Work Text:
Lowery Cruthers was a loser. It wasn't a complaint or a self-loathing thought about himself; it was a fact. Up until now, Lowery had more or less lived quite well with that. Now, he was beginning to tire a bit of his loser life. Once again, he was crushing on someone oh-so way out of his league. Cool guys like Owen Grady never noticed losers like him. It wasn’t really a problem in itself. Lowery knew he had no chance and lived quite well like that. His fantasies and occasional daydreams were enough.
It was a kind of revolution when Owen “Cool Guy” Grady came to talk to him about the raptors’ cage when the rebuilding of the park started. Lowery loved dinosaurs since he was a boy, and was pleased to see that Owen’s affection for his raptors was genuine. He clearly loved his job and was more than happy to explain some of it to Cruthers.
Then Grady suggested Lowery come see the new raptors the park got. He had to pinch himself to believe it was actually happening, that the hottest and coolest man of the whole island was asking him, the nerdy loser of the control room, to come see raptors. Visits to the raptors with Owen became gradually more and more regular and at the end of the year, Caruthers always made a stop at the raptors’ after work.
Of course, it gave much more material to Lowery’s fantasies, but it was alright. He knew Owen was out of his league and he lived quite well with that. His crush had no romantic interest whatsoever in him, Cruthers knew that. Even if sometimes Grady took Lowery’s hand in his to pet the raptors, or it seemed to him that Owen’s touches lingered much more than necessary, or when he felt like feeling his crush’s eyes on him…
Or when Owen Grady suddenly kissed him, as Lowery was visiting the raptors.
Okay, so actually Lowery had it all wrong since the start and was actually not imagining things. Yeah, he really was a loser. But now, he was Owen’s loser.
And he lived more than quite well with that.