Lady and the Tramp II

The next day, Alex was washing the dishes from his family's lunch in the kitchen, when Luke walked in behind him. Unaware of how to act around his father, Luke tried to make as little noise as he could while going to the fridge for a snack. Obviously the young boy felt terrible about how his actions had affected Alex, but since he'd always been closer to Jack, he didn't know how to approach the situation. So, in a typical teenage fashion, he avoided approaching it at all. That is, until Alex called upon him.

"Luke?" Alex questioned, spinning around when he heard the incessant shuffle of Luke's feet across the tiled floor.

"Yeah, dad?" Luke responded, not making eye contact with his father, and wishing that'd he'd spare them both the awkwardness of the following conversation. Alex spoke, though, regardless, and Luke knew it was in his best interest to listen.

"Come talk to me," Alex continued, motioning for Luke to follow him to the sofas. Luke did so, and the pair sat down beside each other, neither of them knowing the best way to start.

"This is long overdue," Alex began, with Luke nodding in agreement, "But I think I should start off with the fact that you definitely need to let me know how you're feeling. I've been taking care of all four of you for years now, as well as Jack, and I presume that eventually I would have messed up, but not this terribly."

Shaking his head, Luke strayed his father's attention from his own words, speaking when Alex looked at him expectantly. "It's not your fault, dad, really. I was being stupid, and I should have known better. You don't see dad blaming himself, do you?"

"Well, no," Alex countered, "But Jack has actually been a wonderful father to you. He's so close with you, something that I've never really been."

"You're just as important to me as he is," Luke explained, "I guess that it's just because he and I are more alike. Jeez, sometimes I don't even know how you two get along."

"Your father and his charm," Alex smiled, before finishing with, "I'm going to put more effort into our relationship, though, okay? We're going to do more stuff together, Scamp."

Luke laughed at that, rolling his eyes at his father fondly. Alex could be quite obsessive, but Luke knew he meant well. Leaning over and wrapping his arms around Alex, Luke said quietly, "I love you, dad."

"I love you, too, Luke." Alex grinned, glad the balance had finally been restored in their home.

"And I love you both!" Another voice rang, and Luke and Alex looked up to see Jack entering the room. Dropping onto the couch between the two, the Tramp pulled Alex in for a quick kiss, leaving the other man smiling to himself as he turned to their son.

"So, has Alex asked you about Angel yet?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrows with a laugh.

"Pop, no," Luke whined, before Alex looked at him expectantly. "She's just a girl I met," Luke tried, sighing at the knowing expressions on both of his father's faces.

"Been there, done that, and now I'm married with four children." Jack chuckled, standing up and leaving the room once more.

"Bring her over," Alex began, "I'd love to meet her. I'm sure your sisters would, too."

"I mean, I guess I could," Luke agreed, aware of Alex's intentions, but unsure if it was really a good idea. "I'll think about it."

"Good," Alex responded, before he pressed a kiss to the top of Luke's head, and he, too, left the room. Sighing to himself, Luke realized that it was about time for everything to fall into place. He was making amends with his family, and he was starting to building up his relationship with Angel, and eventually, he would combine the two. So far, Luke's little adventure had caused quite a ruckus, but quite a bit of good resulted from it. Realizing that he wasn't, in fact, finished talking it out with everyone that'd been involved in his problem, Luke set off, too, getting up and closing the door behind himself swiftly.

"Do mine eyes deceive me? Hey, Luke! You escaped!" Buster exclaimed, as he noticed Luke making his way into the dingy room that Buster and his friends were sat around.

"Yeah, no thanks to you." Luke almost snarled, fed up with Buster's attitude.

"Hey, come on. You know our motto." Buster shrugged, almost annoyingly put off by Luke's anger.

"You can keep your motto, but not this." Luke said, referring to his identification card. "I'm going home where I belong. So long, Buster." With that, Luke was trotting down the stairs, more than glad to be leaving that dump for the last time.

"Hey, kid, come back here! You can't leave us." Buster stood up in a fit of anger, trying to disguise his worry. As he blindly sped across the room, he tripped over an overfilled trash can, garbage spilling everywhere, mostly on top of him.

"It's a good look for you, Buster." Ruby laughed, "The garbage adds some class."

"Hey." Buster called out, grimacing as he saw Ruby get up, following Luke out. "Hey, someone wanna lend me a hand here?"

"I think a home sounds nice, much nicer than this place has ever been." Mooch agreed, as he, too, stood up to leave.

"If you guys leave, you're never coming back." Buster scolded, confused as to why his threats just weren't getting through any more.

"Au revoir, Buster." Francois said after, as he was next to leave, "It has been, as you say, 'beautiful.''' Finally, following him, Sparky and scratchy made their way out of the dump, simply and wordlessly just shaking their heads.

"Dudes! You can't leave me here! I was only kidding." Buster called out, to no avail. At last, no one was a slave to his every word, and although that brought a sense of freedom to everyone else, it covered Buster with the feeling of dread. Helplessly, he called out, "Buster's trouble ain't Buster's trouble. Come on! Buster's trouble is everybody's trouble," but, this time, nobody was there to listen.

Notes

i can't believe this story is already wrapping up, this is my second time posting it online (hehehe the whole thing has been up all along somewhere else) and the response has by far been the greatest on here :-)