Chapter Text
The few trees that littered the campus of Backupsmore rustled as a strong wind wisped through bare branches. Students almost ran from class to class in an attempt to avoid the biting cold of the December air. Winter had arrived and it was prevalent in the weather as well as in the attitudes of the collegers. Most were happily going about, excited that within the next few days they were permitted to leave from the putrid college and go home for a couple weeks. Even though the vast majority of students were happy that they had to leave campus, a few, a small few, were saddened by this. One of those small few included Stanford Pines.
He dreaded any holiday time or break; for one thing, it was a waste of time! He could be getting so much work done in the time spent by others lazing around. Even though he hated that he would have lost time which could be spent studying or learning or improving upon his knowledge, what he really hated was that winter break meant he had to go home.
To his family.
Among all of the worst places, the Pines home had to rank around top three, only placing second to places like the ADX or Hell. Every family outing that Ford went on as a child ended up in disaster. Somebody would do something that would set his pops off and from there it only got worse. When pops started to cross the line between shouting, to screaming, to physical ministrations, that's when ma would intervene. She would tell the kids to get out of the car, (which is where the fighting would usually occur; never infront of public eyes; Filbrick would hate to cause a scene), where they would try to find something to do while they pretended not to hear the yelling match happening only a few feet away from them.
Ten minutes was the decider; if the fight went on past 10 minutes, the twins always knew that it was better to just walk home themselves, despite how far the walk back home was, because when their parent’s fight went past the ten minute mark, that either meant that the fight would last long enough to a point where it would become more practical to walk home themselves, or their pops would just yell out the car window to walk home and then drive off.
If the fight lasted less than ten minutes, that means that ma was victorious in convincing pops to calm down enough so that the small, broken family could have a painfully quiet ride home; quite but at least without yelling or violence.
When the family was at home or having a normal day, most of what the families respective members were doing was monopolized by Filbrick. Even Opal Pines was restricted from doing what she wanted to do sometimes because of him. Ford saw this and always wondered why his ma didn't just divorce him, but he never had the guts to bring it up to her.
All of these horrible behaviors performed by Filbrick occured throughout all of the years leading up to the night Stanley was expelled from the Pines home, (albeit it was not as though they stopped then; he was as much as a brute as ever, perhaps even more so after a teen Stanley was kicked out).
Because of all of this, Ford believes that he has decent reasoning as for why he doesn't want to venture home for winter break. However, despite the fact that the way Filbrick parented Ford and his twin was less than ideal, and even though all of the things that he did were horrible feats, there was still yet another reason to be added to the, unfortunately, growing list of reasons why Ford doesn't want to go home for winter break: Among all of Filbricks unagreeable viewpoints, his open conservativeness left Ford in a tizzy, particularly because Filbrick probably wasn't too keen on his son bring his boyfriend to stay with him in his childhood home.
Fiddleford had innocently suggested that he stay with Ford during winter break, not realizing that there is a snowball's chance in hell of that being an actual, feasible possibility. Ford loved him very much but knew that he couldn't just show up back at his home after avoiding visiting for months and say, “Hi pops, meet my very much gay boyfriend who will be staying with us during the break! Ha, ha…”
As soon as Fidds had suggested it, Ford had attempted to discreetly discourage the idea as best he could, making up petty excuses why it just wouldn't work out.
Among all of the Filbrick Problems™ pertaining to why it wouldn't work, there was also the fact the Ford was, indeed, a terrible liar. There was a 0% chance of him keeping Fiddlefords and his relationship a secret. If he was honest with himself, he knew it was because he was too much of a romantic.
Having a boyfriend in his youth was never really an option. With his father constantly keeping an eye on him, always appearing out of seemingly nowhere, Ford was never able to do anything without his permission or at least knowledge of its happening. This meant no dates, no stolen kisses, no boyfriends. Unfortunately for Ford, that also meant that he was coerced to go on forced dates with girls he hardly knew that were usually set up by Stanley, (though it wasn't his fault as Ford happened to avoid telling him of his preferences).
Because of this Ford, was never able to expresses his very sappy romantic side which only seemed all the more prevalent since he started dating. He could have sworn that the longer he dated someone, the sappier he became! Since this was currently happening in his relationship with Fiddleford, he knew that they were bound to get caught just because of Ford being so blatantly and obviously in love.
xxx
Currently, Ford and Fiddleford were walking back from their Advanced Mathematics and Quantum Theory class. Seeing as the college grounds were deserted, (whether this was because of the thick snow pouring down from the grey skies, or because most of Backupsmore’s stellar students had decided to skip class, Ford wasn’t sure), the closeted couple decided it was safe to hold hands.
It was quite romantic really, but also nauseatingly cliché of them, to have their hands joined together, Fords six fingers perfectly encasing Fiddlefords five, while strolling back to their dorm as snow falls around them, covering trees, buildings, the whole grounds in a delicate layer of fresh and untouched snow. Ford glanced over to his left where Fiddleford was watching in amazement as thin and crystal like snowflakes floated down from the sky. His nose and cheeks were flushed due to the cold, but his eyes were wide in awe.
“Wow,” he breathed, a little cloud forming in front of him from where he had whispered the word. Fidds glasses became slightly fogged as he tilted his head up marginally to watch in wonderment as the sky showered down thousands of perfectly crafted soupçons of snow. Stanford could've sworn that a snowflake even landed on one of Fidds delicate eyelashes, and he chuckled to himself. It was adorable how starstruck the man was by the sight of snow.
Upon realizing that Ford was quietly laughing to himself, Fiddleford looked over at his partner.
“What?” Fiddleford inquired with a questioning look on his face.
“Hmm? Oh, nothing,” Ford replied, face contorted in a lopsided smile, clear in his expression that there was something he wasn't letting on.
“No, no, you can tell me,” Fiddleford answered in turn, insistent to find out what Ford had found to be so funny, (though he already had his suspicions that it had something to do with him).
“Well, it’s just that,” Ford looked away from Fiddleford to finish his thought, not able to look Fidds in the eyes as he said something as mawkish as what he was about to say. “...you look really cute.”
Fiddleford rolled his eyes and attempted a feigned unimpressed look but the small smile that graced his features betrayed his thoughts. He ended up laughing as he looked over at Stanford, shaking his head.
“You sap,” he laughed. Stanford’s face now adorned a light red colour dusting over his cheeks, which was only in part due to the cold weather. He then cleared his throat and abruptly changed the subject, eager to divert some of the embarrassing attention called upon himself because of his over compensated lovesickness onto to something else, (and Fiddleford was kind enough to not bring light to him so obviously doing this).
“So Fiddleford, I know that you are very adamant about staying at my house for winter break bu-”
“Oh yes! I'm very excited to go!” Instead of Stanford finishing his earlier statement, he decided to query Fiddleford.
“Why is this such a big deal to you?” Stanford asked, genuinely wondering why he was so instrangient about this.
“Well,” Fiddleford started, “Our relationship, and what we have, isn’t really accepted in society, and because of that, we miss out on things that other couples do that appear mundane in nature but they are things I still wish we could do, like going to the movies, or refer to each other as anything other than just friends,” he sighed, watching the ground as an endless waterfall of snowflakes doted the earth, “Sometimes, I wish that we could have a normal relationship; one where people don’t care about the gender of the person we love,” upon realising the possible double meaning to these words, Fiddleford then worriedly glanced over to Stanford, a nervous smile flittering over his lips, “Not that there’s anything wrong with adjourning from the norm,” he gave Stanfords hand a squeeze, and Stanford nodded in understanding. Fiddleford gave him a small, real smile, then sighed before continuing. “It’s just, sometimes it would be nice to be able to do ordinary couple things, like hold hands in public, or meeting your partner's parents,” Stanfords eyes widened in realization, “We’ve been dating for awhile and I just thought that I should meet your parents, and you've already met mine and even though I wouldn't be introduced as your boyfriend, it would still be nice to become acquainted with them,” Fiddleford shrugged at the end of his explication.
Silence followed Fiddlefords words though it was not awkward. The silence was short lived and would have been pleasant if it was not for Stanfords mind running a million thoughts per minute.
When Ford had met Fidds parents all that time ago, (in truth it had really only been a few months ago, but, still), the meeting didn't feel in anyway similar to the feeling that one might expect to experience when meeting the parents of your partner. Instead, Ford had hardly realized the significance of meeting Avielle and Barley McGucket. That trip had been… interesting to say the least, (Fiddleford forgot to let Ford know that he told his parents about their relationship, so the whole time Ford was at the McGucket's he acted weird around Fiddleford, jumping at even the smallest amount of physical contact they made; even if it was because of Fiddleford accidentally bumping into him, he would freak out and act like he had been shocked. On top of that, Ford had started to watch some of the sports games on the small T.V. in the den with Fiddlefords father, Barley, while Fiddleford watched on, flabbergasted. Ford hated sports. When Fiddleford later asked Ford why he was acting so bizarre, and after Fiddleford had cleared everything up, Ford simply replied that he was trying to act like how, “a straight man would,” to which Fiddleford just shook his head and laughed lovingly at his ever so careful boyfriend and his attempts at being subtle).
For some reason, Ford felt as though everything would become a hundred times more real feeling if Fiddleford met with his parents. Right now, he felt as if as long as their relationship remained a secret, it would be okay, but if more people started finding out, it wouldn't. It was almost as if he were living in denial of something and he felt a bit crazy to be thinking in such a way. Despite how he felt, Ford really didn't want to let Fidds down; he seemed so happy about meeting them! Stanford continued to ponder all that he had said. Upon further contemplation, Stanford reluctantly decided that this wasn't something he could take away from Fiddleford; he deserved a bit of normality in his life; they were going to go back to New Jersey for winter break and Fiddleford was going to meet his parents. Besides, it was only fair.
“You know what?” Ford said, “It would be nice,” he looked over at Fiddleford who was now looking back at him, surprised. Ford gave an awkward half smile, to which Fiddleford took as him ‘approving of’ him staying in New Jersey, as well as meeting his parents.
“That’s wonderful!” Fiddleford turned to Ford suddenly, letting go of his hand and bringing them both up to Fords cheeks in one fluid motion. He held his face in his hands as he pulled him into a quick but passionate kiss.