AN
This song is what I wish my two boys to become.
I wish you guys knew what I was doing, then it'd make so much more sense!
This had a long time coming- I've basically been busy doing nothing- well, that's a lie. But I blame Mark E Miller's youtube channel and Bob's Burgers on Netflix... and just Netflix in general.
Please don't hate me after this chapter.
New character! C:

Asher Bravermen has no clue how he had trapped himself into this predicament. There are hands riding at his hips, his legs are straddling thighs, and his collarbone is pressed into an almost-stranger's face.

If anyone happened to wander by, they'd see two boys fooling around in the back of a Jeep.

Hell, if Asher didn't have any sense, he'd come up with the same conclusion, too.

He groans, feeling Thane's fingers tighten at his belt loop, pressing him closer to the older man. One elbow is on the leather seat; Asher's right palm is clutching at Thane's hair to keep his balance. His other free hand is stuck to the back windowpane; his eyes just barely high enough to look out into the teacher's parking lot.

Mrs. Hadaway- the reason as to why they're in this compromising position- is busy with her car, parked underneath the metal shed as she studied the engine with her long-sleeve shirt scrunched up to her biceps.

"Are you uncomfortable?" Asher asks, finally turning his attention to the man he practically threw over the driver's seat and into the back after he defied the laws of whatever science that said a scrawny teenager couldn't body-slam into the backseat in least than ten seconds.

"No, not really- I just," Thane began.

Asher cut him off with his body's movement, pushing himself back so his chest lined up with Thane's and his elbows rested on either side of the other man's head. "Good, we'll be staying here for a while."

"In this particular position?" Thane whispered back to him, blue eyes blinking up at him like some child full of curiosity.

"I'd say we could switch- but you look a bit heavier then a hundred and forty pounds, and I wanna call the shots-" the teenager began before he was abruptly interrupted by moving limbs and grunts.

He suddenly found himself on his belly beneath Thane. The feeling of two hundred pounds of man atop of him forced a surprised scowl out of Asher as his face was simultaneously shoved into the bottom of the seat. The big idiot was using Asher's body to situate himself in a comfortable position while Asher thrashed in vain beneath him.

"The hell was that for?" Asher hissed at Thane when his hands finally found purchase on the windowpane instead of the back of the teenager's head. Asher's hands scrambled to grasp anything stable while he complained. The boy found Thane's arm, which barricaded him in a fort of flesh and bone, and used it for leverage, rolling himself over to lay on his back.

Thane didn't look awful in this particular angle, and Asher studied the man. Broad shoulders practically hid any type of view of the outside world from Asher; somehow, Thane's right hand had wrapped around Asher's thigh- situating one foot to lay flat on the Jeep's floor and the other on the wall beside the left back window. It left room for the bigger man to burrow closer to Asher- denim rubbing against Asher's khakis- and fuck, that felt nice- but he wasn't supposed to think about that.

At this very moment, it'd possibly be the worst time for a boner to- and he thought about a boner, which meant the lower half of him jumped to attention just by being acknowledged in his thoughts.

"Thane," he hissed out, hands catching on the man's denim button-up. "Thane, I- you're heavy," Asher scowled- which was half-truth. The man was bizarrely big, and in the back of the Jeep, where Asher could hear the soft pitter of rain on the roof, he almost felt squished- suffocated between the mountain of man and the sticky, leather seats.

"Get used to it," Thane growled out, clearly not affected by the fact that the scrawny teenager he's been harassing for the last four days is uncomfortable.

"No," Asher whispered, hooking his feet around the older man's legs, trying- and failing miserably- to turn the tables. Thane didn't move an inch as Asher pushed and kicked at him, the teenager's own frustration growing as Thane's hands gripped his waist, digging into his back each time Asher lurched forward.

"Stop struggling or we're going to be heard," Thane commanded at Asher- the man's hands leaked onto the curve of Asher's hip. His slender torso was ripped away from the seat's surface, and his belly hit Thane's own smooth stomach.

He felt like a misbehaved dog being yanked around by his collar.

"You're an asshole," Asher growled out to him. His own body betrayed him as he splayed out limp beneath Thane's hold, which had clearly been Thane's intentions.

"And you're stupid! Skipping school, walking around without anyone knowing where you are, getting yourself stuck in a Jeep! Who does that? Seriously," Thane whispered in a menacing voice. "Who friggin' gets stuck in the back of a Jeep?"

"I do," Asher replied angrily. "You don't know shit, man. I skipped school for my own pragmatic reasons."

Thane rolled his eyes. "Don't feed me that crap, I was a teenager, too-"

"Really? You didn't come out of your mother's womb as a fully grown psychopath?" Asher shot back, interrupting the older man as he crossed his arms on his chest. It was a bit awkward to stare up at Thane- but it was even harder to level his hard gaze and keep it.

"You're acting so smart now, what if I just leave you the way I found you? Stuff you in-between the front seats because you're too much of an idiot to have common sense!" Thane spat at him, eyebrows knitting close together as his expressions grew into more than just dramatic.

"Says the creep-o who forced a jacket onto me in the middle of the woods!" Asher's eyes narrowed into amber slits as he scowled with each word.

"Says the one who is wearing my said jacket!" Thane replied in a matter-of-fact tone, grinning because it was true. It was zipped to Asher's chin and reached down to the beginning of his thigh.

"Want me to take it off? You can have it back!" Asher replied, uncrossing his arms as his fingers went to work on the zipper.

"Don't."

Asher stopped, surprised at the tone of Thane's voice- seconds ago it was light banter- hell, even humorous. Now, his voice made the young Bravermen's skin crawl with goosebumps and anticipation.

"Don't take off that jacket," Thane demanded- a dark sound in the back of his throat caused rumbles to echo out of his chest- a growl. Thane Hale was growling at Asher.

Asher's hands were shadowed by another pair- these much larger, calloused hands grasp around his palms and wrist, completely keeping him shackled to Thane.

"T-Thane?" Asher went stock-still, paralyzed by the way Thane wouldn't move either- aside from his head sinking closer to his own.

The man moved one of his hands away to clutch at Asher's short hair, tugging more at his head than anything, as he forced him to turn his face into the seat's back.

Asher felt like he couldn't breathe- move, talk, scream- he felt sedated.

"Keep the jacket on," Thane whispered a few minutes after Asher had closed his eyes and let his limbs sink into the seat beneath him. He didn't mind the nosing, the fact that Thane was burrowing into Asher's neck or nipping at his mark with dull bites. At the moment, all he felt was the strange compelling thought of just letting Thane take from him whatever he wanted.

"It looks good on you," Thane continued, lips just a hair's width from Asher's hot skin. "It looks mine."

Asher only nodded in agreement, something like a purr escaping his throat as if he was at the very peak of content. As if letting himself lay loose-limbed beneath Thane was a privilege- an accomplishment.

"Mrs. Hadaway is gone," Thane whispered into Asher's neck- and fuck, his hot breath fanning over the teenager's throat had Asher's fingernails digging into the seat beneath him.

"Oh, good- I, uh," the boy tried to gather his scrambled thoughts, but any conversations edged with intelligence stuck to the back of his throat.

"I don't want to have this conversation again," Thane's voice seemed to susurrate into Asher's skin, lips hovering over the collar of the leather jacket. "Keep it on," he continued, a hand crawling up to Asher's collar to yank it higher- the touch more appreciative then aggressive.

"I- yeah, Thane," the teenager nodded his head, eyes screwing shut because Thane's breath was doing something to him.

Thane let out a dry laugh, before he finally sat up in the Jeep- giving Asher space to breathe.

"Good boy," Thane Hale grinned.

Asher beamed from ear to ear at the endearment, fucking preened until Thane climbed out of the vehicle and left him grinning like an idiot.

*
Asher laid in the back of his brother's Jeep for the better half of an hour- simply catching his breath and letting his hand trail up to the places Thane had touched. He had stared up at the black ceiling of the Jeep for tens of minutes until he decided whatever Thane had made him feel- this confusing emotion that had suddenly been seducing Asher's system for the last week, was just that. Confusing.

Which meant that Asher could Bravermen himself up and stop acting like a smiling idiot in the back of his brother's car.

He stretched when he jumped out of the Jeep, feet becoming steady on the damp ground. It was going to be pouring in less than an hour- it'd be best if Asher made his escape now.

Asher gripped the straps of his backpack, nibbling his bottom lip as he fought with himself internally- would he make it to his house before the rain came? Or would he become the teenage-boy version of a wet rat?

"How do you know Thane Hale?" Hands darted around Asher's slender waist from he stood by the Jeep, reeling him into a cage of arms and the smell of Chanel no.5.

Asher, caught off-guard and well- he's already been through enough in the past week- did the only pragmatic thing that he managed to think of. He screamed, a peep escaping from his mouth before two fingers stuck between his lips and caused his eyes to tear up.

He turned around, managing to get an upper-hand as his elbows dug into a ribcage.

Asher's flight or fight reflexives were already telling him to assess his assaulter. And he wasn't surprised when he met face to face with six feet of pretty woman. The stranger had a tape recorder hanging around her neck, stuck to her lanyard, with the abbreviation of 'NOW News' stamped across her I.D. card.

"Whoa, man, get off," Asher yelped, fighting manicured red nails off as they darted closer to him. They flitted off course, to fix the collar of his leather jacket- her left hand pushing up to brush through his hair like an apology.

"I'm a she, thank you very much," her eyebrows scribbled close as she looked taken back with the audacity Asher had- as if he was the one to be acting rude- she had practically emotionally overwhelmed him with her unpremeditated entrance.

"I don't really care," Asher scowled between gritted teeth, trying to roll away from her with a failing escape attempt. He glanced around the parking lot as he caught his breath. His eyes were subconsciously searching for icy, blue eyes. Where was the moody, leather-jacket creep when Asher actually need help? God, why was his first reach for help directly connected to Thane Hale?

She kept one hand on his collarbone, clearly telling him to stay with hardly any pressure on his skin. He didn't shrug it off, no malice infected her touch- but the warning 'to stay' was blatantly obvious on her fingertips.

"You're an asshole kid," She growled out finally- following his gaze to the life-barren parking lot. She shook her highlighted brown hair as she placed her hands back to her sides and pressed down on her business suit- a below-the-knee dress that stuck like a second skin and a yellow blazer that matched her Louboutins.

"Says the-" he catches his eyes on her identification card- because, after-all, if she bothered him once, she'll bother him twice. He might as well learn her name so he can file for assault.

"Jared Boisseau, I go by Jay," she says after a moment of Asher's pause and obvious studying of her ID. "And I am a woman," Jay continues, her manicured hands wrap around her lanyard as she yanks it out of his sight.

"Oh," Asher whispers- because now, now he feels like the biggest asshole in the state. "Sorry, I mean, sorry, Miss."

"I'm married," she continues; an eyebrow which looks like it was hours of work, lifts up in retaliation.

"I- uh, Misses, then. Sorry, yeah-- ma'am," Asher swallows as he watches her with utter apology. She shrugs, like maybe it doesn't happen much- or maybe it happens too often. "When I said man, I- uh- that was like a 'hey, man', like- I call my friend- no, no. I'm sorry, Mrs. Boisseau- no excuse."

"Just call me Jay, alright," she tells him with a pity of a smile for the teenager- until her lips stretch a mile wide and Asher swears a lightbulb turns on above her perfectly-styled hair. "I'll forgive you if you let me interview you."

"Mrs. Bois- Jay, I ain't open for any interviews- I- definitely not," he tells her, honestly. Because, while he felt like the world's biggest asshole for misgendering her, she was still a journalist looking for the easiest way to find an easy story. "If you want to know what happened last Friday night, just ask my cousin-"

"Mattie LeCruz?" She asked, red lips quirking from a smile to a frown. She tilted her head, as if she was understanding what the teenager was computing.

"Yeah," Asher grabbed the back of his neck as he shrugged, turning his attention to the darkening sky. Fuck, it was going to rain soon, he better start home soon. "The pretty blonde one."

"I can't," her words form slow. Almost as if she's asking him a question she's not sure of.

"No, Mattie is always ready for an interview- trust m-"

"No," Jay swallows, eyebrows knitting into concern for the young Bravermen. "She's been hospitalized."

*

"This," Asher breathes in to himself. "This is why they shouldn't take away my phone," the teenager whispers from the passenger seat of Jay Boisseau's news van. It was coughing up a storm, and looked every inch like a vehicle he'd tell his nephews to stay away from. Old, with cracking yellow paint- a red label that once advertised Jay's new-station was practically a rubbed off logo.

"You seem like you have shit luck, kid," Jay tells him. Her long fingers are wrapped tightly around the steering wheel as she scrunches her blue eyes, trying to see pass the thick sheet of rain in their path. The weather had decided to match Asher's mood, thirty seconds after the revelation of Mattie's condition- he was basically dragged into Jay's van and given a ride to the hospital.

"Just this week," Asher mutters beneath his breath. He's holding onto the oh-shit handle by the window, clutching it with his right hand while his left pulled up the collar of Thane's leather jacket closer to his neck.

"You're a little less... dramatic than I had first thought," Jay whispers like a secondhand thought; her heels lightly tap on the gas, accelerating at least ten miles an hour over the speed limit. Her eyes give him a side glance, examining him before she's satisfied.

He stays quiet, blushing as she shakes her head in his direction. "Why would I be dramatic?"

"Your life is falling apart. I mean, you're about to graduate, I witnessed the girl you were riding with nearly kill Tommy's best friend-"

He cuts her off, sneers at her words before he shakes his head. "Tyler ain't nowhere near Tommy's friend. Hardly an acquaintance."

"Well," Jay's hands slide smoothly over the wheel of her van as she turns onto the road that leads to the only emergency center Hollow Grove has- the doctor's office. "That may be true, but their stats- their skills, that says otherwise."

"Anyways, your social life is practically a badly filmed ABC Family television show. Your mother is the sheriff- so everyone is asking you, pointing to you right?" She continues, moving her hands on the steering wheel in attempt to let her words come to life.

Asher nods vigorously as he follows, because- yeah. Questions and answers have always been piled a mile high on his shoulders.

"Yeah, I thought so. Your cousin is in urgent care," Jay pauses- like she's trying to unscramble the words she's about to say next. "And you're sneaking around with Thane Hale- some guy that everyone, except maybe you, is wary about. You guys are both so gay for each other, I don't think you even realize what you look li-"

"Wait- uh, what?" Asher's throat tightens. His curiosity isn't peaked because he should be wary about Thane- he isn't stupid. Asher knows the Hale boy is dangerous. But, gay?

"I know how hard it is to be different in a small tow-" Jay begins, not backtracking- but clearly trying to let him know she can sympathize.

"I mean, yeah- I'm as gay as they come," he assures her- there was only three things he's known since he developed the intelligence to deduce simple things, loosely, after he turned three. One, his mother loved him. Two, he loved his mother. Three, he wanted to kiss Tommy instead of Rina in Sunday School. "But Thane? Thane's straight. Thane is- I, uh- I don't even really know him. Honest," he finished- utterly flabbergasted,

"Please, you're wearing his jacket and he couldn't stop rubbing his hands all over you- I'm not even groped that much, and I'm married," Jay whistled lowly, laughing lowly as she watched Asher's face twist into a vibrant color of scarlet.

"That wasn't- okay, so there is a forest and thes-" Asher stumbles as he tries to explain their situation- that wearing Thane's jacket didn't mean anything, not really- but, but- but if it did, Thane was damn straight forward.

"It'd be less obvious if he fucking pissed on you," Jay rolled her eyes, keeping her gaze on the road- but listening close. The van creaked as she slowed down, pressing the brake slowly as the doctor's office came in sight.

"I- uh, I," he stumbled over his words- because what else could he say? How could he even speak? His tongue felt like it had became glued to the roof of his mouth.

"Here's my card," Jay finally said- a blue card finding its way into Asher's line of vision- he blinked as he refocused on her contact information and a smiling profile picture of the journalist.

"Thanks," he whispered- both for the generous ride to the doctor's, the business card- and maybe, a new revelation.

"And kid?" She put the van in park, turning her head to hold his gaze- those two blue orbs held him captive as she waited for a reply.

"Uh, yeah?" He was out of the van, grateful for the indoor parking. He leaned into the passenger seat to catch her voice.

"I know there are sick reporters... Journalists that give us a bad rep, but I'm just looking for a story," her voice was raw, strong- but shaking. As if her words were taboo. "I'm not sure what exactly for yet, but I know you're going to be on the front page of every major paper nationwide."

"Is that bad?" Asher whispered, because it didn't feel appropriate to speak in a volume an octave higher.

She shrugged her shoulders before giving him a once over. The nod, so minuscule and quick that the teenager hardly caught it, felt like a reassurance. "For your sake, I sure hope it isn't."

AN
I feel like this was boring- I am sorry!
Mattie LeCruz is in the next chapter, and ah, bless.
Jay is a woman who transgendered from a man's body c:
Did I get anywhere with Thane and Asher? What do y'all think is going on? Like these dynamics and stuff? Cause I'm curious to see if my idea is transferring correctly onto written word.

Tell me your favorite part(s)! Please, I'm desperate. (I actually love your feedback)