#soft!jake

A phone call woke you up. Come pick him up, he’d said. Knowing exactly which asshole would be calling you to ask that. Very little else could be said before the line was ended. A second later, the location buzzed for you to follow.

You could have said no. Should have told him to fuck off calling you at this time. Sometimes you thought he did it on purpose, just to press your buttons. Deep down you knew Jake wouldn’t be calling if he didn’t think he needed you. Or maybe that’s what you told yourself to make it more tolerable to be out of your warm bed at this hour.

So you went.

You threw on a few layers and left to go pick him up. Silently cursing him all the while. Nights were cold and you weren’t functioning on enough hours of sleep to be doing this shit. At least it wasn’t all the time, but still. You’d prefer he called you at a reasonable hour. Jake didn’t seem to know what reasonable meant.

Ended up in some industrial area. Stopping to recheck the location on your phone. Didn’t seem like the right place. Movement caught your eyes. You look back up to find him staggering in his walk towards you. A sombrero on his head. The black bomber jacket open gave him little protection. No buttoned shirt, leaving his chest bare and exposed to the elements. Hand bandaged and bloody. He looked beat up or drunk, more likely both. All in all, he looked rather pleased with himself getting into your car.

Ducking his head to not lose the hat. He stunk of beer and cigarettes. You wrinkled your nose as it invaded your senses the closer he got. Waiting for him to shut the door. Didn’t bother to ask him to put his seatbelt on. More stubborn than a damn toddler, this one. It’d be his own fault if he bonked his head. Might finally knock some sense into him.

You pull away from the warehouse to drive him back home. Taking one last glance to see if you could spot anything out of the ordinary about of the place. Any clue as to why Jake came out looking the way that he did. Definitely a story there. Jake was already messing with the radio, getting the station he loved on. You turn it down to talk.

“Had a good night?”

He hummed at first, before saying, “Si señora.”

“What’s the emergency?”

“Sin emergencia. I needed a lift and I got one.”

Jake carefully plucked a bent hand-rolled cigarette out from his pocket. Straightening it between his fingers shaken fingers before catching it in his lips and searching for the lighter. Noticed the way he only used three fingers on his left hand. The other two wrapped haphazardly. Electrical tape somehow holding it together. His face cut up but no longer bleeding. A line of dirt and blood streaked down from the bridge of his nose.

“It was a party then?”

You didn’t even try to sound like you were convinced. Jake chuckled and blew out a plume of smoke. Shifting to open his window a crack.

“You could say that.”

Your hands shift on the steering wheel. Annoyed by that. You’d dealt with it with one being all cagey and now you had to deal with another. You wished they’d be more like Steven sometimes. Honest. Open. Not so headstrong and stubborn. Still though, they were equally as beautiful and handsome in their own ways, the bastards.

“I could ignore your call next time. Or stop the car right now and kick you out.” You threaten. “Start talking.”

“And risk your precious boys? Or you gonna make me beg again? Tu cabeza está en la luna.”

“They wouldn’t be this stupid.”

“Ha! You sure about that, chica?” Jake laughed to himself, “Steven cries in the shower if he thinks too long about sea turtles.”

You roll your eyes but he continues, “Marc threatened to throw Steven off a cliff for kissing you. Not so smart, your boys.”

“You’re one of them.” You bite back.

That seemed to give him pause. Another exhale of smoke as he regarded you more closely. You kept your focus on the quieter dark roads, seeing him in your peripheral was enough to put you on edge under his scrutinizing gaze. Passing under lights illuminated that stare. Like he’d make a meal out of you if he could.

You eventually break the silence between you two.

“So what’s with the hat?”

“Lost my hat. Needed a new one.”

“And your shirt?”

“Ah, that too. Needed it for my hand. Couldn’t find a new one of those.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing your nose needs to know.”

“It does if I’m going to patch you up.”

“You once told me to kill them with kindness. But I found their gun instead. That’s all.”

You sigh. Loudly.

“What the fuck am I going to do with you?”

“Anything you fucking want, mi mariquita.” He met your same tone with a rueful smile. Flicking the end of his cigarette outside.

You noticed how he’d gotten ash all over the glass and in the car. Another thing you can be annoyed about, later, once he’d sobered up. Right now you weren’t speaking to him or entertaining his flirtations.

You pulled through one of the drive-thru’s you knew would still be open at this hour. Tossing a couple of burgers over to Jake. His happy noise directed more at the burgers than at you. It was either he eat now or he’d be rampaging through the kitchen once he got home. You'd be hearing all about it from Steven the next day. Wanted to save the other from the hassle.

“You’re too kind. Maybe I should be nicer to you.” He said through a mouthful. Head bouncing along to the tune of the radio. Some sort of happy little dance while he ate. Never could resist bouncing a leg or his head to something in particular he liked.

“Yeah, yeah. Saying and doing are two separate things.” You half smile, glancing to him before heading home. He was still stuffing the last of his burger into his mouth by the time you parked up on the streets outside his apartment. Jake rubbed his hands on his pants, angling the one hand carefully to avoid snagging his makeshift bandage.

“And this where I kiss you goodnight? I enjoyed our little ride. Shame it couldn’t be longer.”

“No, idiot, this is where we go up together and get you cleaned up.”

“Didn’t think you were serious. Do I have to say please?”

“Only if you know what’s good for you.”

He laughed and you left the car to go to his apartment. Jake sauntered up behind you. Hands into his jacket pockets. Curled in on himself like an animal ready to pounce. You folded your arms and gave him a look in the elevator as he pushed for his floor and then proceeded to push the buttons for every other floor after.

To his credit, he didn’t pounce on you. Kept some distance. Leaned his back against the elevator wall. Some of that smugness gone and he did look like he was in some discomfort. His good hand readjusted the sombrero when he caught you looking. His hands patted down his other pockets and began to pull a gun out.

“Oh, there’s the bad man’s~”

“Jake!” You bark, hand snapping to his wrist to stuff the weapon back into his pocket. No cameras or people around but he had evidence on him you’d really rather he didn’t.

“Why do you still have that? I swear to god.”

“Don’t bother, most of them are assholes.” A sharpness in his tone he didn’t have before. He smiled hazily. “They abandoned us long ago.”

“Starting to sound like Marc.” You roll your eyes.

“Nah. He still believes. Little by little. More every day now that you’re around. He lingers about when Steven practices.”

“And why don’t you?”

“Why would I? Only one I’d want to pray to is you.”

That shut you up and gave you pause. You’d fallen for that one. Jake snickering let you know he knew it too. He was being an ass again.

The elevator stopped clunkily to his floor and he led the way. You go to reach out to stop him from bouncing off someone’s door but Jake’s able to catch his own unsteady balance. Making it to his own door, somehow. He lets you both in.

“Mi casa es su casa.” He waves his good hand lazily.

You nudge your hand into his back to push him towards the bathroom.

“You see Steven got Marc a fish? I didn’t get a fish.”

“You’d probably eat it.”

He laughed. A real deep wheeze from the chest.

“That’s exactly what I said when Steven brought up the idea. Got banned from going near them. I like the fishes. I have no beef with them.”

“Would you want a fish?”

A pause. “Nah. That’s their thing. Not mine. They won't let me decorate unless it's some more dorky nerd shit.”

While you both talked. You’d gotten Jake on the edge of the tub with his bandaged hand over the sink. Peeling away the electrical tape slowly. Jake winced.

“Sorry.” You say. He shakes his head but doesn’t respond.

Unwrapping the torn shirt from his fingers you see there’s darker blood and a nice gash at the palm. Dirtied and mangled. You turn on the cold tap and take his hand under the water. Flushing out dirt and dried blood. Stretching out the fingers to manipulate and feel for any breaks or damage to the nerves. Moving your fingers away to see if he could move them himself.

If it’s not Jake getting battered it was one of the others some other way. Steven while cooking or Marc when he got too rough playfighting with you. You use the bottle of disinfectant he kept out. To the sting, Jake growls like you were testing his patience, a scowl setting on his face.

“Quit being a baby. I need to clean it.” You protest back at him. Tossing him a scowl of your own. You could've been nice and warm in your own bed right now, not dealing with his bullshit. “You and your dumb hat.”

“My sombrero isn’t dumb. You take that back.”

“No.”

“Always so mean to me, princesa. Keep that up and I might just fall in love with you.” A playful pout you’d love to just kiss off his stupid face. He only ever used love like a threat, so you didn’t take it to heart.

You ignore him again. Pulling the medical kit out you used what little counter space you had, you open it up and pull out the supplies you’re going to need. Threading up the needle, Jake kept his bleeding hand still over the sink while he watched you. Wasn’t the first time you’d patched him up, knew it wouldn’t be the last either.

“Why were you out again? You don’t need to do that anymore.” You finally ask. Jake made a reluctant noise in his throat.

“I do. It was for a friend.”

“Who?”

“Does it matter? They needed me to do a thing and I did the thing.”

“You don’t have to do everything someone asks.”

“No. But I want to. Makes me… useful. The world doesn’t stop spinning just because we do.”

Jake doesn’t look away when you begin stitching him up. Didn’t take many stitches. Soon you were wrapping it in a cleaner bandage. Letting him pull his hand away to inspect the wrapping.

“Stay tonight.” He says. Not asking. You shake your head.

“You’re still drunk. No.”

“I’ll take the couch. You can have your way with his pillow.”

That caused you to scoff and go to leave. His good hand reached to catch yours. Tugging you, guiding between his thighs to enclose them around your legs. In retaliation, you smack the hat off his head, it hits against his back, the string around it going up against his neck. His chin pressed up against you as he looked up at you. A different look in his face this time, making you pause. One unlike any you’ve seen before. No. That’s not right. You’ve seen this look before, on the others, sure, but not on him. You steady yourself against him. His voice dropped an octave lower.

“I don’t want to be by myself tonight. Please?”

“Well be nice then.”

That stupid smile was back.

“I can’t promise that.”

“I’ll think about it. Stay still.”

You go for a cotton swab and dowse it in disinfectant. Wiping at the injuries on his face. Checking over the forming bruises. Fingers checking his nose wasn’t too fucked. Another noise of a groan from Jake. The cut on it wasn’t too bad once it was cleaned. You placed a plaster over his nose for good measure. He smiled lazily up at you. Arm wrapping around your waist to hold you.

“Did you think of your answer yet?”

“Yeah. I decided you’re getting the bed and I’m getting the couch. You need your rest.”

“No, no, no. No. That’s not how this works, chica. I get the couch. You get the bed.”

“I’ll just go home then.”

“Ayúdame. Anyone ever told you you’re so stubborn?”

“Anyone ever told that to you? Also, get rid of the gun. Don't let the others find it.”

He chuckled and shifted his head to press his cheek against you. Taking in a long unsteady inhale. Probably thinking of ways he could get his cake and eat it too. To your surprise, he relents.

“If it gets you to stay, I‘ll take the bed.” You feel him playfully bite into your side, hard enough to hurt. Causing you to make a noise and squirm away, smacking at his good shoulder. A pained laugh comes out from Jake.

“You’re an asshole.”

“And you love me.”

You didn’t have anything to say back to that. Damn him.

Come morning, you’d wake up to Steven complaining how sore he felt all over. How he’d found a gun inside his fish tank. Also, why were you wearing a sombrero? What on earth happened last night?

You huffed in annoyance as your hair covered your face yet again, you really thought that slipping them behind your ears would prevent them from falling but no, that's not the case at all.

You groaned when you look at your already covered with flour hand. You wanted to surprise your boyfriends with a sweet breakfast in bed, they have been taking good care of you these past few months and you really wanted to do something nice for them.

So why not bake them a muffin? It's easy right? Wrong. It was way more complicated than the one you saw on the internet.

Suddenly you felt someone wrapped their arms around you, the frown on your face left when you felt them kiss the back of your neck, while murmuring a small "Buenos días, mi amor." (good morning, my love) on your skin.

"Good morning, Papi."

The smile on your face grew wider when you felt him bite your nape, biting your lips as you sway your hips and grind on his crotch.

He softly groaned beside your ears, gripping your waist tight to prevent you from moving them.

"Stop teasing me so early in the morning, cariño." (darling)

You shrugged your shoulders, that stupid smile is still on your face.

"It's fun."

"For you."

You hum at him, making Jake closed his eyes with a small smile adorned his face. He takes a deep breath as he held you close.

"You're so warm,"

"I know."

"You smell sweet."

"It's the dough."

"No, it's you, mi bebé." (my baby)

"I haven't showered yet though?"

"Doesn't fucking matter."

He kissed your nape again, this time longer than the last and you dreamily sigh in response, you can get used to mornings like these but the way he kissed that spot slowly make your mind wondered elsewhere.

"Stop distracting me."

You lightly elbowed his stomach, making him playfully groan.

"How can you wound me, an invisible knight of the night?" You let out a snort in response and he smiled wider at the noise.

"Well, it seems this invisible knight of the night isn't that invisible after all."

You looked back at him and threw him a wink before continuing to mixed the dough, huffing your hair away every once in a while to see better.

Then suddenly you felt his hands moved to your hair, tidying them and holding them in place.

"I have a scrunchie, you know?"

"Nah, I'll hold it for you, bebé." (baby)

You can't fight the smile from forming on your face at the gesture.

Jake stared at the back of your head and smile softly, lowering himself to kiss your nape again. "te amo muchísimo, tu iluminas mis días." (I love you so much, you light up my days)

"And I love you too, my Shadow Knight." he grinned on your skin in response.

Yeah, waking up with you and just standing in the kitchen while he held you and making breakfast together is a must from now on.

Finally, five o’ clock rolled around and had to nearly drag yourself to your car and start your journey home. You didn’t even turn on the music as you flopped your head back against the headrest and sighed through your nose. When you walked into your and Jake’s shared apartment, you could smell whatever he was cooking as music filled the air. You walked into the kitchen slugglishy and you cracked a smile when Jake jumped, startled by your unannounced appearance. 

“Jesus, Y/n! When did you get home,” Jake said a bit out of breath with one hand clasped to his chest. 

“Just now. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” you said apologetically as you filled up your water bottle. 

“Oh…normally you have your music up so loud it rattles the kitchen windows. You okay? How was work,” he said as he placed a kiss to the apple of your cheek before heading back to the stove. 

You opened your mouth to respond and somehow managed to knock your water bottle off the counter. A gasp left your lips as it spilled all over your clothes and the now empty metal bottle dinged as it skittered across the kitchen tile. Jake chuckled a bit at your predicament, turning to grab a few dish towels out of the drawer. He threw about three on the ground before turning to hand you one and his eyes widened in shock. 

The Water Bottle Incident, as you were now formally calling it, had been the last straw to top off a shitty day. You held your face in your hands as hot tears tracked down your face and your shoulders shook. You felt your face and chest beginning to flush from frustration. Jake quickly turned off the stove and moved the frying pan full of stir-fry before wrapping his arms around your shoulders. You buried your head in his chest and sniffled. 

“Babe, what is going on? How can I help,” he asked gently as he rubbed his hand tenderly down the back of your head. It took you a few minutes, but you finally pulled back a bit and told him everything that had happened. Upon hearing the word “period”, Jake nodded his head in what little understanding he had. He knew plenty about them considering he had a little sister (who he had to buy pads for more than once) and let you finish your rant. 

“I’m sorry you’ve had such a bad day, but the water is already cleaned up. What if we eat dinner, then I’ll run you a bath that you can sit in for however long you want and then we can watch whatever you want tonight? Do you have plenty of pads and tampons? I can run to the store while you bathe,” Jake said lovingly and you nodded your head in agreement. 

“Yeah, I have plenty. I’m gonna go change for dinner. I love you, Jake.”

You put on a random pair of track shorts and a sweatshirt. By the time you were done, Jake had already made two plates and was putting slices of lemon in a glass of water for you. After dinner, he stayed true to his word as he ran a bath with epsom salts and lavender bubble bath making sure that the temperature of the water was basically boiling before he left you to soak.  You were in there for almost forty-five minutes and when you finally felt as if most of the aches had left your body, you stood quickly. Jake must’ve been waiting nearby because a light knock on the door caused you to look up as you searched for a towel. 

“Come in, sweetheart,” you said as you pulled the shower curtain in front of your body. 

“Here’s a towel. Fresh from the dryer and your pajamas are on the bed. I picked out your favorite ones,” Jake said with a smile as he handed the black towel to you before leaving. A smile graced your face as you went through your typical routine before getting dressed. You slipped the old Michigan crewneck (courtesy of Jake’s closet) and put on the flannel pants that you always wore with it. 

When you finally made your way into the living room, Jake had a heating pad plugged up and sitting in your usual spot and your water bottle sat filled on the coffee table. As you sat down, you gave him a quick kiss and a rush of thankfulness ran through you. You plopped down on the couch and put your legs in Jake’s lap as he flipped through Netflix.

“So, what are we watching tonight,” he asked as he looked at you. 

“Bridgerton, please,” you asked sweetly as Jake selected the show and resumed the episode you were watching. For the first time that day, relaxation seemed to settle in as your shoulders dropped and your jaw unclenched. 

“Hey, I love you,” you said quietly with a smile.