June 7th 2023

Chapter 158
We Could Have Cake

They would all get much too much pleasure out of seeing traits develop in their daughters that were just so a part of them, passed down to their packs of girls. Maya especially, at least according to Lucas, would see the mischief spark in them and immediately grow giddy and just a bit proud, which would in turn make them all into some kind of crew ready to sneak up on the clueless and unsuspecting.

There had for sure been some of that, the night before, as Aubrey had been sent to collect her mother, elected by her big sisters for being the least suspicious. She had directed her all the way into her room, where the other five sat in wait, bunched together on Marianne's bed.

What discussions happened there, Maya had emerged as though none of it had ever happened, and the night had gone and ended like the next day was just any normal day and not the very important day where the coven of blue-eyed little witches' father was having his thirty-eighth birthday.

It was already guaranteed to be a big, loaded week, but that wouldn't make it so that they gave any of the events anything less than what each of them was due. This would never be so true as it was today. The sun had not risen, but the day began the only way the couple in the master bedroom would have it, banking perhaps on some 'extra luck' pulled from his birthday in the hopes of conceiving.

"Don't get me wrong, I love... LOVE the attempts..." Maya breathed, grinned at the way he chuckled. "But if it keeps going like this, with no results, I'm going to start to wonder..."

"Hey," he cupped the side of her face, that they might look at one another. "It'll happen. I can feel it."

"You can FEEL it, huh?" she asked, with a lift of the brow that made him look at her now like he might have wanted to give it another go, just in case. But then the haze lifted from her brain enough that she gasped and tapped his chest. "Get dressed, hurry up."

She didn't have to elaborate. It was his birthday, and they'd been parents for nearly a decade by now. He may not have known what was coming, but he knew SOMETHING was coming, and he wasn't about to ruin it by not being... ready to receive.

It was funny, to them at least, how slim the gap ended up being, between the two of them being ready and the sound of the doorknob turning was, but the important part was really that the gap existed at all. They needed to appear as being asleep, and so they would, for as long as was needed... which was really not long at all.

The tactic this year had nothing to do with sneaking and everything to do with surprising. The surprise was not their presence, they knew that much, but now what came after THAT...

There was a great rush of voices and small bodies, as Lucas barely had time to appear startled by the voices calling one over the other, wishing him a happy birthday, that Aubrey had been lifted and dropped over him, the better to plant a birthday hat on his head while the others clambered up of their own strength and set off streamers, and confetti... It was a mess of colors even as they all piled on to hug him. As a whole, it was a great success, and all involved were given their dues in thanks before heading down to breakfast.

The cheer didn't end once he left the house, once the girls had been dropped off and he went on to work. Donna and Britt, their event planning dream team had taken to putting balloons at the arch whenever one of their employees had a birthday, as a small greeting, right when they'd arrive. Lucas spotted his own balloons, and they made him smile at once. They were the clear kind, and they were filled with the same sort of confetti that the girls had made rain over him earlier, which they were bound to find, slipped into some random corner or another, for weeks to come. It was the very opposite of a problem for him.

Once he made it onto the property, every person he met had their own well wishes, and hugs, sometimes presents... It took him much longer than usual to reach his office, and to see the grins on both Olivia and Sylvie's faces, it looked like they'd expected this much. They had their own thing ready for the morning's usual sit down before launching into the day proper. Both his office and clinic assistants seemed to know a lot more about his day than he normally did, and he knew better than to try and find out what that would mean ahead of time.

"Hey, on your way to lunch, can you stop by the kitchens?" Olivia stalled him as he moved to head out a few hours later. Lucas looked at her for more information, but she just turned back to her computer and left it at that, so he took the sign and walked on to the kitchens.

"Good morning," Lucas smiled. He didn't make it all the way to the kitchens, stopping instead in the small dining room where he found a table for four occupied by his father and grandparents. The table had the settings to tell him this was going to be his lunch right here.

"Happy birthday," Thomas stood to embrace his son, as he would now, with a press in his arms like he wanted Lucas to know he was being hugged for two, for his father and mother both. He returned the hold in kind.

"Thank you," he replied quietly.

He got some good hugs out of his grandparents as well, and he tried very hard not to dwell on how he couldn't help but notice the way they were both coming on in years, how it was starting to show physically. He knew his father was getting lost in projects, wanting to make sure the house would be safer and more accessible for them as mobility was becoming an issue. He knew well that Pappy Joe would resist him on it, but Patty might be able to help him calm the waves.

One way or another, losing Melinda had shown them how much they needed to enjoy their lives while they had them, and on a day like this, celebrating another year of life... That was really what it was about, no numbers, just life. He was so glad that they had all come to be with him that day, to share this meal in such a way that he felt surrounded by the spirit of his mother. They had brought her out of him and within him, and on this day, it was exactly what he needed. He did not feel sadness in his heart, only love.

Afternoon drifted on by, with the grandparents heading over to the archive to visit John Carson and Lee Beaumont while Thomas Friar tagged along with his son. They went home in due time, and in next to no time, Lucas was going on his way to kick off what would already be the ninth of his yearly trips out with one Nicholas Orlando. It felt like an entire lifetime ago to remember the day he had been born, on what had already been Lucas' birthday, and in some ways it really was. It wasn't his lifetime, naturally, but that was what made it that much more important to him.

At nine years old, Nicky was very much the boy they had all known him to be, those of them who'd known him all his life, even though he was of course growing up. He was a sweet kid, passionate and caring, a wonderful big brother to all three of his younger sisters, and his entire family was proud of him. Yet for all that, there was a sense, as both Dylan and Riley had noticed it, and as those of them who got to interact with him in a school setting – like Zay, like Lucas, like the other elementary school junior turtles – noticed it, that part of him was deflecting… masking.

"How about we do things differently this year?" Lucas suggested as he and Nicky got into their seats and started buckling in. The boy looked at him, with that face that had enough of both of his friends in it to feel inescapable.

"How different?" he asked.

"Well, what if we went and visited Peter first this time?" Lucas shrugged, indicating that it didn't have to be a massive change. Nicky considered this and… he could see the merit in it, yes. They could do that. So, they would. It wasn't as though he'd been bummed out before, but the simple idea of making this change did feel exciting to him, and that was a pretty great start.

They were all solid regulars of the comic store by now, the Orlandos, the Friars… Lucas still remembered when he'd bought Marianne her very first comic, on a day just like this one. It was odd to think of how many years had come by since, how far she had travelled into her 'comics journey.' She had pulled others in along with her now. As far as her little sisters were concerned, it felt too early to tell for someone like Aubrey, though she had of course grown up, like Mackenzie, like all of the triplets, with Marianne reading her favorite runs to them the way only she ever could have done, and this before she could read the actual words on the pages. When it came to actually picking up comics for themselves, to read if they could or to look at if they could not, neither of the twins seemed nearly as drawn to it as their big sister had done, if at all. On the other hand, Lucy was surprising them all lately with how often she would go to Marianne, asking – every time – if she could look at her collection and borrow from it. Mackenzie would look at them, too, with enough curiosity as to feel familiar to her parents, but time would tell what came of it all.

"That's a pretty good haul you got today," Lucas told Nicky with an appreciative nod as they sat and ate their ice cream. The boy looked over to the box next to him and smiled the glimmering smile of someone who couldn't wait to jump into something exciting.

"Uncle Lucas?" he asked when he turned back to face him.

"Yeah?" Lucas asked back.

"What was my dad like when he was my age?" Nicky asked, as though he hadn't been brought up on stories of Dylan and all his escapades, the sheer number of cuts, and bruises, band-aids, casts, and slings that had followed him from childhood through adolescence. "In school?"

"As a student?"

"No, just… with the others, kids in his class, you know?" he went on to explain, and this along with the way it was asked, with everything they had been discussing about him… That was it, wasn't it? Nicky's classmates thought he was a weirdo, a nerd, and he was starting to consider this a problem, didn't like that people laughed at him.

"Well… You know how your dad is even today, when he gets all excitable, yeah?" Lucas asked, and it made him smile to see how Nicky smiled at the thought. "It was even more when he was about your age, and… people did notice. Thing is, your dad didn't care. Didn't give it one second of his time. He had us, his friends, his… his turtles. That was all he needed, and the rest didn't matter. After a while, no one cared either. And that's not saying that, if he had cared, that would have been wrong, but… he would still have had us, just like you've got some people of your own, don't you?"

He didn't act surprised that his uncle had figured him out. At the same time, he considered what he was told and… maybe he saw a point in it. He didn't dwell on the subject. Instead, the birthday boy and man ate their ice cream and talked about new comics.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners