All That Way

"Mmph." He lies still, hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe his head will stop spinning, or throbbing; whichever comes first. Any relief at all really, would be welcome.

"Ugh, what did I do last night?" Moving slowly he rises onto his elbows, trying not to move his head too much.

Drank yourself stupid is what you did. I bet you aren't going to do that again, are you?

"Shut up brain." He mumbles, finally reaching a sitting position. The walls sway and a quick look to his left reveals its cover can indeed, judge this book: He looks like shit. Oh my god! What the hell is that in my hair?

"Jesus fucking, Mary, Joseph and the donkey!" Instant regret rockets through his skull in its favorite manifestation: pain. Oh ow, ow, ow. No yelling. Yelling is bad, very bad.

A soft snuffle to his right has him whipping his head around. Rule number 2: No sudden movements. Well, well, well not only is my head throbbing, I seem to have brought home a party favor; a particularly attractive party favor. Sigh. Well at least he's still asleep.

Groaning he levers his body off the bed reluctantly pulling his eyes away from the warm one lying beside him. George... Oliver? He scrunches his forehead in concentration, trying to at least remember the other man's name. Oscar. Graham. Oh screw this, you're Pete. I've decided. Satisfied he silently regards Pete, wondering how they managed to get to his bedroom without waking anyone.

Wait, my room, my house, my... No. No nononono. Breaking rule number 2, he spins around and shuts his eyes tightly, wishing hard, but it's too late. He hears the steps creak.

"Honey!" His mom calls out, knowing he's probably hung over. That should teach him not to be staying out all night drinking, his mom smirks to herself.

Growl. Too loud mom! His panic is momentarily over run by extreme annoyance. She doesn't know about rule number 1, be kind.

"Yes mother." His voice honey sweet. Kind, kind you ass not sickeningly sweet, you deserve to get caught.

"Shutup!" Ow, inside voices.

"Whom are you talking to boy-o?" She reaches his door and turns the knob. "We've asked you not to be inviting strangers over wit-"

"No!" He catches the door as she begins to open it. Wincing as the impact vibrates through his arm and into his shoulder. He leans back against the door for support. "Mom it's ok. I'm just talking to myself."

"Oh, is that right? And I'm supposing that's why you have the door blocked?"

"I don't have any clothes on." An ancient dog noses it's way past his mom and into the room. "I'm going to go put some on," he says before closing the door.

Please go away, please, please, please go away. He chants in his head, while eyeing Pete, who chooses that exact moment to begin swimming towards the shores of consciousness. Oh fu... blah... Shiite. He hurries across the room, nearly tripping over the dog which had yet to notice Pete's presence. He scrambles across the bed and drops a hand over his new friend's mouth. Death threats issue from his coal black eyes if Pete so much as breathes too hard. Placing a finger over his lips he slowly removes his hand from Pete's mouth. Pete gives him a confused look. Neither man notices the dog cautiously making its way over to them.

"My mom," he mouths. "Who are you?"

Pete nods. Rolling his own dark eyes, nearly black in the dim light of the bedroom, he extends a hand and softly says, "Ben, you?"

Well Pete is like Ben. "Hi Ben. I'm Jude, this is my room and I do believe you are my new friend."

Ben lets out a soft huff. "Oh, you just decided?"

"Yeah I do that a lot, saves time."

"Really? Do we have to keep whispering?"

Jude shakes his head absently; he'd also heard his mom leaving.

"What's that?" Ben asks.

"Huh?" Jude was completely distracted by the pale body in his bed. His attention was fixed on the enticing path his erstwhile lover's body hair took down the other man's chest, over his stomach and down under the sheet, currently riding low on his hips. Jude sucks his bottom lip into his mouth.

Ben asks again, "That... thing," grimace.

"Oh. That's just Hank," Jude says finally noticing the dog. "He's really great. You can pet him, he's good with strangers."

"I think I'll pass," Ben says dryly unimpressed by Hank's wanting appearance.

"Hey careful man, Hank's a great dog. You can't just go around insulting him." He narrows his eyes. "I won't let you."

"Okay." Ben laughs at Jude's show of protective aggression. It was kind of cute. Putting his hands up in mock submission, he cleverly states the obvious. "So that's your dog."

Jude throws him a mischievous glance. "Well he's mostly a dog," Then he pulls Hank into his lap. "Come here, boy."

"Mostly?" Ben raises a brow as the hideous creature settles itself in his host's arms.

"Yeah, Hanky boy here," he flips the dog on his lap and vigorously rubs its belly,"is a vicious piranha-dog. Isn't that right Hank, aren't you a mauling machine, king of the laundry pile, high ruler of-" He stops when he notices Ben laughing.

"No, please, don't stop on my account," Ben gasps out, holding his sides, trying his hardest to hold back his laughter.

"Laugh it up, you dick. I hope your head hurts as much as mine." Jude lets the dog slide to the ground. Hank promptly finds his way to the pile of clothes in the corner, the only thing out of place in the nearly spotless room. After circling three or four times the 'king' lies down to sleep.

Ben shakes his head, breathing deeply, a grin spread across his generous mouth.

Jude stands to stretch, catching Ben's appreciative gaze. He gives a mental thanks to his father's Hungarian heritage; his skin has enough of an olive tinge to it to lend him an exotic look. "So how the hell did we get up here without getting caught?"

"What?" Ben blushes a little at being caught staring.

Ben smiles. "I was hoping you'd clue me in on how we managed to make it to my room without my parents finding out."

Ben shoots Jude a confused look. "What do you mean? Your dad let us in."

"What?" Jude asks.

"Your dad let us in," Ben says again.

But Jude isn't listening. Thinking back he tries to piece together the little bits and pieces he remembers about the night before. The party, seeing Ben standing near the door with some clueless girl trying hard to impress him with her cleavage and then…

Then what ,Jude? Come on think. He remembers the back seat of a car and stumbling to his door. No Ben had practically carried him. But I had my key, why would my dad open the door. Was he waiting up for me? No he wouldn't do that. He stopped doing that when I turned 18. I must have lost my key. But that means… Shit!

*~*~*~*~*

"He up?" He kept his eyes on the breakfast dishes he was washing.

"Yes."

After a moment's pause ,"He alone?" Or is He still here, the blood shot eyes that half carried, half dragged my belligerent though nearly comatose son up to his room.

"Aye, so he says." She sighs staring at his back. "What exactly is it that happened last night?"

He turns to look her in the eye, drying his hands. "I intend to find out." Biting his lip, trying to ignore the disappointment he feels, he makes his way to the steps grieving the loss of one possible future for his boy and bracing for what he now had to deal with. I love him, he's my son and I love him.

Slowly shaking her head she begins to dry the dishes her husband just washed. When's the boy going to learn to respect his curfew? She thinks, knowing that's not really the issue.

*~*~*~*~*

He's my son and I love him. I bandaged his knees when he fell off his bike. I held his hand on that first day of school. He's my son and I love him. These thoughts warred with images from last night. Opening the door to find his son hanging from the arms of a total stranger, trying to remove Jude from the other boy's arms only to have his son refuse, and watching them make their drunken way up the steps to his son's room. The whole way he could hear Jude laughing and flirting with the taller boy, telling him how 'Ozzy and Harriet the parental units' could be. He'd walked slowly to bed and spent a sleepless night letting it all sink in. His father had been quick to anger and he vowed he'd never take the same path.

He made his way to the door and knocked softly. "We have to talk."

Knowing he's caught Jude turns wide eyes to the door. Oh fuck, fuck, "Fuck. Put your clothes on." Tossing Ben his things, the only clothes not on the pile in the corner, Jude raises his voice to tell his father to hold on.

"Meet us in the kitchen," his father calls through the door.

Jude slumps onto the bed as he hears his father descending the stairs.

"I'm sorry man," Ben say's pulling on his pants. "You were pretty wasted last night and I didn't feel comfortable leaving you on the porch when you couldn't find your-"

"No it's fine." He vaguely recalled discussing the possibility of scaling the front porch and sneaking in through his bedroom window. I wouldn't have left me either. Sitting up on the bed, the effects of his hangover still throbbing along in his head, Jude pulls on some pants and waits for Ben to finish dressing before sighing once. "Ready?"

"They're not my parents."

"I'll show you out. We have to pass through the kitchen but I'm sure they won't give you any crap."

"No, hey man, it's my fault. No it is," he said when Jude seemed about to cut him off. "Moral support is the least I could do, really." He puts a hand to the back of Jude's neck looking down into the other man's eyes he gives a reassuring squeeze. How could he really expect me to walk away from that sad smile?

They make their way downstairs. Four steaming cups of coffee greet them. Clearing his throat Jude sits down across from his father. Ben sits across from Jude's mother.

"I thought you'd left?" Jude's father directs his question to Ben.

"No." Ben feels the heat creeping up his neck.

"Ahh." He nods. "I'm Laszlo and this is my wife Siannon."

"Uh, I'm Ben."

"Well Ben. Thank you for helping our boy home," Siannon says smiling warmly at him guessing how awkward he must feel.

"No problem." He shoots a glance to Jude, giving the other man's knee a reassuring squeeze.

Jude gives him a small smile, grateful for his steel-eyed companion right then.

"So Jude," his mom says.

"So mom," he replies, fingers intertwining with the ones on his knee.

Siannon focuses on her son, reading the tension in his form. She always suspected he might be gay, but hadn't known how to broach the subject. And she knows that deep down her husband suspected the same. But no matter what, they will always love their son and so she went for the next issue on her mind: His lying. "I thought you said you were alone?"

*~*~ 2 hours later at a local Café ~*~*

"No shit man, then what happened?" Harper is one of Jude's oldest friends.

"My dad came upstairs and said we had to talk. Thanks."

After he hands Jude his drink Ben sits down across from him. They decided to go out for breakfast. Well Jude had decided to go out for breakfast, too freaked out by his parent's reaction to sit 'awkwardly basking in their acceptance'.

"So...?" Harper prompts his friend to continue the story.

"Oh, uhm, so nothing. They were really cool about it. It was kind of freaky."

"Jesus man, I thought they'd kicked you out or something. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"When did I ever say that?"

Ben covers his mouth to hide his grin as Harper glares at his clueless friend.

"I don't know. Maybe I drew the wrong conclusions when you called me up and said your parents found out and you needed to 'get out of here', dingus."

"Apparently."

Harper shoots a glance at Ben. "Are you sure you want to date this?" He jokes, nodding his head to indicate Jude. "He's a fucking space cadet."

Jude's face is on fire; he was going to kill Harper. Kill him dead, oh yes dead to death.

"Yeah," Ben says going along with the joke.

Jude throws a surprised look at Ben.

"In that case I hope you like things interesting," Harper said.

Jude flips Harper off. "Fuck you."

Ben just grins.

"Sorry man," Harper tells Jude. "But you're definitely not my type."

Jude's mind wanders over the conversation he had with his parents. They'd been very accepting and loving about the whole thing. His mom had made a big deal about his lying to her, and his dad had given him a lecture on the dangers of drinking and bringing home strangers. And yet Jude couldn't shake the veil of unease in his chest.

"So man, you going to the party tonight?" Harper nudges Jude to regain his attention.

"What? No, not tonight I'm 'recuperating'." -Or just hiding from nothing. Jude jumps up at this thought, trying to leave it behind. Silver eyes follow his movements.

"Are you ok?" Ben asks.

"Yeah man, where you going?" Harper chimes in.

"Fuck you, Gino!" Jude turns briefly to deliver the line.

"Oh man ,that movie rocks!" Harp seems happy with the response he gets.

Ben keeps an eye on Jude as he slips out the door.

"Have you ever seen The Boondock Saints?" Harp asks, turning to Ben.

"No," Ben answers distractedly. Where the hell is he going?

"Just let him go; he gets moody sometimes. We all just kind of got used to it. He'll be back."

"Yeah, I think I'm still going to check on him."

"Fine. You know I wasn't serious about that whole boyfriend thing, right? You don't have to get all… you know?"

Ben just blinks at him then turns to follow Jude.

*~*~*~*~*

"Hey, are you ok?"

"Yeah ,I'm just feeling a little restless."

"Oh."

They stand in silence for moment or two not really looking at anything.

Jude chews on his bottom lip. "He was disappointed. He didn't say anything; actually they were amazing about it, both of them. But my dad, he had this look in his eye. I know what he wanted for me, for my future." He smiles sadly. "The perfect breeder lifestyle; I thought he'd be so pissed when he found out. But they were so great. And I'm on the verge of queening out for no reason. I know I'm being a brat. I'm an only child, what were my choices really with Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham?" Ben laughs a little at this. Jude grins. "I'm such a shit but knowing that I just pissed on my dad's dreams and he was still 'my dad'. It's freaking me out."

"It's freaking you out? None of my tricks' mothers ever asked me over for dinner before. Whatever will I wear?" Ben jokes in a horrible falsetto.

Jude shakes his head. "Shut up." His mom had been her usual self. Oh thank god ,she didn't break out the baby pictures.

Ben catches the horrified look that flashes across Jude's face. "What?" he asks with concern.

"I was just thinking how lucky we were to get away before she started to pull out the baby pictures." The shorter man admits.

"Maybe we can go through them during dessert."

"In that case I officially revoke your dinner invitation." You so like him. He mentally rolls his eyes at himself. Shut up brain.

"I don't think so; mom and pop are going to want to meet their baby's new 'boyfriend.'" He loops a finger in one of Jude's belt loops to pull the shorter man closer.

"Right. Yeah, well that was all Harper's idea, so…" He should not smell this good.

"I don't know. You're kind of cute when you get restless and have silly string in your hair."

Oh my god is that still there? Jude fails at discreetly trying to run a hand through his hair, the other man laughing at him.

"Calm down ;there's nothing in your hair." Ben presses their foreheads together. "But you're still kind of cute."

"Thank you," Jude say's with a smile. Score!

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