When Jensen was four years old he broke all of his mother's china in a fit of temper. Normal behavior for an enraged child maybe, but Jensen wasn't even in the room when he did it. When he was six he knocked out four of his front teeth when reaching for a book, only to have it zoom across the table and hit him square in the face.

At seven Jensen had already been to the principal's office twice, sitting there with his head bowed in shame waiting to be picked up by his fretting mother. The first time was for pulling Allison Mack's hair and the second for stealing all the other kids' lunches. He swore he never touched them but no one believed him since his bag was overflowing with boxes and bags.

For a brief period in his early teens everything he touched turned to skittles (weirdest reason to be home from school ever) and in tenth grade he got a reputation for being vain when his hair changed color every day for two weeks.

By the time he went to college his mother's hair had turned stark white (not Jensen's doing, at least not like that) and his father was the proud owner of a Mercedes that had once been a Seat, but he'd also gotten some kind of handle on his freaky mental powers, and they stayed handled too, right up until he met Jared Padalecki.

*



Jensen knows Jared from around. They've worked on some school project together, had coffee that one time with four other people, ended up at the same after party a couple of times, but he doesn't know him. He doesn't have his phone number, has never seen the dorm room Jared supposedly shares with Chad (the same Chad who's slept with Sophia, Alona and Jensen's old arch nemesis Allison, and according to rumor gave them all gonorrhea), and they never really hung out.

So when he spots Jared at Hung (the glammy gay club he sometimes goes to with Tom and Mike because Mike knows the bartender and Tom once got blown by a pretty twink in the bathroom and has been hoping to run into him ever since), his mouth drops open and he can't stop staring. Jared is beyond hot (bootcut jeans, pink shirt open at the neck showing just a glimpse of his tanned chest), apparently drunk (he keeps walking into things), and oh my God pretty (he always is).

Jared spots them too, smiling bright and waving enthusiastically enough to almost fall over. Jensen waves back, a sad little wiggle because he's not really sure Jared's waving at them. Jared apparently is though, because he bounces his way over to their table, almost running straight into a lesbian couple making out on the dance floor, but avoiding them at the last instant. Eventually he makes his way up to the table, ignoring the others in favor of looking down at Jensen, half smile tilting his lips, eyes dark in the dim light.

"Hey," he says, with just enough of a wanton rasp to ignite Jensen's pants. Literally.

"Oh my God," Tom shrieks next to him and Jared's mouth opens in a surprised O.

Jensen's just about to look what the fuzz is about when Mike throws himself over the table and pours the contents of his glass in Jensen's lap.

"What the fuck," Jensen yells, looking down. There's a burnt spot at the crotch of his jeans, now covered in whatever neon yellow concoction Mike was drinking. Oh.

He looks up at Jared and licks his lips, trying to think of a plausible explanation, but Jared's grinning, expressive eyes at half mast, tongue between his teeth.

"I set your pants on fire," he says. "Didn't know I was that hot."

Jensen laughs, and the look Jared gives him is something like a promise.

*



The next time Jensen runs into Jared neither of them is drunk, but they still almost collide in their attempt to move out of each other's way. It ends with one of Jensen's hands against Jared's chest and Jared's hand curled around Jensen's bicep. Jared laughs and shakes his head, like he's amused by the situation.

"Hey," Jared says, eyes twinkling, and Jensen smiles stupidly.

"Hey," he answers and luckily his pants don't burst into flames.

He removes his hand from Jared's chest and Jared lets his own hand drop, straightening up.

"No fires today?" he asks with a grin.

"Not a one," Jensen replies, relieved that he seems to have gotten his powers under control again.

That is, of course, until he notices Jared's shirt. When he first spotted Jared he was wearing a simple white t-shirt, clingy over his chest and bunching at the waist, now he's wearing a bright pink shirt with HOTTER THAN THE SUN in block letters over his chest. The text is sparkly and purple. Jensen blinks a couple of times, but the shirt is still there, glaring accusingly at him.

"About Saturday," Jared starts, but Jensen's already backing away.

"I have to go," he says. "I have a... thing. It's... important. Hot. I mean urgent."

"But..."

Jensen turns on his heel and almost runs back the same way he came, books clutched to his chest. He needs to get a handle on the Jared situation.

*



Avoidance is an underappreciated way of handling things Jensen always thought, but it's not the easiest. Especially not since Jared seems to be devoting his time to being everywhere at once because Jensen keeps running into him wherever he goes. Mike and Tom treat him to a coffee and who's there if not Jared; Steve and Chris, the two-man freak show, roll into town for a gig and who shows up if not Jared; he goes to the movies with Sophia and who's sitting three rows down if not Jared. Everywhere he looks there's Jared, Jared, Jared, until his head's spinning (not literally though).

Eventually his winning streak at Jared avoidance (five days) comes to an end and he runs into him among the shelves at the university library. There's not really a way to avoid him without being extremely rude, so Jensen plasters a smile onto his face and nods politely.

"Hey," Jared says and damn him and his hot ass voice.

"Hey," Jensen answers dumbly, color rising in his cheeks, and hopes it's just a normal red.

"What happened to your hair?" Jared asks, staring at it, and Jensen would like to know the same because it looked like his hair usually does when he fixed it this morning.

"I... uh..." Jensen's not sure what to say because he's not sure what happened. "Colored it."

"Hot pink?" Jared asks.

"Yeah." Jensen nods. "Yeah."

"It's... different."

Jensen tries for a smile, but he's pretty sure it comes out as a grimace, and lets his eyes skate to the side avoiding Jared's penetrating stare. He blinks, hoping he's just imagining things, but he's pretty sure all the books did not look the same when he walked into to the aisle. He turns his head a little more, reading the title of one of the closer books. I really, really like you - an epic in three parts.

"You wanna grab a coffee?" He looks up at Jared with a manic smile. "I love coffee, it's awesome. don't you think?"

"Yeah... I'm just gonna..." Jared half turns towards the shelf and Jensen grabs his arm.

"You can do that later. Let's have coffee now. I'm feeling a little faint actually, must be lack of coffee." He pretends to swoon. "You better escort me."

Jared stares at him as if he thinks Jensen's insane, but he does guide Jensen out from between the shelves, one hand huge and hot against the small of Jensen's back. When they turn around the corner Jensen glances back, relieved to see that the books have turned back to whatever they were before; he wasn't looking forward to explaining that one to the librarians.

"You know what?" he asks, stopping suddenly. "I just remembered that I have a..."

"Thing?" Jared nods. "I understand."

Jensen can feel Jared's eyes digging into his back as he leaves, half running with his heart in his throat. That was too close for comfort.

*



"I see your hair is back to normal."

Jensen jumps and turns around to find Jared leaning against the wall next to the door to his dorm room.

"Yeah, it was really just... spray painted for... uh..."

"That thing you had to do?"

"Yeah." Jensen swallows. "I just remembered I forgot something," he says, gesturing towards the still open door. "I'm just gonna..."

"I understand," Jared says, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'll wait."

"It might take a while. I'm not sure where I put it."

"I'm not in a hurry."

Jensen stares at him in panic. He doesn't want to be awkward and odd around Jared, pretty much the opposite actually, but people don't believe him when he tells them about his powers, no matter how many times he proves that they exist, and the last thing he wants is for Jared to think that he's insane. Sure, Jared might think so already, but considering someone to be odd and spotty is not the same thing as thinking they should be locked up in a mental asylum.

He opens and closes his mouth, hoping for a plausible excuse to jump out of it, but before he gets the chance to say anything Jared turns into a dog; a big, panting, tail-wagging type of dog with floppy ears and hazel eyes, and teeth, lots and lots of teeth. Jensen swallows.

"Nice doggy," he says, backing into his room slowly. "Good doggy."

He doesn't make it before the dog charges and he's knocked to the floor by roughly one hundred pounds of joy. The dog, well Jared, slobbers all over him, tail smacking against the doorframe with enough force to make Jensen fear for the paint job.

"Ouch," he says when one huge paw comes too close to his privates. "Good dog. If you just... Okay, that's enough. Enough I said."

He eventually manages to shove Jared away long enough to get to his feet again and before Jared has the time to react he steps out and slams the door closed, trapping the dog in his room. Jared starts whining, a piercing sound that is bound to attract attention, but Jensen can't stay with him or Jared will never turn back. He wishes he had more of a handle on this but it feels as if he's been waiting all his life for his acceptance letter to Hogwarts and it never showed up.

Jared whines again, long and mournful, and Jensen squares his shoulders, walking away. He's already working on how to explain this, maybe saying Jared fainted would work, and when he turns the corner and keeps walking down the corridor Jared's whines stops abruptly, making him take a relieved breath. He thinks about turning back and dealing with the fall out, but avoidance has been working fine so far; he's not going to give it up.

*



Jared seems to give up after the dog incident, there's no immediate fall out, and after a week Jensen stops waiting for it, the proverbial axe lifted from his neck. He never sees Jared around anymore. He spots him class sometimes, of course, but Jared always disappears before Jensen's even has time to collect his books and he's relieved, he really is, except for when he misses Jared like burning.

It's stupid, because he's proven over and over that he shouldn't be let within ten feet of Jared, but he wants to get a whole lot closer than that damnit. Everyone talks about college romance and going wild and sleeping around, but Jensen hasn't exactly seen a lot of that. Sure, people keep hitting on him, but it's not the people he wants. They're not 6'5 for one, and they generally don't have stupid floppy hair (except for when they do), and they don't turn his insides to mush the way Jared does.

All he asks for is a break, a chance to talk to Jared without making a complete ass of himself, because maybe he's just fooling himself, maybe there's nothing there. Therefore he's almost happy (and a lot freaked out) when Jared corners him outside his dorm again.

"Hey," Jared says and before Jensen has a chance to respond he holds up a hand. "Please, just give me a chance to say this before I turn into a newt or something. I just want to talk to you."

Jared turns into a newt. "Fuck it," Jensen mutters and bends down, picking the tiny lizard up. It blinks up at him from the palm of his hand, turning its head to the side.

"I don't know how to keep this from happening, okay?" Jensen says, a shiver running up his arm when the newt moves its tail. "I don't mean to."

He carries the newt into his room and sets it down on his desk. Jason, his roommate, is luckily out for the weekend or Jensen would get an earful about keeping pets. He sits down on the chair and stares at the newt. It stares back. He tries to will it to change, but nothing happens.

"Change back," he says, trying to sound commanding.

The newt blinks.

"My will be done." He makes a hand gesture to go with it.

The newt tilts its head to the side.

"Fuck." He rests his elbows against his knees and buries his head in his hands.

The newt bumps its nose against his forehead and he looks up, finding it at eye level. He smiles, running a finger down the newt's back to its tail. It's cold and dry to the touch, scales or whatever it's covered with a pleasing shade of brown, like Jared's hair.

"At least I get to spend some time with you now," he says.

The newt bumps its head against his fingers as if it agrees. Maybe... Jensen licks his lips and eyes the newt. It's not how he hoped it would happen when he dared to think it would, but it always works in the fairytales. Slowly he bends forward and gives the newt a kiss. It promptly turns back into Jared, which is great except it leaves Jensen with his head pretty much in Jared's lap. He hurries to straighten up, a half thought out apology on his tongue, but when he looks up at Jared the words die on his lips.

Jared has this odd desperate look on his face, and when Jensen pushes the chair back to be able to look at him properly, Jared reaches out and grabs his shirt.

"Please don't run away again," Jared says. "Just give me a chance to explain."

Jensen blinks, looking down at Jared's hand twined in his shirt. "Okay," he says.

Jared lets go of his shirt and moves his hands to his knees, smoothing out invisible wrinkles in his jeans. "I just..." He swallows and fidgets some more. "Just hear me out, okay? I know it'll sound crazy but I'm not... I promise."

Jensen nods solemnly even though he's pretty sure he's got the market on sounding crazy.

"I..." Jared shifts, biting down on his lip. "I can do magic."

He stares at Jensen as if he's expecting Jensen to freak out or call him a liar. Jensen just blinks, because whoa, unexpected. Jared launches into this long winded, half stuttered explanation that sounds a whole lot like a retelling of Jensen's childhood, but with different players. It does sound insane, except Jensen knows it's true because he's been there.

He keeps waiting for a break in Jared's epic ramble, but it never comes, he just keeps going, trying with words and looks and wild hand gestures to convince Jensen he's not crazy. JensenJaredFinally Jensen just reaches up and yanks Jared forward by his shirt, crashing their mouths together.

It's not epic or anything, in fact Jensen thinks he's gonna have a bruise all over his mouth, but at least it shuts Jared up. When Jensen lets go, Jared bounces back, like he's got a spring in his waist and then just sits there, blinking stupidly. Jensen picks up a pen from the desk and holds it on the flat of his palm. He concentrates, brow furrowing, and then with a gush of sparks the pen turns into a rose. It still has a certain pen like quality to it, dark tinting to the edges of the petals and the bottom part of the stem is still an eraser, but it's a rose all the same.

Jared blinks and picks the rose from Jensen's hand, turning it over between his fingers. "You..."

"Yeah," Jensen says.

Jared brings the rose to his face and sniffs it. "It smells like shavings," he says, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"You do it better," Jensen huffs, slightly offended on behalf of his rose.

Jared looks at it and then he shakes his head, clutching the rose to his chest. "Nah, I like it just the way it is."

Jensen smiles, worrying the hem of his shirt. The truth is he doesn't have a lot of experience with this kind of thing, well not the magic thing because he's been living with that all his life, but the whole kind of maybe dating kind of thing. Jared twirls the rose between his fingers, looking at Jensen.

"So uh..." He fidgets a little. "You wanna try that kissing thing again?"

"Yeah, okay." And Jensen feels like his nine and in high school again, all blushing and stumbling and nervous.

Jared reaches down and grabs hold of Jensen's shirt again, pulling until Jensen gives in and stands up, stepping in between Jared's spread legs. Jared carefully puts the rose down on the desk and reaches out to cup Jensen's face in his hands. Jensen blinks up at him, even when he's standing Jared's a bit taller than him, and licks his lips. It's not like he hasn't done this before, except for when he really hasn't. Strange things have a tendency to happen when he loses control and so far he's never allowed himself to get into that position.

Jared bends down and presses their lips together, just a soft touch of skin against skin, but it leaves Jensen reeling. The shock travels all the way down to his toes, and Jared lets out an oomph when the desk suddenly turns into a couch.

"Sorry," Jensen says, looking down on him and wiping his lips nervously.

Jared is sprawled over the couch, long legs splayed apart and arms resting against the backrest.

"You have done this before, right?" he asks.

"Of course," Jensen lies with what he hopes is a believe amount of wounded dignity.

"Okay."

Jared reaches up and pulls him down on the couch, half way on his lap, and locks their lips together again. Jensen's eyes flutter closed and he wonders if there's something he's supposed to do, other than pout his lips and hang on for the ride. Hopefully not, because he loses all higher brain functions when Jared licks his way into his mouth and touches their tongues together. He makes an undignified sound at the back of his throat, twisting around in an attempt to get even closer.

Jared's hands slide down to cup his ass, hoisting him up so that he's straddling Jared's lap, knees buried in the cushions of the accidental couch. He braces himself against Jared's shoulders, trying to give back as good as he gets, shyly exploring Jared's mouth. Kissing is weird, wet and slick and kind of messy, but it makes him tingle down to his toes, cock rock hard, pressing against the zipper of his jeans.

Jared slides his hand down the back of Jensen's thigh, long fingers grazing the inseam, and the couch promptly turns into a cushion, dumping both of them to the floor.

Jensen lands on top of Jared but he quickly rolls off because he kind of doesn't want Jared to know how turned on he is from just one kiss; it's embarrassing and he supposedly does this all the time.

"Whoa," Jared says, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. "Does this always happen when you kiss someone?"

Behind them the cushion turns back into the desk. "Uh... yeah," Jensen says vaguely.

"Isn't that kind of hard to explain?"

"Uh huh," Jensen agrees because he's a lying liar that lies.

"I'm not sure I even want to know what happens when you..." Jared waggles his eyebrows.

Jensen blushes, hopefully crimson, and looks down on his hands. He doesn't really... except for special occasions in safe environments. One time earlier in the year he woke up from a particularly vivid dream and just had to despite the fact that Jason was asleep in the other bed. Jason turned into a monkey, but luckily he slept right through it and woke up as himself the next morning, except for the fantabulous beard he'd suddenly grown over night.

"Oh," Jared says as if Jensen explained all that out loud and he reaches over to pat Jensen's shoulder. "We'll work on it."

It sounds like a promise and Jensen gives him a grateful smile; he likes the sound of that.

*



Jared makes good on his promise, mostly by cornering Jensen in secluded spaces and kissing him senseless, but also by teaching him a few methods to focus. It turns out Jared's mom is a witch, so he learned to control his powers early on and now it comes naturally to him, while Jensen struggles to keep a strenuous hold on his abilities on the best of days.

Slowly he does become better though and people are less likely to turn into newts if they walk past him and Jared kissing, but it doesn't really do wonders for his sexual frustration, and Jason, who has until now spent more time away than at home, is suddenly around all the time until Jensen feels as if his balls are going to turn blue and fall off, for real.

He says as much to Jared one Friday afternoon when classes are over and they're lounging in their favorite coffee shop. Jared carefully puts his coffee back on the table and blinks twice.

"Jesus Christ, Jensen," he says, low and even. "You can't say shit like that."

"Why?" Jensen asks, glancing around but no one seems to paying them any attention.

Jared does the same, before seizing Jensen's hand under the table and placing it over his crotch. "That's why."

Jensen face heats up and he looks around to see if they've been noticed, but he doesn't remove his hand, the hard ridge of Jared's cock separated from his palm only by a layer of denim and probably underwear (because Jared's proper like that). He shifts his fingers a little, not really grabbing, but Jared inhales sharply, his hips pushing into Jensen's hand.

"Fuck," Jared mutters, his hand curling around Jensen's wrist. "We have to think of something."

"Sorry," Jensen offers, because he really wishes he had better control and really if he'd just learnt all those handy tricks Jared's shown him before he met Jared they wouldn't have a problem, but now there's Jared and sexual tension and he just can't focus the way he should.

"Maybe if we find like a cottage somewhere with no one around," Jared says, giving Jensen a smoldering look.

"I could still do damage to you."

"I don't mind. It's... refreshing to spend time as something else."

"But... what if I turn you during? Suddenly I'd be fucking a dog," Jensen hisses. "Or worse I'll turn you into a Velociraptor and you'll kill me."

"Gah." Jared buries his head in his hands for a moment and then he straightens up. "You finished?"

"Yeah," Jensen says, pushing his empty cup over the table. "But I thought we were waiting for Chad."

"We were but I just had an idea."

"What kind of idea?"

"Lorem Ipsum," Jared says as if that explains anything.

"What's that?" Jensen asks as he trails after Jared out of the shop, Jared's fingers wrapped around his.

"Nothing." Jared sounds really happy about it too.

"You had an idea about nothing and decided to name it? Wow, Jared, that's... freaky."

Jared throws him a dirty look. "It's not... Look. It's this nonsense thing my mom taught me when I was a kid, it's just like... random Latin words thrown together and I can't believe I forgot about it."

"Oookay," Jensen says, content with letting Jared drag him across the campus. It's not like he's vain or anything, but he has the hottest boyfriend ever and he likes it when people see them together.

They end up in Jared's dorm room. Jared's riffling through all his drawers and stuff, muttering to himself, while Jensen sits cross-legged on Jared's bed, watching the enticing way his ass moves when he bends forward. Eventually Jared comes up with a crumpled slip of paper, brandishing it in the air as if he just found an ancient scroll.

"Here it is," he says, handing it over to Jensen, who eyes it dubiously.

"Okay." Jensen studies it. "What about it?"

"My mom gave it to me, I must have been six or seven, when I'd learned how to read. I'd accidentally turned my brother into stone earlier in the day and I guess she was a bit tired of me, you know?"

"Yeah," Jensen says with a grin. "I know."

"So anyway she told me I had to learn it and that she would quiz me on it later and since she was kinda angry with me I sat down and studied it. I don't know if she knew what would happen, or if it was just accidental, but learning to repeat that out loud is how I learned to control my powers."

"Oh." Jensen looks down on the paper again, the writing smudged by now, almost unreadable in places. "I guess I should head back to my room and practice then," he says.

He makes a move to get up, but Jared stops him. "It's not for me Jen," he says, voice serious and eyes soft. "I don't want you to learn control so that we can have sex. I want you to learn it for you, because your life will be so much easier. "

Jensen grins. "And you want to get laid."

"Yeah." Jared sighs. "I really kind of do." He bends down and gives Jensen a kiss, taking the paper out of his hand. "We had plans tonight, remember?"

"It's just dinner and a movie... with Chad. I could skip it."

"I don't want you to," Jared says, pulling him to his feet. "I kinda like spending time with you."

He gives the paper back and Jensen stuffs it in his pocket. "I really kinda like spending time with you too," he says, sticking his hand into Jared's.

"Lorem Ipsum," Jared says with a grin as he pulls Jensen towards the door, but it sounds like I love you.

"Lorem Ipsum," Jensen repeats, and he really really does.

The End

Read Chapter Seven of Jeyhawk's And Her Lips Were Cherry Red a sequel to Heaven's Just a Sin Away