Chemistry, Another Word For Love
Dec. 24th, 2017 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dime_lioraTitle: Chemistry, Another Word For Love
Author: dimeliora
Fandom: SPN RPF
Wordcount: 3,353
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles
Pairing(s): Jensen/Jared
Prompt(s): This is a Christmas Gift for
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dancing_adrift . I'm sorry this is so close to the wire, but I found December and November came with some huge personal ass-kicking.Summary: Oathbreaker and Warlock Jensen Ackles cannot manage a single potion. It's totally not his familiar's fault.
"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed." -Jung
Jensen scowls at the beaker before adding just a touch of worm’s breath. The color is wrong. Why is the color wrong?
He takes a deep breath, extends his hand to focus just a little magic into the beaker, and then jumps when a crash resounds through the house. Jensen spins on one foot, eyes narrowed and ready for a fight, but before he can see what has caused the noise there is a knock on the door.
The beaker turns a dark black, and Jensen pushes up the sleeves of his robe and stalks to the door pushing down his disappointment and frustration at the ruined potion.
Another knock and then Jensen is throwing the door open.
“What?”
The young man on the other side of the door stares at him, blue eyes wide and shocked. A scroll is clutched in white knuckles.
“Uh. Uh. Lord Oathbreaker-“
“Jensen. Oathbreaker is a general warlock title.”
“My apologies, Lord Jensen I-“
“And on top of that I’m not really a lord.”
“My apologies but-“
“And even if I was it would be incredibly tiresome to hear the title used constantly and would make every interaction dreadfully long and frustrating.”
A smooth, friendly voice behind him kicks in.
“And would make your big head even bigger.”
The messenger’s eyes go huge and he turns to look at the man that has appeared behind Jensen and made the insult. Jensen lets a beat pass before he speaks to the messenger as if they’d never been interrupted.
“What did you want?”
“Um. Well you see. Because of the death of your master you must finally take up the responsibilities of the Second Level Warlock of the kingdom of Dallyas and-“
“What?”
Jensen takes a breath. For the last fifteen years of his life he has been studying under the tutelage of the kingdom’s most infamous and unpleasant Warlock. In that time he has been berated, beaten, starved, and kicked out more than twenty times. Master Pileggi, known to everyone but Jensen as Oathbreaker Pileggi because he did not settle for anything less than the utmost respect, had been ranked third in the kingdom’s Warlocks. Jensen had been pushed to take his placement test a month before Master Pileggi passed away.
He had been told by his master he ranked sixty-seventh.
“Oh. Well you see Oa-Lo-Jensen, the deal your master made to keep you in training instead of moving closer to the castle and working for the Queen has ended due to his death and-“
Pieces come together very quickly, and Jensen plucks the scroll from the young messenger’s hands and closes the door.
“You know, it wouldn’t kill you to be nice to the help.”
Jensen glances over at the man leaning on the wall. One of his many inheritances from Master Pileggi.
“That sounds pretty personal.”
A snort, and then the big muscular man crosses the floor and leans into Jensen.
“Maybe I would like a little niceness. I’m a pretty big fan of hugs. You ever tried hugging?”
Jensen starts digging through the stacks of papers Master Pileggi had left behind that he had never gone through. He ignores the heat of the shoulder pressed into him. The feel of the muscles flexing as they keep the familiar mostly upright and stationary since Jensen is a moving object.
“I don’t like cats.”
“I am a man Jensen.”
Jensen shrugs, flips through some more papers, and then finds the official scroll with his test results.
There it is. Second. Second Level Warlock, Oathbreaker Jensen Ackles.
“Did you know about this?”
The familiar leans over his shoulder, too fucking tall, and pokes the parchment.
“No, but I can’t read.”
“Jared.”
The familiar shrugs and stretches, shirt pulling up to show a peek of tight abdomen muscles and warm skin. Jared is always hot, and always looking for more heat.
“What? I’m a cat. Remember?”
And with that he shifts into the form of a small kitten and lopes off.
Jensen watches him go, then looks back down at the scroll in front of him. He’d ranked higher than his old master. Why had he lied about it? After all these years, all that they had been through together, why would he lie?
It made sense that he would keep Jensen from taking the title until he was fully prepared for the position, but it didn’t make sense that he would lie about his ranking. Master Pileggi had been cruel sometimes, to some even sadistic, and Jensen had learned to live with that.
But he’d always been mostly honest.
“Jensen. It’s time to eat.”
He looks up from the potion vial, the color swiftly changing to black as his concentration wavers.
“Jared. We discussed this. Don’t interrupt this potion. I have to master this potion.”
“You also have to eat Master.”
A huge bowl of stew appears in his vision, and Jensen purses his lips before taking it and sitting down.
“Don’t call me master. You know I hate that. I’ve been telling you that for fifteen years.”
Jared sits down beside him and starts eating his own bowl of stew.
“Well you don’t seem to like me much when I call you Jensen either.”
He considers that for a moment, and then bites into a big piece of meat.
“I prefer Jensen. I have no problem with Jensen.”
Jared’s mouth curls into a warm grin, and slurps his soup loudly before leaning full body into Jensen again. Jensen doesn’t move much this time.
“Why don’t you move on from this potion? It’s a dumb one anyway. I found an incredible potion recipe yesterday in the back of a trunk. I could help you with it.”
“What’s the potion?”
Jared bites his lip, looks down into the bowl, and then goes back to smiling.
“I don’t know Jensen, I can’t read.”
“So you claim.” Jensen slurps his own soup and then elbows Jared when he giggles. “I have to finish this. You know that. It was the last thing Master Pileggi assigned to me and if I can do it I’ll have finally beat the old man.”
Jared’s head tilts thoughtfully.
“Wasn’t Master Pileggi ranked third?”
“Yes.”
“And aren’t you second?”
“Yes.”
“Then didn’t you already beat him?”
Jensen can’t help the grin.
“Can’t read but you can count, huh?”
“I may not be a fancy pants Warlock like you, but I know that two tarts is less than three, but the second to last tastes better than the third to last.’
“Why would it taste better?”
Jared gently taps a napkin against Jensen’s chin to remove some fallen stew.
“Because the less of something you have the more you appreciate it.”
Jensen carefully, gently, taps a little dragon scale into the beaker. When he first came to Master Pileggi’s home it was from an auction. His old master had led him by the arm, trembling and terrified, into a small room in the back and left him there. Jensen had cried himself to sleep that night, hungry and alone, and woken up to a tiny sandpaper tongue rubbing on his face. The little black kitten was staring at him mournfully, tiny paws with pink bean toes pressing against the flesh of his cheek. Jensen had clung to the little kitten and held on tight. They’d become fast friends in the following days, the kitten chasing after him as Master Pileggi began to explain Jensen’s responsibilities and what was expected of him. The kitten looking up at him with big pleading eyes when he ate. The kitten sleeping curled up on his chest every night and easing the ache in his back and his hands.
It was a year before the kitten became a little boy. A year before Jensen learned that the kitten was a familiar who was supposed to be helping Master Pileggi but was focusing on taking care of Jensen instead. They’d always been close, but since the death of Master Pileggi things have been awkward.
Jared no longer climbs into the bed and cuddles up close in kitten form. Jared no longer drops his feet into Jensen’s lap to steal his body heat while Jensen reads or studies. There is a distance that Jensen can only assume comes from the fact that now that he is the head Warlock of the home Jared is technically his familiar.
“HEY JENSEN! LOOK!”
Jensen’s head jerks, the potion trembles, and turns pitch black.
Several silent minutes pass before Jensen turns around, his neck audibly creaking.
“Jared.”
His familiar is standing in front of him, hands cupped together and eyes bright.
“Jensen! I caught a firefly! You wanna see it?”
He looks from the smile to the cupped hands and back again.
“You ruined my potion. Again.”
Jared’s hands open and a firefly careens out of his palms and lands on Jensen’s nose. It lights up.
“You know they do that to show they’re interested in mating.”
Jared’s leer makes it hard for Jensen to focus on his anger.
He waves the firefly away from his nose and steps forward, grabbing Jared’s shoulders.
“What is your job?”
Jared’s smile falters and he looks around the room uncomfortably.
“Jensen I just wanted to show you the firefly.”
“What. Is. Your. Job?”
Jared’s lip trembles for just a moment.
“Taking care of you Jensen. That’s my job.”
“No. Your job is to assist me. It’s not to take care of me. It’s not to amuse me. It’s not to entertain me. It’s to assist me. And right now you are doing the opposite of that by consistently ruining this one very specific potion. I don’t understand you. You’re not messing with the transfiguration spells, you’re not messing with the illusions, you let me light the woods on fire with a fireball. Why is this the thing you insist on ruining?”
Jared’s face goes flat, unhappy, and if he was in kitten form his ears would surely be drooping.
“I just- I just want to watch out for you Jensen. It’s not my job technically but it’s something I take seriously. I have for a long time.”
“Is this because of Master Pileggi?”
The big eyes sweep upwards, taking Jensen fully in. There’s shock, and Jared licks his lips and flushes as he struggles with whatever it is he’s trying to say.
“What do you mean?”
“Because I’m not as good as him? You want a better Warlock to be a familiar to?”
Jared’s mouth gapes, like a fish, and then he turns around and leaves the house. Leaves Jensen alone in silence.
Jensen makes it two hours of studying the potion before he heads into Jared’s room to find him. It was too harsh of him, he knows that, but he can’t help wondering. When Jared served Master Pileggi they got along fabulously. Almost like…well almost like more than being two owned tools to the kingdom’s third most powerful Warlock.
He sits on Jared’s bed, a thing he has been doing for most of his life, and looks around the room. Jared has shelves and shelves of trinkets displayed. There’s an entire collection of rocks that Jensen recognizes as ones they’ve collected together while they looked for herbs. There’s a shelf comprised of feathers that flutter lightly in the small breeze coming from the window.
The last shelf makes Jensen get up. It’s full of journals, and Jensen plucks one down and thumbs through it. Jared keeps telling him he can’t read. Why would he keep a journal?
The handwriting is unfamiliar, and Jensen is willing to be nosy but not so nosy as to look deeply at the pages and read the entries. Just as he’s putting it back up a piece of parchment flutters to the floor. Jensen bends over to pick it up.
He knows this handwriting. This is Master Pileggi’s cramped, tiny letters. Jensen also recognizes the structure and ingredients of the potion detailed on the parchment. It’s the one he’s been working on. The last assignment that Master Pileggi gave him before he died. Jensen still remembers the day Master Pileggi gave him the task. It was the first potion his Master never even tried to monitor or poke his fingers into.
Jensen looks it over, and then stops when he sees the name of the potion. His hand starts to tremble, and he moves quickly through the house and to the lab to compare the two recipes. He’s not wrong. It is the same.
Jensen takes a seat and waits for Jared to come home and give him answers.
When Jared comes in he has shaken off the upset of the earlier fight, as is tradition, and he locks eyes with Jensen and smiles brightly.
“I was thinking fish tonight. I really like fish, and you hate it. Since you’re a jerk that means I get to pick the meat.”
Jensen leans back in the chair and crosses his arms over his chest.
“Jared. Can you sit down for a second?”
There’s no hesitation. Jared pulls a chair up beside him and flops down into it, pressing their shoulders together and smiling brightly.
“Jensen. Don’t look so down. It’s just fish. It’s not a big deal. We’ll be back to beef tomorrow and you’ll never even notice it’s missing.”
He thinks of all the times that they’ve lain in bed together, curled around each other for warmth and comfort. Of all the times Jared felt small or needy and would change into the form that he used to help both Jensen and Master Pileggi hone their spells before climbing on Jensen’s shoulders and laying out across them.
There’s a coldness in Jared’s skin at this moment that Jensen doesn’t recognize. A slyness in his eyes.
“How did Master Pileggi die?”
Jared’s mouth opens and then closes. He rubs his face with the side of his hand before he speaks.
“I told you. I told the council too. He made a mistake. The spell overtook him.”
“What mistake?”
“How should I know Jensen? I direct spell energies. I channel. I don’t make decisions. I’m just a cat.
Jared hasn’t split their shoulders apart. He hasn’t tried to move away. Without letting himself think about it too much Jensen reaches up and strokes the hair hanging along the back of Jared’s head. Tangles his fingers gently into the soft strands.
“You’ve never been just a cat. Earlier, what I said to you. I shouldn’t have said that. You’ve always been more to me than that. More than just a familiar.”
The multi-colored eyes cut to the side as Jared studies him. There’s a hesitant, confused smile that hurts Jensen’s heart to see.
“Thank you. Thank you Jensen.”
“But you have to tell me how Master Pileggi died.”
Jared shrugs, body tensing where it presses against Jensen and feet flexing against the wood floor.
“I’m not a Warlock Jen, maybe he picked a wrong ingredient.”
Jensen shakes his head. He reaches forward and puts a bottle of worm’s breath from his robe pocket down on the table. Beside him Jared takes in a shaky breath.
“It’s nightshade Jared. The label’s been switched.”
“I don’t know how. Master Pileggi was very careful with his labels.”
“Yes. He was. But you switched the label on this. You picked two bottles that require black glass to keep the light out because the ingredients would never been seen before they were added.”
“Even if I wanted to, which I didn’t and would never, I couldn’t. You know as well as I do Master Pileggi never allowed me to learn to read.”
“You did it so he wouldn’t kill me.”
Jared’s hands flutter for a second, he looks around the room, and then his eyes land on the table.
“I can’t read. I’m just a familiar.”
And at that, Jensen pulls out the recipe and lays it on the table. Jared’s eyes go wide and he flushes.
“You went through my journal?”
“I looked at your bookshelf. I didn’t read your journal. This fell out and I saw it.”
“Why were you in my room?”
“Because you left and I missed you. Why did you kill Master Pileggi?”
Jared swallows thickly, fingers tightening on the arms of the chair. His shoulder is still pressed against Jensen’s.
“He was jealous of you. He was going to kill you. I couldn’t let him hurt you.”
“I thought familiars couldn’t hurt their masters.”
Jared looks at the page for a long time, silent and still. More so than he has ever been since Jensen met him. And then he reaches out and takes Jensen’s hand.
“I no longer felt loyal to him. I was no longer willing to hold to our agreement.”
He doesn’t have to ask what that means. He knows who Jared is loyal to. He knows a lot of things that he didn’t know before.
“You’ll never tell anyone that.” Jensen leans forward, dropping the potion recipe into the fire and watching it crisp and burn. “Now we’re equal. If you ever feel like I’m mistreating you or not being good to you I want you to go to the council and tell them that I killed Master Pileggi. You understand?”
Jared’s eyes are wide, the hand he has linked with Jensen’s tightening briefly.
“I would never do that.”
“I know. But all this time I didn’t see what you were thinking and feeling, and I should have. And I shelved what I felt because it would have been a gross abuse of power if you agreed but didn’t feel it back. This way we’re on the same level. This way I know you’re doing what you want because you want to and you don’t have to worry about me mistreating you.”
He suddenly has a lap full of Jared, soft lips pressing against his cheek, his forehead, and then his mouth. Jensen opens his own to accept the kiss, burying his fingers into Jared’s soft hair and twisting them to get a good grip. They kiss for a long time, wrapped up in each other and sharing heat and touch, Jared rubbing against him slowly and rhythmically.
“Jensen?”
He breathes against Jared’s lips, eyes focused on Jared’s own wide gaze.
“Yes Jared?”
“We’re still eating fish tonight.”
Months later Jensen wakes up to gentle little licks along his cock. He buries his fingers in Jared’s hair and rolls up against his tongue. Feels the warm heat of his partner’s mouth wrapped around him and long fingers pressing into his thighs. Jensen tugs lightly on Jared’s shoulder and is rubbeds by muscles and skin as Jared turns around and presents his own thick dick for Jensen to lift his head and swallow down.
They move together, rocking and panting, Jared’s muscled thighs flexing on either side of his head. Jensen gasps and then chokes when he takes too much of Jared in too deep when Jared’s tongue swirls around the base of his cock. He doesn’t last much beyond that, and the first taste of Jared’s sperm is salty and bitter, but the look on his face is well worth it.
They lay together afterward, basking in the afterglow, and Jensen doesn’t even mind that coffee didn’t come with the wake up.
“Where did that come from?”
Jared kisses his neck before nuzzling it.
“Well, it’s been months and you didn’t make a move.”
Jensen closes his eyes, reveling in the warmth of Jared and the comfort of the bed.
“I was nervous. I didn’t know a lot about your biology.”
Dead silence takes over, and then Jared starts laughing against his neck.
“Oh shit. Jen. Did you think I had a barbed dick or something?”
Jensen feels his face turning sour.
“Did you think I’d go into heat?”
Jensen lets go of Jared, crossing his arms over his chest grumpily.
“I promise, when it comes to bedroom time I will be one hundred percent human. But this couldn’t wait any longer. The right time was meow.”
Jared does not land on his feet when Jensen shoves him out of the bed.
He takes a deep breath, extends his hand to focus just a little magic into the beaker, and then jumps when a crash resounds through the house. Jensen spins on one foot, eyes narrowed and ready for a fight, but before he can see what has caused the noise there is a knock on the door.
The beaker turns a dark black, and Jensen pushes up the sleeves of his robe and stalks to the door pushing down his disappointment and frustration at the ruined potion.
Another knock and then Jensen is throwing the door open.
“What?”
The young man on the other side of the door stares at him, blue eyes wide and shocked. A scroll is clutched in white knuckles.
“Uh. Uh. Lord Oathbreaker-“
“Jensen. Oathbreaker is a general warlock title.”
“My apologies, Lord Jensen I-“
“And on top of that I’m not really a lord.”
“My apologies but-“
“And even if I was it would be incredibly tiresome to hear the title used constantly and would make every interaction dreadfully long and frustrating.”
A smooth, friendly voice behind him kicks in.
“And would make your big head even bigger.”
The messenger’s eyes go huge and he turns to look at the man that has appeared behind Jensen and made the insult. Jensen lets a beat pass before he speaks to the messenger as if they’d never been interrupted.
“What did you want?”
“Um. Well you see. Because of the death of your master you must finally take up the responsibilities of the Second Level Warlock of the kingdom of Dallyas and-“
“What?”
Jensen takes a breath. For the last fifteen years of his life he has been studying under the tutelage of the kingdom’s most infamous and unpleasant Warlock. In that time he has been berated, beaten, starved, and kicked out more than twenty times. Master Pileggi, known to everyone but Jensen as Oathbreaker Pileggi because he did not settle for anything less than the utmost respect, had been ranked third in the kingdom’s Warlocks. Jensen had been pushed to take his placement test a month before Master Pileggi passed away.
He had been told by his master he ranked sixty-seventh.
“Oh. Well you see Oa-Lo-Jensen, the deal your master made to keep you in training instead of moving closer to the castle and working for the Queen has ended due to his death and-“
Pieces come together very quickly, and Jensen plucks the scroll from the young messenger’s hands and closes the door.
“You know, it wouldn’t kill you to be nice to the help.”
Jensen glances over at the man leaning on the wall. One of his many inheritances from Master Pileggi.
“That sounds pretty personal.”
A snort, and then the big muscular man crosses the floor and leans into Jensen.
“Maybe I would like a little niceness. I’m a pretty big fan of hugs. You ever tried hugging?”
Jensen starts digging through the stacks of papers Master Pileggi had left behind that he had never gone through. He ignores the heat of the shoulder pressed into him. The feel of the muscles flexing as they keep the familiar mostly upright and stationary since Jensen is a moving object.
“I don’t like cats.”
“I am a man Jensen.”
Jensen shrugs, flips through some more papers, and then finds the official scroll with his test results.
There it is. Second. Second Level Warlock, Oathbreaker Jensen Ackles.
“Did you know about this?”
The familiar leans over his shoulder, too fucking tall, and pokes the parchment.
“No, but I can’t read.”
“Jared.”
The familiar shrugs and stretches, shirt pulling up to show a peek of tight abdomen muscles and warm skin. Jared is always hot, and always looking for more heat.
“What? I’m a cat. Remember?”
And with that he shifts into the form of a small kitten and lopes off.
Jensen watches him go, then looks back down at the scroll in front of him. He’d ranked higher than his old master. Why had he lied about it? After all these years, all that they had been through together, why would he lie?
It made sense that he would keep Jensen from taking the title until he was fully prepared for the position, but it didn’t make sense that he would lie about his ranking. Master Pileggi had been cruel sometimes, to some even sadistic, and Jensen had learned to live with that.
But he’d always been mostly honest.
“Jensen. It’s time to eat.”
He looks up from the potion vial, the color swiftly changing to black as his concentration wavers.
“Jared. We discussed this. Don’t interrupt this potion. I have to master this potion.”
“You also have to eat Master.”
A huge bowl of stew appears in his vision, and Jensen purses his lips before taking it and sitting down.
“Don’t call me master. You know I hate that. I’ve been telling you that for fifteen years.”
Jared sits down beside him and starts eating his own bowl of stew.
“Well you don’t seem to like me much when I call you Jensen either.”
He considers that for a moment, and then bites into a big piece of meat.
“I prefer Jensen. I have no problem with Jensen.”
Jared’s mouth curls into a warm grin, and slurps his soup loudly before leaning full body into Jensen again. Jensen doesn’t move much this time.
“Why don’t you move on from this potion? It’s a dumb one anyway. I found an incredible potion recipe yesterday in the back of a trunk. I could help you with it.”
“What’s the potion?”
Jared bites his lip, looks down into the bowl, and then goes back to smiling.
“I don’t know Jensen, I can’t read.”
“So you claim.” Jensen slurps his own soup and then elbows Jared when he giggles. “I have to finish this. You know that. It was the last thing Master Pileggi assigned to me and if I can do it I’ll have finally beat the old man.”
Jared’s head tilts thoughtfully.
“Wasn’t Master Pileggi ranked third?”
“Yes.”
“And aren’t you second?”
“Yes.”
“Then didn’t you already beat him?”
Jensen can’t help the grin.
“Can’t read but you can count, huh?”
“I may not be a fancy pants Warlock like you, but I know that two tarts is less than three, but the second to last tastes better than the third to last.’
“Why would it taste better?”
Jared gently taps a napkin against Jensen’s chin to remove some fallen stew.
“Because the less of something you have the more you appreciate it.”
Jensen carefully, gently, taps a little dragon scale into the beaker. When he first came to Master Pileggi’s home it was from an auction. His old master had led him by the arm, trembling and terrified, into a small room in the back and left him there. Jensen had cried himself to sleep that night, hungry and alone, and woken up to a tiny sandpaper tongue rubbing on his face. The little black kitten was staring at him mournfully, tiny paws with pink bean toes pressing against the flesh of his cheek. Jensen had clung to the little kitten and held on tight. They’d become fast friends in the following days, the kitten chasing after him as Master Pileggi began to explain Jensen’s responsibilities and what was expected of him. The kitten looking up at him with big pleading eyes when he ate. The kitten sleeping curled up on his chest every night and easing the ache in his back and his hands.
It was a year before the kitten became a little boy. A year before Jensen learned that the kitten was a familiar who was supposed to be helping Master Pileggi but was focusing on taking care of Jensen instead. They’d always been close, but since the death of Master Pileggi things have been awkward.
Jared no longer climbs into the bed and cuddles up close in kitten form. Jared no longer drops his feet into Jensen’s lap to steal his body heat while Jensen reads or studies. There is a distance that Jensen can only assume comes from the fact that now that he is the head Warlock of the home Jared is technically his familiar.
“HEY JENSEN! LOOK!”
Jensen’s head jerks, the potion trembles, and turns pitch black.
Several silent minutes pass before Jensen turns around, his neck audibly creaking.
“Jared.”
His familiar is standing in front of him, hands cupped together and eyes bright.
“Jensen! I caught a firefly! You wanna see it?”
He looks from the smile to the cupped hands and back again.
“You ruined my potion. Again.”
Jared’s hands open and a firefly careens out of his palms and lands on Jensen’s nose. It lights up.
“You know they do that to show they’re interested in mating.”
Jared’s leer makes it hard for Jensen to focus on his anger.
He waves the firefly away from his nose and steps forward, grabbing Jared’s shoulders.
“What is your job?”
Jared’s smile falters and he looks around the room uncomfortably.
“Jensen I just wanted to show you the firefly.”
“What. Is. Your. Job?”
Jared’s lip trembles for just a moment.
“Taking care of you Jensen. That’s my job.”
“No. Your job is to assist me. It’s not to take care of me. It’s not to amuse me. It’s not to entertain me. It’s to assist me. And right now you are doing the opposite of that by consistently ruining this one very specific potion. I don’t understand you. You’re not messing with the transfiguration spells, you’re not messing with the illusions, you let me light the woods on fire with a fireball. Why is this the thing you insist on ruining?”
Jared’s face goes flat, unhappy, and if he was in kitten form his ears would surely be drooping.
“I just- I just want to watch out for you Jensen. It’s not my job technically but it’s something I take seriously. I have for a long time.”
“Is this because of Master Pileggi?”
The big eyes sweep upwards, taking Jensen fully in. There’s shock, and Jared licks his lips and flushes as he struggles with whatever it is he’s trying to say.
“What do you mean?”
“Because I’m not as good as him? You want a better Warlock to be a familiar to?”
Jared’s mouth gapes, like a fish, and then he turns around and leaves the house. Leaves Jensen alone in silence.
Jensen makes it two hours of studying the potion before he heads into Jared’s room to find him. It was too harsh of him, he knows that, but he can’t help wondering. When Jared served Master Pileggi they got along fabulously. Almost like…well almost like more than being two owned tools to the kingdom’s third most powerful Warlock.
He sits on Jared’s bed, a thing he has been doing for most of his life, and looks around the room. Jared has shelves and shelves of trinkets displayed. There’s an entire collection of rocks that Jensen recognizes as ones they’ve collected together while they looked for herbs. There’s a shelf comprised of feathers that flutter lightly in the small breeze coming from the window.
The last shelf makes Jensen get up. It’s full of journals, and Jensen plucks one down and thumbs through it. Jared keeps telling him he can’t read. Why would he keep a journal?
The handwriting is unfamiliar, and Jensen is willing to be nosy but not so nosy as to look deeply at the pages and read the entries. Just as he’s putting it back up a piece of parchment flutters to the floor. Jensen bends over to pick it up.
He knows this handwriting. This is Master Pileggi’s cramped, tiny letters. Jensen also recognizes the structure and ingredients of the potion detailed on the parchment. It’s the one he’s been working on. The last assignment that Master Pileggi gave him before he died. Jensen still remembers the day Master Pileggi gave him the task. It was the first potion his Master never even tried to monitor or poke his fingers into.
Jensen looks it over, and then stops when he sees the name of the potion. His hand starts to tremble, and he moves quickly through the house and to the lab to compare the two recipes. He’s not wrong. It is the same.
Jensen takes a seat and waits for Jared to come home and give him answers.
When Jared comes in he has shaken off the upset of the earlier fight, as is tradition, and he locks eyes with Jensen and smiles brightly.
“I was thinking fish tonight. I really like fish, and you hate it. Since you’re a jerk that means I get to pick the meat.”
Jensen leans back in the chair and crosses his arms over his chest.
“Jared. Can you sit down for a second?”
There’s no hesitation. Jared pulls a chair up beside him and flops down into it, pressing their shoulders together and smiling brightly.
“Jensen. Don’t look so down. It’s just fish. It’s not a big deal. We’ll be back to beef tomorrow and you’ll never even notice it’s missing.”
He thinks of all the times that they’ve lain in bed together, curled around each other for warmth and comfort. Of all the times Jared felt small or needy and would change into the form that he used to help both Jensen and Master Pileggi hone their spells before climbing on Jensen’s shoulders and laying out across them.
There’s a coldness in Jared’s skin at this moment that Jensen doesn’t recognize. A slyness in his eyes.
“How did Master Pileggi die?”
Jared’s mouth opens and then closes. He rubs his face with the side of his hand before he speaks.
“I told you. I told the council too. He made a mistake. The spell overtook him.”
“What mistake?”
“How should I know Jensen? I direct spell energies. I channel. I don’t make decisions. I’m just a cat.
Jared hasn’t split their shoulders apart. He hasn’t tried to move away. Without letting himself think about it too much Jensen reaches up and strokes the hair hanging along the back of Jared’s head. Tangles his fingers gently into the soft strands.
“You’ve never been just a cat. Earlier, what I said to you. I shouldn’t have said that. You’ve always been more to me than that. More than just a familiar.”
The multi-colored eyes cut to the side as Jared studies him. There’s a hesitant, confused smile that hurts Jensen’s heart to see.
“Thank you. Thank you Jensen.”
“But you have to tell me how Master Pileggi died.”
Jared shrugs, body tensing where it presses against Jensen and feet flexing against the wood floor.
“I’m not a Warlock Jen, maybe he picked a wrong ingredient.”
Jensen shakes his head. He reaches forward and puts a bottle of worm’s breath from his robe pocket down on the table. Beside him Jared takes in a shaky breath.
“It’s nightshade Jared. The label’s been switched.”
“I don’t know how. Master Pileggi was very careful with his labels.”
“Yes. He was. But you switched the label on this. You picked two bottles that require black glass to keep the light out because the ingredients would never been seen before they were added.”
“Even if I wanted to, which I didn’t and would never, I couldn’t. You know as well as I do Master Pileggi never allowed me to learn to read.”
“You did it so he wouldn’t kill me.”
Jared’s hands flutter for a second, he looks around the room, and then his eyes land on the table.
“I can’t read. I’m just a familiar.”
And at that, Jensen pulls out the recipe and lays it on the table. Jared’s eyes go wide and he flushes.
“You went through my journal?”
“I looked at your bookshelf. I didn’t read your journal. This fell out and I saw it.”
“Why were you in my room?”
“Because you left and I missed you. Why did you kill Master Pileggi?”
Jared swallows thickly, fingers tightening on the arms of the chair. His shoulder is still pressed against Jensen’s.
“He was jealous of you. He was going to kill you. I couldn’t let him hurt you.”
“I thought familiars couldn’t hurt their masters.”
Jared looks at the page for a long time, silent and still. More so than he has ever been since Jensen met him. And then he reaches out and takes Jensen’s hand.
“I no longer felt loyal to him. I was no longer willing to hold to our agreement.”
He doesn’t have to ask what that means. He knows who Jared is loyal to. He knows a lot of things that he didn’t know before.
“You’ll never tell anyone that.” Jensen leans forward, dropping the potion recipe into the fire and watching it crisp and burn. “Now we’re equal. If you ever feel like I’m mistreating you or not being good to you I want you to go to the council and tell them that I killed Master Pileggi. You understand?”
Jared’s eyes are wide, the hand he has linked with Jensen’s tightening briefly.
“I would never do that.”
“I know. But all this time I didn’t see what you were thinking and feeling, and I should have. And I shelved what I felt because it would have been a gross abuse of power if you agreed but didn’t feel it back. This way we’re on the same level. This way I know you’re doing what you want because you want to and you don’t have to worry about me mistreating you.”
He suddenly has a lap full of Jared, soft lips pressing against his cheek, his forehead, and then his mouth. Jensen opens his own to accept the kiss, burying his fingers into Jared’s soft hair and twisting them to get a good grip. They kiss for a long time, wrapped up in each other and sharing heat and touch, Jared rubbing against him slowly and rhythmically.
“Jensen?”
He breathes against Jared’s lips, eyes focused on Jared’s own wide gaze.
“Yes Jared?”
“We’re still eating fish tonight.”
Months later Jensen wakes up to gentle little licks along his cock. He buries his fingers in Jared’s hair and rolls up against his tongue. Feels the warm heat of his partner’s mouth wrapped around him and long fingers pressing into his thighs. Jensen tugs lightly on Jared’s shoulder and is rubbeds by muscles and skin as Jared turns around and presents his own thick dick for Jensen to lift his head and swallow down.
They move together, rocking and panting, Jared’s muscled thighs flexing on either side of his head. Jensen gasps and then chokes when he takes too much of Jared in too deep when Jared’s tongue swirls around the base of his cock. He doesn’t last much beyond that, and the first taste of Jared’s sperm is salty and bitter, but the look on his face is well worth it.
They lay together afterward, basking in the afterglow, and Jensen doesn’t even mind that coffee didn’t come with the wake up.
“Where did that come from?”
Jared kisses his neck before nuzzling it.
“Well, it’s been months and you didn’t make a move.”
Jensen closes his eyes, reveling in the warmth of Jared and the comfort of the bed.
“I was nervous. I didn’t know a lot about your biology.”
Dead silence takes over, and then Jared starts laughing against his neck.
“Oh shit. Jen. Did you think I had a barbed dick or something?”
Jensen feels his face turning sour.
“Did you think I’d go into heat?”
Jensen lets go of Jared, crossing his arms over his chest grumpily.
“I promise, when it comes to bedroom time I will be one hundred percent human. But this couldn’t wait any longer. The right time was meow.”
Jared does not land on his feet when Jensen shoves him out of the bed.
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Date: 2017-12-25 05:12 am (UTC)Oh, that was wonderful! Thank you very much for the fantastic Christmas present--lucky, lucky dancing_adrift! Heck, it was a present just seeing your name! :)
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Date: 2019-01-18 04:31 am (UTC):D You're so awesome! I'll never forget my first commenter roxymissrose, who taught me how to post properly and encouraged me to keep going. <333333
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Date: 2019-01-18 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-12-25 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 04:38 am (UTC)<3 I'm so very very glad you enjoyed it, and belated Merry Christmas!!
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Date: 2017-12-27 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 04:37 am (UTC):D It's unrelated, but I keep hearing the Super Troopers bit as I attempt to write a witty response to this. I'm so glad you liked it, and I hope you're still home meow and enjoying those kitties.
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Date: 2017-12-29 12:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 04:36 am (UTC)<33333 I'm so glad you like it!
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Date: 2017-12-29 08:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 04:36 am (UTC)I'm so very glad you liked it! Thank you for reading, commenting, and enjoying!
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Date: 2018-01-31 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 04:33 am (UTC):D I'm so glad you liked it! And rhyming feedback is always surprising and appreciated. <3
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Date: 2018-02-16 10:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 04:32 am (UTC)I am so glad to have given you that! But oh wow that icon choice with his story has killed me a little. XD