greatamazingfeelingsboy

Caleb doesn't need to be an empath to know that Alex and Michael could use some 'couple time,' which is what he's calling it in his head so he doesn't accidentally stray too close to 'thinking about my big-brother figure having sex' territory. So on one Saturday while he's hanging out, he decides to bundle up Luke and Bopp and bring them out for the day. The whole day. So Alex and Michael can have the whole day.

He starts out with a late breakfast out, with Bopp tied to a bike stand outside of the cafe so they can eat in peace. Later, it'll be the arcade, maybe the park or the natural history museum, some lunch, the aquarium... Whatever they decide to do doesn't really matter to Caleb, as long as Luke is having fun.

Because the kid needs it.

He's been dealing with the fallout of Michael's abduction just as much as any of them, and Caleb hasn't really had the chance to help him with that. Maybe this will do the trick. Just get him out of the apartment, away from school, and let him focus on being a kid and having fun.

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It's hard to explain where that comes from, because he just does. "Um...you know, cause I'm not as big as you and stuff," he says because he isn't sure what to say. That is part of it; he's always been the littlest except for also Nell and they both got told to have Theo and Steve and Shirley do things a lot, and in the Home he was one of the littlest too. He wasn't supposed to do things.

"And...I don't know." He scuffs his toe against the ground. "Sometimes I just feel like that. Like no matter what, something's gonna go wrong and I can't stop it." If he can get something, even a little thing exactly perfect, usually the feeling goes away. But Bopp's pretty important to maybe mess up with. And right now it's been a little more than usual, since there's a lot he can't do anything to stop.

Caleb nods, because he gets it, he thinks. But he smiles small.

"Well, Bopp and I super trust you," he says honestly. "And, you know how she's getting trained, right, to help Alex and Michael out, with Alex's leg and all?"

Never mind his PTSD, which is probably the main reason, but Caleb doesn't say that. Luke doesn't need yet another thing to worry about.

"Well, she's got this special word that makes sure she doesn't move, no matter what, and she's really, really good at listening to it. So, if you remember that word, you never have to worry about her, even if you accidentally drop the leash. But you totally won't drop it. Like I said, we trust you. Wanna know the word?"

Luke smiles a little at that and nods about Bopp being trained to help Alex and Michael. She's gonna be an extra special dog, though he thinks she's special already. Or maybe that's why she gets to be a support dog.

He thinks he might know it already, but just to be sure, and to remind himself that he can easily make her stop if he needs to. Luke nods. "Yeah."

"It's 'Plotz,'" he says, and Bopp drops into a lie-down immediately, looking up at Caleb with almost mournful eyes — as if to say 'why?? I want to walk!' "It's kind of a funny word, right? But it's really important, because it doesn't sound like words we usually say, so she pays really close attention to them."

He reaches into a pocket and finds a stray crumb of bacon, the size of his thumbnail, and offers it to Bopp so she knows she did good.

It isn't the word Luke thought he knew, and he laughs, because it is a silly word.

"Plotz," he repeats, so he remembers it, and Bopp looks up at him with a little furrow in her brow as if to say I'm plotzing already, kid.

"Good girl," he says, a little apologetically. "How do you make her stop?" he asks, more curious than worried, now.

Edited 2020-03-20 23:08 (UTC)

"This one's even funnier," Caleb assures. "Fuss," he says, and it sounds like 'foos.' Bopp scrambles to her feet with all her puppy energy and runs the few steps to Caleb's side, tail wagging now. "Good girl, Bopp!" he praises, for lack of a proper treat.

Luke laughs, partly at foos and partly at how quickly Bopp gets up.

"Wait," he says, "like foosball?" The place they'd lived before the House had had a foosball table in the basement and it's probably the only thing Luke remembers about it, he'd been too little to play but he'd spun the little players around and watched Theo and Steve slam them around.

"Hmm," he says. "I hadn't thought about that!" He doesn't know much about German words, and what he does know is strictly because of Bopp, but now he wants to look that up. At the very least, he'll learn where 'foosball' came from.

"Come on," he says. "I'll look it up after our awesome day, and I'll let you know."

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