Advent Day 4 (White Pine Original Fic)
Dec. 4th, 2014 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asphaltcowgrrlTitle: Advent Day 4
Fandom: White Pine Original Fic
Pairing: Travis Murphy/Ethan McDowell
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,783
Summary: A Christmas/New Year’s fic to help bump up the word count for 1_million_words. Wherein Travis and Ethan muddle their way through December and try to stay on Santa’s Nice List.
Author’s Note: Not sure I have much to say about this. Although, there is a lot of dialogue going on, hopefully it's not boring anyone.
Day 4
He turned his old baseball cap over and over in his hands. The question Travis had asked him the night before was simple enough to answer, but difficult to put into words. He and MJ had been so close once, first as kids, then as young adults, gossiping about boys and speculating about their hidden talents. Of all his family, she’d been the only one to take his affliction in stride.
So why hadn’t she intervened on his part?
That wasn’t fair to her and he knew it. There wasn’t any question as to why MJ hadn’t gotten between him and their father that night. No one in their right mind would cross Arthur McDowell, Senior, when he was angry. Ethan had first-hand experience of what happened to those that tried.
Sighing, he looked through the bedroom door at Travis snoozing in their shared bed. Eventually, he’d find the words to explain his estrangement from his beloved sister – and the rest of his family – but he had a more immediate concern. How on earth was he going to explain the fact that he’d lied to him?
In his own defense, they’d only just met when he’d lied and told them that his parents had politely – hah! – asked him not to come around any longer. He just wasn’t certain how well Travis was going to take the admission, no matter how much he might understand it.
“You coming back to bed or are you going to continue being creepy?”
Ethan blinked and realized Travis was sitting up, watching him. “Sorry. I must’ve spaced out on you.”
“Yeah, well, all of this can do that to a boy.” Travis winked and waved a hand in the direction of his perfect six-pack. “Why are you up anyway? It’s still early.”
“Phone rang,” he said, climbing back under the covers. “Sheriff said to stay home and not brave the snow to get in. I couldn’t believe it and then –”
“Then you must’ve looked outside?” He could hear the slight cringe in Travis’ voice.
“Pretty much.” He looped an arm across Murphy’s middle, resting a cheek on his chest.
“How bad is it?”
“Let’s just say it’s a good thing we grocery shopped yesterday.” Not that they would have starved if they hadn’t, but it wouldn’t have been much of a gourmet meal in their future either. “I called your mom while I was at it. She figured we wouldn’t be able to make it in, and was going to call once we were up and about to say as much.”
Travis ruffled Ethan’s sleep-mussed hair with his fingers. “Thank you for thinking of my mom.”
“You know I love her,” he reminded him. “And besides, since I got called off tonight, I’d hate for her to gas up the snowmobile, plow her way on over here only to get the surprise of her life.”
Travis chuckled, kissing him. “Yeah, she’s stumbled across a lot of things she’d rather not see since I came out, but that’s not one of them.”
“Let’s pray that it never is,” Ethan said, giving a visible shudder. “So, since you’re in such a good mood tonight, I have a confession to make before I go any farther into my family history.” Might as well get it out in the open now, while he still had time to seek refuge somewhere for the night, if needed.
His lover pulled away and propped himself up on an elbow. “What do you mean?”
Ethan didn’t like the look on Travis’ face, that one that said he was preparing for the worst but didn’t want to really hear it.
He rubbed a hand across his face, thinking. Pulling himself into a sitting position, he looked down into Travis’ eyes. “I lied to you.”
“When?” Murphy forced himself upright as well, reaching for Ethan’s hand. “And about what?”
Looking across the room at a framed picture on the dresser, he sighed. “The morning after.”
“When your car decided to strand you alone with a stranger?” Travis’ blue eyes sparked with the memory.
“Yeah, that,” he said. “I wasn’t completely honest about why I stopped having dinner with my parents.”
“Well, I can’t say I expected any dark, dirty family secrets to be revealed that morning, so I’m not sure I should be upset.”
“I doubt you’ll be angry for my little adjustment of the truth, but I’m not sure you’re going to be happy by the end of it, either.”
“Try me,” was all he said. It was all he needed to say.
“When I was twenty-two, my mother confronted me about finding a wife and settling down.”
“Uh-oh,” Travis muttered.
“That’s putting it mildly. I’d been telling them for three years that I just hadn’t found the one yet – because you can do that at eighteen, right?” He shook his head. “I managed to keep her at bay for nearly six months before she and my father set me up with the daughter of one of their friends. Needless to say, it didn’t work out. I was ambushed when I arrived for Sunday dinner the night after our date. My mother cried, my father yelled. Both seemed to think I should latch onto the first eligible woman and marry her.”
“Because that’s what all dutiful sons do, right?” The sarcasm was thick in Travis’ voice.
“Apparently, it is. By that time, my older four siblings were married, two had children, and MJ was engaged. I was the only disappointment.”
“And were your siblings happy?”
“MJ and Jon were, but they both managed to marry their high school sweethearts. The other three, I’m not so sure about. But no one ever questioned my father, so they could have been miserable and wouldn’t have said a word about it.”
“That sounds like… a load of crap,” Travis offered.
Ethan smiled. “Just what I thought, too. Mother eventually pulled herself together enough to finish dinner. And then my oldest brother, Thomas, decided we needed to revisit my debacle of a date. Much to my surprise, Celia – the girl I’d gone out with – had disclosed every detail to her parents. Including the fact that I didn’t kiss her goodnight.”
“Red flag,” Travis teased.
“You’re an ass, but yeah, it kind of was.” He picked at some fuzz on the blanket, searching for his next words. “My brothers and my father said some awful things that night, accusing me of being anything from inexperienced to impotent.”
Travis leaned into Ethan, giving comfort with his very presence. “And when you told them the truth?”
“My father nearly upset the table, he stood up so fast. It wasn’t a pretty sight – my mother sobbing in her place at the table, Amelia, my older sister looking stunned. MJ did her best to look surprised though, saving herself a lot of troubling questions later on. Thomas grabbed me by my shirt collar and dragged me from the table. I’ve always hated being so small, I’ve never been a match for any of them. Not even MJ.”
“I’m not sure I want to hear the rest of this,” Travis admitted, his face hard and his eyes stormy.
He could feel the tension coiling in his boyfriend’s body and decided to not elaborate for both their sakes. “Let’s just say that it was the worst family dinner in the history of the McDowell family’s Minden Lake branch. My parents were already unhappy that I’d bypassed college for the police academy. Finding out I wasn’t ever going to get married, have children, and carry on the family name only sealed my fate. I was eventually tossed out and told never to return. I left and never looked back.”
“Until I forced you to confront them about the wedding,” Travis whispered.
“You know what, Murph? That was a long time ago. Even I thought that maybe, just maybe, someone might have missed me and changed their minds. It wasn’t your fault that they’re too self-absorbed to care about anyone outside of themselves.” He twined his fingers with Travis’ taking strength from his partner. “And to answer your question from last night, that was the reason Melody and I stopped talking. Because she couldn’t stop my father from abusing and then evicting me. I couldn’t reach out to her for fear of having his anger at me come down on her. It was bad enough I’d been excommunicated, I wasn’t going to bring her down with me.”
“That really sucks, Ethan. I’m so sorry.” Travis’ lips found his face, leaving little, damp prints wherever they touched him.
“There’s nothing that can be done now,” he assured him. “It’s all in the past. Anyway, I have a new family, right? One that actually wants me to be a part of it. To tell you the truth, I never fit in with the one I was born to. I never had their ambition or desire to be wealthy. I just wanted to see justice served and be happy. Money was optional.”
“What about the love of a good man,” Travis hinted, sly smile firmly in place.
“Oh, that’s still definitely mandatory and when I find it…”
Travis had him flat on his back, staring into a pair of Windex eyes before he could finish the statement. “You might want to carefully consider how you’re going to finish that, bucko.”
He couldn’t help himself, he started to laugh, releasing all the hurt, anger, and tension that had been building since his sister’s package had arrived. “When I find it, I’ll love him and pet him and call him Travis.”
“You’re damn right you will,” Travis smiled, affection lacing his words. “I really am sorry your family sucks big fat man hooters, baby. But know that my mama and papa consider you part of ours.”
“And with a family like yours, who needs anything more?”
He was only half joking, because the Murphy family was loving, caring, and considerate. Despite the fact that Aracely made him earn his way back into their good graces after breaking Travis’ heart, they had happily welcomed him back. His own family couldn’t even manage to forgive him for something he had no control over. But he’d hurt Travis and yet, the Murphys had been able to forgive him for that. It made no sense.
“And to think there was a time when you thought your family was more insane than mine,” Travis reminded him.
“How could I have ever doubted,” he asked, looking up at Travis, a smile tugging at his mouth.
“It’s a mystery, for sure.” Travis punctuated the statement with a leisurely kiss. “One to be thought about and solved later.”
Like, tomorrow.
Fandom: White Pine Original Fic
Pairing: Travis Murphy/Ethan McDowell
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,783
Summary: A Christmas/New Year’s fic to help bump up the word count for 1_million_words. Wherein Travis and Ethan muddle their way through December and try to stay on Santa’s Nice List.
Author’s Note: Not sure I have much to say about this. Although, there is a lot of dialogue going on, hopefully it's not boring anyone.
Day 4
He turned his old baseball cap over and over in his hands. The question Travis had asked him the night before was simple enough to answer, but difficult to put into words. He and MJ had been so close once, first as kids, then as young adults, gossiping about boys and speculating about their hidden talents. Of all his family, she’d been the only one to take his affliction in stride.
So why hadn’t she intervened on his part?
That wasn’t fair to her and he knew it. There wasn’t any question as to why MJ hadn’t gotten between him and their father that night. No one in their right mind would cross Arthur McDowell, Senior, when he was angry. Ethan had first-hand experience of what happened to those that tried.
Sighing, he looked through the bedroom door at Travis snoozing in their shared bed. Eventually, he’d find the words to explain his estrangement from his beloved sister – and the rest of his family – but he had a more immediate concern. How on earth was he going to explain the fact that he’d lied to him?
In his own defense, they’d only just met when he’d lied and told them that his parents had politely – hah! – asked him not to come around any longer. He just wasn’t certain how well Travis was going to take the admission, no matter how much he might understand it.
“You coming back to bed or are you going to continue being creepy?”
Ethan blinked and realized Travis was sitting up, watching him. “Sorry. I must’ve spaced out on you.”
“Yeah, well, all of this can do that to a boy.” Travis winked and waved a hand in the direction of his perfect six-pack. “Why are you up anyway? It’s still early.”
“Phone rang,” he said, climbing back under the covers. “Sheriff said to stay home and not brave the snow to get in. I couldn’t believe it and then –”
“Then you must’ve looked outside?” He could hear the slight cringe in Travis’ voice.
“Pretty much.” He looped an arm across Murphy’s middle, resting a cheek on his chest.
“How bad is it?”
“Let’s just say it’s a good thing we grocery shopped yesterday.” Not that they would have starved if they hadn’t, but it wouldn’t have been much of a gourmet meal in their future either. “I called your mom while I was at it. She figured we wouldn’t be able to make it in, and was going to call once we were up and about to say as much.”
Travis ruffled Ethan’s sleep-mussed hair with his fingers. “Thank you for thinking of my mom.”
“You know I love her,” he reminded him. “And besides, since I got called off tonight, I’d hate for her to gas up the snowmobile, plow her way on over here only to get the surprise of her life.”
Travis chuckled, kissing him. “Yeah, she’s stumbled across a lot of things she’d rather not see since I came out, but that’s not one of them.”
“Let’s pray that it never is,” Ethan said, giving a visible shudder. “So, since you’re in such a good mood tonight, I have a confession to make before I go any farther into my family history.” Might as well get it out in the open now, while he still had time to seek refuge somewhere for the night, if needed.
His lover pulled away and propped himself up on an elbow. “What do you mean?”
Ethan didn’t like the look on Travis’ face, that one that said he was preparing for the worst but didn’t want to really hear it.
He rubbed a hand across his face, thinking. Pulling himself into a sitting position, he looked down into Travis’ eyes. “I lied to you.”
“When?” Murphy forced himself upright as well, reaching for Ethan’s hand. “And about what?”
Looking across the room at a framed picture on the dresser, he sighed. “The morning after.”
“When your car decided to strand you alone with a stranger?” Travis’ blue eyes sparked with the memory.
“Yeah, that,” he said. “I wasn’t completely honest about why I stopped having dinner with my parents.”
“Well, I can’t say I expected any dark, dirty family secrets to be revealed that morning, so I’m not sure I should be upset.”
“I doubt you’ll be angry for my little adjustment of the truth, but I’m not sure you’re going to be happy by the end of it, either.”
“Try me,” was all he said. It was all he needed to say.
“When I was twenty-two, my mother confronted me about finding a wife and settling down.”
“Uh-oh,” Travis muttered.
“That’s putting it mildly. I’d been telling them for three years that I just hadn’t found the one yet – because you can do that at eighteen, right?” He shook his head. “I managed to keep her at bay for nearly six months before she and my father set me up with the daughter of one of their friends. Needless to say, it didn’t work out. I was ambushed when I arrived for Sunday dinner the night after our date. My mother cried, my father yelled. Both seemed to think I should latch onto the first eligible woman and marry her.”
“Because that’s what all dutiful sons do, right?” The sarcasm was thick in Travis’ voice.
“Apparently, it is. By that time, my older four siblings were married, two had children, and MJ was engaged. I was the only disappointment.”
“And were your siblings happy?”
“MJ and Jon were, but they both managed to marry their high school sweethearts. The other three, I’m not so sure about. But no one ever questioned my father, so they could have been miserable and wouldn’t have said a word about it.”
“That sounds like… a load of crap,” Travis offered.
Ethan smiled. “Just what I thought, too. Mother eventually pulled herself together enough to finish dinner. And then my oldest brother, Thomas, decided we needed to revisit my debacle of a date. Much to my surprise, Celia – the girl I’d gone out with – had disclosed every detail to her parents. Including the fact that I didn’t kiss her goodnight.”
“Red flag,” Travis teased.
“You’re an ass, but yeah, it kind of was.” He picked at some fuzz on the blanket, searching for his next words. “My brothers and my father said some awful things that night, accusing me of being anything from inexperienced to impotent.”
Travis leaned into Ethan, giving comfort with his very presence. “And when you told them the truth?”
“My father nearly upset the table, he stood up so fast. It wasn’t a pretty sight – my mother sobbing in her place at the table, Amelia, my older sister looking stunned. MJ did her best to look surprised though, saving herself a lot of troubling questions later on. Thomas grabbed me by my shirt collar and dragged me from the table. I’ve always hated being so small, I’ve never been a match for any of them. Not even MJ.”
“I’m not sure I want to hear the rest of this,” Travis admitted, his face hard and his eyes stormy.
He could feel the tension coiling in his boyfriend’s body and decided to not elaborate for both their sakes. “Let’s just say that it was the worst family dinner in the history of the McDowell family’s Minden Lake branch. My parents were already unhappy that I’d bypassed college for the police academy. Finding out I wasn’t ever going to get married, have children, and carry on the family name only sealed my fate. I was eventually tossed out and told never to return. I left and never looked back.”
“Until I forced you to confront them about the wedding,” Travis whispered.
“You know what, Murph? That was a long time ago. Even I thought that maybe, just maybe, someone might have missed me and changed their minds. It wasn’t your fault that they’re too self-absorbed to care about anyone outside of themselves.” He twined his fingers with Travis’ taking strength from his partner. “And to answer your question from last night, that was the reason Melody and I stopped talking. Because she couldn’t stop my father from abusing and then evicting me. I couldn’t reach out to her for fear of having his anger at me come down on her. It was bad enough I’d been excommunicated, I wasn’t going to bring her down with me.”
“That really sucks, Ethan. I’m so sorry.” Travis’ lips found his face, leaving little, damp prints wherever they touched him.
“There’s nothing that can be done now,” he assured him. “It’s all in the past. Anyway, I have a new family, right? One that actually wants me to be a part of it. To tell you the truth, I never fit in with the one I was born to. I never had their ambition or desire to be wealthy. I just wanted to see justice served and be happy. Money was optional.”
“What about the love of a good man,” Travis hinted, sly smile firmly in place.
“Oh, that’s still definitely mandatory and when I find it…”
Travis had him flat on his back, staring into a pair of Windex eyes before he could finish the statement. “You might want to carefully consider how you’re going to finish that, bucko.”
He couldn’t help himself, he started to laugh, releasing all the hurt, anger, and tension that had been building since his sister’s package had arrived. “When I find it, I’ll love him and pet him and call him Travis.”
“You’re damn right you will,” Travis smiled, affection lacing his words. “I really am sorry your family sucks big fat man hooters, baby. But know that my mama and papa consider you part of ours.”
“And with a family like yours, who needs anything more?”
He was only half joking, because the Murphy family was loving, caring, and considerate. Despite the fact that Aracely made him earn his way back into their good graces after breaking Travis’ heart, they had happily welcomed him back. His own family couldn’t even manage to forgive him for something he had no control over. But he’d hurt Travis and yet, the Murphys had been able to forgive him for that. It made no sense.
“And to think there was a time when you thought your family was more insane than mine,” Travis reminded him.
“How could I have ever doubted,” he asked, looking up at Travis, a smile tugging at his mouth.
“It’s a mystery, for sure.” Travis punctuated the statement with a leisurely kiss. “One to be thought about and solved later.”
Like, tomorrow.
