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palace_will[Featuring/referencing OCs: Sara Carlisle, Linus Eckhert, Adrian Forrester, Charlie Larson, Halloran (Hal) McCarran, Calhoun (Cal) Shorter, Ben Tattersall, Lisa Bianchi]
Johnny waved through the window at Stan, the guy on the gate, before remembering that the glass was tinted black from the outside. He blushed and slumped down in his seat, hoping Christian hadn't noticed, but unfortunately Christian's attention had been firmly on him for the last hour. Usually he thought that was wonderful, but his lover's twinkling eyes just made him blush harder. At least Lawrence and Jet were up front with the driver, and Obie didn't care.
"Hey," he whispered, for no particular reason, "we'll be there in a minute. We should probably at least finish getting dressed."
Christian finished tucking himself in and zipping up and looked at Johnny with pretended amazement. "I am dressed." he told him. "What's keeping you?"
Johnny gave him a mock glare while wrestling his T-shirt away from Obie. "You really have to show me how to train him to give me things. He's good with most everything else, but once he's got something it's his until I pry his jaws apart."
"Aww but honey," Christian leaned over and smoothly extricated the shirt from Obie's jaws without fuss. "Then I wouldn't get to see you all pink and moist and wriggly. Oh no, hang on. Yes I would." He handed Johnny the shirt and pointed out the window. "Might want to hurry up." he chuckled.
Johnny squirmed into the shirt, which had been shed on and drooled over ever since Christian had tugged it off and tossed it on the floor a good hundred kilometers back. He pulled his shorts back on and zipped, and pushed his hands through his hair in what he knew was a hopeless effort to look a little less like he'd just been thoroughly shagged. He gave up just as the car pulled to a stop in front of the house.
Christian didn't wait at all! There was no need for either Jet or Lawrence to get out and open the doors for them, so he leaned across in front of his lover and popped it open himself, telling Johnny with a toothy grin, "After you." and ignoring the look he got from his disarranged boyfriend. Once Johnny was out, Christian slid out too and stretched, sucking in a lungful of clean air after hours in the car's re-circulated interior.
The front door slammed open and Adrian pelted across the porch and down the steps and swooped Johnny up in his arms. He planted a smacking kiss on his lips, then bounced over and did the same to Christian. Johnny watched, grinning, then more movement up by the front door caught his eye.
Liam came down the steps at a more sedate pace, his arm firmly around Ben's shoulders, clearly holding him back. A herd of puppies swirled past them, parting around their feet like a river, barking for all they were worth. Obie dashed out and joined them, vanishing into the white-and-tan vortex of yapping, sniffing and peeing. Charlie and Hal followed Liam and Ben, and Johnny caught sight of Sara hovering by the door.
When Adrian landed in his arms, Christian gave him a solid hugging followed by a quick, but heartfelt, kiss to the cheek. He left one arm around Adrian's shoulders while he watched Johnny greet his friends and grinned when Obie also greeted his, turning his head at the sound of a second car coming up the drive before he had a chance to greet Liam properly.
As the other car slowed to a halt, Adrian ducked out from his embrace and belted over to Johnny again and Christian turned to find Liam by his side and gave the older man a hug. "Good to see you again." he said. "And thanks for having us." He might have said more but the second car had pulled in and Will was sliding out of the back seat, looking around.
"It's always a pleasure to have you," Liam murmured with a perfectly straight face. Just then, a harried-looking young man climbed out of the second car after Will and hurried up toward the front, but too late -- the driver's side door opened and a grinning Marton hopped out. "I thought the cars were supposed to travel a bit farther apart than that," Liam commented. "That explains it."
Vin and Jess joined the free-flowing chaos around the driveway, and Liam introduced the various members of his household -- those who were present, at least -- to the security team, before releasing Ben to bounce from one newcomer to another like a friendly gas molecule.
Marton came straight across to Liam and hugged him, a huge satisfied smile on his face. "That was fun." he said after the usual greetings had been dispensed. "Louis was all pale and shaky." He turned away and pulled Will forward. "Liam, this is Will. Will, Liam Neeson."
Will shook the proffered hand. He was quite relaxed, not at all in awe or fear of Marton's driving skills and he said politely, "This is a beautiful place you have here." He glanced around. "Busy, but beautiful."
Liam chuckled. "Thank you. One becomes accustomed to the chaos after a while. Any friend of these two," he said, nodding at Marton and Christian, "is more than welcome here. I hope you enjoy your stay." He raised his voice and added, "This is Samuel, my housekeeper. If you need anything while you're here, feel free to ask." Samuel nodded to everyone while supervising the transfer of baggage.
A fit looking woman in a suit was waiting to one side. Vin moved over to confer with her, leaving Jess, Lawrence and Jet to watch their four charges for the moment. Charlie took his turn hugging Johnny and said, "You should see all the guards! Me and Hal and Adrian took a hike around the perimeter yesterday looking for 'em! I saw fifteen and Adrian saw twelve. Hal says he saw twenty-two but I don't believe him."
"That's because Adrian's only really alert when he's checking out guys, and you never looked up. A lot of them were up in the trees." Hal gave Charlie a grinning hair-ruffle and winked at Johnny before giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
With most of the accompanying staff dispersed, Marton, Will and Christian, with Liam leading the way, began to stroll toward the house. With Christian and Will already discussing plans for the rest of the day, Marton was free to look around and it was only a matter of moments before he spotted Adrian and, at the same time, Adrian spotted him. Marton smiled and stepped over to give him a one-armed hug. "Hey Adrian. Remember me?" he greeted. "Nice to see you again."
Adrian grinned and snuggled into the arm around him. "Of course I remember you. You're way too handsome to ever forget." He fluttered his eyelashes in a teasing flirt.
Hal stopped dead and Charlie bumped into him. Before either of them could say a word, Johnny said, "Yeah, it is. He's on vacation, though, so don't fuss over him, all right?"
"Sure, no problem!" Hal assured him, nodding a couple of seconds too long. Charlie echoed him, his eyes wide, then added, "You were right -- there were twenty-two guards."
"No, I was wrong. There were probably fifty more none of us spotted."
Liam led his guests into the front parlor where Jeannie had laid out an array of snacks and drinks, since it was too late for lunch and still a couple of hours until dinner. "Get something to eat and relax. Your things will be unpacked shortly and then you can go change if you like." Liam glanced at Johnny's T-shirt for just a moment, and Johnny swore his lips twitched.
Christian and Will were making plans to go swimming and Marton strolled across and made himself a cup of coffee while he listened in. Cup in hand, he strolled back to where he'd been standing before the empty fireplace, thinking about maybe going down to see how Steward had settled in. He saw two of the other boys in a huddle with their backs turned to him and, remembering what he'd overheard on the way inside, he leaned in behind them and said, "One hundred and sixty-two. Not counting Jet, Vin, Jess and Lawrence." The two of them jumped, turned around and looked at him wide-eyed. "What?" he said, all innocence.
Charlie blushed and slid a step behind the older boy, but Hal grinned and said, "All right, not quite fifty more, not even close. I'm actually glad they're there, Your-- umm, Sir. The last thing we need is another media mess."
"I'm umm-Marton." He introduced himself. "And you are?"
"Halloran McCarran, call me Hal. This is Charlie Larson." Hal gave Marton a nod that wasn't quite a bow -- a gesture Marton recognized as having been copied from Liam -- and Charlie blushed and grinned and waved.
"Nice to meet you." Marton smiled. "I've been looking forward to coming down for ages so please, don't 'Sir' me if you can help it?" He gave them both his most appealing look. "Maybe later you could show me round? The stables in particular? I have a horse here."
"Steward's yours?" Hal asked. "He's really pretty. Cal said he and Hurricane had a few words but I think they finally got rank and precedence straightened out."
"He was kinda nervous at first," Charlie offered, "but Sara's been helping him settle in. All the animals really like her. She's gonna be a vet."
"Excellent. I'm glad he's all settled in." Marton was about to ask more about Sara when someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around to find Liam standing behind him, smiling.
"Excuse me, but I wanted to introduce you to Cal before he needs to get back. Marton, this is Calhoun Shorter, my stable manager. He's been looking after Steward. Cal, this is Marton."
"Pleasure." Marton shook Cal's hand with enthusiasm, already looking forward to a nice, horsy discussion later in the day if it could be managed. "Charlie and Hal were telling me that Steward has settled in well. No trouble, I hope?"
On the other side of the room, Christian caught part of what his father said and rolled his eyes, grinning at Will and Johnny. "He's off." he said. "There'll be no getting sense out of him now. It'll be manure and horse feed for hours yet so we can count him out of swimming."
"So it'll be just me and you and Will and Lawrence and Jet and Jess...? Plus whoever else wants to tag along? We're going to raise the level of the lake by a good meter as it is," Johnny teased. "We can drag your dad along next time."
Christian shook his head. "No shadows." he said. "There are enough guards in the shrubbery to confront a small army. Therefore Jet and the others are pretty much free to sit in their rooms and fret if they want to. Or they could come swimming." he shrugged. "Speaking of which . . ." He looked around the room and pretty much everyone had finished their drinks and nibbles. Time to make a move then; locate their rooms and their luggage and head on out for some fun! He suggested as much to Johnny and then again to Liam when he strolled over to them, having abandoned Marton and Cal to their chat.
"Swimming? Certainly," Liam said. "I suggest you ride, though. It's walkable, but that's usually best for an all-day hike. We can get there and back at a canter with enough time for a good swim without putting dinner back too long. Or... let me check with Jeannie -- we might be able to have dinner packed and sent after us and make a picnic of it. It doesn't get really dark until almost nine this time of year, so we can have a good long swim, eat, build a bonfire--"
"S'mores?! We can make s'mores, right?!" Ben came bouncing out of nowhere and hung off Liam's arm, his eyes shining with enthusiasm.
"Yes, I'm sure we have s'mores makings." Liam ruffled the boy's hair before turning back to his guests. "Johnny, you and Christian are in your old room. Marton and Will are in the room Harry had. The 'shadows' are distributed around the place, with a 'command center' in the back parlor. I'm sure Carrie's briefed your people on where everything is, including your quarters, so everyone should be settled. There'll be towels and such in the rooms, so we can be ready to go in a few minutes, whenever you're ready to start."
"Oh, I am more than ready." Christian grinned, taking Johnny by the hand and practically hauling him out the door with a call of, "C'mon dad, shake the cobwebs out!" over his shoulder. Marton shrugged, grinned and reluctantly excused himself, waiting by the door for Will to join him.
Will smiled at Liam, "I guess that's my cue. I'm surprised they're even gonna let me get wet!" He headed off to join Marton and they vanished out the door.
Liam chuckled and shook his head before heading back toward the kitchen. He needed to tell his cook that dinner had to be "packed." With any luck he'd come out the other side still in one piece, or at least sufficiently water-tight to swim without sinking.
Johnny waved through the window at Stan, the guy on the gate, before remembering that the glass was tinted black from the outside. He blushed and slumped down in his seat, hoping Christian hadn't noticed, but unfortunately Christian's attention had been firmly on him for the last hour. Usually he thought that was wonderful, but his lover's twinkling eyes just made him blush harder. At least Lawrence and Jet were up front with the driver, and Obie didn't care.
"Hey," he whispered, for no particular reason, "we'll be there in a minute. We should probably at least finish getting dressed."
Christian finished tucking himself in and zipping up and looked at Johnny with pretended amazement. "I am dressed." he told him. "What's keeping you?"
Johnny gave him a mock glare while wrestling his T-shirt away from Obie. "You really have to show me how to train him to give me things. He's good with most everything else, but once he's got something it's his until I pry his jaws apart."
"Aww but honey," Christian leaned over and smoothly extricated the shirt from Obie's jaws without fuss. "Then I wouldn't get to see you all pink and moist and wriggly. Oh no, hang on. Yes I would." He handed Johnny the shirt and pointed out the window. "Might want to hurry up." he chuckled.
Johnny squirmed into the shirt, which had been shed on and drooled over ever since Christian had tugged it off and tossed it on the floor a good hundred kilometers back. He pulled his shorts back on and zipped, and pushed his hands through his hair in what he knew was a hopeless effort to look a little less like he'd just been thoroughly shagged. He gave up just as the car pulled to a stop in front of the house.
Christian didn't wait at all! There was no need for either Jet or Lawrence to get out and open the doors for them, so he leaned across in front of his lover and popped it open himself, telling Johnny with a toothy grin, "After you." and ignoring the look he got from his disarranged boyfriend. Once Johnny was out, Christian slid out too and stretched, sucking in a lungful of clean air after hours in the car's re-circulated interior.
The front door slammed open and Adrian pelted across the porch and down the steps and swooped Johnny up in his arms. He planted a smacking kiss on his lips, then bounced over and did the same to Christian. Johnny watched, grinning, then more movement up by the front door caught his eye.
Liam came down the steps at a more sedate pace, his arm firmly around Ben's shoulders, clearly holding him back. A herd of puppies swirled past them, parting around their feet like a river, barking for all they were worth. Obie dashed out and joined them, vanishing into the white-and-tan vortex of yapping, sniffing and peeing. Charlie and Hal followed Liam and Ben, and Johnny caught sight of Sara hovering by the door.
When Adrian landed in his arms, Christian gave him a solid hugging followed by a quick, but heartfelt, kiss to the cheek. He left one arm around Adrian's shoulders while he watched Johnny greet his friends and grinned when Obie also greeted his, turning his head at the sound of a second car coming up the drive before he had a chance to greet Liam properly.
As the other car slowed to a halt, Adrian ducked out from his embrace and belted over to Johnny again and Christian turned to find Liam by his side and gave the older man a hug. "Good to see you again." he said. "And thanks for having us." He might have said more but the second car had pulled in and Will was sliding out of the back seat, looking around.
"It's always a pleasure to have you," Liam murmured with a perfectly straight face. Just then, a harried-looking young man climbed out of the second car after Will and hurried up toward the front, but too late -- the driver's side door opened and a grinning Marton hopped out. "I thought the cars were supposed to travel a bit farther apart than that," Liam commented. "That explains it."
Vin and Jess joined the free-flowing chaos around the driveway, and Liam introduced the various members of his household -- those who were present, at least -- to the security team, before releasing Ben to bounce from one newcomer to another like a friendly gas molecule.
Marton came straight across to Liam and hugged him, a huge satisfied smile on his face. "That was fun." he said after the usual greetings had been dispensed. "Louis was all pale and shaky." He turned away and pulled Will forward. "Liam, this is Will. Will, Liam Neeson."
Will shook the proffered hand. He was quite relaxed, not at all in awe or fear of Marton's driving skills and he said politely, "This is a beautiful place you have here." He glanced around. "Busy, but beautiful."
Liam chuckled. "Thank you. One becomes accustomed to the chaos after a while. Any friend of these two," he said, nodding at Marton and Christian, "is more than welcome here. I hope you enjoy your stay." He raised his voice and added, "This is Samuel, my housekeeper. If you need anything while you're here, feel free to ask." Samuel nodded to everyone while supervising the transfer of baggage.
A fit looking woman in a suit was waiting to one side. Vin moved over to confer with her, leaving Jess, Lawrence and Jet to watch their four charges for the moment. Charlie took his turn hugging Johnny and said, "You should see all the guards! Me and Hal and Adrian took a hike around the perimeter yesterday looking for 'em! I saw fifteen and Adrian saw twelve. Hal says he saw twenty-two but I don't believe him."
"That's because Adrian's only really alert when he's checking out guys, and you never looked up. A lot of them were up in the trees." Hal gave Charlie a grinning hair-ruffle and winked at Johnny before giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
With most of the accompanying staff dispersed, Marton, Will and Christian, with Liam leading the way, began to stroll toward the house. With Christian and Will already discussing plans for the rest of the day, Marton was free to look around and it was only a matter of moments before he spotted Adrian and, at the same time, Adrian spotted him. Marton smiled and stepped over to give him a one-armed hug. "Hey Adrian. Remember me?" he greeted. "Nice to see you again."
Adrian grinned and snuggled into the arm around him. "Of course I remember you. You're way too handsome to ever forget." He fluttered his eyelashes in a teasing flirt.
Hal stopped dead and Charlie bumped into him. Before either of them could say a word, Johnny said, "Yeah, it is. He's on vacation, though, so don't fuss over him, all right?"
"Sure, no problem!" Hal assured him, nodding a couple of seconds too long. Charlie echoed him, his eyes wide, then added, "You were right -- there were twenty-two guards."
"No, I was wrong. There were probably fifty more none of us spotted."
Liam led his guests into the front parlor where Jeannie had laid out an array of snacks and drinks, since it was too late for lunch and still a couple of hours until dinner. "Get something to eat and relax. Your things will be unpacked shortly and then you can go change if you like." Liam glanced at Johnny's T-shirt for just a moment, and Johnny swore his lips twitched.
Christian and Will were making plans to go swimming and Marton strolled across and made himself a cup of coffee while he listened in. Cup in hand, he strolled back to where he'd been standing before the empty fireplace, thinking about maybe going down to see how Steward had settled in. He saw two of the other boys in a huddle with their backs turned to him and, remembering what he'd overheard on the way inside, he leaned in behind them and said, "One hundred and sixty-two. Not counting Jet, Vin, Jess and Lawrence." The two of them jumped, turned around and looked at him wide-eyed. "What?" he said, all innocence.
Charlie blushed and slid a step behind the older boy, but Hal grinned and said, "All right, not quite fifty more, not even close. I'm actually glad they're there, Your-- umm, Sir. The last thing we need is another media mess."
"I'm umm-Marton." He introduced himself. "And you are?"
"Halloran McCarran, call me Hal. This is Charlie Larson." Hal gave Marton a nod that wasn't quite a bow -- a gesture Marton recognized as having been copied from Liam -- and Charlie blushed and grinned and waved.
"Nice to meet you." Marton smiled. "I've been looking forward to coming down for ages so please, don't 'Sir' me if you can help it?" He gave them both his most appealing look. "Maybe later you could show me round? The stables in particular? I have a horse here."
"Steward's yours?" Hal asked. "He's really pretty. Cal said he and Hurricane had a few words but I think they finally got rank and precedence straightened out."
"He was kinda nervous at first," Charlie offered, "but Sara's been helping him settle in. All the animals really like her. She's gonna be a vet."
"Excellent. I'm glad he's all settled in." Marton was about to ask more about Sara when someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around to find Liam standing behind him, smiling.
"Excuse me, but I wanted to introduce you to Cal before he needs to get back. Marton, this is Calhoun Shorter, my stable manager. He's been looking after Steward. Cal, this is Marton."
"Pleasure." Marton shook Cal's hand with enthusiasm, already looking forward to a nice, horsy discussion later in the day if it could be managed. "Charlie and Hal were telling me that Steward has settled in well. No trouble, I hope?"
On the other side of the room, Christian caught part of what his father said and rolled his eyes, grinning at Will and Johnny. "He's off." he said. "There'll be no getting sense out of him now. It'll be manure and horse feed for hours yet so we can count him out of swimming."
"So it'll be just me and you and Will and Lawrence and Jet and Jess...? Plus whoever else wants to tag along? We're going to raise the level of the lake by a good meter as it is," Johnny teased. "We can drag your dad along next time."
Christian shook his head. "No shadows." he said. "There are enough guards in the shrubbery to confront a small army. Therefore Jet and the others are pretty much free to sit in their rooms and fret if they want to. Or they could come swimming." he shrugged. "Speaking of which . . ." He looked around the room and pretty much everyone had finished their drinks and nibbles. Time to make a move then; locate their rooms and their luggage and head on out for some fun! He suggested as much to Johnny and then again to Liam when he strolled over to them, having abandoned Marton and Cal to their chat.
"Swimming? Certainly," Liam said. "I suggest you ride, though. It's walkable, but that's usually best for an all-day hike. We can get there and back at a canter with enough time for a good swim without putting dinner back too long. Or... let me check with Jeannie -- we might be able to have dinner packed and sent after us and make a picnic of it. It doesn't get really dark until almost nine this time of year, so we can have a good long swim, eat, build a bonfire--"
"S'mores?! We can make s'mores, right?!" Ben came bouncing out of nowhere and hung off Liam's arm, his eyes shining with enthusiasm.
"Yes, I'm sure we have s'mores makings." Liam ruffled the boy's hair before turning back to his guests. "Johnny, you and Christian are in your old room. Marton and Will are in the room Harry had. The 'shadows' are distributed around the place, with a 'command center' in the back parlor. I'm sure Carrie's briefed your people on where everything is, including your quarters, so everyone should be settled. There'll be towels and such in the rooms, so we can be ready to go in a few minutes, whenever you're ready to start."
"Oh, I am more than ready." Christian grinned, taking Johnny by the hand and practically hauling him out the door with a call of, "C'mon dad, shake the cobwebs out!" over his shoulder. Marton shrugged, grinned and reluctantly excused himself, waiting by the door for Will to join him.
Will smiled at Liam, "I guess that's my cue. I'm surprised they're even gonna let me get wet!" He headed off to join Marton and they vanished out the door.
Liam chuckled and shook his head before heading back toward the kitchen. He needed to tell his cook that dinner had to be "packed." With any luck he'd come out the other side still in one piece, or at least sufficiently water-tight to swim without sinking.
