Thanks to everyone who read and to CarissaCampbell and Belladonna-Veilsin for reviewing.


The music had clicked on this last run-through, everything flowing like it was supposed to, and Roddy knew that he was grinning from ear to ear when they brought the piece to a close. This duet was going to be excellent.

By now Roddy had admitted, at least to himself, that practicing with Monroe was even more fun than the summer orchestra, and if that meant hanging out in a Blutbad's lair on Thursdays after orchestra...well, whatever. His life was already fucking weird anyway.

Besides, as far as lairs went, he couldn't think of too many ways to make this one less threatening. This week the place smelled like cinnamon rolls courtesy of some baking Monroe had done a couple days ago, and they'd finished off the results of said baking at lunch.

Roddy suspected that he was technically the better musician of the two of them, but Monroe had been playing for probably as long as he'd been alive, and that made up for a lot. And while cello and violin had some obvious differences, Monroe was always willing to show Roddy any technique he asked about, unlike some of the assholes at school. He didn't treat Roddy like a dumb kid for asking, either. A couple times he'd even returned a question with one of his own.

Monroe was smiling as well when he tilted his head to look up at Roddy, not that there was much 'up' when he was almost as tall sitting down as Roddy was standing. "All right, kid. That was excellent, but I say we call it for the day. I don't think we're going to be able to top that, and I'm afraid my fingers are about played out anyway."

Roddy nodded. Not that he'd mind going through it maybe one more time, but he did need to leave pretty soon if he wanted to catch the next bus. One thing about Monroe's, you'd have to work pretty hard to not know exactly what time it was. And besides, after that last run if something went wrong he'd want to fix it, and then it'd be forever before he left. Last week his fingers had almost gotten played out, and that didn't happen very often.

"Are you sure that you don't want a ride?" Monroe asked, setting his cello aside and stretching as he stood. "Those clouds look pretty dark."

He always offered, and Roddy always declined, and Roddy shook his head this time as well despite the fact that Monroe was right about the clouds visible outside the window. "I'll be okay. It's not even raining y—" Before he could finish the sentence there was a clap of thunder and the sky opened up, and he scowled. It hadn't been raining.

Monroe chuckled. "Why don't you get packed up, and I'll drop you off at home?"

"Thanks," Roddy gave in. Light rain wasn't even worth noticing as far as he was concerned, but walls of water masquerading as rain dumping on him as he ran for the bus stop were a whole other thing. Even in its case he didn't like risking his violin in that kind of weather. At least Dad was on a job this afternoon so Roddy didn't need to worry about the two of them crossing paths.

Monroe didn't usually put away his cello after they practiced since they were at his house, but he did neaten up his stand and the pieces they'd been working on, and Roddy was just latching his case when Monroe's head snapped around and his eyes narrowed.

"Is something wrong?" Roddy asked cautiously when Monroe didn't move for a second. Nothing had set off any warning bells for Roddy, but this wasn't his house and he didn't know what counted as normal in this neighborhood.

Monroe relaxed again, shaking his head. "No, it's just Nick. But it's an odd time for him to be visiting so I better go see what he wants."

He stepped past Roddy, patting his shoulder absently—he did that sometimes, and Roddy had pretty much given up flinching—and Roddy debated what the hell he was supposed to do with that information. Nick was Detective Grimm's first name so, number one, Grimm, just on principle. And number two, him in a house with a Grimm and a Blutbad. That was a setup for a horror story, not somewhere that any sensible person wanted to be no matter what Monroe had said about them being friends.

Unfortunately the rain wasn't exactly lessening, and even without that it would have been just a little obvious to try sneaking out Monroe's back door so he stayed exactly where he was. And concentrated a little because Monroe's house wasn't that big, and his ears were good, and the school counselor always told him that he made poor life choices anyway.

He missed the very first part of the conversation, the words overshadowed by the sound of falling water, but from what he did hear Detective Grimm skipped all pleasantries, completely ignoring Monroe's attempts to insert them back into the conversation, and launched into a series of questions about Papegeien as soon as the door was shut. Or at least that's who Roddy thought he was asking about...Detective Grimm's German pronunciation was kind of crap, and that was coming from someone who'd taken two years of Latin to fulfill his foreign language requirement at school. Personally Roddy didn't recall ever meeting a Papegei and didn't have an opinion about them one way or the other, although unlike some Wesen the name didn't give him the urge to go crawl into a hole and pull it in after him so small favors there. And he wasn't sure how counterfeiting fit into anything at all.

And then his name was mentioned and the idea of a dark hole suddenly seemed a lot more appealing because he was pretty sure that Detective Grimm was coming to say hello.

A moment later he was proven right as Detective Grimm came into the room smiling. "Hey."

"Hey," Roddy returned cautiously, shifting in place. Right now there was none of the terrifying darkness in the Grimm's eyes that he'd see if he woged, but that didn't change what Detective Grimm was. Even if he had been...pretty decent, all things considered. A lot more than most adults were where Roddy was concerned, even without the whole Grimm-and-Wesen thing. Hell, he hadn't even cracked Roddy's face hard enough to do more than a bruise when Roddy had outright attacked, and all he'd done after the whole rave mess was give him a pointed look and tell him not to do it again.

Okay, yeah, he had sent a Blutbad to Roddy's front door which was probably something that Roddy should be holding a grudge about, but since Roddy was currently in said Blutbad's house, he didn't really have a leg to stand on there.

"Monroe says that you two are playing in the same orchestra this summer?" Detective Grimm asked, looking weirdly genuinely interested.

"Yeah."

"I think we've almost got the duet down," Monroe said from behind Detective Grimm's shoulder, and apparently having a Blutbad behind him didn't bother Detective Grimm in the least. Which was pretty mind-blowing in and of itself, even if Monroe didn't exactly fit the mold of a typical Blutbad. "You and Juliette ought to come to one of the concerts."

"Let me know when they are," Detective Grimm said with a nod. "She'd probably like that."

Another quick smile in Roddy's direction, and Roddy tried not to wince. He'd been hoping that he could convince Dad to come to at least one of the concerts—he'd have figured out a way to explain that his duet partner was a Blutbad without triggering a heart attack somehow by then—but with his luck Dad would also end up nose-to-nose with the Grimm who'd arrested him, and yeah, that would go well.

"Anyway, I just wanted to say hello as long as I was here." Detective Grimm paused. "If you're all packed up, do you need a ride somewhere? I was about to head back to the station, but I could swing by your place on the way." He gestured vaguely at his jacket, currently more than a little damp. "The rain's coming down hard, and I don't think it's going to get any better anytime soon if you're hoping to make it to a bus stop."

Oh, no. No, no, no. Maybe Detective Grimm was kind of okay in the grand scheme of things and definitely okay as compared to storybook Grimms who went around chopping everyone's head off for the hell of it, but that didn't mean that Roddy wanted to get into a car alone with him.

"It would save a trip," Monroe said, raising his eyebrows in Roddy's direction.