On a Butterfly's Wing, Ch. 9: Queerbait Croft
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Intruloceit Logan doesn't take long to arrive at the QLaw offices in Logan Croft's world.
Rated: T - WC: 3562 - CW: swearing, references to abuse
Should Remus have his feet propped up on the immaculate, polished teakwood desk of QLaw’s most esteemed and celebrated Attorney-in-Charge? Yeah, probably not, but the way Jannie struggled to keep his lips scrunched into a scowl every time he told him to stop was just too cute to resist.
“Muse,” he murmured, tapping the edge of his boot with a letter opener. “You’re pushing it.”
“I am?” Remus waggled his eyebrows. “In front of Devin and everything? Kinky.” He turned to the man who’d thoroughly worked his way into both his husband’s and his brother’s lives and winked. “I didn’t know you liked to watch.”
Jannie met his eyes then, faux frown gone. Eyebrow cocked, his expression asked the question he'd asked a hundred times before.
"Have I left you feeling neglected, my dear?"
Office door locked and well-past working hours, he and Jannie had curled together on the sofa in the corner of his office. Jannie's arms wrapped tightly around him, Remus drew trails through the soft flaxen hair sprinkled on his forearms. "'Course not, Jannie," Remus laughed and nipped at his bicep. "You took care of me quite nicely." Jannie nuzzled against the top of his head and murmured. "I don't just mean tonight. I mean…" Shifting their bodies, he turned until they could see each other's eyes. "I mean… do you feel jealous when… well, when I spend time with my friends…" He interrupted Remus' head shake with a gentle kiss. "With Devin." "Oh." Icy worms tussled in his guts, that same twisting feeling he got every time he was around Jannie's best friend. That same twisting feeling he couldn't quite explain. Was it really as basic bitch as jealousy? "I… No, I…" "You don't have to…" Jannie began, then paused. "It would be understandable, love," he whispered, gentle fingers curled through his hair. "You clearly aren't… comfortable around him." Remus huffed out a laugh, rubbing his head against Jannie's palm. "Too many sexy propositions?" Jannie smiled, eyes sad. Worried, maybe? "Fewer than I'd expect, actually. And those you do make leave me feeling you might bite his head off if he ever took you up on them. Or…" He looked away, like he feared Remus' response. "Or that you're afraid I already have… dallied with him." "Aw, Jannie, I don't own you," Remus shook his head, serious now. Relieved? Was that really all it was? He just jealous of the guy? "If you ever wanted to hook up or—" Pressing both their hands against his own chest, Jannie shook his head. "You may not own me, my dear, but this heart is yours. Say the word and I will make Devin a smaller part of my life. Your happiness matters more to me than his." He lifted their shared grip to his lips and brushed a kiss against each knuckle. "So, so much more." He'd almost taken him up on it. But jealousy was a fucking lousy reason to do anything. "Nah, Jannie. This'll pass. But you sure know how to tempt a man," he grinned, leaning in for a kiss. "How 'bout we find out just how happy you can make me?" It would pass. He was sure of it.
Remus was still waiting for the slimy cold feeling to pass. If anything, it only got worse when Devin started dating Ro.
Suddenly, the front lobby doors slammed open and heavy footsteps hurried inside. Fully ripped from his reverie, Remus was on his feet before the front doors hissed shut.
“Jay?” A voice Remus didn’t quite recognize called from down the hall. Deep, breathless and just this side of frantic, the voice was slightly too loud for an office, but not quite a shout. Remus glanced at Jannie. Frowning for real now, Jannie leaned back in his chair, elbows resting on the padded leather and fingers steepled in front of him. Save for the slow tap of his left foot, he was the picture of control and calm.
“Jay, are you in?”
Jannie’s frown deepened. He didn’t let anybody call him that. Arms crossed loosely over this chest, Remus sauntered closer to the door, just in time for one of the other QLaw attorneys to practically trip into Jannie's office. “Jay, I—”
The attorney was one of older guys at the firm. The other graduate from Janus’ law year. The guy stopped short and just… stared at Remus, scrunched up features softening as his eyes traced over his face and his tattoos. “Moose,” he whispered before meeting his gaze. The guy searched his eyes and, looking disappointed at whatever he found, looked away.
Right at Devin.
“What the hell’s he doing here?” the guy practically growled, stepping between Remus and the couch where Devin half-sat, half-sprawled, sipping his ludicrously large coffee.
“Or, as one might traditionally say, ‘Good Morning,’” Jannie purred. The guy seemed to catch himself and he faced him, twisting the worn strap on his bag. “Care to tell me why you barged into my office this morning, Wristwatch?”
Naked confusion twisted up his face and he glanced down at the dorky watchband strapped around his wrist. The guy's eyes widened—realizing what an ass he was making of himself, maybe—and he bowed his head. And tucked the watch hand under his other arm. “You’re right, I apologize,” he muttered before looking up into Jannie's eyes. Again, he stared for an uncomfortably long time before breaking eye contact.
He hadn’t liked what he saw.
“Ah,” he cleared his throat and nodded slowly as he looked around the office walls. "Perhaps…" He studiously avoided looking in Devin’s direction. “Perhaps… Later this afternoon I might have a bit of your time to go over my docket?”
As Remus watched the guy, he started to remember more of him. He was the quiet guy in the office. Not cold or rude or anything, just not the kinda guy that really gelled with everyone else. Remus didn’t want to think of him as Jannie’s token straight employee, but…
He sorta was. The guy worked hard enough for Jannie to never have to complain about him and he showed up for all the right things—usually with his wife—then left. When he wasn’t with her, he got there early to help set up and stayed late to break it all down. And fuck he sure came through in the clutch the day Remus had jammed his fingers in a folding table. But still… the guy stood out. Even if he moved like he wanted to melt into the fucking walls.
Jannie caught Remus’ eye for just a moment. It seemed today this guy’s behavior was weird even for him. Fingers still steepled, Jannie nodded and flicked his eyes over the calendar on his desk. “Of course, I’m free at three o’clock.”
It seemed everyone knew that was a dismissal but him. He just stood there, fidgeting with his bag strap and looking around the office like he'd never seen one before. Thick silence dragged on until Devin snickered quietly from his spot on the couch.
His laughter drew a sharp glare from the guy but when he looked back at Jannie, he’d slipped a neutral mask down over his face. “Thank you, Ja—Janus,” he finally said, turning. “Please excuse my interruption.” He faced the door as he moved but his eyes followed Devin, then glanced once more at Remus before touching the door. “Open or closed?” he asked Jannie.
“Open is fine,” he said, waving his hand. Fuck, Ro could take lessons from him for the next time he played a king. “Unless, of course, you plan on barging back in here without cause?”
“No, of course not,” the guy said, head bowed. His voice and body language looked cowed, but the little muscles in his jaw jerked with whatever the hell he was holding back. “Thank you,” he said, and slipped into the hall.
Jannie let him get a step or two away before calling him back. “Oh, and Croft?”
He reappeared almost immediately. “Yes?”
“Don’t ever call me Jay again.”
Lips pressed so tightly together they trembled, Croft nodded again and left.
~
Devin’s laughter followed him out into the hall and Logan retreated into the nearest conference room. He longed for the solace of his office, to close the door and just think. Figure out what in the hell was happening. Yesterday, he and Janus had shared an office. Shared a life. And today?
Today Janus didn’t even know him. Not really. And neither did Remus.
Choking back the sob fighting its way past his throat, Logan massaged the aching fingers in his right hand, the constant pain a reminder that this was no dream. Back turned to the door, he only realized he wasn’t alone when Remus spoke.
“Dangerous game, having beef with the boss' best friend,” he said. "What's your problem with Devin?"
Logan spun around and came face to face with the greenest eyes he'd ever seen, topped by a shock of matching green hair. Thumbs hooked in a more metal than leather belt, Remus leaned against the doorway. If it weren't for the pinch in his brow or the way his mustache twitched between his words, he'd project nothing but pure, casual threat.
All on their own, Logan's feet drew him closer, hands reaching automatically to comfort. And to be comforted. He let them fall, then gripped his bag strap as he struggled to make sense of Devin’s presence. He and Janus had fired him years ago for what he'd pulled. If Devin was still here and comfortable enough to lounge in Janus’ office… Who else had he hurt?
"Devin is dangerous." The whisper spilled out before he could stop it. Logan cleared his throat. “I mean… I…”
Remus’ eyes were dark, closed off and guarded. But he didn’t seem to be hiding any past hurt. Maybe… maybe this Devin wasn’t the predator Logan knew.
But what if he was? What if Devin was the same monster Logan remembered and he did nothing to try to stop him? What if he wasn’t and Logan was slandering a man for nothing other than the memory of something that had never happened?
“I…” Logan began again before sighing. He can’t. Not without proof. “I apologize,” he said, bowing his head. “I’m overstepping. You do not even know who I am.”
“Sure I do,” Remus said, head tilted as he assessed him, gaze lingering above his eyebrow, his earlobe, his hand. Concern flickered in his eyes for a moment, then he nodded and waggled his own fingers. “You’re the Boy Scout lawyer who just happened to be walking around a press conference with a fucking icepack in his briefcase.”
A prickly barb settled in Logan’s chest when he recalled Patton’s practiced movements retrieving ibuprofen from the tactical first aid kit in the car.
“Tell me what you know,” Remus said. He stood as he had when Logan had first entered Janus’ office. Scowling, arms crossed, feet wide. Protective and intimidating. But the tic in his cheek let slip the worry behind the bravado, the fear buzzing just under the surface. Logan’s heart cracked in two. It was all he could do to not pull Remus close right there in the conference room and try to soothe it all away.
But this Remus didn’t need that from him. And he certainly didn’t understand his reluctance. “C’mon, Croft? The guy’s dating my brother. If Ro’s in trouble,” Remus continued. “I gotta know.”
Fire burned in Logan's veins, the image of that creep getting close to Remus’ gentle, sensitive twin razing through his hesitation. It had taken Ro a lot of time—and a lot of frank discussions—to accept the ‘older men’ who’d captured his brother’s heart but, once he had, he and Logan had became like brothers.
He and Remus—and Janus—would set the world on fire if it might keep Ro warm.
“Call me Logan,” he said. “Please. And—” He looked over his shoulder as a paralegal scuttled down the hallway. As the morning marched on, the office was beginning to fill. “Can we talk outside?”
Remus frowned but nodded. “Hey, Jannie,” he called, moving to the office doorway. “You’re outta oat milk. I’ll get more,” he said, then turned to Logan in a quieter voice. “Meet me down in the lobby.”
~
“Okay, so spill,” Wild eyes focused, Remus buzzed with the familiar intensity that had drawn Logan to him in the first place. He'd ordered them two coffees from the stand downstairs and they stood awkwardly close in the small space by the little cart as they waited. Finally, order ready, Remus handed him one, then pried up the lid of his own cup to dump in four sugars.
Logan passed him the oat milk creamer before he'd asked. He frowned but accepted the bottle with a nod and poured in a three generous glugs.
“Please take what I have to say with a hefty grain of salt. People can change,” Logan murmured, tightening the lid of the oat milk when Remus was done. Do they really change? He still knew how Remus liked his coffee.
But the woman with hair the color of Patton's in his bed—the woman Patton called 'mom'—was evidence that people, that he could change a great deal. Coffee was one thing, but this? And what was this?
One problem at a time. Devin.
With everything else that was different, how did he know Devin wasn’t different, too? He could be slandering a perfectly decent human being.
Logan looked down at his own hand, the old injuries obvious to his eyes. How many people did he work with here who simply looked the other way? How many people unquestionably bought whatever story he must’ve come up with to explain it? The way his DV clients did. The way his mother used to.
Remus waited, watching him.
“Are…" Logan paused. He took a slow sip of his coffee and let the bitterness steel him. "Are you and your brother close?”
“The fuck kinda question is that?” Guilt flashed over Remus' face, soon replaced with a fresh scowl.
Logan met his eyes, eyebrow raised. He clearly cared for Ro but perhaps they’d taken a different path to get there. Wherever they all were.
Inez’ lilting voice from Ro’s last production filled his mind. ‘We're in hell, my pets; they never make mistakes, and people aren't damned for nothing.’
Pushing away the memory, Logan inhaled slowly and watched Remus’ eyes.
After a while, Remus nodded. “We’ve had some moments of… not close in the past, but…” He shook his head and took a long draw of his coffee. “But we’re good now. Ro would tell me if something, if someone was…” Remus’ words fell away, doubt creeping into his voice and he drank more the coffee.
“It might all be ancient history, but…” Logan blew out a slow, slow breath and lowered his voice. “Devin has a… a mean streak. He started around the same time Jay—Janus and I did.” If Remus caught the slip, he didn’t say anything. “In the time I’ve known him, he’s… he’s been around with a few of the interns.” He watched Remus carefully. “And with the spouses of a few of the staff. Well…” Remus’ expression did not change. “Attempted to, at least.”
“What the fuck, Re? Not just a tease but you run off and rat me—” Devin shouted, stepping closer to Janus' desk like he meant to jump to the other side. Janus was on his feet and between them before any of them could blink. Logan remained seated at Remus’ side, hand held tight between both of his. “Sit your ass back down before I hand it to you,” Janus said to Devin, quieter and calmer than Logan would have imagined. Or could have managed himself. “And you will address my client as 'Mr. Prince.'” “Your client?” Devin spat. “You mean the little fucktoy ‘domestic partner’ you share with your live-in boyfriend?” Remus stiffened next to him and Logan stroked his hand, gently tracing the matching rings they all wore. Remus glanced at him and smiled. “Yes, my client,” Janus continued as though that was all Devin had asked. “And as his attorney, I must make you aware I am recording this conversation.” Fear filled Devin’s eyes for the first time that morning. He scoffed but he couldn’t hide his bobbing Adam’s apple. “Washington’s a two-party state. A recording's not permissible evidence without my consent and you know it.” “Funny 'consent' is so important to you now.” Janus wasn’t laughing. “But frankly, evidence for court is the least of your worries.”
Logan’s hand twitched, jerking toward Remus. He shoved both hands into his pockets, stifling a wince at the pain in his right from the movement. “Talk to Ro. See if he’s truly happy. Maybe…”
Remus swirled his half-empty coffee and glanced up at him over the lip. “You ever date the guy?”
Logan pushed down the disgust he felt crawl over his face and shook his head, hiding behind his coffee cup. “Married,” he said between sips. Rubbing the sharp edges of the thick yellow band on his ring finger, he frowned. He longed for his real ring, the smooth triple braid he’d worn on the ‘wrong’ hand since just after Re had graduated from university.
Janus had won the coin toss that time and when they finally got the law changed in 2012—and Logan had formally adopted Patton—Janus and Remus had been the ones to ‘make it official.’ There were a few people at the agency who guessed at the truth about their little family. Enough. And Devin had known. It hadn’t stopped him. But he’d known.
He looked up and realized Remus was still watching him. “I can’t decide if you’ve got balls the size of Jupiter or if you’re just a conniving son of a bitch.”
“¿Porqué no los dos?” he murmured before he could stop himself.
Remus threw his head back in a laugh then finished his coffee in two gulps. “Alright, Croft—Logan.” He corrected himself before Logan could. “I guess we’ll find out which you are, huh?”
The genuine mirth coloring Remus’ face eased the brittle ache in Logan's chest. He smiled. “I suppose we shall.”
Suddenly Remus' frown returned and he shook his head, pulling out his cell phone. "Aw, fuck it. What's your number?"
Fumbling with his still half-full coffee, he reached for the battered iPhone he'd found that morning. He hadn't a clue what the number was. "Ah… wh—why don't you give me yours?"
Brow furrowed, Remus shrugged and rattled off a series of digits. Logan typed as fast as he could and sent a single text, This is Logan.
"That'll do," Remus said, looking down at his own phone when the screen flashed with a notification. "Well… Do you…" Remus' gaze fell on Logan's gnarled right hand but after a moment he shook his head and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Imma go. Thanks," he muttered then abruptly turned and left.
Logan nodded as Remus walked away, waiting a beat before following him back to the elevators upstairs.
He needn’t have bothered as they ended up in the same crowded elevator to the 9th floor.
“Wait—” he reached for Remus’ shoulder, stopping just shy of touching him before they stepped outside the elevator. “Don’t you need to bring back oat milk?”
“Nah,” he chuckled. “Jannie knew that was bullshit. Can’t get a lie past him.”
Flexing the stiff fingers in his right hand, Logan nodded as he watched Remus head back inside and into Janus’ office.
Maybe Remus couldn’t.
Devin’s voice seeped out from under Janus’ closed door. “Our little Queerbait Croft didn’t make a move or anything on you, did he? You know your hubby here’ll Krav Maga his ass into next week if he ever did.”
Janus’ low response followed by laughter cut through Logan's heart as he continued down the hallway to search for his own office.
Maybe Remus couldn’t get a lie past him, but there was someone slimy sitting in his office who could.
~
Head tilted, Jannie watched him close the door, eyebrows raised. "Muse?"
“Later,” Remus mouthed to him and leaned over his chair back. He glared at Devin across the room. Queerbait Croft? “Sure sounds like you’re the one who was baited, Dev,” he chuckled, watching spots of pink grow on his cheeks.
“You kidding? That’s dork’s really’s let himself go,” Devin muttered, shaking his empty coffee cup.
“So you think his dick's as big as a whale?" Remus laughed. "That wasn’t a denial,” he sing-songed and curled around Jannie’s chair to kiss his neck. “I gotta go,” he murmured. “See you tonight?”
Stilling a bit of the molten worry bubbling away in his brain, Janus’ cool fingers carded through his hair. He held him close for a long moment, searching his eyes. “Are you sure everything’s alright?”
“That’s what I'm gonna make sure,” Remus nodded and pressed a slow kiss against his lips. The leather sofa squeaked with Devin’s movement but Remus ignored him. “I’m yours tonight,” he added, pulling Jannie’s hand down and nipping the thumb before straightening.
“Tonight and always.” Jannie smiled, lingering concern pinching the edges of his mouth.
Still ignoring Devin, Remus blew Jannie a kiss as he left. “Wouldn’t want it any other way.”
