Time Frame: Winter
Rating: T (but language, mentions of underage sex)
Description: Keith and Jared are trapped in a shop
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE ALARM SOUNDED
"Shit." Keith groaned, stumbling backward and leaning against a stack of boxes, thoroughly exhausted.
He and Jared just fought their way into the storage room of the shop that caused all the trouble. Keith watched as Jared shoved a shelf down in front of the door, wedging the other end against the floor so that unless the door was broken, it was not going to open from the outside.
"That ought to hold them off for a while, if we're real quiet." Jared panted.
"Nah, we need to get back out there and help." Keith made to stand again, but quickly dropped back against the stack again, hand trying to block the blood steadily trickling from an open wound between his neck and shoulder.
"We can't, buddy. We're out of ammo and they're all just outside the door. We did the best we could to distract that horde." Jared explained, and he was right. Going back out there would have been a death trap.
"Plus you're in no shape to fight." He countered, approaching his friend, "How bad is it?"
"Not too bad." Keith answered pointlessly, being that Jared was already peeling up the collar of his shirt to examine the stripes of open flesh from a Witch that Keith couldn't dodge in time.
"Bullshit, its real bad. Take off your coat." He shot back, rushing to pull off his own.
Keith shrugged out of his coat, letting it fall onto the dusty floor.
"This one too." He said, practically tearing off Keith's thermal before pulling off his own, wadding it into a ball and placing it over the Witch's claw marks.
"I'm okay." Keith tried to be reassuring, not letting on that he was feeling exposed with at least the upper half of his wrecked body under his friend's scrutiny. He could see Jared's eyes fighting to stay focused on the current wound, rather than scanning over his scars as what was expected.
"You're damn lucky. Another inch or two over and that Witch would have bled you out." Jared said, voice a little calmer. He lifted the balled up shirt just a bit to eye the wounds more closely. There were two long splits going from his left collar bone, between his neck and shoulder, and around to the top of the shoulder blade. The Witch's third claw scraped his bicep and the fourth missed entirely.
The first two cuts gushed incredibly, but the pressure was keeping the bloody mess from spreading.
Keith relaxed, convinced that there was no use in arguing with Jared, who had a desperate need to be a mother hen when he was the only one available to help. Instead, he let his thoughts wander elsewhere, to Ellis and Nick and the rest of his friends. He'd hoped they managed to find shelter like he had. He hoped each of them were still alive. Even though there was very little he could have done, he felt the burn of guilt making itself at home in the back of his mind, somewhere dark.
"I can't think about that right now. It will drive me crazy." He thought.
His eyes scanned around the room, only lit from the remains of the sunlight shining in through the tiny window in the upper corner.
"I'll think about…boxes. No, that's boring. I'll think about…Jared. Yeah, that's it! Jared."
His line of vision focused on his friend, who busily tended to his wounds while he stood propped against the boxes, trapped between them and the radiating warmth coming from the man before him.
"Damn, Jared sweats when he's anxious."
He did have a sheen of sweat across his forehead. Keith watched the expressions on his face change each time he looked at the wound. His eyebrows would furrow and he'd frown, and then straighten his face when he covered the wound again, pressing harder, combing through his hair or scratching his beard as if in deep thought.
Keith watched as one muscular bicep clenched down. All of the years he spent working manual labor were apparent in the way he was put together. His shoulders were strong and the flesh that was visible held a nice tan. His abs and chest were firm and tight and his hands were rough, spaced with several small scars moving up his arms.
His scars looked good, though. They added character, unlike Keith's. Keith's were everywhere, from all manner of injuries. Not one part of him was the same texture, unlike Jared who appeared rather smooth despite the rough patches in his palms. Jared had several small tattoos, looking crisp and interesting in contrast to his skintone. Keith's tattoos were either entirely burned away, or marred in some way. He had a star on the right side of his chest that he'd done himself, but it was cut in half from the lawn mower accident. The only one he had that wasn't damaged was the "I'm a moron" tattoo he had covered by his overgrown bangs.
"You doin' okay?" Jared asked, catching his friend's eyes lingering on him.
Keith nodded, "You?"
"I'm fine. This thing just…won't stop bleedin." Jared muttered, trying to mask his frustration. He picked up Keith's discarded shirt from the floor and replaced it over the wound when his makeshift bandage had become too bloody to absorb more.
"Hope that one works, because we just ran out of clothes to use unless you want my underwear." Keith joked, forgetting to laugh when Jared's eyes met his.
"Let's uh…hope it won't come to that." He said, trying to lighten the awkward silence that came over the room.
Despite the weather, this storage area was stuffy, dusty, and slowly getting dark.
"You look a little pale." Keith whispered, trying to draw his friend's attention again when Jared's eyes started to do that "vacant" thing Keith's would usually do after a knock to the head.
"I gotta tell ya, I don't much like blood." Jared replied, trying his best not to either faint or sound like a wuss.
"Don't pass out on me." Keith coaxed, placing his hands at his woozy friend's waist.
"I'm…not" Jared replied, voice slow and distracted and his friend's hands lingered, right thumb brushing his left hip before he could help it.
"Keith"
"Sorry." He replied, dropping his hands to his side.
It didn't help ease the tension. It was dense, heavy. The two seemed physically closer than they'd been earlier on and now that 'fuzzy' feeling was making it difficult to think. Jared's hand still clasped down on the bloody shirt over Keith's wounds but his grip was significantly looser. Keith clenched and unclenched his hands, unsure of what to do with them. The two briefly made eye contact, before looking away again.
"Keith?" Jared asked, bringing his friend's eye contact back.
The older man nodded. "Mm hmm"
"Do you…like me?" The question was quiet, but direct enough to where Keith knew he did not intend to add the words 'as a friend' at the end.
"Why?" He answered.
"Because, I like you. I think you're…just… the most awesome guy, even before this all happened, I wish I woulda known you back then." Jared was slow to explain, but became confident in his feelings.
"Me? Really?" Keith was flattered yet skeptical.
"Is that hard to understand?" Jared responded, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, buddy. I mean look at you, and then look at me." Keith tried to explain. Jared, to be honest, was simply a gorgeous guy and Keith would have noticed it right away had he not been so stuck on Ellis. Jared was strong and had rugged good looks. He wasn't a pretty boy, but he wasn't a greasy old hillbilly either.
"I am lookin." Was his reply as he tilted Keith's face up with his free hand and rested his forehead against that of the other.
"Do you like me?" He repeated.
"Yeah.." Keith replied. He wasn't lying. Keith did like Jared. Sure he spent most of his time considering romantic relationships he could never have, but he'd spent a lot of that time with Jared and loved his company. He was a really good guy and they got along. Jared never told him he was dumb, or gross, or annoying. He never told him to shut up or called him jealous for being so protective of Ellis.
"Would ya like to be my boyfriend?" Jared was polite, yet direct. His heavy accent drew the words out so charmingly.
"Yep." Keith said, after what seemed like a long time, suddenly itching like mad to be closer to him.
He hesitated for a moment, before reaching out and pausing with one hand in the air, inviting Jared to hug him. The younger man smirked an 'about to laugh' smirk before closing the gap and pulling Keith in for a snug embrace, the sticky, bloody flesh of Keith's abdomen pressing comfortably into the smooth, warm skin of Jared's.
They pulled back and their eyes met again, noses close to touching. Jared leaned just a bit closer, barely brushing the end of his nose against the redhead's before he stopped.
"Can I?" He asked, southern politeness getting in the way of the desire to be impulsive.
Keith answered wordlessly, and instead very gently pressed his lips to Jared's, pausing there while they grew accustomed to kissing one another. It was new, and such an exciting step in Keith's life, having never actually had a boyfriend before now.
Jared's hands were moving along his back, and his mouth was already going to town at the uninjured side of his neck, seemingly unaffected by the burned flesh there. He bit and sucked and then returned to a more than eager mouth, ignoring missing teeth and pressed himself as solidly as he could against the other without being rough.
Jared felt like he needed to walk on egg shells with Keith, when it came to how fast or slow he should move during their first encounter. He'd never been with a guy that had been so blatantly abused and he wasn't sure if keeping his desire in check would keep from triggering any awful memories.
I mean, this has to be hard for him, right? He's never has anything with another guy end well for him, and I've got my hands all over him.
"Is this okay?" He asked, noting the shivers running up the older man's spine and hoping it was just the cold setting in.
"Yes" Keith replied a little too quickly, in a rush to continue the moment the two were sharing. He wanted to be okay, wanted to prove that he was okay, that he was strong and ready to move on. But the increase in signs that he was not okay were apparent. His breathing was hitching, and despite his muscles aching for control, his movements were unsure and he trembled both in anticipation and embarrassment.
Jared pulled away, stilling his friend-turned-lover.
"Keith, buddy. I don't expect sex right away. Does that help?" He said quietly, though the fact that their hips were pressed together completely did not suggest that either of them didn't have it on their minds.
"You don't gotta worry about me. I'm fine-" Keith replied, saying anything he could in hopes that Jared would not suddenly decide he was too damaged and pull away.
"It's not just for you. I want to take it slow, too."
"How gentlemanly of you." Keith winked.
"I wish it was. It's just… I messed up before. You know? With my exes. I'm not trying to say I got around, but I let physical aspects of my past relationships kinda become too much too fast."
"Huh?" Keith was not following. He was a simple man. When he was dating someone, he waited until the other decided it was time, and since he always dated pretty skanky girls, putting out on the first date was pretty common, and to him it wasn't a big deal.
"What I mean is, the guys I went out with back in the day were way more interested in sex than they were in me as a man. I don't want to mess that up with you. We're already friends, but-"
"Don't worry. I think I read ya now. I'm not an asshole. I like ya, for what a cool guy you are. I was pretty sure you n me weren't gonna be like Nick and El."
Jared laughed.
"No, judgment but damn. The way Nick acts, he must have started at 12."
"I was 14." Jared replied, serious but trying not to sound offended.
"Fourteen?" Keith blinked.
"Yea. See, there was this guy that worked for my parents on the ranch that summer."
"Guy you went to school with, or…" Keith went along, figuring Jared wanted to talk about it.
"Nah, he was older, a lot older. Mid 20s. We just kind of happened. We hung out one night, and then he kissed me, and then we had sex."
"And I'm guessin that he knew you were 14." Keith added, not with any malice or cruelty in his voice.
Jared nodded. "I didn't have the best judgment back then."
"What teenager does?"
"I just thought that was what happened in a relationship. It kinda became how I felt wanted or important when I had a boyfriend. If he wanted me, I felt like that meant he loved me. Took me up until a year ago to realize that was nonsense." Jared explained, shaking his head at his own silliness.
"Well, ya got me now." Keith was trying to be reassuring, as well as breaking away from the unpleasantness of this conversation. Now, he just wanted Jared, just to hold him close, to kiss him, to share these things with him even when they were depressing.
It went on like this for hours, the two of them kissing and touching one another well past dark, up until they finally heard the voices of their friends on the other side of the door. They quickly and quietly put their coats back on just in time for an already banged up Nick to kick the bottom of the door in, not able to get it open fully with that shelf still in the way.
Once it was out of the way, the lot of them got back into the Uhaul and took off toward the medical attention they needed.