The road gets increasingly bumpy as they leave the main road behind, heading into the heart of the woods. Jared's never been anywhere near it before, but Jensen seems perfectly calm, telling him a story about the time he and Kristen came over here to spend the night on a dare in middle school. Jared listens on, horrified, as Jensen's story goes on to include bees, mysterious noises in the night and being woken up by a squirrel nibbling on his socks.
"Dude," Jared says, aghast. "And you’re coming back here willingly? What are your balls made of?"
Jensen snorts. The three butterflies that made it into the car before he’d slammed the door shut settle on his hands on the steering wheel and Jensen pets them absently. "It really is just a bunch of trees with some furry four-legged animals in between." He says, lightly. "Nothing for the great Jared Padalecki, champion of downtrodden otters, to be afraid of."
"I never said I--" Jared begins indignantly, and then trails off when Jensen chuckles. He flushes. "Ha ha. Very funny, Jen."
"I think so too, yeah." Jensen says agreeably, turning his head to aim a mischievous, bright-eyed look at Jared that has Jared's heart doing strange things in his chest.
He ignores the trip-trap in his ribcage, and settles for a change of subject. "Are we there yet?"
Jensen's indulgent expression immediately shifts into a frown. Jared sort of misses it. "Of course not, we're barely in the woods yet."
Jared glances outside, and sees trees, trees, and then some more trees. "It looks pretty woodsy to me." he says pointedly.
Jensen snorts. "It would. Hot child from the city," he teases, half-singing.
Jared smirks. "Does that mean you think I'm hot?"
Jensen rolls his eyes, but not fast enough. Jared sees the flush on the top of his cheekbones and feels a little like singing himself. "It means you're a dork."
"You love it," Jared says comfortably, settling back in his seat.
*
They’re about ten minutes into what Jensen calls the real woods, motherfuckers when the first raindrops patter comfortably onto the windscreen.
Jared flails. “The end, it’s begun! We’re doomed! I’m too young to die!”
Jensen gives him a strange look, which Jared feels is unwarranted. “Jay,” he says, painstaking and slow. “It’s barely a drizzle.”
The rain promptly turns into a storm, an audible clash of a torrent of water against the car.
Jensen curses very eloquently.
Jared tries his best not to be smug and all, told you we were gonna die. Witches were, after all, known for their humility. Jared would fucking rock this witch-in-training thing if it was the last thing he did. Literally.
“Okay,” he says evenly. “So we’re dying -which I totally predicted, by the way- so I want you to know that you’re not a terrible human being.”
Jensen raps his fingers irritably against the wheel, squinting to see through the rivulets on his windscreen. “We’re not dying,” he says, aiming a punch at Jared’s shoulder.
Jared squawks. “Eyes! On the road!”
Jensen narrowly avoids a tree.
Jared just looks at him, heart hammering in his chest. “Jensen?” he says, a very bad feeling creeping through his stomach even as he raises a hand to check on his pulse.
Jensen raises his eyebrows sharply.
“When was the last time you actually drove?”
Jensen flushes a little, and Jared’s heart sinks.
“Oh my God, I was totally right.” Jared tells the universe in general. “We’re doomed.”
Jensen rolls his eyes. “It’s not that bad,” he says, carefully navigating a hairpin curve. Whichever college frat boy high on pot it was that made this shitfest of a road, Jared was going to haunt them so bad. “It’s been a while, is all. I don’t really go anywhere much, and…” he trails off, looking sheepish and apologetic. He looks at Jared again, and his eyes are so green Jared can’t even tell him to focus on where he was going. “I just wanted to make sure you would be okay.”
Jared determinedly looks away and tells his stupid heart to give the whole beating out-of-control thing a rest, because he is mad and Jensen is an evil, manipulative...
“It’s fine,” Jared finds himself saying. “Just…Chad’s gonna be all alone in the world.”
Jensen snorts, all traces of regret vanished. “Dude, I think it’s safe to assume that your cat’s gonna be fine.”
Jared pouts. “But who’ll feed him?”
Jensen throws him a look. This one, thankfully, doesn’t make Jared’s heart skid and stutter. “In case you hadn’t noticed, Kristen calls Chad her honeypie Chaddy-Waddy Boo.”
Jared bursts out a laughing. “She does not.” He protests, between giggles.
Jensen smirks. “Well, not yet, anyway.”
“How’d you find him, anyway?” Jensen asks, sounding genuinely curious. “I mean, as far as I can tell, black cats are supposed to be your bitch. Did you get him cheap secondhand or something?”
Jared looks at him sharply and sees the light, teasing shade of his eyes. He muses that being head over heels in love doesn’t mean that he doesn’t see Jensen as kind of a dick now and then. A good-looking dick, but a dick nonetheless.
“Well, you got your face secondhand, so.”
“You got your Mum secondhand.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means you’re retarded. So there.”
“Ever consider a career in politics, Jen? Logic like that, you’re bound to get us out of pesky diplomatic trouble in no time.”
“Damn straight.”
*
They're nearly an hour into their comfortable silence and occasional bickering when Jared notices that the engine is whining.
He looks at Jensen, and sure enough, his jaw is tight and his hands are clenched around the wheel. Jared's stomach drops unpleasantly.
The rain’s receded down to an uncertain sort of drizzle, but there’s promise of a storm to come. Jensen’s butterflies are shaking their wings nervously, little flashes of blue and red.
"Jen?" he ventures cautiously.
Jensen bites his lower lip, and looks back at him. That's when the car gives another croak of protest, shudders once, and falls still.
At first, neither of them moves. Jared doesn't even breathe.
Finally, Jensen lets out a long sigh and slumps back in his seat, his hands falling onto his lap and clasping together.
"Don't try to tell me that wasn't a long time coming." Jared says, trying to keep his tone light.
Jensen looks miserable. "Yeah." he replies in a small voice. "I guess it was."
His butterflies droop a little.
Jared swallows, and then pulls himself together. "Alright then." he says, businesslike, getting out of the car and reaching in the back for his broom and the basket. He can’t even feel the rain, it’s that light. That adds fuel to his optimism.
"If we do it your way, you'll have to look through the woods for me in the rain, and you'll be late for Sandy's party." Jensen says, in this infuriatingly calm voice.
Jared flails, and his sleeve catches on a branch. Lovely. "Screw Sandy’s party, you're not falling off my broom!" he says vehemently, and then frowns. "Wait, how do you know about Sandy's party?"
Jensen flushes and looks away.
Jared's eyes widen. "Oh my God. I can't believe this. You eavesdropped on us? What are yyou, twelve?"
"It wasn't like it was on purpose!" Jensen says defensively. "She was making eyes at you really loudly. It's not that big of a deal, seriously."
Jared gestures madly. "But what the hell, man?"
He feels like stamping his foot; simultaneously, he feels like shaking Jensen until his teeth rattled and he promised he trusted Jared. Because this? This fucking hurt.
"I'm sorry, Jay,” Jensen says inn this impossibly soft voice. "I was- I'm sorry."
Jared looks away from the luminous green of Jensen's eyes. He couldn't even think straight when Jensen made his eyes go romance novel wide, the evil bastard.
"And I promise I won't fall off your broom, Jared," Jensen continues in that low, soft voice. "You won't let me."
Jared groans. "Fine, fine. You win. You are officially gayer than I am."
Jensen's entire demeanor changes, and he whoops loudly. "Oh yeah," he pumps a fist and Jared rolls his eyes.
"Just get onboard, motherfucker." Jared says, and Jensen gives him a little smile, private and lingering, before saying in an obnoxiously sing-song voice, “Aye aye,cap’n!”
Jared rolls his eyes and Jensen smirks. The butterflies cling to his hair as he gets on the broom gingerly behind Jared.
“What?” he asks, when he catches Jared staring.
Jared shakes his head. It helps to veer away from the tangent his thoughts had gone on, seeing Jensen on his broom with those stupid butterflies. He takes a minute to miss Chad’s call of all ready, cap’n, let’s ride this thing before he gets on.
Jensen’s arms go around his waist immediately, and he leans into Jared, a comfortable pressure against his back, and oh God he was so warm.
Jared swallows. This was going to be a little harder than he imagined.
“Hold on tight,” he says hoarsely.
He feels Jensen nod against his shoulder.
“Right,” Jared says for no reason.
Then he takes off.
*
"Oh my," Jensen breathes into Jared's ear, a hot puff of air. Jared doesn't even try to hide his shiver. "Jared, watch out!"
Jared neatly swerves the tree. He 's laughing, big and joyful, the wind rushing past his face and Jensen pressed close.
Jensen's laughing just as hard, his hands two solid points of warmth on Jared's waist. "Show off," he mumbles into Jared's neck, but he doesn't sound anything other than absolutely delighted.
Jared is, basically, screwed.
"You ain't seen nothing yet," Jared says, feeling cliché and sappy and a little bit like sweeping Jensen off his feet. None of this means good things for Jared, but he lets that be for now.
Jensen whoops loudly as Jared spirals down, drawing flashy loops in the air with his broom. He snaps his broom upright at the very last moment, when his feet are nearly skimming the forest floor. Jensen's hands tighten painfully on his waist. "What are you trying to do, give me a fucking heart attack?" Jensen demands, without any sting. His voice is high and excited, like a kid on Christmas. "Do it again!"
“Aren’t you supposed to have a limit for this thing?” Jensen asks in a whoosh of air as they find themselves upside down, the basket hanging precariously on Jensen’s arm and Jared’s broom practically laughing along with them. The trees whiz past and Jared realizes that he doesn’t even have to think about steering, let alone concentrate. “I mean, the weight and- holy shit, was that a fucking owl? Did an owl just fly under me?”
“Not anymore I don’t!” he yells over his shoulder, and to punctuate this, he goes on an elaborate spiral upwards till the leaves of the trees can’t be distinguished separately anymore and the lighthouse becomes visible, a single, straight line upwards.
“Holy-“ Jensen breathes.
Jared laughs again. He's still trying very hard not to think about how much better this is than flying with Chad, how much better than just flying, period, when Jensen kisses him.
Jared blinks, once, twice.
The angle's terrible, so Jensen's mostly kissing the corner of his mouth, and a part of his cheek. Jared thinks, for a bizarre moment, that Jensen's actually aiming for his cheek in the first place, that this is one of those weird brotherly kisses of you're awesome, BFF’s foreva! instead of you're awesome, you, me, in my bed now.
And what gets Jared good was how fucking much he wanted it to be the latter.
And then Jensen makes a whining noise in his throat and shifts closer, slotting his hips against Jared's and kissing more towards his mouth. His legs tighten around Jared's, and Jared thinks oh.
Okay.
So Jared kisses back, twisting slightly, trying to get the angle to work. Jensen's hand comes up and tangles in Jared's hair and that works, that works just fine.
Jared makes a high, keening noise that's frankly a little embarrassing when Jensen nips at his lower lip. He squirms a little bit more, trying to get closer...
...and immediately falls off the broom.
"Wha-" Jensen manages, before there's a thud of his body hitting the ground. They’ve lost a lot of altitude while they were kissing, so the fall isn’t as fatal as it is surprising. Jared's limbs are tangled ungracefully in the broom and in Jensen, and he takes a minute to stare at the laden sky and thank whoever it was up there who was in charge of witches falling in love.
Of course, that's when the rain starts up again.
"Aw man," Jared whines, clambering back on his broom in a hurry. He waits for Jensen's arms to come around him, rising a little above ground. "Get on get on get on!"
Still nothing. Jared looks back incredulously and sees Jensen just standing there, arms crossed, looking immovable. Even his fucking butterflies look badass.
Jared groans. "What now, the rain wash away that tiny brain of yours?"
Jensen's eyebrows go up. "That's original. What are you, in second grade?"
Jared points upwards meaningfully. His hair's drenched through already, sticking to his neck. It's going to be all curly and unmanageable for weeks. Jared just knows it will. "Jensen. Remember that time we talked about this huge rainstorm and laid elaborate plans to get out of it? This would be it. And here you-"
"You kissed me back," Jensen interrupts.
Jared flushes. He's cold down to the bone and pretty soon, he's going to start shivering, but still his body manages to turn awkward and red at Jensen's command. Obviously. Jared's going to have to exchange strong words with whoever it is in charge.
Jensen doesn't look any better than Jared's feeling. His hair is smoothed against his head, a dark golden color, and he's turning pale. His butterflies don't seem to give a fuck about the weather, though- they stand out, bright splashes of color, watching them worriedly. Figures that Jensen would have overprotective butterflies. Jared’s life was the circus of crazy.
From Jensen’s shirt collar, a mantis clambers onto his neck and Jared thinks, of course. That’s just what they were missing. A delusional mantis.
He feels close to hyperventilating.
“Of course I kissed you back!” He says accusingly, jabbing a finger in Jensen’s chest. “We’re stuck in a forest and about to be eaten by bears and there’s a mantis on your shoulder, so of course I kissed you back! I’ve only been in love with you since I first saw you and what, just because your navigation skills are for shit means that I’ll pass on a chance to make out? Think again, Jensen Ackles.”
Jensen looks a little scared. Jared’s been jabbing his finger pretty hard against his chest, and it’s possible he been giving Jensen the crazy eyes. Whatever. He was fucking stranded in the middle of nowhere with a gorgeous guy with the brain capacity of a concussed tapir.
He straightens righteously.
Jensen’s expression of shock and terror are melting a little, his green eyes losing their glazed sheen. Instead, a corner of his mouth crooks up. It’s a seriously bad look for him.
“Really?” he asks, but there’s something in his tone, something…
Jared stares, awestruck. “You didn’t know?”
Jensen bristles at his tone. “Well, it wasn’t like you were reading poetry under my balcony.”
“You don’t even have a balcony,” Jared points out. “And besides, you would’ve had me arrested.”
“It would have proved a point!” And now it’s Jensen’s turn to flail a little, and he looks adorably confused. “I would have known I wasn’t wasting my time!”
Jared blinks. “You were…seducing me?”
“No, Jared, I just happened to drop lots of books right in your direct line of sight so that you could see me bend to pick them up,” Jensen sounds downright irritable. At Jared’s blank look, he throws up his arms. “Fine, whatever. I’m leaving you to get mauled by bears, bitch.”
He moves to stalk away in what Jared’s pretty sure is the wrong direction, but Jared reaches out and grabs his wrist.
Instantly, a jolt of electricity passes through the point of contact, running up Jared’s spine like wildfire. His eyes widen, and he looks up to see Jensen, his lips parted in shock.
That’s when the insects come in.
Thousands, millions of multicolored tiny critters in an explosion of color and noise, a few resting on Jensen’s head, chirping loudly, and the others content to swarm around them. Jared takes a moment to pray that they don’t eat humans before he remembers that he has Jensen, the only fucking insect whisperer in the world, on his side.
He meets Jensen’s eye and he looks back, awestruck. “Dude,” Jensen says, in a low voice. “Imagine if we have sex.”
Jared’s spine tingles at that, a ticklish little warmth. He’s still grinning when he kisses Jensen again.
END
Jared's on duty on Friday afternoons -rookie hazing, Kristen calls it- and he doesn't really get why until he's two hours in and ready to smash his head against the desk until something breaks.
Chad's off somewhere, getting shot down by the neighborhood's surprisingly intelligent cats, and it's just Jared and his birds. Justin's head is drooping a little.
"Slow day?"
Jared's head snaps up as Jensen comes in through the connecting door, and he mimes shooting himself in reply to Jensen's question.
Jensen chuckles a little. "Yeah, me too." he drags a stool over to the counter, smiling and looking at Jared through his eyelashes. "I figured, if you were being bored out of your skull over here and I was doing the same thing over there, might as well be bored out of our skulls together."
Jared can't argue with that kind of logic. He grins companionably. "Can we play inane guessing games?"
Jensen groans. "Oh God. I was asking for this, wasn't I?"
He's smiling as he says it, though, so Jared isn't too worried. "Pretty much."
*
Half an hour later, Jensen's broken into his not-so-secret stash of candy and is carefully fishing out a red gummy bear, his features taut with concentration. Finally, he says, "Octopus."
Jared cackles gleefully. "Bzzt. Wrong again! Man, you suck at this." he snatches the bowl of candy back and begins shovelling down mouthfuls. Their shoulders bump together, but Jensen doesn't seem to notice, so Jared just keeps his there, just brushing Jensen's. "Try again. Two more guesses to go, and then your immortal soul will be mine. Mine!"
It says a lot about how Jensen's either a masochist or really fond of Jared, that he doesn't kick Jared out then and there. It's probably the former, but Jared decides to be grateful anyway.
Jensen strokes one of his butterflies' wings distractedly as he thinks. Jared thinks the butterfly in question might actually be purring.
"Okay...dolphin."
"Dude." Jared protests. "Dolphins don't even have-"
"Excuse me?"
Jared slowly turns to face the door, absently underlining his mental note to remind Kristen to buy a goddamn chime for that door already, when he sees a familiar brilliant smile.
"Jared, right?" Sandy McCoy asks, smiling widely.
Jared nods, possibly too fast, because his neck begins to ache. He wonders whether he's still grinning like a lunatic. "And you're Sandy."
She giggles. "See, we're both memorable people. We have that in common." She looks around a little. "Where's your, um, cat?"
Jared shrugs. "Around, probably."
There's a brief, awkward pause while Jared's mind races, trying to come up with something that wasn't either characteristically awkward - “So you’re wearing jeans, huh? Cool, me too. We’re like twins or something.”- or just downright dumb.
Someone clears their throat and Jared starts. Right. Jensen. He'd forgotten.
"Sandy, this is Jensen. He co-owns the shop." Jared says quickly. "Jensen, Sandy McCoy."
Much to his surprise, they eye each other from a distance, rather than hug and start a spiel about how hard it was to be fabulous all the time, like Jared had been half-expecting. He watches Jensen curiously, noting how his shoulders had tensed and his expression was closed-off and polite.
He'd had his suspicions that Jensen was cripplingly shy, despite the way he'd acted when he and Jared first met. Jared has the feeling Jensen was actually so out of it when he met Jared that he didn't even register that he was talking to a weird stranger on a broom.
Now, on home turf, there's a certain way Jensen's eyes duck and swerve and come back to Jared, as if for assurance. Jared doesn't even try telling himself it isn't a little gratifying. Jensen's adorableness was a force of its own.
Sandy's a bit better, her eyes warm and still filled with laughter as they go from Jensen to Jared and then back again. Something in her expression shifts, but she doesn't stop smiling. Jared can't figure it out. "Good to meet you, Jensen."
Jensen smiles politely. "You too."
Jared just raises an eyebrow at Jensen, who ignores him.
“Um, I hate to sound rude,” Sandy says suddenly, when the awkward gets so loud Jared begins to wonder if he should maybe juggle something just for entertainment’s sake. “But is that seriously a grasshopper on your shoulder?”
“Mantis,” Jared and Jensen correct reflexively in unison, and roll their eyes at each other. Jensen adds, “It’s not the worst by far, anyway.”
Jared smirks. “Yeah, you shoulda seen the otters.”
“Effing enormous, they were,” Jensen adds somberly.
“Yeah?” Sandy asks, her eyes twinkling.
Jared nods seriously. “They were about to impregnate the cat.” He widens his eyes for effect.
Sandy’s smile falters, but Jensen looks as if he’s actually chewing on the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing, so Jared doesn’t let up. “But we gave them a lot of candy and sent them to a sugar coma. Then we beat them with baseball bats.”
Jensen’s face splits into a huge grin. “So the moral of this story is, don’t smoke pot before coming to work.”
They burst out laughing, Jensen pretending to roll his eyes and Jared nudging his shoulder. Sandy laughing, too, by the time Jared sticks his tongue out at Jensen, so he has to shuffle his feet and clear his throat a little to maintain the illusion of dignity.
"So I was thinking, since you were so efficient last time," Sandy says, patting Jared's hand a little, "I thought maybe you could help me out, too."
Jared sits up. "Of course," he tries not to sound too enthusiastic, and thinks he succeeds, for most part.
"See, my grandma lives way out, in the backwoods, you could say." She hefts a basket to the counter, and Jared wonders how she'd carried it all this time. It was roughly half his size, which meant it was almost bigger than Sandy herself. Women. Jared would never understand them.
He eyes it apprehensively. "Let me guess. You want me to deliver this."
She laughs. "Got it in one. What gave it away?"
Jared shrugs and preens. "Momma says I'm very observant."
Jensen snorts, and his arm brushes against Jared's, just a brief, warm flare of contact. Sandy keeps smiling at him, so Jared's basically feeling warm fuzzies all over, and doesn't think twice about accepting the job.
"Really? You could do that? It's just that she lives so far away, you know, and the road is really crappy, and just last year I was telling Mom how the only way to get there was to fly over." She stops, and blushes crimson. "I'm sorry, I'm babbling, aren't I?"
Jared grins. "Not really. You should see me when I get started. Ask Jensen."
Jensen sighs, long and put-upon. "I'll never figure out what I did to deserve that two hour long rant about unicorn racism."
Sandy giggles into her hand, and JC joins in, singing some more Nirvana. Jared shoots them an indulgent look, and tentatively picks up the basket.
It's not as heavy as it looks, but it's heavier than an average toddler. He weighs it on the scales near the counter, and shouts the figure out to Jensen, who quickly whips up a bill for Sandy. Jared eyes the digits on the scale for a moment.
He hasn't told Jensen or Kristen yet, but he actually has a limit to what he can balance on a broom. Since he's bigger than average, the additional weight he can handle was rather limited, and as a result, Sandy's basket really toes the line.
"Anything wrong, Jay?" Jensen asks. Sandy pauses midway into her exit from the shop.
Jared looks up, grins. "Nah. I'm peachy."
Sandy holds her arm out, smiling invitingly. "Walk me out?"
Jared nods. "Watch my spot for me!" he calls to Jensen, who rolls his eyes.
"Yeah, I'll have to beat the customers off with a stick." Jensen gestures grandly at the dismally empty view of the street, and Jared and Sandy chuckle.
Chad looks up from his perch on the fence once they're outside, and leaps off and strolls over languidly. Sandy doesn’t seem to notice. She bites her lip and looks up at Jared through her eyelashes, which, cute. “So there’s this party,” she says, smiling a little sheepishly. “It’s actually my birthday today, and it would be amazing if you could come.”
Jared’s eyes widen. At his side, Chad hisses, “If you fuck this up I will fucking claw you to death and feed you to the roaches.”
“Um. That sounds,” he casts his mind for something to say.
“Like a damn good time,” Chad supplies.
“…fun,” Jared says. “That sounds like fun. When is it?”
“Seven.” She offers, her smile still bug light-bright. “You know my address, right?”
Jared nods. For some reason, his brain is steadfastly refusing to supply him with passable comebacks. He blames it on the insects. “Uh-huh.”
“Great!” She beams, and Jared wonders if this is what he was like all the time. Surely he didn’t smile this much. She winks, for good measure. "Seven o'clock, Jared. Don't forget." Then, she bites her lip, like she's remembered something. "And you should bring Jensen, too."
"Okay," Says Jared, confused. Sandy doesn't look as thrilled as she seemed before at the prospect. "I'll have to ask."
She smiles encouragingly. "You do that." She leans up -Jared even has to bend down a little once he's figures out what she wants to do- and kisses him on the lightly cheek.
Jared watches her leave, his fingers reaching up dazedly to touch where her lips had grazed his skin.
He fucking loves this town.
When he goes back inside, Jensen's switched on the TV and Jared's mostly grateful because that means Jensen doesn't see how hard he's blushing. He'd never live that shit down. "Whatcha watching. Jen?"
"Weather channel." Jensen says, unsurprisingly. Jensen's an even bigger geek than Jared when it comes to stuff like that, and he manages to make it seem endearing. Jared really has got to ask Jensen how he swings that, because whenever Jared gets his geek on and watches the weather channel for obsessively long hours, he gets clawed in the side by Chad.
Plus, they have crap reception here, so it’s not like they can watch anything they want, anyway.
"Anything interesting?" Jared asks, settling in his abandoned seat and frowning a little. When had Jensen moved away? If Jared remembered right, they had been constantly bumping against each other, casual and easy. It had been nice.
He tries to surreptitiously inch his chair closer to Jensen's. Jensen times it beautifully; just a hint of a smile and moving his stool away from Jared as he begins to speak. Jared pouts.
"Storm's coming, Jay." Jensen says, nodding at the TV screen, where the weatherman is flailing around. "This afternoon."
Jared blinks at him, dismayed. "What? But that's when I-" he looks at the landmine of a basket lying on the counter. "Oh, crap."
Jensen looks from him to the basket, his eyes widening slowly. "Oh no no no no no. No no no. Absolutely not. No no no." he shakes his head as he says it, his eyes fixed firmly on Jared's.
Jared chews his lower lip and tries not to seem too miserable. If there's anything he learned pre-training, it's to trust the weather channel with his life.
"If I go in and get out really fast," he begins, but Jensen's shaking his head again. He's going to be dizzy if they keep this up, Jared muses in a vague sort of way.
"No, man, it's in like an hour or so." Jensen nodded at the window and sure enough, there were a couple of dark, spindly clouds in the middle of the fluffy white ones. It was unnecessarily ominous, Jared thought.
What Jensen said next, however, was the most incomprehensible thing to have happened to him yet. "We'll take my car."
Jared gapes at him. "And do what? Skip town so that Sandy can't hunt me down in vengeance for not delivering her basket?" and she'll be perfectly nice as she does it, too; Jared knows the type. She'd flambé him alive while singing campfire songs and he'll like it. He buries his face in his hands. "I'm screwed."
"No you're not." Jensen says firmly. "Shut up and listen. I've got a plan."
*
Jensen's plan is to drive up to whatever part of the forest track in that they can, and for Jared to fly the rest of the way. That way, he tells Jared, the time he'd be exposed to the storm would be lessened significantly.
Jared finds it kind of incredibly cute, the way Jensen actually uses the word 'lessened', but he keeps that observation to himself. Jensen looks very serious about this, making Jared think that if he were given enough time, Jensen would have a PowerPoint ready and everything.
Chad, on the other hand, calls them both a couple of idiots and that no one should be that desperate to get laid. He further adds that in no way is he waltzing into a storm with no one but a guy who talks to butterflies and a failed witch for protection, and stalks off. Jared ignores him.
"Dude, I'm not dragging you out into a storm with me." Jared says, choosing to focus on the biggest loopholes of Jensen's master plan first and work his way downwards.
Jensen gives him a steady look. Jared notes, somewhat in awe, that Jensen really does have the greenest eyes on the planet. He'd forgotten, somehow. They were the first -and only, considering how he had been freaking the fuck out, focusing on keeping his broom straight - thing he'd noticed, back when they'd first met.
Said green eyes blink at him, and Jared shakes himself out. "You were saying?"
"I was saying, I'm not dragging you through miles of forest when it's not even your job." Jared says firmly.
Jensen shrugs. "It kinda is." at Jared's skeptical look, he adds, "I mean, I did promise to help out."
Jared bites his lip and doesn't bring up the fact that Jensen had already given him a job and a place to stay. He just stares at Jensen, long and hard, trying to call him out, and Jensen stares back serenely, eyebrows arched slightly.
Finally, Jared blinks, and Jensen crows. "Road trip!" he cries, sounding impossibly chirpy. His butterflies flap a little, like he's got confetti in his hair.
And that's when it hits Jared. No warning at all, no heart-stopping moment of stillness. No fireworks, and Jared's kinda disappointed by how low-key it all is, once he gets to thinking about it.
But the fact remains; he is in love with Jensen Ackles.
"Oh," he says, and Jensen pauses on his way to the back, and raises his eyebrows questioningly.
Jared looks at him speculatively. Jensen's got butterflies in his hair and food coloring streaked across his face. He looks like he always does, gorgeous and shyly friendly and familiar.
Jared sighs, accepting. Jensen’s awesomeness was a force unto its own. "Whatever. Let’s get this show on the road.”
Jensen rolls his eyes, and goes upstairs. Jared realizes he’s smiling when he comes back.
*
Jensen's car is big and conspicuous and looks like it might have been a lovely shade of periwinkle blue back when his great-grandfather bought it secondhand. Jensen, however, refuses to listen to Jared's constructive criticism and tells him to shove his goddamn broom in the backseat and get in already.
"Pushy," Jared observes snippily.
"I choose not being caught in a biblical rainstorm over not hurting your delicate feelings." Jensen says, as he turns the engine on. It sounds like a very rusty vacuum cleaner and Jared wonders whether it really is a car, and not some sort of medieval electrical appliance. Possibly a Hoover.
"Is your car a Hoover in disguise?" Jared asks before he gets in.
"Says the guy who goes around on a broom." Jensen retaliates, deadpan. "The new generation of cleaning appliances doubling up as transportation. I like the way you think, Mr. Padalecki."
"Why thank you, Mr. Ackles." Jared bats his eyelashes at Jensen, and Jensen rolls his eyes.
They pull out of the driveway without actually hitting the mail box, and Jared sits back and tries to think happy thoughts. The way Jensen pretty much has free reign on the horn and the frequent splutters of the engine don't help at all. Jared finally closes his eyes and directs a prayer towards whatever deity responsible for watching over witches in cars with lunatics, and hopes for the best.
The road gets increasingly bumpy as they leave the main road behind, heading into the heart of the woods. Jared's never been anywhere near it before, but Jensen seems perfectly calm, telling him a story about the time he and Kristen came over here to spend the night on a dare in middle school. Jared listens on, horrified, as Jensen's story goes on to include bees, mysterious noises in the night and being woken up by a squirrel nibbling on his socks.
"Dude," Jared says, aghast. "And you’re coming back here willingly? What are your balls made of?"
Jensen snorts. The three butterflies that made it into the car before he’d slammed the door shut settle on his hands on the steering wheel and Jensen pets them absently. "It really is just a bunch of trees with some furry four-legged animals in between." He says, lightly. "Nothing for the great Jared Padalecki, champion of downtrodden otters, to be afraid of."
"I never said I--" Jared begins indignantly, and then trails off when Jensen chuckles. He flushes. "Ha ha. Very funny, Jen."
"I think so too, yeah." Jensen says agreeably, turning his head to aim a mischievous, bright-eyed look at Jared that has Jared's heart doing strange things in his chest.
He ignores the trip-trap in his ribcage, and settles for a change of subject. "Are we there yet?"
Jensen's indulgent expression immediately shifts into a frown. Jared sort of misses it. "Of course not, we're barely in the woods yet."
Jared glances outside, and sees trees, trees, and then some more trees. "It looks pretty woodsy to me." he says pointedly.
Jensen snorts. "It would. Hot child from the city," he teases, half-singing.
Jared smirks. "Does that mean you think I'm hot?"
Jensen rolls his eyes, but not fast enough. Jared sees the flush on the top of his cheekbones and feels a little like singing himself. "It means you're a dork."
"You love it," Jared says comfortably, settling back in his seat.
*
They’re about ten minutes into what Jensen calls the real woods, motherfuckers when the first raindrops patter comfortably onto the windscreen.
Jared flails. “The end, it’s begun! We’re doomed! I’m too young to die!”
Jensen gives him a strange look, which Jared feels is unwarranted. “Jay,” he says, painstaking and slow. “It’s barely a drizzle.”
The rain promptly turns into a storm, an audible clash of a torrent of water against the car.
Jensen curses very eloquently.
Jared tries his best not to be smug and all, told you we were gonna die. Witches were, after all, known for their humility. Jared would fucking rock this witch-in-training thing if it was the last thing he did. Literally.
“Okay,” he says evenly. “So we’re dying -which I totally predicted, by the way- so I want you to know that you’re not a terrible human being.”
Jensen raps his fingers irritably against the wheel, squinting to see through the rivulets on his windscreen. “We’re not dying,” he says, aiming a punch at Jared’s shoulder.
Jared squawks. “Eyes! On the road!”
Jensen narrowly avoids a tree.
Jared just looks at him, heart hammering in his chest. “Jensen?” he says, a very bad feeling creeping through his stomach even as he raises a hand to check on his pulse.
Jensen raises his eyebrows sharply.
“When was the last time you actually drove?”
Jensen flushes a little, and Jared’s heart sinks.
“Oh my God, I was totally right.” Jared tells the universe in general. “We’re doomed.”
Jensen rolls his eyes. “It’s not that bad,” he says, carefully navigating a hairpin curve. Whichever college frat boy high on pot it was that made this shitfest of a road, Jared was going to haunt them so bad. “It’s been a while, is all. I don’t really go anywhere much, and…” he trails off, looking sheepish and apologetic. He looks at Jared again, and his eyes are so green Jared can’t even tell him to focus on where he was going. “I just wanted to make sure you would be okay.”
Jared determinedly looks away and tells his stupid heart to give the whole beating out-of-control thing a rest, because he is mad and Jensen is an evil, manipulative...
“It’s fine,” Jared finds himself saying. “Just…Chad’s gonna be all alone in the world.”
Jensen snorts, all traces of regret vanished. “Dude, I think it’s safe to assume that your cat’s gonna be fine.”
Jared pouts. “But who’ll feed him?”
Jensen throws him a look. This one, thankfully, doesn’t make Jared’s heart skid and stutter. “In case you hadn’t noticed, Kristen calls Chad her honeypie Chaddy-Waddy Boo.”
Jared bursts out a laughing. “She does not.” He protests, between giggles.
Jensen smirks. “Well, not yet, anyway.”
“How’d you find him, anyway?” Jensen asks, sounding genuinely curious. “I mean, as far as I can tell, black cats are supposed to be your bitch. Did you get him cheap secondhand or something?”
Jared looks at him sharply and sees the light, teasing shade of his eyes. He muses that being head over heels in love doesn’t mean that he doesn’t see Jensen as kind of a dick now and then. A good-looking dick, but a dick nonetheless.
“Well, you got your face secondhand, so.”
“You got your Mum secondhand.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means you’re retarded. So there.”
“Ever consider a career in politics, Jen? Logic like that, you’re bound to get us out of pesky diplomatic trouble in no time.”
“Damn straight.”
*
They're nearly an hour into their comfortable silence and occasional bickering when Jared notices that the engine is whining.
He looks at Jensen, and sure enough, his jaw is tight and his hands are clenched around the wheel. Jared's stomach drops unpleasantly.
The rain’s receded down to an uncertain sort of drizzle, but there’s promise of a storm to come. Jensen’s butterflies are shaking their wings nervously, little flashes of blue and red.
"Jen?" he ventures cautiously.
Jensen bites his lower lip, and looks back at him. That's when the car gives another croak of protest, shudders once, and falls still.
At first, neither of them moves. Jared doesn't even breathe.
Finally, Jensen lets out a long sigh and slumps back in his seat, his hands falling onto his lap and clasping together.
"Don't try to tell me that wasn't a long time coming." Jared says, trying to keep his tone light.
Jensen looks miserable. "Yeah." he replies in a small voice. "I guess it was."
His butterflies droop a little.
Jared swallows, and then pulls himself together. "Alright then." he says, businesslike, getting out of the car and reaching in the back for his broom and the basket. He can’t even feel the rain, it’s that light. That adds fuel to his optimism.
"If we do it your way, you'll have to look through the woods for me in the rain, and you'll be late for Sandy's party." Jensen says, in this infuriatingly calm voice.
Jared flails, and his sleeve catches on a branch. Lovely. "Screw Sandy’s party, you're not falling off my broom!" he says vehemently, and then frowns. "Wait, how do you know about Sandy's party?"
Jensen flushes and looks away.
Jared's eyes widen. "Oh my God. I can't believe this. You eavesdropped on us? What are yyou, twelve?"
"It wasn't like it was on purpose!" Jensen says defensively. "She was making eyes at you really loudly. It's not that big of a deal, seriously."
Jared gestures madly. "But what the hell, man?"
He feels like stamping his foot; simultaneously, he feels like shaking Jensen until his teeth rattled and he promised he trusted Jared. Because this? This fucking hurt.
"I'm sorry, Jay,” Jensen says inn this impossibly soft voice. "I was- I'm sorry."
Jared looks away from the luminous green of Jensen's eyes. He couldn't even think straight when Jensen made his eyes go romance novel wide, the evil bastard.
"And I promise I won't fall off your broom, Jared," Jensen continues in that low, soft voice. "You won't let me."
Jared groans. "Fine, fine. You win. You are officially gayer than I am."
Jensen's entire demeanor changes, and he whoops loudly. "Oh yeah," he pumps a fist and Jared rolls his eyes.
"Just get onboard, motherfucker." Jared says, and Jensen gives him a little smile, private and lingering, before saying in an obnoxiously sing-song voice, “Aye aye,cap’n!”
Jared rolls his eyes and Jensen smirks. The butterflies cling to his hair as he gets on the broom gingerly behind Jared.
“What?” he asks, when he catches Jared staring.
Jared shakes his head. It helps to veer away from the tangent his thoughts had gone on, seeing Jensen on his broom with those stupid butterflies. He takes a minute to miss Chad’s call of all ready, cap’n, let’s ride this thing before he gets on.
Jensen’s arms go around his waist immediately, and he leans into Jared, a comfortable pressure against his back, and oh God he was so warm.
Jared swallows. This was going to be a little harder than he imagined.
“Hold on tight,” he says hoarsely.
He feels Jensen nod against his shoulder.
“Right,” Jared says for no reason.
Then he takes off.
*
"Oh my," Jensen breathes into Jared's ear, a hot puff of air. Jared doesn't even try to hide his shiver. "Jared, watch out!"
Jared neatly swerves the tree. He 's laughing, big and joyful, the wind rushing past his face and Jensen pressed close.
Jensen's laughing just as hard, his hands two solid points of warmth on Jared's waist. "Show off," he mumbles into Jared's neck, but he doesn't sound anything other than absolutely delighted.
Jared is, basically, screwed.
"You ain't seen nothing yet," Jared says, feeling cliché and sappy and a little bit like sweeping Jensen off his feet. None of this means good things for Jared, but he lets that be for now.
Jensen whoops loudly as Jared spirals down, drawing flashy loops in the air with his broom. He snaps his broom upright at the very last moment, when his feet are nearly skimming the forest floor. Jensen's hands tighten painfully on his waist. "What are you trying to do, give me a fucking heart attack?" Jensen demands, without any sting. His voice is high and excited, like a kid on Christmas. "Do it again!"
“Aren’t you supposed to have a limit for this thing?” Jensen asks in a whoosh of air as they find themselves upside down, the basket hanging precariously on Jensen’s arm and Jared’s broom practically laughing along with them. The trees whiz past and Jared realizes that he doesn’t even have to think about steering, let alone concentrate. “I mean, the weight and- holy shit, was that a fucking owl? Did an owl just fly under me?”
“Not anymore I don’t!” he yells over his shoulder, and to punctuate this, he goes on an elaborate spiral upwards till the leaves of the trees can’t be distinguished separately anymore and the lighthouse becomes visible, a single, straight line upwards.
“Holy-“ Jensen breathes.
Jared laughs again. He's still trying very hard not to think about how much better this is than flying with Chad, how much better than just flying, period, when Jensen kisses him.
Jared blinks, once, twice.
The angle's terrible, so Jensen's mostly kissing the corner of his mouth, and a part of his cheek. Jared thinks, for a bizarre moment, that Jensen's actually aiming for his cheek in the first place, that this is one of those weird brotherly kisses of you're awesome, BFF’s foreva! instead of you're awesome, you, me, in my bed now.
And what gets Jared good was how fucking much he wanted it to be the latter.
And then Jensen makes a whining noise in his throat and shifts closer, slotting his hips against Jared's and kissing more towards his mouth. His legs tighten around Jared's, and Jared thinks oh.
Okay.
So Jared kisses back, twisting slightly, trying to get the angle to work. Jensen's hand comes up and tangles in Jared's hair and that works, that works just fine.
Jared makes a high, keening noise that's frankly a little embarrassing when Jensen nips at his lower lip. He squirms a little bit more, trying to get closer...
...and immediately falls off the broom.
"Wha-" Jensen manages, before there's a thud of his body hitting the ground. They’ve lost a lot of altitude while they were kissing, so the fall isn’t as fatal as it is surprising. Jared's limbs are tangled ungracefully in the broom and in Jensen, and he takes a minute to stare at the laden sky and thank whoever it was up there who was in charge of witches falling in love.
Of course, that's when the rain starts up again.
"Aw man," Jared whines, clambering back on his broom in a hurry. He waits for Jensen's arms to come around him, rising a little above ground. "Get on get on get on!"
Still nothing. Jared looks back incredulously and sees Jensen just standing there, arms crossed, looking immovable. Even his fucking butterflies look badass.
Jared groans. "What now, the rain wash away that tiny brain of yours?"
Jensen's eyebrows go up. "That's original. What are you, in second grade?"
Jared points upwards meaningfully. His hair's drenched through already, sticking to his neck. It's going to be all curly and unmanageable for weeks. Jared just knows it will. "Jensen. Remember that time we talked about this huge rainstorm and laid elaborate plans to get out of it? This would be it. And here you-"
"You kissed me back," Jensen interrupts.
Jared flushes. He's cold down to the bone and pretty soon, he's going to start shivering, but still his body manages to turn awkward and red at Jensen's command. Obviously. Jared's going to have to exchange strong words with whoever it is in charge.
Jensen doesn't look any better than Jared's feeling. His hair is smoothed against his head, a dark golden color, and he's turning pale. His butterflies don't seem to give a fuck about the weather, though- they stand out, bright splashes of color, watching them worriedly. Figures that Jensen would have overprotective butterflies. Jared’s life was the circus of crazy.
From Jensen’s shirt collar, a mantis clambers onto his neck and Jared thinks, of course. That’s just what they were missing. A delusional mantis.
He feels close to hyperventilating.
“Of course I kissed you back!” He says accusingly, jabbing a finger in Jensen’s chest. “We’re stuck in a forest and about to be eaten by bears and there’s a mantis on your shoulder, so of course I kissed you back! I’ve only been in love with you since I first saw you and what, just because your navigation skills are for shit means that I’ll pass on a chance to make out? Think again, Jensen Ackles.”
Jensen looks a little scared. Jared’s been jabbing his finger pretty hard against his chest, and it’s possible he been giving Jensen the crazy eyes. Whatever. He was fucking stranded in the middle of nowhere with a gorgeous guy with the brain capacity of a concussed tapir.
He straightens righteously.
Jensen’s expression of shock and terror are melting a little, his green eyes losing their glazed sheen. Instead, a corner of his mouth crooks up. It’s a seriously bad look for him.
“Really?” he asks, but there’s something in his tone, something…
Jared stares, awestruck. “You didn’t know?”
Jensen bristles at his tone. “Well, it wasn’t like you were reading poetry under my balcony.”
“You don’t even have a balcony,” Jared points out. “And besides, you would’ve had me arrested.”
“It would have proved a point!” And now it’s Jensen’s turn to flail a little, and he looks adorably confused. “I would have known I wasn’t wasting my time!”
Jared blinks. “You were…seducing me?”
“No, Jared, I just happened to drop lots of books right in your direct line of sight so that you could see me bend to pick them up,” Jensen sounds downright irritable. At Jared’s blank look, he throws up his arms. “Fine, whatever. I’m leaving you to get mauled by bears, bitch.”
He moves to stalk away in what Jared’s pretty sure is the wrong direction, but Jared reaches out and grabs his wrist.
Instantly, a jolt of electricity passes through the point of contact, running up Jared’s spine like wildfire. His eyes widen, and he looks up to see Jensen, his lips parted in shock.
That’s when the insects come in.
Thousands, millions of multicolored tiny critters in an explosion of color and noise, a few resting on Jensen’s head, chirping loudly, and the others content to swarm around them. Jared takes a moment to pray that they don’t eat humans before he remembers that he has Jensen, the only fucking insect whisperer in the world, on his side.
He meets Jensen’s eye and he looks back, awestruck. “Dude,” Jensen says, in a low voice. “Imagine if we have sex.”
Jared’s spine tingles at that, a ticklish little warmth. He’s still grinning when he kisses Jensen again.
END