Kevin's not sure if Brendon's leaning against the wall of his building, teaching Kevin's brothers to spot an easy mark as a convoluted part of his ongoing campaign to woo Ryan, or just something he's undertaken out of the goodness of his heart, but Kevin's finding himself to be, grudgingly, extremely grateful.

He's always known that it's possible ( Read more... )

Being with Kevin isn't like he might have guessed it would be; even if had guessed that he'd end up falling for a courtesan with a day job as an avenging angel (or, as Ryan says sometimes, 'a whore with a death-wish'), he'd never have imagined it would involve more lying on the roof of Kevin's building in the morning sun, slumped together while ( Read more... )

It's been a long night and a customer got a little too rough earlier and Kevin pulled a knife, and that had gotten messy, and now it's morning and the sun's creeping out and all Kevin wants to do is go to bed, be dead to the world for a while.  But Mike's really excited about something, one of those things he's been picking out of law books at his ( Read more... )

It started when their landlady showed up to dust out and air the long-empty room directly below Ryan's. Frankie sits on the top step and watches as she comes out onto the landing to supervise some hired muscle who were lugging in some chests, a few sticks of furniture ( Read more... )

Once they had figured out some of the mystery of their new neighbor, the question they had now was what to do with it. Brendon wanted to invite her to dinner. Apparently, he had Ideas About Neighborliness or something ( Read more... )

Mike notices first, the way Kevin is favouring one side. Kevin never favours one side, too many nights working the gents after cleaning the streets having ingrained on him the necessity to hide weakness.

When he reaches out, Kevin's skin is warm and clammy.

Mike bites back a curse and calls for Joe, Gerard, Macy. Kevin bats weakly at him. "Don't ( Read more... )

He's not even that young--nearly thirteen, and in a few years he'll be going off into the world leaving nothing behind but a note in his chickenscratch handwriting on the kitchen table. So, it's not that he's so young, but he's sleepy, barely woken at all when Mike lifts him from his spot by the fire, carries him to bed. He doesn't even open his ( Read more... )

Frankie's got a secret, and it keeps running through his head as he helps clear up after dinner, as he jokes with Joe, as he promises Kevin he'll help out with the kids tomorrow. Frankie's not going to be here tomorrow.

When he decided the only thing to do was to sneak out in the dead of night, he'd thought of the adventure, the excitement, the ( Read more... )

Frankie has three days leave between graduating from training and joining his first ship. His classmates are all already in the nearest bar, drinking to their future success, but Frankie has something more important to do ( Read more... )

Frankie has three days leave between graduating from training and joining his first ship. His classmates are all already in the nearest bar, drinking to their future success, but Frankie has something more important to do ( Read more... )