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“Breathe, baby,” Jessi said, stroking his cheek. “You want to go?”
Thomas swallowed, struck by another bout of dizziness as he nodded. “Can I?”
“Maybe-” Ceri started and fell silent as Jessi glanced at her.
“Of course you can, Tommy,” Jessi said, looking back at Thomas with a smile. “We’re glad that you will be spending time with other boys your age.” She paused. “There are other boys, right?”
“Uh, yeah, yeah there are others,” he agreed. “He said that everyone will be either eighteen or nineteen, so if it’s just the guys from the program then that would be Andy, Mark and… Kevin-” he paused. “I think that’s all of them. I didn’t ask who but that’s who was always in the texts.”
Ceri started to say something; Jessi gave her another look and she sighed instead. Then she smiled too, a bit more forced as worry continued to line her eyes. “It sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun,” she said. “Just ask Danny to send you the address then forward it to both of us. And text us when you get to the mall, and when you get to the hotel, and before you go to bed and when you wake up. But if you want to come home early or just don’t want to sleep there and want us to come get you and bring you back Saturday, or-
“Now you breathe, love,” Jessi laughed, reaching out to take Ceri’s hand with a gentle smile then turned back at Thomas. “Go tell Danny you’ll be able to come and don’t let your silly aunt scare you. We’re very happy that you’re going. Go on now.”
“Thank you,” Thomas said, feeling like he could breathe again as he kissed Jessi’s cheek then Ceri’s and ran back to his room.
“Stop running!”
* * *
“So you made a kid cry,” Bat said matter-of-factly.
“I did not make anyone cry,” Seong said with a tightening jaw, trying to pick up his pizza and realizing it was still too hot.
They were in Felinus’s greenhouse tonight. The summer like temperatures a stark contrast to the flurries of snow outside the window. The pizza oven that Brutus somehow convinced Felinus to set up in the greenhouse kicked out enough heat that Seong considered taking off his jacket.
“But he did start having a panic attack,” Bat pressed, “or something similar.”
“It was probably just too much stimulation all at once,” Issac said, already eating his pizza with a lack of care for the roof of his mouth. Not that Seong could blame him: Issac’s experience with any foods that weren’t cheap, donated, or pulled out of a trash can was lacking. After three months of being cooked for by Brutus and other members of the Family, he had set aside his previous hesitations to eat as soon as he was handed anything. “Nothing Snake personally did.”
“Right,” Seong agreed, feeling a wave of relief wash over him. Of anyone at the table, Issac knew Thomas the best. “Also he’s not a kid. He is eighteen.”
“And in his senior year of high school,” Felinus pointed out, sitting down with his own personal pizza.
“Right,” he muttered, pulling at his pizza to cool it faster. “Besides, his aunt was there to look after him. That was probably more helpful than the toy I gave him. Particularly with the two hours of sleep I had gotten.”
“Is that why I came home to you sleeping on Tiger’s bed,” Bat said mildly. “And here I thought someone else was getting some romance.”
“Nein, I told him to sleep there,” Tiger said, sitting at the table next to Bat while Brutus sat in the chair next to Seong. Seong noticed that Bat’s eyes darted towards Brutus, and there was that same flicker of upset he always got before his carefree mask slipped back on. “I have more pillows than anyone else.”
“And I thank you for enabling my cuddling needs,” Seong told him, flashing Tiger a smile as he finally picked up a slice of pizza. Like Seong, Tiger liked sleeping with the sensation of someone else in the bed, and had made up for the solitude of single life by filling his bed with pillows and stuffed animals of various sizes and weights. Seong was particularly fond of a weighted dragon that could rest against his chest or back that hadn’t been there last time.
“Speaking of cuddling needs,” Bat said and turned his head to look at Felinus, just missing Brutus looking around at him with a frown. “We have a bone to pick with you.”
“Is this multiple people or are you trying out a royal ‘we’ again,” Felinus asked, pulling apart his own pizza as steam rose from it. “Because I told you when we were kids I’d take your tongue if you started doing that again.”
“I’m fairly confident I’m speaking for at least part of the table in this,” Bat said confidently. “We all need time off before we go after the last of the rats.”
“No, we don’t,” Felinus disagreed. “There are only two left then we are done. We keep going.”
“Alright, Gatto, I was trying not to play this card but you are forcing my hand,” Bat said, gesturing around the table. “Of the six people sitting at this table, only two of them are getting any quality time in a warm bed. We’ve been going for three months straight. I swear to God, the only person Snake has seen that isn’t the people at this table is the kid. It’s completely unfair that you are coming home to a warm bed and someone to talk to about anything else while the rest of us are only able to eat, sleep, shit, and work.”
“Hm, I’m heading inside,” Issac commented, picking up his empty plate as he got up. “I need to give Dimitri a call, anyway.”
Felinus’s eyes darted briefly towards Issac then Brutus before focusing on Bat with a hard frown. “It’s hardly my fault you are single,” he said firmly. “Go to the Playhouse if-”
Issac paused behind Felinus’s chair and cupped a hand under the other man’s chin. With a practiced ease, he tilted Felinus’s head up and back as he lowered his own, kissing him so deeply and passionately that Seong’s cock twitched and Brutus and Bat both looked in opposite directions.
The kiss broke as Felinus started to reach for Issac’s neck.
