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The Club Isn't

To distract himself from worrying about Eggsy Harry retrieved Daisy from her bestowed babysitter and then headed back to the Egerton estate. The little girl's teeth were acting up a little again, and by the time the medicine and the cold pacifier kicked in she was quite worn out and passed out on Harry's bed beside him. Tucking her in with a cow covered blanket Rachel had given them Harry stretched his legs out and with his back pressed against the bed's headboard turned his attention to his phone. There were multiple messages waiting for him from packmates, allegedly concerned about Eggsy's wellbeing-if the rumors were true and there had been an assassination attempt on his life. Some of them were legitimate messages of concern and well wishes too, Harry acknowledged, taking more care with his responses to those ones. But the majority were obviously just seeking more inside information and using Harry's ma-lover's wellbeing as an excuse.

"That and they want the heads up as to whether or not Vasic and his motley crew will be descending upon us like the rabid wolves they are in the near future." Harry informed the silent, very much asleep little girl beside him.

Though Daisy would of course be in complete agreement were she conscious, Harry was sure, so he gave her back a gentle pat of solidarity.

"Also, heaven help us if he does try and adopt your brother. Wouldn't that be a bloody mess. Both literally and metaphorically." Vasic's people beat the shite out of each other for fun. Lord only knew how much blood was shed on a daily basis. The dry-cleaning bills alone...

Yes, definitely a hard no, Harry thought to himself before picking up where he'd left off conversation wise. "Eggsy and I shall do our level best to keep you far away from that crazy Russian, Daisy. He'd scare you half to death, no doubt. Which would not at all reflect badly on you, My Flower. That's just common sense. Vasic should have been put down decades ago."

Daisy silently agreed, adding a little butt in the air wiggle for emphasis before going still once more.

"Finding someone to kill him is very much the problem, of course. Only your Uncle Taron could possibly manage it without being at least mauled. Horribly. But Taron is fond of him. One can only assume that he is beyond spectacular in..."

Right. No speaking of sex in front of Daisy. Or any child for that matter. Actually, on third thought Harry felt strongly that one shouldn't think or speak about sex in relation to Vasic at all. It rather turned the stomach.

Lapsing into silence himself as he turned his attention back to his phone Harry had worked his way through the messages in between glances at Daisy for another ten or so minutes before his ears detected the sound of approaching footsteps.

Very stumbling, awkward footsteps. Hmmm.

Harry's nose told him that it was Eggsy coming their way. It also told him that Taron wasn't the only one who'd had too much vodka. Way too much, if it was strong enough to actually affect the young werewolf's gait. Lovely.

But at least Eggsy still had his faculties enough that when he stumbled through the doorway and zoomed across the room to throw himself upon Harry's legs Eggsy managed not to jar or smack his sister with a flailing limb. Instead Eggsy just wiggled his way up and then plunked his head down on Harry's lap like it was his pillow.

Turning his head so that he was looking up at Harry, Eggsy gave him what could only be termed a dopey smile.

"Hi."

"Hello." Amused and glad to have him home, Harry reached down to stroke back Eggsy's hair.

"I survived."

"I can see that."

Trying and failing to look very serious, Eggsy solemnly informed him that he was more pissed than he'd ever been in his LIFE. He wasn't sure wot had been in that flask, but whatever it was, it was bloody lethal. Uncle Taron had assured him that he'd be back to normal in about an hour or so...and then he might have a hangover. A bad one. Which Eggsy had never had before, and had a feeling he wouldn't like. He's seen his mates after one-it was never pretty.

"No. It usually isn't. So we should get some food in your belly while we can. And quite a lot of water."

"We got food on the way back." Eggsy solemnly informed him. "And I had a bottle of water. Is that enough? Uncle Taron feels real strong about the evils of bottled water. Did you know that eighty percent of all them bottles end up in landfills? Ain't that fuckin messed up?"

"Yes, that's horrible. And you're going to need more water."

Eggsy giggled. "Like how the sheriff said that they's was gonna need a bigger boat?"

Chuckling, Harry agreed with that, mostly because how could he not.

Looking pleased with himself Eggsy started making the ba-dum sounds from the theme song for Jaws, cracking himself up in the process.

"Eggsy, Darling. You need to get up so that I can get up and help you get some water." Harry pointed out after a couple of minutes when it became apparent the boy had absolutely no intention of moving. A drunk Eggsy was adorable, and Harry was rather tempted to record it so he could show Eggsy later, but he thought the boy wouldn't find it nearly as amusing.

"But I wanna stay like this." Eggsy pouted.

"Understandable, but you won't want to be lying like this when the need to vomit hits you once the hangover begins."

It took a moment, but Eggsy was obviously not so intoxicated that he couldn't understand his chances of getting laid later would seriously decrease if he were to throw up all over Harry's lap. So with much pouting and groaning Eggsy got up again, giving Harry the sad eyes, because of course he was.

Leaning down Harry pressed an affectionate kiss against Eggsy's forehead. "Good boy. Now let me grab Daisy and we'll both escort you downstairs to get some water. She's liable to wake up at any moment and will want a new soother fresh from the refrigerator, no doubt."

"Her teeth bothering her again?"

"So it would seem."

"Poor sprog. Getting older is a right pain, ain't it?"

Harry agreed that it was, wholeheartedly.

Retrieving Daisy and settling her still sleeping form into the willing cradle of his arms Harry joined Eggsy in getting carefully off the bed and back onto their feet once more.

Together they walked towards the bedroom door while Eggsy explained all the reasons why five was the best age to be, and how it was really all downhill from there.

Nap time. A pound was a huge amount of money. Limited, if any chores. Nap time. Recess. You got praised to heaven and back if you could just color inside the bleeding lines and sit in a circle. Wear whatever ya want, even if it clashed, cause you're just a kid and it's considered cute. No one laughed about you watching cartoons all day. If you was cute ya got away with everythin short of murder, which Eggsy was very proud to state he knew from personal experience. McDonald's Happy Meals. Awesome toys ya didn't have ta pay for yourself. No job. No bills. And ya thought the best of people and the world cause ya hadn't learned otherwise yet. Oh, and nap time.

"Do you realize you've said nap time three times already?" Harry asked as they reached the stairs to go down.

"I know how much ya love ta sleep, Harry. Figured ya did a lot of it when you was a sprog."

Well, he couldn't argue with that one, Harry silently acknowledged with a pang as they headed down the stairs together. Frankly he missed being able to sleep so much. Back in the day his mum had loved that he slept so well, even as a baby. Of course once school started THAT had changed drastically. She still complained about how she'd had to drag him out of bed in the mornings. Despite the fact that he hadn't been school in a very long time.

"The only bad thing about being five is not being able ta reach stuff and no sex. Cause sex with kids is wrong. Any who say different, I'll tear their throats out."

"Quite."

Eggsy aimed a very wolfish grin in Harry's direction, a feral gleam in his eyes. "And we're gonna maim the fuck out of any fucker who tries ta date Daisy when she's old enough, right?"

Harry had to admit it would be tempting. And added that Daisy was sure to make them pay for, if they did.

"True. She'll be a right badarse too. Like Roxy."

Not like Eggsy's mother went unsaid, but was likely thought by both of them, Harry mused.

Or Harry thought it would go unsaid, Eggsy's next words catching him off-guard.

"I don't want her to end up like our mum. I want her to be strong and independent. Not taking guff from no one."

Knowing to tread carefully Harry settled for stating that she wouldn't. Which was, by God, the absolute truth. Harry had every intention of doing his part to see that that was Daisy future. That her life would be nothing like her mother's.

But rather than agree or take heart in Harry's words Eggsy very pointedly didn't look at him as he stated that his mum had called earlier. After he'd hung up with him.

"Oh?" Harry's understanding was that Eggsy's mother had been banned from contacting her son from the rehab center for the next two weeks. All calls were supposed to be directed instead to-Eggsy hadn't called him on his own phone, Harry remembered abruptly, understanding dawning. Eggsy had been on Taron's phone. "I see."

"It said who it was on the screen. The name of the place she's in. I thought maybe something had gone wrong or something...so I answered it."

Which also explained why Eggsy had gone from sounding perfectly sober on the phone to as close to drunk as a wolf could get. He'd probably welcomed the hard stuff the Russian pack would have happily plied him with after that damn call.

And damn her, for whatever she had said to upset Eggsy so.

But Eggsy didn't need his anger right now. "She's only just arrived at the center, Eggsy. Give it time."

"She ain't gonna listen to em, Harry. Or let em help her. Maybe she'll pretend-she's done that before. She's real good at it. She'll seem good for a while...but then she'll backslide and say it ain't her fault. It ain't ever her fault. And she ain't ever gonna forgive me for making her go."

The next words Eggsy spoke so softly Harry almost didn't hear him clearly despite their closeness. "She'll want money, when she gets out. Make things Hell if I don't give it to her."

Right. On this point Harry was putting his foot down. Or at least stating his opinion as firmly as possible and damn the consequences.

"You know giving her money will only make things worse, not better. You can't do it, Eggsy. Not until she proves to you that she can be trusted."

"Yeah. I know."

Eggsy still wasn't looking at him, and Harry could clearly hear the misery in the boy's voice which was beyond intolerable. Fuck.

Carefully maneuvering Daisy over and onto one shoulder Harry held her there with one hand while with the other he grasped Eggsy's chin and lifted it so that their eyes met before he leaned in for a long, slow kiss that hopefully fogged up Eggsy's brain as much as the vodka had.

Judging from the blurry, out of focus look in Eggsy's eyes when Harry did pull back Harry was fairly sure he'd succeeded. Good.

And Harry waited until Eggsy was more focused before saying what needed to be said.

"You aren't alone anymore. You have a family who can take some of the weight off your shoulders if you'll only let us. Including anything involving your mother."

"Yeah?"

"Absolutely."

Eggy apparently felt that called for another kiss, which Harry was more than happy to give him.

)

Thanks to all the water Harry had got into him a couple of hours ago Eggsy didn't suffer the massive hangover he might have had otherwise. At least according to the older drinkers in his family. He still wasn't sure how he'd gotten so drunk; he'd just gulped down a few gulps of whatever that nasty shite was Vasic had handed him once he'd got back to the table. Though in retrospect he would have deserved a massive, head splitter of a headache for takin anything from that psycho. Thank Christ Uncle Taron had been there to watch his six. The Devil only knew what the fuckers would have done if Taron hadn't gotten their arses out of there before the alcohol had really hit him.

Eggsy grimaced every time he thought about it. But he was sober, clear headed, and he had a dinner table to arrange.

Fuck this was so much harder than he'd thought it would be.

Staring at the table in question Eggsy found himself questioning for the millionth time if the flowers or candles were too much. Maybe it should only be one or the other seeing as they were both blokes. Or maybe both were okay, but the flowers weren't enough. Maybe there should be more of them. Fancier ones than what he'd just picked himself from the gardens. Hell, he didn't even know what half of them were called, or even if they was flowers at all. What if some of them were weeds and he just didn't know better? Course the uncles had gardeners so everything in the actual beds had to be real flowers, right?

And maybe he should say to hell with taking full credit and call Uncle Taron out to check it all over for him. Did he really want to do that though?

No. He really, really didn't want to. Fuck.

At least the spoons and shite were all in the right spots. He'd looked it up on Uncle Taron's phone earlier. And the silver and glass was clean, he'd checked that too. The meal was all under domes-they literally had domes to put over their food here. What the fuck, really? That this was his life now was fucking mental to say the least.

Rubbing his hands over his slacks in agitation, Eggsy immediately cursed the stupidity of that since the last thing he wanted was sweat stains on his clothes. At least there he knew he hadn't fucked up because these were new ones Harry and Uncle Taron had bought him, and they'd pre-approve the outfit beforehand. So, there was that, at least.

Bugger. He was going to call Taron, or maybe send him a video so that he could get the full-

"Well doesn't this look lovely."

Well crap. Too late now, Eggsy thought as he turned around to watch Harry approach, the pleased smile on his man's face easing some of the very tight knots currently residing in Eggsy's stomach.

"Hi."

"Hello." Now looking a touch amused for some reason Harry leaned down to give him a quick kiss, which Eggsy very much appreciated.

This, he knew how to do.

So both of them were truthfully smiling by the time their lips drew apart, Harry's hand coming up to cup Eggsy's cheek to keep contact. "You didn't have to go to all this trouble."

"Yeah, I did. I'm courtin ya, ain't I? Plus it wasn't so bad...mostly."

Harry chuckled, but in a nice way. "Well your efforts are appreciated."

Pleased, Eggsy puffed up a little as he stated that he'd caught the rabbits they were having himself. Leaving out, of course, how hard that had been cause they were especially quick around here, being hunted on the regular by his uncles. It also didn't help none that rabbits were so cute and freaking adorable. In the past he'd eaten em cause they were there, and he'd usually been starving at the time. Choosing to eat them when he could just raid the fridge for piles of food...

And okay, he was still a 'messy' hunter. He was working on that.

But a dominant had to prove to his mate that he was a good hunter and provider. That's what Uncle Taron had said when he explained things to him. And at least they were eaten em, not just killing them for sport. Eggsy didn't hold with that sort of thing. Had once made a number of his classmates cry on a school trip to a museum when he'd innocently pointed out that there weren't no way all the taxidermized animals in the exhibit had died naturally. The teach had not been pleased with him.

"I'm very fond of rabbit."

Score two for him, Eggsy silently crowed.

And then Eggsy wanted to kick himself as he realized that he'd forgotten to ask his uncle about the whole holding a chair out for Harry since this was a proper date and everything. He didn't-right. Pride went before a fall, and he wasn't about to break his streak yet.

"Would ya be mad if I pulled out your seat for you?"

"No. I would think it most gentlemanly of you."

Right. Good to know.

And that being the case Eggsy moved over to pull out the chair for Harry, mentally crossing his fingers that the rest was going to be easier. This weren't no fancy dinner where he'd have a bunch of special silverware or anything, and his table manners weren't bad. Long as he didn't spill anything-oh crap, what if it started raining? That would just figure.

But at least that wouldn't be his fault?

Mentally promising Mother Nature that he'd plant her a bunch or trees or something if she didn't ruin this for him, Eggsy took his own seat and hoped for the best.