(Untitled)
Friday was not a personal best at work. I couldn't focus and by the time I clocked out I felt like I hadn't gotten anything done. *SIGH*
( But. Uh. On the way home I was sort of daydreaming (spacing off) and was all, I would love a bus driver/public transit AU. )
( But. Uh. On the way home I was sort of daydreaming (spacing off) and was all, I would love a bus driver/public transit AU. )
Every Friday Steven takes his pre-schoolers to the assisted living retirement home across the street from the diner to sing for the residents and otherwise spread cheer and joy. Afterwards, they troop over to the diner for pie and ice cream!
After the first (dozen) visits Brian swears he's going to put a stop to it one day. All those tiny, sticky little hands messing up the upholstery (lies, it's vinyl, only an act of god or the apocalypse could ruin it, and even then that's questionable), the chrome (again, lies), and ohgod, that insufferable jackass Steven with his stupid smiling and stupid hair.
Oooh. Steven has a special weekend project! The parents for some of his kids work on the weekend and he knows how hard it is to find a sitter/how expensive they can be, so he comes up with a community service program. It's mostly his pre-schoolers who get signed up for it, but it's open to everyone. It teaches the kids about helping out in their community and gives them a sense of accomplishment!
His latest project for them is cleaning out an empty to turn it into a neighborhood garden! Steven made sure they had the proper permission and forms and whatever else they'd need first, or course. (Brian and Spencer helped him with the paperwork, and since Bob has a van, he got drafted to provide transportation. Ray rides shotgun and helps Bob herd the kids.)
The kids are over the moon about this latest project, even though it means growing icky vegetables because they live in the city! They've never grown anything from tiny seeds, and how awesome is that?
When the vegetables and fruit are ready to pick they have a barbecue, and all the parents and people in the neighborhood are invited! (The kids get to take a little basket of fruits and vegetables home, too, of course, so they can help their parents make delicious foods!)
Steven marks off a section of the lot for flowers, and when they bloom his kids take some to the assisted living retirement home when they go there to sing. (Steven, of course, brings Brian flowers, which prompts whistles and catcalls from the diner's regulars and Gerard and Ray, and well, pretty much everyone.)
When they're working on the last corner in the lot they find an old, battered jukebox buried under a pile of junk! Steven thinks it's awesome and when his kids ask him what it is, he tells them it's a surprise for Mr. Brian, so they can't tell him anything about it. (He gets Bob, Ray, and the others to help him lug to the bus garage where Patrick and Brendon manage to get it fixed up.)
Brian comes into work one morning to find Steven and his hellspawn waiting inside, all lined up in front of something. A big something with one of Gerard's painter's cloth-things he puts down when he's fiddling with one of the murals on the diner's walls.
He's instantly suspicious because it's six in the morning, for crying out loud. He can see one of teh kids, the annoying one, Cash?, knuckling his eye, and one of the Alexes is yawning so wide Brian can see his molars. He's positive the kids only see this time of day on Christmas morning.
Steven's smirking at him in a way that has Brian nervous, and Gerard and Ray are beaming at him from behind the counter.
And then! The grand unveiling and first dance around the floor while Steven's kids laugh and cheer! Later, the adults get coffee and donuts while the kids get hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows and donuts.
Brian keeps staring at the jukebox, even though Steven and the others are talking about something else.
He just.
He couldn't afford to get one, back when the diner first opened, even though that had been part of his dream with the diner, like the ones his grandfather used to take him to on Saturday afternoons. He always meant to get one, but it seemed like there was always something getting in they way. Unexpected expenses, like the time the burner on the stoves went out, or when the freezer freezer died, and really, it wasn't like the diner needed a jukebox or anything.
Seriously.
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Gerard is super-encouraging and excited about their pictures, even when he can't quite figure out what they're supposed to be of. And Suarez and Spencer have been known to actually coo over the kids (well, for Spencer at least, his bitchface actually completely disappears and a few times the kids have gotten a massive grin out of him).
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Brian is a little (lot) horrified, but she's tiny and adorable and staring at him with a skeptical look on her face (little does he know it's very, very similar to the one he uses on Gerard and pretty much everyone in his life). After a little bit, she pulls this wrinkled piece of paper out of her pocket, carefully smoothing it out on the table - Brian reaches out to help her when she has trouble with one of the folds, not wanting it to tear - and slowly, slowly tells him what the little scribbly thing in the corner is, and what that green blobby thing on the bottom is and so on and so on.
Brian has to lean in to hear her, she's talking so softly, but she's doing her best to get the words out without stuttering. When she's finished she beams up at Brian, so proud of herself for not stuttering even once, and Brian maybe - maybe - smiles back at her.
Gerard so totally loves the pictured the kids give him! He even has portfolios full of the art they give him at home! There's an entire wall devoted to the art the kids give to everyone at the diner. Whenever the kids give Gerard new art he takes the one they made for him from the previous week down and puts them in the portfolios for safekeeping.
Oh, you know Suarez adores the kids. From the first day they came into the diner he's been fine-tuning the children's menu, and he actually takes requests from them!
He listens to the kids who sit up at the front counter and tell him about the star-shaped pancakes their mom made them for breakfast that morning, or the triangle triangle-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich they had for lunch (TWO triangles, even!), like they're discussing gourmet meals and the like.
Spencer grumps a little, but really, he, too, is charmed by the kids. They know his bitchface is worse than his bite. It's a game between him and the kids for them to make him break bitchface. Whoever gets him to smile first wins! Fun for everyone!
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Okay, no, but really. The kids aren't so bad, except for that Cash kid. There's just something wrong with that one.
Brian tries to hide in his office, or sneak out before the kids come into the diner, but Gerard or Ray manage to catch him with questions about the menu changes. Suarez and Spencer are the culinary equivalent to mad scientists, so the menu goes through changes at least once a week, and they need Brian's input, what with him being the owner and all.
Brian throws his hands up and wonders out loud why his staff can't think for themselves, and usually ends up sitting at the front counter sampling the dishes Spencer and Suarez came up with under their watchful (fretful) eyes trying to decide which ones should be added to the menu.
He can never decide as they're all amazing. He'd never admit it, but he's actually relieved when "Mr. Steven" and his hellspawn walk in. He grabs Steven and makes him try the dishes, using him to distract Suarez and Spencer as he skitters towards the safety of his office.
Cash always intercepts Brian and asks for help reading the menu. He's practicing his alphabet really hard at home, just like Mr. Steven tells him to, but the menu's in a different font type than he's used to, and he wants to be able to order for himself. Brian should be able to say no, he knows he 's fully capable of it, but then Cash turns a gap-toothed smile on Brian. It's probably some kind of secret signal Steven's hellspawn came up with because the other kids swarm him asking for his help reading the menu too, with their adorable smiles and missing teeth and bright little faces.
It's not quite like that part in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas where the Grinch's heart grew three sizes, but it's frighteningly similar.
Brian heaves a put upon sigh and looks over their heads to see Steven smirking - the bastard - even though he's half-turned away, listening to Suarez and Spencer explain about the subtle spices or whatever in their latest latest masterpieces.
Gerard and Ray aren't even hiding their amusement, leaning against the counter, order pads in their apron pockes, arms crossed across their chests and Brian knows, he knows, if one of them had a camera there would be pictures of Brian and the kids hanging all over the diner. And probably the entire city, not to mention the internet.
His life, so hard.
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Once, when Ian, Cash, and the Alexes get into a fight and start pushing each other, someone goes down and the others inevitably trip over the rest, scraping hands and knees and cheeks. Mr. Steven has to bandage them up at the diner, makes them sit in a little line on the side counter. As he goes down the line each kid just has to have Mr. Brian come hold their hand so they can squeeze tighttighttight while Mr. Steven disinfects and they sniffle, the other boys trying to smoosh up and cuddle whoever's getting the stingy stuff next.
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Frank comes in after shift one night, tired, all dark baggy undereye circles, and sees the pretty girl who rides his bus all day, only getting off when he has to swap to another for a route change, and then following him on to the new bus with her big sunglasses and massive thermos and sketchpad. She's taking the orders of the little group of tiny schoolkids, smiling big and bright, leaning down to look at some pictures. He can't help but notice the dark hair softly curling against the nape of her neck and her cheeks where it is coming out of her ponytail, her soft-looking arms, her neat waist, and pale, white, curved calves, chuck-covered toes a'tapping. When she's on his bus she's always wearing some kind of jacket and pants, so seeing this much of her skin is almost like porn. Frank can feel someone ~looking at him, turns around to Gabe and Bob staring at him, dirty gleam in Gabe's eye and tiny quirk to the corner of Bob's mouth. Gabe kind of slyly wipes at the side of his mouth and chin, and when Frank doesn't move he hands Frank a napkin and motions toward his face.
But Frank still feels like he's being ~watched, and kind of squirms. Bob gives a kind of snort, and tilts his head over to the counter, where a weird, gawky kid with hair reminiscent of flock of seagulls sits, glaring right at him, accusing, the glare all in his eyes behind coke bottle glasses. 8| (He knows Frank thinks dirty, filthy, nasty thoughts about his Gee!).
The guy looks really familiar, like he sees him around a lot but doesn't usually notice him. It takes a minute before he realizes the guy works at the used record shop across the street from the bus station. He gets on the bus and sits with the girl for the first loop, and gets off at the station and walks off across the street toward the shop, while she rides all day.
And suddenly the girl moves toward the record-shop guy, leaning down to hug him and take his order. Frank looks abashed, and all of a sudden she turns around, catches him staring. Smiles shyly, dark eyelashes fanning against her cheek as she looks away, cheeks reddening.
He's surprised when she comes over, and her voice is lower, and her chest is flatter, her hands and feet a little bigger than he'd thought. But her mouth and neck look soft, her hands capable and smooth, and she keeps ducking her head, and when he asks her name she just says "Gee". If he had a tail, it'd be wagging.
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So after having gone in to the diner and chatting during Gee's shift several times, which happens after having spent the whole of his shift eye-flirting in the mirror on the bus, he finally asks this awesome hottie who likes comics and horror movies and Danzig, whom he'd like to spend hours licking, over to watch some movies. And when she's over, and they're heating up some casserole his gramma made him (because he's incapable of feeding himself!) he asks what gender pronoun Gee uses.
And he kinda deflates when she says she doesn't give a shit! "For me, he or she or zie don't really matter, as much as the way they're said and the respect that's given out when they're used!" But he gets all amped up when Gerard goes on a rant about the forced, psychologically damaging, oppressive societal and cultural constructions (especially a lot of the western ones, that just obliterated recognition of non-binary gendered groups) of gender roles! And then he kinda wants to just drop to his knees, lift her skirt, and just... Go to town, licking her down there, eating whatever she's got down there (surprises are fun!), her skirt sitting on top of his head and moving as his head bobs.
But he is a gentleman, who respects Gerard! He kind of wants for Gee to take the lead a bit, but Gee kind of wants to be courted a little, so they're in a flirty little stasis period where they each thinks it's possible the other likes them, but oh no, the other hasn't actually ~said anything about being interested, so maybe it's just supposed to be fun, no-strings flirting!
Bob would never say it, but he thinks Gerard is adorable, like a kitten or something. It's Frank he mocks, for being so gooshy and obvious about it. Gabe is an enormous gossip, and when he gets to the diner before Frank does he'll sit at the table and flirt with Gerard for ages, kisses Gee's hand when they see each other and he takes his leave, tells everyone and their brother (Mikey particularly) how faily and shy Gerard makes Frank, and how hot it'd be to walk in on them doing ~stuff in the diner late at night. This does not please Mikey! 8|
Gerard would be more flattered about Gabe's flirting, if he hadn't walked in on him and Mikes making out, full-out fucking, and/or giving each other handjobs while waiting for the microwave to finish popping the popcorn at various times and places (Eyeball parties! Gee and Mikes' parents' living room when they were in Florida visiting 2nd cousin Regina and her new baby! The kitchen! Gee's bed when he was supposed to be away at school for another 3 days, but came home when he finished his final project early!) over the last several years. Gee does not need to see Gabe naked again any time soon after seeing his bare ass pumping away at his brother!
The kids want to get in on the When Are Gee and Frankie Getting Together pool. The Alexes want to put their tooth fairy money down on Frank's birthday. Cash wants to put his his sisters' dolls and my little ponies down on mid-December. The little girl who stutters puts her new baby brother down on February 29th!
Mr. Steven doesn't know quite what to do, and Brian's no help, just laughs his ass off at him. What are the parents gonna say when they find out their prescoolers and kindergartners are involved in illicit gambling?! And wagering newborn siblings to boot!
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Little girl who stutter's mommy was apprehensive at first (at her older son's first parent-teacher conference with her, Lyn-Z's hair was messy and had a glob of oil paint in the side, where she'd shoved it behind her ear during class, and she was really enthusiastic and wide-eyed, but kind of scary). But then, a few days later, her son came home and he said something over dinner about how appreciative he was for all mommy's hard work, and that since Ms. Lyn-Z had started teaching them about Respecting Women and Valuing Difference and how to communicate that via papier mache, he had had a Feminist Epiphany, and he wanted to know more about where he came from, and that maybe he kind of wanted to be a radical lesbian feminist when he grew up, or maybe a stay at home daddy.
All the mom really knows is that, since he's been in Ms. Lyn-Z's class, he's been doing the laundry before she has time to get to it, and offering to help with dinner, so Ms. Lyn-Z's all right by her!
And all the little kids want to stay in that school district, so they can be in Ms. Lyn-Z's art class when they get bigger, but for right now, they love Mithter Thteven and Mith Gweta! Mith Gweta plays the piano for them when they sing to the old folks, and she has the prettiest laugh, and makes funny faces at Mithter Thteven and Mithter Brian behind their backs, kissy faces and hugging motions and they turn around realquick when everyone in the diner starts giggling, and old Mr. Hansen's teeth fall out and clack into his soup bowl because he's trying to hold it in and can't.
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