Chapter Text
“Sooo, uh, what do you… do with your time?"
“Oh, I’m a pediatric dentist.”
“No, I know that, I meant, uh,” This sucked. Tucker had zero things in common with these parents at this School for Gifted Children that had scouted Junior earlier this year. Most of them barely gave him the time of day, but this guy, Oliver Dakota, was insistent on staying the entire time his kid was hung out with Junior. After multiple false starts, Tucker shamefully ducked away for a second to look up ‘HOW TO TALK TO OTHER DADS REDDIT’ and found, “I meant, what do you do with your free time?”
“Oh,” North smiled warmly at the other man, then looked back to the door to Junior’s room. Left open a crack— he would have preferred it to be open all the way, but Lavernius had insisted the kids be given privacy. He seemed like a genuine and nice man, if a little awkward. North appreciated him and Theta being allowed into his home. Still, he wasn’t that interested in talking; compromising on the door meant he needed to keep a closer ear out for if Theta needed him. “I don’t really have much free time. With a kid and work, it’s like two full time jobs. But it’s all worth it for Theta.”
“Right.” God, this guy was giving Tucker nothing. Every single topic went back to Theta. And Tucker loved his kid, but being a single dad meant so much of his life was already dedicated to him. If he was talking to another adult he at least wanted to talk about something adult for once. “You gotta do something with your time, though. You into sports?”
“Haven’t really kept up with any lately. Theta was on the soccer team when they were younger, but we’ve decided to focus on academics in middle school.”
“Okay… Watched any good TV lately?”
“I mostly just catch snippets of whatever cartoon Theta has on.”
“……Do you play games?”
“Oh, Theta had me join them in playing a little farm game— what’s it called, star, starting… ‘Starting Farming?’ No, no, it’s definitely ‘star’… ‘Starry Farmy?’”
“Stardew Valley?”
“That’s it! Do you play it? It’s very cute.”
“Yeah, uh, not, really my type of game. What about stuff you do without your kid?”
“Ah,” That was kind of a strange question. Most conversations North had with other parents were all about their kids— mostly trying to constantly one up the other’s accomplishments. To ask about things that he did without Theta? Why did he even care about that? “Well, I read alone?"
“Awesome! What are you reading?” Tucker didn’t give a shit about books, but he would grasp onto literally anything this dude was offering.
“Mostly child psychology books. Though lately it’s been a lot YA novels. I try to read things Theta is interested before they do so we can have discussions about them. And to make sure there’s nothing too inappropriate for their age.”
Tucker was stunned. This guy could not be serious. Was everything about his kid? “Don’t you do things with your friends?”
“Ahh,” North’s smile got a little tighter. “We had to move away from my hometown a few years ago; the schools there weren’t great for Theta, and then they got accepted here…”
“You haven’t had friends for years?”
“I have friends.” North was taken aback. What kind of person asked something like that so bluntly?
“But you don’t spend time with them.”
“I… see them often enough. When I visit home. For the holidays.” North didn’t know why he felt so defensive over this.
“Do you…” Tucker hesitated, not wanting to overstep with a guy he barely knew but also fucking floored at what this dude’s life seemed to be, “do anything for yourself that isn’t about your kid?”
North balked. “Of course I do! And, the- this question is flawed. Taking care of Theta is something I do for myself.”
“You can’t just only live for your kid, dude. There’s shit you gotta do without them.”
North twitched a little at the swear word. “There’s nothing I want to do that I would need to exclude Theta from.”
“What about sex?”
“SHHHHH!!” North panickedly looked over at the door, “Lower your voice if you’re talking about that!” He half yelled, half whispered.
“Dude. Does your kid not know about sex yet??” Tucker asked, not lowering his voice even slightly.
“Of course Theta knows what sex is!” North said, still whispering. “Teaching age appropriate sex education is incredibly important to a child’s understanding of their own body and safety. Theta knows exactly what leading child psychologists recommended an 11 year old knowing.”
“Okay.” Jesus Christ. This dude needed help bad.
North frowned. He could feel the judgement coming from Lavernius. Other parents always thought they could butt into situations that didn’t concern them. “I do not need your input on how I take care of my child.”
“I don’t care about how you take care of your kid, man, I care about how you take care of your you.”
“What?” North had no idea what he meant by that.
“Have you had sex a single time since Theta was born?”
“What?!” Seriously, how could he just ask something like that?
“You know what, not even sex. When was the last time you jerked off? Please tell me you’ve had an orgasm in the past decade.”
“This- this is a highly inappropriate conversation to be having with our kids in the other room” North had no idea how they ended up here, but he desperately wanted to move on.
“Not even once?”
“I don’t want Theta to overhear this conversation.”
“They’re playing a game, they’re not gonna hear, trust me. Kids don’t listen to their parents talking even when you want them to, they don’t give a shit what adults say to each other.”
“Theta listens to me.”
“Uh huh.” They needed to move away from the topic of their kids. Tucker needed to help this man. “Listen to me, man. I need you to do something for me.”
“What?”
Tucker grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes. Or at least, he tried to. God, this man was way too fucking tall. And actually looking into his eyes— Jesus, they were piercing. Tucker didn’t think this kind of blond hair blue-eyed motherfucker actually existed. Terrifying.
“Tonight, when you go home, once you do whatever weird nighttime ritual you do to put Theta to bed,” Oliver started to make a noise in disagreement but Tucker pushed past it, “I need you to go to your room. I need you to be alone. I need you to get comfortable. And I need you to jack off.”
North had no fucking idea how to respond to that.
“Trust me. I have a friend, his girlfriend died, right? And for like a year afterwards he was so fucking miserable. Until one day I was like, ‘You NEED to blow off some steam, if you know what I mean. Bow chicka bow wow.’ Next day he was like a new man.”
“I don’t. know.“ North thought there were probably some other reasons his friend may have been miserable, there.
“I know, you’ve been out of the game, you don’t know how to find good porn. I got you, I’ll send you some.”
“I wasn’t—“
“I got you.” Tucker was already pulling out his phone, thinking of some good beginner porn he could send Oli’s way. “What are you into? You seem kinda vanilla but sometimes vanilla looking chicks are into the weirdest shit, y’know?”
“That’s— I don’t— this isn’t— I’m. Gay.” That wasn’t really something North tended to share with other parents, but they were so far outside of the kinds of conversations he tended to have anyway, any normal ways to respond had completely left his brain.
“You’re—” Tucker looked him up and down. Huh. Maybe he should’ve been able to guess that. “Uh. That’s fine. I have gay shit I can send you.”
“You have gay shit.” Right. Okay. North was pretty sure he just swore for the first time in years. What the fuck was happening?
“Yeah, y’know, I’m… uh, it doesn’t matter what I am. But I can get whatever you want.”
“Okay.” Okay. North’s brain was starting to catch up to where they were. Was Lavernius… flirting with him? Was this what flirting was now? He was so lost.
He should probably set a boundary.
“I… do not want you to send me porn.”
“Okay,” Tucker said, putting his phone back in his pocket. “You got it handled yourself?”
“Yes, I,” North let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, “I can handle myself.”
“Good. ‘Cause the shit you were saying before was sad, man. I know we barely know each other but, c’mon, single dads gotta have each others backs, right?”
“Yeah, um. Thanks.”
“No problem.” Tucker smiled at him.
North liked his smile.