When Matthew got back to the group, he saw that Nancy and Raven were in the room with Seth. Nancy held onto her husband from behind at one end of the bed as if they were riding a motorcycle together while Raven sat at the other end in front of her father. Between Seth and Raven laid a 'Pretty, Pretty Princess' game where Raven spun the spinner and moved her piece. She wore a green plastic necklace and plastic green ring from the game and Seth wore a black plastic ring and a plastic purple necklace.
Matthew laughed; "Wow, Raven, I didn't know you had two mommies."
Lucas laughed along with him, though their derision fell on deaf ears.
"Laugh it up, guys," Seth dismissed them, showing no signs that the comment had affected him, "You both have daughters now. It's only a matter of time before you'll to do things like this for your own girls."
"I for one think that you're a great father, my Druid," Nancy purred before kissing him on the cheek.
"That's only because I have you as her mother, my Druidess," Seth replied warmly, glancing at her and leaning into the affectionate nuzzling.
"What's with that?" Lucas asked with an air of disgust, "Why name yourselves after the Druids? Surely there's some other historical pet name you could call each other?"
"It's got nothin' to do with history,'' Seth explained, "My tattoo business mentor used to call me Druid back when I worked under him. He was real big into Dungeons and Dragons and Vampire: the Masquerade. When Nancy started coming to the tattoo shop, he'd call her Druidess since she and I were dating at the time."
"Hmm," Matthew shrugged, rolling his eyes.
He didn't know a damn thing about either game Seth referenced — only that the geeks played them.
"I drew Daddy a picture of Thor and Binxly — my new kitten!" Raven announced suddenly before pouting, "Binxly wanted to play with Thor, but Mommy shooed her into my room."
"I just don't want Binxly to be too rough with Thor," Nancy explained in a cooing voice.
"She just wants to play!" Raven whined before turning her attention from the board game to Seth, "Hey Daddy? I have a question…"
Seth smiled at her warmly and replied; "If it's about the cat playing with Thor, I agree with mommy."
"No…"
"Okay, then whatcha need, Raven?"
"Who is your daddy?"
The memories of looking into a dirty mirror and seeing a youthful bruised face staring back at him crept into his mind at her question, sending a wave of sickness washing over him.
"Why…do you ask that, honey?"
"My teacher says that everybody has a mommy and daddy," Raven explains, her childish innocence shining through, "Who's yours?"
Seth felt Lucas' and Matthew's eyes bore into him as he searched his own mind, thinking long and hard about what to tell her. God forbid he tell her about Derrick. He never wanted to tell Raven about that piece of shit. In his head, he was free from his own dad's cruel bondage and there was no need to dredge him up again.
But that still begs the question; what to tell her?
"Well, Raven," Seth began slowly, his mouth feeling dry as he hoped this would be the easiest answer for her to digest, "My daddy was…my Uncle Roy."
"How can your uncle be your daddy?" Raven asked, confused.
"Well," Seth shifted a bit in discomfort, "Uncle Roy was the one who stepped up to the plate and took care of me. He was a Vietnam veteran — a soldier. He loved to hunt and fish in his spare time, and listening to the Rolling Stones, The Doors, and Jefferson Airplane. He also liked meeting people from all walks of life and always listened to them. He was a good, good man."
"Whatever happened to him?" Raven asked curiously.
"He…died…" Seth explained, choosing to omit as many details as possible while still answering her question, "after being sick for a long time."
She was still too young to know the real reason why Roy had passed away.
"Mommy says you're sick too…" Raven pointed out, looking suddenly panicked, "A-Are you gonna…die, Daddy?!"
Seth was at a loss for words, his mouth agape that such a question had come from his child. When he couldn't answer, Raven's eyes started watering. She scrambled to her knees and over towards her father before tugging on his shirt and wailing into it.
"Please don't go!" she sobbed, "I don't want you to! I want you here!"
Seth looked like he was on the verge of becoming sane again, or at least breaking down himself as he watched his daughter sob into his shirt. It looked like the light was finally coming back to his eyes as he realized just what he was trying to leave behind. Matthew figured that, in this moment, Seth must have finally realized that he would've been hurting Raven like his Uncle had hurt him. And it looks like he doesn't want that.
"I'll…I'll work on getting better, Raven," Seth murmured as he held onto Raven, looking like he was holding in his own emotions to avoid scaring her any further, "I promise."
With that, Matthew excused himself and Lucas from the room, deciding it'd be best to give the family some privacy. Once they were outside, it took several minutes before Lucas spoke.
"Well, I…have to introduce Emily to some makeup products and finer clothing," he announced as he recovered from the discomfort, "I'll catch you later, I guess."
Turning away, Lucas walked down the hall towards the guest rooms. Knowing he'd have nothing better to do, Matthew decided to wait a few minutes and then follow him without being seen — another useful trick he'd picked up from Roy.
He finally reached a guest room and peeked inside. A large rack of stylish clothing sat in one corner of the spacious room. On the other end stood a vanity mirror with various makeup and feminine hair products. Lying motherfucker! Lucas absolutely planned on having her there today!
Rosalyn laid in the crib next to the bed, snoozing. Emily sat at the vanity mirror, allowing Lucas to remove the drugstore makeup from her youthful face.
"It's not like I don't appreciate this, but I don't see why I need a makeover," Emily commented as Lucas scrubbed the last smudge of cheap concealer off her face, "Like…seriously."
"Just look at it as settling into your new role as the mother of an heiress," Lucas retorted, "The skin around your eyes are a bit discolored from exhaustion — you'll need a concealer for that. As for the rest, you'll just need the slightest bit of mascara, light pink lipstick, and a good facial moisturizer."
Matthew's mind went right into the gutter when Lucas uttered that last item and resisted the urge to laugh like a school boy.
Once Lucas put the makeup and facial moisturizer on her, he made his way over to the designer clothes and picked a floral dress from the rack.
"Here, try this one," he commanded, "It's a Dolce and Gabbana dress."
"You know…" Emily began uncomfortably, "When…I saw you at my workplace and gave you my number, I just wanted you to have a role in Rosalyn's life. I never expected any of…this…" She held onto the dress as if it were made of gold, looking overwhelmed. "I guess I don't understand. I mean, there's plenty of rich women in town…Why did you go to the club pretending like you didn't have much money?"
"I figured it'd keep the gold diggers away," Lucas replied, "As for why I chose you and not some overindulged little money-whore is that you have more natural beauty and personality then they could ever imagine having. I never got along with other people in my own class anyway. They consider me a 'commoner lover' for the company I keep…namely the friends I chose."
"Oh…okay," she seemed to have accepted that answer.
Without another word, she pulled her cami up over her head, revealing her light blue Victoria Secret push-up bra. Next came her jeans, revealing matching light blue hipster panties. Lucas sat and watched as the mother of his daughter stripped down to her underwear, crossing his legs to hide the erection he got as a result. It was too funny to Matthew, who was putting in a considerable effort to quell his laughter.
"You never did tell me what you and Rosalyn are heirs of," Emily continued as though nothing was wrong as she tried to guess the reason Lucas' family is affluent, "Does your family own a hotel or something?"
Ignoring her question for a moment, Lucas looked like he couldn't contain himself anymore and latched onto her standing form. He held onto her from behind and finally answered her question; "Ancestors on my mom's side had a very lucrative tobacco plantation back in the day."
"Oh!" she was a bit startled by Lucas' forwardness, but then relaxed a little, "Can I tell you something?"
"Yeah?" Lucas replied.
"You're…the first man I've been with," she admitted, "I dated a couple girls in high school, but I'd never been with a man before or after until you. I'm…bisexual."
'Fucking lucky bastard.' Matthew thought bitterly, 'What I wouldn't give to make-out with a bisexual chick or another bisexual man. I could do two chicks at once . . . or two dudes . . . Better yet a guy and a chick that would let me fuck them both.'
"That doesn't bother me," Lucas assured her, "I've had my own sexual secret that I never told you. Before we had sex, I was a virgin. I didn't even know if I could feel natural sexual arousal before that."
"Oh!" Despite being surprised again, she shrugged, "Uh, that doesn't really bother me at all, actually. I wish people were a bit more open-minded about virginity and when people decide to have sex — if they choose to at all." She hummed indecisively. "Oh well, as long as they're not hurting anyone."
"Mm-hmm," Lucas muttered into her. Before he could hope to take the situation in a more intimate direction, however, Rosalyn started fussing from her crib, making him groan. "She has very poor timing."
"Duty calls," Emily noted, "It must be meal time for her."
She pulled away from Lucas' embrace and threw on the dress before reaching into the diaper bag and removing a glucose meter from it. Matthew decided to take his leave before they could see him. As he was passing by one of the staff, he asked where the master bathroom was. After being given directions, he followed the long corridors until he found the room in question. Opening the medicine cabinet, he found Lucas' Glucophage and other medications. One particular bottle caught his eye and he pocketed it without much thought.
He then eyed an unmarked bottle of clear liquid and retrieved it to inspect it, confused about what it might contain. It couldn't be his insulin — those bottles were usually labelled. However, he found his attention span lacking in that area and decided to let it go for the time being.
As he was returning the bottle to the cabinet, Lucas came into the bathroom and pulled out his own glucose meter.
"What are you doing in my bathroom?" he asked indignantly.
Matthew didn't answer him. Rolling his eyes, Lucas slid a test strip into the machine and pricked his finger.
"Shit!" he cursed when his blood sugar reading came back.
Matthew peeked over his shoulder to find that it was 350. A pretty bad reading, but not high enough to call his doctor or an emergency room.
"That's what you get for not sharing your donuts with me," he chided.
Lucas cursed again as he retrieved an insulin bottle from the mini fridge in his bathroom, measured the appropriate dose, and injected himself in the stomach. After he was done, Matthew withdrew the prescription in his pocket and held it up. Lucas went pale as he recognized his prescription for Viagra.
"I guess with Emily around, you won't be needing these then?" Matthew taunted, waving the bottle a little.
"Shut the fuck up about that!" Lucas hissed back, reaching for him to try and get it back, "What are you going to do with it anyway? With your long list of lovers, I highly doubt you need them."
Matthew shrugged, holding the bottle out of his reach; "I was thinkin' about selling 'em for 50 bucks a pill." Returning the bottle to his pocket, he crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. "You should be happy, you know. That 'hyposexual due to diabetes' crap really was all in your head."
"I am not having this conversation with you," Lucas growled fiercely, "Could you for once in your life not make a situation even more awkward?"
"You think that's awkward?" Matthew laughed, deciding to remind Lucas of a time he would rather have stayed buried, "Didn't it take my female acquaintance 45 minutes to blow you before you came when we were teens? Now that was awkward as fuck!"
"Could you not talk about that?!" Lucas scowled, "It was over ten years ago!"
"Okay then," Matthew shrugged, his grin growing wickedly, "How 'bout we talk about what I saw between you and Emily just now?"
"What about it?" Lucas replied haughtily, clearly accustomed to the idea that his friend would spy on him during such an intimate moment.
"Y'know, the first two times you managed to get some," Matthew replied, "I thought that the pills just worked really well. But the fact that you didn't even have time to take one of those lil babies before you got all hard just from watching Emily try on those designer clothes suggests otherwise."
"I didn't use them with her any other time either," Lucas argued, inadvertently confirming Matthew's beliefs, "Ugh, where are you going with this?"
"See, that just proves my fucking point," Matthew explains, "Your dick's not broken — your brain that is. You had no problem getting it up for Emily who…now that I really think about it, looks a lot like your dead mom."
"Ugh, you know what? Never mind," Lucas scoffed. With a grimace, he decided to add in cooly. "At least I never looked at my brother's friend sexually when he was still twelve fucking years old!"
"Mister Holmes?" another one of his staff drew their attention, "Holmes Senior is at the door, asking to see his grandchild. Shall I let him in?"
"Fuck!" Lucas growled, "Who the fuck told him that Emily and Rosalyn were coming today?" Taking a breath, he tried to compose himself, ignoring Matthew entirely in favor of the new guest. "Send him in." As she walked away, he added under his breath; "God, if anyone else shows up, I might as well throw a fucking house party."
