this is technically from [REDACTED] (a verse yall will be able to guess) (this is a wip) (I wrote this in my notes app really quickly) but a friend pointed out it works for canon where they boys are alive again and Luke reunited with his parents, so for the time being this is post-canon. only had to change like one line. anyway. enjoy!
There’s a sharp rap of knuckles against the door. Before either his mom or he can move, his dad is pulling himself up, pausing the tv, and moving toward the door.
Luke pushes himself up straight, jerking forward. “Dad, I can—“
“It’s alright,” his dad says, unlatching the door and swinging it open. From where Luke’s sitting, he can just barely see a small older white woman standing on the patio.
His mom lets out a sharp, withering sigh. Luke glances sharply at her, but her face is poised, neutral, and he turns back to the door.
“Mrs. Macdonald,” his dad says, a tone in his voice that says his not looking forward to this conversation. A tone that, thankfully, hasn’t changed in twenty-five years. “Afternoon.”
“Mitch,” the woman says, beaming. She leans forward, closer where Luke can see her. White hair, big glasses, dressed casually in a way that reminds him that he’s jumped between times. The woman smiles brightly. “Afternoon to you too. And how are you and Emily doing?”
His dad head turns slightly toward the inside of the house, catches Luke’s eye briefly, and then he turns toward her again. Luke swallows. They haven’t discussed anything yet. The whole… situation is untouched. Well, that’s not necessarily true. They’ve talked. They just haven’t talked about what they’re doing next. What it all means. How they’re going to… move forward.
His parents had buried him.
He feels guilty he’s complicated that move, a little.
His dad clears his throat. “Well. Yes. We’re alright. Taking it… one day at a time.”
The woman waves her hands in the air, a chunky turquoise bracelet bouncing up and down her arm. “Oh! Of course. Course. You know, Jim and I keep finding ourselves doing the same, now that he’s retired. I, I mean, really, it’s a wonder how much time there really is in the day! You and Emily still working? You’ll get there someday.”
“Retired,” his dad says. “Wow. Well that’s great, Patty. Almost there myself.”
“Mitch,” his mom mutters under her breath, a sure sign she was hoping for him to do something else. She reaches up and wipes a hand over her face, like she’s hoping to keep herself hidden.
Patty smiles again. She taps his dad’s arm. “So much free time! Have you been to the golf course in Los Feliz? We’ve taken up—well really, Jim has—golfing. And really I never thought it would be something I would find myself doing, but when you finally have all the leisure time in the world, well, it makes a difference.”
“I’ve uh, not tried golfing,” his dad says slowly.
Patty nods slowly, looking his father in the eye. “I’ll admit I never saw the appeal—“
Pat nods. “Yes, yes. Well you should consider it. And—ah!—that reminds me of why I came here to speak to you. Now that Jim is retired, and we’re off doing all sorts of fun things, well keeping up with the house is difficult and your lawn, you know, despite being quite busy working yourself, it always looks so lovely and I was wondering what landscaper you use. Would Emily know? Is she home?”
Before his dad can answer, or intervene, Patty leans in through the doorframe. Her eyes land on his mom first, who straightens in her seat, smiles and waves.
“Hi, Patty, how’re you?” His mom says, smiling not unkindly.
“Well, Emily, I’m doing just wonderfully.” Patty’s eyes immediately fall to Luke. Her eyes narrow behind her big blocky glasses and she looks him up and down, scrutinizing him with a sharp gaze. Before Luke can even bring his hand up to wave politely, she straightens up again, a delighted smile in her face.
“Oh!” Her voice peeling with a delight laughter. “Oh! I didn’t realize you had a grandson—“
Luke jerks back on the couch, but the woman doesn’t pay him any mind. His throat grows tight, his mind feels fuzzy. A word of protest bounces emptily around his brain.
That’s not true, that’s not right, I’m not his grandson, that’s not true.
But the words don’t form. His face falls, from mild interest to hurt, confusion. He doesn’t know why he’s shocked by this. He knows it makes sense. Hell, he’d gotten mistaken as Alex’s kid. This only makes sense, with his relative age, and his parents.
And it still hurts.
Patty claps her hands, threading her fingers together. “Here I come asking for your landscaper, I’m sure this young man could use some extra cash!”
Had it been prior to May 1995, Luke wouldn’t have thought twice. He’d mowed plenty of lawns around here growing up. But he’d also known most of the neighbors back then, when he was 12 and still taking to the neighborhood barefoot on his bike.
Now, though, Luke wants to sink into the couch and disappear. He tries to force a smile on his face, and he’s mostly successful, but it feels tight and fake even to him. His dad’s face has craned completely toward him. He’s stepped back into the house, away from the door, and slowly, quietly, turned the picture of two-year-old Luke that had caught Julie’s eye face down.
“Where were you keeping this young man? I didn’t even know you had any kids!”
His mom winces.
“Just one,” his dad whispers.
Luke’s breath catches in his throat. He clutches a throw pillow tighter to his chest, falling back into couch cushions that are as unfamiliar as the new neighbors.
“I make it my business I keep up with the neighborhood and know what’s going on with my neighbors. And how, in ten years, did I miss this! Well! Huh! And what’s your name young man?”
Luke opens his mouth to reply, and finds he can’t. He can’t at all. It’s the same thing as before, the words turning themselves over and over in his mind, standing on the dip of his tongue, waiting to be said. It’s his name.
My name is Luke.
“Luke,” his mom says. It takes him a moment to realize she’s sharing his name instead of asking for his attention. Still, his eyes drag down the living room toward her.
She’s sitting with a tight lipped smile, a furrow in her brow. Her eyes look shiny.
“Luke!” Patty exclaims. “What a lovely name! Oh, you look just like your grandmother here.”
“Thank you,” Luke chokes out, shakily smiling at Patty as she invades his parents home.
She continues, unbothered. “My Kelly’s boy Jaiden looks just like his grandpa.” She beams.
“You know,” his dad interrupts, “we, um, we’ve only got Luke here for… we’re trying to spend as much time with him as we can.”
Patty blinks, and then looks between them, and finally seems to notice something in the air.
Quickly, his mom stands up. “I’ll get you the number for the girl that mows our lawn. She lives just up the road.”
“Oh! Yes. Of course.”
Patty tracks his mom over to the hallway before she disappears, and then she turns on Luke.
“Tell Jim I say hello,” Mitch says. “I hope he enjoys all of his… golfing time.”
“Well—“
Emily quickly hurries into the living room, holding a piece of folded notebook paper in between her fingers. She holds it out to Patty in the entryway, resting a hand on her husband’s shoulder. She gives it a squeeze.
“Here you are, Patty, you have a great day.”
Patty blinks. Nods once. Glances at the note, and then nods again. “Yes. Alright. You too.”
Luke doesn’t force himself to lie and say it was nice to meet her, but she seems to forget she would normally do the same, and turns on her heel and leaves the house. Mitch is slow to close the door behind her, eager to not be too rude.
His parents both turn and face him.
“I’m your son,” Luke blurts out, before he can think twice. Tears blur his vision. He can barely make out his mom rushing toward his side, but the moment she sits down on the couch next to him he falls into her side. “I am.”
“Of course,” his mother soothes, “of course Luke.” But his mother’s hand is frailer than it should be, and it brings him little comfort.
Why couldn’t he have guessed that this would happen? Would, not could. Why didn’t he assume that if he were to go out into the real world, a world he had left behind ages ago, people wouldn’t look at them and see a boy and his parents? He didn’t even have to go outside. It came crashing through the door.
Luke’s dad sits quietly on the couch next to them, resting a cool hand on Luke’s back.
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After Julie visits the Pattersons a second time she mentions that they should stop by to look at the studio where Sunset Curve practiced, it was a great idea at the time.
Julie, Alex and Luke are mentally preparing for Luke's parents to show up. When Reggie suddenly poofs in, looking far more panicked than ever before.
"Luke's parents are here, Ray made them drinks, he's such a gentleman. Oh, right, they were talking about Sunset Curve - very cool to hear them talking about us by the way. That's not why I'm here though, why am I here? OH RIGHT! Ray is kind of talking to them about Julie and The Phantoms and he said he's going to show them a video..."
So, whilst Julie makes a run for the house, the boys get a headstart just as Ray has loaded a video of their Edge of Great performance. Alex keeps hitting the space bar to pause the video, battling with Ray who keeps trying to get the video to play. Luke is pacing the room, a little bit panicked that his parents might find out about his presence. Meanwhile, Reggie is having a one-sided conversation with Ray about how he's a better person than this.
Julie gets in and lies about the internet being down, but Ray just says "no worries, I have the video saved" Julie just closes the laptop and laughs nervously about how they don't need to see it, they're here to see their son's old studio after all. Luckily it works, and as she leads the Pattersons away, Ray is just left a little bit dumbfounded about it all.
Later, they realise that they have no way of stopping the Pattersons searching Julie and The Phantoms on their own accord, they just have to hope they won't.
Wow, if we had a nickel for every time teenagers hid in our bushes to spy on us, we'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, right? ~Emily and Mitch Patterson
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Happy birthday @just-jammin, decided to do a film poster for AuraStone because honestly? I would actually watch it if AuraStone was an actual franchise and all
As we approach the holiday season, this is your friendly reminder that Luke left around this time (probably closer to Christmas) since there’s a Christmas tree and still presents under the tree the night he left.
Those presents are probably still wrapped, Mitch and Emily were waiting until Luke was brought back home for him to open them but… that day never came
