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Me And My Friends

It was tempting to keep flirting Harry, the man actually blushed a little sometimes depending on what he said or insinuated, but Eggsy wasn't an idiot. Or at least not a complete one. He was well aware that they were in a single room with multiple other wolves who all had super hearing. And he didn't need them giving their opinions and potentially cockblocking him in front of Harry. He'd had enough of that already, thank you very much. Hell, this thing with Harry was whole new territory for him since this was pretty much the first time ever that his own fucking wolf wasn't making it his goal in life to cockblock him. His wolf possibly wanted Harry even more than Eggsy did. Ergo for once they were actually in total agreement that Harry was the best thing since steak and Mars bars. Way better, even. And that meant that there was NO way he was going to let anyone or anything get in his way of seducing Harry into his bed. Or into Harry's bed. Or onto any flat surface, really. He wasn't picky.

But anyway, right now Eggsy figured he should make a tactical retreat, all the better to keep Harry off balanced and not angry at him for embarrassing him in front of his pack. So he had to come with something else for them to talk about.

"How long will it take Taron to heal up that wound?"

Eggsy had been injured plenty in his life. The neighborhood, gymnastics and parkour, and his mum's God awful taste in men when he was little had seen to that. So yeah, he wouldn't be nearly so pretty if he didn't heal up a hell of a lot faster than a human did. Well, expect for the eyebrow thing. That had been the result of a knife that had had something 'magical' smelling on it and even that scar had mostly healed cept for making that eyebrow look sick. At least in his opinion. But yeah, he was technically only a 'half breed' and even he could see how much the bruising from his uncle's black eyes had diminished in the few hours since they'd met. Way sicklier colors, and already fading around the edges.

"The wound will have healed itself shut in the next couple hours. Barring infection or additional injury-and with Rachel's help-the entire injury will cease to exist by tomorrow morning. but the older we get the slower we heal, especially when a healer isn't around to speed up the process."

"That is sick."

"And you?"

"How do I heal up? Not really sure. Bruises go pretty fast these days. The broken bones and ripped muscles heal up well enough within a day or two."

Harry's eyes had darkened, Eggsy having a pretty good idea why. But before he could say something to distract or gloss over things Harry was telling him they should have him X-rayed while they were here.

"Wot? Why? I'm fit as a fiddle."

"Your body would have healed those sorts of injuries naturally, but if the bones weren't where they needed to be when that happened parts would have healed in wrong ways you might not be aware of. And if Taron, Addison, and I are going to be training you your body needs to be up to that."

Eggsy couldn't help it. The opening was too good.

"I ain't never had problems gettin it up, Harry."

In the background Eggsy could hear some snickering from Taron and Rachel, but he focused on Harry's less than amused expression. Which was not tinged with pity or fury on Eggsy's behalf.

"So you was sayin that Taron was one of the best fighters in world, right? So who else is on that list?"

"Now that's an area of great debate, Lad." Merlin stated as he came over with Daisy, Harry snatching Eggsy's sister back as soon as she was in range. Not that his sister had any problem with that as she snuggled in against Harry's chest and making Eggsy melt in the process.

"As you'd expect we don't all get along, so fun sparring matches to determine who has the best fighters isn't always possible. And that's before you get into those packs who don't allow maternals to compete because according to their pack laws maternals aren't to be put at risk of physical harm."

Harry's sound of displeasure had Merlin giving his friend a pat on the shoulder.

"Some are also better or worse fighters in wolf or human form too. But if asked there's three fighters that generally come up as being in the top five in both forms. Though sadly their ranking order isn't something we're likely to ever know." Merlin continued with a regretful sigh. "Barsad is from a pack that doesn't allow violence against maternals, at least for sport, so he would never compete with your uncle Taron. And Vasic...well I'd put my money on him against Barsad, but he would never harm your uncle either."

"What's up with this Vasic bloke?" There'd been something in Merlin's voice.

Harry spoke up. "Remember how I said that wolves without pack often become feral? Lose their humanity and often go insane?"

"Yeah..."

"Vasic is one of those wolves. Most of the time our eyes are human. Our wolves only come out in this form when our emotions run high or we're in battle. Vasic's are never human. They're always wolf. He has very little humanity left in him."

"He's not that bad." Taron argued.

In almost perfect synch Merlin, Rachel, Harry and Addison all stated that he was.

William just looked grim.

"Your uncle dated him." Harry volunteered. "Which is why he's never been on Vasic's prey list."

"Vasic collected other lone wolves to become alpha of his own pack eventually, but aside from said pack and Taron he sees all other living beings as prey." Merlin explained.

"That's not true. He's promised never to kill Addy no matter how often Addy picks fights with him. And I'll make him make the same promise about Eggsy."

"Thanks for that." Eggsy would have made a comment about how bad taste in men seemed to run on both sides of his family, but he didn't want Harry to think that was a reflection on him. He was pretty sure that Harry was so out of his league they was practically on two different planets. Not that that was going to stop him none. He was pretty sure he'd wanted ta be an astronaut as a sprog at some point.

"If you were to ask for top ten overall fighters it would be those three, Harry, William, and Addison, with the other four up to some debate. Your bloodlines, in other words, very much predispose you to being an excellent fighter, Eggsy."

"Sweet." Eggsy liked the sound of that. Hopefully this Merlin bloke knew what he was talking about.

"See if you think so once we're done training you."

The way Addison said that...

"Maybe just Uncle Taron and Harry should train me."

Addison laughed. "Oh, Boy. You have no idea what Taron is like as a teacher."

"Sadly...he's right." Harry added with a grimace.

"Shit."

A clearing of throat, Eggsy looking over to see that his dad's cousin had come over to join them.

"I'll be taking my leave now. I look forward to seeing you soon."

The man sounded like a pompous arse, no question, but there was something about cousin William that made Eggsy think there was a lot more to him than his cool exterior would suggest. There was something...sad about him too.

So Eggsy took the offered hand and shook. "Same here."

)

After both Eggsy and Taron had escaped from Rachel's clutches without too much fussing it was time to go and retrieve Eggsy's mother. The question of how they were going to do that and who would be going along for said retrieval became the new topic of conversation. Obviously Eggsy had to go so that his mother would cooperate and so that the younger man could retrieve anything of personal value in the flat. Not to mention his sure to be hideous clothes. And clothes for Daisy and her mother as well, though Harry was planning to do quite a bit of shopping for both of Michelle Unwin's children since Eggsy had no fashion sense and Harry loved to buy baby clothes.

But who else? And who would watch Daisy while they were doing this since things could get violent if Dean was there when they arrived?

Addison didn't really care about going but no one in their right mind would leave an infant in his care even if he was willing to play babysitter. Which he wasn't if there was another alternative. Technically it would have made sense for Taron to remain behind with the child since he was injured already, but naturally the older man wasn't budging on the whole being there to confront the man who'd been abusing his nephew. Harry wasn't about to be left behind either...so Rachel volunteered to play babysitter for the afternoon and then either drop Daisy off at Harry's once she got the okay or hold onto her until one of them came to get her.

Eggsy wasn't sure about that but between Harry and Taron they were able to convince Eggsy that Daisy would be safe with Rachel. Yes, she wasn't a dominant, but she was their HEALER. And healers were sacrosanct in their packs. Even King wouldn't dare take the child from her. The backlash he'd receive, especially if Rachel was injured in the process, would lose him his place as alpha. The rest of the pack would turn against him. Plus Rachel had always brought her own children to work with her when they were small, so she knew how to juggle both with ease. And could use her healing ability to somewhat help with Daisy's teething problem, which was the clincher.

And so with Daisy safely in Rachel's care the four of them set off for Harry's house since there was no way in hell they were taking Taron's car into Eggsy's neighborhood. They'd take Addison's car instead, as it was the least attention drawing of the three available. Which wasn't saying much, really. And on the ride back to Harry's house Eggsy occupied himself on his phone, texting away with almost dizzying speed. A bad habit that seemed all too common when it came to Eggsy's age group. They just could not put their phones away to save their lives.

Also it irked Harry and his wolf to be so ignored after all the attention Eggsy had been paying him earlier. Possibly.

They had been on the road for about fifteen minutes before Eggsy spoke up again.

"My mom ain't answering any of my texts, but my mates said they'll stop by the place to check, see who's there. Best to know who we'll be dealing with ahead of time. If the place is empty that will make getting our stuff out quicker at least. Though tracking her down if she ain't there will be harder."

"Try calling her, perhaps?"

Eggsy shook his head at Taron's suggestion. "Naw. If Dean's with her he'll pick up. He likes to keep a close watch on who she's talkin to. Text is more likely to go unnoticed."

"Isn't he lovely."

"A real joy ta be around." Was Eggsy's wry response as he put his phone back in his pocket. "And if we do have ta deal with him and his lot, it's him and Rotti ya got ta watch out for. Ya already know what Dean looks like, yeah?"

All three inclined their heads.

"Right. Well Rotti is taller than the rest, dark coloring, not bad lookin. Smells like cigarettes, cheap beer, and really nasty cologne. He keeps a gun on im at all times, and I heard he's used it before. The rest stick with stickers. And their fists. They're brawlers, all of im."

"Good to know. Any other advice?"

Eggsy had made a study of Dean's goons in terms of their fighting styles, where they liked to conceal their weapons, and the likely order that they would attack and who would run off first. That he despised most of them came through loud and clear, though a couple he'd run with back in the day and didn't mind. Though he was clear they'd do their best ta beat the piss out of im if Dean gave the word. The lot of them were all scared shitless of Daisy's dad.

Oh, and they shouldn't look to either of Eggsy's mates for help if things did go wrong. The two were sorta dead useless in a fight.

After that discussion turned to some noteworthy fights Eggsy's uncles had been in, Harry enjoying the stories as well since he'd never heard the majority of them from the Egertons' own mouths. And the two had been in quite a lot of fights over the decades so the stories lasted well past the changing of cars and the drive to Eggsy's former neighborhood.

Once they were within a few blocks of their destination Eggsy tried to convince them that it would be a really, REALLY bad idea for them to drive the not fancy but still obviously expensive car into the estates, much less his particular neighborhood. It was apparently a bad idea to underestimate the car thieves there. Eggsy should know, it seemed, since he'd done some jobs with them in his stupider years. They'd strip Addison's car down to its parts in no time if they couldn't drive it off.

Addison stated that he'd guard the car then.

"Well that would probably work." Eggsy agreed after a moment's contemplation. "Just don't kill any of im that try, all right?"

Addison wouldn't make him any promises.

"Shit."

Once they'd pulled into the car park closest to Eggsy's building Harry took silent note that Eggsy's neighborhood didn't look any better despite the improved physical weather. Actually, the rain had improved the area before as it had washed away some of the more offensive scents from the concrete structures surrounding them. Some people had attempted to bring some nature into their urban prison in the form of flowerboxes and pots, but they were definitely in the minority. Yes the building Eggsy lived in was relatively clean on the outside and well maintained, but homey it was not.

They'd hardly left the vehicle to take a quick look around when Eggsy's name was called out by two separate voices.

The two young men in question were as badly dressed as Eggsy had been the day before, their comments as they ran over suggesting that seeing Eggsy's in a suit was quite the abbreviation. Or at least they started to razz Eggsy's about his suit but shut up when the fact that Eggsy's wasn't alone registered. Or no...it was Taron.

"Fuck. He looks just like ya, Eggsy."

"Fucking A." The other one stated in total agreement.

"I told ya." Shaking his head at them Eggsy walked over and offered his hand, pulling each of the boys in turn in for one of those one arm hug/backslap shows of affection that was so popular among that generation.

"Guys, this is my Uncle Taron, Uncle Addison, and this is Harry. No relation."

"If we went through our family trees we would find connections." Harry corrected, silently amused by the way Eggsy's face fell a little. "Just not that closely. It's nice to meet you...?"

"Right. This is Jamal and this is Ryan. Don't believe nothin they tell ya about me."

The two loudly protested their innocence and ability to tell the truth for a couple minutes before remembering their manners enough to take the hands that were then offered them. Though it was obvious they weren't used to handshakes and found the whole thing novel and sort of amusing.

"So you's is really Eggsy's uncles? And you're gonna like adopt him or somethin?" The one introduced as Ryan wanted to know.

"He will be our heir since neither of us have children, yes."

"That's sick. And ya look just like im. It's sorta freaky."

Taron smiled. "But a good thing, otherwise we might not have found each other."

"Can I have a piccie ta show me mum? She won't believe me otherwise."

"Of course."

Moving in closer together so that Jamal could take a picture with his phone Taron and Eggsy grinned identical grins.

"Dean and most of his lot are at the Prince. Saw him there ourselves. And Pat said he'd text if they left while he was there. Your mum's home...but she ain't up ta visitors." Ryan said once the picture was taken, the way he inclined his head in their direction suggesting that he was trying to convey the fact that Eggsy wouldn't want them to see his mother right now.

The look on Eggsy's face pretty much confirmed that.

The young black man spoke up. "We don't know where Poodle or Rottie are neither. No one's seen um today."

"Shit. It would be those two. Right. Thanks." Eggsy swiped a hand over his head, the puzzled look he wore for a moment suggesting that the lack of a hat there surprised him. "All right, I'm gonna head up and get my stuff and mum. Better we get her outta here now if we can. You two keep watch for me."

Jamal nodded in agreement while Ryan looked a little lost as he asked if Eggsy was really leaving.

Watching Eggsy reassure them that he'd keep in touch and visit regularly made it clear to Harry that Eggsy was the alpha of the trio. Whether they realized it or not, and they probably didn't because of their human training, but it would have been instinctive for Eggsy to make a pack with himself as alpha. His wolf was too dominant and strong for it to be otherwise.

Crowing over Eggsy's promises to take them out for dinner anywhere they wanted next month, one wanted lobster while the other wanted steak, the two exchanged manly hugs with Eggsy again, awkwardly said goodbye to them, and then split up in two different directions to keep watch for them. They'd text Eggsy if they saw any of Dean's lot coming.

"Right, let's go then."