Jason Richards (leothedetective) wrote in supernextdoor, @ 2012-06-25 11:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | #group scene, 10.16.11, charlie, chloe, jason, xander |
"Good" Morning
Who: Charlie, Chloe, Jason, Xander and Grace (NPC)
What: Breakfast with the Pride
When: 10.16 - Sunday Morning
Where: The Lions' Den
Warning: Drama
Jason had showered and gotten dressed after he'd finished texting back and forth with Justice. She said she'd call him later, so he'd have to wait for the details until then. While it was probably a relief for everybody that Lucas wasn't going to be a father, it still had to be hard on him.
While he was in the shower, Jason had started singing Time to Take My Drunk Ass Home. It'd been stuck in his head since the young guy had closed the bar with it last night. So even after he'd tossed on a gray long sleeved knit henley (which covered most of the marks Justice had put on him this weekend) and a pair of blue jeans, he was still singing it until his breath when he wandered into the kitchen.
Xander was still getting used to having breakfast as a family. No matter how busy the Richards were, they always seemed to come together over at least one meal a day and that was usually breakfast. It was weird to say the least to be a part of a family. Or at least to be on the outskirts watching a family. Though they'd been more than accepting and willing to love him, Xander still felt a little strange in their midst. He wasn't part of the family, he was an outsider and he thought that maybe he was intruding a little, even if they were too nice to say as much.
Jason offering to let him stay had been the best thing ever, but now he was left to worry and wonder what would happen if something happened between himself and Charlie. If they broke up, he wasn't just losing the girl who'd helped him make the most positive changes in his life. He would be losing a family. A guy who'd been more of a dad than he'd ever had, Chloe who always seemed to be stuffing him with some sort of food, Charlie who he was completely smitten with and then there was Gracie who indeed had the best cuddles around. That didn't even cover the fact that Justice and Lucas were starting to be part of the family.
The thought of losing them had him sick to his stomach that morning as he settled into his chair just before Jason entered the room. "Morning," he said to Jason as the man came into his view.
Charlie clomped down the stairs with her usual heavy tread, still wearing her slippers. She’d tugged on jeans and a t-shirt, and her hair was hanging loose around her shoulders instead of tied back like it normally was on weekend mornings. She wasn’t going to make a huge effort - Xander had seen her when she was less put-together after all - but she was definitely more aware of her appearance than she had been a few weeks ago. She yawned as she walked into the kitchen, the sound ending with a squeak as she stretched. “Morning,” she murmured, squeezing Xander’s shoulder as she edged past him to get to the refrigerator. “Did you have a good night, Dad?”
Chloe finished scrambling the mixture of sausage and eggs and sprinkled in some cheese as well. Along with the bacon, toast and fruit she'd prepared, the scrambled omelet would go nicely. "Morning, Daddy," she commented as he came into the room. She flashed him a smile and went about getting everyone's plates stacked high with food. "Butter or jam on your toast?" she asked her father as she sat his plate in front of him and went for the fridge.
“What am I, chopped liver?” Charlie stuck her tongue out at her sister, stealing a slice of bacon off Chloe’s plate in retaliation for being ignored. She sat down at her place, glass of juice in hand, curling up on her chair. She knew she was gonna get told to sit up properly in a second, but she wasn’t nearly awake enough to do it of her own accord. Besides, this way she could lean her head on Xander’s shoulders. He still smelled all sleepy and warm, and Charlie purred quietly as she leant against him.
"Morning," he said to Xander, shaking his head as Charlie clomped in and went to the fridge. He nodded. "Yeah, we had fun, Slugger," he told his middle child. He sat down at the table. "I'm fine, Princess," he said. He smiled at Gracie, who got up to kiss his cheek before settling down on Xander's other side in her seat. He scoffed at the comment Charlie made, rolling his eyes at her half laying on Xander. "Not at the table," he teased. "I'm eating here."
Xander smiled a little at Charlie as she curled into her chair and leaned against him. The comment from Jason about the cuddling she was doing made him flush and look down at the plate that Chloe had put in front of him. His smile didn't falter as he turned his head enough to kiss the top of Charlie's. "Morning," he murmured to her, liking the way she smelled almost as much as she seemed to like his scent.
Charlie huffed at her dad’s comment, but sat up once Xander had kissed the top of his head. “Like you and Justice aren’t just as bad,” she pointed out, letting her feet slip off the edge of the chair onto the floor. It wasn’t fair, he got to have Justice in his room, and be all cuddly, but she got teased for leaning her head on her boyfriend’s shoulder? Total double standards.
Chloe stuck her tongue out at Charlie and glared at her when she took the piece of bacon off of her plate. "Morning, brat," she replied, scrunching her nose up teasingly at her sister as she settled into her chair and picked up her glass to take a sip. Settling it back on the table, she rolled her eyes at her sister. "At least they keep it in the bedroom for the most part," she said, smirking a little and casting a look at her father. "Small favors," she teased.
He'd been joking. God. Jason rolled his eyes, taking a drink of his coffee. "We are not," he defended with a smirk. "Exactly." Thank Xander for making it so his daughters couldn't hear or smell what went on his bedroom anymore.
Grace scoffed. "You were cuddling her all of Friday night," she reminded her father. "Like seriously. I don't think Daddy got off the couch until Chloe got home and he had it out with Mateo." Because they needed to be reminded of that.
Hearing her phone go off in her pocket, Chloe sighed. She'd thought she'd turned the damned thing off like she usually did in the mornings since Tonya texted her constantly, but she apparently hadn't. She went ahead and read the message which was short and sweet. Your dad = so f-ing hot <3. Attached to the message was a video and Chloe was almost afraid to watch it. Tonya hadn't been over for sleepovers mostly because Chloe didn't like listening to her talk about how fine her father was so at least she didn't think it was some random stalkery 'dad walked in without a shirt on this morning' video. The actual video was almost worse than that.
"DAD?!" she cried out, blinking at the clip of a video that she'd been sent. "Did you have to grab your crotch on stage AND let it be videoed and put up for the whole world to see?" Christ. She sighed and flipped the phone around to her father. "Thanks for that. Tonya's going to be peering in the windows like a peeping Tom now."
"Chloe, not at the table," he scolded. He had his cell on at the table because of work. He didn't want his kids talking or texting at the table. He even took his work calls and texts away from it, because it was bad manners. They were lions, but they weren't animals, for Christ's sake.
Then the inhuman whine and Jason could hear the audio enough to know what was coming. Oh great... He sighed and shook his head. "It's part of the song," he pointed out.
Gracie, however, took the opportunity to snatch and grab Chloe's phone, leaning across Xander to show Charlie as she replayed it. "Oh God, he totally does grab his crotch," she giggled. "You are in so much trouble Daddy."
“Daaaaaadd!” Charlie whined, in a fairly similar tone to her sisters, covering her face with her hands as the video played. “Oh God. Please tell me people didn’t see this. Like, people at school.” Yeah, because her life didn’t suck enough. Really. She needed videos of her dad grabbing his crotch and inviting women to touch whatever they wanted to circulating at school. “It’s on Youtube.” Which was probably where Tonya got it, since she wasn’t old enough to have been at the bar her dad had been at last night.
Xander didn't want to watch Jason grab his crotch in any form whether it was on stage or otherwise. He turned his head away from the telephone and focused on his breakfast. "Tonya knows," he commented. "It might as well have been on the news. She's got a mouth bigger than a whale honestly."
Chloe took her phone back from her sister and sighed. "Xander's right," she muttered, shaking her head as she turned the phone off and sat it on the table. "She's my best friend and I love her to bits, but she's like the real life gossip girl or something. She knows about stuff about me before I know about it," she groaned, picking up her glass and trying to not think about what would happen in school the next day when everyone had seen the video at least fifty times. "You're going to have teenage girls in packs rushing at you in the streets."
Jason sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "At least I kept my shirt on," he muttered. The guy who'd done the closing number hadn't managed that. "Did they at least record the whole thing?" He'd done a damned good job for being so rusty, he thought. Hopefully, nobody had recorded the cougar trying to molest him afterwards. Even though he turned her down pointedly, it was just more ammunition for the girls.
Gracie growled when Chloe stole back her phone. "Why would they do that?" she told her dad, going back to eating. "It's not like they care about any other part of the song. They're horny teenage girls."
“Dad, what kind of bar did you go to?” Because really, topless people and guys grabbing their crotches? Charlie was beginning to wonder. She scooped a large forkful of eggs into her mouth, gulping it down before continuing. “Where’s Justice, anyway? I thought she stayed over last night?” That had been the plan, as far as she could remember. Not that she minded - it was nice to have a family breakfast with just them and Xander for a change.
Xander shook his head a little and tried not to laugh at the goings on around him. Apparently breakfast with the Richards' was never boring. "At least he had a good time?" he said shrugging slightly as he looked over at Charlie who'd asked her father about his girlfriend's whereabouts. He was a little curious too, but he didn't want to be nosy.
Jason rolled his eyes at both his daughters' reactions. "The guy who sang the closer was drunk out of his mind," he explained. "He sang Time to Take My Drunk Ass Home and one of the lyrics is about having lost his shirt. So he whipped it off." Really, he was kind of comforted by the fact his daughters considered crotch grabbing and guys taking off their shirts in public scandalous. Considering he wouldn't have batted an eyelash at it at their age. Hell, at most parties when he was in high school, he was the one who was drunk, taking off his shirt and grabbing his crotch. He'd been a wild teenager who'd paid for it big time. Thankfully, his daughters were much less wild than he'd been.
As for Xander's question, Jason shrugged. He took a few more bites. "She went home to check on Lucas," he explained. "Which came with mixed news. Alanna's baby isn't his. No idea how he found out, but apparently she was screwing around on him. Poor kid." That had to be rough. He didn't know what he'd done if it had been him. Somebody would have died. Definitely.
Chloe nearly choked on her breakfast, having to take a drink from her glass to keep from going into a coughing fit. Yeah, never a dull moment in this house. "Well... I guess you can be glad you're not going to be a possible future step-grandfather?" she told her dad with a shrug. "At least not yet. But that sucks. Not that I didn't expect it though. She seemed kind of snooty. You guys might have thought she was just quiet, but I think it was because she thought she was better than us. Her and her palace of doom," she muttered, rolling her eyes.
“Can we go round her house and scare the crap out of her?” Charlie grinned wickedly. Yeah, she hadn’t liked Alanna either. Way too girly, and way too simpering, for her liking. It sucked for Lucas though. And Justice, too. “We should take a hunting trip,” she suggested, looking round the table. “It’s not long until we can, right? Lucas and Justice can come, and all of us.” She reached out, squeezing Xander’s hand under the table. “You’ll love it. S’mores for dessert, every night. “
Xander blinked a little at the thought of a hunting trip and the invitation that Charlie was giving him. He shook his head a little. "No, I couldn't," he told her. "It sounds like a family thing and I'd feel like I was intruding," he explained. It wasn't that he wouldn't like to go on a 'hunting' trip because he'd never really been on anything like that, but it was a family thing. And he wasn't family.
Jason gave Chloe a look. "I'm not ready to be any kind of grandfather," he reminded her. "I'm thirty-five." That was the silver lining in this, although he couldn't help but feel for Lucas. While yeah, it was tough to suck up and face being a father at seventeen, there was still some anticipation. Not only had the girl cheated on him and deceived him, he'd started getting attached to a child that would never be his. It was unfair. "Don't tempt me," he told Charlie. Although the hunting trip was a good idea. "It's about that time of year, isn't it?"
Grace perked up. "You promised I'd get to make a kill this year!" she reminded her sisters, Alanna completely forgotten at the mention of hunting. She frowned at Xander's words. "Wait, what?" she said. "Of course you're family. You live with us. You're part of the pride. Don't you want to come hunting with us?" She was two seconds from giving him the big sad kitty eyes. He got a chance to change his tune first. Because Gracie was hurt Xander didn't feel welcome in their family.
"Well you're not getting any grandkids from me for years," she promised him. "I'd like to keep my body as long as possible, thanks," she added. Not that she didn't want children eventually, but not anytime soon. There were more important things, like graduating and getting into college and figuring out what she was doing with her life. As for Xander, she glared at the boy. "Of course you're coming," she told him. "Gracie's right, you're part of the family. The pride. You're going." And that was all she was going to say about that. He lived with them, he was part of the pride, he was already family even if he hadn't been around all that long. Gracie making her kill was of course going to happen. "You'll get one," she promised her.
“You’re not intruding,” Charlie murmured, looking at Xander, a little hurt. “You’re part of the family, right?” She glanced at her dad for confirmation. She knew Jason had offered to let Xander stay permanently, but Xander didn’t seem like he’d made up his mind. “It’s not just hunting, it’s a camping trip really. Say you’ll come?” Like Gracie, she was about one step away from turning on the sad kitty eyes. Hers weren’t nearly as good, though.
Xander didn't know what he was supposed to say to that. He didn't want to say no to her, not when she was looking at him like that and sounding like she was ready to almost cry. He sighed a little and pushed his hand through his hair. "You might not think I'm intruding, but I kind of feel like I would be." He wasn't used to this sort of thing and he was afraid to let himself get attached to the family even if that was a futile attempt. He loved them all already. They'd been there for him so much it was unbelievable. "You guys have already been so great to me... I just... I don't want to wear out my welcome and make you sorry you invited me to stay here in the first place," he explained.
Christ. Jason sighed and put down his fork. "You are not going to wear out your welcome, Xander," he told him. "Even if you weren't dating Charlie, had she told me about your dilemma and what happened to you, I would have helped you. Because you a good kid who's been handed a shitty life. There's not always a chance to help a kid who's at that point in their life. We're lucky to have caught you at that point. Because it's not just good for you. It's good for all of us. If you don't want to go with us because you're not interested in hunting or camping, then it's fine. But don't say that you'd be intruding. Because you're not."
Jason took a deep breath, wondering where that came from. Oh yeah, Justice doing the exact same thing to him. Refusing to believe the present was different than the past. He knew why Xander felt that way. It was just frustrating. Even though he also knew it was going to take time for both Xander and Justice to realize things weren't going to end the same way they always had.
Gracie had gone quiet, pushing her food around. "Please come with us?" she said, not even wanting to think Xander wasn't actually going to stay. She was obviously already attached to the kid, which made the idea he didn't feel welcome in their family hurt more.
Charlie focused on her food, stabbing at a bit of burnt bacon as if it was to blame for Xander not wanting to come with them. It had been stupid of her to get so excited - but she hadn’t even thought that Xander might not want to come with them. With her. “You’re part of the pride,” she insisted stubbornly, glaring at her plate. This wasn’t how Sunday morning was supposed to go. She was supposed to get cuddles on the couch with Xander, get her dreaded homework done, then play football or catch or something with her dad. Not spend the morning grumpy and miserable because Xander was being an idiot.
Xander sighed and let his eyes fall on his plate. "I'm sorry," he said, not really directing it at anyone in particular because he felt bad equally towards everyone at the table. Maybe more towards Gracie who sounded like she was about to cry. Crying girls, especially little ones, were never something that made a guy feel good. "I'm just not used to all of this yet," he tried to explain. It wasn't a good excuse, he knew, but he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. "I'll go."
Charlie dropped her fork to her plate with a loud clatter, chair shrieking as she shoved it back from the table. “Fine,” she muttered, getting to her feet. “If being a part of this family is such a fu-freaking hardship for you, maybe you should go.” Spinning on her heel, she ran out of the room, biting down on her lower lip to hold in a sob as she raced upstairs to her room, slamming the door behind her. She flung herself down on her bed, burying her face against the pillow as she screamed. It was so unfair - why did boys have to be such idiots? Why didn’t Xander want to be part of their family?
With that, all hell promptly broke loose. Grace burst into tears, rushing over to Chloe and wrapping her arms around her sister. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Charlie didn't want Xander to leave. None of them did. But she was sobbing too hard to explain that right now.
Jason let out a frustrated noise. "Don't go anywhere," he ordered Xander as he got up to go after Charlie. God, if it wasn't one thing, it was another. He knew exactly how she felt, why she was upset. He wasn't sure he could explain the whole thing, but he had to try.
Chloe sighed and pulled Gracie into her lap, gently stroking her fingers through the little girl's hair. "It's alright," she assured her. It was a big fucking mess is what it was. Chloe thought everyone needed to sit down and shut the hell up for five seconds, but it was too late for that. "Stop being a moron," she told Xander. "Saying 'I'll go' like that was stupid. You might as well have said 'well, if I have to' and sighed annoyedly. Boys. Freaking idiots."
Charlie had her face buried in her pillows still, fingers curled into the fabric, fighting the urge to just claw the damn thing to shreds. She’d gotten grounded the last time she’d done that, though. And she kind of liked the sheets she had now. She let out a frustrated growl, rolling onto her back when the urge to breathe got stronger than the urge to scream the damn house down.
Xander sighed and stayed where he was. It wasn't like he really had any other choice despite the intense urge to run that built up inside of him. She might not have meant it, but Charlie telling him to leave had hurt and he thought that if she wanted him to leave, he might as well go. It was exactly what he had honestly been expecting; being told to leave. The only thing keeping him in his chair was the fact that he'd been ordered to do so by Jason and he was still terrified of the guy.
Gracie buried her face into Chloe's shoulder. She looked over at Xander as she heard her father head upstairs after her sister. "Why don't you want to be part of the pride?" she demanded. That was what Charlie had meant. If he didn't want to be there, which he obviously didn't, why was he there? It didn't make sense.
Jason knocked on Charlie's door. "Let me in, Slugger," he said, distressed by all of his. He understood where everybody was coming from, but it didn't make it any less frustrating. Especially when two of his daughters were crying and third was well on her way. Under any other circumstance, the offending party would be wise to clear the city limits before Jason got done calming them down, but this was not a normal situation. "Please?"
Half of Charlie wanted to scream ‘no’ and fling something at the door. The other part just wanted her daddy to hug her and tell her everything was gonna be ok. After a moment’s thought, Charlie slid off her bed, padding over to the door. She was still wiping her eyes as she opened the door, looking miserably up at her father. “He’s not really gonna leave, is he?” She asked, in a very small voice.
Xander sighed. "I didn't say that," he muttered, getting up from his chair and leaving the room. He might have been told to stay where he was, but he couldn't just sit there and watch Gracie cry when he hadn't meant to be the cause of it in the first place. He needed a cigarette before he had a fit of his own.
Jason sighed. "God, I hope not," he admitted. Probably not what she wanted to hear, but it was closer to the truth than what she wanted to hear. He shut the door behind him, not exactly sure what he was supposed to say from here. "Justice used to do the same kind attitude with me. She still does a little. Because everybody else treated him like shit, that's what he expects. It's unfair and it sucks. But that's what's going on."
Charlie slid her arms around her dad’s waist, cheek against his chest as she cuddled close. “But why?” She asked, angry and confused. “We’ve never been horrible to him. Why does he think we don’t want him here?” She didn’t understand - boys were confusing enough, throwing her whole family into the mix made it twice as hard. Having Xander around blurred the lines, and if she thought she could bear it, she’d suggest they break up. Xander having a family, feeling wanted, was more important. But even though they’d only been dating a short while, she knew she couldn’t do that.
He wrapped his arms around Charlie, squeezing her tight. "I know," he told her. "Like I said, they- he thinks he's protecting himself from being hurt again. Which all that does is hurt you and everybody else who wants to get close to him. I deal with the same thing with Justice. It's frustrating and it hurts. You need to tell him this. Because even if he should know, if you tell him, he can't deny it and feel sorry for himself enough to keep pushing us away. He thinks nobody can ever love him and that's why he pushes people away. Because they he won't get attached and get hurt when they turn on him." God, this was exactly what he was worried about. It was hard enough for him to deal with it from Justice. Charlie was fifteen, for Christ's sake.
“It’s stupid,” Charlie insisted stubbornly, blinking away tears. She hadn’t known any other way to be, was sheltered despite her dad’s job. Hearing Xander talk about his parents had made her realise how lucky she was. She wanted him to be part of that too. Hell, even Justice. She wasn’t taking her dad away from them, the way Charlie had been afraid she would. “I just want him to want to be here. To be part of the pride, the way we all think he is.”
Jason chuckled wryly. "It really is stupid," he admitted. It drove him just as nuts when Justice did it to him, although it was getting better. But what had worked for bringing her around was not something he was suggesting to his fifteen year old daughter. She'd have to do it the way he'd planned to. Persistence. He nuzzled her cheek, giving her another hug. "I know, Slugger," he said as he stepped back a bit, brushing her hair out of her face and lifting up her chin. "Then tell him that. And keep telling him that. Showing him that. No matter how stupid and frustrating he is, you can't say 'Well, fine, leave then.' Because that is exactly what he expects to hear and he'll use it as an excuse to run away. Tell him how you feel. Don't let him make you the bad guy. He's not doing it on purpose, but he's been victimized so much, that's what he expects. He's a kicked puppy. Any time anybody raises their hand or voice, he expects to be hit. Because that's what he knows. Which is the ONLY REASON I am not going to kill him for making my girls cry." Yes, he cared about Xander, but making his girls cry was an offense that Jason didn't take lightly.
Charlie wiped her eyes, smiling up at her dad, just a little. “Boys are dumb, daddy,” she pointed out. “You’ve been telling us that for years.” And until this morning, Charlie had thought her father was exaggerating. Now she wasn’t so sure. But she was going to make Xander see that he had a home, that he was part of their family, if it killed her.
"Yeah, remember I was one?" he teased her. "Personal experience talking. Boys are dumb." Not that he'd gotten any better with age. Well, a little. Jason hugged Charlie again. "So go tell him he's being a dummy and explain how things really are. He should be nice an vulnerable now, since Gracie probably guilt tripped him like crazy until he went outside." He'd heard the sliding door on the patio. "Chloe and I will make sure she leaves you two alone long enough for you to talk some sense into him. Okay?"
She nodded, taking a deep breath. “Okay. Permission to punch him for being a dummy?” She didn’t want to risk getting into trouble, even if she did want to pound Xander in his stupid face. She smoothed her hair back from her face with a grimace, grabbing a hair elastic off her wrist and tying it back to get it out the way. So much for looking cute for her boyfriend - her hair was scraped back, and her eyes were puffy and red.
'No," he told her. "Any other boy, a good smack in the face would probably do a world of good for. He's expecting somebody to hit him. So you're gonna have to play this one differently." Really it was good. That way Xander could see what his paranoia had done. If he had to face how much he was hurting Charlie with it, maybe he'd wake up and change his tune. "You might mention you really want to punch him in the face for being such a dick, but even that would probably not be good. Just make him explain himself and then tell him how wrong he is. Then we can go a few rounds in the garage or you can beat on the heavy bag."
Charlie let out a low rumbling growl of frustration. Because yeah, she was about as good as her father at talking about feelings. Slightly better, because she was a girl, but still. Not great. And now she had to go talk to Xander without calling him a dumbass, or punching him. “Not even in the arm?” She asked plaintively, pouting just a little. He really did deserve it.
Jason chuckled softly. "Not even in the arm," he said. "You can hug him a little too hard, if you have to do something. Just don't crack his ribs." Yeah, he didn't envy her this talk, but it was probably better than the way he and a Justice had had theirs. "Go on," he said. "Before he actually convinces himself you want him to leave. And before you ask, yes, he could do that. Now scoot."
Charlie sighed, the drawn out martyred sigh that blesses teens on the thirteenth birthday, and disappears when they turn twenty. “Fine.” She muttered, opening her bedroom door. “But I reserve the right to punch him some point in the future.” Or when her dad wasn’t looking. One of the two. She kicked off her slippers, shoving her feet into her battered combat boots and clomping downstairs. She snagged a couple of apples out of the fruit bowl on the dining table on her way past, heading out to where Xander was.
Xander was just putting out his cigarette in the ashtray he'd left out on the patio when Charlie came out. He thought he might need to light up another one considering she looked like she'd been sobbing and it was all his fault. He sighed and pushed his hand through his hair, not even wanting to look at her out of guilt alone. "I didn't mean to make you cry," he told her, looking down at the ashtray instead. "I'm sorry."
Charlie had been all ready to throw the apple at his head, but the way he looked at her, like someone had just run over his puppy, took the wind out of her sails. She sat down on the picnic table, her feet on the bench, setting one of the apples down on the table beside her. “I know,” she said quietly, looking down at the other apple in her hands, rolling it gently between her palms. “I didn’t mean to tell you to leave,” she continued. “I don’t want you to. Ever.”
He looked over at her after a long moment, letting out a little breath before he drew in another to speak. "I don't want to leave," he told her honestly. "I'm trying, Char, I am." He just wasn't sure what he could say to make any of this better, to make her feel any less like he didn't trust and believe in her. "I wish I could explain why I feel the way I do or make it go away, but I can't. I can't just snap my fingers and believe that I'm not going to wake up and be back where I started." Reaching out, he caught her chin and turned her head enough that he could look at her. "I'm just worried about losing you guys," he told her. "All of you. I don't think I could handle it. You've all done more for me in the last couple weeks than anyone has done for me my whole life. It's hard to get used to. But I want to."
Charlie nodded gently, scared of dislodging his hand on her face. “I know,” she murmured quietly. “I just...” she sighed, nose wrinkling a little as she tried to think of how to explain herself. “I don’t get it. Why you’d be scared of being part of our family.” Her family was awesome, much as they drove her insane sometimes. “Dad tried to explain,” she continued, smirking just a little. “And told me I wasn’t allowed to punch you for being a dumbass.” Tempting as it had been before she’d seen his face. “You’re part of the pride, Xander. You don’t get to leave. Not even-” she took a breath, dropping her eyes to her hands, picking at the apple. “Not even if we ever break up.”
Shaking his head a little, he dropped his hand to the apple in her grip and took it from her, putting it aside and wrapping his arms around her. "Charlie...," he whispered, stroking one hand over her back to try and comfort her. "I don't want to leave. Not today. Not anytime soon if I can help it," he explained to her. "It's not that I don't want to be part of your family it's just that... I wasn't even part of my own," he sighed. "I was out of place, in the way, always in trouble for everything. I couldn't do anything right, even when I thought I was doing my best. I know that you guys aren't my parents, but it's just taking some getting used to. I'm worried about it all blowing up in my face. I'm waiting for you all to realize that you're way too good for a guy like me. That I have too many problems for you to bother with... I'm scared of losing you."
Charlie crawled into his lap, wrapping her arms around his waist, her face tucked against his throat. “You’re not going to,” she insisted. “Not ever.” She’d keep saying that until he believed it, until he stopped being so scared of them all. “You didn’t run away when we pounced you on the full moon and used you as a mattress,” she pointed out. “You’re special. And if we didn’t throw you out when you were sick, what makes you think we would now?” She lifted her head, looking at him. Reaching up, she stroked his cheek gently. “You’re one of us, ok? Forever.”
"I know that," he told her. "I promise I know that in here," he went on, patting his chest. "But getting my brain to get with the program is a little more difficult. I'm just worried I'm going to mess everything up and I don't want that to happen." He leaned a little, resting his forehead against hers and let out a little sigh. "It's hard to realize that you guys are more family than mine ever was. I don't even know how to act or what to say and I'm trying to learn. I couldn't repay you guys for all you've done for me even if I tried," he admitted. "And I love you for that. For all of it. You didn't have to take me in. You didn't have to bother with me and my problems. With me and the drugs. But you did. You accepted me, helped me and gave me a place to stay. Gave me a belief in myself that I didn't have before. And then gave me a family to go along with it all. So thank you. For all of that and for not punching me, even if I do kind of deserve it."
“Yeah you kinda do,” Charlie grumbled, though she was smiling a little. She kissed Xander softly, winding her arms around his neck. “But I promised Dad I wouldn’t punch you, so you’re safe. For now.” Couldn’t let him get too comfortable, after all. “You’ve had shit happen to you that no one should have to put up with,” she murmured quietly, pulling back far enough to look him in the eyes without going cross-eyed. “You’re amazing, Xander. I just want you to see that.”
He didn't think that he was very amazing, but hearing Charlie say it made him almost believe it to be true. "I think you're the amazing one," he told her. Reaching up, he gently brushed his fingers over her cheek and kissed her once more. "I'm not leaving," he promised her softly, eyes flicking up to catch hers again. "I promise."
“Good,” Charlie nodded firmly. “Because then I’d have to tie you up in the basement. Gracie would totally help.” So would Chloe and Jason, for that matter. But aside from Charlie, Gracie was probably the most attached of all of them. “C’mon.” She picked up the apples from the table, taking a big bite of one and passing him the other. “Let’s go finish eating.” And they both needed to apologise to Gracie for upsetting her, too.
Xander took the apple from her and nodded. "Alright," he agreed. At least one disaster had been averted for the morning. Hopefully they could continue the day without having to get past any more drama. One could dream, right?