ficlets, you're trying to seduce me
Apr. 6th, 2010 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cjmarloweYou thought I was all out of ficlets? Yeah, no. Maybe never. :) If there's one thing AI fandom really likes to do, other than wank, it's raise money for things. There are from the last Donors Choose fundraising drive, and I affectionately call it the Kris-with-everyone-but-Adam batch. This will, naturally, be followed by a Kris-with-Adam and Adam-with-other-people batch. (If you're linked to this post directly and want to see it with the cut tags intact, click here.)
Disclaimer: No disrespect intended to any of the persons depicted herein, who I hope are all living happy and fulfilled lives with their partner(s) of choice. This is purely fictional, and not in any way intended as an accurate representation of reality.
Kris & Jared Padalecki (plus CRACK). 1003 words. PG. For![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daemonicangel.
Legend In His Own Mind
Prompt: CW RPF crossover, Kris and Jared (from the Kris and Jared verse).
Kris got the first text when he was in rehearsal, ignoring it when he saw it wasn't urgent even though he was curious what Jared would be texting him. Whatever it was, he was pretty sure it wasn't urgent anyway. He wasn't even sure what it would be urgent about, between him and Jared. Maybe Jared urgently needed a sandwich.
When they took a break though, and when half his band took off for the bathroom and the other took off to get more water, Kris got his phone back out to check out it and the few other messages he'd gotten.
once upon a time there as a handsome young man lets call him jared
He kind of stared at it for a little while, torn between smiling and frowning and almost certainly making a very strange face at his iPhone. Well, okay, to be fair that actually seemed like exactly the kind of thing that Jared would send to him. It probably didn't demand a response, though, so Kris just saved it and moved on to the next message.
Even if that amused quirk of a smile never quite left his face after that.
The next message came less than an hour later, and because Andrew was fixing a guitar string Kris checked this one right away.
and he lived in the magical kingdom of vancouver with his eveil stepbrother lets call him jensen
His eveil stepbrother. Kris figured that must make him extra evil, and texted as much back to Jared, all the while shaking his head at the phone.
"What is it?" said Cale, flinging a bit of gummy something at him.
"My friends are insane," said Kris, putting the phone away again. "Present company included. Are we ready to go?"
They were debuting a new song at the next show, an actual new song that he and Cale wrote, and Kris wasn't a perfectionist, he wasn't afraid of being a little raw on stage, but he felt really protective of his first post-album song and wanted them to get it right.
Andrew was still checking the tuning when another text came in, which Kris quickly read this time before they got started.
jensen makes jared work hard labor day and night at a dark place called the supernatural set
He snorted but didn't reply this time, just imagined the look on Jensen's face if he knew what Jared was sending him. Actually, he probably did know and was just indulgently rolling his eyes and protesting that Jensen wasn't the evil one in this equation, that actually he was a prisoner too and couldn't Jared find some other fairy tale trope to blame? Some kind of fairy godmother named Kripke, maybe?
"Okay, we're good," said Andrew. "Kris, wipe that smirk off your face, it didn't take me that long."
"Sorry, it's not you," said Kris, flashing him a 'forgive me' grin. "I'm just pretty sure someone's getting a spanking right now."
"There are some things about your personal life I just don't need to know," said Ryland.
The next text was waiting when Kris paused for a gulp of water, wiping his mouth with the back of one hand and using the other to retrieve the message.
where he makes him do unspeakable things like go hours without candy
Making Jared go without sugar for a little while probably was part of Jensen's job description. They probably wrote it into his contract. The way they—it was always some mysterious them—threatened to write it into his band's to make him wear things other than plaid sometimes. (Kris wore lots of other things, actually, and besides, what was wrong with plaid? He liked plaid.)
"Toss that here?" said Cale, and Kris tossed him the remains of the water bottle as he backed up to get started again. There were a few things he wanted to run through, and he bet they could get through at least a couple before Jared had another break of his own in which to text.
but jared has a plan
an escape plan
Kris retrieved those two after having a short meeting with Lizzie, in which she informed him of some updates to his schedule and Kris mostly just nodded his head.
The rest of the guys took advantage of the break to eat some urgent sandwiches.
"What are you doing anyway?" said Torres, trying to get a peek at Kris's phone. "Katy keeping you entertained?"
"Katy knows better than to send me a dozen text messages during rehearsal," said Kris. She'd save it all up for when he got home, unless she actually had something urgent and/or awesome to tell him.
Apparently Jared went back to work too, because it was over an hour before the next message came in, and about twenty minutes after that before Kris gave himself a break to check it out.
and soon he will escape the clutches of his captors and put this plan into action
"God help us all," he murmured, torn between grinning and shaking his head in dismay at the phone. He ended up doing both.
"What, is the world ending?" said Cale. "You wouldn't be smiling if the world was ending."
"No, but if there's news out of Vancouver about some kind of strange explosion, I think I know who to blame," he said. Or maybe something more subtle, but Jared just wasn't the subtle type.
"Do I even want to know?"
"Probably not," said Kris, and got back to work.
They were actually finished for the day and packing up when another message came in, Ryland flicking water at Torres while Torres blamed a completely innocent Cale, and Andrew rolling his eyes at all of them as he babied his guitar.
in other words i'll be in la this weekend
Then, a moment later:
coffee?
Kris shook his head and texted back "when and where?" and wondered—not for the first time—how he managed to pick up such weird, weird friends.
Kris/Cale. 1006 words. PG-13. Forvanya_elda.
Stars
Prompt: Snuggly BFF (with benefits) Krale.
Their hotel room never does get entirely dark, not with all the lights of the city outside, and Kris knows that if he goes to the window and opens the curtains and looks up at the sky he'll hardly even be able to see stars. It's not like home at all. Not that he comes from some tiny place under the stars, but this is different, this is bright and lonely and impersonal.
At least he brought a little bit of home with him.
"What are you staring at?"
Kris had been staring at the curtains, but now he's staring at the way Cale has let his suitcase explode all over his own bed and is now sprawled on Kris's.
"That's my bed."
"It's okay, I left room for you," says Cale, pointing at the bottom corner of the bed, a square about the size of a pillow. If he's being generous. "There's even space for you to stretch out."
"Shut up and shove over," says Kris, crossing to the bed and giving Cale's shoulder a nudge to make room for himself next to him, already resigned to the fact that Cale is probably going to end up sleeping there. Again.
They wind up with Cale's leg tangled around one of Kris's, trying to reclaim the territory Kris forced him to give up, and Cale hogging all the pillows while Kris laces his hands behind his head. It's sort of nice, in a way that reminds Kris of college and good friends and very crowded sleeping accommodations in other distant places.
"So what is on your mind?" says Cale after a few minutes of comfortable silence, tapping Kris's leg with his heel and throwing an arm over him for good measure. "Thinking about tomorrow?"
Kris shrugs and looks up at the ceiling, and imagines the tiny flecks that must be on it that he can't see, probably couldn't see even if he hadn't already abandoned his glasses on the bedside table, a hundred invisible constellations. "Just thinking," he says. "About where we are."
"The bed, the hotel, or the city?" says Cale. "Because those are three very different thoughts."
"Bigger than that," says Kris. "Do you remember the audition? The American Idol audition, the first one."
"Of course I do," says Cale. "Stuck in the car with your brother the whole way out there. No one ever did find that half a hamburger he lost. That haunts me, you know. Keeps me up at night."
"It never even made any sense," says Kris. "Not that I'm sorry, but I think about it sometimes. There were so many people, so many great singers, but it was me they put through. It felt like it was almost completely random, just a roll of the dice."
"No it wasn't," says Cale. "It made perfect sense. They saw something in you."
"But there were so many people there who were just as good as me, and they were sent home after thirty seconds of singing," says Kris. "What made them choose me over all of those people?"
"They saw something in you," says Cale again. "It makes perfect sense to me, Kris. It always has. Of course they chose you, and of course people voted for you. It wasn't chance, it was you."
"But did you ever imagine that we'd be here?" says Kris. "Not just the idea of making it, but this. This moment, right here, doing this. "
"It's not like we imagined it," said Cale. "You don't imagine all the weird parts, and the hard parts. You just imagine the stage and the crowd and the music. You just imagine the parts you love to do."
"You don't imagine hotel rooms in strange cities in the middle of the night with your best friend hogging the covers."
"Well, I did," said Cale, "but that's probably not normal."
Kris nudged him again, but it didn't earn him any more room. If anything, Cale just wrapped himself around him even more, like he'd just accepted Kris's presence inside his personal space and was adapting to his surroundings. Kris didn't mention again that it was his bed, and it wasn't his fault that Cale's side of the room was a disaster area within moments of claiming the room.
"What?" said Cale. "You can't imagine the rock star life without imagining trashing a few hotel rooms. Hotels are an integral part of the rock star experience. Not that we would ever trash a room."
Kris looked at Cale's bed and wondered if he was going to have to explain the word 'trash' to him.
"It's amazing, though, right?" he said instead, staring up at the blurry ceiling again. "Whether it's what we imagined or not."
"It's completely amazing," said Cale. "It's more amazing every day."
"It's more amazing because we're doing it together," said Kris. "It wouldn't be the same, after all the times we talked about it, if it wasn't both of us here. I thought about that sometimes on tour last summer, that there was a Cale-shaped hole. I loved all those guys, probably always will, but there was no you."
"Liar," said Cale. "You had the time of your life on that tour while I was in contract negotiations."
"Both things can be true at the same time," said Kris, and finally he turned his head and propped himself up on his elbow and didn't disentangle them at all. In fact, he leaned down and pressed a soft but definite kiss to Cale's lips. "It wouldn’t be the same without you."
Cale just looked up at him, lips slightly parted, tongue darting out to wet his lower lip. He didn't move away, didn't do anything at all at first. Then his heel moved against Kris's leg again, a light, rough caress, and Kris smiled. A moment later, Cale smiled back.
"It always had to be both of us," said Kris. No matter how they had to get there, it was the way it was always meant to be.
Kris/Brad. 1022 words. PG-13. Fororihara_kaoru.
Action
Prompt: Any Kris/Brad.
Kris gets roped in entirely by accident, just the right place at the right time. Or maybe the wrong place at the right time. He supposes it all really depends on how you look at it. The tequila is probably at least a little to blame too, but it seemed like such a good idea at the time—not just to him but to everyone, some of whom even proclaimed it brilliant—and it turns out Adam's friends are very persuasive. Kris shouldn't be surprised.
He shows up at the designated address at two o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, an apartment he's never been to before. He wonders, just for a moment, if this is someplace that Adam used to spend a lot of time, before his whole life blew up into something impossibly large. What he's really wondering is if this is a location from Adam's former life, and just how Kris is supposed to be the one to fit into it now.
Brad opens the door and looks him up and down, then nods his head in satisfaction. "Perfect," he says, and leads Kris inside.
"Perfect for what?" says Kris, because he wrote the address down, and he has a vague idea that they're going to be making a video, but beyond that his recollection of the entire conversation is a little fuzzy. That would be the part the tequila plays in this whole thing
"To be the devil on my shoulder, of course," says Brad. "Not that we didn't consider angel, but that would be just a little cliché. Don't worry, I don't plan to simulate fellatio on you or anything, led into temptation or not. That would be a little too narcissistic."
Kris's eyes widen, because he hadn't been worried about that until Brad mentioned it. At least he says 'simulate', but there are things Kris is willing to do at parties that he's not willing to do on camera, and that was really just the one time.
"Coming?" says Brad, with that little arch to his eyebrow that suggests he knows every possibly interpretation of what just came out of his mouth. "This is going to be fabulous."
It's going to be interesting, anyway, and Kris can think of worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon. In fact, he can think of worse ways he's spend his Sunday afternoons just in the past month; at least he's not spending this one entirely in transit. Or moping around his own apartment, which was his other alternative.
"So where do you want me?" he says, trying to find a place to leave his coat.
"There are so many ways I can answer that question," says Brad, taking the coat right out of his hands. "I'd offer you a drink before we get started, but you'll probably want to save that for afterwards. Your costume's on the chair."
Kris looks at the chair. There's not much there.
"Okay," he says though, because a promise is a promise and he actually trusts him completely. Kris isn't naïve, but he's a good judge of character. It certainly doesn't take him long to get changed. What takes three times as long is when Brad sits him down in a kitchen chair in good lighting and starts putting his makeup on.
"Trust me," he says, and Kris does. He feels weird and way outside his comfort zone, but it's okay. It's interesting. It's a new experience for him. (Not the filming itself, of course, and not even the costume and the makeup, but the whole package in this particular time and place.) "This is perfect."
Kris closes his eyes and just gives himself over to the process, relaxes under the attention. It's really kind of nice to get his mind off everything, though of course as soon as he thinks about it his mind's back on everything he's trying to forget. The big changes in his life. The empty apartment he has to go back to afterwards.
"Quit twitching," says Brad, running his hand soothingly over Kris's bare shoulder. Kris figures it's supposed to relax him, but instead he tenses up even more. "Oh."
Kris opens his eyes and sees Brad looking back at him like he's got the world's worst B.O. He doesn't get it at first until he realises Brad's not meeting his eyes anymore.
"Oh, hey, no."
"I'm almost done here," he says tightly. "It's not contagious, you know."
"Brad," he says, and chews on his lip. "I didn't twitch because I didn't want you touching me like that."
Brad still doesn't meet his eyes for a minute, then he puts down the powder and picks up the lipstick and brush again. "You're ruining all my hard work," he says, and he puts his fingertips under Kris's chin to turn him in the right direction. When he does, he caresses Kris's skin with his thumb, just a little.
Kris doesn't twitch this time. Not even when all of Brad's attention is focused on his lips.
"There," he says finally, after an almost unbearably long silence between them. "You're ready."
"For what, though?"
And now, finally, Brad smiles at him again. "That's a very good question," he says. "A very good question. Let's just see if we can't find out the answer."
Kris catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror and for a moment it's hard to believe that it's him. He's been dressed up plenty of times before, knows more about fashion than he ever intended to and maybe more about makeup than Katy does, but the transformation has never been quite like this.
"Are you sure—?"
"No matter how you're going to end that sentence, the answer is yes," says Brad, giving Kris's dark wingtip a playful little tug.
The devil on his shoulder indeed. Kris isn't even sure what they're going to be filming yet, what Brad is going to want him to say or do, but he feels this deep curl of anticipation now like he hadn't before, and suddenly it all just means a little bit more.
"Come on," says Brad, "let's have some fun."
Kris/Cale. 3383 words. PG. Forwildchild1222. HS AU.
One Night in Jacksonville
Prompt: Krale high school AU.
"Okay, so if we put Matt in the front seat and Katy in the back and put Kris on Andrew's lap and Adam in the middle, I think we can swing it," said Cale.
"What about Allison?"
"Up front, between me and Matt," said Cale. "I think we can make that work, and I promise not to grope you when I try to switch gears."
"Wait, why is Kris on Andrew's lap instead of Allison?" said Adam. "Wouldn't that make more sense?"
"He's smaller and less likely to complain," said Cale.
"He's lying," said Matt. "The real reason is if Kris was in the front seat, he would grope him."
"Can we just get in the car and go?" said Katy. "It's only three blocks. At this rate, I'd be happy to walk in the rain."
"It'll be fine," said Kris. "I think we can handle lapsitting for three blocks. But don't have an accident or anything because I'd really hate to have to explain it."
"Actually, I think my parents like you better than my girlfriend," said Andrew, "so it probably wouldn't be that bad."
Katy just rolled her eyes at him and slid into the back seat of the car, followed a moment later by Adam and then by Kris, who had to shift and shuffle a little as Andrew closed the door until he could find some place to sit. It was true he would complain about it less than Allison, but it was also true that it would've been way easier to put Katy on someone's lap. He just didn't say anything because he didn't want to make her have to do that. And also, he'd probably complain less about it than Katy too. They weren't wrong about that.
Besides, Kris had found himself in way more uncomfortable places before than Andrew's lap.
"If we go through this again trying to pick a movie, I'm making an executive decision and choosing for all of us," said Matt. "Just so you know."
"At this point, I would totally be fine with that," said Katy. "We're not a jigsaw puzzle. We could've all been crammed in here and we would've worked it out ourselves. It's not rocket science."
"Which is a good thing for you," said Cale, "since I snuck a peek at your physics mid-term. Okay, buckle up, we're on our way.
Nobody could reach their seatbelts, but that didn't seem to matter when they were crammed into Cale's little car so tightly that breathing was a challenge, much less moving. Kris suddenly had a good idea what being inside a clown car must feel like, and that was before factoring in the pom-poms and big shoes.
Three blocks had never felt so long, but Cale managed to get a spot right by the theater and snatched it up right under the nose of an SUV driver who gave him the finger (which Cale blithely ignored). When they opened the doors, it felt a lot like opening a floodgate. Kris actually fell over as Andrew tipped his way out, and had to let a laughing Adam hold him up before he could manage to get out of the car any way other than on his head.
"That was graceful," said Matt. "Nine point five from the American judge."
Kris just rolled his eyes, and let Allison do the dirty work of giving Matt a smack and then the finger as they dashed into the building, trying not to get too wet. Which Cale succeeded least at, not just because he had to lock up the car but because he made sure everyone else made it inside before he did.
"I guess we should have brought a towel, huh?" said Kris, lingering behind with him, and stretching a little bit since even three blocks in that position tightened up his shoulders and thighs a little bit.
"That would have been sort of lame," said Cale. "I'm going to duck into the bathroom for some paper towel or something, though. I'm dripping. Did we decide on a movie?"
"I'm letting them decide," said Kris. "I don't really care what we go see. Whatever is fine with me."
"Yeah, me too," said Cale, and it was by unspoken agreement—or at least Kris hoped it was agreement, because otherwise it would have seemed weird—that Kris let the rest of them argue it out while he followed.
"Shit, it's dripped all down your back," said Kris, the rivulets visible through his t-shirt.
"Yeah, I noticed that," said Cale, mopping the back of his neck up while a few equally-wet guys came in and out of the bathroom. Kris resisted the urge to offer to help. That would be weird. Helpful, but weird. "At least it's not down the front of my pants. I always hate trying to explain that. No matter what you say, people think you pissed yourself."
"Well, I'd believe you," said Kris. "Publicly anyway. I'd only make fun of you privately."
"You're a good friend," said Cale solemnly, taking a look at himself in the mirror. Kris thought he looked great, but Cale just tried to fix his hair. Which given the rain was kind of a lost cause. Just like Kris's. "Do you think it's safe to go back out there yet?"
Kris glanced at his watch. "Maybe if we walk really slowly. The trick is to wait just long enough that they fight it out without you, but not so long that they forget about you."
"You've got this conflict avoidance down to a science," said Cale. "Remind me to stick by you more often."
"Any time," said Kris, and glanced at his watch again then pushed through the bathroom door and back out into the lobby.
They ended up at some action movie Kris had never heard of, which meant that Allison had won the argument this time, but Kris really didn't care what they saw. He'd watch just about anything. Especially when he ended up in a seat wedged between Cale and Katy. Katy was the kind of friend who always shared her popcorn, and Cale was...Cale.
Kris didn't try anything dumb, he wasn't reckless, he wasn't brave. He knew a crush was a thing that went one way and it was only if he did anything about it that things between them would get hopelessly awkward. But listening to Cale's snarky comments during the movie, being unavoidably pressed up against his side, that was pretty nice anyway.
"Okay, that completely sucked," said Matt when they came out again, "and I usually like movies where things blow up."
"What, are you kidding?" said Andrew. "It was an ironic commentary on the genre."
"No, seriously, maybe it wanted to be an ironic commentary on the genre, but it sucked," said Matt. "And the lead actress was so not hot. At all."
"I thought she was," said Andrew. "Maybe she just wasn't your type."
"No, come on, back me up on this, guys," said Matt. "Not hot, am I right?"
No one seemed particularly quick to answer, then Adam finally said, "She wasn't supposed to be stereotypically hot. She was smart-hot."
"Exactly," said Andrew, at the same time Matt said, "Okay, but are you really the best judge?"
"Hey, just because I might not want to do her, doesn't mean I don't know what's hot," said Adam, keeping his voice low. "Besides, it's totally subjective anyway."
"Yeah," said Allison. "Some people think you're hot, after all, Matt. There's no accounting for taste."
"I can't believe we're basing the value of a movie on whether or not the lead actress was hot," said Katy. "I mean, was there nothing else to comment on?"
"Not really, no," conceded Allison. "Except the shit that blew up was awesome. Did you see those pieces flying out everywhere?" She waved her arms in imitation of the explosion. "That was the shit."
"And on that note," said Cale. "What are we eating?"
"It's a pizza night," declared Allison. "I don't want to go to the other place tonight. That gross guy who hit on me in the hallway outside of class said he was going to be there."
"Okay, so we're vetoing the diner for tonight," said Matt. "Pizza's fine with me."
Kris had a bad feeling about pizza with this group, but it was another discussion he could duck out of. He felt like he needed a few moments to regroup anyway.
They piled into the car again, this time with thankfully less discussion, and Katy ended up on Adam's lap this time which Kris thought was very quietly nice of her, even though that meant she was the one with a bit of a crick in her neck by the time they arrived and dashed inside.
Kris was bringing up the rear, or at least he thought he was.
"Hey," said Adam, giving Kris's shoulder a nudge when he found him lingering outside of the diner without following the rest inside.
"Oh, sorry," Kris stammered. "Got lost there for a second."
"Yeah," said Adam, and there was something in his voice, something a little weird. "So."
"You can go ahead if you want," said Kris. "I'm just going to take a second."
"I'm not in any hurry," Adam said, though. And then was silent for a moment before adding, "Cale, huh?"
"What?" said Kris, his head shooting up at that. He didn't want to believe that Adam was saying what he thought he was saying, but he knew, he just knew, that he was.
"No, hey, don't freak out," said Adam. "You know I'm cool with it."
"That's not...I mean...."
"And you know everyone else will be cool with it, too. They're cool with me, after all, right?"
There was too much going on inside Kris's head to easily respond to that, because he knew that, but at the same time it didn't really matter that much. It didn't make it all that much easier for him. It was different when it was him.
He swallowed hard and nodded while he struggled for the words. "I don't know if I'm ready for that," he said finally. And came out to someone for the first time. "He doesn't know."
"Maybe he does and maybe he doesn't," said Adam, "but can I tell you something? Something I think you already know?"
Kris didn't say yes or no, he just waited.
"He likes you too," said Adam. "I don't think anyone else knows, but...I guess I look for that stuff. It's not easy, being—"
"Being you?"
"Being the only gay kid in high school. I look for people who might be like me," Adam admitted.
And Kris felt kind of bad, that Adam had been feeling so alone when he wasn't, he wasn't alone. And Kris had known he wasn't alone for a while now. He didn't know if he was gay or what, he just knew who he liked, and it was a pretty unmistakable feeling.
"I'm sorry," he said finally. "I should've...I'm just sorry."
"No," said Adam, "hey, that's not what I meant. I just meant...I can't say for a hundred percent, because I've never asked, but he looks at you like you look at him. I think it's worth the chance. I know if it was me, I'd take it."
"I want to," said Kris, "I just don't know how."
"I think you'll just know," said Adam. "I've never had a boyfriend, but it can't be that different than asking a girl out."
"It's a little more scary."
"Okay, maybe it's a little more scary," said Adam, "but not different."
"Yeah, yeah, okay," said Kris. He wasn't sure he believed it, but at least it was something to think about, something to keep his thoughts from spinning out of control.
"So did that help, or did I freak you out more?"
"I'm okay," said Kris. It wasn't a yes or no, but he wasn't sure which of those it actually was yet. "I'm still gonna take a minute, though. I'll meet you inside?"
"I'll save you a seat," said Adam, and gave him a reassuring smile before he pulled the door open and leave Kris there under the awning while the rain continued to fall.
He took a couple of minutes, actually, but not because he was freaking out. Actually, he wasn't really the type to freak out, not for more than a moment. But he was the type to feel uncertain about what to do in certain situations, and this was definitely one of those situations. Except that it was just pizza after a movie on a Saturday night, the same thing he's done with these same people dozens of times. Nothing was any different. He wasn't even any different, except that he felt like maybe he was on the cusp of something new.
"So what did we order?" he said when he finally joined them, and wasn't surprised to find that the seat Adam had saved him was right between himself and Cale.
"Oh, do not get this started again," said Matt. "We're decided, right? No more changes?"
"No, wait," said Katy. "Now that Kris is here we need to revote, to be fair."
There were groans from at least half the table, and Kris instantly shook his head. "No, seriously, don't," he said. "I don't care what we get, as long as we're getting it soon."
"We ordered one meat lovers and one vegetarian," said Adam, "which is the best we could do unless everyone wanted to order by the slice, and pickings by the slice are slim right now."
"That's fine," said Kris. "I'll eat either."
"You're a good man," said Matt, and Kris laughed and let his legs fall open a little and he didn't mean for it to happen, but when he did his knee ended up pressed up against Cale's leg. He didn't pull it back.
Neither did Cale.
"So you were out there for a long time," said Katy. "What were you doing anyway?"
"Hanging out with your invisible friends?" said Andrew, and Kris wished they already had their pizza so he could pick something off it to toss at his head.
"My invisible friends spend a lot less time arguing about what goes on the pizza," said Kris, licking his lips and then, just for a second, daring to rub his knee against Cale. A move that could be feasibly called accidental if he was called on it. "They tried to tell me to flee while I still could but, you know, I'm a loyal guy. I'm willing to brave the pizza ordering process for you guys."
"Yeah, you're such a sweetheart," said Allison, "leaving me to fight for the meat while you hid outside until we were done."
"I know you had plenty of backup," said Kris. "Cale likes meat too. And he hates pineapple so he was never going to go for the Hawaiian."
"Apparently you had this one all figured out," said Cale, and Kris definitely did not miss the way he gave him a crooked grin. "I guess you really know me, huh?"
"I just pay attention to stuff," said Kris, ducking his head and hoping his pleased expression wasn't going to give him away. There was something happening, and Kris felt kind of helpless to stop it now. He felt like the last thing in the world he wanted was for it to stop, even though it was happening in front of all of these other people. Who might or might not know what was going on. "Oh, except getting a drink."
"I ordered you a coke," said Cale, though. "I figured that would be okay?"
Kris finally looked up at him again. "Yeah," he got out. "Yeah, that's perfect, thank you."
"There are occasionally drawbacks to conflict avoidance," he said, dropping his voice a little lower, "but don't worry, you've got my back and I've got yours."
"Yeah," said Kris. "Yeah, I do."
And he sort of shifted in his seat and pressed his leg a little more firmly against Cale's. Nothing happened for a moment, then Cale shifted his leg over carefully so that their feet were pressed up together too. Kris almost forgot to breathe for a second, and was so distracted by it he didn't realize Allison was talking to him.
"Earth to Kris?" she said. "I can't believe you thought the movie was so good that you're daydreaming about it."
"Yeah, no," he said. "I...what was it even about anyway?"
"Those guys with the helmets?" said Cale. "They were actually from another planet, come to study our strange Earth habits."
"What?" said Allison. "No, they weren't!"
"Well, they never said so," said Cale, "but as far as I'm concerned, it's the only thing that makes the movie make sense. I think my version is much better."
"So that's why they just stood and watched the building burn," said Kris, moving his ankle against Cale's. "It all makes so much more sense now. But what was the deal with those helmets?"
"Protecting them from Earth's microwaves," said Cale sagely. "They have complex and delicate brains."
"Unlike the two of you," said Allison.
But Kris didn't care, because Cale had slipped his hand under the table and was resting it lightly on Kris's knee. So lightly that he was obviously making an effort not to put too much pressure on it. Kris pushed his knee up against Cale's hand but it had the opposite of its intended effect, and Cale pulled his hand away again.
"Kris, are you okay?" said Katy, and Kris realized his face must be reflecting his panic at the thought of sending the wrong message.
"Where are our drinks anyway?" said Cale. "Maybe I should go—"
"No," said Kris quickly. Too quickly. Then he bit on his lower lip and got his shit together and rested his hands in his lap. "It's busy in here, and we aren't in any hurry, right?"
Kris was right that Cale was about to flee, but when Kris said that he didn't have much of an excuse to get up anymore, so he just gave Kris a wary look and slouched in his seat again.
And Adam was right. Cale really was interested, and Kris was definitely interested back, and the only way this was going anywhere was if he sucked it up and did something about it. So he reached over and found Cale's hand and placed it right back on his leg again. And he didn't look over to see the look on Cale's face but he was obviously making one because Matt was looking at him funny and there was a kind of a weird pause before everyone started talking again.
When Kris looked at Adam instead of Cale, because it was much, much easier, Adam was downright smirking at him. And maybe Adam couldn't actually see anything, but he knew. Somehow he knew.
Kris bit his lip again and stop holding on to Cale so tightly for fear he would leave again if he didn't and just rested his hand on top of Cale's. And when Cale didn't go anywhere, Kris carefully flipped Cale's hand over and laced their fingers together. And only then did he finally look at him.
It had to be obvious that something was happening, even if no one knew what. Cale's neck was flushed and he was looking down at the table and with his free hand he was tapping his fingertips on the scarred tabletop. Kris's heart was pounding and once he looked at Cale he kind of couldn't look away again, and he felt like everything he was thinking had to be visible on his face.
"Hi," he said finally, the only innocuous thing he could think to say, and Cale finally looked over and met his eyes and started to laugh.
"Did I miss something?" said Matt. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing you'd be interested in," said Kris, still looking at Cale, and he finally started to relax.
He had no idea what was going to happen now, but obviously neither did Cale, but whatever it was they were going to be doing it together.
For right this second, that was enough.
Kris/Andrew. 1216 words. PG-13. Forbglbayley.
Smile
Prompt: Krandrew during Kris's SE Asia tour.
It was pretty impossible to miss that smile, rare and fleeting as it was. Kris hardly even caught a glimpse in rehearsals; if asked—not that he was ever asked—he'd say he never really saw it till they'd done a few shows together. Sure he'd imagined it sometimes, in a wistful sort of a way when he was wondering if Andrew was really happy working with him, but imagination fell short of reality.
When Andrew smiled at you, he meant it.
Right now he was smiling at Kris from the other side of the stage as they finished the encore, as Kris felt sweat dripping down the back of his neck and felt his skin prickle with the screams of the crowd. It didn't matter, everything else that he was feeling and everything else that was going on; when he saw that smile it captured him completely.
And though everything surged forward again a moment later, the smile stayed with him.
In fact, the memory of that moment stuck with him through the next two shows, until he found himself in his hotel room one afternoon, guitar in his lap and working on a new song that felt like it was right on the tip of his brain, waiting to get out. But the words wouldn't come and so Kris just worked on the melody, letting his fingertips do what they wanted to do without his conscious mind interfering.
"I haven't heard that before," said Andrew, letting the door click shut behind him and leaning his own guitar against the wall. "Is it new?"
"Something like that," said Kris, strumming for a moment. "It's not even really a song yet, just a few ideas. "What do you think?"
"I think it sounds good," said Andrew, sitting down on the arm of the couch and watching him play.
Kris didn't miss the way Andrew looked at him, even when he wasn't smiling. He didn't discourage the way Andrew looked at him. He liked that Andrew looked at him that way, and wondered if Andrew ever realized that Kris was looking back. Sometimes it seemed like Andrew had no idea that his interest might not just be one-sided.
"It's weird," said Kris as he played. "I feel like I should be so inspired right now, I am so inspired right now, but every time I start playing I just want to get back up on stage. I just want to feel all of that again."
"I know what you mean," said Andrew. "It's all pretty wild. You on stage...it's pretty amazing."
Kris didn't look up, but he could feel Andrew's gaze on him, and could imagine his smile. "Here, listen to this, I'm trying something new."
Kris was a pretty good guitar player, but his guitar skills were learned specifically to accompany himself, and to write his songs. He didn't play a lot of guitar just for guitar's sake, and he knew he had a lot of things to learn. That was part of the reason he liked to play in front of Andrew, whose first love really was the guitar itself.
But as he played Andrew just listened and watched, watched the way he watched Kris a lot now, and it made Kris feel warm and special as much as it made him feel like maybe this attention really wasn't something that should be ignored and left alone.
Andrew leaned over his shoulder and moved Kris's wrist slightly and Kris's fingers stilled on the strings.
"I didn't mean to make you stop," he said, but Kris didn't start again, he just looked at where Andrew's hand still rested on his wrist.
"We should talk about this." Andrew's hand jerked back so fast Kris felt a breeze. "No, not in a bad way."
"I don't think there's a good way to talk about this," said Andrew, shutting down to the point where the words came out as no more than conversational, no warmer than the first day they met.
"Wait," said Kris, wrapping his fingers around Andrew's wrist so he couldn't go, and counting on the trust between them to keep Andrew from trying to. "I want. We just have to talk."
Andrew shook his head. "Just let me apologize," he said. "We don't have to talk about it. I won't let it happen again. It wasn't supposed to...you weren't supposed to know."
"Were you listening to me?" said Kris.
But either Andrew wasn't or he didn't want to hear what Kris had to say, because the moment Kris loosened his grip Andrew was slipping away, grabbing his guitar case and leaving the room.
They were going to have to leave for the venue right away anyway so Kris didn't chase him down, but he watched him go with a pang in his chest that told him he needed to fix this, as soon as he could. Not now, though. A moment later there was a knock at his door and Kris put his guitar away and carried on with his day.
As soon as he could was before the show, in a backstage corner that was about as private a place as they were going to find outside of sharing a bathroom, which was only private if you discounted the completely obvious part where you went in and came out together.
Then he straightened Andrew's shirt before just taking a fistful of it and kissing him until Andrew started kissing back. Kris wasn't always great with words; most of the time he expressed himself a lot better just with his actions. He counted on that now.
"Do you understand now?" he said finally, stepping back and looking for Andrew's reaction.
"Is this okay?" said Andrew. "I don't want to do something that's not okay."
"I would never do something that's not okay," said Kris, letting his fingertips wander over Andrew's collarbone. "She knows. I promise. This is...understood."
"By you, maybe," said Andrew. "It's not understood by me. But if you say it's okay, then okay. You wouldn't lie to me"
"It's like this," said Kris, because he didn't want Andrew to wonder, he didn't want to do this with him and have him preoccupied the whole time wondering how this could possibly be okay. "Me and Katy having each other doesn't mean there isn't room for more. I love her, and she knows I'm never going to stop. I just...there's more room in me. In us. I don't know how else to say it, just that it's okay."
"Right now it's okay, or all the time it's okay?" said Andrew, and from the set of his mouth, from the tension in his shoulders, the answer mattered. Kris didn't think he wanted it to matter, because they were right on the cusp of everything right now, but it did.
"All the time it's okay," he said, "as long as there are no secrets. That's the rule. No secrets."
"No secrets," repeated Andrew. "I can do no secrets."
Finally he smiled again, smiled that smile, and Kris didn't take any chances this time. They had to be on stage soon, they couldn't linger, but the moment he saw that smile Kris kissed him before anyone tried to talk again.
This time, Andrew seemed pretty on board with that.
Disclaimer: No disrespect intended to any of the persons depicted herein, who I hope are all living happy and fulfilled lives with their partner(s) of choice. This is purely fictional, and not in any way intended as an accurate representation of reality.
Kris & Jared Padalecki (plus CRACK). 1003 words. PG. For
daemonicangel. Legend In His Own Mind
Prompt: CW RPF crossover, Kris and Jared (from the Kris and Jared verse).
Kris got the first text when he was in rehearsal, ignoring it when he saw it wasn't urgent even though he was curious what Jared would be texting him. Whatever it was, he was pretty sure it wasn't urgent anyway. He wasn't even sure what it would be urgent about, between him and Jared. Maybe Jared urgently needed a sandwich.
When they took a break though, and when half his band took off for the bathroom and the other took off to get more water, Kris got his phone back out to check out it and the few other messages he'd gotten.
once upon a time there as a handsome young man lets call him jared
He kind of stared at it for a little while, torn between smiling and frowning and almost certainly making a very strange face at his iPhone. Well, okay, to be fair that actually seemed like exactly the kind of thing that Jared would send to him. It probably didn't demand a response, though, so Kris just saved it and moved on to the next message.
Even if that amused quirk of a smile never quite left his face after that.
The next message came less than an hour later, and because Andrew was fixing a guitar string Kris checked this one right away.
and he lived in the magical kingdom of vancouver with his eveil stepbrother lets call him jensen
His eveil stepbrother. Kris figured that must make him extra evil, and texted as much back to Jared, all the while shaking his head at the phone.
"What is it?" said Cale, flinging a bit of gummy something at him.
"My friends are insane," said Kris, putting the phone away again. "Present company included. Are we ready to go?"
They were debuting a new song at the next show, an actual new song that he and Cale wrote, and Kris wasn't a perfectionist, he wasn't afraid of being a little raw on stage, but he felt really protective of his first post-album song and wanted them to get it right.
Andrew was still checking the tuning when another text came in, which Kris quickly read this time before they got started.
jensen makes jared work hard labor day and night at a dark place called the supernatural set
He snorted but didn't reply this time, just imagined the look on Jensen's face if he knew what Jared was sending him. Actually, he probably did know and was just indulgently rolling his eyes and protesting that Jensen wasn't the evil one in this equation, that actually he was a prisoner too and couldn't Jared find some other fairy tale trope to blame? Some kind of fairy godmother named Kripke, maybe?
"Okay, we're good," said Andrew. "Kris, wipe that smirk off your face, it didn't take me that long."
"Sorry, it's not you," said Kris, flashing him a 'forgive me' grin. "I'm just pretty sure someone's getting a spanking right now."
"There are some things about your personal life I just don't need to know," said Ryland.
The next text was waiting when Kris paused for a gulp of water, wiping his mouth with the back of one hand and using the other to retrieve the message.
where he makes him do unspeakable things like go hours without candy
Making Jared go without sugar for a little while probably was part of Jensen's job description. They probably wrote it into his contract. The way they—it was always some mysterious them—threatened to write it into his band's to make him wear things other than plaid sometimes. (Kris wore lots of other things, actually, and besides, what was wrong with plaid? He liked plaid.)
"Toss that here?" said Cale, and Kris tossed him the remains of the water bottle as he backed up to get started again. There were a few things he wanted to run through, and he bet they could get through at least a couple before Jared had another break of his own in which to text.
but jared has a plan
an escape plan
Kris retrieved those two after having a short meeting with Lizzie, in which she informed him of some updates to his schedule and Kris mostly just nodded his head.
The rest of the guys took advantage of the break to eat some urgent sandwiches.
"What are you doing anyway?" said Torres, trying to get a peek at Kris's phone. "Katy keeping you entertained?"
"Katy knows better than to send me a dozen text messages during rehearsal," said Kris. She'd save it all up for when he got home, unless she actually had something urgent and/or awesome to tell him.
Apparently Jared went back to work too, because it was over an hour before the next message came in, and about twenty minutes after that before Kris gave himself a break to check it out.
and soon he will escape the clutches of his captors and put this plan into action
"God help us all," he murmured, torn between grinning and shaking his head in dismay at the phone. He ended up doing both.
"What, is the world ending?" said Cale. "You wouldn't be smiling if the world was ending."
"No, but if there's news out of Vancouver about some kind of strange explosion, I think I know who to blame," he said. Or maybe something more subtle, but Jared just wasn't the subtle type.
"Do I even want to know?"
"Probably not," said Kris, and got back to work.
They were actually finished for the day and packing up when another message came in, Ryland flicking water at Torres while Torres blamed a completely innocent Cale, and Andrew rolling his eyes at all of them as he babied his guitar.
in other words i'll be in la this weekend
Then, a moment later:
coffee?
Kris shook his head and texted back "when and where?" and wondered—not for the first time—how he managed to pick up such weird, weird friends.
Kris/Cale. 1006 words. PG-13. For
vanya_elda. Stars
Prompt: Snuggly BFF (with benefits) Krale.
Their hotel room never does get entirely dark, not with all the lights of the city outside, and Kris knows that if he goes to the window and opens the curtains and looks up at the sky he'll hardly even be able to see stars. It's not like home at all. Not that he comes from some tiny place under the stars, but this is different, this is bright and lonely and impersonal.
At least he brought a little bit of home with him.
"What are you staring at?"
Kris had been staring at the curtains, but now he's staring at the way Cale has let his suitcase explode all over his own bed and is now sprawled on Kris's.
"That's my bed."
"It's okay, I left room for you," says Cale, pointing at the bottom corner of the bed, a square about the size of a pillow. If he's being generous. "There's even space for you to stretch out."
"Shut up and shove over," says Kris, crossing to the bed and giving Cale's shoulder a nudge to make room for himself next to him, already resigned to the fact that Cale is probably going to end up sleeping there. Again.
They wind up with Cale's leg tangled around one of Kris's, trying to reclaim the territory Kris forced him to give up, and Cale hogging all the pillows while Kris laces his hands behind his head. It's sort of nice, in a way that reminds Kris of college and good friends and very crowded sleeping accommodations in other distant places.
"So what is on your mind?" says Cale after a few minutes of comfortable silence, tapping Kris's leg with his heel and throwing an arm over him for good measure. "Thinking about tomorrow?"
Kris shrugs and looks up at the ceiling, and imagines the tiny flecks that must be on it that he can't see, probably couldn't see even if he hadn't already abandoned his glasses on the bedside table, a hundred invisible constellations. "Just thinking," he says. "About where we are."
"The bed, the hotel, or the city?" says Cale. "Because those are three very different thoughts."
"Bigger than that," says Kris. "Do you remember the audition? The American Idol audition, the first one."
"Of course I do," says Cale. "Stuck in the car with your brother the whole way out there. No one ever did find that half a hamburger he lost. That haunts me, you know. Keeps me up at night."
"It never even made any sense," says Kris. "Not that I'm sorry, but I think about it sometimes. There were so many people, so many great singers, but it was me they put through. It felt like it was almost completely random, just a roll of the dice."
"No it wasn't," says Cale. "It made perfect sense. They saw something in you."
"But there were so many people there who were just as good as me, and they were sent home after thirty seconds of singing," says Kris. "What made them choose me over all of those people?"
"They saw something in you," says Cale again. "It makes perfect sense to me, Kris. It always has. Of course they chose you, and of course people voted for you. It wasn't chance, it was you."
"But did you ever imagine that we'd be here?" says Kris. "Not just the idea of making it, but this. This moment, right here, doing this. "
"It's not like we imagined it," said Cale. "You don't imagine all the weird parts, and the hard parts. You just imagine the stage and the crowd and the music. You just imagine the parts you love to do."
"You don't imagine hotel rooms in strange cities in the middle of the night with your best friend hogging the covers."
"Well, I did," said Cale, "but that's probably not normal."
Kris nudged him again, but it didn't earn him any more room. If anything, Cale just wrapped himself around him even more, like he'd just accepted Kris's presence inside his personal space and was adapting to his surroundings. Kris didn't mention again that it was his bed, and it wasn't his fault that Cale's side of the room was a disaster area within moments of claiming the room.
"What?" said Cale. "You can't imagine the rock star life without imagining trashing a few hotel rooms. Hotels are an integral part of the rock star experience. Not that we would ever trash a room."
Kris looked at Cale's bed and wondered if he was going to have to explain the word 'trash' to him.
"It's amazing, though, right?" he said instead, staring up at the blurry ceiling again. "Whether it's what we imagined or not."
"It's completely amazing," said Cale. "It's more amazing every day."
"It's more amazing because we're doing it together," said Kris. "It wouldn't be the same, after all the times we talked about it, if it wasn't both of us here. I thought about that sometimes on tour last summer, that there was a Cale-shaped hole. I loved all those guys, probably always will, but there was no you."
"Liar," said Cale. "You had the time of your life on that tour while I was in contract negotiations."
"Both things can be true at the same time," said Kris, and finally he turned his head and propped himself up on his elbow and didn't disentangle them at all. In fact, he leaned down and pressed a soft but definite kiss to Cale's lips. "It wouldn’t be the same without you."
Cale just looked up at him, lips slightly parted, tongue darting out to wet his lower lip. He didn't move away, didn't do anything at all at first. Then his heel moved against Kris's leg again, a light, rough caress, and Kris smiled. A moment later, Cale smiled back.
"It always had to be both of us," said Kris. No matter how they had to get there, it was the way it was always meant to be.
Kris/Brad. 1022 words. PG-13. For
orihara_kaoru. Action
Prompt: Any Kris/Brad.
Kris gets roped in entirely by accident, just the right place at the right time. Or maybe the wrong place at the right time. He supposes it all really depends on how you look at it. The tequila is probably at least a little to blame too, but it seemed like such a good idea at the time—not just to him but to everyone, some of whom even proclaimed it brilliant—and it turns out Adam's friends are very persuasive. Kris shouldn't be surprised.
He shows up at the designated address at two o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, an apartment he's never been to before. He wonders, just for a moment, if this is someplace that Adam used to spend a lot of time, before his whole life blew up into something impossibly large. What he's really wondering is if this is a location from Adam's former life, and just how Kris is supposed to be the one to fit into it now.
Brad opens the door and looks him up and down, then nods his head in satisfaction. "Perfect," he says, and leads Kris inside.
"Perfect for what?" says Kris, because he wrote the address down, and he has a vague idea that they're going to be making a video, but beyond that his recollection of the entire conversation is a little fuzzy. That would be the part the tequila plays in this whole thing
"To be the devil on my shoulder, of course," says Brad. "Not that we didn't consider angel, but that would be just a little cliché. Don't worry, I don't plan to simulate fellatio on you or anything, led into temptation or not. That would be a little too narcissistic."
Kris's eyes widen, because he hadn't been worried about that until Brad mentioned it. At least he says 'simulate', but there are things Kris is willing to do at parties that he's not willing to do on camera, and that was really just the one time.
"Coming?" says Brad, with that little arch to his eyebrow that suggests he knows every possibly interpretation of what just came out of his mouth. "This is going to be fabulous."
It's going to be interesting, anyway, and Kris can think of worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon. In fact, he can think of worse ways he's spend his Sunday afternoons just in the past month; at least he's not spending this one entirely in transit. Or moping around his own apartment, which was his other alternative.
"So where do you want me?" he says, trying to find a place to leave his coat.
"There are so many ways I can answer that question," says Brad, taking the coat right out of his hands. "I'd offer you a drink before we get started, but you'll probably want to save that for afterwards. Your costume's on the chair."
Kris looks at the chair. There's not much there.
"Okay," he says though, because a promise is a promise and he actually trusts him completely. Kris isn't naïve, but he's a good judge of character. It certainly doesn't take him long to get changed. What takes three times as long is when Brad sits him down in a kitchen chair in good lighting and starts putting his makeup on.
"Trust me," he says, and Kris does. He feels weird and way outside his comfort zone, but it's okay. It's interesting. It's a new experience for him. (Not the filming itself, of course, and not even the costume and the makeup, but the whole package in this particular time and place.) "This is perfect."
Kris closes his eyes and just gives himself over to the process, relaxes under the attention. It's really kind of nice to get his mind off everything, though of course as soon as he thinks about it his mind's back on everything he's trying to forget. The big changes in his life. The empty apartment he has to go back to afterwards.
"Quit twitching," says Brad, running his hand soothingly over Kris's bare shoulder. Kris figures it's supposed to relax him, but instead he tenses up even more. "Oh."
Kris opens his eyes and sees Brad looking back at him like he's got the world's worst B.O. He doesn't get it at first until he realises Brad's not meeting his eyes anymore.
"Oh, hey, no."
"I'm almost done here," he says tightly. "It's not contagious, you know."
"Brad," he says, and chews on his lip. "I didn't twitch because I didn't want you touching me like that."
Brad still doesn't meet his eyes for a minute, then he puts down the powder and picks up the lipstick and brush again. "You're ruining all my hard work," he says, and he puts his fingertips under Kris's chin to turn him in the right direction. When he does, he caresses Kris's skin with his thumb, just a little.
Kris doesn't twitch this time. Not even when all of Brad's attention is focused on his lips.
"There," he says finally, after an almost unbearably long silence between them. "You're ready."
"For what, though?"
And now, finally, Brad smiles at him again. "That's a very good question," he says. "A very good question. Let's just see if we can't find out the answer."
Kris catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror and for a moment it's hard to believe that it's him. He's been dressed up plenty of times before, knows more about fashion than he ever intended to and maybe more about makeup than Katy does, but the transformation has never been quite like this.
"Are you sure—?"
"No matter how you're going to end that sentence, the answer is yes," says Brad, giving Kris's dark wingtip a playful little tug.
The devil on his shoulder indeed. Kris isn't even sure what they're going to be filming yet, what Brad is going to want him to say or do, but he feels this deep curl of anticipation now like he hadn't before, and suddenly it all just means a little bit more.
"Come on," says Brad, "let's have some fun."
Kris/Cale. 3383 words. PG. For
wildchild1222. HS AU.One Night in Jacksonville
Prompt: Krale high school AU.
"Okay, so if we put Matt in the front seat and Katy in the back and put Kris on Andrew's lap and Adam in the middle, I think we can swing it," said Cale.
"What about Allison?"
"Up front, between me and Matt," said Cale. "I think we can make that work, and I promise not to grope you when I try to switch gears."
"Wait, why is Kris on Andrew's lap instead of Allison?" said Adam. "Wouldn't that make more sense?"
"He's smaller and less likely to complain," said Cale.
"He's lying," said Matt. "The real reason is if Kris was in the front seat, he would grope him."
"Can we just get in the car and go?" said Katy. "It's only three blocks. At this rate, I'd be happy to walk in the rain."
"It'll be fine," said Kris. "I think we can handle lapsitting for three blocks. But don't have an accident or anything because I'd really hate to have to explain it."
"Actually, I think my parents like you better than my girlfriend," said Andrew, "so it probably wouldn't be that bad."
Katy just rolled her eyes at him and slid into the back seat of the car, followed a moment later by Adam and then by Kris, who had to shift and shuffle a little as Andrew closed the door until he could find some place to sit. It was true he would complain about it less than Allison, but it was also true that it would've been way easier to put Katy on someone's lap. He just didn't say anything because he didn't want to make her have to do that. And also, he'd probably complain less about it than Katy too. They weren't wrong about that.
Besides, Kris had found himself in way more uncomfortable places before than Andrew's lap.
"If we go through this again trying to pick a movie, I'm making an executive decision and choosing for all of us," said Matt. "Just so you know."
"At this point, I would totally be fine with that," said Katy. "We're not a jigsaw puzzle. We could've all been crammed in here and we would've worked it out ourselves. It's not rocket science."
"Which is a good thing for you," said Cale, "since I snuck a peek at your physics mid-term. Okay, buckle up, we're on our way.
Nobody could reach their seatbelts, but that didn't seem to matter when they were crammed into Cale's little car so tightly that breathing was a challenge, much less moving. Kris suddenly had a good idea what being inside a clown car must feel like, and that was before factoring in the pom-poms and big shoes.
Three blocks had never felt so long, but Cale managed to get a spot right by the theater and snatched it up right under the nose of an SUV driver who gave him the finger (which Cale blithely ignored). When they opened the doors, it felt a lot like opening a floodgate. Kris actually fell over as Andrew tipped his way out, and had to let a laughing Adam hold him up before he could manage to get out of the car any way other than on his head.
"That was graceful," said Matt. "Nine point five from the American judge."
Kris just rolled his eyes, and let Allison do the dirty work of giving Matt a smack and then the finger as they dashed into the building, trying not to get too wet. Which Cale succeeded least at, not just because he had to lock up the car but because he made sure everyone else made it inside before he did.
"I guess we should have brought a towel, huh?" said Kris, lingering behind with him, and stretching a little bit since even three blocks in that position tightened up his shoulders and thighs a little bit.
"That would have been sort of lame," said Cale. "I'm going to duck into the bathroom for some paper towel or something, though. I'm dripping. Did we decide on a movie?"
"I'm letting them decide," said Kris. "I don't really care what we go see. Whatever is fine with me."
"Yeah, me too," said Cale, and it was by unspoken agreement—or at least Kris hoped it was agreement, because otherwise it would have seemed weird—that Kris let the rest of them argue it out while he followed.
"Shit, it's dripped all down your back," said Kris, the rivulets visible through his t-shirt.
"Yeah, I noticed that," said Cale, mopping the back of his neck up while a few equally-wet guys came in and out of the bathroom. Kris resisted the urge to offer to help. That would be weird. Helpful, but weird. "At least it's not down the front of my pants. I always hate trying to explain that. No matter what you say, people think you pissed yourself."
"Well, I'd believe you," said Kris. "Publicly anyway. I'd only make fun of you privately."
"You're a good friend," said Cale solemnly, taking a look at himself in the mirror. Kris thought he looked great, but Cale just tried to fix his hair. Which given the rain was kind of a lost cause. Just like Kris's. "Do you think it's safe to go back out there yet?"
Kris glanced at his watch. "Maybe if we walk really slowly. The trick is to wait just long enough that they fight it out without you, but not so long that they forget about you."
"You've got this conflict avoidance down to a science," said Cale. "Remind me to stick by you more often."
"Any time," said Kris, and glanced at his watch again then pushed through the bathroom door and back out into the lobby.
They ended up at some action movie Kris had never heard of, which meant that Allison had won the argument this time, but Kris really didn't care what they saw. He'd watch just about anything. Especially when he ended up in a seat wedged between Cale and Katy. Katy was the kind of friend who always shared her popcorn, and Cale was...Cale.
Kris didn't try anything dumb, he wasn't reckless, he wasn't brave. He knew a crush was a thing that went one way and it was only if he did anything about it that things between them would get hopelessly awkward. But listening to Cale's snarky comments during the movie, being unavoidably pressed up against his side, that was pretty nice anyway.
"Okay, that completely sucked," said Matt when they came out again, "and I usually like movies where things blow up."
"What, are you kidding?" said Andrew. "It was an ironic commentary on the genre."
"No, seriously, maybe it wanted to be an ironic commentary on the genre, but it sucked," said Matt. "And the lead actress was so not hot. At all."
"I thought she was," said Andrew. "Maybe she just wasn't your type."
"No, come on, back me up on this, guys," said Matt. "Not hot, am I right?"
No one seemed particularly quick to answer, then Adam finally said, "She wasn't supposed to be stereotypically hot. She was smart-hot."
"Exactly," said Andrew, at the same time Matt said, "Okay, but are you really the best judge?"
"Hey, just because I might not want to do her, doesn't mean I don't know what's hot," said Adam, keeping his voice low. "Besides, it's totally subjective anyway."
"Yeah," said Allison. "Some people think you're hot, after all, Matt. There's no accounting for taste."
"I can't believe we're basing the value of a movie on whether or not the lead actress was hot," said Katy. "I mean, was there nothing else to comment on?"
"Not really, no," conceded Allison. "Except the shit that blew up was awesome. Did you see those pieces flying out everywhere?" She waved her arms in imitation of the explosion. "That was the shit."
"And on that note," said Cale. "What are we eating?"
"It's a pizza night," declared Allison. "I don't want to go to the other place tonight. That gross guy who hit on me in the hallway outside of class said he was going to be there."
"Okay, so we're vetoing the diner for tonight," said Matt. "Pizza's fine with me."
Kris had a bad feeling about pizza with this group, but it was another discussion he could duck out of. He felt like he needed a few moments to regroup anyway.
They piled into the car again, this time with thankfully less discussion, and Katy ended up on Adam's lap this time which Kris thought was very quietly nice of her, even though that meant she was the one with a bit of a crick in her neck by the time they arrived and dashed inside.
Kris was bringing up the rear, or at least he thought he was.
"Hey," said Adam, giving Kris's shoulder a nudge when he found him lingering outside of the diner without following the rest inside.
"Oh, sorry," Kris stammered. "Got lost there for a second."
"Yeah," said Adam, and there was something in his voice, something a little weird. "So."
"You can go ahead if you want," said Kris. "I'm just going to take a second."
"I'm not in any hurry," Adam said, though. And then was silent for a moment before adding, "Cale, huh?"
"What?" said Kris, his head shooting up at that. He didn't want to believe that Adam was saying what he thought he was saying, but he knew, he just knew, that he was.
"No, hey, don't freak out," said Adam. "You know I'm cool with it."
"That's not...I mean...."
"And you know everyone else will be cool with it, too. They're cool with me, after all, right?"
There was too much going on inside Kris's head to easily respond to that, because he knew that, but at the same time it didn't really matter that much. It didn't make it all that much easier for him. It was different when it was him.
He swallowed hard and nodded while he struggled for the words. "I don't know if I'm ready for that," he said finally. And came out to someone for the first time. "He doesn't know."
"Maybe he does and maybe he doesn't," said Adam, "but can I tell you something? Something I think you already know?"
Kris didn't say yes or no, he just waited.
"He likes you too," said Adam. "I don't think anyone else knows, but...I guess I look for that stuff. It's not easy, being—"
"Being you?"
"Being the only gay kid in high school. I look for people who might be like me," Adam admitted.
And Kris felt kind of bad, that Adam had been feeling so alone when he wasn't, he wasn't alone. And Kris had known he wasn't alone for a while now. He didn't know if he was gay or what, he just knew who he liked, and it was a pretty unmistakable feeling.
"I'm sorry," he said finally. "I should've...I'm just sorry."
"No," said Adam, "hey, that's not what I meant. I just meant...I can't say for a hundred percent, because I've never asked, but he looks at you like you look at him. I think it's worth the chance. I know if it was me, I'd take it."
"I want to," said Kris, "I just don't know how."
"I think you'll just know," said Adam. "I've never had a boyfriend, but it can't be that different than asking a girl out."
"It's a little more scary."
"Okay, maybe it's a little more scary," said Adam, "but not different."
"Yeah, yeah, okay," said Kris. He wasn't sure he believed it, but at least it was something to think about, something to keep his thoughts from spinning out of control.
"So did that help, or did I freak you out more?"
"I'm okay," said Kris. It wasn't a yes or no, but he wasn't sure which of those it actually was yet. "I'm still gonna take a minute, though. I'll meet you inside?"
"I'll save you a seat," said Adam, and gave him a reassuring smile before he pulled the door open and leave Kris there under the awning while the rain continued to fall.
He took a couple of minutes, actually, but not because he was freaking out. Actually, he wasn't really the type to freak out, not for more than a moment. But he was the type to feel uncertain about what to do in certain situations, and this was definitely one of those situations. Except that it was just pizza after a movie on a Saturday night, the same thing he's done with these same people dozens of times. Nothing was any different. He wasn't even any different, except that he felt like maybe he was on the cusp of something new.
"So what did we order?" he said when he finally joined them, and wasn't surprised to find that the seat Adam had saved him was right between himself and Cale.
"Oh, do not get this started again," said Matt. "We're decided, right? No more changes?"
"No, wait," said Katy. "Now that Kris is here we need to revote, to be fair."
There were groans from at least half the table, and Kris instantly shook his head. "No, seriously, don't," he said. "I don't care what we get, as long as we're getting it soon."
"We ordered one meat lovers and one vegetarian," said Adam, "which is the best we could do unless everyone wanted to order by the slice, and pickings by the slice are slim right now."
"That's fine," said Kris. "I'll eat either."
"You're a good man," said Matt, and Kris laughed and let his legs fall open a little and he didn't mean for it to happen, but when he did his knee ended up pressed up against Cale's leg. He didn't pull it back.
Neither did Cale.
"So you were out there for a long time," said Katy. "What were you doing anyway?"
"Hanging out with your invisible friends?" said Andrew, and Kris wished they already had their pizza so he could pick something off it to toss at his head.
"My invisible friends spend a lot less time arguing about what goes on the pizza," said Kris, licking his lips and then, just for a second, daring to rub his knee against Cale. A move that could be feasibly called accidental if he was called on it. "They tried to tell me to flee while I still could but, you know, I'm a loyal guy. I'm willing to brave the pizza ordering process for you guys."
"Yeah, you're such a sweetheart," said Allison, "leaving me to fight for the meat while you hid outside until we were done."
"I know you had plenty of backup," said Kris. "Cale likes meat too. And he hates pineapple so he was never going to go for the Hawaiian."
"Apparently you had this one all figured out," said Cale, and Kris definitely did not miss the way he gave him a crooked grin. "I guess you really know me, huh?"
"I just pay attention to stuff," said Kris, ducking his head and hoping his pleased expression wasn't going to give him away. There was something happening, and Kris felt kind of helpless to stop it now. He felt like the last thing in the world he wanted was for it to stop, even though it was happening in front of all of these other people. Who might or might not know what was going on. "Oh, except getting a drink."
"I ordered you a coke," said Cale, though. "I figured that would be okay?"
Kris finally looked up at him again. "Yeah," he got out. "Yeah, that's perfect, thank you."
"There are occasionally drawbacks to conflict avoidance," he said, dropping his voice a little lower, "but don't worry, you've got my back and I've got yours."
"Yeah," said Kris. "Yeah, I do."
And he sort of shifted in his seat and pressed his leg a little more firmly against Cale's. Nothing happened for a moment, then Cale shifted his leg over carefully so that their feet were pressed up together too. Kris almost forgot to breathe for a second, and was so distracted by it he didn't realize Allison was talking to him.
"Earth to Kris?" she said. "I can't believe you thought the movie was so good that you're daydreaming about it."
"Yeah, no," he said. "I...what was it even about anyway?"
"Those guys with the helmets?" said Cale. "They were actually from another planet, come to study our strange Earth habits."
"What?" said Allison. "No, they weren't!"
"Well, they never said so," said Cale, "but as far as I'm concerned, it's the only thing that makes the movie make sense. I think my version is much better."
"So that's why they just stood and watched the building burn," said Kris, moving his ankle against Cale's. "It all makes so much more sense now. But what was the deal with those helmets?"
"Protecting them from Earth's microwaves," said Cale sagely. "They have complex and delicate brains."
"Unlike the two of you," said Allison.
But Kris didn't care, because Cale had slipped his hand under the table and was resting it lightly on Kris's knee. So lightly that he was obviously making an effort not to put too much pressure on it. Kris pushed his knee up against Cale's hand but it had the opposite of its intended effect, and Cale pulled his hand away again.
"Kris, are you okay?" said Katy, and Kris realized his face must be reflecting his panic at the thought of sending the wrong message.
"Where are our drinks anyway?" said Cale. "Maybe I should go—"
"No," said Kris quickly. Too quickly. Then he bit on his lower lip and got his shit together and rested his hands in his lap. "It's busy in here, and we aren't in any hurry, right?"
Kris was right that Cale was about to flee, but when Kris said that he didn't have much of an excuse to get up anymore, so he just gave Kris a wary look and slouched in his seat again.
And Adam was right. Cale really was interested, and Kris was definitely interested back, and the only way this was going anywhere was if he sucked it up and did something about it. So he reached over and found Cale's hand and placed it right back on his leg again. And he didn't look over to see the look on Cale's face but he was obviously making one because Matt was looking at him funny and there was a kind of a weird pause before everyone started talking again.
When Kris looked at Adam instead of Cale, because it was much, much easier, Adam was downright smirking at him. And maybe Adam couldn't actually see anything, but he knew. Somehow he knew.
Kris bit his lip again and stop holding on to Cale so tightly for fear he would leave again if he didn't and just rested his hand on top of Cale's. And when Cale didn't go anywhere, Kris carefully flipped Cale's hand over and laced their fingers together. And only then did he finally look at him.
It had to be obvious that something was happening, even if no one knew what. Cale's neck was flushed and he was looking down at the table and with his free hand he was tapping his fingertips on the scarred tabletop. Kris's heart was pounding and once he looked at Cale he kind of couldn't look away again, and he felt like everything he was thinking had to be visible on his face.
"Hi," he said finally, the only innocuous thing he could think to say, and Cale finally looked over and met his eyes and started to laugh.
"Did I miss something?" said Matt. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing you'd be interested in," said Kris, still looking at Cale, and he finally started to relax.
He had no idea what was going to happen now, but obviously neither did Cale, but whatever it was they were going to be doing it together.
For right this second, that was enough.
Kris/Andrew. 1216 words. PG-13. For
bglbayley. Smile
Prompt: Krandrew during Kris's SE Asia tour.
It was pretty impossible to miss that smile, rare and fleeting as it was. Kris hardly even caught a glimpse in rehearsals; if asked—not that he was ever asked—he'd say he never really saw it till they'd done a few shows together. Sure he'd imagined it sometimes, in a wistful sort of a way when he was wondering if Andrew was really happy working with him, but imagination fell short of reality.
When Andrew smiled at you, he meant it.
Right now he was smiling at Kris from the other side of the stage as they finished the encore, as Kris felt sweat dripping down the back of his neck and felt his skin prickle with the screams of the crowd. It didn't matter, everything else that he was feeling and everything else that was going on; when he saw that smile it captured him completely.
And though everything surged forward again a moment later, the smile stayed with him.
In fact, the memory of that moment stuck with him through the next two shows, until he found himself in his hotel room one afternoon, guitar in his lap and working on a new song that felt like it was right on the tip of his brain, waiting to get out. But the words wouldn't come and so Kris just worked on the melody, letting his fingertips do what they wanted to do without his conscious mind interfering.
"I haven't heard that before," said Andrew, letting the door click shut behind him and leaning his own guitar against the wall. "Is it new?"
"Something like that," said Kris, strumming for a moment. "It's not even really a song yet, just a few ideas. "What do you think?"
"I think it sounds good," said Andrew, sitting down on the arm of the couch and watching him play.
Kris didn't miss the way Andrew looked at him, even when he wasn't smiling. He didn't discourage the way Andrew looked at him. He liked that Andrew looked at him that way, and wondered if Andrew ever realized that Kris was looking back. Sometimes it seemed like Andrew had no idea that his interest might not just be one-sided.
"It's weird," said Kris as he played. "I feel like I should be so inspired right now, I am so inspired right now, but every time I start playing I just want to get back up on stage. I just want to feel all of that again."
"I know what you mean," said Andrew. "It's all pretty wild. You on stage...it's pretty amazing."
Kris didn't look up, but he could feel Andrew's gaze on him, and could imagine his smile. "Here, listen to this, I'm trying something new."
Kris was a pretty good guitar player, but his guitar skills were learned specifically to accompany himself, and to write his songs. He didn't play a lot of guitar just for guitar's sake, and he knew he had a lot of things to learn. That was part of the reason he liked to play in front of Andrew, whose first love really was the guitar itself.
But as he played Andrew just listened and watched, watched the way he watched Kris a lot now, and it made Kris feel warm and special as much as it made him feel like maybe this attention really wasn't something that should be ignored and left alone.
Andrew leaned over his shoulder and moved Kris's wrist slightly and Kris's fingers stilled on the strings.
"I didn't mean to make you stop," he said, but Kris didn't start again, he just looked at where Andrew's hand still rested on his wrist.
"We should talk about this." Andrew's hand jerked back so fast Kris felt a breeze. "No, not in a bad way."
"I don't think there's a good way to talk about this," said Andrew, shutting down to the point where the words came out as no more than conversational, no warmer than the first day they met.
"Wait," said Kris, wrapping his fingers around Andrew's wrist so he couldn't go, and counting on the trust between them to keep Andrew from trying to. "I want. We just have to talk."
Andrew shook his head. "Just let me apologize," he said. "We don't have to talk about it. I won't let it happen again. It wasn't supposed to...you weren't supposed to know."
"Were you listening to me?" said Kris.
But either Andrew wasn't or he didn't want to hear what Kris had to say, because the moment Kris loosened his grip Andrew was slipping away, grabbing his guitar case and leaving the room.
They were going to have to leave for the venue right away anyway so Kris didn't chase him down, but he watched him go with a pang in his chest that told him he needed to fix this, as soon as he could. Not now, though. A moment later there was a knock at his door and Kris put his guitar away and carried on with his day.
As soon as he could was before the show, in a backstage corner that was about as private a place as they were going to find outside of sharing a bathroom, which was only private if you discounted the completely obvious part where you went in and came out together.
Then he straightened Andrew's shirt before just taking a fistful of it and kissing him until Andrew started kissing back. Kris wasn't always great with words; most of the time he expressed himself a lot better just with his actions. He counted on that now.
"Do you understand now?" he said finally, stepping back and looking for Andrew's reaction.
"Is this okay?" said Andrew. "I don't want to do something that's not okay."
"I would never do something that's not okay," said Kris, letting his fingertips wander over Andrew's collarbone. "She knows. I promise. This is...understood."
"By you, maybe," said Andrew. "It's not understood by me. But if you say it's okay, then okay. You wouldn't lie to me"
"It's like this," said Kris, because he didn't want Andrew to wonder, he didn't want to do this with him and have him preoccupied the whole time wondering how this could possibly be okay. "Me and Katy having each other doesn't mean there isn't room for more. I love her, and she knows I'm never going to stop. I just...there's more room in me. In us. I don't know how else to say it, just that it's okay."
"Right now it's okay, or all the time it's okay?" said Andrew, and from the set of his mouth, from the tension in his shoulders, the answer mattered. Kris didn't think he wanted it to matter, because they were right on the cusp of everything right now, but it did.
"All the time it's okay," he said, "as long as there are no secrets. That's the rule. No secrets."
"No secrets," repeated Andrew. "I can do no secrets."
Finally he smiled again, smiled that smile, and Kris didn't take any chances this time. They had to be on stage soon, they couldn't linger, but the moment he saw that smile Kris kissed him before anyone tried to talk again.
This time, Andrew seemed pretty on board with that.
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Date: 2010-04-06 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-11 07:22 pm (UTC)