Oscar 4
Oscar had only ever been to New York City six times; each time had been a fly-in, fly-out trip. Most of the time, he flew in and out on the same day. So, when Ellen accidentally double-booked herself and needed Oscar to make a speech at the DNC, on her behalf, he jumped at the opportunity and carved out a block of time to spend with Alex and Henry, now that his son lived in Brooklyn. He had never been interested in or had the opportunity to explore New York City and its sights, until now.
Alex had suggested the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty to start with, and despite Henry's groans, the British ex-pat had actually enjoyed himself. As evidenced by the photos, he had taken on his cell phone of the boys with the New York skyline behind them, from the top of the Empire State Building. Being in the moment, with the boys and seeing them as they are; young and free, was everything to Oscar.
When it came time to visit the Statue of Liberty, Oscar wholeheartedly enjoyed the banter between Alex and Henry. As Henry told Alex the story of how the United States had come to acquire the Lady Liberty, in what sounded to Oscar's ears like perfect French, he could practically see his son swooning. It wasn't lost on him, the look of love passing between them. Occasionally, a fan would approach one of them and ask for a photo. But for the most part, they were genuinely, in their own little bubble. Of course, Cash and Amy hovered nearby, alongside Henry's PPOs. But they did so in a way that was unobtrusive, and Oscar felt as if he wasn't being watched at all.
They stopped for lunch at what Alex described as the quintessential New York experience, getting burgers and shakes from a place ironically called the Crown Cafe. Henry had enjoyed the irony of that and encouraged Oscar to try it. He claimed he even enjoyed the food. Best of all, it was right at the terminal for the ferry, so they didn't have to walk far afterward.
After seeing the majestic statue up close, Henry suggested they save some more sightseeing for another day. Oscar was more than happy with that decision, knowing he could even sneak in some downtime. He knew that Alex, surely, would have some studying to do, and no doubt Henry had work to do too. With a nod from Henry to Amy and Cash, they were quickly and efficiently whisked away by car, back to the Brownstone that Alex and Henry called home in Brooklyn.
With a nod and a grin to the boys, Oscar excused himself and headed upstairs to the guest room he was staying in. He wanted to take a short rest. Not that he was too tired, but the time difference was barely noticeable. Just that it had been an exhausting day, and he was tired from traveling for the past two days.
Seeing Oscar excuse himself and head to the bedroom he was staying in, Alex raised his eyebrows in surprise. Henry had been just as perplexed. To both of them, Oscar had always seemed to have boundless energy, much like his son. "I think I will have a lie down for a bit." Had been Oscar's parting words.
"What do you have to do this afternoon?" Alex asked his boyfriend, his eyes wide and bright, and a full grin on his face. "Can I tempt you into playing hooky with me?"
"Mmm." Henry moaned as he sidled up beside Alex in the downstairs living room. Alex was leaning against the arm of the sofa, his backside perched on the arm of the sofa. A small push would be all it'd take to lay Alex out flat beneath him. And that's just what happened when Henry shoved him playfully. Just as he had done in his bedroom at the White House, the evening of the State Dinner with the UK's PM.
Before Alex could get his bearings, Henry was already climbing over the arm of the sofa, onto him, letting their legs tangle in the process. His lips met Alex's with surprising force, kissing him without warning. Henry's hip bearing down on Alex's as Alex's met his with equal fervour.
Breaking the kiss off, Alex looked up at Henry through hooded eyelashes, "Hey Baby." Alex cooed with a wide grin. The one that made Henry melt. "I've missed you."
Those three words from Alex almost did Henry in. He had swamped with work and travel. Pez had been unwell with the flu for the last two weeks. Before that Pez had been travelling, setting up two new shelters. One in Seattle and one in Portland, different states, but a drivable distance between the two of them.
"I've missed you too, darling." Henry whispered huskily, against the shell of Alex's ear. Alex's hands were roaming the expansiveness of his back, through his shirt, while Henry's hands were untucking Alex's shirt and his thumb had popped open the front of his jeans in their pursuit. Henry's hands were wanton, they wanted to touch Alex's skin, to set it ablaze with desire.
"Fuck." Alex panted thrusting his hips into Henry, as Henry's hands touched the skin of his hips. Their hard, cloth covered groins meeting and grinding.
"Darling," Henry cooed softly, grinding himself against the feeling of Alex's hard body against his own. "We need to either go upstairs or into one of our offices, downstairs." Henry's breath was tickling the hair against Alex's ear, sending shivers down his body. "We have a guest, and I don't think our guest wants to see this if they come out of their room."
"Baby," Alex huffed, grinding himself on Henry's thigh. Alex reattached his lips to Henry's and annunciated each word with a kiss. "Stop. Talking. Keep. Kissing. Me. Missed. You." Henry licked into his boyfriend's mouth and let his tongue tangle with Alex's in their own dance. Henry met Alex's thrusts with a grind and enjoyed hearing the delicious sounds he was pulling from Alex's mouth. It was true too; they hadn't had much alone time together recently. Between Alex's school, the shelter, his First Son commitments and Henry's London duties, they'd barely be lucky to fall into the same bed each night.
"Do you boys want -" Oscar spoke as he entered the living room, cutting himself off. The couple on the sofa sprang apart in such a comical way, it would have amused him, if not for the secondhand embarrassment he was feeling.
The sight of his son laying back against the sofa, looking completely debauched and panting hard, while Henry was now on the other side of the room. Both men panting, their breaths haggard and fast, their hair completely messed up and both of their skin flushed, their lips swollen.
"Ah, sorry." Oscar tried again. "I was coming to see if you boys felt like some pozole for dinner. I was thinking of making some."
"Sounds great." Alex said softly, between breaths. He was deliberately not looking Oscar or Henry in the eyes, feeling embarrassed. Not at who he was with or what he was doing, but at having gotten so carried away and having been caught, with his pants wide open.
"Great." Oscar smiled, but relieved when the sound of a cell phone ringing interrupted what could have been a quite awkward and tension filled silence between them. Realizing it was his, Henry stammered out an apology and headed downstairs into his office. The sound of the office door clicking closed, echoed up the stairs and Alex was on his feet.
"Look Dad, about that ..." Alex started, as he sat up and tucked himself back in buttoned up his jeans before sitting up. "We don't usually ... we're sor-"
"Alex, I am not going to tell you how to behave in your own house, Mijo." Oscar interrupted him. "Never apologise for being so in love with your partner, or for showing them that love. But do try to remember that you're in a shared space and you have a guest."
"Sor-"
"Don't fuckin' apologise to me, either." Oscar retorted in a huff. "I know how much you love Henry, and how hard you two fought to love one another." Oscar chastised his son. "Now how about that pozole?"
"Hell yeah." Alex said, meeting his father in the kitchen.
Alex pulled out the stock pot and Oscar began to ready the ingredients that Alex was getting out of the refrigerator. Alex couldn't help but compare Oscar's reaction to seeing him and Henry kissing to his mom's, last month. Oscar had been all cool about it, with just a gentler reminder about guests and public spaces. His mom had been more about keeping his hands to himself in shared spaces, before launching into a lecture about the appropriateness of making out in the utility room.
"Mijo?" Oscar asked, breaking into Alex's comparative thoughts. He had noticed that Alex still wasn't meeting his eye when they spoke. Alex still seemed tense, and Oscar wasn't entirely sure that Alex was comfortable showing Henry any kind of affection. "Is everything ok?"
"Yeah." Alex said, trying to dismiss him. He was sure that whatever was going to come out of his father's mouth next, he wasn't going to like. It always happened when he spoke with his mom, so he was expecting it when he spoke with his dad. His parents, although divorced, they were both, always on the same wavelength.
"Mijo, there's nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about; loving Henry the way you do." Oscar said tentatively, setting the knife down from where he was slicing the cabbage up. he purposely waited until Alex looked up at him, catching him in the eye. "I've noticed that you aren't as affectionate with henry as you usually are, when I am around. June and Nora, and Leo and your Ma, they all tell me you can't stop touching him, when they're around. But when I am here, you barely hold his hand. It's ok to love Henry, to kiss or touch Henry in my presence, it's ok. I am ok with it. Just maybe, keep it PG-13 in the shared areas while you have visitors."
"It's not that I am embarrassed or that I am ashamed of Hen..." Alex trailed off, before finding his voice once more. "Henry and I feel like you might feel uncomfortable, seeing us like that, so we ..."
"I feel now is a good time to mention how ridiculously thin the walls are at the lake house." Oscar commented, dryly. "Don't make things awkward by suppressing your love for him, thinking I am uncomfortable with the two of you being affectionate. I am happy, seeing you happy. You're blissfully happy with Henry, even if he is a colonizer." Oscar finished with a wink.
"Are the walls really that thin?" Alex asked, horrified. That had been all that he had taken from Oscar's reminder.
"Oh yeah." Oscar laughed at them. "In your defence, I am sure all of that Shiner and Tequila the two of you consumed didn't help with keeping the noise level down. 'Shh, Hen. Dad will hear us. ... Oh, fuck, Hen, Baby. C'mere.' Dad did indeed hear you two."
Alex wanted to die of embarrassment right there, dissolve into a puddle and absorb into the floorboards of their kitchen floor.
June had called Oscar after dinner to check in and see if he was ready for the spare key. She reminded him, that they could overnight it to him, so he could get away from Henry and Alex's brownstone, if it was all too much. "We all know they can be too much, at times." June had told him, before. The last time that she'd called him. Just two days ago.
"CJ, Mija, tread lightly." Oscar admonished his daughter lightly. "Comments like that aren't helpful."
"It's true, though. The two of them are always touching one another. It's gets to be too much, sometimes." She argued with him. Up until a year ago, she'd thought it would have been impossible to argue with her father. June had always been close to her father. But lately, she had found herself sparring vocally with him more than once. June was always the one who defended Alex, but she had always complained to her dad about Alex. Recently, she'd found that their father was a little bit more protective and defensive of Alex. She could almost narrow it down to when Alex had come to terms with his bisexuality. "Look Nora and I love one another, just as much as Alex and Henry, but we aren't all over one another, like that. We don't shove our affections in people's faces, we keep our physical affection behind closed doors."
"Catalina June Claremont-Diaz." He chastised her, letting the tone of his voice convey the severity of his tone. "You are old enough to know that what works for one couple, isn't always the same for someone else's. I am sure you're familiar with what a love language is. While yours and Nora's might be one thing, Alex and Henry's is another. Who are you to judge them? They don't judge you."
"You have to admit, it can be a bit too much. Especially when they're in their own home." June argued, trying to make her father see reason. She knew but could barely admit to herself, that this issue had more to do with her not wanting Alex to be their father's favourite child, and less to do with how affectionate Alex and Henry are. She couldn't admit to herself that she didn't like that their father was suddenly protective and more observant about Alex.
"What Alex and Henry do in the privacy of their own home is their business." Oscar snapped, getting fed up with June's attitude. He couldn't understand why CJ was blowing this out of proportion, or what her problem was. "The luxury of being a guest in your brother's home is, if you don't like something that's happening, you can leave."
"Dad, you know that I love Alex and I am always the first one to defend him..." June tried again.
She had dismissed it at first, Oscar's more protective interest in Alex's life. it wasn't like Oscar was a neglectful father to Alex, but June had always been his favourite child and that had been clear. It had evened out though, because their mom had made Alex her favourite child. But lately, it had seemed as if the battlelines had redrawn themselves and suddenly the poles had shifted. Alex was slotting into Oscar's graces more, becoming his favourite child. While June and Ellen's relationship had begun changing too, she had been getting closer with her mom, and helping her mom out more with speechwriting and her media connections. She always used to get on her brother's case for becoming too involved in their mom's career, but June had been doing just that. Meanwhile, simultaneously, Alex had been pulling back from politics and their mom's career.
"Maybe you need a refresher on love languages and what they are. I have to go." Oscar hung up. He couldn't believe he had hung up on his own daughter. He had been getting frustrated and angry with her. He knew June, like Nora, got tunnel vision from time to time and the only way to snap her out of it was to shock her.
Oscar also had to admit to himself that a lot of June's attitude, was his fault. He had always indulged her; she was his only daughter. He claimed to not have a favourite child, but he knew he wasn't fooling anyone. Everyone had always been able to see it, June had been his favourite child. When he looked back on his children's childhood, he realized that Alex had only gotten swept up and involved in it, because it was a way for him to feel like he mattered. A way to make him feel like he was seen, from within June's shadow. His behaviour was moist likely the reason why Alex had such a larger-than-life personality.
Oscar quickly typed his thoughts into his phone, as not to forget them. He was going to bring up this train of thought with his therapist at their next appointment. But for now, he will file it away until he can speak to his own therapist about it.