ZEN i [JACK KLINE]

F O U R T E E N

14| A T T R A C T I O N

ZENJA ENTERS THE kitchen the next morning, her eyes glued to the Supernatural book. She snorts when the book mentions Sam's broad shoulders and Dean's ' luscious lips'. She wondered how high Chuck was when he was writing these.

" Morning!", Dean greets from her side.

She jumps in surprise and holds a hand on her chest. " What the hell Dean...", she mutters at him. He chuckles and goes back to searching for something in the cabinets.

Zen closes her book and places it on the table. " Watcha lookin' for?", she asks curiously.

" Peanut butter.", he answers.

Zen blinks in surprise. " Peanut butter? For what?", she says when she walks towards the other cabinet and pulls out a peanut butter jar.

" I need it for my facial.", Dean replies sarcastically. " I'm obviously gonna make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Zen.", he sasses.

She snickers when she remembers a whole page in the book that was dedicated to Dean and his 'perfect' face. " I wouldn't be surprised if it's for your facial Dean-o.", she then hands him the jar of peanut butter.

" What's that supposed to mean?", he questions with a raised brow.

She lifts up the cover of the book she was currently reading and grins. Dean grimaces and replies, " You're actually reading that garbage?"

She smirks when a thought pops in her head. She clears her throat and started reading a paragraph from the book:

" And so, Dean walks into the Diner with a great hunger for his favourite mouthwatering pie. As he walked in, his green eyes managed to catch a glimpse of a brunette waitress by the counter.

Dean looks over at her lustfully, thinking of the different things he was about to do to her big, round—"

" Okay, that's enough reading Zenja!", he snaps in embarrassment.

Zenja laughs loudly at his bright red face. She grabs a piece of toast before sitting on the counter.

" Ya know, Chuck really has a thing with words.", she snickered as she skipped the page about Dean's horny thoughts. "Oohh, you looked at a guy's ass once?", she asks in surprise after she reads a certain passage.

Dean looks up at her in confusion. " What? No—"

She lifts her brow at him and shows him the book. His face fell and says, " He was wearing the same pants as I was back then—you know what, I don't need to explain myself to you.", he mutters while he make his PB&J.

Zen snickers just as Sam enters the kitchen. "Hey...", Sam greets.

"Hey."

" Yo."

Sam looks over at Dean weirdly. "PB&J for breakfast? Strong work.", he says.

"Yep.", Dean replies.

Sam then walks over to the fridge and says, "You want a beer with that?"

Zen looks up from her book and shares a look with Dean. They knew Sam hated it when any one of them drinks beer in the morning.

"I'm cool?", Dean replies with slight confusion.

"Come on, live a little. Here.", Sam says while he places a bottle of beer from the fridge in front of Dean.

Dean sighs and stops making his sandwich. "What's going on with you?", he questions.

"What do you mean?", Sam asks in fake innocence.

Zen raises her brow at her brothers and narrows her eyes at Sam, wondering what was going on with him.

Sam clears his throat. "Anyway, check this out. I think I found something.", he places the iPad on the counter, showing a police report in front of Dean.

Intrigued, Zen hops off the other counter and walks over to them.

"Three days ago, kid named Shawn Raider was found wandering the side of the road near Grand Junction, Colorado, bleeding from the head. Best friend was missing. And get this – only word he said? Monster.", Sam reads.

Dean shrugs. "Okay. Well, that sounds like something."

"Yeah. So I thought we'd check it out, you and me."

"What about Jack?", Dean asks.

Sam replies with, "He's uh, he's catching up on all of my old fantasy DVDs – Red Sonja, Beastmaster, uh, Beastmaster II – you know, with the time traveling ferrets."

Zen snorts. "Yeah. Wow, how you ever got laid, I'll never know.", she jokes. Dean laughs as he continues to make his sandwich.

Sam chuckles and replies, "Yeah, tell me about it. So I was thinking we'd leave Jack behind."

"Really?", Dean says surprised. Actually they were both surprised with Sam's choice.

Sam nods. "Yeah. We'll put up some extra warding. He'll be fine. I mean, when's the last time we worked a case, just us three."

Zen shakes her head. " No, I'm staying. I can't leave him...the bond...it's complicated.", she mutters. " You two can go. It'd be like old times where you leave me in Bobby's while I wait for you to come back with multiple cuts and bruises."

Sam shrugs and looks at Dean, who sighs. "It's been a while...", he states.

"Exactly. So...?", Sam trails off and Dean nods approvingly.

Zen claps her hand and smiles. " Well, I'm glad that's all taken care of. Wish you boys the best of luck.", she states as she grabs her book from the counter before walking towards the door. " Oh and one more thing...", she says, turning around. She gives them a straight look in the eyes.

" Don't die."

>••<

IT WAS TEN o'clock in the evening when they finished the Harry Potter series. Surrounding them were multiple plates, bottles and candy wrappers. Zen gets up from the bed and stretches her arms.

" So?", she asks Jack, who was staring intently at the end credits scene.

" They got married and had kids?", Jack says in surprise.

She laughs. " Yeah, that's what people do when they love each other, J."

" My mom loves me, but we didn't get married.", Jack states confused.

She shakes her head and giggles at him. " No, J. Love has many forms. You can love your family, your friends...even your enemies.", She explains as she gathered up all the plates. " But, to love someone deeply in a...sexual way...it's different."

Jack narrows his eyes and helps her with the bottles. " How different?"

They walk across the long hallway until they reached the kitchen. She places the dishes on the sink and Jack disposes the bottles.

" It's just different?", she answers as she cleans the dishes.

" What makes it different?", Jack asks.

She lets out a breath. " If you feel a pull towards someone sexually, you take them on dates, make them feel like they're the only one in the room, hug them, be there for them, kiss them—"

" Kiss them?"

She dries the plates and places them on the rack and replies, " Yes, kiss them." She then turns around only to realise how close Jack actually was.

His eyes staring intently into her own. " How do you know if you love someone?", he asks softly.

Her heart starts to quicken it's pace as she tried to answer his question. " I...well—you just do.", she answers nervously.

" Have you ever fallen in love with someone...sexually?", he asks.

Her face dropped at the question. She sighs before taking a step back from him. " I have..."

Jack frowns at her. " I didn't mean to upset you—"

She shakes her head. " No, no I—it was a long time ago.", she sighs.

He purses his lips. " Did he love you back?"

She looks down on the ground in thought. A memory popping inside her head.

" You're such a dork!", she laughs at the man who was currently throwing grapes into his mouth.

The man grins. " But I'm your dork.", he replies.

She rolls her eyes and chucks a piece of fruit towards him. " That was so f*****g cheesy, Gabe."

The archangel grins and winks at her before eating another grape. " You love it, sweet cheeks."

She smiles at him. " Yeah, I do.", she replies softly.

He stops eating and looks over at her worriedly. " Something on your mind?"

She sighs and fiddles with the grape she had recently picked. " I just—what if my brothers find out about us? You know how much they hate you...especially after the mystery spot. Hell, they still think you're the trickster! What if they kill you? What if—"

Gabriel takes her hand in his. " Hey, hey, don't think about that. They won't find out. I promise. You'll be fine...we'll be fine.", he says as he gives her hand a reassuring squeeze.

She looks into his whiskey colored eyes. " You promise?"

He smiles softly at her. " I promise...", he says as he leans in to give her a kiss.

As they slowly pull away, she hugs him and whispers, " I love you Gabe..."

Gabriel frowns as he hugged her. He wanted to say it back but he knew she wasn't for him. She was chosen for someone else...not him.

So instead, he replies, " I know...", but Zen didn't care about his response. All she cared about was the fact that he was there with her, the fact that he was there to be by her side whenever she had a bad day. She loved him dearly but she didn't care if he didn't feel the same way. It pained her immensely to see Lucifer stab him with the angel blade, killing him. They say when you love someone, a piece of your heart stays with them. Well, Gabriel took a piece of hers as he died...and it still pains her to this very day.

Zen shakes her head at the memory. " I don't know..."