Jason pulled himself out of the mud to the sound of Dean's laughter. God, it stank, and he was pretty sure it wasn't entirely mud, either. One of the bigger hogs, the one that knocked him over was lightly headbutting him and snorting.
"He likes you!" Dean called from the sty's fence, where he leaned over watching Jason pull himself from the mud. Jason grabbed a handful of stinking mud and lobbed it at Dean, it fell short splattering another hog that just looked over at him curiously.
It had been a full afternoon of chores, mucking out the horse stables, then here to the sty to feed and check on the pigs as well as replace a few boards in the sty's fencing. Pigs really did stink. Jason pulled himself to the feet and stomped over to the edge of the enclosure, followed by his new friend. "Too bad he'll end up bacon." Jason muttered as he climbed the fence and heaved himself over.
"Ol' Jasper? Nope. He's too good a stud to make into bacon." Dean was looking up at the sky as Jason's boots thudded to the ground. "Dinner will probably be soon. We're done, so we should probably shower and clean up. Silas will have our heads if we show up like this to mealtime." Dean headed for the house, Jason trailing after dripping mud in his wake. Though as he turned for the front door Dean whistled to catch his attention. "Not that way. You'll track mud in and that's no good."
Dean led them around to the back of the house where another door sat. Inside was a tiled room, baskets off to the side for muddy clothing, and a bathroom with an open shower like those in locker rooms off to the side. "Dad had this put in when Silas kept complaining about oafs tracking in dirt and making more work for him." Dean said with a laugh. "Sometimes I wonder which of them owns this place." Jason just grunted as he sat on the bench and started pulling off his muddy boots.
Dean kicked off his own boots and peeled out of the rest of his clothing. Jason found himself staring. Dean's whole body was an impressive sculpture of muscle, a light dusting of blond hair covering most of it, especially his legs and chest. But that's not what kept Jason's attention. The thing swinging between Dean's legs did. Jason has been in locker rooms before and Dean put pretty much every guy he had ever seen to shame. No wonder Dean wore his overalls a bit baggy, it would be the only way to hide it. Dean noticed Jason staring and wiggled his hips, letting the monster first slap against one of his thighs then the other. "Yeah, benefits to being half horse."
"What?" Jason asked, finally breaking his gaze and looking up at Dean.
Dean's smile faltered a bit as he looked at Jason, then shook his head. "Nothing. Just a bad joke." He clapped Jason on the shoulder and turned to walk into the showers. Jason stared at his cousin's backside, not knowing what to feel. Why did the first person he really felt anything for have to be his cousin? Jason sighed and finished undressing, nor more ashamed of himself than every before with Dean's assets on display. Jason scrambled in after him, keeping his back to his cousin as he lathered up and let the warm water course over him. "Missed a spot." Dean said, then Jason felt a warm, soapy washcloth against his back, scrubbing lightly. "Can you check me?" He asked after.
Jason turned to look at Dean's back, which was clean, but he took his own washcloth and gave his cousin's back a cursory scrub, more to feel those muscles than for need. He felt a flash of jealousy roll through him. Why was he left out? His dad, uncle, and cousin were all big guys. Strong. Powerful. And here he was, the literal runt of the family. The fact that his uncle and cousin didn't treat him that way made it even worse. His dad had. He knew he was a disappointment to him, but it wasn't his fault. He turned away and turned off his shower, grabbing a towel from where they were stacked on a shelf on the wall.
Dean finished a moment later, drying himself off and tying the towel around his waist. "C'mon."
Jason looked at his pile of muddy clothes, then to Dean who was walking further into the house in only a towel. "Naked?!" Jason asked, his voice rising a bit in pitch as he thought of parading past those burly farm guys in pretty much nothing.
"You were just naked in front of me." Dean said, sounding confused. "Besides, you have a towel." His cousin shook his head, looking amused. Jason just wrapped the towel around his waist and scrambled after his cousin. Ren and Silas were in the kitchen, but didn't look up at the two teens walking past, and the pair made it up to their rooms coming across no one else. Jason slipped inside his room and sat on the end of his bed. His muscles felt sore and stiff from the day's work, especially now that the warmth of the shower was leaving them.
He reached over and rubbed at his arm, trying to work out some of the stiffness. He looked down and blinked. The muscle was still larger than it had been. How long did it take to go back after a work out. Even his chest still looked larger than it had been. Maybe.. no.. people didn't put on muscle that fast. But he traced the outline of his chest muscles with a finger. They weren't impressive, or even that large, but they stood out, which was more than could ever be said of them before.
With a groan he got to his feet and dug through his clothes for a pair of short that he tugged on. He usually preferred baggy clothes to his his scrawniness a bit, but his shorts felt a little snug. The shirt was another matter. It was just tight, and the bottom didn't even come down to his short's waistband. He thought back to the morning and sighed, peeling it off. He couldn't walk around the house shirtless, so he left his room and knocked on Dean's door.
It swung open, and Jason got his first look at his cousin in something other than overalls. He wore a tank top and jeans, which covered about the same amount, but just looked better. And unlike the overalls, the jeans were fitted enough you could make out he was packing quite a bit between the legs. Jason had to force himself not to stare. "Do you have an old shirt I can borrow? I think I shrunk all mine in the laundry before I packed."
"Sure you did." Dean replied with a laugh but headed over to his dresser and started digging, waving Jason to come in. The room wasn't as barren as his own. A set of free weights sat in one corner, and a TV with a game console sat on top of the dresser. There was even a desk with a pretty new looking computer.
Jason poked the game controller on top of the dresser. "You play video games?"
"Sure, when I got the time. Dad said uncle Roy complained you played too much, so asked me not to tempt you for a while." Dean grinned then pulled out an old tee shirt with the local high school's logo on it and tossed it to Jason. It was baggy, but it thankfully fit. "I'd love to have someone to actually play with instead of random online jerks."
Jason grinned, ready to reply but the bell sounded for dinner. His stomach suddenly growled loudly at the thought of food. With the soreness of his muscles and Dean distracting him he hadn't realized just how hungry he was. The growl must have been pretty loud as Dean just laughed. They both headed downstairs and right to their places around the table, the last to arrive, except for the still absent May.
It was a feast comparable to the previous night, even though none of the dishes were the same. Jason poured himself a glass of milk from the pitcher next to him and started digging in right away. He caught his uncle nodding approval from the corner of his eyes. "You two boys worked hard today."
Jason mumbled what he hoped sounded like an agreement, Dean spoke up though. "Yeah, Jason was a lot of help." He felt himself blushing a little at the obviously not entirely accurate comment.
"Good. I had worried from what Roy said of you that you'd spend your first few days complaining and dragging your feet. Keep it up and you boys can borrow the truck this weekend to head into town." That must have been a special offer because Dean lit up like a Christmas tree, his most excited grin yet breaking across his face.
"I can introduce you to my friends." Dean said with a nudge to Jason with his elbow. "There's a movie we've been wanting to see together." That suddenly had Jason worried. He could guess the type of farm boy jocks that Dean might be friends with and the worst scenarios of teasing and bullying came to mind. But Dean was just a nice guy, maybe it wouldn't be that bad. He gave Dean a slight nod as his mouth was full and his cousin pumped a fist excitedly in the air. "Yes!" Rex reached out and gave Jason's shoulder an encouraging squeeze.
Dinner proceeded from there pretty much as it had last night. Rex and Silas discussing farm business while Shiloh interjected the occasional grunt and Dean shot grins in Jason's direction. Jason just focused on filling his stomach, encouraged by his uncle occasionally adding more food to his plate. By the end of the meal he was leaning back in the chair, sore, tired, and with his hand on another food paunch. He didn't know where it all was going, but he knew his body wanted it. Jason finally excused himself to go lay down and made his way up to his room, where he flopped on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He was going to be so stiff come morning.
He felt like he was drifting off as a knock came at his door. "Come in, I'm not getting up." He called.
The door swung open and Dean stood there with one arm wrapped around a big bowl of what smelled like popcorn and two bottles dangling from between the fingers of his other hand. "I was gonna watch some TV before turning in. Wanna join me? If you wanna just rest I get it.."
"Yeah." Jason interrupted, somehow finding the energy to get to his feet. It was easier once he caught sight of Dean's smile. They headed over to his room and Dean flopped on one side of the bed. The TV was already on, a movie just starting. Some made for TV action thing with burly guys hunting some monster in the jungle. He headed for one of the chairs but Dean patted the empty half of the bed.
Jason looked over at his cousin, almost not trusting himself to be that close then walked over and sat down, his back against the headboard. Dean pressed one of the bottles into his hand and he took a sip. He almost spit it out. "Beer?"
"Yeah, dad doesn't care as long as we don't over do it." Dean said, taking a sip of his own.
Jason just smiled and settled in a little, grabbing some of the popcorn and washing it down with a swig of beer. This definitely wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. Tired as he was though, he drifted off during the movie, only vaguely noticing his head coming to rest on Dean's shoulder. He could dimply remember waking up at some point during the night, something large and warm pressed up against his back, a heavy arm laying across him almost protectively. A nice dream he thought to himself as he drifted off back to sleep.