Harm's Family

[Existentially Odd]

"Haha, yeah," Harm laughed hollowly, running fingers through his hair and feeling like his skin was fluctuating between boiling hot and freezing cold. Was he changing colours? He was rigid and doing his best not to faint on the spot, all the attention was on him and he didn't know what to do about it and Trick was making veiled jokes like he was upset - about his lie, he assumed, but he could hardly fix it now.

Cassie laughed sympathetically but it was clear she didn't understand what might be funny about Harm's comment or why he was suddenly so weirdly silent and Quentin flat out grunted, "What?" as he pulled a face at both of them.

Deliberately meeting no-one's gaze, Harm cleared his throat and bent down to get his can of Coke just as his father walked inside with the cooked prawns, calling out greetings to Quentin and Cassie. Thankfully, they were distracted away from he and Trick (Quentin muttering something about fucking weirdoes beneath his breath), peeling apart to congregate at the dining table across the room.

The noise of shuffling people and chairs and the growing cacophony as they fell into conversation while they took their seats rose to fill the room. Gary sat at the window end of the dining table and Fiona at the kitchen end. Quentin and Cassie sat on the side with two place settings, Quentin close to his father so they could talk about football and Cassie closest to Fiona so they could talk about the wedding. Harm, Trick and Joe would have to decide who sat where on the side with three chairs.

Harm took advantage of being alone and the rise in noise to grasp Trick's forearm and pivot to stand in front of him. "Um, I'm sorry I lied," he whispered, finding it very difficult to meet Trick's eyes. He got there by degrees as he spoke hesitantly, looking first at his chest, then his chin and then finally into the unsmiling blue orbs above. "I never lie. I hate it. I just... if I told them the truth... I just thought... two weeks sounds a little less crazy," he finished lamely, shrugging and hoping Trick could forgive him. He needed him to understand. He needed him on his side.

[Pocky]

"Does it?" Trick asked. In spite of his challenging question, Trick held Harm's upper arms and he ducked in quickly to peck a kiss upon his lips before releasing him.

Before Harm could move, Trick headed for the chair opposite Quentin and pulled it out as well as the one beside him, sitting himself down on the one closest to Gary. He leant against the back of the chair, looking relaxed and watching everyone as they bustled into position. Instinctively he looked around for Harm and once his boyfriend was seated beside him, he reached out to rest his hand casually on Harm's knee beneath the table.

[Existentially Odd]

Harm sighed, reflexively returning the kiss but remaining where he was when Trick stepped around him and headed for the table because he needed a second (or twenty) to fight off the wave of emotions that threatened to drown him. Blinking rapidly, he inhaled an unsteady breath, tamping everything down as he turned to lift the strap of his bag over his head and leave it on the couch. He moved to the table via the kitchen, pouring Trick a glass of cold filtered water from the jug in the fridge on his way.

By the time he put the water glass down on the table near Trick and sat in the middle chair, his mother had filled everyone's soup bowls with creamy chicken soup. Cassie had helped out by withdrawing the warm tray from the oven and given everyone a slice of hot Turkish bread. There was butter on the table, which Quentin grabbed and used to butter his bread before anyone else got a chance. Gary picked up his bread and started dipping it into his soup straight away, his spoon in his other hand ferrying soup to his mouth, signalling that they weren't waiting for Joe to get back to the table before they started.

Harm was given pause when Trick's hand landed on his leg but he exhaled quietly and covered it with his own, picking up his spoon with the other. "Did you get my move?" he asked his father with a sly smile, leaning forward to blow on his spoonful. "I sent it while I was waiting for Trick to finish work," he said, his grin growing.

Quentin snorted and muttered, "Nerd," in between mouthfuls.

Gary swallowed, chuckling when his mouth was clear and shaking his head at Harm. "Yes I saw it. Checkmate. Thanks. What's that? Twenty-three, nil?" Harm just laughed and put his spoon in his mouth as his father turned to look at Trick. "You don't play chess with him, do you?" he asked dryly.

[Pocky]

Trick's gaze fixed on Quentin as he reached across for the butter and began buttering his bread. He watched it happen without comment or expression but his eyes did widen when Harm's dad joined in, eating bread and spooning soup. His next glance was to Harm's mother Fiona, his expression one of expectation, but nothing was said.

He remained as he was, looking at Harm when he started talking about something he didn't understand. The insult from Quentin didn't go unnoticed - it made for the third insult in a row.

He dragged his gaze from Quentin to Gary and offered a tight smile. "Nah, I've never played," Trick admitted.

[Existentially Odd]

Gary chuckled again. "Probably for the best. It's demoralising and I do not recommend it. He's ruthless," he said, pointing his spoon at Harm, who just laughed and looked pleased with himself.

The moment he finished speaking, Quentin drew his father's attention by launching into a conversation about football. Gary responded enthusiastically, his interest immediately captivated. Harm paid attention initially because they were talking about Joe's football team and his progress but when they got onto training regimes and season preparation tips he zoned out. His mother and Cassie weren't much better, Cassie was detailing some bungle with the florist and bouquet deliveries. Fiona was gasping like lives were threatened.

Harm turned his attention to Trick, smiling gently at him. "I could teach you," he offered quietly. "I can't promise I'd let you win but I'm open to bribery," he hinted, keeping his voice low.

[Pocky]

"Sweet. I've always been curious about a game that knows a queen has the best moves," Trick said, followed by a giggle. Then he dropped his voice, already quiet, to a very low whisper. He leant over, his head coming closer to Harm's and he faced away from the table, mostly talking to Harm's ear. "After dinner I'll share some of my best moves with you."

He pulled back and squeezed Harm's leg before pulling his gaze away and reaching for his glass of water. His soup remained untouched.

[Existentially Odd]

Harm laughed along with Trick, feeling less uptight because he was comfortable enough to joke with him. He knew it was unlikely he was completely forgiven but the show of humour was reassuring.

The quiet promise that followed had Harm leaning closer, only to have Trick's words slither right through him and awaken his already heightened senses. He'd thought the bathroom interlude would be enough to temper his desire for Trick but it was immediately apparent nothing would be enough. His nostrils flared and his eyes widened as he gave Trick a needy look.

He licked his lips, finding it difficult to concentrate past thinking about the moves he already knew Trick had. If he hadn't seen the best ones yet, he had to start fearing for his sanity. It was still something to look forward to and good motivation to hurry through dinner and get going. He lifted his hand off Trick's and stroked it with soft fingertips, from Trick's nails to his wrist, where his fingers curled around again and his thumb swiped softly across the back of Trick's hand.

"Can't wait," he breathed, turning his head and pressing a soft kiss to Trick's lips, whispering his tongue across his lower lip before pulling back. He noticed Quentin's conversation with his father stutter to silence but it picked up again a moment later and Harm deliberately didn't look his way as he straightened in his seat. He took a soft breath, feeling mildly disoriented by his lust for Trick while surrounded by his family.

Noticing Harm move away from Trick, Cassie smiled at the newcomer. "I love your hair," she told him, a hand floating towards Trick across the table. It came back to press on her chest as she explained. "I'm a hairdresser, I look at everybody's hair first," she giggled, rolling her eyes playfully. "What do you do for work?"

Hearing her question, Gary decided to interrupt and answer on Trick's behalf. "Try to contain yourselves," he said, his gaze switching between Cassie and his wife as he smirked at them. "He works at David Jones."

Cassie squealed and both she and Fiona's gazes snapped to gaze at Trick like he was a dessert and they were starving. Gary leant towards Trick. "I didn't get a chance to warn you earlier," he said apologetically. "Sorry."

Cassie was leaning forwards across the table. "We love that shop!" she explained, her hand gesturing towards Fiona before it switched to include Quentin instead. "Our wedding register is there! Do you work at the one on the east side of the city? That's where we went to build the registry, we could've walked straight past you!" Cassie exclaimed, telling her own story without Trick's confirmation.

"Do you get staff discount?" Fiona asked eagerly.

[Pocky]

Trick gave Harm a sly grin as they moved apart. He was about to look Quentin's way for he also hadn't missed the lull in conversation. Before his eyes made it all the way there, Cassie spoke up and took his attention.

"Thanks," he replied, his hand twitching in his lap with its need to sweep his hair but he kept it down. His other hand was still with Harm. He opened his mouth to reply to the question about work but was beaten to it by Gary. Curious at the interruption, he glanced at Harm's dad before looking back at Cassie, catching her face before she shrieked and the two women stared at him with apparent joy. He looked at them both with an unsurprised smile.

He nodded minutely, the small nods continuing throughout all of their questions because the answer was yes to all of them. Yes, he worked at the one at Cypress, east side. Yes, they could've walked straight past him. Yes, he got staff discounts.

"Yes, ma'am," Trick replied, then reached for his glass of water to take a sip from it. His soup remained untouched before him, cooling off, and he could smell it. He glanced down at it before setting his glass back down and then smiled at Harm before returning his gaze between the two women.

[Existentially Odd]

Fiona rolled her eyes and grinned at Cassie. "Could've saved you a bit on the bits for the bombonieres," she told her future daughter in law before she looked back at Trick, finally noticing he wasn't eating. "Do you not like soup?" she prompted, her expression worried.

[Pocky]

"Oh, it's not that. I was raised not to eat dinner unless everyone's at the table," he declared.

[Existentially Odd]

Fiona blinked, her mouth opening silently for a moment but then she smiled wryly, her expression reminiscent of Harm's when he was abashed. "Oh. Of course. I'm sorry, Harm should've told you. Joe's a bit of a water baby and everything would definitely be cold if we waited for him to finish his shower," she chuckled. "Please, feel free to eat before it's cold," she invited formally, nodding at Trick's bowl.

"The prawns are second course. You need to finish your first course to get to them," Gary intoned in a very 'dad' manner, obviously on purpose because he laughed afterwards.

Harm glanced at his mother, frowning a little then looked at Trick after his dad spoke. He smiled approvingly at his boyfriend. "You're too sweet," he grinned, rubbing his wrist. "Eat."

Quentin sniggered at his brother's gentle tone. "And you're too cute, Harmony," he mocked, shrugging girlishly and wrinkling his nose.

Harm's jaw flexed as he gritted his teeth but he didn't look at Quentin, reserving his gaze for his soup as he scooped up another spoonful from his bowl.

[Pocky]

There was a delay between Trick being told about Joe, his gaze flicking to Harm when his name was mentioned and then flicking back to Fiona. When Gary piped up next Trick looked that way. At Harm's urging, he reclaimed his hand from Harm so he could pick up the spoon with his right.

Trick did a double-take at Quentin at the comment and he coughed a single laugh. "No, wait, he's not anywhere near as cute as you, Quentin, when you do that thing with your nose. Go on, do it again! You look like a bunny." He winked at Cassie. "I bet you like bunnies."

He faced Quentin again and wrinkled his nose back, grinning.

[Existentially Odd]

Cassie laughed it off but Quentin's brows lowered in a frown as Trick mocked him, his expression anything but cute. He assessed the man across from him silently, his gaze sliding to Harm and then back to Trick, his mouth pursing before he forced a smile that didn't reach his brown eyes. "Thanks, bro, but nah," he said lightly, his overtly bright tone belied by the tightness in his jaw.

Harm watched breathlessly, aware of the building tension between his brother and his boyfriend and feeling increasingly unsettled by it. He appreciated the fact that Trick seemed determined to call Quentin out on his behalf but he was pretty sure Quentin would wipe the floor with Trick if it degenerated. He got the feeling that Trick's temper more than matched Quentin's and he had no idea how to de-escalate the situation. His parents seemed oblivious, thankfully, but with Quentin's penchant for teasing him and Trick's apparent need to challenge that behaviour, it wouldn't be long before they figured it out.

"Fastest shower EVER!" Joe screamed from his right side, poking Harm in the ribs as he fell into his seat.

Harm, concentrating on the Quentin/Trick power play, jumped in fright, issuing an incriminating gasp as he turned to stare at his little brother. "Holy shit, Joe," he cried, leaning back towards Trick.

"Harm!" his mother chastised his swearing absently before returning to her previous conversation with Cassie - now featuring a discussion of David Jones and wedding registries.

"What've I missed?" Joe asked guilelessly, looking at Harm and then deliberately leaning past him to include Trick in his question. His blond curls had barely been dried and definitely hadn't been combed before he'd dragged on a clean tee and shorts. He smelt like soap and deodorant, rather than sweat, which Harm appreciated.

[Pocky]

Trick's grin broadened, his eyes sparkling when Quentin failed to continue the jest.

Joe's interruption broke the stare between them when Trick looked over at the impossibly loud teen, eyes wide because he hadn't noticed Harm's younger brother entering the room until then.

At Joe's question Trick opened his mouth to reply, reconsidered and then shrugged. "Not much," he said, then he focussed on his soup with single minded focus. Instead of dipping the bread like Harm's father, Trick broke it up into small pieces and dropped them into the soup. With his spoon he pushed them under the thick liquid and then proceeded to fish them out on each spoonful.

[Existentially Odd]

"Cool," Joe announced, giving his attention to Harm again, his smile broad and his eyes sparkling. "I can't believe you're here, it's so cool! I've missed you," he enthused, wrapping his brother in another hug and smooching his cheek loudly again.

Harm laughed and returned his embrace, letting Joe kiss his face before pulling back to look at him, grooming his hair a little. "I've missed you too, Bubba. This is getting ridiculously long, how has Cassie not cut it for you?" he asked, releasing/pushing Joe away so they could both continue eating while they chatted.

"He won't let me!" the redhead interjected from across the table. "I think it's because girls dig the curls and he's afraid I'll ruin it or something. He doesn't trust me!" she teased, winking at Joe.

"Pfft, everybody digs the curls," Joe swaggered, pretending to polish his knuckles on his chest and causing most of the family to groan. Harm gave him a playful shove that just made Joe tangle their fingers together and smile even wider. They slapped and grabbed at each other until Harm pressed Joe's hand onto his own thigh and managed to get away - mostly because Joe was suddenly more interested in food than play and let him go.

Ignoring their nonsense, Gary engaged Joe in conversation while everybody finished their soup, rousing a conversation that crossed the table but was only contributed to by Quentin. He was Joe's football coach at school and it turned out that they'd been late to dinner because Quentin had kept Joe back to run throwing drills after practice had officially concluded.

Even though he was a freshman playing above his age group, Quentin believed Joe had what it took to become the quarterback next season. Joe was noncommittal about it, wanting to talk to Harm more than about his football career, bringing out their father's stern voice. He lectured his youngest on setting goals and not wasting his potential as everybody finished their soup course, then Quentin copied his father and lectured Joe during the prawn course. Joe finally realised ignoring them and trying to whisper sarcastic comments to Harm and Trick wasn't going to shut them up so they finished their prawns with Joe sitting rigidly in his seat and responding clearly, nodding as often as was required.

Harm and Trick helped Fiona and Cassie switch the food around - Harm smiled proudly at Trick as he anticipated their needs and jumped up to carry the soup tureen back to the kitchen for Fiona - by uncovering everything. The football/commitment lecture finally died down once the main course started being dished up, Fiona fussing about how cold everything was and looking reassured when told it was still warm enough.

Even though she was concerned about her food, she didn't say anything to Quentin about him selfishly holding everyone up by keeping Joe behind to do extra practice (that could just as easily have happened in their back yard after dinner). Harm wasn't surprised but he knew that if he'd been late, he wouldn't have heard the end of it. That was the benefit of the sun shining out of Quentin's ass; they never bothered to criticise him about the quality of the light or just how he decided to mete it out.

The sharing of all the different meat and vegetable dishes took quite a while as everything was passed back and forth. "Pass the..." and "Thank you," constituted the conversation for a while. As Harm scooped a helping of mashed potato onto his plate, some flicked onto his knuckle. He popped it into his mouth to suck it off, the taste prompting him to initiate a conversation that complimented Trick's father. "Oh! Trick's dad makes this amazing mashed potato with cheese in it!" he gushed at his mother as he passed the potato dish onto Joe.

Fiona paused, raising her eyebrows in a way that looked somehow challenging. For a moment, Harm thought she'd taken it as him insulting her mashed potatoes - which were smooth and creamy enough... just not cheesy - but then she smiled warmly at Trick instead and Harm relaxed.

"With cheese? How interesting! So is that your dad's specialty dish, Trick? What about your mother? What's her specialty?" Fiona enquired curiously, glancing up at him as she organised a forkful of food on her plate.