Guava 26, Trail Mix 3, French Vanilla 3
Author: Casey
Story: Shifts: Before, During and After Shifts (See also Marina’s prompts for more from this ‘verse)
Challenge: Guava 26 (dearly beloved, we are gathered here today), Trail Mix 3 (off the beaten path), French Vanilla 3 (c’est la vie)
Toppings & Extras: Whipped Cream, Caramel, Sprinkles, Cherry (present tense), Pocky Chain
Word Count: 1100 (11 part pocky chain)
Rating: G
Summary: A look at Grayson from all those important to him.
Notes: I <3 Grayson and this was Marina’s awesome idea. End of story.
She holds the newborn, cradled in her left arm, as she stares at the piece of paper on the table. She knows that signing it, picking up that pen, is the right thing to do for her little boy, just because, not to mention he was over a month premie and will need so much love and care.
The mother looks at the paper, rereading it while the babe sleeps. Mr. and Mrs. Marsh. The names sound nice enough, and she’s read their application. Her baby will be in safe hands with them.
She picks up the pen and signs.
**
Carly Marsh knows it is a train wreck waiting to happen, but she can’t resist watching her three-year-old son attempt to climb onto the dining room table to grab the chandelier. Finally, she steps around the door. “Grayson.”
Grayson jumps and grins at her. “Love you, Mom!”
“I’d believe that more if you weren’t about to swing from the chandelier.”
He looks at her through those wide, innocent brown eyes. “I would never ever. Ever!”
Carly steps over, plucking him down. “Daddy will be home soon, why don’t you go wait for him?”
Without a word, he scampers off, whooping.
**
Rand is eight when Grayson moves into the building and he’s instantly baffled by the five-year-old ball of energy. They only live part of a hall away and Rand watches him cautiously at first, before deciding that he liked it better when it was quiet.
However, it’s Grayson, and there’s no way that Grayson won’t grow on you as Rand discovers the day that he realizes Grayson is sitting outside his room on the fire escape, watching him.
Rand opens the window. “What are you doing?”
“’spirmenting, what does it look like?” Grayson says.
Rand can only shake his head.
**
Lynne, at ten, is glad for Grayson every day, even if he can be very crazy, but at least he’s not all grown up like Rand or just a baby like Drew. It really is nice to have someone her age in the building, even if Grayson sometimes calls her ‘kid’ just to be a jerk, since he unfairly is four months older.
That’s okay, though, because he is always up for a game, although usually it has to be active. Lynne’s mom says Grayson probably has ADD, whatever that means. Either way, hide and seek is best with Grayson.
**
You couldn’t possibly pay Drew enough to admit he looks up to Grayson almost as much as Rand, but it’s the truth. Just a quiet truth. Grayson’s just so much…himself. He plainly doesn’t care what others think of him and he goes through life not just marching to a different drummer, but being his own drummer.
Drew thinks that is awesome and he wants to be just like Grayson when he gets to be an real honest, to goodness, teenager. Not this stupid thirteen year old stuff, when you can’t quite be a kid but you’re not an adult either.
**
Peter is Grayson’s junior year roommate - the first person to ever have to suffer through living with Grayson, since he transferred from community college that year. At first Peter isn’t so sure about the bundle of H-A-P-P-Y energy that explodes into their room, but then he realizes quickly that Grayson’s covering a deep uncertainty about himself and his place in the world. Although Peter has no background on him, he sees a side of Grayson no one else does and he falls, platonically, in love with him.
There is no one else like Grayson in the world, that he’s sure.
**
The earliest clear memory Mariah and Josh both have of Grayson is him being a lion and Mariah accidentally kicking him in the nuts. It never fails to set all three of them off into laughter when one of them brings it up.
Mariah knows that Grayson isn’t all fun and games. She can feel it, but she never lets on. Sometimes she catches his eye and both know the other knows, but it’s okay, because most of the time he is. And when he’s not, what he wants to do is still have fun, so both twins give in.
**
Henrietta hires Grayson because she’s desperate and he comes across well, if a bit disheveled. All of her worries, though, are put aside the first day she sees him in action. He is fresh out of undergrad, doing little more than secretary work, but he gets down to the girl’s level and talks her right out of the tears before sending her in.
After one conversation, he’s enrolled at grad school. Two years after he’s graduated, he’s the head of her psychology department and she’s now ‘Henry,’ which she hates. Grayson is worth it, though, so she deals with it.
**
Ellen never expected anything to come of it. She always liked Grayson, from the first moment they met and he’d almost tackled Drew to the ground, but more than that had never really crossed her mind. She hasn’t seen the attraction clearly, hasn’t been looking either, but somehow it doesn’t surprise her when it finally hits them both like a brick.
There’s not much to say after that. It’s a simple move - she had already been living in his and Nate’s spare room. It just fits, instantly and comfortably, and Ellen realizes she was never meant to be anywhere else.
**
Grayson never hides the fact that Nate’s adopted and Nate couldn’t care less. He is proud to be a Marsh and knows, like Grayson himself, he will never go looking for his biological parents. They have different skin tones, but that’s also unnecessary details. What Nate really cares about is that Grayson is always there for him and supports him through every endeavor, no matter how foolhardy - and also understands when he and Addy get themselves in trouble, which is a frequent occurrence.
That being said, Nate never considers himself spoiled. Their relationship is give and take and that works.
**
From a young age, Grayson had always known he was unique. This didn’t bother him precisely, just sometimes made life perhaps more of a challenge then it needed to be. However, he knows he always has people he can count on around him, from his parents, to Rand, Lynne and Drew - as crazy as he drives them - to, later, people like Peter - a lucky find! - Ellen, and Henry.
Grayson is fully aware that he is one of the luckiest people in the entire universe and, the older he gets, the more he appreciates it every moment instead of just sometimes.
Story: Shifts: Before, During and After Shifts (See also Marina’s prompts for more from this ‘verse)
Challenge: Guava 26 (dearly beloved, we are gathered here today), Trail Mix 3 (off the beaten path), French Vanilla 3 (c’est la vie)
Toppings & Extras: Whipped Cream, Caramel, Sprinkles, Cherry (present tense), Pocky Chain
Word Count: 1100 (11 part pocky chain)
Rating: G
Summary: A look at Grayson from all those important to him.
Notes: I <3 Grayson and this was Marina’s awesome idea. End of story.
She holds the newborn, cradled in her left arm, as she stares at the piece of paper on the table. She knows that signing it, picking up that pen, is the right thing to do for her little boy, just because, not to mention he was over a month premie and will need so much love and care.
The mother looks at the paper, rereading it while the babe sleeps. Mr. and Mrs. Marsh. The names sound nice enough, and she’s read their application. Her baby will be in safe hands with them.
She picks up the pen and signs.
**
Carly Marsh knows it is a train wreck waiting to happen, but she can’t resist watching her three-year-old son attempt to climb onto the dining room table to grab the chandelier. Finally, she steps around the door. “Grayson.”
Grayson jumps and grins at her. “Love you, Mom!”
“I’d believe that more if you weren’t about to swing from the chandelier.”
He looks at her through those wide, innocent brown eyes. “I would never ever. Ever!”
Carly steps over, plucking him down. “Daddy will be home soon, why don’t you go wait for him?”
Without a word, he scampers off, whooping.
**
Rand is eight when Grayson moves into the building and he’s instantly baffled by the five-year-old ball of energy. They only live part of a hall away and Rand watches him cautiously at first, before deciding that he liked it better when it was quiet.
However, it’s Grayson, and there’s no way that Grayson won’t grow on you as Rand discovers the day that he realizes Grayson is sitting outside his room on the fire escape, watching him.
Rand opens the window. “What are you doing?”
“’spirmenting, what does it look like?” Grayson says.
Rand can only shake his head.
**
Lynne, at ten, is glad for Grayson every day, even if he can be very crazy, but at least he’s not all grown up like Rand or just a baby like Drew. It really is nice to have someone her age in the building, even if Grayson sometimes calls her ‘kid’ just to be a jerk, since he unfairly is four months older.
That’s okay, though, because he is always up for a game, although usually it has to be active. Lynne’s mom says Grayson probably has ADD, whatever that means. Either way, hide and seek is best with Grayson.
**
You couldn’t possibly pay Drew enough to admit he looks up to Grayson almost as much as Rand, but it’s the truth. Just a quiet truth. Grayson’s just so much…himself. He plainly doesn’t care what others think of him and he goes through life not just marching to a different drummer, but being his own drummer.
Drew thinks that is awesome and he wants to be just like Grayson when he gets to be an real honest, to goodness, teenager. Not this stupid thirteen year old stuff, when you can’t quite be a kid but you’re not an adult either.
**
Peter is Grayson’s junior year roommate - the first person to ever have to suffer through living with Grayson, since he transferred from community college that year. At first Peter isn’t so sure about the bundle of H-A-P-P-Y energy that explodes into their room, but then he realizes quickly that Grayson’s covering a deep uncertainty about himself and his place in the world. Although Peter has no background on him, he sees a side of Grayson no one else does and he falls, platonically, in love with him.
There is no one else like Grayson in the world, that he’s sure.
**
The earliest clear memory Mariah and Josh both have of Grayson is him being a lion and Mariah accidentally kicking him in the nuts. It never fails to set all three of them off into laughter when one of them brings it up.
Mariah knows that Grayson isn’t all fun and games. She can feel it, but she never lets on. Sometimes she catches his eye and both know the other knows, but it’s okay, because most of the time he is. And when he’s not, what he wants to do is still have fun, so both twins give in.
**
Henrietta hires Grayson because she’s desperate and he comes across well, if a bit disheveled. All of her worries, though, are put aside the first day she sees him in action. He is fresh out of undergrad, doing little more than secretary work, but he gets down to the girl’s level and talks her right out of the tears before sending her in.
After one conversation, he’s enrolled at grad school. Two years after he’s graduated, he’s the head of her psychology department and she’s now ‘Henry,’ which she hates. Grayson is worth it, though, so she deals with it.
**
Ellen never expected anything to come of it. She always liked Grayson, from the first moment they met and he’d almost tackled Drew to the ground, but more than that had never really crossed her mind. She hasn’t seen the attraction clearly, hasn’t been looking either, but somehow it doesn’t surprise her when it finally hits them both like a brick.
There’s not much to say after that. It’s a simple move - she had already been living in his and Nate’s spare room. It just fits, instantly and comfortably, and Ellen realizes she was never meant to be anywhere else.
**
Grayson never hides the fact that Nate’s adopted and Nate couldn’t care less. He is proud to be a Marsh and knows, like Grayson himself, he will never go looking for his biological parents. They have different skin tones, but that’s also unnecessary details. What Nate really cares about is that Grayson is always there for him and supports him through every endeavor, no matter how foolhardy - and also understands when he and Addy get themselves in trouble, which is a frequent occurrence.
That being said, Nate never considers himself spoiled. Their relationship is give and take and that works.
**
From a young age, Grayson had always known he was unique. This didn’t bother him precisely, just sometimes made life perhaps more of a challenge then it needed to be. However, he knows he always has people he can count on around him, from his parents, to Rand, Lynne and Drew - as crazy as he drives them - to, later, people like Peter - a lucky find! - Ellen, and Henry.
Grayson is fully aware that he is one of the luckiest people in the entire universe and, the older he gets, the more he appreciates it every moment instead of just sometimes.