Christopher "Chris" Perry Halliwell (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} notunreasonable) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} colligo_threads,@ 2011-08-19 16:03:00 |
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| Entry tags: | chris halliwell, leo wyatt |
WHO: Leo Wyatt and Chris Halliwell
WHAT: Father and Son, male, bonding.
WHERE: Starts off outside Leo's apartment and then ends up at a basketball court
WHEN: BACKDATED: Because Nathalie is the slowest tagger in Westeros, Camelot, Narnia, and Colligo To January - when peeps came back from the dead and Chris lost his memory
Status: Log, closed/complete.
RATING: PG-a dash of -13
To say that the weeks since his "return from the dead" had been crazy would be stating a huge understatement. Especially, when the fact that Chris was used to crazy was factored in. The fact that he had apparently died, again, without any recollection of things was huge in it's own right. Chris didn't appreciate his memory being tampered with. Chris didn't appreciate his life being tampered with, period.
His life had it's downs but over all it'd been a good one. At least before his mother and the Sisters died and Wyatt thought he was the King of the Universe. Oh, wait, the world. God forbid, he added even more to his brother's ego. It had been a good life that had gone to hell, where he had lost a lot. Almost, even, the chance of being conceived. However, it'd been his. He'd lived and he'd died for it. He'd been expecting ... heaven, okay, maybe not that. Chris knew that he had done a lot of horrible things but he still held firm that they had needed to be done; no matter how guilty a lot of him made him feel. He had been expecting some sort of break. Not to be uprooted to another reality, only to be told that this was for the second time - sort of - and having to deal with people waiting for some version of himself that he didn't remember. Okay, to be fair, no one consciously made him feel that way. Though Chris felt that it might have made all of this easier if they had. That way he would have more justification for being angry. That he would have something constructive, someone solid, to lash his anger on. No everyone had been just happy to see him, glad that he was alive, but still eager to have him remembering. Chris couldn't fault them for that. He just couldn't stand the sensation that he was missing something huge. He hated not being aware of things that he should be aware of and knowing on some level that people expected him to be: whether from their looks to each other or the way they didn't look at him.
Chris was confused, pissed off, and just plain pissy. This new life wasn't him. Though it was what he had once wanted before Bianca had died. His parents alive and aware of him. Happiness and relative peace, even with all of the insanity. He had let go of that only to appear here into the life of a guy who clearly was doing his charge (come on, Chris wasn't stupid and he could read backlogs) who also happened to be a guy, had a pet dinosaur (that Chris could never remember the name of - and who had a pet dino?), was studying to be a social worker (he'd never gotten to finish college, barely started it), and now was responsible for a kid. The only thing out of all of this that didn't break Chris' brain was the kid. Which was saying something because he didn't know the first thing about children. However, Chris liked Bo. Even though she was much more complicated than the average child.
He rubbed his hand over his head in frustration as he loitered outside of his parents' apartment. Chris and Leo worked together. They actually worked together. And they did stuff on the buildings. Chris learning attentively at his father's side and pretending that he didn't love every second of it. They were ... bonding. They had started to before he died and they had some how managed to pick things back up without either of them saying anything to ruin it. Chris supposed that it was lucky for both of them that he had got a lot of his issues with Leo off his chest, when he'd been transformed by the spider demon. Nevertheless, Chris had years of hurt and pain and betrayal involving his father. That didn't just disappear. But they were working on it. It helped that Chris knew that Leo really was willing to do anything for him and that Leo was patient. That was why Chris was outside of his parents door, debating if he wanted to ask his dad out to play basketball. He and Wyatt used to play before ... And Chris .. He needed someone to talk to. Leo had more then proven himself during the crazy of marriage swap. Especially when Chris felt a second from flipping his lid over being stuck with a vampire.
"What am I doing?" Chris sighed at himself. He was being ridiculous. Dallying and being filled with uncertainty: lingering outside wouldn't make it any easier and the worse Leo could do was refuse. Lifting up a hand, Chris knocked on the door.
It looked like things had finally settled down in Colligo. The city still had problems, rebuilding the damage that the Troclophane had done, mourning the dead, recovering from the chaos, but now that the enemy was gone, daily life was resuming. Sort of. For Leo, a day in the life included being Up There, catching glimpses of his family when he had time away from the other Elders, wishing he was with them. The last few weeks before his arrival, he had been spending more time where he wanted to be, working through his complicated relationship with Piper, helping them track down enemies for vanquishing, protecting Wyatt, and trying to make amends with Chris.
What Chris had gone through, neglect by his father, was something that Leo had done yet but felt just as guilty for. He couldn’t imagine abandoning his family but it had happened. The fury in his son’s voice as he attacked him couldn’t be faked or embellished. In the future, he had failed his son and even if it wasn’t something he’d done yet, Leo was bound and determined to make up for it. Chris deserved to know that his parents loved him and would do anything for him. Anything less was unacceptable. The resolve was strengthened by not only losing him once, but twice. Having him die in his arms and being utterly helpless to stop it had been painful enough. Knowing that his son had been alive again and died right before he got there, helping to save others, had been just as painful, though Leo had been proud of the sacrifice he’d made.
Since he’d arrived in the middle, he only had the word of Piper and Paige to go on as to what had happened before. Something hadn’t been quite right with his return to life in Colligo, missing memories, lost time. But he didn’t care. He had faith that they would find a way to help return what was lost and in the meantime, he would continue building and fixing his relationship with his son. He’d been happy when Chris had begun helping him out with the repairs he’d offered to assist with, taking the time to make an effort. In return, Leo had given just as much.
Hearing the knock at the door, he glanced up from the paper spread open in front of him and rose from the table. As he opened the door, he caught sight of Chris and opened it wider for him to come in. “Hey.”
Chris, of all things, let out a breath of relief when Leo - his dad - opened the door. It meant that he couldn’t get out of this and brood on his and Peter’s couch. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t have tried again, he was determined to make this thing with his dad work, but it would have probably taken some time. And he would have brooded. Nearly two years in Colligo, Chris was getting better at noticing his moments of sulk, neuroticness, and general dicktitude - he even admitted to them, … from time to time.
“Hey.” He stated, pausing very briefly. “Can I - I mean,” Holding up the basketball seemed to be the easiest and smartest thing to do at that moment. “I thought you might want to shoot some hoops. With me.” It said a lot about Chris’ poker face and ability to keep his thoughts to himself that he managed not to show his wince, rather he just kept it mental.
It was a small gesture but it was one that meant a lot to Leo. His children didn’t get to have the most normal of upbringings. Despite who their mother and father was, he’d wanted to take Wyatt and Chris out to play a game of baseball or take them to a football game. The boys would grow up quickly enough in a family where a demon attack was more normal than getting a cold and he’d wanted some kind of normalcy for them, at least for a little while. Instead, Wyatt was targeted by several threats trying to kill him or turn him evil and Chris had come from a future where his own brother had made his life a living hell. And Leo hadn’t been there when he needed him the most.
When Chris held up the basketball, Leo grinned. “Sure. It’s been a while so there might be some rust to shake off,” he replied as he turned away from the door. Heading for the counter, he grabbed his keys and wrote a quick note to Piper to tell her where he’d gone. It wasn’t exactly necessary but in a place where people could suddenly disappear, it felt like a precaution worth taking.
That done, he stepped out of the apartment and pulled the door shut behind him. “Maybe after we can grab a late lunch.”
A grin, that one might almost call bashful and that Chris would deny to his deny to his dying day, flirted at the corners of his mouth in answer to Leo’s. It wasn’t that he had thought his dad would say no (except where there had been a traitorous part of him that had), Leo seemed rather ardent , eager, to make this work. Nevertheless, Chris had been holding that breath and Leo’s response slightly dislodged something that had clumped in his chest.
“Lunch would be great.” Chris said as they moved away from the door. “I had a big breakfast but I’m pretty sure we’ll work up an appetite.” What? He was his mother’s son, Piper rubbed off on people. “Don’t think because you haven’t played in a while means that I’ll be going easy on you.” The smile at Chris’ lips tugged up a bit wider.
“That’s the Whitelighter in you,” Leo said with a laugh as he started down the hallway. “Orbing burns calories better than a workout.” That was his excuse for the way he attacked the meals Piper made. “Throw in a game of basketball and you’ll be starving again in no time.” It was nice to spend time with him outside of repairing the damage to the city around them, at least the property that belonged to the kidnapped, although each moment he did get to spend with his son in a normal father-son capacity, he treasured.
He turned, walking backwards as he regarded Chris. “Is that right?” he asked, grinning. “In that case, I’m going to have to bring my A-game to the court.” Even if his game was baseball and not basketball, just the lighthearted back and forth between them was worth it. This was the way things should have been for Chris all along. “Expect no mercy.”
“Yeah, I remember … hearing that.” He had almost said that he recalled his aunt Paige telling him that. However, he quickly managed to skip over saying that. Most everything that Chris knew about being a whitelighter he had learned from his aunt as his father had always been so busy. And a lot of it had been learnt at an early age as his past involved losing his mother as well as his aunts much sooner than he should have. Chris didn’t want to think about that - now wasn’t the time to think about it so he pushed that aside.
Which wasn’t that hard to do thanks to Leo’s next words. “A-game?” Chris repeated, laughing; his tone was more incredulous and amused than mocking. But really. Come on. Who said A-game anymore? “Yeah, alright. Whatever.” He chuckled, still thinking: A-game, really!? “We’ll see who ends up running to mom. And it’s not going to be me.” He didn’t think that losing to his dad deserved his mom’s acerbic comments ontop of it. “Are we walking or are we orbing there?” He asked uncertain of which way Leo preferred and if he even knew where the courts were.
“It’s a great excuse for your mother to exercise her culinary skills and for the rest of us to eat as much as we want.” Leo frowned slightly. “From the lack of weight we put on, I think there might actually be some truth behind it.” It also helped that they were constantly running from or fighting danger of some kind, which burned calories. There was also the part where he was technically dead but that didn’t stop him from enjoying what his wife made. There was a small part of him that was thankful that Piper was an amazing chef, although he enjoyed her simple, down home meals to the fancy, complicated ones.
He’d grown used to someone laughing at his choice of words. Being from the 1940’s, the sisters had gotten a few giggles out of his choices in slang and sayings, all considered old fashioned to them now. “What?” he asked, looking perplexed. “Isn’t that what they say now?” If it wasn’t, people changed slang faster than they changed hair styles anymore. He barely had the time to watch TV before he’d come to Colligo and it wasn’t like he watched anything that he could pick up slang from. Mostly DIY shows on the home improvement networks.
“I think you might be wrong there, son,” he taunted back as he turned back around, waiting for Chris to catch up so he could throw an arm around Chris’s shoulders. “Why don’t we walk? It’s a nice day and we could talk.”
“Like mom needs an excuse.” Chris grinned. He had a feeling that his mother greatly loved this down time if the number of times she had everyone over for dinner was anything to go by. “But I can get behind that.” He agreed. Having a great many years of running from danger without the reinforcement of Piper’s cooking Chris had a lot to make up for. Since she had shown up here he had taken his grandfather’s advice even more to heart and allowed his mother to spoil him. Getting used to Piper, although there lacked tension, was at times as difficult as getting used to Leo. “I think I heard something about a cake last time I was over there.”
Chris snorted. and shook his head. “No, dad. Just no.” But then he looked thoughtful. He was from the future and it wasn’t as if he had the opportunity to watch much television as the Sister’s whitelighter and he hadn’t really done much of it since coming from the dead. Maybe this was something that he would know - after all there was a huge gap in his memory apparently, but he he didn’t. Frankly, Chris wasn’t all too ruffled about not remembering that. “At least I don’t think people in this time are that lame.” There was a brief pause and Chris bit back a smirk. “No offense.”
His brows raised slightly at the companionable gesture but he relaxed easily enough. It wasn’t that he and his dad hadn’t had a few of those from the moment Leo sprung him from jail back in their world and felt like … well, a dad. It was just that in Chris’ mind had thought, when he had died the first time, that he would never get them again. It was corny and stupid, but each gesture was new - almost a surprise - and certain treasured much more now. “I’m good with walking.” A softness entered Chris’ tone that was highly different to his typical acerbicness and that he would deny if attention was brought to it.
“She doesn’t but we pretend to give her one anyway.” Leo had no problem giving her those reasons. She had put so much on hold when her destiny as a Charmed One came calling that anything he could do to make her happy, he would do. Not that her cooking was any kind of hardship. “I’ve heard about that too. I think we should drop a few hints about our approval of that plan.”
The look Chris received was the one that fathers had been giving their sons for years in response to the “no offense” remark after the implication that their lingo was sorely outdated. “Just know I could do so much worse but at least I’m in the right decade now,” he said, then added, “your mother and your aunts made sure of that after giving me a good ribbing about how I sounded like I was from the decade I was last alive in.” That had gone along with the pop culture lessons when he failed to understand several they’d made. Apparently part of being their Whitelighter entailed understanding those pop culture references so he knew what they were talking about.
The gesture was second nature for him, a gesture of affection from father to son. It was the way things should have been from the start and he was going to make up for that time. It was just unfortunate that it took being stuck in another world to make it happen. “It does some good to walk places anyway. Orbing everywhere makes you lazy,” Leo joked.
Chris lifted up both hands in a placating manner. As if he could ward off the long; though by his laughter it was rather suspicious if said look bothered him all that much. “At least.” Chris grinned, though his smile was a touch sympathetic. He knew just how the sisters could get when they set after you on something. Paige had once told him that even his hairstyle was neurotic. Whatever that meant. He’d only been with them for about two years and just a few months with them knowing that he was their family. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how badly Leo had gotten ragged on for his out-of-date habits. If there ever there was a bonding method it was the pain that was the Halliwell Sisters. Chris loved them, he had quickly learned that he had no choice in the matter but to do so; but it would be a lie to say that united that they weren’t a headache anyway.
Chris’ smile turned friendly, oddly pleased, that Leo thought the same way he did. “Yeah, I agree. Bike riding too. I’m surprised that -” … that the other him didn’t have one. Though, truth be told, maybe not. Bike riding places had been Bianca’s idea. She had been of the mind that it would keep active in a more steadying way that demon hunting would. A habit that he picked up. “there isn’t one around.” He finished off.
The basketball court happened before them sooner than Chris had expected. He had fallen slowly enough into a relaxed pace with Leo that he hadn’t quite realized. It had snuck up on the young whitelighter and removed most of the awkwardness he had been certain would creep up on this father and son moment.
“You know, some people find the 40s charming,” Leo pointed out, as if that would help his case. He knew that he was a little on the old fashioned side but they were aspects that he didn’t want to let go. As far as he was concerned, he gave the sisters back for some of their habits as good as they gave him. What mattered was how they treated each other as family and that was timeless. With a grin, he reached over to ruffle Chris’s hair. “You’re here because your mother didn’t mind me being a little old fashioned.”
He hesitated thoughtfully as Chris mentioned bikes. “That’s not a bad idea,” he said, glancing over at his son. “Getting a couple of bikes to take a ride once in a while.” He hadn’t ridden a bike in a long time but it couldn’t be that hard to get back into the saddle, so to speak. It was something else that they could spend time doing. He had a lot to make up for in Chris’s life and he intended to do just that, to the point where he might have been toeing the line between making up that time and getting annoying.
As they stepped onto the court, Leo took the ball from his son and stopped at the three point line. The ball hit the ground twice before he took the shot. It hit the rim and bounced, going the wrong way off and hitting the pavement. “So there’s a little more rust than I thought to shake off.”
“Uh! Dad!” It was a knee-jerk reaction. The face of disgust, the scoffing, all came before Chris could even consider stopping them. He really didn’t need to know things and what his mother found appealing about his father. Never mind a couple of months ago by his mindset he had been pushing at everything to ensure Piper found Leo appealing enough to ensure that he would be alive to be ‘here’ (here being relative and not exact). He might have been eager for the to have sex but that didn’t mean he liked Leo actually applying it in any vague way. Yes, yes, it was an established fact that Chris had issues and was at times an unnecessarily complicated little bugger. Especially, one considered that he had been the one directly responsible (your mileage might vary on that, though he certainly had a heavy hand in it) for his parents split - and thus his own lack of existence - in the first place.
His inner bitchfest was cut at the bud when Leo mentioned taking out bikes and another thing came unbidden from Chris - yet another smile. “Cool.” Chris said with a slight nod, hoping to brush off that the gesture meant something to him especially after a part of him had paused at Leo’s initial hesitance. “It’s not like I’m really doing anything around here, whenever works for you. School hasn’t been that busy.” He was willing to make some time for Leo.
They weren’t on the court for long before Chris found himself not only smiling but grinning and laughing. At Leo. Not at all cruelly but it really couldn’t be helped after what had just happened.
“Yeah, sure, whatever you say, Dad.”
It would be so simple to call the ball to him with his telekinesis but Chris instead went after it. He dribbled it back to Leo’s spot. After took the shot, the ball danced around the rim for a bit before falling into the basket. Not a perfect dunk but still better than his dad’s. “I was going to try not to embarrass you but I’ve got a feeling that you’re going to make that difficult for me.” Chris smirked slightly, his words - however - were more of good-natured ribbing than about cockiness.
Leo’s mind didn’t naturally go to dirty. It wasn’t until Chris’s reaction that he realized how the statement could have been taken. He laughed. “Not like that, Chris,” he told his son. “I meant when we first started dating. Manners. Holding the door open for her. Things like that,” he quickly amended but couldn’t help laughing. His son was old enough that he knew full well how he’d come into the world but it didn’t mean someone wanted to know their parents had done it. He held up his hands. “My apologies.”
That sealed the deal. He was going to find a couple of bikes, maybe see if Piper and Paige wanted to join as well. It was something they could all do together. “Maybe we’ll do it as a weekend thing and take a picnic along, enjoy the nice weather while we have it.” Maybe the place as abnormal as they came but they could find some family things to do to bring a little normalcy into their lives.
“Oh really?” After the ball went through the hoop, Leo chased after it and caught it. “I’ll try and make sure you at least have a little bit of a challenge,” he replied as he dribbled the ball back, switching left to right and back. He stopped at a point on the court, brought the ball up, gauged the distance and took the shot. The ball made a nice little arc, bouncing a few times on the rim before it tipped in and through the hoop. “Like that.”
“You’re forgiven.” Chris stated, finding himself chuckling slightly. Now that he thought about it - okay, no thinking about it. He did overreact slightly and he was just relieved his dad had meant something else.
It was bad that he was looking forward to Leo’s suggestion to a picnic right? He was in his early twenties. He was an adult. He should have better things to do than to have a picnic with his family. Yet here he was, maybe not excited but definitely, looking forward to this. Piper had made a lot of effort while he was growing up to start things like this but Leo would rarely make them. When he did it seemed to be catch up on Charmed duties or reviewing the growth of the twice-blessed child. Chris always felt as if he was lost in the background. After a while, it had seemed pointless even with his mother’s best efforts to pretend as if Leo hadn’t been missing or to include him in conversations with his own father. Chris mentally shook those thoughts away. That was then and this was now. He found that he rather liked now. Even if now meant a picnic with his crazy family that loved to drive him up the wall.
“A picnic sounds like a good idea.” He was pretty sure his mom would be all for anything that involved him and his dad acting more father and son, and his aunt Paige would be there too.
It was Chris’ turn to hold up his own hands. “Alright. I can admit that was an okay shot.”
“Thank you. I feel better now,” Leo joked. “I would have felt bad if I’d scarred you for life.” After all they had seen and done, he doubted it would take something that little. Then again, when parents were involved, the rules changed. Some things were a little more disturbing.
He grinned, satisfied that the idea had met Chris’s approval too. He was still getting to know the fully grown son that he had yet to experience the earlier years of, which meant there was a lot of informational gaps that needed filling in. Every little piece that he could get was something, even if it was something as simple as a favorite song or a regular activity. “Good. We’ll see when everyone is free and make it a day,” he said, jogging over to catch the ball after it had gone through the hoop.
Turning, he passed the ball to Chris, putting a little oomph behind it. “Just okay, huh? You’re going to make me work for a “good”, aren’t you?” That was all right. Once the rust came off, he could earn it. Maybe. It had been years since he played basketball. He was lucky it was going in at all. “What do you think? HORSE?”
“You know I don’t know if I believe that. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out you help mom to think ways to embarrass me and Wyatt in the future.” Chris was mostly joking around. If anything he’d learned enough about his dad to know that he’d keep his mom from putting him in a helmet for every day living - not to mention aunt Phoebe from making baby noises at him well past his infancy. However, he didn’t doubt that Leo would have his accidental and purposeful moments of embarrassing his kids, and not just from his stuck in the forties speech and mannerisms. Maybe it was years of surviving the sisters or maybe the time spent as an Elder but Chris wouldn’t put it pass his nice guy of a dad to do something like threaten to whip out baby pictures.
“You’ll appreciate better.” Chris grinned. He considered. He was fairly confident he could get his dad spelling out the word before he would, plus - honestly? - Chris couldn’t remember the last time he played HORSE. He was actually just for the moment, extending it. “Yeah, I’m game.”
Leo was the image of innocence as his eyes widened as Chris’s accusation that he probably helped Piper find some way to embarrass his children. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, falling just short of believable. He might have been an angel but it wasn’t the standard kind. Over the years, he’d gotten into enough mischief on his own, playing distraction for one of his charges, or sneaking around behind the Elders’ backs when they’d forbidden him from seeing Piper. He was still just as capable of it as most mortals and it showed on his face as he tried not to laugh at the suggestion.
“I’ll try to keep from embarrassing you too much in front of friends and significant others.” The world “girlfriends” had almost fallen into place of “significant others” but he’d caught himself a moment before he’d spoken the word. During his mortal lifetime, it hadn’t been acceptable but all Leo cared about was that his children were happy and had healthy relationships. Chris seemed to have both with Peter.
“To be nice, I’ll even let you go first,” he said, motioning to the ball in his son’s hands.
Chris let out a slight scoff. While Leo might have just missed the train on believable, the disbelief on his son’s features was very clear. “Yeah. Right. For some reason I’m not real comforted by that.”
Bouncing the ball a few times in place, satisfied with his current location on court, Chris aimed and shot, watching as the basketball circled the rim. And then grinning slightly when the ball made it in.
His life had it's downs but over all it'd been a good one. At least before his mother and the Sisters died and Wyatt thought he was the King of the Universe. Oh, wait, the world. God forbid, he added even more to his brother's ego. It had been a good life that had gone to hell, where he had lost a lot. Almost, even, the chance of being conceived. However, it'd been his. He'd lived and he'd died for it. He'd been expecting ... heaven, okay, maybe not that. Chris knew that he had done a lot of horrible things but he still held firm that they had needed to be done; no matter how guilty a lot of him made him feel. He had been expecting some sort of break. Not to be uprooted to another reality, only to be told that this was for the second time - sort of - and having to deal with people waiting for some version of himself that he didn't remember. Okay, to be fair, no one consciously made him feel that way. Though Chris felt that it might have made all of this easier if they had. That way he would have more justification for being angry. That he would have something constructive, someone solid, to lash his anger on. No everyone had been just happy to see him, glad that he was alive, but still eager to have him remembering. Chris couldn't fault them for that. He just couldn't stand the sensation that he was missing something huge. He hated not being aware of things that he should be aware of and knowing on some level that people expected him to be: whether from their looks to each other or the way they didn't look at him.
Chris was confused, pissed off, and just plain pissy. This new life wasn't him. Though it was what he had once wanted before Bianca had died. His parents alive and aware of him. Happiness and relative peace, even with all of the insanity. He had let go of that only to appear here into the life of a guy who clearly was doing his charge (come on, Chris wasn't stupid and he could read backlogs) who also happened to be a guy, had a pet dinosaur (that Chris could never remember the name of - and who had a pet dino?), was studying to be a social worker (he'd never gotten to finish college, barely started it), and now was responsible for a kid. The only thing out of all of this that didn't break Chris' brain was the kid. Which was saying something because he didn't know the first thing about children. However, Chris liked Bo. Even though she was much more complicated than the average child.
He rubbed his hand over his head in frustration as he loitered outside of his parents' apartment. Chris and Leo worked together. They actually worked together. And they did stuff on the buildings. Chris learning attentively at his father's side and pretending that he didn't love every second of it. They were ... bonding. They had started to before he died and they had some how managed to pick things back up without either of them saying anything to ruin it. Chris supposed that it was lucky for both of them that he had got a lot of his issues with Leo off his chest, when he'd been transformed by the spider demon. Nevertheless, Chris had years of hurt and pain and betrayal involving his father. That didn't just disappear. But they were working on it. It helped that Chris knew that Leo really was willing to do anything for him and that Leo was patient. That was why Chris was outside of his parents door, debating if he wanted to ask his dad out to play basketball. He and Wyatt used to play before ... And Chris .. He needed someone to talk to. Leo had more then proven himself during the crazy of marriage swap. Especially when Chris felt a second from flipping his lid over being stuck with a vampire.
"What am I doing?" Chris sighed at himself. He was being ridiculous. Dallying and being filled with uncertainty: lingering outside wouldn't make it any easier and the worse Leo could do was refuse. Lifting up a hand, Chris knocked on the door.
It looked like things had finally settled down in Colligo. The city still had problems, rebuilding the damage that the Troclophane had done, mourning the dead, recovering from the chaos, but now that the enemy was gone, daily life was resuming. Sort of. For Leo, a day in the life included being Up There, catching glimpses of his family when he had time away from the other Elders, wishing he was with them. The last few weeks before his arrival, he had been spending more time where he wanted to be, working through his complicated relationship with Piper, helping them track down enemies for vanquishing, protecting Wyatt, and trying to make amends with Chris.
What Chris had gone through, neglect by his father, was something that Leo had done yet but felt just as guilty for. He couldn’t imagine abandoning his family but it had happened. The fury in his son’s voice as he attacked him couldn’t be faked or embellished. In the future, he had failed his son and even if it wasn’t something he’d done yet, Leo was bound and determined to make up for it. Chris deserved to know that his parents loved him and would do anything for him. Anything less was unacceptable. The resolve was strengthened by not only losing him once, but twice. Having him die in his arms and being utterly helpless to stop it had been painful enough. Knowing that his son had been alive again and died right before he got there, helping to save others, had been just as painful, though Leo had been proud of the sacrifice he’d made.
Since he’d arrived in the middle, he only had the word of Piper and Paige to go on as to what had happened before. Something hadn’t been quite right with his return to life in Colligo, missing memories, lost time. But he didn’t care. He had faith that they would find a way to help return what was lost and in the meantime, he would continue building and fixing his relationship with his son. He’d been happy when Chris had begun helping him out with the repairs he’d offered to assist with, taking the time to make an effort. In return, Leo had given just as much.
Hearing the knock at the door, he glanced up from the paper spread open in front of him and rose from the table. As he opened the door, he caught sight of Chris and opened it wider for him to come in. “Hey.”
Chris, of all things, let out a breath of relief when Leo - his dad - opened the door. It meant that he couldn’t get out of this and brood on his and Peter’s couch. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t have tried again, he was determined to make this thing with his dad work, but it would have probably taken some time. And he would have brooded. Nearly two years in Colligo, Chris was getting better at noticing his moments of sulk, neuroticness, and general dicktitude - he even admitted to them, … from time to time.
“Hey.” He stated, pausing very briefly. “Can I - I mean,” Holding up the basketball seemed to be the easiest and smartest thing to do at that moment. “I thought you might want to shoot some hoops. With me.” It said a lot about Chris’ poker face and ability to keep his thoughts to himself that he managed not to show his wince, rather he just kept it mental.
It was a small gesture but it was one that meant a lot to Leo. His children didn’t get to have the most normal of upbringings. Despite who their mother and father was, he’d wanted to take Wyatt and Chris out to play a game of baseball or take them to a football game. The boys would grow up quickly enough in a family where a demon attack was more normal than getting a cold and he’d wanted some kind of normalcy for them, at least for a little while. Instead, Wyatt was targeted by several threats trying to kill him or turn him evil and Chris had come from a future where his own brother had made his life a living hell. And Leo hadn’t been there when he needed him the most.
When Chris held up the basketball, Leo grinned. “Sure. It’s been a while so there might be some rust to shake off,” he replied as he turned away from the door. Heading for the counter, he grabbed his keys and wrote a quick note to Piper to tell her where he’d gone. It wasn’t exactly necessary but in a place where people could suddenly disappear, it felt like a precaution worth taking.
That done, he stepped out of the apartment and pulled the door shut behind him. “Maybe after we can grab a late lunch.”
A grin, that one might almost call bashful and that Chris would deny to his deny to his dying day, flirted at the corners of his mouth in answer to Leo’s. It wasn’t that he had thought his dad would say no (except where there had been a traitorous part of him that had), Leo seemed rather ardent , eager, to make this work. Nevertheless, Chris had been holding that breath and Leo’s response slightly dislodged something that had clumped in his chest.
“Lunch would be great.” Chris said as they moved away from the door. “I had a big breakfast but I’m pretty sure we’ll work up an appetite.” What? He was his mother’s son, Piper rubbed off on people. “Don’t think because you haven’t played in a while means that I’ll be going easy on you.” The smile at Chris’ lips tugged up a bit wider.
“That’s the Whitelighter in you,” Leo said with a laugh as he started down the hallway. “Orbing burns calories better than a workout.” That was his excuse for the way he attacked the meals Piper made. “Throw in a game of basketball and you’ll be starving again in no time.” It was nice to spend time with him outside of repairing the damage to the city around them, at least the property that belonged to the kidnapped, although each moment he did get to spend with his son in a normal father-son capacity, he treasured.
He turned, walking backwards as he regarded Chris. “Is that right?” he asked, grinning. “In that case, I’m going to have to bring my A-game to the court.” Even if his game was baseball and not basketball, just the lighthearted back and forth between them was worth it. This was the way things should have been for Chris all along. “Expect no mercy.”
“Yeah, I remember … hearing that.” He had almost said that he recalled his aunt Paige telling him that. However, he quickly managed to skip over saying that. Most everything that Chris knew about being a whitelighter he had learned from his aunt as his father had always been so busy. And a lot of it had been learnt at an early age as his past involved losing his mother as well as his aunts much sooner than he should have. Chris didn’t want to think about that - now wasn’t the time to think about it so he pushed that aside.
Which wasn’t that hard to do thanks to Leo’s next words. “A-game?” Chris repeated, laughing; his tone was more incredulous and amused than mocking. But really. Come on. Who said A-game anymore? “Yeah, alright. Whatever.” He chuckled, still thinking: A-game, really!? “We’ll see who ends up running to mom. And it’s not going to be me.” He didn’t think that losing to his dad deserved his mom’s acerbic comments ontop of it. “Are we walking or are we orbing there?” He asked uncertain of which way Leo preferred and if he even knew where the courts were.
“It’s a great excuse for your mother to exercise her culinary skills and for the rest of us to eat as much as we want.” Leo frowned slightly. “From the lack of weight we put on, I think there might actually be some truth behind it.” It also helped that they were constantly running from or fighting danger of some kind, which burned calories. There was also the part where he was technically dead but that didn’t stop him from enjoying what his wife made. There was a small part of him that was thankful that Piper was an amazing chef, although he enjoyed her simple, down home meals to the fancy, complicated ones.
He’d grown used to someone laughing at his choice of words. Being from the 1940’s, the sisters had gotten a few giggles out of his choices in slang and sayings, all considered old fashioned to them now. “What?” he asked, looking perplexed. “Isn’t that what they say now?” If it wasn’t, people changed slang faster than they changed hair styles anymore. He barely had the time to watch TV before he’d come to Colligo and it wasn’t like he watched anything that he could pick up slang from. Mostly DIY shows on the home improvement networks.
“I think you might be wrong there, son,” he taunted back as he turned back around, waiting for Chris to catch up so he could throw an arm around Chris’s shoulders. “Why don’t we walk? It’s a nice day and we could talk.”
“Like mom needs an excuse.” Chris grinned. He had a feeling that his mother greatly loved this down time if the number of times she had everyone over for dinner was anything to go by. “But I can get behind that.” He agreed. Having a great many years of running from danger without the reinforcement of Piper’s cooking Chris had a lot to make up for. Since she had shown up here he had taken his grandfather’s advice even more to heart and allowed his mother to spoil him. Getting used to Piper, although there lacked tension, was at times as difficult as getting used to Leo. “I think I heard something about a cake last time I was over there.”
Chris snorted. and shook his head. “No, dad. Just no.” But then he looked thoughtful. He was from the future and it wasn’t as if he had the opportunity to watch much television as the Sister’s whitelighter and he hadn’t really done much of it since coming from the dead. Maybe this was something that he would know - after all there was a huge gap in his memory apparently, but he he didn’t. Frankly, Chris wasn’t all too ruffled about not remembering that. “At least I don’t think people in this time are that lame.” There was a brief pause and Chris bit back a smirk. “No offense.”
His brows raised slightly at the companionable gesture but he relaxed easily enough. It wasn’t that he and his dad hadn’t had a few of those from the moment Leo sprung him from jail back in their world and felt like … well, a dad. It was just that in Chris’ mind had thought, when he had died the first time, that he would never get them again. It was corny and stupid, but each gesture was new - almost a surprise - and certain treasured much more now. “I’m good with walking.” A softness entered Chris’ tone that was highly different to his typical acerbicness and that he would deny if attention was brought to it.
“She doesn’t but we pretend to give her one anyway.” Leo had no problem giving her those reasons. She had put so much on hold when her destiny as a Charmed One came calling that anything he could do to make her happy, he would do. Not that her cooking was any kind of hardship. “I’ve heard about that too. I think we should drop a few hints about our approval of that plan.”
The look Chris received was the one that fathers had been giving their sons for years in response to the “no offense” remark after the implication that their lingo was sorely outdated. “Just know I could do so much worse but at least I’m in the right decade now,” he said, then added, “your mother and your aunts made sure of that after giving me a good ribbing about how I sounded like I was from the decade I was last alive in.” That had gone along with the pop culture lessons when he failed to understand several they’d made. Apparently part of being their Whitelighter entailed understanding those pop culture references so he knew what they were talking about.
The gesture was second nature for him, a gesture of affection from father to son. It was the way things should have been from the start and he was going to make up for that time. It was just unfortunate that it took being stuck in another world to make it happen. “It does some good to walk places anyway. Orbing everywhere makes you lazy,” Leo joked.
Chris lifted up both hands in a placating manner. As if he could ward off the long; though by his laughter it was rather suspicious if said look bothered him all that much. “At least.” Chris grinned, though his smile was a touch sympathetic. He knew just how the sisters could get when they set after you on something. Paige had once told him that even his hairstyle was neurotic. Whatever that meant. He’d only been with them for about two years and just a few months with them knowing that he was their family. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how badly Leo had gotten ragged on for his out-of-date habits. If there ever there was a bonding method it was the pain that was the Halliwell Sisters. Chris loved them, he had quickly learned that he had no choice in the matter but to do so; but it would be a lie to say that united that they weren’t a headache anyway.
Chris’ smile turned friendly, oddly pleased, that Leo thought the same way he did. “Yeah, I agree. Bike riding too. I’m surprised that -” … that the other him didn’t have one. Though, truth be told, maybe not. Bike riding places had been Bianca’s idea. She had been of the mind that it would keep active in a more steadying way that demon hunting would. A habit that he picked up. “there isn’t one around.” He finished off.
The basketball court happened before them sooner than Chris had expected. He had fallen slowly enough into a relaxed pace with Leo that he hadn’t quite realized. It had snuck up on the young whitelighter and removed most of the awkwardness he had been certain would creep up on this father and son moment.
“You know, some people find the 40s charming,” Leo pointed out, as if that would help his case. He knew that he was a little on the old fashioned side but they were aspects that he didn’t want to let go. As far as he was concerned, he gave the sisters back for some of their habits as good as they gave him. What mattered was how they treated each other as family and that was timeless. With a grin, he reached over to ruffle Chris’s hair. “You’re here because your mother didn’t mind me being a little old fashioned.”
He hesitated thoughtfully as Chris mentioned bikes. “That’s not a bad idea,” he said, glancing over at his son. “Getting a couple of bikes to take a ride once in a while.” He hadn’t ridden a bike in a long time but it couldn’t be that hard to get back into the saddle, so to speak. It was something else that they could spend time doing. He had a lot to make up for in Chris’s life and he intended to do just that, to the point where he might have been toeing the line between making up that time and getting annoying.
As they stepped onto the court, Leo took the ball from his son and stopped at the three point line. The ball hit the ground twice before he took the shot. It hit the rim and bounced, going the wrong way off and hitting the pavement. “So there’s a little more rust than I thought to shake off.”
“Uh! Dad!” It was a knee-jerk reaction. The face of disgust, the scoffing, all came before Chris could even consider stopping them. He really didn’t need to know things and what his mother found appealing about his father. Never mind a couple of months ago by his mindset he had been pushing at everything to ensure Piper found Leo appealing enough to ensure that he would be alive to be ‘here’ (here being relative and not exact). He might have been eager for the to have sex but that didn’t mean he liked Leo actually applying it in any vague way. Yes, yes, it was an established fact that Chris had issues and was at times an unnecessarily complicated little bugger. Especially, one considered that he had been the one directly responsible (your mileage might vary on that, though he certainly had a heavy hand in it) for his parents split - and thus his own lack of existence - in the first place.
His inner bitchfest was cut at the bud when Leo mentioned taking out bikes and another thing came unbidden from Chris - yet another smile. “Cool.” Chris said with a slight nod, hoping to brush off that the gesture meant something to him especially after a part of him had paused at Leo’s initial hesitance. “It’s not like I’m really doing anything around here, whenever works for you. School hasn’t been that busy.” He was willing to make some time for Leo.
They weren’t on the court for long before Chris found himself not only smiling but grinning and laughing. At Leo. Not at all cruelly but it really couldn’t be helped after what had just happened.
“Yeah, sure, whatever you say, Dad.”
It would be so simple to call the ball to him with his telekinesis but Chris instead went after it. He dribbled it back to Leo’s spot. After took the shot, the ball danced around the rim for a bit before falling into the basket. Not a perfect dunk but still better than his dad’s. “I was going to try not to embarrass you but I’ve got a feeling that you’re going to make that difficult for me.” Chris smirked slightly, his words - however - were more of good-natured ribbing than about cockiness.
Leo’s mind didn’t naturally go to dirty. It wasn’t until Chris’s reaction that he realized how the statement could have been taken. He laughed. “Not like that, Chris,” he told his son. “I meant when we first started dating. Manners. Holding the door open for her. Things like that,” he quickly amended but couldn’t help laughing. His son was old enough that he knew full well how he’d come into the world but it didn’t mean someone wanted to know their parents had done it. He held up his hands. “My apologies.”
That sealed the deal. He was going to find a couple of bikes, maybe see if Piper and Paige wanted to join as well. It was something they could all do together. “Maybe we’ll do it as a weekend thing and take a picnic along, enjoy the nice weather while we have it.” Maybe the place as abnormal as they came but they could find some family things to do to bring a little normalcy into their lives.
“Oh really?” After the ball went through the hoop, Leo chased after it and caught it. “I’ll try and make sure you at least have a little bit of a challenge,” he replied as he dribbled the ball back, switching left to right and back. He stopped at a point on the court, brought the ball up, gauged the distance and took the shot. The ball made a nice little arc, bouncing a few times on the rim before it tipped in and through the hoop. “Like that.”
“You’re forgiven.” Chris stated, finding himself chuckling slightly. Now that he thought about it - okay, no thinking about it. He did overreact slightly and he was just relieved his dad had meant something else.
It was bad that he was looking forward to Leo’s suggestion to a picnic right? He was in his early twenties. He was an adult. He should have better things to do than to have a picnic with his family. Yet here he was, maybe not excited but definitely, looking forward to this. Piper had made a lot of effort while he was growing up to start things like this but Leo would rarely make them. When he did it seemed to be catch up on Charmed duties or reviewing the growth of the twice-blessed child. Chris always felt as if he was lost in the background. After a while, it had seemed pointless even with his mother’s best efforts to pretend as if Leo hadn’t been missing or to include him in conversations with his own father. Chris mentally shook those thoughts away. That was then and this was now. He found that he rather liked now. Even if now meant a picnic with his crazy family that loved to drive him up the wall.
“A picnic sounds like a good idea.” He was pretty sure his mom would be all for anything that involved him and his dad acting more father and son, and his aunt Paige would be there too.
It was Chris’ turn to hold up his own hands. “Alright. I can admit that was an okay shot.”
“Thank you. I feel better now,” Leo joked. “I would have felt bad if I’d scarred you for life.” After all they had seen and done, he doubted it would take something that little. Then again, when parents were involved, the rules changed. Some things were a little more disturbing.
He grinned, satisfied that the idea had met Chris’s approval too. He was still getting to know the fully grown son that he had yet to experience the earlier years of, which meant there was a lot of informational gaps that needed filling in. Every little piece that he could get was something, even if it was something as simple as a favorite song or a regular activity. “Good. We’ll see when everyone is free and make it a day,” he said, jogging over to catch the ball after it had gone through the hoop.
Turning, he passed the ball to Chris, putting a little oomph behind it. “Just okay, huh? You’re going to make me work for a “good”, aren’t you?” That was all right. Once the rust came off, he could earn it. Maybe. It had been years since he played basketball. He was lucky it was going in at all. “What do you think? HORSE?”
“You know I don’t know if I believe that. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out you help mom to think ways to embarrass me and Wyatt in the future.” Chris was mostly joking around. If anything he’d learned enough about his dad to know that he’d keep his mom from putting him in a helmet for every day living - not to mention aunt Phoebe from making baby noises at him well past his infancy. However, he didn’t doubt that Leo would have his accidental and purposeful moments of embarrassing his kids, and not just from his stuck in the forties speech and mannerisms. Maybe it was years of surviving the sisters or maybe the time spent as an Elder but Chris wouldn’t put it pass his nice guy of a dad to do something like threaten to whip out baby pictures.
“You’ll appreciate better.” Chris grinned. He considered. He was fairly confident he could get his dad spelling out the word before he would, plus - honestly? - Chris couldn’t remember the last time he played HORSE. He was actually just for the moment, extending it. “Yeah, I’m game.”
Leo was the image of innocence as his eyes widened as Chris’s accusation that he probably helped Piper find some way to embarrass his children. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, falling just short of believable. He might have been an angel but it wasn’t the standard kind. Over the years, he’d gotten into enough mischief on his own, playing distraction for one of his charges, or sneaking around behind the Elders’ backs when they’d forbidden him from seeing Piper. He was still just as capable of it as most mortals and it showed on his face as he tried not to laugh at the suggestion.
“I’ll try to keep from embarrassing you too much in front of friends and significant others.” The world “girlfriends” had almost fallen into place of “significant others” but he’d caught himself a moment before he’d spoken the word. During his mortal lifetime, it hadn’t been acceptable but all Leo cared about was that his children were happy and had healthy relationships. Chris seemed to have both with Peter.
“To be nice, I’ll even let you go first,” he said, motioning to the ball in his son’s hands.
Chris let out a slight scoff. While Leo might have just missed the train on believable, the disbelief on his son’s features was very clear. “Yeah. Right. For some reason I’m not real comforted by that.”
Bouncing the ball a few times in place, satisfied with his current location on court, Chris aimed and shot, watching as the basketball circled the rim. And then grinning slightly when the ball made it in.