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"You should call him," he tells Midnight, but quiets when Aidan asks about Kimi, hiding the fact that he's listening behind his coffee cup.
Kai doesn't look any of them when he replies, his lips quirking into an involuntary smile, one that is very, very ingenuine. "I haven't heard from him," he says simply. "He doesn't call." Ever. And Kai knows the reason for it too. It's him. And his stupid, big mouth.
"I'll take some flowers to the grave tomorrow," Kai says to Aidan and leans in to kiss his shoulder to let him know that he's okay.
"No."
It's not a sharp response or even hasty, but there's a firmness to Ulysse's soft voice that suggests Sean shouldn't push the matter. He refuses to ask Midnight or Arie for more when they've already had to do so much just to get him sorted this far.
He looks through the fridge and tugs out a beer, uncapping it and sending it sliding down the bar to Sean's hand before getting one of his own. "I'll figure something out. Don't worry about it."
He shrugs. "I called my brothers," he says simply. Of course he did. And he knows a little bit of what's going on, because Midnight is a tattletale. Which is why he hasn't put a time frame on it, he'll stay as long as Ulysse needs him to.
"Did you?" he asks then, rather directly, peering at Kimi with two dark eyes that have never shied away from putting the proverbial cat on the table.
Despil's nose twitches at this and he peers at Arie over the menu, eyes squinting a little. His hand finds a way to Kimi's thigh under the table and squeezes firmly.
"Why?" he asks almost like the question had been directed at him. "So they can organise a welcome party? As much as I like simpering idolisation, I'd rather save the red carpet welcome for another visit."
He chucks away his mask and gloves, taking out his clock card as he looks at Jay from the door without stepping into the office.
"You win. You have two fucking seconds to come out of there. I'll buy you a hotdog and then you're gone."
Anyone else in the whole fucking wide world and Rook would have probably dragged their face across some of the nicely rough cement around the construction site.
"I'll come with you before work," Aidan answers, squeezing Kai's knee and leaving his hand there as he slowly digs into the breakfast-dinner. He doesn't like Kai going to visit the grave alone if he can help it. It had taken so much to make sure the man didn't just completely self-destruct after his mother's passing, and while Aidan's certain Kai's not about to go off the deep end again, he doesn't need to go through difficult things all on his own, right?
Dark eyes linger over Kai's face as Midnight distantly answers Grey. "I did... Ulysse is letting him take one of the extra rooms upstairs at the bar..."
He knows his brothers and how they will sort their issues out to be at ease (mostly) when together, but Kai and Kimi worry him. Especially given how long it's been since Kimi actually stayed in town...
Sean, as good as he is reading people, doesn't know Ulysse will lie to his very face to get out of the situation without hesitation. He does know the brothers are always at each others faces and there's some tension there, but they seem more than eager to help each other out.
Kimi pretends not to hear the question directed at him, quietly grateful for Despil's little deflection as he purses his lips while reading the menu. His hand settles on top of Despil's at his thigh, silently encouraging it to stay right there.
"You probably can't swap places with Damian to fool your family into thinking it's just him around town," Kimi jokes. "Midnight said he's gotten pretty buff while you've been slacking on the road, babe."
Holding his hands up in peaceful surrender, Jay strolls out to meet Rook, asking drily, "What, no hug for your precious baby brother after he spent the past few months making sure you weren't dead in a pauper's grave somewhere?"
He doesn't stop for that hug, either, and just keeps walking, silently demanding Rook follow. "No hotdog. There's a place at the next block with some decent Cubanos."
Ulysse just doesn't like sharing his problems with all the world. He doesn't even like doing so with his brothers when he can help it, really, but Arie and Midnight don't often let him avoid them. He already knows he's likely to have his hands full once Arie's back, but he doesn't want to have a headache already over it.
"If it gets to a point I can't handle it, I'll ask," Ulysse answers in his roundabout way which allows him to neither lie nor tell the truth. Then he smiles a bit and glances up at the roof with all its patches from the warning shots he's had to take. "At least with how the weather's turning, those holes are more a welcome added ventilation..."
Grey hums under his breath again, noting the troubled look in Midnight's eyes while he looks at Kai. That's an issue he hopes Midnight will leave be as it is. The brothers can be vicious when dealing with each other, but even more so if someone else gets involved.
"You think he'll perform for us this time?" he asks his lover. Distraction is the name of this game. "It's been a while since we've heard his cawing in this town."
However, the mention of Despil's brother clears those thoughts out of his head and something else replaces them. Something that tingles at the bottom of his stomach. It's fucking ridiculous, isn't it?
"Little Damian, all grown up?" he asks with a small, sharp smile.
"Ain't so little anymore," Despil laughs, his hand curling around Kimi's thigh more securely, sliding under it to hold it while they sit there, his thigh against Kimi's, warmth shared without a word. "I would also have to learn how to smile like a doofus most of the time," he huffs. "You better stay out of his pants this time." The last one is directed at Arie, who has no idea how much damage he does by just breathing.
"Hey, you get your grimy paws out of my business," Arie grins but then waves a hand at Despil because he's not in the mood to have a cat fight and there are only so very few things Despil will bother making a fuss about, his twin being one of them. "Listen, it's been years. He probably has a nice girl- or boyfriend and all this fretting on your part is so pointless."
"Why were you looking for me?" he asks as they fall into step beside each other. "Something wrong?"
"Well, however things turn out," he says as he swigs the beer inside the bottle, from one side to the other, again and again. "You have my number. And you know I'll be here as quickly as I can. Whatever little help it is."
It's an effective distraction, and one that Aidan catches and gives Grey a small, grateful little smile for. He tries not to butt in too much on Kai's issues with Kimi unless invited to, and he doesn't want to agitate his lover by having everyone else meddling, too.
Midnight wrinkles his nose at Grey's words and gives a light 'kick' to the big man's ankle, huffing, "That 'cawing' has topped billboard charts, okay. Show some respect." Then, he admits with a little laugh, "But yeah, I think he's going to perform a bit. Might be trying to get Damian to join him, probably..."
Kimi knows otherwise, but he also knows better than to say as much because everyone in their friend's circle knows that Arie and Damian have been sniffing around each other for years at this point, but one bristles at it being brought up while the other clams up in a fluster. "You'll have to ask him when you see him, then," he suggests with a shrug. "We ready to order?"
"I liked his last single," he says with a grin. "It's a banger. Ulysse didn't say he was coming, though. It'll be good to see him."
Grey's lips quirk into a quicksilver smile as he's kicked under the table. He flips one of Midnight's curls with his finger as he smirks into his coffee.
"Maybe people like cawing," he murmurs. Midnight is adorable, fiercely defending his brothers.
He says nothing, but instead lifts a hand to attract the attention of a waitress.
Once that business is handled and they're alone again, Arie leans back in his chair. A change of topic seems to be in order.
"So what have you two been up to? Not even a phonecall all this time."
"I heard family is meant to stick together," Jay answers, hands tucked in his pockets as they walk side-by-side. Just two lanky guys walking down the street, completely harmless and normal-looking. "And like I said, I was expecting to find your corpse washing up somewhere. Good to know that wasn't the case after all."
It's also good to see that Rook hasn't been starving, he's obviously got some place with access to running water, being clean under the build-up of working in construction for the day. All little things that point to him not being half a step away from the gutter.
And yet...
They stop at the street light and Jay finally looks to his brother, frowning a bit as he asks, "What the hell are you doing here, Rook? Construction work? You?"
It's times like this when Ulysse quietly wonders why he couldn't have just stuck with Sean. He would have been happy and safe with Sean for sure, and they would have eagerly provided for each other. But something was just not quite right between them, and it's a crying shame in moments like this when Ulysse is reminded just how good a man Sean is.
He smiles privately and gives a little salute with his bottle. "Thanks. I'll keep it in mind."
"No 'maybes' about it, mister," Midnight retorts, sticking out his tongue for good measure with good humour as he digs into his pancakes. "But it's just as well he's coming by for some downtime now while he's still not a superstar celebrity everyone and their grandma knows. At least this way he'll get to relax a bit, too."
"And with both his brothers in place," Aidan points out, thumb absently stroking little circles over the side of Kai's knee. "We should have a welcoming party for him. Maybe a barbeque at the pier...?" he trails off, glancing towards Grey to see what the eldest thinks of all this.
"We've just been driving around," Kimi snorts, slouching back in his seat as he grins at Arie. "Running from Despil's stalkers. Running from my stalkers." Their families just refuse to quit, don't they? "Finding work where we can to earn an honest living. You know how it goes."
And for all the bumps and bruises, Kimi's loving this. It's the most free he's been, and he's had Despil all the way. If it weren't for the business with his mother and Kai, he would say the past couple of years have been the happiest of his life.
But hopefully he and Kai are going to be able to work through the nastiness that had been opened up between them with the death... At least, that's what he's hoping in agreeing to go back home with Despil.
It doesn't even occur to him that Jay might have wanted to offer him some comfort because he doesn't need that and he doesn't deserve it.
The blip blip sound that comes out of the traffic lights goes off several times before he answers the question about what he's doing here, though.
"It's work. The hell do you care what I do? They don't care what my work history is and salary comes in cash every fucking Friday." He has no intentions of leaving a record mark of himself anywhere, so being paid off the books is what he wants.
"Well, at least you'll call when you feel like fooling around," he says with a small grin, teasing a bit. He could say Ulysse should call him and they could go out for dinner or something like that. But he doesn't. Because that card they've already played and seen, it's not going to happen, and they're both cool with that.
He doesn't expect an answer to that, instead he gives his brother a glance and nods quietly. He's not exactly eager to get a million people at his backyard but he can see as well that some downtime might be beneficial.
"Make it brunch," Kai suggests mildly after swallowing a mouthful of pancakes. "Late enough that night shift workers can have a bit of sleep and doesn't come in the way of weekend rush at the bar." Since he imagines that the aim is to get all brothers involved and he's never seen Ulysse take a night off for anything.
Then he leans in to press a kiss to Aidan's cheek and winks at him. "That includes you, babe."
"Because if you're gonna stick with this sort of labour, it'll drive you mad with boredom."
And Jay's not using that as a turn of phrase, he genuinely does think Rook will snap some day if he continues with this sort of work.
"You don't do well with mundane work. Besides, it's a waste of your talent, especially after all these years you put into training yourself to be who you are," Jay huffs. "But here you are, throwing all that away over an accident."
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