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tiklart · 25 days ago

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Down The Rabbit Hole

PART 1 of my Original Series "Sons of Walter" which will focus on romance, family & found family, and tickling.

CATEGORY: M/M | RATING: T | TROPES: Friends to Lovers, Forced Proximity

Art by the amazing @ppystkposts !!!

NOTE: I've come a long way! From barely ever posting a single OC to dropping a family of them. After writing tons of fanfics I thought it'd be fun to write an original story with characters of my own, but without letting go of the tickle-loving part of me, so I started this lil project for fun. I was helped greatly by ppy who made the art of the first characters, thank you dear!!!

I know original stories are not the most desired here (v.s. fanfics) and I'm not sure yet how often I'll update and in what format I would like to post them on this blog, so I decided to drop the first 3 chapters for now.

My main place for working on this story will be this site (chapters 4 & 5 are here already too), but I'm putting it on AO3 too.

WORD COUNT: combined, these 3 chapters are over 11K words

DISCLAIMER & CONTENT WARNINGS:

This story contains mild violence, consensual and non-consensual tickling, profanity, and was written as a hobby work for fun due to my love for tickling and writing. I am not a professional author and English is not my first language.

It is a work of fiction and the names, characters, businesses and incidents are all mere products of my imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

SUMMARY: Luca is introduced to the four brothers running the popular restaurant The Walters. Their first meeting isn’t very funny, yet Luca is about to laugh his head off…

TAGS: #non-consensual tickling #interrogation

WORDS: 3.8K

Thanksgiving. 11 PM. Luca stood before the closed doors of what indeed looked like a dark and abandoned restaurant. The letters of ‘The Walters’ on the sign outside were only slightly visible, thanks to the nearby streetlight. Other than that, no single light was burning around the exterior of the usually bustling restaurant and bar.

Luca sighed and touched his masked face. The ski mask was covering his dark curly hair and his face, with the exception of his big brown eyes. If they had a security camera, which he did not detect in clear sight, they at least weren’t going to recognize him later.

The tall building was as abandoned as they had claimed, and the streets were quiet too on this festive night. The Walters was a popular bar, known for opening its doors every single day of the year with the exception of Thanksgiving.

The family business had been an icon in the city for decades, famous for its creative menu, custom drinks and charming staff.

Despite its good reputation, Luca had never heard of it until he was faced with his hard reality: he was going to be a criminal, and this is where it would happen. In the dark, abandoned restaurant building of The Walters.

He held his breath, tightened his fingers around the rock in his hand and finally smashed the window. He had practiced the rock throw a few times before, and it went smoothly. He couldn’t have landed a better hit.

The shattering sound of glass doubled the feeling of panic he felt as he carefully entered the place without cutting himself. He had never been satisfied with his 5’8 size, but today it came in handy as he easily slipped into the building. The lack of alarm noises was a relief – he had confirmed the restaurant’s poor security system in his preparation work, but one could never know for sure.

Regret filled his mind and body when he swiftly landed inside and ran towards the bar in the corner. Luca had come here plenty of times as a visitor to prepare for this mission, but it barely proved to be useful now that he was actually doing this, with shaking legs because of the fear and adrenaline. He feared this: he made a lousy burglar.

The young thief carefully looked through the stash of liquor bottles behind the bar. He knew it was somewhere around here ー yes. He studied the label: Walters Whiskey. One damn bottle. Its size was smaller than he expected. All of this for one tiny bottle, but he had it.

The sudden sound of what seemed like footsteps coming up, or down (?) a wooden stairs startled Luca into almost dropping the bottle, and he gasped when a voice was heard:

“Who’s there?!”

Shit! He was sure no one was supposed to be around!

He rushed to stuff the bottle in a cheap college tote bag, shoved it under his black hoodie and into his pants for extra protection, and started running.

“STOP RIGHT THERE!”

Luca was an idiot and actually froze immediately when he heard the intensity of the warning. At the door near the bar stood a young man, probably around Luca’s age, and he held out his hand. He appeared to be unarmed.

“Stop, thief,” he said in a stiff voice. When Luca realized his opponent seemed just as scared and inexperienced as he was, he continued running.

“HANK! IT’S A BURGLAR!” the guy bellowed. Luca made the rookie-mistake to run to the door first instead of his window-entrance. Of course it was locked. With shaking hands he looked for a key or a lock, then realized he was messing up and turned to run towards the window in blind panic.

Meanwhile the lights were switched on and he heard the loud noises of running footsteps belonging to not one but two, no, three – ?! – people, and Luca knew he was done for.

“Stop right there!” they yelled. Two of them grabbed him before he could even make a move to climb out of the window, and Luca cried out as he was dragged back into the restaurant.

“Theo, call the police.” It was a firm order from the largest man, and Luca let out a soft whimper as he was dragged towards him.

“No please!” he begged. This wasn’t supposed to end like this. There weren’t supposed to be any people! The thought of getting arrested and going through life as a prosecuted criminal for the rest of his life made the poor student want to cry. He could kiss his scholarship and future goodbye.

Appearing surprised to hear his childish begging tone without even an ounce of arrogance or defiance, the man stared at him for a moment. He then yanked the ski mask off Luca’s head, suddenly revealing his face to all of them.

“He’s just a kid,” one of the men holding him said. Luca recognized him – he had seen him every single time he came here to simply have a drink so he could inspect the venue.

“Shut up James. Hey kid, how old are you?”

Luca stared at the enormous bearded man who he guessed was this ‘Hank’ they all called out to. He was clearly the boss and owner of the place.

“I’m 22,” Luca said. He had quite the babyface and went through life with nicknames such as ‘Bambi’, but he was not a kid.

The other man holding him snickered and glanced at the guy who stood behind them. “Definitely a kid. Right, baby bro?”

“Shut up Josh.”

The men they called James and Josh looked quite alike. Their styles were different, but looking at their faces, Luca realized they were twins.

He then glanced at the so-called ‘baby bro’; the guy who had first caught him. They were probably indeed almost the same age, judging from his looks and his older brother’s remark just now.

However despite being the youngest, it was a funny observation that he was taller than his older twin brothers. Not that it was the time and place to notice small details like that.

“Name?” Hank asked.

“Luca.”

Another rookie-mistake: immediately telling them his name. Well, not that it mattered much. They didn’t seem like the kind of people who would let him get away now, with or without knowing his name.

One of the twins hummed. “I remember now. I think I’ve seen you before. One of our customers, hm? I remember everyone who orders our signature coconut latte.”

Luca blushed, but the oldest ignored it and continued questioning him.

“What did you try to steal?”

Luca realized they hadn’t noticed the subtle bulge under his hoodie yet, and he swallowed.

“……M-money, sir.”

They all looked at one another, and both guys holding him laughed. “Of course, money. Why ask?”

Hank ignored them. “You seem young, scared and inexperienced. Why sneak in here for your burglary attempt? Not very clever, hm? Luca?”

Luca felt the men tighten their grip on him somehow, and he shuddered. “I h-heard it’d be closed today. It looked abandoned.” They all gave him a stare, and he wondered if they were waiting for more answers to the ‘why’.

“I’ve been… struggling financially.”

The younger man, Theo, approached them carefully and stood beside Hank. He had seemed tall before, but next to Hank he looked hilariously tiny.

“Should I still call the police?”

“No, hang on.” Hank’s command gave Luca a tiny bit of hope, although he wasn’t sure how he was going to get himself out of this mess without getting arrested.

“Sounds like a weak excuse buddy,” James or Josh said – Luca didn’t remember which name belonged to which brother – and a finger poked him firmly in the side in a condescending way. Surprised by the sudden feeling, Luca squeaked. Curse of a ticklish body.

“What was that, little pipsqueak?” The other of the two also poked him, and Luca squeaked again.

“N-nothing! Please, I s-swear! I won’t do it again,” he whined. “I didn’t get anything, please let me go. It was a mistake.”

“Hank, I think he’s lying.” Luca felt how both men put a hand on one side each, and his eyes widened.

“Shall we show you a little trick? Might help convince him.”

As if they had communicated about it with magical twin-telepathy, both men started to move their fingers at the same time, wiggling, scratching and digging viciously into Luca’s sides in what felt like a very deliberate tickle attack, and he let out the most embarrassing series of squeals.

“Nohoho! Wah-wait! Wahahait! Dohohon’t!” he cackled. What the – ! The idea of getting tickled at this moment was absolutely absurd, but it was happening right now.

Hank first appeared annoyed by the playful prank they pulled, but then a smirk slowly made its way to his face.

“I see how it is,” he drawled. “A ticklish burglar, disturbing us on our only night off. Not what I had expected.”

“Kid's even more ticklish than Theo,” one of the guys doing the tickling said, and meanwhile Luca was going insane.

“Plehease stohohop!” Luca struggled between them, pulling at his arms that were held tightly. The men both only needed to use one hand to tickle him with, reducing him into a shameful giggling mess. They were this close to finding the bottle under his clothes. Between getting tickled to death, risking an arrest, and it having all been for nothing, that last part was probably the absolute worst.

“Oh, what’s this?”

It was bound to happen. They first felt the item he was hiding, then tugged up his hoodie and found his little package. Upon taking out and opening the tote bag, they revealed the familiar little bottle.

“It’s your whiskey, Hank.”

The look on Hank’s face darkened.

“This is what you tried to steal?” He took the bottle and held it in front of Luca’s eyes.

“….A little bonus for myself?” Luca tried.

Hank’s eyes squinted. “Tickle him.”

Wait, what the fuck?! Hank didn’t need to tell them twice. Both hands started to tickle Luca again, and he howled and squealed like a madman.

“Hohoho plehehease – nohoho! I’m – I’m sohohorry!”

“Who told you about this?” the restaurant owner asked. He gave the bottle to Theo and to Luca’s surprise and utter horror, he joined in with the tickling. He reached out and dug his fingers under both of Luca’s arms, attacking his vulnerable armpits with sudden urgency. Luca jumped and shrieked, unable to fight the ticklish sensations.

“NO-nohoho ohohone! Ahahaha plehease – hehehe! D-dohohon’t!”

“Tell us the truth and we might stop tickling you.”

Was this really happening? An interrogation? A tickle interrogation? Luca shook his head wildly and snorted.

“I cahahan’t! T-thehere’s nohothing to tehehell!”

Hank smirked. “We’ll see about that after a few more minutes of this, then. We’ve got all night.”

Panic swirled within Luca’s chest. They wouldn’t. They wouldn’t, right? No one would be so crazy to tickle a person for that long. Then again, they were crazy enough to do it right now.

Luca’s own older brother’s face flashed before his eyes and he shuddered. The whole reason this was happening. Having been orphaned since they were young boys, raised by their aunt and only remaining family member who passed away two years ago, he and his older brother both chose different ways to cope.

While Luca had poured all of his existence into his studies, gaming, programming and little gigs and jobs to earn his money, his brother Dave had chosen the less legal ways to make his life comfortable. Theft.

Having started his own little gang with like-minded young criminals, Dave was living a life entirely different from Luca and the two had barely seen each other since aunt Claire’s passing. Until the jerk was back in Luca’s life, saying he ‘missed his brother’ and would love to hang out together again.

Meaning… He had stolen Luca’s most precious possession, his laptop which he used for everything. Gaming, studying, working, earning his income. It was basically his life. Dave had known right where to hit him the hardest.

It shouldn’t have been this easy, and the campus security might have managed to avoid the whole debacle, but it had been Luca himself who was too naive and allowed Dave to come over. He had thought he was serious about wanting to catch up again like brothers, only to get stabbed in the back. After some small talk and a few sips of soda, Dave repaid Luca’s kindness with a punch in his face and ran out with his most valued item.

The smug bastard said it was easy. All Luca needed to do was join their little gang and he was sure to give him the easiest jobs. Only then he would get his laptop back.

Between the bad options of reporting his brother to the police and getting into even more trouble with the jerk and his evil friends, and actually doing as he was told with the hope that Dave would fulfill his promises as a family member should, Luca ended up choosing the second bad option and joined their gang.

For his first job, they tasked him with the strangest thing ever. He was to steal one bottle of whiskey from The Walters. Now that he had it, he was surprised it wasn’t even a properly sized bottle, so he had no idea why they would make him steal this. His first inkling was that it was purely to mess with him, but now seeing the restaurant owner’s reaction, he thought there might be more to it after all.

Oh right, Luca was laughing his head off right now. “Plehehease! It waahahas juhuhust a souvenihihir!” he lied.

“Not buying it boy,” Hank said. Luca had no idea what was so special about the baby-bottle of whiskey but apparently it was special enough to get tickled to tears for.

“Guys…” Theo mumbled, but he was ignored while the three of them continued torturing poor ticklish Luca. Feeling a certain connection, Luca tried to get Theo’s attention more. He seemed to pity him.

“Hehehelp mehehe! I’m tehehelling the truhuhuth!”

“What if he’s telling the truth?”

“Then he’s in for some more laughter for free. What’s the matter? Laughing is good,” the man on Luca’s left side said. He was burying his fingers under Luca’s arm and tickled him there without mercy.

The other man was attacking his tummy, while the big intimidating Hank attacked Luca’s slender torso with both rough and gentle tickles, from his ribs and sides down the sides of his stomach, his hips and back up again. Repeat.

Luca felt how his legs lost their strength to keep him up, but his arms were still trapped tightly and especially when he sank through his knees, this left his sensitive body and his poor underarms even more exposed and vulnerable to their attacks. If his brother was somehow watching, Luca would rather die than having to face him ever again.

“Y-you guhuhuys ahahare ehehevil!”

“Says master burglar~”

More tickling, more teasing. Help. In this vulnerable position, when both of his armpits were getting tickled mercilessly, Luca finally lost hope that he would get himself out of this with his weak excuses. The truth wasn’t any better, but it was all he had to end this humiliating torture.

“Ahahalright! I’ll talk- I’ll tahahahalk! Plehehease, I’ll tahahalk! I’ll tehehell you eheheverything!”

Hank nodded. “See?” The two jerks on Luca’s sides continued the tickling until Hank gave them a warning look.

“Stop it.”

“Alright, alright.”

They finally released Luca’s arms and he collapsed on the floor, curling up tiredly and still giggling a little while he caught his breath. He heard some sounds of them moving around, and also the soothing sound of running water.

Someone gave him a glass to drink from and he greedily accepted it. He supposed it was either Theo or Hank since the other two were the jerkiest, but without looking he gulped down the water and gasped for air.

Hank pulled a chair towards them and sat down on it. A little higher than Luca who still sat on the wooden floor, but the restaurant owner looked as big and menacing as when he was standing.

“Well, spill it.”

Luca took a deep breath and while he had wanted to just say the simplest thing, that he was tasked to steal the bottle of whiskey by a gang of bad boys, he felt like it might not be enough for them. So he told them everything. From his brother’s crimes to the way he got dragged into them, and the simple task to steal a single whiskey bottle.

“That’s all, I swear. I didn’t want to do it, he made me. I thought he was just messing with me and that the bottle was nothing special, if it was that important I wouldn’t have-”

“It isn’t special,” Hank interrupted, glancing at the others with an unreadable look in his eyes. Their silence after hearing his story was nerve-racking.

“I’m just a student and I want my laptop back, that’s all,” Luca continued. “But my brother is….” he sighed and lowered his head.

“Are you going to report me?” he finally asked in defeat.

The men were all silent for a moment longer. Not even the twins opened their mouth for a snarky remark. Luca could sense the authority of the oldest as the others probably awaited his decision.

“Well…” He glanced at the broken window, and Luca froze. Shit, he had forgotten about that damage too.

Hank smirked. “We could use a dishwasher. One of our student part-timers quit last week, so we could use the extra hands. Since you’re a student and can’t work full-time, hmm… three months of part-time work should do it. Do that, and we won’t report you or charge you for the damages.”

Luca was both relieved and horrified at the same time. Three months. An additional part-time job, and not just that. It was alongside these tickle monsters. He shuddered.

“As for your brother…” Hank paused and Luca could see him think. He then got up and walked into what looked like a storage room. They were all quiet while the big man rummaged through his things. He then came out and handed Luca a bottle that looked just slightly similar to the one he had tried to steal.

“Of course the first thing we’d suggest is to report your brother to the police, but…”

“Family affairs, the police won’t do shit,” one of the twins blurted out. Hank glared at him but didn’t reply.

“Tell him you got caught by us and that we’ll make you work your ass off for the next three months as a punishment, in exchange for not reporting you.” He smirked. “But also tell him you still managed to sneak out this. It’s one of the earlier samples. Looks like whiskey, tastes like piss. Can’t give you more than that, unfortunately.”

Luca nervously accepted the small bottle that had also had ‘Walters Whiskey’ on it and a little scribble below it: failure.

“Tch. Not even public yet and already famous for your stinking whiskey, Hank,” one of the twin jerks said.

“James, stop talking.” Hank didn’t even look at him.

“So kid, do we have a deal?” he asked. Before Luca could answer, suddenly he heard the tiny sound of a camera. They all looked at the youngest in shock: Theo, who stood there with his phone. He held it up and grinned.

“Got his picture in case he bails. We could still report him to the police in that case.”

Great. Thanks, Theo. Luca glared at him, but fair enough. If it had been the other way around, he wouldn’t blindly trust a random thief either, no matter how young, babyfaced or how sad his crybaby-excuses were.

One of the twins picked up the tote bag from the floor and tossed it at Luca’s face.

“We’ll know where to find you too.”

Luca caught the bag and unfolded it, revealing his college logo on it. Another idiot-move to add to his long list. He nodded.

“Yeah…” He took a deep breath. “T-thank you, sir,” he mumbled, turning to Hank in particular.

“Just give me the details, I’ll be here. The next three months.”

Hank’s smile looked genuine. “Sounds good, we’ve got a deal then. James, call Tom about the window.”

“But it’s almost midnight!”

As James got ignored, Hank turned to Theo. “Theodore, you exchange numbers and brief our new recruit about the job. I’ll leave him to you.”

Luca watched how all of them went to do their thing, and he was left alone with Theo, or Theodore. The youngest.

“Give me your phone.”

It wasn’t a request, but an order. Still a little shaken, Luca unlocked his phone and gave it to him. Theo swiftly entered his number and called his own number with Luca’s phone before returning it to him.

“Good. I will message you the details of your first shift. Don’t be late.” He smirked and Luca wasn’t prepared for him to suddenly reach for his stomach with a sneaky poke. He squeaked at the ticklish sensation and Theo laughed.

“Nice,” he said dryly. “See you tomorrow.”

Tomorrow already, fucking great. Getting up, he made his way to the exit and looked over his shoulder. They looked busy, making phone calls, discussing with each other, without even looking his way. He couldn’t believe they would let him go like this.

When Luca made the same mistake for the second time – trying to leave through the door – he was too flustered to call for their attention again and ask to unlock it. Instead, he quickly left through the window like the guilty thief he was and headed back home to his dormitory as fast as possible.

Still in a trance and shivering from the exhaustion and adrenaline, he messaged his brother while on his way.

Got the whiskey.

It didn’t take long for Dave to answer him. Of course not, the bastard night owl was probably up to no good at this time as well.

Good. Tomorrow at 10 AM.

Luca sighed, not looking forward to another reunion with him, but then before he could put his phone away, he received another message. It was from an unknown number, but even without an introduction, it was clear as crystal who the sender was.

First shift: tomorrow 10 AM. Don’t be late.

Well fuck.

SUMMARY: Theodore Walters gets tasked with looking after their new temporary staff member. Despite the awkward first meeting, he realizes he might enjoy their time together more than expected.

TAGS: #Playful Tickling #Brotherly Tickling

WORDS: 3.7K

“They’re a gang of young unsuccessful thieves. Perhaps they just wanted to have a taste of Hank’s exclusive whiskey before it hits the market.”

“I think they merely wanted to sell it while it’s still exclusive. Or save it for later and let its worth increase. Like a rare Pokémon card.”

“Theo you’re such a nerd. Where’s the kid anyway?”

Although Hank wasn’t here right now and Theo was left with his jerky twin brothers, he immediately felt the weight of his new responsibility on his shoulders, and he checked his phone.

“Eh, he’s… late.”

Damn it. Did he bail already? Despite the threat of risking an arrest, ridiculous tickle torture part two, or both? Well, the second one hadn’t been an official threat, but Theo had tried to make it clear that by knowing his weakness, they could punish him however they pleased.

As the youngest brother, Theodore Walters had suffered from plenty of tickle attacks from all three of them. James and Josh were the chief tickle monsters in the family, but Hank could pack a serious punch, er, tickle too.

Theo stared at his phone. His message with the command to be at the restaurant from 10 AM was answered by Luca with I’ll be there!

It was a decent time. Not even that harsh. If James or Josh had been given the task, Theo was sure they would’ve made him come at 6 AM or something, even when they’d still be in bed themselves. It was Sunday too, so he was sure Luca didn’t have any classes.

Theo felt bad for Luca. He thought he genuinely seemed like the struggling student with family and money issues. His inexperience and nervosity appeared genuine too. He wasn’t a real criminal, Theo believed his story.

But as time ticked by and Luca was already almost two hours late and not reading his messages or picking up his calls, he started to wonder if he should simply report him to the police for his vandalism and burglary attempt after all.

He never thought this was what this year’s Thanksgiving would result in. Never a dull moment at The Walters.

Not many people knew since they weren’t very vocal about it, but actually the four of them simply lived right above their restaurant. It wasn’t too illogical to live here, but no one suspected it because the building didn’t look like an apartment building or anything close to a house at all. It wasn’t really cozy or appealing from the outside.

However, hidden right above the restaurant were two floors with shared spaces, small bedrooms and even smaller bathrooms, but enough for the four of them to live in. The only other reason why it must’ve looked abandoned to sneaky little burglars like Luca and his gang, was because the lights had seriously been turned off.

It was their family tradition to have a movie night with cheap snacks and oven-baked pizza on Thanksgiving: their only day off in the year to catch a breather.

The Walters was already in business for longer than Theo or even Hank was alive, and it was famous for being open all the time. It was what made them iconic.

From 11 AM they were open for their first brunch and lunch guests, and at 1 AM they closed after kicking out some of their drunk regulars. On every Friday night, they’d be open until 5 AM for some longer parties.

During last night’s movie night which was supposed to be a geeky marathon of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies, all in a row, they had been interrupted when the noise of breaking glass seemed a little too close.

“What was that sound?” Theodore had been the first and only one to hear it.

“What sound? The sound of those people getting chased by the sexy dinosaur? That sound?” James of course lived to his ‘jerk #1’ reputation.

Jerk #2 followed as if on cue: “Why do you ask, brother? Don’t tell me you’re scared?” He smirked at Theo’s startled expression.

“I swear I heard something downstairs.” He looked at Hank who did not take his eyes off the movie.

“Hank?” Theo begged.

“I didn’t hear anything, but sure, go check.”

Theo didn’t like the idea of going down by himself. What if he was the only one who heard correctly and someone really was there? That’d be awful. Theodore wasn’t necessarily the fighter in the family. But still, when none of his older brothers cared to check, he put on his shoes and made himself ready to go down.

“You guys suck,” he muttered before leaving by himself. He left the coziness of home and walked down the old creaking stairs towards their hallway, restaurant and workplace.

Perhaps it was just a cat, or nothing. He just didn’t want to ignore it and find out later that they’d been robbed. But if it was a robbery… What then?

He shook his head. Fuck it, he wasn’t a coward. The last part of the stairs, he ran in a rush, just to get it over with. He barged into the restaurant and… Well yeah. He could remember the chaotic blur of what happened next: catching a thief red-handed, sending his brothers after him, hearing his loud hysterical laughter as they tickled him mercilessly – that was wild – which all concluded in the most random thing.

Luca got hired.

Well yeah, temporarily and kind of by force. He now worked part-time at The Walters, and Theodore had been the one who was appointed to guide him.

“Rough night?”

Theo looked at the old man who practically ate his late breakfast everyday here. He sat at his usual corner table, enjoying his favorite toastie made by Josh.

As a fellow cook, Theo would usually be in the kitchen too, but right now he stood impatiently in the restaurant, waiting for their newest recruit to arrive.

“You could say that,” Theo said, and he stared at the broken window that had been taped for the time being. Hank’s friend Tom was getting the materials and would be here around noon to fix it.

Despite the late night call, not much could be done at such a late time. Not even Tom was a superhero who could magically fix windows, even though Theo always thought Tom was pretty much like a superhero. The man was even bigger than Hank (impossible but true) and so friendly he could kill people with kindness. Besides that, he could basically do anything. Cleaning, cooking, fixing things. He was the true master.

“I’m sorry I’m late!”

Theo looked up abruptly to see Luca arrive. He was no longer dressed in all black, and in the bright daylight Theo could see the details of his face much better: his big brown eyes, the little mole on his cheek, and the little wound on his lip. Wait, did he have that last night?

Without a word, Theo grabbed Luca by the arm and dragged him to the kitchen.

“Hi!” Luca gave their few early customers a cute greeting before he was dragged along.

In the kitchen, Josh was flirting with their part-time waitress Sora as usual, and they didn’t notice them coming in.

“What took you so long?” Theo asked, and without thinking, he gave Luca a warning poke in his side. The reaction was instant – Luca arched his back and squeaked.

“I’m sohorry!” he giggled nervously. “I’m really sorry. Something came up. M-my brother came to pick up his prize, you know.”

Theo cocked his head and eyed the wound near his lip again. If he studied it closely, he was sure it looked a little swollen too.

“Is he the one who did this to you?” Like a concerned mother, he felt himself move without thinking as he reached for the wound and brushed his thumb against it.

Alright that was a little gay to do, but he was genuinely concerned. Theo may hate his brothers sometimes, but they would never ever hurt him. Tickle him until he may be close to pissing his pants and faint from exhaustion – yes. But hurt him? Never.

“Ah, yeah. His hand slipped I guess.”

Luca sounded so casual about it. Theo sighed and decided not to bother him much longer. “Well, even though you’re late on your first day… I’ll forgive you for now. Here.” He handed Luca the smallest size of their uniform.

“Wear it.”

“But I’m just a dishwasher.”

“Wear it.”

On one hand their new recruit appeared like the cute, shy and innocent guy despite last night’s crime. On the other hand he was like this. A little sassy and with an attitude that almost seemed like he was asking for another tickle treatment.

“Fine.”

Without warning, Luca pulled his shirt up over his head, and Theo who hadn’t been prepared to suddenly get flashed like this, stared at his bare torso in surprise.

“Not here!” he hissed.

“But you said I should wear it.”

Theo noted the bruise on Luca’s side and he was sure that last night’s tickling incident did not cause something like that. His brothers weren’t that harsh. Rather than his brothers, he was certain Luca’s own brother might be involved. Perhaps he’d done more than simply hit him in the face.

“Done.”

Luca handed Theo his things and he smiled.

“Now what do I do?”

That little… Theo chuckled and shook his head.

“Follow me.”

They were about the same age, but it felt like dealing with a kid. Luca was in awe as he looked around the kitchen. It wasn’t the fanciest restaurant kitchen.

It didn’t have the coolest appliances and biggest ovens, or a fancy dishwasher machine that did everything for them. As an old family business they were thriving well enough with the things they had, but at the same time they weren’t rich enough to expand. Not yet, at least.

Theo was certain Hank’s newly found hobby of brewing his own whiskey might do the thing someday.

Hank, his older brother, as well as owner and bartender of The Walters, was already pretty famous for his unique trademark drinks. On top of that, he had the handsome face and cool tough build that attracted plenty of customers to keep them running successfully for years, even after their uncle – and original owner of The Walters – passed away.

With his new whiskey brewing hobby and experiments of which only a few people knew, Theo could already imagine the brand growing into something serious that would attract even more customers, and he could already imagine the bottles getting sold by stores and online wholesalers. Perhaps they could even open a webshop of their own.

Theo’s excitement may also have been the reason why word got out about one of Hank’s first few testers in the first place. He didn’t admit it to his brothers, fearing they would judge him for being the cause of what happened with Luca, but Theo definitely ran his mouth a few times in his excitement when he spoke with customers.

It wasn’t even that much of a deal, but he had noted Hank’s confusion last night because he rarely talked about his hobby and barely anyone knew about it, let alone about his first little experiment bottles.

It was still in such an early stage, and Hank only held a tiny tester of his most successful attempt at the bar so some of his trusted friends and regulars could have a first taste. People he trusted and who were unlikely to spread the word to… bad people.

Well, Theodore was sure he didn’t tell any potential criminals either, but he may have been a little careless and his few comments may have been overheard by people with bad intentions.

“So, you’ll be fine?” he asked Luca after giving him all the explanation a dishwasher could need.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Theo nodded and patted his back. “Good.” He went back to his actual duties.

Together with Josh he was the cook responsible for preparing every single meal. With the two of them, and occasional assistance from their part-time workers, restaurant manager James and even big boss Hank, they managed well thanks to years of experience, a conveniently developed menu, and trial & error.

It had never been Theo’s desire to become a cook, but life kind of turned out that way. When their uncle died and Hank could take over the business in exchange for eternal devotion, well, the choice was quickly made.

Ever since then, The Walters had undergone some remarkable growth and transformations, making it into the thriving modern business it was today and even better and more successful than before, but still nostalgic enough to keep attracting its past loyal customers as well.

Theodore and his brothers – none of them were in ideal situations before they moved into the space where their uncle and his dogs used to live, right above the restaurant.

Hank was already working at their uncle’s restaurant almost 24/7, learning all about the bartender tips and tricks long before he took over the reins.

James and Josh had both dropped out of school like the lazy and troublesome twins they were, and Theo. Well. He couldn’t even remember much of his life before The Walters became the leading part in it.

Theo was just thinking back of it when he felt a presence next to him.

“What do I do now?”

Luca stood beside him like a child needing assistance. Theo was about to scold him when he glanced over his shoulder and saw he had finished all the dishes.

“There’ll be more soon.”

He continued cutting the vegetables for their trademark lunch curry. A vibrant curry with cauliflower, potatoes and chickpeas, served with white rice or naan bread – which Josh was currently preparing. A fan favorite dish that was both vegetarian and easy to make, and customers couldn’t get enough of.

Theo glanced at Luca who wouldn’t leave his side. “Ever cut a cauliflower?” he finally asked when he still wouldn’t budge.

“No.” Luca had a funny smile on his face. Tch.

Rolling his eyes, Theo grabbed one of the huge vegetables, grabbed a cutting board and a knife, and placed them next to him.

“Wash your hands. Cut the cauliflower, then go back to doing the dishes.”

“But I said I never cut one before.”

“So this’ll be your first time. Congrats.”

Luca didn’t argue much more and did as he was told. From the corner of his eye, Theo watched him butcher the vegetable clumsily. He tried to hide the smile on his face but probably failed, since Luca looked at him and a huge grin appeared. Cute… Theo froze and quickly looked away. What the fuck.

“Am I doing well?”

“No.”

They continued like this for the rest of the day. Luca actually didn’t do too horribly. He fulfilled his duties and switched in funny ways between his obedient puppy behavior and the attitude of the sassy ticklish rascal who had tried to lie to Hank’s face the night before.

“Here. Take a break.”

Theo decided to be merciful after Luca had worked for a while without sitting down and eating once, despite the freedom to grab a snack in the kitchen at any time. Theo handed him a bowl of the curry, and he smirked when Luca accepted it greedily.

“That looks delicious.”

“It is delicious. Sit down and eat. You know where to find the staff table.”

Luca nodded and went into the staff room next door to the kitchen. Well, more like a staff-square as they called it. The tiny square room was a cramped area that had been used as a storage space in the past.

But since their aunt – who passed away first – and uncle only used to live above the restaurant with the two of them, plus dogs, they had more space left to use for their staff.

Hank, Theo, Josh and James lived up here with the four of them. Four adult men, and they were old and big enough to not be into bedroom-sharing. So the little square room next to the kitchen was their only staff space. Not that it mattered much, with their tiny team they didn’t need much more space anyway.

“All going smoothly, right?” Theo asked Josh. The curry and naan were prepared in big batches and were still getting served – bless this menu.

Preparations for every possible sandwich and toastie order were done too. There was still plenty of soup as well. Basically that was usually all there was to their Sunday afternoon orders.

“You take a break too,” Josh told him. He may be a jerk, but he was also a kind jerk. Theo smirked.

“Don’t mind if I do~” He also got himself some curry and joined Luca in the staff-square.

“This is so good,” Luca said with his mouth full when Theo entered.

“Right?” he said proudly. He eyed the seat next to Luca and opposite him, hesitating for a brief second where was the best place to sit with the little space they had.

He chose to sit next to him so he wouldn’t be forced to awkwardly stare at Luca’s face while eating. However the moment he sat next to him and their arms brushed together, he regretted this decision. A blush crept to his cheeks, and he felt very aware of the close proximity.

“You’ve been a chef here for long?” Luca asked, still enjoying his food. Theo nodded.

“Yeah. Rolled straight out of high school into the kitchen.”

Luca hummed. “That’s so cool. I wish I could work for a living without studying. Not that I don’t enjoy my studies,” he quickly said. “It just seems easy.”

Theo didn’t think it was that easy, but he decided to ignore that to ask a question: “So if you’re all by yourself, where do you live?”

“Campus.”

“I see.”

Strange thought that Luca’s roof over his head was literally tied to his studies.

“What if you fail your studies? Or quit?”

“I won’t.”

“But what if you do?”

Luca munched dreamily and after swallowing replied: “Guess I’ll live on the streets then.” He laughed as if it was a joke, but it was probably the truth. Such a strange thought.

“Can I ask you some questions too?” Luca asked.

Theo shrugged. “Sure.” He felt Luca shift beside him and was very aware of those big Bambi-eyes staring at him.

“What were you guys doing here last night?”

Ah. Theo grinned. Of course. Hardly anyone knew they literally lived here. It wasn’t information they announced out loud all the time. They didn’t need to. It wasn’t anyone’s business where they went after closing time. As far as outsiders knew, they had nothing but some office and storage space upstairs. On top of that, they were open pretty much all the time, and it was already known they ran the business with the four of them, so no matter how often they were sighted here, it didn’t stand out.

Only their friends and a few very loyal regulars knew about their apartment upstairs. It wasn’t a real secret so Theo didn’t see a reason to lie to Luca. Even then, he couldn’t help himself.

“You know, some rituals.” He glanced sideways and saw the big brown Bambi-eyes getting even bigger.

“Rituals?”

Theo chuckled. “You know why Thanksgiving is the only day in the year we’re closed?”

Luca opened his mouth then closed it again. Theo could see him think.

“No… W-why?”

A silence followed, which was effective for the suspense, and also for Theo to do some more thinking. Sadly he wasn’t creative enough to come up with something funny, so he merely said: “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

Leaving him hanging, Theo got up and pushed his finished bowl in Luca’s direction.

“Here. Dishes to wash.” He left Luca sputtering by himself in confusion. He wasn’t sure why but the wannabe-burglar was awfully fun to mess with.

Maybe because Theo had been the younger brother all this time, on the receiving end of his older brothers’ mischief, pranks and jokes for as long as he could remember.

Speak of the devils. When Theo left the staff-square, he was greeted in the kitchen by his jerk twin brothers who immediately grabbed him. One wrapped his arm around his neck, the other tickled his sides with both hands.

“HEY! Hehehey stop!” Theo whined, struggling in their grip.

“Flirting with the new staff on day one hm?”

“Looks like our little bro’s got a thing for criminals. Kinky~”

They were the absolute worst. Theo struggled but was unable to hold back his laughter. “Lehehet go ohohof mehehe!”

Luckily they didn’t bully him for long. Sora arrived in the kitchen to pick up the next orders. She gave them a judging look and rolled her eyes. Sora, or actually Yoon So-ra, their South Korean colleague looked as pretty as ever while she judged them.

“Don’t mind us,” Josh sang. As soon as Theo was free and ready to go back to work, Luca also joined them again. He stared obliviously at Theo’s disheveled look but didn’t comment on it. Without a word, he resumed his work.

A little embarrassed, Theo put his hand on his own chest and shuddered when he realized how his heart was racing.

The sudden tickle attack may have played a part, but Luca’s presence….

Fucking damn it. Theodore had known he was gay since elementary school, but it couldn’t be he was this gay to fall for the burglar-dishwasher guy on his first day at work… Right? Right.

SUMMARY: Spending time at The Walters is going more smoothly than Luca initially thought. He especially likes the company of one specific person.

TAGS: #Playful Tickling #Romantic Tickling

WORDS: 4.2K

Classes. Homework. A couple of programming gigs for some extra money. Dishwashing punishment. Classes again.

Luca had been quite the busy guy lately. He turned off notifications so he wouldn’t get tempted by his gamer friends who were all whining about his absence.

On Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, as well as his entire Sundays he worked at The Walters. Theodore was kind enough to not put him to work on Saturdays, until now, so Luca still had time left for his studies and side jobs.

His brother hadn’t been too pleased about Hank’s ugly fake tester bottle, but it did save Luca’s ass enough to get his laptop back as promised, and he escaped from Dave’s fury with nothing more than a few bruises and banishment from the gang for his failure of getting caught on his first job. Heh.

It had been Luca’s luck to get kicked from the group of young criminals before he could proceed with his new crime career, thank god. Not even Dave wanted Luca to get arrested – probably also to save his own ass – so he had no choice but to let him off to fulfill his dishwashing punishment for the upcoming three months.

Realizing this, Luca couldn’t help but feel disappointed at the thought that one day, this three month punishment would end, making him an easy target for Dave and his antics once again.

Although… as the leader and founder of his gang, Dave must’ve been humiliated that it went so very wrong by dragging his own nerd-brother in, even though it had been by force and Dave himself was also to blame for not knowing that despite being closed, the Walters brothers would still be at the damn restaurant for… whatever reason.

During his first few days at work, Luca often remembered Theo’s explanation of them performing some ritual, and although he felt curious, he didn’t ask about it again. Were they psycho brothers? Were they into weird, shady things? They were quite young after all, how did they run such a business with such a small team? He thought it might have been their luck that a guilty thief could offer them an extra pair of hands for a few months, especially during the busy December days.

The team was so small that after only one week, he already knew each and every face of all the staff members since there weren’t many, and after two weeks he also knew pretty much all he needed to know about their personalities and interests.

Hank was the restaurant owner, often called ‘boss’ or ‘chief’ sarcastically by his brothers and simply ‘Hank’ by the others, including Luca, without any formalities. His arms were covered in tattoos and he enjoyed mixing drinks and appeared to be fond of books and movies as well.

The twin brothers James and Josh, who were both called ‘the jerks’ or ‘jerk #1’ and ‘jerk #2’ more often than their names, even by the ballsy part-timers (not Luca though), both had divided responsibilities. Josh was full-time in the kitchen, invested in cooking together with Theo, and James was more or less the manager, mostly present in the restaurant to serve customers, guide the part-timers and keep overview. The fact he was there pretty much 24/7 was part of the restaurant’s charm. Jerk or not, people liked James. He was handsome and polite to the customers and a talent at remembering faces.

The 25-year-old twin brothers were similar in their personalities and behavior, but Luca could tell them apart pretty easily, and not only by their different hairstyles and outfits. James with his pretty man-bun and beard similar to Hank’s was the one who was the loudest, most annoying and dominant one of the two.

Josh was less loud, but still sarcastic and annoying enough to earn his jerk #2 reputation. He was also the flirtiest of the two.

Besides the brothers, the staff consisted of merely four other people. The first person Luca met: the beautiful Sora, a South Korean exchange student.

Luca felt bad for giving in to stereotypes, but he genuinely believed this beauty could star in a cosmetics commercial or in a girly K-Pop group. She would work here for the remainder of her studies for some extra earnings and experience, and would then return to Seoul. However she ended up at the shady Walters business, Luca had no clue.

The second person Luca met was Daniel. He was… odd, but Luca couldn’t say how. He wasn’t very social and always looked tired, and although Luca could relate to his introvert personality, they didn’t talk much. He was a law student who actually looked like the exact type who’d be part of Dave’s criminal gang and Luca wondered why he was working at The Walters where he didn’t seem to fit in at all, despite the friendly family vibes the others all radiated. He wouldn’t be surprised if Daniel was also a former thief, working at the restaurant by force until the end of his punishment.

The third person Luca met only worked from late afternoon until closing time on selected days with irregular structure: Taylor, a charming handsome young man who spent most of his time bartending and assisting James and Hank with managing the restaurant. He loved board and card games and always brought his cheerful Dachshund Barbara (‘Barb’) to the restaurant, who was welcomed with love and cheers by the customers.

Hank, despite being the most popular person and the actual owner of it all, was rarely seen during the day. He mostly worked in the office upstairs, according to Theo, and was only seen during the busiest hours, especially late night. Luca did believe that despite not being seen much, Hank worked the hardest, running the business and everything behind the scenes, as well as managing his mysterious family.

Luca still couldn’t understand what Theo meant with the ‘rituals’, and at times he was sure he saw some of them go into the door and up the mysterious stairs from where they came that fateful night. He had asked the part-timers once if they knew what the brothers were up to, but they chose not to respond, making him even more wary.

The last staff member Luca met was actually the only full-time worker at The Walters and by coincidence on holiday during his first few days. Dani, the pretty blonde who was so beautiful she could practically join Sora in whatever cosmetics commercial. Dani had been quite surprised to see their spontaneous new worker Luca on the team when she returned.

“Who’s this kid?”

By now he knew Theo was only one year older than he was, but they still would refer to Luca as ‘kid’ and ‘boy’ which was sometimes rather embarrassing.

Even though Luca was still a student and Theo already had a full-time job, that didn’t mean he was necessarily less mature than Theo was. Less experienced, sure, but he wasn’t a kid. Then again, he couldn’t blame them. Theo may be the youngest in his family, but with his 6’2, he was much taller than Luca (and taller than the twins to their dismay) and he did not have a baby-face at all.

In fact… Luca stared at Theo’s face. Thinking about it, Theo was actually his favorite person. No matter how mysterious and strange he thought he might be, Luca found himself drawn towards him. He was kind, playful, and passionate about his job.

While his hair had the same brown color as his brothers', unlike their dark eyes his were green, and Luca would tend to get lost in them. Not to mention those cute dimples on his cheeks. His looks could surely pass for an actor or model, perhaps, with his handsome and mature features. Heck, he could join Sora and Dani in their commercial. Luca snorted at the thought.

“Something funny?”

Luca froze and looked at the subject of his random humor. Theodore Walters stood suddenly very close, staring at him with his judging eyes. Ahem, personal space?

“Yes,” he blurted out. Theo cocked an eyebrow. Luca remained silent.

“What?” he asked when Theo didn’t say anything.

“Well? What was so funny?”

Luca smirked. “Ah, so that’s what you wanted to know.”

“Obviously.”

“Not that obvious… I can’t read minds.”

Luca had no idea what it was about Theo but he just loved to be a little mean to him sometimes. It was fun to provoke him, and while Dave might’ve punched him painfully in the stomach for giving him a tiny bit of attitude, Theo would only retort with ー

“Hehehey! S-stop!”

Tickling!

Luca giggled brightly and caught the grabby hands that tried to attack his sides.

“Don’t forget I’m still your boss. Stop giving me that attitude.” Although he tried to sound strict, Theodore was definitely grinning.

In the beginning, Luca had been nervous to spend so much time with the tickle monster brothers, but the twins and Hank did in fact not touch him again ever since his burglary attempt. They even apologized for it, to which Luca quickly admitted that he had been through worse things, it was fine. He would even smile and giggle at the memory of that ridiculous predicament, but of course he wouldn't say that out loud.

The only person who still did tickle him every now and then was Theodore, and well, also in this case, Luca didn’t really mind. He would even provoke him from time to time.

“Technically, Hank is my boss. You’re just- NO Theheheo quihihit it!” Luca darted through the kitchen but was caught around his middle and tickled for as long as their privacy allowed it.

“Less flirting, more working,” Josh sang when he returned from his break.

Luca blushed and quickly looked at Theo, but he remained cool and casual. “Yes sir,” he said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

…. It hadn’t been the first time they got caught messing around like this. Luca would swear on his scholarship that their occasional playful struggles had been purely platonic, like brothers messing around.

But the next moment he’d instantly fear he might as well give up on his scholarship, since the tingling feeling in his chest went beyond the mere feelings of ticklishness.

Luca found himself thinking about his scholarship and education more and more these days. His poor family situation – low income for the win – combined with his passionate nerdy dreams granted him the opportunity of a lifetime. A scholarship that covered his tuition, housing and fees, and even his food (at least, if he chose to dine on campus).

Of all the students eligible for the scholarship, Luca had never expected he would be among the chosen ones, but it was one of his biggest blessings in life. With aunt Claire’s sudden passing and no other place to live, it was also all he had left. He was to complete his Computer Science studies while earning his future income on the side, then hopefully survive on his own with a successful career afterwards. Fingers crossed.

Besides the pressure of having to earn his credits in order to keep his scholarship, and the challenge of building his own future all by himself, Luca found himself stressing about his life choices especially these days, wondering if he had made the wrong decisions.

He was dedicating himself to computers because he thought it would give him future stability and because he was good at it, but now that he spent a lot of time at The Walters and saw how happy they were running a business like this, he wondered if he should’ve picked something that was more… team-spirited and less lonely than the solo computer nerd life he had planned out for himself.

On top of that, he literally risked losing everything with that foolish move: getting lured into Dave’s trap, blinded by his dependence on his precious laptop. Whenever he saw Sora and Daniel working for their earnings, Luca wondered why he had been an idiot to think that obeying Dave and his orders to steal were going to save him, rather than working part-time at places like this.

Then again, he had little to no confidence in his social skills or other skills that involved anything but computers, and he had no idea what their paychecks looked like.

Speaking of…

“Luca Valley.”

They all perked up when Hank’s low voice was suddenly heard in the middle of the kitchen. Luca stopped doing the dishes to see the big man in the door opening. He lazily held up an envelope, waiting for him to come forward.

Luca ignored Josh (“Is your last name Valley? Heehee!”) and Theo (trying to sneakily poke his side as he slipped past him) until he stood before the 6’6 beast of a man.

Hank waved the envelope impatiently. “It’s yours.”

Luca frowned and took the envelope hesitantly. “What is…?” he murmured. Hank smirked.

"Your first paycheck. I wanted to give it to you since you're not working tomorrow. The first month isn't over yet, but it'll be Christmas soon and I'll be a little busy, so the administration may get delayed. Apologize for that in advance guys," Hank said to the others, looking over Luca's shoulder at the team.

Before Luca could open the envelope, Hank patted his shoulder. “Just the share of the tips. Don’t get your hopes up.” He winked, then glanced once more at the rest of the team and left the kitchen again.

Luca hadn’t even been able to thank him yet. He never got his hopes up for anything – he was simply working here to make up for the window damage and to keep himself out of the hands of the police. He never expected them to pay him anything. Not even 1% of the tips, let alone this. His eyes widened when he noted the amount of cash. It was… generous, to say the least, and it hadn’t even been a month yet.

“Chief’s not such a bad guy, right?” Theo sounded proud as he stood next to him. Luca glanced sideways and blushed.

“I never thought he was a bad guy,” he replied. If anyone was a bad guy, it was his own brother, who had been conveniently quiet the past weeks.

Theo patted his shoulder right where Hank had patted him just now. For some reason his touch felt warmer and heavier, even when Hank’s hand was much bigger.

“Put that in your bag, it’s time for your break anyway.”

Luca nodded and went into the tiny staff room where his bag was hanging on a chair. He felt like a loser but he was close to almost crying. He had been a fucking thief. Even without stealing anything successfully, he broke into The Walters with the intention to steal. And yet they were so kind to him.

“Luca~? Forgetting something?”

He turned around to see Theo at the door. He was smirking as he held up two plates.

“Pick one.”

Luca shrugged. They were both toasties, but he assumed the fillings were different.

“Pick. One.”

Pffft. He rolled his eyes fondly and pointed to the right. “That one then.”

“Great. Kimchi for you. Eggplant for me.” Luca was a little relieved with his choice after all, and he couldn’t help but grin at Theo’s adorable reaction.

Although the restaurant was quite famous for their small but delicious menu, not everything they came up with were things Luca would personally like to eat. Seeing Theo this genuinely pleased with his eggplant toastie – definitely not Luca’s favorite – was pretty cute.

Theo chose the seat opposite Luca’s and started to eat. Luca was still standing after putting his new earnings into his bag, and he slowly sat down as well.

He knew from the other part-timers that due to their small team, breaks were often spent alone. It wasn’t necessarily lonely – they could either leave the door open and chat with those in the kitchen, or spend time scrolling through their social media feeds.

Strangely, Luca and Theo were often spending their breaks together. Luca would convince himself it was what Theo did as his, uh, mentor? To keep him company even during his breaks, or perhaps, to keep an eye on him to make sure he wouldn’t turn into a thief again and steal their colleagues’ belongings.

But when he wasn’t busy trying to convince himself of that, he found himself secretly wishing there were other reasons.

With how handsome, kind and playful Theodore was, it wasn’t a surprise that the guy managed to make Luca’s heart race a little after all. A little, or a lot.

“You haven’t asked me any questions today,” Theo said all of a sudden. He was still in the middle of eating but probably caught Luca staring quietly at him.

Oh, right. Luca asked him a lot of questions on auto-pilot, everytime he was here. Favorite movie (Inception), whether he was into sports (not really), his favorite food (pizza), what kind of music he liked (anything with a nice beat), if their family and/or business were related in any way to the band The Walters (nope), and if he owned any pets (no, but they used to take care of three dogs after his uncle’s passing, and they all died when he was a teen). Among other things.

“Right… You want me to ask a question?” Luca asked, grinning.

Theo shook his head. “No. I was just relieved you might’ve run out of questions.” The playful smirk on his face was way too cute. Luca giggled.

“Definitely not. Alright, I’d like to ask: why are all of you single?”

Theodore was munching on his food but froze visibly. “Pardon?”

Luca put down his toastie (delicious by the way) and asked again: “Why are The Walters all single?”

“Who says we are?” Theo asked.

“The lack of lovers visiting the place tells me you are.”

Theo squinted his eyes. “You’re a part-timer, it doesn’t mean a thing. We might as well be dating after hours. Or on other days.”

“Except – you’re pretty much working all the time. Your twin brothers are flirting with staff members and customers, and not once did I hear any of you mention a lover. You don’t call or text anyone during your breaks or when we finish work, and you don’t seem to be in love with anyone at all. “

Touché. Theodore nodded slowly and sighed. “Well, there you have it. We work all the time, so indeed, no lovers. Very observant of you.” He gave Luca a mild applause, but not in a condescending way. More like playful and teasing. It made Luca blush and giggle sheepishly. He hoped his nosiness didn’t offend him.

“It’s too bad. You guys seem…” he mumbled and he blushed more when Theo raised his eyebrows.

“….dateable?” Luca chirped.

“Dateable huh? Well, the twins are anything but dateable. They’re flirty and jerky to the max.”

“They’re womanizers?”

Theo’s laugh surprised Luca; it was loud, charming and spontaneous – not at all the funny pitchy kind of laugh he’d hear whenever the twins would tickle him playfully.

“No, no. You’ve been observant but not observant enough. They’re very gay, so definitely not womanizers. Or well, let’s say queer. Josh has slept with women too. Partly womanizer maybe, if he wasn’t such a loser.”

“Pansexual? Bisexual?”

“The latter. According to him, so yeah, a trustworthy source I guess.”

They both snickered. Luca felt the nerves and tingles in his stomach going crazy. He could feel how the conversation was steering towards the possibility of learning the information he actually wanted to know the most. It wasn’t a completely random question after all.

After days of working together and growing closer to Theodore, this had been the topic he had wanted to discuss the most, but he had been too awkward and shy to start it sooner. The questions being: was Theo seeing anyone? He was pretty sure he wasn't, but he didn't want to be wrong. And was he straight or perhaps...?

Surely the twins would often joke about the two of them flirting with each other, but they were known to be jerks. Theo might be straight, and it could be their way of bullying their younger brother.

“What about you?” Luca asked him.

Theo calmly continued to chew on his food and eyed Luca with a teasing look in his eyes. “What about me?” he asked finally.

“Are you…? You know? Like your brothers…?”

“Queer?”

Luca nodded. “Yeah?”

Totally not an awkward thing to ask your co-worker, at all. Nah. Theo grinned. “You could say that.”

It was a little vague, and Luca was just wondering if he had hit a nerve and should stop asking about this, when Theo added: “Been gay since elementary school at least. Closeted. I was already an adult when I came out.”

Luca raised his eyebrows. “Closeted?”

He nodded. “Very. What was I to do? The twins were already getting teased and bullied. People would call them the twinks. Funny huh?”

Not exactly, but Luca smiled awkwardly and nodded. “Very funny,” he said sarcastically.

Theo continued: “Don’t worry, They think it’s funny. The nickname, not the bullying itself. But yeah, everyone knew about them, and even though they handled it well, it wasn’t always fun. And Hank, although he didn’t date, I was aware he only slept with women. With him being the only straight guy in the family, I feared he would be disappointed if I came out too. I didn’t want to do that to him.”

Understandable. Luca never came out to his brother. He could practically already feel the beating he would get after announcing to Dave he was gay.

“So, in the end you just told them? That you’re… into guys?” he asked, hoping that wasn’t too insensitive. Theodore shook his head.

“No.”

He paused, and then chuckled. “They found out. Of course they did. No, I wasn’t bringing a guy home, or crushing on anyone too obviously. It was very simple. It was actually during one of our Thanksgivings. We were watching some Marvel Avengers movies and at some point Josh was joking about dating Black Widow, you know, Scarlett Johansson. She was honestly pretty, so I guess I just felt like joking along and said I’d date her too.”

His smile turned bigger, his eyes sparkling at the memory. “Then James said, no you wouldn’t date her, and Josh agreed, saying I’d be more of a Captain America dude.”

“That’s it?”

“They joked that Hank can have Black Widow, so the three of us could fight over the sexy men: Captain America, Iron Man and Thor. We laughed about this for the rest of the movie night.”

“Seriously? That’s how you were outed?” Luca snickered. The mention of Thanksgiving and ‘movie night’ made a new question come up: was this the ritual Theo had mentioned the other day? Innocent Thanksgiving movie nights? He decided to save it for later. He didn’t want to change the subject.

"Silly right? I didn't need to come out of the closet, I guess they simply dragged me out. It made me realize they must've known all along, or at least for a while. Hearing them talk like that, I knew they all accepted me for who I was," Theo said.

“Of course they do. I can see they love you very much,” Luca blurted out, and he quickly stuffed his mouth with food that was getting cold.

“What about you?” Theo asked. The sudden shift made Luca choke and he coughed.

“What about me what?” he gasped after he drank some water and caught his breath.

Theo chuckled but didn’t answer. He waited patiently for him to recover from his coughing fit. Luca felt his heart go crazy. What about him what? Why he was single? Or whether he was also…? He hoped that was what he meant.

Luca really wanted Theo to know he was into guys too. Maybe he already sensed it, but he wanted to say it without making it awkward.

“Well?” Theo smiled curiously. He still didn’t elaborate! Luca felt he was sweating a little and hummed.

“Me? Well….” He then sighed in relief when he found the perfect answer.

“Guess I’m just as single as you guys, but if I could choose… I’d be more of a Winter Soldier dude.”

Theo raised his eyebrows. “The Winter Soldier huh?” He smirked. “Why him? Is it the hair?”

“No, the metal arm.”

…..

Another silence followed while Luca kind of anticipated Theo’s reaction. He stared quietly before suddenly jumping up from his chair, circling around the table to attack him with tickles.

“Hey-hehehey why would you- Theheheo!”

“Good question, I wonder why,” Theo sang. It was a little random, but even then, Luca had anticipated this. Tickling had been their way of playing around with each other, and now that this conversation had finally taught him that they were both, well yeah, gay… Luca blushed when he felt Theo wiggle his fingers against his ribs and tummy while he cackled and tried to escape. He realized there may definitely be more to this than just brotherly playfulness.

“Theo-not thehere wahait- ahaha lehehet me eheheat!”

“Didn’t think so~”

“Wahaha ho-dohohon’t! Aaaahh!”

Two other things Luca realized: he may not have a metal arm, but Theo was definitely strong. And the second thing: they must’ve been on a break for a while now and no one was barging in to call them out for it. Well, lucky them!

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