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"Lovely hair" Dom said softly as he watched Penny and Ben dancing about, their afros bouncing around their heads like halos.
"One of them has a badly scared scalp. Burns took some of his hair as a little one and Aunty Angel, another Angel I know, carefully weaves it around the holes so his 'fro can be full. It's important to him, to have his hair like that. You know… his hair is very hard to tame and having it plaited or braided on his head hurts." Ton explained calmly to the man he could never call dad "his parents… they did not give him a good start. But my brother adopted him and gave him the best step forward. Sometimes we don't get the first step right, it doesn't mean we have to fall over and lie there. Sometimes we just need to know where to put the next foot. Taddy likes to say 'not in Daddy's mouth though coz his own feet are both already in there' ya know."
John sat and looked at them closely a Ton took off to help Angel get the coffees in and Dom turned t see the handsome man with such striking cheekbones you could cut paper with them, staring at him intently.
"John, right? Monkey's papa?"
"And Babby. Yes. My wife and I are the natural parents of Babs. We knew we were shit parents back then and like Ton said … sometimes you need to know what step to take next. Ours was to give our child the best life possible by giving it away to this place. Who would have thought, we got a chance to come too, eh?" John said softly "Luckily Ianto is a forgiving soul. Or I might be in a ditch somewhere with me head on the other side of the road. He's a Hoodlum High Priest ya know… so's Jack… lower down the totem pole than Ianto but… Ianto is on the High Council and Jack is there because he is married to a grand poo-bah… if a know what I mean. The men around here are not all security or paid workers … no. Hoodlum Clan rule here and if you fuck with our village or our Ianto you might find that the last thing you ever do."
"Papa, stop threatening them" Monkey said as he leapt from nowhere to latch onto John's back like the monkey he is "They know what side the bread falls on."
John nodded like that weird mixed metaphor made perfect sense and rose to walk away. Monkey still attached.
"What they are trying to say is… it takes more than a gift to say sorry sometimes" Imp pushed his glasses up his nose and regarding them, his eyes shifting to Daphne "And sometimes words are more important than smelly things for the bathtub."
"How did you know it was bath salts?" Daphne aside with surprise.
"It's all you ever buy her. You now she is allergic to it right? Makes her skin itch. You never do listen. She would rather have chocolates but you call her fat. You never hear yourself and the mean things you say" Imp shook his head sadly as he added "And gonna be a grandma. Not a Biddy, that is for sure."
"A… a Biddy?"
Imp didn't know if it was even worth explaining the difference there.