Work Text:
1976
“War!”
Michael sighed, begrudgingly pushing his card over to Lindsay, who was cheering gleefully.
“I’m so good at this!” she said, smiling.
“You can’t be ‘good’ at this game, Lindsay,” Michael corrected. “It’s all luck.”
“Well, then I guess I’m just super lucky,” she shrugged.
The sound of a door opening interrupted their conversation and they looked over to see Gob exiting his room.
“What are you guys doing?” he asked, leaning on the table. He was bouncing on his toes and the table shook along with him. Michael moved a glass closer to the center.
“We’re playing war,” Michael explained and Gob groaned, promptly sinking to the floor.
“That’s so boring,” he whined, quickly standing up and spinning around a couple times, flapping his hands.
“Gob,” Michael warned.
Wordlessly, Gob brought his hands to his side and stopped spinning. He stayed still for about six seconds before beginning to bounce on his toes.
“ Gob. ”
“I’m trying, geez!” Gob said, now just rocking. “Ugh, my brain is just filled with bees right now.”
“Ew,” Lindsay said.
“Exactly,” Gob said, spinning around a couple times mindlessly. “It feels ‘ew’.”
Michael just gave Gob a look. He knew their mom and dad didn’t like him getting all rowdy and if they found out he’d been behaving like that behind their back, Michael didn’t want to get in trouble for something his brother was doing wrong.
“Gob!” Michael said finally, after Gob began hopping around and tapping on the furniture.
“Ugh, come on! They’re not even here, Michael,” Gob said, hitting the couch a couple times, making punching noises with his mouth.
“Yeah, but what if they found out?”
Gob just whined, dramatically leaning his body along with an eye roll.
“How would they even find out?” Lindsay asked. “They’re not here right now.”
“Yeah, Michael,” Gob said, sticking his tongue out.
“Still,” Michael retorted. “It’s the principal of it.”
Gob furrowed his brow.
“The principal?”
“Yeah,” Michael said snootily. “The principal.”
“What does a principal have to do with this?”
“Yeah,” Lindsay added. “What does that even mean?”
“Well…I dunno what it means but I know it makes sense to use it.”
“Like, because principals would do the right thing?” Lindsay asked.
“Probably.”
“Well, I’m not a principal,” Gob shrugged as he walked on the couch cushions.
“He is right, Michael,” Lindsay nodded. “He isn’t a principal.”
Michael dragged his hands down his face and Gob jumped off the couch and ran into the wall pushing himself back and stumbling back onto the couch. Michael didn’t say anything but he was very clearly stressed and fed up.
Lindsay looked sympathetically at her twin and gears began to turn in her mind. Suddenly, she got up and sprinted over to the record player. Michael looked up and watched as she began sifting through the records their mother owned. Even Gob stopped for a moment to watch before excitedly skipping over.
“Play the train one!” he said. Gob loved the way the one felt against his skin. The little voice thingies the singer did tickled and it always made him smile.
“Oh, good idea!”
“Be careful,” Michael warned. “Don’t scratch it.”
“Mom showed us how to do it, Michael,” Lindsay said. “I know what I’m doing.”
While he didn’t want them to scratch it, he also didn’t want to be nearby and thus, associated with the ‘crime’. Thankfully, they got it on safely and the record crackled to life. Trickling piano trilled and brassy train whistles sounded out, interspersed with bouncy scatting and a snappy tap on the hi-hat.
Gob immediately began waving his hands, promptly spinning around and hopping along to it, his erratic movements interspersed with some more coordinated dances. He wore a wide smile that used up his entire face and shoulders. Lindsay soon joined in, the two jumping around the living room.
“Lindsay, mom and dad said-”
“I don’t remember them saying anything dancing, Mikey.”
Gob just giggled happily, humming a little in agreement.
Michael sighed. He supposed they were right about that. They didn’t have any rules against dancing. Usually, they only ever complained about the noise that came from it or how whoever was dancing looked ridiculous, but no ban had ever been put in place.
“Okay, fine,” Michael conceded. “But try to keep it down so the downstairs neighbors don’t get mad.”
Neither acknowledged him this time, just continuing to nonsensically and erratically “dance” around the living room.
You must take the "A" train
To go to Sugar Hill, way up in Harlem
If you miss the "A" train
You'll find you missed the quickest way to Harlem
For a couple minutes, Michael did nothing but watch, occasionally laughing at his siblings’ antics. And when Lindsay came over, insisting he join them, he initially resisted.
…And he continued to resist, the only reason he ended up out there with them being because Lindsay literally dragged him out of his seat. He reluctantly and much more calmly moved around along with the two, who were almost tumbling over at this point.
“Come on, Michael!” Lindsay said. “I know you can move around more than that! ”
“Yeah, Mikey, stop being so boring,” Gob added.
Sighing, Michael hopped a little more, which he could admit was kind of fun but it was hard to really enjoy it when he was still kind of stressed by whether their actions were truly allowed, especially now that he was involved.
“Relax!” Lindsay egged on, taking notice of Michael’s nerves. “Here,” she said, grabbing his hand and then pulling Gob over, who initially protested but quickly let up the attitude and held Michael’s other hand at Lindsay’s nod. Lindsay and Gob grabbed each other’s hand, forming a circle, and began spinning and jumping around, forcing Michael to keep up with them and it didn’t take long before he let loose and was jumping, spinning, dancing and smiling right along with them.
Get aboard
Next stop is Harlem
Take the "A" train
As the song came to an end, Gob took control and spun them into the couch and they all collapsed into a giggling pile on the couch, Michael sliding off and landing on the floor.
“Uff-”
Gob stood up and flapped his hands, spinning around. “I love that song,” he beamed.
“So, whadya think, Mikey?” Lindsay asked after a moment, rolling over on the couch to look at her twin. “It’s fun to have fun, right?”
Michael smiled up at Lindsay from where he lay on the floor.
“It is.”