Archive of Our Own ^beta

Jensen smoothed his hand over Jeff's skin, sweeping across his lower thigh and knee, fingers gentle, exploring lazily. He didn't think either of them could get it up again for a while, but it felt good to waste the afternoon in bed, limbs tangled together in the rumpled sheets. He felt a change in the texture of skin along the side of Jeff's right knee, the slightly raised but solid line a contrast to the smooth skin and bristly hairs surrounding it.

Jensen leaned forward and propped himself up on one elbow in order to get a look at it--the fine white line of an old scar a few inches long. "What's this," he murmured, running his thumb back and forth over the scar's length as he looked up to see Jeff's face, his eyes still heavy-lidded with sleep.

"Blew out my knee when I was 19 and had to have surgery. Fucked up my basketball career."

Jensen laughed, quieting suddenly when he realized that Jeff wasn't smiling, wasn't even smirking. "Seriously?"

Bisou perked her head up from the floor, whining softly in response to the louder word, and Jeff draped his left leg over the side of the bed to pet her carefully with his foot. "I don't know about career, honestly," Jeff explained, reaching a hand out to brush through Jensen's pillow-matted hair. "But it was all I wanted to do back then. Only reason I bothered with college."

"Man, I didn't know. I'm sorry." Jensen looked back down at the faded scar, his throat tight at the idea of Jeff, so much younger, hurting like that, losing his dream.

"It was a long time ago. Anyway--" Jeff paused, and Jensen looked up to see his expression lightening into a smile. "I think I ended up where I was supposed to be."

Jensen nodded, not sure whether Jeff was referring to his acting career, or L.A., or the two of them there in that bed together. He didn't know what to say--to comfort Jeff for a loss two decades old or to thank God that the injury had put Jeff on the path to getting a role on Supernatural or anything, really. Instead he looked back down at the marred skin on Jeff's knee and bent his head down to kiss it. He heard Jeff draw in a surprised breath above him, felt Jeff's hand move to caress the back of his head.

Jensen felt the edge of the scar under his lips and traced the length of it back and forth with the tip of his tongue. It tasted like the sweat of both of them together.