The Soul of a Bird Never Flies {boyxboy}

Chapter Twenty-Nine

~Sunday 16th September 2018~

"Wren, stop running with that stick, you'll fall and hurt yourself!" Dove yelled, scowling at his little brother who merely thought he was hilarious, "I'll tell mom!" Dove warned, watching the boy stop dead in his tracks, look from the stick to Dove with a pout and finally drop it, "thank you," Dove grinned, returning his attention to Eryll, who was still busy on the phone a few feet away. Dove hadn't bothered to mention to the rest of his family what was going on with Eryll, and was well aware of the degree of judgement about his actions, especially from Presley and Matthew.

"Dove?" the boy's gaze snapped to his left upon hearing his name, a smile splitting his face at the three boys strolling over, all wearing mildly shocked expressions, "you didn't tell us you would be home," Dove didn't get the opportunity to respond before Nimue stepped closer, partially standing in front of him.

"Mr Novoa, do you these boys?" the expressions on the three's faces morphed into something closer to puzzlement. Not very surprising.

"It's fine, Nimue, they're friends of mine," Nimue nodded slowly, returning to her position not too far away, her eyes drifting back to her husband.

"Who's that?" the eldest boy, Mason, asked, still looking at Nimue with an overly scrutinizing expression. Justin, Mason's twin brother, seemed to be wearing an entirely different expression, which no doubt Ravana wouldn't appreciate.

"Um, my personal security, Nimue. One of them anyway," Dove pointed to the playground, where Ravana had been roped into playing with Wren and Swan, "that's Nimue's husband, Ravana. Stop making eyes at her, Justin, she's not interested," where Justin merely rolled his eyes, Mason cocked an eyebrow, and Luka spoke first.

"Why do you have personal security? Atti isn't pestering you that much, is he?" Dove smiled, knowing that Luka meant no harm by the comment. He often dealt with his own issues through jokes, and Dove had gotten used to that a long time ago.

"No, not quite," Dove's cheeks heated a little, "um, my boyfriend is a little psycho about it. He's overprotective, but he means well," Dove intended to point toward Eryll, however, found no need to when the man wrapped an arm around his waist, clearly having just finished his phone conversation. Suspiciously convenient.

"He's your boyfriend?" Mason gawped, only causing a low chuckle to rumble from Eryll's chest, a sound Dove had been sorely deprived of over the past day and a half.

"Yeah, this is Eryll," Dove leant against his boyfriend's side, feeling that near-permanent smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, "Eryll, this is Mason, Justin and Luka. As you can probably tell, Mason and Justin are twins. Luka is Atti's elder brother," Eryll, very politely, shook each boy's hand, even though Dove could sense the tension in the man from the mention of Atticus.

"You better be treating our boy well," Justin was clearly trying to sound tough, although it wasn't working out too well in his favour, "he has bad choice in men, let's hope you break that streak," Dove's blush deepened, knowing exactly where his friends were going to take the conversation, "who's it been so far, Dovey?" God, he hated that nickname, "tourists, mostly, wasn't it? I remember hearing a lot about-"

"Alright, shut up, Justin, my sisters already beat you to that," Dove interrupted before his friend could start babbling, "why do you all want to embarrass me so much?"

"Because it's easy," Mason muttered with a chuckle, only laughing more when Dove childishly stuck his tongue out at him, "hang on, don't you work for him?" Mason was much quicker than Luka and Justin, likely having gotten the information about Eryll being Dove's boss from Falcon. Dove hadn't mentioned much to anyone else in their hometown about his work, after all, he hadn't even expected to get the job when he left in the first place.