For the Hoes for the Holidays event hosted by @biteofcherry , @buckets-and-trees & @stargazingfangirl18 ! This is the first of hopefully 2 fics 🤭 The prompts used are: brother's best friend,
Not beta'd. I do not give permission for my work to be reposted, copied, translated or put through an AI machine. all my work is 18+. Dividers by @/saradika-graphics
Tags/Warnings: friends to lovers, brother's best friend!Jake FLUFF, specifically Xmas fluff!, first kisses, late night shenanigans involving hot chocolate, oblivious (but sweet) Jensen, suggestive at the end hehe, petnames (sweetheart)
Summary: When your brother's best friend visits for the holiday, one encounter with hot chocolate and whipped cream changes everything.
Word count: 2.029
Navigation | Jake's Masterlist
"Do we want sugar cookies or chocolate chip?" You ask walking into the living room where a rosy cheeked Jake is helping to hold the Christmas lights as your brother wraps them around the tree.
"Why not both?" Jake suggests beaming over at you, red-blue-yellow-green bulbs sparkling back in the reflection of his glasses. "Everything you make is always so good."
You knew he was coming over but you hadn't known it was this morning. Had you known, you may have looked a lot less like you had just rolled out of bed and a lot more presentable. Maybe had a shower, brushed your hair, maybe even thrown on a little make up and your sexiest jeans… not entered in your oversized, flour covered Christmas Snoopy pyjamas.
You had always had a crush on your brother's best friend. Jake had always been a sweetheart; saving you from your brother's teasing when you were kids, making you laugh when you were sad, helping you and your family out with anything tech related. As thanks, you started baking him treats, since you got too nervous to talk around him.
He'd eat them with the biggest smile, even if they tasted awful (as they often were when you started experimenting with recipes and flavours) and each time he gave your cooking a compliment, you'd feel like you were lighter than air for days.
Although, the one Valentine's day you felt brave enough to give him heart cookies with Be Mine scrawled in cursive icing, he'd only told you they tasted great and nothing more - so you deemed his affection for you as null. But it didn't make it any less easier to fall out of love with him.
You silently yearned for years since no boy could ever hold a candle to the man that Jake Jensen was. You thought it would pass after highschool and you went to college, no more kiddy crush… But it only got worse.
Jake and your brother headed to Military School and, while you didn't see Jake as often which was a blessing, when you did it was like all the air decided to disappear since he managed to bulk out pretty fine.
"You gonna stand there or are you gonna help?" Your brother snaps, breaking your daze.
"I- erm- no, I- I have to get started on the cookies." You say quickly, turning around so they don't see how hot your cheeks have become. "Lots of baking to do."
"Well, hey don't forget to save some for me!" Jake calls over as your brother hands over the pile of lights so he can make another round of the tree.
"I won't, don't worry." You murmur, edging out of the room before sprinting up the stairs so you can shower and change before getting started on the days worth of baking... especially now that you'd be making an extra cookie mix you hadn't planned for - just for Jake.
Everyone was barred from the kitchen when you baked. Well, almost everyone.
Everytime your brother stepped in to steal a cookie you'd give him an earful but if it was Jake you'd smile politely and say nothing. Your brother side-eyed you the entire time but stayed quiet.
By evening, you were dead on your feet with over one hundred cookies to your name - thank God for your organisation and pre-prepping skills. For the pièce de résistance, you made your signature hot chocolate on the stove as the final cookies bake in the oven.
There was something about the winter chill and the warmth of the oven that made you relax. Buttery vanilla and spiced apple scents clung onto every fibre of your clothing like a teddy-bear's hug and when you took a deep breath, the taste of sweet chocolate was prominent.
Your shoulders sagged as you stirred your saucepan, staring into the cocoa swirls of cream, cocoa powder and chocolate pieces. You wondered if perhaps you should have been more direct with Jake about how you felt. Not that you thought it would make a lick of difference anyway - maybe you just weren't his type, or maybe he thought of you as an extension of your brother. Anyway you looked at it, it definitely was better to love him from afar - even if he was within a six-foot radius of you more often than not.
"Do I smell hot chocolate?" You look to your left and see Jake's head, grinning per usual, stuck through the door.
You curse silently; it was just your luck that the moment you think of him he appears. Anytime you weren't looking your best, he was there too. Maybe he was a curse and not the blessing you so thought.
"You do." You try for a smile, but you know it looks meek. "Chocolate is almost melted if you want a cup?"
"Oh - twist my arm why don't ya?" He says jokingly, stepping into the kitchen. "You know I look forward to this every year."
You look up at him with a more genuine smile. "You do?"
Jake looks at you a little strangely, and swallows a lump in his throat. "I, uh, yeah. I love you- your hot chocolate."
"I can give you the recipe." You say, feeling that butterfly-swirling feeling in your gut. "You know that, right?"
"Not the same." Jake says quickly, making you snort.
"You mean you're too lazy?" You tease, ladling the thick, chocolate goodness into a mug for him.
Jake puts a hand to his chest and reigns offense with a mock gasp. "I resent that statement." He adds two pink marshmallows to his mug and then a tower of whipped cream. "But you're absolutely right, I am."
You shake your head as you make your own mug up, adding less cream but a sprinkling of chocolate powder. When you look over at Jake again, you almost sputter whipped cream all over him. The top of his goatee, and nose, had been mauled by his whipped cream tower.
"You've got whipped cream on your-" You mimic brushing your thumb over your top lip and nose.
"Oh, um-" he swipes at his nose but misses his top lip entirely and you stifle a giggle. "Uh-"
"You missed." You reach your fingers out tentatively towards him before stopping mid-way. "May I?"
"Uh, yeah, sure." Jake leans down slightly so that you can swipe away the cream and watches as you suck the cream from your thumb on auto-pilot.
You have to turn away immediately because what were you thinking?! and watching Jake's cheeks turn red made your heart jitter.
You turn off the stove and move your saucepan from the heat before slowly slinking towards the window to watch as winter dusk begets frost and cool toned views of your back garden. Your mother had opted to decorate the windows this year; snow scene stickers and many a cursive Merry Christmas written in acrylic paint pen.
"Oh, hey, we're stood under mistletoe." Jake says mindlessly, glancing upwards as he comes to stand beside you at the window. "I think your mom must have put it up."
"Oh, um, ahh-" you struggle to find the words appropriate to respond; ones that don't explicitly say KISS ME when Jake laughs.
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna kiss you."
You want to scream but instead you take a breath; years of frustration and yearning bubbling up from your soul all the way to the the tip of your tongue, burning your cheeks in the process. Before you can think twice, you blurt out;
"Can I kiss you instead?"
You watch in real-time as Jake's mind blue screens; his mouth opens, his eyes are wide and you swear he almost drops his mug.
"Can you what?"
You and your big mouth. "It's just- I- um- mistletoe." You point at the faux-mistletoe above your head (one you would be ripping down at a later date). "Kissing happens under it. Usually."
Shut up shut up shut up.
"You... want to kiss me?"
Panic-stricken, you try not to make more a big deal than this already was. But your brain (or heart?) fail you. "Yes."
"I-"
You cut Jake off before he can begin to speak, babbling years and years worth of times your heart skipped at almost telling him how you felt. "I've wanted to for a while but... you didn't seem interested. And I don't blame you! You're my brother's best friend." You add quietly. "He can be annoying but I love him. I couldn't do something that would potentially make him lose you. So I did little things... l-like those Be Mine cookies that one Valentine's and-"
"They were for me?!"
"Yes!"
"The time you- and the-" Jake starts another three sentences, stopping each time his brain connects the dots. He's recounting every time you did something nice for him, the hamster in his brain running as fast as its little legs could.
"Yeah..." you say defeatedly, running your hands along the warm ceramic of your mug as you begin to shrink in on yourself.
Well done, you tell yourself. You've made things so awkward.
"Oh my God," Jake breathes out. "All this time and you didn't say anything?"
"You're my brother's best friend!" You exclaim, throwing up your free hand in exasperation. You look down at your feet, willing tears not to form. "And I'm just the little sister with a stupid crush."
"Sweetheart," Jake sighs, voice full of adoration. When you glance up at him, his cheeks are rosy but he's beaming at you. "I was - am - so, so interested. I felt like such a dick because you were my best friend's sister that I didn't want to say anything. But hey, if you do feel the same way then I guess there's no harm in doing this."
He leans forward and brushes his lips with yours. Your face scrunches when the hair on his goatee tickles the sensitive skin under your nose but you stay as still as possible, savouring the sweet, chocolatey taste of his lips on yours for as long as possible. When you do eventually part, after a cinematically sweet long moment, neither of you can stop from smiling.
Only for the moment to be ruined by your brother.
"Finally!" You brother exclaims loudly entering the kitchen. "Was wondering when you guys would finally sack up about liking eachother."
You round on your brother as Jake chuckles. "Why you-"
"MA!" Your brother shouts out the door. "It finally happened! You owe me ten bucks!"
"Ooof ouch - you made a bet on your own sister? Where's your holiday spirit?" Jake clicks his tongue as you throw the nearest marshmallow at your brother, who barely manages to duck out of the way in time.
"No need to set up the air mattress tonight then," your mother chimes in as she appears behind your brother. "You've at least spared your dad a trip into the attic."
"Mom!" You gasp in unison with your brother, cheeks burning as Jake chokes on his hot chocolate beside you.
"What? We'll say you've been keeping it a secret and felt like Christmas was the best time to break the news." She says with a dismissive wave of her hand. "The cocoa smells great by the way honey, grab me a mug please? Extra cream."
You bristle with embarassment but do as asked, leaving your brother to tease his best friend - and your new boyfriend by extension - about liking you. Throughout the holiday, you and Jake remained by eachother's side, almost inseparable. You visited his family just as he had visited yours and, oddly, it felt like nothing had changed - save for the fact that you were far more PDA now (much to your brother's disgust).
Not only had your family confessed every little (arguably cute) little thing you had done for Jake over the years, your brother and Jake's family happily offered up just how much he talked about you too.
And for every Christmas after that, on the anniversary of your confession, you made sure that you each had a mug of chocolate. Whether or not your mugs got finished was another story altogether.
End
A/N: I've been thinking about Jakey a lot recently and I couldn't NOT take part in this fun Event! 💓💓
For reblogs of my fics follow @grems-library or join my taglist here
But seriously, I looooooove this fic so much!! The awkward crushing on both sides is so real! And the boldness of mom saying to share a bed!🫣 eeeek! Jakey is just so absolutely sweet and clueless and adorable!!😍 gimme that hunk!
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