Summary: Connor attends his first RECNY ball.
It's Connor's first Roy Endowment Creative New York ball and he feels like a grown-up, sitting with his parents and his father's friends at the big table. Connor's dad pulls Connor up onto his lap and tells him stories about all the people around the room to amuse him. Connor ends up laughing a lot because, for all his faults as a father, Logan is funny.
It's Roman who ends up inheriting their father's sense of humour. Connor is never able to imitate it and Kenny takes everything so seriously. But for now there's no Ken, no Rome and no Shiv, just Connor and his parents. The three musketeers.
"The butter's too cold," Connor's mother mutters. She's trying to spread some on a bread roll but it tears the bread.
"What are you whining about now?" says Logan and Connor tenses. He hates it when his parents argue. He hates it when anyone argues, really.
His father's friend Lester is at the table. Connor accidentally called him 'Mo' to his face once and Logan yelled at him. That's just a nickname that people call him behind his back. Connor eventually puts it together himself. Oh, Mo-Lester. That's pretty funny.
Connor's mother looks very pretty tonight in a green dress, and he wants to tell her so, but his father is being so nice to him that he doesn't want to appear to be taking his mother's side. He passes her another bread roll instead.
When his father walks up to the stage to make his speech, he takes Connor with him, holding him by the hand. At the end of all the boring business talk, he holds up Connor and says, "This is my son and heir." All the adults around the room applaud indulgently. "He'll be running the whole show one day, so make sure you treat him with sufficient respect." There's laughter and more applause. Connor catches sight of his mother, smiling tightly and clapping slowly.
In the car on the way home, Connor closes his eyes and rests against his mother. "Tonight was fun, wasn't it son?" says Logan, reaching out to tousle his hair.
"Yeah," Connor agrees, and changes position so he's leaning against his father instead. His mother stares out of the window at the skyline.
Connor is nearly asleep by the time they arrive home. His nanny is waiting up to put him to bed. His father carries him into the house and hands him over.
"Night, sweetheart," says his mother, kissing him. She sounds as tired as he feels.
"Night, Mommy. Night, Pop."
"Goodnight, son."
It's one of the best nights Connor can remember with his father. As he drifts off to sleep he hopes he'll be allowed to attend other events like tonight. He remembers what his father said, that one day he'll be running the whole business.
He wakes a few hours later to the sound of raised voices and something being thrown around. He thinks of his mother and wonders if he should go and make sure that she's alright, but then he hears his father's voice and stays put.
A/N: Title from Father and Son by Cat Stevens