55

According to the picture, Jason's brother looks much like Jason. He's markedly older, in his thirties and looking it, but the structure of his face is the same as Jason's. His eyes are the same shape and color, and while his hair is darker than Jason's, it curls much the same way.

Winston can't help but search for evidence of Jason in Ryder; he's never seen a single picture of Jason's parents, and Jason doesn't much talk about them anyway. Not that Winston does either, his own parents a... they exist, and that's all the acknowledgment he really needs to do.

He doesn't know them anymore, after all.

But Jason's brother, Ryder, is a nearly mythical figure to Winston. Jason so clearly adores him, idolizes him, thinks the world of him. To Jason, Ryder is probably more of a parent than a brother, or perhaps the bests of both. Regardless, Winston can't stay still as they wait for Ryder in the park.

He's holding hands with Jason, bouncing a little on his toes and heels in turn, looking every which way in an attempt to spot somebody he's never met before and probably can't realistically recognize from a distance.

Their hands hold tight, and Jason isn't any better off than Winston--he's simply moving less.

Winston looks at Jason every few seconds, too, just to make sure Jason hasn't changed his mind about introducing them.

It's a big deal, after all.

It's Ryder, Jason's family. Winston hasn't ever done this before; even with Gary Winston met both Liam and Janet within days of first meeting him. It was nerve-wracking, yes, but not this kind of nerve-wrecking. And so now he feels like all his insides are loose, disconnected from the rest of him, and they're all just rattling around inside with every movement, every shift of muscle.

"Ryder," Jason announces, pulling on Winston's hand and straightening out as much as possible to enlarge his field of vision.

"He's here?" Winston asks, uselessly. It's obvious he is, Jason is excited he's still pulling on Winston's hand. They're not even going anywhere, Jason is just pulling for the sake of pulling and he waves at somebody in the distance. Winston can't make out any identifying features, has no idea how Jason has figured out that that's his brother, but maybe that's just how proper family works. Gary can recognize Liam in a crowd super easily, too, even from a great distance.

The man approaches, dressed in a black coat that goes almost all the way to his feet, a hat snugly protecting his ears from the chill. His face is seemingly stuck in a severe expression, Winston notes when he's close enough.

"Fuck yeah," whispers Jason under his breath, glancing at Winston and grinning. Then he abruptly launches forward, dragging Winston with him, and heads straight for Ryder. Winston holds a panicked shout in, heart in the pit of his throat as Jason crashes right into Ryder.

Ryder's bones kind of sound like they're creaking for a second, so tight is the hug Jason subjects him to. But Ryder merely shoves his face into Jason's shoulder and hugs him back, and Winston has to look away lest be be overwhelmed by emotions he can't even name.

"Hi," he hears Jason mutter.

A deep voice answers, "Hello, Jay. How have you been?"

Winston finally looks back when somebody taps his shoulder, and they're no longer hugging. Ryder's expression has settled back into one of severity, his thin lips twisted into a frown, and his eyebrows furrowed, albeit not that heavily.

Jason takes a step closer to him and grabs his hand, swinging it in the air between them, and Winston exhales. He smiles up at Jason, can't help it when Jason's looking at him like that.

"Ryder, this is Winston, my boyfriend," Jason declares without looking away from Winston. Winston's breath hitches in his throat, a burning sensation in his eyes, and he blinks rapidly to clear it. Jason continues, finally looking at his brother. "And Winston, this is Ryder, my brother."

Ryder stares at Winston for a long moment, gaze deep and searching. Finally, he cooks a dark eyebrow and holds out his hand. "Greetings, Winston."

"Hi," Winston's mind blanks, the greeting weird enough to throw off any mental preparation he'd done for this moment. Clearing his throat, he finally grabs Ryder's hand and shakes it harshly, adding on a, "Nice to meet you."

Ryder's eyebrow goes up even higher. It's strangely amusing; his other eye hasn't moved at all. Hasn't so much as twitched, in fact. "It's nice to meet you, too," Ryder says, letting go of his hand, and Winston instantly shoves his back into Jason's grip. He needs the strength, needs the concrete tie to reality to keep his nerves under control.

Ryder says, "I've heard a lot about you." He turns to look at Jason. "Speaking of which," he says, entire expression softening all at once. "It's good to see you, Jay. It's been much too long."

Jason scratches the back of his neck, ducking his head, and he smiles very goofily. "I've missed you too, bro," is what he ends up saying. He squeezes Winston's hand, and Winston squeezes right back.

"I've heard a lot about you too," Winston says when it doesn't seem like anybody is going to say anything.

Ryder, unlike Jason, is stick thin. The coat highlights it, cinching at the waist and his face is much more narrow that Jason's, too. But he's just as tall as Jason, and when he smiles it's like Winston's got double-vision.

It's actually kind of eerie.

Winston clears his throat--again--and says, "Jason thinks you're the coolest person in the world," and Jason makes a sound like a dying whale, hiding his face in the hand not holding onto Winston. Ryder's eyebrow goes up again, and he glances between them.

"Is that so?" he asks, smirking.

Jason ducks his head again, utterly failing to hide his expression. It's a mix of embarrassment and joy--Winston is pretty sure Jason is practically vibrating right now. Jason apparently also decides that the embarrassment is no issue, and he boldly declares. "Yeah. I do."

Ryder blushes, but his face smooths out into a blank expression. It's an odd combination, and Winston blinks just to make sure he's seeing this correctly.

Clearing his throat, Ryder brushes a gloved--a proper fancy leather glove, nothing so gauche a s normal mitten--hand through his hair. He smiles. "I think you're amazing, too, Jay." He raises an eyebrow, and is instantly transformed into an arrogant asshole, "I hope you know that."

"Of course," Jason preens. The only person Winston has ever seen preen before is Gary, and it looks just as good on Jason.

Ryder smiles. He nods to the line of benches along the park's path, and they amble off while Ryder addresses Winston. "I have heard a lot about you," he repeats, gaze digging deep into Winston again. He says, "In fact, there was a rather a lot of gushing involved," and he smirks, the expression looking just like Jason. "I was beginning to suspect foul play."

"Ah," Winston's eyes go the ground, bypassing a spot of ice, and then up Jason. Jason, who is blushing while determinedly looking ahead, visibly trying to pretend the conversation isn't happening and blatantly failing.

Winston's lips twitch. "I've been gushing about you, too," he says, more a murmur then anything, and Jason's gaze shoots to him. His blush deepens, his eyes sparkle light sunlight reflecting on the frost, and his smile is breathtaking.

Literally.

Winston can't really breathe for a second. He squeezes Jason's hand instead, waits until his lungs hurt enough that he manages to force down another breath, and remain silent as he sits on the first bench they reach. Jason is in the middle of them, Ryder on the other side, and Winston finds himself entirely content to simply listen as Jason and Ryder catches up.

It's nice.