Fic: Teddy Bears Are Not For Pussies
This is NOT becoming a 'verse! It is not, IT IS NOT! I'm looking at you fanofsuper so don't even...just don't go there with me! *g* Okay maybe I have some snippets of Chris and Steve floating around from this verse the original story and this is the third timestamp but that means nothing! Okay? Okay. I'm simply procrastinating in writing a couple fics that need to be done PDQ. Ahh procrastination thy name is Rhyanne.
Title: Teddy Bears Are Not For Pussies
Charachters/Pairings: Jensen/Jared, OMCs
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Swearing
Word Count: 2,182
Disclaimer: If you recognize them then I do not own them.
Summary: Nathan is four, almost five, in playschool and is learning some really interesting things from his new friend, Jeremy, and Jared is left to deal with the fallout.
A/N: This is another timestamp from Finding My Way Home Started With Finding You but you shouldn't need to read that to understand this. This timestamp falls about 2 1/2 years after the end of Finding My Way Home Started With Finding You.
Jared watched Tristan walk purposefully into the living room, glance around before huffing out a watery sigh.
“Tris,” he called softly from his spot on the couch as he set his book aside. “What’s up?”
Tristan turned towards him before stumbling over on his chubby, little, two year old legs. He stilled and flailed his arms in the air as he babbled a mix of gibberish, in dispersed with the occasional actual word. Words like look and gone and where and find getting slowly louder as his youngest became increasingly aggravated.
As his lower lip began to noticeably wobble and fat tears began to fall, he finally shoved his tiny fists against his hips and stared up hopelessly at Jared.
“Hey.” He cooed softly, reached out and pulled Tristan into his lap. “Come on son-son whatever it is, it’s not that bad.”
“T-bear!” Tristan wailed before burying his face in his father’s shirt and sobbing.
Jared blinked, well shit. He should have known, Tristan loved his teddy bear, it didn’t matter to the two year old that it was in rough shape and that both he and Jensen had had to mend several seams, badly. Just like it didn’t matter to his son that the bear had been peed on, puked on, dropped in the mud and been through the washing machine so many times that bald patches were beginning to appear in it’s light brown fur body. It was his bear, one of the few things that had survived the last two years pretty much in tacked and there would be hell to pay if something had happened to it. Or, God forbid, Tristan had somehow lost it.
Gently he wrapped his arms around him and pulled his little boy up against him. “Shh.” He kept his voice low and soothing, “What’s wrong with T-bear?”
“G…g…go…gone!”
He racked his mind as he rocked him back and forth, one of his worst fears was coming true, trying to remember the last time he had seen the teddy bear. He knew for certain that Tristan had had his beloved bear in the truck with him when they had gone to pick Nathan up from day school not a half hour earlier and felt a chill run down his spine. If they had left T-bear there, there would be no living with him until they could get it back the next day.
Oh shit.
It couldn’t be possible, Tristan never, never, let go of the teddy bear when they were out in public. Jared knew that, Jensen knew that, it was the main reason they allowed their youngest to carry the bear around out in public, not really worried that there was any risk in the action. But now, now.
He took a deep breath and shut his eyes, trying to picture picking Tristan up and buckling him in his car seat after picking up Nathan. He was sure that his youngest had had the bear in his arms but it was such a common sight that a part of him was worried that he had just taken it for granted.
If Tristan had left T-bear at the day school, Jensen was going to kill Jared. If for no other reason than the fact that no one was going to get any sleep tonight and Jensen was in the middle of a rush at the garage.
Oh yeah Jensen was definitely going to kill him, this was so much worse than the only time he hadn’t bothered to fill his old car with gas and it had gone past a quarter of a tank. Jensen hadn’t been livid, exactly, but he had most certainly been unhappy, but this could quite possibly be murder worthy.
Opening his eyes, Jared twisted his head towards the hallway, “Nate.”
He waited a moment, straining to hear over Tristan’s sobs.
“Nathan!”
Nathan appeared at the mouth of the hall, at almost five, their oldest was beginning to develop an attitude and almost seemed to push without realizing it. But his dislike at being pulled away from whatever he was playing with in his room was painfully apparent in the deep frown and slightly narrowed eyes.
“Yes daddy?”
At least he didn’t sound petulant so Jared made a split decision to let it slide this time; he had bigger concerns at the moment.
“Have you seen T-bear?”
Nathan shrugged and scuffed his bare toe along the baseboard and Jared felt a warning tickle through his limbs.
“Nathan.” He coxed quietly but knew the warning was evident in his voice.
“Jeremy says teddy bears are for pussies!” Nathan scowled over at them, “And no brother of mine is going to be a pussy.”
Jared swallowed down the sigh of frustration, he should have known. Jeremy Schmit was another four year old in Nathan’s playschool and he was becoming quite the influence on their oldest. The unfortunate thing was that his influence was nothing but bad. Jared could pin-point almost to the minute when Nathan had started throwing attitude around, when he had started spewing curse words and when he started getting rougher with his little brother when they would play and it all centred around when he had started playschool and had first met the other boy.
Both Jared and Jensen had had repeated talks with Nathan about his behaviour, trying to explain to their oldest why some of the things he was doing were wrong but it seemed like nothing was sinking in. Every time they turned around there was another action that was being explained away because Jeremy had said so.
A part of him wanted, desperately, to pull Nathan from the playschool, keep him home until the fall and the start of kindergarten. Sometimes it seemed like perhaps it would be the only way to stop their oldest from acting the way he was, saying the things he did but he knew that wasn’t fair to Nathan. Nathan should be allowed to go to playschool, he liked it and he did have other little friends besides Jeremy plus Jared would only be delaying the inevitable, Nathan was starting Kindergarten in a few short months and there was going to be at least one child there like Jeremy, there was always one kid just like Jeremy when there was more then three or four children in a group. Still, sometimes he wished for the ease they had had with Nathan before Jeremy and his influence had entered their lives.
“Nate, teddy bears are not for pussies.” He said slowly, hoping that his frustration wasn’t leaking into his voice. “And…”
“They are!” Nathan cut him off, “Jeremy said that his older brother told him and his big brother is in grade two so he’s really old.”
Jesus Christ! Jared really didn’t like to stereo type anyone and it wasn’t like he hadn’t met Jeremy and knew that the little boy came from a well off family if his designer Gap kids clothes were something to go by, but there were times when he couldn’t help thinking trailer trash or redneck hick brat. He knew it was wrong, knew that Jensen knew it was wrong but sometimes neither of them could help but think things like that when it came to the little brat, picturing a mother with “come fuck me” red lipstick smeared at the corners where a cigarette would be in permanent residence, a father in too tight t-shirts and a beer belly and a bully for an older brother, living in a seedy trailer court at the edge of town.
“And!” He pushed past the thoughts, raising his voice enough to let his oldest know that cutting off his father wasn’t acceptable. “Pussy or pussies,” he had learned that speaking to young kids you had to be extremely specific when explaining things. “Are not nice words and I don’t want to hear you saying them again.”
Nathan dropped his head, “But that’s what Jeremy said.” He muttered petulantly.
He fought down the urge to scream, “I don’t care!” and took a deep breath. “If Jeremy said that ice cream was for,” he cut himself off, thinking Monkey see, monkey do and searched for a better word. “For…babies, would you stop eating ice cream?”
His head shot up, a look between utter horror and disbelief on his face. “It’s not!”
Jared shook his head, “I’m asking you if you would stop eating ice cream if Jeremy said it was.”
He watched him frown and cross his arms over his chest, “No.” He mumbled.
“I’m sorry I didn’t catch that.” Which wasn’t true but he wanted a clear answer, maybe that way Nathan would start to understand that everything Jeremy said was not the gospel truth.
“No.”
He nodded, “Okay so then why would you agree with him about teddy bears?”
“Because Mark said.”
Jared ground his teeth, because Jeremy said, because his older brother Mark said. Maybe Jensen had been right; maybe they should ask for a meeting with Jeremy’s parents, see if they knew what their children were busy spreading as the truth.
“Okay,” he started slowly, an idea forming. “So then I guess if teddy bears aren’t for kids like your brother or you then I suppose you should go get Grumpy and Mr. D off your bed and bring them to me.”
Nathan’s eyes widened again and a pout started to play on his lips.
Jared stifled his grin and shushed Tristan softly as his snuffles started to get louder. It should have been the first thing he thought of, Grumpy was his own teddy bear that Jensen and he had gotten for Nathan the day he was born and Mr. D was a stuffed two foot, green, fuzzy dragon that Steve and Chris had gotten him for his last birthday and he may not carry them everywhere he went but they were pretty important to him.
“Why?”
He let his eyes go round and innocent, “Well if Tris can’t have T-bear because teddy bears are for babies then you don’t need Grumpy and Mr. D.”
“But…but I don’t halfta carry them around with me.”
He shrugged, “So? Doesn’t matter, teddy bear is a teddy bear is a dragon. All stuff toys must make you a baby.”
He felt a little guilty for dealing with the problem this way but something in his son’s eyes let him know that maybe, finally, he was getting through.
“Maybe teddy bears don’t make someone a baby.” He hesitantly admitted.
Hallelujah!
“So maybe Jeremy and Mark aren’t right about everything.” He pressed.
Nathan shrugged, “Maybe.”
Jared bit the inside of his cheek to stop the grin, “Please take Tristan and give him back T-bear.”
“Do I don’t have to bring Grumpy and Mr. D?”
“Go with Nate and he’ll get T-bear for you.” He whispered into Tristan’s hair before setting him on his feet.
“Not if you don’t pull this kind of thing again.” He narrowed his eyes in warning, “And not only don’t hide T-bear from you’re brother but don’t ever start teasing him about T-bear either. Okay?”
Nathan sighed but held out his hand for his little brother. “Okay.”
“Good.”
Jared watched Tristan toddle to Nathan’s side and curl his small fingers around his big brother’s pinkie.
“T-bear?”
“Yeah Tris we’ll get T-bear.”
He didn’t try to hide the smile at the sunny look that broke through the sorrow on his youngest son’s face. “Yay!”
“You’re mean dad.”
Jensen chuckle startled him and he twisted from watching their kids walking away down the hall to look back at his husband.
“How long have you been there?”
“Long enough to get the gist of the problem.” He answered as he came to sit down beside him and kissed him softly.
“Hey.” He grinned as he leaned his forehead against Jared’s.
“Hi. Good day at work?”
“Sounds like it was less exciting then here.”
Jared shrugged, “Jeremy and teddy bears are for pussies.”
Jensen frowned as he pulled back, “So I gathered. Christ that kid’s a brat and a bad influence.”
“Yeah.”
A smirk pulled at his lips, “What would you have done if Nate had gotten Grumpy and Mr. D for you?”
He shuddered, “Beats me.” He pulled himself up from the couch, “Probably would have demanded T-bear, given him back to Tris and then put Grumpy and Mr. D up on the shelf in our closet until Nathan begged for them back.”
Jensen raised a hand to him and let Jared pull him from the couch. “You are mean dad.” He teased.
“Well what would you have done?” He demanded but his words were soft, no real heat to them.
He followed him towards the kitchen, “What’s cooking? Smells good.”
Jared snorted, Jensen might like to claim that he had an appetite but his husband could give him a run for his money when the mood struck. “Lasagna. Now don’t ignore the question.”
Jensen leaned against the kitchen table as he watched him pull the lasagna from the oven. “Same thing.”
Jared laughed, “Yeah that’s what I thought.”
Fin.
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