Queer as Muke

1.17.8 Solution

"Oh Joy! This is delicious!" Deborah almost moans in delight when she tastes Joy's pasta.

Joy's face lights up, until she remembers that she'd never put the romano cheese out. "Oh! Romano!" She shrieks, waving her hands in the air. "Sunshine, honey. Get us some romano would you baby?"

Luke puts the pasta that he's just about to eat back on his plate, doing as Joy's asking but very reluctantly. Dave stuffs his mouth with pasta looking at Luke's face. He knows how much the boy hates it when Joy calls him honey, or sweetie, or baby.

"I'm sorry it's not a fancy as those little caviar things my son was serving..."

Deborah waves Joy's concerns away but it's not lost on Michael that everyone's here except for Calum, and Stephen of course.

"Well men and Senators cannot live on little caviar things alone..." Sam quips as the Senator smiles at him.

"Oh thank you!" she says to Luke who's going around the whole room with the cheese before Joy asks him to. "It's too bad Calum couldn't join us!"

"Well, these days, coming over to his mother's for pasta and vino isn't his style..." Dave tells her, saving Joy the embarrassment of having to explain that she hasn't heard from him, let alone seen him, since she left his party a few nights before.

"I'm sure he had other plans," Joy excuses him with a sad smile.

"Yeah, like dinner with Boo Boo..." Sam comments.

"And Balthazar!" Corey adds.

"Well fuck him!"

All eyes turn to Michael in warning and he doesn't know why until it occurs to him that there's extra company in the room. "Oh sorry Senator!"

She shakes her head, "Oh no, it's okay! I've used that word myself, usually followed by 'Howard'!"

The room laughs. "I'll drink to that!" Sam states, raising his glass in a toast.

"Well let's all drink to that!" Corey agrees.

"Oh let me make a toast first please!" Deborah pleads, raising her glass too. "First of all, to our wonderful hostess, Joy!"

"Thank you!" Joy beams as glasses clink all around her.

"Here's to you sis!"

"And, to little victories! At least your headmaster has agreed to take your request to the school board," Deborah nods at Luke who thanks her.

"Hey," Calum says in a quiet voice, coming into the house through the kitchen door. He's hesitant, not knowing what kind of reception he'll get but knowing he needs to make amends.

He clearly didn't realise he'd get such a frosty reception. Everyone turns to him, no-one saying a word, and waits for him to make the first move. He's so used to his mother being forgiving and understanding that it takes him aback that she's not already up on her feet and offering him her seat and a plate of pasta.

A long pause ensues before Joy realises that he can't or won't make the first move. She looks at him steadily, "Have a seat."

"I can't, I can't stay..."

"You can't? Or you don't want to?" Dave asks from his seat in the corner, determined not to let his nephew off this particular hook.

Calum blinks at his tone and glances around to see if anyone will help him out. No-one does.

"Have you eaten?" Joy asks, her tone clipped, taking her cue from her brother. She doesn't want to let Calum off the hook either but he's obviously not going to apologise if he hasn't done so by now and, quite frankly, it's awkward having him just stand there whilst everyone else is sitting and eating.

Calum mouth turns up in a small smile, "No".

"So, pull up a chair..."

The fact that Joy isn't racing around the kitchen to grab him a plate and serve him tells Calum how pissed off she is. Yet still, for some reason, he can't apologise.

"Sunshine, will you get Calum some puttanesca honey?"

Even though she can't bring herself to get it for him as she normally would, old habits die hard and Luke obligingly gets up when he hears her tired tone and sees her dulled eyes. Uncurling his limbs he gets up and walks into the kitchen as Joy stands up to face Calum.

"You little arsehole," she tells him, pulling him in for a hug, knowing he should be apologising but knowing that him coming over is apology enough.

Michael isn't impressed and walks out of the kitchen door just as Luke's dishing out. He leaves Calum's pasta on the side as he follows Michael outside.

"So it all worked out happily ever after..." Michael blows a smoke ring into the air as he looks up at the night sky.

"Thanks to the Senator."

"Yeah, don't kid yourself," Michael warns Luke, "That woman's using you for money, or for votes. Then she'll move on to her next cause, the next fundraiser. Then where will you be?"

"She said it was a small victory."

"Well don't think that you've won. That it's over. Because the minute you do that you're dead."

Michael turns to Luke, meaning to impart more wisdom about politicians and how you can't trust them but stops short, his eyes roaming over him in appreciation of what he sees; blonde hair shimmering in the moonlight, flushed cheeks warm from wine and pasta, clear blue trusting eyes and pale pink lips that turn up in a little smile when they see Michael's do the same.

He looks down on the boy, gazing into his eyes, softening despite himself, just before he kisses him.

"Not as long as I've got you to protect me..." Luke says quietly, tucking himself under Michael's arm, smiling to himself as they look up at the stars together.

A/N - Howard refers to John Howard, conservative Prime Minister for Australia in the '90's. Against gay rights and same sex marriage, one of the only things he did that most Australians now favour, was to bring together the states and territories to tighten the gun control laws, achieving that within 2 weeks of the massacre at Port Arthur. 35 people died at Port Arthur and 23 more were injured. It led to a nationwide restriction on high capacity semi-automatic shotguns and rifles. There hasn't been another shooting anywhere near that scale again.