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A seven year old John Chesterton shared the task of setting the table with his father. Unfortunately, a child with a love of games should probably not be given any kind of responsibility which involved sharp objects. And neither should their father.
"Avarst! Ye matey!" Ian Chesterton cried at his son, brandishing a butter knife like a sword.
"Arrrr!!" John replied with one eye closed as though he were wearing an eye patch.
"Submit to me, matey, or I'll gut yer through!"
"NEVAAR!!"
The butter knives clinked once before Barbara managed to catch them at it; "boys!" she called from the doorway into the dining room. "That's quite enough. One of you will literally skin the other and I am not in the mood to drive over to the emergency ward."
Unfortunately, neither boy was paying much attention. To begin with they looked suitably shamed, but all it took was a quick exchange of looks and they lunged at Barbara, who screamed. And then giggled as the tickling fingers of John and Ian found her most ticklish spots. She managed to wriggle away, and ran for the kitchen, the hall and finally the lounge where they tackled her onto the sofa and tickled her until she managed to cry for mercy between fits of laughter.
Now breathing heavy, all three Chestertons sat on the sofa a moment, contemplating who to tickle next when the doorbell rung.
"I'll get it," Barbara said and pushed herself up to walk to the front door. Her hand reflexively went to her hair, double checking that everything was still in place. When she opened the door, flushed in the face from the giggling, hair didn't matter. Even dinner didn't matter. Nor sword fighting, or anything else.
"...Howard," she gasped.
"Avarst! Ye matey!" Ian Chesterton cried at his son, brandishing a butter knife like a sword.
"Arrrr!!" John replied with one eye closed as though he were wearing an eye patch.
"Submit to me, matey, or I'll gut yer through!"
"NEVAAR!!"
The butter knives clinked once before Barbara managed to catch them at it; "boys!" she called from the doorway into the dining room. "That's quite enough. One of you will literally skin the other and I am not in the mood to drive over to the emergency ward."
Unfortunately, neither boy was paying much attention. To begin with they looked suitably shamed, but all it took was a quick exchange of looks and they lunged at Barbara, who screamed. And then giggled as the tickling fingers of John and Ian found her most ticklish spots. She managed to wriggle away, and ran for the kitchen, the hall and finally the lounge where they tackled her onto the sofa and tickled her until she managed to cry for mercy between fits of laughter.
Now breathing heavy, all three Chestertons sat on the sofa a moment, contemplating who to tickle next when the doorbell rung.
"I'll get it," Barbara said and pushed herself up to walk to the front door. Her hand reflexively went to her hair, double checking that everything was still in place. When she opened the door, flushed in the face from the giggling, hair didn't matter. Even dinner didn't matter. Nor sword fighting, or anything else.
"...Howard," she gasped.
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Date: 2013-04-08 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-08 02:01 pm (UTC)He clearly wants to go find Jim Meowrrison.
Howard nods at Ian. "Yes, please. Not much." Ever since his disastrous experience with alcohol on his trip to America with Barbara - and because Orc's spectre still hangs over him - he hasn't been drinking much, but with Ian and Barbara around he'll occasional have a single glass. "I'll be right back."
And he disappears to the bathroom, returning looking a little bit freshened up, with some of the dirt of the day washed off his face and hands.
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Date: 2013-04-14 01:39 am (UTC)"Just in time," Barbara smiled, removing her apron and hanging it on a hook just inside the kitchen door. "I hope that you're hungry."
Howard's plate was piled with a little of everything, and then a little more so that he had a collection of steamed vegetables, some of which the others weren't having, and meats (plural because there wasn't quite enough for everyone to have a decent share, so she cooked a little bacon to go on Howard's plate).
"Mummy, I want bacon!" John said upon seeing Howard's plate.
"You had bacon for breakfast, Johnny, don't be so greedy."
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Date: 2013-04-14 04:59 am (UTC)"But you made bacon especially for Howard," John continues to protest.
Howard puts the piece of bacon back down, thinking a better person would just relinquish the food, thinking he's not that person. He takes a sip of wine instead.
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Date: 2013-04-14 10:17 am (UTC)"Eat up, Howard," Barbara encouraged with a smile, "just ignore my rude son."
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Date: 2013-04-14 06:57 pm (UTC)"You know, John, vegetables are really good for you. When I was a kid I would have killed someone for some good veggies like this." Possibly literally, but he's not about to say that at the table.
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Date: 2013-04-17 12:46 pm (UTC)"John," both of his parents warned.
Their son cleared his throat, scowled at his sprouts, and asked: "Uncle Howard, where have you been> I havent seen you in ages?"
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Date: 2013-04-17 04:38 pm (UTC)"Um. Working." He doesn't really have an excuse. Before he got fired, he went to work, went home, slept when he could and listened to the radio and idled away his time with building things and writing. He has no social life, really, no social hobbies. "Writing a book. Scrapping that book, writing another book, tossing that one out too."
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Date: 2013-04-17 08:46 pm (UTC)During a little display John put on, where he played a riff on his fork, Barbara spoke over the top: "you could have sent them to me. I'd have love to had read them. I always enjoyed reading your writing."
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Date: 2013-04-17 08:56 pm (UTC)The cats park next to the dinner table to beg.
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Date: 2013-04-22 10:13 am (UTC)Ian grabbed hold of his fork and put it back on his plate with a Look that could almost have rivaled Barbara's. Almost.
"Howard, I'm always pleased to read whatever you write, even with large plot holes." She shrugged and held a piece of meat up to her mouth and before eating it, she added: "you have a beautiful way of writing. It's always a pleasure to read what you've composed."
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Date: 2013-04-22 05:17 pm (UTC)"Yeah, but you know I'd rather you see me at my best, right?" He kicks himself for that, because if that were true he wouldn't be showing up unwashed and homeless at her doorstep. "I'm thinking I might just do poetry instead. Maybe send some out to get published in magazines and stuff."
It's a testament to Barbara and Ian's encouragement that he's considering that at all, much less saying it out loud. He'd never consider something so 'sissy' in his teen years.
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Date: 2013-04-25 09:17 am (UTC)John was a large part of their life now. Barbara knew that by most people's standards he wasn't perfect, and that he'd rub Howard the wrong way, but there was little they could do. He was a child and as a result, was still learning. If Howard wanted to see them, he'd unfortunately have to do a little adjusting.
Yet, Barbara felt compassion in her heart to at least try and do something.
"John," she intercepted, "all of the vegetables on your plate will be eaten, or there will be no ice cream and no television. Do I make myself clear?"
A pouty John nodded once and stared gloomily at his plate. Barbara turned back to her conversation with Howard, and Ian, thinking her a touch harsh, watched her for a moment before going back to his own meal.
"I think that if writing poetry helps you, that you should do it. You don't have to get any of it published if you don't want to, but if you feel that it's the right way to go, I think you should do it." Mostly Barbara worried that any rejection might shatter his attempts at writing altogether, given that he'd been having difficulty the past little while. But she couldn't protect him from everything, and therefore left the decision up to him.
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Date: 2013-04-25 05:37 pm (UTC)It's not John's fault, he thinks. But knowing it rationally isn't doesn't change how tense it's made him.
"Well, I need to start getting paid for writing soon. I don't want to be fixing cars forever." Especially now that he can't, because he got fired. "And I don't have anything long enough to send out for a short story or book."
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Date: 2013-05-18 05:15 am (UTC)"You should write for Cat in the Hat," John said, his mouth full of the vegetables he didn't want to eat. "His books are so funny, and the words are tricky but I can read them because I'm clever."
"Johnny, the Cat in the Hat doesn't the books, Doctor Seuss does," Ian sighed, "and swallow what's in your mouth first, then talk." Clearly John was often a handful to have around, making it obvious why the Chestertons stopped at one child.
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Date: 2013-05-18 05:35 am (UTC)He finishes up his plate; there's still some smears of food. He looks to Barbara as if silently asking if it's alright for him to literally lick his plate.
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Date: 2013-05-18 05:48 am (UTC)Since Barbara doesn't want John learning bad habits, she said: "Howard, why don't you help me collect the plates?" out in the kitchen, where John can't see him, Howard can lick all the plates he wants.
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Date: 2013-05-18 06:04 am (UTC)Over the sink, he asks, "do you think I should like, try to read him a bedtime story? Like, to get to know him without him asking questions about me?"
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Date: 2013-05-18 06:11 am (UTC)She turned from the sink to look at him. "Honestly...I think that reading to him will help, but the more interest he has in you, the more he's going to want to know. Such as where you've been, how we know one another. Where your parents are. We have told him snippets, but nothing entirely personal about you. He knows that we met on a spaceship, that your home was destroyed and you used to live with us until you grew up and moved out. Anything else he knows is at your discretion."
Barbara and Ian had always held honesty as their best policy. Why shouldn't John know that they traveled the stars? The tricky part, which they didn't foresee, was convincing him to keep it secret. Johnny struggled, of course, they'd already been called into the school twice on account of John starting fights when people didn't believe the stories he told of his parents. At least he was still at an age where it could be taken as his imagination overworking.
"But don't do anything you're not entirely comfortable with," she gently warned, leaning against the sink with one hand. "He'll be heart broken if he thinks you're becoming best friends and suddenly you're running away."
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Date: 2013-05-18 06:24 am (UTC)"I'm going to be here a while, I think." He glances towards the room with the couch, where his suitcase and cat carriers have been moved to. "If you'll keep me. I need to get my feet under me again."
He knows eventually the truth will come out to them, but they've generally been good about letting him take his time, waiting until he's ready to say what's on his mind rather than pressing.
"I mean, if I try to avoid him I'm going to make him, me and you crazy. And probably Ian too. If I try to get to know him maybe I'll..." Maybe he'll be able to be around John without thinking of his own teenage years; maybe he'll be able to plaster over the old memories with new, fonder ones. "He's going to wonder why I'm weird, basically."
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Date: 2013-05-18 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-18 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-18 10:52 pm (UTC)Since a number of the plates were now licked and ready to be washed, Barbara began to stack the sink. "And you did perfectly fine this evening. Just make sure that you're out of John's sight when you lick thing plates and cutlery, please."
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Date: 2013-05-18 11:05 pm (UTC)"I promise not to eat nothing but candy around him, too."
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Date: 2013-05-18 11:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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