Hanging Out at the Lakeview
Title: Hanging Out at the Lakeview
Characters: Luke/Reid, Natalie, Ethan, Faith and Parker.
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Characters belong to ATWT
Notes: Comment fic that's' too long to be comment fic. Takes place during episode that aired August 3, 2010.
Summary: Everyone's waiting at the Lakeview for the wedding to begin
Reid pulled his car into the parking lot of the Fairview Hotel. After he parked, he looked over at a pensive Luke.
"Are you okay?" Reid asked.
Luke shrugged. "Yeah. I wish I knew what was going on but I think if my mom or dad were in any trouble we’d know about it by now."
Reid and Luke walked into the Lakeview together. Luke greeted several employees by name as he passed them. When they entered the dining room, they saw Ethan and Natalie sitting in a booth across from Faith and Parker. Reid wasn’t sure whether Parker was Faith’s cousin or her boyfriend. He’d have to ask Luke about it later.
"Luke!" screamed Natalie and Ethan.
"How much sugar have you had today?" asked Luke who seemed startled by the exuberance. He pulled up a couple of chairs to the table so that Reid and he could sit with his family. Reid and Luke sat down.
"A lot," chirped Ethan. "I bet I could run really, really fast right now. Want to watch me?"
"Not right now, Eth. Did anybody feed you guys lunch, yet?" asked Luke.
"Carly gave us some potato chips," replied Natalie.
Luke raised his eyebrow at Parker who held up his hands defensively.
"My mother has many wonderful qualities," said Parker. "An appreciation for the Food Pyramid is not among them."
"Okay, why don’t we order some lunch while we’re waiting," said Luke. "And everyone has to order at least one vegetable."
Ethan groaned.
"Does Reid have to order at least one vegetable?" asked Natalie. "Are you the food boss of him?"
Reid raised an eyebrow at Luke.
"Unfortunately, I am not the boss of Reid," admitted Luke. "However, since he is a medical doctor, he understands the importance of good nutrition and I’m sure he wouldn’t dream of demonstrating unhealthy habits in front of my beloved younger family members."
Reid groaned. Natalie and Ethan giggled.
Luke signaled for a waiter and everyone placed his or her lunch order. Parker and Faith both made a point to sigh dreamily when they ordered their vegetable side orders. Luke managed to talk Ethan and Natalie into ordering milk instead of soda. Reid was surprised at how easily the tiny sugar junkies agreed to Luke’s suggestion. He wondered if Luke had blackmail material on them.
After the waiter left with their orders, Ethan turned to Reid. "Are you Luke’s boyfriend or are you Luke’s friend who is a boy?"
Reid felt his fight or flight response kick in. He suspected that Luke would mock him if he started running and he couldn’t exactly hit the kid. He had to protect his hands, after all. He looked at Luke to see how he should be handling this question. "Uh . . ."
Natalie turned to Ethan. "Bringing a date to your dad’s wedding is a big deal. I bet that Reid is Luke’s boyfriend."
"I think our folks get married too often for us to consider it a big deal. It’s more of a medium deal," muttered Faith. "It’s hardly worth leaving summer camp for any more." She tried to smile at Luke when Luke bumped his shoulder against hers. The smile was wobbly.
Reid felt relief when Luke turned to Ethan in order to answer his question. "Reid and I are boyfriends, Ethan. I like Reid a whole lot."
"Is he nice?" asked Ethan in a loud whisper that could probably be heard in the parking lot.
"Deep down," replied Luke. "Really deep down. Like Grand Canyon deep."
"I’m sitting right here," huffed Reid.
"Oh, sorry," said Luke. "No, Ethan. Reid isn’t nice at all. Not even a little bit. He’s the meanest man alive."
"That’s better," said Reid.
Ethan and Natalie giggled. Parker grinned. Faith smirked.
The waiter brought over lunch and everyone dug in
Reid watched as Luke interacted with his siblings and Faith’s ‘Possibly Cousin, Possibly Boyfriend." There was a wealth of comfort and ease between them. Reid suddenly remembered what it was like sitting around a meal with his parents and how he once had that same kind of comfort and ease. It was rare that he ever allowed himself to miss that feeling.
Reid noticed Luke glance over towards the entrance to the dining room. Luke’s sister Abigail was standing there. She was crying. Luke excused himself from the table without alerting his siblings to Abigail’s presence. Reid didn’t bother to excuse himself. He just followed Luke out of the room.
Luke led Abigail away from the dining room to a little alcove near the lobby. He gathered her into his arms. He rocked her gently and made soft humming noises. Reid shifted awkwardly, unsure of whether he should give Abigail privacy or whether he should stick around for Luke for when Luke was told the inevitable unhappy news that he was related to idiots.
"The wedding’s been canceled," cried Abigail.
"I’m sorry," said Luke. "I know how much it must have meant to you."
"My mom called it off," said Abigail. "Sometimes it seems like she’s been waiting her whole life for Dad to finally be hers and when it seems like he’s going to be, he runs off to his ex-wife’s side the day before he’s supposed to marry my mom."
"Maybe she’s just feeling mad right now and she’ll forgive him when he has the chance to explain why he did that. He must have had a reason," comforted Luke.
"I don’t get them," exclaimed Abigial. "Why would Dad actually propose if he wasn’t one hundred percent sure that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with my mom? He knows how much she’s always loved him. And why would my mom accept his proposal if she wasn’t sure of him?"
"I don’t know," said Luke.
"Our dad and our moms are just so messed up when it comes to love."
"Yeah. Too bad that we’re too old to run away to join the circus," sighed Luke.
"Plus, I suck at juggling," sighed Abigail.
"Maybe we can try to be appreciative that we come from a plethora of parents who believe in love and are brave enough to risk their hearts instead of coming from parents who are cynical about love and unwilling to take chances," suggested Luke.
"That’s a ridiculous statement," said Reid. "It’s creating the false assumption that there are only two types of positions to take on love."
"If he wasn’t so pretty, he’d probably be pretty darn annoying, huh?" Luke asked Abigail as he rubbed his cheek against her hair.
Abigail squealed with laughter.
"I am appalled that you choose to objectify me," sniffed Reid.
"No, you’re not," accused Luke.
Reid shrugged.
Abigail stepped back, out of Luke’s arms. He pulled a handkerchief from inside his suit jacket and dabbed at her eyes.
"Hey," whispered Luke. "I know this is upsetting. And I don’t want to try to make it seem like I’m invalidating your feelings. But, you know that your mom’s going to be alright, right? She’s really strong. She wears her heart on her sleeve all the time so people don’t always notice that she’s a survivor. But she is."
Abigail nodded. "Yeah, she is."
"Okay, I’m going to go back to the small, scary people now so that you two have time to discuss this whole thing," said Reid before he left the alcove so that the siblings could talk. He hadn’t gone very far before he heard his name mentioned. He decided that going back to the small, scary people wasn’t something that needed to be done in a rush. He paused.
"I’m so sorry that I asked Reid if he was Noah," Reid heard Abigail say. "I’m such a spazz."
Luke snorted. "It’s okay. It probably seems really fast that I’m with somebody different. Noah and I haven’t been broken up for very long. But Reid and I didn’t get together until after Noah and I broke up."
"Hey, I’m not judging. My own romantic life isn’t exactly sensible right now. But I was kind of glad that you weren’t with Noah anymore."
"You never even met Noah," said Luke.
"No, but he was always making you unhappy," Reid heard Abigail say.
Luke sighed. "I don’t think it’s fair to say that Noah made me unhappy. I think my expectations of our relationship made me unhappy."
"So have you lowered your expectations with Reid?" asked Abigial.
"Not at all," laughed Luke. "They’re just so completely different than they were when I was with Noah."
"Like what?"
"You’ve probably never noticed this, but sometimes I may be a little pushy and interfering," said Luke.
"No," gasped Abigail dramatically. "Do tell."
"Anyway, Reid’s doesn’t mind when I butt in and try to fix things," said Luke. "I think it’s because he’s so uber-confident that it wouldn’t occur to him that I was insulting his masculinity or independence or anything like that."
Reid suddenly felt a little guilty about eavesdropping and headed back to the dining room. He noticed that Parker and Faith were sitting at the booth quietly whispering and that Natalie and Ethan were headed in the direction of the dining room entrance. Probably in search of Luke.
"Luke’ll be back in a few minutes," he said to the kids.
"Okay," said Ethan agreeably. "Can we sit at the bar and pretend to be grownups?"
"Uh, sure."
The three of them walked to the bar. When they got there, Ethan turned towards Reid and held up his arms. Reid looked at him quizzically.
"Up," said Ethan. Reid lifted Ethan up onto a barstool.
He made a gesture at Natalie.
"I’m good," she said while leaning against the back of Ethan’s stool.
"Did you know that Luke has two dads?" Ethan asked Reid. "His other dad is named Damian. Mom cries when we talk about Damian and Dad gets all scowly-faced when we talk about him. So if you have any questions about Damian, you should ask Luke. Luke doesn’t mind when you ask him questions."
"I’ll keep that in mind," said Reid.
"Faith taught me to ask Luke questions about menstruation and sex," chirped Natalie. "He gets all red and it’s really funny. But he actually answers all of your questions."
"Damian wanted to marry Mommy because he loved Mommy and Luke very much," Ethan informed Reid. "But he really liked me and Natalie and Faith too. He wanted us to be his family when he married Mommy."
"He’s in jail now," Natalie informed Reid.
"If that makes you sad, then I’m sorry to hear that," ventured Reid.
"Faith says that Damian is bad but Luke says that everyone has good and bad in them and it’s okay if we loved the good parts of Damian and it’s okay if we miss him the good parts," said Ethan.
"Well, if Luke says it’s okay, I’m sure it is," said Reid.
"Luke always tries to see the best in people," Natalie advised Reid. "But Faith says that most people are creeps."
"Um, which do you think they are?" asked Reid while wondering if it was appropriate to engage in philosophical discussions with other peoples’ children. Did you get put into a nationwide database or something if you talked to kids that weren’t yours?
"I think Luke’s right," whispered Natalie. "And I think Faith isn’t as tough as she pretends to be. Not that she’s ever tough with us. She’s an awesome big sister. She never tells me I’m a pest."
"Does Luke ever tell you that you’re a pest?" asked Reid.
Natalie and Ethan started laughing.
"No!" squeaked Natalie.
"Did you know that Faith and Luke make up the best bedtime stories?" asked Ethan. "If you want to have dragons and monkeys in the story, you can ask for them."
"Luke always tries to make sure that the stories have feminist leanings so that I don’t grow up to expect some man to rescue me," Natalie informed Reid. "Usually in the stories, I get to rescue some prince in distress."
"If you ever have a sleepover at our house, Luke could tell you a bedtime story," suggested Ethan.
"But don’t let him try to make you a grilled cheese sandwich. He always burns them," said Natalie. "He makes good macaroni and cheese though."
"Do you and Luke kiss?" Ethan asked Reid.
"Uh, yeah," said Reid.
"Faith says that when grown-ups kiss, they swish their tongues around each other’s mouths like this," said Ethan before thrusting his tongue out of his mouth and waggling it.
"That’s the most appalling thing I’ve ever seen," shuddered Reid.
"Do you and Luke kiss a lot? Noah and Luke didn’t kiss a lot," said Natalie.
"Some people don’t like to kiss in front of other people," said Reid.
Natalie shrugged. "Faith and I used to keep track of when we saw them kiss. One time, it was like a whole year between kisses."
Luke approached the three of them. He kissed Reid lightly on the lips. "Hey, guys. I’ve got to go speak to Faith for a moment but I’ll be right back."
Luke went over to advise Faith and Parker about what was happening. Reid somehow found himself promising cake to the Littlest Snyders. Reid remembered well the good old days when food seemed to solve all of life’s confusions
. If he remembered correctly, it was the day before he met Luke Snyder.