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THIS ROUND IS NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS.
ROUND SIXTEEN WILL OPEN ON TUESDAY THE 25TH.
ROUND FIFTEEN
closing at 5000 comments
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DISCUSSION POST
PROMPT FORMATTING:
Alphabetize pairings. They will be archived that way!
LIST OF REQUIRED WARNINGS: ableism, abuse, bestiality, bullying, ( Read more... )
It hadn't bothered him that they were both guys, even though the social workers kept asking him if it did - don't worry, you can be honest with us, we won't judge you for your opinion here - it kind of made sense, really.
But he hadn't expected to end up living with two men a bit older than middle-aged, one retired on medical grounds and the other taking early retirement to help him rehabilitate. And he really hadn't expected them to be so... utterly boringly normal, from what they ate to how they dressed to the things they thought would be fun after school or on the weekends. Clint had been in some kind of military service - he'd never asked which because he even though Clint had never been touchy talking about his injury, Peter wasn't sure he wanted to test the limits of that - and Phil was some kind of... admin, or something. Maybe HR.
Phil had gone back to working part time with his old job not long after Peter had come to live with them, after a long and careful discussion of how that would (or wouldn't, more to the point) affect Peter and the two of them making sure that Peter knew he could ask for more of Phil's time at any point. Peter had never before or since rolled his eyes as often as he did through that discussion. Mostly Phil left some time during the day while Peter was at school and Clint was at the archery club. He was back not long after Peter got home from school, and he spent the evenings doing paperwork in his study, Peter doing his homework on the spare desk across from him.
Peter had a desk in his room, but that was his time with Phil, and he did feel a little thrill every time Phil glanced over and asked him a question about what he was doing, like it was just as important as the work on his own side of the desk.
At first, Clint had taken the bus down to Peter's school with him, then walked back to the archery range where he had a volunteer job as an instructor. Once he was sure Peter was settling in, he'd started getting off two stops earlier, directly outside the range. Peter had felt pretty guilty he'd been making Clint walk back the half mile just so Peter could ignore him as he walked into school every day.
It might have been embarrassing to need supervision getting to school, except Clint had been pretty good at taking the seat behind Peter instead of the one next to him, so as soon as he had a few familiar faces he could share the ride in with them, and pretend he wasn't being walked to school by his adoptive Dad.
Thing was, it didn't take the kids long to work out that Clint was pretty deaf, especially with the bus' far-from-tuned engine whining away, and that coupled with the cane and his awkward walk made him a pretty prime target for mockery. Peter could convince himself it wasn't doing any harm, even if he joined in with the others - Clint didn't know it was going on, more often than not he had a book out for the journey, so all they were really doing was entertaining themselves.
But to claim him - the butt of all their jokes - as his Dad, to have him amble in with the other parents and have all the volunteer kids see the name tag and know exactly who he was. That was going to sting. His social standing might never recover from such a blow, not that it was very high as he stood.
And in his bag, right at this moment, there was a letter explaining that if required, the school could offer assisted transport to and from the event, and that they could provide a sign-language interpreter, but one of them needed to attend at least one parent-teacher conference this year or Peter's social worker would be contacted.
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