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Jensen hands Jared a bottle of beer and sits down in the chair beside him.
There is nobody singing right now, and that is a seriously good thing. The karaoke singers, if they could really be called singers, have been crooning nothing but love songs all night, and cheesy ones at that. Everything I Do, really?
“This was a stupid idea,” Jensen says as he side-eyes the couple making out on the table next to theirs.
“I agree,” Jared replies, taking a drink of his beer. “And, by the way, it was your idea.”
“Well, you agreed to it,” Jensen counters, and takes a long drink of his beer. He is nowhere near drunk enough for this shit. He winces as the unmistakable first bars of Silly Love Songs can be heard over the sounds of chatter and of glasses clinking. “Shoot me now.”
“I only agreed because all of our friends are out on cutesy outings with their cutesy dates and being all lovey-dovey and stuff,” Jared’s already beginning to slur his words.
Jensen takes another drink. “Valentine’s Day sucks.”
Jared’s eyes light up, and he is practically bouncing in his chair. Like a little – no like a very big puppy. An adorable very big puppy.
Wait, what?
“It so does. Like all the commercialism, and the pressure to be all romantic and shit. It’s like a day crammed with the biggest clichés ever, and people just eat it up like its candy. It’s stupid, that’s what it is,” Jared announces.
Jensen nods his agreement, as he watches Jared suck on the beer bottle as he takes another long drink. He has nice hands, big hands, big enough to –
Nope, not going there.
Best friend.
Platonic best friend.
Platonic best friend that he has the biggest fucking crush on ever since the day they met. How could he not? With Jared’s pretty eyes and his ridiculous eyelashes and his dimples and those long, long legs and –
“Earth to Jensen,” Jared’s saying, waving his now empty beer bottle in front of Jensen’s face.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about how sucky this whole Valentine’s day stuff is,” Jensen replies, and he quickly downs the rest of his beer. “The waitress looks busy; I’ll just go get us another.”
He takes a few minutes at the bar to remind himself sternly that Jared is off-limits. Friends. Best friends. He doesn’t need more. He doesn’t want more.
He has almost convinced himself that he doesn’t want Jared (with every fiber of his being), as he places the beers on the table.
Jared is looking at his phone.
“Hey, no phones on date- when we go out,” Jensen says and he feels his face getting red. Damn it, he had just had that talk with himself, and here he is blathering about dates.
Jared, thankfully, doesn’t seem to notice.
“Our friends are being gross,” Jared declares, and holds out his phone so that Jensen can see. “Chris and Steve are having an intimate candlelight dinner. I mean could they be cheesier?”
“We should tell them they suck,” Jensen declares and pulls out his phone.
Jared smiles and his dimples are out, and Jensen’s chest feels weird and then Jared’s fingers are flying on his phone. “I’m going to write Valentine’s Day sucks on each post I find.”
“Me too,” Jensen declares and begins to do just that.
Chris responds immediately with an emoji of a middle finger.
Jensen just grins and moves on to the next post and adds the same message.
“Oops,” Jared giggles. “I accidentally wrote you suck instead of Valentine’s Day sucks on this one.”
“Who’s on?” Jensen asks, letting Steve know that the cabin he has rented for Chris for the weekend is stupid and lame.
The lake looks nice though.
Jared owns some jet skis. They could go boating. Maybe swimming.
Jared with wet hair and his skin glistening with water…
“Chad’s,” Jared says jolting Jensen back to the here and now. “He bought Sandy the biggest teddy bear I have ever seen. Like what is she even going to do with that thing?”
“Oh, that’s all right then,” Jensen says, reading more posts. Sheppard wrote a poem to his wife and posted it on Facebook so everyone could see what a dweeb he is, but Jensen just leaves him a thumbs up because what are you going to do with someone so besotted. “Chad does suck.”
“Well to be fair so do I, but not on first dates,” Jared says, fingers still flying.
“What?” Jensen asks and holy hell when did they turn up the heat in here?
Jared must feel it too cause his cheeks are all pink and adorable as he echoes back. “What?”
A new guy has stepped on the karaoke platform. “This is dedicated to the love of my life. And yes, I remembered to bring the ring.”
Jared scoots his chair around so that he is right beside Jensen’s. He is so close Jensen could reach out and touch him if he wanted.
And oh, how he wants to.
It’s a beautiful night, we’re looking for something dumb to do.
The man is so off-key Jensen swears he can hear a dog howling from the parking lot.
“I feel so embarrassed for him,” Jared says, and his lips are so close to Jensen’s ear that if he turns his head just a little their lips will almost be touching.
“Yeah, I mean, imagine proposing on Valentine’s Day,” Jensen replies, looking at the man singing karaoke, so he doesn’t look at Jared and maybe do something stupid. “And with this song, I mean he couldn’t even pretend to be a little cool?”
A woman, apparently the love of the man’s life, is jumping up and down and shrieking.
When he reaches the chorus, having never once found the right key, the other people sitting around her table stand up and start singing too.
It’s the most ridiculous thing Jensen has ever seen.
don’t say no, no, no
She’s already yelling yes.
The whole bar is standing and clapping because apparently, Valentine’s Day makes dweebs of everyone.
Jared’s hand is on his knee.
Wait, what now?
When did that happen?
What does it mean?
He turns his head to say something, anything, and the bar is noisy and there is so much singing and clapping and joy and Jared’s lips are shiny and so close, and Jensen just leans over and…
They are kissing.
He places his hand behind Jared’s head and pulls him closer. Jared makes this kind of cut off moan sound and scoots his chair so close that he’s practically in Jensen’s lap. Jensen feels dizzy and happy and on fire. Kissing Jared is everything he ever dreamed of and so much more.
“Do you – is this -?” Jensen asks oh so intelligently as they finally break apart.
They kissed through the rest of the song. The newly engaged woman is showing off her ring, the bar is still chaos.
“Yes,” says Jared, and they are kissing again, and Jensen wants to live, right in this moment, forever.
“Your place is closer,” Jared says when they break apart a second time.
Jensen is staring at Jared’s lips. They are slightly puffy and wet and pink and pretty and…
“Your place?” Jared prompts.
“Closer to where?” Jensen asks because really who can think when your head is spinning, and your world has been turned upside down and the most beautiful man ever is smiling at you.
Jared just stands up and holds out his hand. Jensen takes it, and he loves the way their hands fit together and lets himself be led to the exit.
An Uber is waiting for them, and how the fuck did Jared arrange that? They get in, and Jared slides in right next to him, and their legs tangle up together, and it feels natural and strange at the same time. And then they are kissing again.
They arrive at his apartment and Jared gets out with him and – oh.
Oh.
“If you want to,” Jared says. “Only if you want to.”
“I didn’t think you liked me that way,” Jensen replies.
They are holding hands, standing outside Jensen’s apartment building.
It’s near midnight, and the moonlight is casting shadows over them, and it’s a beautiful starry night and Jensen can’t quite convince himself this is really happening.
‘Are you kidding?” Jared asks. “You are smart and funny, and so damn beautiful that if I weren’t so into you, I’d probably resent you. I just wasn’t sure if you wanted to be more than friends.”
“I want,” Jensen affirms, and snakes his arm around Jared’s waist and pulls him in tight.
Jared’s long lean body is pressed against his, and Jensen moves his hips just a little, just so that Jared can feel how much he wants.
“Let’s take this inside,” Jared proposes and then kisses Jensen so thoroughly that it’s a miracle Jensen is still standing after. “Who knows I might make an exception to the sucking on the first date thing.”
The next morning
Jensen wakes up with Jared clinging to him like – something that clings.
There is a kind of monkey that clings like this, Jared clings like one of those.
His mind might still be a bit fuzzy.
He looks at the pillow next to his, and yes, Jared is there, fast asleep.
His hair is a mess, and his face is smooshed against the pillow and he looks too fucking adorable.
Jared spent the night.
In his bed.
Jensen stretches, as much as he can with so many arms and legs trying to pin him down and replays the events of the night before.
The frantic way they had undressed like they were starving for each other (they were).
The way they had tumbled into bed, lips crashing together, bodies pressing into each other, desperate, drowning.
The way they had made love the first time – frantic, reckless.
The way they had made love the second time, slowly, softly, bodies barely moving, their eyes locked, sweet, tender kisses.
Jared’s eyes are open, and he is smiling.
“You are such a creep,” he teases. “Staring at me while I sleep.”
Jared’s smile is too bright, and he is way too cheerful for whatever time of the morning it is.
And Jensen never wants to leave this bed, never wants to leave him, never wants to…
Jared is turning toward him, and Jensen’s heart pounds and his eyes are laser-focused on Jared’s lips.
And Jared reaches over to him to pick up his buzzing phone. Jensen lets his head fall on the pillow with a thud. “Sorry, but Chad won’t stop blowing up my phone until I answer him. He is going on and on about the romantic night he had with Sandy and if I had a romantic bone in my body- oh fuck.”
“What?” Jensen asks. His fingers are tracing a line around Jared’s shoulder, and he is thinking about dipping his fingers lower, tracing a path down that long, lean beautiful body. Because he can. Because they are dating.
“We got together on Valentine’s day,” Jared groans and tosses his phone to the side. “They are never going to let us live this down, our fucking anniversary is going to be on Valentine’s Day.”
“Literally our fucking anniversary,” Jensen says, remembering all the things they did the night before.
Jared punches his shoulder, then kisses the spot he punched.
Jensen thinks about all the teasing he’s going to get from Chris and Steve.
Especially after all those ‘Valentine’s Day sucks’ posts.
Fuck.
“We just won’t tell them,” Jensen declares. “We can keep it a secret until this weekend, tell them we got together on Friday.”
“You want me to keep my hands off of you until Friday?” Jared asks, and when he says it like that, it does seem like a stupid plan.
“Today, we will tell them we got together today,” Jensen decides.
“Ok, yeah today.” Jared agrees. “Our anniversary will then be the day after Valentine’s.”
“So,” Jensen says, pulling down the covers halfway so his wandering fingers can explore more of Jared’s skin. “If our anniversary is today, I think we should celebrate.”
Jared pulls the covers all the way off them both. He’s half-hard already, and his body is just as enticing as it was the night before when Jensen spent hours exploring it.
“Anything special you have in mind to celebrate this our anniversary?” Jared asks.
“Many things, many, many things,” Jensen replies.
They spend the rest of the day exploring each one.
One Year Later
They are at the same bar.
It’s Valentine’s Day.
Chad is there, and Sandy, and Chris and Steve and Jeff and Hilarie and half the people at the bar are their friends.
Jared is sitting at the table, the same table where they first kissed.
His best friend. His boyfriend. His lover. His all.
Jensen is standing in front of the karaoke machine.
He takes a deep breath.
“This is dedicated to the love of my life. And yes, Jared, I remembered to bring the ring…”