ht_murray: little girl, cheeks, blue rose (Default)
[personal profile] ht_murray
And the Soles of Your Shoes

Today's picture

Also in this 'verse.



Jensen's not shy. He's... honest. The military will do that to a guy. Ten years of his life as an Army brat and more than twice that in the barracks, first in the orphanage PR'ed as West Point for boys, and then basic training, Officer Training, and Ranger indoctrination, pretty much removed most of his vocal inhibitions. Someone asks him a direct question, they'll get a direct answer and usually more information than the average civilian is comfortable hearing.

So, he doesn't sit in the back of these local joints with their boot scuffed dance floors and 'personalized' graffiti-carved booths on off days in the middle of the week because he's anti-social. It's just easier to protect people from things they don't want to know by sparing them the chore of casual conversation. If he was smarter, he'd go everywhere in his dress uniform. That never fails to repel any unwanted attention, but it's kinda hard to lay low and get any decent R&R buttoned up to his Adam's apple and spit-shined from head to toe. He prefers to kick back in his scuffed brown field boots. They're not exactly civvies so much as a uniform for downtime, but they're comfortable, and if he's lucky enough to find someone willing to kneel between them, well he likes that they're solid enough that he can't see his toes curl.

It's mostly Thursday nights for him. Different dive in every town, when he can swing a pass or a routine 'military presence' type of assignment in some border town in the fringe territories of the Midwest. (The Farm Belt is not to be under-estimated. He's got a patch of pock-marked flesh across his left shoulderblade and a few shotgun pellets still under his skin to attest to that.) Friday nights mean weekend crowds, and Wednesdays are notorious 'church nights.' It's Jensen's job to find out if anyone's finding the kinda religion that includes channeling the wrath of God into their 'Bible Study Groups' while they're polishing their rifles and discussing politics over pots of home-cooked chili and beer.

So, Thursdays it is. That's when the goold ol' boys stay home, and the most conversation he's likely to have to engage in involves a waitress pulling double or triple duty as kitchen help and bartender who hasn't even bothered to fix herself up just for the two guys in the end stools that never seem to leave.

It's usually a good system, but it's Jensen's system. The rest of the world isn't exactly informed about the system, so occasionally, things don't quite go the way he plans.

Like tonight. It's Thursday. Tables carved with graffiti and dead animals on the wall between the neon beer signs--check. Two guys on the end of the bar who look like they've never left-- check. Empty booth in the back with Jensen's name written all over it--check. And the waitress obviously showed up wearing no makeup, but now she's not even trying to hide the fact that she's using the mirror behind the bar to fix herself up in, no doubt due to the table of twenty-something guys hooting it up in the middle of the place.

Jensen's guess is birthday or BIRTHday. One of the guys is either just turning legal or just turning daddy, the two primary reasons for parties not to wait until the weekend. He doesn't mind. Just that much less small talk he has to make with the waitress. He's perfectly happy slouching low in his booth and letting his head hang back, sitting just a little too close to the LCD television on the wall above him to actually see what's going on but tilted at an angle to look enrapt with it. He doesn't even bother turning up the volume when the laughing and hollering across the room get too much to hear over.

The beer bottle cupped in his hand has gone from chilled to tepid to pisswarm in the span of time since he last took a sip, and he's watching the television more through his eyelashes than under them when the bench seat across from him squelches with the sound of someone sliding in.

Straightening, (it's common courtesy) he comes eyeball to eyeball with a... kid. Kid being a relative term Jensen doesn't put much stock in these days. They're drafting 'em right out of high school, now. He's been behind the lines with some outright babies. This guy's probably at least seventeen and a little slender but not soft, definitely either gutsy or just stupid enough to cut it in the field given that he's willing to approach a complete stranger in the dark corner of a bar. Still a kid, though, in all the ways that count-- bright-eyed and smiling with the enough glint in both to give an air of trust. Even his dark hair's got a childish flip to the ends, long bangs hanging over green eyes.

"Mind if I sit here?" Kid asks. "My brother's bound and determined to get me drunk and laid by the end of the night. I'm hoping if I stay out of sigh for awhile, he'll finish getting himself drunk and laid and leave me out of it."

Jensen stretches and smooths down the cowlicked hairs on the back of his neck. He thought he was the one who volunteered too much information. "Birthday?" he asks.

"Yup," Kid beams. If he smiles any bigger Jensen's gonna be able to count his fillings. "Eighteen today."

"Sounds like a good reason to get drunk and get laid to me."

Kid blushes and drums his fingers on the table top. "I'm pretty sure Jeff doesn't know my type."

"Of what? Liquor or women?"

"Either."

"So, why don't you tell him."

"I have a better chance finding what I like if I do it myself."

"What do you like?"

The blush deepens, and Kid ducks his head into his shoulder, clearing his throat before he says. "Kinda... kinda prefer someone... clean cut."

Jensen takes a swig off his beer, refuses to cringe at the bitterness. "How clean?"

"Military clean." Kid doesn't duck away when he says it. His eyes still glint something exuberant and childlike, but there's a fire there, too, somewhere between mischief and confidence. He's used to getting what he wants.

Jensen purses his lips, lets the bottle clunk against the table. "What gave me away?"

"Your boots."

His hand stretches across the table. "Petty Officer, Jensen Ackles."

"Jared Padalecki," a pause and a clearing of the throat, "Ph.D."

Jensen's toes curl. "Is that so?"

"Yes...Sir." Jared's hand lingers in his a few long seconds after the handshake's officially over but doesn't go slack, nerve endings in Jensen's arm firing all the way down to the floor.

Shit. He might just have to take his boots off for this.

#

(I know it's messy and blunt and not very pretty, but just like with the Overboard fic, this is stream of consciousness, and I'll fix it in the rewrite. I’m also not sure on some of the terminology. Tracer’s doing the military research. :P Also, with regards to the recent announcement, I feel like I should say I'm ecstatically happy for Jensen and Danneel, but I don't plan on changing anything I'm writing. For me, this stuff has always been fiction. It's still just a story. And that's that.)

Date: 2009-11-10 12:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] loolookitty.livejournal.com
This is intriguing. I definitely want to read more. :)

Nice vivid descriptions - I could really see the place without it being overdone!

Date: 2009-11-10 11:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tru-faith-lost.livejournal.com
Thank you. It's actually hard to write, because I have a habit (I like to call it my style, LOL) in which my characters often seem adrift in space, which works for me, because I like the idea of two people being wrapped up in each other, and I get bored with descriptions. But we all know stories need some backdrop. I never plan that part, though. I just start talking about the character, and he tells me where he is.

Date: 2009-11-10 01:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] athynto.livejournal.com
Wow, now you really got me interested.
This is awesome. Very intense.
I can't wait to read more.
Thanks for sharing.

Date: 2009-11-10 11:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tru-faith-lost.livejournal.com
Thank you. I'm glad it's intense. I don't like to introduce with long, boring exposition, but how can you find out what's going on without a little? Balancing act. *nods*

Sorry there's no more today. I'm feeling crappy and still have a twelve hour shift to look forward to. Tomorrow. I promise. Though, as I mentioned earlier, all the scenes are not gonna happen in order. Basically, whichever picture speaks to me. :P

Date: 2009-11-10 02:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] calamitycrow.livejournal.com
ohhh, yesh. More.

And sigh, I'm afraid the recent engagement isn't going to change my human's writing habits either....

Date: 2009-11-10 11:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tru-faith-lost.livejournal.com
Yes! More! Just not today. I feel kinda crappy. That damned Gao better not have given me his flu. :P

12 hour shift to look forward to, which I intend to spend fantasizing about your Jensen and your Jared having weepy apology time (though I don't necessarily want that in the story. LOL. I try to keep the girlified versions of my boys locked in my head for when I need a best girlfriend. LOL.)

Date: 2009-11-10 11:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] calamitycrow.livejournal.com
so my human should just have much weeping and everyone apologizing profusely? well, this kitty will ask, but my human seems to have this need to write tough guy schmoop. usually with a messed up leg. I dunno, I think its pathological or something....

Date: 2009-11-11 02:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tru-faith-lost.livejournal.com
LOL! NOOOO! I don't want emo boys. I love tough guy schmoop. Just when I get feeling crappy and girly, I have girly boys in my head. It's a sickness. :P

ETA: Why do you think I didn't write anything today? I'd have looked at it tomorrow and had to light it on fire.
Edited Date: 2009-11-11 02:01 am (UTC)

Date: 2009-11-10 05:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] layne67.livejournal.com
Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! I can't wait for the whole story. I'm loving this so much already, and I wish I still have my AFGM!Jensen icon!

Date: 2009-11-10 11:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tru-faith-lost.livejournal.com
Oh, thank you honey. I think it will be right up your alley. Tons of angst, and I'm just getting started.

No more today, though. I iz sickly. *smoosh*

Date: 2009-11-11 08:23 pm (UTC)
tigriswolf: (J2)
From: [personal profile] tigriswolf
Aww, wee!Jared is so cute.

Date: 2009-11-12 08:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tru-faith-lost.livejournal.com
Haha, you called him wee!Jared. Now I feel a little like I"m writing pedofic. LOL. But he is kinda innocent and naive, isn't he? Makes me wanna squish he wee!cheeks.

And what're ya doing reading RPF?

Date: 2009-11-12 01:14 pm (UTC)
tigriswolf: (OTP)
From: [personal profile] tigriswolf
Do you remember the SN pilot? He was wee, then. Ah, how he's grown.

I started reading RPS again in early 2008, I just didn't admit it. And then Star Trek reboot RPS happened and I decided to come clean. *shrugs*

Date: 2010-01-03 01:35 pm (UTC)
ext_63196: (Ackles Lip)
From: [identity profile] beelikej.livejournal.com
Guh.

Well, I loved The Second Man so much that I had to check out your other fics;) I must say this sounds intriguing. I simply have to put you on my flist so I can stalk you to stay updated on the progress.

Date: 2010-01-03 01:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tru-faith-lost.livejournal.com
LOL! I'll add you back now, but just so you know, The Second Man took a whole year to write, and the fic in this entry is probably third on the list of things in the queue, though I think my cowriter is plugging away. I have a ton of research still to do on the making of an Army Ranger, but I'm excited to write this when I get a few other things squared away. Sadly, fic has been scarce around here this year.

*huggles*

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