Chapter Text
"So, where are you going?"
Pyro sighed.
"Tommy, you're not gonna get an answer just by asking over and over."
Tommy pouted from atop Pyro's dresser, bouncing his legs off it absently. In that moment, he looks as young as he did when Pyro first met him.
And just as annoying.
"Come on, tell me, tell me, tell me, tel-"
Pyro's stylist, Colossal cut him off and pointed a finger at the door. "Tommy. Out!"
"Seriously?" The boy cried.
"Yes, you are ruining my creative process!" Colossal snapped.
At the look from Pyro, Tommy jumped down from the dresser.
"Fine," Tommy rolls his eyes and pauses at the door. "Have fun, Colossal the Fossil!"
Tommy darts out the door and Colossal shakes the hairdryer at him. "You say that shit again and I'll beat your ass!"
Pyro snorts into his hand and Colossal spins around.
"And you-"
"What did I do?" Pyro said.
"You are not sitting still." Colossal moved back in to dry his hair. "You are like a twitching rabbit."
As Colossal does his makeup and berates Pyro for not following a skincare routine, Pyro reminisces about how lucky he was to get Colossal as a stylist after his old one was fired. Colossal then jabbed Pyro in the eye.
"Fuck! Why the fuck would you do that, you fucking shithead shitbag!"
"Because you weren't paying attention, fuckass!" Colossal says and continues to apply light makeup.
Once Colossal proclaims him "good enough", Pyro heads out and waits by the elevator.
Tommy continues to bother Pyro at the elevator and Josh soon joins them. At Josh's request, Tommy runs off to see if Michael has a GPS tracker. Pyro is only half-sure they're joking.
"Will you tell me this year?"
Pyro shakes his head.
"Dude, we've lived together for 15 years."
Pyro quiets for a moment. "I'll tell you as soon as I can. But I can't tell you, not right now."
Josh huffs. "Yeah, that's always the excuse with you."
Before the incident, Pyro would have fired back. But now he's just tired, so he only says, "Okay Josh."
The elevator comes just as Tommy comes back with the bad news that Michael does not have a working GPS. Pyro ruffles the boy's hair and tells him to remember his bedtime of 10 pm.
Tommy play-swings at Pyro, who dodges. He tells Josh that he'll be back the next morning and turns to leave.
Don't make the same mistake that you did with your father.
"Love you, guys!" Pyro yells as the door starts to close.
Tommy is used to this and yells it back. But Josh has an incredulous look on his face and is frozen to the spot.
Pyro had only said it to Josh a few dozen times, as opposed to the hundreds with Tommy and others. And most of the times that Pyro had said it was during Josh's first year.
Pyro sits in the back of the limo with four Peacekeepers. When he asked why Smii7y wasn't there, he was met with a resounding silence.
When he had started presenting, he had been let into a world of secrets. A secret that would hopefully be unveiled soon.
There were others.
Pyro steps out of the limo at the Allegiance Ball.
His smile is a deadly wolfish thing, a beast let out of its cage.
The sheep always think that they are the only flock until they meet the goats. The shepherd and the goat-herder have a common bond; a hate of the wolves and a love for the dog.