29. Twenty-Eight

The sixth floor was full of temporary apartments and built like a secure hotel. Before going to Xander and Xavier’s room, I stopped by to visit Morticia and Trixie. They tackled me as soon as I walked into the room where they were staying with Ragnar and licked me head to toe. There was a little terrace where they could do their business, and I let them out for a while, sitting in the setting sun while they ran around. It wasn’t good for them to be so cooped up. They needed more space to run and probably missed the junkyard just as much as I did.

“Tomorrow,” I promised Trixie, scratching her behind the ears. “This’ll all be over tomorrow, and we can go home.”

“No plans to stay on with Dr. Doom?”

I looked up and saw Church standing in the doorway with a cup of tea. It looked comically small in his hand. “He’s not a doctor.”

Church huffed. “Just what the boys are calling him.”

“And he’s not a supervillain.”

He sighed. “You’re probably right. But he’s no hero, is he?” He walked out onto the terrace and sat down across from me.

I frowned. In the months I’d been with Boone, I could count the number of times Church had spoken to me on one hand and still have fingers left over. He hated me.

“He thinks he’s helping people,” I said, though I didn’t know why I was defending him.

“He is, in a way.” Church sipped from his teacup before placing it on the table. He rubbed his hands over his thighs without looking at me. “But that’s not why I came out here. I owe you an apology.”

“For treating me like dirt ever since we met?”

He nodded solemnly and then added quickly, “It wasn’t personal. It’s just that, before you came along, Boone was focused. All he cared about was the Junkyard Dogs. When you two got involved, it felt like his attention was divided. I thought he was in over his head with you.”

I shrugged. “To be fair, he probably was.”

Church sighed and glanced back toward the door. “After this job, what happens?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean with you and Boone. We can’t go back to the way things were, and I’m not sure where your place is in the command structure. You’ve clearly got Boone’s ear—and his heart—but you aren’t one of us. I’ve been wracking my brain all day trying to figure out how to fit you into our world.”

Morticia trotted over with a leaf in her mouth. I smiled and patted her head. “I’m going to marry him.”

“That’s…” Church frowned. “That doesn’t uncomplicate things, especially considering your involvement with Lucky. Boone won’t say it, but I will. The Dogs can’t be beholden to someone like Lucky. We can’t have him holding you over our heads to make Boone do as he wants. I hate to say this, Xion, but for the good of the company, if you really love Boone, you need to make it clear to your father that you won’t be used as a weapon against him. I say that not as your enemy, but as Boone’s friend.”

I nodded slowly. “You’re right. I will.”

Church blinked like he was shocked that I agreed. “Oh. I… I suppose that’s all I wanted. Thank you for being so understanding. And congratulations.” He collected his teacup and stood.

“Church?”

He paused in the doorway and turned back around. “Yes?”

“Thank you,” I said, “for looking out for him.”

Church stood up a little taller. “Serving with Boone has been my greatest honor,” he said, bobbing his head. “Only… don’t expect me to start calling you sir just because you’re marrying the git.”

I smiled and laughed. I was so going to make him call me sir now, just because I knew he’d hate it.

After spending a little more time with the dogs, I trudged down the hall to ring the buzzer on Xander and Xavier’s door.

Xander yanked it open and wrinkled his nose at me. “You smell like dog.”

“You smell like a bitch,” I replied and pushed past him.

“Oh honey, that’s because I am a bitch,” he mused and shut the door.

I glanced around the room. It wasn’t unlike the suite Ragnar shared with Church, except this one was a little bigger and brimming with more stuff. There were boxes everywhere, like they’d just gotten a massive delivery. Most of the boxes looked like computer gear. “Where’s Xavier?”

“In here!” came Xavier’s shout from the back room.

“He’s with Leo,” Xander said, wiggling his eyebrows.

I frowned. “With him or with him?”

Xander shrugged. “They haven’t fucked yet, but I’m definitely sensing some tension.”

“We can hear you, idiot,” Xavier shouted.

“Don’t forget to put a sock on the door if you bang!” Xander shouted back, cupping his hands around his mouth. To me, he whispered, “They’re totally going to.”

“I thought Xavier was ace?”

He shrugged again. “Apparently that doesn’t mean you hate sex. He just doesn’t like the mess, but there are ways around that if you’re creative.” He winked at me and put an arm around me, ushering me deeper into the room. “So while they’re in there playing with their joysticks, what do you want to do? Have you eaten yet? Anything besides dick, I mean. I assume that’s where you’ve been. How’s Boone, by the way?”

I rubbed the back of my head, trying to decide which question to answer first. “Um. I could eat.”

“Sweet.” He let me go and plopped down on the sofa, pulling out his phone. “You want pizza? Sushi? Oh, I know! Do you still like bacon cheeseburgers? There’s a Five Guys. The restaurant, not an orgy, although I have an app for that too.”

“I’m engaged.” I didn’t mean to say it. It just came out.

Xander looked up from his phone slowly, eyes wide. “Seriously?”

I bit my lip and shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Holy shit, of course it’s a big deal!” He got up from the couch and yanked me into a hug. “That’s huge, Xion! I’m so happy for you.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I squirmed out of the hug and said, “Cheeseburgers would be nice.”

Xander hesitated before turning back to his phone. “Oh. Okay. Sure.” He glanced up after tapping a few buttons. “You know things don’t have to be weird between us. Actually, I’d prefer it if we just… pretended things were back to normal. I know they aren’t yet, but…” He sighed. “I miss you.”

I swallowed the big lump in my throat. “I miss you guys too.”

Xander’s lips twitched before pulling into a smile. “It’s settled then. We’re ordering junk food and watching scary movies in a beanbag chair like we used to when we were younger. Will you go ask Xavier what he wants from Five Guys? And tell Leo to either blow him or get out. We’re having a triplet’s night.”

I nodded and walked over to the door to the bedroom section of the suite. It was dark on the other side, but Xavier and Leo were definitely not making out or otherwise in any compromising position. I was disappointed. It’d actually be nice to see the two of them hook up. They probably had a lot in common.

Instead, they were sitting at a desk, the light of three computer monitors and their laptops reflecting in Leo’s glasses as he clicked through several screens. Lines of text spanned from the top of every screen to the bottom, moving faster than I could read them while Xavier’s fingers flew over the keyboard.

“Hey,” I said. “Xander said—”

“We heard him.” Xavier didn’t even stop typing.

“You can tell him to execute command: fuck.off.exe,” Leo said in his joking voice before pushing his glasses up his nose. “And by that, I mean—”

“That’s just how he is,” I said with a sigh. I stood there for a minute, watching the two of them.

Xavier looked over Leo’s shoulder with a frown. “You’ve got… There’s a… Fuck. Here, let me.” He leaned over Leo, putting his hand over Leo’s to move the mouse.

“Shit,” Leo muttered. “How did I miss that?”

“It’s easy to do.” Xavier put a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Don’t sweat it. This isn’t easy, and you’re doing great.”

Leo glanced up at Xavier and then back at me. He turned back to the screen just as quickly, but there was no missing the splash of color on his cheeks. Maybe there was a spark of something between those two.

“Thanks,” Leo mumbled.

Xavier tapped a few more keys before the middle screen changed to look like the screen of a smartphone. I got out my phone and unlocked it, frowning at the screen. That was exactly what I was looking at. They’d hacked into someone’s iPhone.

“Whose phone is that?” I asked.

“Maxime’s.” Xavier answered, spinning around in his chair. “We’re trying to backdoor into that tablet he carries around with him everywhere, except it’s not connected to any of the building’s networks. I can’t get into it directly. That thing’s locked down tighter than Fort Knox. Literally. I could get into Fort Knox’s databases if I tried.”

“At least this way we’ll know if he tries to screw us by phone.” Leo stood and closed his laptop, shoving it in the black messenger bag he always carried around. “But now that everything’s up and running, I should probably get back.”

Xavier shot to his feet. “Let me walk you back.”

“Oh, it’s just down the hall. I can…” Leo bit his lip and looked over at me. “Actually, that’d be great.”

“I’m going down the hall,” Xavier shouted, untangling himself from several cords to step around his chair. “Get me my usual, Xander. I’ll be right back.”

“You see what I mean?” Xander said once the two of them had left. “Leo’s got that doe-eyed look of a man in love.”

“He’s got the stunned look of a man who spends too much time staring at screens in dark rooms, you mean.” I plopped down on the beanbag chair in the middle of the living room. “So, what do you want to watch?”

Once Xavier came back, we sat down to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, which was one of Xander’s favorite movies. I thought it was cheesy as fuck, but it was nice to be together again. All three of us piled onto the big beanbag cushion with me in the middle, Xander on his belly to my left, and Xavier sitting on my right. Xavier spent half the movie on his phone, and though I was sure I heard him get several texts, he refused to tell us who they were from. I sneaked a quick peek and smiled to myself when I saw Leo’s name pop up in his notifications.

“We’re just friends,” Xavier insisted when he caught me looking.

Xander popped the last french fry into his mouth. “Does he know that?”

“Just. Friends.” Xavier insisted.

Xander and I exchanged a look before we went back to watching the movie.

After it was over, Xander and I went into the bathroom. I helped him with the clippers, cutting his hair a few inches shorter. He laid out a black hoodie for me to wear along with some sweats and a white t-shirt, and I gave him some of my clothes. My jeans were too big on him, but we substituted Xavier’s and it worked perfectly. By the time we were done, looking at Xander was like staring into a mirror. He was a little thinner in the face than me, but with the hood pulled up, no one would ever know.

“Christ, I forgot how weird it is seeing two of me,” Xavier said when we walked back into the bedroom where he was messing around on his phone.

“We don’t look anything like you,” Xander said, flopping down on one of the two queen sized beds. “We’re hot.”

I fell into bed next to him, staring at the ceiling.

“Too bad I’ve got the biggest dick,” Xavier said dryly.

“Too bad you don’t know how to use it,” Xander countered and patted the bed next to him.

“Just because I don’t stick it in everything that breathes doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing.” He put his phone down and stretched out on the other side of me before scooting in.

I waited for it to feel weird or uncomfortable, but it didn’t. Xander, Xavier, and I had shared a womb. A bed was nothing. We used to sleep together all the time, to the point where it was weird for me to sleep alone when I went to the hospital. It was the one thing I’d never really gotten used to.

Xander turned onto his side with a small sigh, putting an arm around both of us. “I missed this,” he said quietly.

“Me too,” Xavier said, turning on his side and putting his head on my shoulder.

“I didn’t miss your bony chin,” I grumbled.

He snickered and dug it into my shoulder harder until I pushed him.

We settled into a comfortable silence, clinging to each other in the dark. Part of me had dreaded this moment, worried that Xander and Xavier would never let me back into their lives the way I’d been before. Things were different now, and we had a lot of work to do before we could be as close as we were, but this was a start.

“Xion?” Xander whispered into the dark.

“Yeah?”

“Can we be brothers again?”

I put my hand over his and squeezed. “We’ll always be brothers.”

“No, I meant—”

“I know what you meant. And I meant what I said.” I looked over at him, seeing the dim light shining in his eyes. “No matter how far apart we are, or how long we go without seeing each other, you’ll always be my little brothers.”

“By like two minutes,” Xavier scoffed.

I smiled and closed my eyes. He could have the last word on that just this once.