"I'm fine, Irena. Finn's the worrying one, not me." Teagan glanced over his shoulder at his brother in the pool. "And besides, we're friends. We're supposed to help each other, not just you helping us. If something's going on, I want to help you. I'm sure Finn would agree."
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Irena stared at him and then patted the open spot in her deck chair next to her, signaling for him to sit next to her.
"Just don't tell Finn, okay? He'll freak out." She told him as she waited for Teagan to sit next to her, she watched Beatrice get in the pool and wade over to Finn, splashing him lightly.
Teagan looked over at Finn, considering for a moment, and then nodded. He sat beside Irena and looked at her expectantly. "Alright, fine. We'll leave him out of it. Now, will you tell me what's going on? Are you okay?"
Irena leaned closer, her arm pressing against Teagan's.
"My dad got mad at me, I was in the kitchen when he came home." She told him and looked away.
"So I told him it was my house too and that I was hungry and he backhanded me."
"So your dad did this?" Teagan looked surprised and then angry. "He can't do that to you! We should kill him." He growled. It was unclear whether or not he was completely serious about the threat. "Has he hurt Beatrice too? We can take you guys to our house, our parents are never home anyway."
Irena shook her head.
"No, not that I know of…" She said "but he was drunk, he hardly ever hits usually he just yells at me."
She watched Beatrice push Finn under the water and smiled sadly.
"Well, he shouldn't yell at you either." Teagan huffed, crossing his arms. Finn sputtered as he emerged from the water, shaking droplets from his hair. He looked confused and shocked for a moment, but then grinned and tackled Beatrice into the water in return.
Beatrice gave a delighted scream and Irena winced.
Beatrice fell into the water and once she came up, started to try to climb onto Finn's shoulders.
"Well he does." Irena said quietly. "Don't get worked up over it, okay Teagan?"
Teagan looked down at his hands, conflicted and clearly concerned. "I just… don't want you to wait until it gets unbearably bad before you do something." He said softly. "I mean, you can see just with Finn's panic attacks, he's been insisting he won't try and go out of his way to find somebody until he can't handle it anymore. It's not healthy."
Finn laughed from the pool, helping Beatrice climb onto his shoulders and then sinking down into the water once she was up.
Beatrice laughed wholesomely.
"I know." She said quietly "but I can handle it, I swear I can."
"I just want you to be safe, Irena. If it isn't safe here…" Teagan sighed softly and closed his eyes, leaning back in the chair.
Finn came up again and then leaned back to dunk Beatrice in the water.
Beatrice screeched and went under, bubbles errupting from her going under.
Irena sighed. "I'm safe Teagan, I promise, it was just one time." She told him, rubbing his arm.
"But he's still yelling at you and stuff. He shouldn't be doing that either." Teagan insisted, keeping his eyes closed for the time being.
Finn pulled Beatrice back up out of the water, laughing brightly.
Irena sighed and stood up.
"Don't worry Tea, I'm fine." She told him and then leapt into the water.
Teagan wanted to argue, but since Irena left, he could only sigh and follow her into the pool. Finn waved to them, grinning.
Irena waved back once she came back up and Beatrice splashed her violently.
Irena screeched and splashed her back, but instead accidentally splashed Finn.
Finn shook out his hair again when Irena splashed him, pausing for a moment before he tackled her into the water like he'd done to Beatrice. Teagan laughed softly, still a bit preoccupied with Irena's situation.
Beatrice noticed Teagan watching and stood next to him.
"She thinks I don't know." Beatrice told him quietly as Irena and Finn wrestled. "But I heard him yelling and I heard her crying in the upstairs hallway."
Teagan looked over when Beatrice talked and winced a bit. "I don't know if it's safe for you guys here…" He said softly. "You're welcome to come to our house if you ever need to. Our parents usually aren't there anyway, so it doesn't make any difference."
Beatrice looked at him and contemplated him for a moment.
"I don't know, I'll keep watch, if anything ever gets too bad, I make Irena come with me to your house." She told him "but usually our parents aren't home either, well my dad isn't, my mom is always dead asleep and locked in her bedroom."
Teagan nodded a bit. "Sounds good… now that I think about it, I haven't seen our parents in a while. I mean, I figure they still come home to sleep at night. We don't sleep there a lot, or eat there, so it makes sense we wouldn't run into each other. Especially if they're intentionally avoiding it."
Beatrice gave him a look of sympathy.
"Yeah?" She asked "us either."
Teagan shrugged a bit. "Ah, well. It is what it is, I guess. I don't mind staying here most of the time."
Finn burst out of the water, laughing as he gasped for breath. It was good to see that he, at least, seemed to have recovered from earlier.
Beatrice smiled softly at him and laughed at Finn quietly.
"Yeah?" She said "we like when you're here too."
Teagan smiled softly as well. "Glad we aren't a nuisance, then. We mostly only go back to our own house to change and stuff since we don't have clothes here." He shifted so that he was able to float on the water and relax, moving to where he didn't get involved with Finn.