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he hadn’t expected that answer, and it made his heart sink. his brow furrowed at such little information. he needed more.[break][break]

as a former enforcer, his fears crept in like all of the memories he had tried to forget. he had been the fist of punishment, often to those undeserving. family matters were messy when it came to betrayal in rocket.[break][break]

”when’s the last time you talked to him?like actually heard his voice or seen him, i mean.”[break][break]

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the length of her pondering drove up his anxiety. his smile didn’t fall, but there was no hiding in his eyes the cloud of worry that began to creep through the sunshine.[break][break]

please be fucking with me.[break][break]

his gaze narrowed a little as he tried to decide which it was. there was a moment of chewing, staring, and trying his best to read her.[break][break]

finally, he dared to hint, ”maybe he doesn’t care if it’s a rebound… but he really hopes it isn’t.”[break][break]

it could be cute, or entirely the wrong to say. it was like him to take the chance, and so despite wavering confidence, he went with his gut.[break][break]

”just a guess.”[break]

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”shit. not the knees.” not eleanor kicking his ass.[break][break]

he wasn’t totally joking about not wearing her father’s pants. all this time, he’d been bitter and angry at samuel. now that he was back with the dead man’s daughter, he felt like he should be more respectful.[break][break]

he still needed pants, though, so maybe he would just have to get over it.[break][break]

”we drank his whiskey. don’t put that all on me.”[break][break]

his smile grew as she prepared to scale the counter like a pokémon investigating the canopy. was this an independence thing?[break][break]

roman truly was an asshole.[break][break]

”need some help there?”

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he probably would have died. she had casually saved his life, and surely it was not the first time.[break][break]

news that lance was who she’d been texting drew a smirk he could not hide. she was looking at the flowers, too, probably thinking about how lance never got her any.[break][break]

he agreed whole-heartedly that he had absolutely not been there at the wrong time, although it would be rude to say so. it was fate that had placed him in that living room with a too-small towel, just as destiny had vomited on his shirt the night prior. never mind the text. texts knew no such divine power. barely a nudge to the universe. lance had arrived because he had been meant to see.[break][break]

bo took another bite of pizza, keeping most of his thoughts to himself.[break][break]

”so… that means you’re back on the market then, right?”[break]

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“yeah,” bo agreed, and left it at that. he’d said all he’d needed to with a fist before that words could never. it was in the past now, and he couldn’t be more grateful to leave those searing thoughts behind him. with enemies silenced by the walls of home, he could finally feel peace.[break][break]

but wait. there was one more he’d forgotten about.[break][break]

her father’s soul lived here.[break][break]

”ooh...” he considered her suggestion a moment, looking down the hall as though a ghost might be lingering. they were all over hoenn, after all. ”i don’t know about that, will. samuel might rise from the grave just to kick my ass.”[break]

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was he a romantic? he had never thought of himself that way. he’d just thought of himself as lonely. dumb, even, for being unable to move on. stuck.[break][break]

but he could not change it about himself. now, he was glad he hadn’t been able to. the wait had been worth it.[break][break]

the pizza had cooled enough to eat, he noted, as she dug in. perhaps shockingly, he didn’t touch it just yet. his eyes were on her as she apologized. why?[break][break]

”nah, don’t be. sorry for bein’ there at the wrong time.” he paused, smile creeping up at one corner again. ”still glad you decided to take me home.” if she hadn’t, he might’ve ended up sleeping in someone’s front yard.[break][break]

he took a slice of the best pizza in town, stomach growling ravenously. it tasted like old days and high school.
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bo shook his head. ”disrespectful.” as though standing there in a towel smiling at lance had not been. perhaps they were all terrible people.[break][break]

but they would be terrible people together, as a family.[break][break]

as roman left, bo’s attention returned to her. he couldn’t keep from smiling at the pink in her cheeks. it felt good to see her recover so quickly, only to have the heat return to her face over his bare shoulders. he still had it.[break][break]

”oh…” he bit his lip, tentative to admit, ”i’m great. is that bad to say?”[break][break]

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”i’m glad to see you alive and doing well for yourself.” he nodded, ”you proved you could do it on your own.”[break][break]

sincere praise, but the soberness of his tone was still tired of facing the repercussions of a past he had carefully covered up. his efforts were a pile of leaves, blown away by someone he could not stay mad at.[break][break]

his thoughts shifted to cian's twin ghost, and their father, then, whom he had been waiting out a silent grudge towards. he imagined it would never end, for surely rocket had ordered him to kill them both.[break][break]

little did he know.[break][break]

”have you heard from caden?”[break][break]

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bo noticed the change, even without glancing over. he could hear it in the notes of greyson’s voice. even when he was focused on the next job, and how long it might take and when his own day might start, he noticed because he was self-conscious as fuck.[break][break]

of course it didn’t have anything to do with his retirement.[break][break]

”sure. do what you do, man. it's bo, by the way.”[break][break]

thinking of willow, then, he realized that greyson had perhaps expected her to be there to help him. this was her job, and for whatever reason, she wasn’t there to do it.[break][break]

he turned, finally, hands sliding off his hips.[break][break]

”you want any help? i don’t know much about beekeeping, but… i got hands.”[break][break]

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boruta loved his npc son. he deserved a slap in the mouth, maybe–but not by him. his hand was feeding pizza. from the slice, to be exact.[break][break]

hearing the front door shut, he took his cue to go in through the back, hair sufficiently puffed by the humid air and a glow about his face. as he stood in the kitchen, still robed in small-person-size-towel, he called down the hall, ”you’re an asshole, roman.”[break][break]

because yes, of course he’d been listening. ready.[break][break]

”you okay, will?”[break][break]

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a fair reaction, maybe, but it had been about so much more than being in the spotlight. it had been the danger that broadcast had put them all in.[break][break]

cian’s assumption was enough to fracture his smile. his hand fell away, as did his gaze which landed idly in the distance on willow atkins ’s grazing mudsdale.[break][break]

”there have been plenty of issues, but everyone is okay.” for now.[break][break]

”i always wanted you out of that situation, just so you know. i wanted to take you with me when i left–and cayden–but dad already hated me enough for leaving. said i was breaking up the family, and ‘what would mom think?’ all that shit.”[break][break]

he shook his head, kicking himself for believing his father's manipulative tricks for so long.[break][break]

"i was never mad at you for leaving them. i just wish you would have let me help you.”

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bo had been taking care of those chores since shortly after the break of dawn, precisely when loud mouths demanded to be fed. a farm did not simply sleep through the morning. by now, it had been hours since a too-light breakfast and the sun looked like lunchtime.[break][break]

the voice that came around the corner was familiar enough, although it had been a while since he'd seen greyson for more than a few seconds. bo kept busy, almost avoidant of the league in his retirement.[break][break]

”nope. haven’t seen her all morning. must be at the flower shop or something.”

he stood with dirty hands on his hips and sweat slicking the edges of his hair against the creases of his forehead, squinting through the glare of high noon.[break][break]

”you doin’ beekeeper stuff?”

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”vollans.”[break][break]

color him surprised for some reason. he stood there, and his smile was a little tight, as though it was holding back more amusement than it let on. his eyes, however, were practically aglow with it.

it was a combination of riding off the high of being with his love again, and being so miserably hungover that he could barely see straight, much less give a fuck.[break][break]

”i’m just here for pancakes, man.”[break][break]

bare legs strode with a brazen casualness, across the floor and on past willow, into the next room.[break][break]

”if anyone needs me, i’ll be in the backyard air drying.”[break][break]

soon the door opened, and before it swung shut behind him, his muffled voice lingered just loud enough, ”small fish catchin’ ass.”[break][break]

he didn’t go far, lingering close to the door so that any raised voices or other nonsense would easily reach his ears.