MCFLY JULY ‘24 — blind spot.
JANUARY 11, 1986
The key turns in the front door, the winter chill rushing into the house. A moment later, the hall light turns on.
“Mom? You awake?”
Sylvia smiles at the sound of her son’s voice, putting down her crochet things on the end table.
“We’re in here, Georgie!”
Carefully, she stands, easing her grandson’s head off her lap and tucking a pillow underneath. She’s pretty sure the kid must’ve been an acrobat in another life; there’s no way he’d be able to sleep all twisted up like a pretzel otherwise. She readjusts the blanket she’d put over him, smoothing down his hair, before meeting her son and daughter-in-law halfway.
“Well, how was the party?” she asks, leaning up against the breakfast bar as George and Lorraine hang up their coats. “You two crazy kids have fun hobnobbin’ with the head honchos at Simon & Schuster?”
“It was nice, Mom, thanks,” George answers, way too dismissively for a party he’d been talking about for weeks, full of editors and publishers and everything he’d always dreamed of, “but–”
“How was Marty?” Lorraine interrupts, urgently.
Here we go. Finally, some answers.
“Lorrie, honey, you know Artie and I always love bein’ with the kids,” Sylvia begins, and she meant it, even though Artie had called it a night about three hours ago and was now snoring loud enough to shake the walls, “but seventeen goin’ on eighteen’s a little old for a babysitter, don’t you think?”
“Oh, we’ve just been so worried about him, Sylvia,” Lorraine pleads, eyes wide. “We… we didn’t think it would be a good idea to leave him alone.”
“For the last few months,” George elaborates, wrapping an arm around his wife and holding her close, “he hasn’t been himself. He doesn’t sleep, he’s been having nightmares… he’s been having memory problems, too, and I know he’s a teenager, but sometimes he’ll get in his own head and it’s like… he’s not even here, like he goes somewhere else instead.”
“He’ll get so confused,” Lorraine agrees, “and-and he used to love thunderstorms but now he’s just so afraid of them and... other things… sometimes it even feels like he's afraid of us…” She bites her lip and buries herself into George.
It breaks Sylvia’s heart to see them like this; in mourning for the boy who’s alive and breathing and fast asleep on the couch. Just a few hours ago her and Marty were singing along to the radio while making dinner and laughing until they cried trying to play games on his Nintendo while eating Lucky Charms by the bowlful.
“We must’ve missed something,” George murmurs, “something must’ve happened to him and we missed it somehow.”
“We’ve just been so busy,” Lorraine laments, “too busy. I-I thought it was the stress… with college applications and everything changing… but even Jennifer and Doctor Brown don’t know what’s wrong.”
Sylvia isn’t quite sure she buys that.
She may not know a lot of things, but she does know that Carl Sagan from 1931 certainly doesn’t look like that nice young man on PBS from a couple years back but did look a whole lot like that whiz kid Emmett and even more like her grandson’s best friend, that nice Doctor Brown, that Emmett grew up to be.
She also knows that Sonny Crockett (who is pretty much all they talked about at dinner tonight) is from one of Marty’s favorite shows, not that kid from 1931 with her grandson’s sweet blue eyes and a fake mustache.
She even remembers George begging her and Artie to help him get all dolled up for some dance at the last minute and talking all about how he wasn’t going with a date but he was going to meet up with his new friend Marty there.
Not to mention the date on that Bubble Bobble game of his is two years from now.
When you grow up around liars and cheats, you get to be really good at noticing things.
“So how was he tonight?” George asks again. “Really?”
“Georgie, sweetheart, he was fine,” Sylvia emphasizes. “We had a great time. As for the other stuff… Remember what you were like when you were his age? I sure do. Any time your dad and I got near ya we’d have to promise we weren’t tryin’ to look in your journals. Even if we were just givin’ you a hug!”
They crack a smile at this, George at least having the decency to look sheepish.
“Whatever’s going on with Marty,” she continues, “he’ll tell ya when he’s good and ready. And remember: you’re great parents. He loves you. He’d do anything for you. Just be there for him until then and let him know that you love him too. No matter what.”
Sylvia looks over her shoulder at her sleeping grandson, a fond smile and a mischievous look in her eye.
We got a lot to talk about, kiddo. I’m ready when you are.
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57 for Willex + Lancelot
Of course this is set in the Care and Feeding of Dragons verse.
"Morning, Dad!" Willie called, all but skipping into the kitchen. His dad was sitting at the kitchen island nursing a coffee, glaring at him blearily. He'd never really gotten used to the fact that no matter what time Willie got up, he was go-go-go. It was still just as funny now as it was when he was a kid. He started grabbing stuff from around the kitchen, maybe making a little more noise than necessary.
"What's wrong with cereal?" Dad complained, as he started measuring out flour.
"Alex is coming over for breakfast today," Willie told him. "So I'm making pancakes."
"Is he now?" Dad asked, before leaning over to give him sad puppy eyes. "What about your beloved father? Does he get pancakes?"
"What's wrong with cereal?" Willie snarked back, laughing when Caleb threw him a glare. "I'll make you pancakes if you promise to leave us alone to eat ours."
"Oh yes, I wouldn't want to interrupt your romantic date," Dad said. "You can have the dining room all to yourselves. I'll stay in here, with the coffee maker."
"Deal," Willie agreed. He went on to make the pancakes, loudly mixing (in the metal bowl for maximum noise) while Dad sipped his coffee. He was just pouring the first pancakes out on the griddle when the doorbell rang.
Just as planned.
Listen, it wasn't Willie's fault that Dad hadn't caught on to Alex living with them yet. Alex was too worried that Dad would say no and kick him out, which would mean he'd have to go live in the garage that Sunset Curve rented as a studio. Willie had tried to convince him that Caleb totally wouldn't mind, especially not with Alex' sad 'my parents don't want me back because I'm gay' backstory, but well, the anxiety brain weasels in his head won out.
Also, like, Willie kind of liked the chaos and sneaking around so he didn't push too hard. So every morning Alex would slip out of Willie's window, over the porch roof down one of the fancy support beams and pretend to come over, and every night Willie would say goodbye and then sneak him back in. Or, if Dad was working, just hide him in his room and pretend to be asleep when Dad got home. Or stage it so he'd been alone in the living room all evening.
So maybe he had to make some extra noise to drown out the sounds of Alex climbing down out of his window, with Dad already up. Not exactly a hardship for Willie. He liked being loud.
"I'll get it, don't leave the stove unattended," Dad said, bringing his coffee to the door and greeting Alex. It was always cute, the way Alex still stumbled over 'Caleb, Mister Covington, sir' after how long they'd been dating. Willie grinned, leaning over the island to press a kiss to Alex' cheek as Caleb made him a cappuccino with his fancy coffee maker.
He listened to his boyfriend make awkward small talk with his dad about 'if he got home alright' last night, going from Boring Normal Pancakes to Fun Pancakes with the last of the batter. A bat for Dad. Some (slightly lumpy) drum sticks for Alex. And a skateboard for himself. He placed those on the tops of the three stacks.
"Okay, done!" he said, dumping Dad's plate in front of him before dragging Alex to the dining room with him before he could roll his eyes.
The dining room, which was set up nicely, with a table cloth, the fancy silverware, and a small bouquet of flowers. On the seat opposite to Willie's, there was a fancy-looking box.
"Did I forget an anniversary?" Alex squeaked.
"Not unless I forgot it too," Willie said, going over to the Mysterious Box. It had Alex' name on it. He put down his plate, turning to Alex. "It's for you!"
Alex slowly approached, apprehensively shaking the box a little. It didn't sound like a bomb or anything. "You promise this isn't some kind of prank?"
"Hotdog, I swear it's not. Not from me, anyway." Did Luke and Reggie manage to break into their house? Dad had a great security system. Even though Willie had sometimes felt it was more to keep him In than it was to keep burglars Out. "Open it!"
"Okay," Alex said, putting the box on the table and using a fork to carefully lift the lid off at an arm's length. Willie hid behind him, peering over his shoulder, just in case it was some kind of glitter bomb.
When nothing happened, they moved closer, peering into the box.
Willie gasped. Inside was a soft, perfect, light pink dragon. It was the same one as Lancelot, except not squished and cuddled and spilled jam and glitter and paint on and washed for more than a decade.
"He's perfect," Alex said, gently lifting the dragon out of the box and hugging him close.
"Dude!" Willie said. "There's something on his tail!" He gently undid the ribbon. It was a key. A very familiar looking key.
"Well, if you weren't going to give him one, I thought I would," Dad said. He was standing just outside the dining room, leaning on the door frame, obnoxiously sipping his coffee. Keeping his promise, while still trolling the heck out of them.
"You knew?" Alex said, sounding scared.
"You boys aren't as subtle as you think," Dad said, smirking. "And if Alex is going to be living here, he needs his own stuffed animal."
"That's right," Willie agreed. "We take stuffed animals very seriously in this house."
Alex still looked a bit lost, hugging his dragon close. "You mean I can stay?" he whispered.
"Of course," Dad, coming into the dining room and putting a hand on Alex' shoulder. "You're always welcome here, Alex. How about we discuss the details after your romantic breakfast?" He winked at Willie.
Willie didn't even pretend to be mad, just catching his dad in a hug. "Thanks, Dad." All the sneaking around had been fun, but he'd known it would end up like this anyway. Well, he figured there's be more shouting first, but this was better.
"Wait, if you take stuffed animals so seriously, does that mean your dad has one too?" Alex asked Willie, as Dad retreated to the kitchen.
"Oh yeah, he has a big squishy bat I won for him at the fair when I was eleven," Willie said proudly. It still lived on Dad's fancy armchair in his bedroom.
"I use it to scream my frustrations into when my son does things like sneak his boyfriend in and out of the house for weeks!" Dad called.
"DAD! Stop ruining our romantic breakfast!" Willie called back, and Alex laughed, gently placing his new dragon on the chair next to him.
Yeah, things were going to be fine.
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