Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Padalecki household was a disaster. At least that was Jensen Ackles’ first impression of it when he stepped inside.

Being a sixteen year old former private school kid hadn’t prepared him in the slightest for his mother, Samantha Ackles to meet and fall in love with Jeffrey Padalecki.

Jeffrey wasn’t so bad considering he was a civil rights lawyer and not a big corporate lawyer like Jensen’s father. And even if his children, Jared, Sophia and Sandy were awful (Jared especially) Jensen had to admit it was nice to see his mother so happy. It was a nice change from where she’d been shortly after she’d divorced Jensen’s father.

So, shortly after the wedding, Jensen, his mother and his younger sister Danneel moved into the Padalecki home. Hello, shared space and lack of privacy!

Jensen was miserable. And not just because his parents were forcing a preschool lesson on him. He could share. Jared, he quickly learned, could not. The other boy, for whatever reason, refused to give up the room he’d had all to himself ever since he was little.

Danneel and Sophia were eager to become roommates, and when Jensen had tried to explain what a good idea it would be for him and Jared to share a room together, Jared had just snorted, rolled his eyes and insisted that they were guys and guys didn’t do that kind of girlie shit. Let alone get excited about it like Jensen was trying to make him.

After some discussion Samantha and Jeff (Jeffrey insisted on Jensen calling him “Jeff”. And he was trying…even if it still felt pretty weird) decided to move their room to the basement so they’d have the privacy they so desperately craved away from their five children. Even if (as Samantha kept telling them) they loved the kids.

Jensen didn’t really care one way or another. He was just relieved to have a quiet space so he could keep to his study schedule. And upon some reflection it ended up being a good thing that he had his own room and wasn’t rooming with Jared like originally planned.

Jared’s room was a disgusting mess. A person had to be careful where they stepped or risk stepping on silverware and dishes Jared had forgotten to bring downstairs after they’d been used. Or unwashed laundry that was thrown haphazardly around the room. Not to mention all the junk food he had stashed in places where only he could find it. And the fact that Jared continually blared his music at decibels people two towns over could hear made Jensen comfortable with the knowledge that he could slam his own bedroom door shut if the need should ever arise. And with Jared just across the hall, that need arose more often than not.

In contrast, Jensen’s room was always clean and very well organized. Much like his life. Jensen thrived on order. And having stepped right into the middle of what could only be described as chaos at its finest with his family’s move to the Padaleckis’, Jensen demanded structure and order from his new siblings by shoving a Chore Wheel in their faces.

“The only way we do anything like that is if there’s cake. And since I don’t see any, you can forget it, Ackles,” Jared muttered with a hoarse laugh, channel surfing as he leaned back in his recliner. “Sophia and Sandy only do something if I tell them to. Right, girls?” he barked at his younger sisters.

Sophia jumped at the sound of Jared’s voice. Danneel, who sat next to her, ran a soothing hand along her stepsister’s back.

Jensen glared at Jared, his anger over the situation mounting the longer he looked at the other boy, who was blatantly ignoring him.

“Who the hell died and made you dictator? Everyone deserves to have a voice in this house, not just you,” he snarled.

Jared laughed again, clearly looking amused as his gaze finally shifted from the television to where Jensen stood over by the stairway, his arms crossed at his chest, looking defiant and livid.

“What you mean is you think you deserve to have status in this house. Merged family or not this is still my house. So suck it up and live with it. I don’t have to do what you say. Besides, since this is my house you should know I always get what I want,” he said, flashing a smirk in Jensen’s direction.

Jensen drew in a sharp breath, his eyes widening as what Jared was telling him sunk in. Giving the other boy one final glare he raced upstairs, refusing to let Jared see the tears in his eyes. He would not show his weaknesses. Not around a Padalecki. He couldn’t afford to lose.

Watching her brother run up to his room, Danneel rolled her eyes as she shot a glare at Jared.

“God, Jared. We’re family now. The least you could do is treat Jensen like the brother he is!” she snapped before getting to her feet and going after Jensen.

“Step!” Jared yelled after her. “I’m not wrong, am I?” he asked, turning his attention to Sophia once the commercials started up between plays of the game he’d been watching.

Sophia shrugged. “I dunno. You want the made-up answer or the answer that will make you want to chuck a pillow at my head? Because I vote for the made-up answer,” she said earnestly, giving Jared a forced smile.

“What? You want me to ‘play nice’ with Jensen, is that it? Sorry, Soph, but that ain’t happening. The guy’s a keener. A…a grade grubber. He could ruin my slacker rep,” Jared told her.

Sophia raised an eyebrow in her brother’s direction. “Once you’re in high school you become insane. Noted. But could you at least try to keep the peace at home? Danni, Sandy and I are sick of you fighting all the time. I don’t want to have to go to Dad and Samantha to discuss our concerns about our older sibs’ maturity levels,” she replied dryly.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Jared said, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Watch me,” Sophia growled, acting tougher than she really felt. She’d never actually voice her feelings aloud, but she secretly craved respect from Jared. She looked up to her older brother and wanted to be just like him once she turned sixteen and got to high school. Even when he was acting like a jerk. No. Especially then.

“Whatever,” Jared grumbled, rolling his eyes as he returned his attention once again to the Spurs game he’d been watching.

**

“Why does he have to be such a friggin’ jerk?” Jensen mumbled into his pillow before slowly sitting up and wiping at his eyes with his hands.

“He’s a guy?” Danneel suggested uncertainly, shrugging her shoulders.

“No, it’s worse. He’s…he’s Jared,” Jensen said, nearly choking on his stepbrother’s name as it left his mouth. His lip curled in disgust as he got up off his bed and walked over to his desk to start on his homework.

“Oh, come on, Jensen. He’s not that bad, is he?” Danneel asked with a laugh.

Jensen gave his sister a withering look before shaking his head and returning to his homework. Sighing heavily, Danneel rolled her eyes, getting up off Jensen’s bed and leaving him alone.

A few minutes later he glanced up when he heard a knock on his door.

“Yeah? Come in. Oh, it’s you,” he muttered in annoyance as Jared came into the room and made himself comfortable on Jensen’s bed. “What do you want, Jared?” he continued when it became obvious Jared wasn’t going to start talking by himself.

“What makes you think I want something?” Jared asked, raising an eyebrow in Jensen’s direction.

Jensen stared at him pointedly. “You wouldn’t be in here if you didn’t,” he replied.

“Good point. Jensen, do you ever consider not doing the homework?” Jared asked, gesturing to where Jensen sat working on the next school day’s assignment.

“No. Why?” Jensen asked warily, alarmed to realize he was curious to hear Jared’s response.

“People are making fun of you. You’re a keener. A grade grubber. Is that really the kind of reputation you want following you around for the rest of high school?” Jared demanded, conveniently leaving out the fact he’d been the one to start calling Jensen that behind his back.

Jensen snorted. “You really think I’m the kind of person who believes popularity is important?”

Jared could barely hold back his smirk at hearing his stepbrother’s question. He knew for a fact that Jensen secretly wanted to be popular more than anything.

He’d found out that helpful little bit of information thanks to their next door neighbor and Jensen’s best friend, Genevieve Cortese. She was one of the biggest gossips at their high school, New Haven High.

“Honestly, you look like someone who doesn’t even know what being cool is let alone how to be cool. Then again you are doing the homework on a Friday night. So it’s probably a good thing you don’t have a life,” Jared told Jensen, unable to keep the smirk from curling his features that time. He loved getting under Jensen’s skin. It was so damn easy.

“Jare-ed!” Jensen yelled, throwing a pen at him.

Jared laughed, rolling off of Jensen’s bed and making his way toward the doorway. He stopped and turned back around to face Jensen again.

“You know, Jensen, I have this feeling you’d be a lot more fun if you weren’t so uptight,” he said.

Jensen visibly stiffened at Jared’s words, his features turning stony.

“Get out!” he growled through clenched teeth.

“See, what’d I tell you? Uptight.”

“Now!” Jensen roared, getting up out of his desk chair and walking over to Jared, pushing him out the door.

Jared dragged him with him and they slammed into Jared’s closed bedroom door.

“Come on, Jensen. Seriously here for a minute. How the hell do you expect a guy to be interested in you if you don’t relax a little? You know, have some fun?” he asked Jensen, raising a questioning eyebrow.

Jensen stepped back away from Jared’s close proximity slightly, flashing his stepbrother a confused frown.

“Studying is fun,” he replied.

Jared rolled his eyes, shaking his head in disappointment. “Figures you’d say that. Haven’t you, I dunno, just done something because Samantha told you not to?” he asked.

Jensen’s eyes widened. “No, of course not. Rules are there to be followed,” he insisted.

“No. You’re a teenager, Jensen. Those rules were put there so you could break them. Trust me,” Jared said.

Jensen laughed out loud. “The day I trust you is the day the world ends. Besides, how do you know I don’t know how to have fun?”

“Uh, because as much as it pains me to admit, your social circle consists solely of Genevieve and…me. And sometimes Misha and Chad,” Jared replied, mentioning his best friends Misha Collins and Chad Murray.

“That’s not true! What about Mom, Jeff, Sophia, Danni and Sandy?” Jensen asked.

“They’re family. They don’t count,” Jared insisted.

Jensen was just about to remind Jared that they were family but something stopped him. A look in Jared’s eyes. Jensen couldn’t quite place it, but by that point he was struggling to hold back his nausea as Jared touched him, putting his hands on Jensen’s shoulders.

“Come on, Jensen. Don’t you ever want to be a little reckless? You know…live dangerously?” Jared demanded of him softly, challenge in his eyes.

Jensen swallowed visibly at his stepbrother’s words, his tongue darting unconsciously out of his mouth to wet at his lips. And then suddenly seeming to realize Jared was successfully distracting him, Jensen sucked in a sharp breath, shooting his stepbrother a glare before heading back to his own room in a huff, making sure to slam the door behind him.

**

A FEW WEEKS LATER…

“Why’re you freaking out? So you stepped on his foot. Big deal. It’s not like you didn’t apologize, right?” Genevieve asked Jensen one afternoon during lunch. “You did apologize?” she asked warily.

“Of course I apologized!” Jensen snapped angrily. His features immediately melted into a look of mortification. “Right after my gum fell out of my mouth and into his hair,” he wailed, burying his face in his hands.

“Ouch,” Genevieve cringed in sympathy, patting Jensen’s arm.

Jensen had done nothing but relive the horrific moment from English Lit earlier that morning when he’d been helping Mrs. Frankel by passing out supplemental study aides for a test they had coming up.

He’d been trying to say something clever and smart to his crush Justin Hartley, but instead had made a complete fool of himself by accidentally stepping on the guy’s foot and then having his gum get stuck in Justin’s hair when he tried to apologize for crushing his toes.

“Yeah. He must hate me,” Jensen moaned, reluctantly looking up into Genevieve’s eyes.

“Uh oh,” Genevieve said, her eyes widening as she looked toward the entrance to the cafeteria.

“Oh, great. He just walked in, didn’t he?” Jensen whispered hoarsely, doing his best to hide himself behind Genevieve’s small frame.

“No, it’s uh…” Genevieve began but was cut off by Jensen’s utter disinterest.

“Jared,” he replied with a snort, doing his best to ignore the broad grin his stepbrother gave him as Jared slid into the seat next to him before draping his arm over Jensen’s shoulders.

“Hey, girls. What’re we talking about?” Jared asked, laughing at his own joke.

Jensen glared at him. “God, you’re such a jerk,” he grumbled, elbowing his stepbrother so Jared’s arm fell away from his shoulders.

“Maybe. But at least I know I’m good at it,” Jared replied, smirking at Jensen.

With a look of disgust cutting across his features, Jensen set down his fork. “Thanks a lot, Jared. I’ve officially lost my appetite,” he muttered, getting to his feet and heading out of the cafeteria.

The conversation he’d had with Jared was still running in his head a few minutes later, so Jensen didn’t see the guy he was approaching in the hallway until it was too late.

The textbooks and loose leaf paper he’d been holding, intent on sticking them in the locker he shared with Genevieve before his next class, flew everywhere as he ran into the other boy.

Quickly getting to his knees, he scrambled to pick up the fallen books off the floor. As he reached out, his hand brushed against the other boy’s hand and Jensen finally looked into his eyes.

“Dammit,” he swore softly as he met Justin’s gaze. “I mean, I, uh, I’m sorry for bumping into you, Justin. And for, um, earlier,” he muttered, heat flooding his face as he mentioned the horrific scene from earlier that morning between them.

Justin smiled warmly at him, helping Jensen to his feet and handing over a couple of his textbooks and a stack of the loose leaf paper.

“Don’t worry about it. My mom was telling me I need to get it cut again anyway,” Justin insisted.

Jensen felt butterflies burst in his stomach as Justin continued to hold his gaze.

“Well, you’re one up on Jared. If he keeps growing his hair out people are going to think he’s one of our sisters,” he said, rolling his eyes. What the hell? Why am I bringing up Jared in front of my crush!? Jensen thought in confusion as a knot of something he couldn’t quite identify settled in the pit of his stomach.

Justin laughed, shaking his head. “That’s funny, Jensen. You’re funny. Hey, do you want to maybe go to dinner with me tomorrow night?”

“Wha’?” Jensen asked stupidly, not completely believing what was happening. Things like this didn’t happen to him. Cute, popular guys did not ask him out. Ever. Especially after he’d acted like a total freak.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun, right?” Justin continued, taking Jensen’s lack of an intelligent response as agreement. “I’ll walk you to your next class.”

Jensen nodded, not trusting himself to speak at that point. He watched silently as Justin took a hold of his hand and the two of them walked to his History class.

**

That afternoon Jared lay stretched out in his recliner, partaking in his favorite activity (well, when he wasn’t annoying Jensen or playing basketball), channel surfing. His head slowly, yet automatically, moved toward the front door when he heard his stepbrother enter the living room.

When Jensen’s eyes landed on him, Jared grunted in acknowledgement, wondering when Jensen would start lecturing him about how he should be doing his homework. As mundane as the topics were sometimes, Jared had to reluctantly admit that he’d begun enjoying their heated arguments. It definitely kept him on his toes trying to one-up Jensen. But more often than not, Jensen gave as good as he got, which kept things entertaining for Jared.

Today however, Jensen’s gaze remained locked on Jared as he drew closer. Jared watched him warily, the television all but forgotten.

Without warning, Jensen had approached Jared, his arms outstretched in an attempt to hug Jared. Swallowing hard and feeling a wave of nausea crash over him, Jared pulled his long legs up onto the recliner, doing his best to pull his large frame into the corner of the chair in his attempt to put some space between himself and his stepbrother.

“Jensen, what the hell are you doing?” he choked out, his gaze unwavering from Jensen’s outstretched arms.

Jensen gave him a small smile. “I’m trying to hug you. If it weren’t for you being such a jerk to me at lunch today I wouldn’t have run into Justin and he wouldn’t have asked me out.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought you were trying to do. So not happening. There’s no way I’m having a “feel good family moment” with you. You’re on your own, Ackles,” Jared insisted gruffly, doing his best to make it look like he’d meant to fall out of his recliner after leaning too far back to keep Jensen from wrapping his arms around him like he wanted to before bolting up the stairs.

It wasn’t until Jared had gotten to his room and his heart rate had returned to normal that Jensen’s words fully sunk in.

Yanking open his bedroom door, he took long, angry strides over to his stepbrother’s room, pounding on Jensen’s door with his fist.

“What? I have homework,” Jensen snapped angrily.

Jared snorted, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, whatever. You always do. What was that you were saying about Hartley downstairs?” he demanded, frowning at Jensen.
Jensen’s face softened. “Oh, that. He asked me out this afternoon. We’re going to dinner tomorrow night.”
Jared’s jaw twitched almost imperceptibly and he barely kept himself from raising his voice. “He…he what?”

Jensen huffed, glaring in Jared’s direction. “Just because you don’t think anybody likes me doesn’t mean they don’t! Justin is a sweet guy so you better be nice to him when he comes to pick me up tomorrow.”

And with that he turned on his heel and slammed his bedroom door in Jared’s face.

“Fine. Fine! I’ll be on my best behavior for your precious Justin. But don’t expect me to treat you any differently if he suddenly decides to do something stupid and become your boyfriend or something,” Jared yelled through the closed door.

“Don’t worry, I won’t!” Jensen snarled after yanking his door open a second time before slamming it again.

“Great!” Jared roared before walking back over to his own bedroom just as angrily as before and slamming his own bedroom door.

“Whoa. Remind me not to tell you when I get a girlfriend,” Sophia said from Jared’s computer chair, her eyes blown wide at her brother’s entrance into his room.

“Get. Out,” Jared growled, his expression tightening as he glared at Sophia.

Sophia groaned softly, rolling her eyes.

“Really, Jay? That’s the best you’ve got? Granted, it’d probably scare me to death if I were still five and terrified of watching certain parts of Beauty & The Beast,” she mused with a frown.

Jared moaned loudly as he flung himself onto his bed.

“Soph, it was bad enough watching Misha make an idiot of himself in front of Jensen while they were dating. Are we really going to have to put up with all of the theatrics and drama when Justin becomes a permanent fixture in Jensen’s life?” he grumbled.

Sophia stared at him in confusion as he slowly sat up. “Jared, what’re you talking about? What’s going on? Is Justin really that bad of a guy?”

Jared found himself shrugging indifferently. “Hartley’s an okay guy, I guess. As of right now the only strikes he has against him are that he plays baseball and for some reason he seems to have a thing for Jensen,” he muttered, smirking mid-snort as he said their stepbrother’s name.

“So, you’re okay?” Sophia asked him hesitantly, raising an eyebrow in his direction.

“More than,” Jared quickly reassured her. “I’m just trying to get under Jensen’s skin. That’s all that was,” he said, meaning the fight he’d just had with Jensen.

“Really? You mean Danni and I don’t need to worry?” Sophia asked skeptically.

“Nah. Your big brother’s just fine,” he insisted, giving her a broad smile.

Sophia sighed heavily, giving him a relieved smile. “Okay, good,” she murmured before getting up out of Jared’s computer chair and leaving him alone.

Jared glowered at his closed bedroom door for a moment, his eyes closing briefly as he ran a hand through his hair before falling back heavily onto his bed. His eyes flew open when he heard a noise from underneath it.
Leaning over the side of his bed he pulled the covers up to reveal Sandy hiding underneath it. She gave him a small wave and a weak smile as she crawled out from underneath the bed.

“Sorry, JT,” she said as she got up from the floor and scrambled onto Jared’s bed.

“Sands, what’s going on? Why were you hiding under my bed?” Jared asked with a chuckle, easily pulling Sandy into his side as they leaned into the pillows resting against the headboard.

“Listening,” Sandy replied honestly. “Is Jensen really gonna go out with that Jerk-stin guy?” she murmured, her voice muffled as she spoke into his t-shirt clad chest, curling up against his side.

“You mean Justin?” Jared asked softly, unable to keep the smirk off his face at his sister’s words.

“Yeah, him,” Sandy grumbled.

“Looks like it,” Jared told her.

“This sucks,” Sandy replied.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Jared agreed.

**

That night at dinner Jensen was unnaturally quiet. He knew he should start talking about some aspect of school, but all he could think about was Justin. And how he wasn’t quite ready to share with his family what had happened between them just yet.

Although, he should’ve known his mother would notice and be concerned with his out of character silence.

“Jensen, honey, is everything okay? You’re awfully quiet tonight,” Samantha observed, her brow furrowing in concern as she reached out, grabbing onto his hand in a comforting manner.

“Yeah, Mom, I’m fine,” he insisted, doing his best to give her a reassuring smile.

“Oh, come on, Jensen. I’m sure Samantha would love to hear your good news,” came a drawling voice from across the table. His gaze was immediately drawn toward Jared, who smirked knowingly at him when their eyes met.

Jensen glared at him. “It’s not that…” he mumbled, feeling heat rise to his face. He glanced up at Jared again to see his stepbrother continue to smirk at him.

“Go on, Jensen. Tell them or I will,” Jared insisted, nudging Sophia to get her attention when Jensen started squirming uncomfortably in his chair. Jensen wasn’t sure how Jared knew he wasn’t ready to tell their parents about Justin, but it was frustrating.

Jared probably thinks this will annoy me the most, having to tell Mom and Jeff about Justin before I’m ready. He thought. Not even close. The idea of Justin anywhere near this family at meal times is much, much worse. Jensen barely bit back a noise of protest as Danneel and Sophia started throwing tortilla chips across the table at one another, giggling all the while. Then, much to his disgust, he watched as Jared proceeded to teach Sandy the fine art of belching.

Unable to prevent an involuntary shudder, Jensen turned an accusatory, reproachful look on his mother. Samantha turned a desperate look on Jeff and mouthed: “Help me here!”, widening her eyes meaningfully toward Jared and the girls.

Quickly swallowing the bite of salsa he had in his mouth with the help from some water, Jeff cleared his throat before shouting: “Okay, that’s enough!”

A wave of silence immediately fell over the room. “They’re all yours, Jensen,” Jeff said tiredly but winking at Jensen.
Jensen smiled gratefully at his stepfather. “Okay. What Jared’s been alluding to tonight is the fact that Justin Hartley asked me out today. We’re going to dinner tomorrow night.”

“Oh, Jensen, that’s wonderful, sweetie,” Samantha said, pulling him into a hug. She knew that even though the break up was amicable and mutual, Jensen still missed how things had been between him and Misha when they were dating.

“Yeah, that is great news, Jensen. I can’t wait to meet him,” Jeff said encouragingly.

“Yeah, isn’t it awesome? We’re all so happy for you, Jensen,” Jared muttered with a snort, looking sullenly in Jensen’s direction.

“What is your problem!? Ever since I told you about Justin asking me out you’ve been acting like a total jerk to me!” Jensen yelled, his chest heaving in anger.

“Jensen!” Samantha scolded.

“Well, he has,” Jensen grumbled, glaring at Jared again.

“It’s okay, Samantha. Jensen’s just feeling threatened that I’m going to ruin his chance to become popular. Hate to break it to you, Jenny, but the only reason Hartley’s popular is because he plays a sport. A really lame, boring sport, but it’s still a sport. I guess. And just going on one date with him won’t make you cool by association. A lifetime of coaching couldn’t even help you there,” Jared said, laughing at Jensen’s stunned expression.

“Jare-ed!” Jensen yelled, copying his sisters and throwing a handful of chips at Jared before getting to his feet and escaping to his room.

Another silence fell over the room at Jensen’s abrupt departure, this one far more eerie and forced calm.

“Jared,” Jeff began gruffly.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, Dad. ‘Go to your room’,” Jared replied in a similar tone to Jeff’s.

“No, that’s not what I was going to say. Go apologize to Jensen,” Jeff told him.

“What!? No way! If anybody should be…” he quickly trailed off, catching Jeff give him a pointed look. Sighing heavily, he rolled his eyes as he pushed himself back from the table. “All right, fine. I’ll go talk to him. But I can’t guarantee he’ll want to hear my apology,” Jared muttered before heading upstairs.

Once he’d gotten upstairs, Jared stood outside Jensen’s room, more than tempted to ignore what his dad had told him and just go to his room instead.

But then he thought about how miserable Jensen had looked at dinner when he’d badgered his stepbrother until Jensen had finally snapped.

Swallowing thickly, he bit back a wave of guilt that wanted to consume him. He didn’t normally do this sort of thing. Apologize. But Jensen was worth…did. And if Jensen could do it then so could Jared. He wasn’t about to be outdone by Jensen Ackles of all people.

Besides, if they kept at it like this Jensen would end up hating Jared indefinitely, and that was the last thing Jared wanted. Mutual dislike was one thing. Jared could work with that.

And he wanted to keep it that way. The way things had been from the minute he’d met Jensen. Easy. Effortless. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it to himself, if he didn’t reign in his behavior somewhat it was more than likely he’d lose Jensen to somebody like Hartley forever. And there was no way in hell he was letting that happen.

Sighing heavily, he finally knocked on Jensen’s door. And as expected he didn’t hear any sort of response. Instead of knocking again he just walked into his stepbrother’s bedroom.

Jensen was lying on his bed. He slowly turned toward Jared when he felt the bed dip as Jared sat down next to him.

“Jared, what’re you doing here?” he asked, his exhaustion nearly palpable.

“The parentals seem to think I’ve been acting like a jerk to you…”

“When aren’t you?” Jensen mumbled, letting loose a disbelieving laugh.

“My point exactly,” Jared readily agreed, flashing Jensen his all too familiar smirk.

Jensen smiled softly at him. “Thanks, Jared.”

“For what? I didn’t say anything,” Jared insisted.

“You don’t have to. I know you’re sorry. If you weren’t you wouldn’t be here right now,” Jensen said.

“Yeah? Well, could you…?”

“Tell Jeff and Mom you apologized? Sure,” Jensen agreed. “Oh, and one more thing, Jared.”

“I knew that was too easy,” Jared muttered to himself, stopping in Jensen’s doorway and slowly turning around to face Jensen again.

“I might need your help tomorrow. Do you promise to help me?” Jensen asked, raising an eyebrow in Jared’s direction.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Jared readily agreed, relieved that Jensen wasn’t asking him to do whatever it was he wanted right then, and that he’d narrowly escaped having to witness

Jensen reduced to tears of gratitude over his apology. He hated crying in general, but he had the feeling he’d become a shell of his former self if he were to ever see Jensen cry in front of him.

“Thanks, Jared,” Jensen said, giving his stepbrother another smile.

Jared nodded before finally heading to his own room.

**

Later the next afternoon Jensen came barging into Jared’s room unannounced and sat down carefully on the edge of his stepbrother’s unmade bed, turning toward Jared, whose attention was on his computer screen.

Pulling his headphones away from his ears, Jared turned toward Jensen, staring at him expectantly.

“What’s up? Aren’t you supposed to be mid-highlighter stroke or something right now?” Jared demanded, amusement flashing in his eyes as he watched Jensen’s tongue dart nervously out of his mouth as he wet at his lips.

Jensen shook his head. “I’m not…I don’t…Help me!” he exclaimed, getting up from Jared’s bed, grabbing Jared by the arm and dragging him back to his room.

Jared looked around the room in surprise. The usually clean and well-organized room was a disaster area. He turned toward Jensen, pride flooding his features.

“It looks like I’m rubbing off on you, Jensen. I like it,” he said, making himself comfortable by stretching out on Jensen’s bed, which had clothes strewn all over it.

Jensen stood over him, running a hand over his face. “So, um, Jared, do you remember how last night you promised to help me out no matter what? This is what I need your help with,” he said, motioning to all of the clothes tossed haphazardly around the room.

Jared blinked at him in confusion for a moment before dissolving into laughter.

“You want me to help you clean? Yeah, right! Sorry, Jensen, but you picked the wrong Padalecki for this project,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief as he continued to laugh.

“No, I want you to help me pick out an outfit for tonight. You know, for my date with Justin,” Jensen told him.

“Huh?” Jared asked, understanding this line of thinking even less than the one his mind had tried to take him on mere minutes earlier.

“My date with Justin? Remember? You promised, Jared,” Jensen implored.

And there it was. The pleading, hopeful gaze Jared was certain was his very own Kryptonite. Swallowing hard, he met Jensen’s gaze and sighed heavily knowing he couldn’t fight his stepbrother on this, nor did he want to. Not when he could be making Jensen happy.

“Okay, fine. How can I…? I mean, how can I…?” Jared trailed off, looking at his stepbrother helplessly.

“Help?” Jensen suggested, staring at Jared in amusement.

“Yeah, that,” Jared agreed with a nod, unable to prevent himself from visibly shuddering at the idea of doing something for the benefit of someone else. It was a scary thought, being selfless. But if he thought of it in terms of selfishly monopolizing Jensen’s time? Well, that, he could work with. And best of all he wasn’t left with a feeling of ‘doing the right thing’ in the pit of his stomach.

Jensen proceeded to throw all of the clothes he still had in his closet onto the bed, narrowly missing Jared’s head a few times. Several minutes later he turned around, facing Jared with a look of utter hopelessness on his face.

“Jared, I-I have nothing to wear!” Jensen wailed miserably, looking on the verge of frustrated tears as he walked back over to his bed, two shirts fisted in his hands.

Jared’s eyes widened and he got up off Jensen’s bed like a shot as his stepbrother sat down. He sighed heavily, rolling his eyes.

“You’re making this way too complicated, Jen. Just wear your black jeans and that blue button down shirt you have. You know, the one with the green swirls? It really brings out your eyes.”

Jared had been pacing the length of Jensen’s room, running a hand through his hair as he spoke. He stopped abruptly, staring at Jensen warily as the words he’d just uttered hung in the air between them.

Jensen blinked for a moment, his gaze narrowing.

“You’re not just saying all of this so you can laugh at me later when I go out with Justin, are you?” he demanded. “Oh my God! You are, aren’t you? I can’t wear those clothes if they get the Jared Padalecki stamp of approval.”

“Jensen!” Jared yelled, stopping his stepbrother from continuing what he could only assume would be an hour long tirade as per usual of Jensen. “The only reason I suggested you wear that shirt is because Misha told me the same thing while the two of you were dating. Wear the shirt, don’t wear it. I don’t really care.”

“Jared, wait,” Jensen pleaded softly, something suddenly having occurred to him, sighing in relief as Jared stopped from heading back to his own room and instead slowly turned around to face Jensen again.

“Yeah?” Jared asked impatiently, raising an eyebrow in Jensen’s direction as he crossed his arms at his chest.

“You can be really sweet sometimes, you know that?” Jensen whispered.

“Oh, God, here we go,” Jared muttered, running a hand over his face before turning an inquisitive look on his stepbrother.

“I’m serious. I just, I guess I don’t understand why you can’t act like this all the time with me?” Jensen asked, his confusion evident in his features.

Jared snorted, shaking his head. “What? Act like we’re related or something? Sorry, bro, but you know better than anyone that if I started doing that I’d tank my cool guy rep,” he said, smirking as he watched with satisfaction as Jensen struggled to come up with a response.

As he made his way out into the hallway, headed back to his own room, Jared drew up short as Jensen’s voice filled his ears.

“You’re right. I must’ve lost my mind there for a minute, Jared. Sorry, I won’t let it happen again. And don’t you mean stepbrother?” Jensen demanded, almost seeming to be waiting for Jared to contradict him.

When Jared didn’t say anything, Jensen sighed, a mixture of fondness and exasperation dancing in his eyes. Along with something else Jared couldn’t quite identify. But if he had to guess he would’ve said it was hunger. The same feeling that was flaring deep within him.

The two of them were flirting with something not fully in their control. And Jared personally couldn’t wait to see where it led them.

**

That evening, Jensen paced back and forth in front of the front door, doing his best not to let his stepbrother’s comments get to him as he waited for Justin.

“I never pegged Hartley for the fashionably late type. Interesting. Then again, he does play one of the slower ball games out there. You think that’s why he’s late? Poor performance?” Jared demanded, his eyes sparking in challenge as he smirked in Jensen’s direction.

Despite his instincts screaming at him not too, Jensen walked over to where his stepbrother lay stretched out in his recliner, Jared looking up at him from his vantage point with mild interest, waiting to see what Jensen would do next.

“Shut up!” Jensen snarled as he resisted the urge to lunge at his stepbrother and start tugging at Jared’s hair and his clothing, until the two of them were rolling around on the living room floor just like they had been the previous night when they’d literally been fighting over the remote. But Jensen knew that if they started a fight like that he wouldn’t be ready in time for his date with Justin.

Both he and Jared looked toward the door when they heard a car honk out in the Ackles-Padalecki driveway. And before Jensen was fully aware of what was happening, his stepbrother had slammed the lever on his recliner down so he could get to his feet.

Protesting, Jensen reached out, grabbing at Jared’s shoulder in an attempt to slow his progress toward the front door.

“Jare-ed!” he roared, the two of them nearly wiping out on the carpeted living room floor. But despite his best efforts to stop Jared from reaching the door before him, Jensen growled in frustration when Jared’s hand reached the door knob.

“Sorry, Jen, but it’d be very impolite if somebody from the family didn’t check this guy out. And well, I’m doing Samantha and Dad a favor so they don’t have to do it themselves,” Jared told Jensen, laughing as he yanked open the door and stepped out onto the porch.

“You’re such a friggin’ jerk!” Jensen exclaimed heatedly, glaring at his stepbrother as Jared flung his arm over Jensen’s shoulders as they made their way down the porch steps together.

He struggled to get away from Jared’s touch, but Jared just pulled Jensen in even closer.

“Hartley’s obviously a real keeper. Whatever the hell happened to picking you up at the front door?” Jared demanded in a throaty whisper, making a show of overtly waving to Justin without letting go of his hold on Jensen.

“Get off me!” Jensen said, glaring at Jared as he elbowed his stepbrother in the gut. Jared, immediately relinquishing his hold, held up his hands in a defenseless manner before stuffing them in his jeans pockets.

Jensen rolled his eyes. “Thank you!” he snapped before walking over to Justin’s car and yanking open the passenger side door.

“You’re welcome, Princess!” Jared retorted, making an overt gesture of bowing in Jensen’s direction before walking back toward the house.

Jensen shook his head, a look of annoyance cutting across his features. “I hate you!” he yelled back without much of his regular venom dripping from his voice.

“Yeah, I know, sweetheart. Have fun!” Jared replied sarcastically from his vantage point on the porch.

Jensen looked at him in surprise, his mouth twitching, as if he were unsure whether he wanted to smile or not before he finally slid into the passenger seat of Justin’s car, shutting the door behind him.

Turning toward Justin, he gave the other boy an apologetic smile.

“I’m sorry about him,” he said of Jared, nodding in the direction of the house.

“Don’t worry about it. I have overprotective siblings too,” Justin replied with a smile, draping his arm over the back of Jensen’s seat as he backed out of the Ackles-Padalecki driveway.

“Oh, trust me, it’s not in Jared’s nature to be protective over me. He just acts like that because he knows it annoys me,” Jensen insisted.

“He knows how to push your buttons,” Justin said, amusement flashing in his eyes.

“Yeah,” Jensen muttered. His gaze softened as he caught Justin’s eye. “So, where are we going?” he finally asked.

“Out for pizza,” Justin replied simply as if the answer were obvious. And any thought of the two of them ending up huddled close together in a romantic French bistro sharing Brioche Perdue quickly died in a matter of seconds, as Jensen swallowed back his disappointment.

It wasn’t Justin’s fault they lived in a small town outside Austin, Texas. And the best they could expect for good cuisine consisted of a mix of tacos, steak and sweet tea.

“Sounds… perfect,” Jensen finally choked out, giving Justin a strained smile. Justin, not sensing anything amiss, grinned broadly at Jensen.

**
A FEW WEEKS LATER…

Jensen sat in the cafeteria during lunch one afternoon, doing his best not to appear bored out of his mind as Justin talked baseball with one of his teammates Tom Welling.

His heart leapt when he saw Genevieve making her way toward him. At least that’s what he’d assumed when he saw her. But his hope quickly vanished when he realized she hadn’t been looking for him, but for her partner on their latest English assignment, Felicia Day.

Sighing heavily, he reluctantly returned his attention to the conversation Justin and Tom were having. Jared was right. Baseball is… His thoughts quickly trailed off when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

“I don’t mean to interrupt here, boys, but can I borrow my stepbrother for a minute?” Jared asked, his hand resting on Jensen’s shoulder. Instead of shrugging off Jared’s touch like he would’ve done normally, Jensen welcomed the warm reassurance that his stepbrother had unexpectedly come to his rescue.

Justin shrugged indifferently. “Whatever, man. Jensen, he’s your stepbrother. It’s your call,” he said, giving Jensen a brief smile.

“Guess I’ll see you later,” Jensen readily replied, flashing Justin a smile of his own before getting to his feet and following Jared as his stepbrother led him out of the cafeteria. “Okay, I don’t know what that was for, but thank you,” he murmured, doing his best not to melt into the touch as Jared flung his arm over Jensen’s shoulders.

Jared snorted. “I don’t know what you’re thanking me for, Jen. I was just gonna talk to you about Tony Parker.”

Jensen’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Who’s Tony Parker? Your newest boyfriend?”

Jared laughed aloud at Jensen’s words. “No. Tony Parker is the Spurs point guard. It was a joke, Jensen.”

“Oh, yeah, right. I knew that,” Jensen nodded in agreement as he realized belatedly that his stepbrother had saved him from a conversation about baseball only to pretend to strike up a conversation with him about basketball.

“Yeah, sure you did,” Jared agreed, shaking his head as he stared at Jensen in amusement.

Jensen swallowed thickly, his embarrassment flushing his cheeks. A devious glint suddenly flashed in his eyes as he thought of a way to pull the rug out from underneath Jared’s surefootedness.

“Hey, Jared? How is Stephen? You know, your on-again, off-again boyfriend? Gen tells me you two are hot and heavy right now,” he said, watching with mild satisfaction as Jared’s arm slipped away from his shoulders and he maneuvered his body until he was standing right in front of Jensen, preventing their trek through the hallways from going any further.

“I don’t know where Genevieve’s getting her information, but Stephen and I aren’t together. And we haven’t been for a while. There’s only so much of ‘Jarebear, please? Please, Jarebear? Jarebear, can’t we…?’ I could stomach before I became nauseous,” Jared said, making a violent gagging noise at the mention of his ex-boyfriend Stephen Amell.

Jensen’s eyes widened and a look of revulsion cut across his features the longer his stepbrother continued to talk.

“What? You think I want to hear this? You’re making me sick just talking about it,” he said.

Jared smirked at him, throwing his arm over Jensen’s shoulders again.

“Of course it makes you sick. Why do you think I brought up the nickname thing to begin with?”

Jensen glowered at him, ignoring the fact that Jared was the one who was walking him to class instead of Justin, who was supposedly Jensen’s boyfriend by this point.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you’re an insensitive jerk who obviously doesn’t care enough about his boyfriend to walk him to class?” he demanded, his anger over Justin’s lack of interest in what he did showing itself.

It wasn’t until Jared raised a critical eyebrow in his direction that Jensen realized what it was that he’d said.

“Jen? You want to just cut class with me today?”

Jensen’s eyes widened in surprise at Jared’s words. He was on the verge of telling his stepbrother ‘no’ when he suddenly remembered a conversation he’d had with Jared awhile back about taking more risks. About living dangerously. And he was tired of doing things because they were expected of him. It was time for a change. Time for him to do something more unexpected (outside of dating the star player on the baseball team of course). And who better to help him with that than Mr. Underachiever himself, Jared Padalecki?

“All right. I’m in,” he agreed hurriedly before he could lose his nerve.

Jared smirked at him. “Awesome. You won’t be sorry, Ackles,” he insisted as he pushed Jensen in the direction of the entrance of the high school, and by extension, the parking lot.

“Oh, I’m sure I will be,” Jensen muttered as he shook his head, unable to prevent the fond, slightly exasperated smile that graced his features as he looked at his stepbrother.

**

Jensen’s face drained of color and he shook his head profusely in protest when Jared realized he had to run back into the locker room to grab his dirty uniform and gym clothes so they could get washed in time for the next day’s use.

“No. Hell, no. You’re not leaving me alone out here in your car in the middle of the very public school parking lot where a number of students or faculty members could see me!” Jensen hissed, his anger over the situation quickly dissipating as the paranoia of being caught and dragged off to detention set in.

“Would you relax!? The only way you’ll get caught is if you act like you’re doing something that seems wrong,” Jared retorted, rolling his eyes.

“But I am!” Jensen yelped. “Cutting class is wrong!”

Jared breathed deeply through his nose, running a hand over his face.

“Jensen, explain something to me then, huh?” He waited for Jensen to nod readily before continuing. “If you didn’t want to do this with me why agree to it at all!?” he demanded, his voice growing louder the longer he spoke, his frustration apparent.

Jensen flinched, giving Jared a weak smile. “Popularity?” he finally mumbled after a lengthy silence.

Muttering something inaudible under his breath, Jared rolled his eyes again. “Whatever,” he grumbled, not hiding his annoyance toward his stepsibling. “Listen, I’ll be right back. Try not to do anything stupid while I’m gone,” he instructed, ignoring Jensen’s attempts at verbal jabs as he climbed from the car and headed back inside the school.

Once he reached the locker room, Jared yanked open his locker and tossed all of his dirty clothes into his gym bag.

After he zipped up his bag he slung it over his shoulder and was heading for the exit when he heard a deep moan and a dull thud against the lockers.

Quickly diving back behind the set of lockers he’d been in front of, Jared waited with baited breath for whoever was on the other side of the lockers to come up for air.

When they did, Jared felt his stomach drop in horror, a wave of anger swelling inside him as he gritted his teeth.

“Justin,” Tom Welling moaned, panting heavily as his head hit the row of lockers behind him again. “What if… What if Jensen finds us?” he asked hesitantly.

Jared listened as Justin, Jensen’s Justin his mind supplied unhelpfully, snorted in disgust at the question. “Are you kidding me? Jensen wouldn’t be caught dead in here. He hates strenuous activity.”

Jared nearly laughed aloud at Justin’s weak effort to convince Tom they wouldn’t get caught. And it left his heart racing knowing that Justin didn’t know Jensen as well as he did. Jensen didn’t mind a little strenuous activity now and again. Jared knew that Jensen’s one true passion was dancing. And as much crap as he’d given his stepbrother upon discovering Jensen’s hidden talent, Jared knew that dancing was fucking hard. Competitive dancing, the kind Jensen truly enjoyed, was at least.

Not that that was any surprise or anything. The fact that Jensen enjoyed a good competition. Jared was hardwired the same way when it came to basketball. Or hell, trying to come out on top whenever he and Jensen argued.

But Justin, Justin only knew the studious version of Jensen. Not the spitfire that Jared had fallen…

Justin, the jackass, deserved a serious beat down for sneaking around behind Jensen’s back like this. For cheating on him. Because if Jared had to hazard a guess it would be that Jensen had assumed his relationship with Justin was mutually exclusive. But Justin it seemed hadn’t been clued into the fact that Jensen felt that way. And that thought left Jared feeling twisted inside for a reason he couldn’t quite identify. But in that moment he did know he was pissed and refused to stay silent a second longer.

Loudly clearing his throat, Jared rounded the row of lockers only to see Justin and Tom fly apart upon being discovered.

Tom, looking a mixture of aroused, flushed and guilty avoided Jared’s eye contact as he glared at the couple. Justin on the other hand leered at Jared, clapping him on the shoulder in a false show of friendship.

“Easy, Tom. Jared won’t rat us out will you, Jay?” Justin asked, obviously expecting a certain answer, ignoring Tom as the other boy hastily made a beeline for the exit. “I mean, we’re essentially the same kind of guy, aren’t we, Jared? It gets boring going back to the same old relationship day in and day out, doesn’t it? We have to keep things interesting. And Jensen certainly has no idea how to do that, right? I mean, you know. You live with the guy. Boring doesn’t even begin to cover it really,” he said, his mouth twisting into a smirk.

All Jared could see in that moment was red. But as tempted as he was just to snap, release all of his anger onto Justin like he wanted to for being the duplicitous piece of shit he’d always thought Jensen’s boyfriend was, one thing stopped him. Jensen. He had to get back to Jensen.

“Yeah, right,” he replied, laughing weakly. As he made his way toward the exit again, he stopped and turned back toward Justin. “So, what am I supposed to tell Jensen?”

“You’ll think of something. Guys like us always do,” Justin promised, winking at Jared.

**

Ignoring Jensen’s confused protests, Jared drove them home. The minute he got into the house, he continued to ignore Jensen’s attempts to get him to talk, and instead ran up to his room before slamming the door behind him.

He clamped his jaw tightly shut and began pacing the length of his room, glaring at the door when he heard Jensen knocking. He wasn’t sure why his stepbrother didn’t just come into the room as per their usual routine when it came to everything else, but the knot in his stomach loosened slightly when Jensen finally left him alone.

About an hour later, he heard the girls coming up the stairs and he flung his bedroom door open, grabbed onto Sophia’s arm and pulled her into his room.

“What the hell, Jared!? Thanks a lot, jerk. You completely jacked my shirt!” Sophia grumbled, doing her best to straighten the wrinkles Jared had put in her shirt by grabbing her so forcefully.

“I can’t… Dammit, Soph, I can’t believe he… God, I’m gonna kill him!” Jared snarled, sitting down heavily onto his bed, his chest heaving in anger.

Sophia’s eyes widened. “All right, Jay. Let’s hear it. What’re you and Jensen fighting about now that’s got you so upset?”

Jared shook his head in confusion. “What? No, Jensen and I aren’t fighting. I mean, no more than usual. It’s just… that Justin guy? Turns out he’s a total douchebag. He’s cheating on Jensen. And I don’t… I don’t know how to tell Jen about it. The whole thing’s driving me crazy. Jensen’s not gonna believe me. Of course he won’t. He has no reason to. But if I don’t tell him, I’m as bad as Justin really is. Basically, I’m screwed.”

“No,” Sophia whispered, her disbelief flooding her features.

“Trust me, I am,” Jared insisted.

“No, I mean, I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Jared, you’re actually exhibiting genuine concern. For Jensen. You do care about him, huh?” Sophia asked, a smirk that rivaled her older brother’s dancing on her lips.

“What the hell? No! Take it back, Sophia,” Jared demanded, his eyes widening from the panic that was setting in.

“I can’t do that, Jay. I mean, it’s kind of obvious once you know to look for it,” Sophia told him.

“No, no, no. This can’t be happening,” Jared moaned, lying back heavily onto his bed.

“Sorry, bro, I can’t change the truth,” Sophia replied, patting his leg. “So what’re you going to do about Justin?”

“I can’t kill him, can I?” Jared grumbled bitterly.

“As tempting as that may seem right now, no you can’t, Jared,” Sophia said.

“Right,” Jared agreed, running a hand over his face. “Well, in that case I’m just going to let it play out. Jensen’s a…a smart guy. He’ll figure it out soon enough,” he said, nearly choking on the compliment he gave Jensen.

Sophia’s eyes danced in amusement. “Okay then, well, if you need to freak out at me some more I’ll be in my room,” she said.

“I’m not freaking out. That’s Jen’s territory, remember?” Jared retorted, throwing one of his shoes at the door as his sister left his room.

**

Later that night Jensen sat on the couch in the living room while Jared sat in his recliner, watching a Spurs game.

Jensen had been texting Justin for close to forty five minutes with no answer. He felt himself growing angrier the longer he went without getting a response.

He looked over at Jared when he saw his stepbrother open his mouth for what seemed like the twentieth time in the past two minutes. He raised an eyebrow in Jared’s direction, expecting Jared to finally say something.

“What? What is it?” he encouraged, waiting for the routine insult.

“Nothing,” Jared immediately replied, averting his gaze before clamming up again.

“Really, Jared? Nothing? I’m calling bullshit. You’ve been on the verge of telling me something all night. What’s going on?” Jensen insisted.

“Nothing!” Jared snapped, his gaze steely as he glared at the TV.

Jensen rolled his eyes, huffing out an annoyed breath. “Whatever. Keep your secrets,” he grumbled, glaring at his silent phone one more time before tossing it to the end of the couch, doing his best to ignore it.

The minute a commercial came on, Jensen got to his feet and stood in front of Jared, holding his hand out for the remote. “All right, Jared. It’s eight o’clock. Hand it over.”

“What? Like hell! I’m in the middle of watching a game!” Jared exclaimed, shooting Jensen an incredulous look.

Jensen reached out, grabbed the end of the remote and tried to pull it out of his stepbrother’s hands. “Give. It. To. Me. Mom and Jeff said I could watch TV at eight!”

After their last fight over the remote Samantha and Jeff had given the boys allotted TV watching time so they could avoid situations like this.

Jared held tight to his end of the remote, and Jensen did his best to keep his footing so he wouldn’t land either on the floor, minus the remote, or much worse, in Jared’s lap.

“No way! You’ll get your turn after the game’s over,” Jared told him with a grunt, the two of them landing on the floor, keeping their death grips on the remote. “Besides, you just want to watch DVR’d crap anyway. Dancing With The Stars? Seriously, who watches that shit?”

“I do, Jared. You know I like to get ideas for competitions!” Jensen yelled at him, his own breathing labored the longer they rolled around on the floor, each of them doing their best to rip the controls away from one another.

Jared laughed. “Right. More like you just want the chance to drool over Derek Hough in tight fitting clothing!” he retorted.

“What? I do not!” Jensen insisted, his cheeks reddened from the physical exertion of rolling around on the floor with Jared, flushed even more thanks to his stepbrother’s comments.

“You totally do,” Jared shot back, letting out a whoop of triumph after he successfully grabbed the remote away from Jensen. He settled back into his recliner, giving Jensen a smug smile as the other boy sat back down on the couch again. Jensen scowled at him, crossing his arms angrily at his chest.

They looked up in surprise when they heard someone clear their throat loudly behind them. Shifting his position on the couch, Jensen saw Jeff and his mom standing behind him, matching looks of disapproval on their faces. Though he had to admit Jeff looked a bit more amused than his mom did. He glanced over at Jared and watched silently as his stepbrother finally muted the television and turned his attention toward their parents.

“This doesn’t look good, does it, Jeff?” Samantha asked.

“No, it really doesn’t. And to think we were going out of town for the long weekend. We’d even talked about taking the girls with us. Guess we will have to call Kim Rhodes to come babysit after all,” Jeff replied.

“What!?” Jensen yelped in indignation. “Mom, come on! I’ve been babysitting other people’s kids since I was Danni’s age. I can take care of myself,” he insisted angrily.

“You can’t be serious, Dad. I don’t need someone to come “checkup” on me. I’m a grown man,” Jared said.

“You’re a man?” Jensen demanded with a disbelieving snort. Jared sneered at him.

“I’m very serious, Jared. Remember the last time we left you alone? You threw a party, locked you and your stepbrother in the basement, Sophia and Danneel hid in their room while Sandy went next door to the Corteses’ so they could help her call the police just to clear the place out! The house was trashed, Jared. Any of this coming back to you?” Jeff asked, his voice rising in volume the longer he spoke.

“Oh, yeah,” Jared nodded as he remembered that the party his dad was talking about had been the one where he and Stephen had hooked up for the first time. Prior to him getting himself and Jensen locked in their parents’ basement bedroom of course. He smirked at the memory. “Good times.”

“Unbelievable,” Jeff muttered. He looked toward Samantha for help.

“There’s also the fact that the two of you were fighting over the remote not even two minutes ago, boys,” she scolded softly.

Jensen watched with growing unease as Jared suddenly launched himself from his recliner to sit next to him. He looked over at his stepbrother with a mixture of disgust and confusion. He really couldn’t follow Jared’s logic sometimes.

“If I have a cracked rib or a concussion later I call dibs on Jeff first so I can sue your ass for bodily harm,” he grumbled, giving Jared a wary smile when Jared handed over the remote.

Jared pulled him impossibly closer, suddenly kissing the side of Jensen’s head. “Better?” he murmured into Jensen’s ear before turning a shit eating grin on their parents.

Despite everything in him screaming to move away from Jared’s personal space as fast as possible, Jensen couldn’t deny that he felt comfortable leaning into his stepbrother’s warmth like this.

Sighing heavily, he closed his eyes in resignation knowing Jared had won. Jared always won and it was infuriating. “Mom, come on. Jared and I can play nice for a few days. I promise there won’t be any parties. And the fighting will be minimal. Nothing physical.”

Jared turned toward him, a frown on his face. “You can suck the fun out of anything, can’t you, Ackles?”

“Be glad, Jared. Thankful. If Jensen had refused to stay with you we would’ve taken the two of you with us instead of the girls. And we would’ve taken you to all those fun museums and sightseeing tourist traps the both of you love so much,” Jeff said, a smirk of his own making a brief appearance.

Jensen swallowed hard, the nausea he’d successfully been keeping at bay suddenly resurfacing in the pit of his stomach at the thought of going on a vacation with Jared. No matter how brief it would’ve been it would’ve been all nine circles of hell at once. He was sure of it.

Sighing heavily, he ran a hand over his face. “So, uh, we’re good here then?” he asked their parents.

Samantha reached out, her touch gentle as she caressed his head in a soothing manner.

“Yeah, honey, we’re fine. If you think you boys can behave yourselves, Jeff and I will leave you home alone for the weekend,” she promised, giving both Jensen and Jared a soft smile.

“Awesome!” Jared crowed happily, clambering back over to his recliner. “All right, Jenny, bring on the boredom tutu fest. I want to see you get your fangirl on. You know, spazzing over Hough’s newest choreography. Oh, wait, no, I meant his ass,” he said crudely, leering at Jensen.

“Shut up,” Jensen grumbled, cueing up the DVR, doing his best to will away the blush flooding his features.

**
THURSDAY (DAY 1)…

Their spring break officially started that Thursday and would continue until the following Thursday when they would be expected to go back to class. And their parents had left with Danni, Sophia and Sandy a little over an hour ago, promising to be back late Sunday afternoon.

Jensen had gotten up an hour later than he normally did for school. He realized he could get used to this sleeping in thing. It was nice feeling well-rested. And knowing that he could take as long as he wanted in the bathroom was a definite mood lifter as well.

Jared, he knew, wouldn’t wake up until at least noon. So when he stood in front of the bathroom sink brushing his teeth, he looked up in surprised annoyance to see Jared, bare feet and bare chested, gray sweat pants riding low on his hips, make his way into the bathroom.

“What the hell?” he mumbled over his toothbrush before leaning over the sink to spit.

Letting out a mammoth yawn and scratching at the back of his head, making his disheveled hair look even messier, Jared reached out, poking Jensen in the side before stopping in front of the toilet.

Jensen yelped at the contact, glaring at his stepbrother, clearing his throat loudly. When that got no response, he decided to vocalize his outrage at being interrupted.

“Uh, excuse me? I was here first, Jared! I need to shower!”

Jared’s eyes slowly rolled over to where Jensen still stood in front of the sink, a lazy smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Last I checked nobody’s stopping ya, Jensen. Strip,” he said, motioning toward Jensen, who was still fully clothed, challenge in his expression as he began relieving himself.

Jensen’s mouth dropped open in shock at Jared’s blatant lack of decorum. But in retrospect he shouldn’t have been surprised. This was Jared after all.

“What? You don’t think I’ll do it, is that it?” Jensen snapped, angrily tugging his t-shirt up over his head and tossing it to the bathroom floor. He refused to let Jared get to him.
Just because their family was out of town didn’t mean he had to let Jared walk all over him. He could be mature about this. Well, slightly less immature anyway.

He shoved his sweat pants down past his legs, stepping out of them, and shoving them over in the corner with his foot where his t-shirt lay crumpled on the floor.

Jared just openly stared at him, completely forgetting what little higher brain function he had that early in the morning. Jensen was fucking gorgeous what with his un-styled hair, bright green eyes, freckles just everywhere. And those bowlegs of his. Damn. Jared had enough fantasizing material here in this moment to last him a solid month if need be. And slowly realizing that ‘no’, he hadn’t figured Jensen would actually go through with it, made the whole thing ten times hotter.

“What?” Jensen snarled again, glaring at Jared.

Clearing his throat, Jared ducked his head to hide the softening of his eyes as he pulled up his pants.

“You just… you surprise me sometimes, Jensen,” he replied before making his way toward the sink to wash his hands.

“Oh,” Jensen murmured, giving Jared an apologetic smile as he climbed into the shower. He quickly shimmied out of his underwear and carefully pulled back the shower curtain so his stepbrother wouldn’t see anything Jensen didn’t want him to, before tossing the boxer briefs onto the bathroom floor and turning on the water. “Jay? You still in here?” he called, sighing softly in contentment as the warm water began heating up even more and his muscles relaxed even further, the stress from his shortened week at school sliding off him the longer he stood under the spray.

“Dammit. I knew I was forgetting something,” Jared grumbled, stepping back into the bathroom.

“Jared? Jared, what’re you doing?” Jensen called out warily. A few seconds later he heard the toilet flush and without warning the water shooting from the showerhead turned ice cold. “Jare-ed!”

“Mornin’, Jensen,” Jared drawled sleepily through his laughter as he made his way back toward his bedroom.

**

Later that night Jensen stood in front of his bedroom mirror fixing his hair when Jared came into his room, unannounced of course, and made himself comfortable on Jensen’s bed.

“What’s with the Ken doll impersonation there, Jensen?” Jared asked, nodding in the direction of Jensen’s outfit, which consisted of a black short sleeved dress shirt and khakis. He raised an eyebrow as he watched Jensen put on cologne.

Jensen rolled his eyes. “If you must know Justin’s picking me up in about twenty minutes. He’s taking me to dinner tonight. So, I’m sorry, Jared. Looks like you’ll have to fend for yourself for one night,” he said, chuckling.

Jared’s hand curled into a fist at Jensen’s mention of Justin. “So, uh, did he ever tell you why he didn’t get back to you the other night?” he asked carefully, remembering how upset Jensen had been when Justin didn’t reply to any of Jensen’s texts.

“Yeah, he said he was sorry but he’d forgotten that he and Tom had some last minute studying to do for finals before spring break,” Jensen explained.

Jared swallowed hard, his body trembling in anger. “Really? Finals? With Tom. Huh,” he replied, struggling to keep his voice level and soft spoken.

“Yeah. What’s with you tonight, Jared? You’re acting really weird,” Jensen muttered.

Jared ran a hand roughly through his hair. “Right. I’m the one acting weird. Jensen, I’ve got a couple questions for ya.”

“Okay,” Jensen agreed hesitantly.

“If Justin was studying for finals like he said he was, why’d he ask for Tom’s help? Why not yours? Not only are you the smartest guy in our grade, but you’re his boyfriend, Jensen!” Jared exclaimed, desperate for Jensen to see what he was trying to tell him so Jared wouldn’t have to confess what he’d seen and be the one responsible for breaking Jensen’s heart.

Jensen shrugged, ignoring Jared’s compliment. “I dunno. They just have the same schedules. And neither of them will really be able to study in the next few weeks what with their games and everything. It just… this made the most sense.”

“For who!?” Jared exploded, getting up off of Jensen’s bed, quickly advancing on his stepbrother until he was mere inches from Jensen.

Jensen swallowed hard, his eyes widening in surprise at Jared’s overreaction to what he’d said.

Quickly realizing that he was scaring Jensen, Jared backed up out of his stepbrother’s personal space, resignation washing over him as he slowly came to terms with the fact that he needed to tell Jensen the truth. As much as he didn’t want to.

“What’s going on, Jared? You’re not…I mean, since when are you so invested in my personal life?” Jensen asked.

Choking back his laughter, Jared breathed heavily through his nose, unable to believe that this had become his life. That he wanted to protect Jensen no matter the cost. Even if that meant he had to be honest with him.

“Jensen, you remember…remember the day we were cutting class and I had to run back into the locker room for my stuff? Justin was there. And he wasn’t alone. Tom was with him. And they… Dammit, Jen. They were kissing.”

Without warning Jensen got back into Jared’s personal space, shaking his head as a look of disgust flooded his features.

“You just…you have no limit do you? The lengths you’ll go to make sure I’m miserable. Why’re you lying to me? You and I both know Justin loves me. He’d never do something like what you’re suggesting,” Jensen insisted, shoving Jared hard in the chest until he landed on Jensen’s bed.

Jared did his best to twist his mouth into a smirk, raising an eyebrow in Jensen’s direction.

“When it comes to making your life a living hell I am the master, huh? Oh, and look at that. You’re officially late to meet your perfect boyfriend,” he said, unable to prevent himself from laughing.

Jensen snorted, his hand coming up and covering his stepbrother’s face before he shoved Jared backward until Jared was sprawled out on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“Try and have some fun while I’m gone, huh? But not the scheming, ‘let’s prank Jensen’ kind of fun, okay?” Jensen asked, his gaze softening as his eyes locked with Jared’s.

Jared’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he nodded at Jensen. “Yeah, sure, Jen,” he agreed, watching as Jensen left the room.

**
FRIDAY (DAY 2)…

Later the next afternoon Jared walked into Jensen’s room, making himself comfortable in Jensen’s desk chair since Jensen had several of his textbooks spread out on his bed around him as he studied.

“Look, Jensen, I wanted to… I mean, I came in here to tell you… What I’m trying to say is…” Jared began several false starts before trailing off.

“I’m sorry?” Jensen asked, raising an eyebrow in Jared’s direction. The thing was Jared wasn’t sorry for what he’d said to Jensen the night before. It was the most honest he’d ever been with someone and Jensen had immediately assumed Jared was lying just because he didn’t like what he was hearing.

Sighing heavily, Jared realized the honesty thing wasn’t working for him, so he fell back into his comfort zone. Lying to make everything between him and Jensen go back to their version of a normal dysfunctional relationship.

“Jensen, the truth is I’m jealous, all right? I miss Stephen and I-I want what you have with Justin,” he said, the words tasting like bile as he spoke them yet feeling comforted by the familiarity of dishonesty flooding him, making the words nothing more than a stream of babble.

“Jay, if you felt that way why didn’t you just tell me?” Jensen asked softly, understanding for his stepbrother’s overreaction from the day before flooding his features.

Jared shrugged. “You know me and feelings, Jen. Anyway, you hungry? I’m starved. I was gonna make lunch,” he offered.

“Yeah? I’ll help,” Jensen said, getting to his feet, giving his stepbrother a small smile as he followed Jared out of his bedroom and toward the kitchen.

**

The two of them stood in the kitchen, a spread for nachos out on the counter.

“This was a good idea, Jared,” Jensen murmured as he poured a liberal amount of shredded cheese onto tortilla chips.

“Of course it was. It was my idea,” Jared replied, giving Jensen a smug smile.

Jensen rolled his eyes, snorting in amusement as he shook his head. “Whatever you say, Jared.”

“So, uh, how was last night? Aside from his inability to be a gentleman and greet you at the door, and the fact he kept you out past your curfew Justin’s gotta have some redeeming quality, right? I mean, for you to still be dating him,” Jared said, his eyes flitting over Jensen’s features, grabbing at the guacamole jar in between them.

“Relax, Jared. Your jealousy is showing,” Jensen told him pointedly.

Jared drew in a sharp breath. Jensen had finally clued in to his…his feelings. And then just as suddenly reality crashed down around him as he realized Jensen was referring to their earlier conversation when he’d led Jensen to believe that he was jealous, not of Justin for being the one who was with Jensen, but for the fact Jensen was in a relationship at all.

'Way to screw yourself over there, Padalecki.' He thought to himself bitterly. Sighing inaudibly, he grabbed the container of salsa, having finished with the guacamole. Just as he was about to put a generous helping of it on his plate, to join the rest of the delicious, somewhat congealing mess, he decided to change tactics.

Smirking, he lifted the nearly full bottle of salsa above his stepbrother’s head and watched it come spilling out over Jensen’s hair, face, neck and shoulders.

“Jare-ed! Oh, you’re going down,” Jensen snarled, grabbing a handful of sour cream and spreading it all over Jared’s face, making sure to get some in his stepbrother’s hair too.

Jared raised an eyebrow in Jensen’s direction, feeling like his stepbrother had admirably retaliated.

“Here, Jensen. You’re missing a little something there,” he replied, grabbing the bag of shredded cheese and sprinkling some on top of Jensen’s head. He smirked again, holding his breath as he waited for Jensen’s next move.

“Really mature, Jared,” Jensen spat, grabbing the nachos on his plate and dumping the Mexican style food over Jared’s head. He laughed aloud watching Jared wipe at his face with his hand, the uneaten food falling to the floor.

“I’m going down, huh? Well, in that case, Jen, I’m taking you with me,” Jared insisted, pulling Jensen closer by the front of his shirt. Jensen pushed at his shoulders, trying to get Jared to let go of the hold he had on him. But with the floor being so slippery with the spilled food, the two boys inevitably lost their footing and crashed to the floor instead.

Jared hovered over Jensen, their breathing labored. He swallowed hard, waiting for Jensen to start yelling again and shoving at him to move.

But Jensen surprised him, letting loose a winded bark of laughter. “You should see yourself, Jay. You look ridiculous,” he murmured, reaching out and gently removing a clump of sour cream that’d slowly begun dripping into Jared’s eye.

“Me? What about you? You’re supposed to be a dancer. Where’s all that grace and poise when you need it, Jensen?” Jared teased huskily.

“Shut up,” Jensen retorted softly, his gaze warm as he looked at his stepbrother, no real heat behind his words.

“Dammit. Looks like we’ve already broken one of your precious rules you swore to Samantha and Dad we wouldn’t break,” Jared said.

“Yeah, what’s that?” Jensen asked, searching his memory for what Jared was referring to.

“No physical fighting, remember?” Jared reminded him, leaning forward, his chest tightening pleasantly as he watched Jensen lick at his lips.

“Oh, yeah, right,” Jensen said, huffing out a laugh, his eyes dancing at the memory. The grip he had on Jared’s shoulders intensified as he pulled his stepbrother forward.

Biting back a moan of pleasure Jared leaned impossibly closer. Jensen’s mouth was parted slightly, his head swimming, a jumble of thoughts as his vibrant green eyes grew dark and hooded.

“Jensen,” Jared growled, his eyes fluttering closed, feeling Jensen’s shallow breathing skate over his skin.

“Jared,” Jensen replied in kind, reaching out, his hand cupping Jared’s face as Jared’s lips ghosted against his mouth. “Jared, please,” he begged softly.

Jared’s eyes flew open as Jensen’s voice finally registered. He couldn’t do this. Not now. Not when Jensen was still seeing someone else. As badly as he may want to he wouldn’t put either of them in that position. He refused to become another version of Jensen’s douche of a boyfriend.

He reluctantly pulled back, rolling off of Jensen. He briefly wondered if he should tell Jensen why he’d stopped. Deciding against it, he instead chose to ignore everything all together.

“Listen, Jensen, I’m still starving. If you hurry and get cleaned up I guess I could take you with me to get some food,” he grumbled, getting to his feet.

Jensen rolled his eyes. “You’re so thoughtful.”

“Yeah, well, it’s part of my charm,” Jared shot back, ignoring Jensen’s outstretched arm as his stepbrother tried to get him to help him to his feet.**

After they’d cleaned up, Jared convinced Jensen that he wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant so they could get their nachos fix. Once they’d been seated and ordered their food at Mariana’s, Jensen looked at Jared, fully appreciating the fact his stepbrother had been the one to initiate the two of them going out in public.

He wanted to discuss what had almost transpired between them in the kitchen. And the fact that they were in a public place gave Jensen hope that Jared wouldn’t clam up about it like he had at home.

“Jared, I was hoping we could talk?” he began, but was immediately cut off by Jared interrupting him.

“There’s nothing to talk about, Jensen. You have a boyfriend. And nothing happened, all right? We stopped it before it could get that far,” Jared insisted, glaring at Jensen.

Jensen nodded, swallowing thickly as the two of them fell into a strained silence for the rest of the meal. When they’d finished eating Jensen cleared his throat, meeting Jared’s gaze.

“I’ve gotta go to the bathroom. Meet you back here?” he asked his stepbrother, motioning around at the booth they sat in.

“Sure. Take your time, Jen,” Jared muttered, frowning for a moment at the check the waitress had brought to their table.

“You need some help there, Jay?” Jensen asked, his mouth curling in amusement.

“What? Oh, no, I got this, Jensen. My idea. I don’t mind paying. Sometimes,” Jared said, winking at Jensen. “Don’t tell the girls,” he continued, referring to their sisters.

Jensen laughed before heading back towards the bathrooms. He suddenly drew up short, gasping softly as the people in a booth a few rows down from where he and Jared were seated, came into view. Justin was sitting in the booth next to Tom Welling and they were kissing.

Feeling as if he were in an unexplainable nightmare Jensen slowly turned around and made his way back over to Jared. Jared had pulled out his phone in Jensen’s absence and was texting Misha about their upcoming game. Engrossed in his conversation with his best friend he didn’t look up when Jensen approached.

“Jared? Can we go home now?” Jensen asked softly, trying to get his stepbrother’s attention as tears pooled at the edges of his vision.

“That was fast, Jensen. Awesome. Let me finish up this text really quick then we can go,” Jared muttered, his fingers flying over the keys as he texted with Misha.

“Jared, I need to leave. Now,” Jensen insisted, his bottom lip trembling as the tears started coursing their way down his face.

Jared looked up at Jensen’s tone, the sarcastic reply on the tip of his tongue dying in his throat when he got a good look at Jensen’s face.

“Whoa. Are you okay?” he asked warily, immediately getting to his feet so he was standing in front of his stepbrother. Gently putting his hands on Jensen’s upper arms, he waited apprehensively for Jensen to answer him, doing his best to ignore the growing unease in the pit of his stomach at the sight of Jensen crying.

Jensen shook his head ‘no’. “I-I saw Justin with Tom. They-they were kissing.”

Jared’s fingers reflexively tightened their hold around Jensen’s arms for a moment, his gaze going steely.

“I’ll be right back,” he promised, stalking off in the direction Jensen had come from.

When he got over to where Justin and Tom sat huddled close together he loudly cleared his throat, a twisted sense of satisfaction flaring inside him when Justin jumped at the noise. Justin’s surprised expression quickly smoothed over into one of amused relief.

“Oh, Jared. Hey, man. What’s up?” he asked casually, the tension he’d obviously been feeling minutes earlier ebbing from his body as he pointedly put an arm around Tom’s shoulders.

Jared clenched his teeth and curled his hands into fists at his sides upon seeing the gesture. He thought briefly about giving Justin one of his usual smartass remarks, but then realized he was too pissed off for that. So he settled on blunt anger.

“What the hell were you thinking, Justin? Jensen’s here with me. And he saw you,” Jared demanded, his body trembling with the anger he was still feeling.

Justin rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I was gonna break it off with him soon anyway. This way I don’t have to get my hands dirty. Ya know what I’m saying, Jared?” he asked, shooting Jared a smirk.

Jared glared at him, finally snapping like he’d wanted to from the minute he’d discovered Justin was cheating on Jensen.

“No. I don’t know what you’re saying, Justin. Jensen doesn’t deserve this. That’s what I know. You and your boy toy over here are gonna leave him alone, understand? Otherwise, you’ll have to deal with me,” he snarled, his chest heaving the longer he spoke, fighting the urge to pull Justin forward by his shirt so he could punch the jerk in his smug face.

“Since when are you so protective of Jensen?” Tom demanded, deliberately leaning into Justin’s hold, keeping his eyes locked with Jared, the utter disdain he was feeling coloring his voice and features, making him entirely unattractive, at least in Jared’s opinion.

“Since now,” Jared retorted. Fighting with these two idiots wasn’t nearly as stimulating as arguing with Jensen had always been for him.

“Jared.”

With the whispered plea from his stepbrother coming from behind him, all the anger Jared had been feeling from the minute Jensen had told him what he’d witnessed left his body in a single breath. He slowly turned toward Jensen, half afraid of what he’d see.

The tears had either dried or stopped altogether and Jared felt relief wash over him at the sight. Especially when Jensen gave him a small, grateful smile.

“Jen, I’m not gonna let him…”

“Jared, he won’t get away with it. He’ll have to live with himself, with what he’s done for the rest of his life. And that’s good enough for me. Can we go home now?” Jensen pleaded softly.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course we can,” Jared readily agreed once he realized Jensen just wanted to put the whole night behind him. Putting a hand on his stepbrother’s lower back, he led the two of them out to his car.

**
SATURDAY (DAY 3)…

Jared and Jensen spent all day Saturday together. At first Jensen had thought he’d be spending the day (the rest of their spring break, really) in his room, wallowing. But Jared refused to let that happen. He demanded Jensen get showered and dressed before meeting him downstairs.

After he’d accomplished that he met Jared in the kitchen, wondering what the hell his stepbrother was planning.

“Oh, good. You look human again,” Jared told him, a teasing nature to his voice.

“Shut up,” Jensen said, with no real heat behind his words. “So, are we ever gonna talk about what almost hap…”

“I was thinking movie?” Jared suggested, interrupting Jensen. The little energy Jensen had managed to scrape together quickly disappeared at the thought of leaving the house.

“Jared, I don’t…I don’t think I’m ready to leave the house just yet,” he admitted, the thought of running into either Justin or Tom so soon after the night before making him nauseous.

Jared nodded. “Right. I figured you’d say that. Which is why I have a surprise for you. Come here,” he said, taking a hold of Jensen’s wrist and leading him out to the living room.

Jensen blinked in confusion at the spread of junk food on the coffee table, which consisted of pizza, chicken wings, cheeseburgers, fries, chocolate shakes, soda, potato chips and dip.

“Is there a game on?” he asked, knowing how much both Jared and Jeff liked to have a decent selection of food when they were watching basketball.

“Oh, crap. I knew I forgot something,” Jared muttered, squeezing Jensen’s shoulders briefly before going back into the kitchen. He returned a few minutes later with a full vegetable tray. “Awesome. Now we can get started,” he said, grinning at Jensen after he’d set the tray down on the coffee table and made himself comfortable on the couch.

Trying to understand why his stepbrother wasn’t sitting in his recliner like normal, let alone why he was acting so nice was starting to creep Jensen out. He slowly sat down next to Jared, staring at him warily.

“Why are there vegetables? You hate vegetables,” he said, latching on to the only clear thought in his head.

Jared shrugged. “Well, you don’t. And I wanted to make sure you were really enjoying yourself. You know, that you were sufficiently distracted. Now you gonna pick a movie or what?”

“A movie? But what about the game?” Jensen asked, as Jared handed him a stack of movies to choose from.

Jared’s brow furrowed. “What game? There’s no game today. Well, one that I wanted to see at least,” he admitted.

“You mean, you did this…all of this, for me?” Jensen whispered hoarsely, belatedly realizing that the movies Jared had handed him were all his favorites.

“Duh,” Jared replied, grabbing a cheeseburger.

Jensen found himself lost for words. Getting to his feet he finally made a decision about what movie he wanted to watch and slipped the disc into the DVD player. Making his way back toward the couch, he chuckled in amusement watching Jared pile his plate full of food.

“Wha’?” Jared asked, mid-bite.

Jensen shook his head. “Nothing. I just…thank you. This was exactly what I needed today after…well, thanks,” he said, filing up his own plate.

Jared nodded, clearing his throat. “Yeah, whatever. I just didn’t wanna have to put up with your “poor me” attitude for the rest of break,” he muttered, glaring at the TV as The Hunger Games began playing.

“Okay, sure. It was still very sweet,” Jensen replied, nudging Jared’s shoulder.

Jared snorted, rolling his eyes, unable to keep the pleased smirk from lighting up his features at Jensen’s words.

**
SUNDAY (DAY 4)…

The boys had sat in front of the television all day Saturday, watching movie after movie, so it wasn’t any wonder that as it grew later Jensen’s eyes grew heavier as he struggled to stay awake. He finally fell asleep about twelve thirty in the morning, his head landing on Jared’s shoulder.

Jared had unceremoniously shoved his stepbrother off of him until Jensen lay horizontal on the couch. He followed soon after, finally sprawling out next to Jensen about one, falling asleep to Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel’s characters’, Katie and Alex from Safe Haven and their love story.

His eyes, heavy lidded, put up a protest when he finally opened them about mid-afternoon. He hadn’t intended to sleep on the couch all night, but he was pleased to feel the weight of his stepbrother pressed against him, the feeling of Jensen’s arm warm under his fingertips as he slowly brushed along the length of exposed skin.

A few minutes later his eyes snapped open fully when he heard the lock at the front door click into place.

“Dammit. Jen? Jensen? Wake up. Dad and Samantha are home,” he groaned, sitting up and crawling over Jensen’s legs as he scrambled for the remote, switching off Safe Haven’s menu mode over to a basketball game.

Jensen jerked awake at the unexpected loud noise. “What the hell? Why does my entire body hurt?” he grumbled, running a hand over his face.

“We fell asleep on the couch last night, genius,” Jared snapped, half crawling, half stumbling over to his recliner. Jesus. He’d just fallen asleep next to Jensen and already his body was protesting the loss. He was so screwed.

“We’re hoooome!” Sandy shrieked happily, bouncing into the living room. Spotting Jensen stretched out on the couch, she came over and lay down next to him. “Hey, Jensen. I hope it’s okay, but um, Jared called Samantha so we-we know what happened with Jerk-stin,” she said warily, shooting a nervous glance in Jared’s direction.

Swallowing hard, Jared gripped the arms of the recliner until his hands hurt, refusing to look at Jensen, absolutely terrified of what he’d see in his stepbrother’s eyes in that moment. He struggled to keep his focus on the basketball game on the TV but his entire body was tuned into Jensen’s every movement, his every breath.

“He did, huh?” Jensen asked his stepsister, raising an eyebrow in Jared’s direction. “I knew it…you can be very…”

“No, don’t say it!” Jared insisted, tossing a pillow at Jensen’s face before making his way back over to the couch and crawling on top of Jensen, making sure not to knock Sandy to the floor as he did so.

Throwing the pillow over the back of the couch, Jensen locked eyes with Jared.

“Sweet,” he retorted, shooting Jared a smirk of his own.

“Get him, Sands,” Jared ordered and the two of them proceeded to tickle Jensen, ignoring his protests to stop.

**

A FEW DAYS LATER…

“No. I’m not going,” Jensen insisted, glaring at Jared.

“Are you serious? You’re coming in,” Jared growled, cutting the engine, rounding the car and yanking open the passenger door.

Ignoring him, Jensen looked out the windshield, his arms crossed at his chest.

“You can’t make me,” he grumbled.

“The hell I can’t, Jensen. If you can get me to give a crap about school and help me pass my History final last semester I can get you through this,” Jared told him gruffly, pulling on Jensen’s arm in an attempt to get him to leave the confines of the car.

Jensen turned toward him, fear flooding his features as he realized Jared was serious.

“But I can’t, Jared,” he whimpered. “I don’t…I don’t remember…who the hell am I without him?”

And just like that Jared felt all the anger he’d been fighting down from Friday night resurface. He wanted to find Justin and beat the shit out of him for putting these kinds of thoughts in Jensen’s head.

“Relax, Jen. I got ya, okay? I won’t let him anywhere near you unless you want it that way,” he said, finally pulling Jensen from the car. “And you’re Jensen Ackles. The guy that’s smarter than anyone I know. You’re also the guy who loves his family, friends, school, dancing, and challenges. Don’t tell me you’re gonna back down from this just because you’re scared,” he continued, taunting Jensen softly.

Jensen’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not scared. If I can put up with you on a daily basis I can face my ex-boyfriend,” he snarled, shoving past Jared and making his way into the high school.

**

“Hey, man. So uh, how’s Jensen doing? The whole school knows about him and Justin breaking up,” Misha said, coming up to Jared in between classes.

“What’re they saying?” Jared growled, grabbing a textbook from his locker and shoving it into his bag.

“That you’re the reason they broke up,” Misha admitted, an apologetic look on his face as he ran a hand over the back of his head.

“What!?” Jared demanded in a fierce whisper.

“I dunno, Jay. It’s just what I heard. People are saying you confronted Justin in Mariana’s the other night, really got into it with him and that you threatened if he didn’t break things off with Jensen you’d break his pitching arm or something like that,” Misha explained.

Jared sighed heavily, his eyes closing as he banged the back of his head against his closed locker. “It’s pure crap, dude. Yeah, I threatened Justin, but only to stay away from Jensen because he was cheating on him. Nobody’s gonna do that to my stepbrother and get away with it.”

“Damn. Well, I guess the thinly veiled hostility I felt while Jensen and I were dating was in fact a thing,” Misha muttered with a shake of his head.

Before Jared could ask Misha what he meant, Jensen had come up to them, giving them a strained smile as he leaned his head against Jared’s shoulder.

“Hey, guys,” he mumbled, shifting so he was positioned in the crook of Jared’s arm. Jared couldn’t keep the broad smile off his face. Misha just snorted and rolled his eyes when he caught the look on Jared’s face.

'Yeah, I’ll definitely need to talk to Misha when we get a moment alone.' Jared thought in confusion.

“Jensen, have you seen him today? Has he tried to talk to you?” Jared asked gently, his teeth on edge as he thought about Justin making things any harder on Jensen than they already were.

“No, I haven’t seen him, Jay. But uh, there’s this rumor going around that you’re the reason we broke up. What the hell are people thinking? Anybody who listens to you can tell how you feel about Justin. And everybody knows you hate me,” he murmured.

“I don’t hate you,” Jared said, affronted by the remark.

Jensen grinned at him. “Duh, I know, Jared. I know how our relationship works just as well as you do. What would we do to pass the time if we couldn’t drive each other crazy?” he asked, winking at Jared.

Jared swallowed hard at Jensen’s suggestiveness. “Oh, I have an idea or two, Jen,” he said, his voice dropping an octave as he spoke. Heat flared in his belly as Jensen blushed at his words.

Misha loudly cleared his throat, staring at the two of them pointedly.

“Listen, guys, as fun as it’s been to, I dunno, rehash how you two communicate or whatever, I really need to get to class.”

But before he left, Chad came running up to them. “Glad I caught ya. Man, do I have some juicy news.”

Jared and Misha shared amused looks while Jensen struggled to look interested.

“Jay, did you know that Stephen was planning on breaking up with you?” Chad asked earnestly, concern clouding his features as he looked at Jared.

Jared breathed deeply through his nose in an attempt to keep the laughter that was bubbling up inside him at bay. He frowned slightly when both Misha and Jensen burst out laughing.

“Uh, yeah, Chad, I did. When Stephen and I broke up mutually two months ago,” he told his friend.

“Oh, huh. Well, you’re okay?” Chad asked uncertainly.

“Better than,” Jared readily reassured Chad, glancing over at Jensen, pleased to see him at ease and so relaxed. Jared didn’t see Jensen put his guard down all that often, but he had to admit it was a good look for his stepbrother.

“On that note, we really should get to class,” Jensen said.

Jared chuckled, shaking his head. “You really can suck the fun out of anything.”

“I’ve been told that once or twice,” Jensen said with a laugh.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Jared asked, smirking. Jensen shoved his shoulder, an exasperated yet fond expression flashed in his eyes as he looked at Jared, the two of them making their way through the hallways.

**

Later that afternoon Jensen was waiting for Jared outside by Jared’s car when he saw Justin and Tom leave the building hand-in-hand. Tom spotted Jensen watching them and his eyes narrowed to slits, a smirk cutting across his features making him look pure evil as he pulled Justin closer, pressing his lips firmly against Justin’s mouth.

Jensen’s eyes stung from holding back his tears, his throat feeling as if it were scraped raw every time he swallowed.

“Hey, Jensen. Ready to go?” Jared asked, coming up behind Jensen and putting his hand on Jensen’s shoulder. Jensen drew in a sharp breath, quickly whirled around and proceeded to hit Jared with his closed fists.

“Dammit, Jared! You scared the hell out of me! You know how much I hate being scared. Don’t. Do it. Again!” he demanded angrily, only half aware that tears were sliding down his face.

“Whoa there, Jensen. What’s got you so upset, huh?” Jared murmured, gently running his hands along Jensen’s arms in a soothing motion.

“What? You mean besides you, you friggin’ jerk!?” Jensen snapped, glaring at his stepbrother.

“No, I mean why’re you crying?” Jared asked, ignoring Jensen’s response.

At his stepbrother’s question, Jensen’s face crumpled and his breathing came in hitching gasps as he struggled to hold back a sob.

“I saw him, Jared. And-and I’m not as prepared for it as I thought I was,” he choked out.

“Come here,” Jared coaxed softly, pulling Jensen into his arms. Jensen instinctively melted into Jared’s embrace, relishing the comfort. Until he remembered that his stepbrother hated PDAs and he avoided hugging Jensen like if he didn’t he’d catch the Plague or something.

“Um, Jared, you’re hugging me,” he pointed out warily, afraid that if he didn’t tread carefully Jared would remember where they were, who he was and put a generous foot of space between them again.

Jared chuckled into Jensen’s hair. “Yeah, I know, Jen. And I know what you’re thinking. Remember though, rules were meant to be broken. Even my stupid ones I’ve made up in an attempt to keep you at a distance. Because honestly? They don’t work. They could never work.”

Jensen pulled back slightly to look Jared in the eyes, his own eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he tried to understand his stepbrother’s logic.

“Why not, Jared?” he finally asked.

Jared smiled softly, cupping either side of Jensen’s face in his hands. “Why not? You want the truth this time, Jensen or one of my well-crafted lies again?”

Jensen swallowed hard, his head swimming from the implications of his stepbrother’s statement. “The truth,” he decided resolutely.

Jared nodded, stepping back toward the driver’s side of his car, keeping his gaze steady with Jensen’s as he opened the car door.

“I’m in love with you.”

**

Jensen lay on Danneel’s bed, Jared’s words from earlier reverberating in his head.

“So, you done dwelling on it yet or what?” Danneel asked him, sharing a look with Sophia as she sat down next to her stepsister on Sophia’s bed. Jensen slowly sat up, facing the two of them.

Sophia nodded. “No kidding. I mean, Jared finally manned up and was honest with you, Jensen. And you know better than anyone how much he enjoys lying. It comes as naturally as breathing to him. This is big. Huge even. Jared admitting his feelings for you? I thought for sure that wouldn’t happen until the prospect of college was looming over your heads and the fear of losing you became too much for him.”

Jensen sighed heavily, scrubbing a hand over his face before meeting the girls’ gazes again.

“This isn’t some kind of prank on Jared’s part, is it? He really…he really feelsthis way?” he asked tentatively, slowly realizing that his stepbrother’s tactics and behavior towards him made perfect sense if they’d been in elementary school and Jared were harboring a secret crush. And Jensen had to admit he’d been playing their game the same way, what with the physical fighting, name-calling and blatant hostility.

“Dammit,” he groaned softly, flashing a weak smile at his sisters.

“What is it, Jensen?” Danneel asked him.

“I have to go talk to Jared,” he replied. He laughed when Sophia and Danneel shared broad smiles. “Thank you. Both of you,” he murmured gratefully, giving each of them a hug.

“We love you, Jensen. Now go tell my brother you love him too,” Sophia told him, giving him a smirk that resembled Jared’s.

**

Jensen contemplated knocking, but quickly shrugged it off, instead going by their old standby of entering Jared’s room without pronouncing himself.

He grinned crookedly at Jared, watching his stepbrother slowly push himself away from his computer desk, raising an eyebrow, crossing his arms at his chest as he remained rooted to his computer chair.

Jensen’s heart fluttered as he realized Jared was feigning disinterest, when in fact Jensen knew his stepbrother was anxious to know what Jensen was thinking about his confession.

“I’m sorry,” Jensen finally said.

Jared’s eyebrows furrowed, clearly not expecting that response. “What for?”

“For not believing you when you told me the truth about Justin cheating on me. You were just protecting me, and all I did was call you a liar,” Jensen said.

Jared averted his gaze from Jensen’s, chuckling hoarsely. “Yeah, well, I don’t blame you, Jen. You do act pretty stupid when you think you’re in love with a guy.”

“Hey!” Jensen exclaimed in mock anger, his features quickly melting into a soft smile. “So, um, do you want to talk about what you told me earlier?”

Jared laughed again. “No. But, uh, I’m guessing that’s not gonna work for you?”

Jensen shook his head, his eyes dancing in amusement, holding his hand out for Jared.

Clearing his throat, Jared reluctantly got to his feet and made his way over to Jensen. He carefully took a hold of Jensen’s hand in his own, letting his stepbrother lead him over to his bed.

Jensen breathed softly, the feeling of Jared’s hand in his grasp a warm reassurance that he was doing the right thing for them both. “So, you’re in love with me, huh?”

“Great. Get it all out, Jensen. You wanted honesty from me and now you’re just going to torment me with the information I gave you. But I guess I can’t fault you any. You did learn from the best,” Jared muttered, giving Jensen a smug smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Jay, what’re you talking about?” Jensen demanded. “I’m not going to lord this over you or whatever it is you think I’m trying to do here. What I am trying to do is tell you that for once you and I actually agree on something.”

“I don’t get it,” Jared admitted, flashing Jensen a weak smile.

“Of course you don’t. You didn’t let me finish before you went into over analytical mode. I thought that was my job?” Jensen teased him lightly.

“Right. Sorry, go ahead,” Jared said.

“The reason I came in here is to tell you that I’m in love with you too, Jared,” Jensen replied. Cupping the side of Jared’s face with his free hand, he leaned forward and kissed Jared. Kissed him like he’d been wanting to since the previous Friday or maybe if Jensen were being honest with himself (and apparently that was the name of the game recently) even longer.

His tongue butted against Jared’s teeth and he moaned softly when his stepbrother’s mouth fell open, giving Jensen the access he was so desperately craving. He laughed into Jared’s open mouth as his stepbrother leaned back onto the bed, scrabbling for purchase and successfully pulling Jensen on top of him until Jensen was straddling his hips, deepening the kiss further. The both of them kissed with a heated, passionate frenzy. As if they didn’t they’d never get another chance. But if Jensen had anything to say about it they’d have plenty more opportunities. Even if that meant he’d have to take a page from Jared’s book and lie and sneak around to get those opportunities.

A few minutes later they broke apart, their breathing ragged. Jensen grinned at Jared, his lips brushing his stepbrother’s palm as Jared reached forward, cupping Jensen’s face in his hands.

“I meant what I said, Jay. I love you,” he murmured, slowly climbing off of Jared until he was stretched out next to him.

Jared gave him a lazy smirk. “I love you too, Jensen. And you know what? I never had any doubt we’d end up here.”

“Yeah? How do you figure?” Jensen asked, an amused expression on his face.

“I’m Jared Padalecki. And I always get what I want,” Jared told him in a husky whisper.

Jensen laughed, burying his face in his stepbrother’s neck for a moment. “Don’t worry. I won’t be forgetting that anytime soon,” he promised Jared, smiling into the next kiss they shared.

THE END