[Bob the hobo] A Celestial Wars Spin-Off Part 1264

PART TWELVE-HUNDRED-AND-SIXTY-FOUR

[Previous Chapter] [The Beginning]

Thursday

“No one’s asking you to,” Lar’ee said, willing Boyd to understand something he couldn’t possibly comprehend without all the facts. “You might be right. These people might not have you in their sights at all. But—no, let me finish,” he said as Boyd’s mouth shot open. He waited until the big guy closed his mouth again before continuing. “Right now, I follow Robbie whenever he leaves the apartment. I’m discreet and I keep my distance, but nothing goes anywhere near him that’s a danger to him, so long as I’m breathing. Or even not breathing, depending on the situation.”

He’d hoped the joke would land, but Robbie’s frown told him just how ridiculous he was being. Of the two, Robbie was the easier one to rationalise with, since he understood his place in the universe. So Lar’ee shifted his focus to the red-headed foodie.

“Think bigger than yourself, Red,” he said, using Yitzak’s nickname for Robbie to inform him of where this was going. “The last time your pop lost someone dear to him, he was so inconsolably furious that World War One broke out, and then he crumbled into depression afterwards, taking the whole world with him.”

Boyd straightened up. “He caused World War One?”

“The mortals found their own reasons for acting the way they did, but the underlying emotional current was his. His heartache was so profound, not even the seclusion rings could keep it from seeping into the mortal population. Would you really do that to him and our homeworld again, just to keep your autonomy?”

Robbie looked at the coffee table in front of him and shook his head.

Lar’ee continued. “Like I said. I’m discreet. You don’t even know I’m there. I’m happy for you to interact without a care in the world, so long as I’m there to make sure it doesn’t bite you in the ass.” His gaze moved to Boyd. “And I’m willing to do the same thing for you. You can still go out and live your life—just give me a heads-up when you do so that I can keep watch from a distance.”

“But that’s what I’m talking about,” Boyd cut in, slapping his knees in frustration. “You follow Robbie because his pop is a god and could influence the world badly if anything happened to him. I don’t have that problem. My father wants me dead. If anything, he’d throw my killers a party.”

Lar’ee’s chest constricted painfully, and across from him, Robbie turned and wrapped his arms around Boyd like he was the most precious thing in the world. To some people, he was. “Your mother might wish that,” Lar’ee said carefully. “And in the beginning, your father might have felt that way too, but I promise you, it’s different now. They’re different now. And they won’t hold your love for Lucas against you.”

“You haven’t met my dad.”

“Oh, but I have,” Lar’ee countered. “Many times.”

“So, you think I should just whip out my phone and call Colonel Adam Masters from the USMC, because he’s going to throw his arms open and welcome me back? Knowing his father beat nine shades of shit out of me when I was a teenager?”

Lar’ee opened his mouth, only to close it again. “I didn’t say that,” he finally said.

 Boyd waved the denial away. “It doesn’t matter. The bottom line, there’s no huge overarching threat of devastation if anything happens to me, is there?”

“There will be, and not just because of how much you mean to your original roommates. Look at Llyr. He’s the most … Mystallian out of all of them, yet he looks out for you because you spent years looking out for Sam. And what about Sam? You think he’s going to let it slide if they figure out where you are and kill you? He’ll spend the rest of eternity locked in the Prydelands, or until the ones who killed you die of old age—because his righteous rage won’t back down from anything less. You honestly believe that won’t happen?”

“I won’t be too happy with them either, big guy,” Robbie added quietly. “And I’ll have a bigger head start on them than Sam will.”

The hell you will, Lar’ee thought, but since things were going his way, he held his tongue. Instead, he looked at Boyd. “See? You matter to people who will burn the world for you. As much as I don’t want anything to happen to you, I don’t want to have to deal with that fallout either. I’m not asking you to stop, Boyd. I’m just asking you to give me a heads-up. You can forget all about it once you do, because you. Will. Never. See. Me.” He punctuated each word with a poke against the chair arm. “Not if you don’t want to. Just treat it like telling Robbie you’re running to the store for five minutes.”

“And once this thing with these assholes is sorted, you’ll back right off?”

“I can’t promise the future any more than you can. Will something else crop up to take their place? I don’t know. Will I ever stop worrying about you now that you know what I’m capable of? I don’t know. It used to be easier in some ways when you didn’t know, but it was also harder in others. You didn’t know the stakes before. Now, you don’t have that luxury.”

He watched Boyd intently, searching for any hints of what the big guy was thinking. “This morning just happened,” Boyd said slowly. “It wasn’t planned. We got held up at the gym, and Lucas didn’t have time to bring me home. It was a nice day, so I decided to walk instead of getting a ride.”

Lar’ee pressed his hands together and then bounced them open like he didn’t disagree. “And all of that is totally fine. I’m not trying to hobble you here. All I needed from you was to know your plans had changed. If you’d have called, or texted, or done anything to let me know, I wouldn’t have had to scramble all over the city looking for you.”

Robbie lifted away from Boyd. “We could add him to our friends’ group,” he suggested.

At Boyd’s tightening jaw, Lar’ee focused instead on Robbie. “What friends’ group?”

Robbie leaned sideways to dig out his phone and tapped the screen. “We all have the ‘Find My Friends’ app on our phones. It allows us to track each other. It’s how I found Lucas when he was out past Pittsburgh the night he and Boyd first got together.” When he was ready, he turned the phone towards Lar’ee to show him the pins on a map for each person in their household.

Lar’ee knew this step was pointless, and he was kicking himself for not calling Boyd to ask where he was. It could’ve been that simple. Instead of panicking, he could have taken a second to call.

Still, if they were prepared to ‘link him in’, what did it matter if they knew where he was at any time? The worst he would be doing is something on behalf of the pryde, but what if they risked themselves looking for him? 

“I don’t know if I want you always knowing where I am,” Boyd said, echoing Lar’ee’s sentiments.

“And it might complicate things if I’m bouncing between my—my wards.”

Robbie frowned, his lips pinching in disapproval. “Does he still not know who you are?”

“He still doesn’t know who he is, no.”

“Meaning he doesn’t know,” Boyd huffed. “Don’t you think you’re stretching yourself just a little too thin between the three of us?”

“Which is why I exploded this morning, and I apologise for that.”

“That’s not the worst of it. You were so mad when you left, you realm-stepped right in front of those cops, and I had to use the phrase to cover for you.”

Lar’ee’s mouth fell open in shock. “No,” he said quickly, shaking his head— needing Boyd to understand that was not the case. “No, I’m not a Laffer anymore. Last night, the War Commander ordered me to change my name back to Nascerdios so I could do the work at the clinic using divine means.”

Robbie’s eyebrows disappeared beneath his hairline. “Wait, so Larry Laffer just ceases to exist now?”

“As soon as Nuncio resets the internet, yes.”

“Well, that would’ve been nice to know!” Boyd barked, but before he could stand up, Robbie quickly lifted his legs and laid them over Boyd’s lap, locking him into place.

“Be nice,” he pleaded, gently massaging Boyd’s neck. “Please?”

Boyd breathed deeply a few times, then relaxed. His glare at Lar’ee was glacial.  “Asshole,” he muttered under his breath.

Lastchancelastchancelastchance…

“I’m sorry that gave you a fright.” At Boyd’s curling lip, Lar’ee threw caution to the wind. “What else am I supposed to say here, Boyd? We hadn’t spoken since the War Commander made that ruling. I love you, and you scared the crap out of me, wandering through the city without telling anyone. And when I finally caught up to you, instead of admitting the mistake, you blew a gasket—and I was right there with you.”

“You yelled first,” Boyd snarled, leaning forward a few inches—dragging Robbie’s legs with him despite the way his heels were braced against the sofa arm. “It just about made me jump through the fuckin’ store window.”

Lar’ee bowed his head and covered his face with his hands. “You’re right,” he admitted, nodding to himself. “I did yell first. I was expecting you to be hurt or dead or kidnapped or something like what happened to Mason, and to find you waltzing down the street without a care in the world—I lost it.” He lowered his hands to look at Boyd. “You were supposed to be more careful than that.”

“I didn’t take the blowback into account, no,” Boyd admitted, then refocused on Robbie. “I need you to promise me that if anything happens, you won’t go off the rails avenging me. Sam’s going to need your help to get through—”

“Since that’s not gonna happen, I don’t have to promise spit,” Robbie countered, waving one finger in the air between all three of them like it had the final ruling. It came to rest on Boyd’s sternum. “Like it or not, you now matter to the divine. And just like everyone else connected to powerful people, if that means you need to go around with a divine bodyguard from now on, you’re gonna shut up and take the rammed bodyguard.” He arched an eyebrow. “Or do I have to get Lucas in on this argument about how important you are to us?”

Boyd ground his lips together. “You suck.”

“Like a black hole, baby,” Robbie promised with a chin-lift of absolute confidence.

Lar’ee snorted at the sexual pun, but the more he thought about it, the funnier it became. His laughter pulled the other two in until all three were laughing—and the tension between them finally cleared.

* * *

((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I’d love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))

I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here

For more of my work, including WPs: r/Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.

FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!