Chapter Text
White stares around, wide-eyed, even as Sean rubs the back of his neck and says, “It’s just a garage, really.”
It’s not, though, it’s where Sean lives, which would be exciting enough, but it’s also the garage run by the guy who’s at least half a dad to both Sean and Black, who White still hasn’t actually met. And it’s also the place where they planned their moves against the chancellor, the place where they’re going to plan more actions – the place where White might join in with that.
Of course he’s staring.
Tiny’s just as interesting, wriggling to get out of his arms, so he gently places her on the floor. She starts to curiously poke her head around, cautiously venturing a few steps away from White, her tail wagging happily.
Then a man in overalls swoops out of nowhere and picks her up.
White would be able to guess who he was just from the way he moves through the garage, but Sean’s call of, “Hia!” confirms it.
He straightens up and greets him as respectfully as he can while hurrying so he can say, “Tiny sometimes doesn’t like… oh, never mind.”
She’s licking Gumpa’s face affectionately – he’s cradling her against his shoulder while digging in a pocket for… something.
White squints at the pink pile of fabric – canvas, perhaps – which Gumpa is one-handedly detangling, trying to figure out what it is. At the same time, Yok and Gram come over with smiles on their faces and without shirts on.
In order to be polite to Sean, White makes sure to only look at the smiles.
Sean’s thoughts might be in the same place as White’s – he hooks a protective (maybe proprietary) arm around White’s shoulders and squeezes him in close as he pretends to ignore his friends and asks, “Hia, what are you doing with the dog?”
“She’s too little to run around in here on her own,” Gumpa says mildly.
It’s not a leash, the pink fabric, but White’s attention is diverted.
Black’s arriving at Gram’s back with a nod of greeting to White – he’s standing nearly as close as Sean is to White.
He tilts his head and stares at them; Gram doesn’t seem to notice, but Black shakes his head sharply back. That had better be a promise to explain later.
“What the fuck, where did you get that,” Yok asks, diverting White’s attention back to…
Huh.
It’s a sling?
Like those things that hold babies against their parents’ chests, but this one is clearly designed for little dogs, and it doesn’t exactly match this guy’s aesthetic – not with the pink, or the daisies embroidered on it. Even weirder is the way Tiny’s sitting quietly, even though Black’s now got a hand on Gram’s bicep.
Tiny’s not focusing on that, and White’s pretending not to.
Whatever – the more important thing here is how cute Tiny looks, and he echoes Yok’s sentiment as he asks, “Where can I get one of those?”
Gumpa’s eyes crinkle as he smiles and replies, “I have a few. Let’s talk about your future with the gang – they all have sparring practice.”
“We do?” asks Sean.
Sean’s already removing his shirt, though, so White finds himself standing at the edge of a makeshift gym only half-listening to the man wearing his dog in a sling.
It would be surreal enough to hold his attention, but Sean is shirtless, and apparently that thing some guys do where they spit after fighting can be hot, if it’s Sean, and if there’s blood in the spit. That’s an interesting thing to find out.
White may zone out a little.
The spar, unfortunately, does end, but Sean is kind enough to only sling his shirt back over his shoulders as he returns to White’s side with a murmured, “Hi.”
He probably hums a return greeting but he doesn’t make eye contact – White’s eyes are busy.
Yok’s back too, and he’s poking a cautious finger towards Tiny’s face, still poking out from Gumpa’s chest – he’s cooing something at her too, and it’s not enough to get White to look at him or anything but he does go, “What did you just call her?”
“Nong lek lek,” Yok keeps cooing, “Are you high up? Do you like it? Does dad not carry you high up because he’s tiny too?”
“Hey!” White complains, tearing his eyes away from Sean’s chest in order to glare at Yok.
Sean immediately hits Yok on the shoulder and says, “Shut the fuck up,” with too much laughter in his tone for White to do anything but turn the glare on him.
Then he dials down the annoyance and turns it into more of a pout, saying, “Sean…” as Yok returns to giggling at Tiny; a moment later, Gram’s there too.
“Nong lek lek,” he laughs, “It’s a cute name.”
“You’re all fucking disgraces,” with which Black announces himself and pushes the other two out of the way, saying, “Call Tiny by her real name, you rude fucks.”
Hypocrite.
It takes a second later for White to realise that thought wasn’t just in his head – once again he has to look away from Sean.
“Nuch!” he greets. “I thought you weren’t-“
“-Coming to my boyfriend’s perfectly legal hangout spot? I’m just passing through.”
White has some questions about the boyfriend thing – he gives her a look about it, and she meets his gaze with raised eyebrows.
Fair enough; he’ll go to Black for those details.
“Are you coming to the announcement of the new chancellor?” he asks instead. “Phi said you were thinking of leaving the news page…”
Nuch shrugs; she’s paying as little attention to White as White has been to anyone but Sean. When he turns to follow her gaze, it lands on exactly what he expected.
“Black, don’t,” giggles Gram, as Black appears to be seriously instructing a growling Tiny, now in Black’s arms, on acceptable targets.
“This one is fine to bite,” he says, pointing her at Sean, “This one isn’t. Understand?”
White can’t help it – he leans over and says, “About your boyfriend…”
Gram’s looking all distressed at his phone, so Sean goes over and throws an arm over his shoulder, asking, “You good?”
He tilts his phone in response, and Sean reads the exchange that’s making him freak out.
Eugene
that means u guys r poly
like there’s more than one person ur dating
?
Me
yep!
Eugene
does that mean i can fuck ur faen
pls say yes
Sean laughs.
Looking betrayed, Gram asks, “Sean! What do I do?”
“Ask which one she means,” suggests Yok, making the position less ‘two guys standing together’ and more ‘group hug’ by coming up behind Sean and embracing them both.
Twisting out of Yok’s hold, Sean puts him in a brief headlock and tells Gram, “That’s a good idea – maybe it’ll be Black and you can get rid of him.”
“I don’t want to get rid of him,” grumbles Gram, but Sean can see he’s typing.
After Yok’s been released and is brushing himself off, Gram yelps, “Guys!”
They crowd around.
Eugene
and/or duh
Gram’s obvious distress makes it much, much funnier.
Yok, laughing at Gram’s misfortune, eventually asks, “Hey, where is Black, anyway?”
It's warm, but there are some clouds - neither atmospheric nor ironic, the weather isn't for this.
Just a day; just the sky.
There are lots of people who aren’t that ‘important’ at this funeral, but there are lots of people that are, too – people who worked with the deceased, or did business with him, or did dirty business with him. Black tries to commit the faces of as many guests as he can to memory.
Todd’s been crying into his shoulder since he called Black to his father’s deathbed; Black thinks the initial goal was to play it up, take advantage of the presumption of grief to get close to Black again, but.
But.
Well, the way Todd’s been crying, the emptiness on his face, the way he can’t even make his hands form a fist right – he’s pretty sure Todd’s feeling more about his dad’s death than he expected.
So Black’s been sort of playing host, somehow, to people whose faces he’d rather spit in.
Not that Todd isn’t in that group anyway.
He shudders on Black’s shoulder, and Black closes his eyes against it – Black was there in the hours after Todd found out his dad was getting sick.
What Todd tried to do is one thing, but there’s also how he tried to do it, taking advantage of his position on the one hand and his knowledge of Black on the other hand, and Black can’t forgive him that even if he’d otherwise want to, with Gram not actually getting expelled. The third thing, of course, is why he tried it.
Black’s not thinking about why he tried it.
It doesn’t make sense. Even making allowances for the way Todd’s family shit always makes him spiral in the weirdest ways, the motive he’d given, being in love? With Black?
They’re friends. As long as Black’s known him, they’ve been friends, most of that time each other’s only friends, and for a lot of it best friends. Sometimes they fuck. That’s all Black’s really needed to think of it.
A man Black knows to have just bribed his way out of a fine for labour law violations walks up, expresses his sympathies to Todd, and waits for a response.
Black, feeling broken glass in his throat and the tears of his oldest friend against his skin, says, “Thank you, the family appreciates it.”
He wishes the words were harder to say.
Knowing he’ll pay for it later but seeing no other option, Yok puts an arm out to slow down White taking the corner of the stairs, and then he overtakes him.
He can’t come after someone who’s brad new to chase tag – Yok’s not as competitive as Sean and Black, but he has his limits, and this is definitely one of them. Especially when chase tag is in front of such an important audience!
But it’s not White who’ll be making him pay anyway.
Sean and Black haven’t seen, yet, they’re also way too busy competing for their audience (different, of course, from the audience Yok cares about, but an audience nonetheless) and running flat-out, meters ahead of Yok’s drama.
Black’s winning, but by less of a margin than usual – aww, Sean wants to impress his boyfriend! Cute.
They’re on a gentler route than usual, one that contains only minimal jumping, so Yok’s less winded than usual as he sees the first two hitting the ground at the finish line. When Black goes down first, Sean seems to take it way more personally than usual, considering how much on top of Black he decides to lie.
Yok’s distraction lets Gram overtake him in a late second; “Asshole,” he yells with what remains of his voice, but there’s a laugh in it.
He won’t hold it against him – Gram needs to impress his boyfriend too, after all.
But that’s all the more reason to not get overtaken by White.
His calves burn and he does feel kind of winded when he finally crashes into the others, and White arrives a couple of seconds later, looking worse than Yok feels. Instead of lying on top of them he plops down next to the pile, resting his head on Sean’s shoulder.
“Pretty good,” Yok tells him with a grin. “Sorry about the last overtake?”
White just hums, but his guard dogs squint suspiciously at Yok until White adds, “You didn’t trip me, I’m fine. Gram nearly tripped over me, though,” and they end up distracted.
As Sean's grabbing White into a side-cuddle and Black is trying to look like he’s not fussing over anyone, Gumpa comes over and announces, “White and Tiny’s first chase tag! How did you like it?”
He isn’t talking to White; the dog is happily panting in the sling hanging over his chest, and Gumpa is talking in a baby voice.
Yok hides his laughter in Sean’s shirt, but he’s got to hand it to Gumpa – the dog did seem to like it.