"As Satellites Go By" by Lamb

We landed in Boston mid-afternoon. Connor, Murphy, Romeo, and I carried our bags off of the ship and managed to avoid any of the security personnel. Once we were on the streets of the city, I realized that I had gotten used to losing anonymity in the smaller towns in Europe. Everyone always stares at you, trying to figure out if they know you and who you are if they don't know you. In Boston, nobody cares. Everyone just goes on about their business. It was oddly refreshing. I hadn't realized that I had missed it.

As Murphy had promised, we went to Rocco's grave before we even went to the place we'd be staying. Romeo didn't know Rocco but he didn't complain about the first stop.

"Oh no," I said, looking at Rocco's photo on the door to his personal vault in the mausoleum. Connor and Murphy followed my gaze before they both started laughing. Rocco's mugshot was the picture that had ended up there for all of eternity. They had at least tried to erase the man's hand that had been holding his hair up. Kind of. It was definitely done very badly.

"That's his fecking mugshot," Murphy pointed at it.

"They didn't even fix it up all nice," Connor agreed.

I shook my head at it, still in disbelief. The dumbest shit always happened to Rocco. Death didn't seem to stop that trend. "Jesus, Roc, life just always did you dirty," I said as I laughed a bit. Murphy slid his arm around my waist. I reached out and ran my fingers down Rocco's portrait. I'd look into getting it changed...but this might be the most Rocco picture they could've picked.

"Just like old times," I noted as we opened the door to an illegal immigrant loft in South Boston. The twins shot me pleased grins before going in and inspecting everything. There were two mattresses, a kitchen area, and a toilet. It really was just like old times. "Well, Romeo, you're the lucky winner that gets to go shopping with me."

"We're off the hook!" Connor said gleefully, flopping down on a bed while Murphy rolled his eyes at him.

"I mean, I'd rather force the two of you to carry random stuff again," I corrected, "but you might be recognized."

The twins looked at each other and shrugged. "We've never been recognized before," Murphy said.

"I recognized you!" Romeo interrupted indignantly.

"Yer a special case," Connor waved him away. "I think we can handle a furniture store."

I raised my eyebrows, unsure if he remembered how this went the last time I made them go shopping with me. Murphy, however, seemed to know better.

"Within reason," he pleaded.

"No, Connor assures me you can handle it. So I'm putting all three of you to use." I threw Connor's boots at his feet. "We'll leave in five minutes."

Connor began grumbling in Russian, causing Murphy to grumble back at him.

"Do they do that a lot?" Romeo asked. I looked over at the twins, who were still bickering in Russian.

"Yes, they do. You'll get used to it."

At the store, Romeo and I were mostly the ones looking at things and deciding if the prices were fair or not. The twins were making sure nobody had followed us or recognized them. They probably thought that they looked inconspicuous and cool, but they just looked like they were trying to figure out how to shoplift a large item of furniture.

"Maybe we should get this delivered," I murmured as I looked at the list I had checked off for the workers to pull from the back.

"No, we can handle it!" Connor said loudly, grabbing the list from my hand. "Aye, maybe not."

"There's no way we can carry that," Murphy agreed with me. Connor looked at him, clearly offended.

"We can so!"

"Guys, they can deliver-"

"Not now, Cec," Connor waved me off while staring Murphy down. I raised my eyebrows, crossing my arms. Murphy held up his hands in defense.

"They've delivered stuff to the building before," Murphy tried to reason.

"We can do it. Or have ye gotten soft?"

"I'm not soft," Murphy replied indignantly. "Yer soft!"

"I'm not soft, I'll carry anything without any help!"

I rubbed my forehead as Romeo got more and more excited with Connor's enthusiasm. "Fine, we're carrying it all," I interrupted. Romeo punched the air with both fists.

"Fuck yeah we are!"

Murphy immediately realized his mistake while Connor looked pleased. I handed the list to one of the sales associates nearby, insisting that we didn't need the free delivery. We'd be capable of transporting it ourselves. She looked surprised but went to go get the stuff pulled from the back.

"Glad ye decided to have some faith in us, lass. If this is how we die, this is how we die."

I shot him a look before walking up to the register to pay. Just as the transaction finished, a few associates from the back wheeled out several boxes for us.

"We can do this, right?" Murphy questioned Connor and Romeo.

"O' course we can fuckin' do it," Connor scoffed at him, slapping him on the chest. Murphy stared at Connor before returning the favor. The sales associate looked at me, clearly deciding whether or not this was an issue or just a normal occurrence. I shook my head.

"They're twins. This is normal," I assured him. I walked up to the twins, placing one hand on each of their backs. "Now boys, when trying to blend in, what do we not do?"

"He started it," Murphy tried to slap Connor over my head and was successful due to being taller than me.

I shook my head. "Come on, you can finish your spat at home."

The twins took the heaviest items while Romeo took the largest. That left me with the lightest items: a bag of random essentials and a mirror.

"We could have had this all delivered for you," the sales associate said, trying to be helpful. Connor looked back with a glare.

"If we die, we die," he echoed his earlier statement before rushing through the door as fast as he could. Murphy grumbled something to himself before following while Romeo waited for me.

"I appreciate your help," I assured the associate. We were definitely going to be a breakroom story for quite a while based on the twins' antics. Romeo held the door open for me on the way out, despite the fact that he was struggling so much. When I started to protest, he shook his head and just nodded for me to just get out of the way and let him have his moment of chivalry.

Connor and Murphy had only gotten to the end of the block once we were on the sidewalk. "It's gonna be a long walk home," I noted.

Romeo nodded, "Probably. Maybe it'll tire them out though."

"We can hope," I smiled at him. He grinned, falling into step beside me.

The boys held up traffic a few times while we were crossing some crosswalks, but we did eventually get back home. And they did manage to drag everything upstairs.

"I admit it, you guys are more capable than I thought," I smiled as they collapsed onto the largest box once we were inside.

"Yer damn right we are," Murphy huffed, attempted to point at me and then gave up, fighting to catch his breath.

"Now we have to put it all together."

Connor sat up straight.

"What? Can't that be tomorrow?" He whined, already knowing what my answer would be.

"Oh no, some of this stuff needs to be up immediately for this place to be usable."

"But-"

"No 'buts,'" I shook my head, a grin on my face. "I'll reward you all with pizza and whiskey." The twins perked up, looked at each other, and nodded. I put down the things that I was holding and turned to leave again.

"Wait just a minute, where are ye going?" Connor demanded.

"Well the liquor stores will close soon," I reasoned, still grinning. Murphy immediately saw an opportunity.

"I'll go with ye!"

He was up and guiding me out the door before Connor or Romeo had a chance to object. Murphy shut the door firmly behind us and glanced down at me with a grin while I started laughing.