The Family-A Thaiden & Theo Mini-Fic, Sort of? (Patreon)

Well, sort of. Things are sort of coming full circle from the end of the Bone Collector. Unbeta'd/Unedited. There's a method to my madness.

Matty

Matthew—Matty to his friends—stretched his arms overhead until his joints popped. He glanced over at the shop counter where there was a full display of fresh baked goods and another ice coffee if he just had the energy to get up and walk over there. He’d been waiting for his friend, Jordan, to arrive. But, as usual, he was late. Jordan called it being on ‘Hispanic’ time. Matty had learned to work around it. 

He put his elbows on the table and dug the heels of his palms into his eyes until sparks danced, hissing at the faint pain of his almost healed black eye. He really needed caffeine and sugar. Now. 

“Matthew Kendrick?” 

Matty’s head snapped up, not expecting to be government named by a stranger at two o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon. He frowned as he eyed the tall, broad man looming over him with trepidation. Was he about to be hate-crimed in the middle of a coffee shop called Bean Me Up? That would be humiliating.  

He did his best to look bored. “Who’s asking?” 

The man seemed surprised that Matty didn’t recognize him. There was no way the guy was a professor or something. He looked like a Tik-Tok lumberjack and dressed like one too. “My name is Aiden Mulvaney.” 

The name sounded vaguely familiar, but Matty couldn’t put his finger on just why. “And…” he prompted, preemptively annoyed at being interrupted mid-caffeine cycle. 

The man took a deep breath, looking back at someone over his shoulder. When he looked back, he said, “And I’m your brother.” 

Matty couldn't stop the bark of laughter that escaped. “My brother? He’s dead. Died before I was born. So unless you're a ghost or a vampire, that’s not actually possible.” 

The other man’s eyes went wide, seeming faintly amused. “Is that what he told people? That I was dead?” 

Matty’s pulse jackrabbited. If the guy was a scammer, he seemed genuinely surprised to hear that his brother was dead. Weird. “Who are you really?” 

The man sighed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “I’m exactly who I say I am. My name is Aiden Mulvaney, I’m your brother. He turned and pointed to a hot old man with silver hair and ice blue eyes, holding an adorable Gerber ad of a baby. “And that’s my husband. We wanted to meet you.” 

Matty returned his attention to the man still hovering above him menacingly. “Who’s the kid?” 

His lips quirked up at the mention of the baby. “My son, Theo. You’re an uncle.” 

Matty shook his head. “Look, man. I don’t know what scam you’re running but my dad’s dead and my mom is rapidly running through her inheritance getting hammered at the country club and banging her tennis instructor like the world’s biggest walking cliche.I’m on scholarship and I get an allowance that pays just enough for me to eat. And not well. If you think you can get money out of me, there isn’t any. If you want to try and seduce my mom, I can shoot you her address, but she’s usually swimming at the bottom of a gin bottle by ten am, so...” 

The lumberjack snorted out a laugh, then pulled his phone from his pocket. Matty’s pulse thudded hard in his neck, weirdly afraid his mother was going to show up out of nowhere and slap him for telling all their family secrets. Instead, he hit a few buttons, then slid the phone to Matty. It was an article from some trashy tabloid. There was a picture of the man in front of him and the man he claimed was his husband, standing in tuxedos. The headline read: From Ward to Wedding: Billionaire Thomas Mulvaney Marries Former Adopted Son. 

Several things stood out to Matty in that moment. Billionaire. Married. Adopted Son. Mulvaney. His heavy heartbeat shot to the moon as he realized where he’d heard the Mulvaney name before. His father’s files. The Watch. Project Watchtower, to be exact. Had Aiden been working with their dad the whole time? The thought was a bucket of ice water on his preconceived notions about both his father and the program. Matty had never seen Aiden’s name in the files, but he hadn’t exactly had time to peruse them before they’d come to collect the things from his home office. All he knew was somewhere in the desert, a school existed and his father and Thomas Mulvaney had put it there.

Still, he couldn’t let on that he knew anything about that. It was a top secret project. The kind that gets people killed for knowing too much. Once more, he shrugged. “All this proves is you can use photoshop. So can I. Give me five minutes and I’ll have you standing next to bigfoot in that tux. Bonus points for the effort though.” 

The man—Aiden—rolled his eyes. “Kid, just google Thomas and Aiden Mulvaney. You’ll see us everywhere.” 

Of course, he would. Thomas Mulvaney was the Thomas Mulvaney. Billionaire-philanthropist Thomas Mulvaney. Adopted-seven-kids Thomas Mulvaney. Married-one-of-those-kids Thomas Mulvaney. Had his father pawned his brother off on Thomas then told the world he died? Yeah, that sounded like something he’d do. 

Matty had to admit he was curious. “Fine, so you don’t want money. That doesn’t make you my long, lost dead brother.” 

Aiden huffed out a frustrated breath. “A DNA test can prove we’re related easily enough, but I think you’re just being stubborn now.” 

“We look nothing alike,” Matthew said with a sniff, just being stubborn. 

It was true. The man standing beside his table—his brother, Aiden Mulvaney—was over six-feet-tall with longish brown hair that dusted his shoulders, blue eyes that were almost navy and scruff on his cheeks and chin that Matty couldn’t grow in ten lifetimes. Matty, on the other hand, was barely five-six, with chestnut hair, blue-green eyes and a complexion and bone structure that Jordan had once likened to ‘a Victorian child with cholera’. 

They couldn’t have been more different if they tried. 

But still, if Matty squinted, he could sort of see it. They both had the same mouth, the same flat stare, the look of someone whose father was a total douchebag. Not that daddy issues were rare. Shitty dads were at an all-time high. “Say I believed you,” he heard himself say. “What do you want with me?” 

Aiden flushed beneath his golden tan, gaze floating away from him like he was embarrassed. Clearly, feelings weren’t his strong suit. “I want you to know that you have a family. A real family. One that won’t lie to you.”

What a weird way to phrase that. Lie to him about what? Project Watchtower? Were they going to invite him into the fold and then reveal whatever weird project the Mulvaney’s had going on with his father? Somehow Matty doubted that. Why would anyone be that honest with a stranger? It didn’t make sense. Besides, they might want that honesty to be reciprocal and Matty wasn’t in a position to reveal certain things about himself. 

“Lie to me? You mean like my dad? Our dad? Did you go snooping and find all his deep, dark secrets, too?” he asked, arching a brow at him. 

“Too?” Aiden asked, looking surprised. “What is it you found out?” 

Oh, he definitely knew about Project Watchtower. Aiden was trying to see if he knew. What was happening? Were they trying to play him? Bribe him into silence? If he was gonna talk, he would have done it before now. 

He shrugged. “I know my dad isn't some paper-pushing bureaucrat. I know that he killed people. For a while, I suspected he killed you, based on what he said about you to my mother.” 

“What did he say?” 

“It’s not what he said but how he said it. He talked about you like you were a ghost still haunting him.” Matty blew a breath out through his nose. “Could you at least sit down? I’m getting a kink in my neck looking up at you.” Aiden threw a glance at his husband and baby. “They can come, too, if you don’t mind them hearing you airing out our family’s dirty laundry.” 

Aiden waved over the older man, then slid into the booth across from Matty. When the man sat down beside his brother, Aiden scooped up the baby, who was delighted by this, not because he seemed happy to see his father but because it put him closer to all the things on the table. 

“Tommy, this is my brother, Matthew. Matthew, this is my husband, Tommy and our baby, Theo,” Aiden said, pulling Matty’s laptop cord from chubby baby hands with an apologetic look. 

“Matty,” he said. “I hate Matthew.” 

Thomas nodded. “Nice to meet you, Matty.” 

“Yeah, same,” Matty mumbled, closing his laptop. It was clear his study session was over. “So, what do you want?” 

Thomas Mulvaney snickered. “Yeah, he’s definitely your brother. The likeness is uncanny.” 

Matty gave him a weird look. “We don’t look anything alike.” 

Thomas smiled. “Its the attitude, not the looks, though I can see a resemblance there, too. Same nose, same mouth, same stubborn set to your chin,” the older man said fondly looking at his brother with goopy heart eyes. 

Ew. Good for them or whatever, but he just didn’t see the appeal of falling in love. People sucked. People disappointed. People were all just inherently…bad. Even him. 

“Well, what is it?” Matty asked. “Not to be a douche, but it is finals week.” 

The two exchanged a long glance before Aiden said, “That’s why we wanted to talk to you.” 

“You wanted to talk to me about finals week?” Matty asked, bewildered. 

Thomas shook his head. “No, I wanted to ask if you really loved this school?” 

Matty glanced out the window with a frown, lookin at the campus across the street, then shrugging. “I mean, its fine. Why? You look a little old to be starting college. No offense.” 

Aiden huffed out a laugh of exasperation. “You get that you’re in an ivy league school that most people would have killed to attend. And its’ just fine?” 

Matty shrugged. “I was accepted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell and Dartmouth. I could have gone anywhere.” 

“Then why choose this school?” Thomas asked, examining Matty with a calculated look that made him feel like a science project, like he was…studying him. 

Matty went to answer, but was temporarily distracted by the stirrers tipping over and sweeping across the table. Thomas quickly cleaned them up, but while he did, the baby started grabbing handfuls of napkins and stuffing them into his mouth. 

Matty buried a smile behind his hand as two grown men attempted to wrestle an infant…and were losing. Babies were so funny. They were like sticky little hairless raccoons, always trying to get their grubby little mitts on everything and eat it. 

When they finally returned their attention to him, he said, “Because my mother said if I chose any other school she wouldn’t cover my expenses and while my tuition was covered by my scholarships, she refused to pay for anything else if I left the state.” 

“If she wanted you to stay home, why allow you to apply to so many schools?” Aiden asked, frowning. 

“That’s a question for her, but by now, she’s passed out by the pool.” Thomas and Aiden exchanged another look, concerned this time.Matthew rolled his eyes. “I’m not being abused or whatever. I’m an adult. I just can’t afford my apartment and food and stuff without her help. Even with a part-time job. She hates me, so I have no idea why she wants me close, other than to just ruin my college experience. She could easily pay someone to scrape her off the floor and toss her into her bed at two in the morning if it was that important.” 

“Is your mom an alcoholic?” Thomas asked. 

“Of course not,” Matty said, putting on an affected tone. “She’s simply a ‘brunch enthusiast with a taste for artisan gin.’” 

Aiden’s brows went up. Maybe Matty wasn’t being fair to his mother but its not like she’d made any effort to shield him. So why did he have to show any loyalty to her? The answer was, he didn’t. And he wouldn’t. Fuck her. 

Why do you provoke him, Matthew? 

He’s under a lot of pressure, Matthew. 

Just do what you’re told, for once, Matthew. 

“How would you like to attend a private college so elite they don’t even advertise? They recruit you,” Thomas asked. 

“What?” Matthew asked dumbly. 

Thomas met his gaze, his blue eyes almost hypnotic. “I’ve managed to pull some strings. If you’d like, I can get you into the school where my son teaches. It would open a lot of doors.” 

Matty snorted. “Well, if one of those doors isn’t a bank vault, its not really helpful. Like I said, my mom will only pay for me if I stay here and I’m on an academic scholarship.” 

“What if I said I’d cover all your expenses?” Thomas asked. “Rent, food, clothing, books. Whatever you needed until graduation.” 

Matty sat back, folding his arms across his chest. “I’d ask what the catch was.” 

Thomas shook his head. “No catch. We just want to get to know you better. We want you to be part of our family.” 

“You get that you sound like you’re trying to recruit me into a cult, right?” Matty asked, looking back and forth between them, uncertain whether to trust them or not. None of this made any sense. At all. 

“Being a Mulvaney feels a lot like a cult,” Aiden said. “But you have a huge family waiting for you if you want it.” 

Matty felt this pull in his chest, hating how much the idea appealed to him. But it was probably a trap. Besides, he had family. Jordan. He was as close to a sibling as he’d ever get. 

“What if you decide you don’t like me and bail? Then I’m stuck with no school, no home, no clothes, no nothing. And I’ve burned a bridge with my mother. Who would take that risk?” 

“The financial help isn’t conditional,” Aiden said. 

“Everything is conditional,” Matthew asked. 

“We’ll help you regardless of whether you stay here or come to live closer to us,” Aiden said. 

“And I’m just supposed to—what?—trust you?” Matty asked. 

“Trust goes both ways,” Thomas said. “Being a Mulvaney comes with a lot of strings attached, and some of those strings have knives on the other side. As for the financial part, we’ll put it in writing. That way you’ll know you’re covered no matter what.” 

Once more he felt that tug. It sounded too good to be true and it probably was. Why try to get to know these people when they’ll likely find the real him as abrasive as the rest of the world. Letting his guard down would only lead to misery. 

“I can’t,” Matty finally said. 

“Why?” Aiden asked, seeming genuinely confused. “What’s stopping you?” 

Because I have trust issues and I know that you’re part of some weird government conspiracy that trains vigilante-superheroes like X-Men. 

Matty shrugged. “My friend, Jordan. I can’t leave him behind.” 

“Friend?” Aiden asked, arching a brow. “Like a boyfriend?” 

“Ew, God, no.” They all looked up to see Jordan standing there with a disgusted look on his face. “We’re gay, but not for each other.” He gave a full body shudder like someone had asked him to eat a roach. “Who are you people? And why do you look so familiar? And why are people pointing cameras at you? Are you guys famous or something? Is this a reality show? Is this—” 

“If you stop talking for two seconds, I’ll tell you,” Matty interrupted. 

Jordan fell silent, falling into the booth beside him, head was on a swivel, taking in the cameras Matty hadn’t even noticed. He knew that Jordan was gonna sulk about being on camera when he wasn’t ‘camera-ready’. He’d come dressed for comfort. 

He wore ripped jeans, a tight white tank top that made his golden skin glow, and an oversized pink cardigan with teddy bears on it. The baby pink and blue sweater was in direct contrast with the many other details that made him look menacing in the right light. He had tattoos scattered along his chest and forearms, his wild dark hair was too long, his whiskey brown eyes were too calculating, and—per Jordan’s abuela—his snake bite piercings accenting his full lower lip made him look like a pin cushion. 

“Jordan, this is Thomas-”

“Mulvaney. Oh, my God,” Jordan practically shouted. “You’re Thomas and Aiden Mulvaney.” He looked at Matty accusingly. “Why are you sitting in a coffee shop with billionaires?” 

Matty rolled his eyes. “Aiden is apparently my brother.” 

Jordan’s mouth fell open as he looked from Matty to Aiden and back again. “You had a rich, hot older brother this whole time?” he gasped. “The whole time?!” 

Matty’s eyes went wide, gaze darting in every direction to see who’d heard him. “Just announce it to the whole world, asshole. Shush, damn.” 

Jordan winced. “Sorry, but this is kind of front page news, literally, so why am I only just now hearing about it? I thought we were best friends,” he sulked. 

“Reminds me of Adam,” Thomas murmured to Aiden, looking at Jordan. 

“But he dresses like Felix,” Aiden said. 

Aiden snickered, “Yeah, but with less crazy in the eyes.” 

If they only knew. When Jordan was on stage, he looked like he was two seconds away from committing a felony. People often talked about how he embodied that ‘bad boy’ look. It made Matty laugh every time. He’d once seen Jordan—the bad boy criminal wannabe—sobbing over a paint commercial. Conversely, people thought Matty was a typical prep-school nerd, but they’d be wrong. Dead wrong. 

“Seriously, why didn’t you tell me you had a brother?” Jordan asked, continuing to pout. 

“Because I only found out five minutes ago, dumbass,” Matty admitted, exasperated. “Chill.” 

The baby—Theo, not Jordan—started to make grabby hands in Matty’s direction. His eyes went wide, looking at Jordan, who shook his head. “Don’t look at me, man. He’s your nephew.” 

Nephew. Matty had a nephew. He glanced at Thomas to try and gauge his feelings about the idea of Matty holding the baby. When he found nothing alarming, he held out his handsy. He grunted when the baby’s weight settled. He was heavier than he looked. Matty set his diapered butt on top of his closed laptop so he could look him in the eye. 

He had big blue eyes and soft, silky baby hair that was neither blonde, nor brown. His cheeks were huge, like he was storing food for the winter and he chewed on his fingers like he was the one studying for finals. 

“He’s kind of cute for something that produces more slobber than a St. Bernard,” Matty admitted begrudgingly. 

As if to prove his point, Theo slapped his face with his spit soaked baby hand, making Jordan laugh, which in turn made Theo laugh, which made his parents very happy. 

“Theo is an excellent judge of character,” Thomas said. 

Aiden nodded. “It’s true.” To Matty, he asked, “So, what do you think?” 

“Of your baby? I just said he’s cute,” Matthew said. “Like I don’t have any babies to compare him too, but I’d say he’s in my list of top five babies I’ve met in my life.” 

“He dresses better than you, too,” Jordan noted, taking in the baby’s denim shorts, Fendi emblazoned t-shirt and sneakers so ugly they had to be couture.

“I meant about our offer?” Aiden asked. 

“What offer?” Jordan asked, leaning in like he was somehow about to negotiate on Matty’s behalf. 

“We invited Matty to attend a private school closer to us,” Thomas volunteered. “All expenses paid.” 

Jordan’s face fell, somehow looking both excited and betrayed at the same time. “Did you say yes?” 

“Actually, he said he wasn’t going anywhere without you,” Aiden volunteered. Matty smirked when Jordan seemed to come alive once more under this newfound knowledge. 

“Do you also attend school with Matty?” Thomas asked. 

Matty narrowed his eyes. Thomas asked the question like he had no idea who Jordan was, but there was a recognition in his face, a slight uptick in his voice that told Matty he was lying. 

“You investigated me. Didn’t you?” he asked, tilting his head, watching his brother and Thomas carefully. 

His brother. He had a brother. One that was still breathing. What the fuck? 

“More like…kept tabs on,” Thomas hedged. “We wanted to make sure you were alright.” 

Matty almost relaxed, then he noticed Jordan’s startled expression and wide eyes. Fuck, Jordan was right. How much did they know? How long had they been watching them? “Do I seem alright to you?” he snapped. 

Aiden shrugged. “Well, you probably have enough trauma to put a therapist’s kids through their own ivy league college, but you aren’t perched on a rooftop with a sniper rifle, so…” 

“Wow, the bar is in hell,” Jordan muttered. “Who knew the Mulvaney’s had such low standards.” 

“If you’ve been following me, then you know Jordan and I don’t go to school together. He’s a musician,” Matty said, crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue at the tiniest Mulvaney at the table, earning a giggle and a tongue in return. “I’m still not going without him.” 

“Aw, thanks, buddy,” Jordan said, patting Matty on the head like a child. “So, where is it we’re maybe going, exactly?” 

“I know this is a big deal,” Aiden said, pulling a stack of papers from his bag. “If you want to do this, here’s all the details. My cell phone is there, too. Just hit me up and we’ll come collect you.” 

“In your private jet?” Jordan asked, putting on a posh British accent. 

“Yes,” Thomas said. “If its more convenient. If not, business class at the very least. And, yes, Jordan is invited too. We had a feeling you wouldn’t leave without him.” 

Aiden stood, reaching across the table to take Theo back. Matty briefly mourned the loss. Thomas stood as well, both of them staring down at him with enigmatic expressions. “We really hope you’ll consider the move. There’s lots of people your age in the family.” 

Jordan frowned. “I thought all of you were old like him,” he said, pointing to Aiden. 

Aiden snorted. “Watch it, kid. I’ve got a pen in my pocket and I can scratch your name out of those papers anytime I like,” he threatened, but there was no heat to it. 

Jordan, however, didn’t seem willing to risk it. “Sorry, I meant older…and hot…very hot. Like, super hot if I’m being honest,” he looked Aiden up and down salaciously. 

“Ew, stop that,” Matty muttered, nudging him with his elbow hard enough to make him flinch. “That’s my brother, you weirdo.” 

Thomas chuckled at the two, shaking his head. “Alright, we’ll leave you be. Good luck on your exams.” 

“Bye,” Jordan called, waving like a maniac. “Make good choices.” 

The moment they were gone, Matty turned in his seat to look at Jordan. “They’ve been watching me. Us. Do you think they know?” 

“They can’t know. Right?” he asked, his own doubts bleeding into his tone. “I mean, why would they make the offer if they knew? What is the offer, by the way?” 

Matty looked down at the papers, scanning them quickly. “Our own swanky apartment, a car service, full tuition, a ten-thousand-dollar-a-month allowance. Internships. Who are these people?” 

“They’re your new family,” Jordan quipped. “Correction, they’re our new family.” 

“But what about everything we do here? Are we just going to abandon our…project?” 

“We’ll start a new project,” Jordan said like it was nothing. “When someone hands you a deal like this, you take it.” 

“Yeah, and you end up paying with your soul,” Matty countered. 

Jordan made a dismissive sound. “According to my parents, we’re both going to hell anyway. Might as well get there in style? No?” 

“Are we really considering this?” Matty asked. 

“Considering? Considered. I’m in. I wonder if they’ll take me if you bail?” he pondered. 

Matty smacked his arm. “Asshole. I wasn’t going to go without you.” 

“Yeah, but you come from money,” Jordan pointed out.

Matty rolled his eyes. “So do you, dumbass.” 

“No, my parents have new money. We could be poor again from just one bad investment. Your dad’s family is loaded,” Jordan said. “Even if they hate you.” 

“Wow, thanks.” 

“What? My family hates me, too. That’s why we’re friends. Let's go kick it with the Mulvaney’s for a while. You can go to your fancy school. I can pick up a few gigs or maybe even try to join a music program. No matter how scandalous the Mulvaney’s are, they can’t be worse than our parents. Can they?” 

“Don’t forget Project Watchtower only exists because of my father, and Thomas Mulvaney had something to do with it. So, yeah. They might just be worse than our parents.” 

“But we’re still going to go, right?” Jordan pushed. “Like, just to be sure?” 

Matty closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Yeah, I guess we are.”