Title: Unknown Roads

Series: Home Improvement (TV)

Pairing: Brad Taylor/Randy Taylor, Tim Taylor/Jill Taylor
Tags: Romance, Established Relationship, Fluff, Angst, Drama, Travel, Soccer/Football, England, New York, Moving, Moving Out, Drugs, Drug Use, College, Professional Soccer/Football, Misunderstandings, Accidents, Drunk Driver, Car Accident, Marriage, Incest, ICU, Major Character Injury, Prompt Fill, Mark Is Not Innocent

Summary: When Brad and Randy's parents find out about their relationship, they are forced to run away. Luckily, Brad has a plan, which involves a soccer scholarship, New York, a university in England and a dorm for married couples. Randy feels like he's living in a dream, until Brad is injured. No matter how far they run, they will never be able to escape the past.

Notes: This work is based on a prompt Leia gave to me. It sparked my interest because of how detailed it was, so I decided to do something about it. :)

Gifted For: AO3: Leia

BETA: TheSupernova

Chapter 1: Revelations

Randy had returned from Costa Rica two days ago, but being away from Brad for so long had been a test of endurance no man should ever have to face. Which was the main reason Randy had snuck into the basement bedroom Brad and Mark were currently sharing. He wanted a few uninterrupted days alone with Brad. Well, almost alone.

"God, aren't you guys tired yet?" Mark asked, walking into their bedroom. He immediately scrunched up his nose. "It stinks in here."

Brad had Randy on his knees, and was currently pounding the smaller man from behind. They paused, looking over at Mark.

"Are you kidding?" Randy asked, in response to Mark's first question. "Sex never gets old. If it does, you're clearly not doing it right."

Brad snorted. "You know it."

He pulled out of Randy slowly. "And you can't place the blame entirely on us."

"You two have barely left the bedroom," Mark said, slumping down on the computer chair, turning towards the bed. "And you didn't even have the sense to turn the ventilation fan on."

Brad scrounged around for his jeans, putting them on. He turned around, watching as Randy pulled the comforter around him, snuggling in. Brad smiled, and shook his head at Randy's antics.

"Get over here." Brad said to Randy. Randy half-crawled, half-shuffled his way over to Brad's lap. Brad wrapped his arms around Randy.

Mark had shuffled through the bottom desk drawer, pulling out a bag of black and white speckled powder in a small baggy and a small straw. He placed both on the table. Randy eyed the baggy.

"What the hell is that shit?" Randy asked.

Brad placed a hand on Randy's head.

"It's some shit Stevie's mom cooked up in their basement bathroom," Brad said, watching Mark snort line up some power on the table and snorted some up through the straw.

"Stevie's mom is the best," Mark added. "She gives me freebies in exchange for cleaning her house and occasionally mowing the lawn."

Randy sighed. Ever since Mark started dressing goth, he had fallen in with a different crowd.

"What's amazing," Brad said, "is that mom and dad haven't caught you yet."

Mark shrugged. "They rarely come down here. Ever since Brad and I started putting away our own laundry, they haven't had any reason to."

Mark reached into the second drawer down, this time pulling out a small bag of leaves and strips of paper. He reached across the desk to flip on the overhead ventilation fan.

Brad was absently petting Randy's hair, Randy was nodding off and Mark had rolled up a joint and was currently smoking it.

"So Randy," Mark said, "when are you going to let mom and dad know you came back? You can only hide down here for so long."

"Mmm," Randy acknowledged, not really answering the question.

Brad shook his head. He looked over at the clock; it read 11:30 pm.

"Tomorrow," Brad answered for Randy. He looked over at Mark, who in turn, looked almost as zoned out as Randy. "And don't stay up all night smoking. That souped up fan may get rid of the smell, but it's also hard to sleep with that thing going all night."

"Yeah, yeah," Mark responded with a small shrug.

Brad eventually tugged the blanket from Randy and settled them both down under it, almost immediately falling asleep. Mark stayed up for another hour before putting out his joint and going to bed.

Tim and Jill were thrilled to see Randy had come home. To make it more realistic, Randy had snuck out of the house late at night with his luggage, walked a few blocks over, and called a cab to drive him back to the Taylor house. Randy would be arriving in the middle of the night, but he could just blame it on his flight.

Brad and Mark had a pretty convincing act pretending to be just as surprised as their parents over Randy's arrival.

The upper two bedrooms had been converted to a study (for Jill) and a guest bedroom, since Brad and Mark had been quite comfortable staying in the basement. Although Randy had been offered the use of the guest bedroom, he had chosen to stay on the basement floor.

At least, that's what he had told his parents. In reality, he was sleeping with Brad.

Randy didn't quite know what he was going to do next, whether he wanted to go back to Costa Rica or stay and get a college degree, in a new career path. Randy was edging on staying, because being separated from Brad wasn't sitting right with him.

The decision on whether Randy wanted to stay or leave was taken out of his hands when Randy had accidently eavesdropped on his parents during a late-night run to the bathroom. Even though his parents had been arguing in the master bedroom, Randy had heard them all the way from the first floor.

Randy couldn't resist sneaking upstairs to find out what was going on.

"… can't stay here," Jill argued. "What about sending him to live with your brother, Marty?"

"Marty?" Tim said. "Maybe. He does have a spare room in his house, and I'm sure he would help us out once we explain the situation."

Randy snuck closer to his parent's bedroom door, which was slightly ajar.

"I'll be happy as long as we separate him and Brad," Tim continued. "Who knows what they get up to down there. Short of installing a security camera in the basement…"

"No," Jill said firmly. "Don't even think about it."

"Well, Brad is leaving for college in a few weeks." Tim said. "We could just wait. Then it won't be a problem."

"No," Jill said. "I don't want him living in this house! We tried our best, but apparently there is too much temptation for him here."

"All right, all right, I'll call Marty tomorrow," Tim responded.

Randy didn't stay to hear more, because he heard one of his parents walking towards the door. He ran back downstairs and flew straight into Brad's arms.

"Mmffm," Brad muttered when he received an armful of Randy. "What ish…"

Brad slurred his words, before falling back to sleep. Randy couldn't sleep, instead staying up the entire night with his parent's' words swirling around in his head.

Original Prompt: My idea was that when Randy comes back from Costa Rica, Tim and Jill discover their relationship and decide to send Randy off to his Uncle Marty's house to separate them and to try and figure out what to do. Brad and Randy find a way to run away from home, buy a van and live out of that while they go from town to town and find other jobs under new names. Eventually they save up enough to move permanently to another country and they live together happily. But 18 years after they left home, Randy gets pneumonia and goes into a coma. The doctors tell Brad that there's a chance he won't make it so Brad has to make the decision to contact his parents and Mark (Facebook maybe) to let them know.