Changes by Helsinkibaby (PG)

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

Fandom: JAKE 2.0
Pairing: Kyle/Diane, Jake/Diane
Author on LJ: helsinkibaby
Author Website: The Band Gazebo
Why this must be read: If you'd asked me, three months ago, if I would buy Diane and Kyle in a romantic relationship, I'd have asked what crack you were smoking. Seriously. Then helsinkibaby came along with her little series of stories which posit that at one point prior to "The Tech" Kyle and Diane had had a fling, and despite the fact that these two characters rarely share the screen on the series, I find myself drawn to the idea that they have a shared past that binds them together, if not romantically any longer, then at least as close friends beyond what we see week in and out on the series. And the best part? She manages to make me fall in love with the Kyle/Diane without invaldating the Jake/Diane--and in many ways, even supports it. Which makes me just want to hug Kyle and take him out for a beer.

He takes a step towards her, checks himself. Any closer and he won't be able to stop himself from taking her in his arms, and that's not his place any more. It hasn't been for a long time. "I know you're close--" he begins, and she turns at that, her manner going from concerned to panicked in a matter of seconds.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demands, and he hasn't got the faintest clue why she's reacting like this.

"That you're friends," he says, holding his hands up. "That you care about him--"

Her eyes blaze, and he knows he's just said the wrong thing. Again. "And what, you're jealous of that?" she demands, throwing her hands up. "Because you have no right to be." Despite the fact that it's true, or maybe because of it, the words sting, but not as much as her next words. "I wasn't the one who spent the entire time that we were together comparing me to Mei Ling Wong--"

"I never did--"

"Yes! You did, and don't try to deny it." Diane's cheeks are flushed pink, eyes sparkling with fury, and he can't believe that she's bringing this up now. She never has before, not in all the time they were together, nor even when they broke up, in what, he believes, might just be the most low-key break-up in the history of low-key break-ups. "You spent a year wishing that I was her... and we both know it."

Kyle shakes his head. "I never wished that." And he hadn't, not once. Because what he'd had with Mei Ling was fraught and dangerous and impossible. What he'd had with Diane was comfortable and easy and more right than he'd been able to realise at the time.

"Right." Diane's scepticism hangs between them, and she screws her eyes shut, shakes her head several times, rapidly, as if to clear it. "Look, I don't think you should be here... I mean, we don't need... we've been over for a long time, and besides, there's nothing like that between Jake and me, I'm his doctor, that's all..."

She's rambling, not looking at him and he can't take it any more. So he goes to her, puts both his hands on her shoulders. The effect is like an electric shock, silencing her, her eyes going wide, and she stares up at him like she's seeing him for the first time. "I wasn't implying that," he tells her. "And I wasn't jealous."

"Oh." The word sounds almost disappointed, and she looks down briefly before making a rapid recovery. Of course, if she hadn't recovered rapidly, she wouldn't be his Diane, and that's a train of thought that he derails as rapidly as possible.

She hasn't been his for a long time.


Changes