When You're Broken On The Ground

Chapter 31

Trigger Warning: mentioned alcohol, swearing, and mentioned murder. 

Note: I swear I meant this chapter to be fluff, I swear it! It just... escalated. A lot.

Word Count: 1026

Emile walks back into the living room, and Patton looks over to the door as a reflex. Dee and Remus don't come back to join them like he thought. He can't actually see them from here, but he knows they're in the alcove by the front door.

"What were you three talking about?" Logan asks from his side. Patton snuggles in closer to him, he's not as warm as Roman or Remus, who act as furnaces a lot of the time, but he's the perfect temperature to cuddle with under a blanket.

"I'll tell you after I get an answer," Emile says. He looks over at Remy. "Dear, we just got here!"

Remy is holding a Starbucks coffee cup in his hand, smirking. "Yeah, and?" he asks, taking an exaggerated sip from the cup.

"You plus coffee plus alcohol is a nightmare," Emile groans, sinking down beside him.

Remy just laughs and wraps an arm around Emile, pressing a kiss to his cheek. Patton giggles too. He remembers the last time he saw Remy drunk and drinking coffee. He was hyper, overly flirty, and it took both Emile and Remus, the designated sober ones that night, to get him to leave the fake potted plant he thought was Emile. Of course, he wasn't much better, because Remus kept egging him on after taking a shot and he considers himself lucky to remember anything from that night, even if it's blurry and it makes him blush remembering what he said then.

Then his twin and Remus walk back into the room. Remus divebombs a spot on the couch, then asks, "So nerd, how did our case hold up compared to your other ones?"

"An interesting challenge," Logan replies smoothly. Patton bounces up and hugs Dee before he sits down next to a spread out Remus. "I'll definitely use it as an example of my skills, if that's okay with you two?" He always checks with his clients, Patton knows. Always considerate.

"Go ahead Lo," Dee says. "I'm impressed that you were able to have the charges dropped as quickly as you did."

"My pleasure," Logan replies. "You are family, I couldn't let you two get jailed for something you didn't do."

Patton feels his heart sink and he quickly buries his face in Logan's shoulder to hide the guilt in his face.

"I do wonder who did do it though," Thomas wonders out loud.

The room freezes. Not literally, but everyone tenses up and Remy and Emile stop their quiet conversation mid sentence. Patton looks up slowly, feeling as if his breath had been knocked out of his lungs.

"What?" Thomas asks, looking around. "They never had other suspects, and while we know Dee and Remus never did it, we also don't know who did." That's what he thinks...

"Thomas..." Dee starts, before being interrupted by the phantom music. Patton almost sighs at the interruption.

"I'll get it!" Remus yelps, jumping up and almost running away from the conversation. Patton wishes he could join Remus, but that'd be suspicious and he knows that Thomas is already suspicious.

"What's going on?" Thomas asks. "Remus doesn't move like that unless it's Dee or blood or something like that."

Patton looks at the others. What are they supposed to say? Hey Thomas, we actually know exactly who killed that guy that night and only told Dee and Remus after their date and that's why we've been so scared of them getting called guilty because we know who should be the ones in jail, not them but we're all too big of cowards to tell you because we're scared we'll lose you.

"Hello threes!" Roman declares flamboyantly as he enters the room, Virgil sighing behind him as Remus follows them sullenly.

"Threes?" Patton asks quickly, latching onto a different topic of conversation and trying to ignore Thomas' questioning looks.

"Bitch I'm a fucking ten," Virgil, Dee, and Remy chorus, though the other two lack Virgil's bite.

"Guys, answer me!" Thomas insists.

"No no no, Roman you were saying something?" Patton tries to redirect the conversation, wishing Thomas would just drop it.

"Patton!"

Roman huffs. "Secrets secrets are no fun, tell me now or else we're done! Also Stormcloud, you said it wrong. You're fucking a ten and a fucking ten." Virgil blushes heavily.

"Ignoring that," Thomas says, "all I did was wonder who actually killed that guy-" Roman and Virgil freeze "-and everyone froze up!" He gets a good look at them. "And now you two!"

"Oh?" Roman squeaks out.

"You two know?!" Thomas asks.

"Thomas..."

"No Dee, I want to know. What," he looks at each of them in turn, "do you know?"

His boyfriend sighs. "Thomas, you have to swear to never tell."

"What?" He looks shocked and Patton gnaws on his lip, emotions swirling around in a hurricane in his chest. Why did they go out that night, not telling Mrs. Sanders because they didn't think they'd be long?

"Swear it Thomas," Dee insists. "Please."

"Fine, I swear I'll never tell."

They all sigh. "Alright," Patton says reluctantly, "sit down guys."

Virgil, Roman, and Remus sit down heavily, Virgil curling into Roman's side and Remus sitting shoulder to shoulder with Dee. Everyone's tense, and Thomas looks nervous. "Thomas, you have to understand before we start. We never, ever meant you to find out."

"Unfortunately," Dee continues, picking up as Logan leaves off, "it was bound to come out eventually. We just wish it didn't come out like this."

"Wait, wait. All of you are in on this?"

Emile sighs. "Yeah, all of us. Roman, Virgil, Logan, Patton, Dee, Remus, Remy, myself, we all know. Remus and Dee were told later, after they came back from their date, in case anything happened, but all of us know what happened."

"We," Remy says haltingly, "know who killed William Delaney."

A sharp intake of breath is the only noise from Thomas.

"Or rather," Roman continues, "we know the people that killed him."