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Jaime Rosales knew that the Blackthorns were not his number one fan. Just the fact that he was ‘Perfect Diego’s’ brother would have made him suspicious at best, but the icy glare thrown his way by Emma whenever he opens his mouth told him that Christina had revealed at least part of their falling out to her.
He learned very quickly that being on one of the Blackthorn clan’s bad side was more than enough to be on all of their bad sides.
Christina typically avoided him, although she would try and make small talk at times. Emma was downright hostile most of the time, as was Kieran when he was around. Helen tried her best to be civil but was all in all too busy to worrry about him, Ty wouldn’t give him the time of day, although all he tended to do nowadays was sulk around missing Kit, Tavvy would usually just ignore him or follow the lead of whichever of his siblings were around, and Dru practically ran and hid when he was nearby, although he had tried to explain that she had nothing to be embarrassed about.
Which led to his biggest safety concern: Mark.
Mark was in the unique position of hating him from two perspectives: on Christina’s behalf as well as Dru’s.
Anytime the two were in the room together, Mark made no effort to conceal his intense dislike for Jaime. He would be quick to shoot down his ideas during meetings, critique him while training, or be petty and take the last donut at breakfast as soon as Jaime walked in the door.
That was nothing compared to how he acted if Christina or Dru were also in the room. It seemed like everytime Jaime walked in, Mark felt the need to put an arm around Christina, or had a task that urgently needed his and Dru’s attention. It was annoying, and a little disheartening, but he had gotten used to it. At the end of the day, it wasn’t Mark that Jaime was truly afraid of.
But to his surprise, Julian had been the nicest to him of any of the Blackthorns.
It was Julian who would go out of his way to make more pancakes after Mark would spitefully take the last ones or hear out his ideas in meetings, even if Jaime was sure he was always three steps behind where Julian’s mind was. It was Julian who would encourage Emma to be nicer, or for Ty to take off his headphones when Jaime would attempt to speak directly to him.
At first, Jaime was more than relieved that Julian didn’t seem to harbor any anger at him for the London incident, or for his fragile friendship with Christina. Jaime was as relieved as Mark was furious, seeming to think his older-younger brother was betraying the family by being so much as cordial to Jaime.
Jaime had to admit, he enjoyed seeing Mark upset about something after the way he had been acting towards him. He did start getting suspicious though, when Mark’s sneers at Julian’s hospitality slowly became poorly concealed smirks that Jaime was one hundred percent sure were at his expense.
It wasn’t until about two weeks later that Jaime had his answer.
He and Julian were clearing up the training room after evening trainings were winding down, making small talk about weapons when his epiphany came about.
While sheathing a few longswords, Jaime commented, “It feels almost pointless to train with any sword around Emma, she’s a beast with them.”
Julian laughed lightly at the apt description of his former-parabatai, before he responded, puzzled, “Wasn’t Emma up in the rafters all day today with Dru and Ty?”
“Yeah, but I remember seeing her train in London, not to mention her cutting Zara’s ego in half.”
Julian smiled, “Too bad it was only half. I forget seeing you in London, that was such a blur.”
Just like that, the glass shattered and Jaime understood why Julian had been so nice to him, and why Mark had become more and more smug about it. Julian still didn’t know about where he had stayed in the London Institute. More importantly, he didn’t know whom he had stayed with.
Jaime really did not want to find out what would happen if he did.
Mark seemed to catch on very quickly that Jaime had figured out the new development and was eager to capitalize on the oppurtunity.
About a week after his enlightening conversation with Julian, Jaime was cornered in the kitchen by the half-fairie.
Mark’s grin was feral, “So you’ve caught on to the life-saving fact that my dear baby brother does not know of your daliance with his youngest sister?”
Jaime hurried over shushing him while looking around, as if expecting Julian to pop out of the oven at any moment, “First of all it was not a daliance, we hung out, watched movies, and I slept on the floor.”
Mark hummed but did not seem satisfied, Jaime continued, “Secondly, are you gonna tell him, because I would appreciate a little heads up so I can get a tiny head start in whatever direction I end up running in.”
“Jaime, Jaime, Jaime. I’m not gonna tell him, not yet at least,” Mark’s sly smile gave away Jaime’s fate.
“So you’re blackmailing me, great.”
Mark laughed, “Oh don’t be silly Jaime, I’m not gonna blackmail you. I’m just gonna … vent.”
Jaime gaped at him suspiciously, “Vent?”
Mark nodded, “Yes, I’m going to vent about how I really do not want to go pick up groceries tomorrow, and how I might have to go tell Julian how badly I don’t want to go. I just hope I don’t start rambling and accidently let slip any sensitive information.” The devious gleam that had briefly been absent had returned to Mark’s mismatched eyes.
Jaime sighed and nodded his head placatingly.
So that’s how Jaime became Mark Blackthorn’s errand boy for the next month. Doing any chore or task that Mark deemed necessary (and a few that seemed wildly unnecessary, what could he possibly need with exactly 42 acorns) was handed off to Jaime to be completed ‘post haste’.
It might not be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that other Blackthorns seemed to quickly pick up on the new game.
Tavvy, young but apparently super smart, had put the pieces together very fast and before you knew it, Jaime was making runs to the toy store for the youngest Blackthorn lest he tell Julian ‘that Mark had a secret about Jaime’.
Before long, Helen, who refused to acknowledge what she was doing, was piling extra reports and paperwork on him, with nothing but a knowing glance.
Ty was the next to puzzle out why Jaime was all of a sudden doing favors for everyone and although he didn’t want favors or toys, he did alert Jaime to his knowledge.
One evening, right before dinner, Jaime came across Ty sneaking out the back door and asked him where he was off to.
Ty tilted his head with his eyes fixed on a point above Jaime’s left shoulder, “I don’t think it’s any of your business where I am going, nor is it Julian’s.”
He briefly let his eyes meet Jaime’s, conveying to him why exactly it wasn’t Julian’s business.
Jaime huffed lightly, “Let me guess, I keep my knowledge to myself and you’ll do the same?”
Ty smirked, “I don’t know what Mark is talking about, I think you’re very smart.”
The only people who didn’t seem to be taking advantage of Julian’s oblivion was Emma, due to her own oblivion, Christina, because he didn’t think she knew it was happening, and Dru, who was still too embarrassed to even talk to him.
He hated that because if there was one person who might be sympathetic towards him, it was Dru. His own brother had only laughed him out of the room.
It all came to a head one Wednesday night at dinner.
All the Blackthorns were present, even Livvy although only Ty knew that, both Rosales brothers, as well as Kieran and Christina. Julian had fixed spaghetti and Aline had insisted everyone sit together in their rarely used formal dining room.
Jaime was not in a great mood. He had spent the morning finishing reports that Helen left to him to since she and Aline had gotten too drunk on their date the night before to get up early enough to finish them by the Consul’s ridiculously early deadline. (Those were Aline’s words, but Jaime did not think Alec was being unreasonable by requesting them by noon on a Wednesday.)
Then he had been strong armed by Mark into mowing the lawn and then ‘persuaded’ by Tavvy to go to the park at the hottest time of the day. Finally he had to dodge questioning from Emma about where Ty had wandered off to, knowing that as soon as Emma knew, so did Julian. Kieran had even gotten in on the fun, requesting that Jaime take Windspear out to the stables to be fed.
So it doesn’t bear repeating that by the time dinner rolled around, Jaime was feeling thoroughly fed up. He reached his wit’s ends halfway through dessert.
He hadn’t been paying much attention to the conversations going on until he overheard Julian and Mark’s conversation.
Julian was looking at his brother exasperatedly, “Look Mark, I’m sorry but Emma and I are out all day tomorrow and there’s no one else who can do it, Helen and Aline are busy and Diego and Diana are going to be helping Ty, Dru, and Tavvy train.”
Mark did not seem to appreciate this logic, “So instead of taking my girlfriend and boyfriend, who has limited availability for dates, being a King and all, you want me to wander around the Shadow Market trying to find an obscure potion ingredient that apparently is the most foul smelling substance on the planet and that spilling could mean certain death?”
Julian didn’t bother to look up from his plate, “Yes.”
At Mark’s exxagerated huff of annoyance, Julian looked at his brother with a challenge, “I mean unless you don’t think you can do it.”
It startled Jaime how obvious it was that Julian was the younger brother in that moment, baiting his older brother like that. Jaime was sure Mark wouldn’t fall for it but he seemed to drop it.
However, after a few minutes he looked impishly at Jaime and said cheerfully, “So Jaime, what do you have going on tomorrow?”
Everyone at the table tried to hide small smiles at his expense, other than the afformentioned oblivious ones, plus Christina. Even Dru had a tiny smile trying to break free.
They all knew exactly why Mark was so keen on Jaime’s plans in the morning, and Jaime knew exactly what he would be doing tomorrow.
Maybe if he hadn’t been so tired he would have kept his mouth shut. But as he watched his plans for a relaxing day on the beach slip away, he knew he had finally reached his breaking point.
“I have something to say,” escaped his mouth before he could even think much on it.
All eyes turned towards him, in varying levels of confusion, disbelief, worry, and awe.
Already out of the frying pan, thought Jaime, “Julian I have something I need to tell you, and I should have said it a long time ago.”
Julian looked perplexed but nodded at him to continue. Just about the same time the other Blackthorns started vehemently opposing the idea.
Helen seemed the most cautious, “I really wouldn’t.” Although Aline lightly smacked her shoulder to stop anymore protest, wanting to see the drama unfold.
Ty looked towards the far corner of the room, “I can’t believe he’s doing this.” Unbeknown to the others, Livvy was gaping wide eyed along with everyone else.
Tavvy laughed and leaned over to Emma, who looked just as confused as Julian, and said “This is about to be really funny for a little then it’ll probably be really scary.”
Dru had just dropped her head into her arms and was groaning, “Please do not do this Jaime,” was what could be made of the muffled sounds.
Most surprisingly perhaps was Mark, who, panicked, was shaking his head frantically, “Jaime, this is a bad idea, I’ll stop fine, but you do not want to do that.”
Jaime, however, had made up his mind. He steeled himself as Julian, who with a mere glance around the room commanded silence from his family, turned his eyes back to Jaime, gesturing for him to continue.
“Well, when you guys were at the London Institute, I snuck in,” at this he paused as Mark dramatically slammed his head into the table, “and Dru found me and let me hide out in her room while I was there.”
The silence was deafening, and Julian’s eyes had not strayed once from Jaime. Jaime really wished Julian was a little easier to read, he really couldn’t tell if he was about to laugh or murder him.
Into the fire I go, thought Jaime, “Nothing happened, we talked and watched movies, and yes, I thought she was older but everything was purely platonic and that’s that.”
Finally letting the breath he was holding out, Jaime watched as Julian absorbed the new information, along the rest of the Blackthorns.
It was Emma who finally broke the silence, “What?! Dru you hid a whole guy from everyone. I’m kinda impressed.”
Julian broke his gaze to turn towards her with a look of mild annoyance, prompting Emma to amend the statement, “Impressed but also horrified, you should never do that again.”
Rolling his eyes, Julian scanned over his family until he found the one he was looking for, “Drusilla, is this true?”
Jaime would have thought the seat of Dru’s chair had been taken out, her eyes were just barely over the table. At being the subject of her brother’s questioning, she lifted up slightly, “Yes, it is true, but I was just frustrated and I didn’t feel like anyone was listening to me and so it was just nice to have a friend to myself for awhile.”
Jaime smiled at her softly, watching as her face flamed up before she looked into her brother’s eyes once again.
But Julian had moved his gaze unto, unfortunately, him. Jaime mustered up courage from somewhere and met steely blue-green eyes that seemed to be looking for something.
After finding (or not finding) whatever he was looking for, Julian nodded his head before going back to eating his ice cream, with one last, “We’ll talk about this more later Drusilla, although I do understand how you were feeling.”
Dru let out a breath before turning back to her own dessert, and soon after the rest of the Blackthorns and their companions followed.
Jaime felt a weight lift off him and he even took a moment to shoot a smile at Mark, who looked as if someone had told him that they thought Zara Dearborn was the sweetest person alive.
After they had all gotten over their shock and finished their dessert, the whole lot of them went down to the beach.
It was nice, Jaime thought, Julian was playing with Tavvy near the water, splashing the younger boy, picking him up around his middle and threatening to throw him in. Ty and Dru were sitting on some of the rocks overlooking the ocean, laughing quietly to themselves. Mark, Kieran and Christina were wrapped around each other on a blanket, whispering in each other’s ears and giggling, and on the makeshift volleyball net they had set up, Emma and Diego were playing Aline and Helen. Although it seemed unfair, as Helen and Aline were a well-oiled machine, communicating without words, while Emma blamed Diego for every missed ball to which he argued each time.
Jaime was so lost in thought he hadn’t noticed a presence walking up beside him.
When Julian reached him he slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of clove cigarettes and a lighter, leisurely lighting one and smoking silently next to Jaime.
Finally, just as Jaime was starting to feel he should say something, Julian let out a puff of smoke and spoke up, “I thought Mark’s head was gonna explode in there.”
Jaime laughed at that, feeling at ease, “Yeah, I thought so too, probably a bit upset he’s losing his henchman.”
Surely the grin on Julian’s face had to be genuine, “Let me guess, he blackmailed you into doing his dirty work in exchange for his silence?”
Jaime turned towards the man, “Yeah, exactly that, and eventually the others who knew caught on and next you know I’m doing paperwork and going to stores and just being everyone’s servant,” after some thought he added, “how’d you know?”
Julian shrugged, “I guessed that something was up a while back, Tavvy is maybe not the best secret keeper around and Mark wasn’t at all subtle about how happy he was to be unloading his work on someone,” he commented taking a moment to take another slow drag and a step forwards.
Jaime nodded, slightly uneasy with the change in tone the conversation seemed to be taking.
Before he could speak again, Julian, and Jaime couldn’t help but notice he had taken a few more steps towards him, continued, “I mean I could tell something was off with Dru and you, it’s not like her to be so timid around anyone really, but especially someone she knows. I figured if it was something serious, any of the plenty of people who so clearly knew would tell me.”
Weakly chuckling, Jaime gulped as Julian took another step towards him and raised his hand to clasp the back of his neck in a poor imitation of the brotherly way Diego sometimes did.
Bringing Jaime’s head closer to his own, Julian lowered his voice, “Do you know why any of them would have told me if you had done anything to Dru, Jaime?”
Jaime looked up at Julian, close enough that he could smell the clove scent of the smoke on his breath, into his eyes that had become ice cold and seemed to pierce into Jaime’s soul. He slowly shook his head, although he felt the question was rhetorical.
Julian spared a glance towards his family, pointing at them with the hand that held his still smoldering cigarette, “Because they know, if you did anything to hurt or take advantage of Dru, I would be the one to do something about it.”
The two were close enough at that point to be mistaken for lovers when Julian suddenly pounded a fist on Jaime’s chest and let go of his neck, as if he hadn’t just secured his place as the scariest person Jaime knew.
“I mean, just ask Dane Larkspear, right?”
He had backed away from Jaime now, his cigarette back in his mouth as he waited patiently for Jaime to respond.
Head clearing slightly, Jaime nodded his head emphatically, watching as Julian, seeming satisfied, put out what was left of the cigarette, walked back over, swinging the youngest Blackthorn over his shoulder when he reached a laughing Tavvy.
Jaime, coming out of his fear induced stupor stumbled over to his brother, who smiled at him knowingly before throwing him the ball as he took over for Emma.
As Emma made her way over to her favorite person, not including Christina because that felt unfair, she shook her head laughing at his faux innocent face.
“I can’t believe you,” she said softly, sinking down next to him in the sand where he was watching Tavvy run along the beach and collect shells.
“You can’t? I feel like I was calm.”
Emma cut him off, “Oh you know that is way scarier than if you just yelled at him.”
Julian smirked, “Maybe. But I wasn’t about to give Mark that satisfaction or humiliate Dru in front of everyone. This way worked out best for everyone.”
Scoffing, Emma linked her arm through his and leaned her head against his shoulder as they soaked in the ocean air and listened to the rest of their family around them.