We Are Bulletproof

See, tea was usually Rip's drink of choice because that was what he was given by Keith to keep him calm and complacent. He never gave him caffeine... and sugar, he always said, would make him fat. A fat golem! It must have been a joke; golems didn't even need food or drink. Rhys had never seen a fat golem before.

"I like shakes and smoothies."

Rip kept talking in such a small voice. So strange coming from a tall man, who should have--and could have--cut an intimidating figure if he tried. But he was sort of... broken right now. Maybe Mik would fix him. At least he'd be making himself useful that way. But the way Mik looked at him and the other two... Rhys frowned.

"That's not what I meant." And it wasn't. He only knew about the hair thing because every now and again, when Keith wasn't ignoring Rip's existence or telling him to go to the bedroom (shudder), Rhys had seen him, with his hands in Rip's hair. The contentment in his face had been real. When he's good, Keith plays with his hair. It would have been a gross thing to say. Nobody wanted to be reminded of him.

But... now that Mik brought it up... Rhys frowned, then shrugged, not committing to a response either way. Jack had already admitted to it. And Niall twirled a finger through his hair and said absently, "All of us? Maybe... Kinda funny..."

"Of course," he said with a lift of the chin, crossing his arms. He didn't care for humans, and Mik was as human as they came. Ugh. But he was apparently in connection with Rip now... Because Rip was a full on idiot. Not that it was his fault that he was an idiot. He was still ignorant to the world. But Mik the human also rankled at Rhys for other reasons that he certainly wasn't getting into right now. Or... ever.

"If you promise not to take Rip anywhere else," Jack said slowly, "you can hang out at Brayden's place. I know it's a little stifling here."

Rhys noticed Jack himself sounded tired and he definitely looked like he had seen better days. He lowered his gaze. He didn't know exactly what he must have felt like but he could sort of understand it better now. Jack wasn't going to leave, not with his lover in the other room. And Niall wasn't going to, either, with Ken in there, too. But it was probably fine to let Mik and Rip go across the courtyard. Rhys would be glad not to have Mik around whenever Raphael came back.

"You can rest there," Rhys said with a half shrug. "And there's tea if you want to calm him down." He almost said something horrible, like a slap to the face to... well, everybody but Niall, who had no personal stake yet against Keith. But instead of putting it that way, he said slowly, "And he likes his hair played with. That will calm him down even more. Chamomile and hair."

Jack let out a soft little half laugh. "Hair part sounds about right. Guess we still have some things in common..."

Was the kid playing dumb? For fuck's sake. Rhys rolled his eyes. If he was connected to Rip and Keith decided he wanted to fuck with Rip the same way he fucked with Jack, then Mik was in real trouble, too. Especially if Keith was aware of what was happening between them. And he had to be. He was his golem, after all.

But then after the casting, Rhys checked everything and he could see that the spell had taken hold, cast over both at the same time. Rhys could see the spell like thin whitish blue lines over the pair. No holes. No vulnerabilities. It had taken some annoying hand holding to get Niall through it but Jack picked it up quickly. Rhys was becoming more and more annoyed that of all of them, Niall was the one who was his full-blooded brother.

"What? You don't believe me?" Rhys asked, noting that everybody around him seemed to think he was a liar. He snapped his fingers and the shields were visible to everybody in the room. "These wards will keep you safe from locater spells and psychic attacks. But that doesn't make you invincible. So I'd say... no. You can leave," he said to Mik, "But Rip's staying until we resolve this thing with Brayden first."

Yikes, not what he expected when he did something as relatively innocent as putting an arm around Raphael. Not yikes. Whoa? He didn't know what went through his mind, but it wasn't bad. The kiss wasn't an especially deep or lengthy one but it still made him feel... a mixture of things. Affection? Was that... affection? Bashfulness? Rhys never thought of himself as shy but maybe he was. He didn't even know who the true Rhys was; the only Rhys that Rhys knew was one with every part of him suppressed.

Before this, before when he was an emotionless shell of a fairy, Rhys never would have been called shy. He had his consorts, those people whose spot in his bed usually ended up fickle and short lived. Rhys mostly did it out of boredom and a biological need. There was nothing to be shy about.

"I... I know," he said and he didn't know if he wished he had something more suave to say or more nerve to say something more. Did he love him? Raphael? The forming wings said that he did. He had to feel something strongly for that to happen. Was it even a question at this point? Still, as if anybody cared what they said to one another, Rhys leaned in to whisper directly into Raphael's ear for nobody else to hear, "I love you, too."

There was no point, logically, not to say it if he felt it. And... Raphael could use good news when everything else felt like it was crashing around him.

Why on earth was Raphael smiling at him like that? Over a stupid admission? And why did his smile make him feel like his heart was melting a little? Or like it was softening him up even more? Even with his face a mess from crying uncontrollably, the smile was... nice to see. It was better to see Raphael smiling than heartbroken.

It was... okay to cry, though. Rhys wasn't telling him not to cry; emotions were emotions and he was slowly understanding that. It was just that, it actually hurt a part of Rhys to see Raphael in pain. If they weren't surrounded at every turn, he might have been even nicer to Raphael but as it was, he only turned his gaze away in embarrassment and cleared his throat. He didn't know why he felt like the rest of the room even cared what was going on in their corner of the couch. One glance said they didn't care.

Rip was somewhere else. His gaze was haunted, far away. He seemed to ignore the last buzz of his phone but it was probably his new friends telling him they were coming (hopefully). Ken and Niall... Niall wasn't crying anymore but he was leaning against Ken and stroking fingertips over his arm, drunkenly rambling quietly about somebody named Lorcan.

So, since nobody was even paying attention, Rhys oh so awkwardly placed an arm around Raphael's shoulders.

Not that Rhys had a whole lot of contact with celestials but their reputation preceded them. They were supposed to be nice and despite Rip's... questionable taste in people, he might have met somebody nice for once. After all, he somehow had a phone now, which was new. Somebody must have given that to him. And it looked like a nice, new phone, too. How he got away with it under Keith's nose, though, he had no idea.

Maybe he'd gone rogue. Before the thing with Brayden? Rhys had no idea; he didn't normally even bother giving much thought to Rip. He was just a golem and everybody knew why he even existed. He wasn't offensive or anything by nature and Raphael and Rip were friends. Probably because Rip was the only one who got excited about Raphael's collections.

Rhys turned his gaze to Raphael, effectively distracted by the touch to his jaw. He blinked. Oh, was he? He... supposed he was. Before he even really thought about it, he said, "I don't like seeing you cry."

Which was true but he wished he hadn't been so blatant with his words. But it was true, so why was it embarrassing to admit?

"Well," Rhys started but wisely decided not to finish his thought. Rip's closest "friend" was Keith and he was probably the meanest bastard he had ever met. Cold, selfish, greedy, cruel. Rip, despite that, absolutely adored the bastard but really... could he be faulted for that? Keith was his creator and golems were meant to at least respect their creator. Hardly surprising that a golem with emotions could fall in love with his creator, even if he was the most disgusting and despicable person Rhys had personally ever met.

"Celestials are generally nice," was what Rhys ended up going with instead. When did he become so... soft? Normally, the scathing words were easy to dispense with. Now he couldn't really bear the thought of making Raphael start crying all over again.

Something was definitely off about Rip, though. Even Rhys, with his newly budding relationship with emotions could tell. Rip could be quiet for long periods of time but not like this. Even now, after he presumably sent the address to whomever he was texting on his new mystery phone, Rip set the phone down, face down on the table next to the loveseat.

"I don't know. Maybe we should leave him alone. He seemed pretty... upset."

"Maybe," Rhys said. He hadn't given it any thought, what with the sole topic being Brayden's... death. And he thought it would be selfish of him to ask for the celestial's help--his half-brother's help--if it meant that energy couldn't be expended on Brayden instead.

"Maybe later, though."

He wasn't going to get his hopes up too high, either. But he supposed if Cori was their brother, he might want to help Rhys eventually, too. They just had to be patient. Living with the corruption wasn't killing him, since the fixer had halted the growth. At least it wasn't getting worse, and that was about the only consolation he'd had about it since it happened.

"And he probably has dark curls and hazel eyes, like all the rest of us," Rhys said, eyeing Rip--Jack's golem--and Niall. They did all seem to have that part in common so he could only imagine the young celestial fae also shared those traits. But maybe he took after his mother, this one. Who knew? (And why was it when he thought of celestials, he automatically thought of golden hair and blue eyes? Damn media.)

Rhys didn't have it in him to take the drink. It smelled harsh and disgusting and he also didn't want to plant his lips on something his brother just drank from. He eyed Niall with some disgust but kept holding onto the bottle because he was sure if he set it down, Niall would keep drinking. Which didn't seem to matter because Niall was already heading back into the kitchen and reaching into what looked like a broken cabinet to fish out a new bottle.

Letting out a sound of frustration, Rhys set the bottle down on the dining room table and went over to Raphael. There was no way he was going into the bedroom. He never went in there regardless but he had less desire than ever to go in there with a dead body... Swallowing hard, it was difficult to remember that it wasn't just any body, either.

He looked Rip over as he passed him, barely giving him a thought, although he did notice that he was dressed distinctly less Rip-like and more Jack-like. So he had been tricked, was that it? If Keith couldn't get to Brayden by way of Rhys, then he must have used Rip. So the golem served more purpose than it seemed on the outset.

Gingerly, Rhys sat next to Raphael and tried his best to lightly touch his shoulder. Consoling people had not been in his nature, not even when he was young. It never seemed to be a thing that he had to do. Even less so when he lost all of his capabilities regarding emotions.

"Why did they bring you back?" Rhys asked Rip, looking at him as he patted Raphael's arm. It seemed obvious to him that Keith only got to Brayden through Rip, so bringing Rip into their home was pretty much like bringing a bomb in, ready to go off at a moment's notice.

Rip still didn't enter. He stayed right there by the doorway, like he was ready to bolt at a moment's notice. And no wonder. If Keith used him to do the deed, then he probably didn't want to hang around and start killing everyone else. He was a golem but he had always been different; even Rhys could see that.

"Brayden," Rip said haltingly. "Told Jack to keep me safe..."

Rhys could hardly believe it; he thought if he saw Rip and made the connection that he'd killed his soul mate, he wouldn't keep him safe. But what did he know? Rhys, unlike his brothers, could hold a grudge until the end of time.

"No!" Rhys couldn't believe he even had to say it. Why would he ever...? But then again, he had treated Raphael pretty cruelly for a long time. He dropped his gaze and softly cleared his throat. It wasn't like he enjoyed this--seeing Raphael fall into pieces. Rhys had been unduly annoyed by how starry-eyed Raphael got over Brayden but come on. That was just... ahem... jealousy. And it definitely didn't mean he wanted the guy dead.

But he sure as hell didn't hope that Raphael took his place.

"...and you're younger," he said, as if that logical line of reasoning would somehow make it better that Brayden was dead. (He knew it didn't. He just didn't know what to say.) And it was only made worse by Raphael crying even harder after he talked about babies and dogs. But the last part... Rhys winced inwardly.

"He's a-- He can take care of himself," Rhys said, but he didn't know. Jack seemed fully capable but that was only because Rhys saw him with Brayden. He heard some things here and there about the Jack before, but some had turned out to be outright lies and others... Like, how he lost a lot of lovers in the past and managed to survive--they didn't seem like things that Raphael wanted to hear right now. Besides, even Rhys had to bow before the idea of soul mates. They weren't just anyone. People died of broken hearts. It was a real thing.

So to make up for his callously spoken words, Rhys gently touched Raphael's wet face.

"I guess... we will. And there's Marge, of course..." And he was going to say Niall but Niall was conspicuously absent even now, so he probably wouldn't be much help to anybody.

Rhys was still very much awkward when it came to Raf's extreme displays of emotion. As of yet, Rhys hadn't yet found his emotions quite so... strongly. It helped that irritation covered for most of them instantly, making anything else easier to cover with sarcastic remarks. What it didn't help was trying to understand how deeply this hurt Raphael.

So he did what he could, by reaching up hesitantly and as gently as he could--barely touching him--rubbing one of Raf's shoulders. He felt stiff and oddly wooden in the moment. Maybe he was just shocked by what he'd learned. Brayden Smith was dead. How did he even deal with that knowledge?

Of course, Rhys did seem to be both backwards and slow when it came to really feeling his emotions.

"Don't say that," Rhys said harshly, not liking what Raf had to say on the matter. "I don't wish it was you. And you shouldn't, either."

"Who's dead?" Rhys asked flatly, because to be quite honest, Raphael was crying and begging Niall for it not to be true. And Niall was flinging his phone away from him like it was a snake that had just bitten him. And now they were both sobbing uncontrollably and Niall was pacing the living room mumbling all kinds of things to himself about Ken, about how he was always right and he should have listened to him and he burst out with:

"He had a gut feeling and I didn't listen! Because I never listen because I'm so stupid!"

And Rhys, Rhys was still entirely in the dark, except the part where somebody had died. Slowly, Rhys got to his feet and put up his hands, like he saw his father's attendants do when he burst out into rage or they could see that he was about to burst out in rage. (His father really only seemed to feel one thing strongly anymore and that was rage.)

"Who," Rhys asked, because he was not going to make assumptions here, "is dead?"

It sounded like Ken was dead, from Niall's mutterings and ramblings but if he said the word KEN and DEAD in the same sentence--whether it was true or not--he had a feeling he would only be throwing gasoline onto the fire.

"Bee!" Niall said to Rhys with his head cocked and his eyes sad and a tone that both pleaded and said isn't is obvious? To which, no, how was this supposed to be obvious to Rhys? All he knew was that Brayden went out for groceries, and then suddenly, a while later, Ken and Jack were leaving with Super Serious faces. But Ken was always like that and Jack... Well, Rhys didn't know what was happening but he left it to them. Ken at least had a logical head on his shoulders, so whatever it was, it was in good hands.

But apparently not.

"Brayden?" Rhys said, just to make sure. And Niall exploded again.

"WHO ELSE?"

Rhys looked from him to Raphael.

"Are you certain? Maybe somebody just used some hyperbole you didn't understand..."

Niall rushed over to where he'd thrown his phone and he tried to pick it up three times before getting a hold of it and thrusting it into Rhys' face. The words had been typed--damningly--from Ken's phone. Ken didn't use hyperbole.

"Well," Rhys said, because he didn't know what else to say. He suddenly didn't feel safe, either. Raphael and Niall weren't the best protectors. And Keith was on a rampage. He wasn't going to kill Jack so there was no danger there, but who knew about any of the rest of them? They were all just targets to him. Or props, getting in the way. But he'd succeeded, so what would Keith even bother to do next?

And, he realized, he should have seen this coming. He was so wrapped up in his own drama that he hadn't given Keith's quest more than a passing thought. Oh, he'd passed on the information that Keith was after him--straight to Brayden himself--but somehow, he had managed to bungle that up. Rhys couldn't pretend to be an expert on all things Keith but of the bunch of them, he had probably spent the most time with him.

Fuck.

"He'll be after Jack next, then," he said, to which Niall stared at him and then walked away, into the kitchen. And while Rhys sat down next to Raphael, he thought he heard some kind of commotion in the kitchen but he was too busy trying to think of what to do next. None of them were in danger unless they harbored Jack but this was Jack's house. And he would be coming back here.

All right then.

I already said I'm NOT, just that if I WANTED to. I could.

I could if I actually wanted to.

/not really dude