So the next half of the chapter will be up tomorrow, and possibly a revision of this one. But tune in tomorrow when we get to see why this story has the smut tag as jason gets fucked for the first, but certainly not the last, time. That is aslo the reason for the rather strange end to this half of the chapter.
(Pov Julie)
There was a lot Julie missed about the Marines. The intense camaraderie, the rigid schedule, and the free housing, just to name a few. She even missed the MREs and the mess hall food, though the food was better now. It probably wasn't the taste she missed. She definitely did not miss getting shot at.
That said, she would take a bullet for Jasmine, almost without hesitation. Sam was a concern if it ever came to that, but assurances had been made in that department. He would get a home, a good one, probably better than the one she had given him over most of the last year or two. She doubted it would ever come to that, though. Jasmine was particularly bullet-resistant, far more so than normal people at least.
Jason, however, was significantly more fragile. Not more so than she was… a little more so than she was, if only because he didn't have the same training. Great kid, really. It was a little strange that Jasmine wanted to fuck their babysitter, a high school student. But sometimes the heart wanted what the heart wanted, or maybe the fangs in this case. If Jasmine needed her, too, she would also take a bullet for the kid, though she doubted that would come up.
While being shot at was entirely on the table, being crushed as he fell off a roof was not.
One end of a strap fell down beside her.
“Okay, we're good to go up here, so just tie it up so we can pull it up!” Jason's face was looking down at her from the roof. He had a safety harness, or rather a rope tied around him fastened to something. What they had set up up there, she didn't know. Jasmine had insisted on it, though he hadn't been against it. He probably wasn't gonna fall. Probably. Jasmine was also up there, but her falling wasn't really an issue.
She tied the strap around the hinge of the solar water-heating assembly. “Ready!” Preferably they would have had a crane for this, but they didn't. Instead they were using a system of homemade pulleys to drag the thing up. Or more specifically, Jasmine was dragging it up. She didn't need help with that apparently.
The assembly of vacuum tubes and water pipes rose quickly past her, reaching the top of the two-story house in around half a minute. Jasmine seemed to slow down only towards the top, so Jason could properly guide the thing past the edge. Julie scoffed; Jasmine had been right; she really didn't need help with that.
(Pov Jason)
“To the left, just a tiny bit.” They moved the last solar heater into place, and Jason started screwing it into place. It didn't take long; the prep he and his dad had done the day before and the install itself was easy. An actual plumber would hook the thing up to the water heater down in the basement, but other than that, it didn't really need a specialist.
“Thanks, Jasmine. Not just for the help with all this, but for the collectors.” He gestured to the collectors right next to him, all four panels. His grandfather had done the math on them a decade ago, and even two collector assemblies would save them close to two hundred dollars a year. While they could place them on the ground, his parents had been concerned with something damaging them. So on the roof they went. They had been placed high enough and angled so that snow wouldn't be as much of an issue.
Jasmine had, for all intents and purposes, emotionally blackmailed him into accepting the things. Though he knew the thought was unfair, his grandfather and dad had been discussing it for years as a way to save money. It was another gift that, like the car, wasn't really for himself, but that he still had to accept. Luckily, he hadn't had to ask for it; she was the one who brought it up. He was, however, fairly certain that Jasmine had talked to his dad about it at some point.
Jasmine winked at him. “Don't mention it. We have a couple of thousand of these lying around in storage, so getting you some for free isn't a problem.” She leaned against the chimney. “You know we could set up a digester here too, you know, to make biogas. You guys gotta make a lot of crop residue, right?”
Jason blinked. She was right; they did have a lot of crop residue, but most of that was useful. It helped prevent erosion and control irrigation, or it could be animal fodder for that matter. Not that they had livestock right now. “Not as much left over as you'd think, but yeah, we do have quite a lot of it. Is it actually okay for you to give us all this for free?”
She stretched and sat down on the roof next to him. The image of Jasmine sliding off the roof flashed through his head. “Yeah, some at least. More importantly, why do you guys have that lying around?”
“Remember our conversation about, you know, the whole apocalypse thing?” Jason nodded; it wasn't a conversation he ever thought he would forget. “We want to maintain as much versatility and infrastructure as we can; however, most of it will break. Or it's so centralized that most places lose access to it. It's gone either way. So we have been spending the last oh, twenty-odd years building up storage for those systems in part or in whole, depending on scale and so on. Hell, we have an entire pneumatic tram system ready for deployment in Seattle or Portland in storage somewhere.” She smiled at him. “Which is why giving you this now for free is fine; we were gonna do that anyways. You're just getting it a decade early.”
“That makes sense.” He said hesitantly. He couldn't really fault the reasoning, or he simply didn't want to. The farm would save a little money every year because of this, and even a few hundred extra each winter helped. It was probably better to get it now and figure out the kinks than to wait until the light started going out and never came back on.
“Ohh and Jason.” She was looking up at him, grinning that self-satisfied grin she got when something seemed to go her way. “I got some news back from the ecologists that I passed your idea for the reservoir on to. There aren't really any edible algae that we can easily grow in this climate. But if we did create the right conditions for some of them, we could increase the fish population, and that could then earn a decent profit. And it gets better.” She hesitated. “The algae would still be abundant enough to use as feedstock.”
Jason could feel a warmth spreading through his chest. His idea would work. Then it would only be the matter of convincing the other farms in the area to go along with the idea.
“That's… That's amazing. Thanks, Jasmine, for looking into it. What do you mean feedstock? Are the algae edible for cattle or something?”
Jasmine shook her head. “No, we plan on setting up some larger anaerobic digesters, the machines that make biogas, in town. West Star the company might not last; the clans that own and run it certainly plan to. But to do that, Fairvern, like everywhere else, needs infrastructure. And I believe I should thank you, Jason, for the idea.”
That did make more sense. After all, algae toxic to humans was probably toxic to cattle too. And given what the future would look like, being able to make gas wouldn't hurt. It would probably be useful before that too. Still, Jasmine had done most of the work involved or at least had reached out to the people who could actually assess it. Not that he had done nothing, but it would just remain an idea if it was only him involved.
“I am serious, Jasmine. Thank you.” He gave her a smile that was perhaps softer than he had intended. “This wouldn't have gone anywhere without your help.”
“Not so fast, honey; the project still has to be built. There are a lot of details left to sort out. Just because it can work doesn't mean we can get it done. We still need to get the farmers on board with the deal. That's up to you; I will handle the permits and all that stuff.” She took his hand in hers and carefully pulled on him to sit down; he did. “But if you really wanna thank me, come get dinner with me tonight. At my place, I am cooking. Julie and Sam will be gone. I wanna thank you, so let me do that by having you over. You're gonna be up there anyway, so.” She tilted her head slightly.
He had promised to help her set up solar collectors up by the old lodge too, though not on the roof. She was also right; he was going to be up there anyway, and dinner did sound nice.
“That sounds great.”
Jasmine's hand moved to his thigh, squeezing it lightly. “That's great. I am gonna make some steaks, steamed vegetables, and… I'll see what we have for the last part.”
She stood back up and offered him her hand. Heat climbed his neck, spreading weakly onto his cheeks. He didn't really mind the gestures anymore; it was nice in a way. When that change had happened, he wasn't really sure; it was probably that she simply did it all the time. It felt reassuring in a way. He had been unsure about whether she was actually interested, to any degree beyond… well, food. The small actions helped, consistently demonstrating that she was, in fact, interested. He took the hand, letting her help him up.
(Pov Jasmine)
Jasmine poured another two glasses of white wine. It was a sweet white wine; dry wines didn't really pair well with the cheesecake she had made yesterday. Cheesecake was always better the day after. Jason wasn't technically old enough to drink, but she quite frankly didn't care. He was old enough to drive and vote, so he was an adult. Serving him two glasses of wine was fine, even if it wasn't technically legal. Especially if he liked the wine, which he did.
They had put on a movie to watch with dessert, some really dumb action B movie. It was just background noise, really.
She handed him the glass and sat down, closer than was strictly necessary. “Thanks.” He said, taking a sip of the wine and another bite of cake. “I forgot to ask earlier, but how did the thing go with, you know, the meetings you had with the county board?”
She leaned her knee and thigh against his as she took a sip of wine, buying herself a few moments to think. She couldn't tell him the details, so an incomplete truth was probably the best idea. Telling him about what she had asked Chloe to do could wait; the relationship needed to be more cemented and Chloe more… integrated before she wanted that brought up. It would also be better if he knew more about the clan's plans, but that could wait. Not for long, but for a while at least.
“Unfortunately, it got delayed. Some issues with the papers submitted to the county. I am sure Chloe can tell you more about the details for that; I don't really know.”
“Sure, okay. Why were you so interested in the ski resort anyway? It doesn't really seem like something that you guys would care all that much about.”
Shit. “Can this wait? I don't really feel like talking work right now. How's the dessert?”
“Yeah, it can wait.” He said slowly as he took another sip. “The cake's great. The wine also fits it really well. I think. I don't really know though.”
She leaned in towards him, moving her hand slowly up to his chest. “Mind if I have a taste?”
His eyes had locked onto hers. “I… I don't mind if you want some of mine. But don't you have your own?”
Her hand was now caressing his neck, slipping slightly onto his jawline. “Yeah, but I don't know how my dessert tastes.”
His eyebrows furrowed slightly. “What do you…” She moved her hand onto his jawline, holding it gently as she leaned in. She kissed him, pushing her lips onto his gently, then more deeply.
She leaned back slightly, still close enough to feel the heat radiating off his skin and the smell of the blood that was rushing to his cheeks. “My, my. My dessert truly is delicious.”
“Am… Do you wanna, you know, feed?” He had a slight issue meeting her gaze.
“Do you want me to?” A smile spread across her face, one that she knew was at least somewhat smug. “Do you like it?”
“I don't mind. Just if I am your dessert, then?”
She leaned back a little more. “Thank you for the offer, darling. But I am good at the moment. I just feel like kissing you.” She leaned back in and started kissing his neck. “Unless you want me to stop, that is.”
He shook his head. “No, that's fine. You can –” He drew a breath as she let her teeth apply a small but noticeable amount of pressure on his neck. ”You can keep going.”
She swung one leg over her lap, seating herself on his lap facing him. Then she leaned back in.