We sat in Denny’s on the flats, as opposed to Denny’s on the hill. Denny’s on the hill sucks. Bad service, no matter what time of day you eat there. Denny’s on the flats is always good, and the fact that it’s always crowded is a testament to that. Except at 1 am in the morning. It wasn’t too crowded then.

Tain sat at the foot of our booth wagging his tail. Even though dogs weren’t allowed in Denny’s, the waitress gave Tain a pass for some weird reason. It’s like they could look into his eyes and just know that he was cool, that he wasn’t going to cause any problems. Then again, it was past 1 AM, so I’m sure the staff running Denny’s were not tripping.

As I waited for the food my eyes glossed over. I’d just slain a bunch of men. Thugs, yes. Ruthless lowlifes, sure. But men. Human. Flesh and blood like me.

Nehemiah snapped his fingers in my face. “Ground control to Major Sean. You cool white boy?”

I shrugged. “All those gangbangers. They got siblings too. Familia…”

Nehemiah frowned, an edge creeping into his voice. “Don’t let yourself feel anything but victory. Those guys were just as much monsters as the Kelpie.”

I snagged a napkin and wiped down my hands even though they weren’t dirty. “Still. It’s different when they’re actually human.” Then I gritted my teeth. “You’re right. They would have killed all of us.” I crumbled up the napkin.

A hot plate of pancakes, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and toast was placed in front of me. Steam rose off of the food and the smells invaded my nose, smelling better than anything I’d smelled in the past few days. A few seconds later the plate of raw bacon I’d ordered Tain was given to me and I set it on the ground for him. He lapped it up in a few seconds.

Despite everything that happened, my hunger was a beast I could never defeat, a monster all of its own.

“I don’t know why you bother to eat the eggs scrambled,” said Gavin. “Everyone knows that over easy is the only way to properly eat eggs.”

Rob nodded. “Tis proper.”

“Scrambled is the only way to go,” Nehemiah butted in. “Fluffy, yellowy goodness that you can douse in Tapatio.”

“I’m going to have to stop you right there. Tapatio is the condiment people use when it doesn’t actually taste good,” I said.

“In some cases. But not with scrambled eggs,” countered the wizard.

“No. It ruins scrambled eggs.”

“Then why are your eggs covered in ketchup?” asked Nehemiah.

“Ketchup is good,” I said, handing him the bottle.

Nehemiah pushed the ketchup back at me. “I’ve already got red sauce all over my eggs. Just. Like. You.”

“Hot sauce is totally different from ketchup,” I yelped.

“Neither of them compare to mayonnaise,” smiled Rob, flagging down the waitress and asking for some of the white spread.

“What did I tell you about doing that in public,” I said to Rob.

“Come on boss it’s 1:15 in the morning. There’s no one here.”

“You’re making us stick out to the waitress and the other workers at Denny’s. What if we needed to keep a low profile? That’s all out the window when you’re the weird mayonnaise-request-guy.”

“Oh yeah,” said Rob. “Because this eclectic group of misfits isn’t weird already. You brought in your flippin’ swords for crying out loud.”

The waitress returned with mayonnaise packets and dropped them in front of Rob.

“Don’t,” I said.

Disobeying a direct order, Rob opened a packet and didn’t even place it on his food. He simply squirted it into his mouth.

“Gross,” said the rest of the table in unison. Tain whined.

After a second, Gavin said, “Over easy is still the way to go.”

I didn’t have the strength to argue with him. We all quieted down and concentrated on our food.

Halfway through my plate, Nehemiah started to say something but it came out as a wheezy cough. He shoved his mouth in the crook of his elbow to keep from spreading his germs.

I gave him crap. “See what too much Tapatio sauce does to you. Should’a stuck with ketchup.”

He’d been coughing so hard his eyes were bloodshot. “Whatever kid.” He said. When put his arm down, I noticed red stains of blood on his jacket where he’d coughed. Maybe he actually was sick, sicker than I thought. I handed him a napkin. He wiped his mouth first, then his jacket. He resumed eating and I shrugged it off.

I scarfed down the rest of my meal in a few bites.

Nehemiah stared at me. “Geewhiz kid. You’re going to have indigestion problems.”

“I don’t. I’m an endless garbage can. You can put stuff in me all day, anything, and I’ll still have room for more.”

“Prove it,” challenged Nehemiah.

I flagged down the waiter and asked her for two slices of pie. “And now you’re going to insult me further by getting not one, but two slices of pumpkin pie?” said Gavin.

“It’s usually only seasonal. It’s a wonder I can even get it this time of year. Plus its the best.”

“And even then it’s a waste,” said Gavin. “That stuff makes me want to vomit. It’s the texture.”

I took a slow bite of pumpkin and slowly savored each bite. Then I slowly swallowed it. The flavor, the texture, the temperature. All. Just. Perfect.

“Enjoy it. You earned it Shamrock.” said Nehemiah. “You defeated a Kelpie. That in and of itself is cause for celebration.”

After a mock salute, I praised him. “You sliced up those Merrows like a sushi chef. For a guy who hates the Dullahan’s whip, you sure know how to wield that thing.” I swallowed more pie then added, “I’d be out another family member now if it weren’t for you two.” Nehemiah flashed his ivory teeth. In a rare moment of bashfulness, Rob said nothing, just smiled.

Gavin offered his hand to both Nehemiah and Rob, one after the other. “Thanks guys. I was almost a goner.” Then he faced me. “And you conquered your fear bro. You totally rode on the water, straight up, atop that aqua horse.”

“And you wielded an entire cyclone of water with Fragarach,” said Rob. “That was ill.” He emphasized the word ill by hugging his shoulders like a hip-hop artist.

I chuckled feeling bashful and shrugged. “The thing that matters is that you’re alright Gavin, and Anna’s murderer has been taken out. It can’t hurt anyone else anymore.”

Nehemiah reached over and gave me a few rough pats on the shoulder. Tain came and rested his head on my lap and I scratched behind the ears, smiling. I looked from Tain to each face at the table staring back at me. Just a few weeks ago I had been fighting a Banshee by myself struggling with all my issues and no one to help me. And now here I was. Surrounded by a group of friends, albeit a strange group, but my friends nonetheless.

At that point the waitress came back with the bill, which Nehemiah footed because he was cool like that.

While we let the food settle we hovered around the ‘Stang like we were at a sideshow.

“I’m just glad the Fastback didn’t have water damage. The Luck charm works wonders.”

“Good for you,” said Gavin, a hint of jealousy in his tone. “Justin’s boy rammed me and I dropped the Triumph. It’s thrashed.”

“Maybe not,” said the wizard. “Let me take a look at it. I can most likely pull all the Chaos out of it. Have her back on two wheels in no time.”

---

After wrestling between Shulk and Cloud, I finally settled on Toon Link. Gavin hovered over Bowser, then Capt. Falco, but finally settled on Charizard. Which left Rob who went through Kirby, Squirtle, and Star Fox, but couldn’t make up his mind.

“Just hurry up and freakin’ choose already,” I said. “That’s an order.”

“I just want to make sure have the exact, right character,” said Rob.

“This isn’t your soulmate bro,” said Gavin. “This is flippin’ Smash Brothers. We could’ve played like five games already.”

Rob scrolled over to Wario, selecting the fat troublemaker. “Yeah, this guy’s perfect.”

After we settled on our characters, I went to town on my brother and Rob. They didn’t know nothing about Toon Link. But they found out the hard way.

Okay Gavin beat me a few times if I’m honest.

And Rob did too.

After an hour or so Gavin put down the controller.

“Tired?”

“Gotta get enough sleep for the ride back tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Been off work for a few days and it’s gonna be at least a day’s ride back to Washington.”

Gavin had just shown up, stepped back into my life, dropped an A-bomb on me with all his revelations of our family’s past, his own issue with his powers, and then getting kidnapped by some gang I pissed off, only to help me win the fight against the Kelpie. And now he was just going to up-n-leave for home in the morning?

I had so many emotions running through my head, when I opened my mouth to speak, I didn’t even know what to say to him.

“I’ll try to come back soon though. I didn’t really get to hang out with Mom and Aiden as much as I wanted.”

“Me neither. I mean, what did we even do together, but get into some trouble?”

“Yeah I don’t know, we defeated a Gwyllgi, the Kelpie, and an entire gang. We didn’t do much of anything. Oh, and I almost drowned.”

“Thanks for helping me challenge my fear,” I blurted out. I don’t know why it was hard for me to say.

“Thanks for coming for me and standing up to RDN,” said Gavin.

“Hey what about me?” said Rob. “What about Nehemiah? We’re the ones who actually pulled you out of the water.”

“I said thanks to you guys already,” said Gavin. Then he yawned. “Okay I really got to bed now.”

I brought out extra blankets and a pillow for Gavin to sleep on the couch.

“Forget what I said about him,” said Gavin.

“Who?”

“Nehemiah. He’s good people. I was tripping.”

I nodded, about to turn in for the night myself when my phone went off.

“Charice?”

“Hey Sean. I’m outside your apartment.”

What the heck was going on?