Early August 94'
He beams as he holds out a blue dragon plush at Vaas, the nine year old positively gobsmacked into silence. "He's for you," Jason explains, waving the dragon slightly when Vaas doesn't move to take the offered plush toy.
"I- really?" Vaas gently plucks the serpentine dragon plush from his hands and examines him with a sort of reverence unbecoming of a typical nine-year-old. The plush is turned over in his hands, several times over the span of a minute, and the elder of the two boys smiles.
"Do you like him?" Jason asks with a cautious smile.
"Yeah, he's awesome." Vaas holds the dragon still in his hands now and looks up from the toy to Jason.
"What'cha gonna name him?" Jason bounces with barely contained excitement, his exuberance not even phasing Vaas in the slightest.
"Well," Vaas starts and looks down at the dragon plush again. "I think I'll call him Wartra."
"Wartra…. I like that name. Think he'll like Snowy?" Jason briefly thinks of his tiger plush up in his bedroom, tucked under the sheets on his bed. He'd left him there while his mother had taken him out to pick out Wartra for Vaas.
"Of course he'll like Snowy. Why don't you go get him and we can go play?" The smile that split Jason's face was brilliant and the younger boy yipped in excitement before he practically jetted up the stairs to fetch Snowy.
Memento
"What is this?!" his mom hisses as he walks through the door later that afternoon, and snatched Wartra out of his hands. She all but shoves the dragon plush into his face and waves it. "What is this, Vaas?"
Typically he is deathly afraid of his mother, who obviously favored his half-sister over him, but today he's angry. Wartra had been a gift for him specifically, and he knew what his mom intended to do with the plush. Well, he isn't going to let her give Jason's gift to him away to his sister, or worse, let her destroy it. Without giving any indication or warning he yanked the dragon plush out of her grasp and shouted, "He's mine!" In that same moment he ducked around her and bolted for his room.
"You little bastard!" She shrieks out and made a grab for him that missed. Her steps are heavy as she chases after him, but he's faster.
Vaas slams his bedroom door shut behind himself and locks it, thankful that his mother hadn't had the forethought or removing the doorknobs or getting ones without locks. He knows this will only make it worse for him, especially since his stepdad wasn't going to be home for hours and he was certainly going to miss out on supper. Well, more like his mother would withhold it from him as punishment for daring to act out, on top of any expected beatings.
His doorknob rattles as his mother attempts to open it, then the banging starts. "You better open this fucking door right now, you ungrateful little shit!"
He backs away from the door, Wartra clutched to his chest, and stares at it as it shakes in its frame with the angry pounding its receiving. He swallows and holds his dragon plush tighter, wishing that he were anywhere but here right now, that he was back at Jason's.
"Open this goddamn door right now, Vaas," his mother roars and the pounding intensifies.
He looks around his room, which has no other form of… wait, the window! He runs over to his bed and climbs onto it to kneel in front of the window looking out into the backyard. Wartra is deposited onto the bed beside him before he attempts to lift the window open. It doesn't budge, and after a minute or two of trying to get it open he leans back to look at the window.
A sharp crack comes from the direction of his door, like something is breaking, and his mother's yelling has become unintelligible screams at this point. He scans the whole of the window and finally notices the latches to keep it locked. He turns both of them then pushes up against the top of the lower pane's frame. It slid up easily this time, so he grabs Wartra and without a second thought he lowers himself to the ground a few feet beneath his window.
Memento
They had just sat down to dinner when the doorbell rang. Jason frowns at his plate, which had peas on it, while Mom got up to answer the door. He pushes a few of them into the mashed potatoes with his fork then scooped up the mixture and ate it with a shudder. He could still taste the peas.
Several minutes pass by before his mom returns to the kitchen, Vaas in tow, and he's made a dent in both the peas and the potatoes on his plate. He drops his fork in surprise, because his friend had gone home for the evening, and a bright smile starts to take over his face. Vaas doesn't smile back, instead he takes a seat beside Jason and looks down at the table.
"Vaas will be staying the night," Mom says with a sorrowful cheeriness as she fixes up another plate of food. She places it in front of Vaas with a gentle smile then takes her seat next to Riley in his high chair. The three year old has no qualms with eating his peas, as evidenced by the lack of them on his plate, but he's taken to mushing his mashed potatoes with both hands before pushing globs of it into his mouth.
"Can I have a friend sleep over too?" Grant asks around a mouthful of pork chop, his gaze shifting from Jason to Vaas.
"Grant, don't talk with food in your mouth, and we can make plans for you to have a friend over tomorrow night," Mom answers softly, sounding a little weary.
"Sorry, Mom," Grant apologizes sheepishly after he finally swallows his food. He accepts the compromise without further argument and starts wolfing down the rest of his food.
The rest of dinner is uneventful, though Vaas remains quiet throughout the meal much to Jason's confusion. It's only after they're done eating and having helped clear the table when his friend tugs on his sleeve to get his attention.
"Can we go up to your room?" Vaas is oddly soft-spoken with his question and he fidgets slightly as he waits for an answer.
"Yeah," Jason says with a subdued smile. "Are you okay?" The question slips out unintentionally as he leads the way to the stairs. He's worried that Vaas won't answer him because he goes quiet again, so he stops when they reach the steps and turns to face his friend. He spots Wartra sitting to the side on the third step up and his expression brightens. "You brought Wartra with you?"
"Yeah, I… Can we go up to your room first?" Vaas' tone takes on a pleading note as he picks the dragon plush up and cradles it. "I don't want to talk about it down here."
Jason's expression twists into a faint frown but he nods and heads up the steps with Vaas trailing closely behind him. Once they're in his room Vaas shuts the door while he goes and fetches Snowy from off of his bed. He had the feeling that his tiger was very much needed and so he planted him on top of Vaas' head once the nine-year-old had dropped to the floor.
Memento
He blinks owlishly in surprise then gives a smile that feels real and happy. His entire mood had lifted with Jason's simple act of childishness, so he huffs and pulls Snowy off of his head. "Thanks, I needed that," Vaas half-murmurs as he places their plush toys onto the rug between them.
"So you're okay now?" Jason's question comes from a place of innocence and concern, his eyes crinkled slightly with his worry over Vaas' wellbeing.
"Yes, I'm definitely okay now, weirdo," he answers with a grin that Jason returns. He leans back and presses his hands against the floor behind himself after a moment, and sighs softly while his expression turns somber. "My mom tried to take Wartra away. She was going to take him away and give him to my sister or destroy him. I took him back and ran to my room, cause if I didn't she would have hit me too. I got out through my window while she tried to bust down my door."
Jason stares at him with a wide-eyed expression of shock, and it's clear that he doesn't quite understand all of what he's been told, with one exception. "But Wartra is yours…. I got him for you?"
"Yeah, I know, but… Well, my mom isn't very nice." That was quite the understatement, but Jason didn't need to know about his home life. He had no intention of inviting his friend over and subjecting him to what would be the racist grumblings of his mother. He liked Jason, and his family, but his mother didn't share the same sentiments. He had told Mrs. Brody as much and she had been so very understanding.
"Is that why she wanted to hit you?" Jason's voice is almost too quiet for him to hear, like he doesn't want to ask that particular question.
The truth is too painful to tell, at least for now, so he ducks his head and nods in response. He can't tell Jason that his mother thinks of him as some sort of mistake made in a drug-ridden ritual that was far too common on his birth island. She had gotten it into her head that he was supposed to be some sort of super warrior that was meant to lead their people to salvation, and though he didn't have memories of the time himself, his mother certainly made it clear how much of a disappointment he had been and still is.
"She's a mean lady," Jason suddenly decides, breaking Vaas out of his thoughts. "If Wartra can't go home with you then he can stay here with me and Snowy, so the mean lady can't get him!" Jason puffs up with his indignation and scoops both of the plush toys up. "We'll protect him for you, Vaas."
In that moment something twisted free inside Vaas, something that had almost been ground out of him by his mother's awfulness born out of her anger and hatred of him. It was fragile, but warming and welcome all the same. He had hope, and it came in the form of a green-eyed, brunet-haired seven-year-old boy with a brilliant smile and a fiery spirit. "That would be great, Jason."
Memento
He feels like he's in some goddamned cheesy romance flick with how damn sappy he feels, but he doesn't care one fucking iota. He has his Jason back and there isn't a force in the world that can convince him to let go of the brunet spitfire. Well, with maybe one exception. Possibly two.
"Vaas." Jason's tone has that edge of warning to it, one that he knows better than to ignore. People have gotten hurt for ignoring that tone, so he definitely knows better than to ignore a brilliant neon warning sign.
"Yes, Jason?" He reluctantly lets go of Jason, flashing him a smile of feigned innocence, to which Jason huffs irritably.
"You can be clingy later, amante," Jason half grumbles and nudges him away to get up from the couch. He's steady on his feet, which is enough to make Vaas back off and give him space. "Now where's your bathroom?"
Ah. Excepión número uno. "Over there." Vaas waves his hand in the direction of the bathroom, which elicits a scowl from the native Californian. "What?"
"Over there could mean the corner for all I know," Jason grouses half-heartedly as he heads to the bathroom.
"Well, if you want to go in the corner you can, cariño, but you'll be the one to clean it up," Vaas teasingly calls after him and chuckles when Jason gives him the middle finger before he disappears into the bathroom. He rocks onto his feet and stands up, his stomach reminding him once again how hungry he is. No doubt Jason is just as hungry, and from what he remembers, Jason gets hangry. Excepión número dos. "Hey, baby, you hungry?"
The sound of the bathroom fan turning on is his response so he shrugs and wanders into his kitchen, which despite knowing it is more barren than the Atacama Desert he opens the fridge and frowns. Partially full beers, a pizza box and something that looks alive. He suspects the pizza box is empty, doesn't dare mess with the pinkish-green growth and shuts the door with a languished sigh. The cabinets contain only crumbs, much to his vexation, so take out it is.
He pulls out his cellphone and wanders back into the living room. He drops onto the couch and brings up a list of nearby takeout places. He subconsciously skips over the pizza joints and spends several minutes debating over Chinese or Thai. He glances up from his two options just as Jason comes out of the bathroom. "You want something to eat, cariño?"
"Food sounds good." Jason drops onto the couch next to him, smelling of the tropical spray he keeps in the bathroom. "So what's on the menu?" He peers at the phone, leaning heavily against Vaas as he does so.
"Chinese or Thai?" He turns the screen towards Jason and shifts his arm to drape it across his boyfriend's shoulders. "Or would you like to get something else?"
"Shrimp pancit and beef lumpia?" Jason manages to give him a pleading look, and it's apparent that he's practiced this because damn is it effective. Awkward head position and all. Not that he needed to give him that look in the first place.
"Cut that shit out, Jason. You already know I'm going to say yes." Geez, what a way to make him feel like he had kicked a puppy.
A sly grin steals over Jason's face and he turns more towards Vaas to lean in and kiss him. It's brief, and Jason nips at his lips before pulling away looking utterly triumphant. "You know me so well, amante." He leans in again, like he's going in for another kiss, but stops before their lips touch. "Now let's go, I'm starving."
Vaas groans as Jason pulls away, the goddamn tease, and gets up. "You're lucky I don't want to have you get all hangry on me, Jason, or we would not be going anywhere." He follows after his boyfriend, leaving their old plush toys on the couch sitting next to one another.