Jarecules Part 2
Feb. 2nd, 2012 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
There’s no laughing, but there are plenty of angry and ugly looks tossed his way. Chad even keeps some distance, insisting he doesn’t want to be associated with an attempted murderer, though he laughs and claps Jared on the back when he says it, so Jared’s not too offended. After all, Chad is related to Thanatos and that guy has nothing but carnage following him around. Chad’s typically amused than offended by it all.
Walking down the halls somehow seems easier than ever before. His classmates are giving him a pretty wide berth, splitting around him and letting him by without incident. He’d normally get a few quick trips or shoulder bumps just ‘cause, but this time they’re just quiet and it’s strange in a school this big; at least the staring and strange looks are all familiar.
He turns the corner into Hall β and then abruptly throws himself against the wall of wooden lockers because Jensen is right there and he has no intention of being anywhere near him. He’d purposely gone this way to Trig so he could avoid seeing Jensen in the hallways, like he normally does right after lunch, but apparently he’s timed it all wrong, and this is the worst thing ever.
No, Jensen silently glancing at him slowly as he passes is even worse.
Jared takes a deep breath and goes on his way only to be smacked into by the smug (and likely drunk) Rosenbaum, and Jared’s Trig scrolls scatter to the ground when he loses his balance and stumbles into the lockers again.
Okay, that’s the worst.
“How’s it goin’ killer?” Rosenbaum asks.
Doing his best to avoid the taunt, Jared reaches down to grab his things, but Rosenbaum is leaning down with him, keeping his eyes on Jared the whole time.
“You know,” Rosenbaum says with mock interest. “My dad wants to expand the vineyard, but we’d have to take down the pool house. Think you can come over and smash it all up? Tear it down to the ground?” By now he’s grinning and the students surrounding them have stopped to watch.
Jared does his best to slink against the lockers, but at six-and-a-half feet, it’s more than impossible, so he shifts to the side instead. Somehow Rosenbaum still reaches up and slams his hand into the locker beside Jared’s head, keeping him from moving away. “Monster smash,” Rosenbaum says in a low, dark voice.
As if the taunting weren’t enough, Jared smells wine on Rosenbaum’s breath and he wants to gag. “What do you want?” Jared asks.
Rosenbaum shrugs nonchalantly like he hasn’t a care in the world. “Just trying to figure out if you’re useful for something other than trying to kill people.”
“He wasn’t trying to kill me.”
Jared and everyone else in the crowd quickly turn towards Jensen, who’s now standing beside Rosenbaum. His shoulders look broad and tense and his fingers keep gripping at the edges of his Theology scroll, as if he’s nervous himself to be standing up to one of Olympus High’s more popular guys.
“That nice ding in your face says differently,” Rosenbaum chuckles.
Yeah, Jensen has a fat blemish high on his cheek from where a beam must’ve hit him on Saturday at the market, and Jared’s stomach turns at the image. But Jensen’s jaw sets and his eyes are hard on Rosenbaum. “Leave him alone. If anyone’s gonna battle him, it’ll be me.”
“Wait, what?” Jared whimpers and Jensen just glances at him for a second before going back down the hallway with Rosenbaum laughing and heading the other way.
Jared considers sliding down the wall of lockers and praying Uncle Hades will open up the floor and bring him on down, but the bell sounding just makes him go to class.

“Your plan totally sucked, Danneel!” Jared cries the second the Furies start giggling deep in Hall ∑∑.
“Oh my,” he hears Katie grumble, followed by Cindy’s low voice laughing, “Our big boy’s got a bit of a big temper.”
“I nearly killed Jensen and now the whole school thinks I’m a monster.”
“Oh, they do not,” Danneel says from where she’s perched on a stool in the corner, legs crossed and arms set atop her knees. She waves him off with a soft pfshaw. “You’re getting all wound up for nothing.”
“Nothing? Nothing?!” he now screeches. “Rosenbaum just cornered me in Hall β and then Jensen laid claim to kicking the shit out of me.
“They what?” Danneel shrieks. She rises from the stool and quickly joins the other two Furies so they can read Katie’s scroll together over her shoulders. “Oh, wow, he really does have a bit of Athena in him somewhere.”
“What?” Jared asks stepping forward to read with them. He can understand a few things on the scroll, but it’s mostly gibberish and horrible penmanship. “Did you not take Lettering 101?” he asks Katie.
She narrows her eyes at him. “Excuse me?”
“Your handwriting totally sucks.”
Katie slowly tips her head and grits out, “I hold the scrolls for all of Olympus High, and am likely your only hope to woo,” –with finger quotes – “one Jensen Ackles, and you dare to insult my handwriti-”
“She totally failed,” Cindy says flatly, eyes still on the scroll. “Tried copying off of me, fat lotta good that did ya from sitting in front of me.”
“Why you little-”
Danneel nudges Katie away and shoots Cindy a smirk before reading the sheath again. “Your penmanship really is awful. You’re just too OCD to give up the scroll.” She sighs softly and grants Jared a strangely sweet look. “Jensen has a lot of goddess in him – “ Cindy snorts, and even Jared is on board with thinking it’s kind of funny. “And Athena’s sort of …”
“A prude,” Katie replies with a roll of her eyes. “But yeah, looking at Jensen’s behavior since he’s been at Olympus, I’d agree that he keeps things close to the vest, but he doesn’t have an ounce of needless warrior in him. He’d have to be extremely provoked.”
“Provoked like someone trying to kill them?” Jared asks flatly while glaring at Danneel.
“Like that’s my fault,” she says breezily.
“Uh, it was your idea.”
Danneel frowns and shrugs awkwardly. “Okay, fair enough. But it’s not like Jensen has a history of acting out. He’s a pretty sensible fella.”
“Yeah, and if Athena’s all common sense …” Jared mumbles. He thinks of Sophia (another part of Athena’s bloodline) and Chad’s disagreements, where Sophia masters every argument until Chad gives in because he can’t see which way is up.
“Wisdom, heroism, strategy, war,” Katie counts off in boredom, “Yadda, yadda, yadda.”
Jared whimpers then clears his throat when the girls look at him oddly. “So, war, yeah, kinda makes sense, I guess. I keep knocking him over and getting him almost killed. His next step should definitely be war on me.”
“He can’t be planning to battle you,” Danneel argues gently. “Jensen is all soft and careful, thoughtful and funny and beautiful –” Katie clears her throat as Danneel gets carried away with all of Jensen’s great attributes. Jared’s willing to agree with Danneel, but also with Katie that Danneel should just get to the point. Danneel glares at them each before rolling her eyes. “Anyway. He’s not really a warrior type. The only real battles he’s ever gotten himself into are with social skills.”
“But he’s always staring at me all weird, like he’s plotting how to …” Jared makes a frightened slashing motion at his neck.
Katie looks up from where she’s been reading past sections of the scroll. “He’s staring all the time because he’s weird.”
“Gorgeous!” Cindy interjects. “But yes, kinda weird, too. No thanks to his grandfather. What a bore.”
“So, I like a descendent of half the Olympian lineage that creates to worst mix of totally weird and socially inept,” Jared summarizes tiredly. “What do I do with that?”
“Live in misery?” Katie offers with a shrug.
He stares at the three furies together and considers the two interactions he’s had with them and how useless all their information has been to him. “You three are awful at this, you know that?”
“Duh,” Danneel says with a flick of her hand. “In-training.”
“Yeah, still awful,” he complains and heads back out towards the light of the school.
At the cross section with Hall Λ, students rush back and forth in either direction. Some are hurrying off to track and field practice, others to cheerleading, music club, or even just to get home with their friends. Jared stands there watching them all pass him by, laughing and smiling to each other.
He sighs pathetically because not even Chad will walk home with him these days.
Maybe high school really is just four long years of misery.

Friday night, Jared’s parents go up on the Mount for another social and he’s bored of sitting at the house alone after just an hour and decides to roam the roads. He finds a plateau overlooking the plains that carry down off Olympus and spread for miles before fading away. It’s not far from the main road to and from the market, so there’s enough noise that it feels like company – people chattering on, horses and carts travelling in and out, and other random clusters of weekend partiers moving about.
He crosses his legs and rests his elbow on his knee with his chin in his hand and sighs. The sun is setting far off in the west and casts a glow across the lands. It’s a beautiful sight to witness from this spot, but all he can think about is how everyone is going on their evenings, all fun and parties and dates and groups, and he’s sitting here alone and pathetic, and will be for years to come.
There’s a sudden commotion above him, cart wheels digging into dirty and people crying out. He jumps up, looks along the rise of the road above him, and sees a cart running wildly with its driver screaming at his out-of-control horse.
Then he spots Jensen running ahead of the cart, trying to avoid being hit by the charging horse. Jared doesn’t think, he just grabs onto the ledge above him, tosses himself up onto the road, and races off in their direction. His thundering footsteps spook the horse when he catches up to the chase. The horse neighs and shuffles forward, buying Jensen a few seconds, but then continues on towards him again. The road winds around the mountain and there’s nowhere for Jensen to go except forward or over the edge, and he looks scared out of his mind when he just keeps running forward.
Jared catches up to the horse and yanks back on its reins, his surge of power pulling it off the ground. He spins to catch the horse in a cradle hold and sets it down as he uses his other hand to right the cart before it crashes into the side of the mountain. It’s like all time has stopped because it’s eerily silent for two seconds before he hears a long skid and yelp further up the road. He turns just in time to see Jensen slip right over the ledge.
He shouts Jensen’s name and runs to him, finding Jensen barely holding onto a thin twig coming out of the earth.
“Help!” Jensen yells as the branch bends along the curve of the ledge and starts snapping apart. He flails to grab the twig higher up, but his hands slip another few inches and he kicks his feet out into the open air below.
“Hang on, I got you,” Jared insists as he reaches down. He wraps a hand around each of Jensen’s wrists and takes the time to slowly lift Jensen up, even if he could’ve yanked him right up to the road again. He figures he’s done enough to scare the life out of Jensen these last few days. Here, he’s honestly trying to save Jensen.
Jared pulls him further from the ledge and Jensen clings to him like he’ll die if he doesn’t. It takes quite a bit of energy for Jared to not freak out that he actually saved Jensen, and Jensen is hugging him, and Jensen is not afraid of him.

He runs his hands over Jensen’s back and shushes him like Ma always does when he’s fussed up. “You’re okay now,” he murmurs. “I gotcha.”
Jensen looks up to Jared then to the side of the road where he’d almost plummeted to his death. He flinches away and tugs Jared with him so they roll further away from the ledge, and okay, it could be a tiny bit disturbing that Jensen won’t let go of him, but Jared is now celebrating at the whole matter. On the inside at least. Otherwise, it’d be humiliating for them both.
Jared can feel Jensen’s heart thundering against his own chest, and he softly rubs at Jensen’s back to soothe him. He then feels Jensen go rigid before slowly untangling them and Jared lets him go immediately.
“Um, I’m sorry, about that,” Jensen mumbles as he rises to his feet. He starts swiping dirt off his tunic and coughs as it kicks up between them. “I just, you know, was scared out of my wits.”
“No, yeah, understandable,” Jared replies. He then busies himself with cleaning up as well so he doesn’t have to see whatever weird look Jensen will give him over the whole rubbing and touching thing.
The horse whinnies and they turn to see the owner righting his cart and snapping the reins to carry them on their trip again. The man waves with a hearty Thank you! as he passes, but Jensen flinches when the horse steps too close to them.
“Can we go … somewhere?” Jensen asks tightly. “Anywhere that’s not on this road?”
Jared looks up, down, and around, knowing there’s nowhere to go without the road except where he’d been lamenting his pathetic existence minutes ago, so he leads them back to the plateau.
Jensen drops down and sits right up against the earth, staying as far from the soft hill below them. He holds his hands to his chest and laughs nervously. “Gods, that was crazy. One second I’m walking home from buying my sister a bracelet and then next I’m being run off the road.”
“Yeah, that was crazy. Really, really crazy,” Jared adds, nervous, too, for completely different reasons. Jensen is talking to him and not giving him scared looks and the fright Jensen’s experiencing right now is not actually at Jared’s own doing. “I’m sorry about that thing with the hugging and the touch and the rubbing. You were kinda flustered and I was just-”
“No, I’m sorry,” Jensen replies quickly. “I was freaking out, and like clutching.” He covers his face and pulls his knees up towards his chest. “So embarrassing.” He shakes his head then pulls his hands away and looks at Jared in that weird, flat staring way. “But you saved me.”
Jared swallows and looks away. “For once.”
“That’s all it takes to keep living, right?”
He chuckles and smiles when Jensen does, too. “I’m really sorry,” he admits awkwardly. “For all the other … near-death experiences. I wasn’t trying to kill you.”
“I hope not.”
“Yeah, not at all. The last time, um, was kind of a not accident, but never mind.” He shakes his head and ignores how Jensen is back to staring at him. When Jensen tips his head and bites his lower lip, Jared feels his heart thump hard in his chest and he just wishes the damned thing would break out and run away so he could stop trying to think with it. And maybe his brain, too, because he suddenly blurts, “I just really like you and was trying to save you from fake harm, or something so maybe you’d realize I’m a really good guy and someone likeable or something. It’s so stupid, I know, but the Furies said I should and then-”
Jared can’t talk anymore, and he certainly can’t breathe, because Jensen has grabbed him by the neck so he can kiss him. His lips are soft and yet pressing hard to Jared’s, and when Jared tries to actually breathe, opening his mouth just a little, Jensen opens his mouth as well and sets his tongue to Jared’s bottom lip then slips it inside.
He immediately returns it, happily sighing and sliding his tongue along Jensen’s and pulling him even closer, and Jensen then smiles into it and deepens the kiss. Jensen grips tight at Jared’s neck then slides his fingers into Jared’s hair, and as if it wasn’t a good enough kiss already, it just keeps getting better.
Oh, for gods’ sake.
Jared is absolutely certain that Jensen comes from Aphrodite’s lineage given how well he kisses and manages to make Jared’s blood pound through his body with so much excitement and want.
When they pull back, they’re both panting and now Jensen’s staring means something entirely different. Especially as his eyes drop to Jared’s mouth when Jared licks his lips to taste Jensen all over them. “You do that really well,” Jared mumbles.
Jensen laughs, and it’s such a happy sound that Jared’s heart blooms with it, and okay, maybe he wants to keep that organ now.
“I didn’t know you liked me,” Jensen says steadily, and Jared would really like to know how the guy can control his brain functions enough to speak so well right now. “Or, that you liked me like that. Not like I’m just some piece of meat that’s suddenly well done just because I finally grew into my heritage.”
Jared blushes and ducks his head, but Jensen’s hand still on his neck forces him to look up again. “Okay, well, a little like that,” Jared admits. “But, you know, I was taking my time, or something.”
“Okay,” Jensen laughs. “Well, I’ve kinda liked you like that for a while, too. Even when you kept plowing into me.”
He blushes again, remembering Cindy’s innuendo about plowing. Then he thinks on what happened earlier that week with Rosenbaum and how the entire school watched Jensen threaten Jared. “But, you said before? That if anyone was gonna battle me …”
Jensen seems embarrassed as he shrugs and glances away. “I mean, if anyone should want to hurt you, it would be me. And it kept him off your tail the rest of the week, right?”
Jared finds Jensen looking at him softly, like he really cares whether Rosenbaum left him alone or not. “Yeah, he did,” Jared mumbles. “But, well, the Furies said … do you really have Athena bloodlines, too?”
He sighs and rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I’ve got a crapload of goddess in me – don’t laugh!” he insists, though they both chuckle a little. “I don’t know what the heck for, but Mom keeps telling me variety is the spice of life. Beauty, love, war, heroism.”
“Heroism,” Jared repeats dumbly, now realizing that Jensen speaking up about hurting Jared was really just his own form of protection, to keep Rosenbaum and whoever else away. “Wow, you really do like me,” he says dumbly.
Jensen chuckles and hangs his head, even while he nods a little. “Yeah, like I said. You’re a really sweet, caring guy, and among all the god wannabes, it’s kind of nice to see someone who actually has real powers. Even if you kept knocking me over every time you used them.”
Jared bites the corner of his mouth. “Sorry about all those times.”
Jensen smirks. “You saved my life here, so I suppose it’s all forgiven. And now we can figure out all the other ways our heritages can do us good.”
In the brief silence, Jared realizes that Jensen has been talking so much compared to what Jared’s always known and seen of him. “You’re not totally awkward anymore,” Jared says slowly.
Dropping his head down a little, Jensen licks his lips and then smiles out towards the plains ahead. “Well, neither are you, so I guess we cracked that code.”
Jared looks at Jensen for a moment, because he looks so luscious and gorgeous with the dusk glowing around them, and there has to be more to Jensen than just Aphrodite’s good graces. “Is it possible you have Pan somewhere in your bloodline, too?”
“No, but I’ve heard my grandma talk. I have plenty of helpful stories to put to the test.”
Jared searches Jensen’s face when suddenly it hits him. “Oh, yes, that sounds great, excellent, fabulous.” Jared grins, wanting to relive that kiss a thousand times over.
“I was hoping you’d think so,” Jensen admits shyly. He stands and nods up towards the road. “I think I’m ready to travel now, if you’d like to go somewhere else?”
Jared jumps up and hops up onto the road in seconds. “Definitely, gladly, absolutely.”
He helps Jensen up and as they walk along the road, he keeps holding onto Jensen’s hand and squeezes with excitement thrumming through him.
Except then Jensen winces and tugs his hand back, shaking it out. “Gods! You really do have crazy, super strength, huh?”
Jared blushes and winces, too, tucking his hands behind him. “Sorry.”
“Okay,” Jensen says with a nod. “We go soft and easy for now and work up to full power, yeah?”
When Jensen curls his hand around Jared’s elbow and squeezes lightly, Jared grins and feels warm all over. Feeling Jensen so close, knowing Jensen intends to work up to something between them.
Work up to something … Jared doesn’t have much on patience, not when it comes to Jensen. But he’s willing give it a go just for the smile on Jensen’s face.
