Of Smiles & Skulls.

Kendrick glanced over at Finn, his temper running short.
"You know, anything you have to say you can say it to my face." He turned fully, facing the boy. "I don't give a f*ck." And he didn't, honestly he had not expected the boy to like him.
Finn didn't miss a beat. He glowered, leaning so close that his breath washed over Kendrick's face.
"I don't f*cking like your stinking ass and I don't f*cking want you near my brat."
"Okay." The man rolled his shoulders, his gaze never wavering. "And I don't give a rats ass."
"Oh you mother f*cker!" Finn drew back, launching a punch at the man only to have his arm stopped and twisted. Kendrick never did hurt him, but he made sure Finn didn't get any shots in, either.

Although Morgue knew Kendrick wouldn't hurt Finn and wasn't trying to, he was still protective of his lover. He pulled Finn away from Kendrick, his own face holding an expression of anger as well as hurt.
"Can't you be nice for one fucking night? I ask you for one thing. Just one night I want to have one friend over and he can't be over for more than ten seconds without you bitching at him?! Can't you do one favor for me?" Morgue exclaimed, running a hand through his hair. It was clear he was truly upset, Kendrick meant a lot to him, as did Finn.

Kendrick immediately felt horrible, seeing Morgue in destress striking him down. "I'm sorry." He would have just let Finn hit him if he had known he would cause Jeremy trouble. "I can just go Morgue, its not a big deal." And it wasnt, long as morgue was cool with it, he would be too. Finn didnt have to like him.
Finn.
He was pissed as hell, but he also found himself silenced as Jeremy snapped at him. With a couple of sensless curses, he folded his arms and simply held his tongue. "What the f*ck ever." A pause, Finn's head falling over to hesitantly rest on morgue's shoulder. "Im....im f*cking sorry Jeremy."

"No, you stay Kendrick." Jeremy sighed at his friend. Even if Finn was pissed, he was determined to have his friend over. He never had friends anymore because no one could really stand to be around Finn but him. He turned to his lover, letting out a soft sigh as Finn apologized, which was extremely unusual. "Okay." He nodded. "Could you please be civil for the rest of the night?"

Kendrick sat himself back down, glancing over to Cameron and offering an apologetic smile. He had not meant to upset them. He just had not wanted Finn to be hitting him.
"I make no f*cking promises." It was as close to a yes as Morgue could get. The boy huffed, taking out his phone and trying to find something else to focus on while Jeremy had his funny f*cking friend over.

Cameron returned the smile, shaking his head.
"Don't worry, we all know my mom is... hard to handle." Of course he loved his mother, but Finn was never rude to him like he was to most other people.

"Yeah, I kinda got that." He still found a smile, even though he could feel Finn radiating contempt from the other side of him. "But its alright, I can deal with it." He was just happy to be here, meeting the people Morgue loved the most.

Cameron nodded at the other man, quite nervous just to be in his presence. He took a bite of food to put off the task of talking and further making a fool of himself. He thought of things he could say, anything to make him seem interesting...
Kendrick was so endlessly fascinating with his tattoos and his confidence. And Cameron couldn't think of any reason the man should want to talk to him. But he was determined to try.
"You work at the show with my dad, right?" He spoke up softly after a moment. Sure, it wasn't genius, but at least it would keep a conversation going.

"Yeah." Kendrick immediately took off with the topic. Though normally he was never this talkative, something about Cameron made him comfortable enough to speak easily. "Best thing I ever did was get a job at the freak show with Morgue. It saved my life, you know?"

"It did?" Cameron hummed, his eyes soft on Kendrick. "Dad talks about you a lot." He nodded his head.

"Does he?" A fire flickered in the mans eyes, his smile widening in the slightest bit. It made him feel nice to know Morgue spoke of him. "What does he say?"

"He says he's proud of you most of the time. He talks about you like you're his son too." Cameron smiled softly. "

Kendrick couldn't help but smile at that, even though Morgue was much more to him than a father figure. For the longest time his life had revolved around Morgue, the man who had given him a reason to keep going. "Thats great, thats awesome." He rubbed over over face, the tattoo's never ceasing to make the man look deadly.

Cameron smiled as well, happy to see that Kendrick seemed to care for his father so much.
"So... how did you and dad meet again? He's never really told me the whole story." Cameron asked gently, eyes scanning over one of Kendrick's arms, trailing over the tattoos.

"Uh." Kendrick glanced back at Morgue, smiling gratefully as he remembered. "I was going through a hard time. I had nothing, I was homeless, had no family I could turn to. I was getting ready to jump off of some bridge I had seen. Right when I was going to get up and go he stopped for me. He let me share an umbrella, took me home..." Kendrick clicked His tongue. "Helped me back on my feet. He saved my life."

"Wow..." Cameron nodded, smiling sweetly. "I'm glad he helped you." He noted. He was strangely comfortable around Kendrick already, even though they had just met.

"Yeah, me too." His thumb traced over the cheekbone of the skull tattooed into his face. "I have found that life is pretty great, and im glad im still here." A pause as he admired Cameron's smile. "I kinda owe you guys a lot."

"I'm sure a lot of people are glad you're still here." Cameron felt his cheeks heating up just as he felt Kendrick's eyes on him. He couldn't help it, people made him uncomfortable.

Kendrick shrugged, really the only person he bothered with was morgue, he doubted anyone else would miss him. He didn't give a f*ck about anyone else, long as Morgue cared. "something wrong?" Kendrick reached out, his knuckles scraping gently across the boys reddened cheeks.

"I..." Cameron's cheeks blushed deeper as he felt Kendrick's hand on him. His eyes were glued to the man's tattoos, eyeing them with awe. "Nothing's wrong... I just... it's stupid." Cameron shook his head.

"Stupid?" Kendrick grunted softly, shaking his head. "Politics are stupid, your fine." He smile carefully, his eyes roaming of the boys face. "Nothing wrong with being nervous around new people." He had never been as anxious as he had been when getting ready to come to this dinner.

"I'm usually not." Cameron admitted. "It's just... you, I guess." He wasn't used to talking to new boys, especially ones who were so nice to him... or so cute.

"Me?" He blinked, immediately his mind jumping to his tattoos. He was used to being ridiculed for them, but it never mattered. He adored them. "Sorry, tattoo's throw people off. Its normal."

"Oh, it's not the tattoos!" Cameron clarified immediately. "It's just..." He trailed off, not wanting to say it. But as he thought, he realized that his shyness never got him anywhere. Maybe speaking up would. "Kendrick, you've got to know you're cute." He smiled softly. "Cute guys tend to make people nervous a lot. And in my case, you make me stammer like an idiot."

An amused snort sounded as Kendrick listened to the boy, his lips twitching up into a smile. "Im not that bad." He had never paid much mind to how he looked, only ever to the detail of the tattoo's. "But you don't have be nervous about that kid, your pretty cute yourself."