Happy Homecoming
Disclaimer: I don't own American Dragon: Jake Long.
The faint sound of horns honking reached the ears of the three passengers of one of the many cars stalled on a Manhattan street in the moonlit night. It was New York, of course, so traffic was always a little…busy…but this night was a particularly bad one to be caught in the dry sea of motor vehicles.
"Ugh. We're going to be late."
The youngest passenger of one particular car squirmed anxiously in the back seat. He was dressed in a snazzy tuxedo. His black and green hair was combed back and kept in place with gel.
"Dad, is there any way you can get us out of here?"
In the front seats, the two older passengers—a man and a woman, dressed in an identical tuxedo and a rose-colored dress, respectively—were handling their traffic predicament much more serenely. With a chuckle, the car's driver gazed in the overhead mirror and then out his window.
"Sorry, Dante." He said. "We're not going anywhere."
Fourteen year old Dante Long groaned in frustration, squirming in his back seat again. "We're going to be late." He said again. "And then tonight's going to be ruined."
"Well, you could always dragon up and fly the rest of the way." The car's driver said with a chuckle. Jake Long was now 39 years old, and although age hadn't changed him too much besides his proclivity for outdated street slang, he had developed a liking for a certain kind of teasing dad humor.
"Jake." From his side, Jake's wife of 17 years, reached out and touched his arm. Rose Long, also 39 years old, gave her husband a smile. "Let's not encourage him to act rashly." Rose shifted her gaze to the boy behind her. "We're not going to be late. Everything's going to be just fine."
As her son sighed and tried to relax, Rose turned her head back to normal. This was just in time for Jake to speak: "That's right. Because you're not the only one who has to be there."
"Ugh, I can't believe my parents are chaperoning my school's homecoming ball." Dante said with a grumble.
"Honestly, I can't, either." Rose said, gazing over at her husband with a wry smile on her face.
"Hey, who knows what can happen?" After glancing over at his wife, Jake smiled sheepishly and took his eyes off the road. He switched between looking at his son and wife. "Partying kids need to be protected from danger. One moment you can be dancing with your girl, and the next thing you know, terrorist ninjas carrying wish-granting skulls can be dropping down from helicopters."
More horns filled the interior of the car owned by the Long family. This time, the horn sounds were much closer. And behind them.
"Jake, you should be paying attention." Rose said in a teasing manner, pointing at the front window of the car and beyond.
"Hmm?" Jake turned his head back to normal, seeing that the traffic ahead of him, Rose, and Dante was starting to move forward. As the horns from behind him continued, Jake smiled sheepishly again as he began to drive forward.
"On our way now." Jake said. "See, Dante? What did your mom tell you? We'll be there in no time."
Seconds after Jake finished saying this, he had to stop the car again. Traffic was still congested.
Dante groaned in frustration.
&^&^&%&
The Long family had finally managed to get to the location of Dante's school's homecoming ball—the Pantheon Building. The elevator bringing the family up to the rooftop reached its destination with a dinging noise. The steel doors slid open, allowing Dante to hurry out, followed by his mom and dad.
All around, there were teenagers—boys dressed up in suits or tuxedos, and girls dressed up in dresses. Dante began to look frantically around, while Jake and Rose both calmly scanned the entire rooftop. "Wow…" Rose said, Jake chuckling as he gazed at her.
Dante, meanwhile, was nervously clasping and rubbing his hands together as he continued looking around. Suddenly, he heard high heels hurrying up behind him, and the next thing he knew, he was being grabbed from behind by a red-headed girl wearing a green dress.
"Hey, there!" The girl said, Dante's face lighting up right before he was released.
"Mae!" Dante turned around and took hold of the teen girl's hands. "Mae, I'm so sorry if I kept you waiting."
The teen girl giggled as Jake and Rose moved in closer so they could watch the two, big and proud smiles on their faces. "You're not late, trust me." Mae said before both she and her dragon date noticed that they were being watched. Both looked in the direction of Jake and Rose.
"Mom…Dad…" From the blush that he was trying and failing to conceal, Dante clearly wanted some privacy.
Mae, however, didn't mind. She giggled as she turned to face Jake and Rose. "Hello, Mr. Long." She said. "Hello, Mrs. Long." When she addressed Rose, there was an extra sense of affection—a kind of admiration—in Mae's tone. She even lifted up a hand and waved. On that hand, spiraled a Chinese dragon. The Mark of the Huntsclan.
Rose smiled at the young girl. "Hello, Mae." She said. "Come on, you two. Don't gawk at us. Go have fun."
"Thanks, mom." Dante said, smiling gratefully as Mae returned her attention to her date.
"She's right." Mae reached out and took Dante's arm. "Come on, Dragon Boy." She proceeded to walk Dante off into the sea of middle school students.
"Hey, wait." Rose said, stopping the two teens and making them look back at the two adult chaperones. "We're rooting for you two." Jake nodded in agreement with his wife, giving his son and Mae a thumbs up.
Both Dante and Mae smiled. "Thanks." They said in unison, before going on their way again.
Jake and Rose watched their son and his girlfriend disappear with looks of pride on their faces. Jake even chuckled as he crossed his arms. "Like father, like son." He said to Rose.
"Scarily so." Rose said in agreement. "She's the one. They're going to be together forever."
&^&^&%&
A short time later, Jake and Rose were walking around the rooftop, in something of a circle. Both smiled as they looked around at all the students. Well, actually it was more just Rose who was doing her chaperone job. Jake brought his eyes over to his wife and kept them on her more often than he focused on any of the partying middle school students.
This ended up being why Rose was the only one who saw two jock-type guys looking like they were going to tip over the punch bowl and spill. Rose tried to go over to them, getting Jake to look at her. Upon seeing where she was headed, he just smiled and took her hand, reeling her back toward his side.
"Come on, Rose." Jake said. "Let them have their fun. Boys will be boys."
Smiling playfully, Rose looked at her husband. "And what should I do instead?"
With a chuckle, Jake stepped in front of her, cutting her off. Keeping hold of her hand, Jake lifted it up near both of their faces. "May I have this dance?"
Rose shook her head at her husband, even as her smile widened. "Tsk, tsk, task." She said teasingly. "I knew it, you naughty dragon. You only signed us up for chaperone duty because you wanted a second chance at having a proper homecoming ball with me."
"Guilty as charged." Jake was shameless. "But don't you think we deserve it?"
Her smile fading, Rose became more serious. She lifted up her other hand to show Jake the wedding ring she wore around her ring finger. "Jake, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter." She said. "We have responsibilities tonight."
"Come on." But Jake was persistent. "It'll just be a quick dance. Then, it'll all be about doing our job. Dragon's honor."
Rose found herself smiling despite herself. "Well, I guess it couldn't hurt." She said as she let her husband take hold of her other hand.
The two then began a slow dance to the music that was playing.
The student body failed to notice the two dancing adults. Well, most of the student body. Dante and Mae—in the midst of their own dance—were able to see Jake and Rose's moment of romance through some cracks in the sea of teen dancing.
"Oh." Dante pulled away a bit from his girlfriend. "Suddenly, this is all making sense."
"What is?" Mae looked back and forth between her boyfriend and her boyfriend's parents.
"My parents signed up to chaperone this dance." Dante said. "It's really sounding like it was my dad's idea. You never wondered why, Mae?"
"No, not really." Mae said with a small voice as she watched Jake and Rose from where she was standing. Even as Mae spoke, though, Dante could see realization appear on her face. When Mae next faced her boyfriend, there was a sad look on her face. "But now that I think about it, it does make sense."
Mae then began to smile. "Good for them."
&^&^&%&
Jake ended up not being totally honest about his dance with his wife being quick. Jake and Rose actually ended up dancing until it was time for the announcement for who was homecoming King and who was homecoming Queen—not that Rose was going to judge Jake.
Sun Park took the stage. "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the crowning of your homecoming King and Queen!" With a big smile on her face, the now 50-something human-formed Korean Dragon held up the envelope with the King and Queen's names inside.
All eyes were on Sun, even Jake and Rose, as she ripped open the envelope. Rose closed her eyes and crossed her fingers as she waited for Sun's decree. "The new King and Queen of Fillmore Middle School are…Dante and Mae!" Sun finally said. Not only the student body cheered as Dante and Mae made their way up to the stage, but so did Jake and Rose—Jake whistling in approval and Rose jumping up and down like she was at a Jaren McArthur concert.
When Dante and Mae reached the stage, they were crowned. As the cheering continued, Dante and Mae smiled and took each other by the hand. Slowly, though, Mae's eyes fell on the still cheering Jake and Rose.
Briefly, her smile began to fade, but soon enough, she began smiling again.
&^&^&%&
The homecoming ball continued on through the night. Dante and Mae found themselves sitting to the side of the rest of the still dancing student body. Their crowns still atop their heads, both teens smiled as they continued to hold hands.
Dante gazed over at his date. "Mae?" He said.
"Hmm?" Although she was smiling, although she was responding, Mae kept her attention narrowly on what was in front of her.
"I just want to say that I'm having a great time tonight." Dante said.
"I'm having a great time, too." Mae said. Dante looked at his date, realizing that something else had her attention, even as she responded to what he had to say. Dante looked in the direction Mae was staring in, his eyes falling on his parents.
Jake and Rose were now fully focusing on their chaperone duties.
"Hey, Dante?" Mae finally looked in the direction of her reptilian boyfriend. Dante returned her look, seeing her smiling face. "I have an idea. Want to hear it?"
"Sure." Dante said, prompting Mae to lean in to his closest ear. She began to whisper, and before long, Dante couldn't help but smile at her proposal.
&^&^&%&
Jake and Rose proceeded along the rooftop, only stopping when they found Dante and Mae approaching them. "Oh." Rose said, both she and Jake starting to smile. "Hey there, middle school royalty. Enjoying yourselves?"
With smiles on their faces, Dante and Mae both responded with something along the lines of "Oh, yeah. We're having a great time." Both then pretended to yawn, stretching their arms upward to help with the illusion.
"But we're getting a bit tired, y'know." Dante said. "Of all the dancing, of all the attention, of all the food and punch, of all the fun." Both Dante and Mae reached up and pulled their crowns off their heads.
"Feel like taking this off my hands, dad?" Dante said.
"Mrs. Long?" Mae offered.
Both Jake and Rose were stiff with shock. Neither could speak for several seconds. "N…No." Rose finally said. "We could…We could never accept those. This is your night."
"It's not just our night." Mae said.
"It's yours, too." Dante said.
"Please, Mrs. Long." Mae said. Her face tightened, and from the stammering of her voice as she went on, Rose could tell that the young girl was having a difficult time continuing. "I…I'm satisfied with tonight. Yo…You're my hero, and I think my hero deserves to have her homecoming."
While Jake just continued to stare in shock, Rose covered her face with her hands. Oh no. It felt so wrong for her and Jake to take the crowns. And God forbid if any of her son's peers happened to see. But how could she refuse after what Mae just said? That felt even more wrong.
With a muffled sigh, Rose removed her hands from her face, revealing a warm smile and twinkling eyes. Apprehensively, she reached out and accepted the crown being offered to her by Mae with a soft "Thank you."
As he watched his wife take Mae's crown, Jake began to smile. He reached out toward his own son and took the crown being offered to him. "Thanks, son." Jake said.
Neither Dante nor Mae said anything as Jake and Rose placed the crowns atop their heads. They just started backing up a bit as Jake and Rose turned to face each other. Jake and Rose looked at their son and his girlfriend, seeing both of them stop not too far away.
Smiling brightly, Dante and Mae were content to wait to see what Jake and Rose did next.
Jake chuckled as he turned his head back to normal. Rose did the same, just in time for Jake to offer his hand to her. "May I have another dance, my Queen?" Jake said.
With a chuckle of her own, Rose accepted her husband's hand. "You may." There was a brief pause before she added: "Happy homecoming, Jake."
"Happy homecoming, Rose."
The End
What's this? Fudogg doing a story outside of his American Dragon: Jake Long/American Dragon: Haley Long/Future Dragon: Rose Long/etc. "continuity"? Fudogg writing a fluffy Jake and Rose romance story instead of something angsty and dark?
Well, I just wanted to do something because it's the 10 year anniversary of the premiere of "Homecoming". I've been thinking about that episode a lot lately, and I just can't help it. It's such a great episode, and it's affected me in a way that no other film or TV show or book has. It's really a representation, to me, of how American Dragon really stood out from other Disney shows and became something special. The same has to be said for Jake and Rose in general. I don't like romance—I just utilize it for character development purposes. I hate shipping. I love Jake and Rose together, though.
In terms of this story, I made a conscious choice to avoid exposition, really just hinting at things in the backstory. I'll confirm things now, because why not.
I'd say that, post "Hong Kong Longs", Jake and Rose had a long-distance relationship. Rose didn't come back to New York until it was time for her to attend college. It was known within her family that she'd be returning permanently. So, I guess she visits her parents and twin in Hong Kong every now and then.
Mae knows everything about the Long family—her boyfriend's a dragon, and the complicated history between her boyfriend's parents. She knows about the Huntsclan, Rose's past involvement, and what Rose did to assure that she could never be taken from her own family. That's why Mae called Rose her hero.