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“Danny, you’ve been spinning your fork in the pasta for five minutes while staring at it like it murdered me,” Sean told him, his lip quirking up into a grin. “You’ve been in a mood all week. What’s going on?”
Danny looked down at his plate. A perfectly American-style plate of spaghetti with a mountain of green bottle parm and canned sauce dumped over ground beef. And yet… He grimaced, pushing it away. “Thomas and I had a fight,” he muttered, folding his arms. Was it a fight? Did it count as a fight when the other person walked away?
“This is about him not coming to the signing?”
Danny’s shoulders hunched and Sean huffed.
“Thought you were being moody up there,” he said. “So, let me guess: You didn’t tell him you wanted him there, he continued with his normal Wednesday routine, and you got pissy about it when he came to dinner and picked a fight with him.” Sean took a bit of noodles and swallowed them practically whole, never having lost his athletic appetite despite his shoulder taking him out of his own baseball career. “Am I wrong?”
Danny huffed at him, looking away. “I thought it was obvious…”
“You picked the wrong guy to have a relationship with if you wanted the ‘obvious’ understood,” Sean said flatly, turning his fork on his plate. “Thomas is good at reading dangerous situations, but if you tell him one thing, you better fucking mean it.”
Danny frowned at him. “How do you know that?”
Sean’s eyes flicked up, then back down, his lips thinning. “Because unlike you, Mark, and Kevin,” he said, “the Clover who was supposed to look after him taught him how to be a Clover. That’s why you three being his friend is so important. So he can see honest living and have honest relationships.”
Danny stared at Sean then looked down, a lump forming in his throat as he weighed his options. Thomas had told them to call the man he was meeting with twice a month Seong if anyone ever asked, but he never said to not tell people about it. “He was with that guy who brought him to the studio,” he blurted out, his eyes darting up.
Sean’s eyebrow rose.
“The- the Asian guy- uh, Snake,” Danny continued. “He- Thomas has been meeting with him every two weeks or so since school started up again.”
His brother didn’t react. Instead, he took another bite of his dinner, chewed for a moment before he swallowed, then took a drink of his water. “I know.”
Danny blinked at him. “You- What do you mean you know?”
“Danny,” he said patiently, “I talk to Ceri and Jessi damn near daily these days and while we do have other interests, we’re mostly discussing you four knuckleheads.” He took another drink of water. “Thomas has been very up-front and honest with his aunts about who he is meeting with and who he talks to regularly. I know about his Wednesday routine and who he is meeting. It’s nothing to be concerned about,” he shrugged.
“How can it be nothing to be concerned about,” Danny demanded. “He’s a member of the Italian Mafia!”
“And I’m a member of the Irish Mob,” Sean pointed out. “What’s your point?”
“What’s my- You said Thomas needed to stay away from men like him!”
Sean blinked, frowning as his eyes flicked upwards. “Huh… I suppose I did say that.”
“So it’s bad that he’s hanging out with Snake-”
“Hanging out with Snake would be bad,” Sean raised his voice to speak over Danny, cutting him off. “But he’s not,” he went on, lowering his voice again. “He’s hanging out with Seong. There’s a difference.”
“They’re the same person,” Danny said stubbornly. He couldn’t understand how Sean could be okay with this, with Thomas hanging around someone who could so casually threaten people he’d never met in person.
Sean smiled. “Yes, but no.” He blew out a sigh. “Danny, you’re too old to think that the way people like me or Fergus or Marcus act around you and your friends is the same way we act when we are working.” He put stress on the word. “I’m the same person, yes, but there are things a man is willing and able to do in certain circumstances that he would never do in others. You have to know that. I know you saw Fergus slip the other day. That it scared you. It should scare you. It’s not pretty and it’s not nice.” He paused, but Danny found that he didn’t have anything to say to that. Sean continued. “Unless Thomas starts doing shady things, there’s nothing to worry about. Snake isn’t going to to do anything to put Thomas at risk. He’s not even really teaching him how to code. They’re- What did Ceri call it-” He pulled out his phone and scrolled for a few moments. “Mirroring each other. Thomas works on his own thing, Seong works on something else, and if Thomas gets stuck they talk it out.”
“Wait, seriously,” Danny asked, frowning. “That’s it?”
“That’s it,” Sean said, shrugging. “Not really that different from you going to training and asking the other pitchers to look at your form.” Draining his water, he got up. “So do yourself a favor, little brother: get over yourself, tell Thomas you’re sorry for being a dick, and start communicating properly.”
Danny opened his mouth then closed it, looking back down at his cold dinner. “Okay,” he muttered. “Thanks, Sean.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” he said brightly, taking his empty plate to the kitchen.
* * *
Thomas glanced at his phone as the music in his ears cut out to the cutesy pop song ringtone. His and Danny’s picture filled his screen, their faces pressed together with heart stickers plastered all over the picture. Raising an eyebrow, he pressed the green button. “Hey, Danny,” he said as the call connected. “What’s up?”
“Hey,” Danny’s voice was tight and stiff. It had been that way all week, ever since Danny confronted him at the restaurant and Thomas fought the urge to roll his eyes as his chest tightened. “Um- I- I’m-” He broke off and swallowed so hard the speaker picked it up. “What are you doing?”
