gay90s | where the heart is

Gideon had woken up a while ago and had been rummaging around in his room when he heard Holden's voice. At first, he froze, worried he had been caught doing something he shouldn't but the tone wasn't yelling or mean, it was nice. Friendly. He looked around once more and then walked up to the door, pushing it open so he could look at Holden. "It's sunny today."

He smiled shyly and eyed up the bathroom curiously before he looked at Holden again, wondering what they had planned for today. Chores? TV? Garden time? He had no idea and it made him anxious.

"Can we watch TV?"

"Yeah, we could start with a bit of TV." Holden held his hand out to Gideon, deciding that he had to go slowly hear. Make sure there was some kind of familiarity and also that Gideon felt as if he could influence what was happening a little. "Did you sleep well? You were out like a stone yesterday."

An adorable stone, but still. Didn't even stir when he took him upstairs. "How about we sit and watch another episode of Turtles and then we make a bit of a plan for today?"

"It's Postman Pat time. On BBC, every morning. I watch it when I'm allowed." And he wanted to watch that more than turtles or any other super cool VHS. He had a single focus when it came to TV and if Holden had a Postman Pat VHS, he would be watching it all day if he could. "It's nice because he gets to drive a red van and then he gives mail to all of the nice neighbours in the village."

He would love to be a postman. He always thought it seemed like a good idea. "I watch it with cereal." Hint, hint. "My mom always had cereal and I can pour the milk all by myself." He wasn't allowed cereal in his last home, it caused quite a few fights in the morning.

"Yeah? Then we should see about getting some cereal with our Postman Pat time." Holden took Gideon's hand, noting the Postman Pat interest again. He would definitely have to make use of that for more encouragement. For now he walked into the kitchen with the boy, which he hadn't properly been in so far. He picked Gideon up and sat him down on the counter, than he showed his choices of cereal.

"I have this chocolate one, I have the boring healthy one and I have porridge. Do you want the chocolate one? You can pour the milk." Of course.

"Chocolate, yes." Chocolate was the best. He took the box so he could look at the mascot and looked at the back to see if there was any games there. Alas, none, but they did have funny monkeys on it so he was happy enough. He let Holden bring him the milk and hold it tight with two hands, pouring slowly and doing a pretty good job. He handed it back safely and picked up his spoon, putting it in.

"Ready!" He smiled at Holden, happy to have cereal, happy that he could ask for something and actually get it. "Are you gonna watch with me?"

"Yeah! I'll also have cereal with you." That said, Holden was already pouring some cereal and milk for himself. Then he picked up the two bowls and nodded. "Lead the way to the couch, my bonny boy! It's time for Postman Pat."

What a great start into the day. Holden sat down next to Gideon and handed him his bowl, then he turned on the television until he found Postman Pat. Ah, yes. Exactly what Gideon wanted. "Do you know this episode?"

"No, I fell behind cause I couldn't watch for forever. So I don't know what Pat is doing right now. I think he's delivering post." Well, duh. But he was young and excited so making sense of it didn't register with him. He ate his cereal and watched as Postman Pat's van got stuck in the mud and he had to find himself out of the jam and get the letters where they needed to be.

Riveting stuff for a young boy, who finished his cereal and watched with wide eyes, flailing his hands when Pat finally got out of the mud. "He's going to deliver his letters!"

"Wow, all of them? How diligent." How was this not the most precious and pure boy in the world? Gideon was so adorable, Holden had no idea how to handle it. He wanted to cuddle him close and hug him tightly, but obviously he didn't want to scare him off. Had to handle this with care. "Maybe one of the things we can do today is write a letter to send to someone."

Sounded like a fun activity. "Are you also up to meeting the chickens after Postman Pat time? Because they might have something special for you."

"We can meet the chickens." He nodded his head, wondering who he would write a letter too. Maybe he could write a letter to his mom. Though he couldn't write yet so maybe he would do something easier like... draw her a nice picture of his new home. "I can draw a picture for my mom so she knows I'm okay. She never watched Postman Pat with me but she likes heavy metal and boys."

And while she wasn't allowed to have contact with her son, Gideon had yet to fully process that in his head.

As Pat delivered the letters, Gideon bounced in his seat. "They got the postcard!"

"That's a good idea." Yes, she wasn't allowed contact, but there was nothing against Gideon getting to work through some feelings by drawing her a picture. Why not? It might be therapeutic. Drawing was a good idea for that anyway.

"They got it!"

He shared the childish joy with Gideon and, impulsively, pulled him into a hug with an arm around him. He wanted to take things slowly, but he also wanted to be openly affectionate with him. "What a good episode."

For a tiny kid, anyway.

"I want to deliver mail one day. I will be a postman. I'll live somewhere like here and I'll deliver post with my van. Maybe I'll have a puppy instead of a cat though, cats are scratchy." And he had been scratched by one in his last house so he was wary of cats more than dogs. He let Holden hug him, not used to being hugged but he allowed it because he had cereal and Postman Pat to soften him up.

He looked at Holden, curious if this was an act or if he was really like this.

"Can we go to see the chickens? Are they friendly? Do they hurt?" He didn't want to get beaked by a mean chicken but he did want to say hello.

"They are pretty friendly, but no worries. There is a fence, so they can't hurt you. We can just say hello and give them their food." Holden smiled and got up, holding a hand out to Gideon. "We go out the backdoor. We have five chickens and two quails. That's a tinier bird."

He would see. "I can tell you what their names are. They have different colours, so that helps. And they have little bands around their feet."

He opened the door and let Gideon walk through first. "It's over there, the white coop. Do you see it?"

"Uh-huh, I see it." As he came outside, he slipped on his crocs and walked outside. He didn't have shoes, he didn't like shoes, but Gunn got him crocs and he wore them everywhere. He came along through the grass and up to where the coop was, looking through the fence and seeing movement. He heard them chatter away and stuck close to Holden.

Hopefully they were nice chickens. He didn't want to meet mean chickens.

"What do they eat?" Did chicken eat people or did they eat small things like cereal and crisps?

"They eat pretty much anything, so often I just feed them leftovers. They are omnivores. That means that they eat everything, a bit like you and me. But they have some things they like eating especially much, like salad." Which was always fun to give them. "Today we are giving them their normal feed. Look."

Holden opened a large bucket that stood to the side and took a scoop out, handing it to Gideon. "Can you hold that? I'll lift you up and then you can toss it over the fence. I'll hold you, so you don't have to worry."

"If you promise not to drop me." Gideon said seriously, waiting for confirmation before he took the scoop and got a lot of chicken food, looking at it curiously. It was just little pellets - why did they eat that? It was like seeds and little round pegs of food. Weird. He let Holden lift him and he frowned, all serious and ready to get his job completes. He tossed the first lot and the chickens came closer. He reeled back against Holden for safety.

"How do you tell if they're happy?" Or if they've come to try and eat him... he honestly wasn't sure. They didn't look friendly. One chicken squawked happily and he flinched, spilling some food. "Oh no!" He spilled. The worst had come.

"See? She's happy! Did you hear the little sound she made there?" Holden simply kept holding Gideon, laughing a little. "They surprise me sometimes too. You should get used to it, every now and then they squawk at night. I assume when one of them has a nightmare or something."

Ah, chickens. "Do you see the tiny ones? The two over there? Those are the quails, they are smaller. They lay tiny eggs too. Very cute."

Holden hadn't even noticed that Gideon was worrying over spilled food. "You can toss some more, if you want. Do you see how eagerly they are eating it up?"

"I dropped some. It's on the floor. I'm sorry, chickens." He frowned at the floor and then looked up at the birds, tossing some towards the tiny ones so they could eat. He didn't want to waste the food, he wanted the tiny babies to have lots to eat. He didn't care if they weren't babies, in his head they were.

"Why do you have chickens?" He'd never stayed with people who had chickens before.

He emptied the whole scoop finally and the birds were all eating happily, wings ruffling and moving around contently. Gideon cocked his head. "Do they ever fly away?"

"Nah, they can't fly so far or high. And they like it a lot here, it's a proper nice place, innit?" Lots of space for them, different terrain and some sand for bathing, a great chicken hang. "I have chickens because the coop was here when I got the place and I feel it needed chickens."

Made sense to him at the time. "Besides, then I have someone to talk to. They are called Leela, Susan, Ace and Sarah Jane. And the little ones are called Ian and Barbara."

What a beautiful flock he had there. "I bet they'll be friends with you soon."

"I hope so. They seem nice. I don't have any friends but I need to have friends. Postmen are friends with everyone." So he had to learn how to be friends with everyone. From mayors to firemen to dogs and cats. And even chickens and cows. He wiped his hand on his shirt and then turned around so he could face Holden.

"You said they had a gift for me. What is it?"

Did chickens go shopping? Did they prepare something? should he have gotten the chickens something? He had that smelly old Barbie, he could give it to them.

"Hmm, we'll have to check inside, won't we? Can you hold on to me? You don't have to worry, they are really quite friendly." Holden made sure that he was holding Gideon securely, then he opened the gate. He stepped inside and closed the gate behind himself, walking over to the coop. There, on the usual perch, he could already see some eggs in the hay. "Can you see anything they might have left for you?"

He looked around. "Maybe they laid some eggs? Especially for Gideon."

It was scary and he clung to Holden, slowly moving into the coop and towards the perch. He looked around and then he saw the hay with three whiteish eggs sitting there. His eyes widened in awe. "There's eggs!"

Woah, chickens laid them? He didn't know that. Why did they make food? It was strange but he didn't care. He pointed at the eggs like the amazing egg tracker he was. "Are they for me?"

"They are for you! Wow, we could have a really nice second breakfast with those, couldn't we?" Holden felt that was quite exciting. He handed one of the eggs to Gideon to hold and put the other two into his jacket pocket so they'd be safe, looking down at the chickens. "Thank you for the eggs, chickens!"

They had done a really good job. "Maybe they will lay a few more for tomorrow. Do you want to help me cook the eggs for now, Gideon?"

"Thank you, chickens." Gideon offered too as he held the egg in his hand like it was the most precious thing that had ever existed in this world. He nodded his head when Holden asked and then smiled at him, his eyes lighting up. "I can help cook? I wanna help cook..."

And he had never tried, sure, but he was given this gift and he wanted to cook with it. "I've never eaten an egg before." He had seen them on TV but his mom didn't cook stuff and his foster parents never made eggs. Just the usual sort of stuff, chips and chicken and veggies. Never eggs. And now, he was going to eat an egg. Amazing.

"How does it taste?"

"It tastes pretty nice." Holden was carrying Gideon out of the chicken coop as he explained, they headed back into the house. "There is two parts to every egg, the egg white and the yolk. The yolk is yellow."

He wasn't sure just how little Gideon knew, so he started at zero. "There's a lot of ways to have them, but I was thinking we could just have a simple sunny side up and eat it with toast?"

He walked into the kitchen and set Gideon on the counter, then put the eggs gently down next to him. "Have you made toast before?"

"Yeah, I don't like toast." He had it instead of cereal and he never even tried it but he hated the idea of it. "It's not breakfast, it's just bread..." Hard bread that he didn't want in his mouth. He struggled a lot with deviating from routines he had built himself and having toast instead of cereal was such a trauma that now he resented the very idea of toast. Ew.

"I like cereal." Something Holden already knew but he felt it needed to be stated. He sat on the counter and watched him curiously, still holding his egg really close. "My last home had no cereal. Ever. It was toast and butter. I don't like butter either." Out of spite.

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