Life For Rent
Chapter 24 : Xenodochial
Author's Notes :
- Xenodochial : Friendly to strangers
- Spoilers for S1E18 and for S1E21 (if you squint). Best line: "I'd sooner give a chainsaw to a spider monkey."
- Don't own Iron Chef America, CSI Miami, Crocs, Mario Batali, Solarcaine, Disneyland.
- I know that in official beach volleyball there are only two players per side, but when it's just casual with friends there can be more. =)
- Just want to say I'm sorry for the long delay. I'm in my last semester at uni and I'm just really busy with real life (finals, grad announcements, grad committee, papers, party planning, being sick, etc.) and with finishing up my other story (it's finished!). This month is just pretty well packed and I don't have a ton of extra time to write.
- Thanks to all my wonderful readers and reviewers, you continue to brighten my day.
"What do you wear when you're cooking?"
Jared glanced away from his magazine for a second. "Um. Clothes?"
G turned his head on the pillow. "I was watching Iron Chef America earlier and--"
"--Wait, what?"
"I was watching Iron Chef America earlier and--"
"--You watch that show? You don't watch anything!"
"I watch… some… stuff."
"G, I had on CSI Miami the other day and you said, 'what's that'."
"Just because I hadn't seen one show… and anyways it was a stupid show. I don't get why anyone would want to watch people solve crimes. It's a lot less interesting in real life."
Jared laughed. "G, I don't know what rock you've been under, but people these days are obsessed with that kind of stuff. It's everywhere."
"Ugh," He groaned. "Why are we talking about this again?"
"Because you were watching Iron Chef America," Jared said with a grin.
"A much better show than that forensic crap."
"I can't even believe you were watching it in the first place."
"I turned on your TV and that food channel was on there. I went to the bathroom and came back and that was showing. This chef guy was on and he had on these bright orange foam shoes and it made me wonder what you wear."
"Well I don't wear orange Crocs," Jared said with a laugh.
"Crocs?"
"That's what Mario Batali, the chef guy, was wearing."
"You know who he is based on his shoes?"
"He's sorta famous for them."
"Oh. So what do you wear then?"
"Pants, chef jacket, apron, semi-casual shoes. I can't dress as casually as he does on television since I go out and talk to customers."
"An apron like the one you wear here?"
"No, this one wraps around your waist."
"Ah."
Jared set his magazine on the bedside table and turned the light off. "You know," He said, turning and wrapping his arms around G. "If you come to the restaurant you'll have first hand knowledge of what I wear."
"Will I get to see you cook?"
"You see me cook everyday," Jared said dryly. "It's less interesting there when I'm yelling at everyone."
G laughed. "Yeah, Brandon said you were tough in the kitchen."
"When did you talk to him?"
"He called the other morning while you were out."
"What did he want?"
"To know what you were serving that night. I informed him for you."
"Ah." Jared paused then laughed, "That bastard."
"What?"
"He shows up and starts cooking and I'm all 'how do you know what we're making' and he says 'I'm psychic' and proceeds to run through the menu of the night. Now I know he just had some insider information."
G laughed softly. "Yup."
Jared kissed the back of G's neck. "Night, G."
"Night."
Callen's phone rang and he dug into his pocket to retrieve it. He glanced at Kensi and then thumbed it on. "Callen."
"You know, real people don't answer the phone by stating their last name."
Callen laughed. "Everyone I know does. What's up?"
"I'm bored."
"I wish I could entertain you," Callen said, with a look out of the corner of his eye at his teammate. "But Kensi is here and we're stakin' out a place."
Kensi's eyes lit up and she grinned. "Is that Jared? I'm totally okay with you entertaining him while I'm in the car."
Callen made a face at her and turned to look out his window. "I only have a couple minutes to talk."
"I need a hobby," Jared sighed.
"You have a hobby. You have several hobbies."
"Cooking doesn't count--that's like a calling or something and I'm too impatient to go surfing today, the waves aren't very good either."
"You could re-alphabetize your DVDs."
"How can you re-alphabetize something? Did they change the alphabet?"
"Hmm. Good point," Callen mused. "You could take up drawing."
"I'll get right on that. What hobbies do you have?"
"I'm learning Pashto."
"Does that really qualify as a hobby?"
Callen thought about it. "Probably not."
"I'm boring, G." Jared sighed. "And I'm bored."
"Is Lindsey at work?"
"Yeah." Jared sighed again. "Will you be home tonight?"
Callen saw the vehicle Sam was in approaching. "I'm not sure. Hey, I've got to go, but go do something, okay? Go down to the pier, ride the Ferris wheel… go shopping…"
"Be safe," Jared whispered.
"I'll try."
The call ended and Callen shoved his phone back into his pocket as Sam's car stopped.
"Everything alright?" Kensi asked.
"With Jared?"
"Yeah."
"He's just bored."
"Ah."
The car fell silent as they tracked Sam's movements into the house they were watching.
Jared went for a walk. He drove his car to the beach and found people everywhere. It was sunny but not too hot, gorgeous outside. He took his flip-flops off and stuffed them into the back pocket of his shorts and tugged his shirt over his head, sticking that in next to the shoes.
He walked for about half a mile before he came upon a bunch of guys playing volleyball. He stopped for a moment to watch them, most were a few years younger than him but there were a couple he'd say were his age.
One of them saw him watching and jogged over. "Wanna play?"
Jared raised his eyebrows. "Yeah?"
"Sure man, you any good?"
"Haven't played in a few years," Jared admitted.
The guy smiled. "Good enough for me. C'mon, we're a man down."
So Jared tossed his Rainbows and his shirt in a pile to the side and jogged after the guy. "I'm Jared."
"Adam." He returned. There were three other guys on his side of the net facing four on the other side. "That's Brian, Jake, and Dave."
"Jared," The chef repeated with a nod at the guys.
"Cool." Adam grinned, "Let's play!"
It was late when Callen finally knocked on Jared's door. The younger man was in boxers and an apron and Callen found the look… adorable. He grinned as he stepped in. Jared locked the door behind him, pressed a kiss to Callen's cheek as Callen toed his shoes off and then proceeded past him to the kitchen.
"Ouch," Callen winced. Jared's back was red. Not too bright, but enough that it probably hurt a little.
"Needed more sunscreen," Jared lamented. "It's not too bad though."
"So you went out then?"
"Yeah. Found some guys on the beach, played some ball--thanks for the suggestion."
"Some ball?"
"Volleyball."
Callen scanned the other man's body. "Any other injuries I should be aware of?"
"Scraped my knee," Jared admitted. "But it's not too deep." He pulled down two wide bowls and started spooning some spaghetti into each. "How was the rest of your stake out?"
Callen rubbed the back of his neck casually as he took a seat at the counter. "Well, we got the… bad guys."
Jared frowned. "Yeah?"
"Yeah, and no one was hurt," Callen added. "So that's a good thing."
"Always a good thing," Jared seconded. He poured some sauce over the pasta and slid one across the counter to Callen. "Juice, G?"
"Water, please."
"Sure."
A few seconds later a glass of water was in front of him and a minute after that Jared sat next to him with a glass of red wine and his own pasta dish.
It didn't take them long to finish dinner and Jared just left the dishes in the sink, rinsing them a little, before ushering Callen into his bedroom.
"Can you spray some Solarcaine on my back?" Jared asked.
"Sure, is it in the bathroom?"
"Yeah."
Callen rifled through Jared's medicine cabinet and came out with a small spray bottle of the aloe mixture. Jared was lying on his stomach, naked, when Callen came back out. The NCIS agent shucked off his clothes, tossing them towards the chair in Jared's room before making his way back to Jared and straddling his upper thighs.
"Do I just spray it on? Should I rub it in?"
"If you want," Jared mumbled into the sheets.
Callen applied the soothing spray evenly across the younger man's back and gently rubbed it in, with any luck it'd be mostly better by morning. When he finished he set the bottle on the nightstand, hit the light, and joined Jared on the bed.
Jared turned his head on his pillow to face Callen. "Am I too boring, G?"
Callen shook his head. "I don't find you boring at all."
"One guy I dated said I was really boring, that all I wanted to do was cook." He paused. "I suppose he was right in some ways."
"I like that you like to cook," Callen told him honestly. Then added, "And so does the rest of my team."
That got a small laugh out of the surfer. "It's just… it's all I'm really good at."
"Well, I think you give great phone." That earned him another short laugh before Jared was pensive again. Callen reached out and gently touched Jared's shoulder. "Jared, you're happy doing what you're doing and that makes you lucky, not boring. And who wants to do things they're bad at? In my experience, that's not that much fun."
"Yeah, I guess so," Jared said with a sigh.
"Hey, you're not boring, okay? We have plenty to talk about and plenty to do." Callen paused for a moment. "How about I see if I can take next Monday off and we hit up Disneyland."
Jared gave him a skeptical look. "Disneyland?"
"I've never been," Callen admitted. "Sam keeps telling me how great it is."
"They have long lines," Jared cautioned.
"I'm a patient man."
"And thousands of screaming children."
"You'll just have to distract me."
"With exorbitant prices."
"You can pay," Callen said with a grin.
"You really want to go to Disneyland. With me."
"Yep."
"I… yes," Jared smiled. "Okay."
"If I can get the time off from work."
"Of course," The younger man acknowledged. Jared frowned slowly, "Hey wait a second…"
"Hmm?"
"Next Monday…"
Callen hesitated, "Yeah?"
"Next Monday which wouldn't happen to have any significant meaning to either of us."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Callen said, hiding a smile.
"Yeah, alright. I'm totally on to you, by the way."
"No idea," Callen repeated.
"Uh-huh, sure. You're something else, G," Jared said fondly.
"Can we sleep now? I think I'm feeling sleepy."
"You think?"
"Yeah."
Sigh. "Yeah, okay."
Jared turned on his side and moved up behind Callen, gently pulling him back against his chest. It had taken Callen a while to get used to the position, even now it felt odd--to be held by someone, especially someone just a little bit taller than him. But now he kind of liked it.
"Night, G." Jared mumbled, kissing a shoulder.
"Mmm," Callen responded, drifting off into sleep.
Callen slowed to a stop outside of Sam's place and texted his partner that he was there. He hated when people honked, especially so early. It took just a minute for Sam to come out and slide into the passenger seat, buckling.
"Morning, G."
"Good morning," Callen responded easily, pulling away from the curb. He started off towards their headquarters.
Sam looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "Good morning? Good morning? You never say 'good morning'."
"What? I say 'good morning' all the time," Callen defended.
"No, you don't. It's usually a 'yeah' or 'morning' or 'Sam'."
"Well maybe it has to be a good morning for me to say 'good morning'."
"And it's a good morning?"
Callen grinned slowly as he remembered his good morning; Jared on his knees in the shower then pressed against the shower wall, moaning Callen's name. "It's definitely a good morning."
"Okay, rule one: never tell me what you were just thinking of. Rule two: never think of it while I'm in the car again. That's just way too creepy, G."
Callen smiled, "You asked."
"Yeah, about that. Rule three: you lie and say you've had a terrible morning."
He laughed, "I'll see what I can do."
"You better. Now… what's that smell?"
"Jared made some kind of breakfast thing for the crew."
"Yeah?" Sam turned to look at the back seat. "This morning?"
"Of course this morning."
His partner turned back around in his seat. "Just askin, G. I better get one this time. Nate is pretty fast for a shrink."
"Jared keeps telling me to invite him over."
"Yeah?"
"He thinks Nate has, and I quote, 'adorable puppy dog eyes'. He talks about them all the time."
Sam laughed, "Feelin' unloved, G?"
Callen grinned. "Nah, I know how much he loves my adorable features."
"Gross, too much information, G, too much."
"You started it."
"Ugh."