Summary: But Joy's still looking at him with a twinkle in her eye, her lips quivering slightly to the right. "You want me to meet your dad."
Warning/Spoiler: Post-"House of Heroes"
Rating: K+/PG
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Jerome/Joy, Poppy

Author's Note: Originally posted 4/24 on tumblr, requested by anonymous for the prompt: "want to write jeroy contemplating whether or not to do anything for father's day with their dads?"

"Dinner?"

"Too expensive, the only reason I'm still here is because of that scholarship. He doesn't even leave the house anymore."

Jerome twirls another lock of Joy's air, his arm around her shoulders. Joy flips another page of her book and Jerome frowns. "You don't have do anything with him, you know - "

Joy stiffens slightly in his arms and Jerome immediately lets go of her hair. "I know."

Jerome swallows, his eyes narrowing on the scalp of her hair; her eyes remain glued to the book in her hands, despite her obvious lack of attention on the words. "If you want," he says, each word illuminated in his mind before leaving his lips, "you could spend Father's Day with me and Poppy."

This time Joy gives up all pretense of reading, staring at Jerome with raised eyebrows. "With you?"

"Well," says Jerome, rolling his eyes, because she's just so shocked, "with my dad, yeah, but I mean, it's probably not going to be that much fun. Awkward silences, Poppy trying to start conversations, you know."

But Joy's still looking at him with a twinkle in her eye, her lips quivering slightly to the right. "You want me to meet your dad."

Jerome gulps. "Yes," he says, because now he knows why her eyes seem brighter and her lips seem thinner and she just seems so beautiful looking up at him. "But only if you really want to. If you want to spend time with your own dad - "

"Jerome," says Joy, tossing the book on her lap aside and facing him, his hand on her shoulder and her hand on his knee, "my dad can barely look at me, let alone talk to me, and spending time with him - it's painful."

"Joy - "

"If you want me to meet your dad," she says instead, "then I want to meet him."

Jerome studies her; there's a delicate glow lining her face, holding her jaw in determination and sparkling in her eyes. In that moment, Jerome wants to kiss her. "Okay." As Joy grins, Jerome lets his hand slide down her arm until his fingers intertwine with hers. "As long as you promise not to wear that hideous Amber outfit."

Joy rolls her eyes. "Deal. As long as you get rid of that purple jacket of yours, it's worse than Alfie's bow tie."

And Jerome laughs.