Invitation To A Family Dinner

[Existentially Odd]

From a scientific point of view, Trick's comparison of himself to polar bears was sound and fascinating. Harm had no idea until that moment that he was dating an evolutionary marvel and it had him hanging on Trick's every word. Harm wasn't really surprised. Trick was an extraordinary physical specimen. He hadn't answered whether he enjoyed being an anomaly and Harm took that as answer enough because the polar bear thing - as astounding as it was - was both confirmation and deliberate distraction. Trick called himself a freak. Harm preferred wonder.

When Gia entered, Harm was still processing so her flurry of movement drew his gaze. Realising he'd block her from talking to her brother, Harm shuffled as far back into the couch as he could go, lifting his hand from Trick's thigh and leaning his arm on his back instead. His fingers automatically toyed with the shaved hair at Trick's nape, stroking and scraping his fingernails against it. His actions drew his gaze as the siblings started bouncing off each other. Gia sounded like she was trying too hard, which Harm thought was adorable.

He also watched Trick through the exchange, deciding he was acting differently, too. It was as if... he didn't sparkle like he did when he was alone with Harm. Trick loved his family - clearly, there was admiration, gratitude and love in his every movement - yet his words were clipped and sarcastic, his tone petulant, as if he was constantly on guard. Was he afraid they'd banter their way to embarrassing him? Why couldn't he relax?

Harm didn't understand how Trick could reward someone as amazing as his father with such sullen behaviour. Trick knew that Harm's own father would've knocked him on his ass if he'd shown half as much attitude as Trick regularly did (which was all the more reason for Trick to be grateful as far as Harm was concerned). Jon deserved to see how happy his son could actually be. He was glad he was here.

As the thought passed through his head, Trick said something similar, snapping Harm back to the conversation. He turned, the look of surprise he gave Gia swiftly followed by an awkward blush. "Oh! I don't... he doesn't mean it the way I think you're interpreting it! I would never - well, I'd smack him down at chess but that's it!" he exclaimed, watching her reaction. He could feel the colour on his own cheeks.

He turned back to huff at Trick, shoving him gently with his shoulder. "Smartass. What's that game all about? Clearly I should be putting you in your place."

[Pocky]

As Harm explained that Gia had misinterpreted, Trick launched into a flurry of giggles. He stood while still bent at the waist and yanked the coffee table closer before placing the game box on it and sorting out all the coloured pieces. They were rectangular, like four sets of coloured dominos, and the gameboard looked like a white block of chocolate with narrow raised bumps.

"I'm blue," Gia announced, moving forward to collect all the blue pieces to herself.

"What if Harm wants to be blue? He's our guest," Trick said, his eyes sparkling.

"He'd let me be blue because he's a gentleman. Right?" she asked, elbowing Harm.

"You mean he'd let you be blue because he doesn't care," Trick laughed.

"That works for me too," Gia said, flipping her hair again.

[Existentially Odd]

In response to Trick moving the coffee table, Harm pulled his legs up onto the couch and crossed them to keep them out of the way. He was flexible enough to lean across them to make his moves - whatever they were going to be - but it was getting cosy sitting between Gia and Trick. He was warming up, a light sheen of perspiration across his freshly-shaven upper lip wiped away errantly by his lifted shirt collar before he leant forward to deposit his half-finished glass of Coke on the coffee table (on a coaster if there was one present), out of the way of potential gameplay, he hoped.

"Should I want to be blue? Does it mean something special if you're blue? You guys are making me anxious!" he exclaimed, sounding a little whinier than necessary to play into their coloured tile debate. He was fairly certain the different colours would all be equal and Gia just liked blue but there was always the possibility that blue got to go first, like white in Chess. Gia struck Harm as the highly-competitive, strategic type. So did Trick, for that matter. Harm was very possibly a goldfish in a bowl with a family of sharks... though Jon sort of struck him as a goldfish, too, so hopefully he'd have an ally.

The way Gia kept flicking her hair drew Harm's attention to it. The blue looked beautiful, he couldn't believe it was her natural colour. Or that Trick had missed out on it. He glanced from Gia's roots over to his boyfriend, allowing them to sort out whatever colour playing pieces they wanted to give him while he tried to imagine Trick with blue hair. Would he be sexier or would it be over the top? When Trick glanced his way and Harm got a glimpse of his eyes, imagining him with blue hair as well sent a tingle through him that pooled in his lap. Blushing, he averted his gaze and did his best to think of something besides how hot Trick would look with blue hair (and whether it would be all over his delicious body).

"So, speaking of colours, how'd your shoot go last night?" Harm asked huskily, clearing his throat and trying to look innocently in Trick's general direction. He couldn't make eye contact with his boyfriend because he'd know he was thinking inappropriate thoughts. Trick could just do that (and it wasn't even because Harm's thoughts around him were inappropriate almost a hundred percent of the time, either). "I want to see what you took, later!" he insisted, looking at the Tetris-like coloured tiles he was given.

[Pocky]

Gia giggled at Harm's exchange as Trick pulled over all the yellow pieces to himself and assigned Harm the red ones. Gia was on the same wavelength for she'd gathered green pieces and pushed them to the corner of the coffee table closest the empty armchair.

"I'll show you later," Trick replied in a voice deep, low and full of promise.

Gia made choking and gagging noises before saying to Harm: "That's you, later," then laughed merrily while Trick ignored her.

Jon entered the room with a glass of water and set it on a second coaster before he pulled his armchair closer to the new position of the coffee table, then pointed at the rug opposite the couch.

"Gia, sit there and give Harm some space. He'll heat up too fast between you."

"But Doodle will slobber all over me with his dog-food breath!" she complained while standing and moving around the table to sit cross-legged on the rug. She cupped her hand around her pieces and pulled them over to her side.

"Thank you," Jon said and the two of them grinned at each other.

Trick moved forward and picked up a couple of his pieces. "Okay, this game is easy to play. We put our pieces down in turns and we can only put the next piece in a position that touches our own colour. Diagonally, point to point is considered touching." He demonstrated with the pieces on the game board. "The person with the most area before being blocked wins."

[Existentially Odd]

Trick wasn't helping Harm by speaking in a sexy, innuendo-laden voice that made him blush and imagine all sorts of delicious-- his thoughts cut off abruptly and the wash of metaphorical cold water he needed was delivered by Gia implying he'd gag sucking Trick off later tonight (which never happened but no way was he telling her that). His jaw dropped and he turned wide eyes in her direction.

All he managed to do was splutter, "And I thought my brother was inappropriate when he came on to Trick!" before Jon entered the room and moved Gia away from him. Harm threw Jon a grateful look and smiled at him, wondering if he'd looked at his flushed and sweaty face (which he wiped with his shirt again as Gia got up) or was simply using it as an excuse to get his daughter away from him and give him and Trick space. Either way, Harm was happy but it made him warm (emotionally) to think it was the latter.

The conversation evolved quickly and although Harm nodded at the rules as they were explained to him, something that Gia had said still nagged at him.  "Okay, so get as many pieces out as possible, own the board, got it," he nodded, tilting his head as he glanced from Gia to her father to Trick. "Also: Doodle? His name isn't just Dood?"

In saying it, Harm realised exactly why Trick called his dog Dood and he began laughing. It started small, with giggles that became chuckles but soon enough he was guffawing, covering his mouth with his hand and leaning against Trick's side in mirth. "Doodle," he snickered.

[Pocky]

"A doodle is a scribble. Boys are simple-minded pigs," Gia said, flipping her hair and rolling her eyes in exaggerated format. Jon made snorting, snuffling sounds. Trick joined in with an accurate mimicry of a squealing pig, pulling in breath as he loudly made 'ree! reeee!' noises. The dog that caused the start of their conversation scrabbled out of the kitchen, claws tacking on tiled floor before he barked upon entry and ran into Gia, knocking her over and then lapping her face.

"Ohmygod-gross! Get off me, Doodle!" Gia screeched, pushing the dog away who obediently moved off her but looked at Trick and Jon with shiny-eyed interest, his whole back end wagging along with his tail.

[Existentially Odd]

"Wow, you're really outnumbered!" Harm hooted as the boy dog bowled Gia over and the rest of her family mocked her.

He would have liked to have agreed with her but he just couldn't. Boys were incredibly complex and delightfully sexy creatures that he was perpetually fascinated with, no matter what they looked like, acted like or even smelt like. Even the toxically masculine ones - so bound and repressed by the insurmountable expectations of an unsympathetic society as they were - held a place of interest for Harm. Understanding was hard to come by and Gia was still ignorant to the delightful nuances of a good man (such as Trick).

Guilt swamped him seconds after his smug thoughts filled him with self righteous glee, though. Poor Gia. Her mother had died tragically and who was he to remind her of her loss by rubbing in her ignorance about men? She had no female role-model to guide her. Harm didn't want to say anything about it in front of someone potentially fragile but he was determined to thank Trick's father and give him his condolences on his wife's passing when they got a moment alone. Not to mention he owed him a great big thank you for hauling his son out of sex slavery! Both could wait until Gia went to the bathroom or the kitchen for something. He'd do it then.

"So. Do you get to kickstart this game because you're such a minority?" he teased Gia once she'd organised herself, grinning at her. "Or is it the blue pieces thing after all?" he demanded, his eyes narrowing playfully.

[Pocky]

"The person who lands a piece on their forehead starts first," Gia explained while shoving Doodle away from the table. "Go to your spot!" An imperious finger and another shove got Dood moving to his spot on the rug where he flopped down and huffed. One feeble tail wag was the last of his excitement as he looked from person to person under sad looking furry brows.

Gia threw a blue piece high into the air and closed her eyes as it landed on her cheek and bounced off. Trick threw a yellow piece not quite as high and managed to catch it in his mouth. He pushed it out to hold in between his teeth. When Jon did it he had it land close to his left eyeball.

"Dad starts unless you can do better!" Gia announced to Harm cheerfully at volume.

[Existentially Odd]

Harm's eyebrows lifted when Gia told him her rules for figuring out who goes first, believing she had to be joking. Those eyebrows gradually lowered as the whole family proceeded to throw a playing piece at their own face and he realised she wasn't kidding. Okaaaay. Harm couldn't help but snort a laugh at all of them - and himself, considering he had to do it, too.

His toss was highly anticlimactic. He picked the square piece, hoping its area would help but it didn't. It bounced off his chin and landed in his lap, which only made him laugh again. He put the piece back with the rest of his red pieces on the coffee table then leant towards Trick, resting his cheek on his arm as he hugged it and grinned up at him.

"I'm pretty sure I should be demanding to read the box. You guys are crazy," he chuckled, only having eyes for one of the 'guys' at that moment. As usual, he was struck by Trick's handsome profile and the way being close to him could quicken his pulse with minimal effort on his behalf. He only had to look Harm's way and he was leaning forward to snatch a quick kiss.

Now that the initiator was decided, Jon made his move and Harm let Trick go so that they could play. Harm was a huge fan of strategy games so he was kept busy trying to predict a winning one from his corner of the board. He supposed being left with oddly-shaped pieces would be a mistake towards the end so he set out trying to use those ones up when space on the board was fairly free, leaving him with straight ones to get out towards the end.

He didn't think there was a time limit on moves but the Fallows family certainly didn't seem to deliberate over theirs for very long. It added to the excitement of the game and Harm got swept up in it easily, doing his best not to hold up gameplay by thinking too hard but it was difficult playing a new game for the first time!  He made mistakes he should've seen coming but still enjoyed the challenge of slotting pieces into gaps.

The most amusing aspect of all was listening to the banter around the table. Although Harm didn't join in and did his best not to choose sides (though he was Team Trick all the way), he loved the way everything was fun. They goaded one another ruthlessly but it came from a place of love.

No-one in this family was going to get a table flipped at their head or a punch in the face just for being a smartass. It made him vaguely ashamed of and sad about his own family, whom he was going to have to spend next weekend with. He'd have to watch a wedding he didn't really want to be part of while being forcibly separated from Trick. Ugh. He pushed it from his mind. That was Future Harm's problem.

"This is a pretty cool game!" he announced when everyone had just about exhausted their supply of tiles. Harm knew he wasn't going to win but he was fairly certain he hadn't embarrassed himself and wouldn't be left with the most pieces. On cue, his stomach growled. The dinner smells were getting out of control and he couldn't wait until they relocated to the kitchen. He blushed, pretending he hadn't noticed the grumble.

[Pocky]

After Harm suggested the rules negated their need for throwing pieces onto their faces, Gia had a quick reply. "It's a family tradition. You should see us flip for chess."

A couple of giggles escaped Trick before he grinned at Harm and then focussed on the board. The game won, Jon announced his victory and turned to Gia. "Can you get the broccoli started? Do you remember?"

"Five minutes on ultra low," she replied, hopping up and running nimbly on toes into the kitchen. Dood perked up and followed her. "You already had your dinner, Doodle," Gia's exasperation floated into the living room.

"Table is set and dinner will be ready in five if you want to wash up," Jon said, shuffling forward to perch on the edge of the armchair and help Trick pick all the pieces off the board and return them to their pouch.

[Existentially Odd]

Harm slid forward in his seat to return pieces to the box as well, sensing this was his chance as he watched Gia's retreating back. Once he was sure she was gone, he cleared his throat, his heart racing a little faster as nerves attacked him. Hastily preparing an impromptu speech, he gave Jon a beseeching look.

"Mr Fallows, I just wanted to say... well, to thank you first of all." A glance at Trick and then a nod to the man he was speaking to felt like he was encouraging himself to go ahead with his words. In a way, he was. "If you hadn't stepped in and rescued Trick from all those vampires, I wouldn't have the boyfriend I have today. It says a lot about your love and respect for your son that you got him away and I could never thank you enough."

Harm beamed a grateful smile at Jon, sincerity glistening in his eyes. After another tiny pause, he continued, his glow somewhat dimmed by the message he was planning to give next. "And I also wanted to tell you how sorry I was about your wife's death. I can't imagine something so horrible happening right in front of you and I think it's a credit to you that your family runs so smoothly now. I can see the love between you three and it's beautiful."

He tried for an encouraging smile, hoping he didn't open old wounds with his words.

[Pocky]

An odd expression fell upon Trick's face as he listened to Harm gush to his father about the vampire rescue. He shifted on his seat and hurriedly swept pieces into the pouch, dropping a few on the rug beneath the coffee table and swearing under his breath before gathering them up.

Jon listened to Harm, his eye contact direct while the young man thanked him for doing his duty. He made a soft agreeable sound in the back of his throat before Harm's next words about his absent wife summoned a dark frown. His gaze flicked to Trick and as soon as Harm's speech had run its course, he addressed his son.

"Robert Ariadne Fallows," he said gruffly.

"Ah, fuck," Trick breathed, casting a sideways look at Harm before shrugging at his dad.

Jon returned his eyes to Harm. "How did she die this time?"

Trick flopped back on the couch and answered for his boyfriend. "I didn't tell Harm directly, I was just annoyed by his stupid family."

"Trick!" Jon exclaimed, eyes wide and mouth open.

"They don't appreciate him! They give him a hard time and worship at the altar of his asshole brother."

"But you didn't tell Harm the truth afterward?"

"Stuff happened and I forgot."

Jon sighed and addressed Harm. "If you're with Trick long enough, you'll hear how his mother died in all kinds of ways." He listed them on his fingers. "Slipped and drowned in a wading pool. Choked on a jigsaw piece. Waterskiing accident when she was at the top of a ten person pyramid. Hit by lightning."

"Meteor. Hit by a meteor," Trick corrected.

"Thank goodness you waited for Gia to leave before you said anything," Jon said to Harm, reaching over and gently smacking his knee. "She finds her brother's lies upsetting."

"Only because she doesn't know better," Trick mumbled.

"She doesn't know better?" Jon stressed, glaring at Trick who mostly hid behind Harm, pretending that he wasn't hiding but simply leaning back on the couch.

[Existentially Odd]

Harm's forehead was beginning to ache from being compressed into his hairline. It had risen higher and higher with each statement Trick's father had made, Harm's eyes wide and unblinking. He'd swivelled from looking between the two men as they spoke, until Trick retreated into a position that made looking at him uncomfortable.

Then he simply stared at Jon, trying to wrap his mind around what he was hearing. When there was a moment of silence, Harm was ready to fill it. "So... what is the truth, then?" he asked quietly, thrown completely by the notion of Trick's lies. The fact that he'd lied to him and Harm hadn't known made him feel quivery and vulnerable and he really needed to understand what was going on before he completely lost his mind about this.

[Pocky]

Jon sighed and stood, working his way around the coffee table while answering Harm's question. "I'll let Trick sort that out for you." He made his exit to the kitchen.

Trick peered up at Harm but didn't move from his slouched position. Arms folded, his gaze fell to the coffee table before Harm could hold eye contact with him. The silence continued thick and awkward without being broken. Its weighty presence seemed to press Trick's shoulders further into the couch before he sat up with obvious hesitancy.

"Let's have dinner first," he declared, eyes lingering on the gamebox before he stood and wiped palms on the back pockets of his jeans.

[Existentially Odd]

Harm had swivelled on the couch so that he could face Trick, who seemed determined to hide from him. He watched his handsome face expectantly, trying to stifle the panic of being lied to and the myriad of questions that sprang from that knowledge. They were pretty fucking insufferable, as was Harm's resentment. It took everything in him to stuff it down inside and wait - without saying anything - for Trick to explain.

His reward for his Olympic-level patience was a retreating boyfriend who prioritised food over enlightenment. Harm's expression turned disbelieving and he huffed loudly, knowing that he could wait, that he probably should wait but that he didn't want to. Having Trick openly admit he'd lied to Harm because his family were assholes was baffling and disheartening. It left him in a quandary as to whether to pursue the answer he needed or do it Trick's way and wait until he was ready to talk.

It just hurt so much, knowing that Trick was deliberately hiding something from him. Like he didn't trust him and would only explain because he'd accidentally let his secret slip. Definitely not because he wanted to tell. Harm wasn't much of a game player but he knew himself well enough to know that he wasn't going to forgive this deliberate deception easily. It rolled in him, sour enough that he could imagine ruining dinner and the rest of the evening if he wasn't told sooner rather than later.

Still, he wanted to be able to trust Trick and meet him halfway. With compressed lips and flared nostrils, he unfolded his legs and climbed stiffly to his feet, planning to skirt away from Trick and follow him into the kitchen for the dinner his stomach was rumbling on about. He couldn't bring himself to want to touch or even look at Trick too long, though. Trick would quickly get the message that coming to the dinner table without his explanation was likely to backfire on him.