Maniac - Necessary Evils #7 - ch. 12 (Patreon)

As always unbeta'd, unedited and subject to change. Hope you enjoy. 

Aiden

It took about an hour to explain it all. Aiden stood beside Thomas, holding his sweaty palm, as he did his best to get through all the painfully intimate details of his childhood with a somewhat clinical efficiency. It was like he hoped he could spare his sons some of the horror, if he could just get through it without any type of emotion.

But that wasn’t the case. It never would have been the case. Noah and the rest of the feelings faction were in tears. Jericho’s boys were quiet, attached to Thomas enough to be sad, but not to have any overt reaction to the story. Besides, they all had similar trauma and were far closer to it than anyone else in the room.

But Thomas’s sons..they were seething. Aiden hadn’t expected that. He had expected a level of anger at Thomas for lying to them, but the fury was palpable. They wanted to kill. If Aiden had learned anything over the years its what his former brothers looked like when they smelled blood in the water. They were ready to go to war.

“Do you have any questions?” Thomas asked, looking two seconds away from collapsing.

Hands shot up around the room, but Aiden shook his head. “No. No questions. It’s after midnight. We’ll pick this up in the morning.” To Thomas, he said, “You need to go upstairs and see the girls. Then go to bed.”

Thomas opened his mouth like he was going to argue but then nodded, expression grim. Before he left, he said to Noah, “You’ll make sure everyone has a place to sleep tonight?”

“Yeah, of course,” Noah promised. Thomas gave another heavy nod, then left. When he was gone, Noah asked, “Did you just send dad to his room?”

Noah was still calling Thomas dad, just as Aiden had expected. It was clear that Thomas’s childhood trauma had only solidified their bond, not broken it. Well, it was clear to Aiden, maybe not so much Thomas.

Aiden sighed. “He’s exhausted and he can see how upset everyone is.” To Jericho’s kids, he said, “Can I talk to the Mulvaney clan alone for a bit?”

They all stood, Arsen looking to Noah, “Are we still going to the basement?”

Noah nodded. “You can start setting up.”

They left, taking Arlo and Dimitri with them. Calliope stayed seated, giving Aiden a stubborn look. It was fine, he hadn’t meant her anyway. She was family too.

“What’s happening in the basement?” Aiden asked, unsure he wanted to know.

“Mario Kart tournament,” Noah said.

The level of compartmentalizing in this family was staggering. Their family was under attack. Someone was literally threatening to expose them as killers and yet Aiden had no doubt Noah was about to lead the others in a Mario battle that would last long into the morning. Maybe it was blowing off steam for the feelings faction? But it was clear that the neurotypicals held no ill will towards Thomas for doing what he had to do to survive.

“Oh-kay,” Aiden said, before turning on the others. “Look, he can feel how pissed you all are, you know. He doesn’t get that it's for him, not at him.”

“Why would we be angry with him?” Atticus asked. “He’s literally the victim. One of many, it seems.”

Aiden began to pace. “He’s been building this moment up in his head for decades. Two days ago, he’d convinced himself you guys were going to kill him for violating the code. He’s been punishing himself for this for years. And right now he thinks you all either pity him or hate him.”

“But why?” Avi asked, clearly confused.

“He doesn’t feel like a victim,” Noah said. “He feels like a willing participant.”

“What do you mean?” Adam asked.

Noah let go of Felix and Zane’s hands, hopping from the table and going to his fiance, sitting in his lap and dragging his arms around him like a seatbelt. It was a comfort thing. Any time Noah brought up his past, he needed Adam there to…anchor him somehow. The thought of Adam being anyone’s anchor was astonishing to Aiden, but it was right there, impossible to miss.

“When you’re resisting your abuser, it makes you feel like you’re doing the right thing, like you’re still…the wronged party. But eventually, fighting gets too hard, especially when it changes nothing. So you give in. You give them what they want without fighting, maybe you even pretend to like it. It doesn’t make it easier or less painful, but it does allow you to mentally check out.”

“But that doesn’t mean you’re not a victim,” Lucas said.

“It doesn’t,” Noah agreed. “But when you stop fighting, sometimes—in your head—a voice whispers that you’re not fighting because you like it, because you want it, because deep down you deserve it. And you start to feel like a willing participant. You start to think you really do deserve it. That really you and your abuser aren’t that much different, just two people locked in a relationship you can’t escape. Sometimes you even feel sorry for them.”

“Feel sorry for them?” Felix echoed.

Noah nodded. “I know it sounds crazy, but there were times when I felt sorry for my d—for Holt. He said he couldn’t help the things he did to me. Said it was a compulsion, a sickness. I was a kid, I didn’t know any better. I thought he was my father.” Noah shook his head like he was trying to keep himself from being dragged back down into a nightmare. “Thomas was a kid too. Nobody should blame him for what happened.”

“We don’t,” Archer said. “At all.”

“We’re going to kill this guy, right?” Felix asked. “Like we all get a piece of him when we find him. Right?”

“Obviously,” Asa said.

“Yeah, we have a whole list of ideas we can’t wait to try out on this fucking freak,” Avi agreed rubbing his hands together.

“I get first crack at him,” Lucas recalled. “They went after our children.”

Lucas’s sudden bloodlust was both worrisome and impressive. Up until the girls were born, he’d been the levelheaded one that somehow quieted August’s somewhat volatile moods, but after they arrived, Lucas became the unreasonable one, the paranoid one, the mama bear. Except in this case, he wasn’t being paranoid or unreasonable, someone had threatened his children. What would Aiden do if someone threatened his kid? If he had a kid. What would he do with a kid?

“Don’t worry, mindhunter,” Asa teased, pulling Aiden back from the ledge. “We got you. You can have the scalpel first.”

Avi’s eyes lit up. “Are we finally going to skin someone? I really want to skin someone.”

“Ew, count me out. That’s a hard pass for me on the skinning, thanks,” Zane said, lip curling.

“I’ll go,” Noah said.

“Me too,” Felix said.

“Well, if you guys are going, I don’t want to not go,” Zane said, deflating. “I just hate all the screaming.”

“I have excellent ear plugs,” August offered. “I’ll bring you a pair. You won’t hear a thing.”

Zane’s eyes went wide, clearly shocked at the offer. “Oh…thanks.”

“See family bonding time. Yay,” Adam said.

Noah turned, putting a hand over Adam’s mouth. “Never say that again.”

“But its true,” Adam said, words muffled behind Noah’s hand.

“The family that slays together, stays together,” Calliope murmured.

“Focus,” Aiden said, trying to drag them back to the point. “Yes, we’ll find this douche and yes, we’ll catch him, but in the meantime, you all just need to be…nicer to Tommy, okay?”

“Tommy, oof,” Avi said, then shuddered. “Make it stop.”

“He’s Tommy to me, if you don’t like it, maybe August can get you some of those fancy ear plugs.” He leaned towards the twins. “But listen very carefully. It’s taken me twenty fucking years to get to this point with your father. If you make him feel weird about our relationship, I will put every single fucking one of you through a goddamn wood chipper. Got it?”

August laughed but Atticus frowned harder. “Nobody’s going to make him feel bad. We’ve known about you two for years now. But it's gonna take some getting used to. We’ve had twenty plus years of thinking of you as our weird loner brother, now we have to think of you as our weird, loner…step-dad?” Atticus did a hard full body shiver like Avi. “Yeah, no. Can’t do it. That’s just fucking weird. You can marry our dad, but I’m not calling you anything but Aiden.”

Aiden made a bring it on gesture. “Get all the jokes out of your system now,” Aiden warned. “But you will be nice to him.”

“We totally will,” Noah promised. “We’ll be so nice to him.”

“Uh-uh. Not you three,” Aiden said, sweeping his finger from Zane and Felix to Noah. “You three keep your bleeding hearts to yourselves. You just maintain the status quo. I want him to feel better not have him spend the next six months swimming in your tears.”

“Rude,” Felix muttered.

“Beyond,” Zane agreed.

“Not for nothing, but we did some actual investigating while you guys were off planning gaming tournaments and thinking up creative ways to torture people,” Archer said.

“We were keeping two tiny humans alive and working for a living, thank you very much,” Lucas said.

“Not you two,” Archer clarified benevolently.

“And?” Aiden asked when he didn’t elaborate.

“And we found some stuff about Thomas on the internet,” Archer said.

“He’s a billionaire. There’s stuff about all of us on the internet,” Adam said, rolling his eyes.

“No, we were deep, deep into the internet. Like flat-earthers, 9-1-1 was a hoax, JFK Jr is still alive level deep.”

Calliope frowned. “I have spiders crawling all over the darknet. There’s no way I missed a Mulvaney conspiracy theory.”

“Okay, not that deep,” Mac admitted. “But still, we found this really innocuous looking thread that on its face looked like it was about pet-sitting, but deep within those threads are some really weird posts between a number of people, talking about murder…and Thomas Mulvaney.”

“Like killing him?” Noah asked.

“No, like him being a killer. And a hypocrite.”

“Which is ironic because these very same people appear to be serial unalivers themselves,” Archer said.

“Wait so these people are like vigilantes?” Felix asked.

“Sounds more like something assassins would do,” Zane said.

“No, not vigilantes or assassins. Serial killers. Serial killers were talking about dad. To each other. Claiming he was one of them,” Archer insisted.

Atticus frowned. “Are you trying to say that there are people on the internet—people who are our usual targets—who know what we do?”

“They didn’t mention us, they only mentioned Thomas,” Mac said.

“So this is all happening because of an internet conspiracy theory where Thomas is a serial killer?” Calliope asked, looking shook.

“No,” Archer said. “Well, I don’t know, precisely, but it seems like this person, who calls themselves…what was it?”

Mac reached for his phone, opening up his memo app. “ALWAYSCHRISTMAS1225”

“Yeah, that. Was trying to use this group of killers to crowdsource information about Thomas’s extracurricular activities.”

“Did they ever find anything?”

“Not sure. The thread died three years ago and we couldn’t find any trace of these people anywhere else on the net,” Mac said.

“Always Christmas…as in Holly?” Noah asked.

“But Holly’s dead.”

“But what if she had a kid?”

“A kid who somehow blames Thomas for killing his dad? But Holly filed rape charges? Surely, she wouldn’t raise a kid to think her rapist was a good guy? Right?” Felix asked.

Mac shook his head, gesturing helplessly. “Hard to say at this point.”

Aiden’s head hurt. “Okay, this is getting us nowhere. It's late. Everyone’s tired. Give Calliope whatever information you got from that site and we’ll pick this up in the morning like I said.”

Everybody nodded. People stood and stretched, talking softly to each other as they filed from the room. Calliope stayed where she was, her dagger like nails flying over the keyboard. Aiden couldn’t imagine how anybody could type with those talons, but she seemed unbothered.

“You need to get some sleep too,” Aiden said.

“Fuck that. If these guys were on the web—my web—talking shit about my family, I’m not sleeping until I find them. Go take care of Thomas. I’ve got this.”

“You need to rest,” Aiden prodded gently.

She shot him a mutinous glare. “I need to figure out who handed two toddlers a venomous snake. Go, I’m good. I never sleep more than four hours a night as it is.”

“What? How are you alive?”

“Sheer force of will,” Calliope promised.

Aiden snorted. “Don’t you need your beauty sleep?”

Calliope put a hand under her chin and fluttered her lashes. “Oh, darling. Petty keeps me pretty.”

Aiden shook his head. “Good night, Calliope.”

“Night, Aiden,” she sang as the door closed.

###

Aiden made sure all the doors were locked and alarms engaged, then texted the others so they knew as well. The last thing he needed was the whole house at defcon five because someone decided they wanted some fresh air. He thought about checking on Thomas in the nursery, but decided to give him some time with the girls. They always soothed something in him. Even if he was just watching them sleep.

Instead, he went to his room and checked his email, before deciding on a quick shower. Standing beneath the scalding water, it was impossible not to think about Thomas. Was he in bed already? If Aiden made his way to his room would he reject him? The boys already knew about them. They clearly didn’t give a fuck. Was that enough? Would it finally be enough for Thomas? He needed it to be. How much longer could he be expected to stay away from him? He was already going insane trying not to touch him every time they were alone in a room together.

Thomas was Aiden’s favorite drug and he was close enough to have him clawing at the walls, so close but not close enough to satisfy. Fuck. He turned off the faucet, toweling off quickly before throwing on a t-shirt and sweatpants just for the sake of decency, then heading out the door before he changed his mind.

He paused outside Thomas’s room, hand poised to knock. He expected he’d find Thomas in bed, but that wasn’t the reason he didn’t want to knock. He didn’t want to give him a chance to refuse him. He knew how fucked up that sounded but he was fucked up. Thomas had fucked him up. Had tugged at his sanity year after year until Aiden didn’t care what was right or wrong anymore. He just…wanted. He needed Thomas, needed him like he needed air.

He dropped his hand to the knob, relieved when it turned without issue. He hadn’t locked him out. Something unknotted within him. He stopped short just inside the door when he realized nobody was in there. Just the soft amber glow of a lamp in the corner.

He frowned. Where the hell was he? There was no way he was still in the nursery, it was after one in the morning. He was about to turn and leave when he heard something from deeper within the room, opposite the bathroom. Thomas’s closet. He padded closer, his foot falls silent on the carpeted floor. When he reached the doorway of the sprawling walk-in, his heart stopped.

Thomas stood to the left of the door, facing a low dresser against the mirrored wall, a gun in his hand, so focused on the weapon he didn’t even see Aiden in the reflection. His first instinct was to rush to him and snatch the weapon from his hand. But he pushed the thought back, watching as Thomas just stared at it. What the fuck was he thinking? Surely, not the worst, right? He wouldn’t ever be so cruel as to try to take himself out of the equation. They couldn’t do this without him. Any of it. Aiden couldn’t go on without him.

He was crossing the room before he could stop himself, wrapping his arms around him from behind, gripping Thomas’s hands. He sucked in a sharp breath, his startled gaze meeting Aiden’s in the mirror. That’s when he realized there was a mirrored wall behind them as well.

Thomas stiffened in his arms for just a moment, then sort of melted against him, his bare skin warm even through Aiden’s t-shirt. He gently took the gun from Thomas and set it down, but kept him pinned where he was against the dresser, watching Thomas’s face in the mirror as he gave into his needs and trailed open mouth kisses along his throat.

“Fuck you always smell so good,” Aiden murmured, dropping his hands to his waist, then splaying fingers across his chest and belly as he sucked a red mark onto his neck.

“What are you doing?” Thomas asked, pressing his ass against Aiden’s half hard cock.

“Requesting a do-over,” Aiden said, his fingers finding Thomas’s nipple and tugging it until he sucked in a breath.

“I love when you make that sound,” Aiden admitted. “I love that I can make you make that sound.”

Thomas flushed, but said, “A do-over?”

“Mm, a do-over,” he murmured, letting one hand slide up into his hair and twisting his head to capture his mouth in a dirty kiss that lingered. “I didn’t take my time with you last time,” he said as he let him go, returning to exploring Thomas’s bare skin with his mouth.

“You didn’t?” Thomas asked, tilting his head to give Aiden better access.

Fuck. Aiden felt high. High off the feel of Thomas’s skin beneath his hands, the tang of his skin, the masculine scent of his shampoo. Aiden just wanted to drown in Thomas. He was already so fucking hard. There was no way Thomas could miss it. “No, something I’m going to rectify right now.”

“Here?” Thomas managed, glancing around the closet.

Aiden glanced around, then smiled, filthy fantasies suddenly filling his head. “Yeah. Why not? You can watch.”

Thomas’s lips parted, his tongue darting out to lick over his lower lip. “Watch what?”

Aiden bit Thomas’s shoulder, then dropped to his knees, his fingers catching in Thomas’s pajama bottoms on his way down, dragging them lower then off. “This.”

He bit Thomas’s ass just hard enough to leave teeth marks. “Open your legs for me,” he coaxed, then tugged his hips back. He wished he could see what they looked like. How many times had he thought about this? Pictured it in his head? He spread him open, then gave a broad sweep of his tongue from his balls to his hole, smiling a bit when Thomas’s knees gave out.

“Fuck,” Thomas muttered.

“Oh, I’ll get there,” Aiden promised, then buried his face in the heart of him, spearing his tongue against his entrance, then licking over it once more. Thomas tasted like soap and Aiden cock was already leaking, tenting his sweatpants. Thomas’s hands grasped at Aiden blindly, like he just needed something to hold onto.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” Thomas muttered, pushing back on Aiden’s tongue like it just wasn’t enough.

He curled his hands around Thomas’s hips, dragging him back until it felt like he might suffocate. He didn’t care. If this was how he died, it was totally worth it. Thomas’s blunt nails dug at his shoulders as he moaned and swore under his breath whenever Aiden did something he liked.

When Aiden finally relinquished his hold on him, it was only to wrap a hand around Thomas’s aching cock, stroking him slow enough to have him cursing his name. Aiden sat back, massaging a finger against Thomas’s hole before pushing inside to the second knuckle. Aiden groaned. Thomas was so hot and tight. He wanted to bury himself in that heat immediately.

“Christ,” Thomas muttered, pressing himself back on Aiden’s finger. “Enough. Just fuck me already.”

“You’re so fucking tight. This is why it was over so quickly last time,” Aiden said accusingly.

“Are you seriously complaining right now?” Thomas asked. “Lube’s in the top drawer of the bathroom. Are you going to get it or am I?”

Aiden slapped Thomas’s ass, then stood. “Always so bossy,” he muttered.

It took two tries before he found the right drawer but when he returned, Thomas was facing him. That was fine with Aiden. He captured his mouth in a kiss, finding Thomas’s tongue and sucking it into his mouth as he pushed slick fingers into his crease, teasing only a moment before forcing them inside, relishing in Thomas’s surprised grunt.

“What’s wrong?” Aiden murmured against his lips. “You were the one in such a hurry.”

Thomas bit Aiden’s lip hard then sucked it. “Smartass.”

Aiden wanted to take his time, had planned to open him up slowly, fuck him lazily, but Thomas was refusing to play ball. He was shoving at Aiden’s sweatpants, using the lube to slick his hard cock. That alone was almost enough to have Aiden coming.

Fuck it. If this was how Thomas wanted it, why was he fighting it? They had plenty of time to take it slow. Aiden wasn’t letting Thomas go. Not ever. Never again. He picked him up, setting him on the low lip of the dresser. Thomas braced his hands against the top. It was the perfect angle.

He crashed their mouths together as he slid home, both of them moaning. Christ he felt so good. So hot and tight and perfect. Had anything in the world ever felt as fucking good as this? Aiden didn’t think so. He caught Thomas’s knees over his elbows, pulling almost all the way out before slamming back home.

Thomas threw his head back, gripping the edge of the dresser for dear life as Aiden gave into his instincts, driving into him again and again. “Touch yourself,” Aiden begged.

Thomas looked at him, gaze hazy, lips parted, then took himself in hand, stroking himself in time with Aiden’s thrusts. Aiden stared, riveted, watching his hand move, addicted to the breathless gasps and the low moans. It was perfect. Thomas was perfect. This was everything Aiden had wanted last time.

He squeezed his eyes shut, sure if he kept watching he’d finish before Thomas. But that was worse. With his eyes closed, all he could do was focus on the perfect squeeze of Thomas’s body around his cock. And he was already so fucking close. He was reaching the point of no return, where his body wasn’t going to let him slow down, wouldn’t let him do anything but let him chase his own pleasure.

“Fuck,” Thomas muttered, then cried out, his nails once more digging into Aiden’s skin, his upper arms this time. Would it leave marks? Aiden fucking hoped so. He’d let Thomas maul him like a goddamn tiger and wear the scars proudly.

He opened his eyes just in time to watch Thomas spill over his hand, his expression shocky and blissed out. That was it. Aiden gripped him harder, his eyes finding the image of them in the mirror on the far wall. The picture they made was more than enough to finally push him over the edge.

He watched their reflection in the mirror, watching himself fuck Thomas, every thrust forcing another grunt from him until Aiden couldn’t hold back anymore, finally emptying himself inside, waves of pleasure literally throwing his whole brain offline.

He didn’t pull free, just clutched at Thomas, trying to drag breath into his lungs, praying he didn’t have a sudden change of heart and kick him out. “I’m sleeping with you tonight,” he said, making sure he knew it wasn’t a request.

Aiden’s stomach dropped when Thomas said nothing, but then lips brushed his forehead. “I know.”

“I’m sleeping with you every night from now on,” Aiden said, his body forcing him to slide free of Thomas’s.

“I know.”

Aiden hadn’t expected Thomas to give in so easily. He didn’t know what to say other than, “Good.”

“We should try to get some sleep. It's late.”

“Okay,” Aiden said, but made no move to release Thomas.

“Are we sleeping here in the closet?” Thomas asked, amused.

Aiden sighed and stepped back, helping Thomas down. “It’s not my fault your bed is so far away.”

“Are you saying you want to put a mattress in the closet?” Thomas asked, helping Aiden right his sweatpants but foregoing his own pajama pants on the floor.

“No,” Aiden said. “Well, maybe. Or we could just put mirrors over the bed.”

“Nothing screams class like a mirrored ceiling,” Thomas said, climbing into bed and rolling onto his side.

Aiden lost his sweatpants then climbed in, curling himself around Thomas. “Fuck class, don’t tell me you didn’t watch me on my knees for you.”

“I plead the fifth,” he said. “Now go to sleep.”

“Uh-huh,” Aiden said. “That’s what I thought.”

He buried his face in Thomas’s neck, kissing over his pulse. “Good night.”

Thomas’s hand reached back, curling around Aiden’s bare thigh. “Night.”