Jensen spent the rest of the evening finishing up homework and giving Axl some one on one play time - even though his mind the entire time continued to dip back towards the shaggy haired, dimpled boy he’d spent the night with. It was hard not too, considering Jensen realized he’d never actually enjoyed time with a person like that as much as he did with Jared. After finishing up all that he needed to do, Jensen looked towards the shelf of DVD’s he had nailed to his wall and bit his lip in thought before deciding something. Jared had asked him out last, and Jensen figured it was only fair he do it this time.
After checking with Donna that she was working the night shift tonight the next morning, Jensen said goodbye to her and headed out to school. He considered taking the subway for the first time on his own but changed his mind at the last second and opted for his truck instead. He still wasn’t ready to give up that part of himself just yet. The morning went by faster than Jensen thought it would, and he’d admit he was still riding some invisible happy cloud from the previous night, so it might have been his attitude that made it go by faster. Danneel had gotten some details out of him in regards to his and Jared’s date during calc, and he’d admit that it was almost nice having a friend in her now, especially with the assurances she had when it came to Jensen’s doubts about asking Jared over himself to his house. According to Danneel, it didn’t matter what side of town he lived on, she was certain Jared would agree because it was Jensen.
The classes that he had with Jared flew by quick too. Both classes were amazingly busy, and it didn’t give him much time to talk to the boy next to him. He’d given Jared a smile seeing him in English, walked with him to Chemistry and stayed relatively silent but that was nothing new. It was the occasional brushes of their elbows or the way Jensen made an attempt to break the habit of walking far away from people to walking right up against Jared down the hall. He figured it was in the little things that everything mattered, at least that’s what he’d always thought. By the time lunch came around, Jensen moved towards the music room out of habit but then stopped and turned instead to the cafeteria. It was crowded, per usual, and he felt a little out of place but spotted Jared, Gen and Danneel and hesitantly made his way over to them.
“Room for one more?” Jensen swept his gaze from the girls to Jared, the corners of his lips twitching with a small, shy smile.
After Jensen left Jared let the girls in, grabbed the bag of chips he’d left on the counter, plopped down on the couch, and spent the rest of the night watching House. Around ten thirty Gen called him, and the first thing out of her mouth was a string of apologies as though she’d expected she was interrupting him, but when he asked why she was sorry she caught nothing but a genuinely confused tone. They talked, Jared filling her in on the entire night, right up to Jensen heading home, and him going inside to watch T.V..
“So, are you going to see him again? You seem to like him, but you didn—” Jared cut her off, ”No, we didn’t, I like him Gen, alright?” Jared let out a long sigh, and Harley licked Jared’s hand that hung off the side of the couch. “Wow,” Gen let out, and it was said in a way that meant she was preparing to launch into a speech so Jared cut her off again. “Look, school in the morning, all that. I’ll see you then, love ya, bye,” he waited for her huff, and goodbye before hanging up, and going to bed.
It felt like forever until morning, Jared couldn’t fall asleep, and when he finally did he woke up too early to go to school. He moved about the house, cleaning just because he had nothing else to do, and watched as the seconds ticked by. Eventually it was six o’clock, still too early to go to school, but he decided to get breakfast by the station so he’d have something to do. He wanted to see Jensen, and why the day wasn’t moving faster Jared didn’t know, he felt like the clock was laughing at him, going slow enough to drive him crazy.
His first class passed exactly the same way, but then English came, and he saw Jensen sitting in the same seat as he did the week before and he grinned right back at the smile Jensen gave him. They were both quiet, the class consisted of a lecture, so they had to be, but Jared didn’t mind as much, Jensen looked over, pink lips stretched into a small smile while their teacher spoke.
When they walked to Chem together Jared noticed that Jensen stayed close to him, and he smiled to himself. As his friends walked passed them they talked among themselves, and Jared was sure that most of them had already started to make assumptions. The fact that he registered that and smiled at the idea instead of immediately wanting to set the record straight said a lot.
Jared had a lab partner in Chem, they were assigned the first day of class, so once they were there they both went about their work, and by lunch Jared was on his way to meet up with Gen. He had every intention of going by the music room to see Jensen before it ended, just to talk for a few minutes, but Jensen found him first, and Jared grinned when he asked if there was room.
“Of course,” Jared replied happily, and Gen smiled over at Jensen too before waggling her eyebrows at Jared. “So you two have fun last night?” Gen asked innocently, as though she hadn’t squeezed Jared of every detail he had. Her gaze was trained on Jensen’s face, not even giving Jared’s a once over after he kicked her under the table.
Danneel had turned her head towards Jensen and flashed him a beaming smile, winking at him before turning her attention back to Gen, and Jensen took his seat next to Jared, pulling out a half of sandwich from his bag and taking a bite. He knew he should’ve eaten breakfast this morning, but waking up a little later than normal and then going about the house picking up the torn up shreds of blanket that Axl had chewed through during the night had made him miss it. His gaze flickered over to Gen, shifting a little bit under the watchful fixation she had on him and her question. He had assumed that Jared would tell her, much like he’d told Danneel most of it this morning but maybe he’d been wrong.
“I think so,” Jensen replied with a nod, looking out of the corner of his eye at Jared with a small smile before taking a drink of the water he had. Danneel propped her elbow on the table, her chin in her palm and she slowly grinned, all cat like. “Uh huh…” she dragged out her words, and looked at Gen in such a way that made Jensen believe they were in on something he wasn’t, or maybe just in cahoots in general. He tried to shrug off the attention and instead focused on his food for a few more minutes before looking at Jared. “I finished the project for English last night…I’ll um… give you a copy of it tomorrow,” he said lamely, shifting a little bit.
Gen was completely unsatisfied with Jensen’s answer, with Danni’s pressing, she waited for more, but none came. She ‘hmph’ed under her breath before going back to her food, other hand on in the inside of Danneel’s knee, her thumb running back and forth over her skin. Jared looked at Jensen, “You think, huh?” he smiled, glad Jensen came to find them, and he ate his food in a peaceable silence, smiling to himself until Jensen spoke again.
“Sounds good, that uh, I’ll know what I’m supposed to say, right?” Jared flushed, feeling more and more like he was cheating. “God,” he laughed, “I’m useless, you should’ve got another partner, I’m tellin’ ya,” Gen laughed a little too, just trying to make Jared feel more comfortable in the way she knew, better than anyone, worked. He smile over at her and she continued eating as though she didn’t notice.
“Jare! Opinion, okay,” Gen sat up a little straighter, “Batgirl,” she pointed at Danneel, “and Wonderwoman,” motioning to herself, “or teacher,” she pointed at Danni again, “student,” she laughed motioning to herself again, “or—” Jared cut her off, “First one, oh god,” he laughed loudly, “Just stop!” Gen grinned, still laughing, trying to catch her breath, then she looked at Jensen, “What about you? What’s your opinion?” she asked genuinely wanting to include him.
“Quit worryin’. It’s fine. Just read the scene, I promise you’ll survive -” Jensen nudged at Jared’s side lightly with his elbow and chuckled. He’d made sure he’d written and translated it all well, and he was still pretty positive that Jared was more intelligent then he gave himself credit for, so he’d do just fine. Danneel laughed along with everyone else, munching on her apple until Gen began to announce their ideas for Halloween costumes.
Jensen had never thought much about Halloween in New York. In his old town, there was a fair that he usually went to, and before that he had taken McKenzie out trick-or-treating so his parents wouldn’t have to argue about which street to go down. Jensen couldn’t help himself, he smiled at Genevieve’s ehtusiasm, ducking his head and shaking it while Danneel eyed the apple in her hand as soon as Gen brought up the option of teacher and student, thinking that was oddly coincedental. “Gen does give me the best apples so I’ll give her A’s…” Danneel trailed off, waggling her eyebrows purposely at Gen before cracking up alongside her.
Trying to keep himself from flushing at the conversation, Jensen laughed under his breath and took another drink of his water, looking over at Genevieve only when she talked specifically too him. “Um…” He thought for a moment and looked over at Danneel who was mouthing ‘first one’ to him and he quickly caught on. “First one. Definitely. Danneel gets a utility belt, you get a rope. Win, win,” Jensen nodded, slowly smiling and taking another bite of his sandwich. Danneel grinned at him and looked towards Gen. “Looks like I’ll be getting you in spandex after all, Gen…” she teased, playfully kissing her cheek.
Jensen bit on his lip to hide another smile and looked over at Jared, curiously tilting his head and speaking in a purposely loud, amused whisper. “Are they always like this?”
With Jensen’s reassurance, Jared smiled tightly, still a bit ill at how awful he was as a partner, he hadn’t done anything to help, and he didn’t even know how to offer, now that it was done. He popped a chip in his mouth then looked at Jensen again, letting himself watch his face, and making it pretty clear why he was doing so. He felt the kind of comfortable around him that still made his stomach twist in knots, he was nervous around him in a way he wasn’t nervous around most anyone.
Both girls were laughing, holding onto each other, then Gen laughed even more when she saw Jensen blush before calming herself down a little, “Ja-Jare! Jare im-imagine me,” she wheezed, laughing, “w-walking around in-in some schoolgir-schoolgirl outfit oh my god!” Jared shook his head, laughing, but trying his best to keep it under control. He wasn’t even one hundred percent sure why it was so funny, but the more Gen laughed the funnier is became.
Jensen’s input was duly noted, and Gen nodded once at him, seriously, her face completely red with laughter, then she looked over at Danneel when she made her comment about spandex. “Mhm, spandex, or I could get he leggy one. God, you in leather this is gonna be a good Halloween,” she bit her lip, then remembered suddenly they weren’t the only ones at the table. At Jensen’s question Jared nodded, “Well, I don’t know Danneel quite as well yet, but Gen? Always,” he smiled.
“What are you doin’ for Halloween Jensen?” Gen asked, “You two gonna come to the party? Maggie’s having a huge one at her house,” Gen looked at Jared then, the same question, eyes darting between them as though they could answer for the other. “I have no plans as of yet,” Jared shrugged, he didn’t want to say yes to the party if Jensen wasn’t going to go, and he knew it. Even if he didn’t end up hanging out with him for Halloween he knew he didn’t want to dress up and go get drunk for it either, which was uncharacteristic of himself.
Jensen realized that he’d never been around people so open about… well everything. But he had never really seen a couple quite like Gen and Danneel either. If he hadn’t felt so much like he was intruding, Jensen would have openly enjoyed the way they were affectionate in public, even if it did make the tips of his ears tinge red. He’d never been one for PDA, but the way the girls leaned against each other or how Danneel’s hand would come up to play with Genevieve’s hair had Jensen smiling to himself.
“Do I have to wait to see you in the Wonderwoman costume?” Danneel had her eyes on Gen, a pout falling on her lips. “I mean we could have fun with-” suddenly she caught off too, as if realizing there were other people at the table and she grinned innocently, whistling under her breath. Jensen chuckled and shook his head, swallowing the last of his sandwich and downing a little more water before Gen spoke directly to him again. Jensen cleared his throat, biting at his lip a little bit and shrugged a shoulder. “I um…” He trailed off, unsure if another party would be the greatest idea.
But he glanced over at Jared and then back at his bottle of water and thought about it for a moment. He could just make it a thing to stay sober at these events from now on, and maybe if he was there with Jared, it wouldn’t be so bad. “Do… I have to dress up?” He finally asked, a little bit quieter. Danneel answered his question brightly. “Well it is Halloween, you should dress up! Take the chance to be someone else … like a woman that gets magical powers from her bracelets and looks hot doing it-” Danneel shot a pointed look at Gen, winking at her before looking back at Jensen. “You should come, it’ll be fun…”
“I… I guess I could…yeah, sure. Okay.” Jensen finally nodded and looked over at Jared with a sheepish half smile. “Guess I… need a costume?”
As Danneel worked on convincing Jensen to go, or nudging him in that direction anyway, Gen looked at Jared with a pointed face. It was a given that he go to things like this, so when Gen saw Jared’s face light up a bit at Jensen’s acceptance of the invite her eyes got a little wide. As long as she’d known Jared he’d never been much of a follower, it wasn’t that he took charge, people just tended to follow him, or go to where he was. She noticed, now though, that if Jensen had said no, Jared would’ve as well.
“So, Jared, gonna go to the party?” She reiterated, since he hadn’t answered, and if his answer had become definitive in the last three minutes they’d all know why. He smiled, shaking his head slowly at Gen as if to say he knew what she was doing, then replied, “Yeah, I’m going.” He turned to Jensen and winked, then looked back at his food. “Who’re you gonna be? Don’t say yourself, you’re not pulling that again, I seriously have no idea how I let you get away with it last year,” Jared laughed loudly at that, remembering telling her it was a huge surprise then showing up in jeans and a t-shirt. “Man that was great,” he said through his laughter, “Uh I don’t know? I’d say you could pick but you’d make me wear tights or some shit,” he eyed her. “I’ll think of something and I promise I will dress up in a costume, alright?” She grinned and nodded, satisfied.
Now that he’d agreed to go to the party, Jensen was hit with the realization that he would indeed have to seriously get a costume. And considering he hadn’t dressed up since he was 12 when he went as Batman, Jensen was a little slow on the ideas for a full blown Halloween costume. He scratched a little nervously at his wrist and fell into his own thought process, letting Jared and Gen tease at each other while he tried to think of something. He definitely didn’t want to wear anything involving tights which took out half of the costume choices he had in general.
It wasn’t until he realized Jared had spoke to him that Jensen snapped out of his thoughts and looked over at him, ducking his head sheepishly. “Ah.. I dunno. Guess I’ll think’a something,” he replied and rubbed at the back of his neck. He realized that lunch would be over soon enough and he still hadn’t asked Jared what he’d wanted to. Looking back at Jared, Jensen lowered his voice a bit shyly again just for him and spoke up. “Hey I um… can I ask you something?” He bit at his lip a little bit, rubbing his palms against the thighs of his jeans.
Danneel had been watching Jensen and realized that things would go over better for Jensen asking Jared over if it was more private, she’d been able to tell that when he’d mentioned the plans in calc that morning. “Hey babe? I am craving some hot chocolate -” Danneel nodded towards the drink line and tugged lightly on Gen’s arm as she stood up. “Come with me?” She perked, figuring Gen would get the hint and tugged on her arm to pull her off towards where they could grab hot chocolate after throwing a smile at Jensen
Jensen had to admit, having Danneel right then was a lifesaver and he instantly relaxed a little bit knowing he didn’t have to ask in front of anyone else. It was hard enough getting out the words with Jared in front of him. Jensen glanced back at Jared with a hopeful smile. “I’ve got this stack of old horror movies an’ my Momma is working the night shift tonight so… I was wondering if you’d wanna come over and watch some with me? I’ll make dinner an’ everything,” he promised with a nod, watching Jared for any sign that he didn’t want to come. “If you’re… I mean if you’re busy tonight, that’s okay, I mean you’re probably busy tonight, right? I should’ve asked if you were busy first -” Jensen cringed a little bit at himself. Real smooth.
It became apparent to Jared that since Jensen was planning on dressing up, that he really needed to think about a costume, even something simple. He nodded at Jensen’s answer about what he was going to wear, and took a bite of his food before Jensen had spoken again, his voice much lower. Jared nodded and turned to face him, listening to whatever he wanted to ask, “Yeah whats up?” Just then Danni and Gen left, Gen’s head turning back to look at them before fully walking along with Danneel.
Jensen was smiling, and then he started in on, what seemed to be him, trying to convince Jared to come over. Jared almost laughed at the idea, he didn’t need convincing, Jensen could’ve asked him to anything and he’d have said yes, so he let Jensen finish talking, but kept amused smile on his face, and the moment the other man finished Jared grinned. “Yes,” he laughed, “I’d love to,” he almost added that even if he’d had plans he’d’ve cancelled them, it was true, but he didn’t want to lay it on too thick.
“Just… straight from school?” Jared asked, if they were going to watch more than a movie or two he figured that be the case. He smiled, and it warmed his eyes, he had been in the company of a lot of people, but the mere fact that Jensen singled him out, just the two of them, to hang out with had Jared beside himself smiling. “You cook, hmm?” Jared’s voice was light, teasing, with that ever present smile on his face.
Biting at his lip a little bit, Jensen felt his stomach, that had previously knotted itself up in such a way that made him feel sick, relax and settle. His body slouched a little bit, relaxing on it’s own too and he smiled at Jared, a little bit relieved. He wasn’t necessarily used to asking people to do … well anything, really. Rubbing idly at his arm, Jensen met Jared’s gaze again and thought for a moment. He knew he should probably clean up the living room a little bit. His room was neat enough, considering he liked to keep it that way but the rest of the house had been left a little too messy this morning, considering both him and Donna had been rushing to get out the door.
“Um… why don’tcha meet me there say… an hour after school? I should do the homework I’ve got today anyway,” Jensen said sheepishly, figuring that was good enough of an excuse. And it’d give him enough time to clean up the warehouse like condo he lived in, get dinner started and finish his homework. At Jared’s question, Jensen shrugged a little bit, a small smile touching his lips. “When I have too…” he chuckled and looked at him. “I swear it’ll be edible. Might not be the best, but it’ll be edible,” Jensen chuckled under his breath again and pulled out a piece of notebook paper and a pen just as the bell rang overhead and scribbled down his address for Jared, handing it to him. “I’ll see you then?” Jensen prompted, grabbing his stuff and getting to his feet.
