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banannabethchase · 2 years ago

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Take a Chance on Me Chapter 6: Does Your Mother Know? - also on AO3

Mox and Wheeler have a conversation they've half-had for 22 years, and Wheeler finds something out about two people he loves. Reluctantly.

I write this with the perspective of someone who has, in not so recent history, been 22 and stupid.

Eyes bleary with exhaustion, Wheeler shakes his head a little, trying to process everything he’d heard. He kicks his feet up on the table, covered in cans of soda and paper plates. “Dad,” he says, a little dazed, “holy shit, you had a really busy week.”

Mox laughs. “Yeah, kid, I know. Not as busy as, like, nine months later. But busy.”

“I just,” Wheeler shakes his head. “How the fuck did all of that happen?” He shakes his head. “Also, Jesus, ever heard of a condom?”

Mox blinks. “Wheels. I have said this a hundred times. I was 22 and stupid.”

Wheeler accepts that. “But, like. You must have known to track…things.” Wheeler doesn’t know much about periods, never having had one himself, but his friends from high school told him more than he expected and he knows there’s patterns to this stuff.

Mox shrugs. “Bud, I was 22 and trans. I only managed to get my name change organized with the help of my job. You really think I had the sense to track ovulation cycles?”

“A calendar app?”

Mox laughs, throwing his head back. “We didn’t have apps back then, kid. Jesus, you gen Z kids don’t know a world without technology.”

Wheeler opens his mouth to answer, and very suddenly realizes how right his dad is. He isn’t going to argue with him. He’s right. “That makes sense.” The next question he’s asked a few times, especially in the photos of Mox when he was pregnant with Wheeler. “You were okay with it?”

“Of course I was okay with it.” Mox’s clear blue eyes are serious. “It was my decision, and I got you out of it all. That’s all that matters. There were some weird moments, yeah, but.” He yawns. “I support you, fully, in finding out who it is. But, for me, it didn’t matter. As a kid, you asked, but you didn’t…” He pauses. “Well, I would say we could find him, and you’d say you didn’t care.”

“I didn’t,” Wheeler says, catching the yawn from Mox. “Not really. Not until Claudio proposed. And then I figured, maybe at the wedding.” He shrugs. “It could be fun to have him walk me down the aisle.”

“I get that,” Mox says, and he reaches over and squeezes Wheeler’s hand.

There’s a little shuffling from the guest room. “You guys still up?” Seth asks. He looks far too chipper for five thirty in the morning, hair tied up in a stylishly messy bun like he meant to do it that way. “Boys, go to sleep.”

“I was busy learning about all the bad decisions my father made in his early twenties,” Wheeler replies.

“Aw, potato,” Seth says, leaning over to kiss the top of Wheeler’s head. “All those bad decisions led to you.”

Wheeler leans into him, the familiar scent of his shampoo surrounding him like a home.

Seth makes himself comfortable on the couch next to Mox, who looks not entirely pleased to see Seth next to him. “He tell you about how he seduced Chuck by insulting him?”

Wheeler rolls his eyes. “Yes.”

Seth wrinkles his nose. “He tell you about where they banged?”

“Against your car, yes,” Wheeler says.

Mox laughs. “You’re still mad about it?”

“Yes!” Seth says. “That was the first car I ever owned and you got,” he wrinkles his nose, “sweat everywhere.”

“Okay, seriously?” Wheeler says, and he’s beginning to regret all of this. “Dad, you were so much more,” he pauses, trying to find the words, “succinct in your LiveJournal posts.”

“Using words like succinct is why I worry you’re Regal’s kid,” Mox says, staring at him.

Wheeler rolls his eyes. “That’s more a product of, you know, going to college.”

“Whatever,” Mox says. “You’re smart enough to know what succinct means and figure out the internet to get my old LiveJournal posts. You’re a genius, we know.”

Wheeler shrugs. “I mean, your words not mine.” There’s a strange silence that settles, like Seth and Mox know exactly what he’s about to ask next and they’re trying to find a way to avoid it. “Okay, so, which one, if you absolutely had to guess, is my dad?”

“I – kid, I just told you about how,” he pauses, “how do I put this appropriately yet firmly to my child?”

“Slutty you were that week?” Seth suggests, halfway through his green smoothie.

“You shut it,” Mox says. “But, yeah. How slutty I was. I really have no clue.”

Wheeler nods. “Yeah, I get it. Hey, is this why you were always on me so much about safe sex as a teenager? Because you were a slut?”

“Okay, now, I don’t like my kid calling me a slut,” Mox says, frowning.

“Fine, sexually untethered,” Wheeler says with an eye roll. “Stop beating around the bush.”

Seth snorts.

“Would you please leave?” Mox groans, dropping his head in his hands. Seth shoots a grin over his head at Wheeler.

“Later, sweet potato.” He blows a kiss to Wheeler.

“Prick’s probably going to go for a run on the beach and then do yoga while he drinks coconut water or something,” Mox grumbles.

“Dad, focus,” Wheeler says. Now that he’s asked it, he can’t stop asking. “Are you – you don’t even have an inkling?”

“Nada,” Mox says. “I promise, if I knew who your other dad was, I’d’ve told you years ago.” He reaches his arms out and Wheeler curls up next to him on the couch, leaning on his Dad’s arm like a pillow, just like he’d done since he was a baby. “I didn’t keep it from you because I was ashamed, or annoyed, or wanted you not to have another dad. I just…” He sighs, pausing. Wheeler can see the tension, the concern, in the lines of his father’s face. “I didn’t end any of those, uh, connections on a romantic or relationship note, I guess. And telling them I had you…” He trails off. “Honestly, I didn’t want to share you. You were the first unexpected good thing in my life that I could keep safe, keep my own.” He turns to Wheeler with a sad kind of smile on his lips. “It was selfish, but I wasn’t willing to let anybody claim to be the reason you were as amazing as you are.”

He sits with it for a moment, letting the memories play across his vision. First days of school, field trips, wrestling matches. His first day of college. His dad was always there, often accompanied by one of his many uncles, with a smile and unlimited love.

Wheeler wipes away some rogue tears before they fall down his cheeks, and hugs his dad close. “I never needed anybody else but you, Dad,” he says quietly. “But, sometimes,” he forces the words out, “sometimes, I wanted the other one.”

“I know.” Mox’s voice is choked. His dad’s crying. He never cries. “I was selfish. And that hurt you.”

“You didn’t know,” Wheeler says. “And I didn’t either, really, not until I got engaged.” He lifts his head. “You know I’m not mad at you, right?”

Mox wipes another tear, coughs gruffly. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I am.” And Wheeler means it. “You had hard decisions to make. And I –” Wheeler has to take a deep breath to steady himself. “I wouldn’t be who I am without all the work you put in to make me who I am.”

“Oh, potato,” Mox says, face crumpling. “All your accomplishments are yours. I just helped push you to where you needed to be.”

They sit like that, holding each other, until Wheeler’s tears have dried and exhaustion has won its battle against his questions. He fails at fighting back a yawn.

“You should go back to Claudio,” Mox mumbles into Wheeler’s hair. “Get some sleep. You’re getting married on Sunday.”

“Tomorrow,” Wheeler clarifies. “I’m getting married tomorrow.”

Mox sits up. “Shit. Go sleep some, Wheels. I’ll see you later today.” He presses a kiss to Wheeler’s forehead. “Love you.”

“Love you too, Dad.”

Seth is reorganizing the kitchen cabinets as Wheeler passes through. “You heading out?”

Wheeler nods. “I,” he interrupts himself with a yawn, “I gotta get some sleep.”

Seth leans over and kisses his forehead as he walks by. “Enjoy your weekend, Wheels,” Seth says. “Seriously. Make this about you and Claudio. Don’t let anything else interrupt.”

Wheeler nods. “Of course.”

He’s too close to half asleep as he drives himself back to the hotel. He yawns as he stumbles his way toward his hotel room, and nearly crashes into somebody as he steps into the hallway to the stretch of rooms for their wedding party.

“Watch where – Potato!”

“Uncle Eddie!”

Eddie yanks him in for a rough hug, giving him a noogie. “Kiddo! Missed you last night!”

“I was with Dad,” Wheeler says, wiggling out of Eddie’s grip.

Eddie grabs him by the cheeks, turns his face. “You look great, kid. Tired as fuck, though. Why you still up?”

“I uh,” he breaks eye contact, “I may have invited the three guys who might be my other dad to the wedding.”

Eddie blinks. “Oh, you’re a fucking idiot.”

“I know,” Wheeler says. “Why, uh. Why are you up?”

For the first time in Wheeler’s life, he sees Eddie blush. He looks…caught. “Oh, you don’t wanna know.” He laughs, a little awkward. He pulls off his hat and starts scrubbing his hand on his head.

Wheeler stares. “Did…what did you do?”

“Nothing. Go to bed, Tater, go make out with your European mountain range.”

“His name is Claudio.”

“His entire identity is being European,” Eddie says, rolling his eyes. “I’m just matching his vibe or whatever.” He presses a rough kiss to the side of Wheeler’s head. “I gotta go to bed.”

Wheeler quirks an eyebrow. “So you weren’t coming from your bedroom.”

“Shut up! Love you! Leave me alone!”

Wheeler laughs and yawns, stumbling his way to his hotel room where Claudio is already awake and showered. “There you are!” he says, lighting up. “Missed you last night. Could barely sleep.”

Wheeler presses a kiss to his cheek as he dizzily sits down on the bed, toeing off his shoes. “Dad and I spent the night talking,” he explains. “I know…so many things now.”

“Like who your other dad is?”

“Oh, no,” Wheeler says. He slides under the covers, yawning. “Found out my dad was kind of a slut before I was born, though. That was enlightening.”

Claudio blinks. “I’ll ask you more about that when you don’t look like you’re about to pass out.” He kisses Wheeler gently. “Go to sleep, Schatzi.”

And Wheeler does.

He wakes up, not long enough later, to somebody smacking him with…well, a pillow is his only guess. That or a Squishmallow.

“Wake up, Wheely!”

“Danny,” Wheeler groans. “Fucking leave me alone.”

“Get up, bitch, we have ho shit to do.” The blankets are ripped away, and Wheeler is now annoyed and cold.

He sits up, a little dizzy. “You fucking suck.”

“Yeah, I do.” He winks. “Let’s go hang by the beach.”

“I’m tired!”

Danny shrugs. “And? I don’t give a fuck. Go get your bathing suit and let’s go chill.”

“How did you even get in here?” Wheeler looks around.

“Claudio gave me the key.” Danny grabs his arm, half yanking him out of the bed. “Come on, you douche, we have bachelor shit to do.”

And, unfortunately, Wheeler follows.

They make their way down to the hotel’s private beach. It’s beautiful out, sun beating down on them as they spread out their beach chairs and the umbrella. Wheeler thinks he may be able to fall back asleep.

The umbrella casts a comforting shadow, soothing and gentle, and he’s almost asleep when Danny speaks.

“So,” Danny says, “I gotta tell you something.”

Wheeler turns to him, one eye open. “Oh, I hate that tone.”

Danny’s grin is horrifying. “Guess what I did last night.”

“I don’t want to know.” Something starts to dawn on him, but he’s not sure what.

“I’ll give you a hint,” Danny says, stretching out. “I got railed last night so good I can barely walk today.”

Wheeler winces. “Nobody I’m related to?” Nobody, he desperately thinks, he ran into in the hallway that morning.

“Well,” Danny says. “Technically, you’re not related to him.”

“Oh, no,” Wheeler groans. He turns slowly, reluctantly, to Danny. “Danny, please tell me you didn’t fuck my dad’s best friend.”

Danny shrugs, grinning lips almost as red as the hickies across his chest and neck. It’s all Wheeler needs as confirmation. “Alright, bet. I won’t tell you.”

Wheeler grabs the leg of his beach chair and flips it over. “Did you fuck Eddie?”

“You told me not to tell you,” Danny says, and it’s unfair that he’s the one laughing while he’s face down in the sand.

“Oh, god, you met him when we were, like, just out of high school!” Wheeler groans. He drops his head back onto the chair, and half hopes the sun burns him alive. “That’s so gross!”

“What can I say?” Danny says, shoving himself back to sitting and fixing his chair. Wheeler gets a little vindication at the way the sand sticks to all the places he’s got sunscreen. “I like an older man.”

“Jesus,” Wheeler says, feeling a little weak. “Why is everybody in my life a slut?”

“And proud of it,” Danny says.

“Don’t look so smug about sleeping with my uncle, please,” Wheeler whines.

Danny looks at him, slides on his sunglasses. “Deal with it, bitch. You’ll be calling me Uncle Danny once I get him to propose.”

Wheeler laughs. “Eddie’ll never get married.”

“That’s a challenge I’m willing to take on.”

Wheeler chucks the sunscreen at Danny. “No! Bad!”

They start hitting each other with towels until Wheeler shoves Danny into the ocean and only halfway holds his head under the water. It goes back and forth, with probably too much saltwater ending up in his lungs, but it reminds him of college.

He’s got one leg on the back of Danny’s neck, holding him under, when he hears it.

“Wheeler, who’re you drowning over there?”

Wheeler jumps at Eddie’s voice just enough to slip, letting Danny to the surface, spluttering. “You fucking douchebag, the leg isn’t –” He cuts himself off once he sees Eddie make his way down the beach, and turns bright pink. Wheeler gives him a little credit for how he tries to cover it with a smile.

“Hey, Uncle Eddie,” he says, and he makes it sound annoyingly dirty. “How you doing?”

Wheeler dives under the water for a brief respite from whatever Danny and Eddie are doing, but he can only hold his breath for so long. When he comes up for air, Danny’s running along the beach after Eddie.

“Come on, be my date to the wedding!”

“You’re, like, eighteen.”

“I’m twenty-two!”

“You know how fuckin’ stupid people are at 22, kid?” Eddie says.

Wheeler gets out of the ocean. “Dad had me at 22.”

“Yeah, it was the only smart thing he did that year, Potato Head,” Eddie retorts. “Go back underwater, I don’t want you to hear this.”

“Danny told me everything. Too late.”

Eddie groans, looking toward the sky as if God might grant him a mercy killing right then and there. “Jesus, kid, what part of ‘keep this between us’ didn’t get through your head?”

Danny blinks innocently, and Wheeler’s seen him use that strategy on too many guys to count over the years. “Sorry, Eddie. I think you just fucked the sense out of me.”

“That implies you had any sense to begin with,” Wheeler says.

Eddie stares at him, the one he’d always get when he got too close to the weights as a toddler or started climbing the ring posts when he got a little bit older. The one warning him that, if he kept going, whatever happened was his own fault. “You be careful, Tater.”

“I was insulting Danny, not you.”

Eddie shrugs. “Shit. You’re right.” He looks back at Danny. “Listen to Wheeler, kid, he’s the one with the reason between the two of you.”

“Oh, wait, no,” Danny says, looking between the two of them. “You don’t both get to insult me.”

“You fucked my uncle,” Wheeler deadpans, “on my wedding weekend. I get to do whatever the hell I want.”

Eddie laughs at that one, the kind of belly laugh Wheeler has millions of mental screenshots of from his childhood. “He’s right, baby, you don’t get to tell him anything.”

Danny turns on this big eyed pout. “You called me baby?”

“Aw, fuck,” Eddie says. “Don’t fall in love with me, kid. You’ll regret it.”

Fun fact: The Eddie/Danny of it all is what convinced me to write this fic instead of leaving it in my chaos brain pocket. Here, have a link to the scene in the movie inspiring the Eddie/Danny. It's good. It's really good.

#Mamma Mia AU #This is one of my favorite chapters #Danny Garcia is a fucking menace and I love him #wtf i like wrestling now???#in which Sara writes #AU hell #Also for the sake of clarity #My 22 and stupid was applying to grad school while actively in a chronic mental health crisis #And having flashbacks mid lesson #So my 22 and stupid was absolutely 0% fun for me #Why am I explaining this everyone can go back to my blog in 2014 and see just how stupid I was at 22

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