Chapter Text
Kai wasn’t scared.
He’d survived an exploding volcano. He’d been to hell and back again. He’d fought the creature that was hell. And ghosts. And a snake army. And the living embodiment of evil. And a skeleton army. And a really really big snake…twice.
Compared to all of that, this was nothing.
So, no. Kai wasn’t scared.
He was fucking terrified.
Why had he agreed to this?! He could have said no! Jay totally gave him an out!
“Ughhhh,” Jay groaned upon reading the letter that had just been delivered for him.
Kai leant into his boyfriend, partially so he could see what Jay was reading, and partially as an excuse to press a kiss to Jay’s cheek. “Mm? What is it?”
“So I uh…” Jay sighed, “After everything with Morro, I told my parents that we were dating, right?”
Kai hummed again, to show he was listening, but really his mind started to wander. Jay got letters from his parents all the time. It wasn’t that unusual. They liked sending him physical mail, or if they were somewhere without a signal it was just more convenient. Kai brushed it off and contented himself with laying kisses down the exposed column of Jay’s neck, relishing in the coolness of his skin. Maybe after this, they could-
“They want us to come over for dinner so they can properly meet you,” Jay eventually got out, sounding disgruntled. “It’s a dinner invitation. They even sprang for the fancy paper.”
Kai froze, his mouth half-open against Jay’s jugular.
“W-what?” He stammered, caught off guard. He pulled back enough to look Jay in the eye.
“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to!” Jay was quick to reassure him, likely clocking the panic in his face. “I dunno why they want us to go all the way there. They’ve already met you so-”
“N-no…” Kai said, stamping down the fear rising in his chest. “We should go. It’ll be fun.”
Jay eyed him dubiously. “Are you sure? It’s okay if you don’t want to. I know my parents can be a bit…much.”
“No, yeah, it’ll be good! Great, even!” Kai put on a big smile he hoped was convincing, knowing full well that Jay could see right through it. “I can’t wait.”
They, somewhat unfortunately, took the Ghost Taker GT, meaning that Jay was driving while Kai could only sit in the passenger seat and stew in his own thoughts. Jay tried engaging him in conversation multiple times, but he was too lost in his own head to really answer outside of a few ‘uh-huh’s and vague noises. Kai could tell that Jay knew something was wrong, but he mercifully didn’t ask.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like Ed and Edna, he 100% did! They were kind, generous, and they knew how to make the best of a bad situation. They also loved Jay to the moon and back. They were perfect parents!
The issue was that Kai had absolutely no idea what to do with that!
From the time he was six, Kai grew up with a deep mistrust of adults. During his childhood, too many of the adults in Ignacia either pitied him, trying to get him to accept handouts, or took advantage of him, charging him double for groceries whenever they thought they could get away with it. They were all against him, and he’d learnt early that the only person he could depend on to get things done was himself.
He’d had to grow up pretty fast, taking care of both himself and Nya, and he’d done it all on his own. It had been lonely, and he still carried some of the scars of his past, but he’d done it. He didn’t need parents. He could survive on his own!
But now he had to meet his boyfriend’s incredibly doting and loving parents and try to convince them he was a good match for their son.
Shit.
Jay was singing along to whatever song was on the radio, and Kai tried to let that distract him instead. Jay’s tenor dipped and rose, and every now and then he’d look over at Kai with that grin of his that made Kai’s insides feel like jelly. Kai would go to the ends of the earth if it meant Jay was happy. He’d taken a knife to the gut for the other man. He could do this…he could do this…
Jay pulled them up right outside the junkyard and cut the engine.
“Okay, do you have the- Kai?!”
Kai was distantly aware that he’d started crying when they’d stopped. It was super embarrassing, but he was already overwhelmed and Jay was just…so pretty…he didn’t want his inability to meet Jay’s parents to end their relationship. Jay probably thought he was overreacting. Jay probably pitied him…but he was just so terrified of messing this up. He sniffed and wiped at his face, spreading the tears and snot all over his skin. “I-I’m fine. Let’s just-”
“Kai…” Jay said, his hand coming to Kai’s wet cheek, gently holding Kai’s head in his palm. Kai pressed into it, melting a little from his boyfriend’s touch. “We don’t have to go inside if you don’t want to, or if you’re not ready, okay?” His thumb wiped an errant tear off of Kai’s cheek. “Do you want to go home?”
“I dunno…” Kai mumbled, looking down at Jay’s lap. “I just…I don’t know how to act and I don’t know what they’ll think of me and…I don’t want to ruin this. Ruin us.”
Jay sighed, but it wasn’t unkind. It was almost fond. “You’ve been hanging around me too much,” he said with a smile in his voice. “Kai, it’s just my parents. If anyone should be worried, it’s me. My mom probably already has the baby books locked and loaded.” He shuddered for effect. “You know they already love you… I’ve...uh...I've kind of been talking about you nonstop. My mom was pestering me before we got together about when I was gonna confess to you because she wanted a son-in-law.” Jay chuckled.
“I know, I just…” Kai shrugged lamely, but he couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth at Jay's words.
“I’m right here with you, okay?” Jay’s thumb rubbed over his cheekbone. “We can turn around and go home if you want. Or we can stay and have pistachio fluff salad with my parents. It’s up to you.”
Kai’s face screwed up in confusion. “I’m sorry, what kind of salad?”
“You’ll see.” Jay rolled his eyes, amused.
“Okay…” Kai said softly, taking a deep breath. “We can go in…”
“Mm,” Jay hummed, a sly smirk making its way across his face as his other hand came across the console of the car to Kai’s other cheek. “But see, now I want a kiss, and I am not kissing you in front of my parents.”
Kai’s eyes flicked to Jay’s lips as he licked his own, smiling. “Then I guess I have to make this one count, huh...”
Jay made a soft noise in the back of his throat, almost like a whine, and then he was leaning over and pulling Kai at the same time until their mouths met.
Kai loved kissing Jay. It was very quickly becoming his favorite pastime. Everything Jay did, he did with a level of enthusiasm that was hard to match. Kissing Kai was not an exception to that rule. Jay put his whole heart into kissing him, pressing against him desperately as Kai’s hand came up to grasp Jay’s. Kai was the first to tilt his head, trying to lock in the seal they had on each other’s lips, and Jay groaned, his mouth falling open in invitation. An invitation Kai took.
Not only was Jay enthusiastic with his physical affection, he was also damn talented with that mouth of his. Kai didn’t believe he was only the second person Jay had kissed, it just didn’t make sense. He should not be this good with his tongue…but Kai was far from complaining. His own groan was ripped out of his throat, swallowed up by Jay’s mouth that kept attacking him hungrily.
Kai was just about to climb over the console and sit in Jay’s lap, if only to be closer to him, when…
Knock Knock Knock
Jay pulled back with a gasp, eyes huge. The two of them whipped their heads to Jay’s window where both of his parents were standing. Edna waved, a bright smile on her face, while Ed gave them both a knowing, but happy, look.
“Oh my goooooddddd,” Jay immediately went as bright red as one of Kai’s gis and Kai could feel a small fire spark at the tip of his largest spike.
Jay slapped his hands over his face and tried to sink down into his seat in an attempt to escape his parents’ gazes. “This is it. This is how I die. The embarrassment is too much. This is worse than the pillow. Kai, I love you. Remember meeee.”
Kai wasn’t doing too hot himself. He just stared at the Walkers like a deer in the headlights. He’d been nervous enough about meeting them officially as Jay’s boyfriend, and now he’d been caught aggressively making out with their only child.
Oof.
“Come on inside, you two!” Edna called through the rolled-up window. “Dinner’s all ready! I made tater tot casserole!”
Jay grumbled and sank further in his seat as Kai just blinked at the Walkers.
“I…uh…what’s a tater tot casserole?” Kai called, feeling stupid but very unwilling to discuss the way he’d just had his tongue shoved in Jay’s mouth.
Edna gasped, scandalized by his question.
“Well, come on in and find out!” Ed laughed.
“You two take as much time as you need though! It’s sitting in the oven whenever you’re ready!” Edna winked at him and Kai swore he felt his soul leave his body in horror. She started pushing her husband back towards the entrance to the junkyard
“Jay…we should probably go in,” he muttered to his puddle of a boyfriend.
“Yep,” Jay confirmed, starting to shimmy his way back into a sitting position. He was still beet red. “It’ll only be worse if we don’t. I’m never gonna hear the end of this though…damn.”
Kai, despite his own mortification, smiled at Jay. Ed and Edna Walker had made the man he loved who he was. And Jay was pretty wonderful. If Jay could accept him, flaws and troubled upbringing and all, then maybe his parents would too…
After all, nothing would be as embarrassing as what had just happened…right?