“What’d I tell you about Declan, bratling?”the man asked.He scooped Dulce into his arms, tickling her until she squealed, before tossing her onto the couch.“Let the poor man be.”
“We were justtalking.”Dulce objected, still laughing.
“Sure you were.”Antonio flashed Declan an apologetic smile that burned through Declan’s quiet sadness as the sun through fog.“Sorry about that.Claudia drives a friggin Jeep.My sisters were supposed to keep you company”
His voice lifted on the last sentence, an accusation intended to carry to the kitchen.Declan grinned at him, almost entirely genuine this go about, gone soft watching the tickle attack.He stood with a slight, dismissive wave, head shaking.
“Dulce was a perfectly lovely hostess.She pointed your photos out for me.”
Declan drifted closer to Antonio as Dulcebeamedat the compliment.Antonio curled his warm hand around Declan’s arm.Squeezed, gratitude bright through their bond.
“You did, huh?”Antonio asked her.Dulce nodded, still bright eyed and mid-giggle.
“Oh, aye,” Declan said with a soft laugh of his own.“You’ll need to fill me in on the flaws of jeeps, however.I’m afraid my knowledge of them is limited to ‘they lack doors.’”
“Oh, you don’t want to get him on that rant,” Claudia called from where she crossed the living room toward the kitchen.“My car isfine.”
“Yeah?Then why are you always having me fix it?”Antonio grinned at Declan, then glanced at the clock.“Tell Ang’ that we’ve gotta head out soon.”
“Can I come?”Dulce asked.“We can sleep over.”
Antonio sighed and tweaked one of her curls.“Sorry, brat.Not tonight.Declan lives sorta far away.I gotta drop him off first.”
“He could sleep over too,” Dulce countered.Precocious wee thing.Declan liked her.
“Men don’t have sleepovers with other men, Dulce,” the shitehawk Michael corrected, filtering into the room with Angela and Elaine.Declan eyed him sidelong.“That’d be dirty.”
Seeing Michael take an elbow to the ribs from Angela did little to soothe Declan.Elaine frowned at Michael and Dulce, Declan’s favorite, glanced between the adults, puzzled.
“Tio Tio isn’tdirty,” Dulce objected, finally, into the sudden, awkward silence.“It’s the engines.They leave stains.”
Oh, aye, Declan liked Dulce very much.
“Yeah, bratling.They do.”Antonio kept his attention, very deliberately, on his niece.
“I won’t have you influencing the girls with yourhabits,”Michael spat, with the confidence of a man who knew he’d not be thrown out of the house for his words.Who knew that Antonio, too often discarded, his agency stripped, didn’t have that luxury.
Antonio just shook his head.“Pick your friggin moments, Mikey.”
Silence again, from the sisters.And Declan refused to thinkif a fascist and six people eat together at a table, what do you have?
“I don’t think pillowfights are catching, Mikey.”Declan smiled at Michael, bringing his own pretty manners to the fore.“And thankfully, showers exist, which I’m sure is a relief to you and all other interested parties.”
Antonio snickered, shifting his weight to be that much closer to Declan.Michael looked as if he were about to choke on his tongue, flushed red.And Elaine, now Declan’s favorite of the sisters, smirked, for all that she didn’t speak up.
After a beat of silence, Declan turned to Dulce and added, “I must be at home early, otherwise I would be delighted.”
“Which is why we need to jet.”Antonio reached to ruffle Dulce’s curls, but his eyes, Declan noted with delight, were on Michael.“Gotta tuck Declan in before his bedtime so he’s not grouchy in the morning.”
Michael said nothing still.A good choice on his end, and disappointing for Declan’s sharper side.Declan smirked at him and winked, when the human made the mistake of glancing in his direction.
“I guess,” Dulce conceded, looking to Declan.“You’ll come back again, right?”
“Yes,” Angela put in, sounding choked.“Of course.We’d love to have you.Really.”
“I’ll do my very best to keep from annoying Tio Tio into not bringing me about.It was very nice speaking with you, Dulce.”She beamed again.Declan looked back to the sisters, the ones he could see.His early minders hadn’t raised him without proper manners.“It’s been lovely meeting you.I can see why Antonio cares so much for his family.”
The worst part was, hecould.They loved Antonio, and he them.Declan knew what it was to love and be loved by those who never truly understood, who might love you a little better if only you weren’t how you were made.
