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Maverick looked lost in a memory as she stopped talking.
“King had to stop the bloodshed before he was caught, so he threatened to lock him up. They fought and argued until King was able to show Boogie his destruction after he had to confine him,” Ruger sighed. “That’s where we come in. Our fathers were part of Boogie's past, but Boogie wasn’t the only one who was freed when he killed them, he freed us too.”
“I guess you could say we were a part of his rehabilitation,” Winchester said, continuing the story. “We were teenagers when it all happened. King placed us in a group home he funded. It was at the time he started working at Halloween Town. We became a little infatuated with Boogie, and we would visit him since he stayed at the home with us, and then one day he left with King.”
“So we broke out of the group home and followed.” Maverick grinned. “Boogie knew King would be pissed, so he kept us a secret, housed us, trained us, and sent us to school. Before we knew it, King was sending us on hits.”
“We owe everything to Boogie,” Winchester said.
“He freed us,” Ruger said.
“Saved us from a life that would have killed us,” Maverick sighed. “I mean we owe both of them, we just like to give King a hard time. He saved Boogie, who saved us.”
My lip trembled as I studied them.
“We know what they did was fucked up, and we didn’t tell you this to change your mind, but to offer you a different perspective,” Ruger said standing up. “King and Boogie have lived through hell and anything positive in life that they have had, they’ve fought so hard for. It’s not surprising that they thought hiding you was the best course of action.”
“They’ll always just be broken boys who the world failed.” Winchester bit his lip. “It’s amazing they have found each other,and even more amazing they found you and that you loved them despite their flaws.”
“The world is a shitty place,” Maverick said, standing up and stretching. “Love is not meant for monsters like us, but sometimes someone sees past our bullshit, and loves us anyways, and it’s the only way we get to live without losing ourselves.”
“They have each other. They don’t need me,” I said, trying not to sound petulant.
“You can survive in the darkness, but once you've seen the light, why would you ever not choose to see?” Ruger asked, making me blush.
“How do I trust them again?” I sniffed. “Loving them isn’t the hard part. I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving them, but how do I know this won’t happen again.”
“How do you ever know anything won’t ever happen?” Ruger asked. “They could lie, cheat or do any number of things. You won’t ever know it. You have to either let it go and trust or decide it's not worth all the worrying and let it go.”
“We could just threaten to castrate them next time,” Maverick said. “That’s always a good motivator.”
I smiled. “Then I’ll always wonder if they love me more than they love their junk.”
“Or they love being inside you more,” Winchester said, crawling towards me and hugging me.
“You could always just choose us,” Maverick said, hugging us.
“We’d treat you right,” Ruger said, completing our circle. “We’d never let anything happen to you.”
The sincerity in his voice made me pause, but before I could look at his face, they enveloped me in their hug that eventually made us fall back onto Ruger. I laughed as I tried to get up, but they kept me close and preoccupied until they had to leave.Watching them ride their bikes away had me feeling like this was the last time they were going to be here and something monumental was about to happen.
“Noelle?”Lance knocked on my office door two days after the triplets had left, and still hadn’t returned.
“What’s up?” I called out.
The door opened as I waited for him to say something. We had been pretty miserable since we had heard they weren’t coming back. Now that I knew he had a thing with Maverick and Winchester, I wondered how close they had gotten. He didn't look bad, but sometimes I saw him staring off into the distance with a sad expression.
I looked up when he didn’t say anything. “Yes?”
“The mayor has issued a Thanksgiving,” he stated, looking a little too serious.
“What the hell is that?” I grew a little nervous.
“It’s something she hasn’t called since King and Boogie took over Halloween Town.” Roman stepped into the room.
“Fuck.” I sighed. “Do we have any idea why she would call one?”
“My guess would be that you were kidnapped, and she heard Boogie and King had a hand in it,” Roman said, coming into my office and sitting down.
