FIC: Perfect (For You) 2/2

[tebtosca]

“Whatcha got there, Fat-a-lecki? Writing in your diary?” Chad spits out, forearm squeezing Jared’s throat against the locker.

Jared wheezes, but doesn’t even try to get his arm off since he’s too busy using both his limbs to hold his sketchbook close to his chest. If Chad got a hold of his sketches of Jensen, Jared would never live it down and he might as well quit high school then and there.

“C’mon, you little bitch, give it to me.”

“Let…me…” Jared coughs, feeling light-headed. Just as real panic is about to set in, Jared feels Chad being ripped off of him, and Jared sinks to the ground and starts panting in deep breathes of air.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” someone growls out, and Jared’s eyes clear just enough to realize that it’s Jensen leaning over Chad and ready to punch his face in.

“Jensen, no,” Jared calls out, voice strained and throat bruised. “He’s not worth it.”

Jensen’s fist is pulled back and his teeth are bared, but he stops just in time. With a kick to Chad’s shin, he yells at him. “Get the fuck out of here, Murray. Touch Jared one more time and you’ll have to answer to me.”

Chad goes to spit at Jensen, who jumps back just in time. “Fuck you, Ackles. You won’t be around to protect your boyfriend forever.”

“You got one more second or I’ll bash your fucking skull in,” Jensen growls, and Chad grins smugly before taking off running down the hallway.

“Oh, god, are you okay?” Jensen’s voice is suddenly soft and concerned as he crouches down and runs his hands over Jared like he’s checking for injuries.

As if almost getting murdered in the school hallway and being mortifyingly embarrassed wasn’t bad enough, the feel of Jensen’s hands on him is doing terrible things to his hormone-induced dick. Jared pushes Jensen off him and curls up into a ball to hide the fact that he’s chubbing up.

“I’m fine, it’s okay,” Jared insists, shaking out his too-long bangs so they cover as much of his face as possible.

Jensen sits down next to him, and his body heat is almost as disorienting as nearly being choked to death. “We should tell someone. Nobody has the right to do that to someone.”

“No, please,” Jared says quickly, knowing from experience that ratting out Chad is only likely to bring even worse retaliation. And as much as Chad is a dick, he’s also right – Jensen isn’t going to be around to protect him much longer.

Jensen’s quiet for a minute, before shrugging and staring out at the few students starting to mill out into the hallway. He looks upset, and Jared isn’t quite sure why it’s affecting him so much.

“Thank you, though. I really appreciate you standing up for me like that,” Jared says softly, and Jensen’s face finally relaxes enough for a small smile to peek out.

He nudges Jared’s shoulder lightly. “Can’t have my smarty-pants tutor going AWOL on me right when I just got my first ‘A’ on a bio exam.”

It stings, of course it does. Jared knows that Jensen’s just hanging out with him because he needs to get his grades up, but there was part of him that was hoping that Jensen and he might actually become friends. Still, tutoring Jensen was what brought them together and he’s proud of the good grade.

“An ‘A’, huh? You aren’t going to need me much longer.”

It’s not what Jared meant to say because it was too close to the truth not to be painful. But Jensen’s face softens for a moment, and Jared lets himself imagine that for even one day that there’s more.

“Who am I going to steal comic books off of without you? The Adventures of Octo-Boy aren’t going to read themselves,” Jensen says, and Jared smiles because it’s the only thing left to do.




“So, when are you going to ask the guy out already?” Gen asks nonchalantly as she pulls the car into the designated parking spot the studio set aside for her on the lot.

Jared does a double take as he unbuckles his seatbelt. “What are you talking about? Ask out who?”

She starts checking her makeup one last time in the rear view mirror before smacking her lips together with satisfaction. Afterwards, she turns to him and rolls her eyes.

“Jensen, of course. You are so obviously head over heels for the man, and now that you’ve finally stopped hiding from him, you should make your move.”

Jared makes a rude sound that only earns another eyeroll. “Jensen’s not interested in me, are you nuts? He’s not even gay, for God’s sake. Didn’t he date Alona Tal for, like, two years?”

“First of all, bisexuals exist, you know. Second of all, the man has never once stared at Danneel Harris’ boobs in the entire time we’ve known him. Even I have stared at Danneel Harris’ boobs, so that is saying something.”

“Danneel does have great boobs.”

“Point and match.”

Jared just scoffs and pulls his long body out of the car, stretching as he does it.

Gen follows suit and looks at him over the car. “Just think about it, okay? The movie’s almost done filming, so now is your chance.”

Jared just waves her off, and starts heading towards the studio to start another work day.

==

“Jared, go give Jensen his five minute call,” Felicia calls out to him, before saying something into her headset and rushing off.

“Yes, ma’am,” he mumbles and puts down the equipment he was loading. Now well into the fourth week of filming and past the point of avoiding Jensen in general, Jared’s used to being the one to go give Jensen his time. Part of him thinks it’s a ploy between Gen and Felicia, but the other part of him doesn’t think Boss Lady would be that sneaky.

However, the minute Jared walks into Jensen’s trailer and sees a half-naked and dripping wet Jensen walking out of the shower, Jared rethinks that “no sneakiness” thing.

“Um, five minutes?” Jared croaks out, completely frozen in place even though he knows he should be apologizing for barging in and running somewhere far, far away. He hears Antarctica is nice this time of year.

“Liane just gave me a twenty minute warning,” Jensen replies, shrugging those broad, wet shoulders.

“Fucking Felicia, I knew it,” Jared mutters under his breath.

“I’m glad you’re here, actually. I wanted to ask you something,” Jensen says, completely oblivious to the fact that he’s half-naked. Of course, why would he not be comfortable, considering he’s a famous beautiful movie star and all.

“Did you need something? I can get Richard to get you food if you are hungry.”

Jensen shakes his head, and droplets of water fly around him like he’s a Sports Illustrated model. “No, nothing like that. It’s about you actually, about us.”

“Us?” Jared repeats. “There’s an us?”

Jensen chuckles, his hand tightening on the towel and drawing Jared’s eyes down to his lower half for just a second. “I’m hoping there’s an us, or at least will be when you agree to go out with me tomorrow night.”

Even though Gen had suggested that Jared do this exact same thing this very morning, Jared is unprepared for the words coming out of Jensen’s mouth. Disbelief courses through him, mixed with exhilaration and the tiniest bit of awe.

“You want to take me out on a date? Me?” Jared asks, and Jensen nods his head encouragingly. “But, why?”

Jensen laughs incredulously, eyebrows raising. “Why? I mean, why not? You’re funny, you’re smart, and, well just look at you. You’re gorgeous, Jared.”

“I’m gorgeous,” Jared repeats, the words sticking in his mouth.

“You’ve grown up so nicely,” Jensen replies, and for the first time Jared sees it there in Jensen’s eyes – lust.

Jared’s heart sinks to the bottoms of his feet, and the moment he knows he should be the happiest is the moment that he feels like he wants to burst into tears. All he can see is the boy before, the boy from the sketches with the hunched shoulders and the baby fat and the ruddy cheeks. The boy who would never be able to fly because there was nobody that ever wanted to help him spread his wings.

That boy wasn’t gorgeous. That boy wasn’t the one that Jensen Ackles wanted.

But that boy is still inside Jared, and no matter how many weights he lifts or haircuts he gets, Jared will never be able to kill him for good.

“You don’t know me at all,” Jared says, quiet now. He takes off his headset, places it on the table, and starts the long walk off the set and far away from Jensen Ackles and the man Jared tried to become.




You’re supposed to bring flowers to opening night, Jared thinks. Or maybe that’s just for girls. Either way, this isn’t a date. It’s just, well, Jensen being nice, that’s all. Surely there will be tons of people at the after party. Just because Jensen asked him personally and said that he didn’t want to “go alone”, doesn’t mean that Jensen needs Jared to be there.

Jared sits in his seat, fourth row, close enough to the stage to see well, but on the far side, so far enough away to not draw attention to himself.

Jensen is beautiful. Jared’s always thought so, of course. From those big green eyes and the spiky dark gold hair, to the length of his torso and the bow of his legs. Jared could draw him forever, sketch after sketch until the tips of his fingers turned calloused and black.

Jensen got his leather, true to Ms. Tapping’s word. He flutters on stage, Romeo to the core, pouting and dancing and holding Juliet in his arms like she’s the only bit of oxygen left in the world and he needs every bit of her just to be able to breathe.

The play ends, and Jared realizes that he’s crying. Another reason to be happy that he’s off to the side, farther into the dark.

He wipes his eyes and fixes his shirt, the blue button-down one that he wears to Sunday dinner at Grandma’s house. He runs a hand through his hair, and then laughs at himself.

It’s not a date.

He sees a flash of leather being whisked offstage. And it’s okay, he’ll wait. Jensen must have lots of people coming to see him after a performance like that.

Jensen said to meet him outside the auditorium. That they would go to the after party together.

Jared waits, clutching the brand new copy of Octo-Boy’s greatest adventure to his chest. It’s not flowers, but it’s something even better. This is the issue where Jared’s dreams came true, and Chris finally asks Steve to the dance. Jared cried when he read it, but no one was there to see it that time.

Jared waits and waits. Jensen doesn’t come.

No one sees Jared crying later that night either, curled up on his Spiderman sheets with the ripped up pieces of comic book clutched in his fists.



Jared spends the next twenty-four hours in his room, not even opening up when Gen threatens to sit outside of the door until he comes out. He doesn’t reply, and after a few hours, she gives up with a sigh and Jared can hear her bedroom door click shut.

It’s only sheer hunger that draws him out of his room late on Saturday afternoon. Gen’s sitting on the couch waiting for him, arms crossed over her chest and eyebrows raised expectantly.

“So?” she says flat-out, not even bothering with formalities.

“He asked me out,” Jared replies simply.

Gen makes a face that implies she doesn’t understand the problem. “And?”

Jared scoffs and waves a hand up and town his torso. “He asked this out.”

She looks confused for a moment, before realization crosses her face and she drops her arms to her lap. “Isn’t all that part of you, Jay?”

Jared shrugs, but heads over to the couch to drop down next to her. She tilts her head down on his shoulder, and reaches over to curl her hand into his, before she continues softly.

“When you were boxing at Mitch’s gym, you had a good time, right?”

Jared tips his head to the back of the couch and closes his eyes. “Yeah.”

“And cutting those damn bangs helped you not run into things so much, right?”

Jared can’t help barking a laugh. “Harder to hide, though.”

Gen squeezes his hand. “And what’s wrong with that, Jay? Think of how much fun you’ve had over the last month, all the awesome people we’ve met. Even Jeff’s beard doesn’t scare you anymore.”

“No, I’m still terrified.”

“Baby steps.”

They laugh in unison and he leans down to kiss her on the forehead. “I’m just not used to the attention,” he admits. “I’m not used to having people focus on me, at least not in a positive way, and part of me can’t seem to shake the feeling that they are only paying attention because I changed myself.”

She pulls back so she can look him straight in the eye, but doesn’t let go of his hand. “Have you considered the idea that they are paying attention to you now because you are letting them? That maybe some of the outward changes just helped you break out of the shell and allowed you to show people a bit more of who you are inside?”

“I feel like we’re on Oprah, but without the free car.”

Gen guffaws and hits him on the shoulder. “I’m being supportive, you fucking dick!”

Jared laughs along softly, and pushes a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “I know. I wish I didn’t like dick so much so we could get married and have babies with great hair.”

Gen flips her hair over one shoulder dramatically as he laughs again, but then gets serious. “I love you, Jared Padalecki. You are the best friend I’ve ever had, and I’m positive that there is an awesome guy out there that will adopt babies with great hair with you.”

“Who will love me for all of me?” he says, voice teasing.

Gen grins, eyebrows waggling. “Every last inch of you.”

“Gen!” he says, laughing as he hits her with a couch pillow.

==

The first thing Jared does the next morning, bright on a Sunday, is head to the closest park, sit on a bench in the Los Angeles sunlight, and just sketch.

He doesn’t sketch Jensen or himself. Not the boys they were or the men they are now.

Instead he sketches the trees that line the pathway. The toddler with pigtails and overalls who trips off the slide but gets back up and tries again. The golden shine of a Labrador catching a hot pink Frisbee in his mouth and bringing it back to the teenager in the denim cut-offs laughing as she throws it.

He spends a few hours just like that, seeing the world the best way he knows how, a world that he knows now he wants to belong to.
His fingertips are his guide, but his eyes are open now, for the very first time.

After the park, he heads over to Pileggi Gym. Ty greets him at the entrance, a vaguely surprised look on his face. Jared hasn’t really been there since the movie started filming, but he discovers with his own measure of surprise that he missed it.

“Well, well, Slim’n’Sassy, long time no see,” Ty says, patting Jared on the shoulder good-naturedly.

“Been busy on Gen’s film,” Jared replies, shrugging.

Ty puffs out his chest. “Going all Hollywood on us, are we? What brings you back around here to these humble parts?”

Jared gestures over at the ring. “I’m here to punch something. Preferably Matt because he’s the best looking among you ugly mugs.”

Ty snorts and pats him a little harder. “I reckon punching a pretty boy is the perfect Sunday afternoon.”

Jared just grins in response.

==

It’s late Monday morning and Jared pulls himself out of bed and prepares to get ready for the last week of filming. Luckily, when he talked to Felicia the night before, she told him to come in a little later than his usual call time. It’s a nice cushion, even though he’s ready to face what’s before him.

He’s not a kid any more, not that scared teenager cowering from squinty-eyed bullies in the corner of the locker while waiting for handsome seniors to come save him. Jared’s a man, his own man, and he’s not going to let the world scare him anymore.

He’s just pulling on a t-shirt and about to attempt some sort of triage to the mess that is his just-out-of-bed hair, when he hears it. A loud “Jared! Jared Padalecki!” coming from somewhere outside his window.

“What the…” Jared mumbles, heading into the living room, and out onto the balcony to see what all the commotion is.

Stunned isn’t quite the word for it, as Jared realizes that the commotion is actually Jensen standing on the hood of Clif’s car, holding up a posterboard covered in what looks like the markings of a hyperactive kindergartner who got into a box of colored Sharpies.

“Jensen, what are you doing?” Jared hisses, looking around to make sure that Ashton Kutcher isn’t about to pop out of the bushes around his apartment building.

Jensen just holds up the sign higher. “This is how I see you, Jared Padalecki. The real you.”

“Deformed?”

Jensen’s takes a quick glance at the board. “Hey, it’s not that bad! I think my usage of color is great.”

Jared can’t help but laugh, and that earns a grin from Jensen. “So a colorful deformed…what is that? A squid?”

“It’s Octo-boy. Well, not Octo-boy really, but Chris. The real Chris. Or the real boy. Or man. But really you. I mean, real Jared, not fake Jared.” Jensen pauses, gritting his teeth in frustration that shouldn’t be as ridiculously adorable as it is. “Dammit, Jared, I have markers all over my fingers and Caroline in makeup is going to kill me and I’m trying for romance here, you jerk!”

“You are totally trying to John Cusack me!” Jared realizes, starting to shake with laughter as he holds on to the railing.

“John Cusack is an asshole,” Jensen hollers back, which only makes Jared laugh harder.

“And apparently a bad tipper, according to Gen.”

Jensen makes a pitiful face. “Are you charmed yet? Can I put this down now? My arms are getting tired and I’m just a weak actor-man.”

“You had me at Octo-boy, moron.”

“Now who is abusing rom-com clichés?”

They share a grin for a moment before Jensen throws the poster board to the side.

The mood is broken, however, by a gruff Clif.

“Can you get off my fucking car now?” he grumbles.

Jensen happily complies, jumping off the hood and practically running over to the balcony. He studies it for a moment and then jumps up as if he’s about to climb up, before grunting and falling back to the ground.

“Um, Jensen?”

“What?”

“Why don’t you try coming in the front door?”

“Good plan!”

Jared opens the door to a smiling Jensen, stepping back to let him into the living room. They stare at each other for a moment, the buzz suddenly turning awkward.

“Why didn’t you meet me?” Jared blurts out, not able to hold in the words any longer after a decade of keeping them inside.
Jensen stares at him, obviously confused. “Meet you? When?”

Jared feels his damn cheeks heating up again, and even though part of him feels ridiculous, he pushes on. “Opening night of Romeo and Juliet. You asked me to the party and told me to wait for you and I did but you never showed up. I waited for you, Jensen, why didn’t you come?”

Jensen must be able to read the hurt all over Jared’s face, because it’s almost as if a light bulb goes off over his head. His entire face softens, awash with understanding.

“I did come, Jared, but you were already gone. That’s the night I first met my agent, Mark. Ms. Tapping brought him around and surprised me and my parents with an introduction. I was backstage for almost two hours talking to him and when I finally managed to get out of there to come meet you, you had already left.”

“Why didn’t you talk to me later?” Jared asks, voice soft as he processes this new information, ten years in the making.

“I tried to find you in school, but when you didn’t show up, I called your house and your mom told me you had mono. I called a few more times and you never responded, so I figured you were blowing me off. There was so much going on with the play and graduation and deciding to move to LA, that I got caught up in all of that and before I knew it, I was gone.”

Jared bites his lip, remembering telling his mother that he was sick and didn’t want to talk to anyone. She never told him who exactly had called, and Jared had been so hurt and insecure that he didn’t even stop to think that Jensen could possibly want to still talk to him.

Jensen’s beautiful face is so sincere and open that it pains Jared to think that he’s been thinking so badly about him all these years over a silly bit of miscommunication.

“Jared, say something,” Jensen pleads.

Jared can’t think of anything else to do but put the man out of his misery, so he marches over to him, grabs him around the waist and pulls him into the kiss that is forever in the making.

Jensen, startled, gets with the program quickly, throwing his arms around Jared’s neck and moaning as he licks into Jared’s mouth.

Things heat up immediately, years of pent-up desire exploding between them as they stumble their way over to the couch and start rubbing their bodies together just to get some sort of friction on their dicks. Their teeth are clacking, and it’s suddenly frantic, Jensen’s hands roaming under Jared’s shirt and over the thin material covering his ass as Jared bites down on Jensen’s bottom lip and tugs them closer together.

“Oh, god, Jensen, I’m gonna,” Jared whines, everything happening much too fast and fierce for him to be able to resist any longer.

“Do it, fuck, Jay,” Jensen growls into Jared’s neck. It’s the nickname dripping off of Jensen’s tongue that does it, as Jared comes with a shout all over his boxer shorts.

Jensen thrusts up into Jared’s body once, twice, before he’s moaning low with lips pressed against Jared’s skin, and coming in his own pants They lie there like that for a little while, pressed up together on Jared’s couch with jizz-filled boxers.

“Gen’s going to kill me for fucking on the couch,” Jared says, and it shouldn’t be the first thing that pops into his mind after a mind-blowing orgasm with Jensen freaking Ackles, but it totally is.

Luckily, Jensen sees the humor in the situation, and laughs softly. His face is pressed so close to the damn heat of Jared’s neck that Jared can feel the vibration of it all the way down to the tips of his toes.

“That wasn’t fucking, Jared. You’ll know when we’re fucking,” Jensen murmurs, biting down lightly on Jared’s jaw until Jared just has to turn enough so that they are devouring each other’s mouths again.

After a few minutes of kissing, this time gentle and lazy and oh-so-perfect, Jensen pulls back with a sad little whine. “I have to go. If I miss my call time, Felicia will kill me.”

“Mind if I hitch a ride? I was just on my way in when I got accosted by a weak actor-man,” Jared says teasingly, and Jensen looks at him in surprise.

“You were on your way in?”

“Duh. We have one more week to film.”

“Huh,” Jensen says, brushing a hand over his mussed-up hair.

“What?”

Jensen’s face heats up a bit and he looks embarrassed. “I might have totally thought that after your dramatic flounce on Friday, you quit the production and weren’t coming back.”

Jared laughs, although secretly he was thisclose to doing that very thing. Jensen doesn’t need to know that, though. “Who are you calling dramatic, John Cusack?”

“It was romantic, dammit!”

Jared laughs so hard that he thinks Jensen kisses him just to shut him up.



“There they are!” Jared practically squeals as he hits Jensen with his spoon and then points it at the television to where Gen and Misha are coming onto the red carpet and approaching Seacrest.

“She looks like a pin cushion,” Jensen points out around a mouthful of Cherry Garcia.

“It’s Balenciaga,Ryan,” Gen purrs on-screen, before turning right into the camera and mouthing “oh, my god” with a double thumbs-up that Jared is positive is just for him.

“She’s such a dork,” Jared says gleefully, clanging the side of his ice cream bowl with the metal utensil.

“She’s an Academy Award-nominated dork with a famous director boyfriend now, so I think she’s allowed her moment,” Jensen replies, amused.

“Yeah, yeah, you famous people have all the luck,” Jared replies, knocking Jensen with his shoulder.

Jensen swallows one more spoonful and then clears his throat. “Speaking of famous people, guess who I talked to today?”

“Who?” Jared curls up to face him on the couch with an interested expression. He knows that Jensen was talking to someone today in regards to the production company that he and Misha decided to start together.

Jensen grins widely, and he has bits of cherry in his teeth and he’s just ridiculous. “Tahmoh Penikett.”

Jared nearly falls off the couch. “Tahmoh Penikett? The Tahmoh Penikett? The Tahmoh Penikett that created Octo-Boy?”

Jensen’s smile gets even wider, if that’s possible. “Yeah, that’s the one. I’m optioning the film rights from him as hopefully our first project."

“Jensen.”

“Surprise?”

“Oh my god!” Jared shrieks, barely getting his ice cream on the coffee table before he’s throwing himself at his boyfriend and squeezing the life out of him.

“And there’s something else,” Jensen says, after he manages to peel his boyfriend off of him. “Tahmoh told me that he’s getting ready to start the series back up but his lead artist decided to retire to Maine to grow leeks or something. I might have showed him a certain someone’s portfolio, and he was very interested in meeting them.”

Jared stares at Jensen, dumbfounded. “Are you talking about me?”

Jensen chuckles, leaning forward to brush Jared’s bangs off his forehead. “Who else would I be talking about, silly man? You have a meeting with Tahmoh about an artist job, if you want it.”

Jared refuses to cry. Absolutely refuses to…ah, fuck it.

“I love you, Jensen,” he manages to wibble.

Jensen laughs again, but his eyes are conspicuously shiny. “I love you, too, idiot. Now, eat your ice cream.”

Jared takes a deep breath, and picks up his bowl again. He turns back to the television, where Chris Evans is chatting up Seacrest.

Jensen scowls, and Jared looks down with raised eyebrows at the Captain America pajamas that Jensen is currently sporting.

“So I guess the rumors that you were in the running for that role are true, huh?”

“Chris Evans gave Stan Lee a blowjob.”

“No, he didn’t!”

“He totally did.”

“Really?”

“No, of course not,” Jensen says, laughing as Jared punches him in the shoulder. “He was just prettier than me.”

Jared pauses, mouth twisting upwards. “Not possible.”

Jensen’s expression is suddenly fond, and Jared can’t help but lean over and press a soft kiss to his mouth.

“You’ll always be my Captain America,” Jared whispers against his lips.

With that, Jared kisses Jensen again, just because he can.