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“You’ve gotten all poetic since you fell in love,” Seong told him wiggling his fingers at him. “Are you sure it’s not contagious?”
“Fuck you, Snake,” he said, rolling his eyes and walking over to his car. “I’ll see you tonight. Get some sleep.”
Seong smirked as Felinus climbed into the little sports car but it faded as he drove away. It didn’t escape him that he and Felinus had both mentioned paths when referring to Thomas. He wondered if it was possible to have an honest relationship with Thomas while he assisted in the torture and extermination of evil men who made the world worse.
I don’t know, he thought, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the crushed card Ray had given him. But he was willing to try.
* * *
Danny stared at the window as Sean drove. “Please say something,” he muttered as they neared the house.
Sean took a deep breath through his nose and out through his mouth. “You’re grounded,” he said in a far-too-calm voice.
“Okay,” Danny agreed, scrunching down in the passenger seat. He wanted to ask how long, but Sean being calm was scarier than Sean yelling at him.
“Do you realize how dangerous what the five of you did was? How badly this could have all turned out?”
Danny swallowed hard, feeling sick as he remembered Thomas’s voice over the phone. That shaky, pleading voice turning cold and— and like Sean sounded right now. He couldn’t quite shake Thomas’s question to Andy about dead bodies, talking about the weight of them.
“Dann- Fuck me!” The van pulled over and Danny bailed out, just making it to the trash can before he threw up. He wasn’t even sure what he was throwing up anymore as his stomach clenched and his throat burned.
A hand rubbed at his back as he heaved into the public trash can again. “That’s it, buddy,” Sean said soothingly. “Just get it all up. The sooner you do, the sooner you’ll feel better.”
“I don’t feel like I’m going to feel better,” Danny choked, gripping the edge of the trash can.
“Eh, you remember this the first time you go to a college party and someone offers you a beer,” Sean told him, still rubbing at his back. “Hangovers are never worth the over drinking, little brother.”
Danny looked up at him, his eyes trailing to the Clover on Sean’s neck then back up to his face. “S-Sean?”
He raised an eyebrow at him.
Danny swallowed, wondering how to word the questions he had. “Thomas… Is Thomas going to be okay?”
The hand on his back stilled and something flickered in Sean’s face, the same hard expression that appeared in Fergus’s face the other day. Unlike Fergus, though, it didn’t twist into a smile. Sean didn’t smile as he looked away. “Thomas… is a lot tougher than people give him credit for,” he said, his voice quiet. “He’s had to be and it isn’t fair that he’s had to be.” He looked at Danny, squeezing Danny’s shoulder. “That’s why he needs you, Kevin, and Mark to look out for him. He needs people who want to be his friend. He needs a taste of normal life so maybe, just maybe, he won’t get a clover on his neck.”
Danny frowned, glancing at the tattoo. “Do… Do you not want yours?” he asked uncertainly. He realized he never actually asked Sean about why he joined the Clovers.
Sean laughed, squeezing his shoulder tighter. “I have always wanted mine, Danny,” he said, suddenly grinning. “There was never a time I didn’t want it. I got mine knowing all the options I had. But some people aren’t so lucky. They join just so they can have people looking out for them.” He pulled Danny back, turning him around to face Sean with both hands on Danny’s shoulders. “That’s why you, Kevin, Mark, and Thomas need to look out for one another.” His expression was serious again but not as scary as it was. “You four need to look out for each other. Keep each other safe. Make sure you aren’t falling into bad crowds. Got me?”
Danny swallowed again, thinking of the man dressed in black that had come in with Thomas. He remembered how Snake had talked about them, about knowing details of their lives that a stranger shouldn’t know— How him knowing that information felt like a threat. If there was a bad crowd, that man was certainly in it. He nodded. “I got you.”
“Good,” Sean said, pushing him back to the car. “You’re still grounded until at least Christmas.”
Daddy December vs Santa Claws
Thomas frowned as he looked around O’Hare’s studio. He hardly recognized it even though he had been there only two weeks earlier.
O’Hare was well known for his annual Christmas Eve party. Thomas had been told that he spared no expense for it. The idea was to give those who didn’t have a traditional family a place to be and feel welcomed. Though Thomas’s situation was hardly “traditional” being raised by his lesbian aunts after his dad did them the decency of ending the unending cycle of jail and drugs, they had never come to O’Hare’s parties before. Jake and Finnegan had made it clear that Thomas wasn’t to bother O’Hare with his existence more than he had already and he and his aunts had their own tradition.
This year, his aunts had been the ones to mention going to the party. Thomas wasn’t sure how they had been convinced, but as he watched them across the room talking to Sean and Marcus, he had an idea. The two men were younger than his aunts by a bit, but they were in similar situation. All four of them were raising kids that they didn’t bring into this world and were trying their hardest to make sure they didn’t lose them.
“Earth to Thomas,” Kevin said, poking his arm.
Thomas blinked and looked around. “Sorry, Kev.” He shook his head. “I zoned out again.”
“Zoned out is an understatement,” Kevin said, smiling in his easy way. “You doing alright with—” he glanced around at the clumps of people and the constant Christmas music coming out of the sound system, “—this?”
Thomas smiled. After they left O’Hare’s, Kevin, Mark, and Danny had gotten grounded for the part they played in ending up in a club instead of being where they were supposed to be. Thomas’s aunts had admitted that they didn’t blame anyone except the people who actively tried to hurt Thomas for what happened, but their guardians seemed to disagree. Kevin and Mark had told him that it wasn’t the worst grounding they had ever gotten. Marcus had been pissed at them for not recognizing the danger they put themselves and Thomas in, which translated to him having both athletes run drills in the snow for hours before he was satisfied that they wouldn’t do anything so stupid again. But even with their groundings, they had been allowed their phones and computers for limited screen time. A nightly habit of video chats with the four of them had been born. One of those chats had Thomas revealing that too many people or too much sound was overwhelming and he got twitchy when he couldn’t step away. “The music isn’t great,” he admitted, feeling warmed by the fact that Kevin remembered the detail. “But it isn’t bad. It’s just,” he glanced around the room again, “a lot of things happening at once.”
