The Chapterhouse: Part Seven

[essene_backup]

part six


Somehow Jensen had known that it would always come to this. Not this precise situation, but it was inevitable that a direct confrontation between himself and Steve would come. He just regretted that Jared and Steve's own postulant had become involved in something that had happened well before either of their placings. This should have been between the two of them, but now Steve had made it into something much more than that, something that was even now spiraling out of his control.

He and Jared crouched in the bushes on the opposite side of the grove from Steve and Chad. It was clear that they were arguing about something from their body posture, but eventually, the argument stopped-- Steve seeming to have won and subjugating his postulant's will.

It was clear Steve intended for someone to face him here. There was a finality to the way the sword was placed on an altar at the edge of the grove and the conscious placement of Steve and Chad across from it. Jensen sighed. He really was too old for this kind of revenge scenario. He was sorry for what had happened to Christian, but he knew his former lover's death was not his fault. Unfortunately, there was little chance of him ever convincing his brother of that. Steve had held his anguish close, fed it and nurtured it until it had become a raging vengeance barely contained, and now it had broken out of its cage and was set loose upon the world.

Turning to Jared he said, "It's time. I'm going to go out and see if I can talk to him. We were friends once. But I fear that no longer holds any meaning. I can't ask you to come..."

Jared put his hands on Jensen's shoulders and looked directly into his eyes, "We do this together. I'm your Postulant, you're my Pedagogue; where you go, there will I follow."

Closing his eyes momentarily Jensen took a deep, steadying breath and then leaned forward and kissed Jared with all the emotion he'd been hiding from himself and Jared. He tried as best as he could to put everything he couldn't say into one deep, soulful kiss, before breaking away and pressing their brows together saying, "Pray with me."

They kneeled in silence each begging Helios and any other deity listening for the safety of the other. After a few spans, they rose as one and went to face their fate.

"Ackles. I should have known." Steve's voice was mocking and the sneer on his face clearly showed his scorn for his fellow Pedagogue. "Brought your new pet I see?"

Jared started forward, but Jensen stopped him with motion. "You can stop this, Steve. All you have to do is take the sword back to Preceptor Morgan and it will all be over."

Scoffing, Steve said, "Even I know it’s gone too far for that, Ackles. Don't try to patronize me. It's time for me to leave this place anyway. There's nothing more for me here."

Jared saw Chad pale at this, his face awash in confusion. Jared felt a pang of emotion for his old friend.

"What exactly do you mean to do, Steve? Where will you go that you think Helios won't find you?"

Throwing his head back, Steve laughed. It was an ugly sound full of bitterness and anger. "Helios,” he snarled, “Helios is a story told to children at their mother's knee to keep the young ones in check. It’s what the Bon Hommes, Bon Femmes and our own Preceptors spoon feed the populace to keep everyone in their places." He leveled his gaze at Jensen. "There is no Helios."

Chad gasped beside him, but Steve ignored it and continued on, "Everything you've been taught here? A lie. You don't have just one gift, Jenny my boy, you've got them ALL." Suddenly, Steve was moving, gracefully swinging his hands up in the air until his palms touched, while bringing one foot to the side of the other leg's thigh.

Jensen turned to Jared and they moved into a defensive position preparing themselves for whatever might come.

A dark circle began to spread out on the ground from around Steve, the grasses beneath his feet drying and turning black with decay, and then Steve was releasing a ball of crackling energy directly at Jared and Jensen who had arched their bodies to generate a field to protect themselves from whatever came. The energy hit and burst with vibrant flashes over the entirety of the shield, jarring it so hard Jared felt it nearly give. He had to struggle to keep focused and to keep his posture matched with Jensen's.

The flashing stopped and they released their hands but kept in contact with each other, ready if another assault should come.

"Do you see? Do you see what I can do? And I don't need some Brother Knight to aid me, there is no somna that affects me, there is just this. This glorious power." Carlson slid one foot to the side and arched forward with his body, extending his arms, and the green life began to drain from the ground again, the circle of dead things widening, reaching even to Chad, who seemed rooted to the spot and unable to move, turning paler with each tic.

Stretching for one another and bowing backward, Jensen and Jared shouted one sacred word to the sky in unison. The resulting expulsion of power met Steve's halfway through the grove and the air fairly sizzled around them as they were rocked by the deafening explosion.

Postulant and Pedagogue collapsed on the ground even as Steve took a new stance and the sphere of death that surrounded him expanded until it encompassed Chad and the altar upon which Helios' sword lay. Jared pulled Jensen to his feet and moved behind him, taking the superior stance for the first time in any of their time together. Jensen seemed in a fog and Jared moved his hands behind his head before threading his own arms through and steadying them both.

This time, time when the burst hit them, Jared placed as much energy as he could draw from his core into the shield, until he felt Jensen scream, even though he'd made no sound. Blood was trickling from Jensen's eyes, mixed with tears and he gasped for air as he slumped to the ground. Jared couldn't fathom what had happened. There had never been anything in training or any of their studies together that could affect one partner, but not the other. Raising his head he saw Carlson standing triumphant, death encircling his feet.

A fierce rage pulsed through Jared and he stood with an anguished roar, fully intent on hurting the heretical Pedagogue with his bare hands if need be, but a sudden, small voice whispered in his mind, "Wait." Jared had heard the voice before, but it had been years, since he was a child and he stood in abject misery amidst a burning village with a crying mother.

But Jared obeyed. As he breathed slowly, trying to stem his worry and anger, he watched as Chad struggled to his feet behind Steve, pulling himself up with the altar for support. Once standing he wrapped his hand around the pommel and turned more swiftly than Jared could have imagined and swung the blade with a wrenching cry as he guided it through Carlson's abdomen. Chad let go once the sword was buried deep in his Pedagogue's gut and fell to his knees sobbing even as Steve looked down at the weapon sticking out of him in bafflement. It seemed an eternity before he finally fell, crumpling first to his knees and then forward onto his chest.

Satisfied Carlson was not going anywhere for the moment, Jared turned back to Jensen and slumped to his knees before taking Jensen's head in his lap.

With a trembling hand he traced the high cheekbones, and freckled brow of his Master before leaning down to press an awkward kiss to the plush lips he'd come to savor and need like air.

"Jared?" Jensen's voice rattled and was little more than a whisper. Jared cradled his face between his hands and asked, "Yes, Master?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Shhhhhh," Jared hushed. "There's nothing to be sorry for."

"I'm sorry I never told you, that I haven't said..." a wheezing cough cut off the rest of Jensen's words and Jared could see blood covering his tongue and coating his lips.

Jared bent his head and touched his brow to Jensen's and through tears of woe began praying aloud to Helios in earnest, he placed as much of himself as he knew how in his pleas to his god, begging that Helios spare this man that he had come to love.

There was a subtle shift in the air and a gentle breeze began to blow and Jared could hear the calls of birds drifting through the previously still grove. The scent of jasmine and rain blew to him on the breeze and Jared realized there was a bright light emanating from the center of the grove and it was getting closer.

Raising his head, Jared blinked, his eyes adjusting to the additional light and saw a small child. A little girl. Rosy cheeked, doe eyed and barefoot, she was crossing the grove to them. When she finally reached them, she smiled fondly at Jared and when she reached out a tiny hand and patted his cheek, he felt as if all his worries had been for naught, and he was as certain of anything as he had ever been that everything was going to be alright. The lovely girl leaned down and pressed a gentle chaste kiss to Jensen's mouth and then moved to Jared's side leaning her body into him and resting her head on his shoulder.

“Oh Jared.”

He knew that voice. That soft, quiet, soothing voice. It was the one he’d carried in his head as a child, the one that had spoken to him in the still of the forest, in the cool of the night, in the warmth of the day. It filled the spaces in his heart and soothed the ache from his soul.

The child settled into his lap, taking his large hand into her small one. The tiny girl tsked at him, and asked, “Why didn’t you go back to Preceptor Morgan like he told you to?” It was suprising how much rebuke she managed to put into those words. It caught Jared off guard.

“I don’t know. I just went with Jensen.”

The girl shifted in his lap so she could look up at him, then raised her hand to place it softly on his cheek, “Why?”

Looking down into her big brown eyes, Jared said, “I love him. I’ll do whatever he asks of me.”

Smiling, the girl lifted herself slightly and placed a kiss on Jared’s cheek where her hand had been tics before. “Good.”

She snuggled her back into the crook of his arm and leaned her head against his chest. “I like you, Jared. And I like Jensen. And I like the two of you together very much. I’m glad you’ve decided to stop being stupid about this and accept that the two of you are meant to be.”

It was a strange thing for this child to say, prompting Jared to ask, “Who are you?”

A peal of laughter like a burbling brook came from the girl, “Oh, Jared, don’t you know?”

He thought he did, but he didn’t want to seem naïve. It was foolish to think that it could be true, but he said it anyway, “Helios?”

Clapping delightedly, she said, “Got it in one, Jared! Now. Why don’t you take me to your lovely Preceptor and we can fill him in on the situation?”

Jared looked down at Jensen, so pale and still. “But Jensen…”

Tumbling off Jared’s lap, the girl fixed him with a determined look. “He’ll be alright, Jared. I promise. And I never break my promises.” Jared’s heart twinged at this last, remembering what Jensen had said to him that first night at the Chapterhouse. It only made Jared more reluctant to leave Jensen’s side.

Tiny warm lips were pressed against his cheek again, and he felt suddenly lighter, more sure that things would be all right. He slowly got to his feet. A small hand filled the curve of his own and tugged him away from his partner, and he was already feeling more certain that indeed, Jensen would be fine.

As they crossed the grove, Jared asked unthinkingly, “Why a little girl?”

Helios giggled and Jared heard birds trill in the trees, and were the girl’s feet leaving flowers behind instead of footprints? “You can’t put a God in a box, Jared. We never fit.”


********************



“Hey there.” Jared murmured softly as Jensen’s lids fluttered and then opened slightly.

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” He smiled, relief flooding through his bones. Jensen was finally awake, breathing, and still alive.

Jensen parted his full lips, now dry and cracked from the earlier battle and his recovery. His voice was thready and harsh, but his eyes smiled, “Hey.”

Jared’s breath caught in his throat and his chest clenched. He’d almost lost Jensen. Carlson had almost taken his life, and then Jared would have been without him. His heart pounded even as a ball of longing and words unsaid knotted in Jared’s throat.

Fisting his hands in his lap to keep from reaching out and stroking Jensen’s brow, he leaned in and says, “You know what they’ve started calling her, don’t you?”

Jensen quirked a brow even as his eyes fluttered open and closed, “What?”

”Bisou.”

A short bark of a laugh escaped Jensen, “Yeah, that’s more than appropriate.”

“I’ve something else to tell you, too. When you get out of here.”

Turning his head slightly to get a better view of Jared, Jensen said, “What?”

Jared slid his hand into contact with Jensen’s and squeezed gently, “When you’re rested and back in our cell, I’ll tell you.”

“Damn it, Posey.” Jensen tried to sound stern, but it was foiled at the end by a wheezing cough.

Jared gave Jensen’s hand one last squeeze and smiled, “When you’re back with me.” He stood and left the healing room. He was late for Terce and he had some long overdue soul searching to do.

Three days later, Jared was distractedly flipping the knowledge cube looking for something, anything to take his mind off how much longer it might be before he would be able to have Jensen back with him again. He was finally engrossed in watching a waterball game when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Startled, he looked up to see Jensen. Finally, standing in front of him.

With an excited yelp Jared jumped up and enfolded Jensen in a crushing embrace, until Jensen started wiggling and protesting that unlike a stuffed doll he had insides and needed to be able to breathe.

They sat and chatted idly for a few spans until Jared stood and said, “Come on, I’ve got something for you.”

Jensen raised a brow questioningly, but Jared said nothing, just took him by the arm and pulled him out of their cell.


********************



It was the same room Jensen had taken him to the night before…the incident. But things were slightly different this time. Instead of a waterfall in the wall, there was a warm, crackling fire. The divan had been replaced by an antique bed, the kind with thin silken sheets and plump, squishy pillows. Standing out against their pristine white glow was a dark box. It was the leather box Jared had placed in his clothing cupboard the first day of his arrival and not removed since.

“Jared. Wow. I…I don’t know what to say.” Jensen moved around the room slowly, taking everything in. “It’s amazing.”

While Jensen was still absorbing the room, Jared reached for the box and moved in front of Jensen, gracefully falling to his knees. Without looking up, he gathered his courage and started to speak.

“When I arrived at the Chapterhouse I thought I knew what I wanted. I thought I understood the life I was going to lead. I thought I would defend those weaker than myself and take glory in serving my god. I know now that I was wrong. That what I wanted was shallow and empty. That the life I was meant to live was actually bigger and more complicated and fulfilling than anything I had imagined.”

Jared swallowed and looked up at Jensen, searching his face before continuing, “I never expected you, Jensen. No part of me was ready for a life with you in it. But now...I can’t imagine a life without you. I know I’ve been a terrible postulant, but I’m hoping I’ll be a better partner.” As he spoke this last, he opened the box to reveal glinting silver binding links.

“There is no one else I want to give these to. There will never be anyone else. Please accept them,” Jared bowed his head again, “and me.”

In one motion, Jensen took the box from Jared as he hooked one hand under Jared’s bicep directing him up from the ground until he could look Jared in the eyes. With a teasing grin he said, “Took you long enough, Posey.”

Letting loose a sigh and a wide grin, Jared flopped backwards onto the bed. “Thank Helios. I didn’t have a back-up plan if you said no.”

Laughing, Jensen joined Jared on the bed, stretching his body against Jared’s length, reveling in the warmth that perpetually emanated from him. Jared reached over and stroked his partner’s freckled cheek, hoping Jensen would understand. “I never knew I had it in me to let someone else take me, until I met you,” he whispered, looking at Jensen intently. “I never knew I could want that until you showed me. But now, well, that’s all I want. I want to…want to feel you in me. Filling me. Making me yours.”

Jensen’s heart jumped, but he said warily, “Are you sure about this, Jared?”

“I’m sure. I want it.” Jared swallowed hard, his heart pounding in his chest. “I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t nervous, but I do—I want to feel you inside me. Taking me. Riding me.” He took a deep, trembling breath and looked deep into Jensen’s glittering green eyes. “Fuck me, Jensen. I want you to.”

Jensen caressed his cheek gently with one hand, a look of tenderness suffusing his sculpted, freckled face. “I can’t think of anything I want to do more than give you a long, slow, gentle fuck, Jared. If you really want this, I want it too.”

Unable to answer in words, Jared turned on his stomach and got up on his hands and knees. He spread his thighs and waited with his eyes squeezed shut in breathless anticipation.

“Relax,” Jensen stroked his back soothingly, his large hand warm against Jared’s spine. "We’re going to take it real slow and easy this time, Jared. I want you to see how good it can be to give yourself up completely.”
Jared’s mouth was dry. Jensen’s arms were warm where they were wrapped around him and Jared's skin felt doubly naked where they were not.

“I’m going to get you wet and ready, Jared, make you feel so good.” Hot breath ghosted over his ear and Jared’s stomach clenched in anticipation. It seemed ages since Jensen had touched him, since he had touched Jensen in return.

He’d thought he’d prepared himself for this, but he still gasped under his breath when he felt something cool and slick being applied to the tight entrance of his body. He moaned even as he fought to keep still and let Jensen prepare to fuck him.

“Relax, Jared, let me open you up, just like when I’ve got my mouth around your cock, I’m going to work you open,” Jensen’s voice was deep and soft as his fingers worked in tight circles, easing the tense muscle around Jared’s entrance, “I won’t lie and say it won’t hurt the first time, but it’ll be easier if you relax.”

Taking a deep shuddering breath, Jared nodded and repositioned his head on the bed slowly letting all his muscles go slack in sequence, shoulders, torso, legs, and finally his ass. Jensen reached under his body and cupped his cock, hefting its weight gently before starting a slow rhythmic pull that drew blood down from its root and drew Jared’s balls high and tight. Moaning, Jared began to move slowly in time with that hand.

“Good, Jared, so good,” Jensen eased one long finger deep into Jared’s body and felt the muscles clench tight around his knuckle before giving way to the silken heat inside. After a few times thrusting in and out nice and slow, Jensen added a second. This felt different from when Jensen penetrated him with his finger when his cock was sliding in and out of Jensen’s sucking mouth and the pleasure got compounded by Jensen stroking the inside with his finger. Now that he was face down on the bed with Jensen stroking his cock with one strong hand, and penetrating him with the other, Jared wished he could see Jensen’s face.

“Relax,” Jensen murmured again. He rubbed a spot inside of Jared that sent a bolt of pure pleasure through his entire body and made his cock feel like it was going to explode. “Relax and let me get you ready to be fucked, Jared.” He pulled back for a moment and Jared felt strangely empty without Jensen’s fingers inside him, and then Jared felt him again, spreading even more of the cool slick wetness over his hole. One and then two fingers filled and stretched him again, and then a third was added, stretching him to what he could only believe was his limit.

“Helios!” Jared hissed, torn between wanting to throw Jensen off and stop the stinging, stretching pain, and staying still like he knew Jensen would want him to.

Leaving his cock, Jensen’s free hand began caressing Jared’s lower stomach, all the while soothing him and making low encouraging noises and whispering, “So beautiful, your pink hole stretched so wide for me, you’re doing so good baby, so good. Taking so much, soon you’ll be taking my cock and I’ll fuck you so good.”

Jared inhaled deeply and willed himself to relax, to unclench and just savor the thought of Jensen being inside him, filling him up with his cock, taking out his fingers and replacing them with the long thick phallus that Jared had kissed and sucked several times over.

“Good,” Jensen growled softly in his ear, “That’s good, Jared,” He crooked his fingers slightly and rubbed over the bundle of nerves inside Jared’s body that made him moan and gasp, then moved his hand back to stroke Jared’s aching shaft from root to tip.

“Doesn’t that feel nice? Doesn’t it feel right? Don’t you want to spread open for me…feel me penetrating you…fucking you? Don’t you want me to fill you up with my come?”

Fisting his hands in the sheets, Jared stammered, “Yes, yes, yes, please, please, Master.” Jared began to rock his hips back on Jensen’s fingers, reveling in the sensations that increased with his movements.

"That's just what I'm going to do, Jared, fuck your sweet little ass..." as he spoke, he pressed the broad head of his cock slowly into Jared's trembling body, opening him, owning him, fucking him…

"Oh, gods, Jensen, I don't think, I don't know..." Beads of sweat had become visible all along Jared's back and he was arching, trying to pull away from the intensity of Jensen's invasion.

"Alright, baby, alright," Jensen hushed him and set his jaw, preparing to pull out of Jared's clenching hole.
Then Jared slung an arm back to catch him, stop him from moving farther, "No, no, don’t, please, stay in me. Please, please, please..."

"Gods, Jared," Jensen growled, "you have no idea what you do to me. Fuck." They were both panting now, trying to ride out the burning pain Jensen knew Jared was feeling.

"I'm going to push now, Jared, I'm going to fill you up--make you feel me."

Jensen put a hand out and combed through Jared's sweat soaked curls at the nape of his neck and wrapped the other around Jared's hip and slid his cock forward, deeper into the searing heat of Jared's body causing them to groan in unison.

Jared's pain was pushed aside by the almost unbearable friction Jensen's cock was generating against his prostate and the way his asshole was being rubbed and stretched repeatedly. He wasn't sure which felt better, all he knew is that combined with the feeling of being physically joined to and filled by Jensen, he hadn't ever felt passion like this.

When Jared's thighs began to tremble and his hips snapped to meet Jensen's thrusts, Jensen bent forward and melded his chest to Jared's back and took his leaking cock in hand, stroking him in time with the rhythm of their fucking. Jared was dully aware of the animalistic growls and groans spilling from his mouth, but he was too far gone to care.

Setting a final brutal pace, Jensen pushed his hips against Jared's ass, seeking release inside his lover's hot depths, urging Jared to come with a combination of harshly whispered epithets and endearments. Jared complied, shouting Jensen's name and collapsing to the bed, and Jensen followed him down as his own cock shot his come deep into Jared's ass.


********************


When Jared and Jensen arrive at Chapel the following morning for Terce, everything feels different to Jared. The Chapterhouse feels larger and more beautiful in its starkness, the sun seems brighter, even his body feels lighter—sore, and pleasantly so, but lighter. The biggest difference is the way Jensen feels. The fact that Jared can feel Jensen, their hands clasped as they walk from their cell to the Chapel to celebrate their first service together in weeks.

Even the already stunning beauty of the chapel seems amplified today, the light in the sconces dancing in an aromatic breeze that wafted from the front center dais where Prefector Morgan and Prefect Harris sat with Bisou lounging on the Prefector’s knee. Her tiny bare feet were swinging as she chatted animatedly with Prefect Harris, who wore a bemused smile the entire time they spoke.

The nuns from the abbey were already spread across one half of the chapel as the monks moved in to claim their spots. When all were positioned, Prefector Morgan motioned for them to kneel.

“Good morning, everyone. Before we begin, you may have noted that there have been a few changes in our Chapterhouse of late." He waved his arm toward the ceiling where a flight of butterflies danced in the rainbows of light given off by the stained glass windows. He smiled adoringly down at Bisou.

The congregants smiled and nodded, all of them aware of what the Prefector spoke of: the suspicious and sudden lack of rumberry juice, all of it having mysteriously disappeared; the occasional gleeful snatches of harp music coming from unoccupied and previously silent corners of the Chapterhouse.

"Today's celebration will be just another instance of that change--"

Bisou scrambled up onto Morgan's knee, now using it as her own personal dais, "What my beloved Prefector is trying to say is that I've made a few changes, and hopefully you'll all like them. And if you don't, well, keep it to yourself."

There were some chuckles around the chapel at that.

Placing her little hands on her hips, Bisou surveyed them all seriously, "I know you all have been preparing and training for long time. And your time to put your gifts to the test has arrived. I will not be so cruel as to tell you it will be easy, but I will tell you that you will have the backing and approval of your god," she beamed at them, a joyous smile that lifted the hearts of all in the room.

"Okay, you can start now." She settled back down into her previous position on Preceptor Morgan's lap, crossing one leg over the other and tapping it in time to some unheard tune.

Jared looked over at Jensen and saw the joy and love for his god writ large there as he gazed adoringly at Bisou. Jensen turned and saw Jared watching him and smiled just as brilliantly at his postulant before leaning over and placing a small, soft kiss against his lips.

The congregants’ voices filled the hall as they sang:

The Lord is my Shepherd, I have all I need,
She makes me lie down in green meadows,
Beside the still waters, She will lead.

She restores my soul, She rights my wrongs,
She leads me in a path of good things,
And fills my heart with songs.

Even though I walk, through a dark and dreary land,
There is nothing that can shake me,
She has said She won't forsake me,
I'm in her hand.

She sets a table before me, in the presence of my foes,
She anoints my head with oil,
And my cup overflows.

Surely, surely goodness and kindness will follow me,
All the days of my life,
And I will live in her house,
Forever, forever and ever.

Glory be to our Mother, and Daughter,
And to the Holy of Holies,
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
World, without end. Amen.


-fin-