When Cecil came home, Ruby greeted him in the porch with a toy carrot hanging from her mouth, and he took it and gently dragged it from side to side without pulling it out of her mouth. Her tail was wagging as she dropped down into a play bow and kept tugging back on the toy, and he quietly laughed, wrestling gently with her for a bit before he finally let go and let her be.

She leaned into his leg as he stepped into the living room, and he surveyed the space, kept neat and tidy and organised in a way it hadn’t been before Valorous had weaselled his way into Cecil’s life, into his house.

Valorous was asleep on the sofa, one of his hands hanging down off of the side of it, and Ruby went up to him and nudged her toy into his loose palm, seeming disappointed when he didn’t move to grab it, then lifting it to his face instead. Valorous laughed quietly, half-opening his eyes and rubbing at one of Ruby’s cheeks before he laid down again.

Heinous King was sitting in an armchair beside him, and Cecil nodded to the man, not yet shrugging off his coat – Heinous had a book in his lap, had obviously just picked it up off one of the nearest shelves. It was one of Cecil’s, a book about trauma in children and teens – he remembered buying it a decade ago, and the thing unfortunately hadn’t been as useful to him as an educator as he’d hoped it might be. Most of it hadn’t taught him anything new, hadn’t put across anything about child psychology or trauma response he hadn’t already grasped – and the advice for schools was meant for much fancier ones than Sant Idloes, or at least, not for PE teachers to put in place.

Ruby was resting her chin on the edge of the sofa, breathing into Valorous’ face as she swept her tail from side to side.

“I think she’s ready for another walk,” Valorous mumbled, and Cecil chuckled, scratching into the back of Ruby’s shoulders, his thumbs pressing in between her shoulder blades. “I haven’t taken her this evening yet.”

“I’ll take her,” Cecil said. “You want to come, Heinous, let the lad sleep?”

“Yeah, I’ll come along,” Heinous murmured, getting to his feet, and as he reached for his own coat, Cecil went and picked up Ruby’s harness and muzzle, getting her leashed up for the walk.

“That your car?” Cecil asked as they stepped outside, and Heinous nodded, zipping up his coat. Cecil looked at it, vintage green thing that it was, all hard angles. He didn’t imagine it was fun to maintain the fucking thing, and flashy as it was, it didn’t exactly fit with Heinous, who was a modest guy of modest proportions, was all but the definition of understated.

“Used to be Vainglorious’,” Heinous said with a faint smile, and Cecil felt like a prick.

“You were close to him, right?”

“We were close, yes,” Heinous said, and Cecil nodded his head as he let Ruby walk ahead of them, the leash held loose in his hand, wrapped around his hand. She walked well on the lead, didn’t tend to pull unless she got really engaged in one scent or another – she walked leisurely, calmly.

She wasn’t so reactive these days, she was doing well.

“Are they much alike?” Cecil asked, and Heinous looked at him thoughtfully.

“You never met him?”

“I’d seen him about,” Cecil said. “When I was much younger, coming in and through Lashton, had heard about him getting in fights, heard about his work. Never had a conversation with the man.”

“Oh,” Heinous said, and nodded, putting his hands in his pockets.

They walked together for a while, Cecil taking a slow pace so that Ruby could sniff and smell at everything she could, her tail wagging. Now and then, she’d give Heinous an uncertain, mildly suspicious look if he moved incorrectly behind them, but she hadn’t growled or made any aggressive motions, just didn’t know what exactly she was supposed to do with this new man walking with them.

“Vainglorious,” Heinous said, “he was between Noble and I. I never really seemed the right fit, I don’t think, as leader of the family, despite being the eldest – Vainglorious seemed so much closer. He was handsome, charismatic, but somewhat too eager to please, too much of a show-off. He liked risk, loved risk – when we were children, when we were young, he loved rollercoasters, liked to fight, to brawl. Our mother, Dauntless, she was leader of the family, then, and I think that early on she’d decided that Vain wasn’t likely to take on her role in command.”

“She wanted you?”

“She did,” Heinous said. “We had a few conversations about it – I went in for the army, which she had hoped would strengthen me somewhat, light a fire in me, but I wasn’t fit for it, thus why I stayed in an administrative position. I came back home, and said to my mother what I think she always suspected, or, hoped, that Noble would be best.

“She was already doing a lot of it anyway – I think my mother, what she wanted was that I would stay with the family, that I would do the behind-the-scenes work whilst Noble did the bulk of it, but Noble didn’t want me there. If she was going to be the head, she was going to be the head – and I wasn’t cut out for King life. So I stayed with the army, and Vainglorious went back and forth between us.”

“Did he mind being left out of the leadership race?”

“No,” Heinous said. “No, not really, it was never something he wanted – I think he was rather relieved that the conversation went on over his head, so to speak, so he never had to say so outright, reject the gift as it was being offered. I suppose that’s why I think about it now, you asking if Vain and Val were similar – well, in that, I think they are.”

“Valorous is a good leader,” Cecil said, thinking about him in old classes – before Myrddin, encouraging his classmates in drills or exercises; after, frighteningly military, a leader giving orders and incentive, leading by example, pure charisma even without his armour on.

“Oh, yes, of course,” Heinous agreed. “But he didn’t like it. He tried to go straight for a bit, outside of the family, I mean, but he just couldn’t make up the money, didn’t really have skills for anything outside of enforcement. It wasn’t that he was an angry man, per se, but he had a brittleness that made him unfit for office work or sales, couldn’t modulate his tone from one environs to the other. People found him rude and too sharp. He couldn’t keep a higher-earning job, asked about doing a few more jobs for the family, and then… Well.

“Just like that he was back to enforcement – he didn’t tell Val’s mother who he was, at first, she had no idea who the Kings were, she was from down south, Bristol, I think. She was horrified when she found out what he came from but was just about willing to hang on if he said he was cutting ties with them, but he didn’t. She left. He did more jobs, sent Val to school so that he was away, safe, but learning…” Heinous reached up and wiped at one of his eyes, and Cecil rifled in his pocket for a packet of tissues to hand over, making him laugh.

“Cry a lot at work, do you?” he asked.

“They’re for Valorous, mostly,” Cecil said, although he neglected to say they were to wipe himself off of the lad’s come rather than his tears – some things Heinous really didn’t need to hear.

Heinous blew his nose, and then said, “He could see they were similar, talked a lot about it. Used to talk about the ways he went wrong, the… Wished our mum had been sterner with him, I think, but she’d sort of felt he had a good head on his shoulders, and I think he did, he just knew he wasn’t living up to his potential and didn’t really know how to. That was why he wanted Val in military school – he could see what it did for him, wanted Valorous to have that sort of structure, that regiment around him. And that’s with the fact that Vainglorious himself wasn’t a particularly magically powerful man, but Val was, even from a young age.”

“He was lost when he first came to Sant Idloes,” Cecil said. “Didn’t know what the fuck he was at, surrounded by all these kids that to him didn’t know anything, seemed to be lagging behind.”

“Did you think he ought have been elsewhere?” Heinous asked.

“Maybe, but I don’t know where,” Cecil said. “Sant Idloes is a good school, it’s got money behind it – it’s not as posh as Sons of Cumhaill or another big boarder. I thought he was bound for the Castle, for a bit, thought about sending him there myself, but then he started out with the king regent, got his stimulation outside of school.”

“I worry sometimes what Vain would think,” Heinous said, wiping at his face and then breathing in a deep lungful of air. They were in the park now, and Ruby was looking balefully toward a few dogs off lead on the other side of the green, but they were keeping their distance – they hadn’t spotted her yet. “What he would have done differently, what we should have done differently.”

“Well, the worst choices where that lad’s concerned weren’t made by you or me, Heinous,” Cecil muttered. “What were you going to do, say no to Myrddin Wyllt?”

Heinous looked down at the gravel as they crunched across it. “No,” he said very quietly. “No, I suppose not. But Vainglorious might have.”

“And so he would have got killed twice over,” Cecil said, and sank down onto a bench. “Good girl, that’s it, sit… Yeah.” He gave Ruby a small treat from his pocket after she sat, and then she laid down on the floor, framing Cecil and Heinous both as he joined him on the bench – her head was angled toward the other dogs, and Cecil stayed ready to get up and block their access to her body if they came too close.

“He says he’s handed in his notice,” said Heinous.

Cecil breathed out a sudden sigh of relief, turned to look at the other man sideways. “Yeah?”

“Yes.”

“Thank fuck,” Cecil murmured. “Those pigs have been doing him no fucking favours since he started there.”

“I’m worried about him taking up work for Noble,” Heinous admitted, stroking his thumb against a clean piece of the tissue in his hand. He looked like he wanted to pet Ruby instead, but was making the sensible decision and staying clear of her. “About her asking him, about him saying yes.”

“He wouldn’t say yes, I don’t think,” Cecil said. “Courageous offered him a bit of work a while back, said about him having a bit of the legal business, I don’t know what that’d be – what, real estate? And then said about pulling a string to get him work at the arena, but Valorous wasn’t interested in any of it.”

“He always seemed rather above it,” Heinous said. “Some of his cousins, they used to complain about it, him thinking he was too good for the work, or that he was better than them, but it’s not that.”

“No, it’s not,” Cecil said. “Your family, when they do crime, that’s shit in the shadows, and he’s not fucking made for that, any more than he is for espionage or pig work. It’s not like he needs to be spotlit on a stage, but he needs to be where the real action is, and he needs to not have to fucking lie about what he’s doing, needs to be upfront about it. Needs to not have to wear a mask or a helmet, needs to be able to wear his own face so he doesn’t forget what it fucking looks like.”

Heinous was quiet beside him, staring into the middle distance, and then he turned his head to look at Cecil, to really study his face. “You understand him so well,” he said quietly, no small amount of emotion in his voice. “It must seem— I don’t know if it seems this way to you, but Noble really hates how… She thinks Courageous and I are being cavalier, when we say how good you are for him, how well you understand his psychology, that there would be few better fits for him in the city.”

Cecil huffed out a low, derisive laugh to hide the weird way that affected him, the way that made his stomach churn.

“She’s right,” Cecil said. “I was his fucking teacher, Heinous.”

“He needs a leader, a disciplinarian – he’d never fare well with an equal,” Heinous says. “Apparently he had some sort of encounter with Dai Laithe, do you know…?”

“One of the Laithe family, I suppose,” Cecil said.

“Their youngest,” Heinous said. “And the most dangerous, arguably. Noble seemed to think it was portending good things, that even if he’s not going to get involved in family business, he might engage with other families, but they’re too close in age, too close in instability. He needs someone more stable.”

“And that’s me, is it?”

“If the shoe fits.”

“Hey, hey, Ruby,” Cecil said lowly when she started to growl, flattening her body to the floor as one of the dogs came closer, ran onto the path and then skidded to a stop when it saw her. It tilted its head, looking at her curiously as it took a step forward, and she squared her shoulders, her paws flat on the floor.

It took one more step and she lunged, still staying a foot away, but the dog let out a yip of fright and turned tail, rushing back off to the other dogs it had been playing with, and Ruby stayed stiff, but then slowly laid back onto the ground.

“Good girl,” he said. “See, it’s okay, isn’t it? He came up, you said fuck off, he fucked off. Turned out okay, didn’t it?”

He knuckled the top of her head, and she didn’t loosen up any, her body not at all relaxing, but she did push her skull up into his hand, and he stood to his feet, nodding toward the gate so that they could make their way out of the park again.

“I’ll walk her again later, when it’s not so busy,” he said to Heinous. “But shit like that is good – I know it might seem cruel, exposing her to something that frightens her, but it’s about showing her that I’m with her, that she’s not on her own, that she can assert herself, that nothing bad will happen, that she won’t be punished for doing it.”

Heinous smiled faintly at him, and Cecil sighed, looking at the street ahead of them. “Yeah,” he says. “He’s said to me he feels a bit like one of the rescue dogs himself – has said it a few times.”

“And do you think you can rehabilitate him?”

“Define rehabilitate,” Cecil said. “He’ll never be fucking normal.”

“She’s frightened,” Heinous said. “Of everything, anything. She— That’s it, right? The growling, the barking, the aggression, it seems like anger, but the way you and Valorous both talk to her, the way you treat her, assure her. It’s not anger, it’s not… territorial instinct. It’s fear.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s fear for him, too,” said Heinous. “Will he— do you think you can get him to be not quite so afraid? I think sometimes of Vainglorious asking me how he’s doing, if he’s happy, and I might be able to stomach saying he’s not quite happy, but that he’s trying his best, but… But saying he’s afraid, that he’s always afraid, I feel so much shame for that. I’d do anything to make it better, to soothe him, but I’m not really able for it – are you?”

“I’m trying,” Cecil said. “I’m doing my best.”

“I think you’re doing very well,” Heinous said. “It rather shames me, to be honest, seeing him… seeing him now. He came back to Lashton and he went straight for you, Cecil, and I— Well, I heard from Jack he didn’t go about it the right way—”

“Was going to drug and rape me, you mean,” Cecil said, and Heinous was quiet, though he seemed to falter somewhat at Cecil’s smile, seemed not to know how exactly to respond to it, what the right thing to do was, would be. “It’s alright. The lad’s done worse.”

“… Has he?”

Cecil laughed, laughed because Heinous’ expression genuinely had a bit of horror in it.

“I was going to say,” Heinous said, a bit falteringly now, “that he seemed to know you were what he needed, that coming right for you, I was… I was glad he did that.”

“I’m glad he did as well,” Cecil said.

“Even though…?”

“Beaten dogs bite, Heinous, or try to. It’s why Ruby wears a muzzle.”

“And my nephew? How exactly does one go about muzzling him?”

“Got him into therapy. Now he’s quitting the police,” Cecil said. “I bet he’d let me put a physical muzzle on him.”

“What, if you asked?”

“Less if I asked, more if I sort of pinned him and down—”

“Alright, alright!” Heinous said a bit loudly, and Cecil laughed, giving the other man a grin at his scandalised expression, the wrinkle of his nose as he slowly shook his head. “Does he miss him? His father?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Cecil said quietly. “More than a lot of lads miss theirs – I’ve gotten the impression so far he was a good dad, that he loved Valorous, and Valorous loved him.”

“Yes,” said Heinous.

“You miss him too,” said Cecil, softer now.

“Yes,” Heinous said again, and he opened the door up and stepped back to let Ruby and Cecil inside ahead of him. Once they were in and Cecil had undone her muzzle and her leash, she went up to Heinous with her tail wagging, nudged her big head against his thigh, and then turned, leaning against his thigh. “God, she’s a big bulk, isn’t she? Should I touch her?”

“She wants you to,” Cecil said, and Heinous gave him a nervous smile before he gently patted the top of Ruby’s head.

She padded off, then, further into the house, climbing up onto the sofa and sprawling on Valorous’ chest, burying her cold, wet nose against his neck and making him laugh and kick, wrestling a bit with her before sprawling flat again and letting her flop on top of him.

“He was frightened of dogs, Vainglorious,” Heinous said as he unbuttoned his coat. “Only ever worked with trained guard dogs, you see, never, um… We’re not really a pet family, and Vainglorious struggled to relate to people a lot of the time, let alone animals. It’s— It’s really rather nice, seeing Valorous so comforted by an animal, and vice versa.”

Cecil squeezed Heinous’ shoulder before they stepped into the other room, and Valorous looked over at them, his hands fisted in the thick ruff of fur around Ruby’s neck, almost disappearing into the brown and grey mane of thicker hair.

“Chippy for tea, Valorous?” Cecil asked. “Celebrate your resignation, get enough for the three of us?”

“He told you,” Valorous said.

“What, it was fucking secret?”

“No,” Valorous said, and he smiled at Cecil, and he looked so fucking young, and so impossibly fucking old at the same time. “Are you proud of me?”

“Yeah,” said Cecil. “Course I’m fucking proud of you, lad. We going out for these chips or not?”

Heinous quietly laughed.

“You want to warm plates in the oven and I’ll do the dog’s dinner?” Cecil asked him. “The lad’ll get food.”

“Why do I have to do it?” asked Valorous, already up to his feet, and Cecil slapped him upside the head quick as blinking – Heinous’ gaze flickered over them, showed a ghost of concern, but he relaxed when he saw Valorous’ smile, saw the flash of his white teeth, the relaxation of his shoulders.

“Respect for your elders. Go.”

“Yes, sir,” said Valorous, and he gave Heinous a warm smile before he went for the door.