Shelf Ice Meander
By Simarillion

Fandom: Supernatural RPS
Universe: Alternative Universe
Rating: PG-13/R
Beta: Asm Z
Pairing: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki, Jared Padalecki/Genevieve Cortese (mentioned) others
Warnings: slash, M/M
Word Count: 3,038 (12,247 total)
Summary: Tell it like it is. (Of settling and living)
Disclaimer: None of the herein presented happenings and events are true. Everything is 100% fiction and that includes the sexuality of the characters. I don’t claim to be in the know about their relations and private affairs, and I don’t make any money with the creation of this story.

Author’s Note: I changed the age of Jensen and Jared, they are the same age now. The plot wouldn’t really work otherwise.

This is part 5 of the Glaciology! ‘verse. Jensen is a scientist in the field of glaciology and he spends most of his time surrounded by ice, whereas Jared is a Hollywood movie star. Prequel to this story are Invisible Glaciers, Iceberg Anatomy,Avalanches Approaching, and Crevasse Rescue.

[Masterpost]



Part Four

Jared doesn’t come to San Francisco in the end. He gets a call when he’s meeting with his agent, and there are re-shoots for some movie, Jensen doesn’t know which one, and he doesn’t really care. All that matters is that Jared doesn’t show.

Receiving the news about Jared’s cancellation, Jensen then stays the whole day at Stanford, catching up on all paperwork and preparations. It keeps him from sitting at home and brooding. Once again his mind goes to the pictures of the magazine, but he reminds himself of the things Chad and Jared said on the phone, and banishes any worries and suspicions from his mind.

When he’s getting finished for the day, Chuck shows up and asks him about the game on Friday. At first Jensen is confused what his colleague is talking about, but then he realizes that he’s referring to the football game against UCLA.

Last November, when the Big Game had taken place, Jensen had not bothered to attend the game, but now that he’s becoming a permanent teacher at Stanford, he feels somehow obligated to support their team. Since his plans for the week are non-existent now, he agrees to come to the game, and calls Tom and Mike, asking if they are interested in going as well.

After the last piece of paperwork has been filed, and he’s prepared everything he can for the lectures and the midterm exams, Jensen heads back home. His drive takes him past a Wal-Mart, and he stops to buy more groceries. With his trip up North, there’s not much to eat at home.

Jensen cruises the produce aisle, and browses through the rows vegetables and fruits. Adding different items to his cart, he continues on to the next stop on his way through the market. He’s deciding on what kind of juice he wants, three cartons of OJ already in his cart, when the announcement of the shop speaker makes him aware of the DVD sale in the Electronics section.

Usually Jensen doesn’t buy movies, but somehow he really wants to get a couple of DVDs to watch in the time he would have spent with Jared. He navigates his cart through the rows of aisles. The electronics section is on the second floor. Jensen leaves the full cart behind and takes the escalator up one floor.

There are rows and shelves full of TV sets, washing machines, dish washers, espresso machines, and computers every where. Jensen turns around, searching for the movie section. There are large TV screens mounted on a far wall, all of them showing different movies or channels, and Jensen decides that it might be a good idea to start his search in this area.

Next to the TVs are DVD and Blueray players, and next to that Jensen finally finds what he’s looking for. There’re are four dump bins set up in a row, each filled with DVD cases. Bright stickers announce cheerfully that the movies are only half price.

Rummaging through the DVDs, Jensen selects no less than ten different movies. On his way back to the escalator he passes a poster of an Xbox, and he stops in his tracks. Jensen peers around the large cardboard cut-out, and scans the rows of games. At the very end, against the wall, he finds a large picture of a toy guitar, just like the one they used to play Guitar Hero.

As he’s studying the poster, standing in front of the Xbox aisle, an assistant walks up to him. The young guy, probably a student earning some money to get him through college, smiles friendly at Jensen.

“Anything I can help you with?” Jensen stares dumbly at the guy for a second and then he makes a decision.

“Yeah, I want to buy something to play this guitar. I need a console for that?” He remembers Jared plugging the guitar into a box, and inserting the game disc into the console. So he really needs that as well.

“Which system are you interested in?” Suddenly Jensen feels completely out of his depths. He has no idea what kind of system he’s interested in. He doesn’t even know what systems there are.

“Uh, which one would you recommend?” Jensen hopes that the Wal-Mart person doesn’t realize how unknowing Jensen really is.

“Well, it really depends what type of TV you have, and which controller you prefer. If you want to play games like Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts, then you’ll need a Playstation. If you want to play Microsoft or Lionhead games, you’ll need an Xbox. For Virtual Tennis and Zelda, you’ll need a Wii.” The young man leads Jensen through the rows of games, and they end up in front of shelves with different consoles hooked up to them.

Jensen scans until he finds the box that looks like the one Jared had had. He points at a black console, and proudly presents his find.

“I want this one.” The assistant looks at him like he’s crazy, but then he just shrugs.

“Sure. It’s an Xbox 360 Elite.” He unlocks the glass sliding down under the console and takes out one of the boxes. “You want the same color as well?”

“There are different colors?” Jensen never had though that he would have to pick a color. But the guy holds up another box that has a picture of the some console in white on it, and on another box there’s a red one. “Uh, they are the same?”

“Yeah, they have a hard drive of 120GB, are compatible with any TV. The Xbox 360 is HD ready, can be connected to the internet, which would be advisable to get regular updates of the software, and you can buy games and add-ons to games through the online platform Xbox Live!” All that information means nothing to Jensen. He just wants to be able to play the Guitar Hero game. Nothing else.

But the young man, Jensen finally notices the name tag on his chest spelling ‘Brian’, doesn’t stop at that. He points out that Jensen can read and write e-mails with the console, he can watch DVDs and listen to music, and so on, and so forth.

In the end Jensen ends his long monologue about the many positive aspects of owning an Xbox console by just pointing at the box with the red console on it.

“Okay, if you buy an Xbox Elite you’re getting two games for free as a starter’s package. You can either get Halo 3 and Fable II, or Kung Fu Panda and Indiana Jones.” The guy looks at him for a second. “I guess you’ll take the Halo 3/Fable II combination.”

Jensen just nods at that (he doesn’t recognise any of the names anyway) and trails after the assistant as they make their way from the consoles to the guitars.

“For the Xbox you need this guitar controller.” Another box is added, and then there are two more games, and Jensen wonders if it really is such a good idea to buy all of this. Before he can make up his mind though, the guy wishes him fun, and heads off again.

Jensen’s standing in the aisle with the video games, two boxes, and fourteen cases in his hands and wonders what just happened to him. In a trance he carries everything downstairs to his cart, which is already full of food and household things, and pushes it to the check out lines.

After he’s paid, he gets everything to his car, and loads it into the trunk. He suddenly realizes that he bought a video game console. And video games. Still somewhat confused about why he did that, Jensen returns the cart, and gets into the car.

Throughout the drive home his thoughts on the purchases he made has him forget that Jared cancelled on him, and when he parks in his drive way, Jensen is already wondering about how to install the contraption in his trunk.

Usually Jensen does okay with new technology. Some people think that him being a geek, equals him knowing everything there is about new stuff, be that technology, medicine, or any other branch of sciences. Somehow people think that studying something other than economics or Literature, means that you study everything that even remotely resembles sciences.

With the Xbox Jensen is almost sure that he’ll be able to install it without problems, but there’s always a healthy dose of respect for technology he knows nothing about. At Jared’s place, he’d just taken the controller that had been handed to him, and then he’d played like he’d been instructed to do.

The bags with the groceries in one hand, the boxes under his arm or in his other hand, Jensen barely manages to lock his car. Carefully he juggles everything to the front door, where he once more is confronted with the hindrance that are locks.

Inside he can hear Dean’s excited barking, and it has him stop unlocking the door. In his mind he already sees himself being run over by the dog, the new Xbox and the guitar controller flung every which way. Jensen sets the boxes down, and then opens the front door.

Dean doesn’t bowl him over, but it’s a really close call. The dog dances around him, yipping happily and trying his best to heard Jensen into the house.

First he carries the bags with the groceries and other purchases inside, and then he gets the boxes of the video game console and controller. Dean follows him every step, and when Jensen starts to set the console up, he curiously stands next to him and watches what his human is doing.

As it turns out, hooking up the Xbox is such an easy thing to do, that Jensen doesn’t even need to read the instructions. How hard can it be if there’s a cable that gets plugged into the console and into the TV set.

With his shiny new gadget installed, Jensen gets rid of the box and the padding that are littering the living room floor, and then he gets the DVDs and the games from the kitchen. He has four different games to play (two of them Guitar Hero games), and he can’t decide which one to try. Reading through the blurbs on the backside of the cases, he picks Fable II, and inserts the disc into the console.

The system wants him to pick a name, and then he can finally start to play. Jensen is not the best player there is, and in the beginning his avatar bumps into enough walls, corners and people that he can’t help but wonder of he can get killed by continuous knocking into sharp and/or blunt objects.

Figuring out how to get around, how to fight and how to earn money is captivating enough to have Jensen spend three hours in front of the TV. The next time he looks up and glances outside the window, everything is dark, and Jensen notices that night has fallen while he spent his time running around and fighting for Albion.

What Jensen likes best about the game is the dog that is his characters best friend. He picked ‘Dean’ as the name of the virtual mutt.

The real Dean is sleeping next to Jensen’s feet when he finally saves and exits the game. Somewhat self-conscious about his obsession with the Xbox, Jensen decides to keep away from the console until the Midterm exams are over. He really can’t afford to lose too many hours on playing a video game.

Jensen unwraps the DVDs he bought, and adds them to the shelf where his meager movie collection is to be found. He even goes to the effort of alphabetizing all twenty movies, and then goes to the kitchen to get something to drink.

Filling a glass with water, Jensen leans against a cupboard and just stares ahead. He’s tired, he notices that now. Since there’s nothing he has planned, or any one to visit, he just downs the content of his glass and switches off the lights in the kitchen. He’ll just go to bed, and tomorrow he’ll have all the time he needs to work some more for college.

On his way to the stairs, he locks the door to the porch and the front door. Dean is still sleeping in front of the couch; the dog just ignores Jensen’s walking around. In the night he’ll come upstairs and settle down next to or on Jensen’s bed, but right now the husky is too lazy to move.

He swaps his daytime clothes for sweats and a t-shirt, and plods into the bathroom, blinking slightly when the bright light comes on. Jensen stares at his reflection and with a sigh he notices that his freckles started to show again. Every time he spends more time outside, they start to pop up all over his nose and cheeks, all over his face really.

The expedition up North, and the bout of gardening he did before that, are the reason for his current case of freckles. Jensen rubs over the bridge of his nose, almost like trying to see if they come off. But, of course they don’t.

Another glance at them and Jensen takes his tooth brush. He squirts tooth paste onto it and starts brushing. He walks back into his bedroom, his toothbrush shoved into his mouth, and opens the window. The air always gets so stuffy during the night; if it isn’t at least cracked open a little bit.

Just as he’s spitting out the foam and rinsing his mouth, Jensen’s phone starts ringing. With a muffled curse he darts out of the bathroom and runs downstairs. A frantic search for the cell phone starts, until he remembers that he put it onto the table in the living room.

It’s almost too late when he finds it. The name on the display has Jensen grin, and he picks up.

“Hey there.” Dean passes him by, looking up and giving him a disgruntled look, upset that the phone and Jensen’s running around woke him up.

“What are you doing, dude? Is Jared keeping you busy?” Chris voice sounds teasing, and Jensen can hear the sound of a car driving in the background.

“No. Kind of difficult if he’s in LA and I’m in San Francisco.” Jensen sits down on the couch and plops his feet on the coffee table.

“What? I thought Mr. Hollywood is staying with you for the week?” His friend’s voice takes a steely edge, and Jensen knows what Chris is thinking. His friend had been furious during the Christmas holidays, when Jensen had been down about Jared’s mood, and the disconnection between them.

“Yeah, that was the plan, but real life decided otherwise. He got a call for re-shoots.” All day and evening he had done his best to keep from thinking about the disappointment he had felt. But now, talking with Chris, his thoughts go back to it.

“Jensen.” Chris wants to start on a tirade about the faults of one Jared Padalecki, and Jensen doesn’t want to hear it.

“Stop right there, Chris. I don’t want to hear it.” He closes his eyes and tries his best to quench the worries that start welling up.

“Fine. I just called to let you know that I’m about an hour from San Francisco, and I wanted to know if you have time to let an old friend stay for a couple of days at your humble abode?” The prospect of Chris coming to stay with Jensen, brightens his mood right up, and Jensen starts smiling.

“Dude, what kind of question is that? Of course you can stay with me. As long as you want or need.” He gets up from the couch and heads for the downstairs guest room. “What has you out here in San Francisco?”

“That guy we did the soundtrack for last summer wants me to do some work for his newest movie as well.” There’s the sound of a car honking, and Chris curses loudly. “That asshole cut me off!”

“Dude, don’t talk to me while you’re driving. Where’s Steve?” Jensen had assumed Steve was driving while Chris was on the phone. “Is he not with you?”

“No, he’ll come up tomorrow, we had a couple of gigs in LA and up the coast, and someone had to make sure that everything wrapped up okay. I just got into the car, and started driving up from San Jose where we had the last show.” Jensen checks if the room is alright, everything ready for use.

“Ah. Well, then, you know how to find me?” Jensen had told Chris where he lives, but so far his friend hadn’t had the time to come and visit.

“Yeah, got the address, and a GPS. Not too difficult. I should be at your place in about an hour.” More honking and cursing.

“Okay, just hang up and get here in one piece. Enough time to talk once you’re here.”

“Dude, who wants to talk? I hope you’ve got something to drink.” Chris incredulous tone of voice has Jensen laugh.

“Tequila okay?” He got a bottle of genuine Mexican Tequila from Chuck for Christmas. He has yet to open it. Today sounds like a perfect time.

“Perfect.” Chris is growling at something he sees, and Jensen knows that they really have to end the call, before his friend ends up having an accident.

“Awesome. Just get here when you get here. I’ll be up.” After that they end the call, and Jensen goes looking for the Tequila bottle.

He finds it in the cupboard next to the fridge, and there’s a full bottle of some expensive Scottish whiskey he got from a friend from the Highlands once. Jensen takes out the Tequila and leaves the whiskey for another time.

Since it’s going to take Chris another hour at least until he shows up, Jensen starts the Xbox and continues to play some more Fable II. He has to find that magician and to do that he has to first win the Crucible. Jensen directs his avatar to his next quest and starts fighting.



continue: Part Five