For disclaimers and other stuff, see Chapter 1, please.
Jesse awoke slowly, the droning of his alarm clock finally registering. "Fuck," he mumbled, "that was my favorite dream."
He smiled at the memory of it – a dream he often had. Mutants had achieved acceptance out in the world, no longer hiding and hunted. Adam returned to the public as well, finally able provide cures to a myriad of diseases, a life-long goal finally achieved.
In that world, Brennan never kissed Shalimar or rubbed her shoulders. He never gave her sultry smiles, or responded to her breathy voice. Instead, that breathy voice was often heard moaning things like "Oh god, Emma! Yes, right there!"
Jesse felt swelling underneath his sheets at the thought.
However, in spite of how appealing he found the idea of Shal and Em getting together, it was nothing like thinking about Brennan.
In his dream world, he was the one that received soft and tender kisses from Brennan. And not just soft and tender ones, either. Sometimes the kisses were hard and demanding, full of raging passion that simply could not be denied or quenched with only a kiss.
Jesse smiled at the thought and he slid his hand down his chest, under the sheets and into his underwear, freeing his cock to swell without restraint. He closed his eyes and replayed sequences of images from dreams, stroking himself slowly.
Brennan, shirtless and well-muscled, advancing towards him, just had he had in the prison fight. But this time Brennan's eyes burned with passion, not rage, and Jesse willingly accepted him. He moaned softly at the thought of Brennan entering him, filling him, owning him.
And in his dream world, he wasn't just a servant to the will of Master Mulwray, which is often how he felt in the "real world". In his dreams, Brennan would lie back and spread himself open for Jesse, and Jesse would feel himself get lost within the warmth and tightness of the dark-haired and gorgeous man, finding himself when his lips touched Brennan's and they soared together towards exquisite release.
Jesse reached over and grabbed some tissues from the box on his nightstand and cleaned himself up So can someone tell me why I want a man who treats me as a little brother at the best of times, and at the worst of times, like now, can't even stand to be around me?, he asked himself.
Jesse sighed, and rolled out of bed, dreading another day at Sanctuary, as he done so many mornings recently.
With a bowl of cereal in hand, Jesse wandered into the lab, his mouth crunching noisily. He looked at the assembled members of the team and realized he had arrived last.
"Sorry", he mumbled to Adam, around another bite of cereal.
Jesse scrambled to sit down, and after he did, he looked up to see Adam looking back at him with a small, tolerant smile. "If you're ready to begin?" Adam asked.
"Sheesh!", Jesse heard Brennan exclaim.
"What? I said I'm sorry."
Emma sighed, "Can't you two take a break? Just for a little while. Let's not have a repeat of yesterday. You're already giving me a headache."
"Yeah, you two have been at it for weeks now. Kiss and make up already." Shalimar added, following it up with a teasing grin.
Jesse spit out some of his cereal. "What?" he asked, trying to hide the panic in his voice.
"As if," Brennan muttered, at about the same time.
"How about you all of you deal with your issues on your own time?" Adam broke in, trying to restore order. "Right now, we need to talk about a new mutant that's been discovered."
Emma and Shalimar grinned at each other, and then at the boys, before looking back at Adam. Brennan stared straight ahead, not looking at anyone.
Jesse, seeing that Brennan couldn't even look at him, lowered his eyes sadly, but pointed his head in the general direction of Adam, as if the scientist had his attention. He didn't even flinch when Brennan once again brought up that extra fire power was needed on this mission, meaning that he should go, and Jesse should stay behind.
You'd think he could at least come up with some original reason, Jesse thought. It's becoming a little routine.
"Bren," Shal said as she stopped in him the hallway later that afternoon, her hand on his arm. "What's your beef with Jess?"
Brennan took a deep breath and turned to face the feral. "Look, Shal. I know he's like a little brother to you and that you want to protect him. I get it. But he's not a little boy; he needs to grow up before he gets somebody killed."
"Somebody killed?" The feral's eyes gleamed slightly. "As I seem to remember it, you were the one trying to do the killing recently, and it was Jesse who saved your life."
Brennan rolled his eyes. "Don't remind me." He turned to walk away, but Shal's grip on his arm tightened.
"Look, I don't know what's going on in that head of yours, but leave Jesse out of your drama, okay? He doesn't need your shit."
"Whatever," he said, pulling free of her grip and walking away.
"Looks like I know someone who needs a serious ass-whoopin'," she called after him, following him down the hall.
The clicking of the keyboard echoed through the work room as Emma entered. She saw Jesse reclined at one of the work stations, the screens of multiple monitors flipping and changing in front of him.
"Busy?" she asked him.
"No, not really. Just doing the same ol' boring security sweeps."
Emma noticed that he hadn't even looked at her. His eyes remained fixed on the screens in front of him. "Hey – those security sweeps are important. You keep us safe, Jess. Without you, I can't think of how many times Genomex or some other agency would have gotten in and been able to capture us."
"No worries, Em. I'm sure Brennan's mighty fire power would have been able to save you. After all 'phasing and massing isn't going to win the battle'", Jesse said, mimicking Brennan.
"Oh, Jess. Just ignore him. He'll come around eventually."
"Sure, he will. And did you see the flying pig outside?" He shook his head sadly, but then turned to look at her, a smile forced onto his face. "So what did you want to talk to me about, Em?"
Emma let out a slow breath, wondering if altering the emotions of her friends would really be that bad. Invasion of privacy? Sure. Effective? Very. "Nothing, Jess. I'm just worried about you."
"Go work your mojo on Brennan, Emma. I'm not the one with the problem."
Sure, Jess. We'll pretend you aren't madly in love with a man who treats you like shit. That isn't a problem at all.
Emma walked into the lab, hopping up onto a stool near Adam. Adam, engrossed in the microsope he peered through, didn't notice her approach.
"Can I help?" she offered. She hoped that doing some mindless lab work would take her mind off of Jesse and Brennan.
"What?" Adam backed away from the microscope, startled, turning to look at her. His thoughts were all too close to the surface, and she picked them up without even thinking about it.
"Oh my god!" she exclaimed, a look of horror on her face. "You can't kill Jesse!"