Disclaimer: I do not own any characters referenced
Fenrys was busy trying to find a comfortable position in Connall's damp, black jeans and simultaneously trying to convince his twin that bandanas were meant for the forehead or neck, but not to be meant to wear like bandit's facemasks.
"But this's how they wear it in movies." Connall excused himself, his voice muffled behind the cloth.
"I honestly can't believe you're my manager and still know this little of fashion." Fenrys seethed with a chuckle. Connall prepared to retort, but got distracted when the door to the bedroom opened and Rowan and Aelin returned. He snorted.
"Huh?" Fenrys spun around and burst into uncontrollable hysterics. Aelin's white tank top was bursting at the seams around Rowan's arms and torso, which were corded with muscles. Her black leggings hugged his toned thighs and calves and the gray sweatshirt that seemed rather oversized on Aelin was tight around his arms. He looked miserable.
Aelin on the other hand seemed extremely smug. She was wearing his t-shirt that hung past mid-thigh and his sweatpants dragged on the floor as she waddled towards the twins.
"This is priceless!" Fernrys howled.
"You're not much better off…" Rowan grumbled, treading to the couch and letting himself fall down onto it.
Fenrys sneered, "Whatever."
Aelin chuckled, hopping onto the couch next to Connall, who whispered something in her ear causing her to giggle. At that, both Fenrys and Rowan suppressed grins. They were thrilled to see the two getting along to well.
Fenrys sighed dreamily, completely disregarding Rowan and his little feud as he said to him: "I'm feeling a feeling that feels the way a chocolate muffin smells… Is that normal?"
Rowan scoffed. "You're having a stroke."
Now it was Aelin's turn to bark a laugh. "Now that we're all confortable," She then announced royally, earning a pointed glare from both Fenrys and Rowan, "Fenrys, you're supposed to be the funny one. Tell us a story or something."
Fenrys' eyes lit up. "Ooh, ooh, ooh! There's this one really funny story that happened to me! Of course you two know it," He exclaimed, pointing to his brothers, "but it's still hilarious!"
"You're talking about that thing that happened in high school, aren't you?" Connall asked and Fenrys nodded eagerly.
With an exited gesture, Aelin motioned for him to tell. And so he did.
"So, this story happened in high school. We had this teacher whose kid went to our high school. His name was Mr. Ward and his son was called Luca. He was a sophomore when we were seniors, so he was 2 years behind me. ANYWAYS, Mr. Ward was an asshole, and one weekend he and his wife decided to leave town, which you should never do if you're an asshole. And Luca decided to throw a party at the teacher's house! Hurray!" Fenrys exclaimed sarcastically, throwing his hand in the air to emphasize his point.
"And everyone around town heard about the party, and we all got up individually and thought: Okay, let's go over there and destroy the place."
Rowan smiled at the sight of Aelin cackling, completely submerged in the story Fenrys was telling.
"I walked into this party, everyone I had ever met was there, and everyone was drinking like it was the end of the world. People were drinking like it was the Civil War and a doctor was coming to saw our legs off. It was totally unsupervised! We were like dogs without horses, we were running wild."
Even Rowan barked a laugh when Fenrys referenced the story he had told them earlier about their old babysitter. "Dogs without horses…" Rowan mumbled under a chuckled, awaiting Fenrys to continue.
"I walked down to the basement. They had a pool table. One dude took a running start and threw his body onto the pool table and broke it in half. Another kid found out which room was Mr. Ward's and went upstairs and took a shit on his computer… So the party was going great. I'm standing in the basement and I'm holding a red solo cup, - you've seen movies -and I'm starting to black out. I guess someone said like 'something, something police' and in a brilliant moment of word association, I yelled 'fuck da police!'"
Fenrys' eyes sparked with nostalgia as he grinned broadly.
"'Fuck da police!' and everyone else joined in. A hundred drunk white children yelling 'fuck da police' with the confidence of guys who have like already been to jail and aren't afraid of it anymore. You know that like 'I served my nickle, you come and take me' confidence, but white children. So you can imagine how that went."
Fenrys offered Aelin a half-smile, who was heaving through laughter. Connall and Rowan of course were present at the scene of the story, but they still couldn't resist the urge to chuckle at Fenrys excitement and story telling expertise.
"The reason someone had said, 'something, something police'" Fenrys continued, "was because the police were there. So a Wendlyn police officer walked down the stairs, and got to the bottom of the basement and looked out over a sea of drunken toddlers yelling, 'fuck da police' in his face…and he was almost impressed. He was like 'wow...' And then he leaned into his walkie-talkie and went 'get the paddy wagon'. And our brother, Gavriel, who is your uncle - this man has a child. He grabbed a 40, smashed it on the ground, and yelled, 'scatter!'"
Aelin howled aloud at the idea of Aedion's father doing such a thing. She breathed through fits of laughter, "Like father, like son."
Even Fenrys couldn't contain his laughter at that point. The joy dancing in his eyes was contagious.
He laughed, "And everyone ran in a different direction! It was like that scene in Rataouille when the humans come in the kitchen and all the rats go in different ways, we all ran! I ran into the laundry room, and I jumped on the washing machine, and I crawled out through a window into the backyard. So I was running through the backyard and there's this big chain-linked fence and I thought 'I've never climbed a fence that high before' and then I woke up at home."
"This is amazing" Aelin chuckled, but Fenrys wasn't done yet.
"Oh, you haven't even heard the best part yet. On Monday, we went to school, because that's what we did back then. And I'm walking into the school building and whom do I see, but Luca Ward, and he says to me 'hey, were you at my party on Saturday?' and I said 'no'… you know, like a liar. And he said 'things got really out of hand, someone broke the pool table, someone took a shit on my dad's computer'"
A chuckle.
"'But the worse thing…', Luca said, 'the worse thing is that someone stole these old antique photos of my grandmother, and my parents are freaking out about it.' And I had that thought, that only black out drunks and Steve Urkel can have: Did I do that? I figured no, I wouldn't have done that, but I was never sure until, 2 years later-"
Aelin stared with wide eyes, awaiting the worst, but Fenrys simply waved her off, "Relax. I was playing video games with one of our other brothers, Cairn, 2 years later - so we've graduated by now. We're playing video games for a couple hours and then Cairn says to me, 'Hey, come here. I want to show you something.' And then he takes me into his bedroom, and then he takes me into a side room off of his bedroom. – Which is never a good thing to have. He shows me a tiny room that is covered wall to wall in stolen antique photos from different people's parties over the years."
A gasp.
"And I said 'why? …Why do you do this?' And Cairn said, and I quote, 'because it's the one thing you can't replace.' THE END."
Not one of the four could contain themselves by the end of the little story time. After a few minutes of heaving recovery, Aelin mused through breathy giggles, "So that's were Aedion gets his impulse from."
Rowan chuckled, running a hand through his hair, and muttered, "Cairn hasn't changed much, but Gavriel used to be quite impulsive. Now he's such an old man."
"Yeah," Fenrys agreed, "We literally all call him 'dad'."
With a skeptical expression, Aelin looked them down, "Do you now?"
The ringing of Connall's phone interrupted them. "Speak of the devil."
He blew a loose strand of hair out of his face, proceeding to pick up the call.
"Connall, where are you?" A rough voice sounded from beyond the speakers.
The addressed responded casually: "Adarlan."
"Don't kid around."
"I'm not-"
"Whassap, dad?" Fenrys exclaimed, shifting his entire weight to lean on his twin brother.
"How's Maeve, dad?" Rowan asked, almost equally as exited as Fernys.
Beep. Beep.
"The fucker hung up." Fenrys stated blatantly. Aelin scoffed a laugh, "It's kind of ironic that you actually call your mother by her first name, but your brother 'dad'."
"Yeah, it's fun to mess around with," Fenrys lolled, "He'll always hate it, but if you really want to piss him off, call him 'papa'. There's one strict rule to it though. Unless you wanna die, never call him 'daddy'."
"He's my uncle. I think I'll stick with Gavriel."
Rowan held up his hands in defeat. "Your loss."
"Isn't it sort of weird though..?" Fenrys asked after a short while. Aelin narrowed her eyes. "What?"
"That, considering Gavriel is Aedion's dad, so your uncle, wouldn't that make us your uncles too? So you're dating your uncle?"
"Ew, gross. Please never phrase it like that again." Aelin cringed, burying herself into the backrest of the couch. "Either way it doesn't count, because I'm not directly related to Gavriel, and even if I were, you guys aren't blood related to him either."
While Fernys laughed at her rushed response, Rowan grimaced at the thought of the earlier statement, exchanging a disturbed glance with Aelin and Connall.
"Sometimes I seriously can't believe you put up with this guy." Connall stated, pointed at Fenrys nonchalantly.
"It's kind of funny…" Rowan mused, "If we weren't brothers I would've never even tried to approach someone like him. To be honest, I would regret never meeting Fen. Despite his vulgar and narcissistic manner."
"Aaaawww!" Aelin cooed, pinching Rowan's cheeks, "The ice cube does have a heart."
"You would know." Rowan smiled, pecking her lips.
"Get yourself a room!" Fenrys yelled and the two of them laughed.
"I wasn't lying though. Fen's weirdness and individuality make him likeable, unlike all the other people who pretend to be stuff that they're not." With a shrug, Rowan leaned back, allowing Aelin to rest her head in his lap. He started to stroke her hair softly.
"That must be one thing we all have in common…" Connall muttered. His statement was met with stares of confusion.
"Disliking people who don't do their own thing. We've all experienced enough of those in our lives." He snuck Aelin a glance. She knew he was referencing both Cain and Sam. They both always did what they though she expected them to do. They never considered that she wanted them to be themselves.
Aelin pressed her lips into a thin line. "How did you..?"
"I'm a hacker. Whatever information I want, is mine."
"I'm impressed."
It seemed Rowan and Fenrys hadn't heard their short exchange, being busy debating on how everyone they met is always fake to them, because they want fame or money.
"The curse of being rich and beautiful…" Fenrys mumbled, sighing dramatically as he flipped his hair behind his shoulder.
"Welp!" Aelin yawned, getting everyone's attention, "I'm tired."
With a dip of the chin, Connall stated, "I'd say we should call it a day if we're done swapping looks."
"A talking books~" Aelin added. A corner of Connall's lips tugged upwards as if to say 'challenge accepted.' He said, "I prefer reading on a nook."
"That response has me shook!"
Before he could reply once more, Fernys interrupted in a desperate attempt to be a part of their little game. "Would you look at the time on the… cloock!"
Aelin and Connall fell silent.
"No… We were just talking about doing our own thing, Fenrys, so, just don't do what they're doing…" Rowan stuttered.
Fenrys left the apartment with a dejected pout, Connall shortly on his heels. Rowan and Aelin sat on the couch for a filled while, not saying a word and just enjoying one another's company.
"Well, if there's one thing I learned from this experience, it's that your brother Cairn is fucked in the brain." Aelin muttered.
"Either that, or that Fenrys doesn't know how to rhyme." Rowan added and she barked a laugh.
"By the wyrd, Ro… I'm exhausted. Change out of those gods damned clothes and let's go to bed."
"Needy, aren't you..?" Rowan asked with a suggestive smirk, pushing her against the wall and leaning in beside her, his hot breath tickling her neck.
Aelin palmed his forehead and pushed him back. "In your dreams."
A/N: This is really more of a 'filler chapter' lol. I just love adding scenes and sequences from youtube vids or series that I love. Never assume that all of my ideas are original. The entire story Fenrys told is a skit by standup comedian John Mulaney called 'the one thing' and there are two other references to Thomas Sanders in the chapter, because he's just precious.
I know Luca's last name isn't actually Ward, but they met at the Mistward, so I though it was the most fitting. He might show up again later, idk.
Hope you enjoyed! Please review! Ja ne!
