Sunnydale AU: and nothing even blew up

[americas_son]

Cal isn't sure which took longer: the speeches at the graduation ceremony, or the gathering his mother had planned after. At least the monotony of the party was broken up by Grahame's calmly stealing the spotlight to announce his new job with some law firm in LA.

Cal kind of has to admire his style there.

But, whatever, either way it's finally all over, and now he's pulling up in front of Tina's house to pick her up and head over to the Stark residence for the real party.

Comments

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

"What? Flirting?"

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"Totally flirting," Cal says cheerfully. "It's worse than Tony."

He pats the steering wheel affectionately. His mood has improved infinitely since leaving his house - he more or less survived the "meet the family" gauntlet (Tina's mother is obviously going to be more of a long-term project), and now he's with Tina and they're going to hang out with his friends.

And Grahame's announcement was something of a relief, too, maybe more than he's willing to admit even to himself.

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

"He's pretty blatant, isn't he? And that's cool?"

She's not quite sure what to think about Tony Stark.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

Cal hesitates, glancing at her in the mirror.

"Yeah," he says. "I mean, he's not a creep. He's not - gonna try to grab you or anything. And if you tell him to knock off the flirting, he will.

"Or - he'll try."

That's what she meant, right?

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

"Damn. That much of a horndog?"

She shakes her head, laughing. "He does have that reputation with the ladies."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

Cal relaxes and grins.

"I don't think he even thinks about it," he says. "It's like, some people breathe. Tony flirts."

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

"All right then," she says, shrugging. "It's no big deal."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

Cal nods.

"Okay," he says.

There. That was fine. Nothing to worry about.

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

"So what should I expect at this party? Mountains of beer cans in pyramids? Skinny dipping in the pool? Orgies in the basement? I have no idea."

She's joking.

Mostly.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"I think it'll just be us," Cal says. "Most people are still stuck with their families tonight."

He pauses.

"But the beer can pyramids might still happen."

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

"Oh. So this won't a scene out of a bad teen movie? I was imagining, like, a horde of people I didn't know setting me up for am experience of a lifetime. I'm a little disappointed now."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure we can still come up with something," Cal says. "We're good at improvising."

Really, really good.

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

She laughs.

"Okay. I'm game. So how was your family thing?"

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"Long and boring," Cal says.

"My uncle finally came out of his cave, though. He's basically been hiding since Dad, uh, but he got a new job and he's moving to LA next week."

He sounds pleased about this, as one might expect. Just not for the reasons one might expect.

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

"That's good. You guys don't get along? Or are you just happy for him?"

She's guessing the former.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"We don't get along."

He pauses.

"It's kind of a long story. I, uh." He thinks for a second about telling Tina -

"I don't really talk about it."

- but he's not ready yet. He likes her, a lot, and he trusts her more instinctively than he thinks he's ever trusted anyone, but the only person he's ever told the real story about Grahame to is Sherlock. And he had to be so drunk he could barely see before he could do it.

He shrugs. "But it'll be better for everyone. It's a law firm, he'll get to screw people over, he'll love it."

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like a win-win situation."

She knows Cal well enough by now to know he'll tell her things when he's ready to. Especially if it's something he doesn't want to talk about.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

And that's a large part of why he trusts her. She gets it. She understands things. She takes him seriously.

He looks over and smiles at her.

"Definitely."

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

She smiles back. He can't know that she appreciates him for much the same reasons.

"Just us is Sherlock, Tony, you, and me then, right?"

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Cal says. "Well, and Jarvis. He's the computer."

It's a measure of how accustomed he's become to Jarvis that he doesn't fully realize how weird that might sound.

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

Wait, what?

"The computer? You mean like a robot?"

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

- oh. Right. That weird.

"No, he's an AI," Cal says. "Artificial Intelligence. He runs the house."

Which they are getting closer to; Cal pulls into the long driveway as he speaks.

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

"Is this a rich kid thing I don't understand? Because it sounds like something from the Matrix."

Oh... wow. That's a nice house.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"He's kind of like HAL from 2001," Cal explains, "only he's not going to try to kill us."

Pause.

"And don't tell him I said that."

[take-youaway.livejournal.com]

"Your secret is safe with me."

HAL. Amazing. Oh well. As long as he's not going to kill them, she can roll with it.