Notes: I've decided to cut the story shorter than I had originally intended, pretty much cutting out the entire second plot that was supposed to kick in half way through the story. I figure I'll put it on the back burner and it may return as a sequel after I've distanced myself from this story for a bit. I'm mostly doing this because I want to try writing out a full story before I post the first chapter. That way I can go through all the edits, proper plot building, etc. I can't do that though, until this is , yeah. Including this chapter there should only be about 3-4 chapters left.

Jake's grandma was a kindly woman, a hugger, much like Jake himself. She, however, lacked Jake's decorum and didn't hesitate to talk at length about the proper method of gutting a deer at the dinner table. She was sure to use vivid language, for Dirk's benefit, to make up for the fact that he couldn't see her wild gestures. The tone in Jake's voice suggested a deep dismay, Dirk remained silent and willed his stomach to hold onto the food he had just eaten.

"Grandma, that's enough, please."

"I'm just given the boy some information about hunting, not like he'll ever have the chance with his suburbanite family and you with your rejection of the old ways."

"I just reject the notion of senseless killing!"

"It's tradition."

"Tradition is nonsense."

"Yes dear, you made quite clear what you thought of family traditions at Christmas, unlike Jade." Jake let out a deep sigh while Dirk did not dare move. He felt as though he was a forgotten intrusion on a deeply intimate family moment. To bring attention to himself was a hazard he didn't want to face. "Well, I doubt your boyfriend wants to hear us bicker." She patted Dirk on the shoulder, making him jump. "So sorry, chap."

"He's not my boyfriend, I am his caretaker."

"I know you like to think that dear, but your endless blabbering at Christmas of this young fellow you got here, well that said something entirely different."

A question bubbled in Dirk's chest and out of his mouth before he could think. "He talked about me?"

"My, my! You wouldn't believe the things he had to say about you. Thought you was a rock star or something with the way he spoke. He did your looks justice though, surprised you don't have a hundred boys after you."

"Grandma, please, for the love of god."

"Now dear, you know I'm an atheist. And look at you blush, haven't seen you blush so hard since I found your girly magazines when you was a teenager."

Jake uttered a long drawn out sigh, from the sound of it, through muffled hands.

"Now, if you don't stop your pouting, I won't give you any of the springerle I brought with me." Jake chose to stay silent. "No pouting."

"I'm not." Jake was definitely pouting.

His grandmother let out her own exasperated breath before chuckling. Turning to Dirk, she clapped a hand on his forearm, "Always was a mope-r this one, be careful. Say one wrong thing to him and he'll sulk for days."

Dirk smiled, playing along, "Really? I thought he was more of a defiant action person. Whenever you say something he doesn't like he insists on doing the opposite."

"That, I'm afraid, he got from his sister. Jade was always the type of person to do the opposite of what she was asked. Taught him her ways, his teenage years were full of incidents like that."

"Really you two, I'm right here." Jake interjected.

"Pouters don't get to be included in the conversation." Said Grandma Harley.

Dirk listened for a while as the two bickered for the next two hours, there wasn't any malice in their voice, only teasing and feigned irritation.

As the three readied themselves for bed and the two boys headed for Dirk's room. "I thought you weren't together?" a wise, playful voice said, setting a small jolt through their nerves. Jake sputtered, trying to come up with a plausible, totally platonic reason for their sleeping arrangements, but only succeeding in making himself look like he was hiding something. Dirk chose to remain quiet.

Grandma Harley made a triumphant little sound and disappeared for a moment, reappearing before the two could escape into Dirk's room. "Hey!" The two spun around as Dirk heard a yelp and fumbling with items before they dropped to the floor. Jake was quick to pick one of the items up, but Dirk was able to grab the other before he could reach for it. A tube was in his hand, screw top and small, smooth surface and no obvious raised labeling or dents.

"What's this?" He asked Jake.

He could hear the brunette mutter almost inaudibly. "Lube."

"There you go blushing again. What? You think your grandma doesn't know about anal sex? It's a gift, your welcome. Night-night." Dirk couldn't see it, but he was sure she had winked at them before closing her door. His caretaker grabbed his wrist, his touch warm and firm, leading him into the bedroom.

As the two laid in bed, Jake's arm holding Dirk close, the blind male asked, "Jake?"

"Yeah?"

"You sure we're not in a romantic relationship?"

He felt the arm pull away and the warmth from his back fade. "We're not. If we were your sister would kill me."

"Again with my family. How about a decision with just me? Leave my family out of it."

"Dirk, if we're going to have this conversation, I'm going to my own room. I'm very tired. If you want to talk about this, we'll talk about it later." Begrudgingly, Dirk held his tongue and fell into a fitful slumber.

The morning was an endless flat expanse of silence, stretching on for eternity and leaving all involved with a desperate thirst for distraction. Jake, of course, was the one to provide an oasis. "So, grandma, we'll take you to Seattle Center tomorrow, I'm afraid I have some errands to run today. You're welcome to come with, I doubt it will be very interesting though."

"No dear, I think I'll stay here and get to know your boy-"

"-Employer" Jake cut her off. Dirk could hear her play with a spoon in her mug, the gentle clink of the metal against porcelain suggesting she was biding time until she could think of a suitable reply.

"Housemate." She finally settled. Unfortunately for Dirk, he missed a series of facial expressions. A silent conversation done with vague gestures, communicating Grandma Harley overstepping her bounds, and general frustration with Jake's demeanor. While Dirk could not see this exchange, the subtle sound of the two shifting in their seats and hands repeatedly lifting up and resting on the table gave him some idea. For the benefit of all, he chose to feign ignorance.

Once Jake was gone, Dirk sat on the couch, offering Grandma Harley use of the remote. They weren't five minutes into Judge Judy when the old woman asked her question. "So, really Dirk, how long of you two been going out?"

Dirk smirked. "We haven't."

"Oh I know that's what Jacob wants you to say. That boy, my stars, he'd keep snow a secret from polar bears if he could. Since he moved to the mainland he's become so cutoff. I don't understand it."

Dirk shifted, feeling the need to say something. "I think he's done some things he regrets. We don't really talk about his life before he started working here. Nothing outside of family or general interests anyway. I've spoken to my aunt about it, she's an…amateur psychologist. She suspects he over-compartmentalizes his life." Dirk chose to leave out the suspicion of trauma or regret as causes, apprehensive of insinuating misdeeds from the old woman.

"Hmm. So, you and him?"

Dirk to a deep breath. If Jake was going to use his family as a way to stay out of relationship, then Dirk would talk with HIS family. "I'd be lying if I said there was nothing between us. It's never really broken through the awkward stage though. Even our sleeping arrangements aren't what you think. All we do is sleep." As he spoke and listened to her non-judgmental silence, he felt as though he was under some sort of spell, like everything he had been feeling, everything he had held it, was just pouring out of him. He had a person right next to him that was clearly for their relationship, it was nice. "There was an attempt to….establish something, but Jake freaked out and it ended before it started." He felt his head droop, like he could suddenly feel the weight of the words and events that had happened over the past few months.

"That boy, I swear. Always, ALWAYS over complicating things. That's just his way dear. He either overcomplicates something until he destroys them or jumps in head first without thinking. I tell ya, when he was six, he helped his grandfather build a treehouse. Now, he didn't want girls in it, we told him he couldn't do that, that he had to let Jade in. So the boy looks at some old law books I had in my attic and puts together a contract for his sister to sign. Not that he knew what any of it meant. It was home mortgage templates, still he insisted she sign it. Then he asked me to read it to him, I made something up and he tried to change everything to suit what he wanted. By the end of the day he somehow managed to convince himself that Jade actually owned the treehouse." She laughed and continued. "Yet, only a few years later, when he was a teenager, he did so many stupid things. I can't tell you how many fathers came to our house with his collar in one hand and his camera in the other. He had no plan, tried to take pictures of girls changing in the afternoon. No forethought whatsoever."

Dirk felt himself smile and laugh a little. "So he was the peeping tom of the neighborhood?"

Grandma Harley laughed. "Yes, oh my, yes. At least, until his first little girlfriend. Well, I shouldn't call her little, she was sixteen. Broke his heart poor thing, they dated for maybe two months when he walked in on her and his best friend. Then he went through a couple of boyfriends, one moved away, the other was just as bad as his girlfriend. After that he'd only date people for a few weeks before breaking up with them." Grandma Harley let out a sad sigh, "Don't give up on him yet dear. He likes you, he was so smitten at Christmas, the way he talked about you. I haven't heard him talk about anyone like that in years. Just give him some time, alright?"

"Yeah, okay." The conversation moved on to less heavy topics, although still mostly about Jake. Dirk was able to learn that his caretaker had been a boy scout in his youth, the best at tying knots apparently.

"Envy of all his peers", his grandmother said. Dirk chose to tuck the information away for later and not think about the implications of it in that moment. Dirk also learned a variety of smaller things, Jake's love of Jack-o-lanterns and his intense fear of clowns. He learned that Jake was a highly competitive chess player when he was younger, although he gave it up when he entered into his teens. He also learned that Jake grew up without his parents, but inherited their spirit for discovery and adventure.

Jake arrived home later that night, suspicious of the sudden silence from his grandmother. As he and his charge lay in bed together he couldn't help but ask, "What did you two talk about while I was away?"

"You, mostly."

"What about me?"

"Let's just say I REALLY wish I could see you perform the bun-bun-hop dancing." Jake groaned while Dirk chuckled.

"I was three."

"She brought the video. Said it was the mandatory embarrassing child video. I listened to it, you sounded very energetic." He heard Jake groan and again and bury himself in his pillow.

"Do I even want to know what else?"

"That was probably the worst of it."

"Good." Jake maneuvered himself back into their standard cuddling position and they settled in for the night together.

"Oh, wait, Jake?"

"Yes?" Dirk turned around so he was facing Jake his hands reaching and finding his jawline. Something about the conversation today spurred something within him.

"What is it?"

"Shh." Dirk felt Jake tense under his touch, it was now or never. Dirk leaned in and kissed Jake, more than just a peck, but short enough so Jake couldn't pull away and refuse; before promptly turning back over to his original position. "Good night." He felt a small turbulence in the one beside him, the body growing a little warmer and after a few moments, Jake settled back into their traditional spooning position. The brunette's body was tense, however, he seemed adamant in holding Dirk close to him as they drifted into a sea of dreams.