The Living Room, The Kennison Estate, Latimer Ave, Baltiney, New York...
Pulling back from yet another lingering kiss, Dean Hudson's blue eyes seemed to light up when it came to his rather expressive feelings for Ken Ryker. While the older man discouraged them, they only seemed to intensify the longer they'd spent time with one another. Dean had never known a more complicated and broken person than Ken and it only served to draw him into the man's intoxicating web all the more. Ken had been an enigma all things considered but one that Dean had been all too happy to seek out. The young blond lad had not known much about life nor about the inner workings of love but he had known that whenever he'd been around Ken, he felt like a worthwhile person. It wasn't the money or Ken's influence that had Dean's head in the clouds, so to speak, it was the way the man seemed to care even when he'd gone about trying his best to appear the opposite.
Dean loved the sound of Ken's voice, the way he held him close even after their sex romps, the way he commanded a room and made everyone feel welcome despite his status and occasionally moody demeanor. He had especially loved the way Ken comforted him when he'd been terrified and given to his bouts of PTSD.
No one had ever cared about Dean Hudson before, not even when using his body as a means to an end. Ken had not been like the other men Dean had known and it was becoming increasingly more obvious that he'd been the better of them all despite his mental issues and addictions. Malcolm had told Dean that Ken had once been a great man but what he had failed to realize is that there had still been traces of that man in Ken even with Ken doing his best to convince himself and everyone else otherwise.
The mystery about who Ken used to be had been much too much for Dean to ignore and he found himself curious to know more about him.
"Ken..." began Dean as Ken slowly kissed the younger lad's neck and shoulder.
"Hmmm?" he asked still busy.
"Why didn't you tell me you had kids?" asked Dean with a curious expression.
Ken pulled back no longer focused on the lad's body as he met his eyes narrowing his own at the nerve of the manner of question.
"Why are you asking me this?" asked Ken to counter it.
"Well at the party your brother mentioned your family before and so did Malcolm at the office, I guess I wanted to know more about them," admitted Dean unsure if he made the right decision. "I never had a family, not a real one anyway and I guess I wanted to know what it was like before..."
Ken sighed recalling what Dean had told him about his so-called father.
"I don't remember them exactly," admitted Ken with a shameful look on his face. "It happened so long ago and they were so young, ten and eight they told me...just some secondhand stuff and whatever."
"Oh," said Dean feeling a bit disappointed.
Ken sighed as he noted Dean's expression.
"There's some family movies and photo albums you can look at if you really wanna know, they never did me any good as far as whatever it was people wanted me to remember about them...I suppose you can take a look at them if you want, don't know what all of it has to do with having a real family as you call it but you're more than welcome to it." added the older man.
Dean noted him pointing out where to find the items in the living room and hopped off Ken's lap. The older man sighed and took a few moments to catch his wayward breath given his newly established arousal and opted to get another beer out of the fridge.
Ken made his way toward the kitchen while Dean got out the photo albums and the home movies. He scanned the entire collection and turned his attention to one particular tape that had the words CARTER'S 8TH BIRTHDAY written on the side in capital black letters.
Dean pushed in the tape and turned on the television immediately recognizing the shoddy camera work being a result of Ken himself, or in the case of the man on the video, Ryker Kennison, himself.
He seemed to be very happy out in the backyard with his wife and kids. Two boys one looking remarkably similar to Ken with his dark hair and dark complexion and the other looking a lot like the male version of the woman who had been smiling in a lot of the film.
She was a beautiful woman wearing a long yellow dress with white flowers imprinted on it, she had a lovely white sun hat and seemed content to sit among a row of flowers in her backyard garden as the boys ran about laughing and showing off all manner of excitement. Dean noted her long auburn hair and lovely warm brown eyes in contrast with her light-toned skin. It was an odd thing to see the image of the late Mrs. Ryker Kennison for himself, after hearing the sad truth about what became of her.
She seemed the pleasant sort and a very good mother from what Dean had to go by with just the images alone, both Ryker and the boys seemed to love her a great deal.
"RYKER!" she shouted on the tape as he sat down the camera and it cut to the image of him soaking her with a cup of cold water amid the hot sun. He chuckled as she chased him with the boys cheering for their mother and laughing at their father respectively.
She had caught up to him and tackled him onto the ground leaving him laughing as she glared at him almost out of the frame of shot.
"This is a new dress you ass," she said still narrowing her eyes at him.
"I'll buy you another one," he replied looking back up at her.
The camera moved seemingly of its own accord as Ryker's eldest son had taken up the director's position and ventured toward his parents. They shared a rather passionate kiss within the frame and Dean found himself being more than a bit jealous of her in that moment.
"Mommy, Daddy, presents when do I get my presents?" asked Carter Kennison as he rushed into view and dogpiled onto his father as his mother moved out of the way.
Mrs. Kennison got to her feet and smirked as she watched Ryker and his youngest son wrestle a bit before noting that her elder son wished to join them but had been holding the camera. She took it causing the height to shift and the visual of Kevin Kennison had been seen rushing to also wrestle with his father and younger brother.
Dean noted how playful and attentive Ryker had been and smiled. He had wished he had a father like that as a boy, he'd even wished he had a mother like Sera had been and supposed the boys had something good in their lives before they were tragically taken in the crash.
As Dean continued to watch the movie, he did not notice that Ken had become uncomfortable upon his return to the living room after grabbing his beer. He had elected to get dressed, throwing on a suit and dress shoes before he reached for his keys and headed toward the front door.
"I'm heading out, don't wait up," Ken called before slamming the door behind him and heading toward his four-door sedan.
Dean noted quickly that Ken had been in one of his terrible moods again and wondered if the video had anything to do with it. He turned his attention back to the movie wondering just what happened to the man smiling and laughing with his two young boys while being filmed by his wife and what turned him into the man Dean had come to know.