Flynn's Bad Day (Flynn, Quinn, Mara, Spectre, Angus and Pauline)

[myeyesarehollow.livejournal.com]

Mara wasn't having as good a day as she'd had the previous day. Not because her attitude was any less positive, however. She was just as upbeat as she had been, but the pain in her chest was worse, due to swelling, or whatever was going on in there as she healed. Every breath caused her pain, and Flynn...not to mention everyone else...hated to see it. Which was why they gathered in her room to help plan out their new charitable venture to bring happiness to kids in an orphanage in South Africa. Both Abby and Stuart were at work, so Mara was surrounded by Flynn, Quinn and her brother, which always pleased her! Quinn was chatting to Spectre about logistics. He knew several places that would love to donate toys, and the library on the London University campus had lots of old books they could be asked to donate as well. Mara was watching them, a smile on her face, and Flynn was watching her, trying not to look worried. He liked that Mara girl. And she seemed so helpless sometimes, like Quinn had been while they were homeless and something deep inside Flynn just wanted to protect her and make everything better. "You're doing a great thing." Flynn smiled at her. "Everyone deserves a Squiggle and a Cupcake."

Mara giggled and then she winced and put her hand on her chest. "Yes."

"Are you okay?!" Flynn asked, instantly worried.

"You worry a lot." She said, though she certainly wasn't upset to be asked if she was alright. It was nice, being surrounded by people who cared.

"Heh." Flynn gave her a self-depreciating smile. "It means I care about you." He said simply, because it was getting easier and easier for him to share his emotions. That was about to end, however, silenced by the ring of a doorbell. "I'll get it." He said to Quinn and Spectre, who were still deep in conversation. Flynn rose, and he kissed Mara's forehead before heading down the stairs to open the door.

Parents.

His parents.

Flynn's mouth fell open and he stared at them. And then he shook his head. They weren't here. They weren't allowed to be here, those were the rules!! What the hell were they doing here?! "B..." And that was all Flynn really had inside him, except a terribly sick feeling in his stomach, as he stared back at the people who had caused him such incredible pain and heart ache.

"You didn't meet us, Malachy." Flynn's mother, Pauline said. "We waited."

Oh dear lord, Flynn had completely forgotten. He'd tried so hard to distract himself, that it had well and truly worked. He thought he was supposed to see them tomorrow, not today. Dammit. "I-"

Flynn's father, Angus, was staring at his son, and he shook his head. "We should have expected as much."

And that made Flynn angry. "Hey! No! You don't get to say that to me! You're the ones who fucked me over, so I'm terribly sorry if I messed up your plans for the day, but you fucked up my life! For six years!!"

Pauline looked up at the house, which was no Victoria Lane, but it was quite impressive in it's own right. "It doesn't look like it, Son."

"Looks to us like you have everything well under control." Angus said, stepping into the downstairs living area. Pauline followed and she shut the door behind them.

His parents were in his house. No, no, no. "How did you even find this place!?" Why was everyone unpleasant just dropping by for fucking visits this week?!

"Malachy. Please." Angus shook his head. "When you said you lived with this...Spooky Morse person, we made it our job to find out where that was."

"Spectre." Flynn growled.

"What, Malachy?" Morgan asked, confused.

"His name is Spectre. Spectre Mors." Flynn was fuming inside at even the possibility that they might have a harsh word to say about the man who had saved him. If Spectre and Thomas hadn't come along and given him everything, Flynn knew exactly where he'd be right now. In that sad fucking attic above Al's bar, with a cat as his only friend. Still. Seeing it again had driven that home even more than it already had been. His life back then, had been terrible. Now he had so much because he'd been given a chance and he hadn't fucked it up. If these people insulted Spectre, they were going to have about three seconds to get out the door before damage was done...

"Whatever." Angus said, waving his hand around.

"This house is lovely, Malachy. Why don't you show us around?"

"That's what you say to me?!" Flynn squeaked in disbelief. "That?! Show you around?! Give you a tour of my place when the last time I saw you, you kicked me out of yours?!"

From upstairs, the sound of Flynn's distress reached Quinn's ears and his head raised, his face creased with worry. "That doesn't sound good." He said to Spectre. And then he closed his eyes and shook his head. "Oh god! It's Saturday! We...Spectre, we were supposed to meet his parents in the city and we forgot!" And Flynn's voice certainly sounded like he was talking to his parents... "What if they came here?!" Quinn stood up and he went for the door.

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"Oh my goodness," Spectre murmured. He frowned as the raised voices reached his ears again, and rose from the bed. He leaned down to kiss Mara's forehead, his hand in her hair. "I'm going to help Quinn see what all this is about. I'm sure it's not dangerous, but I don't want anyone to get upset. We'll be back soon, okay?" Well... Spectre was mostly sure Flynn's parents weren't dangerous. They did have some rather interesting social and political attitudes, he knew. But they probably didn't have what it would take to stand up to Flynn if they decided to cause real trouble, let alone Flynn, Quinn and an angel.

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Mara nodded as Spectre and Quinn left her bedroom. She wrapped her arms around Cupcake and waited.

Flynn's parents hadn't actually thought of a way to answer his previous question...and how could you, really? So they were staring at him, and Morgan finally broke the silence. "Malachy, we couldn't have you in our house if you were going to endanger your brother like that."

"Oh, for fuck's sake! He was killing people, and I didn't endanger him at all. He turned his own men over to the police and they rolled over on him. You threw me out based on hearsay! And I was innocent!"

Quinn reached the bottom of the steps and he took Flynn's hand, quickly lacing his fingers into Flynn's. "What's going on, Mal?" He asked quietly.

Flynn's parents didn't recognise Quinn. Hell, they barely recognised Flynn. But they did notice the hand-holding. "So you're still a poof, Malachy?" Angus asked. "I thought you'd be harder than that somehow, now. You were always strutting around with that faggot Ardal, like you were so proud of it. Like it didn't bother people to see you that way."

Quinn's mouth dropped open, and he tried to let go of Flynn's hand, but Flynn's grip only strengthened, pulling Quinn towards him and planting a 'so HAH' kiss on his forehead. "This is Ardal!"

Angus actually looked embarrassed then, as he fucking should. "Oh."

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"We won't have that sort of talk in our house," Spectre said in a dangerously reasonable tone as he descended the stairs. It hadn't been difficult at all to hear the conversation as he approached. "We're free people, free to be whoever and whatever we wish. You will accept this, or you will be asked to leave. If you don't comply, we'll call the police. It's that simple. We don't need to continue being unpleasant, do we?"

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Flynn look sidelong at Spectre and then he imagined Spectre, jumping on his parents like he had that angel whorebag. It was a funny mental image, but he forced himself not to laugh so his parents wouldn't think Spectre was making a joke. He really wasn't. "That's Spectre. It's his house."

"I wasn't trying to be unpleasant." Angus said, shaking his head. "How was I supposed to know, that was Ardal, he looks completely different!"

"He does not!" Flynn glanced at Quinn, who wrapped both his arms around one of Flynn's. It was a little disturbing to see Quinn so agitated...

"He used to be such a scrawny little thing." Angus nodded. "Always hangin' round the house."

"Stop it." Quinn whispered.

"Lookin' for you." Angus continued.

"What?" Flynn was confused now, because most of the time they'd been together, neither of them went anywhere near the houses they lived in unless it was the times Quinn had been hurt.

"He used to hang 'round the house all the time, lookin' lost." Pauline explained.

"Stop it!" Quinn said more loudly this time, looking up at them and shaking his head.

"What are they-" Flynn heaved a sigh. "Oh. You mean after...right." Quinn had been hanging around Flynn's parent's house after he'd been sent home, hoping that Flynn too would show up home again.

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"That's enough!" Spectre said, his tone becoming more forceful now. Though he was shorter and smaller than Angus, he approached the older couple with confidence born of the fact that he knew he had powers they would never, and could never guess or understand. "Ardal asked you to stop, and you will. Or you will leave. You were not invited here, and you remain only by our very good graces. You can be sure I'll be having words with our manager if he was the one who directed you here."

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Flynn bit his lip and he looked at them over Spectre's head. "Why did you come?" He asked, bluntly. "Why did you even come?"

"You wrote us a letter, Malachy." Pauline answered.

Flynn blinked. "You came because I wrote a letter? I begged you to forgive me, and you made me sleep outside, threatened me with violence if I didn't leave, and then you come to London because I sent you a letter!? That's such bullshit!"

"You never sent one before!" Angus stressed.

"I...I didn't have the goddamn means to be sending you letters before!" Flynn finally yelled and both of Flynn's parents looked shocked. "What was I supposed to do, write to the parents who kicked me out, telling them all about my adventures in eating garbage?"

"Oh, Malachy!" Pauline said with distaste.

"Where do you think you sent me, vacation?!" Flynn took several deep breaths to calm himself down. "You're upsetting me and you're upsetting the people I love."

"People you..." Angus gave Spectre a quizzical look. "Are you banging two of them now, Son?"

Flynn just hid his face in his hand and groaned.

[in-spectre-mors.livejournal.com]

Spectre folded his arms, and kept his eyes firmly on Angus'. "Mal is not 'banging' me, as you put it. He and Ardal have one of the most loving and loyal relationships I've ever known. Mal happens to be one of my best friends, and we love each other as such friends should. If you're unfamiliar with that kind of love, then I can have only pity for you."

[quinntaessentia.livejournal.com]

Angus continued to look at Spectre, a little sneer on his face. "Scottish, eh?" He finally said.

"Oh, inventive, Dad." Flynn shook his head in dismay, though he really appreciated what Spectre had said, even if it was weird to hear Spectre call him 'Mal'. He understood why he was doing it. He didn't really need his mother to know he'd changed his name to her maiden name...if she didn't already know... "I don't want you here, alright!? I...I didn't even want you in London! I just...thought you should know what you did to me didn't kill me. In case you felt guilt, which apparently you didn't. And I also wanted you to know I don't need you. Because I survived without your help, and then with Spectre and Ardal's help, I started living again."

Quinn kissed Flynn's shoulder then and he finally faced them, even though it was hard. "You haven't asked how he is."

"What?" Angus said, tilting his head towards Quinn.

"You haven't asked how he is! You came here because you say he wrote you a letter, but you haven't asked if he's okay." Most the time if someone finally wrote a letter like that, they did it because they received news like they were dying or something. "You don't care about him. If you did, you would have looked for him long before now."

"Malachy caused us great heartache, Boy." Angus said to Quinn.

"You caused us great heartache as well." Quinn whispered.

[in-spectre-mors.livejournal.com]

"It wasn't Mal who caused you heartache," Spectre said, shaking his head. "It was your own narrow-minded attitudes. There was no spitefulness or malice in your son. There still isn't. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, and he didn't even want to hurt people when he was involved in the same things as his brother. I'm terribly sorry for what happened, but you all brought it on yourselves. Mal and Ardal are the ones who let decency and love guide their hearts. You'd do well if one day, you'd learn by their example." These people were unbelievable. Spectre knew the power of bigotry, of course, but it had been a long time since he'd encountered it in someone who wasn't a Templar, or close enough.

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"I don't have any money." Flynn said, getting to the crux of the matter because no matter what Spectre said, it didn't seem like it was getting through. "If that's what you came for. I don't have any to give you." He had his own, but dammit, it was his! He'd earned it.

Angus ignored Flynn then and he turned to Spectre. "How can you know how it feels to want something for your son and then watch him throw that back in your face?" Angus shook his head. "You don't have to want to hurt someone to hurt them."

"Did you want to hurt Mal when you kicked him out?" Quinn asked, his eyes burning with hatred now. "Did you want to bring him pain?"

Pauline shook her head, not because the answer was no, but because she didn't want to talk about it. "He was supposed to make us proud!"

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"Well you should have been proud, because he did more than enough to make any other parent feel that way," Spectre pointed out. "Don't you think your son wanted to make you proud? Of course he did. That's what any son wants. But you had a responsibility to let him do that in his own way, not try to force him to be a little clone made in your own image. Trust me when I say that never works." Spectre looked over at Flynn and Quinn, two people that made him proud constantly. "You should have been proud then, and you should be proud now," he said as he turned back to Flynn's parents. "Of course, you wouldn't even know how many things you have to be proud of. So you ought to be ashamed of yourselves."

[myeyesarehollow.livejournal.com]

Flynn smiled then, despite everything that his parents were saying. Spectre's opinion meant so much more. And Spectre said he was proud. Flynn loved to hear it. "You don't make me proud." Flynn somehow found it in himself to say to his parents. "Spectre's right, you don't know me. And you should be ashamed of what you did to me. And I'm not proud to be your son. I'm proud to be Spectre's friend, and Ardal's boyfriend. But I am not proud to be related to you. And I think that's sad....I wish I was."

[in-spectre-mors.livejournal.com]

Spectre smiled as well to hear Flynn stand up to his parents and tell them what he thought. He'd done it in the form of a letter, and now he was doing it in person. Flynn was making Spectre more proud by the moment. "I think that might be all there is to say," Spectre told Flynn's parents quietly. "Unless you have anything else, it might be time to leave."

[myeyesarehollow.livejournal.com]

Pauline looked like she couldn't quite believe this was happening. "We came to see you, Malachy..."

"When I don't need you anymore." Flynn said, shaking his head. "If you had come to find me when I needed you...I would have been thrilled. I would have been overjoyed. I would have been saved. But you didn't. You waited until I had things under control. Spectre's right. I think you should leave."

Angus took a deep breath and he drew himself up. "You are a disgrace." He said, and then he took Pauline's hand and he led her out of the house, slamming the door behind them.

Flynn let out a breath when they were gone. "I'm a disgrace, apparently." He said, rolling his eyes. But his shoulders were drooping. Perhaps, he'd been silly enough to hope that they'd show up and hug him and beg his forgiveness and he'd give it to them and they'd all live happily ever after...

[in-spectre-mors.livejournal.com]

"Lies," Spectre said, and he immediately hugged Flynn, and Quinn. "They have no idea what they're talking about. Still. After all these years." He sighed. "I'm so sorry, Flynn. I wish it could have gone differently." Those people made him so angry though. Treating their son like that... they really had learnt nothing. It appalled Spectre just how many terrible parents there were in the world.

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Flynn just shrugged, though he was grateful for the hug. He turned to Quinn when it was over. "Quinn...are you alright?" Quinn wasn't usually so quiet and withdrawn. Flynn reached up and he ran his fingers through Quinn's erratic hair.

Quinn shook his head. "I'm not used to that. Not anymore. Being called names like that. Being looked at like I'm disgusting." He hadn't suffered that since leaving Whitehead. But when he had gone through it, he had certainly suffered for it. Hearing Flynn's father say those things only brought back memories of being hit with cricket bats as Flynn's brother called him terrible names. "It was like I was in Whitehead again."

Flynn looked at Quinn with worry written all over his face. Because he wasn't necessarily so good at this part. "But we're not, and they're gone." He looked helplessly at Spectre.

[in-spectre-mors.livejournal.com]

"Flynn's right," Spectre said gently. "You're never going to have to go through those days again, no matter what anyone says. You have a beautiful family and friends who love you. With any luck, those ingrates," he tilted his head to the door, "won't even try coming back. Because unless they change their tune quite significantly, they're only going to get more of the same here. You're not disgusting, Quinn. They are. And we're all here to help each other remember that."

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Quinn nodded and then he managed a smile that was much more like himself. "Thank you." He nodded. "Mal, I'm sorry they were dickheads." He kissed Flynn's cheek. "I think you're pretty darn special. And I'm proud of you. And I love you."

Flynn blushed and he bit his lip. "See? And that's all I need." He leaned forward, nuzzling Quinn's face with his. "Augh, stubble!" He said, pulling away with a laugh.

"It's my manly stubble, don't mock." Quinn said, poking him.

"Alright then, Manly." Flynn said fondly. "Hey. I'm sorry you...I..I didn't know you went to my house. After you went back to Whitehead again."

"I was just looking for you." Quinn said quietly. "It was silly. But I just...hoped or whatever. Hoped you'd show up."

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"Hope is never silly," Spectre said, reaching out to touch Quinn's arm. "I'm sure I would have done the same thing. Had Flynn returned home, you would have wanted to know about it the moment he did. And there weren't necessarily many people who would tell you. I understand completely."

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"I thought they'd try to keep me from him too, not just not tell me." Quinn sighed. "Doesn't matter. They don't get to keep him from me."

"No they fuckin' don't!" Flynn agreed, snaking his arm around Quinn to pull him even closer. "Let's go upstairs? There's a beautiful little girl up there who wants to help us make the world a better place, yeah?" His parents would not tarnish that.

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"A fabulous plan," Spectre said with a nod. "We'll more than make up for those people. Little Mara will see to that. She's quite the taskmaster!" he added with a wink.

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"We should get her a sparkly whip." Flynn said with a nod.

Quinn raised his eyebrows and he looked at Spectre, trying not to laugh because Spectre was her older brother and Mara was nine...

"I didn't mean in a dirty way!" Flynn insisted.

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"Of course not," Spectre said, in a tone that was jokingly I'm-so-not-convinced. "The sparkles clearly make it completely innocent, and I couldn't imagine why anyone else would think such a thing." He poked his tongue out at Quinn then. Just because, really.

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Quinn just snorted. "We'll get you a sparkly whip too, Spectre. That way you don't have to borrow Mara's when you ride Thomas." He patted Spectre's shoulder and he made his way up the stairs, leaving Flynn standing there with his mouth forming an amused 'O'.

"Well. He's a naughty boy. I'll going to have to give him a spanking later. And Spectre...thank you. For what you said, not anything to do with whips or riding..."

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Spectre smiled, and hugged Flynn again. "You're most welcome, my friend. I certainly would never let anyone I love face that sort of thing alone. They're complete pains in the arse. I think I liked Fable better..."

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"Heh..." Flynn nodded. "Yeah. I like Fable better too." And then he started up the stairs as well. At least now, it was over.