Chapter 13
And because I found the idea hilarious and cute, I threw another father-son-duo into the mix ;-)
When Milo woke up from his nap, he felt a little disoriented at first, but he remembered quickly where he was. He yawned and wiggled his feet a bit, silently giggling when he saw Paul Anka's head popping up and looking at him, wagging his tail excitedly.
"Hi, puppy", the little boy mumbled and carefully sat up in his Mommy's old bed. He reached out a hand to stroke the dog's white-greyish fur and he smiled when the animal immediately turned around and presented his belly to the little boy so he could pet him there.
Milo spent some minutes petting Paul Anka, then he got up from the bed and made a beeline for the door, carefully opening it and peeking outside. The kitchen was empty, but he could hear the radio from the living room and his Grandma's sewing machine upstairs. That meant that she was probably working on one of her own designs in her small sewing room.
Just as he was about to yell for her to make his now wide-awake state known to her, he glimpsed the pitcher of his Grandpa's selfmade lemonade on the kitchen table. He shuffled closer and made a move to grab for the item, when suddenly the noises upstairs stopped and he quickly decided against it and schooled his face into an innocent expression just as Lorelai made her way into the kitchen.
"Hey, handsome", she greeted him smiling. "How was your nap?"
"Good", Milo answered and rubbed his eyes with his fists. That was close! Granny surely wouldn't have approved of his trying to pour himself some lemonade. Probably.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that. I'm done upstairs, how about we go and have lunch now? I'm sure your Grandpa is already waiting for us to make an appearance at the café. Are you hungry?"
Milo's face lit up and he smiled widely at his Granny. He loved to visit his Grandpa's café. It was kind of old and very laid-back, with lots of different shaped tables and chairs. And his Grandpa was a brilliant cook who could turn something as boring as a ham and cheese sandwich into something special. And he was quite positive that if he ate everything on his plate without a fuss, he would be allowed some ice cream from the Soda Shoppe next door.
"My tummy is very empty, Granny. And hungry for chicken-fingers and fries!", he answered brightly.
Lorelai laughed and reached for both her car keys and her trenchcoat that rested on one of the kitchen chairs.
"We can't have your poor tummy staying empty for too long, can we?", she tweaked the little boy's nose and he giggled. "Go on and get your jumper and your shoes back on."
"Can we walk to the café, Granny? And take Paul Anka with us?"
"Sorry, darling, but that's not such a good idea. I have to do a quick grocery shop later so Grandpa can cook something nice for dinner, when your Daddy comes home from work... and I don't really want to carry the food back home. Your Grandpa doesn't allow doggies into the café, as you know."
When she saw the scowl on Milo's face, she added: "You know what? We can have breakfast tomorrow in town, maybe at Weston's.. there we can take Paul Anka, too. What do you think?"
"Yeah!", Milo cheered and made a dash for his jumper and shoes. He didn't really feel cold and would have loved to even leave his shoes behind and go bare-footed, but he knew that Granny wouldn't allow either of those two options. Granny helped him a little with his shoe laces, then they were off.
"Bye, Paul Anka, see you later!", Milo called to the dog that was now laying on the front porch, watching Lorelai's car back out of the driveway.
Lorelai smiled at Milo through the rearview mirror and took them both to Luke's in less than 10 minutes.
"Hey, Lorelai, hi Milo! Nice to see you, mate! You've gotten big since I last saw you", Zach, who was standing at one of the tables in the café and taking orders from two guests greeted when Lorelai and Milo entered the café. "I'll be with you in a sec, Luke's upstairs, taking care of a few phone calls. Take a seat."
"Alright, Zach, thanks", Lorelai replied and shooed the little boy over to the vacant table. Milo had a tendency to get lost on his way because of things that sparked his interest.
Just when they were about to put off their jackets and take a seat, the café door opened once again and a quite angry looking Lane walked in, her hand firmly locked around a young boy's right wrist who was glaring daggers at his Mom's head.
"Zach!", Lane called, the annoyance clear in her voice.
"Mom, come on! I didn't even do anything", the boy behind her whined, effortlessly tugging at her hand on his wrist.
"You hush, young man. You're in enough trouble as it is without your backtalk and lying. We'll see what your father has to say about this."
Zach chose that exact moment to come out of the kitchen, balancing two plates.
"Hey, guys!", he greeted them cheerily, put down the plates in front of two guests and casually walked over to his wife and second son. "Shouldn't you be at school, buddy?"
Kwan shrugged and rubbed at his wrist once his Mom released it.
"Oh, yeah, he should, shouldn't he?", Lane growled, glaring at her son. "Go on, tell your Dad what you did at school today."
Zach sighed. "Oh no, Kwan. More trouble at school? What happened this time?"
His youngest son had recently developed quite an interest in playing pranks on his fellow students and even his teachers - something that resulted in plenty of detentions at school and a few very stern talking-tos at home from his angry parents.
"What happened?", Lane's eyes widened. That was just so typical for her husband - he was always trying to find excuses for their sons' reckless and careless behaviour, but she'd just about had it today. She'd just been at Sophie's Music Store helping out when a very miffed headmaster called her to tell her that Kwan had pranked his geography teacher - yet again. She'd had to make her excuses and leave the store to go and pick him up, because Zach wouldn't answer her phone calls and kids that were younger than seven weren't allowed to go home on their own, even if said home was just a couple of blocks away from school. Now she had to use her lunch break for leaving the store and cancelling a very important meeting with one of Sophie's suppliers. Not to mention that she was feeling sick and tired for a little over a week now and didn't know how to deal with Kwan's recent behaviour.
Zach wanted to console his wife, but he knew her well enough that once her temper got the better of her, it was wiser to just let her go and have some time and space to cool off.
"Kwan, go and sit at the counter over there, please. You can tell me later what you did", Zach ordered his son and when he saw him hesitating, he took him by the shoulder, turned him toward the counter and gave him a little push. "Go on."
Then he turned to look at his wife who was eyeing him with a murderous look in her eyes. He nearly sighed again.
"You know what, baby, how about you go back to the store and get something to eat for lunch on your way over. I'm sure you haven't had the chance to do that yet. I'll deal with our little prankster over there. Okay?"
Lane nodded, happy to get away from her son for a while - she loved both her boys from the bottom of her heart, but somehow she tended to fly off the handle whenever they did something naughty as of late. Maybe she was really coming down with the flu or something.
"Alright. Thanks, babe. You make sure that he understands how serious the situation is!", she answered with a huff and rubbed one hand over her smarting forehead. She could really feel a headache forming.
"Of course. I'm off in about twenty minutes anyway, I'll go and pick Steve up from school and will deal with Kwan when I've set Steve up with his homework. I'm sure I'll get him to tell me what he did and why he did it. Don't worry."
He kissed her and drew her into her arms for a hug.
When they released each other, both parents turned to look at their son again who just not managed to turn his head back to avoid being caught by them.
Lane shook her head and Zach schooled his facial expression into his best imitation of a stern father - something he really needed to work on, but to Kwan, it seemed plenty intimidating at the moment.
"Well, Kwan, I'm off to the store again, I need to finish my shift over there. You're going to stay here with your Dad and once he's done working, he'll take you home straight away. No going outside to play today, mister", Lane told her son who frowned deeply at her, but before he could get himself into more trouble by backtalking to her, his father stepped in.
"You heard your Mom, sonny boy. If I was you, I'd be very careful about how and what I reply to what she told you right now, because she's losing her patience quite quickly here and I'm not really happy with you either at the moment."
Kwan looked at his father and gulped - he'd never seen his normally relaxed Dad looking so angry.
Lane hugged her little boy to her nonetheless and ignored that he just went limp - she figured that he was just a little shocked about all the unwanted attention he was getting from his parents today.
"Okay", he mumbled feebly, not wanting to say anything else. Zach sighed. That was going to be a tough one.
"Be good for your Dad, honey", Lane reminded him sternly, but she had lost her former scary-angry tone. "I love you, even though you drive me crazy sometimes. See you later at home."
"Bye Mom", Kwan whispered and blushed when he realized that some of the other people in the café were openly watching the exchange between the young parents and their errant son.
"Okay, buddy, I'll have to finish here, but we can go home as soon as Luke gets back. Are you hungry?", Zach told his son and gave him a small smile and an one-armed hug when he saw how pitifully the little boy looked up at him. Maybe he'd overdone it a little earlier with the mean-daddy-act.
Kwan just shook his head and had trouble keeping his bottom lip from wobbling. He felt tears prickling behind his eyes. Now that his Dad was being so nice to him again, he suddenly felt incredibly guilty for pranking his teacher - even though she probably had deserved every bit of it. But he wasn't suicidal - telling his Dad that would land him in more hot water, he was sure of it.
Maybe he could just skip whatever punishment his Dad had in mind for him altogether if he behaved for the rest of the day.
"Are you sure? You haven't had lunch yet, have you?", Zach pressed gently, scanning the café for any raised hands or expectant looking customers. He was relieved to see that everyone seemed to have moved back to mind their own businesses again, including Lorelai, who had been sending them anxious glances.
"Maybe a little, Daddy", Kwan whispered and it almost broke Zach's heart at how small and vulnerable his little boy sounded. He and Steve almost never called him Daddy now at the age of six and he missed it an awful lot. But he could understand the sudden feel of independence and was happy that his boys were developing into two healthy and happy youngsters, even though they certainly had inherited both their parent's strong will and stubborness.
"I'll get you a sandwich and some potato salad, Kay", Zach offered kindly, naturally remembering his son's favourite side dish. Kwan nodded and gave his Dad a smile at the nickname. "You are going to stay here, though. No wandering off, okay?"
Once Kwan had nodded again, he ruffled his hair gently and then stepped away from his son to move over to where Lorelai and Milo were sitting.
"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting for so long, guys. Family trouble", Zach told Lorelai and smiled at Milo who had been watching the whole exchange between Kwan and his parents as well with wide eyes. He'd never seen Zach or Lane that angry, either!
He really liked his Mommy's friends - sometimes he even got to invite Kwan and Steve over to his house or vice versa and he really enjoyed when the twins showed him how to play with their toy drums and guitars or when Zach played some music for them or sung for them.
"Don't mention it, Zach. I'm sure you and Lane handle it perfectly", Lorelai told him with a warm smile of her own.
"What can I get you two?", Zach asked, not wanting to get into the details of their parenting right now, and quickly scribbled down their orders before heading back into the kitchen.
"Granny, can I have some soda, too?", Milo asked when Zach was out of earshot. He didn't want to take any chances to be scolded in front of a man he somehow saw as an uncle. He'd probably scold some of his own, too, if a soda was completely out of line. And he'd tell his boys about it, quite probably. The indignity of that would just be too much for Milo.
"If you promise to eat all of your lunch, including the cucumber salad I ordered for you", Lorelai replied and gave Milo a pointed look. He'd been avoiding the vegetable-or-salad-rule when he placed his order with Zach.
Milo groaned a little but nodded. "I promise!"
Lorelai smirked. She knew that she'd come a long way from the laid-back Mom who didn't ever need or want to lay down the law with her own daughter; probably because said daughter turned out to be a little stricter when it came down to eating healthy than she'd ever been.
But she had to admit that Milo was a healthy and strong little boy, so Rory and Logan (a doctor at that) had to be right about their constant nagging that he should have his daily amount of the odd vitamines they liked to mention.
Other than that, she'd been outvoted anyway - Luke was still one of the healthiest people she knew, so he was quite adamant that his grandson ate plenty of greens and fruit, too.
"On it, mate!", Zach called over from the counter where he stood preparing their drinks.
Speaking of the devil, Lorelai suddenly thought, because her husband chose that exact moment to re-enter his café.
"Grandpa!", Milo yelled happily at the same time she spotted him and Luke smiled at them both and gave a quick nod.
"No yelling in my café!", he mock-scolded and tweaked Milo's nose gently as he sat down beside him.
Milo giggled.
Luke gave another mock-growl and let one of his forefingers dance across Milo's neck, tickling him. "You think this is funny, minnow? Howling and yelling in here?"
"I'm sorry, Grandpa!", Milo giggled and promptly climbed into Luke's lap.
"Alright. How's your day been so far? Were you good for your Granny?", Luke asked, graciously accepting the kind display of affection.
"Exceptionally good!", Lorelai claimed, taking a sip of her water and watching Milo with amusement while he happily accepted the soda he'd wanted.
"Wow, so good that you earned yourself another sugary drink? I'm impressed", Luke told his grandson good-naturedly.
"Very good", Milo agreed, taking a sip and smiling at the taste. Ceasar's fruit soda was the best!
"Alright, boss, I'm outta here now", Zach said once he'd delivered their meals to their table. "I have to go and pick up Steve now and get that little prankster over there home. You okay on your own?"
Luke nodded, albeit a little taken aback at Zach's serious tone. "Of course. Thanks, Zach! See you tomorrow."
"Sure. Bye Lorelai, bye Milo. Enjoy your stay at Stars Hollow! Maybe we can have you over some time soon. Would you like that?"
"Yes, Uncle Zach! Then I get to play with Kay and Stevie!"
The adults all smiled at the boy's eagerness.
"You bet", Zach replied, laughing. He lost his smile when he suddenly took in the presence of Kwan right beside him, smiling at Milo.
"That's going to be so cool, Milo! Uncle Brian got us this really great trampoline for our birthday last month, so we can play on it when you come over!"
Before Zach or Milo's grandparents could say anything, Kwan and Milo both turned their best puppy-dog-looks upon their respective guardians.
"Please, Daddy, can we have Milo over today?", Kwan asked, excitedly, having completely forgotten about the trouble at school and that he was supposed to be sitting quietly at the counter eating his lunch.
"Yeah, please, Granny.. Grandpa, can I?", Milo urged, looking rather adorable with ketchup on the corners of his mouth and his blond hair sticking in every direction from his earlier nap.
Luckily for both Luke and Lorelai, they were saved from a scene and a spectacular meltdown by Zach, who immediately turned stern with his son and shook his head at him.
"Absolutely not", he said, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Kwan. "Have you forgotten about the way you acted at school today? You are grounded, son, at least for today. And that means no friends over."
He turned to Milo and gave him a light smile. "I'm sorry, Milo, not today. You can come over and play with the boys another time."
Kwan groaned and hung his head. "But, Dad...!"
Zach turned back to his son quickly and glared at him, then pointed over to the counter with his forefinger. "Don't you 'but Dad' me, Kwan. You are going to march your little bum back to the counter and finish that lunch of yours and afterwards we're both going to pick up your brother and go home, where you and I are going to have a chat about your behaviour at school. Understood?"
Kwan had no choice but to comply. He really didn't want to anger his Dad any further by disobeying him right now.
"Say bye to Milo, Lorelai and Luke", Zach reminded him, a little surprised at himself for sounding every bit the stern and serious parent. That wasn't normally his way of dealing with his sons.
He was more the type of father that let things slide and hugged and snuggled with them after their Mom or even their Grandmother (who was still quite famous for her legendary lectures) had dealt with them. But today, he'd seen something in Lane that he didn't like - she seemed truly distressed over what Kwan had done. It was clearly time for him to step in, probably long overdue. He might just sit both of his boys down later and give them both a reminder of who was in charge, even if it wasn't a thing he particularly enjoyed about being a Dad, but he somehow knew that it had to be done.
"Bye", Kwan sighed, frowning at the floor before him and blushing deeply.
Zach nodded, knowing that that was the best he could get out from his son right now, then turned his son around and sent him back to the counter with a light swat to his bum - for good measure.
Kwan hurried back to his former seat and immediately started to devour his lunch, hoping that that single swat was all his Dad had in mind for him, even though it hadn't really hurt at all.
"Kids", Zach sighed, then said his own goodbyes to the trio sitting at the café's best table before going back and getting his jacket and gathering his son when he was finished with his meal. Then, father and son left.