Chapter 29

As Dean walked down the stairs to the parking area on Monday morning he couldn't help but to recall the details of the weekend. The ride home from the restaurant on Saturday night had been stifling and tense between Seth and Roman. When they got home, Roman had asked them to come into his apartment but Seth muttered that he wanted to sleep and went straight up to his apartment without looking back. Dean could tell that it really hurt Roman the way Seth was behaving towards him. They spent the night fooling around in Roman's bed and he was certain that he had managed to take Roman's mind off of Seth for a while.

However on Sunday when Roman came over Seth immediately got up from the couch and marched into his room and locked the door. Roman looked as if he had been punched in the gut and Dean was growing weary with Seth's behaviour. Yes Roman had broken his promise to them but it was for their own benefit in the long run and he couldn't understand why Seth couldn't see that.

" Hi." Dean smiled as he approached Roman. He could see Roman looking behind him with a hopeful look in his eyes. Dean knew that he was wishing that Seth had come down as well to see him.

Dean melted easily into Roman's embrace. He was squeezing him a bit tight as he kissed Roman's neck. Dean inhaled deeply the woodsy scent of Roman's cologne loving how it smelled mixed with Roman's own natural scent. Roman was stroking his hair and then he gave the auburn locks a light tug. Instinctively Dean looked up and parted his lips as Roman kissed him needily that morning. Sometimes Dean couldn't believe his own luck of actually being with Roman after all of this time just being his friend. Kissing him was always a treat that he enjoyed.

Roman ended the kiss and pecked Dean's cheek. " I have to go."

Dean nodded and took a step back. " He's going to come around you know."

Roman sighed and shook his head. " I don't understand it. He won't even talk to me."

It was clear to Dean that Roman was miserable about the whole thing and Dean was just about fed up with Seth's antics.

Dean held Roman's hand as he got into his car. " You're doing the right thing. You know that I wasn't too thrilled at first but you aren't doing this for you. You're doing it for us and I really respect that."

Roman smiled appreciatively and pulled Dean towards him so that he could kiss him again. " Thanks Dean. It feels good to have someone in my corner." Roman rubbed his thumb over the back of Dean's hand before letting it go. He had really grown to appreciate Dean even more over the weekend. He was a quiet, steady support that he hadn't realized that he needed until then.

" Anytime." Dean felt his hand tingling as he stepped away as Roman closed the door and started the engine. He watched as Roman drove off before he headed back upstairs.

Dean tried Seth's bedroom door and found that it was unlocked. He opened the door and marched right and pulled back the covers from a sleeping Seth. He was wearing small light green underwear that didn't cover much of his ass. He brought his left hand down hard and smacked Seth's right butt cheek.

Seth yelped and woke up instantly. He glared at Dean as he rubbed the smarting flesh. " What the hell was that for?"

" I'm tired of you and your goddamn childish behaviour." Dean gritted through his teeth. " Roman does not deserve the way that you have been treating him."

" Yeah well, he broke the promise that he made to me." Seth whined. " He deserves it."

Dean stared at him increduously. " Are you being fucking serious right now? Do I need to remind you about the time that Roman forgave you when he found out that you were still seeing that Sandow fellow when you had promised that you had stopped?"

He saw Seth look embarrassed for a few seconds and then he turned his face so that Dean couldn't see it. " That was different."

" How was that different? Because it was you that had messed up? Why the hell do you think that you're so goddamn special above everyone else?"

" Because I am!" Seth yelled back.

" Oh really? I'm having a really hard time seeing it right now." Dean ran his hand through his hair and sighed loudly. Seth really knew how to push his buttons. " Roman is hurting right now and it's all because of you." Dean kneeled down on the bed and turned Seth's face towards his with one hand, clenching his jaw so tightly that his fingers nails were making impressions into Seth's skin. " How can you say that you love him and you treat him like this?" Seth tried to turn his head away but Dean yanked it back. " Look at me when I'm talking to you. Is this how you love people Seth? You only love them when everything is going your way but when they do something that you don't like you throw them away?" Dean's blue eyes bore into Seth's. " Answer me."

Seth looked at defiantly. " You're hurting me." He used both hands to pull away Dean's hand from his face.

Dean dropped his hand and looked at him as if he was disgusted. " You really are a piece of work. All you care about is yourself." Dean got off the bed and shook his head. He couldn't believe that he had allowed himself to fall so hard for this man. " Roman deserves better than this."

Dean turned to walk away when something soft hit the back of his head. He turned around to see a pillow on the ground and to see Seth crying on the bed.

" I love Romie! Don't you dare say that I don't." Seth wiped his nose with the back of his hand. " You take that back Dean. I love him. I love him more than you do. You're just going to stand by and just let him work himself to death and you don't even care!"

Dean walked back up to the bed. " I do care about him. But it's only for a couple more months and then he's ours."

" Yeah and then he gets another account that he can't refuse and then another one. Then we'll never see him anymore." Seth wiped his tears away and crossed his arms. " Then he won't know us anymore."

" Seth where are you getting all of this from?" Dean had a hunch that it was more than Roman's working that was bothering Seth.

Seth sniffled and reached for a tissue and blew his nose. " He's acting just like my dad when he got his big promotion."

Dean hadn't heard Seth mention his parents since the first night that they all went out to eat and he had told them that they had kicked him out when they found out that he was gay.

Dean sat on the edge of the bed. " How is Roman acting like your dad?"

" My dad used to play football with me all of the time when I was a kid," Seth started. He stared down at the sheets with a faraway look in his eyes as he relived the memories. " That was until he got promoted and then he had no time for me not even on weekends."

Seth sniffed and Dean found himself wrapping around Seth's shoulder and pulling him next to him. " I even made the football team in high school and I hoped that he would come to a game but he never did. My mom did though." Seth smiled when he mentioned his mom. " I was always her little Sethie."

Seth paused for a few seconds before he continued. Dean tried to process the fact that Seth actually played football. Knowing Seth he would consider him too delicate for the sport. " Anyway, I pretty much knew that I was gay from the time I was fourteen. I think my mom knew as well but she never said anything. Somehow I think she must have figured out that me and the quarterback weren't studying in my room."

" Wait a minute. You fucked the quarterback?"

" Of course I did." Seth looked at Dean as if he should know by now that he shouldn't expect anyless from him. " He was pretty hot as well. It sucked that he had a girlfriend but it was a Catholic school so it was to be expected."

" My dad of course never spent any time with me so he didn't know that I was gay. Sometimes he would ask where my girlfriend was but I would just give him some random answer and he would just accept it. I mean I wanted to tell my dad that I was gay but I was just a kid and I was scared you know of disappointing my dad." Dean could tell from the hurt in Seth's voice that he was telling the truth.

" The week after graduation I had been out to a party and Eric, that's the quarterback, had given me a ride home. When I got out of the car Eric had followed me and he turned me around and kissed me right in the middle of the driveway. I thought that it was safe because it was after three in the morning and everyone was asleep. So we madeout a little right there. I thought that everything was fine until I woke up the next morning and I heard my parents screaming at each other. I had never heard my parents really argue until then. So I went to their room to find out what the problem was and I realized that it was about me. My dad had gone to the bathroom during the time that I had gotten home and saw everything through the bedroom window. When my dad saw me he punched me so fast that I didn't see it coming. My mom had to pull him off. My dad told me to get out the house that he wasn't raising any damn fags under his roof and that I was defying God and that he couldn't live with that black mark on his soul. I asked my mom for help but she shook her head and said that she just thought that I was going through a phase and that I would grow out of it." Seth chuckled dryly. " A phase? Can you believe that's what she called it. Anyway I told her that it wasn't a phase and that I was gay. She said that she would ask the Lord to pray the gayness away from me. Can you believe it? They still think that being gay is a choice or some shit. My dad said that I had to get out of his house until I repented of my evil ways. So I packed my bags that Saturday morning and left the house that I had grown up in. I was eighteen and had twenty dollars in my pocket."

Dean was listening to Seth in silence as he opened about his life to him. " So what happened then? Twenty dollars couldn't have gotten you very far."

" It didn't." Seth said tightly.

" So what happened?" Dean nudged him gently.

" I don't want to talk about it Dean." Seth responded curtly.

" Come on Seth. I want to know you. All of you." He kissed Seth's temple.

" You're going to hate me just like my dad does." Seth replied meekly.

" Seth," Dean cupped Seth's chin gently this time. " I may get angry at you but I couldn't hate you."

" I hope so." Seth looked at him with so much trust in his eyes that it tugged at his heartstrings.

Seth took a deep breath before continuing his story. " The twenty dollars barely stretched until dinner time. The sun had set and I had no place to go. I couldn't stay by Eric unless I explained why I had gotten kicked out and with his dad being a staunch church goer like my dad I knew that I wouldn't be welcomed. So I was hanging around in the park wondering how I was going to get out of town and where my next meal was coming from when Big Mike approached me. Big Mike was the known town pimp so of course I had nothing to do with him until then. He asked me what a rich kid like me was doing in this part of town and since I knew my parents or their friends would never speak to him I told him what happened. He told me that I could stay with him for the night if I had no place to go. So of course I accepted because I didn't really want to sleep on a park bench."

" So he had a decent place above a bar and he gave me something to eat and told me that I could crash on the couch because it had a pull out bed. I woke up the next day to Big Mike touching my face and saying that I was pretty. I was a bit scared and he told me to relax and that I could make some money if I worked for him. I told him that I didn't do those sort of things so he said that I could go back out to the park and see who else would take me in because no one else wanted me. So I took my bag and left. I went to a payphone and used my last quarter to call home. My mom answered and said that she was worried about me. I asked her if I could come home and she said that I could once I forgot about this being gay business. I told her that I couldn't forget it that it was a part of who I was. She said that I couldn't come home then and hung up the phone. So I went back to Big Mike's. I was hungry and I needed money to eat." Seth grabbed Dean's hand tightly. " You have to understand Dean, I had no place left to go and no way to get out of town. It was a small town and I couldn't ask for a job at a regular store because of all of the questions it would raise and I was scared that if the wrong people found out that I was gay that they might try to hurt me. When I had told Big Mike that I was gay he didn't even bat an eyelid. So I went back Dean. He didn't say anything but he said that he knew a couple of men who would like to have their cocks in my mouths. After the first job I cried and Big Mike told me to stop being a sissy and threw some money at me. I stayed there for a week and saved as much as I could. I called home again and this time my dad answered and he told that he had heard about me and that the whole church was talking about me and that I had disgraced the family name. As far as he was concerned he had no son and that I was dead to him." Seth sobbed a bit and Dean held him tightly while his heart ached for him. He could tell that Seth hadn't healed as yet from his parents betrayl and he was still hurting. He had never imagined that his seemingly naïve, self absorbed boyfriend has been through so much dark shit in his life.

Seth brushed the tears away. " I was a whore Dean. I did whatever they wanted for money. But I didn't know what else to do."

Dean kissed Seth's cheek and tried to dry his tears with the bed sheet but Seth swatted away his hand. " No Dean. That's raw silk. You'll ruin it." He couldn't help but to smile to himself. His Sethie was still in there.

" So I had about five hundred dollars at the end of the week. I got my things from Big Mike, didn't even tell him that I was leaving. I went to the bus station and booked my ride to L.A. and I never looked back at Iowa." Seth turned to face Dean. " Now you know the truth. I was a whore."

" Oh Seth." Dean kissed his forehead. " You did what you had to do to survive. I can't judge you for that."

" So you're not going to leave me?" Seth gazed at him out of tear stained lashes.

" Nope." He kissed Seth's lips. " I love you."

" Even though I'm selfish?"

" Yes even though you're selfish." He kissed Seth again. " But you do know that Roman is not your dad and you owe him an apology. You really hurt him Seth."

Seth leaned back into Dean's embrace. " I didn't want him to forget about us."

" He isn't going to. Plus you need to tell him what you just told me."

Seth held up his head. " Why?"

" Roman needs to know because he deserves to know the truth just like me. Don't keep this a secret from him Seth. Roman loves you, trust me, he isn't going anywhere."

Dean planted kisses down Seth's neck that caused him to giggle. Seth rolled over on his back and Dean laid on top of him playfully nipping his skin. Seth laughed and pulled Dean up by his ears. He kissed Dean lightly on the lips. " I love you Dean."

Dean couldn't help but to blush when Seth said those words to him. He could tell by the soft look in Seth's eyes that he meant what he said. " I love you too baby boy." He covered Seth's mouth with his drawing him into a hot kiss.

When Roman stepped out of his bank after lunch, he was a millionaire. As soon as he had arrived at his office that morning a courier service delivered three boxes full of reports from the forty five accountants. The shortest reports were twenty pages long while the longest were about fifty. He was still sorting through them deciding where to begin when Wade showed up. He cut him a check for half of his promised fee plus the bonus for starting on Monday. He would receive the other half when he finished. Part of Roman was still skeptical so he took the check to the bank himself to cash it. When it went through he couldn't believe it. His bank account stood at around one and a half million dollars. He never had so much money in his life. As he made his way back to his office he decided that when he closed this account he had his boys would have to go somewhere luxurious and celebrate.

As Dean drove to work that evening he thought about what Seth had told him that morning. To his mind Seth's parents were assholes to put him through that but if it hadn't happened Seth wouldn't have wanted to get as far away from them as possible and move to L.A. If Seth had never moved to L.A. he would have never met and fallen in love with the spunky little brat. But Seth wasn't the only person owing someone an apology. He switched lanes on the highway deciding that he had to do the right thing. Seth had the night off and had promised to talk to Roman that evening. Dean hated that the tension between the two of them and was glad that things would be back to normal soon. He pulled up in front of the familiar bungalow and switched off the loud engine of the Mustang. He took a deep breath and got out of the car and walked up the driveway. He knocked on the door and waited.

Soon he heard the rustling chains being pulled away and locks being opened.

" What do you want?"

Dean stared at Drew through the half opened door. " I need to talk to you." The door didn't budge. " Drew please, I came to apologize."

Drew opened the door and Dean stepped inside. He looked around the familiar room when his eyes landed on three suitcase near the door. " You're going somewhere?"

" Yeah." Drew brushed his long blonde hair back from his face. " I'm leaving L.A."

" What?" Dean didn't see that one coming.

" Not that I owe you an explanation but I've got a modeling gig in Europe for a few months and if I like it, I just might stay there." Drew crossed his arms. " So you said something about an apology?"

Dean felt a bit overwhelmed at the news. He never thought for once that Drew would move away. " Um, yeah. I'm sorry." He looked Drew in the eye as he spoke. " I shouldn't have treated you the way that I did. I knew that you had feelings for me and I took advantage of that. It was a complete douchebag move on my part."

" It was." Drew's eyes were steady and unwavering. " I knew what I was getting into, well at least I thought I did."

" Yeah I shouldn't have walked out on you the way that I did. You really helped me through some tough times and you deserved better than that. I'm really sorry." Dean hoped that Drew could tell that he was being sincere.

" Well I guess it's water under the bridge now." Drew stated matter-of-factly.

" I guess. I really hoped that we could've still been friends but I guess it's too late for that now." A part of Dean wasn't ready to let go of his friendship with Drew he discovered.

" Yeah it's too late now." Drew replied in deep Scottish accent as he held the front door open.

Dean took the hint and walked through it, hearing a definite click as the door closed. A finality to that sound. Apologizing to Drew didn't bring the comfort that he had expected but what really had he expected from the man after the way he had treated him? A last kiss goodbye? As Dean got into his car and drove off, a part of him wondered if he was ever going to see Drew again.

A/N: Seth's past revealed... and finally the fate of Drew.