AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What the fuck,” Kevin started, his eyes widening as Ceri didn’t wait for an answer as she continued to roar at the head of the Clovers. “Who-”
“That would be Aunt Ceri,” Thomas said, wincing as the bit of Irish she still had became thicker to curse out the man.
“Did she just call him-” Danny started and Thomas glanced back to see baseball player’s eyes go wide in shock. “How is no one stopping her?”
“Hm… Jessi’s probably standing next to her,” Thomas said, thinking back to the one and only time his aunt truly lost her temper in front of Thomas. “She’d break anyone’s arm who tried to get near Ceri. She’s done it before. They’d be lucky if she stopped with one bone. She broke my dad’s entire left arm when he was still alive once for trying to touch us.”
“His entire- fuck, no wonder Sean and Marcus said they weren’t paid enough,” Mark said, going pale. “They sound terrifying.”
“I suppose so,” Thomas said thoughtfully. He knew his aunts were dangerous women in their own rights. Both had lived on rough streets growing up, Ceri in the Three Rings before it was the Three Rings and Jessi in inner city of New York. Both had joined the military, and whatever they ended up doing was stuff they wouldn’t or couldn’t tell Thomas about. Both were able to make made men nervous; even Jake had always been extremely careful around them. But for Thomas, it was hard to imagine being afraid of the women who made him oatmeal with apple butter for flavor and two different apples diced up at the very end so they didn’t get soft because he liked the flavor but not the texture of cooked apples, or cuddled him when he was upset and reminded him to breathe so he could talk; who would drop everything to run to his aid and kick down anyone who would dare to get in their way.
They listened for a while longer until Ceri’s yelling died down and Mark cleared his throat.
“So last night really kind of sucked right?” They all looked at him, his head turning to look at them in turn. “So… I was thinking with Thomas and Kevin starting their clean slate… What if we all agreed to that? We all agree to start fresh and do this whole friendship thing anew? How does that sound?”
Thomas smiled, not having to force it as much as before and he thought he heard someone take a deep breath in. “Sounds like a good plan to me.”
* * *
Seong watched as the mini vans and sensible family vehicle of the O’Malley’s pulled away from O’Hare legitimate business. “That worked out pretty well, didn’t it?”
“I’ve seen worse outcomes,” Felinus said, leaning on the wall next to him as he also watched the cars pull away. “Kids make things complicated but they all seem to have good heads and better role models. I don’t envy Marcus’s boy. Ceri may of done most of the yelling, but he looked ready to pop.”
“Hm, I noticed that,” Seong agreed, glancing at Felinus. “Have you and Issac talked about kids?”
Felinus snorted. “I have enough on my plate with you all getting into trouble and making sure he takes care of himself without adding a smaller human.”
“So that’s a ‘no’ to kids?”
Hazel eyes watched as the O’Malley’s car turned a corner then looked down at him. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “Before Issac, I never gave it much thought. The last five years haven’t given much time for personal relationships and considering I needed Zeno of all people to remind me that I have someone waiting for me now… Maybe kids aren’t as out of the question as they might have been before.” He glanced back towards the studio. “But not any time soon. There’s still too much to clean up. Still too many rats.”
Seong nodded slowly, tapping his fingers against his arm. When they had come out of O’Hare’s office, Thomas and the others had been talking amongst themselves. They had looked so… normal. Even in Seong’s black and bleached track suit, leather jacket and the fashion boots, Thomas had looked like any other young adult chatting with people his own age. Sharing interests. Making connections and friendships.
Felinus’s elbow pressed into Seong’s arm and he looked around at him, blinking.
“Sorry, boss, you say something?”
Felinus was studying him. Seong recognized the look. It was the concerned big brother look he usually reserved for Bat, Brutus, Lucio, and occasionally Tiger whenever the big guy said something traumatizing too casually. It was the look he had had the day Seong had met him, right before Felinus hugged him. “Last night allowed us to find the rat that had gone to ground,” he said instead of whatever he had been thinking. He tilted his head towards the street where the cars had disappeared. “They’ll be safe. We’ll take out the last rat before the end of the week and then I’ll turn down any more work until New Years.”
“What are we going to do with ourselves for three weeks of free time,” Seong chuckled. “I suppose you and Issac are going to do some ‘first Christmas’ activities? I demand pictures if you go on a sleigh ride.”
Felinus rolled his eyes at him. “We’ll be going to a couple of Christmas parties now that I don’t have excuses to get out of an evening with Little Volkov and O’Hare. Hopefully, you’ll all use the time to do… something.” His eyes flicked towards the road again then back at Seong. “You didn’t really say much to him before he left.”
“He was talking to his friends,” Seong shrugged, that aching hollowness in his chest returning even as he tried to bury it. “And I don’t think his aunts would be very pleased if I spent much time around him. They were polite and thankful to you, but you saw how they acted with O’Hare.”
“Don’t compare your relationship with Thomas to O’Hare’s relationship with the O’Malleys,” Felinus told him. “I don’t know anything but it’s pretty clear to me that Ceri O’Malley has some strong opinions about O’Hare’s illegitimate business dealings.”
“I am an illegitimate business dealing, Gatto,” Seong reminded him, smirking. It faltered when Felinus didn’t laugh or smile at the inside joke. Instead, the concerned big brother look came back with an added weight as Felinus looked back at him silently. “Thomas deserves to be around honest men, Felinus,” he said, desperate to break the silence growing ever wider. “He wants to be honest.”
“I know,” Felinus said softly.
“So as a made man, I should stay away.”
“As a made man, yes,” Felinus agreed. “But as the biggest fucking nerd I’ve ever had the amused and confused pleasure to witness interrogate a rubber duck because his code wasn’t working? How many people are going to be able to talk to him about computers the way you can? How many people will want to?”
Seong frowned at that, thinking of the boys Thomas had been with in the lobby. All three were big, athletic sorts that he was sure were perfectly kind young men from what he had dug up, but none likely to share in Thomas’s blossoming passion for coding. “So what are you suggesting?”
“Only for Seong to overlook the age gap and be the giant nerd he needed figuring out his own path,” Felinus said, smiling gently. “And let it develop naturally where it may.”
