Chapter Text
"Dammit!" Jared yelled, dropping the pizza tray with a resounding crash. He raced to the sink and turned on the cold water tap as hard as he could, then pushed his arm under the gushing water. A huge red welt was rising on his forearm.
Jensen put down the cheese grater and raced to Jared's side, concern etched in his features. "Jared, shit, are you okay?"
Grimacing, Jared said, "I will be."
"What happened?" Jensen had been so focussed on his own tasks while Jared was checking the oven that he hadn’t seen the mishap.
"I bumped the top shelf of the oven while I was taking the pizza out," he said.
If this had been the real world, Jensen would have taken a closer look at the injury and tried to assess if it needed further medical treatment or not. But in TV-land, halfway through the "Cook a Gourmet Dinner for your Friends" challenge, there was a staff medic on hand. He advised salve and a bandage, but there wasn't much else to be done.
"It's probably gonna scar," Jared said soberly.
Jensen tried to make light of the situation. "It'll just make you look tougher. And you know I love a tough guy!" He gave Jared a quick hug, carefully avoiding the injured arm.
"Well, this tough guy is failing at the cooking challenge," he shot back, which reminded Jensen that there was still pizza on the floor and the oven was probably burning whatever else was still left in there.
The kitchen was a disaster area, even without the mess from the latest mishap. Neither of them was a particularly good cook and trying to work together to make something relatively simple was more challenging than they'd thought. They had different opinions on how to slice vegetables, what kind of flavours should go on a pizza and even where to put the cheese. (Jared was insistent it go on the bottom layer whereas Jensen loved it on top.)
(His cave-man brain wondered if that would apply to their preferences in bed as well, but that kind of thinking would just make him even more distracted.)
Still, they'd compromised by agreeing to make 6 different pizzas of varying style and toppings. In retrospect that maybe wasn't the best idea given how much work it involved.
Blair sauntered into the kitchen. "Smells good, boys!" She dipped a finger in Jared's home-made pizza sauce, licked it, then made a face. "Everyone's getting kinda hungry, though. How long until dinner's ready?"
They still had another 3 pizzas to cook - the oven was a lot slower than they'd realised. And they hadn't even started on dessert yet. "Um, soon, I hope?" Jensen replied. "Jared burned his arm so one of the pizzas got ruined.
She rolled her eyes. When Chuck and Blair had served dinner earlier in the week, it had been exquisite. Jensen still suspected that Chuck had flown in a professional chef to do the actual work, but since everyone had been locked out of the kitchen all day, he had no way to be sure.
"We could serve two pizzas now, and give them lots of wine?" Jared suggested.
"Does that count as a dinner party?"
Jared shrugged. "It's better than them getting hungry and bitchy." The last part was directed not-so-subtly at Blair's retreating form.
"Okay, you do that and I'll handle the oven." He wasn't letting Jared get near it again. Come to think of it, it was probably Jared's size that caused the mishap, he had to bend down a long way to try and see into the oven.
A few of the housemates were gathered around the table; Chuck looking bored as he idly tapped his empty glass.
"Hey guys, we're gonna serve the appetizers!" Jared improvised. "Can someone get the others?"
Kate got to her feet. "I think Derek's in the gym downstairs; I'll go find him."
"No, wait!" interrupted Lydia, heading for the door. "Let me. You go find Chuck; I saw him outside."
Shrugging, Kate acquiesced, and it was Lydia who came back 5 minutes later with a sweaty Derek and Stiles in tow. "You boys owe me," she muttered under her breath.
"Food!" enthused Stiles, totally distracted from whatever had been going on.
Jared sliced the pizzas into delicate slices while plying the others with beer and wine, while Jensen madly threw the next 2 pizzas into the oven before joining the group at the dinner table.
The food ended up being great. Even if he and Jared were still covered in flour (they'd made the dough themselves), he realised that you didn't have to get all dressed up to have a great dinner party. It was more about the food and the company.
After dinner, and the seemingly endless clean-up, they retired to their room. They'd been sleeping together (in the mostly-platonic sense) since returning from visiting their families; Jensen was not going to have sex in a house full of cameras, but he certainly didn't mind the nightly kisses and cuddles from Jared. With so many of their competitors gone, they could even have their own rooms at this point but it made strategic sense to share. At least, that was what Jensen told himself.
Truth was, he just liked being able to be with Jared.
He heard a low groan and realised it wasn't the first instance of such a sound. The walls in this house were all too thin and although Derek was particularly taciturn in everyday life, it sounded like in the bedroom he was quite the opposite. Jensen shared a wry grin with Jared, as if to say, "This is why we don’t have sex in the house." And then pulled a pillow over his upturned ear.
As Jensen was drifting off to sleep, he noticed the smell of smoke. Was it still lingering in Jared's hair after the cooking fiasco? He sniffed deeply, snuggling closer, but no, Jared smelt clean and fresh (and okay, maybe a little like roasted mushrooms).
It was that moment when he became aware of a glow - from below the door? Outside the window?
And then the smoke alarms went off.
Fuck.
"Jared!" he shouted, jumping out of bed and shaking the other man violently.
"Whassup?"
Somehow, Jensen didn't think this was a false alarm. "Fire alarm, we gotta get out of here!"
He quickly grabbed his shirt while Jared sat up, blearily rubbing his eyes.
Remembering what he was taught at school, Jensen gingerly touched the door. It was warm. Hot? Did he dare open it? With the high pitched screeching of the alarm, it was hard to hear anything else, but in between the squeals he thought he detected a crackling sound.
He opened the door a crack.
The corridor was aflame. The fire seemed to be spreading ridiculously quickly; both ends of the hall were blocked. It was so fast, way too fast for a kitchen accident. Was it a gas leak? Did they even have gas in this house? Or maybe some of the wiring for the cameras and mikes had fried?
One thing was for certain, they weren't getting out that way.
Jared was already opening the window. "We can get out here."
It was a 2-storey drop, which wasn't ideal, but it was better than facing the fire. For a moment, Jensen appreciated that he'd already trained for this, way back when Jared had orchestrated their bathroom escape from the restaurant.
But back then, their lives hadn't been in danger. This time it was serious.
"What about the others?" Jensen worried, crawling onto the window ledge.
Jared didn't answer.
Carefully shifting his body weight around, Jensen let his legs drop down, then lowered his body until he was hanging from the window sill by his arms. It made the distance far more manageable and he took a deep breath before dropping.
He hit hard, but remembered to bend his knees and roll as best he could. The impact shuddered through his body and he knew he'd have more than a few bruises to show for it but he was outside of the house. He was safe.
Hearing sirens in the distance, Jensen looked back up at the house. Flames could be seen through the windows on the lower level; the kitchen in particular seemed to be engulfed. Stiles (a totally naked Stiles, and if the situation wasn't so grim, there would have been something amusing about Stiles' naked rear hanging out of the window like that) managed to execute a similar manoeuvre to the one Jensen had just completed, and dropped from the window next door.
Jared was nowhere to be seen.
"JARED!" he yelled, crawling away from the burning house. Where the hell was he? He'd been right behind Jensen!
Derek catapulted out of the window that Stiles had recently vacated; executing a wolf-like leap and landing elegantly on all fours. He'd at least grabbed a blanked to wrap around himself and he'd soon wrapped Stiles as well, the two of them huddling together and shivering.
The sirens got closer as black smoke began billowing out of the roof. Jensen didn't know what to do; he couldn't climb back up two storeys and the only other option was to head back in through the main doors, but everything was on fire and he had no idea where Jared had gone; surely not into the burning hall? "JARED!" He frantically raced towards the growing crowd of people - a mixture of crew and contestants - maybe someone knew where a ladder was?
"We need to do a head count!" That was Blair, taking charge. Dressed in a soot-stained silk gown, she had the air of a regal princess who was looking out for her people. "How many crew were in the house tonight?"
"Three," managed Alison, on the verge of tears. "We're all here, but Jared and Kate are still in there!"
"He was in that room with me," Jensen pointed, "but he was supposed to follow me out - I gotta get back up there!!!" But there was no way he could do it, short of climbing the featureless wall.
The fire truck finally arrived and Blair raced to it, ready to give orders. Jensen followed behind her, ready to steal a ladder himself if he had to. He heard Lydia saying, “I am done with this show. I am SO DONE with this show.” and Jensen wanted to agree. No show was worth this.
And then Jared came running from around the side of the house, a crumpled figure in his arms.
They were both covered in smoke but Jared was smiling in triumphant relief. Kate, however, was kicking and screaming. "Nooooo!" she shouted. "Let me go! Let me go!"
"It's okay, Kate," Jared said, setting her gently down on the ground but keeping a firm grip on her wrists. "You're safe now."
Jensen wanted to faint with relief. He raced to Jared's side, wanting to hug the man, wanting to help, feeling like such a loser for not staying back inside and trying to help the others to escape too.
"Let me go!" Kate seemed hysterical.
"It's okay, everyone's out!" Jensen didn't know if his words were getting through to the woman but Jared heard him.
"God, I didn't know." Now Jared slumped to the ground beside Kate, adrenaline wearing off. And Jensen leaned behind him, supporting in the only way he could.
"I'm sorry, Jen, I was right behind you, but then I heard footsteps running in the hall. And there was no time to tell you; I just had to go."
Jensen understood. In Jared's position, he would have done the same thing.
Jared was a hero.