Musical: Dear Evan Hansen.
Ship: Evan Hansen x Jared Klienman
Plot: Jared and Evan are given a project to work together on, finding themselves spending more time with each other which leads to a building of feelings.
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Jared gets his phone out, frustrated that he had to be paired up with only the worst person to do presentations with, Evan Hansen. His anxiety always got in the way of him presenting, always stuttering and sweating profusely, so he would pretty much be a puddle of sweat. He became a blubbering mess, completely contrasting to himself, who was a cocky guy that had absolutely no problem with making himself centre of attention, constantly trying to make jokes and struggling to take anything seriously. This is why Evan, although he didn't want to do the presentation at all, didn't want to be paired up with Jared either. He knew that Jared probably wouldn't get any work done, and he would be left to do a majority of it, with Jared probably annoying him and trying to make things fun when the task was a serious thing that was vital to their grade.
'Hey'. Jared shoots a text to Evan, a reluctant text that he nevertheless seems to eagerly await the reply of.
'Hey.' Evan replies. 'I presume you are messaging me about the project, what do you want to do it on?' Jared thinks about what he wants the project to be on, no ideas coming to mind. His, mind rather trails off to the screen, his mind wondering as to why Evan can have no problems talking over text but struggles socially. Then again he could relate to that, he talked to a lot more people online than he did at school. Heck, most of his friends were online, he could only really say Evan was his friend at school, not even that though, he was his family friend. He was someone he'd been forced to interact with for the sake of his car insurance, and his mom's sake but yet he found himself liking the adorable stutter of the boy, his annoyance being clouded by the acceptance that it was because of his anxiety that he was like that.
Jared felt privileged to be the only friend in Evan's life, his only confidant but yet he wished he showed Evan more how much he valued their friendship, rather than making deprecating remarks that masked up his own emotions. If there was anything Jared was not good at, it eas admitting his feelings and showing his emotions.
'I was thinking we could do it on photosynthesis'
'Only if you want to though'. Jared rolled his eyes, at the income of texts from Evan. His earlier remark about Evan not being as anxious over text being completely disregarded, by his evident rambling and overthinking, that was clear through the series of texts that he sent. Jared, however, couldn't help but chuckle at what topic Evan picked, it was typical of Evan to pick to do a topic relating to trees.
'Oh yeah, sure. We could use your forest expertise, acorn.' Jared originally called Evan an acorn, as teasing remark but he had grown fondly to like the nickname he gave Evan, he liked it more because it was his nickname and his nickname alone. He was, therefore, the only one that called Evan that, and that made him feel special.
'You remembered?' Evan types, genuinely surprised that Jared had recalled him talking about his visit to Ellison Park, where he broke his arm, he thought Jared has just completely been tuning out what he had been saying. However, he finds himself not sending the message, but deleting it and sending a different message instead, a strange flutter in his chest when he saw that Jared has called him acorn again, the boy had grown a strange liking to Jared calling him acorn, gathering that it was a nickname meaning that they were friends, or at least he hoped so.
'When do you want to start?' He asks, and Jared replies quickly, setting up a time for Jared to come over Evan's house so that he won't be alone and his parents won't bug the two.
The project continues to go smoothly, the two spendings each hour after school together, working on perfecting the project and telling jokes that nobody could understand, except them two. The bond between the two cemented over the time that they spent together, their bond shifting and Jared found that he no longer was hanging around Evan for car insurance, but he found that he had grown a liking to hanging out with Evan and he did it because he wanted to, because of the feelings that he had towards him, even though feelings were something that Jared tried to oppress.
The day rolled around for the presentation, and the two had been working on techniques to try and calm Evan's anxiety so that he should be able to regulate the anxiety, and try to get through the presentation without stuttering too much. The presentation started out rough, but eventually Evan got the hang of it, managing to get through the presentation without becoming a complete ball of anxiety. Jared had never felt more proud in his life, and it just flourished his feelings for Evan more than they already were.
When they sat back in their seats, Jared couldn't contain his smile, him reaching out to hold Evan's hands to calm him down, reassuring him with calming words of how proud he was of him. Evan was surprised, by how nice Jared was being, something unusual from his regular taunts, and he realised he liked this side of Jared.
The two left the class together, after the presentations had finished, their hands still entwined together with neither talking about it. For once Evan didn't care what other people thought, because no one really noticed him anyway so now why would they notice that he was holding hands with Jared? The strange action felt strangely comfortable, almost natural, to the two and they realised need to talk about their feelings for one another.
'Evan'. Jared stops, near their lockers as he turns to talk to Evan, who's face suddenly becomes as wide as a sheet with nervousness.
'I really like you'. He says, his bluntness being a handy trait at this point in time.
'I really like you too'. He says, with a wide smile. Jared thinks, not believing that he fully understands what he is getting at, because Evan is an oblivious bean.
'No. I like like you.' Evan smile gets wider, him also repeating those exact words to Jared, who therefore is too overcome with a widen smile, happiness overcoming him. It turns out admitting his emotions was a good thing, because if he hadn't he wouldn't of got the most precious boy in the world as his boyfriend, and they both thanked the project for bringing them together. Maybe school projects weren't that bad after all.
