Oh no. A mall chapter O_O
Leo slept over the night before the mall trip, giving Mo his expert advice from his one year of high school experience.
"It's kill or be killed," Leo said at breakfast that morning. Mo looked a little alarmed, glancing at Louie for confirmation.
"Don't tell him that, Leo. High school is fine, Mo. You'll be fine."
"Yeah, just joshing you. But some people are definitely high on their ego trip, I'll tell you who to avoid when we're actually there."
"I'm so excited to go to school with you and Paige. I'm going to join the debate team."
"Aw, that'll be great for you. It's nice to have your built-in group of friends."
"And I'll have you and Paige," Mo repeated.
"Oh yeah, for sure. Just don't worry about it too much if my friends don't like you."
"Why wouldn't your friends like me?" Mo asked, his face falling for a moment.
"The basketball people are just different, y'know? And I have an in with them because they think I'm funny and because the point guard thinks I'm cute."
"Oh, I get it," Mo said, "You don't want me to mess with your basketball boyfriend."
Leo blushed, "I don't have a boyfriend."
"Not with that attitude. Don't worry, Leo. I'll make my own friends, you don't have to share your point guard."
"Yeah, okay." Leo seemed a little embarrassed.
"I guess it'll be a little weird if both of my best friends are dating people," Mo said absently.
"You're still not old enough to date," Louie said, catching where this was going.
"You had a girlfriend when you were my age," Mo complained.
"Exactly, Morio, a girlfriend, it didn't mean anything and it didn't go anywhere. Sixteen, that's the rule. My siblings can parent how they want to, but you have to wait until you're sixteen."
"Dating's overrated," Leo said with a shrug.
"How'd you know? You just said you didn't have a boyfriend."
"Yeah, but I've watched my siblings. I mean, Raph and Nick are like, sickly sweet, but DJ's love life has been a mess forever and Angelo thinks the only valid relationship format is Lapis and Peridot from Steven Universe."
"Angelo's right," Louie said.
"Pop."
"Am I not allowed to say that?" Louie laughed.
"No, you're supposed to be the hopeless romantic," Mo said.
"Says who?"
"Says dad."
"Where's Uncle Boyd anyway?" Leo asking, swiping the milk and dousing his cereal once more.
"He had a late-night, he'll be up in a bit."
"Dad's a superhero," Mo said nonchalantly. Leo didn't even blink at that information. At this point, who wasn't a superhero?
"Cool. I'm a criminal."
"You're not a criminal, you're not even sixteen," Louie said.
"But I'm almost sixteen."
"And almost a criminal?" Louie asked with a raised eyebrow.
Leo shrugged, "It runs in the family."
Mo and Louie froze at the same time.
"What?" Louie asked, his spoon shaking in his hand as he forgot the frosted flakes in front of him.
"Y'know, what with Raph and his whole graffiti phase? I take after my brother. He's still bummed he can't come to mall day."
"Well, he's not in school anymore," Louie said, letting out a sigh of relief that Leo still wasn't privy to Louie's past.
"Technically he is, since he's, y'know, a teacher."
"If it makes your brother happy I will buy him some art supplies to use with his kids."
"I think that would make him very happy."
"Make who happy? What're we talking about?" Boyd asked, coming out of the bedroom more dressed than anyone else and assessing the situation. The more late nights Boyd worked, the more times Louie was stuck making breakfast. When Louie made breakfast it was usually just cereal, scrambled eggs if you were lucky. On weekdays, when Boyd worked late and Louie got breakfast at The Lonely Bean, Mo ate poptarts by himself. Boyd really hated that their family breakfasts were no longer about family or breakfast. At least there would always be Sunday brunch…
"Raph, apparently he's bummed he's missing out on the mall trip."
"In a couple years everyone will be grown and there won't be a mall trip," Boyd mused.
"Not if Dewey keeps adopting children," Louie retorted.
"No. I'm the baby forever," Leo said.
Mo snorted, "You're a big baby."
Leo flicked a dry piece of cereal at him in retaliation.
"Alright, well if we're no longer actually eating breakfast we should all get ready to go," Louie decided, before an all-out food fight could start.
"Love, did you feed the cats?" Boyd asked, trying to find signs of the furry life forms anywhere.
"Uh, yeah, when I got up this morning at six."
"Why were you up so early?" Boyd asked as the teens got up to go get dressed, no concern of privacy between the two close cousins.
"I thought you'd be home," Louie said with a shrug.
"I'm sorry," Boyd whispered.
"No, no, as long as you're safe and you're helping ensure that others are safe, it's fine."
"Do you really feel that way?" Boyd asked.
Louie turned toward him and gave him a genuine smile, "I really do. I trust you. Just keep our family safe."
The four of them split up after that. Louie and Leo went to go pick up Gus and Boyd and Mo went to go pick up Benny and Jules. They'd rendezvous at the mall in their usual spot and split up again soon after that. There were fewer kids now, but the day would still be as chaotic as always.
"I was kidding about the criminal stuff," Leo said when they were in the car.
"I know, Leo."
"Please don't tell my dad. He hates when I joke like that. He wants me to go to college and become respectable, like you."
Warmth surged through Louie's chest. He had clearly come a long way if Dewey wanted his son to be like him. It made his heart happy.
"I won't mention it, Leo. Joking around now and then is fine, I know you're going to do great things with your life."
Now Leo was beaming too, silence filling the car until they got to Shiloh and May's house to pick up their passenger. Once Gus was in the car, silence wasn't an option. He was too excited to tell his uncle and cousin about the campout he'd had with his moms and the story he'd come up with about a volleyball that could talk.
Benny was just as talkative when the gang reunited, though Jules was as reserved as normal, wanting to run ahead and scope out the play place and only being held back by her sister's hold on her backpack.
"Hey, Benny, hey Jules, how are you?"
"We're doing good," Benny was designated to answer for both of them, "we had chocolate pancakes for breakfast and they were delicious." Delicious was one of the words on her vocab calendar and she looked proud that she got to use it.
"Aww, I wish I'd had chocolate pancakes for breakfast," Gus grumbled, "Momma just made eggs with hot sauce."
Louie tried to figure out which parent was momma, he knew the other was mum but he didn't know if it was Shiloh or May. Although, eggs with hot sauce sounded a lot like Shiloh in college, so probably her.
"Both of those sound better than the cereal Uncle Louie made," Leo joked. Mo snorted at that.
"Hey, I happen to be the best cereal chef in the family."
Leo laughed and looked around, "If everyone is here should we get started? I wanna get at least one suit."
"You know we're shopping for school, right?" Mo asked, grinning already.
"Yes, and I want to wear a suit to school sometimes. It's my thing. I'm iconic. All the ladies love me."
"And your basketball boy," Mo teased.
Jules sealed that away in her vault before Leo could change the subject.
"It's okay Leo a lot of people like boys and girls," Benny said helpfully.
"I don't- well I do, but this isn't about that. We're here to shop, not to discuss my dating life."
"Because he doesn't have one," Mo whispered. Leo, in retaliation, silently reached over and mussed up Mo's hair. He wasn't mad about the casual teasing, he'd get his chance to return the favor when Mo turned sixteen and dove into the dating pool.
"Well, excuse me for having a father who never dated," Leo said, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, but it's not like you don't have plenty of people you can ask. 66% of your siblings date, and 33% of your siblings are attracted to people regardless of gender."
"Why are we still talking about this," Leo groaned, shoving Mo a little, not hard.
"Uh… I don't know. Gus, tell me about that volleyball story you were talking about."
Gus launched into a thorough retelling of his story and Leo's love life was promptly forgotten as the group drifted towards the pretzel stand for a pre-game pretzel. And then the hunt began, Louie splitting off with the littles to go to the bright and colorful stores while Boyd went off with the edgy, "grown-up" teenagers. Louie probably got the better end of the deal, although both adults had to talk their groups out of buying crocs.
Mo had to be dragged out of Hot Topic after buying more Funko Pop keychains than necessary, and they had just gotten two new suits for Leo when there was a commotion nearby. Mo was the first one to notice, grabbing Boyd's sleeve and pointing.
"Dad I think that guy over there has a gun." Boyd's head swiveled so fast, in a way that was only mechanically possible, and then he pushed the boys into the little alcove where the bathrooms were.
"Stay here, be very quiet. Text your father."
"What are you going to do?" Mo asked, his eyes widening with fear.
"My job. Leo, I'm counting you, keep him safe." Leo gulped and nodded, hanging onto Mo's arm as Boyd took off after the man entering the jewelry store.
Mo tore away from Leo immediately.
"What are you doing?"
"That's my dad! He's going to get hurt!"
"You're going to get hurt, get back here!"
"No, I can't- I don't want him to get shot, Leo. I can't let that happen." Mo took off running and Leo began to panic, dialing up Uncle Louie and tearfully explaining what happened, too scared to move from his spot.
Boyd was too distracted to notice his tail, though he moved much faster than Mo. When he made it into the jewelry store, nearly breaking down the door, his suspicions were confirmed. This was a hold-up, and, if it wasn't de-escalated, it might turn into a hostage situation.
"We don't have to do this," Boyd said calmly, his eyes beginning to glow. Despite not being the one with the gun, he was in charge here. That is, until the criminal looked behind him and put his hand on the trigger. Boyd didn't need to glance back, he recognized the sound of Mo's breathing.
He stepped forward, his eyes glowing red now, "We don't have to do this." Now it was a threat, his fists shaking. He was stupid, not to see the other guy until it was too late, until Mo was grabbed by the shoulders.
"I think we do." The man fired his gun at Boyd, Mo shrieking in distress and beginning to sob. But it didn't do anything, to Boyd, his exterior was bulletproof, at most it ruined the shirt Louie had gotten him for his birthday, barely scuffing his skin.
Mo wasn't so lucky. They didn't seem to want to shoot a kid, but his crying was distracting, it was going to alert someone. The other man threw Mo to the ground and stepped down hard on his arm. The sickening crack was the last thing Boyd registered before he went completely berserk, grabbing both men, one in each arm. Doing the only thing he could think to do at the time, he slammed their heads into each other, as if this were a cartoon and his son wasn't on the ground crying silently. And then, maybe, just maybe, he did it again. And maybe he dislocated their shoulders, when he grabbed them, and then discarded them, the way they had discarded his son. And maybe the next thing he knew he was holding Mo in his arms, rocking him gently while Mo frantically muttered, "They shot you, they shot you!"
Mo was quiet when Louie reached them, just steps behind mall security. He had left the littles with Leo, who was distracting them with quarters and gumballs, their parents already on the way over.
"What the fuck happened, Boyd."
"There was an attempted robbery. I told him not to follow me and he did. He probably has a concussion, and I think his arm is broken. I didn't know there were two guys, Louie, and I told him not to follow me, I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Tears streamed down Boyd's face.
Louie took in the scene and anger melted into pain.
"You did what you could. Bug, Mo, sweetie, can you hear me? How're you feeling?"
"Dad got shot," was all Mo was able to supply.
"You- what?" Louie looked at Boyd in disbelief.
"I'm fine, Louie, not even a scratch. We should- we should get back to the others, right?"
"You should take Mo to the hospital. You're a better driver than I am, Boyd. I'll make sure the others get home safe and then I'll meet you there." Louie had to put aside the panic clawing at his throat for long enough to take care of his family.
"It's going to be okay," Louie added because Boyd hadn't said it yet.
"Yeah. Yeah." Boyd was aching as he cradled his boy. His mind was addled with fear and pain and the remnants of anger, and he moved through the mall like a ghost. Louie went back to his niblings and faked one of his iconic smiles, pretending that he hadn't just died a little himself.
Leo refused to leave before he got the chance to see Mo in the hospital, though he ducked quickly into Hot Topic to get him a present while Louie was handing off Benny and Jules to their mothers. He was kind of glad that they had a few hours of fun and normalcy before Duck Luck caught up to them. It still hurt to think about Mo shaking in Boyd's arms.
Mo was really quiet when Louie reached him. His arm was in a cast and there was ice on the bump on his head.
"Bug? How are you feeling?" Mo looked at him and shook his head, nonverbal after the overwhelming events of the day.
Louie nodded.
"Okay, it's okay. You're safe, Mo. And dad is safe. We'll go home soon."
Mo nodded a little.
"Leo is here, and Raph, too. He wanted to come when he heard about the accident.
Do you want to see them? You don't have to."
Mo hesitated and then nodded, and Louie went out to tell them. Leo handed over a plush version of Zero, from Nightmare Before Christmas, and Raph began to draw on Mo's cast. While the cousins were occupied, Louie went to go talk to Boyd, who seemed distraught.
"When he's feeling better we need to talk to him," Louie said.
"It wasn't his fault, it was mine," Boyd said mournfully.
"It's not your fault that someone almost got robbed. You did the right thing, Boyd. Today has been too painful for us to also be fighting about who's to blame. I'm not going to blame you, I don't want to argue. It was an accident, we have to be more careful, we have to make sure Mo isn't going to get into something dangerous like that again. We'll have a talk as a family, and it will be okay." Louie put such emphasis into those last words, it sounded like a threat. Things were going to be okay, Louie was going to do whatever it took to make sure of it.