Wake by cleflink for <user site="livejournal.com" user="hateswi

[springflingmod.livejournal.com]

Title: Wake
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: G



The thing was that Jensen could deal with having a crush on his boss. He'd been successfully dealing with it for nearly all of the three years that he'd been Jared's secretary, after all. He didn't foresee that changing anytime soon.

He could even deal with the fact that, these days, crush wasn't exactly the word to describe the embarrassingly floaty feeling he got whenever Jared smiled at him, or patted his shoulder, or mostly just existed in the same space as Jensen for any prolonged period of time. Jensen was a damn good secretary and far too professional to let his personal feelings impact his behaviour during work hours. Never mind all the jokes from his friends about what a frigging cliché he was: the secretary secretly pining after his boss. During office hours, he could deal with it.

What he could not deal with however, was said boss showing up out of the blue on the boat cruise that Jensen had booked for his vacation.


"What?" Danneel asked, twisting over his shoulder to look at Jensen, who'd ducked behind her in the most transparent attempt at stealth ever attempted by man. "You see an evil ex or something?"

"Worse," Jensen hissed, trying unsuccessfully to disappear. There was a potted plant in the corner that was much taller than Danneel; he should have hidden there. "That's my boss."

"Jared? Really?" Danneel's head swiveled. "Oh, I can definitely see why you like him. Rawr."

"Stop it," Jensen said, mostly reflexively. "The hell is he even doing here? We're in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea!"

"Well," Danneel said, drawling the word out until it was almost a sentence in its own right. "Considering that he's staring this way, I'm guessing it's got something to do with you."

Jensen groaned. "Oh, my god, I'm going to kill him dead."

"Bring a cannon," Danneel suggested, with an appraising once-over of Jared's physique that had Jensen fighting not to bristle. "Not sure you could take him down on your own."

"You should have more faith in me."

"And you should stop trying to hide behind someone a foot shorter than you. You look ridiculous."

There wasn't much that Jensen could say to contest that. He did his best to maintain a sense of dignity as he straightened and stepped out from behind her. Danneel's expression suggested that she wasn't impressed.

"You want me to face him with you?" she asked, because she wasn't an entirely terrible friend. "I've got a mean right hook."

Jensen had to smile at that, even as he shook his head. "I know you do. But I'll be fine. I handle him on a daily basis, remember?"

A frown creased Danneel's face. "Don't let him push you around. You're on vacation; you're not his dogsbody now."

"I've got no intention of it. I promise," he added, when she looked skeptical. "Now why don't you go find that blond guy who was drooling all over you yesterday and I'll catch up with you later."

"Fine. But come find me if you need backup," was Danneel's response, before she sauntered off.

Jensen watched her go for a moment before squaring his shoulders, mentally preparing for the confrontation with his boss.

"Jensen?"

Jared, apparently, wasn't interested in giving time for mental preparations. Nothing new there.

Jensen turned and found himself eyes to chin with Jared, who was dressed casually in a pair of khaki shorts and a navy t-shirt that was snug in all the right places. For Jensen, who was used to seeing Jared in suits that cost more than Jensen's monthly rent, this dressed-down version was unexpectedly devastating.

Jensen was absently grateful that his default setting was sarcasm; it was the only reason he didn't sound strangled when he said, "If you're stalking me, I'm going to have to send you to another workplace appropriateness seminar."

"I'm not stalking you," Jared said immediately.

"Then why are you on my vacation?"

Jared hunched one shoulder in an awkward shrug. "Happy coincidence?"

Jensen gave him a flat look. "I have been talking about this cruise for months, Jared. You're the one who signed off my vacation request. I even put it on your goddamn calendar so you'd know I was away. You cannot tell me that you accidentally booked yourself a ticket on the same cruise ship as me."

"I don't want to interrupt your vacation," Jared said, despite the fact that he was currently doing just that. "It's just, with work-"

"I'm not cutting my trip short," Jensen said immediately. "I don't care what disaster has sprung up; you can't expect me to just drop everything to deal w-"

"That's not what I meant," Jared interrupted, raising a placating hand. "I'm not here to ruin your time off, I promise."

"Where did you even get on?" Jensen asked. "You didn't board with us in Barcelona."

"Palma De Mallorca," Jared said. His shoulders hunched again in a show of awkwardness that Jensen refused to find endearing. "I was too late to catch the ship before it left Barcelona. This was, um, kind of a last-minute decision."

Jensen stared at him. Jared didn't exactly squirm under the scrutiny, but he certainly looked more uncomfortable than Jensen had ever seen him be at work.

Jensen really wasn’t sure he could deal with this.

"I need to get drunk," he decided. He spun on his heel to go, then paused. "You coming?" he asked, hating himself a little for asking.

Not quite as much as he hated Jared when he agreed, but he figured that Jared deserved the hate more anyways.

Worst fucking vacation ever.

---

They wound up in the piano bar, which Jensen had discovered the first day of the cruise and found rather charming.

Despite his initial claim, he did not, in fact, end up getting drunk. In part, this was because he really wasn't comfortable with the idea of getting drunk in front of his boss, vacation or no. The second reason was because Jared's company was almost embarrassingly enjoyable, and Jensen was too busy being engaged in their conversation to knock back his drinks at any great speed.

Really though, Jensen would almost have preferred awkward silence; at least that might have helped him start getting over this incredibly inconvenient not-crush.

As the day gave way to early evening, more people started trickling into the bar, until it was practically heaving with noise and laughter and drunk people. Still, Jared and Jensen stayed.

Jensen caught sight of Danneel a couple of times, inevitably surrounded by admirers but always ready with an encouraging look thrown Jensen's way. Jensen waved her off each time. He wasn't convinced that he wasn’t going to have need of her right hook at some point but, for now, things weren't quite that dire. Except for the fact that he was enjoying spending time outside work with Jared more than was good for his continued peace of mind.

After one of Jensen's many trips up to the bar, he came back with the name and room number of a guy who looked not unlike a bronzed god. The guy's interest in him had been flattering, considering that someone with a physique like that could have had pretty much anyone on board, but Jensen already knew he wasn't going to consider it seriously. A short summer fling had maybe been part of the plan when Danneel had suggested going on vacation in the first place, but Jensen hadn't really been married to the idea even before the reason for his recent dry spell had decided to insert himself into Jensen's personal life. Unhelpful bastard.

Idly, Jensen smoothed the paper out on the table, framing the neat black letters with thumb and forefinger.

"You gonna take him up on it?" Jared asked suddenly.

Jensen blinked over at him. Jared had both hands wrapped around his glass, the skin of his knuckles drawn tight with the same tension that was making his shoulders hunch. The beginnings of a flush on his cheeks paid mute evidence to the fact that he'd drunk more than Jensen tonight.

"What?" Jensen answered. Because he was suave and well-spoken like that.

Jared tilted his head towards the bar. "Mr. July over there. You gonna make use of his room number?"

Jensen was buzzed enough that the question didn't irritate him the way it probably should have. "It is the sort of thing that single people do on cruises," he pointed out.

That earned him a tight nod. "Right. Of course."

Silence fell between them, palpably awkward for the first time today.

So Jensen sighed a little before crumpling up the paper and letting it fall on the floor.

Jared's wide-eyed incomprehension was almost comical. "What? But you just said-"

"I said it's the sort of thing people do. Never said it's the sort of thing I do."

"I-" Jared started, then faltered.

Jensen wasn't used to seeing him at a loss for words. "Why are you here, Jared?" he asked, softer this time than before.

Jared said nothing for a long moment, long enough that Jensen didn't think he was going to answer. Then, in a voice that Jensen had to strain to hear, he said, "I missed you."

Warmth pooled in Jensen's stomach, but he tried to ignore it. "Did you indeed? I thought it would take longer than that for the office to fall apart without me."

"No," Jared said, shaking his head. "Not Jensen the secretary. Just-" he shrugged, a little helplessly, "-just Jensen."

"Oh." Jensen chewed his lower lip, thinking hard. "But, you-" His eyes darted up to catch Jared looking away from his mouth not-quite quickly enough. The warmth spread, trailing hope in its wake.

"I'm sorry." Jared sounded miserable. "I'm trying to be professional about it, I really am. But it was so quiet with you gone, and you were so excited about your trip. You'd put all the information on my calendar, and I missed you, and it just seemed so easy to fly myself over here and-"

"And?" Jensen pressed, when Jared fell silent. "And what?"

Jared shrugged, looking anywhere but at Jensen. "Do something romantic? Sweep you off your feet? I dunno. I've had too much to drink."

"Jared, wait," Jensen said, when Jared shifted to stand. He took a deep breath. "I haven't got laid in two and a half years."

"What?" Jared stared, looking staggered. "But, you, that's- how?"

Jensen felt himself flushing. It was a work of effort to keep his eyes from falling to the table as he admitted, "because that's how long it's been since I realized that I was falling for you. No one else has really done it for me since then."

A sharply indrawn breath was his only warning before Jared practically lunged across the table to drag him into a kiss. Jared's big hand cupped the side of Jensen's face like he was something precious, and the press of his lips was surprisingly sweet.

All Jensen could focus on was the fact that this was Jared.

"Did you mean that?" he demanded, when Jared drew back with trepidation written all over his face. "Because, so help me God, Jared, if you didn't-"

"I did," Jared said hurriedly. "You wouldn't believe how much I did."

"Oh." Jensen faltered slightly. "Well, good. Me too."

Jared's smile could have lit up the whole ship. "Does that mean that if I gave you my room number, you'd take me up on it?"

Jensen couldn't help laughing in sheer delight. "I am not that easy. But I will let you take me on a date in Marseille."

"Sounds perfect," Jared said, still beaming.

Jensen privately revised his earlier opinion. Best vacation ever.