Yale University
New Haven, CT.
Spring 2048
It had been his grandfather who had warned Scott.
"I don't know what's gotten into your parents' heads, Scott, thinking it'd be a good idea to ambush you two in the Bahamas," the holographic Grant Tracy shook his head on Scott's phone, "but you take that boyfriend of yours to your Mom's ranch, and have a nice quiet time with'im. When the time's right he can meet the family."
"Will do, Grandpa," Scott nodded gratefully, "thanks for the heads up."
A man of few words, Grant just smiled at his eldest grandson, and nodded before hanging up.
Scott stewed for a while before he went over Conrad's apartment.
"Change of plans, babe," Scott rumbled with little preamble, wrapping an arm around Conrad and steering them both to the couch,"we're going to Arizona for Spring Break. My family has a ranch there."
"O...kay," Conrad blinked, "why?"
"My Grandpa just called to warn me that my Mom and Dad decided to surprise us by meeting up with us," Scott rolled his eyes affectionately, "which would be fine if it were just them. A little awkward, but fine. But they were planning on bringing the whole family along, and he didn't think it was right to ambush you with the whole clan all at once."
"I think I love your Grandfather already," Conrad fervently said, looking like a man who had just dodged a bullet, "I want to meet your family..."
"But not some place you can't get away from," Scott pulled Conrad close, "yeah."
"And I gotta confess, I wasn't looking forward to having my birthday in a place where everyone would just use it as an excuse to party even more."
"Yeah, I...wait, birthday?"
"Errr, yeah," Conrad winced, and looked away shiftily.
"I don't know when your birthday is," Scott pulled away as he realized it.
"Hrmmm, yeah, it's, it's never been fun for me," Conrad shrunk in himself, "never had any of the, uhm, milestone things you're supposed to have," and that just made Scott want to hurt Conrad's legal guardians even more, "and well... in the U.S. at least, it gets...weird."
Scott raised a perplexed eyebrow.
"I was born on March 17th, Scott."
It took a moment for the penny to drop, then Scott smiled widely.
"And one word out of you with a faux Irish accent, Scottie, and I'm staying put here through Spring Break."
Scott stopped smiling for a moment, the pouted impishly.
"So no green beer?" the look Conrad gave him would have frozen lava, "no green beer, right," Scott laughed, pulling Conrad back close, "just a happy birthday, I hope."
Conrad snuggled into Scott's shoulder.
"This year, Scottie? It will be the first."
Author's note:
For anyone unfamiliar with colleges and universities in the USA, there's typically a vacation break mid-term in the spring term usually in the middle of March.