15. ALWAYS & FOREVER
"What's up, Dad!"
"Hey, son!"
Lucious roughly pulled his middle son into a tight embrace. Though Lucious would never admit this aloud, he had missed Jamal deeply since he had upped and abandoned the family to start a new life in London with Kai and their new baby boy. Once he let his son go, he took in his appearance from his beaming, fresh face to the weightless aura he seemed to carry. Lucious squeezed his son's shoulder and smiled softly at him. No words were exchanged, and none needed to be to let the other know how much they were loved and missed. Jamal took a deep breath and gazed around the entrance of the mansion with furrowed eyebrows as he took in the new interior. It had gone from being quite an old traditional themed house to being brought alive by cheetah prints, vibrant patterns, and modern furniture.
"Where's the Klimt?" Jamal asked, noticing the empty space where the ugly piece of artwork used to hang.
"The damn woman got rid of it." Lucious snapped with a twitchy brow of sheer frustration. Jamal didn't need to ask to know that the 'damn woman' was Cookie Lyon. "Look around, mayne," Lucious, exasperatedly, gestured around the room. "She's changing everything."
"You could always say no." Jamal reminded, humorously.
His father stared at him like he'd grown a third head. "No?" he echoed with pure bafflement. "Your Mother doesn't understand the meaning of the damned word."
Wasn't that the truth.
Jamal chuckled. "Where is Ma?" he questioned, surprised that he hadn't been ambushed by a tight hug that led to a sharp, stinging slap to his cheeks.
"In her 'salon'." Lucious grumbled.
"Her salon?" Jamal repeated with confusion, as he arched an eyebrow for his Father to elaborate.
"She's turned one of the rooms in the guest house into a salon," Lucious explained, crossing his arms over his chest. "She's forbidden me from entering. It's a 'Lucious-free' zone, according to Cookie." Jamal grinned at his Mother's antics, although he was slightly offended that she hadn't told him about the salon. "She's in there straightening her wigs."
"Straightening her wigs?" Jamal felt like he'd stepped into some alternate universe. He comes back to New York to pay his parents a face to face visit after six months without seeing them, and nothing seems to be the same.
Lucious dug his phone out of his pocket and showed Cookie's Instagram Live to Jamal. "She's doing some little Podcast about how she's unwinding on her break from Bossy."
"Instagram Live, Dad."
Lucious shrugged. "Whatever."
"But she's taking breaks from work now? Is she sick?"
"Sick and tired of me, apparently," Lucious told his son with a grunt. "Go see her. Put in a good word for me, yeah?"
"You want me to put in a good word about you to your own wife?" Jamal clarified, incredulously.
"Damn, son, how many times you gon' repeat sentences today?" Lucious retorted back. "That damn English weather making yo' ass slow." Lucious insulted before he turned on his heels and trudged back into the kitchen to make himself another unhealthy snack.
In the salon, Cookie hummed away as she straightened a sleek bob she hadn't worn in some time. Since getting back with Lucious last year and essentially moving back into the mansion, the man had been all up under her. She stepped into the shower; he was right behind her asking to join her. She made herself something to eat, and he was right there sat at the island wanting to share with his fat ass. Damn, Cookie breathed, and he was there asking if they could breathe together. The salon was her refuge from Lucious, and she was gonna spend as much time as possible in there before he smothered her with all his love and affection.
