[newtypeshadow] A Father's Blessing (Father's Day)
Title: A Father's Blessing
Author: newtypeshadow
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Original
Pairing: Alek/Joseph
Wordcount: 1853
Warnings: schmoop, use of phrase "the gay," mention of intolerant parents.
The gay thing was definitely harder for his father to take than the anthropology major. Joseph could tell because when he finally brought it up, his father's speech was soft and careful in its support and desire for Joseph to be happy, and for once he offered no opinion of his own.
Usually, his father played devil's advocate, worrying Joseph hadn't thought things through. “What will you do with an anthropology degree?” he'd asked when Joseph announced the shiny new major that his father liked even less than the one in Logic. “You know, in the third world, your parents would call you home and send another child to school in your place!” And then, as if the idea hadn't occurred to him despite twenty years of pushing it, “Why don't you become a doctor?”
But now Joseph was a twenty-three-year-old with an anthropology degree, a minor in art history, and still his proud father's son. He hadn't been yanked out of school, and when Joseph visited home, his father's friends and relatives told him his father spoke highly of him.
Joseph's confession of his homosexuality came mid-way thorough his junior year. His father had probably suspected long before, but when he'd come out to his mother, forgetting she and her husband kept no secrets from each other, his father had kept Joseph's secret, and his praise of his son hadn't stopped.
Joseph was lucky. Other kids he'd grown up with, second generation Americans with at least one first gen parent, had been yanked from school for their majors, or disowned or shamed for their sexual orientation. He hadn't been.
Still, the man who called him on his cell phone and introduced himself as the son of one of his father's friends was a surprise. “Your dad said you didn't know a lot of people around town yet,” the warm voice said. “If you want, I can show you around a bit-introduce you to people. I know you've only been here a few weeks, but it's never too early to make new friends.”
“Yeah-great! Sure.” Joseph grinned into the phone and stared, unseeing, out his window overlooking a mostly empty school playground and basketball court. “Um, I'm off work after five on weekdays, and I get weekends off...”
“Right, right-you work at a school.”
“Yeah.” Joseph wondered what else his father had said about him.
“How about I come get you Friday at your place and we go eat and hit a party or two?”
Joseph agreed, hoping the parties weren't obnoxious, and the two exchanged numbers (not that the other man needed his, Joseph knew, since he'd called Joseph's cell phone). Joseph hung up with mixed feelings. On the one hand, Alek Laskaris had sounded fun, normal, and kind of hot. On the other hand, he was probably straight, and what if they didn't get along in person, and he found out Joseph was gay and it got back to all his father's friends?
Friday at 6:57 P.M., Joseph's intercom buzzed. At 6:58 P.M., he was trying not to gape through the peephole at the man outside his apartment. Glossy black hair, strong cheekbones, plush pink lips, and dark eyes to die for...
When Joseph opened the door, he had to make himself not stare. Instead, he stepped self-consciously out of his doorway and ushered Alek inside. “I'm almost ready,” he said, taking the opportunity to check out the other man's ass in his form-fitting jeans as he strode into the apartment. Joseph closed the door, swallowing suddenly difficult, and edged past his guest and back into his bedroom. He put wallet and keys in his pocket and grabbed a jacket from his closet, then rubbed a hand over his close-cropped curls and headed back into his living room. “Ready,” he announced. Then, realizing he'd been rude, he stepped forward and held out his hand. “Joseph. It's nice to officially meet you.”
“Alek, and likewise.” Alek's grip was firm and confident. Joseph wondered where else Alek would be...firm and confident. For the millionth time, Joseph thanked his father for his blush-hiding dusky skin. “Shall we get going?” Alek asked, either oblivious to Joseph's crush-induced stupidity or trying to put him at ease. “I figure we'll take a cab down to the city proper and then walk to the party after, since my friend's place is nearby.”
“Sounds good,” Joseph said, and they were off.
By the time they got back to Joseph's apartment eight hours later, Joseph was back on the giggly side of tipsy, was pretty sure he'd kissed one of Alek's male friends, and had decided Alek was his favorite crush ever. Alek may have accidentally gotten Joseph drunk, but he was a lightweight, and anyway, Alek assured him he'd been a fun and happy drunk and hadn't done anything embarrassing.
Joseph stumbled out of bed that morning feeling like a zombie, but mercifully with no headache. He started his morning routine, setting coffee to brew before his shower, pouring himself a cup afterward, dousing it with cream and sugar, and taking it with him into his bedroom to get dressed. He got as far as the coffee table before he realized Alek was on his couch-awake.
The other man blinked up at him and grinned as he relaxed from a back-popping stretch. “Is that for me?” he asked, amusement lacing his tone.
Joseph gripped his towel and prayed Alek meant the coffee. “Uh...”
Alek sprawled across the couch, a decadent pose made all the more suggestive by his sleep-mussed hair and wrinkled shirt. “Did you forget you said I could sleep here?” He raised an eyebrow. “You did.” He whistled and stood, taking the coffee and stealing a sip, eyes on Joseph, before setting it on the coffee table and straightening. “Sorry if I scared you. It's always weird to wake up with a strange guy on your couch.”
“Oh, no, it's-it's fine.” At Alek's wry smile, Joseph amended, “Not that I let a lot of strange guys sleep on my couch.”
“Glad to be one of the chosen few,” Alek said.
Joseph was glad Alek had set his coffee down for him. He was sure he'd have dropped it by now. “Um, I'll go get...clothes. There's more coffee-” he motioned vaguely at his small kitchen, “-and... I'll go get dressed.” Joseph hurried into his bedroom and closed the door. He didn't need to show blushing with how obvious he was acting. How embarrassing! At least Alek was being nice about it, he thought as he pulled on jeans and a decent-looking white t-shirt.
When he returned to the living room, Joseph found Alek nursing his cup of coffee. Alek smiled apologetically. “I couldn't find the creamer and yours was already perfect.”
Joseph poured himself another cup, being sure to point out the creamer as he pulled it out, and then sat on the loveseat next to Alek. For a few minutes, they sipped in silence.
Then out of the blue, Alek said, “So I'm your favorite crush, huh?”
Joseph nearly choked. “Did I say that?”
Alek nodded with mock solemnity. “What I wonder, then, is why you kissed my friend last night, but not me.”
Joseph wanted to curl up in a hole and die.
But-Alek wasn't laughing at him. He seemed genuinely curious. “Uh, wasn't I dared to kiss him? I think someone asked me to. Because it was his birthday. I think.”
Alek nodded, lips twitching and eyes crinkling in the corners. “Well, that is true...” He took a careful sip. “So...if I asked you to kiss me, would you?”
Joseph's heartbeat throbbed in his fingertips and ears. He said the first thing that came into his head: “Is it your birthday?”
Alek laughed and set down his coffee, then closed a hand over Joseph's. “Do you want it to be?” he asked, eyeing Joseph up and down.
Joseph let Alek take his coffee again and set it on the table. Then he let Alek lean close. But he met Alek halfway on the slow, sensuous kiss that followed. Alek tasted like sweet hazelnut creamer and bitter coffee and, beneath that, the stuff addiction was made of. Joseph sucked on his tongue and wound fingers in Alek's dark hair and pulled him closer. When the kiss broke, Joseph was lying against the arm of the couch. Alek was on top of him, blinking those long eyelashes and slowly licking his lips. “You know,” Alek said softly, “if I'm your favorite crush, you should probably do that more. A lot more.”
Joseph turned his head to the side, grinning despite-or because of-his embarrassment.
In his ear, so hot and close Joseph gave a full body shudder, Alek said, “You're cute when you blush.”
Joseph's draw dropped. “You can see that?”
Alek chuckled. “Yeah. So you should probably date me. I'm clearly very special.”
“And modest,” Joseph grumbled, pulling Alek down for another kiss.
*
Joseph talked to his parents once a week. That Sunday, his father asked him if that doctor's boy, Alex-Adam- “Alek,” Joseph filled in-had called him.
“Yeah,” Joseph said, trying to keep the dreaminess out of his tone.
“Was he nice? Did he show you around?”
“Yeah.” Joseph paused. “We're, uh...we're dating now.”
There was silence on the line. Then, “I thought you might like him. His father is a good friend of mine. Raised him right.” His father chuckled. “Your mother worried you'd be lonely.”
Joseph and his father talked a little while longer before his mom took the phone. “So you're dating now, I hear,” she said. “Is it Dr. Laskaris's son?”
“Uh...yeah.”
“We thought you might like him,” she said. “Your father worried you might get lonely.”
“He said that was you,” Joseph said wryly.
“Oh, you know how he is.” She laughed. “Well, he does!” she said farther from the mouthpiece.
Joseph grinned. “Well, whoever worried need not worry anymore,” he said. “Thank you guys.”
“Thank your father,” his mom said.
“I'll do that.” His phone beeped. Alek. “Uh, my not-lonely-anymore boyfriend is on the other line-”
“Oh! Okay! Love you! Bye, sweetie!” His mom hung up.
Joseph rolled his eyes and clicked over to Alek. “Guess whose father set him up with a hot guy two weeks after he got here?” he asked.
“Are you serious? That's why your dad called me to show you around?” Alek laughed. “I owe your dad. Clearly, he is too awesome for words. I thought you said he wasn't totally on board the 'the gay.'”
Joseph shrugged. Outside, three neighborhood kids played basketball on the playground court with a middle-aged man, likely their father. Joseph smiled. “I guess...he really does just want me to be happy.”
Author: newtypeshadow
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Original
Pairing: Alek/Joseph
Wordcount: 1853
Warnings: schmoop, use of phrase "the gay," mention of intolerant parents.
The gay thing was definitely harder for his father to take than the anthropology major. Joseph could tell because when he finally brought it up, his father's speech was soft and careful in its support and desire for Joseph to be happy, and for once he offered no opinion of his own.
Usually, his father played devil's advocate, worrying Joseph hadn't thought things through. “What will you do with an anthropology degree?” he'd asked when Joseph announced the shiny new major that his father liked even less than the one in Logic. “You know, in the third world, your parents would call you home and send another child to school in your place!” And then, as if the idea hadn't occurred to him despite twenty years of pushing it, “Why don't you become a doctor?”
But now Joseph was a twenty-three-year-old with an anthropology degree, a minor in art history, and still his proud father's son. He hadn't been yanked out of school, and when Joseph visited home, his father's friends and relatives told him his father spoke highly of him.
Joseph's confession of his homosexuality came mid-way thorough his junior year. His father had probably suspected long before, but when he'd come out to his mother, forgetting she and her husband kept no secrets from each other, his father had kept Joseph's secret, and his praise of his son hadn't stopped.
Joseph was lucky. Other kids he'd grown up with, second generation Americans with at least one first gen parent, had been yanked from school for their majors, or disowned or shamed for their sexual orientation. He hadn't been.
Still, the man who called him on his cell phone and introduced himself as the son of one of his father's friends was a surprise. “Your dad said you didn't know a lot of people around town yet,” the warm voice said. “If you want, I can show you around a bit-introduce you to people. I know you've only been here a few weeks, but it's never too early to make new friends.”
“Yeah-great! Sure.” Joseph grinned into the phone and stared, unseeing, out his window overlooking a mostly empty school playground and basketball court. “Um, I'm off work after five on weekdays, and I get weekends off...”
“Right, right-you work at a school.”
“Yeah.” Joseph wondered what else his father had said about him.
“How about I come get you Friday at your place and we go eat and hit a party or two?”
Joseph agreed, hoping the parties weren't obnoxious, and the two exchanged numbers (not that the other man needed his, Joseph knew, since he'd called Joseph's cell phone). Joseph hung up with mixed feelings. On the one hand, Alek Laskaris had sounded fun, normal, and kind of hot. On the other hand, he was probably straight, and what if they didn't get along in person, and he found out Joseph was gay and it got back to all his father's friends?
Friday at 6:57 P.M., Joseph's intercom buzzed. At 6:58 P.M., he was trying not to gape through the peephole at the man outside his apartment. Glossy black hair, strong cheekbones, plush pink lips, and dark eyes to die for...
When Joseph opened the door, he had to make himself not stare. Instead, he stepped self-consciously out of his doorway and ushered Alek inside. “I'm almost ready,” he said, taking the opportunity to check out the other man's ass in his form-fitting jeans as he strode into the apartment. Joseph closed the door, swallowing suddenly difficult, and edged past his guest and back into his bedroom. He put wallet and keys in his pocket and grabbed a jacket from his closet, then rubbed a hand over his close-cropped curls and headed back into his living room. “Ready,” he announced. Then, realizing he'd been rude, he stepped forward and held out his hand. “Joseph. It's nice to officially meet you.”
“Alek, and likewise.” Alek's grip was firm and confident. Joseph wondered where else Alek would be...firm and confident. For the millionth time, Joseph thanked his father for his blush-hiding dusky skin. “Shall we get going?” Alek asked, either oblivious to Joseph's crush-induced stupidity or trying to put him at ease. “I figure we'll take a cab down to the city proper and then walk to the party after, since my friend's place is nearby.”
“Sounds good,” Joseph said, and they were off.
By the time they got back to Joseph's apartment eight hours later, Joseph was back on the giggly side of tipsy, was pretty sure he'd kissed one of Alek's male friends, and had decided Alek was his favorite crush ever. Alek may have accidentally gotten Joseph drunk, but he was a lightweight, and anyway, Alek assured him he'd been a fun and happy drunk and hadn't done anything embarrassing.
Joseph stumbled out of bed that morning feeling like a zombie, but mercifully with no headache. He started his morning routine, setting coffee to brew before his shower, pouring himself a cup afterward, dousing it with cream and sugar, and taking it with him into his bedroom to get dressed. He got as far as the coffee table before he realized Alek was on his couch-awake.
The other man blinked up at him and grinned as he relaxed from a back-popping stretch. “Is that for me?” he asked, amusement lacing his tone.
Joseph gripped his towel and prayed Alek meant the coffee. “Uh...”
Alek sprawled across the couch, a decadent pose made all the more suggestive by his sleep-mussed hair and wrinkled shirt. “Did you forget you said I could sleep here?” He raised an eyebrow. “You did.” He whistled and stood, taking the coffee and stealing a sip, eyes on Joseph, before setting it on the coffee table and straightening. “Sorry if I scared you. It's always weird to wake up with a strange guy on your couch.”
“Oh, no, it's-it's fine.” At Alek's wry smile, Joseph amended, “Not that I let a lot of strange guys sleep on my couch.”
“Glad to be one of the chosen few,” Alek said.
Joseph was glad Alek had set his coffee down for him. He was sure he'd have dropped it by now. “Um, I'll go get...clothes. There's more coffee-” he motioned vaguely at his small kitchen, “-and... I'll go get dressed.” Joseph hurried into his bedroom and closed the door. He didn't need to show blushing with how obvious he was acting. How embarrassing! At least Alek was being nice about it, he thought as he pulled on jeans and a decent-looking white t-shirt.
When he returned to the living room, Joseph found Alek nursing his cup of coffee. Alek smiled apologetically. “I couldn't find the creamer and yours was already perfect.”
Joseph poured himself another cup, being sure to point out the creamer as he pulled it out, and then sat on the loveseat next to Alek. For a few minutes, they sipped in silence.
Then out of the blue, Alek said, “So I'm your favorite crush, huh?”
Joseph nearly choked. “Did I say that?”
Alek nodded with mock solemnity. “What I wonder, then, is why you kissed my friend last night, but not me.”
Joseph wanted to curl up in a hole and die.
But-Alek wasn't laughing at him. He seemed genuinely curious. “Uh, wasn't I dared to kiss him? I think someone asked me to. Because it was his birthday. I think.”
Alek nodded, lips twitching and eyes crinkling in the corners. “Well, that is true...” He took a careful sip. “So...if I asked you to kiss me, would you?”
Joseph's heartbeat throbbed in his fingertips and ears. He said the first thing that came into his head: “Is it your birthday?”
Alek laughed and set down his coffee, then closed a hand over Joseph's. “Do you want it to be?” he asked, eyeing Joseph up and down.
Joseph let Alek take his coffee again and set it on the table. Then he let Alek lean close. But he met Alek halfway on the slow, sensuous kiss that followed. Alek tasted like sweet hazelnut creamer and bitter coffee and, beneath that, the stuff addiction was made of. Joseph sucked on his tongue and wound fingers in Alek's dark hair and pulled him closer. When the kiss broke, Joseph was lying against the arm of the couch. Alek was on top of him, blinking those long eyelashes and slowly licking his lips. “You know,” Alek said softly, “if I'm your favorite crush, you should probably do that more. A lot more.”
Joseph turned his head to the side, grinning despite-or because of-his embarrassment.
In his ear, so hot and close Joseph gave a full body shudder, Alek said, “You're cute when you blush.”
Joseph's draw dropped. “You can see that?”
Alek chuckled. “Yeah. So you should probably date me. I'm clearly very special.”
“And modest,” Joseph grumbled, pulling Alek down for another kiss.
*
Joseph talked to his parents once a week. That Sunday, his father asked him if that doctor's boy, Alex-Adam- “Alek,” Joseph filled in-had called him.
“Yeah,” Joseph said, trying to keep the dreaminess out of his tone.
“Was he nice? Did he show you around?”
“Yeah.” Joseph paused. “We're, uh...we're dating now.”
There was silence on the line. Then, “I thought you might like him. His father is a good friend of mine. Raised him right.” His father chuckled. “Your mother worried you'd be lonely.”
Joseph and his father talked a little while longer before his mom took the phone. “So you're dating now, I hear,” she said. “Is it Dr. Laskaris's son?”
“Uh...yeah.”
“We thought you might like him,” she said. “Your father worried you might get lonely.”
“He said that was you,” Joseph said wryly.
“Oh, you know how he is.” She laughed. “Well, he does!” she said farther from the mouthpiece.
Joseph grinned. “Well, whoever worried need not worry anymore,” he said. “Thank you guys.”
“Thank your father,” his mom said.
“I'll do that.” His phone beeped. Alek. “Uh, my not-lonely-anymore boyfriend is on the other line-”
“Oh! Okay! Love you! Bye, sweetie!” His mom hung up.
Joseph rolled his eyes and clicked over to Alek. “Guess whose father set him up with a hot guy two weeks after he got here?” he asked.
“Are you serious? That's why your dad called me to show you around?” Alek laughed. “I owe your dad. Clearly, he is too awesome for words. I thought you said he wasn't totally on board the 'the gay.'”
Joseph shrugged. Outside, three neighborhood kids played basketball on the playground court with a middle-aged man, likely their father. Joseph smiled. “I guess...he really does just want me to be happy.”