The Merry Men Masquerade

27. Journey #1

Felix was on him as soon as Ronan and Tony made it back to the living room. Ronan's face wound up smushed into his shoulder - God, he was so tall - and Ronan could feel his erratic heartbeat.

"I'm going to miss you," Felix sniffled. "So much."

Ronan hadn't even said he was leaving yet.

"It feels so much more real this time, and I don't- you're doing the right thing, I know you are, it would be selfish to ask you to stay but I- will you..." he pulled back and gripped Ronan's shirt, and Ronan marveled at how Felix could at once look down at him and look up to him. "Can you write me? When you come to port, and maybe after that too?"

"Felix," Ronan said, crushed. "Of course I'll write you. We're brothers, aren't we?" Felix sniffled, and Ronan pulled him in again. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

"You'd better write me," Sadie demanded when it was her turn, screwing her face into a glower to mask the quiver in her bottom lip. She battered his shoulder with light punches then dragged him in. It struck Ronan that this was it, this was goodbye, and he didn't have the first idea what to say to her. He clutched her tight and searched frantically for the right words, something that could capture everything she was to him, and when they didn't come, he began to cry.

Sadie held his face. "Hey, it's okay. Promise me you'll find your everything, yeah?"

Ronan had sworn off promises. He hated receiving them and especially hated making them. But for Sadie, he nodded his head, and she pushed him away and accepted a handkerchief from Elena to noisily blow her nose.

Mitch clapped Ronan's hand and told him brusquely not to drown.

Ronan grinned. "Keep going up, big guy."

His sister lingered at the edge of the group like she still wasn't sure he wanted her there. Ronan thought of how much time he'd wasted being angry, time he'd never get back, and hated himself just a little. But he was proud, too, that he'd stood up for himself.

He held out his hand. She reached for him, paused. Removed her glove. Then she took his hand. Her skin was impossibly soft.

Ronan tugged, and she tripped into him. This was the second time he had ever hugged his sister and would probably be the last, so he made it count, breathing in her vanilla-sweet perfume and horribly wrinkling her dress. She was one thing he would never get closure on, and he had to be okay with that. He wasn't, yet.

"You know I forgive you, right?"

Elena sniveled loudly. She jerked away from him to wipe at whatever she'd gotten on his shoulder, horrified, and Ronan gave a watery laugh. A body appeared at his back, wordlessly taking some of his weight. Ronan eased into Amir and watched as Sadie and Elena did the same for each other, leaning shoulder to shoulder.

"That's it. Let it out, princess."

Sadie, Elena, and Amir. Ronan had wished for forever with the three of them and had gotten one night. It would take some time to get over that. Maybe he never would. But then, Ronan was no stranger to moving on.

One person was missing from the scene.

He found Vito halfway across the backyard with his long limbs spread out, nearly hidden by the overgrown grass. "You're missing the teary goodbye," he said, leaning over Vito's view of the sky.

"Has it been that long? I was...preparing."

"Have you figured out your lines, then?"

"Not at all."