Chapter Text
Norman taps the toe of his shoe against the doorstep nervously, looking at the lights bleeding out from inside his house, feeling the little bit of warmth he may have been keeping within his scarf and sweater bleed out in much the same way. He hears the car door shut and listens as Neil walks up the pathway from behind, and even though he's expecting the hand on his shoulder, he jumps a little when it lands. It's warm, and the voice beside his ear is warmer, and leaves condensation. "Don't worry about it, Norman. It's sorta scary, but, hey, we've done it before." Norman breathes out a high, apprehensive sigh, and leans into Neil's hand.
"Easy for you to say; you waited for all of forty seconds after we got to your house to tell your mom about us, and she practically already knew, and hugged us afterward and pinched our cheeks and everything. My parents haven't been tempered to the idea by having an elder son and his boyfriend in the house."
"Yeah, well, I'm sure we'll grow on them." Neil sees that this pre-dinner-discussion hasn't convinced Norman in the slightest, and he smiles at his boyfriend despite himself. "Hey, come on; let's just get it over with. No reason to drag out all of this worrying, right?" He kisses his cheek, and Norman's face heats up blessedly, and he leans further to the right so that his body fits beside Neil's, and they share the heat.
"Yeah, let's go."
~
Courtney greets them first, and doesn't bother to screen the amusement from her face when they come in looking a little too rosy for however cold the weather is. The table's mostly set and Sandra comes in with a last dish, and smiles at the boys. "Oh, hello, you two. You can sit down, we're ready to eat." Everybody's sitting and itching to get at the hot food when Perry comes in casually, as if he hadn't been listening earlier when Norman had asked to make sure that he was home that night, and that Neil was having dinner with them, and that he wanted him to be there.
"Hey, dad," Norman says in his soft voice, smiling a little. It makes Neil smile and feel like he can look at his father too, so he does. Perry looks at Norman, then Neil, and nods, and finally says;
"Hey kid. Hey, Neil."
"Good evening, Mr. Babcock."
"Hey, hey," Perry's voice is strong, and Norman is so on edge that his body seizes, automatically filing the temperament as directed towards him; but he quickly realizes how foolish that is of himself and tries to will himself calm, "I don't wanna hear any of that formal business from you, kid. Let's see here - every fiftieth time someone eats at our house, they become an official part of the family. You've probably eaten here about a hundred times, so, technically, you're family." Neil allows himself a chuckle, which Perry returns with gusto; Sandra pats her husband's arm, and Norman smiles. Maybe tonight would go well after all.
The meal passes pleasantly and everybody is happy to say that they actually enjoyed the food. They're mostly through desert when the conversation lags, and Norman sneaks a look at Neil, who looks at him easily and smiles, and so he decides it's time to speak up. "Uh, so...mom, dad, there's something I wanna tell you. Something me and...Neil want to tell you, actually." The table quiets and everybody looks at Norman, but Neil quickly diverts his gaze to Courtney instead, who is in turn looking at the both of them with a knowing smirk. Perry raises his eyebrows, looks at his wife, and leans back in his chair, arms crossing over his ballooning belly. The way he's looking at Norman gives the boy a bad feeling, and he looks at Neil again for support, and gets it in a big smile; Neil's smiles always make Norman feel better. "Okay, well, uh, what it is is...is that we're..." he takes a breath, lets it out, "we're...together. You know. A couple." Neil gives it a moment and then;
"Yep, that's right. We're boyfrans." The way he says it makes Norman want to laugh, but his eyes and feelings are fixed on his father, who's looking down ahead of himself, eyebrows setting, eyes hard to see. His mother notices and is the first to speak, and Norman knows the happiness in her voice is genuine;
"Oh honey, that's so nice! I'm glad for you two."
"Thanks mom," Norman's voice is small, but genuine in turn. They wait for Perry to say something, but his head is still lowered and he doesn't speak. Courtney tries to choke the growing tension;
"Yeah, yeah it's great isn't it? They're so cute together," and she puts her hand on Norman's shoulder and smiles at him calmly, knowing how many thoughts must be going through his head. "You know I kinda always wondered, since Mitch is gay and all - not that it's some, like, genetically inherited gene or anything, but like, I just thought that it wouldn't be weird for either of you to be gay, you know? And like I know Mitch has just been waiting for the day he could take you guys on double dates and stuff, and now since the cat's out of the bag..." Her banter dies out when Norman's face freezes, and she looks to see that her father is looking at Norman now, his eyes dark and his face straight. After a moment of silence that feels like an hour, he speaks.
"I don't know why I was expecting you to be normal when it came to this sort of thing. You'd think that after all the shit you've pulled on us I'd have learned better long ago. And maybe I did know, but I just didn't want to accept it, so I ignored it. Even as I watched you two get closer, I ignored it, because I didn't want to see that happen; no way would I see that happen."
He's getting upset now, so Sandra says imploringly, "Perry, honey...there's no reason to be upset at Norman for this--"
He takes a moment to growl, "You be quiet," but doesn't continue, even as he stands and leans over on the table, looking straight at Norman. Norman feels his skin grow cold, and Courtney's hand is tight on his shoulder. "You want to take your weirdness to the next level, fine; but do it somewhere else." All Norman can see is how dark his eyes are, and if Courtney weren't holding onto him so presently, then he wouldn'tve been able to keep his tears in. He'd known this would happen, but Neil's enthusiasm had gotten him to hope for the best, and now - now it was all crumbling down around him. His father stands up straight, looms over the room for a moment in silence, and when nobody moves or speaks, he snaps, "Get out, both of you, get out of here." Norman voices his distress at the end of a breath, and Courtney and his mother step up and start speaking against Perry, but Perry pays no attention to them, and keeps his eyes on Norman, who's now fighting against his heating face and watering eyes and time. Perry pushes past the others and Norman can't move, and then Neil is in front of him - between them - and his father's gaze is finally fixed on something else. "You, get out of here. You're not welcome here anymore. You get anything you have here, and you leave, and you never come back." He shoves Neil aside and Norman steps back unconsciously. "And you - either you stay here, or you go with him - that's your choice. That's the choice you've set yourself up for - you leave and you don't come back, or you stay and you and he -" he gestures flippantly, "don't see each other anymore." Norman looks him in the eyes and sees that his gaze isn't steady, like he himself can't believe what he's saying. Norman knows what his answer is immediately, but his throat is tight and sore and he tries to push his feelings down first, so that he can speak clearly.
"All right," his voice is wet, but it doesn't crack, and he can keep his face from crumbling even as he looks over at his mother, who is looking at him in open horror. "Bye, mom. I'll talk to you later." Norman turns around, takes Neil's hand, and walks out the door.
~
The ride over is quiet, and Neil is in a state of shock all the way, not sure what to say or do or think. He doesn't know whether Norman is angry at him, whether it would be okay to try and comfort him or touch him, or talk at all. He doesn't know if he has anything to say that could make him feel better. When they get to Neil's house, they walk up to the doorstep, and then Norman stops, and Neil doesn't waste a moment in hugging him, and when Norman's arms wrap around him he hugs him properly, as tightly as he can without making it difficult for Norman to breathe. Even after they've been hugging long enough to be considered more than a hug, Norman doesn't try to move away, or tense up to communicate that he's done hugging; his hold on Neil never lessens, and so Neil's doesn't either, and it's so nice to be in each other's warmth on a winter's night. "Norman, I'm so sorry," Neil says softly into his neck. Norman holds him tighter, and shakes his head a little, and doesn't make a sound.
They've been on the doorstep for fifteen minutes before they finally pull apart, and they look at each other, even though it's too dark to see, and Neil opens the door and a wave of heat greets them. For some reason, the face of Neil's mother is the trigger that sends Norman into a fit of wet sobs, and she holds him and hushes him and sits with him on the couch, holding him until his chest stops heaving and he's breathing evenly. Neil is sitting beside him and puts an arm around him and leans his chin on his shoulder and listens as his mother asks what happened, and as Norman tells her. She listens, and when he's done she stands and asks if they want hot cocoa, and Norman responds with a 'yes, please' that brings her back down to kiss his forehead, and Neil's cheek, before she heads to the kitchen. After a moment, Norman twists himself around so that he's curled up to Neil, and Neil wipes tears off of his face, and kisses him sweetly, and Norman kisses him back and grabs onto his shirt and settles himself as closely as he can to the other boy.
The rest of the night is spent drinking hot cocoa and watching Norman's favourite zombie movies.
~