Chapter Text
Sam couldn’t stop staring at the dildo in front of his eyes. It was bright pink and stuck to the shelf and when he accidentally knocked into the display a little when someone passed by him, it wiggled, the light catching it just right to show that it shimmered. It was also huge‒ it wasn’t too bad in length, but in width. Sam couldn’t imagine anyone comfortably having it inside them, even if the color didn’t put them off. He tried to force his eyes elsewhere, but he couldn’t until Jess came and snapped him out of his hypnosis.
“I don’t think that would qualify as safe for anal play, Sam. Not any that we’d be doing any time soon.”
“Oh, God, no. I know that,” Sam laughed. “It was just right there. I couldn’t look away.”
Jess laughed back at him, her smile widening into it and her teeth showing. Their hands linked and locked between them as they’d done a thousand times when she leaned up to give him a quick kiss.
“We don’t have to do this, you know. I mean, we can just stay for this workshop, find some toys we might want to try. If you’re not backing out‒”
“Nice,” Sam interrupted with a smile.
“Don’t point out my dumb puns,” Jess fake chastised. “If you really want to try some back door stuff other than a finger during a blow job, I think our best bet right now would be some small beads. Or I saw some where the beads got bigger down the string and that could be fun.”
“You’re awfully enthusiastic about this,”
“I am. You’ve got such a cute butt; I just wanna play with it.” Sam laughed. “But only if you still want me to.”
“I’m still into the idea, yeah, Jess,” Sam said. He paused and made sure he had Jess’ attention before he went on. “And just so you know, I’m still into this other idea too. I know you want this and I want to do that for you. And I know you’re going to say that you don’t want me doing it just for you. I’m not.”
Jess squeezed Sam’s hand and the smile she gave him was soft and full of love. “How did I manage to get such a good guy, huh?”
“I’m not that good,” Sam said, shrugging one shoulder. He glanced around at their surroundings as he did it, seeing that the shelf opposite the dildo display was full of different types of lubricant and the one next to that was full of books, both erotica and manuals. He’d just noticed the rows of multicolored ropes and the selection of handcuffs he was sure he could probably slip easily enough when Jess swatted him lightly on the arm.
“I mean it. I’m glad we’re so honest with each other.”
If Jess saw the wince Sam tried to cover up at that, she didn’t say anything to him about it. She had half turned away from him to examine the small vibrator on the shelf in front of her and Sam hoped she’d simply missed it.
“Then if we’re being honest, you don’t need another vibrator,” Sam joked.
“Hey, I was looking for you,” Jess shot back. “If we wanted to skip the beads, maybe we could find you a prostate massager. You’d probably‒”
“Are we still talking about this to avoid talking about finding another guy you want to bring into our sex life?”
Jess looked down. “Maybe.”
“Are you nervous about it?”
She turned, putting her back to the wall of shelves they’d been half-looking at and leaning against the lip of the counter in front of one. Jess tilted her head to look up at Sam and she looked almost embarrassed.
“How do you even approach someone about this? And so far, it’s seemed like everyone wandering in here has been part of a couple. And I’ve done the girl thing and it wasn’t really doing anything for me, so I don’t know that a foursome would be my thing. I mean, I suppose I could try it again since it’d be different, but‒”
“Jess, sweetheart, you’re rambling,” Sam said; she shot him a look at the term of endearment and Sam held his hands up in a motion of surrender.
“Aren’t you nervous?”
“I don’t have to choose him. You get to choose him and I just have to approve.”
“You’re not worried he’ll take one look at you and get scared off because you’re a giant and it’s obvious your dick could possibly wound a guy? And definitely bruise his ego?”
Sam screwed up his face in bafflement and his hands came up again, this time in confusion. He shook his head as he spoke. “First, that’s ridiculous. And second, no, I hadn’t been worried about me putting off the guy until you brought it up.”
Sam’s voice had gone slightly higher during that last part and Jess smiled apologetically.
“I’m sorry, that was dumb. We’ll find a guy we both want and who wants both of us and it’ll be fine. It’ll be good. We’re just psyching ourselves out about this.”
“You’re psyching us out about this,” Sam corrected. “Sorry,” he laughed but didn’t retract the statement when Jess glared at him. He couldn’t mention to her that this was far from the scariest thing he’d ever dealt with and somehow he felt fairly calm. The worst thing that could happen was that they wouldn’t find someone, or they would find someone and it didn’t work out; Sam wasn’t exactly worried about defending themselves from psychos. “Look, I’m going to go sit down in the back room and look like I’m just waiting for this lecture to start. You stay up here and wait to see if a guy catches your eye. If he does, just talk to him. But he’ll probably talk to you first, Jess.”
“So what, I should just wait to get hit on?” Jess shook her head a little and her curls bounced. Sam snorted.
“That’s not what I said.”
Jess sighed. “I know.” Her mouth quirked up into a half smile. She waved a hand at Sam, “Go. Let me hit on other men.”
Sam smiled back and leaned down to kiss Jess. She snaked a hand around to pinch his butt as he did and he let out a short yelp for the benefit of how she grinned with her bottom lip caught in her teeth whenever he made the sound. He shot her a cheesy, double thumbs up before he headed toward the back room. It was separated from the shop area by a red velvet curtain that looked like it belonged on a stage and kept the merchandise blocked off from anyone who came in the back door. Along with the lectures and workshops such as the one that night on safe anal play, sometimes the Stanford professors who worked with Human Sexuality organized events that could entail people under the age of 18; he liked that for that reason there was a separation between what he would be doing and what Jess was doing.
Sam sat down in a seat one from the end of an aisle and avoided eye contact with anyone as much as possible as he picked up the program from the chair next to him and pretended to read as though he wasn’t thinking about Jess on the other side of the curtain and the prospect of sleeping with her and another man both.
***
While Sam was keeping himself from twisting the lecture program to bits in his hand, Jess was trying to pretend to be looking at books while really glancing at every single person she heard enter the store. There’d actually been quite a few people, but most seemed to be couples who were there for the workshop. Jess was fairly certain she recognized her freshman English teacher’s assistant and her partner, but she tried not to concentrate on anyone else’s features very long after that. She didn’t want to know about any of her professor’s sex lives‒ although she wasn’t naïve enough to think they didn’t have them‒ and more importantly, she didn’t need any of them to know anything about her sex life by recognizing her; she wanted this to be nice and anonymous. She’d hate for either her or Sam to accidentally run into this guy in a class or a club or anything. With the best luck possible, a tall, gorgeous, bisexual engineering major from Santa Clara University would walk through the door and be looking for a couple to have a threesome with; however, Jess didn’t hold her breath for that to happen.
The first guy who came through the door on his own was immediately a no go. Jess didn’t want to be shallow, but the man was far older than she’d even considered and a bit on the paunchy side. He wasn’t completely unattractive, but there was no way he’d look attractive if she stood him next to Sam and he would know that. Jess pictured how that encounter could go and shook her head a little. He wasn’t an option. She went back to pretend thumbing through a book that she actually had no idea what it was about.
It was another almost ten minutes, so close to the lecture’s start time that Jess thought she might have to give up, before another single man came in. Jess glanced his way and immediately did a double take. She couldn’t help herself; he was absolutely beautiful. He wore an old leather jacket‒ brown, which made him seem less like he was trying too hard‒ over a black t-shirt and maroon button down. But Jess was surprised that she even noticed he was wearing clothes; she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from his face. She knew she was standing there with the book completely closed and that she was staring, but she couldn’t stop. His lips were full and pink and pouty enough that she thought she might be jealous. Jess marveled at his cheekbones. He was only a little taller than her if that so when he turned and saw her staring, she could see his green eyes go wide, then crinkle a little as he smiled. Jess felt herself blush.
He didn’t approach her right away and Jess kept stealing glances at him as he looked around, clearly on the hunt for something, lips pursing up in concentration. She could feel his eyes back on her and when she heard his footsteps a nervous little rush went through her. The possibility that this wouldn’t work had flown from her mind at some point and she remembered what it was like flirting with boys at frat parties and with the bouncers who didn’t want to believe her fake ID and she was confident until the guy spoke up.
“Excuse me, you wouldn’t happen to work here would you?”
“I’m sorry?” Jess asked, finally looking up at him. She hadn’t expected that at all. His face split into a small grin. She shook her head a little and processed what he said. “No, I don’t work here.”
“That’s too bad, I was hoping you might be able to help me find something.”
Jess raised an eyebrow at him skeptically. There was something in the tone of his voice that told her there was a line coming. She couldn’t tell if she wanted there to be one or not.
“I might be able to help you any way,” Jess told him with a small smile of her own, dropping the eyebrow she’d raised.
“I was looking for a girl, tall, blond, killer legs, pretty blue eyes, cute little mole on her forehead. I can’t quite remember her name though.”
At any other time, for any other guy, Jess would have rolled her eyes and walked away. As it was, she settled for rolling her eyes. The guy was still smirking.
“Does that sort of thing work for you a lot?” Jess asked, unable to help herself. The guy grinned.
“What do you think?”
“I think you’re probably one of those pretty boys who gets away with a lot of shit with women,” Jess said. She winced at how harsh she sounded. This was not how she wanted this encounter to go. But he laughed.
“You’re not wrong. Sorry if I offended, I can‒” he made a move to turn away and leave Jess alone and she stopped him with a hand on his forearm.
“My name’s Jess,” she told him. She looked at him expectantly.
“Dean.”
“Well, Dean, what’d you really come in here for?”
“Condoms. Haven’t seen a drug store or a gas station in miles. What’d you come in here for?” Dean tilted his head and read off the title of the book Jess was holding “Desperately needed ‘The Complete Guide to Cunnilingus’ on a Thursday night? Boyfriend that bad that he needs a manual?”
Jess could hear the leer in his voice and she sort of wanted to whack him across the head with the book, but she shoved it back into its slot on the shelf instead. “No, I’m here for the workshop. With my boyfriend,” Jess used her thumb to gesture toward the curtain behind her then added, “Who definitely does not need that book.”
Dean put a mild look on his face as though it acted as an apology before it turned into something else. “Does this boyfriend know you’re out here talking to other men?”
“Yes,” Jess told him, making sure to keep eye contact. She saw his eyebrows rocket up and she couldn’t help but smirk. She didn’t go on and it was clear that Dean was dying for her to.
“Okay, I’ll bite. What’s that about?”
Cocking her head a little and biting her lip, Jess considered how to explain. She dove head first. “How do you feel about threesomes?”
Dean blinked a little, his forehead still wrinkled by his raised eyebrows and then he split into a grin. “Well, I’d feel better about them if you had a girlfriend you were joining back there, but I’m for them either way.” He sounded smug and Jess didn’t particularly like it, but she still felt a little warm when she watched him lick his lips.
“Okay. Good.”
“Okay,” Dean repeated. “You wanna run along and get your boyfriend there or…?”
Jess shook her head. “No. We’re really here for this lecture too. You can come sit in‒”
“Not a lecture kind of guy.”
“Meet us at the bar down the street in an hour then. Harrison’s.”
“Alright.” Dean nodded and his eyes searched around the room again. Jess could see when he spotted what he’d been looking for and he made a move towards her. She stepped back a little and Dean smirked. “Relax,” he told her and pulled his arm back from where he’d reached behind her. He had a fist full of condoms in a rainbow of foil wrappers and a myriad of scripts that proclaimed how they were ribbed and lubricated. “Definitely need these now.”
“You know that we’re still in charge of this, right? If we get in there and my boyfriend takes a look at you and says no, it’s a no. If I change my mind‒”
Dean didn’t let Jess finish. He was already nodding. “I’m the guest star, I get it. Not my first rodeo. You run the show.”
The tiniest thrill ran through Jess at his words, but more so she was flooded with relief. This was almost too perfect and suddenly‒
“You’re not a hooker, are you?” Dean looked so taken aback that Jess started to giggle, throwing a hand up in front of her mouth to cover the fact that it turned into nervous laughter in no time. His surprise morphed into offense and Jess shook her head. “I’m sorry, it’s just that this suddenly seemed too easy.”
Dean shook his head and Jess continued to try to get a hold of her laughter. He shoved the condoms he had still been holding into his pocket and slipped out his wallet. Jess was still giggling when he stepped away from her towards the counter, threw some money down onto it and stepped towards the door.
“Not a hooker, but I’m gonna expect you to get my bar tab since I’ll be waiting,” he said with a wink and then he was gone.
Jess finally stopped giggling‒ nerves‒ and thought that that had gone well. She slipped past the curtain, hoping she wasn’t causing a scene by entering after the lecture had started. She moved the programs piled on the seat next to Sam and sat. He looked over at her with a question written clear on his face and Jess smiled. She leaned over and whispered that “he’s gorgeous and meeting us at Harrison’s after. Will you be mad at me if I want to sit on his face?”
Jess kissed Sam’s cheek when he shifted in his seat in a way that told her he wouldn’t be mad at all.
***
Dean was two beers in and a hundred bucks richer by the time he looked at the clock over the pool table and saw that he should start keeping an eye out for Jess. He’d meant to be in Palo Alto to check in on Sam, try to pick up some co-ed willing to let him spend the night to save the bogus credit card charge for a motel, but honestly, John had left two weeks ago with no indication of when he was going to come back and Dean intended to use the time away to his advantage every way possible. He wouldn’t feel guilty for having fun with a bombshell of a girl and her boyfriend. Besides, John would call and tell him where he needed Dean to be; he’d been the one to send Dean to a hunt out near Kerby, Oregon. It had seemed a waste to be that far out on the coast and not make sure his brother was alright at Stanford‒ he’d driven farther for less.
“Did you shark me?” Dean’s pool opponent asked. The game had been finished for a good five minutes and Dean was just practicing shots since the bar was relatively empty.
“You’re the one who asked me to play, who put the money down, man,” Dean shrugged. The other man was obviously drunk, which Dean guessed was a normal state for him. He seemed harmless though, especially for Dean.
“Oh, right,” he muttered. Dean tried not to laugh.
“Come on, buddy,” Dean said, clapping the man on the back. He lead him to a bar stool and sat him down. “Let’s get you some pretzels.” When the bartender came by, Dean mouthed ‘water’ and left the man to her care. He then proceeded to find a table as far away as possible from the man, which was a high one tucked into the corner.
Dean took a pull from his beer bottle and pulled out his phone to make sure he didn’t have any new messages while he waited. The last thing he’d gotten was the text from John that gave him the coordinates to the hunt in Kerby, so he scrolled through his contacts until he was toying with the idea of calling Sam. He hadn’t talked to the kid in two years, but it felt like most of that had been because John was constantly around.
If this Jess girl and her boyfriend didn’t show up, he could maybe convince Sam to come out and get a beer; he did miss him, even if he didn’t ever do anything to indicate it, even if he was still a little pissed at Sam for leaving in the first place. His thumb was hovering over the button to send Sam a text when he heard the door to the bar open and Dean watched his brother walk in and scan the bar until his eyes fell on Dean.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Sam asked as he approached the table. He sounded pissed and confused and the former was of more interest to Dean.
“Drinking a beer, obviously. Hello to you too, Sammy.”
“What the hell are you doing here in Stanford, Dean? There can’t be a hunt here.” Dean could see Sam’s fist clenching up.
“Why? You been taking care of things? You sure there’s no hunt here? Going after shit by yourself?”
“No, god, no. Of course not,” Sam shook his head. “But I read the paper. I’m an informed person and there’s nothing weird going on around Stanford. So again, why are you here?”
The steam ran out of Dean’s anger at Sam’s tone. “Sit down and have a beer with me.”
“You came all the way out to Stanford to have a beer with me? And you didn’t call?”
“Don’t be a smartass, Sam. There was a hunt in Oregon, thought I’d come down. And if I’d called, you wouldn’t have picked up.”
“You don’t know that‒”
“Just sit down, man.”
Sam glared but he did pull the stool out from the table and sit half-way onto it. He looked ready to bolt at any moment and Dean raised an eyebrow at him. Sam just shrugged, then looked around, his eyes landing on the only other single man in the place other than the drunk Dean had dropped off at the bar. Dean saw Sam’s brow lower in confusion and his nose wrinkle in a little disgust.
“What? Recognize that guy from some frat boy hazing you went through?”
Sam scoffed. “What? No, I just‒”
But whatever he was just was interrupted by the way relief spread across his face when the door of the bar opened and a tall blonde walked in. Dean recognized her as Jess, but he was a little confused as to why Sam looked so happy to see her. He also wondered where exactly this boyfriend of hers was for about two seconds until‒
“Oh, you’ve got to be shitting me,” he sighed. “Please tell me that’s not your girlfriend.”
Sam turned to look at Dean puzzled, then his expression fell into terrible realization. No trace of his previous smile was there and the color drained from his face for a moment before everything seemed to catch up with him and red spots appeared high on his cheeks the way they always used to when he got embarrassed as a kid. Dean couldn’t help but crack a smirk at that and it made Sam’s cheeks get even redder.
Jess’ eyes lit up when she saw Sam and she smiled a mile wide when she saw that Sam was with Dean. She didn’t seem to notice the abject horror Sam was experiencing until she had approached the table. She twisted her head a little and narrowed her eyes.
“Do you two know each other?”
Dean burst out laughing.
Jess stared at this bizarre behavior and Sam glared but Dean could not stop laughing, even though even he wasn’t quite sure why.
“Did I miss something?” Jess asked after a moment, and Sam sighed as he nodded. Dean was finally calming down and took a swig of his beer before he nodded as well.
“Yeah, not that it’s any of your fault. I’m sure Sammy here doesn’t have any Polaroids up of the two of us or anything,” Dean said, with just a hint of feeling snide in the layer of humor in his voice.
“Oh my god, are you two exes?” was Jess’ next question. She didn’t let either of them get a word in before she continued. “I mean, Brady was one thing, but this guy’s like a model, Sam. Did you just like find an Abercrombie to pick guys up at before? If you did you have to tell me‒”
“Oh my god, Jess, please stop,” Sam finally said. Jess immediately snapped her mouth shut. She looked chastised and Sam would have felt badly if he wasn’t more concerned about the mild look Dean was giving him.
“Huh.”
“What, Dean? What?” Sam demanded. Dean put his hands up in a move of surrender. Neither of them was looking at Jess, who was watching the back and forth between them with a look of utter bewilderment.
“Nothing,” Dean defended. “I just said ‘huh.’ Is that a crime now?” Sam’s lips whitened as his expression turned even angrier. Dean rolled his eyes to the ceiling before sighing and furthered his answer. “Just didn’t realize you were playing for both teams is all.”
“I’m not exactly‒”
“Okay, enough,” Jess interrupted. “Before you get into talking about being a two and half on the Kinsey scale, will you please tell me what the hell is going on?” She paused to look between the two of them. “How do you two already know each other?”
Sam and Dean shared a look and Dean shook his head. “She’s your girlfriend. You tell her. I’m going to get more alcohol.”
Dean moved to get up and Sam rolled his eyes.
“Get me a beer,” Jess said as Dean walked toward the bar. He waved a hand behind him in acknowledgment. Jess turned to Sam. “Now spill. What the hell’s the deal here?”
Chewing his lip briefly, Sam looked almost defeated, but he seemed okay when he met Jess’ eyes. “Jess, that’s my brother.”
“Oh my god,” she responded. She looked shocked. “I didn’t even think about the name.” She shook her head, gaping a little. She turned her head and stared at Dean where he was waiting for another glass‒ he’d just gotten a pitcher of beer and out of the corner of his eye Sam had seen him take a shot‒whiskey probably. “That’s your big brother. Who hasn’t ever come to see you and has called what, twice since you’ve been at Stanford?”
“To be fair, he’s drunk dialed me a few times more than that,” Sam amended, and then tilted his head a little to nod, “but yeah, that’s my brother, Dean.”
“Oh my god,” Jess repeated. “Now I feel really bad about the comment about sitting on his face.” Sam laughed at her mortification. “Now I feel really bad about this whole thing actually. God, it’s one thing if a girl wants to bring another guy into the bedroom, it’s a totally different thing if he’s your older brother. Talk about an ego blow.”
“Jess, no, don’t worry about it,” Sam protested. He took her hand. “For one, the face sitting comment isn’t even the worst thing I’ve heard someone say about Dean. And for two, it’s not a blow to my ego at all. I mean, hey, we’ve got the same genes so maybe it’s an ego boost.” He was smiling at her and shrugged at the last part, pleased when her dismay turned to a light laugh.
“We might have the same genes, but you and I both know I’m the pretty one,” Dean said as he came back with the pitcher of beer and three glasses. Sam gave him an annoyed look and then Dean was the one to shrug. “I’m just telling it how it is, Sammy.”
“You’ve got to stop calling me Sammy. It’s Sam.”
“Yeah, whatever. You gonna actually introduce me to your girl or are we supposed to go on the introduction we already made? The one where she made it very clear that she wants to see me naked.”
“Could you not?” Jess said. Dean threw a cheeky smile her way and she refused to respond to it until he’d had enough and dropped it. Jess would try not to hold it against him that he rolled his eyes a little bit there. She also was trying not to acknowledge the part where she still definitely wanted to see him naked. Maybe even a little bit more in light of recent information.
Sam looked pissed, but he went through the motions anyway. “Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jess. Jess, my brother, Dean.”
“Well it’s nice to meet you, Jess,” Dean said in a tone that belied the truth of the situation. “Now that I know who this boyfriend of yours is, I’ve gotta tell you that you’re definitely out of his league.”
“What, and in yours?”
“Well, I am like a model,” Dean said with a grin, parroting her earlier words back at her. Jess’ face was flat and Sam didn’t look too pleased either and Dean shrugged after a second of their stares. He waved a hand and took a gulp of his beer. “I’m just joking around. For a couple who were looking for a third, you’re being a little uptight.” Sam and Jess shared a glance. “And not even a second girl. I mean, you were going pretty full out with the kink.” Dean paused and threw a half grin at Sam. “Hell, I’m almost proud.”
Sam tried to turn a laugh into a scoff. “Shut up.”
His half grin turned into a full one before he said, “Come on, sit down. We’ll drink and deal. You can tell me all about how great college is, what your classes are like.”
“You don’t care about what college classes are like at all, Dean,”
“Yeah not at all, but you can tell me about ‘em anyway if you want.”
“How many beers have you had?”
Dean screwed up his face in an expression that clearly asked Sam what difference that made, but he answered anyway. “This is my fourth. I’m not drunk, man, come on.”
“Are you sure? I mean, we can just go?”
Sam regretted it the minute he said it; he could see the hurt in his brother’s eyes. He also looked ready to snap back at him when Jess intervened.
“No, come on, Sam. You never get to see your brother, let’s sit. We’ll have some beer.”
“See, listen to your girl. She’s clearly got more sense than you,” Dean said with a point of his whole hand. He turned a smile on Jess and she definitely had a difficult time not thinking yep, still want to sit on his face.