Runaway – Ch 10

Pairing: Jared x Reader
Tags: sexual tension intensifies, road trip
WC: 2k

Masterlist

Y/N/N didn’t have much to pack, just her backpack and the clothes Jared had bought for her since she’d started living with him. 

Jared stood at the top of the stairs, utterly lost. He’d dug his suitcase out from beneath his bed and thrown it open, ready to be filled, before realizing he had no idea what to bring on a six-month shoot. The longest he’d ever filmed on location was a week in Italy to get the wide shots for Napoli, but everything else had been filmed in the studio in L.A. 

“Are you rehearsing for the part of statue number one?” Y/N teased, calling up to Jared from the bottom of the stairs where she’d been watching him from for the past few minutes. Jared jumped, nearly falling backwards, but he caught himself on the railing. 

“I’m definitely buying you a bell before we go to Napa,” Jared laughed, wiping flyaway hairs back out of his eyes. 

“Do you need any help packing, Mr. Padalecki?” Y/N asked, trying hard to sound kind and helpful, rather than amused. 

“That sounds like a job for a personal assistant,” Jared nodded after a moment’s hesitation, and he waved Y/N up the stairs, indicating she should follow him.

“You’re only packing a beanie?” Y/N teased, grinning as she saw the one thing Jared had managed to pack so far. “Didn’t think it was that kind of movie Mr. Padalecki.” 

“Shut up,” Jared rolled his eyes and shoved her a bit so she landed on the edge of the bed with a little twirl of her skirt. 

Their relationship had grown a lot more relaxed in the past couple of days as they prepared to leave for Napa. Y/N seemed more settled and at ease. Jared had a feeling it was the fact that he had asked her to come with him, and that she would be earning an actual salary of her own now. She wouldn’t have to be dependent on him after this, if she didn’t want to be. But he hoped she’d stay anyway. Jared knew it was stupid, but he had grown attached to Y/N incredibly fast. He knew why as well; she reminded him of his little sister, and a bit of himself too. His protective instincts had latched their claws into the idea of keeping her safe and they weren’t ever planning to let go. 

“So, what are you packing?” 

“I don’t know,” Jared groaned. “That’s the problem.” 

“Okay, so let’s start with the basics: you’ll need underwear and socks.” Y/N broke it down for Jared, systematically moving through his wardrobe in layers: undergarments, then tops, bottoms, shoes, and jackets. 

“I probably don’t need too many of these,” Jared spoke to Y/N while still shifting through the formalwear in his closet. “If we’re staying on the property most of the time we won’t need to dress up to go anywhere.” 

“Well,” Y/N hummed, hopping off her perch on the end of Jared’s bed and going to stand beside him. “It’s better to be safe than sorry. I would bring a couple choices, just in case.”

“Okay, which ones?” Jared thumbed through the jackets again, cluelessly. 

“Do you have a favourite?”

“Not really.” He was much more of a cool and casual kind of guy, not done up so much. 

“Okay, how about you try them all on and we’ll pick out two or three.” 

Jared hauled the jackets and their hangers out of the closet and dropped the pile on the arm of the couch. 

“I would maybe put on a plain button down,” Y/N suggested, grabbing a shirt from a pile in the suitcase. “You wouldn’t be wearing a jacket and a flannel if you were going out somewhere nice.” 

Jared nodded in acknowledgment of a point well made and began to unbutton his flannel, peeling it off and dropping it unceremoniously to the floor. Y/N stood transfixed, the proffered dress shirt hanging limply from her hand as she watched Jared undress. He pulled his t-shirt off next, and Y/N desperately hoped her eyes weren’t bugging out of her face as she continued to stare. Jared’s chest flexed slightly as he stretched out to grab the shirt from Y/N. She couldn’t help the small whimper that escaped her when their fingers brushed, and she saw the muscles in Jared’s stomach jump with his intake of breath. His eyes tried to meet hers, but she couldn’t pull their gaze away from his body. 

Jared pulled the shirt on stiffly, looking down at himself, clearly self conscious. 

“Sorry,” Y/N grew hot in her embarrassment when she realised that she’d made Jared uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, uh…” What had she been doing? Ogling? Lusting?

“It’s, um,” Jared buttoned the shirt quickly, not looking up at Y/N. “It’s fine, really,” he gave her a tight lipped smile. It wasn’t that he was uncomfortable with his body. When he’d been asked to take his shirt off in his audition earlier that week he’d rolled his eyes internally at the vanity of the industry but he’d stripped down with no qualms. He knew how the world worked. So it wasn’t the fact that Y/N had been looking at him with evident admiration that had made him uncomfortable; it was that he’d wanted her to look, wanted her to like what she saw. 

Turning away with a shake of his head to clear it of those dangerous thoughts, Jared reached out for the first jacket on the pile. He shrugged it on and checked his mirror before spinning back around to get Y/N’s opinion. She had retreated to her spot on the edge of his bed again, putting a safe distance between them. Jared held out his arms, opening the floor for comments. 

“It’s nice,” Y/N nodded, thinking, “but honestly, the plain grey is a little boring.” 

“Okay, no grey.” Jared swapped the grey jacket for the next in the pile, a deep blue with lighter blue checks running through it, reminiscent of the flannels he spent so much time in. When he turned back to Y/N for her opinion, his eyes were much more blue than they typically looked. 

It took Y/N a moment to compose her thoughts. 

“You look really good,” she smiled shyly, nervous to say that out loud but confident in her assessment. Jared felt his own jittery smile twitch across his lips. 

“Yeah?” He double checked himself in the mirror, fussed with his hair for a second, then glanced back to Y/N. She hadn’t moved, even her eyes were unblinking, paralysed where she sat just from the sight of him. Jared couldn’t help but smile wider, then remembered that he wasn’t supposed to be enjoying this kind of attention from her. Quickly moving towards the open suitcase, he pulled off his jacket and laid it on top of the pile. 

“Okay, let’s pick one more.” 

Jared drove them down to Napa Valley himself. Apparently he loved to drive, or so he told Y/N. It was a stunning car ride; Y/N had never seen terrain quite like the empty deserts that stretched up into the sky on the tops of the mountains that sprang from their sands. It was breathtaking – and distracting enough that she didn’t think about how good Jared looked, with his hair whipping around him and the slight sheen of sweat on his brow, once; okay, maybe just once. 

When Jared pulled the car into the villa he was expeditiously whisked away and shown through to a lounge by the staff, while Y/N was left out front with their bags until a valet came to rescue her. They went to Jared’s room first, dropping off his things in the suite he had on the east side of the large house. She didn’t get too long to look around before she was being ushered down the hall and around several corners to her own room. 

Y/N/N stopped in the doorway, backpack falling from her shoulder to the ground with a thud. Her room at Jared’s house was nice, her room at her stepfather’s house had been even nicer, if entirely barren of human personality, but this room was the most elegant place she had ever been allowed to stay. 

Everything was intricately crafted from warmly stained wood, carvings of grape vines climbing up the posts of the bed and the sides of the wardrobes, even the small wooden feet of the couch were actually bunches of grapes. The drapes were seemingly weightless, gauzy tones of green fluttering around panoramic views of hills, grapes and more grapes. The rest of the fabrics in the room matched with the calm, sage green of the curtains, accented here and there with a rich cream or a subtle sheen of gold. 

“Your key, Miss,” the valet tapped her on the shoulder after she evidently ignored his earlier attempts to get her attention. 

“Thank you,” Y/N/N closed her fingers around the small bit of metal numbly. It felt so light in her hand she could still convince herself that this wasn’t real. 

“And the key for Mr. Padalecki’s room,” the valet handed over a second key, this one thankfully a different colour than her own. 

“Oh, sure, thanks,” she looked down at the key curiously. Did PAs usually get keys to their bosses’ rooms? She supposed if she ever needed to retrieve something for him, or drop something off, this would make it easier. She hoped she hadn’t looked too surprised to be receiving it, but she supposed the valet wouldn’t have anyone to tell, anyway. 

“The agency sent ahead your work things, we’ve left the box on the desk, and dinner is available starting at six o’clock in the courtyard downstairs. You’re welcome to come down whenever you’re ready.” 

“Thanks,” Y/N/N smiled again, and the valet nodded and left her alone, shutting the wooden grape-covered door behind him. 

Walking slowly across the room, taking her time to trace her fingertips over the tops of grape tendrils winding their way up the furniture, Y/N/N ends up at the desk holding the work items the valet had mentioned. She lifts the lid of the first box, unsure of what items the agency would’ve sent; and finds a laptop, charger, and stylus. Inside a second, smaller box, is a shiny new phone, the touch screen lighting up when she taps on the home button. A small paper bag holds an ID badge on a lanyard, and a baseball cap and t-shirt both emblazoned with the movie’s title in a lurid hot pink colour. 

Y/N/N smiles to herself as she holds the t-shirt against her body, examining her reflection in the full length mirror on the front of one of the wardrobes. It’s a little tacky, but she likes it. It makes her feel like she’s part of a team. Her phone chirps in her pocket, and she drops the shirt on the bed so she can dig it out of her pocket. 

Jensen: Hey there, how’s Napa? 

Y/N/N quickly typed out a reply and sent Jensen a photo of the baseball hat they’d given her. 

Jensen: Wow, you’re a regular working girl now! 

Jensen: …Not like that

Jensen: You know what I mean

Y/N/N: Whatever weirdo 😂

Y/N/N: Did you need something? 

It’s not that she didn’t like hearing from Jensen, but they hadn’t really texted just to talk before.

Jensen: I just wondered if Jared was with you? He’s not answering his phone 

Y/N/N: No sorry, he got pulled straight into some big important actors thing the second we got in

Y/N/N: I’m sure he’ll text you when he’s done

Jensen: Okay, no big, just tell him I was looking for him 

Y/N/N: Sure