This Is How You Do It

[BoJamesDuke]

Lavinia watched with a smile as Luke hugged Bo close, seeing that Bo felt better about the situation now Luke was talking to him and hugging him. Course, Bo didn't say so...he didn't really say anything else, but just looked at Luke's mouth as he spoke with wide blue eyes before putting his little hand over it. He could clearly see something was different.

"All gone Bo...look...* Lavinia said gently, pointing to the gap in Luke's teeth now. "Gone..."

Bo looked between Lavinia and where she was pointing, not understanding exactly what was gone but understanding that there was supposed to be something in the gap. Waving his arms, he bounced up and down a little bit in Luke's hug.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke merely hugged Bo a little more, under pretense that he was offering comfort to the baby. In truth, though, he was seeking comfort himself, still more shaken than he wanted to admit, especially with his aunt talking about how he was becoming a big boy. "All gone Bo..but it's ok..." he assured, more for himself than for Bo's benefit. "S'ok..."

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo babbled after Luke spoke, as if giving him the reassurance that Luke was seeking. After looking at Luke's mouth a little bit more and pulling several questioning, and rather funny faces, he decided he didn't like the atmosphere anymore between them all and promptly moved his hand from exploring Luke's mouth to bopping him on the nose with a baby laugh.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke gave him a playful frown, though the baby slap didn't really hurt. "Hey...Dat ain't nice Bo," he said, rubbing his nose, before returning the gesture with a tickle to Bo's side.

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo shrieked happily as Luke tickled him, wriggling as he laughed, waving his arms and legs up and down happily while Lavinia looked on with a smile before hurrying out to tell Jesse the good news about Bo's first word.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

"I love ya Bo," said Luke softly, gently kissing his cousin's blond curls, unable to stop from smiling.

****end flashback****

"Ya sure was cute back then," reminisced Luke softly, before looking to Bo questioningly. "What happened?"

[BoJamesDuke]

"Yeah yeah yeah I knew that was comin'. Yer just jealous cause you just ain't agin gracefully."

Bo retorted with a smirk, shaking his head.

"Shoulda known my first word woulda been somethin t'do with you....Auntie an Uncle Jesse always did say we was joined at the hip...in fact Uncle Jesse still says we are..."

[DaisyMaeDuke]

"Yeah," agreed Luke. "S'cuz ya always followed right behind me.. I don't know how many times I dang near tripped over ya. Course, now I trip over yer big clown feet, but still, same difference..." replied Luke with a smirk. It had been a while since they had bantered; he had some catching up to do.

[BoJamesDuke]

"Well you see I followed ya cause yer big ego always guarenteed to give me a safe landin if I fell over! It's like a big ol' trampoline. I never understood why you was so afraid of heights, yer ego would just bounce ya straight back up again, no harm done!"

Bo retorted back as he flicked through the photo album some more.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

"I ain't the one scared of heights Bo, you are," he retorted. "Bigger ya are the harder ya fall I recon...which might explain what is...or isn't under that haystack of yers," he added with a gentle rap to Bo's head making a hallow sound with his tongue and cheek as he did so.

[BoJamesDuke]

"You ain't scared of heights now but ya were till that GIRL threw ya out the classroom window!"

Bo said back with a laugh, knowing Luke tried to avoid that subject as much as possible.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

"Did I ever tell ya bout the time I taught ya t' walk?" asked Luke, quickly changing the subject, as he always did when this particular subject came up. Before giving Bo time to object, he took the photo album from him and pointed to a picture of the curly-haired blond, holding tight to the fingers of his six-year-old cousin, and looking towards the camera happily.

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo chuckled, taking the book and looking at the picture again.

"Did Auntie and Uncle Jesse get to teach me anything when I was a kid or did you do it all?" He asked jokingly.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke smiled, although his mouth hid a secret he had never shared with anyone. "Well...actually...I used t' get real upset... if I couldn't be the one teachin' ya," he admitted, his face flushing a little.

When he had first come to live with his aunt and uncle Luke had been a broken-heard little boy, having rapidly built up walls to keep all of his feelings pent up inside. That quickly changed when Bo came on the scene. Suddenly, he had someone, however small, that knew and understood exactly what Luke was going through. The older boy reasoned that, likewise, he understood Bo better than anyone and selfishly assumed that he could teach him better than anyone else... and for the most part, as was usually the case with Luke, he was right.

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo looked to him with a small smile, even after so many years he was not used to that kind of sentimental revelation from Luke. Looking back to the picture, he nodded a little as he thought on that. For as long as he could remember Luke had been showing him how things were done.

"S'nice..."

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke coughed uneasily, a habit of his when anything became to uncomfortable. "Yeah, well...I always did like things done my way," he made excuse, looking at the various pictures, never realizing before how in almost every picture of Bo, Luke was at his side.

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo nodded a little, smiling to himself. He knew the kind of thing Luke would want to say or be thinking at that moment, he didn't need it to be said. Looking at a couple more pictures he smiled more at the thought that, just like the pictures, near all the memories of life he had included Luke. Over the years they'd been through lots together,taught each other things....yes even Bo had taught Luke a thing or two.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke looked at him, seeing a look of reminiscence on Bo's face. "Whatcha thinkin' about?" he asked knowing that whatever it was, it must be a hum-dinger to get Bo to fall so quiet so quickly.

[BoJamesDuke]

"Just bout how much we've done together..." Bo replied with a slight shrug. "How much we've learnt from each other and things. Uncle Jesse and Auntie taught us a lot about life an stuff like that....but I think some of the most important things we probably learnt off of each other....at least I know I learnt them from you..."

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke nodded. "It works both ways...seems I learned a thing or two from you too...how NOT to pick up a woman for example," he added with a smirk, unable to resist the jab.

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo smirked back, shaking his head.

"Oh ha ha ha. If yer supposed to have learnt that lesson from me, how come you can't pick any up?" He retorted back before looking back at the photos again.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

"I can...I just don't wanna take em all away from you...you always'd cry when I took somethin from ya...." With that he pointed to a picture of Bo sitting in the middle of the floor, wailing. "See what I mean?"

[BoJamesDuke]

"Yeah yeah, excuses excuses Lukas Dukas. Truth is you just lost what little touch you had with em as you got older really ain't it. Its alright you can admit it to me..." Bo replied with a tone of mock sympathy and care, patting Luke's shoulder consolingly.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke looked to him with a smirk. "Cute...hey lookee here..."

He pointed to a picture of Bo, Luke and Daisy, sitting on the loft floor. "Think that's about when we taught her to swing from the rope."

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo looked to where he was pointing, not bothering to say the 'I know I am' line. It never went anywhere after that anyway. Smiling a little he nodded, taking out the picture and looking at the date on the back.

"Yeah must've been....heck I weren't that old and I could do it...didn't make any sense she couldn't..."