A/N: This is it, folks. It's been a pleasure.
Ten years had passed.
Their friendship was difficult to navigate at first. Jasper got it into his head that he wanted to be more than just friends. Edward put his foot down on that right away. He called it puppy love.
"It's normal to feel that way about your first," he said.
Jasper called him a condescending prick and cried himself to sleep for a week.
He got over it. Eventually, he figured that Edward was right, especially when he finally got to college, away from his parents. He enjoyed the room to explore, to make mistakes, to really figure out who he was and what he wanted. Edward was there for his first bad breakup and every time he needed to talk. With as many daddy issues as Jasper had, he didn't always make fantastic choices when it came to the men he was with.
It wasn't to say they didn't have their moments through those years. They stayed friends—good friends. More than once, they ended up in each other's beds for a night or two. It was always fantastic. They were both good, eager, and giving partners.
"You get better with age," Edward teased him once when he was twenty-two.
They both thought about the possibility of them, but it was never the right time. Jasper was too young, and then Edward fell in love. Jasper wanted to hate the man on principle, but Benjamin was a great guy—funny, sweet, and delightfully arrogant. It was fun to see Edward so undone. The man was smitten, and Jasper couldn't begrudge his best friend his happiness.
They had been together for five years when Benjamin died suddenly. A disease the doctors found too late swept him away in a matter of months. Edward was destroyed. Jasper could only admit to himself how frightening it was to see Edward—Edward, who was always cool and in control—very literally on the floor in tears. Jasper hadn't ever had to be the strong one, but he did what he could.
That had been a year and a half ago. Edward was doing much better by the time they attended Bella's graduation. Kid was a genius, graduating with her second masters and ambitions to be president someday. She had a sweet girlfriend—Angela—and was still friends with Alice. Alice was happy, healthy, and well-traveled. She flitted around, not knowing what the hell she wanted to do with her life but having fun all the same.
Edward had a touch too much wine, and so Jasper ended up taking him home that evening. It was good to see him in such high spirits. He grinned, chuckling to himself as he sat down on his couch.
"What the hell are you giggling about?" Jasper asked, handing him a cup of coffee he'd made for both of them.
"Oh, life." He rolled his head to the side, his eyes on Jasper as he sat beside him. "I was remembering the punk-ass kids I hung out with ten years ago." He grinned and rumpled Jasper's hair affectionately. "All three of them."
Jasper rolled his eyes and patted Edward's knee.
Edward sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "Ten years. You're all doing so well."
Jasper wanted to tell him he was doing well, too. Edward had always been successful. He was well traveled and worldly. He was a good, doting big brother to his much younger siblings—the children his father had when Edward was already grown. He'd never stopped working to help those in need, poverty and at-risk teens being his causes of choice. He and Benjamin had been foster parents for a time.
Since Benjamin's death, though, there were times Edward carried himself like a much older man—as though he had one foot in the grave, too. Jasper waited, gauging Edward's mood before he commented.
When he turned to him again, Edward smiled.
"What?" Jasper asked. There was a strange gleam in Edward's eyes. Something inexplicably tender.
"You're going to call me a patronizing ass."
"Yeah, and water is wet. What's your point?"
"I was just thinking." Edward had begun to absently stroke just inside Jasper's leg though his eyes remained intent on him. "I'm proud of you. The man you've become. The work you're doing." Sadness flashed through his eyes. "In case I never told you, Jasper, you saved me." He swallowed thickly. "I wouldn't have survived if not for you, and days like today, I'm nothing but grateful for that. You always remind me how much I would have missed." Edward traced a fingertip at his chin. "You're going to make someone very happy someday, you know?"
For a few moments, Jasper couldn't speak. His heart was pounding too fast. Edward was, always and forever, the only man he'd ever been so inhibited with. But then, he'd figured out a long time ago, despite the endless amounts of crap he gave him, he put Edward on a pedestal. He was very much the alpha male with everyone except this man.
But there was something he wanted more than anything. Something he'd wanted since he was eighteen. Edward had been right back then. It wasn't the right time. And every time Jasper thought about it, something got in the way.
Timing was a bitch.
Jasper had so many fears. He was afraid he was going to ruin everything. He was afraid Edward wasn't ready. He was afraid of rejection and afraid of destroying Edward's tenuous peace. But Edward's fingers were tender and intimate as he stroked the inside of his thigh, and the way he was looking at him—Jasper didn't think he was misreading the want in his eyes.
He closed his eyes and tilted his head, kissing Edward softly—soft enough it would be easy for him to pull back if it wasn't what he wanted. Edward's breath—hot on his mouth—shook, and Jasper felt the slight tremor when he put a hand to his arm. It took three long seconds, but then Edward pressed his mouth to his.
They were slow, serious kisses—quite unlike the times they'd been together in the past, when it was all about play and release. Edward raised a hand to cup Jasper's cheek, and stroked his thumb across his skin. Eyes still closed, they turned toward each other. Jasper wrapped the other man up in his embrace.
He couldn't assume. Jasper pulled back, Edward still tangled in his arms. They were both breathless. Edward's lips were parted, and it was all Jasper could do not to dip in again.
"What if it was you I wanted to make happy?" Jasper blurted before he could lose his nerve.
Edward didn't laugh—one of Jasper's fears. He didn't give him that patient look, like maybe he felt a little sorry for the cute kid, as he had the first time Jasper had suggested such a thing. No, he seemed conflicted. He brought his other hand up to take Jasper's face between his hands, staring into his eyes as though he could see the depths of his soul. "Baby," he whispered. "What do you want with an old man like me?"
Jasper laughed. He couldn't help it. "Christ, Edward. You're not going to start on that again."
"I'll be forty in four months."
"And I'll be twenty-nine in a week. What's your point?" Jasper regretted the question immediately. He put his hand over Edward's mouth. "Don't answer that."
He let his hand drop but only enough to stroke down Edward's cheek, his neck, his chest. "It's always been you, Edward. In all this time, no one's ever come close." He huffed. "You asshole. Don't you realize, you were always there. No matter who I was with; no matter how good it was, there was always that moment when I thought of you, when I wished it was you there with me. And I will go to my grave denying I said this, but you were right. I've been in love with you since I was a kid, but it wasn't the right time. Not then." He splayed both his hands wide across Edward's chest. "I think it could be now. I don't know. I don't know what you think."
He was about to duck his head, but Edward tightened his hold. Jasper looked at him, his heart beating too fast. He couldn't remember being more scared.
Then, Edward smiled. He leaned forward and gave him a tiny kiss—barely a flutter of lips. "When you were eighteen, I used to think about what it would be like to wake up with you in my bed. I used to remember how innocent you looked when you were asleep." He moved one hand to stroke through his hair. "And the way you looked at me that first time, trusting me with so much. You've always been a challenge and a conundrum." He kissed him again. "I adored you even when I had no right."
Elated by hope, Jasper was quick to straddle him, to kiss him hard, to tangle his fingers in his hair. "I'm not a kid anymore. I know what I want out of life." He ran his nose along Edward's. "And I know who I want by my side." He locked eyes with him. "I know I can't always get what I want…"
Edward scoffed. "Spoiled little boy," he said, but the words were tender. He rubbed the back of Jasper's neck. "You always seem to get what you want."
"I want you," Jasper said, pressing tiny kisses along Edward's jaw. "I want us."
"I would like that." Edward kissed him back. Quickly, it wasn't enough. Edward stood, bringing Jasper with him, and pulled him upstairs to the bedroom.
When they got there, though, Edward paused. That was new. The times they were together, Edward had always been the one in control. Not necessarily the top, but the one calling all the shots. For a moment, he seemed lost, and Jasper thought he understood why.
There hadn't been anyone since Benjamin. Every relationship had its challenges, and Jasper figured that was going to be one of theirs—navigating around the grief and guilt of finding love again. They could do it though. He did love Edward, and he was sure Edward loved him.
So Jasper took Edward by the hand and pulled him closer. He let kisses fall over his face in a gentle rain, giving Edward space to process. Edward closed his eyes. He kept his hand at Jasper's waist, stroking his skin beneath his shirt.
When Edward began to kiss him back, Jasper undressed him. He was so elated, he wanted to be consumed: fast, hard, total. But there was time for that.
Jasper took Edward's face between his hands, silently echoing the words Edward had murmured all those years ago: I'll be good to you.
It wasn't as hard as he would have thought to go slow. It had been a long time since he'd been able to touch Edward, and everything was new. It was all new because he'd never been allowed to have Edward like this—where each caress, each kiss, each movement was filled with the love they had for each other. Sex and pleasure they'd given each other free. This was encumbered, but it was the best kind of bondage. Every move they made was heavy with the emotion roiling between them.
When Jasper sank down onto Edward's cock, they both moaned. And here, Edward gave him yet another first. No one had looked at Jasper quite like that as they made slow love. Edward's eyes never left his. His hands roamed Jasper's body. In that moment—the moment of connection—there was no one else. It was a world made only for them.
The slow roll of Jasper's hips and the corresponding thrust up from Edward gradually built. Edward's hands tightened at Jasper's sides. He flipped them so Jasper was on his back. He gasped. Edward moaned. They stared at each other, nose to nose, lips meeting for the occasional open-mouthed kiss. Jasper threw his head back with a cry as Edward sunk into him fast, their bodies meeting with a satisfying slap.
The intensity was almost frightening. Jasper clung to Edward, hanging on, trusting him as he always had. He wrapped his legs around Edward, digging his heels in, urging him deeper, harder. Jasper felt his cock pulse, trapped as it was between them, and he screamed his release at the same time Edward did.
They lay tangled for a long time afterward, neither sleeping. They looked into each other's eyes, fingers tracing hairlines and lips.
Once upon a time, there was a boy who liked to get under the skin of anyone who annoyed him. One day, he played with fire and was surprised when it burned out of control and swept him away with the flames. Fire can be devastating, but it can also be enrapturing. Two flames burning as one consume each other and emerge stronger, brighter, vibrant.
Beautiful.
~The End~
A/N Many thanks to Packy, Mina, barburella, songster, JessyPT, and MoH.
And thank you to Dorchester for the prompt. I hope it lived up to your expectations.