Chapter Text
Tina comes home for a random week in October, right around Halloween, so it's the perfect time to have Logan over for dinner. According to her mother. Her father isn't pleased.
"He's met Tina."
"But it's different now, sweetie. He's family."
"Stupid Logan isn't our family," Bob mutters. He's chopping tomatoes, bitterly and with angry gusto. Louise takes the knife from him and finishes while he sighs and goes to sit in his designated Dad Chair she put in the kitchen. "Are you in love with him?"
"Bob."
"I'm just asking."
"You can't just ask your daughter something like that, you need to let her say it on her own." Linda leans in close. "She could tell us if she is, though."
Louise drops the tomatoes in their container and ties her apron. "Lunch rush," she says, and kicks them out.
If the idea of Logan being absorbed into their bizarre family matrix secretly thrills her, then that's her own little thing to keep. Tina comes down to help her with the grill, her hair twisted up into some terribly complex thing on the back of her head. "Mom says Logan is coming over for dinner."
"He is."
"She thinks you're in love with him."
Louise shrugs.
"We should make those cornish hens. Dad loves the cornish hens."
"He does, that's true."
Tina flips a patty and looks over at her sister. "I'm really happy for you. Did I tell you I met someone? His name is Francisco and he's an exchange student from Barcelona." She even pronounces the little -th noise in the middle of the word.
"This is really great food, Mr. Belcher. I like the little hens."
Bob's face, which has been contorted into an expression of general constipation, pain, and apathy, settles into mild surprise. "Uh. Thank you."
"Logan, how's Mr. Fish?"
"Fine. He told me you're his third favorite tenants."
"Wow." Bob looks impressed. "We've made it to third? Last year we were definitely seventh."
"The year before that we were fifteenth," Gene says proudly. "Logan, you look great in the skinny tie thing. Does Louise ever tell you that you look great in the skinny tie thing?"
"You should come to family game night," Linda says. "We haven't been able to play Twister since Bobby threw his back out last year."
"Yeah, we've been playing the same game of Monopoly for like eight months." Gene shoves a piece of cornish hen in his mouth talking around his food. "It's exhausting."
"How do you remember where the pieces go?"
Gene shrugs. "We never put it away."
"Your family is great," Logan says later. He's stretched out on her bed, playing Angry Birds on his phone while she brushes her teeth. She leans against the doorway of the bathroom and shrugs, turning to spit and rinse. "Seriously."
"I already knew that."
"I know, I just. They're cool. You guys are so close."
"Having siblings does that to you."
He tosses the phone to the side and puts his hands behind our head. "I don't think that's my family's problem."
"Your family is fine, they're just functioning on a different level. See, you gotta get on my level. And the rest will follow."
"You think your level is better."
"I think it's more fun. Unless Cynthia's going to be drinking. In which case her level is my mother's level and they should hang out more."
"She could manage that."
Louise nods. "I'll make it happen." She crawls into bed and snags his phone, beating the level he's been stuck on for three days in a little less than seventeen seconds. He groans.
"Why do you do that?"
"Because you suck at this game."
He sighs, taking the phone and tossing it onto the night stand. They lay like that for a while, until he clears his throat and says, "I have to ask you something."
"Ugh."
"No, it's good, hear me out." Logan sits up. "Fish is having this party thing next weekend. I want you to go with me."
Louise sits up with him. "You want me to go to a work thing. And meet your work friends."
"...Yes."
She shrugs. "Okay."
Logan blinks. "Okay? Okay, like...like that's it? You're not going to degrade me for my work, or for attending functions or--"
"No." She lays back down. "I want to go. So I'll go. Stop being a crazy person about it, geez."
"Wow. I just...this is new. This is big. Can I take a sample of your hair or something? I want to make sure you weren't swapped--"
Louise takes his phone again, and she deletes Angry Birds.
"Nope," he mutters, bitter and sad. "Still you."
The last night before Tina goes home, Louise gets a text.
logan: where are you
louise: at the restaurant, having cake
logan: i really need to see you
louise: come over, it's chocolate
And not ten minutes later, he's tapping on the door and waving her out. Bob raises a brow, watching her go.
"Shit, Logan, it's freezing out here!"
"My parents are getting a divorce."
Louise squeezes her own arms tighter, closing her eyes. "What?"
"They're getting a divorce. The told me at dinner. It's--"
"Oh my God, why the hell are we out here then?"
"Your family--"
"Ugh." She grabs him and pulls him inside. "Stupid Logan's parents are getting a divorce. Can he have some cake?"
"Shit," her dad mutters, and Linda crosses the room and pull Logan into her arms. "Jesus, Lin."
"Oh, you poor baby. It's alright," she says. "We've got scotch, too, honey."
"That...sounds great, actually."
Linda lets him go to run up the stairs and get the scotch and glasses. Bob cuts him a slice of cake.
"Sucks," he says.
"Yeah." Logan sniffs and takes his fork, scraping off some of the frosting and eating it. "It really does."
Louise takes him back to her apartment, pulls off his shoes, and puts him to bed.
Logan groans pressing his face in the pillow. "I really love you, you know that?"
"Yeah." Louise crawls into bed with him, turning off the lights. "I really love you, too."
"I know that."
"Good, please don't make me say it again this week."
"Wouldn't want to ruin your reputation as a mean girl."
"Please stop."
He sighs, rolling over and wrapping his stupid noodle arms around her. His hands are sweaty. "Thanks."
"You and my mom drank a bottle of scotch by yourselves."
"Your brother helped."
"No," Louise says kindly. "He brought that one for himself."
"I like your family." He shifts. "My mom is...upset."
"You wanna talk about it?"
"In the morning," he says. "You should go see her with me, too. She'll...she told me she likes you a lot."
"Oh." Louise swallows. "That's...nice."
"She can be, at times." He hums against her throat and drifts off the sleep. After a while, Louise gets out of bed, goes into the living room, and calls Tina on Skype.
"This is kinda sentimental for you," Gene says. They're both still at the restaurant, downstairs in a booth, drinking from a bottle of Bailey's. "Like, you could walk here."
"Logan's okay?"
"He's asleep."
Gene laughs. "Damn, he's a lightweight. Mom is still going, but I think she and dad are having sex. We're not going upstairs until we're either too drunk to hear or too drunk to care."
"Good for them."
Tina leans in close. "You told him you loved him, didn't you?"
"Yep. You can both begin exchanging money, or lobbing insults. Your choice."
They look at one another. "Actually..." Tina takes the bottle from Gene. "We were both wrong. We had you pegged for next Christmas."
"What the hell, seriously?"
"Hey, give Tina some credit," Gene says. "I figured you'd be broken up by next Halloween."
"Ugh. You both suck."
Tina leans forward. "I guess we owe you money."
Louise sighs. "Nah, keep it." She stretches. "I'm going to bed."
"You little homemaker," Gene says. "Kiss Logan for me."
"Sure thing, Gene."
Tina kisses her fingerips, then taps her camera. "Love you, Louise."
"I said it once, I'm all used up, goodnight!" She closes the computer, leaning back against the couch.
"Love you," she says, into the dark, before getting up and going back to bed.
And she leans over, presses her lips to Logan's temple and says, very quietly, "Love you, too. Stupid."