Chapter 10

(Dion)

Explain it to me like I'm a six-year-old

"So, when do you think you and I can get a little alone time that doesn't involve clipboards and visits to every business owner in the community," Dion asked as he pressed his front to Angel's back, trapping him against the sink.

"When all of my roommates go on vacation at the exact same time or you get your own apartment and stop camping out here at Bella's," Angel replied as he plucked another dish from the soapy water and began washing it.

Never one to see anyone else working and not pitch in, Dion grabbed a glass and started cleaning it with a dish wand.

"Okay, so maybe I didn't think that question all the way through," Dion admitted.

"Maybe?"

Chuckling, Dion rinsed the glass, managing to spray Angel in the process.

"You did that on purpose," Angel declared.

"Perhaps."

When Angel nodded, Dion should have known that wasn't going to be the end of it or at least been on guard for Angel's retaliation, but no, he was caught flat footed and sputtering when Angel mushed a handful of bubbles in his face.

Giggling, Angel finished washing the dish he'd been working on, rinsed it and placed it in the rack to dry. "Now I definitely did that on purpose."

"I see. Then I suppose the appropriate response would be…" Dion began, thinking he was being sneaky as he turned the hose towards Angel only to have him divert the spray right into Dion's face when he turned it on.

The blast startled him and left him staggering backward, blind and swatting at the stream of water Angel tried to drown him with.

"Oh, you two better not be doing what I think your…ack! Angel! Oh my god! I'm going to get you for this!"

Gasping, laughing and catching a second burst of water to the side of the head, Dion could only imagine what his sister walked into and wished he'd have been able to see the look on her face when Angel blasted her, or better still, been at a safe distance to photograph and film it. Fumbling, he groped around searching for a dishtowel, only to grab a handful of skintight jeans and a taunt thigh that caused Angel to yelp. A little to the left and that yelp turned into a groan before something soft hit him on the side of face.

"There! There's a damned dish towel, now can you not grope my best friend in my kitchen, please," Bella said, foot squelching when she stomped it on her once pristine floor.

Dion managed to wipe the water from his eyes in time to see her pinch the bridge of her nose and shake her head at them.

"And you're supposed to be the mature one," Bella grumbled, wagging a finger at him.

"No, I'm the older one. No one ever said anything about maturity."

"And it's a good thing too because this mess looks like something a couple teenagers would do, not a forty-year-old man and a…"

"Ach, don't even think about it, sister," Angel said, wagging a finger right back.

"Oh, so you'll put his dick in your mouth, but you don't want me to tell him how old you are?" Bella protested.

"It wasn't in my mouth when you walked in, I was just eyeing it close enough that I could count the rings, you know, like trying to calculate the age on a tree," Angel shot back, giggling in between bursts of words. "I was close, I spotted forty-two."

"Neither of you two is funny," Dion said.

"Neither is this mess," Bella replied, though her laughter said otherwise, despite how hard she tried to reign it in. "Now, I'm going up the street to the store since one of us…"

"You," Angel interrupted.

"Forgot to pick up ice cream and sundae toppings on the way home," Bella declared as she pressed the heels of her palms to her face and groaned. "Give me strength."

"You wouldn't need it if you'd remembered the ice cream," Dion offered, earning a glare from her.

He could tell by the way she drummed her nails against the leg of her jeans that she was counting and waiting out the wisecracks in the hopes they let her finish her thought. Angel's eyes twinkled with mischief though, and Dion couldn't begin to fathom what he was about to say next.

Huffing, Bella narrowed her eyes at them. "Out of the graciousness of my heart, I'm going to go out and get dessert. I expect my floor to have been returned to its previous condition by the time I get back or there will be no ice cream or toppings for either of you."

"Yes, mom," Dion snarked.

With a narrow-eyed glare, she flipped him off as she turned to leave the kitchen before calling back over her shoulder. "And don't you dare fuck in there either. I do not want to picture anyone's ass on my counter when I come in here to poach my eggs."

"Too late. You might as well accept that the image is now permanently burned into your brain. From now on, that's the only thing you'll see the moment you step through the doorway. Bare ass and egg whites churning in boiling water."

"I hate you so hard right now," Bella grumbled as she snatched her purse off the chair and left still muttering beneath her breath.

Turning towards Angel, Dion shrugged. "Was it something I said?"

"Don't be surprised if she comes back here with your least favorite ice cream," Angel warned.

Dion sucked in a breath, weighing the odds and realizing he'd just put his future dessert in jeopardy. "It's what you would do, isn't it?"

"Yup."

"Remind me not to piss you off."

"I will," Angel murmured, sliding into his space and smirking up at him. "But only after I've exacted my revenge first."

Laughing, Dion tugged him in for a kiss, the faintest hint of strawberries and peaches still clinging to Angel's lips. The way they melted together, Dion had never experienced something so easy and natural. All the awkwardness of getting to know one another had been avoided, thanks to years of video encounters. In its place was a friendship with off the wall heat, the man in his arms making his blood smolder as the kiss deepened and Angel pressed him back against the counter and pinned him there.

"How long do you think it will take her to get ice cream?" Dion murmured against Angel's lips.

"Well, you're her brother, so I know she knows how you operate, and she knows I'm absolutely shameless, so she'll at least leave us alone long enough for you to pin me to the bed after we've cleaned up our mess."

"In that case, you finish the dishes and I'll take care of the floor," Dion said as he reached for a roll of paper towels.

Was a good thing they were getting naked, because the front of Angel's crop top was clinging to him by the time he'd placed the last glass in the drying rack and wiped down the sink. Those sky-blue skinny jeans hadn't been spared either, nor did they leave anything to the imagination when it came to the swelling behind the zipper.

He was going to have so much fun peeling them off Angel and nibbling that enticing expanse of abs he'd been teasing Dion with all day. Was as if the little menace knew it too, with the way he moved like he was dancing to the beat of a song only he could hear. Those hips swayed as he headed for the doorway, but it was that sinful smirk he tossed back at him that propelled Dion into action. He scooped him up and tossed him over his shoulder, one hand on Angel's behind as he carried him through the doorway and into the spare bedroom just as the phone in his back pocket began to vibrate. The motion was accompanied by a Highway to Hell ringtone.

"Please tell me you can ignore that," Dion groaned as he paused at the foot of the bed, Angel still over his shoulder, that tempting rear firm beneath Dion's hand.

"Sorry," Angel said, wiggling to be put down, so Dion complied, reluctantly and only after delivering a sound smack that left Angel rubbing it once his feet were on the floor.

"What's going on?" Angel asked the moment he'd swiped up to answer the call.

Dion couldn't hear the answer, but he could see the look on Angel's face, and he didn't look happy. In fact, the longer the call went on, the more Angel just looked pissed. When he started pacing, Dion got the hell out of the way so he didn't get run over by the furious freight train the man was rapidly morphing into.

"Okay, okay, I hear you and I'm on my way," Angel said. "Just don't do anything stupid before I get there."

A pause and Dion sidestepped again, because now Angel was headed back towards him and the doorway that Dion barely cleared before Angel rushed through. He headed straight for the shoe cubby by the door while Dion groaned and leaned against the wall, balls already beginning to ache from the relief they wouldn't be getting.

"Don't give me that bullshit about no promises, no one has any fuckin' money to bail your ass back out of jail again."

Okay…now wait a minute, the level of seriousness surrounding the whole situation suddenly revved up. Dion shoved away from the wall and headed for his own shoes, determined to accompany Angel on whatever this unexpected excursion panned out to be.

"No, we will not just leave you there, because you will not be stepping one toe out of the house until I get there, or after either, Billy, do you understand me?"

Dion shoved both feet in his shoes, having heard a little about the Billy situation from Bella the night they'd killed off the last of the Brownie Bean ice cream, one of the most decadent coffee ice cream variations he'd ever had the privilege to have melt on his tongue.

"Say yes, Billy and then I'm hanging up so I don't sound like a raving lunatic as I cuss you out while I'm running down the street."

Dion plucked the keys to his car off the hook beside the door and shook them where Angel could see.

"Nevermind, stay on the phone with me so I can make sure you don't do anything stupid before I get there," Angel said, flashing Dion a grateful smile even as he opened the door. "Dion's driving me so keep your ass put and I'll be there in a few."

"Can I see your phone?" Angel mouthed as they hurried to the driveway, Angel taking the device Dion passed him, lock screen already open so he could do whatever he needed to.

"Take a left at the end of the block, then the second right," Angel said, keeping his voice low enough that Dion could make out the faint tones of Billy ranting about something.

Four blocks later Dion pulled up in front of the hour Angel pointed to, and he was out the door the moment the car came to a stop. For a moment, Dion sat there staring at his retreating back, until a nagging feeling propelled him out of the car in pursuit of the man disappearing behind a light gray door.

"Angel!" Dion called before the door could shut in his face.

When Angel turned, their eyes met, and Dion cocked his head. "Need any help?"

It went against everything inside of him to ask instead of demand Angel let him help, but they weren't to a place where he could do that, not yet. Hell, they hadn't even had a serious conversation about whether they wanted to be or where whatever was brewing between them was heading.

"Maybe," Angel replied. "We'll see. And Dion…"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for not just pulling up and driving away."

Dion didn't need any more than that to know he was doing the right thing by following him inside where a long-haired man paced between the stove and a flipped over table with one warped and splintered leg.

"The fuck?" Angel snapped the moment he saw it. "Did you really have to wreck the place?"

"That wasn't my fault!"

"Then whose fault was it?"

"Fucked if I know, all I did was toss my backpack on it and bam!"

Leaning a little, Dion soon spotted the blue and gray backpack laying on its side, the bottom still pressed against the wooden tabletop.

Okay then, maybe an accident after all.

"The fuck are you lookin' at!" the guy who Dion could only assume was Billy, asked when he finally spotted him in the doorway and promptly ducked his head.

"A mess," Dion replied as he knelt to get a better look at the table leg. The crack didn't just run up the center of the leg, the bottom had actually snapped off and the wood must have splintered further when what was left of the leg was driven into the floor. "The whole piece needs replacing."

"It's a good thing we have a spare left," Angel replied. "Since it's the most frequent casualty in the whole fuckin' house."

"And I bet that's my fault too!" Billy snapped. "Just like everything else around here. That's all I am to you guys, isn't it? Billy the fuckup. Orchestrator of more messes than politics and oil spills put together! Like you've never fucked up. What a crock of bullshit. None of you are pissed about what I did, you're just pissed that I got caught! Well excuse the fuck out of me. I'm not able to scale balconies and fire escapes like Shanny or charm my way out of shit by looking as fuckable as possible the way you and Ajay do every time you leave the house."

"Hey, hang on a moment now," Dion snapped. "You've got no right to be coming out of pocket on him like that when he's just trying to help you. Sounds to me like all of your friends have been putting their lives on hold to help you get through shit while you stand here throwing it back in people's faces like you don't want to be saved. Well too damn bad. You matter a lot to two people who happen to be extremely important to me, so you don't get to be a dick."

"Who even invited you into this?"

"I did," Angel said. "So if you've got a problem with it, be pissed with me later and talk to us now so we can help you before you land yourself in even more trouble."

"Like it's going to matter."

"Where the fuck is all of this attitude coming from?" Angel said. "This isn't like you, Billy. Talk to me."

"Why when you've got one foot out the door the same as everyone else around here."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Him. You. Ajay…all of you guys!" Billy snapped. "You're always over at Bella's, Ajay's spent every night this week at either the studio or Walker's condo, Tiny's ship won't be back at the dock until Saturday night, and he'll probably just head over to Riggs' the moment he gets back since that's where Shanny's been since he left. I've been here alone listening to every fuckin' creak of wood thinking my asshole ex is outside waiting to catch me unaware and you wanna stand there and give me shit because I want to go after him and prove to him that he doesn't scare me anymore so maybe he can stop popping up everywhere."

"What do you mean, popping up?" Angel asked, the muscle of his shoulder quivering as his hands closed into fists. Dion could see how twitchy he was by the way he held himself and hoped the night would end with an opportunity to massage some of the tension away and ease Angel into a somewhat restful sleep, though he doubted it would be together.

"I mean showing up outside my job and waving to me when I caught him staring though the window," Billy said. "And when I got gas yesterday, I swear he pulled up two rows over in that same old ratty firebird he drove when I was dating him."

"Are you sure it was him, or did you just see a car that looked like his old firebird?" Angel asked.

"I don't know, okay, this big ass Suburban pulled up between us and I couldn't see it anymore, but I know that was him outside my job, the fucker waved at me."

"You should have taken a picture," Angel suggested. "If it happens again, you need to document it so you can prove he's stalking you."

"Has he approached you in any way?" Dion asked. "Tried to talk to you?"

"No, but I saw him in the crowd at the track too, fucker nearly made me wreck when I was testing out the modifications to Grayson's ride."

"Track?" Dion asked.

"Billy does some part time pit crew work outside of working at Kilroy's Garage."

"Is the old man still fiddling with that Galaxie of his?"

"Got it fully restored and moved on to a '62 Rambler, though he'll have the Galaxie out at every car show in the area," Billy replied. "And no, he hasn't said anything. He's just there."

"Unfortunately, there isn't a law against that."

"No shit," Billy snarled, gazes meeting for the first time. Scowl lines and a twisted frown marred his face almost as much as the scars that crossed through and beneath his left eye like a claw mark.

"You should save your energy for the person you're truly angry with," Dion suggested. "I'm not here to judge you or tell you how you should or shouldn't feel. That's for you to figure out. I'm just making sure Angel's good before I leave you two to whatever issue you've got going on."

"I don't have an issue with Angel," Billy snapped.

That was just fine with Dion, as long as Billy took it down a notch. "Then don't talk to him like you do."

"Sorry!"

He didn't sound sorry, he sounded bitter a bit defeated, but he did look like he regretted the way he was acting, so Dion held back his response, determined not to make a bad situation worse.

"Fuck…" Billy breathed as he sagged against the counter behind him, fingers sliding through his hair until he realized it revealed more of his scars and he let his hand drop back to his side again. "I hate being here by myself and I kinda feel like an asshole for saying that ‘cause none of you should feel like you've got to change your plans for me. I'm just tired of being angry and afraid of turning around to see that bastard watching me. He's done enough damage! Why the fuck can't he just leave me alone?"

It wasn't the kind of question that required an answer, not when anyone they spit out would only be speculation. Angel looked as pained as Billy, leaving him to wonder just how long they'd been dealing with the person who'd caused so much upheaval in Billy's life.

"No matter what he's done, you can't afford to get into anymore trouble," Angel insisted. "You heard what the judge said. You can't get so much as a jaywalking ticket until the end of your probation, or they can revoke you and stick you behind bars while he gets to walk around free. Is that really what you want?"

"I want to go back to that night at the bar when you told me to lose his digits."

"Impossible, unfortunately, unless one of us figures out how to build a time machine."

"You figure out the science, I'll work out how to put it together."

"Fine, but after we undo that catastrophe, there are a few things I'd like to go back and erase."

"As long as I'm not one of them," Dion remarked, shooting his boy a stern look.

"The only thing I'd change about you would be to go back and meet you sooner."

"Dion's the video guy," Billy said, pausing to scrutinize him now, making Dion painfully aware of the sudden shift in topics of conversation. How long it would last was anyone's guess, but if it would get Billy to focus on something other than getting himself into some bullshit, Dion would bear the blunt of his attention until the reinforcements Angel had undoubtably called for, had been given enough time to arrive.

"And Bella's brother," Angel reminded him.

"Are you glad you waited for him?" Billy asked.

When Angel turned their eyes met and Dion took a moment to bask in the smile Angel sent his way.

"More and more every day," Angel said.

Tensions were clearly diffused, though Dion was sure this wasn't the last of the issue. He watched as Angel turned without a word and headed for the pantry, while Billy crossed the room to a closet and soon retrieved a box of tools. They were just tightening the bolts on the new leg when Ajay burst in, looking far less put together than in the article at Chili-Pops. There was no mistaking him though, or the determination in his eyes as he crossed the room to hug Billy, refusing to let him go despite the halfhearted efforts he made to resist. Dion read it the same way Ajay did, a move made for show and fueled by stubborn pride, soon melted beneath whatever words Ajay murmured to him. Dion might not have been able to make them out, but the tone was unmistakable, as was the love displayed by this special family.