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Jensen was tired. He dragged his feet as he shuffled along the floor of the bus terminal, blinking because of the bright lights overhead that he was suddenly having to adjust to from the dark of the city outside, clutching his mother's hand.
He'd just been to New York City for the first time in his life, and had one of the busiest days he could remember in his eight long years of life. But now, all he wanted to do was get home and fall into bed, curling up under the softest blanket he could find. He didn't want to have to sit on a noisy, jolty bus for hours, and he definitely didn't want to have to walk to find said bus.
"Come on, honey. I'm going to get some water for the bus journey. Do you want anything?"
Jensen shook his head as his mother pulled him into the shop. He was too tired to even think about eating or drinking anything.
His mother dropped his hand as she made her way over to the fridge holding the drinks, and Jensen's tired, drooping eyes fell on a display of stuffed animals. Perched on the top was a small green dragon, with purple wings and sparkles all over its body. It was one of the prettiest things Jensen had ever seen.
"Mommy?" he called out.
"Yes, sweetheart?" she replied, coming back over to Jensen holding two large bottles of water.
Jensen picked up the dragon and held it out to show her. "Can I have this?"
--
Three days later, a significantly more awake Jensen Ackles excitedly bounded up the stairs to his bedroom, his best friend Misha in tow. It had been days and days since he'd seen Misha, which was far too long. The summer break was the worst. Jensen was already excited to get back to school so that he and Misha could sit together every single day.
"Mish! Look what I got!" Jensen yelled, throwing himself onto the bed and grabbing the sparkly soft dragon, holding it up with pride. "This is my dragon!"
Misha giggled, more quietly than Jensen, sitting down on the bed next to him and pulling his knees up to his chest. "Can I see?"
Jensen held out his dragon. There were very few people in the world who he would let hold what had fast become the most important possession in the world to him, but Misha was definitely one of those people. Misha took the dragon, holding it gently in his hands, running his fingertips over the wings and staring down at it in wonder.
"What's its name?" Misha finally asked, glancing up at Jensen with wide, innocent eyes.
"Doesn't have one," Jensen shrugged. "Jus' a dragon. A pretty dragon."
Misha nodded. "Yeah, but it still needs a name. It would suck to not have a name. Like, you're Jen, I'm not just gonna call you a pretty human."
Jensen blushed, hiding his face in his hands. "'M not pretty though so that wouldn't work."
"Yes you are," Misha informed him, as though he were stating a universal truth. "You're the prettiest boy in our school."
Jensen shook his head, still hiding his face. "Lots of other boys are prettier."
"No they're not! You're the prettiest, everyone says so!"
Jensen wasn't good at compliments, so he threw one of his pillows at Misha and stood up. "D'you wanna play hide and seek?"
"Yeah! I'll hide first!" Misha shouted, and in an instant it was like he'd forgotten all about the previous conversation. He shot out of the room so fast that Jensen swore he could see a blur where his friend had disappeared.
Jensen closed his eyes and counted to twenty before yelling at the top of his voice, "Ready or not! Here I come!"
Misha always had the best hiding places, and it took ages before Jensen finally found him, curled up under the sink in Jensen's mom's bathroom cabinet, sitting on top of a collection bottles of shampoo and hairspray. Neither of them really had any idea how Misha had managed to fit in there, and it was certainly a struggle getting him out, but we soon as he'd escaped with his flushes cheeks and his bright eyes, he was ready to keep going, pushing Jensen out the door and telling him to go hide too. The game continued for the rest of the afternoon, both of the boys daring each other to outdo them, moving outside into the rest of the neighborhood when they ran out of hiding places in Jensen's house. When it started to get dark, the two of them went back inside for fish sticks and potato smiley faces and juice, both eating their food as fast as they could, hungry after a busy afternoon.
"Mom?" Jensen asked, putting on his sweetest smile as his mother took Jell-O out of the fridge. She'd made lime especially for the occasion, because she knew it was Misha's favorite.
Jensen's mother rolled her eyes and smiled. "Yes, honey, Misha can stay the night if it's okay with his parents."
"How did you know I was gonna ask that?" Jensen pouted.
His mom ruffled his hair. "You always ask that. You always cry after he leaves."
Jensen turned bright red for the second time already that day. "Don't tell him that!"
"I'm sure he does exactly the same thing."
--
The first few times that Misha had stayed the night at Jensen's house, Jensen's mom had gone to great lengths to set up a foldaway bed in Jensen's room so that both of the boys would have their own, comfortable place to sleep. However, after repeatedly waking up to find the two boys both curled up together in Jensen's bed, pretty much on top of each other in the small space, she no longer bothered with any of that. Once the two of them got together, it was difficult to separate them, and she was used to it by now. So long as they didn't make any noise and disturb the rest of the family, she supposed they were free to do whatever they wanted.
"Goodnight, boys," she whispered, turning out Jensen's main light, leaving just the small, star shaped night light on the wall casting a soft glow over the room.
Misha grabbed a pile of blankets and dumped them on top of the two of them. "'M cold," he whispered, using it as an excuse to cuddle up as close as possible to Jensen, pretty much nesting in their blanket pile.
But as he jostled the blankets, Jensen's dragon fell out of the pile, bouncing across the bed and coming to rest on Jensen's chest. Jensen picked it up, smiling in wonder - and he had an idea.
"You said this dragon needs a name, right?"
Misha nodded. "Yeah. Everything needs a name. I named all my fish sticks at dinner."
Jensen blinked, momentarily distracted from his plan. "Really? What'd you name them?"
"The first one was Greta, the second one was Billybob, the third one was Susan and the fourth one was Sir Dinomite Elopus of Kale the Fourth," Misha told him, as though reprimanding him for not already being aware of this.
Jensen giggled. "Those are great names."
"I know. So what are you gonna name your dragon?"
Jensen blushed, even harder than the other times he'd blushed that day, and he was really glad the light was out now so that Misha couldn't see his face any longer.
He brushed Misha's hair back from his ear and whispered, as quietly as he possibly could, "I'm gonna name him Misha."
There was a long silence, and then, a curious Misha asked, "Why? That's my name. Why are you giving the dragon my name?"
"Because," Jensen whispered again, his voice shaking a little bit with nerves. "He's the prettiest thing I ever saw and I want to take him everywhere with me and when I get sad I give him a hug and he's soft and he makes me feel happy. And so he's just the same as you. So he should have your name."
Misha was speechless for a few seconds, and then he said, "Yeah. That way it's like you and me are always together even when we can't see each other."
Jensen nodded and yawned. "Yeah. Exactly." He gave a quick kiss to the tip of Misha dragon's nose. "Night, Mish."
"Night, Jen."
Before Misha slept, he leaned over and gave the tiniest, softest kiss to the tip of real Jensen's nose.