Disclaimer: I don't own Animal Kingdom.
A/N: Here's a little fluff piece that came to me while I was watching The Christmas Chronicles. This is part of my "Family Ties" verse.
Christmas Anew
Baz hands Lena a hefty mug of hot chocolate as he takes a seat beside her on the couch. He can't help but let out a tired when he sees that Kurt Russell's Christmas Chronicles is playing for what he feels like the millionth time. How many times has Lena seen this damn movie?
"Come on, Lena. You know this by heart. Can't we watch something else? A Christmas Story? Home Alone? The Grinch? I'll even give in and watch the Jim Carey version," Baz tries to reason with his daughter.
But she's not having it. Her obsession with the movie cannot be dulled even with the new pile of loot she just got. They've only just gotten home from celebrating Christmas at Smurf's house a little more than an hour ago. It was a long day filled with lots of delicious food and many expensive presents. Baz thought that Lena would quickly pass out once they got home from the excitement of the day. But, like most kids she got a second wind just as all the adults were about ready to crash. Hence why it's now after ten o'clock at night and they're up watching this damn movie for the second time today.
"I love this movie!" Lena says with an enthusiastic giggle. Maybe he should have stopped her from having that fifth sugar cookie. Who is he fooling? Even if he had said no, she would have asked J. The two of them are thick as thieves.
"Yeah, I know." Baz replies as he takes a sip out of his beer. "How can I forget."
Lena pays him no mind as her attention remains on the television screen. With his kid occupied, Baz turns to his phone. He's in the middle of making plans to meet up with Lucy down in Mexico, when he hears a knock on the door. Who the hell is knocking on his door at ten o'clock at night on Christmas?
Realizing that it was probably someone he knew knocking on his door, Baz goes to answer it. "It better be something good for you to be knocking on my door this time at night on Christmas."
He's thinking it's Craig. He was on his way to one hell of a bender when he left Smurf's house hours before. So, he's mildly surprised when he sees a sheepish looking J standing outside his door. "Hey…"
"Hey," Baz returns. "What are you doing here this late at night?"
The kid is clearly nervous. He's looking everywhere but at Baz. He's twitchy, playing with the hem of his shirt. But that's not surprising after everything that has happened. It's been about three months since everything with Damien went down and the kid is still a mess. He's not showering four times a day now, but Baz knows nightmares still plague his son. The teenager looks permanently exhaustion and the bags under his eyes are still way too big and dark for a seventeen year old. Baz is also pretty sure that the frequent nightmares is the reason why J won't spend the night no matter how much Lena begs.
"Who's at the door, Daddy?!" Lena calls from the couch.
"It's me!" J calls back.
"J! Come watch The Christmas Chronicleswith us!" Lena yells.
"Okay, okay." Baz says. "Why don't you come in before the neighbors call the police on us for disturbing the peace."
J lets out a soft laugh. Disturbing the peace? They are both guilty of much bigger crimes. Especially Baz. Baz moves to the side to let J in, shaking his head when he sees the oddly shaped garbage bag.
"I'm um… not good with wrapping," J says when he sees his father's face. "I never really had to wrap anything before."
As if his son's stuttering and fidgeting wasn't enough to make him feel like a shitty father for the umpteenth time, the implication of what J just said is another punch to the gut. The reason why J never had anything to wrap before now was because he never had the means to buy anyone anything. While, Baz and his brothers were living without a care in the world, J didn't know where he was going to get his next meal after the month's check ran out.
Baz nods. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure she's going to love whatever you got her. But, why didn't you give it to her when we were at Smurf's?"
"I didn't want to make a big deal out of it," J explains.
Baz gets that. He knows that J still doesn't feel that comfortable around his uncles and Smurf. The ordeal with Damien certainly didn't help matters. He's even shied away from Nicki. Whenever she got close to him, J would excuse himself. The kid was a nervous wreck throughout the whole day and only seemed to relax in the slightest when he was engaged in a conversation with Lena. So the last thing the kid probably wanted was an audience when he gave Lena her gift.
"J! Come sit next to me," Lena says as she scooches over for her brother to sit beside her. She eyes the garbage bag. "What is that?"
"It's your Christmas gift," J says as he hands the bag over to her. "Open it."
Lena doesn't have to be told twice. She rips the bag off with a few quick tears.
Baz knows instantly that the tablet, Nintendo Switch, and even that awful Baby Shark toy Lena got for Christmas are put to shame when he sees what J got Lena. He watches as Lena traces her fingers over the artwork of the custom designed surfboard. It's truly beautiful. Almost too beautiful to use. Images of sea turtles, fish, and other marine life cover the pint sized surfboard. All animals that the two of them saw when they visited the aquarium right before Lena's health took a turn for the worse.
"Do you like it?" J asks nervously. "Adrian helped me with it."
"I love it," Lena says in awe. "I can't wait to use it!" Lena says turning to her father. "Can you teach me how to surf, Daddy?"
Baz nods his head. "Sure, I can. But I think J should."
"You do?" J asks.
Man. The kid is still so unsure of his place in both Baz and Lena's life. That shouldn't be a huge surprise though, considering how Baz treated him when J first re-entered his life. The way he rejected J as his son and didn't want him to get too close to Lena. But then when Lena's health started to decline and she needed the bone marrow transplant, things started to change. Nothing like facing your child's mortality to force you to look at things differently. He stopped being so hostile with J and began to see J for who he really was, a scared kid who was looking for family. But then everything happened with Damien, and almost all of the progress that was made between them was obliterated when the truth of what Damien did was finally revealed. He thought that things were slowly getting better between them, but there's still obviously a lot of work that needs to be done. He's not usually one for New Year's Resolutions. Those are for sentimental assholes. But he definitely has one for this New Year. Better his relationship with J.
He pats J on the shoulder and takes the small victory when J doesn't flinch away. "I do."
"Can you start teaching me tomorrow, J?" Lena asks.
J jerks his head. "Yeah…uh sure."
"Awesome!" Lena says as she continues looking at the surf board. "You want to stay and watch TheChristmasChronicleswith us?"
"Haven't you seen it like ten times already?" J asks.
"Thank you," Baz teases.
"Yeah, but it's the best. Pleasssse."
"Fine," J gives in. "I'll watch it."
"I'll start it over," Lena says.
"Great," Baz says. "I'm going to grab another beer. You want one, J?"
"Yeah, a beer will be great."
Baz grabs them both a beer and makes Lena another hot chocolate. He returns to the living room with the beverages in hand just in time to see Kurt Russell's Santa Claus hopping from roof top to roof top. "Here you guys go."
They all settle in to watch the movie. Well, J and Lena watch the movie. Baz is listening to the movie as he's texting various people. Baz thought for sure that all the excitement of the day would have finally caught up with his daughter but nearly two hours later, after Kate and Teddy help Santa Claus save Christmas, Lena is still wide awake.
As the ending credits begin to scroll, Lena says. "I think this is my favorite Christmas movie."
"It's not bad," J admits. "I still think Home Alone is better."
As Lena and J begin to argue over which Christmas movie is better, it finally clicks with Baz why Lena loves The Christmas Chronicles so damn much. It's not just a Christmas movie but also the story of a brother and sister coming together again after the death of a parent. No wonder why Lena loves it so much.
"What do you think, Dad?" Lena asks. "Do you still not like my movie?"
"I think I may have a change of heart. It's not too bad after all."
Lena gives him a toothy grin. "See J! Dad agrees with me."
Yeah, it's not too bad at all.