"It's not a siren." Ansgar looked down at the half eaten strawberry. "My brother was 8 when he started looking after Rik when he was injured. He used to sleep like that next to Rik when he was sick."
It would have been nice if it was something as fun as a siren song but Ansgar didn't go into the reasons or the whys. It was enough that Mikkel cared for the sick.
"Mikkel cares for people. He won't want anything to happen to Dee." Ansgar trusted his brother. He might be a brat, rebellious, annoying, but he cared. It was amazing to Ansgar that after everything his baby brother still had that sweet heart inside even if he had a fortress around it sometimes.
It would have been nice were sirens to blame. Jay could hear the way the drummer’s tone shifted.
“That happened more than it should have, didn’t it…”
He knew the Soeren boys, like Dee, had escaped some pretty horrific things at home. Different horrors (and likely over a much longer period and from a much younger age), but horrors nonetheless. He didn’t know many of the details, nor did he want to pry. Like with Dee, he wanted only to create a safe and supportive space.
“You don’t ever have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” He encouraged. “But if you need to, you’re safe here.”
Ansgar set the strawberry down and nodded. He didn't even know how much happened, not completely.
"In our family boys are useless. Rik's talent protected him but.. when Mikkel was born..." Ansgar shook his head. "My parents never held him, never fed him. My sister and I kept him alive."
If Jay thought about the ages he would realize that his drummer was caring for an infant at five or six years old. Ansgar frowned and shook his head again before glancing back toward the bedroom. "We all ran but he was too young and what they did for those three years before we could get him out."
Ansgar could only shrug. "We don't know but Torden picked him up off the street once and they had tried to beat him unconscious so Rik's father could give him to a friend for a political favor."
Ansgar, and Rik, both knew Mikkel's pretty face was a blessing and a curse. It let him get out of that house sometimes, make money, but it also made him a target for things that Ansgar didn't even want to think about.
"He's a better person than any of the rest of us." Ansgar believed that. He knew his brother had endured things that would break people and here he was still fun-loving and caring. "Dee's safer in there with him than anywhere else." Ansgar believed that in the very core of his soul.
A target for things similar to what happened to Aarne. Or worse. The whole 'political favor gift' just about bordered on unspeakable. Jay's eyes widened.
His heart really did go out to Ansgar and his family. They'd survived some absolute nightmarish situations. There weren't words for that.
"Just like I always promise Dee, you're safe here. All of you are."
And if Ansgar wanted a hug, Jay would be happy to oblige. (If he weren't feeling like crap, Dee would easily do the same.)
Ansgar looked down and sighed while shaking his head. "I don't know that he will ever feel anywhere is safe."
Ansgar picked up another strawberry to give him something to do with his hands. "He came here last year and almost took Mikkel and Rik." Ansgar took a bite of the strawberry and looked up at Jay trying to smile the best he could. "We appreciate it though even if we can't always believe it."
That was the honesty of the situation, especially for Mikkel and Ansgar who were so newly free of the nightmare.
[yeah, I know it’s the wrong person’s icon, but I don’t have a good shot of Jay making that face…]
“He?”Jay asked before he could fully put two and two together.
This, on top of the anecdotes shared in the limo ride to waffle house, made Jay really pause. Suddenly, hiring an entire gang to be your security detail didn’t sound so odd.
“From the look of it, I think everyone here would fight tooth and nail to keep that from ever happening again.”
"Rik's father." Ansgar clarified and then focused on eating strawberries to distract himself.
He sighed heavily. "My uncle is wealthy and a politician. It's hard to accept people fighting when we.. I know what he does when people get in his way."
It was a hard place to be. All the Danes loved and appreciated the people who would come to their defense. However, they also had moments of wanting to send them away to keep them safe. They worried about it.
"I'm glad Mikkel is getting a chance for some schooling." Ansgar wanted to get back on a good topic. He didn't like speaking about the darker points for too long.
Call him sheltered by wealth himself, but Jay couldn't fathom something like that that even happening here. It was probably a good thing the conversation started to shift.
Ansgar winced as he set aside the strawberry stem. "Everything?" the drummer spoke the words slowly.
"You don't understand. He wasn't allowed, or couldn't go, to school. My brother barely knows how to write." Worldly as Mikkel was, he wasn't book smart the way someone who had any schooling could be. Ansgar briefly wondered if that is why he got along so well with Vars, someone else who struggled with writing and reading? That thought went by the wayside.
"Torden has been teaching him to read and write for awhile now." Ansgar thought that was good because the older Dane had the patience of a saint which wasn't ruffled by Mikkel's childish frustration. "When you talk to him about things it is all memory. I don't think he's read much past kids books."
It might have been a serious discussion but he started to laugh anyway. In part, he could hear his brother having some bratty, sassy comeback to that comment.
"He can count money. Stripping taught him to do that years ago." Which was an honest answer. "He's worked since he was 13 in a job that is all about luring people in and convincing them to give you money. He could probably convince them to give you their clothes too if you wanted."
The Soerens had long ago gotten over the idea of Mikkel being in an adult industry too young. He was safe enough and street smart. It was a situation of do what you had to in order to survive and sometimes it was questionable but still necessary.
He glanced back toward the master bedroom. Both Mikkel and Dee must have been sound asleep. Everything was so quiet.
Thirteen year olds should be learning to count money from their allowances. Or maybe by being class treasurer. Something like that. Never mind the fact that they shouldn't be taking their clothes off for the pleasure of strangers.
Jay thought for a moment, and then boldly declared, "If he wants a job working the merch table on commission, I'll hire him."
"He took our sister's ID, and mine, to get an audition. He was safer at the club with all the other girls and the bouncers watching out for him than he ever was at home." Ansgar realized it wasn't easy for a person from a more normal life to understand. Sigurd still blew up over things from their past and that might never change.
"I'm sure he would work your table." Ansgar knew his brother liked to work, at least when he was good at it. He shrugged. "My brother enjoys what he does. He likes living as a girl and dancing. He deserves to do what makes him happy. He deserves to be happy after what's happened."
Ansgar was staunch about that part of Mikkel's life. The moment stripping didn't make his brother happy, he would be the first one to get him out. But now, he saw him happy and Fredrik and Sigurd seemed to enjoy his work too. Those were the things that mattered more than what the job was.
He wasn't kidding when he called Mikkel the best salesperson he'd ever met. He'd be a fool not to offer him a job.
Plus, if Mikkel had a job with Kuro, he'd not only be making money without having to strip for it, he'd also be on the road with Ansgar. The drummer would know that his brother was safe, because they'd be together, looking out for each other.
"It sounds like you want it to be my brother's table." Ansgar smiled and laughed a little more. It wouldn't stop his brother from guesting at strip clubs along the way but it would keep some of his nights busy.
All he could do is shake his head. "You know, my brother won the award for best legs in LA this past summer?" The girl mythos was deep around his brother and it had amused him and Rekker to no end hearing that his brother beat all the women. It had come with a bit of prize money too which Rekker had helped the Dane invest. It was sweet to Ansgar that there were those treating Mikkel like their kid.
“I want Kuro to be as successful as we possibly can. Selling merch is an important part of that.” Jay justified his choice. Besides, they all saw what he did the first night. Rex and Johan didn’t pick up their shirts before the show, and almost didn’t get one in their size once they finally got back to the booth!
“Best legs? I wasn’t aware that was an award you could win.”
(Suffice it to say, this wasn’t really Jay’s scene. The clubs he and Dee frequented weren’t of the stripping variety.)
"You should get him a pair of hot pants with our logo on the ass." Ansgar laughed but he was also certain that his brother would wear them in a heartbeat.
"I didn't either." Ansgar shook his head. "Hexed and Blixt did a show together and I heard Rekker almost started a fight with the crowd talking about it."
"My brother has been since he was 11 or 12." Ansgar knew that Mikkel would put anyone in them if he could get away with it. It was probably his brother's favorite outfit. The tinier, sometimes, the better.
Ansgar was feeling his mood improve and grinned while reaching for another strawberry. "I'm sure you encourage him the same way Sigurd does with my brother."
"If you mean unapologetically? Then, yes." Jay grabbed another one as well, dipping it in the chocolate. "I mean, he does look damn good in them. Who am I to say no?"
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oprorsk_sode) wrote2021-11-04 12:54 am
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It would have been nice if it was something as fun as a siren song but Ansgar didn't go into the reasons or the whys. It was enough that Mikkel cared for the sick.
"Mikkel cares for people. He won't want anything to happen to Dee." Ansgar trusted his brother. He might be a brat, rebellious, annoying, but he cared. It was amazing to Ansgar that after everything his baby brother still had that sweet heart inside even if he had a fortress around it sometimes.
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“That happened more than it should have, didn’t it…”
He knew the Soeren boys, like Dee, had escaped some pretty horrific things at home. Different horrors (and likely over a much longer period and from a much younger age), but horrors nonetheless. He didn’t know many of the details, nor did he want to pry. Like with Dee, he wanted only to create a safe and supportive space.
“You don’t ever have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” He encouraged. “But if you need to, you’re safe here.”
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"In our family boys are useless. Rik's talent protected him but.. when Mikkel was born..." Ansgar shook his head. "My parents never held him, never fed him. My sister and I kept him alive."
If Jay thought about the ages he would realize that his drummer was caring for an infant at five or six years old. Ansgar frowned and shook his head again before glancing back toward the bedroom. "We all ran but he was too young and what they did for those three years before we could get him out."
Ansgar could only shrug. "We don't know but Torden picked him up off the street once and they had tried to beat him unconscious so Rik's father could give him to a friend for a political favor."
Ansgar, and Rik, both knew Mikkel's pretty face was a blessing and a curse. It let him get out of that house sometimes, make money, but it also made him a target for things that Ansgar didn't even want to think about.
"He's a better person than any of the rest of us." Ansgar believed that. He knew his brother had endured things that would break people and here he was still fun-loving and caring. "Dee's safer in there with him than anywhere else." Ansgar believed that in the very core of his soul.
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His heart really did go out to Ansgar and his family. They'd survived some absolute nightmarish situations. There weren't words for that.
"Just like I always promise Dee, you're safe here. All of you are."
And if Ansgar wanted a hug, Jay would be happy to oblige. (If he weren't feeling like crap, Dee would easily do the same.)
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Ansgar picked up another strawberry to give him something to do with his hands. "He came here last year and almost took Mikkel and Rik." Ansgar took a bite of the strawberry and looked up at Jay trying to smile the best he could. "We appreciate it though even if we can't always believe it."
That was the honesty of the situation, especially for Mikkel and Ansgar who were so newly free of the nightmare.
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“He?”Jay asked before he could fully put two and two together.
This, on top of the anecdotes shared in the limo ride to waffle house, made Jay really pause. Suddenly, hiring an entire gang to be your security detail didn’t sound so odd.
“From the look of it, I think everyone here would fight tooth and nail to keep that from ever happening again.”
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He sighed heavily. "My uncle is wealthy and a politician. It's hard to accept people fighting when we.. I know what he does when people get in his way."
It was a hard place to be. All the Danes loved and appreciated the people who would come to their defense. However, they also had moments of wanting to send them away to keep them safe. They worried about it.
"I'm glad Mikkel is getting a chance for some schooling." Ansgar wanted to get back on a good topic. He didn't like speaking about the darker points for too long.
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"Oh? What's he studying?"
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"You don't understand. He wasn't allowed, or couldn't go, to school. My brother barely knows how to write." Worldly as Mikkel was, he wasn't book smart the way someone who had any schooling could be. Ansgar briefly wondered if that is why he got along so well with Vars, someone else who struggled with writing and reading? That thought went by the wayside.
"Torden has been teaching him to read and write for awhile now." Ansgar thought that was good because the older Dane had the patience of a saint which wasn't ruffled by Mikkel's childish frustration. "When you talk to him about things it is all memory. I don't think he's read much past kids books."
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That was not the answer Jay was expecting.
"...You're telling me the best salesperson I've ever met in my life is just now learning how to read and write?"
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"He can count money. Stripping taught him to do that years ago." Which was an honest answer. "He's worked since he was 13 in a job that is all about luring people in and convincing them to give you money. He could probably convince them to give you their clothes too if you wanted."
The Soerens had long ago gotten over the idea of Mikkel being in an adult industry too young. He was safe enough and street smart. It was a situation of do what you had to in order to survive and sometimes it was questionable but still necessary.
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He glanced back toward the master bedroom. Both Mikkel and Dee must have been sound asleep. Everything was so quiet.
Thirteen year olds should be learning to count money from their allowances. Or maybe by being class treasurer. Something like that. Never mind the fact that they shouldn't be taking their clothes off for the pleasure of strangers.
Jay thought for a moment, and then boldly declared, "If he wants a job working the merch table on commission, I'll hire him."
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"I'm sure he would work your table." Ansgar knew his brother liked to work, at least when he was good at it. He shrugged. "My brother enjoys what he does. He likes living as a girl and dancing. He deserves to do what makes him happy. He deserves to be happy after what's happened."
Ansgar was staunch about that part of Mikkel's life. The moment stripping didn't make his brother happy, he would be the first one to get him out. But now, he saw him happy and Fredrik and Sigurd seemed to enjoy his work too. Those were the things that mattered more than what the job was.
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He wasn't kidding when he called Mikkel the best salesperson he'd ever met. He'd be a fool not to offer him a job.
Plus, if Mikkel had a job with Kuro, he'd not only be making money without having to strip for it, he'd also be on the road with Ansgar. The drummer would know that his brother was safe, because they'd be together, looking out for each other.
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All he could do is shake his head. "You know, my brother won the award for best legs in LA this past summer?" The girl mythos was deep around his brother and it had amused him and Rekker to no end hearing that his brother beat all the women. It had come with a bit of prize money too which Rekker had helped the Dane invest. It was sweet to Ansgar that there were those treating Mikkel like their kid.
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“Best legs? I wasn’t aware that was an award you could win.”
(Suffice it to say, this wasn’t really Jay’s scene. The clubs he and Dee frequented weren’t of the stripping variety.)
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"I didn't either." Ansgar shook his head. "Hexed and Blixt did a show together and I heard Rekker almost started a fight with the crowd talking about it."
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“Like Dee and his skinny jeans. He lives in those.”
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The teasing some of the older men got from the younger ones was cute, in his opinion anyway.
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Of course, he'd swear up and down that his fiance looked good in literally anything.
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