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“Oh, we’re pretty sure he’s caught on,” Mark said, laughing as he unwrapped his own gift with far less care. “But it seems to be a sore spot for him. Or he knows exactly what we’re doing and he does it so people can have their fun with him. He’s a bit like the fun uncle that does all the ridiculous stuff your parents would never let you do or get away with.”
The fun uncle who runs one of the biggest underground organizations in the country and has signed off on the deaths of at least fifty people this year alone probably, Thomas thought but kept it to himself. The other three were being looked after by Clovers after all and while it was clear Sean and Marcus kept them out of official business they had to know a little bit of what was going on. He stiffened as he lifted the paper from the box, his jaw dropping.
“Thomas,” Danny asked, pausing his own unwrapping to look at him. “You good?”
“This is a laptop,” he choked, pulling the paper back and looked at the specs. “Fuck, I didn’t know CPUs came that high. The RAM on this is insane, I thought you had to put your own in to get that sort of RAM.” He squinting down at the graphics card information. “Does that say-”
“Breathe, dude,” Kevin laughed, holding a compact gaming system in one hand and balled up wrapping paper in the other. “I barely know what any of that means but I take from your reaction it’s way better than the paperweight?”
“If my current computer is a paperweight then this is a literal gift from God,” Thomas told him, tearing his eyes away from the computer and looking around the room as he fought the urge to hug the computer to his chest like a child. “Did you guys see where O’Hare went?”
“Um,” Danny looked around the room. “I think I saw him heading towards the back studios with Issac and the Cat a few minutes ago.”
“We’ll watch your computer,” Mark chuckled when Thomas glanced between the box and the back halls to the smaller, private rooms and storage areas of the studio. “Go before you explode.”
“Thanks, guys,” Thomas said quickly and darted away towards the area Danny had mentioned. No one stopped or even glanced his way as other younger kids opened gifts with their parent or guardian standing close by, several shrieks of delight filling the air as the papers fell away.
Thomas slowed as he entered the quieter hall, turning his head as he looked for a light or listened for O’Hare’s voice. At first, he couldn’t hear or see anything to hint at where he might be; as he continued, he caught the cadence of O’Hare’s voice from a door at the very end of the hall next to a back exit.
He couldn’t hear the words as he continued to get closer, a sudden breakout of shrill, off-key singing behind him grating against his ears. Almost to the door, he froze as another sound reached him.
Crying.
Issac crying.
Fergus was saying something to him about rings.
“Hey-”
Thomas pivoted on the spot at the sound of Danny’s voice. One hand on his shoulder and the other against Danny’s mouth he shoved him against the nearest wall. “Shh,” he hissed, his heart in his throat.
Danny didn’t make a sound, eyes widening.
Glancing pointedly towards the door where O’Hare, Issac, and presumably Felinus were having a moment, he pressed a finger to his own lips. It felt like his heart was going to explode and he could feel a similar rapid beating under his fingers.
“I think we’ll call it an early night, Fergus,” Felinus was saying, his voice low. It reminded Thomas of how he had heard the Cat speak to Issac back at the pub: reassuring, kind, controlled.
“Aye, I understand,” Fergus replied. “I figured that might be the case. The alley outside should lead ya right back to where ya parked so ya don’t have to go back through the crowd.”
“Thomas-” Issac started, his voice thick with emotion.
“I’ll let ‘im know ya had to go,” Fergus said at nearly the same time that Felinus said, “He’ll understand, baby boy.”
There was a pause, where Thomas imagined the two gangsters were looking at each other over Issac’s head.
“He’s probably tryin’ to figure out how he can start setting up his present anyway,” Fergus continued, amusement in his voice. “He won’t need to worry about upgrading his computer until after college.”
“Oh, good,” Issac said, his voice small. “He deserves that.”
“I thought so, too,” Fergus said. “Go on, lads. Get yerselves home and ta bed.”
Fuck, Thomas thought, looking around for a place to get out of sight. He didn’t want them to think they had been eavesdropping. He didn’t want to see Issac any more upset than he already sounded.
Danny grabbed his hand, pulling it away from his mouth then tugging him away from the wall. Without making a sound, he opened a door next to them and pulled Thomas inside. This time, Thomas was pressed against the wall, Danny pressed against him, a hand over his mouth as the door closed.
For several seconds they stood still, Thomas straining his ears to listen for the other three men. However, as the seconds stretched on, he became more aware of other things. Namely Danny. Namely how warm Danny felt pressed against him. More pointedly, something hard and pointed jabbing into Thomas’s hip where Danny’s pelvis was pressed into him.
Slowly, he turned his eyes back to Danny in the darkness of the room, raising an eyebrow at him. Even in the low light, Danny’s face was red as he smiled back at Thomas. He looked as if he was going to say something. Thomas shook his head quickly as the sound of a heavy door opening came from outside their hiding place. Danny’s mouth closed with a soft click of his teeth, still pressed fully into Thomas’s body against the wall.
