Work Text:
Thomas was closing up his tattoo shop, putting everything away as he waved goodbye to his two employees that were on closing shift with him, he was the owner, so he was allowed to stay after everyone left, when two men pushed past the employees exiting the shop.
Thomas almost went for the knife he knew was behind the counter, but the black and bright purple-dyed hair tipped him off that he knew exactly who these two men were. Instead of going for the knife, he placed the last item in it’s place, meaning he had finished the last task he needed to for the night.
“Remy! Virgil! Hey kiddos! What brings you here? We usually just meet at home after work...”
Remy stalked past Thomas, going into the back room and flopping down on the couch dramatically a frown. Virgil was following closely behind, a expression of confusion across his face when Thomas shot him a questioning look of a similar confusion.
“Remy’s... more grumpy than usual. What happened, Vee? Did anything go wrong at the flower shop? Any rude customers or difficult orders?”
Virgil shrugged. He was just as confused as Thomas was.
“I don’t know. He was just driving when he suddenly turned to come here and I couldn’t get him to tell me anything. Not that I don’t like coming here, you know I love this place, but nothing really happened. We got one of our regulars for their dating escapades again, a small bouquet for a mother by the father and daughter, and Sydney came by as always for the single white rose for her late husband. Nothing but easy online orders otherwise.”
Thomas and Virgil hovered at the door, peeking in before they entered. Remy had a pillow over his face and a muffled scream emanated from it as he curled his fingers into it, pressing the fabric hard against his face.
“Well, then I suppose they only thing we can do to find out is ask. You alright?” Thomas asked Virgil.
Virgil sent Thomas a thumbs up which morphed into double finger guns, smirking from under his bright purple fringe.
“Yup. You get any lawsuits yet?”
Thomas rolled his eyes at the question Virgil always asked him when he came home from work. Virgil was always anxious and worried about Thomas messing a tattoo and getting sued for it, but it had become an inside joke between them.
“Like all the other times you’ve asked, no. Let’s go ask Remy.” Thomas bit back a small chuckle, abruptly sobering up when he turned back to the doorway. Thomas grabbed Virgil’s finger gun and turned it into a handhold, lightly leading Virgil into the room by his hand.
They approached Remy carefully, they had enough experience living with Remy to not rush in. They had to be gentle and patient.
“Rems? You okay? You look bummed about something. Are you alright?” Thomas asked gently, making his voice as delicate and gentle as he could, resting his open hand on the couch arm. He could invade Remy’s space more than that when he knew what was wrong.
“Go away, Dad.” Remy grumbled from under the pillow, laying down away from Thomas, his feet nearly hitting Thomas’s hand. Thomas had thankfully moved his hand in time to not get Remy’s combat boots squashing his hand as Remy was slightly longer than the couch itself.
Thomas frowned.
“Remy, son, you’re the one who came here. Why did you drive Virgil and yourself here if you just want me to go away? I... don’t understand. Can you help me out?”
Remy groaned into the pillow, muttering something unintelligible into the pillow, not removing it.
There was a pause before Thomas nervously asked, scanning Remy’s posture in as Remy was laying down on the couch. Remy’s muscles were still tense even as he was on a quite comfy couch, and that was not good.
“Um... Remy, I couldn’t understand you. I think you need to get your face out of the pillow or just speak up. Could you... repeat yourself?”
Remy suddenly shot up, face furious as he got up right in Thomas’s face, only shorter than him by an inch or two even with his combat boots.
“I said you can’t help, dad. This isn’t something you can fix, so fuck off.”
Thomas nearly fell when Remy came within an inch of his face when only a seconds before his face had been about 6 feet away. The only reason he didn’t fall was that Virgil was behind him, Virgil’s fingers tremblingly supporting Thomas when he leaned back in surprise.
Thomas had to collect himself a long moment before he responded, his eyes gleaming in defiance. He didn’t take the obvious bait, breathing in calmly, exhaling any anger or pride he had that reared up at Remy’s provocation.
“Well if I can’t fix it, what’s the harm in telling me?”
Remy then just blew up at him, the force of the air of his words causing Thomas to blink involuntarily.
“BECAUSE! You’ll try to solve the problem like you always do and everything will just get worse and I’ll be alone and-”
Remy screamed out in frustration, swinging his head around violently before stalking up to a sturdy looking column and punching it in frustration.
Thomas ran forward as Remy did so in concern that Remy had hurt himself, but Remy wasn’t done, going of the adrenaline of his anger. In fact, Remy turned on Thomas and his face darkened even more, sputtering out with venom in every syllable
“It’s YOU! You’re the problem! You’re just you and I- I-!” Remy shouted, losing steam, a tear running down his cheek from under his glasses.
“I just want to tell someone about you without them getting scared! You and your fucking tattoos and your muscles and your hard look and I’m JUST SICK OF IT!””
Remy shouted, his shoulders falling from their angry defensive position to almost slumped, another tear coming to join the first.
Thomas blinked once. Twice. Three times.
Then it hit him.
“Oh Remy...” Thomas cooed, holding out his arms to Remy as he stepped experimentally forward.
Remy recoiled, shrinking back as he brought his hand up to his face, wiping at his eyes behind his sunglasses. The sunglasses revealed puffy and red eyes with tears brimming in them, the film of tears made Remy’s gray eyes look like they were sparkling.
But Remy didn’t retreat for long, his face twisting as if in some kind of pain before Remy threw himself into Thomas’s open arms. Thomas grunted from the weight slamming into him, but quickly began to run his fingers through Remy’s hair.
Remy broke, sobbing into Thomas’s chest, blubbering incoherently for a while before the sounds became words again.
“-orry. M’sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry!” Remy shuddered.
“Sh... just let it out, we can talk later, in fact, why don’t we go home? Virgil can drive your car if you think you want to stay with me.”
Remy craned his head up at Thomas, his mouth open to protest, but rather snapped it closed and buried his head back into Thomas’s chest nodding as another sob wracked his form. Thomas slowly brought Remy into his arms, Remy’s legs wrapping around Thomas’s waist as if Remy was a sloth.
“Score! I haven’t got to try Beanmobile out in a while, with Mr. Grumpy Gills hogging it.” Virgil said, placing an awkward hand on Remy’s back, grabbing the keys when Remy produced them from his pocket, holding them out for him.
“Don’t you hurt her or I’ll murder you.” Remy muttered, his voice was clearing up, his signature grumpy edge slowly returning.
“Wouldn’t dream of it! I’ll get a head start then!” Virgil shot one last concerned glance back at Remy before bounding out of the shop.
Thomas scanned Remy. “You good to go home, hun.”
“That’s my thing, Dad.”
Thomas chuckled as he turned off the lights gathering a few of the things he needed to take home with one hand the other holding onto Remy, shouldering open the door when he was done.
“I’ll take that as a yes. I’ll get some ice cream on the way home. We’ll talk about this, but everything’s gonna be okay. Okay Rems?”
Remy’s head shifted against Thomas’s chest, Thomas glancing away from the keys in the door to make eye contact with Remy’s teary grey eyes, his sunglasses on his forehead.
“Okay Dad... I- ...I love you.”
Thomas kissed Remy’s forehead as he locked the door to his shop, putting his keys in his pocket.
“I love you too, Remy.”