Sunnydale AU: don't go into the - never mind.

[americas_son]

Some students, when they hear the final bell ring, head to class right away.

Sometimes Cal is one of them, but not today. He was outside having a cigarette when the bell sounded, and he was too deep in thought to pay it much attention.

So he's slipping inside now, a few minutes late. The halls are already quiet, and he's keeping an eye out for any faculty members authorized to give detention as he makes his way toward his English class.

Comments

[toblameforit]

"Good. You can tell me who's lying about how much they liked him so I know who to throw up on when I get drunk off my face."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

Cal has to smile wryly at that. Reed Chandler was considerably more popular than Stane seems to have been, but that doesn't mean his funeral wasn't full to the brim with fake tears and bullshit.

"Deal," he says.

[toblameforit]

"Thanks."

He fills his glass and returns to his side of the bed.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"Least I can do."

All other shit aside: Tony and Sherlock came to Cal's father's funeral. Cal may never find the words to describe how much it meant, how much it helped, to know they were there.

[toblameforit]

Something about the way he glances over at Cal suggests he knows.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

Cal holds his gaze for a second, then looks down at his glass.

"So I'm guessing you're the one who gets to do the planning," he says.

[toblameforit]

"Yep. At least I've done this whole circus before."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

Cal thinks about this for a second. This particular funeral is going to have some fairly unique complications. Though it won't get as difficult as his father's funeral had if -

"You might wanna go with cremation," he says. "Lot easier to fake a body that way."

His father's had been open casket, complete with glamored mystery corpse. They'd worried the whole thing that something would go wrong, but what else could they do for a Chandler's funeral?

[toblameforit]

He laughs. "God, that's depressing."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

This time Cal has to laugh, too.

"Sorry, man," he says. "But convincing people someone died normally when they didn't takes a lot of extra work."

[toblameforit]

"Yeah, I'll bet it does."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"'Sokay, though," Cal says, "I'll help."

Pause.

"Fucking Sunnydale. We sound like a couple of murderers right now."

[toblameforit]

"Hey, thanks, man." He snorts. "Fucking Sunnydale is right. Oh well, nobody listening but Jarvis."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"It's not our fault we'd never get the coroner to put vampires or Hellmouth as cause of death," Cal says.

A last swallow finally finishes off his whiskey.

[toblameforit]

"Oh, getting them to put it, sure. Getting people out of town to believe it is where you'd really run into trouble."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"Or in town, for that matter."

Considering Sunnydale's impressive capacity for denial, getting someone from out of town to believe it might be easier.

[toblameforit]

"If somebody in town doesn't believe it, we can always take them to school and prove it to 'em."

He shakes his head, laughing.

"Okay, gonna quit being viciously morbid now."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"Why?"

Cal gets up to refill his glass.

"What else are we gonna do, sit around and talk about our feelings?"

[toblameforit]

"'Cause I'm pretty sure talking about throwing a bunch of people into hell just for being idiots is the kind of thing Sherry would call a bad precedent."

Tony contemplates his whiskey.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

Which, Cal thinks, is basically why Stane is there now.

In a way, that's not fair.

Cal can think of much better reasons for him to have gone. And he's sure that what he knows is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything Stane has done to deserve - whatever's happening to him now.

"As long as we only talk about it," he says.

[toblameforit]

"Okay, point."

He downs the rest of glass number two in one go.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"Want a refill while I'm up?" Cal asks.

[toblameforit]

"Yeah," he says, leaning forward and holding out his glass.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

Cal snags it, then pours out of what he is pretty sure is the bottle Tony has been using. His pouring for Tony is decidedly more generous than for himself.

He brings the drinks back over and resumes his seat at the end of the bed.

[toblameforit]

"Thanks."

It is, in fact, the right bottle, not that it would have mattered terribly much if it wasn't.

He lapses into silence.