I don't go here yet but I will. Eventually.

I was jealous, y’know? You were the love of her life, […] she worshipped the ground you walked on. You came from Colin.

Trinity, Lena and Dennis are sitting at the dinner table and Andrew comes over to them and is like "what are you guys up to?" And Trin says proudly "I am showing Lena how to make lizards with pony beads aka core summer camp memory!" And Lena just looks up at Andrew with the biggest grin on her face having the time of her life making jewellery. "We will make friendship bracelets next!" Andrew just smiles and strokes Lena's head but before he can slink off again Dennis grabs his hand and goes "Do you want to join us?" - "Yes Uncle Pope please! Please join!!" And How is he supposed to say no to that?!

So he joins but... He quickly finds out that these are medium to high fine motors kills activities he really doesn't possess. The beads are flimsy, keep slipping and sliding off the string and its frustrating him more than he can enjoy it. So he ends up just watching them. It's nice that way too, simply being in their presence.

Until Lena throws over the tray of sorted beads in a laughing fit. The round little colorful beads go flying everywhere and most importantly all colors mixing into one. Lena is profusely apologising to Trinity with tears in her cute little eyes and while Trin comforts her, saying its okay accidents happen, Andrew and Dennis are on the floor picking up all the beads. They throw them all in a bowl just so they are all in one place again but they were neatly colour sorted beforehand. Now they are just a pile of rainbow colored mess. Trin just sighs, she really doesn't mind that much but it's still annoying.

"I'll sort them for you." Andrew quickly says. "No Andrew, you don't have to do that." Trin waves him off but he persist. "No I'll do it." Not because he wants to make up for Lena messing them up but because he wants to. He doesn't say that of course, but once he starts sorting the little beads in rainbow order Dennis sees it. Dennis sees the focused but peaceful calm wash over Andrew's face. His anxious ticks and stims non existent as he carefully picks out the right color that he is currently working on.

——

He grew up in rural communities where gossip ran like liquor. He didn't snark back or get riled up like the rest of the family, and at a certain point the rest of the family gets used to being able to say whatever they want in front of him.

But if you look closely, you see the eyes narrow and the slight turns of his head, and it's almost like he's listening and considering. But really it's just a decision being made.

The waitstaff of the manor see Dennis slink down the hallway out of his and Titus' bedroom in the middle of the night. He's always polite, always smiling as he tells them not to wake up Titus, and then sneak back in before the sun rises through the house's large windows. If he comes back too late he stayed downstairs, waiting in the kitchen for breakfast and for Titus to come in grumbling about being left alone when he wakes up.

"Where'd you go anyway? The staff said you were gone."

"I just wanted to take Princess for a walk." (The sweet, beautiful pup that Titus had gotten for Dennis after their first marital spat.)

"Why didn't you come back after the walk?"

"Don't pout, Titus, I'm sorry."

All that earned was more grumbling and an arm catching Dennis around the waist as he passes close enough to Titus' chair.

"…Did you at least have fun?" He rasped, sweeping his thumb over the dip of Dennis's spine as he kissed Titus's forehead.

"Oh yeah. Much more than I thought I would."

Titus doesn't think twice about it until he gets a letter saying one of his cousins had died last night in his sleep; asphyxiation, officially, the poor man had been smoking cigars all his life. Unfortunate but not unheard of. Titus pauses when he reads the cause of death and looks up at his pretty wife lounging on the deep green fainting couch by the window

He was the vision of innocence, cuddling with Princess and just looking out the window while the sun made his hair glow.

"Angel?"

"Hmm?"

"Cousin Maximus died last night- poor fucker choked in his sleep." Dennis hummed, his nose wrinkling slightly.

"Is that the one that smoked those nasty cigars in the living room?"

"They aren't nasty, they're Cuban."

"Those nasty Cuban cigars, my bad."

And the air is heavy with... something. Something that Titus can't name. He got up and strolled over slowly, absently petting Princess's head as he leaned down to press a kiss to his curls. He paused. A scent clung to his hair.

Cigar smoke.

"Everything okay?"

Titus looked down at him and Dennis could swear he sees something click in his eyes, the slight widening. But it's flits away just as quickly as Titus shrugs.

"Right as rain, angel."

It becomes a bit of a rhythm. Once in a while, Titus will wake up by himself and a letter will be on his desk by midday.

Maybe he should be more worried about his lovely wife killing off family members, but he always picks well. People he didn't like, the only people in the world who could rattle him. Most of the family is kept in line by Titus now, but those little whispers of dissent? The ones who think they can lie in wait? His wife deals with them.

And even though they never actually talk about it directly between the two of them, Titus always knows.

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