Chapter Text
A little sedan speeds north on an empty highway, surrounded by orange and yellow autumn trees losing their leaves on both sides. Clear open roads now that they finally exited the holiday traffic and turned down an on ramp that went into the mountains. Crisp cold air filtering in through the car fans.
"I've never seen you wear a collared shirt outside of work. Did you get dressed up for them?" Barney pokes with a grin. "Nervous?"
"Pf, No– Why should I be. It's just dinner with your family."
Freemind shifts in the passenger's seat to fold his arms. Usually he had an array of trendy grunge clothes to cycle through outside of work. Black and gray jeans, leather jackets, nice expensive long sleeve shirts. Today he was wearing a button up, sweater and slacks.
Barney who was driving was dressed much more casual, normal t-shirt and jeans they both know he will have to unbuckle after dinner.
"I talk to them on the phone a lot but I haven't seen them since last year. Even then I took them out for Christmas eve and had to drive back for work the next day. So it's nice to actually stay over."
Gordon doesn't say anything, he touches the radio flipping a few stations but they were all already littered with the same ten Christmas songs.
He hasn't been to a family function in who knows how long. Probably not since before he went away for college. The prospect was nice, but he was also so used to doing his own thing that he didn't know completely what to expect.
The car eventually enters a neighborhood and after a few twists and turns Barney pulls into the driveway of a red and brown house. Makes sense, a ranch all on one floor and a more traditional feel to it. A little rough around the edges from age but otherwise well taken care of.
The car turns off, they get out and fresh mountain pine fills him before they ring the doorbell.
The door opens and Gordon suddenly finds himself looking down being greeted by two tiny parents. Both shorter than even Barney, their own son. Freemind feels awkward for a second. Both of his own parents were always taller than him growing up. Having to look down to see Barney’s didn't feel right.
There's happy hellos and smiles then Calhoun turns to him.
"Mom, Dad, this is my friend and coworker, Gordon. Gordon, these are my folks, Joan and Bill."
"So nice to meet you! Always fun to see a new face. And I missed you so much!"
His mother reaches up to hug Barney and pull him down to her height. He smiles instantly, leaning into her and patting a hand on her back. "Missed you too."
"Put 'er there, kid." Bill says through a thick mustache and an outstretched hand. Freemind returns the handshake without hesitation. This he knew how to respond to. Maybe he'll even attempt some banter.
"Nice to meet you two. Where did you find this one, huh? Seeing you guys I would expect Barney to be four feet tall haha!" He responds. Perfect first impression. Normal. Nailed it.
"Oh, he overtook us a long time ago." Joan says with a wave of her hand. "Come in, come in! Please make yourselves at home."
They step inside and are both hit with the nostalgic sights and sounds of old people. They nudge their shoes off at the entrance, traditional mouldings and Wainscoting wall paneling on every wall. The sofas were floral and had plastic on them, several candles were lit alongside a bowl of potpourri that somehow wasn't a complete assault of the nose and a Christmas tree with tinsel and fake doves shined in the corner.
God. Freemind almost missed it. This kind of interior design that was traditional and mid-century and felt like home.
There was a formal dining room already set up with dishware for four and empty hot pads waiting for casserole dishes. They're offered some beers and Freemind greatfully takes his so he had something to do as Barney catches up with his parents. He eventually follows his mom into the kitchen to help.
"They made a pretty good play earlier."
Bill says as he takes a seat on the couch and gestures to the football game on the box television that lived in a huge ornate wood and glass media cabinet.
Gordon takes a look, it's the Chiefs vs the Broncos. "Oh sure, what's the score? Let's see if they can get a fair catch."
He didn't even particularly like watching sports, he had always found them more fun to play. The nationalism and following a single team obsessively as some sort of hobby had its one note of enjoyment and then he had gotten bored quickly and moved onto other things. But his father had been into sports, so at the least he knew how to talk about them. Freemind gives his analysis and he comes to learn the Bill isn't as harsh with his assessment. There had always been screaming and bet money lost when he had watched with relatives when he was younger. Instead, he found himself having a rather level headed discussion about the draft pick players and how they still needed to improve, how they had a guest former player in the announcer's booth and slight laugh over the huge roast turkey they rolled out for a player interview during the commercial break.
It was the same and yet all too different.
After half an hour or so he saw the other Calhouns putting food on the table and soon they were called over.
"The turkey will be ready soon, hun do you want to carve it."
Bill stands from the sofa with an "Alright." before Gordon also decides to stand and look at the display.
It was all the usual, mashed potatoes and green bean casserole with a brown gravy boat sailing between them. But there were also some things he hasn't had on his Thanksgiving spread before. Some southern notes like collard greens and cornbread. White gravy, sausage gravy, which he knew personally was supreme to all other types of gravy. Freemind's mouth watered at the prospect.
Barney walks out of the kitchen and to the table to put a tray of turkey meal on the center pot holder.
"Your mother made all this?"
"Hey, I just helped too." Barney teases.
The redhead glances at him then simply nods.
"Boys," The older woman calls again. She still has rubber gloves on and appears in the doorway to face them. "Do you want to break the wishbone?"
Barney holds back a chuckle, he hasn't done that in so long. Not since dinners with cousins at other relative's homes in the south when they all still lived down there. They all moved away to pursue their own goals in life once he was an adult. Him to New Mexico, his parents upstate, other young kids to various big cities across the country to try to make it big.
He's about to decline when Freemind takes it enthusiastically.
He blinks up, looking at him in surprise seeing the genuine excitement that comes over his face.
"Grab it." He demands and Barney holds it just firm enough on the first try that it doesn't go flying out of his grip when Gordon rips it back and immediately snaps off the bigger half for himself.
"YES. My wish gets to come true." He grins in a mocking tone. And both of the Calhouns can't help but smile at his reserved victory.
Joan goes to throw out her gloves and the other two round the table to the other side.
"Is that the first time you won?"
"I never got to break it before. So I'm one for one now, Freeman never loses." He says with his usual confidence, hiding it behind a dulling smirk.
Barney and Freemind sit on one side of the table while his parents sit on the other.
"We'll say Grace." Joan says.
Freemind had already stabbed the perfect portion of all the food items on his plate in his fork, raised to his open when he paused.
"Oh, you guys– actually do that?"
Joan nods and offers her hand.
Barney gives Gordon his hand on the other side too. There's a flicker of hesitation in his eyes when he looks at him. Then there's something else in the undercurrent, respect possibly, as he surrenders his hands to the Calhouns.
Gordon becomes more himself as they eat and make small talk. He lights up as he gets to tell them about himself and his achievements as a theoretical scientist. Clearly losing the older couple after five minutes of continued explanation that gets too technical and Barney reels them back in with something along the lines of "He's a fancy smancy mathematician basically."
The food is delicious, and they all eat too much, having to take a break before dessert.
The same football game is still on though nearing its end. Bill and Barney fall asleep on the sofa sandwiching Freemind in the middle. He rolls his eyes, forcing himself to shove down the deep and primal urge to poke Barney in the eyes to wake him up. It's uncanny how similar the two look, like father like son. He gets a violent shiver, not wanting to think about a Bill copy waiting for him in the near future when he was touching knees with the man.
Gordon gets up and puts his empty beer bottle in their recycle bin. He sees Joan has put away the leftovers and once again adorns a pair of yellow gloves at the sink.
He sighs gently, deciding to walk over and offer something he never has at his own hectic family events in the past.
"Do you want some help, Ms. Calhoun?"
She looks up, then gives him that same soft smile she gave her son earlier. He feels something warm and foreign swell in his chest.
"Sure dear."
Freemind receives a dish rag and he stands next to her as she washes the dishes and he dries them.
"Not interested in the football game, huh?"
Gordon rolls his eyes, "Judging by how the both of them are asleep I'd say it wasn't all that exciting." He points his thumb back to gesture behind him to the living room and she chuckles shortly.
"I hope you enjoyed dinner."
"I did." Freemind keeps his neutral frown but easy eyes, it was a default when he was lost in thought or unsure. "Thank you for inviting me." He mumbles eventually.
"Of course, any friend of Barney’s is welcomed here."
He puts the plate he was drying down carefully, staring at it for a moment.
Joan lifts a clean, wet utensil for him to dry. Noticing when he's too distracted to grab it and looks at him.
"You're very good at that, you know? I bet you are always the designated dish drier wherever you go." She says.
Gordon glances over at her and grins a little, taking the fork and relaxing into a bit of his cocky usual. "I know. But it's a shame that I wasn't at my family gatherings. Kids weren't allowed in the kitchen when I was growing up, they were kind of particular about that."
Freemind had always seen media of families doing things together, kids being shown how to cook, do house and car repairs or the likes. The adults always depicted as being patient and kind to them. Nurturing them instead of waving them off. He never experienced that.
"Well, I appreciate your expertise Gordon."
He nods, offering to put the glasswear away for her too and Joan finally goes to the living room to take a rest herself.
She passes Barney who seemed to get up from his nap just as Freemind was about to put the china away on a high shelf.
He's tip toed up, a little bit of skin from his lower back shows under his rising sweater, Barney places his hand on it. Freemind jumps, quickly making sure he wasn’t touching him like that when his parents were in the same room. His fiery expression easing when he realized it was just him.
"You helped clean up?"
"Shut up. It's what any half decent guest does." Gordon answers with an eye roll as he closes the cabinet. "How do they reach the stuff on the top shelf anyway?"
The guest room has a queen sized bed with an additional pull out sofa. Gordon busied himself tucking the fitted sheet in on the pull out and putting on new pillow cases. Clearly it wasn't up to his standards to sleep in, but he didn't complain as he fixed it.
Barney had went into the ensuite bath with a toothbrush. When he returns, he watches his friend a moment.
"Are you okay?"
"Hm? Yeah, the couch is fine." Gordon says as he's molding the pillows to his liking.
"No I mean… You've been really quiet while we've been here."
Other man stops fluffing for a second, then just shrugs while smoothing the pillow out. Not turning to meet him.
"My family holidays were always more lively. More people and more screaming. So this was weird in comparison." He says in a flippant tone. But Calhoun can hear that bit of stress in his voice recalling the memories and just arches his eyebrows empathetically.
He's not going to make him talk about it if he doesn't want to so Calhoun sits on the bed.
"Are you sure you don't want to sleep on the real mattress with me?"
Gordon barks out a laugh, shooting him a glare. "Like I'm letting an opportunity for your mother to walk in on us all snuggled cozy together when she eventually comes to check on you."
Barney just grins, "She's always been attentive like that."
Eventually Freemind changes into his pajamas, brushes his teeth and lays in his perfectly made single. His calves dangle off the edge but he doesn't seem too bothered by it. His arms resting behind his head after he takes off his glasses and hangs them off the side of the duffle bag on the floor next to him.
He has his eyes closed, and the other man can't help but stare watching has he takes a big breath and slowly lets it out. Relaxing. Something he didn't think Gordon ever did.
Barney quietly slides to his feet and walks over to him.
"Hey." He says gently, startling Gordon when he leans over and puts his hand on his chest. "Thanks for coming with me."
Freemind sneers at him in confusion and before he can say something snarky back Calhoun gives him a kiss. Gordon is left raising his brows, a bit of color on his cheeks when the other pulls away.
He grumbles, any protest dying in his throat and he quickly turns over to give him his back and curls up, pulling the sheets up close to him.
Barney chuckles when he hides away. He leaves him alone and gets into his bed. Maybe if he was lucky, he could get Freemind to cuddle with him for a second in the morning before they make the long drive back.