Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Jesse stood with his hip out and his arms crossed, and smirked down at Nicky and Alex, who currently were dancing around the kitchen with diapers on their heads.

Joey felt his face heat up as Jesse clapped a hand on the back of his shoulder. “Well, Joseph, so much for teaching my sons to respect their hair…” He said, amused.

Joey cleared his throat as he felt Jesse’s grip tighten, his breath catching in his chest.

After a second of the air being filled with nothing but Nicky and Alex’s off-key singing, Jesse leaned forward, resting his chin on Joey’s shoulder and saying, “What, no clever comeback?”

Joey was pretty sure he stopped breathing all together. “Um…” His voice cracked and he felt Jesse’s jaw tighten into another smirk on his shoulder. “…Well, they do have their father’s amazing hair…”

Jesse pulled back, straightening his arms and raising his other hand so both of them rested on Joey’s shoulders from behind. “Well, thanks, Joey! Not what I was expecting.”

He leaned forward and stood on his tiptoes, bending his elbows so his stomach was flat against Joey’s back. His breath was hot against Joey's ears.

That was the moment that Joseph Gladstone died.

“Goodbye my cute little sons!” Jesse said, still pressing down on Joey’s shoulders, a head taller than him standing up on the balls of his feet. With that, he left the room, casually sauntering down the stairs into his original destination of the recording studio.

Joey waited a few more minutes before letting himself breathe again, in an attempt to avoid going into cardiac arrest on the kitchen floor.

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“Hey, uh, Pete, pass me the socket wrench, will ya?”

Jesse was in the backyard underneath Pete’s motorcycle, covered in grease with his hair messed up, trying to fix the engine. Of course, Pete could've just fixed it himself. But watching Jesse's muscles flex in the sunlight as he worked... he'd break his motorcycle every day if it meant he got to see that.

“Yeah, sure,” Pete said, passing it to him. “Thanks for doing this man.”

“I got you babe,” Jesse said, sticking the socket wrench in his mouth to use both hands to pull out a wire. “I wouldn’t go messing up my hair for just anyone.” He grinned through the wrench, and Pete felt butterflies start dancing in his stomach.

After a few more minutes of tinkering in silence, Jesse said, “Here, start ‘er up.”

Pete turned it on, and after a second, it came to life, functioning perfectly.

“Hey, hey! Would you look at that.” Jesse exclaimed with a big grin; his teeth white against his grease stained face. “The kid’s still got it.” He added on, pulling himself out from under the motorcycle and planting himself beside Pete, rubbing at some dust on his forearm.

“Thanks, Jess!” Pete tried to conceal his blush, hopping on and gunning the engine.

“Yeah, anytime, man.” Jesse replied, pulling his shirt off over his head. Pete froze. “Look, I’m gonna go hop in the shower and get rid of all this grease, you go take her out for a quick spin now, and then afterwards, we’ll go together and catch a movie or hit the bar or something. Be back in a bit.”

He threw his balled up tee shirt at Pete as he headed inside, his chest glistening with sweat, and Pete stayed where he was, not sure he was mentally stable enough to operate his bike yet.

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“Now you listen here, young lady. I said no, and no means no. My word is absolutely final, and you are never to go against it again. Understand?”

Jesse stood in the living room, his arms crossed and his face stern as his looked down at Stephanie, who was standing there with a new, very expensive and very broken microphone in hand. Becky, who had stopped at the top of the stairs upon hearing yelling, looked on as his jaw clenched and his muscles tensed at Stephanie’s mumbled excuses.

“No, I don’t wanna hear it! You did what you did, after I specifically told you not to, and you know it. You can not go against me like that, Stephanie! Whether you like it or not, I’m in charge.”

He rolled up his sleeves, his eyes piercing into Steph. Becky’s eyes were glued to him as he ran a hand through his hair, pushing back a few misbehaving strands.

“I never want to see you behave like this again, Steph. You are way too old to be acting this way. Your gonna find a way to make this up and pay me back.” He pointed to the kitchen door, interrupting Stephanie’s protests with “Go to your room. I’ll talk to your dad and find a good punishment for this when he gets home. Until then, you stay upstairs.”

When Stephanie had retreated, he dragged a hand through his hair again, his face still unwavering with strength. Walking swiftly over to the front door and blowing air out of his mouth, he grabbed his helmet and left, slamming the door behind him.

Becky stayed at the top of the stairs, as her mind told her that maybe she didn’t want to be just friends after all.

Perhaps she'd have to break a microphone herself.

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“Oh, come on Daniel. It’s not like one night is gonna hurt anything! And we can have her out before the girls even get up for school. No one will even have to know!”

Danny shook his head, wondering how he’d even allowed Jesse to rope him into going clubbing in the first place.

“I already said no, Jess! And it’s not like any of these girls will even talk to me.”

Jesse shot him a sly grin, the flashing neon lights reflected in his eyes, and Danny felt something shift in the pit of his stomach.

“Won’t even talk to you, eh? Watch and learn, brotha-man.”

With that, Danny watched wide eyed, as Jesse turned away from him, letting his hips sway to the beat in a way that was far from PG, and tapping the nearest girl on the shoulder.

“Well, hello there!” He said, flashing his killer smile and shooting the girl a wink.

She turned around, looking him up and down, and her face lit up, clearly excited about being approached by whom Danny now decided had to be the best looking guy in the club.

Jesse let his hips go again, moving in a way that made Elvis’s raunchiest performances look chaste.

“Would you care to dance with my friend over there?” He asked, taking the girls hand and twirling it over his head as he led her over to Danny, licking his lips in the process in a way that made Danny feel like he needed to take a seat before he fell over.

And that was how Danny ended up with a very pretty girl to dance with, and a solid feeling that although he would be taking home the person he wanted most, they’d be sleeping in their own room, down the hall.

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“Hey pal, you better watch your mouth unless you want it to have a dinner date with my fist.”

Joey watched from a distance as Jesse stood mere inches away from the dad of the child who’d been picking on Michelle at school. The very large dad. The very large, very muscular, very scary dad.

And yet, somehow, Jesse wasn’t displaying an ounce of fear. ‘Pure confidence in a leather jacket.’ Joey thought, watching as Jesse pushed up his sleeves and stepped even closer to the father of the offending child, the bark mulch crackling underneath his boots.

“You listen here.” Jesse said, and Joey watched as he stood his ground, pulling himself up to his full six feet. “No one, and I mean no one, messes with my niece.” He moved his face closer. “So unless you want to go to the hospital, you’ll tell your idiot son, to go and apologize for pushing Michelle over and calling her names. Capise?”

“Why don’t we move this off the schoolyard?” The other dad said, and Joey looked on as Jesse’s jaw tensed, and he pulled his face into a smug smirk.

“I’d be happy to.” Jesse replied, his hands curling into fists and his muscles tensing under his jacket.

“Oh boy, bye-bye Michelle.” Joey said, pushing her through the door to the classroom.

“But where are you going?” She protested.

Joey licked his lips. “I’m gonna go watch your Uncle Jesse beat the crap out of a macho man.”

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Joey felt his heart stop as he walked into the thought to be empty bathroom to see Jesse standing there, chest glistening and bare for all to see, the hem of his damp, pulled up t-shirt clenched between his teeth.

The cut of Jesse’s wet abs were burning searing holes into Joey’s brain, disintegrating any inclinations of wanting to shave that he’d had before.

Joey’s eyes met Jesse’s in the mirror, and there was an awkward silence as Joey’s brain fumbled for something to say amidst the shiny, sweaty distraction.

“What?” Jesse said through his shirt, dropping it from his mouth and removing it all together.

Joey blinked hard as Jesse shrugged it off, seeming to choose to ignore him altogether and going back to flexing his pecs in the mirror.

“Why are you… doing that…” Joey managed to squeak out, eyes glued to the sight in front of him.

“Whatdya mean, why am I doing that, I just finished working out, I wanna see if there’s a difference from the last time I checked!” Jesse responded; his face annoyed. “What, you want a better look? You planning on leaving any time soon, or do you wanna stay in here while I shower?”

At which point Joey’s brain completely shut down, his legs somehow managing to figure out on their own how to pivot and get him out of there as fast as humanly possible before he blurted out the truthful answers to those questions.