Chapter Text
Late July heat was making even the idea of school shopping appealing. Locus had a month until he would need supplies but the high temperature and smothering humidity made the air conditioned Wal-Mart seem like a paradise.
It was only on days like these that Locus actually considered cutting his hair. It meant a lot to him to keep it long, but sometimes it was just too hot against his neck, braid or no. It had been a very quiet month. The home he was living in was mostly for people with short stays, people on the move or in transition. Most of them were around his age, there weren’t a lot of people who wanted teenagers that weren’t theirs.
It was a good home, a little chaotic but the heat had smothered everyone’s energy level lately. Somehow temperatures around 95 seemed to take the wind out of everyone’s sails.
He kept hoping one day Felix would show up on his door, but it hadn’t happened. He was starting to think maybe it wouldn’t. Every now and then he imagined showing up at Felix’s house and running off with him, to hell with his mother. But Felix hadn’t told him where he lived… possibly for fear of exactly that sort of thing.
He had just pushed the idea from his mind when he felt a tug at his braid. He spun, carefully as he almost expected a child.
“Sup asshole.”
“Felix?” It was probably nothing remotely cosmic, Locus spent a lot of time thinking about Felix. It made chances pretty good that if he ever did run into Felix he’d have been thinking of him recently. It still made Locus want to laugh.
Even more he wanted to pull Felix into his arms. He heard Felix laugh, and felt him wrap his arms around his neck, and then they were kissing. It was probably not the best behaviour for the middle of Wal-Mart, but a month felt like too long to go without having Felix in his arms.
“Oh good, you missed me too.” Felix grinned as Locus finally let him fall back. His lip was split, and his eye was black, and there were bruises in patches all over his arms. “God fucking damn it how is a month that long, right?
“It’s been very long.” Locus cupped Felix’s face and kissed him again, feeling him laugh against his mouth. “I’ve missed you a lot.”
“You’re such a sap.” Felix grinned and took his hands in his. Then grinned wider when he looked them over. “You wear the ring.”
“I do.” Locus nodded. He felt like the world had suddenly clicked back into the proper order. Everything was right now that Felix was back in his life. “I was starting to think I wasn’t going to see you until September.”
“Nope. I escaped. It was very daring. I stopped by the address you gave me an’ they said you were probably here.” Felix explained with a shrug. “So I hunted you down.”
“So I see.” Locus squeezed Felix’s hands gently.
“So I have this plan.” Felix began with a grin, and Locus raised an eyebrow slowly. “Don’t give me that look it’s a good plan. You’ll like the plan. Probably. You should.”
Felix was bouncing on his toes, and it was such a familiar action Locus felt suddenly at home, even in the stationary aisle of Wal-Mart.
“I have a hotel booked for like a week. It was a pain in the ass but whatever it’s booked and shit. You should stay with me. There’s like cable and a fuckin’ actual real bed with like… memory foam and shit. It’s great. The bathtub is like the size of our beds at school. Definitely totally please come with me?”
“How did you afford a hotel room for a week?” Locus wrinkled his nose, but smiled despite himself. He’d missed Felix so much, and Felix was so excited. “How did you even book it.”
“Are you sure you wanna know the answer to that?” Felix’s grin widened and Locus sighed a soft laugh.
He rested his forehead against Felix’s and waited a moment before answering. “All right. I don’t think I see a problem with that idea.”
“Great! That’s awesome! There is one problem and it’s we have to stop at my home really quick, but in the grand scheme of problems not that hard. My mother was wasted this morning she’s probably passed out by now. So in and out, right?” Felix leaned in to steal another kiss.
“This seems slightly more than a small problem. Why didn’t you bring everything with you when you left?” Locus brushed his fingers against Felix’s cheek. His face was less round than it had been a month ago. He was losing weight again.
“Because I had to leave in a huge hurry and I forgot some shit. Also I didn’t think about a couple things until I was heading here and I thought ‘well shit that would be useful’ and uh. Then I was here and either way it doesn’t matter. Quick in and out.” Felix grinned hopefully and Locus sighed, giving in.
“All right. I just need to--”
“We’ll come back for it. I need to pick up some cash, so we’ll go shopping, so we can come back for your notebooks and it’ll be great. Okay? I don’t want to wait long enough that she’s maybe awake.” Felix licked the split in his lip and Locus wanted to kiss him again, but he forced himself to focus.
“All right. Lead the way, then.” At least this way Locus would know where Felix lived for the future.
---
Felix’s house was much, much larger than Locus was expecting. The way Felix talked about his childhood, Locus had kind of expected him to be poor. This was the kind of house people owned when they were wealthy.
“Okay be real fucking quiet I’ll check if she’s passed out. If she isn’t we book it and come back later. Don’t need to deal with that shit.” Felix was already whispering as he eased the front door open, unlocking it with his own key and punching a code into the wall panel. This was certainly his home. He knew it well enough. He walked as softly as he could into the front room then peeked into a large living area. A TV was blaring some talk show, and the woman Locus recognised as Felix’s mother was seemingly asleep on the couch.
He nodded and held a finger to his lips and gestured for Locus to follow him to a staircase and up. “Okay, so mostly we’re picking up cash. I have a bag in the shed in the back yard I didn’t get a chance to grab but…”
He was walking towards a closet at the end of the hall and easing it open. Locus got distracted, however, by another small door. Another closet, or storage room… this door had a deadbolt on it. He’d never seen someone put a deadbolt on an inside door before. “What’s this for?” He felt himself asking before he thought better of it.
“To keep me from getting out.” Felix answered flippantly, as if it was casual. As if it wasn’t horrifying. He was digging in the back of what looked to be a towel closet, looking for something. “Come on I know it’s--” There was a click and he grinned. “There we go. She’s a fucking nut case. She thinks she’s gonna get cut off, so she hoards cash like a fucking drunk squirrel.”
Locus was only half listening. The rest of his mind was occupied by the deadbolted door. That was Felix’s room. That’s where Felix grew up. It was something that would fill in the background to everything Felix talked about. Locus couldn’t resist. He reached to open the door.
The first thing Locus noticed when he pushed the door open was the smell. Human waste, and filth gone rotten with age. The walls were covered in drawings, ranging from a small child’s stick figures to a teen’s more intricate patterns. The only things in the small room were a futon matt and a bucket.
Felix hissed and pulled the door shut in a way that made it seem like he was almost going to slam it, then remembered they were being quiet. “Forget that.”
He then put a large roll of bills in Locus’ hand. It was covered liberally with dust but it still looked valid. And like a lot of money.
“Like the drunk squirrel she is, she forgets where she hides her nuts.” Felix grinned in his best ‘we’re dismissing that last topic’ way. “So she’s not gonna miss it. She doesn’t remember she’s got it.”
Felix had his own roll he was shoving into the pocket of his very tattered looking jeans. Locus had to wonder just how much Felix’s mother had if she could forget she had this much. The roll was about as thick as a pop can, and it seemed to be made up of hundreds.
“C’mon we gotta go out back and grab my bag, then we’re home free.” Felix grabbed his arm and lead him back down the stairs, this time back through a kitchen. He hadn’t been making any of it up about the locked fridge. There was a large padlock bolting the door shut. Locus felt a little numb, but Felix tugged him along into the back yard to a large gardening shed. “Stay here. If you see anything, bolt. I’ll either catch up with you or… uh. Just go home and maybe I’ll catch up with you.”
Felix ducked into the shed and Locus felt very, very nervous about all of this. For one this was probably robbery. At least a little. It was Felix’s home, but they were taking a significant amount of money away from his mother. Even if, as Felix said, she didn’t remember having it.
When Felix finally popped his head out, dufflebag slung over his shoulder, Locus breathed a sigh of relief. “Right. Let’s boogie.”
They ran off across the grass and when they were far enough away from the house for Felix’s comfort he began to laugh. “Oh my god. Okay. This is great. I checked in at the hotel do you wanna stop there? Go get some supplies and shit? Takeout?” He was bouncing with a sort of evil glee.
“Are you sure we should use this? This isn’t--” Locus looked uncertainly at the cash in his hand, Felix pushed the hand back and cut him off.
“Okay seriously put that away dumbass.” Felix rolled his eyes as Locus uneasily wedged it into his pocket. “And yes. Absolutely sure. She won’t notice. If you start to feel bad about it, remember it’s my mother and stop. She’s a fucking heiress. Or was. I don’t think she’s inheriting anymore, but she’s still got no problems with cash flow. As you may have noticed.”
Locus had also noticed that Felix’s jeans had likely come from a thrift shop, his tank top was from an old one of those five undershirts for five dollars bags, and his boots were falling apart on his feet. It was a very uncomfortable contrast.
“Either way. We’re gonna have a great week. Memory foam mattresses.” Felix was tugging at his arm and ultimately, that was much more tempting than whatever morality lay in leaving forgotten money in a monster’s closet.
---
Felix had lead Locus to a relatively basic hotel. He’d used his mother’s credit card and while her spending habits wouldn’t pop up ‘One week in the fanciest of Holiday Inn suites’ it would probably throw some red flags if he tried something classy.
But still it had a fucking jacuzzi tub so most arguments were invalid anyway. “See? Check out that fucking tub. It’s got jets and shit.”
Locus looked amused, but wasn’t quite on Felix’s level of excitement. Felix was probably running on enough adrenaline to fuel an army though so that was probably unlikely to happen. It wasn’t like Locus did giddy excitement anyway.
Felix threw his bag in the closet and pulled out his roll of bills. “Okay. We’ll sort out how much cash we have. Then we can go get some supplies. I have to do some clothes shopping because I basically have this, but other than that this is all vacation fund. Or something.”
“All right.” Locus pulled out his own roll and handed it to Felix who hopped on the bed and began counting out bills.
When he was finally finished Locus looked deeply uncomfortable. Felix tapped his fingers on his knees and looked at each pile of ten bills he’d made. There were a lot of piles.
“Wow my mother’s a fucking cunt.”
“...that’s what you’re getting from this situation?” Locus said blandly, eyebrows raised.
“Well… I mean she has enough money that she can forget…” Felix paused then tried to count the piles again.
“There is $50,000 here. Felix.” Locus’ voice was a little bit unsteady. “Felix. What the fuck.”
“Shut up. I didn’t realise it was this much. She’s literally forgotten about it. It’s been there for 6 years.”
“How does a person forget $50,000. Felix.” Locus sat down on the lounger across from the bed and just stared at him. “I feel like we robbed a bank.”
“We did not rob a bank. We. Um. Look I’m probably not on the will so let’s call this my inheritance? Like I mean. What those fucks put me through it’s totally worth this much right? Like… but shit we can’t carry this kind of cash around. We will straight up die.”
Locus covered his face with his hands. “I… can’t really argue these points, but… fuck.”
“Look this just means. Like… We save some for next summer, right? Or another hotel? Most hotels don’t accept cash though. God damn I didn’t know she had this much money. She literally has like 50 little hidey holes like that.” Felix began collecting the money back together into a pile.
“What are we going to do.” Locus looked like he was going through some sort of crisis. Like the world was falling apart under his feet and everything was collapsing around him.
“Well. First, do you have a bank account? Because like really we can’t carry this much cash around.” Felix scratched his head and wrapped the bills back up in the elastic bands they’d come in.
“I can’t just deposit $50,000.” Locus breathed slowly and slumped back in the chair. “That will… that is so many red flags. I don’t have any reason at all to have an income like this.”
“Fuck… and I don’t have any ID, I can’t open an account…”
“How do you not have any ID?”
“Well I have a fake ID but that doesn’t help us open a bank account.” Felix let out an exasperated breath of air and collapsed back onto the bed. “You know what, fuck it. Cash doesn’t leave a paper trail. This place has one of those little safes. We store some, we spend a bunch. We can both get some like… like nice clothes and shit.”
“Felix.” Locus’ did not sound convinced. Felix felt like screaming.
Felix was pissed, his mother kept this kind of money like pocket change. He’d known she’d had money, he just didn’t realise how much. He wanted to go back and raid every cent she’d hoarded. He’d never had anything in his stupid worthless childhood and she had forgotten about $50,000. He sprung off the bed.
“Okay. Locus.” He walked over to Locus and clutched his face in his hands. “She doesn’t know the money is missing. She doesn’t know I’m missing. Even if she knew I was missing she wouldn’t care, but she doesn’t know about the money. I want you to think about this. She has enough money that she can forget this cash. And more. There could very well be a million bucks lost in that hell hole somewhere.” Locus still looked unsure. “Look I’m not saying we go back and raid the place, I’m saying. Let’s, right now, have the best fucking week in the history of teenagers.”
“And if she charges us with theft?” Locus said dryly.
“Then the police have to investigate our home. Do you think she wants anyone, let alone the police to find my bedroom?” That seemed to help. Something went briefly cold about Locus’ expression, then he nodded.
“All right.” Locus agreed with a slow sigh. “But. No alcohol.”
Felix considered that, then nodded. “Okay. No alcohol. Just the best of shitty take-out and… I dunno pepsi? All those refined sugars we aren’t allowed at school?”
“All right. Yeah, all right. Pepsi’s allowed.”
Felix howled with laughter and launched himself back on the bed. This was going to be the best week ever.