House of Angels Part 4.2
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Matthew hated Evan Rush.
It wasn't all the hard to understand why, either. Evan practically ruled Washburn Rural High School, though if pressed Matthew would admit that he might be over exaggerating that. Maybe just their grade, but he had all the girls from all the grades falling over themselves for him because they thought he was 'hot'.
Matthew rolled his eyes. Evan might as well start up his own cult following. What made it worse? The bastard didn't even realize it. He was a genuinely nice guy, from what Matthew could see but he knew it all had to be an act. No one was honestly that nice. It was all just so damn frustrating.
There wasn't a day that went by that Matthew didn't see him, didn't have to interact with him in some way, whether it be in the parking lot, in class or in the cafeteria. If he had a choice he'd like to never see Evan again.
"Hey dude, what's up?" Andrew swung an arm around his shoulders. "When are you actually gunna ditch the little siblings and get here on time?"
Matthew rolled his eyes, knowing his best friend was just kidding. He actually quite liked Matthew's siblings; though Matthew had a suspicious feeling there was something more than simple when it came to Claire.
"Maybe when you get a life."
"Ooo, harsh man. Harsh."
Matthew laughed, closed his locker and the two of them headed to homeroom. They joined Katie and Courtney on the way.
Andrew was a few inches taller than him, with a thin, tooth pick like build a mop of brown curls and glasses. Katie was a small girl but she had a wicked arm. She had long blond hair she usually wore up in one elaborated do or another, honey coloured eyes set in a round face and she wore a dark hoodie with non-descript jeans. Courtney, her boyfriend, had short blond hair and blue eyes and a face of soft angles and curves. He used to get teased often about his feminine features until Matthew came along and beat the crap out of anyone who dared to say anything.
"I hear we've got a different Sub for History the rest of the week," Courtney informed them. He grinned at Matthew, "Apparently Evan has already made an impression."
Matthew scowled, "Son of a bitch."
"Language, Mr. Granger."
"Sorry Mrs. Foss," Matthew replied immediately. She always seemed to be around when he was swearing, like she had some kind of sixth sense for it. Foss was one of the older teachers at the school, close to retirement but scary as hell. Very few people disobeyed her. Matthew thought himself fortunate that he didn't have her for any classes this semester.
"One day she's going to make good on her threat to put you in detention for the rest of high school," Katie told him.
Matthew shrugged, "I'm pretty sure that's not possible."
History was scheduled as the second class of the day and was one of Matthew's favourites. Mr. Connors, their regular teacher, had taken two weeks to have surgery and recover leaving them with two subs, a week for each. Their first Sub had been Ms. Wright who was in her mid forties, wore badly done makeup, atrocious perfume and had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to teach them. This new sub was entirely different. He was her exact opposite, mid thirties, wild blond hair, and the body of a man who worked out every day and richly tanned skin. He had a fashion sense too and was, in short, hot.
"So," Mr. Arsanious said suddenly loud after taking the attendance, causing most of the students to jump, Matthew included. "According to my instructions this week we'll be learning Mythology. To be more specific we'll be mainly focusing on the European Myths and how they affected the day to day lives of those who worshiped them. You also have a project."
Matthew smiled. There was no way he'd be getting anything less than a hundred and fifty percent on this.
"Now, this is a group project, between two persons to be presented on Friday. Why on Friday when your teacher won't even be here, you ask?" he grinned at them, "I'll be taping it. Yes?"
Matthew turned his head. Macy was asking a question. "Then what's the point?"
Mr. Arsanious gave an exaggerated scoff, "What the point? I read last week's notes missy, your teacher is going to have to go over it again with you and we don't want to have to waste any more of his time now, do we."
He gave her a look and Macy nodded mutely.
"Alright then. We'll do a quick brief of the assignments; I'll assign partners and start on the Babylonians."
"You're assigning partners?" Courtney blurted out as the sheets started to be passed around.
"Yup," Mr. Arsanious replied with a huge grin Matthew didn't like the looks of. "Let's see, here we go. Uh, blah blah blah, 'This assignment is to be done in pairs. I leave it to you to decide whether or not the students are allowed to choose their own partners or you do it yourself. However, if you decide to assign partners I advise you to' - and this is the good part guys -'to not pair Valerie Wilson with Ashleigh Decker or Matthew Granger with Evan Rush.'"
Mr. Arsanious looked up at them. "Well then, let’s see what Fate has in store for you."
Fate was making everyone its bitch. Mr. Arsanious divided the class into two. He instructed one group to stand while the others wrote their names on a piece of paper and threw into a hat. Mr. Arsanious then produced a second hat, already containing the names of each of the designated Pagan Gods and went around to the standing students to have them pull out a slip from each hat.
So far, no one was exactly happy with who they had to work with. But that was the game of chance and when the hats came round to him Matthew prayed for good luck. He was a little unsettled by the look he was getting from the teacher. There was something off about him, something that Matthew couldn't quite place.
Enki.
That was his Pagan God. He couldn't say for sure what the origins were, but he was pretty sure it wasn't Egyptian or Greek. Ianto would probably know better than Jimmy and might even help him find a good book in the library.
He drew a slip of paper from the other hat, opened it up slowly - "Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me!"
. . . . . .
"Matthew!"
Matthew barely reacted, just scowled deeply and continued to walk to his locker. He ignored the looks his friends were giving him and shooting over their shoulders and refused to talk about it.
"Matt," Katie started.
"No," Matthew snapped.
He can't believe he pulled Evan's name from the hat. Of all the people he didn't want to work with he had to be given the biggest idiot of them all. He'd tried to get out of it, but Mr. Arsanious was a sadistic bastard and smiled the entire time he told Matthew that there was nothing he could do about it.
"We need to talk."
Matthew ignored Evan in favour of gathering what he needed for the rest of the day; his keys and cheap, little-ass cell phone that really couldn't do anything except call home or his siblings. He couldn’t have a real phone till he was in his final year and able to prove that he could keep his marks up. The only reason he had a phone in the first place was because he drove.
"I said we need to talk, Granger!"
Andrew, Courtney and Katie all took a couple of steps back.
"Then talk, Rush, cause I got nothing to say to you."
"Mr. Arsanious isn't giving us any time to work on this project in class which means we have to do it after school." Evan paused. "At one of our homes."
Matthew slammed his locker closed and turned to glare at Evan, "I'm not an idiot."
"Could have fooled me," Evan scowled, crossed his arm. "When are you free?"
Matthew sighed. Someone up there hated him right now. Maybe Gabriel was playing a trick on him. Ianto had been saying recently that he was surprised Gabriel had stayed in Heaven for so long before needing to escape. That asshole. "Wednesday and Thursday."
Evan wasn't happy with that. "Why not tomorrow?"
"I have to work. John's away for a few more days, Sara and William have to go to Topeka, Jesse and Dad had to take a direct flight to Cardiff on Saturday and won’t be back till Wednesday and Claire isn't allowed to serve in the restaurant yet. Why can’t you do Wednesday?"
"I just can't," Evan replied, his eyes daring Matthew to push it. Matthew really wanted to.
"Then Thursday it is. My place. 4:30. Come into the restaurant."
Evan blocked him when he tried to leave, "Your place?"
Matthew crossed his arms. If only he could imitate the Angel Stare. "Yeah. It's non-negotiable and if we're not done by supper and you feel icky about eating at the table of two gay men, Becky is an excellent cook and you can eat in the restaurant. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to pick up my siblings."
He waved his keys in front of Evan's face until the other teen moved and made a beeline for the stairwell. Asshole.
. . . . . .
Matthew didn't like that Evan was unknowingly getting a sneak peek into his family's personal affairs. One wrong look at something and he'd be in it, caught in a world filled with mostly death and misery. Matthew didn't wish that on anyone, least of all Evan. The Supernatural twisted people and darkened their souls in ways that could never be undone. Matthew may not like Evan, but the last thing he wanted was to be the cause of Evan's downward spiral.
"This is stupid."
"I like stupid things," John said joining him at the counter. "They're usually the most fun."
Matthew smiled. His Dads didn't like John, barely tolerated him most of the time but knew he was useful to have around. John respected them greatly though, practically fell on his face every time his dads got really angry, and he did anything for Matthew and his siblings. Matthew didn't know why, but it couldn't be just because he'd grown up on the Winchester Gospels. It was something more than that.
"Not that kind of stupid," Matthew replied. "I'm actually researching a Pagan God for history class."
"Score." John smiled. "I see an 'A' in your future."
"Sure, cept it's with partners. Mine should be here soon," Matthew grumbled, laying the two books he'd chosen side by side.
John tilted his head to get a better look at the titles, "Babylonian. Hmmm, which god?"
"Enki."
John frowned, "Interesting. He's not their supreme god but he's pretty high up there."
Matthew stared at him, "What is it?"
"Nothing," John answered too quickly, and then added, "I don’t know. I've never been allowed access to the books written after the Winchester Gospels -"
"Winchester Gospels?" Evan's voice startled them. "What are those?"
Matthew cursed under his breath. What an awesome time for him to join them.
John shifted to give Evan a very suggestive eye rake. "You're not one of the usuals. Lot more filled out than the tooth pick and more manly than the pretty boy. What's your name?"
"Evan Rush."
"Not. A. Word." Matthew growled at the gleam that suddenly flashed in John's eyes.
John smirked, gave him a shrug of so called innocence and headed to the other side of the counter where Becky had come out.
"Is he always like that?" Evan asked, looking at John in shock.
Matthew smirked, "Yup. That's Captain John Hart. If you weren't under aged he'd start seducing you right now."
The gob smacked stuttering look on Evan's face was priceless. "You can't be serious. Does he…" Evan shifted uncomfortably.
"Hit on me?" Evan nodded and Matthew shook his head. "No. He knows that if he even thinks about it Dad would smite him. Besides, he's been working on getting into bed with Chuck and Becky. Becky's all for it but Chuck's a little more reluctant."
Evan was speechless, probably a little disgusted and Matthew decided that, as fun as this was, they should leave the culture of the 51st Century alone and do their work. He held out one of the books to Evan.
"What's this?" Evan asked bewildered, taking it carefully.
"Really? It's a book moron. And research," Matthew replied, picking up the second and walking towards one of the booths.
"But I thought -" Evan followed him. "Can't we just use the net?"
Matthew rolled his eyes, "You only do research on the internet if you have credible websites and most pertaining to Pagan lore aren't. We're not looking at the ones that are because dad's forbidden it."
"Why?"
Matthew grimaced. "They just are. Now," he slapped a paper down before Evan, "these are the parts you'll be looking up. I skimmed the contents so everything should be in there."
Matthew opened his own book and added as an afterthought, "And if you damage that I'll kill you myself. It's old, incredibly rare and the owner was very reluctant to loan it out, especially to you since you don't get it. Be careful."
They worked silently, taking down all the relevant information. Matthew didn't want to analyze the comfortable feeling he felt working alongside Evan. He was studious, wasn't asking questions Matthew knew he couldn't answer truthfully and it was nice. It was almost as if they were friends but he quashed that thought. Whatever he and Even were, they would never be friends.
There wasn't much activity in the restaurant while they worked. Chuck came in for his daily dose of coffee and visit. A few others came in as well and one lone Hunter Matthew didn't recognize. He was definitely a Hunter. He had a Hunter's look about him, the hard eyes, the well worn clothes, and the trusty handgun hidden away but not well enough because Matthew had seen enough hidden weapons to know how to spot the signs. Only John could hide a weapon well enough he couldn't spot it.
John spoke to the Hunter in low tones, cautioning him to the rules of the House and more importantly the gun rule. Matthew didn't have to imagine the look that would come across the Hunter's face at that because he'd seen it many times. Despite being the most protected place in the world the Hunters were always reluctant to hand the guns over when Matthew and his siblings were around for more than a short period of time.
"You kids want something to drink? A snack?" John leaned on a vacant chair eyes full of the lingering anger that showed just how much he hated dealing with the Hunters new to Angel House.
"I'll take a coke," Matthew told him. "But I don’t think a snack's a good idea. Dad's probably preparing supper by now."
"Hmmm," John replied and looked at Evan.
"What all do you have?"
Matthew shrugged, "Mostly coke products, Dr. Pepper cause Jesse love it, OJ, Fruit Punch, milk, coffee and tea."
"Oh um, Sprite?"
"Sure things kids."
"Ok, what did I miss?" Evan asked once John had left.
Matthew frowned, "What do you mean?"
"John. He's not," Evan hesitated with a blush, "flirting."
Matthew blinked, "You like being hit on by him?" That couldn't be right.
Even went as red as a fire engine. "Not it’s…I don’t - I'm not." Evan ducked his head. "That's not what I meant."
"Right," Matthew said dragging out the “I”.
It was apparently possible for Evan to turn even redder, "I actually expected him to flirt. Wait; don't take that the wrong way. I mean, you spoke of him as if he always said something with a bit of innuendo to it and that seemed off."
Matthew narrowed his eyes at Evan, seeing him in a new light. "You are strangely perceptive."
He didn't like it, didn't like that Evan just might be able to pick up on the family secret without even having to stumble on something supernatural. There were less direct clues everywhere, if he got enough and puzzled over them enough it was possible.
Evan frowned at him, "What?"
"Nothing. How far are you?"
Evan looked down at his paper, "On the second last one. You?"
"The last, but it requires the most information. We'll probably end up having to finish this after dinner."
Evan nodded, "I’m okay with that, but it's going to be a lot to type up for the power point."
Matthew smirked, "Our scanner does the work for us, converting all script into editable text."
"Seriously? I didn't think that was possible.”
"Dad's former job saw some really high-tech shit." Matthew told him as John came back with their drinks. There was a scowl on his face and he kept shooting sour looks over at the Hunter. Normally Ianto would be in here by now smoothing over ruffled feathers with coffee but they'd designated tonight as the family dinner and John never went back on that unless it was an emergency. "Special Ops though, so I don’t think you'll ever see it for commercial use. Thanks John."
"Hmmm," was John's response.
"Your family is very strange."
Matthew tended to agree and when Sara came in to announce supper only to stare dumbfounded at Evan before racing back into the house screaming "Oh my god guess who's here!" Matthew figured things were just going to get weirder.
"That's the second time someone's been surprised to see me," Evan said as Matthew led him to the house. "Didn't they know I was coming?"
Matthew blushed. "Uh, kinda? I just said I had a group project and that we'd be working here. They probably assumed you were Andrew."
Evan removed his shoes inside the door. They could hear a fight going on, Matthew figured Sara and Jesse, and sure enough he was right. But the fight was dying down as Jimmy had stepped in and was giving them the Angel Stare.
"Holy crap, Sara was right," Claire was the first to say anything. "How come I didn't know about this? We go to the same school; it should have been the biggest news. 'Evan and Matthew forced to work together. Will they survive?'"
"Shut up Claire," Matthew snapped.
"Shut up Claire," Claire mocked, rolling her eyes dramatically.
"Children," was Ianto's level toned command as he brought the rice out and put it on the table. "Let's not make a spectacle of ourselves."
. . . . . .
Evan was confused, had been since Matthew's second week at school and out of the blue he hated Evan. They'd been friendly that first week. Evan had showed him around, got him use to the differences of a rural school versus a city school and things had been fine. Then Monday rolled around and it was like Evan was the worse person in the world.
He'd never been used like that before and it really hurt. He'd though that they were going to be friends.
Today was no different. When they'd been alone Matthew had been nice, almost as if the last two years hadn't happened. Then they'd gone into the house for dinner and Matthew was acting like he always did.
He just couldn't understand why. Nothing negative had happened between them, nothing that he could remember and every time he tried to talk to Matthew about it he got rebuffed. Matthew ignored him, cursed at him, insulted him at every chance he got. It was another thing he hadn't been use to.
He liked Matthew's family. Despite all having been adopted they acted like he expected. They bickered, argued, complained and they laughed and he loved it. Evan was an only child; he didn't have any of this at home. His parents were never loud and they expected him to follow suit.
He especially liked Matthew's Dads. There was just something about them he couldn’t explain, something that made them seem like more that simple men. Ianto and Jimmy are both very calm, very loving and though he didn’t know why, he believed they were very dangerous.
They sit quietly when Matthew blows up at Jesse for poking fun - again - at the fact that they've been stuck together for a project. They do nothing when Matthew storms out of the room and up the stairs, slamming the door to his bedroom.
"I'm sorry you had to bear witness to that Evan," Ianto told him calmly after several minutes of silence. "Do you mind me asking what exactly is wrong between the two of you?"
Evan ducked his head, "I'm sorry, but I don't know."
He glanced at Ianto then at Jimmy, but Jimmy wasn't paying attention. He was giving his children the same look he'd been giving them before supper had started. It was scary.
"Matthew doesn't like you because he thinks you're a hypocrite." Jesse said.
"What's a hypocrite?" Sara asked.
Jesse shrugged, "I dunno, but Matt does. I guess that's all that really matters."
"Jesse, we've talked about his," Ianto said sternly.
"I know," Jesse replied, eyes downcast. "But sometimes I just can't help myself."
"Nevertheless you'll apologize to your brother."
Evan thinks that Matthew's family is more than a little weird. They'd said grace in what he thinks might be Latin but could also be something completely different. It's not like he's had a lot of experience with foreign languages.
The conversation surrounding Jesse's knowledge is odd as well. Ianto had acted as if Jesse had done something wrong, but how could he have. He'd probably been talking to Matthew about it. It wasn't like he could read minds.
When Matthew didn't return by the end of dinner Evan was given directions on how to find his bedroom on the upper level. He found Matthew lying on his bed, hands tucked behind his head.
"What the hell, don't you have any manners?" Matthew flipped as soon as he entered. "God, you're such an annoyance."
"Oh screw you," Evan snapped. "I'm sick and tired of you raging on me for something I don't even know I did!"
Matthew snorted, "You're such a liar. You prance around the school, putting on this act, making people think that you're God's gift to this town. Let me tell you something: a couple of years ago God didn't even care that you existed."
Matthew snorted, "And who the hell are you trying to fool? You expect me to believe, that after what I've seen you do, you enjoyed being with my family for dinner? You're one of the biggest homophobes I know!"
"Where the fuck did you get that idea?" Evan cried.
"I saw you," Matthew rushed at him, slammed him against the wall and pinned him.
Evan tried to take a deep, calming breath to keep himself from freaking out but Matthew was too close and he was terrified. Matthew could fight, he'd been on the opposing end and he knew that he would have ended up looking a lot worse that first time if Ianto hadn't shown up. How likely was it that Ianto would step in this time if Matthew started to kick is ass? Would he hear them?
"I saw you," Matthew said again. "I saw you and your friends and Riley. You were bullying Courtney, calling him a fag and hitting him."
Evan remembered that day clearly. Riley had been a little more wild than normal and while Evan hadn't seen it, ran head long into Courtney. That seemed to have set Riley off and he lashed out at Courtney, hitting him hard enough to knock him down. He continued, called him a fag, and much worse. Some of the group laughed, a couple even joined in on the verbal assault. Evan did nothing.
"I didn't touch him."
"But you didn't stop it either!" Matthew snapped. "You just stood there."
"I know." Evan slumped, defeated.
Guess I know why he hates me, Evan thought. It was a stupid reason too. He liked Courtney, they got along perfectly fine and Courtney had forgiven him.
"How many times have you stood by and watched your friends beat people up?" Matthew snarled.
Evan resented that, "Just that once, and I haven't been friends with any of them since."
Matthew's grip on his arms tightened, "Oh sure, like I really believe that."
"What do you want me to say Matthew? There was nothing I could do to stop Riley. I'm not a fighter like you and you took care of him pretty well a week later." Evan sighed. "Why do I even bother? I have done nothing to you and yet you judge me on one single choice I've made. I can't believe I still want to be your friend."
Silence and Evan wondered if Matthew was going to let him go or not. He wouldn't rush it either way. Both options gave him something he wanted.
"God, this is so annoying," Matthew breathed.
Evan closed his eyes and waited for the next assault but as fingers released his arms they didn't pull away but rather travelled up and became tangled in his hair. What came next was fierce and demanding. It was a clashing of lips, teeth and tongue of such raw emotion and energy that it melted Evan's brain and when it stopped all he wanted was more.
"Oooo, this is so messed up."
Evan blinked.
He was on the floor and Matthew was on the bed again, face buried in his pillow and moaning. Evan wanted him moaning for a different reason.
If he was honest with himself, and he really felt like he should be after that kiss, he'd been crushing on Matthew for a long time. This was his secret, his darkest desire. It went against his family and his faith but he could live with that. He'd dealt with his body's attractions long enough to know that here was no hope of him ever being hetero, so why even try? What was the point of denying himself? (Except maybe not openly. He wasn't trying to get his head cut off here.)
"Why?"
Matthew's head lifted and he looked at Evan for a moment before getting up and heading for the door. "We should get our work done."
. . . . . .
"Why have we ended up at your locker again?" Evan gasped, pulling Matthew closer to gain more of that friction he craved.
Matthew grinned against his lips and angled his hips down. He loved doing this, sneaking away with Evan during their Lunch break to do whatever they could get away with. It was all the physical contact they had and Matthew lived for it every day.
They hadn't worked out their differences, not with words at least but that first kiss seemed to have dissolved everything though they were the only ones aware of it. Matthew still ignored or glared at Evan whenever they were in the same room but here was a distinct lack of swearing.
"Cause no one ever comes up here."
He pulled back from Evan marginally when the other teen turned his face away. "What's wrong?"
"It's just," Evan refused to meet Matthew's eyes. "We're not supposed to be up here and if we get caught then everyone's going to find out and I’m not…"
Evan trailed off and Matthew stepped back. They hadn't talked about this, it's been a week and they've barely said anything - certainly nothing about their relationship. They hadn't really taken the time to either though maybe now they should have.
"You're not what? Gay?"
Evan snorted, "I'm not out you idiot. Unlike you I don't have two awesome dads to fall back on when the shit hits the fan."
"Did you just swear?" Matthew asked stunned.
Evan groaned and rolled his eyes, "That's not important here Matt."
Matthew grinned, "You swore."
He giggled, not that he would ever admit that later, but he did and he leaned in to capture Evan's mouth. It was quick, he didn't want to piss Evan off and ruin everything.
"I promise I'll try my best to keep my hands to myself," Matthew told him, giving him what he thought was his best innocent face.
Evan nodded, "We should probably, you know, talk this weekend or something."
"My place then. Awesome dads and all," Matthew grinned. "We can close my door and no one will interrupt us."
"We'll be talking Matt."
"I know, but we'll need the privacy after too," Matthew chuckled.
Evan rolled his eyes but he was smiling like he agreed with everything Matthew was saying.
The bell rang and after a quick kiss Evan headed to his own locker. The next day they were back in the same position but their kisses were more exploratory and less needy. They were slow and languid and Matthew paid more attention to their surrounding than he had been before.
"This is nice," Matthew started their conversation that weekend.
And it was. He had Evan's body pinned under him on his bed and though they'd done nothing more than kiss and run their hands over each other, they didn't need to.
Evan chuckled, "You're crazy."
"Then you must be as well," Matthew grinned.
He shifted his weight off Evan to lie beside him and Evan turned so that he was on his side and facing Matthew.
"So," Matthew said after a few moments of awkward silence. "Us."
Evan blushed. "Yeah, us."
"What was it you wanted to talk about?"
"Can we not be public about our relationship? I mean, I just don't want everyone to know we're dating, we can definitely let people know you no longer hate me."
"Is this because of your parents?"
Evan nodded, "They won't understand. They're not like the Parkers, they won't actively speak out against homosexuality but they hate it. I've heard them talking and sometimes it scares me."
Matthew pulled his close, "I don't care who knows and I don't care who doesn't know, though I must warn you, it's impossible for anything to be kept secret in this house for long."
"It won't get back to my parents? Or my Uncle?" Evan asked hesitantly.
"Who's your Uncle?"
"Reverend Harrison. He's my mom's brother."
"Oh." Matthew didn't know the Reverend had any family in the area. It was probably a good thing he didn't go to church unless his sisters had something special going on. "My family knows how to keep a secret."
When Evan left that night neither of them noticed the victorious look on Ianto's face as he gazed at Jimmy or the snickers coming from Matthew's siblings.
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They were running low on coffee, in both the house and the restaurant. They were running low on a bunch of other items too but the coffee was the most important. Jimmy was in the office working on the books, which seemed to be all he ever did now that it was getting into the summer months and actual tourists had decided that Angel House was a good place to stop in. Ianto's ability to make the world's greatest coffee didn't help either. Even the town's residences preferred to use the place as their go-to for coffee.
"I'm telling Dad!" he heard Sara yell.
"Sara, no!" Claire screamed and Jimmy looked up at that. Usually the girls kept each other's secrets and it was Jesse spilling the beans. He wondered what was up.
Sara screamed again, something fell and Jimmy was out of his chair instantly. Ianto was with Jesse and William in Topeka for the boy's doctor's appointments and he couldn't trust John to break up the fight. He would, more likely, encourage it.
"Get off me stupid. I'm telling Dad." Sara said angrily, fighting Claire who had her trapped in a tangle of arms, legs and hair.
"Claire, Sara, break apart. Now." Jimmy ordered.
"Aww, cat fight's over." John said coming in from the restaurant. "Everything alright kids?"
"No," Claire snarled. "Sara's being a -"
"Claire." Jimmy interrupted her warningly. "Now, what is going on?"
"Claire has a boyfriend," Sara said at hyper speed, dashing away from her sister in case Claire retaliated.
"Ooo!" John replied interested. "Is he cute?"
"Ewie," Sara exclaimed. "Uncle John that's gross."
That made Jimmy laugh, though he cut himself off quickly when he saw the look Claire was giving him. He cleared his throat, "Do I know this boy?"
Claire blushed and looked down, "Andy."
"Andy?" Jimmy asked slowly. "Matthew's friend Andy?"
Claire nodded, "Sara wasn't supposed to say anything."
Jimmy could understand why. She was surrounded by a household of overprotective men and probably thought she had to protect Andy from them. He wondered how long this particularly relationship had been going on.
"I think we're going to have to meet this boy," John declared. "Properly."
There was no confusion about what properly meant. John had almost done the same to Evan after Ianto discovered him and Matthew making out. The fall out hadn't been pretty and Evan wasn't seen at the house for a month.
Claire's eyes widened, "No Uncle John you can't. He'll never speak to me again." She turned to Jimmy, "Dad!"
Jimmy shook his head, "Nothing is going to happen, for now. Ianto and I have to talk first but we will be setting some ground rules."
"Come on Dad, we're not going to do anything stupid," Claire protested.
"Never the less, there will be rules."
"But Dad -"
"Claire," he cut her off sternly.
Claire sighed, "Fine."
She headed for the stairs, Sara following close behind.
"Oh, and girls?" he gave them one of the lesser Angel Stares when they turned back to him. "I'll let it slide this time, but you know how Ianto and I feel about name calling."
"Yes Dad," they replied in unison.
"Awww," John drawled once the girls had gone up, "they're growing up. I wonder what Jesse will be like when he gets a girlfriend."
Jimmy pretended he didn't hear that. Jesse still didn't have complete control over his powers. He doesn’t want to think about what kinds of problems puberty and girls would add. He really doesn't.
Part Five