A Home for Lost Boys

~Seventeen~

{Possible trigger warnings: swearing, mentions of betrayal, fighting, death, selling out an ally, the k word, alcohol mentions

If I miss something, I apologize and please let me know}

The first to react was Donnie. Roman blinked and suddenly the spectral figure was right in front of him.

"Hey Don."

He winced at the tide of emotion that slammed against his head. Donnie didn't really speak, but had gotten very good at the mental projection of their thoughts.

"Yeah, that's what I figured." Roman sighed.

"You're not supposed to be here." One of the figures sprawled across the couch slowly got to her feet. "You got a death wish or something?"

"Kind of trying to avoid it."

Roman held his ground as Slynkie walked up to him. She had that feral glint in her eyes, and good god he was scared for his life, but he was not going to let her see that.

Talia clicked her tongue loudly. "I say we sell him out."

"Talia!"

"You've never done me any favors, Garrat."

"You know what I'm dealing with." Roman hissed back.

Talia snorted and popped another bubble with her gum. "You think I wanna get involved with that? If he ain't targeting me I'm stayin' out of the way."

"Who are we selling him out to?" Sari asked, sitting up curiously. "Is there money involved?"

"It's JJ so probably not." Roman snorted bitterly. The room got physically colder.

"You'd know about that, wouldn't you?" Marcos said softly, falling into the beanbag next to Talia and taking a sip of her beer.

A growl ripped through the room, making pretty much everyone jump. Roman winced when the sound turned into a quiet clearing of the throat.

"I think I've had quite enough of this, Roman." Logan said calmly, ignoring the way the group reacted to his shift. "You've delayed explaining the predicament for some time, and there is clearly an issue involving yourself, this group, and JJ. I want to hear it."

Talia sat up, her gaze malicious. "Oh, you didn't even tell him? This ought to be good." She re-claimed her beer. "Put him on his a**, dragon-shifter."

Logan met Roman's gaze evenly, arms crossed. He looked calm enough, but Roman was very good at spotting hidden irritation. His companion was furious.

He deflated and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Might as well get it over with... none of you know the full story anyway."

"We know you got a good man killed."

"That wasn't supposed to happen." Roman shot back, then gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. "This whole mess started three years ago."

He began to recount his story, feeling the pain in his chest that always came with thinking about it.

"When I first joined this group, there was another guy in charge, Lucian. He was a wind shifter."

Logan's eyebrows shot up.

"He was smart, and he was a great leader. We didn't fight nearly as much as other groups in the city did. It was good, and he was good..."

Roman ran a hand over his face. "And I was not. I was an idiot, a teenager who wanted nothing more than a fight at all times. At first I thought I could just deal with it by going off and getting in fights by myself, but it didn't work. So I did something even more stupid."

He could feel judgmental stares. He didn't blame the others honestly.

"I'd seen JJ around and I knew he was a fighter. I wanted to fight, so I went to him. Bad choice on my part, but like I said, I was stupid.

"JJ had arranged this little group that was essentially a more brutal, less rules-bound version of what Pops does." Roman told Logan. "Bunch of us from various groups in the city, just beating the living sh*t out of each other. He told us it was just a way to blow of steam and we... we believed him. Because we were stupid."

"Say it a couple dozen more times and I might consider forgiving you." Slynkie commented from the spot she'd taken on the couch again.

"By the time JJ pulled his switch, we'd been eating bait for so long we barely saw what was happening." Roman shook his head. "He brought in a couple of his guys, Taeda and Dannan... there were others, but they aren't around anymore. Those two can do enough damage to level a village anyway. They ripped us apart, killed almost everyone there."

Logan nodded, cutting Roman off. "I assume you made a deal, or you wouldn't be standing here today."

"I didn't want to. JJ had claws at my neck, and he was telling me he knew exactly where everyone was." Roman shuddered. "I made a deal-"

"You sold Lucian out."

"No!"

Roman took a deep breath, repeating himself. "No. I didn't sell Lucian out, or I didn't mean to. I was supposed to steal his necklace and go back to JJ with it. I didn't even know what it was! I just wanted to get away from that f*ck."

"So then why did JJ show up with you the night he killed Luce?" Sova got up. She walked towards him slowly, and Roman would be lying if he said he wasn't terrified out of his mind about what she was going to do. "You walked in, and he was right behind you. We didn't stand a godd*mn chance and you're the one who brought him here!"

"I didn't know he was following me!"

The room got very quiet as Roman stared Sova down, tears welling in his eyes. "I didn't- I didn't know." He croaked. "If I had- I- I don't know what I'd have done, but I'd have done something- anything."

"I am willing to admit that I have little to no clue of the dynamic involved in this," Logan said quietly, turning to the rest of the group. "But I would ask for your help. JJ threatens my home now, and while we have the numbers what we do not have is the willpower.

"The people who live in the Sanctuary have not seen conflict in decades. They're powerful, they're smart, they're dangerous. But they are not fighters. I'm asking you as a man who has no options, as an individual of intelligence who sees a losing battle that might be avoidable."

The others in the group looked to Marcos, who was taking a sip of Talia's mostly empty beer. He handed his girlfriend the drink and hauled himself out of the beanbag chair.

"We can't all go in at the same time, it'll make JJ very suspicious. If we can go in one or two at a time, feed him the idea that we found out about this place of safety and wanted to take advantage of it, maybe we can keep suspicion off ourselves for a few days."

{I had to post the update this week off my phone because my computer decided that it's I Hate Missy Week}