Fic: There Will Be Pie [2/3]

[imasupermuteant]

Title: There Will Be Pie [2/3]
Fandom: DCU
Pairing: Booster/Bart
Rating/Warnings: Rated PG for an established, consenting relationship between an adult and a teenager.
Word Count: 999
Summary: The holiday season is a time for family. Even if you don't want it to be.

Aaaand I've already missed Thanksgiving and there's still one more chapter. What can I say? There was stuff.

Part One



Bart really didn't know how to feel about Thanksgiving. On the one hand, he could eat tons of food, enough that he felt full, for once. On the other hand...

There was no other hand. Thanksgiving was the awesomest. The only reason Bart was feeling even a little less-than-excited was that this would be the first Thanksgiving he spent without Max.

Last Thanksgiving had been pretty damn cool, they'd made pie and done this thing with mashed sweet potatoes and marshmallows on top. Bart had done all the cooking (with Max's instruction of course) and they'd spent the long, excruciating wait with meditation-practice and origami.

This year, Jay had hardly wanted to let Bart near the oven at all, the only reason he did was because of Bart's world-famous pouty eyes. That and because Bart promised to keep a fire extinguisher on hand.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his trust in Bart.

Still, Bart was trying to have the very best Thanksgiving he could. Which is why he had invited Booster, and why he was currently baking pumpkin pie the day before the big day itself. Pie, in Bart's epicurean opinion, always benefited from a day of rest.

He was very lucky that Jay had one of those fancy two-oven kitchens.

"How's it going Bart?" The previously mentioned over-protective mentor appeared, peering over Bart's shoulder as he started prepping the ovens.

"Good." Bart said, focusing, "I'm making pie. Like I said I would."

"I see." Jay noded, "And why are you baking six pies?"

Bart look up at him and rolled his eyes, "It's a Flash Thanksgiving."

"I see. And why two ovens? I would think we'd have room in the one."

"It's for the Impatience Pie."

"What?"

Embarrassment made Bart want to vibrate through the floor. He shuffled his feet a little instead.

"Well... I get really impatient right? So I make an extra pie and I put it in a second oven, here." He gestured to the oven on the left, "And when I get really, really impatient, I open this oven and I leave the other one alone. So when the timer goes off, I get to squish my hands in the Impatience Pie and play with it and maybe eat a little bit of it right away, if it isn't too ruined, and the other pies are safe for Thanksgiving."

"That's... An interesting idea, Bart." Bart never knew whether 'interesting' was supposed to be good or 'stupid and immature'.

"Yeah, well, Max didn't have two ovens so last year we made the Impatience Pie at the Tower and I kept having to run over there."

There was the same awkward pause that Bart got form nearly everyone when he mentioned his (most likely) dead mentor. He occasionally felt the urge to mention that talking about Max was a necessary part of his grieving process, but he didn't. Most people weren't all that interested in what Bart had read in books.

... Well, except for Booster. It was one of the reasons Bart liked him so much.

Speaking of Booster, "Mike is going to be here at six, if you were planning dinner or anything like that." He vibrated his foot against the linoleum and slid the Impatience Pie into place. The real oven hadn't finished preheating yet.

"What? Who?"

"Michael. Booster." Jay hadn't forgotten had he?

"He isn't... I didn't know he would be spending the night?" There was the Awkward Old Person Face again. Bart sighed.

"He lives in Chicago, Jay." Bart rolled his eyes, "I'm not going to make him fly in on Thanksgiving and Joan said I wasn't allowed to do Flash-stuff during holidays so I can't pick him up."

Jay seemed torn between keeping up a Joined Parental Front (as all the books that Bart has also read had told him to) and the horror of having Booster Gold as an overnight guest.

"Can't he just Time--"

"No."

Jay looked pained, "Alright, but he can't stay in your room."

"Fine. I thought you liked him."

"I like him just fine." Jay said, "He's a nice boy... Man."

The timer dinged and Bart moved at speed to put the pies into the oven. He returned to the conversation with a pair of puffy flash-themed oven mitts over both hands.

"I don't understand what everyone's problem is!" He told Jay with frustration, "It's not like we're getting married! We don't even have gay marriage in the future!"

"You don't?"

"Well we don't have straight marriage either... or straight people. Everyone just does their thing and you file your taxes jointly if you want to. This isn't hard."

Bart checked on the Impatience Pie in disgust.

"Ahhh..."

"I mean," Bart said, staring at the ovens with a scowl, "Nobody is freaking out about Robin and his girlfriend dating and he could impregnate her at any minute!"

Jay blinked.

"Contraceptives in this century are notoriously unpredictable." Bart reminded him, "I'm not impregnating anyone. I'm not even sleeping with more than one person!"

"Bart."

"What?!" Bart zipped over to the Impatience Pie and back, slamming the oven door in between.

Jay took a deep breath, "I realize that your culture has taught you different... Values than we're used to in this time. Joan and I are trying our hardest, you know, and--"

"I guess."

"And we do like Bo-- Michael. But we just aren't used to seeing a man his age with a boy your age. You'll have to bear with us."

"Like always." Bart snorted.

"And in return." Jay said as patiently as he could, "You'll have to bear with our antiquated ideas about love and monogamy? Alright?"

"Sure."

"So while I am perfectly fine with your boyfriend staying the night, he'll have to stay on the couch downstairs. Is that okay?"

"Yeah." Bart said, "I guess."

Jay nodded, "So do you need help with any of this?"

"We could make chocolate sauce."

"I like chocolate sauce."

"Who doesn't like chocolate sauce?!"

Bart loved Thanksgiving.