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In the end, it’s agreed upon, after much deliberation, that Atlas and Henley would stay at the apartment with the kids that night.
Jack and Lula make a coy announcement that they’ve, quote, got some making up to do, which of course results in faux groans and gags all across the room. Merritt makes some sort of comment about needing to find a real drink and slinks out of the room, promising to return after his mission is accomplished.
They have all agreed to stay close. Whatever it is that Dylan is calling them to do, whatever trick they have to pull, they know it will be big.
But still, an exhaustion lingers in the air after the magnitude of a trick they just pulled, and even Atlas is having a hard time wrapping his head around it. The kids, as he has come to call them in his head, actually surprised him. J Daniel Atlas has not been surprised in a very very long time.
The scale of the trick, the size of the lie, was impressive, especially considering how young they were. Atlas still has questions, still has some plot holes he needs to fill, but the sheer amount of reunions and revelations over the past few days has left him needing a second to breathe.
Staying close means he and Henley agree to just spend the night at the apartment until they can find a more permanent place. Henley needs to get home to her husband and her kids, the ache that once surrounded those words finally fading after all these years. She’s already booked a flight online, but this time, there’s already a return flight booked back. Something about them being at summer camp or some program, Atlas had mostly zoned out by that point.
June offers Henley her room for the night, which she accepts after June promises she’ll still get plenty of sleep bunking with Charlie. For a second, Atlas wonders if there’s something more to that statement, but before the thought can travel fa,r Bosco shrugs and say,s “I am an incredibly light sleeper and these two snore like a freight train.”
It’s a familiar tease. Atlas can see how comfortable the three of them are around each other. He watches as June walks up to him, stands on her tiptoes, and kisses his cheek. “He’s lying,” she says, her arm around his waist, “he just never sleeps at all.”
Bosco pulls away in a fake protest. “I get at least a solid three.”
Charlie shakes his head. “Which is nowhere near the amount a normal and healthy human being should get.”
“Who said I’m normal?” Bosco asks at the same time June questions,“Who said he’s healthy?”
Atlas watches the exchange with a sense of nostalgia and jealousy. They remind him of how he used to be with the others before they split, before life became… complicated.
They give him blankets and a pillow, and soon he’s tossing and turning on the couch in the large apartment, trying to rationalize how exactly he ended up here.
He’s not sure how long he stays like that, eyes close,d yet brain going a hundred miles an hour, when he hears the faintest sound of movement. Someone is up, quietly opening a door and making their way to the kitchen.
Atlas automatically knows it’s not Henley, knows from their time together, even after all these years, that she’s anything but quiet when she wakes up, normally clumsy with sleep.
No, whoever this is moves in almost a ghost-like way, to a point where Atlas even wonders if he heard it in the first place.
It’s the opening of the fridge door that gets his attention, and slowly he finds himself sitting up.
Bosco stands in the kitchen, moving slowly and quietly. Atlas takes a second to just observe him. He seems… more deflated.
Although he can only see him from behind, there’s something about him that seems more relaxed than he’s ever seen the kid. For the first time Atlas imagines the kind of pressure that must have been on him for the past few days, not just worrying about committing the con that the Horsemen knew about but also operating a whole other trick on a whole other level. Atlas imagines how he would have handled that at his age and is amazed the kid isn’t passed out on his bed right now.
It’s then, as he wonders, that he hears it. The sharp intake of breath as he watches Bosco slowly pull up his shirt. Atlas barely holds back a noise of his own as he sees the trail of bruises covering his torso in the small light in the apartment. Atlas’s mind reels.
He thinks back to everything that has happened, thinks back to when the damage he currently sees on Bosco could have happened. He watches as Bosco slowly puts something cold from the fridge on a particularly bad spot and lets out a small sigh.
If he were less shocked, Atlas might have considered moving, but as it was, he stayed sitting up and watching as Bosco turned around and made accidental eye contact.
“Jesus, Atlas.” Bosco lets out immediately, dropping his shirt and standing up straight. “Do you make it a habit to creepily stare at guys in the dark without saying anything?”
Atlas recognizes a deflection when he sees one. He decides to ignore it. “How did you get those bruises?”
Bosco has the audacity to pretend to be confused. “What are you talking about?”
“The ones on your chest.” Atlas pauses. “And now that I can clearly see your hand, the one there too.”
Bosco immediately pulls his hand back. “I’m fine. Just a little banged up.”
“That doesn’t look like a little.”
Bosco gives him a small grin. “Trust me, it’s nothing I can’t handle.” He makes a move back to his room, but before he can get far, Atlas speaks again.
“If we’re going to be a part of a team, it means that we need to start telling each other the truth.”
Bosco turns slowly. “And when exactly have we not been honest with you over the past few days?” He deadpans.
“Well, starting now.”
“How convenient for you.”
They both stare at each other, each one refusing to budge. There must have been something in Atlas’ face that said he wasn’t going to cave because Bosco let out a sigh. “I was caught. Only for like a half hour, but still.”
Atlas goes rigid. “When?”
“After I created a distraction.”
He tilts his head. “And how exactly did you do that?”
There’s a sheepish yet entirely guilt-free grin that spreads across his face. “I stole one of the cars.”
Atlas squints his eyes at him. “You did what?”
“Unfortunately for me, it didn’t come with GPS, and I didn’t exactly know the area. Local police stopped me, and Veronika’s goons threw me in the back of a van.”
“And then what happened?”
Bosco shrugs. “They handcuffed me, threatened me a bit. They uh,” he rubs his hand along the back of his neck, for the first time in the conversation, looking the slightest bit uncomfortable, “they were not exactly happy with me at the moment. They were maybe a little rougher than was necessary.”
“And was this… was this a part of the plan?”
“Not really.”
“So do June and Charlie know about this?”
Bosco’s face turns stern. “No, and they won’t know about it. I still got out in time to finish the plan.”
“And how exactly did you escape?”
He shrugs. “I got out of the cuffs, beat up the guards, and left the van. Easy.”
Atlas raises his eyebrow at him. “You beat up the guards?”
He looks mildly offended. “I am useful, remember.”
Atlas doesn’t take the bait. “How did you pick the cuffs?”
“I didn’t… pick them per se…” He admits hesitantly.
Atlas gets it. “Oh. Hence, the uh,” he gestures to Bosco’s hand, the one he can clearly see looks bruised and in pain. Atlas doesn’t miss the way that Bosco hides it in his pajama pocket when he notices him looking at it.
“I did what I needed to do.”
“You should have told us.”
“Everyone got a little banged up.”
Atlas scoffed. “That’s not a little banged up. And it could have been a lot worse, that’s why I told you to be careful.”
Bosco narrowed his eyes at him. “Listen, I did what needed to be done, and it all worked out. Just drop it.”
“Taking unnecessary risks could get you killed out there.”
“I am very aware of the risks associated with what we pulled.” He snapped.
At this point, Atlas was standing, his posture getting more animated the angrier he got. “Listen, all I’m saying is that you need to be careful. We can’t have you getting hurt or getting arrested because you got cocky-“
“Got cocky?” Bosco questioned him. “You told me to make a distraction, I made a distraction.”
“Yeah, and you also got beaten up because of it.”
“I told you I beat them up.”
“So those bruises on your stomach, I’m just imagining them?”
“Look, man, it was a risk I took to make sure that my friends were protected, okay? It worked, so I don’t need you lecturing me on it.”
Atlas began to speak, but Bosco cut him off, “I also seem to remember that you also got caught by Veronika, too, right? Something about a big glass box slowly filling with sand? We knew the risks when we agreed to do it, so lay the fuck off.”
Atlas stared at him, priming up another response when the sound of footsteps made him stop.
June looked back and forth between the two of them, sleep still very present in her eyes. “What’s going on? I heard yelling.”
Bosco shoots Atlas a look and walks over to June, instantly standing slightly behind her. Atlas recognizes him hiding behind her, almost as if he were hiding from him. “Nothing, June, just Atlas and I having a conversation about something. It’s not important, let’s get you back to bed.” He places his hand on her shoulders to get her to move and immediately notices his mistake when her eyes land on the bruise on his hand. He tries to pull it away but she’s faster, grabbing his wrist and holding it there for her to look at.
“What happened to your hand?”
“Nothing, “ He says at the same time Atlas say,s “He dislocated his thumb getting out of handcuffs.”
June slowly turns to him, her gaze dangerous. “What?”
“He was caught,” Atlas explains, “by Veronika’s goons. And,” he adds almost as an afterthought, “he didn’t think to tell any of us.”
Atlas can see in the way that he straightens up and rears his shoulders back that he’s about to argue with him, but June sees it too. She places a tender hand on his chest to stop him, and the fight instantly leaves his eyes.
“Listen,” she says calmly, “go wake up Charlie, let him take a look at you. If it’s truly not that bad then you both can go back to bed and we’ll forget about it in the morning, okay?”
There’s something about the way that he listens to her, the way that he leans into her, that proves the comfort he feels around her. Atlas recognizes it from the way that he and Henley used to talk and that jealousy sparks in his head again. They used to be like that. They used to care about each other like that.
He chides himself. That care, that closeness is still there; they just have to work on it. A small yet hopeful voice rises from the back of his head, and now they have the chance to.
Bosco nods and, without a glance back at him, leaves in the direction of Charlie’s bedroom. June sighs and looks at Atlas. He puts his hands up in defense. “I was only trying to help.”
June sits down on the couch next to where he’s standing, and Atlas follows her lead and sits down next to her. Quiet, waiting.
He lets her speak first. “When you did your little,” she gestures with her hand, “reading us for filth bit back when you first came here.” Atlas refrains from commenting on her choice of words, instead choosing for once in his life to shut up. See, everyone, he was growing.
“You hit a lot of the main points.” She continued. “I did run away to,” she throws her hands up in air quotes, “stick it to the man. And Bos did go to Juilliard and did have to drop out, but… but you also missed a lot.”
She’s quiet, and Atlas softens his voice. “Do you want to tell me what I missed?”
She looks at him then, a sad look in her eye. “It’s not really my story to tell.”
“Then just tell me what I need to know so I can help him. So I can help all of you.”
She frowns then, a puzzled look on her face as she bites the corner of her bottom lip. A tell Atlas thinks absently.
“Bosco didn’t necessarily have a great childhood. His mom was… absent at best, and his dad was… well, let’s just say that Bosco has had practice in taking care of bruises.”
Atlas has to remind himself to keep his face neutral, even as he watches an anger come across her’s.
“To put it frankly, he’s a piece of shit, and nobody deserves that, especially not Bosco.” Atlas notices the way she plays with the hairtie on her wrist, another nervous tell. “Bosco learned how to hide, he learned how to escape, he learned how to fit in despite everything that he was going through at home. That’s really where he learned how to act. By the time he got to high school, theater became an escape for him.” She pauses, a smile coming across her face. “He applied to Juilliard. He never thought that he would actually get in, but he did.”
She turned to Atlas. “That’s the thing about Bosco. Nobody underestimates more than himself. He’s brilliant.” Almost as an afterthought, she adds, “Charlie and I keep trying to remind him of that.”
Atlas flashes back to the fight they had. The way Atlas goaded him, picking apart his contributions to the team. His response. “Don’t you dare. They’re not my friends, they’re my family. I don’t need to prove anything to them.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I think it’s working.” He adds quietly.
She nods. “He’s gotten a lot better, but you should have seen him before. He defied all the odds and got into Juilliard, at seventeen, mind you, but he still thought he was worthless. He could have gotten a full ride, too, but his parents refused to sign any of the paperwork. When he got to New York, he couldn’t even afford a meal to eat, let alone a place to stay. That’s where Chalie and I found him.”
She shudders at the memory. “He had been working all night at some crappy diner. He used to always get more tips by doing a stupid card trick.” They both smile. “Imagine Charlie and I’s surprise when he did it to us. We went to find him after the fact. Charlie could sense that he was holding back, that he was capable of more and wanted to see if he could recruit him to his little pipe dream revenge plot. When we found him out back of the diner, he was nearly passed out on the steps. He had worked himself so hard. Ever since then… well, Charlie and I take care of him because there’s no one else that will.”
Atlas took a second to absorb the information. He now considers the possibility that he may have been unfair to Bosco, might have judged him too harshly. He’s always doing that, putting his foot in his mouth and then tripping over it. June seems to read his mind.
“He doesn’t like people treating him differently because of it.” She says sternly. “It took him so long to open up to us because he doesn’t want that.”
“Want what?”
“The pity that’s on your face right now.” She takes in a breath. “Bosco has spent his whole life trying to rise above his circumstances, and he doesn’t want pity or apologies. He just wants to…. I don’t know, he just wants to prove that he’s strong and that he’s tough and that he’s worth it. So don’t… don’t treat him any differently. That’s not why I told you this. I just wanted you to understand and to…”
She pauses, but Atlas is pretty sure where she’s going with it. “You’re wrong, you know.”
She raises her head to look at him. “About what?”
“Well, you said before that there’s no one else to look out for him… but now you’ve got me. You’ve got me and Henley and Jack and Lula and a whole community of people who care about him.”
She lets out a chuckle. “Well, that’s nice to hear.”
“And we’re also here for you.” He adds. “You don’t have to carry these things alone.”
“I think we’ve given enough stories today, but I appreciate the thought.”
“Just leaving it out there.”
There’s a peaceful quiet between the two before June speaks, almost at a whisper. “Don’t mention this conversation to him. I’ll tell him I talked to you, but… he really looks up to you, and it might freak him out if you tell him.”
Atlas can’t help the smile that shows on his face. “He looks up to me, huh?”
“I thought that was pretty clear from the beginning.”
“No, no, it’s just always good to hear-”
“Alright, don’t let it get to your head.”
“What, me? I would never.”
They’re interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching, and Atlas looks up to see a disheveled and exhausted-looking Chalie in the doorway.
Atlas still really isn’t sure exactly how to feel about it. He is, larelgy, impressed by the trick Charlie pulled off. But he would also be lying if he said it didn’t bother him that he didn’t see it coming. Whether it was rust from not being in the game for so long, getting older, or just the unthinkable fact that there might be grifters out there better than him, Atlas hadn’t decided fully yet how he felt.
“He’s asleep.” He shrugs, “Well… he’s pouting and lying in bed. I’m not sure how much he ever really sleeps.”
Charlie flops on the spot next to June and immediately puts his head on her shoulder. “Pretty nasty bruise where he dislocated his thumb, some bruising on his chest. As depressing as it sounds I know he’s had worse. I just don’t get why he wouldn’t tell us. I thought we were past this.”
Atlas clears his throat. “I may have had something to do with it.”
Both June and Charlie turn towards him, Charlie slowly rising from his position on June’s shoulder. “What do you mean?”
Atlas has to mentally stop himself from shrinking from their glances. “I may have questioned a few times exactly what he contributes to the group. I also may have given him crap for taking unnecessary risks. If he was hiding it then that may have been on me.”
Charlie sighs. “Well, that was a dick thing to do.”
“Does it help if I say I am very aware of that now and will work on doing better?”
Charlie just stares at him, but thankfully, June puts her hand on Charlie’s knee and looks to him. “I told him. Not everything, but enough. I think he gets it now.”
“I do. More than you probably realize.” He still sees the doubt on their faces. “Listen, for better or for worse, we’re connected now. The three of you, the five of us, we’re in it for the long haul. There’s not a long list of people that I care about, but now you three are on it. I promise,” he makes sure to look them both in the eye, “I am looking out for you guys. If I come across as a jackass when I do it then that is just an unfortunate side effect of my winning personality.”
He earns a small chuckle from them at that.
“Still,” Charlie adds, “Bosco doesn’t need to hear people question his worth on this team. Knock that shit off.”
Atlas nods and raises his fingers. “Scouts honor.”
June scoffs. “Bullshit, you were ever in the scouts.”
Atlas does his best to appear offended. “You don’t know that.”
“I’m pretty sure I do.” She laughs.
Just like that, the mood lightens. Atlas feels a peace, a contentment in a way that he hasn’t felt in a very long time. Probably because this one is lined with hope and something he hasn’t felt since he gave up the Horsemen all those years ago, excitement.
“Listen,” He says to the two of them, “I don’t know what’s in store for us. I don’t know what the next trick is or how dangerous it will be. But know that I've got your back. No matter what.”
June beams at him. “Us too.”
Charlie nods beside her.
Atlas beams.
Bosco could be, technically, diagnosed as an insomniac. He often blames it on being a light sleeper, but that dones’t feel like enough. Bosco has temporarily considered renting a sensory deprivation tank so he can get a few hours of uninterrupted silence, but the thought quickly goes away at the thought of being alone in a tiny container by himself.
Being roommates with two young magicians in New York makes for a very noisy existence. Whether it’s the sound of June and Charlie fighting, talking, laughing, or, in more cases than one, snoring so loud he can hear them from behind his closed door, there’s often some noise. When the two of them are blissfully silent, it’s the sound of the city that keeps him awake. It’s also the fear, the fear that someone will find the apartment, the fear the police will track them down, the fear he’ll mess up some part of the trick and put his friends in jeopardy, the fear that his dad will-
He can’t sleep with the constant noise, but he also doesn’t want to live without it. Any time he feels his thoughts spiral, he’ll tune into the noise of the apartment.
This morning, however, there are new noises… and smells. He can’t pinpoint what exactly pulls him from the restless sleep he was getting, but when he tunes in, he notices a lot of things. One, the smell of pancakes cooking. That was a new one. June and Charlie both weren’t breakfast people, and Bosco just followed a life principle of eating whenever he was hungry, which often meant at two or three in the morning.
The second thing unnatural was the sound of laughter. Laughter between the three of them was common, but this was laughter he wasn’t yet familiar with. After a second, he could place them.
J Daniel Atlas was laughing in his kitchen. God, what had his life become? He could hear Henley and Merrit as well, and he took a second to marvel at it.
Three of the Four Horsemen were in his kitchen right now. They were now actually a part of The Eye, a secret association of magicians.
The thought immediately comes to his head, if only his dad could see him now. He feels his mood souring, feels the thoughts churning, feels some sort of pull down -
And almost as if they can sense it, June and Charlie throw open his door, “Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” June yells.
“Don’t even try to pretend because as much as we would love for you to get a good night's sleep, we know for a fact you are wide awake right now.”
He slowly opens his eyes and sees the two of them standing over him, each with their own ridiculous smiles on their face.
“And why are you two so happy?”
June jumps on his bed. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe because the trick we’ve been planning for two years worked and now we’re official members of The Eye.”
Charlie jumps in next to him on his other side. “Victory feels good.”
Bosco turns to him. “Aren’t you like… super rich now?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll still remember you.” He immediately chides. “You know, when I’m bathing in pools of money.”
June reaches over Bosco to slap Charlie’s arm. “No, we’re giving it all away, remember? We hate the rich.”
Charlie mocks, putting a hand to his face. “Oh, right! I totally forgot about that part. So,” he turns to Bosco, “unfortunately, still poor.”
“Isn’t the whole point of our Robin Hood act to give to the poor? Which we currently are.”
June makes a face. “I don’t know if it works that way.”
“All I’m saying is enough to actually live in an apartment that doesn’t have to be covered by a tarp.”
“I don’t know,” June says, moving her arms, “it’s got a certain… charm to it.”
“Squatting chic?” Charlie asks.
June tsks at him. “That’s exactly right.”
Bosco turns his head from left to right to look at both of them. “Is there a reason you two are in here that is not just to disturb my peace?”
“Baby, we both know you haven’t had a moment of peace in your entire life.” June chides.
“It’s all dark and brooding up there in that head of yours,” Charlie adds.
“Okay, you know what, I quit, how bout that?”
“You can’t quit,” June replies. “You signed a contract.”
Bosco raises an eyebrow. “A contract?”
“A friendship contract,” Charlie adds. “Signed in blood.”
Bosco squints at him. “I must have forgotten that.”
June leans into his ear. “We did it while you were asleep.”
Bosco sighs. “The two of you are freaks.”
June hugs him, and across Bosco, Chalie does the same, wrapping him up entirely. “You know you love us.”
“Right now I just feel squished by you.”
There’s a yell from the kitchen letting them know that something is ready, and the three of them sit up. Bosco can’t help the small groan at the motion, and June and Charlie both look at him.
“Seriously,” he says with a fondness even he can’t hide, “I’m okay.”
June tenderly places a hand on his leg. “You need to tell us when you’re not.”
Charlie nods. “We can’t help if we don’t know.”
Bosco looks down, overwhelmed by their care. “I know. I promise.”
June nudges him. “So how are you feeling now?”
Bosco stretches a bit, testing the bruises. “Sore. My hand hurts.” He puts it out in front of him, the brace Charlie forced him to wear last night still on. “But better. Seriously, nothing feels super bad.”
“And you would tell us if it did?” Charlie asks without any accusation.
“I would. Promise.”
June and Charlie both nod and get up from the bed. “I’m going to go help one of them before they burn down our 'squatting chic' apartment.”
June makes her way out of the room, a movement that Bosco suspects was planned. Charlie turns to him, confirming it.
“You know that just because everyone knows I’m a Vanderberg doesn’t change anything about the three of us, right?”
Bosco looks at him sideways. “You mean you’re not going to go all powerful and corrupt Lex Luthor on us?”
“I think it’s safe to say I’ve got at least a few years left before that happens.”
The two sit in comfortable silence on the edge of the bed. “Seriously,” Charlie adds. “This changes nothing. Except for the fact,” he points to the kitchen, “that now there are Horsemen in our kitchen and we now belong to a super secret ancient society of magicians. That might be a little different.”
“Yeah,” Bosco scoffs, “except for that.”
Charlie turns to him, a fierceness in his eyes. “I would never, ever leave you or June behind. I don’t care what my last name is; you two are my family.”
Bosco looks down at his hands. “I know that. Really, I know that. But,” he adds quietly, “it might be nice to be reminded of that every once and a while.”
Charlie loops his arm around his neck. “I don’t mind reminding you.”
Later, when they’re in the kitchen eating pancakes and sharing stories, Atlas will notice the change in Bosco. He’ll notice the relaxedness of his posture, the way he seems to radiate with a peace and an ease. He’ll notice the brace on his hand, the gentleness of the way June and Charlie move around him, but he’ll see a love in it.
When Merrit and Jack and Lula walk in, red in the face and cheeks hurting from smiling, he’ll take a second to absorb it all. The feeling of being in a family again.
He knows now that it was worth it, those ten years. He often wondered if he would ever get that feeling back, the absolute high when a trick goes right and the crowds cheer his name. He searched for it in other ways during their hiatus, and eventually came to the conclusion that nothing would ever come close, that there was nothing to replace that joy.
But now, in this kitchen, in this place… he thinks maybe this might just beat it.