Jake and Jean-Paul (fast-forwarded to Wednesday morning)

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A late night confession is the final nail in the coffin for Jake and Jean-Paul.



Just because Jean-Paul was sleeping these days did not mean that he was sleeping lightly; he had never been a particularly heavy sleeper and the air of tension around the school lately did not help matters at all. The sound of the door to his suite opening woke him. The well-known footfalls heading for his room made him grin to himself and lie back down, feigning sleep. One of these days, Jake Gavin would come back from his assignments at a reasonable hour. In the meantime, there was nothing wrong with making the best of late-night reunions.

The footsteps paused for a moment in the doorway, almost long enough to make Jean-Paul peek. Before that happened, however, the steps resumed, coming closer. The bed dipped under Jake's weight, and then...nothing. The speedster opened his eyes to find Jake sitting on the side of the bed, fully clothed, face turned towards the window.

The lack of unrepentant grappling was mildly surprising, not to mention disappointing. Jean-Paul rolled onto his side, rubbing his eyes. Jake was just outside of arm's reach as well. Hm.

"Hey. Long trip?"

Jake started slightly, breaking his reverie as he turned his head. "I didn't mean to wake you," he said quietly, the expression on his face unreadable. After a moment's hesitation, he leaned over to brush Jean-Paul's hair out of his eyes.

"Yes? That is new." Jean-Paul caught Jake's hand and pulled him closer. "Did something happen?"

He let himself be drawn in, stretching out alongside the speedster as their fingers laced together. "Something always happens," he sighed. "This time it wasn't what we went to find, but instead a creepy shadow wolf guy. And a crazy cultist or something. It was awesome," he deadpanned, his tone making it clear that it was anything but.

Jean-Paul chuckled lazily, giving Jake an affectionate scruff. "Poor you. But you are home now and everyone is all right?"

"Yeah," Jake nodded, "everyone is fine." He closed his eyes and tilted his head into the palm of the speedster's hand before it could be pulled away, craving the sensation but not able to bring himself to get any closer to Jean-Paul. "Did anything exciting happen while we were gone?"

"The school is still standing, non?" Jean-Paul's smile remained, though he had not missed the distance between them. Jake should have been undressed and tucked into the curl of his body already. "So it must not have been too exciting a week. We are soldiering on."

Another nod, a slight smile. After a moment Jake opened his eyes again, fingers tightening around Jean-Paul's as his other hand came up to thread through the other man's hair. "Come here," he murmured, pulling him in for a kiss.

Jean-Paul slid an arm around Jake's waist, pulling him close even as Jake did the same for him. This was more like it. The kiss was sweet in all senses -- gentle, light, and Jake had been into peppermint candy not long before his arrival, adding the faintest bite to that sweetness. Jean-Paul smiled against Jake's lips just before the two of them parted. "I missed you. But I am sure that is no surprise."

Jake looked as though he were going to say something, then sighed and leaned his forehead against Jean-Paul's, his fingers tightening in the other man's hair. The urge to roll them over, to pin his partner to the mattress and send his fingers diving underneath the speedster's pajamas, was almost overwhelming. He teetered on the brink for a moment before releasing his hold and rolling back into a seated position on the edge of the bed, facing the window once again.

"Jake, you are making me dizzy." Jean-Paul sat up, brushing his freshly mussed hair out of his eyes again and sighed. "So everyone is all right, but whatever happened is still bothering you. Not your family again?"

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, although what, exactly, he was apologizing for, he couldn't say. "Not my family, although I did get to meet the woman Wanda considers to be her adopted mother. Who reminds me a lot of my mother." The mention of Wanda caused a tightening in his chest, and he fidgeted with his hands as he warred with himself. He really wanted to turn around, surround himself in Jean-Paul and not think until morning. Maybe this confession would be easier in daylight, after they'd had some time together. Maybe he wouldn't ever have to admit anything--after all, it's not like they were dating, right? Jake had certainly made no promises towards fidelity at any point in their acquaintance.

He glanced behind him, and all the answer he needed was written in the concern on Jean-Paul's face. "I..." he started, turning towards the window again. "Wanda and I...I was just trying to make her feel better," he said lamely, fingers knotting together.

It took a moment for the words to penetrate the drowsiness still clinging to Jean-Paul's mind, but his heart contracted painfully once they did. There were very few ways to take Jake's confession, combined with his restless behavior. Jean-Paul took a careful breath, trying to rein the emotion struggling in his throat.

"How far did it go?" That his voice sounded normal, even calm, stunned him somewhat. "Did you kiss her? Fuck her?" Because the details were important. The degree of betrayal mattered, so that he could know just how much Jake hadn't cared.

"Yes," Jake said quietly, suddenly glad he'd turned away. The voice in his head that always got him into trouble was chanting I told you so, I told you so over and over, daring him to say it out loud. Daring him to make it worse, to set everything between them on fire so that he could just walk away. He bit down on that urge, bit his lip until he tasted blood, mingling with the taste of Jean-Paul and peppermint on his tongue.

There was only silence between them for a long minute, weighing on them both until Jean-Paul finally spoke again.

"You were trying to make her feel better." It wasn't quite a question and the last traces of sleep thickness had left his voice. He kept his head up his gaze steady and fixed on Jake. There was no need to look away, because this didn't hurt. At all.

Every instinct told him to run, and he almost did--it was so tempting to just stand up and leave. He didn't want to see the look on Jean-Paul's face, didn't want to hear what he was going to have to say--I'm So Disappointed In You, Jacob, or How Could You Do This To Me, You Bastard, or anything in between. It was bad enough glancing up and catching sight of Jean-Paul's reflection in the window.

He dropped his gaze down to his hands again. "Yeah," he answered finally, his voice hoarse. "She was...pretty upset. It was a rough trip, even before the shadow werewolves."

'It was a rough trip.'

Jean-Paul clenched his fists in the bedding for a moment, maintaining his composure by the barest of threads. He wanted to lunge at the man across from him, to hear his fist crack across his jaw. There wouldn't be any point to it, though, except to spur him to run faster. Part of him was convinced that this would not be a bad thing, even as he got a hold of himself. "Why are you here, Jake?"

His hands twisted around each other, threatening to break into a full-blown flail. "I wanted to see you. And it's not like this has to change anything--it was just a one-time thing. There's not--we're not--it wasn't--" Jake glanced up helplessly, brow wrinkled in confusion. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"No reason, I suppose. No reason at all to assume I will not let you back into my bed. Except that I have never settled for second place, Jake. Not once. And I do not accept that from a lover either." A bitter note crept into Jean-Paul's voice. "It is never just a one-time thing."

Jake stood and crossed to the window, pacing to keep himself from fleeing. "I'm not your boyfriend, first of all, and I'm not ranking anyone." He ran a hand over his mouth, incredulous. "God...I knew you were going to be like this."

"When did I ever call you my boyfriend?" The more frustrated Jake got, the cooler Jean-Paul's tone became. Jean-Paul watched him, the nervous gestures, the distance between them growing even though they were still barely a bedspan apart. He'd known this was coming. There was nothing he could do that would keep Jake here, save faking a tolerance he didn't feel...and even then, it would just be a matter of time until this happened again. Jake would just keep pushing, he had said so himself. Likewise, Jean-Paul had assured him that he had his limits. Enough was enough. "No, do not bother. I do not care."

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't be mad," Jake pointed out, clearly frustrated. "And you might not have ever called me your boyfriend, but it's what you want me to be. You say you're okay with casual, except clearly you're not. You want me to come home to you every night even though I can't do that and I never said I would. So why are you mad at me for treating this exactly like I've said I would all along?"

Jean-Paul watched Jake pace from his spot on the bed, a statue in comparison to the agitated shapeshifter, but Jake's words drew a quiet laugh from him nonetheless. "Désolé. I am being ridiculous, aren't I? It must have something to do with someone telling me how much he cared and how much better I deserved before he slunk back into my bed in the middle of the night like he belonged there, even knowing he had done something that would piss me off." He was not even going to mention the kiss. "But fine, Jake. Fine. You win."

I told you so, the chorus in his head started up again. Jake slumped against the windowsill. "I don't want to win," he muttered, out of steam.

"I do not give a damn." Jean-Paul rose to his feet. "You are right. I did this to myself. This is my fault." The speedster was expressionless, his eyes cold in the dim light. He stood with his arms folded over his chest, closed off and regarding Jake unwaveringly. "I cannot say I was not given fair warning. I even got a 'it is not you, it is me' ahead of time, and all of this after I broke things off. So. You are blameless in this and I apologize for misleading you. You can go now."

Jake blinked at him for a second, head tilted, before pushing away from the window. He paused briefly in the doorway, looking for a moment as though he were going to say something, but there were too many things to choose from and none of them good. Instead he shook his head and let himself out of the room. Once again, leaving was easier than staying.

'You knew this was coming.' Jean-Paul's mental voice was tired and gray and caused his throat to tighten. It did nothing to block the sound of familiar footfalls across the floor or the door to his suite opening and closing. 'You knew this was coming.' He stripped off, found his running gear, dressed, and headed for the window. He could get started with his work-out early today, sweat off the worst of this pointless drama before anyone else saw him. 'You knew, so let it go.'

He crossed the room in long strides and left via the window. The last thing he wanted to do right now was risk overtaking Jake Gavin in the halls.