Jean-Paul and Jake: Don't Get Too Close, Don't Go Too Far

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Jean-Paul and Jake spend some quality time together before work and road trips separate them for a week. Jake tries on Jean-Paul's t-shirts, Jean-Paul tries to invite him to Tel Aviv, and questions are asked.



"I must be out of my mind." Jean-Paul sat on the bed, watching with some amusement as Jake rooted through his closet, subjecting his t-shirts to close scrutiny. "I could do this in an afternoon with no complications, yet I am dragging it out to five days and taking a student with me. Obviously there are depths to my self-loathing that even I did not suspect."

"You're showing the world to some kid who's never been out of his borough," Jake's muffled voice came from the depths of the closet; he still couldn't quite wrap his mind around Johnny's notion of Quebec being 'far' when it was, well, right over there. "Think of it as a, I don't know, good deed or something. Karmic balance, blah blah blah. And if worst comes to worst, claim food poisoning and come home early. I certainly won't complain." He came up for air long enough to grin at the other man.

"These will do." Curious, Jean-Paul rose to his feet to investigate, only to find Jake trying on his t-shirts. "Shameless; please tell me you do not play this game with Wanda. Though you are certainly worth coming home to." He stole a kiss and hauled Jake out into the light to get a look at him. "But if not Quebec, how do you feel about Tel Aviv?"

Jake held up a shirt with a stylized red maple leaf. "I swear, it's like you're afraid someone might forget you're Canadian." He blinked at Jean-Paul's question, looking up at him curiously. "At least they won't try to cover me in gravy and cheese curds?" he ventured, before a suspicious look crossed his face. "Why? What's in Tel Aviv?"

"Nathan's old friends. We've been invited for a trip later this summer...well, more accurately, I was invited and demanded the right to bring you along as luggage."

Jake laughed incredulously, throwing the nearest t-shirt at the back of the speedster's head. "Really? First, did you just call me baggage? And second, what makes you think I want to vacation with Nathan's friends? It's bad enough putting up with him--all I need is a pack of mercenaries to sit me down and give me The Talk. Again." He shook his head, although he was still laughing. "No. No way. That definitely ranks very high in my list of Bad Ideas." A snort. "And you call me shameless."

"I just called you an absolute necessity on a vacation," Jean-Paul protested from beneath his Mutantès tee. "And anyway, it is not as if any of Nate's friends know me from Adam. Why would they care who I'm involved with? Do you really want me to spend my vacation off on a beach all alone in a strange land?"

"Yes, but they know me," Jake pointed out, tossing a Great Big Sea shirt to land atop the first. "They've tried to scare the pants off of me for less, although I suppose Domino was younger than you are. Less impressionable, though," he mused. "But they've got that whole pack mentality thing--anything Nathan says, they'll believe. And you can't tell me he won't take every opportunity to toy with me."

Jean-Paul snagged his shirt out of mid-air.

"Maybe if I ask nicely." He glided up to Jake and kissed the back of his neck hopefully. "I do want to go away with you somewhere while I have the time free. Near or far, just so long as we get some time away from work and students and everyone else. Including five AM wake-up calls," he promised solemnly.

Jake sighed at the sensation of Jean-Paul's lips on his neck, then turned, pulling the Mutantès shirt from the speedster's head. "I'd like to go somewhere with you," he said, lightly threading the fingers of one hand through Jean-Paul's hair as he pulled him down for a kiss. "It's just--Tel Aviv is not my first choice." He grinned at him. "Besides, are you sure you want to go on vacation with a dedicated workaholic? I'll still end up working."

"Are you kidding?" Jean-Paul grinned. "It means I will be able to pester you away from your work without guilt. And if I have to fight your laptop for your attention...well, I do love a challenge. We do not have to go to Tel Aviv. Too bad it is the wrong season for skiing. That would be fun." He traced Jake's face gently with his fingertips. "Maybe something closer?"

"Mmmmaybe." He caught one of the fingers in his mouth, sucking on it gently before releasing it. "I always did like Cairo," he said thoughtfully. "Or," a shark-like grin, "we could tell everyone we went to Cairo, then lock ourselves in here and not answer the door for a week."

"Absolutely not." Jean-Paul fell to the bed and pulled Jake down flush on top of him. "We will rent a hotel room. An apartment. We will find a B&B. But we are getting out of familiar surroundings."

"Don't want people interrupting us?" Jake murmured into an ear. "It's a big mansion. Plenty of places to hide that most people never think about." Despite his words, though, he did like the notion of getting away with Jean-Paul. Which was enough to give him pause, but he pushed the thought aside for now. These were not the sorts of things to be thinking about tonight.

"It is a big mansion. A big mansion with three resident telepaths and several juniors, an empath and a half, and a handful of people with enhanced senses. Let us not play that game, hm?" He trailed off with a soft gasp as Jake's teeth closed over the tip of his ear. "You just cannot resist, can you?"

"It's a fun game, though," Jake replied, smiling as Jean-Paul arched slightly against him. "And no, I can't. Not when it does this," his teeth closed over the ear again, grazing down its outer edge, "to you." He couldn't help but grin as Jean-Paul shivered and pulled him closer.

* * *

"Jake?"

"Mph? Mrrmrble..."

Jean-Paul snorted quietly and unearthed enough of Jake from the bedding to poke him in his intact shoulder. "Jake. Starving. I am going to get up and make a snack. Are you coming or do I have to carry you?"

An arm emerged from the blankets, reaching for Jean-Paul, although Jake's eyes remained closed. "Food," he mumbled, although it was hard telling whether he meant that he was going to get up, or he wanted the food to come to him. The searching hand finally found the speedster and attempted to pull him back into the bed.

"As much fun as eating each other is..." Jean-Paul braced and began hauling Jake out of bed. "...we can only subsist on that for so long. And sluggards who stay in bed get no vote as to the menu."

"Mmph--hey!" Jake yelped as he was dumped onto the floor, coming awake as he hit the ground. He peered up at Jean-Paul suspiciously from where he lay at his feet, tangled in the bedding. "You said food?" It was possible he'd dreamed that part, after all.

"Food was promised, yes." He really ought to have felt worse about dumping an amputee on the floor. Obviously said amputee was a terrible, terrible influence on him. "I am even feeling easy tonight -- you get to choose the post-coital snack."

"When you say it that way, it almost sounds romantic," Jake muttered, reaching up to take the offered hand and standing. He took the opportunity to pull Jean-Paul against him in a brief embrace; he'd been warm under the blankets, dammit. Warm and sleepy. "Do you have any bananas? Bananas sound good," he murmured into the crook of the other man's neck.

"Stop being adorable; you will make me feel guilty after all." Jean-Paul wrapped an arm around Jake's waist while his free hand toyed with his hair. "There are bananas. It wouldn't be a bad idea to eat them before I go anyway. How do you want them?"

The shapeshifter blinked, his eyelashes fluttering against Jean-Paul's neck. "Are you offering to make Bananas Foster?" he teased. "I was planning to just eat them, but if there are options..." He kissed the shoulder in front of him as his hand moved to Jean-Paul's hip.

Jean-Paul nipped Jake affectionately, wrapping both arms around him snugly. "We will not see each other for a week. At the least, I should make my poor, put-upon lover a decent dessert before I go. And maybe the rats too." He nipped him again, teasing. "Are you going to miss me?"

Jake's lips found a purple bitemark he'd left on Jean-Paul's shoulder as a souvenir and licked the tender spot gently. "Mmm. Maybe before you went and dragged me out of bed," he said, but his tone was playful, teasing.

"Only maybe?" A moment later, Jake was on the bed again, flat on his back and straddled by an annoyingly awake and alert speedster. Jean-Paul's fingers flitted over his ribs tickling. "You really are a wretch, Gavin."

Jake giggled, twisting to try to get away from the fingers that seemed to come from all directions, but his partner had him thoroughly pinned. "Ma--m--maybe," he gasped after a helpless moment, breathless from laughing and thrashing about.

"Oh, look! He is trying to get away. That is really too cute." Jean-Paul laughed and sat back long enough to allow Jake to get some distance before hauling him back by an ankle and turning his attentions lower. "You are just going to pine away with only Jubilation, Amanda, and Wanda to look out for you, I can tell."

"Mmm," Jake replied, distracted by Jean-Paul's roving hands. "It's more than I had before." And then stilled as the truth of what he'd just said hit him, his lighthearted mood evaporated.

Jean-Paul sobered and leaned in to kiss Jake tenderly. "Hey. That you have friends who care...it could be worse."

"True." Jake kissed him back, arm wrapping around him tightly...and then rolled them over so that he was on top, pinning Jean-Paul. Caring. What could possibly go wrong? he thought sarcastically, then tried to banish the thought with a stolen kiss. He rested his forehead on the speedster's. "It's possible that I might find time in my busy schedule to miss you," he allowed with a wry smile, although it was smaller than it would've been ordinarily. "Maybe. At dessert time, definitely."