entrancelogs | Closed

Who: The Shurleys: Michael, Luke (Lucifer), Caston (Castiel), Gale (Gadreel), and Daniel (Kevin).
Where: Michael and Luke's place.
When: Sunday afternoon/evening.
Rating: PG, to be updated as needed.
Summary: Every Sunday, the Shurley clan gathers at Michael's house for dinner.
The Story:

Sundays are family meal days. It's tradition, and not Hell nor high water nor Michael's increasing disappointment with his younger siblings' chosen lifestyles will prevent him from seeing it through. As much as they frustrate him sometimes (always), "out of sight, out of mind" doesn't apply to his brothers. It's when they're away from his watchful eyes that they make their worst decisions. It keeps him up at night. Weekly dinners with them are a good way for him to check up on them and make sure that they haven't done anything particularly foolhardy of late and that he won't be seeing them in court.

(Or, in Gale's case, seeing them in court again.)

As for what motivates the rest of the family to attend - well, Michael's certainly had to do his share of badgering to cement their Sunday meals as an obligation in their minds, but he also knows for a fact that they eat better when they're at his table than they ever do at their own. Luke's cooking skills put all of theirs to shame.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They take turns doing the dishes - to a degree. Michael doesn't trust anyone but himself to get them as clean as he likes, so he always handles the washing. Gale and Caston trade places doing the drying every week, though, and it's the latter's turn today.

Michael slides an armful of dinnerware into the already-filled kitchen sink, careful not to jostle and chip the plates. Before he slips on a pair of rubber gloves he snags the dish towel and holds it up for his brother. It isn't immediately removed from his grip and he glances over his shoulder, an impatient frown on his face. Hurry up. Whatever's left on the table can't be that heavy.

No, the dishes are not that heavy, but dinner's already been enough of a travesty and now Caston has to spend time one-on-one with Michael. It helps somewhat when it's the five of them at a table, because Michael has four different people to divide his attention between, and Caston can usually wriggle his way out of the more difficult questions.

Now, though, he'll be unable to do that, and while he'd made a decision this morning that he would put his foot down about his future ambitions, it's a little harder keeping to that when he's under Michael's scrutiny.

Caston enters the kitchen and dumps the rest of the dishes into the sink. There's a lot to get through -- they'll be here a while. He takes the dish towel and then positions himself to the side so that Michael can hand him each dish or piece of silverware after he's washed them.

Michael already appears annoyed with him. Then again, it seems like no matter what Caston does, it's not good enough.

Luke could testify that their eldest brother exists in a near-constant state of annoyance, but he does particularly dislike being kept waiting. At least Caston does as he expects him to when he arrives, relieving him of the towel and standing at attention.

He acknowledges his brother's presence with a terse hum, and turns to the dishes. Caston is left to clutch the dish towel and stand in awkward silence for a few moments while Michael attends to the dishes.

Eventually, he hands the other man a freshly-rinsed glass.

"So, Caston. How are things at work?"

The way he speaks the word work is strained, as though it pains him to call what his brother does to earn a living work. (It's not that far from the truth, in his mind. A convenience store? Shurleys were meant for greater things than retail.)

The silence is at least easier to bear than what follows it, and so Caston embraces it for the short time that it lasts. As soon as the glass is handed over, he grabs for it and works the cloth over and into it, intending to get every last droplet off.

Michael will judge even his dish-drying skills if he's not careful.

This question is the one he dreads every time that he comes over here, as Michael asks almost every week. As if the answer ever changes. That's the whole point, isn't it? He's trapped in a job that he doesn't like because he's not been allowed the chance to aim for something better. (Because Michael doesn't consider it better.)

"It's fine. I've been working a lot of closing shifts." There. Nice and easy, a simple fact and he'll leave it at that.

When all else fails, he would rather turn the subject onto Michael. It keeps the heat off of him for a little while. "And yourself?"

So, Daniel still really feels like he doesn't belong here. These are a bunch of grown men with whole lives that Daniel knows nothing about, has never really interacted with them in this familial way, and now suddenly he's the only Asian kid here eating some kind of gourmet food and answering (or dodging) questions about his life. If anything, it gives him something in common with Gale and Caston: a shared experience of supreme discomfort. They mean well, but it's weird to have people suddenly invested in his life. Before, he'd had his mom and Alex and his family; Gale's family feels so... there in comparison.

It seems like most everyone's been swept up in some kind of conversation or other, and so Daniel just goes about quietly eating. It wouldn't be hard to lean in and start talking to him.

Eventually, inevitably, Michael's attention settles on the relative newcomer at their table. He'd been on Gale's case for quite some time about his illegitimate son, urging him to bring him into the fold, but he'd half-expected nothing to ever come of it.

Very little of worth ever came from Gale, after all.

From what he can tell, though, he's at least managed to produce a clever son, one who's already outperforming his father. Michael wonders about Daniel's mother, and if the boy inherited his brains from her side of the family. Then again, she'd been willing to carry one of Gale Shurley's offspring to term, so she couldn't be that smart.

"Tell me, Daniel: what is it you're studying? I've only heard the basics."

Mostly he'd heard that Daniel was a good kid, and his brothers all but pleading with him to be nice to him. What kind of monster did they take him for?

This is, of course, the question that all adults ask teenagers. Daniel doesn't mind answering; he just doesn't have a very interesting answer yet. The one answer he does have, well. He's not sure he wants to tell Michael, even though logically speaking, it would be a good political move for him. And he has to start making good ones.

"Right now, I'm just making sure that I keep all my basic skills up. I'll probably retake the SAT and ACT once it gets closer." He considers going on, then decides to take the plunge.

"I want to go into politics." And he quickly takes a bite of food.

Luke was surprised and amused to hear Gale had apparently fathered a son. Being kept busy with work, he only saw the body at family gatherings, and occasionally when something took him over to Gale and Caston's place. He was an interesting young man, and it wasn't his fault his dad was a bit of a loser.

"How's school going?" Politician or not, Lucifer could not escape the awkward family conversation starters.

"Fine, sort of. I'm not in school yet." He doesn't blame Luke for not knowing or keeping that straight.

"I'm saving up, and studying in the meantime to keep up the habit, you know. Right now I'm working at Tavish's tailor shop." Daniel quickly looks over at Luke and sizes him up.

"If you ever need tailoring, you should let me know. I could get you a discount if you refer some friends."

He's a politician; he's bound to know people who need their suits tailored, and God knows Tavish needs help with marketing in positive ways, rather than just badmouthing his competitor.

It makes him smile, seeing his nephew work his connections for the sake of his boss' business. That was how things worked in the world- you did what you had to to get what you wanted.

"Yeah? Do you have a card or something? There's always someone complaining about needing their shirt mended or pressed. I'd be happy to pass them on."

Daniel does, actually, and he pulls out his wallet so he can get one. As he hands it over to his uncle, he can't help but feel a little dirty somehow. But it's more advertising than Tavish ever usually does.

"Here. I'm usually around, but if I'm not, tell Tavish that I sent you."

He'll have to work this out with Tavish, but he thinks he can get him on board.

The younger brothers and nephew had left, and the house returned to it's usual calm. While Michael keeps his brothers coming to dinner to keep them in line, Luke genuinely enjoys the company. While their father was alive he saw a lot less of them, after all.

Also, having everyone over for dinner means he doesn't need to do any dishes.

He sits himself on the couch, finding something vaguely interesting and historical on TV. "How was the roast?" he asks Michael.

Closed

Doing the dishes || for Caston (Castiel)

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ota! i assume he can have a few side conversations in the din :3

ofc!

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For Michael, after the party