Evolving (Julian, Joe, Annik, Adam, Galina, Aislinn)

[virtuosic-flair.livejournal.com]

Julian really liked Galina, and he was glad she would be living here with his father, where she was bound to be happier than she had been at home, the poor thing. Julian could not, however, say he felt the same way about Galina's aunt. He had watched as Annik flirted obviously with his father, putting her hand on his arm, and telling him how amazing he was that he was taking Galina in like this. Julian agreed, but he didn't act like a complete slut while advising Joe of this. It was completely unnecessary and it made Julian feel sick to his stomach.

No one should be making those doe-eyes at his father except his mother. Julian understood she was dead and Annik was well aware Joe was a widower because she had worked with Paul and Tasha who had dealt with Lucard Noir's murder case. What she was doing wasn't wrong in any sense, though Jordan had only been dead for six months. Julian still didn't like it. Joe was off-limits to people who dressed like floozies, Julian decided. And this floozy should just stop touching him! And then she had been invited to dinner.

Joe and Adam had done a splendid job of keeping the conversation cheerful and friendly. They had gotten smiles out of Galina and that was certainly the important thing here. They simply put on their normal Littleton-routine, and charmed everyone in the room. Julian participated in the conversation half-way, though he was also paying attention to feeding his daughter, as well as performing regular hand-checks on Annik, who had seated herself beside Joe and was sitting quite close.

"When we were younger, our brother Thomas was obsessed with the Transformers," Joe explained. "And he used to hide in boxes and then jump out of them, pretending he had just transformed."

"Yeah, we didn't have a lot of toys," Adam said to Galina with a wink. "We made our own fun."

"Only Thomas springing out of seemingly empty boxes and scaring us to death wasn't so much fun. Not for us. So we...as terrible older brothers...told him to hide in this wheelie bin. The wheels must have been some kind of incentive because he could actually 'roll out' as the Autobots are supposed to do-"

"To be fair," Adam pointed out, "he usually drew wheels on the boxes, but they were hardly functional."

Galina and Annik giggled and Julian smiled at them both (Galina more) and fed his daughter another bite of her food.

"True, true. The lure of real wheels was too much for him and he jumped right in there and then we locked him in."

"You locked him in the bin!" Galina squealed, looking horrified.

"Yes, but I promise to never do that to you," Joe said with a wink. "It was a brother thing. And completely in good nature. Mostly. He always got us back anyway!"

Annik leaned forward and her hand rested on Joe's arm. "Things were never good-natured between my sister and I."

Julian's eyes landed on Annik's hand on his father's arm and his face went bright red. This isn't a meat market, whore! Stop touching him!

Joe just reacted as he always did. He chuckled pleasantly, and he grinned at Adam. "We hardly ever fought. Nothing serious, anyway. There were lots of arguments, but very few knock-down, dragout fights."

"I think the only one that stands out in my mind was when I wanted to drop out of school to get a job and you went absolutely spare," Adam said, popping a carrot into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully. Annik gave Joe an appraising look, as if Adam had just said Joe had rescued him from certain death.

Don't give him that look, he's not yours to look at like that!

"I believe, if I recall correctly, you were not thinking of dropping out of school, you had actually stopped going, Ads."

"Well that only lasted as long as a tongue-lashing from you!" Adam laughed. "You're kind of terrifying! 'You're going to ruin your life, what the hell is wrong with you aaahhhhh'!" Adam then mocked a ghastly face, as if Joe's tirade had been the last of him, and Galina giggled again. Annik giggled too, and Julian groaned inwardly.

Yeah, try that schoolgirl thing. Jesus Christ, could you be more obvious?

"It must have been nice, growing up like that," Annik commented again, eyes only for Joe.

"They were dirt poor," Julian blurted out without realising he was saying it out loud this time. When Adam and Joe turned to look at him, his face flushed and he stammered, "ah..heh...w..well...well you were."

"True," Joe admitted. "But that never seemed to matter. I mean, not to our relationships. It mattered a lot in regards to everything else. I remember huddling in each other's beds for warmth."

"So cosy," Annik smiled at Joe. Her hand moved farther up his arm and Julian had had enough.

"Oh my GOD!" Julian blurted out, and when everyone turned to look at him, he jumped up from the table and threw his napkin at his plate dramatically. Aislinn seemed to take this as a sign that he was playing, and she began to bang loudly against the tray of her high chair. "Dad, can I see you in the kitchen?" Julian gritted through clenched teeth. Then he stalked away from the table.

Joe joined Julian in the kitchen and he closed the door behind him. Then he faced his son, looking like he had walked out on stage in the middle of a play without having memorised any of his lines, or even knowing what the play was about. "Julian...what just happened?"

"That woman!" Julian growled. He felt slightly sick and he crossed his arms over his stomach while leaning against the kitchen bench to keep him upright.

"Jules...what do you mean?" Joe pulled out one of the stools from behind the kitchen island and he sat on it, looking a little ridiculous because he was so very tall and the stool wasn't necessarily made for six-foot-seven, barrel-chested men who resembled a well-built lumberjack. "You mean Annik?"

"Yes I mean Annik!" Julian hissed. "Little Miss Doe-eyes! She keeps touching you!"

Joe stared at his son for several seconds, blinking and blank-eyed, before he realised what Julian was on about. "Oh. Oh was that what she was doing? Jules, the fact that it just took me this long to know why it would matter to you that she was touching me should probably prove to you how very far from where your thoughts are...are..my thoughts. Argh, I could have phrased that better, but go with me here..."

"So you aren't lapping up the fact that she's all 'hahahaha oh my GOD you are so burly and scintillating'."

"Did she say that?" Joe arched one eyebrow and he rose from the stool.

"DAD!"

Joe laughed and then he stepped forward to take hold of Julian's shoulders. "Hey, kiddo. I'm kidding. I didn't even notice she was...whatever she was doing. I watch my sisters do that to people all the time, I just...I guess I don't expect that kind of attention to come my way from someone who isn't your mother. And she was...certainly never so coquettish about it. Unless I wanted her to be..."

"Oh, ew!" Julian shook his hands around so Joe would stop, but only because he knew Joe would know he didn't really think it was 'ew' in the slightest. He didn't need to hear about it, but his parents' relationship had always made him happy and he missed being around that almost as much as he missed his mother and sister. "You didn't even get it when she had her hand on your arm like a whore?"

"Julian..." Joe's voice was slightly scolding and he shook his head.

"Sorry. She's not a whore, I am." Joe opened his mouth to argue, but it was difficult since that was the reason Aislinn existed, and as Joe gaped for words, Julian grinned wickedly. "Dude, I always win with that one," he said with a grin.

Joe let out a slow breath and he laughed once. "You know...you're a strange boy to father sometimes, Julian Thomas..."

"I know," Julian admitted. He watched his father's face for a moment and noticed a split-second where Joe's eyes flicked back to the dining room they had just come from. It was then Julian understood something he hadn't expected to. His father hadn't noticed Annik's advances. Julian knew Joe well enough to know he wouldn't lie about that. But now that Julian had drawn attention to them, he was wondering how serious they were. Because he was lonely. And Julian only understood that because he was lonely too. Damon leaving him had given him an insight into at least some of Joe's feelings, beyond the son simply being outraged because his father was moving on from his dead mother. And maybe Joe wasn't doing that at all. Maybe the idea that it was possible was all he needed...

Julian pulled himself up on the kitchen bench and he gave his father an inquisitive look. "Hey, Dad? Uhm...if you had noticed she was doing it...would you have done it back? You know...in a much less whorey and obvious manner, please." Julian hoped his father's flirting skills were better than acting like an airhead, laughing at things that weren't really that funny, and doing the obvious and age-old arm touch.

"Oh...well...I don't know, Kid." Joe sighed and then he pulled himself up on the kitchen bench right beside Julian. From there, he wrapped an arm around his son, and Julian smiled inwardly at their shared closeness. Still there after everything that had tried to rip them apart. "I was with your mother for over twenty years. She's gone and I still haven't gotten to the point where...flirting...dating...romance, sex...all of that still means Jordan to me."

"But it's hard," Julian lifted his eyes to meet his father's, "being alone."

Joe looked, for a moment, like he didn't want to answer. And when he did, the words came hesitantly. "Harder than I ever thought it could be, Julian. And I know you understand and I wish you didn't." Julian had a feeling Joe would have spent more time talking about his feelings there, but he didn't because Damon had only left him a week ago. Julian was relieved. Hearing his father talk about how it was painful to wake up alone when Julian was now in the same boat was not something he was interested in. "But I...I sort of think... Ehhhh. You know, the idea of putting someone else in there. Equating flirting and dating and romance with someone else...that kind of scares me more. I don't want to, but I guess I don't have a choice in the matter. Well I do, but it's not a nice choice."

Julian leaned his head back against the cupboards and he stared up at the kitchen light. "So I guess I should just calm down about the floozy in the dining room?"

"Jules, Annik is a lovely woman." Joe leaned his head back too, and they both turned to face each other. "She thinks you're pretty amazing."

"That's because I am," Julian grinned. "Did she really say that?"

"Yes. She said you got through to Galina in a way no one else has and she was really thankful that you talked to her earlier. She said it was amazing. Her words. And then I talked for about twenty minutes about how right she was. I think...every single word I've said to her has been about my family. My siblings...you. Jordan..."

"You talked about Mum?"

"Yep," Joe nodded. "I said Jordan was the most beautiful woman I had ever or would ever meet. Which now, knowing Annik was apparently flirting, makes me wonder why she persisted with it after I said that?"

"Because it proves you're a romantic and loving guy," Julian said, sounding slightly flat. "She didn't hear it the way you said it. She just imagined you were saying it about her. She's a woman. We do that sometimes..."

"Wow...yikes." Joe made a scary face and he let out another long breath. "See, another reason I'm not ready to put myself out there. Your mother was pretty much a guy, let's face it. I don't know how to...play games, or understand what it means when people say one thing and mean another. Jordan always said exactly what she meant and I never had to wonder what she was getting at. Oh how she told me what she was getting at."

"Yeah but...Dad, you just talked about Aunt Ellie and Abby. And they do it. They do it all over the place. Sure, they can be direct too, but half the time Abby is flipping out about something, she's really flipping out about something else, and you're always there for her. Seriously. I think you'll be fine. And hell...I can decode for you."

"My gay, teenage son is going to decode my dates for me? Suddenly I feel very dirty..." Joe looked like he would rather scrub a toilet for the rest of his life than deal with dating.

Julian didn't feel so sick anymore and he smiled fondly at his father. "Yeah, well...whatever. I just want you to be happy. I guess I'm not ready for that person you equate flirting and kissing and...you know...with to be someone other than Mum either. So I...wigged."

"You're allowed to wig, Julian." Joe pulled Julian closer to hug him. "And I appreciate that you're protective of your mother. I really do. Please don't change." Joe ruffled his hair and Julian didn't even feel the rampant need to fix it.

"Don't think I could now, even if I wanted to."

"Good stuff," Joe patted his knee.

"Did you ever see this happening, Dad?" Julian looked around them, but even as he did it, he could see it wasn't all bad.

"You mean...five years ago, did I think I would eventually be a single widower, living with my brother and half-sister, whom I invited to live with us because I miss my daughter? No. No, I did not."

"Yeah. I didn't see me being an ex-junkie with a kid either." Julian was silent for moment and then he smiled at Joe. "If flirting with Floozy makes you happy, you should do it. And I'll get to the point where I can handle it. I promise."

"I'll keep it in mind, Kiddo, but I'm not in a rush. All that really matters to me is that I still have you."

Julian grinned and he jumped off of the kitchen bench. He waited for Joe to do the same before giving his father a tight hug. "That's pretty much what I was thinking too." Jordan, Damon and Jaida were gone. It sucked. As long as Julian had Joe, he would never be alone. Not even Floozy could take that away.