Fire Station 19, Seattle, Washington, Thanksgiving

[designateddadfriend]

Travis stared at Vic, shaking his head. "I -- you -- you invited my parents?!"

"Not on purpose!" Vic protested. "I live at your house! Nari came to check on things and we were talking and I just happened to mention you and Stark were going to be here for dinner and you know I can't say 'no' to your mom."

"You didn't think that maybe I didn't want to introduce my --" Travis lowered his voice. "-- My alien sex amigo to my homophobic parents??"

"Sex amigo?" Vic asked, smirking. "Oh my god have you guys still not had the 'are we boyfriends' conversation yet?"

"Not the point!" Travis threw his arms in the air. "Ohhhh, this is going to be terrible. This is going to be so bad. . . ."

[for the sex amigo. Up early because holiday slowness, to be heavily adapted from 5x06 "Little Girl Blue"]

Comments

Meeting the station fam

[designateddadfriend]

For all the awkward "Travis's new boyfriend has a facial prosthetic?" introductions.

Re: Meeting the station fam

[stykera]

And there was said alien, feeling very self-conscious. For some reason.

Very self-conscious and looking between Travis and Vic because at least they were both safe people.

Re: Meeting the station fam

[designateddadfriend]

“C’mon, Stark,” Vic said happily, moving to loop her arm through his. “I’ll introduce you around.” She grinned, then raised her voice. “Dean! Come meet Travis’s JJ!”

“He’s not my JJ!” Travis protested. “For one thing, I’m not going to get Stark pregnant.” A beat. “. . . Probably.”

Re: Meeting the station fam

[stykera]

Stark's eye went very wide and he shook his head. "No! Definitely not that. Why would... who's JJ?"

He did let Vic take his arm without any resistance.

Re: Meeting the station fam

[designateddadfriend]

A broadly built, dark-skinned Black man came down the stairs. "Travis has a JJ?" Dean asked, then blinked at Stark and quickly smiled. "Hey, man! Nice to meet you. Dean Miller."

He approached, offering his hand.

"It's an inside joke," Travis said softly to Stark. "I'll tell you later."

Re: Meeting the station fam

[stykera]

"Hello, Dean," Stark said, hesitating just a little before taking the outstretched hand. "I'm Stark."

Setting up for dinner

[designateddadfriend]

DAD DRAMA!

Re: Setting up for dinner

[designateddadfriend]

Travis heaved a sigh as his father's phone chimed again. "Dad, could you at least
silence your phone?"

Paul frowned. "Then what's the point of notifications, Travis?"

Re: Setting up for dinner

[stykera]

"Were you waiting for something?" Stark asked, glancing over at Paul.

His phone didn't get many notifications. But then he wasn't on any social media or any dating apps.

"What next, Travis?"

Re: Setting up for dinner

[designateddadfriend]

"Oh, he's waiting for something alright."

"Travis," Paul said warningly.

"He's waiting for a booty call," Travis said, not listening. "Isn't that right, Dad? Or have you found someone special?"

Paul huffed, looking away.

"Oh my god." Travis shook his head. "You found someone, didn't you. Are you in love with him?"

Re: Setting up for dinner

[stykera]

"...should I go?" Stark asked quietly, looking between the two of them nervously. "Travis?"

Re: Setting up for dinner

[designateddadfriend]

"It's fine, Stark," Paul said. "Travis is just being dramatic."

"Oh, here we go again," Travis said. Sorry, Stark, he was too deep in his own drama to realize you were feeling awkward.

"It's Thanksgiving, Travis. I would never ask you not to see -- see Stark here on the holidays."

"Yeah, except you would. And you did. Because when I first started dating Michael, you wouldn't let me invite him to Christmas dinner. I guess I was just supposed to text him the whole time instead, right?"

In the kitchen

[designateddadfriend]

What's Thanksgiving without someone pulling out the jaws of life?

Re: In the kitchen

[designateddadfriend]

Travis made it to the kitchen to see his mother and Jack both fussing with an oven that was spewing smoke.

"It's locked!" Jack said.

"It was set to 'clean' instead of 'bake'," Nari said.

"Oh, come on, I can't put it out if we can't get in there." Jack yanked on the oven door's handle. "Come on, pull."

"You set the turkey on fire?" Travis asked.

"Shut up and help," said Jack.

Re: In the kitchen

[stykera]

Stark had followed at a slower pace and was now staring from a safe distance.

"... how?" he asked in a terribly helpful fashion. "Or maybe I should ask what?"

Re: In the kitchen

[designateddadfriend]

"You set the turkey on fire!" Travis said again, coming over to pull uselessly at the oven door himself.

The sprinkler system chose that moment to go off, drenching both him and Jack. The oven door didn't open, though. Paul had the peace of mind to open the door to the outdoor patio to air the room out a bit.

"It's a perfectly understandable mistake," Nari soothed. Loudly, to be heard over the alarms.

Travis gave up on pulling on the door and dashed into the next room.

Re: In the kitchen

[stykera]

Stark took a few steps back, trying to stay out of the splash zone.

"Can I help? What happened?"

Re: In the kitchen

[designateddadfriend]

"The oven was set too high, dear," Nari said. "I think we probably just need to -- Travis, what are you doing?"

Travis had come back in with a large, heavy tool. Specifically, the jaws of life.

"I'm getting that turkey out!"

"Honey, that oven is really expensive!"

"Mom, please!"

Travis wedged the teeth of the tool between the counter and the handle, and started it up.

Actual dinner

[designateddadfriend]

Where things have hopefully calmed down a touch

Re: Actual dinner

[designateddadfriend]

The turkey from Station 23 was delicious, and the company was -- mostly -- delightful. The whole Station 19 family managed to sit down for a while between calls to take care of people who had decided to try to deep fry turkeys.

Eventually, in a lull in the conversation, Paul looked around the table with a little smile. "Let's do that thing. Where we all say what we're thankful for."

Nari gave him a little smile. "What a lovely idea."

Travis, across the table, watched the two of them, brow creasing in a small frown.

Re: Actual dinner

[stykera]

"Is that something that usually happens? I've never really done this before. A big Thanksgiving."

Not much opportunity for such things in space, not that he was going to say that.

"It seems like a good thing to do."

Re: Actual dinner

[designateddadfriend]

"It's a little cheesy," Vic said, favoring Stark with a bright smile. "But totally cute. I'll go first! I'm thankful to have my favorite people in the world back in the same city again."

Travis gave her a soft look for that, his irritation at his father momentarily forgotten. Vic nodded encouragingly at him. "You go next," she urged.

"Uh, okay." Travis took a breath, then decided to go for it. It was petty and passive aggressive, sure, but dammit if his father didn't make him petty and passive aggressive! "I'm grateful for truth." He nodded. "Yeah, you know? 'Cause life is too short to live it in a lie."

Re: Actual dinner

[stykera]

Stark had seated himself to Travis's left so he had someone he knew on his masked side.

"Truth is good," he said carefully as he turned to look at Travis.

Re: Actual dinner

[designateddadfriend]

"Thank you," Travis said, giving him a(n only faintly smug) smile.

"Nari," Vic said quickly. "Why don't you go next?"

Nari beamed. "Well, I'm grateful for my son." She looked between Travis and Stark, clearly pleased. "And for Stark." And she looked to her husband. "And for my loving husband, Paul."

"Awww." Travis nodded. "Dad, why don't you go? Are you grateful for you loving wife?"

Paul shoved back in his seat. "For God's sake, Travis!"

Travis refused to back down. "That's a terrible start, Dad."

OOC

[designateddadfriend]