Shawn used his key to get into the apartment, taking off his jacket and hanging it up on the coat rack by the door.

He was feeling really down. It had been a full three weeks since he had heard from his dad and it was really bothering him. Last he'd heard from him, he was less than 100 miles away, but he hadn't bothered to come and check in on him. Even just to pop in to see how he was doing.

Cory had told him that he shouldn't worry about it, that his dad would call when he had the time. But that was part of the problem—if Shawn didn't remind his dad of his existence every now and then, his dad tended to move on and barely think about his kid.

He'd always been like that. Shawn had basically been raised by the Matthews' when he was younger. He learnt all the important stuff from Cory's dad and got the comfort he needed from Cory's mom. It wasn't that Shawn's parents weren't there, they were just... absent and—not that Shawn would admit it out loud—neglectful.

It wasn't that he didn't like staying with Mr. Turner, it was fine there. Jon was good friend to him, he appreciated him very much. But, it wasn't for good, he knew that, so he didn't let himself fully relax.

Shawn walked over to the kitchen and found a pile of letters on the bench, in the middle of the pile was a letter with his name on it, written in his dad's messy scrawl.

He didn't even bother reading it, just chucked it straight in the bin. If he wasn't good enough for his dad to even make an effort to come and see, he wouldn't make the effort either. He quickly swallowed down the disappointment that kept rising up through his body.

Jon walked in then, putting his brief case away and hanging his coat up too. "What you got there?" he asked casually, not missing that the kid looked upset.

Shawn shrugged. "Letter from my dad. I threw it in the bin though."

"Why?"

Shawn shrugged. "He doesn't care enough about me to come and see me... why should I care about his latest list of lies."

This was a new one. Shawn idolised his dad. Jon thought he believed everything that his dad told him, no matter how ridiculous it sounded.

Jon needed to tread carefully here. No matter how mad Shawn was, he wasn't going to accept anyone saying anything bad about his dad. "Okay, well... what if we got it out of the bin and put it in the cupboard, then, if you change your mind, you can read it."

"I won't." Shawn said resolutely, but he did as Jon said, fishing it out of the bin and putting it in the cupboard above the sink.

"He will come back eventually." Shawn said quietly. Jon wasn't sure if he was talking to Jon, or himself.

Jon didn't answer that. He wouldn't have known how to, even if he wanted to.

The next day, Shawn wasn't in class when Jon walked in. He instantly sent a look at Cory who shrugged at him. Jon went and got someone to cover his classes for the rest of the day and went to find the truant student he'd grown quite fond of.

Sure enough, he rocked up at the apartment to find Shawn lounging on the couch in track pants and a t-shirt.

"What do you think you're doing, Hunter?"

Shawn's head flew up and the kid had the decency to look a bit ashamed for a second before a bored look crossed his features.

"Oh, hey. Shouldn't you be at school?" he asked casually.

Jon started at him, incredulous. "Shouldn't you?" he exclaimed.

That got him a shrug off the fifteen year old.

"Didn't feel like it."

Jon shook his head, amazed at the kid's audacity.

"Get your butt off that couch and out that door right now Hunter, before you make me even more mad."

That just earned him an eye roll of the teen. "What are you going to do about it?"

The kid had him there. Their arrangement was that Shawn stayed with him, Jon had never really set any rules or talked about consequences. Sure, he'd given Shawn detention more than a couple of times, but that was at school, he was his teacher there, he had authority over him.

He could give him detention now for skipping class, but it didn't feel right to Jon, there was obviously something else going on here.

He sat down on the couch next to Shawn and sighed. "Is this about your dad?" he asked carefully.

Shawn glared at him, giving Jon the indication that he was right with his assumption. "I'm sorry he still hasn't called."

Shawn shrugged, trying to look like it didn't bother him.

Jon took a deep breath. "Shawn, I know you're going through stuff at the moment, but you can't just hide out at home, you need to come to school."

Shawn scoffed. "Home?"

Jon frowned at him. "What's wrong with the word home?"

Shawn looked away, a sign Jon had learnt meant that he was trying to control his emotions.

"I—I don't have a home, not a permanent one." he finally said, his voice shaking a little.

"Well, let's make it permanent then." Jon blurted out.

"What are you talking about?"

"I've signed the papers, you can move in with me for good. Or at least until you're eighteen."

Shawn frowned. "Don't need your charity."

Jon sighed. "It's not charity kid, it's a home."

"My dad—he's coming back to get me, we are going to move back to the trailer park. He needs me, I know he does."

Shawn tried to ignore how desperate his voice sounded.

"Shawn, your dad isn't coming back."

"You don't know that."

"Actually, I do."

Shawn got up then, anger radiating from his small frame.

"How would you know something like that?"

Jon sighed. He really didn't want to say the next words, but he knew that Shawn needed to hear them.

"Your dad called me, said that he wasn't coming back, that you'd be better off with me."

Shawn felt his stomach drop. "He didn't say that." His voice came out a lot lower and sadder than he had meant it to.

Jon leant forward on the couch. "Have I ever lied to you, kid?"

Shawn went to open his mouth.

"The wedding not included."

Shawn shut his mouth again and Jon could see the kid believed him. Even if he really didn't want to.

Then, a dark look crossed his features. "Well, I don't want you to do this because you think you have to, so I'll make it easy for you, I'll go. I'm better off on my own anyway."

Before Jon could argue that it wasn't an obligation for him—it was something he wanted, Shawn had grabbed his jacket and had slammed the door behind him.

Jon sighed, sinking into the couch. He, more than anyone knew how proud and stubborn Shawn was, he had broken through that pride a little bit while they had been living together, but he also knew that Shawn saw him as his 'buddy', not as someone that could offer him a stable, permanent home.

That was partly his fault. He hadn't given Shawn any indication that he wanted him to move in permanently, and he couldn't blame the kid for keeping him at arms length—Shawn had spent his whole life having authority figures letting him down, Jon wasn't going to be able to break through that wall easily, he didn't expect to. But he was in this. He hadn't been too sure if it was something he could do long term, but half the time he found that having Shawn around had been as good for him as it had been for Shawn.

They had got into a good rhythm, balancing school and home pretty well. Shawn had gotten good at calling him 'Mr. Turner' at school in front of other students and 'Jon' when they were by themselves. He had stopped asking if he could eat food and started just helping himself... sometimes too much, but Jon never complained, if anything, it was good to see the kid eating. It's not like he couldn't afford to gain a few pounds.

Jon had been sneakily buying the kid some new clothes and putting them in the clean washing. He made sure to get shirts that were similar to what Shawn wore, and managed to throw out a couple of shirts that were quite old and thin, and just a little bit too small. Shawn hadn't said anything, so Jon knew he hadn't noticed, he wouldn't have accepted them if he did.

Jon understood the reluctance to accept handouts, he really did, and the last thing he wanted to do was offend Shawn. But part of looking after a kid included feeding and clothing them when necessary.

Jon sighed again and got up. He was going to go after the kid, he always would, and deep down he thought that Shawn knew that. Jon's theory is proven to be even more true when Shawn is in the first place he looks. If he really wanted to run away where he couldn't be found, he wouldn't go straight to the Matthews'.

Shawn slinked down the stairs when Alan called up to him, an annoyed look on his face. "Mr. Turner." he greeted Jon, way too formally.

Jon had to physically stop himself from rolling his eyes. He knew exactly what Shawn was doing—distancing himself to protect himself. You'd never know when you first met the kid because of the tough, carefree exterior he presented, but deep down, Shawn was very sensitive.

"Come outside and talk?"

Shawn glared at him, but he walked further down the stairs, which Jon took as compliance.

They walked outside together and Shawn sat heavily on the outdoor furniture. Jon didn't sit next to him, instead, he stood in front of him, arms crossed, matching the glare he was getting off the fifteen year old.

After a few minutes of the stand off, Shawn sighed. "I guess I should have let you finish talking." he said, almost reluctantly.

Jon bit back a smile. "Yeah, you should have.

"I don't like feeling like a burden." Shawn muttered, his voice so quiet Jon wasn't sure he heard him correctly.

Taking a risk, Jon took a step forward. "I want you to live with me for good, Shawn. I want you to think of our place as your home. I want you to feel secure that you have somewhere safe to sleep every night. I want you to know that I won't kick you out, or take off on you. As long as you want to live with me, I will have the room for you."

Shawn looked up at Jon through his hair and was embarrassed to feel tears burning at the back of his eyes.

Jon took another step forward and sat down next to Shawn, slinging an arm around his shoulders. "I'm all in, kid. Are you?"

Shawn turned the corner of his mouth up. "I guess there's worse places I could be."

Jon smirked back at him.

"There's going to be rules."

His voice had taken on a firm tone so that Shawn knew he was serious.

"I'm not going to call you 'dad'."

The smirk on Shawn's face made Jon laugh out loud. "I wouldn't expect you to." he said lightly.

"But you'll have a proper curfew, and there will be boundaries. Break them and there will be consequences."

"Like what?" Shawn frowned.

"Like you'll be spending your nights at home instead of out with whichever girl you're seeing that week."

"You'll ground me?" Shawn asked, his tone a little incredulous. "Can you do that?"

Jon bit back a laugh. "Not as your teacher I can't, but as your legal guardian, yeah."

Shawn twisted his mouth. Maybe this guardian thing wasn't such a good idea after all.

Jon noticed the look and rolled his eyes. "Don't break the rules and I won't have any reason to ground you." he added. "But Shawn, I meant what I said after we talked about the wedding lie. We've gotta talk things out, you can't just take off if we have an argument or I say something you don't like."

Shawn didn't know what to think about that. That's just what he did. If something got too much, he took off. Usually he went to Cory's, but if it was Cory that he was mad at, he had a couple of places that he went to cool down.

Out loud he said. "Sometimes I need space, to—to cool off."

Jon nodded thoughtfully, proud of the kid for being honest with him. "Okay, so how about we compromise then. If you need space to cool down, we talk about where you're going."

"Like, I ask your permission?"

"More like you communicate what you're doing, where you're going, when you're going to be back."

"I don't think of those things when I'm angry."

Jon nodded slowly. "Well, I'm asking you to at least consider them."

Shawn took a deep breath. "I can try?" he said, the sentence coming out more like a question.

"That's good enough for me." Jon stated.

Shawn gave Jon the smallest of smiles. "I'm tired, mind if we go home?" he asked.

Jon grinned at the kid. "I don't mind at all." he said. And he really didn't.