Episode 83

"How could....he just... do this"

"I kind of get it"

"Sorry..I'm..being...."

"It's okay, sorry for causing you trouble"

Zhuang whispered standing next to the door while Kei was taking out clothes for the kids.

They didn't set out the previous night since Zhuang arrived pretty late and the kids were already asleep by that time.

Kei suggested not to wake them and rather just wait for the morning so Zhuang stayed overnight in the guest room.

Though they wokeup quite early in the morning since they wanted to get the kids ready.

Kei set the clothes on the iron stand and started ironing. The room was a mess even though Akio had only gone away for one day. The kids weren't really easy for Kei to handle anyway, he didn't have enough authority to control them like Akio did.

Zhuang started clearing it out.

Whilst clearing out, he somewhat ended up dropping a toy accidentally. Kei looked back at him as if he did a huge blunder. They both looked at the kids being sound asleep and gave a sigh.

"Sorry.." Zhuang whispered and Kei hushed him with his finger against his lips.

Kei finished ironing before coming out of the room, both of them carefully closed the door behind them.

"I'll fix...breakfast...then wake them..." Kei mumbled.

"Can you?" Zhuang asked being a bit doubtful since he'd only ever seen Akio cook.

Kei gave somewhat of nervous nod, though ten minutes later, he managed to burn an egg charcoal black.

"Umm...how about I cook?" Zhuang said with a twitching brow. He thought Kei should've just asked him instead, rather than putting an extra effort into wasting food and time.

"I'm...sorry..." Kei spoke with a bent head.

"It's okay, come here, I'll tell you how to do it, you should at least know how to cook a breakfast for yourself" Zhuang said going ahead to the kitchen first.

Kei followed and watched Zhuang carefully cut up whatever vegetables were available along with onions and some rice.

He prepared the egg batter along with the veggies.

Kei watched from a safe distance, carefully observing things.

Zhuang fried it over and rested it over the rice that he'd just fixed in the cooker.

"Bring the plate" Zhuang said and Kei did.

He arranged everything in the plate before carrying it over to the dinning table.

"Thank...you..." Kei said.

"It's okay, I always do it for Alex too" Zhuang replied.

"Hmm" Kei spoke bringing a jug of water which was somewhat full so the water spilled.

"Hey careful!" Zhuang just turned in time to see Kei slip over the spilled water, he tried to grab him but slipped as well only managing to save the jug. Though the water spilled all over.

Kei's instincts kicked in and he pushed Zhuang off himself only to look up at Akio standing at their back with widened eyes.

"Akio..san..." Kei whispered and Zhuang turned back to look at Akio who punched him instead.

Akio snapped getting on top of Zhuang hitting him while Kei tried to pull Akio back but Akio was out of control.

Zhuang had his arms crossed in front of himself defensively.

"Daddy...?"

The only voice that made Akio stop his fist midair was Adrian's.

He looked back at the kid and immediately hid his fist at his back.

"Adi chan" Zhuang also opened his arms to look.

"Uncle Aki...why are you hitting Adi's daddy" little Adrian asked with a little frown and watery eyes.

"No no, he's not hitting, we were playing around, right?" Zhuang slipped away from Akio to hold little Adrian.

"How's my little boy, Daddy missed you alot"

Akio didn't dare look back at Adrian. Zhuang quickly picked the boy up caressing him, distracting him with his words and talking to him. He got distracted easily since he was missing Zhuang so much that he immediately clung to him.

He took him out of the kitchen leaving Akio and Kei alone.

Akio got up grabbing Kei's wrist.

"Akio..san...?" Kei tried to pull it but Akio firmly pulled him along with him to their bedroom, closing the door behind him and throwing him on bed.

"Its..a misunderstanding..." Kei whispered somewhat backing away from Akio.

"You should've stayed put, I would've come back anyway, why'd you call him!" Akio spoke climbing the bed and grabbing Kei's shoulders kinda tightly.

"You're...scaring me..." Kei whispered averting his eyes from Akio but Akio grabbed his face by the jaws.

"Yes I'm scary, what, did you find out just now, do you find me untrustworthy now..?" Akio said even realizing it himself as well about how unreasonable he was being.

"What's....bothering...you...?" Kei asked and Akio's eyes widened yet again.

"Nothing" Akio turned his face away removing his hands.

"Akio..san..." Kei placed his hands on Akio's shoulders and to Akio's surprise pushed him down on the bed pinning his hands above his head.

Akio was too surprised to move, not that he couldn't break free, he just didn't.

"What's bothering...you.." Kei mumbled looking down at Akio, directly into his eyes without evading his gaze like he normally does with everyone.

Akio's widened eyes relaxed

"Am I that undependable? Am I that untrustworthy?"

Akio whispered, Kei didn't understand what exactly he meant by that but he did know that something was bothering Akio.

"For me...you're in my...everything...my life...depends upon you...." Kei spoke some consoling words before leaning in and kissing Akio on the lips.

Akio responded back kissing Kei passionately. Kei parted his lips but Akio carried on to kiss his chin, neck and under his ear.

"Okay..as much...as I'd...like ...to...umm...he's still...outside so..." Kei tried to remind Akio who kinda got too much into it.

"Huh? Like heck I care, he should know what's mine too" Akio said flipping over, having Kei under him now. He spoke as he rested Kei's legs on his shoulders continuing to make out with him.

"I think..he already knows.." Kei spoke with a twitching brow.

But what could ever stop Akio once he'd decided he'd do it?

While Zhuang sat in kid's room keeping them distracted because they'd woken up. He'd brought their breakfast in the room instead. Though the kids were eating less and playing more.

He had that 'seriously?' expression on his face for multiple reasons now.

Not that Akio and Kei were that loud but he'd occasionally hear a muffled voice or two if he focussed.

"Daddy" Little Adrian's voice distracted Zhuang.

"You was not fighting with Akio uncle yes?" He asked still being somewhat skeptical.

The girls who were running up and down from the same bed as some sort of sport, spilling rice all over, paused hearing that.

"Adi chan you are wong" Leah attempted at calling him wrong.

"Daddy will no hurt ever" Sia also defended Akio.

"I heard uncle Akio hit daddy" Adrian argued.

"No no he is playing, daddy and papa play like that too" Leah argued.

Zhuang went somewhat white in the face hearing those girls.

"Here I thought Alex was wild.."

Zhuang somewhat mumbled to himself as the kids argued amongst themselves.

Though, he somewhat sighed and rested his back against the head board of the  bed. This was going to take some time considering by the sound of it.

He put his thoughts to it. Anyone could've easily understood what just happened was a simple misunderstanding.

Then why'd Akio over react like he was really mad at him or something???

Zhuang sighed and muttered.

"What's actually bothering Akio..?"

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"Why isn't he waking up??!!"

"We're unsure as well"

"He doesn't want to..does he"

Alex's murmur made Ian and the doctor's head turn as well.

"Probably" The doctor responded, knowing what the kid had been through "Maybe the best thing right now would be talking and trying to call him out of this state, he might not be awake but he can hear you"

"Hmmm.." Alex responded gently nodding as the doctor left.

On the other hand Ian was completely frustrated not being able to understand the depth of things. He just wanted the boy to wake up.

"How do we..." Ian couldn't finish the other half.

"It's onto him if he chooses to wake up or not, you can only talk to him" Alex repeated the doctor's words to Ian.

"There's not much I can say to him except the fact that I'm a horrible brother who couldn't even protect him...." Ian spoke while balling up his fists.

Alex moved forward and messed up the Ian's hair to his surprise.

"You've protected him well for all these years" Alex murmured "but how about...you tell us what you're hiding as well"

"Me?" Ian blinked a bit.

"Ivan Strauss, is he really your father" Alex turned to Ian who turned his gaze away.

"Why are you asking me that?" Ian asked looking a bit irritated.

"I'm just curious as to why would he do this to you and Lian, it seems to me that he really hates you both" Alex asked though he noticed Ian turning his head away in silence and took it as  a signal that he wasn't ready.

It was only when Alex turned away to leave that Ian grabbed his wrist.

"We are, but Lian is from a different mother" Ian spoke looking Alex in the eyes.

"Then why..?" Alex hinted rather than stating it out.

"I'm the one he has a problem with, Lian is my weakness and he uses it" Ian repeated himself.

"What does that mean?" Alex asked.

"What it means is that mom had an affair" Ian turned to Alex.

"Being with a person like him, who wouldn't" Alex said sarcastically.

"Actually, it wasn't this bad" Ian told him "It's rather more of an obsession"

"Obsession?" Alex raised a brow.

"Dad always believed that for earning money, you should use every asset available to you, one of the biggest assets according to him was omegas" Ian told him.

"Human trafficking..." Alex mumbled.

"Mom was a bit lucky in the start, she was taking customers while she was still a part of the Naoyuki group" Ian told him.

"Naoyuki? Zhuang's family..huh, she was in the same group of orphans that were adopted like Akio san in order to be raised for trafficking" Alex recalled "How does that make her lucky?"

"Initially dad was one of the customers she seduced, she really had him head over heels for her, this was all to get out of that shithole" Ian said.

"Then what changed?" Alex asked.

"She got out of one shithole and entered another, when they were expecting their first kid, dad started telling everyone about the alpha that would succeed him..." Ian paused.

"She found out I was an omega..." Alex spoke and Ian nodded.

"She wanted to give you a better life and therefore she contacted her old friend for help but it backfired" Ian said.

"Clara Hughes got killed" Alex clenched his fists.

"Actually before that, they told him his kid was still born but one of the hospital staffs snitched on her, confirming a baby was indeed born, alive, from there on he turned even more psychotic and started torturing her to get to know where his 'alpha' child was" Ian said.

"She suffered..for me...?" Alex's eyes widened.

"It was bad enough, that she lost her legs, the home attendant that he hired for her was the one she fell for, they had something special according to her" Ian replied.

"This is worst than I thought..." Alex mumbled.

"He was determined enough to get her out of there, he played a huge risk, according to mom he had stolen something from dad, though he feared he'd be killed, he asked Clara Hughes to hide him, though dad found out, Clara Hughes was killed for a piece of information while mom was spared only because she was pregnant with me that time" Ian told him.

"He literally doesn't think you're his child, does he..." Alex said.

"Finding out about her affair was enough reason for him to believe I wasn't his child, he declared her an infidel and decided to keep her as his wife only for show while in reality she was a slave trapped in the basement, only taken out for sympathies during business"

Ian's voice shivered just remembering that.

"We've both had shitty luck with abusive partners" Alex whispered to himself.

"For him Lian means nothing, he's an omega birthed by a nobody. The only reason he kept Lian is because I got attached to him; I named him, I raised him even as a child myself, he knew he could control me using him" Ian continued

"I look especially like mom...." Ian brought up a topic he'd been avoiding

"What do you mean by that?" Alex's eyes widened not knowing what he meant but he had a hunch.

"Can't you tell" Ian avoided Alex's gaze "I'm mom's replacement"

Hearing that almost made Alex freeze up for a few, he didn't exactly know that much about this.

"The only reasons he makes me take customers despite having other trafficked slaves is because he likes to humiliate me, treating me as a money making asset to take revenge from his wife, for him I'm some kind of proof of his wife's infidelity"

Ian clenched his teeth a bit "but when we're in bed, he calls out his wife's name, he both hates me and is obsessed with me; but one thing I know for sure is that money is above all for him-" Ian went on until he accidentally saw Alex's face.

Seeing Alex's expression, Ian's expression changed in surprise too. He thought if Aoi, Mari, Natsuro and Zhuang knew, then Alex knew naturally but looking at his expression it didn't seem like he did.

"All I heard ....was you took customers..what...do you...mean calls out his wife's..." Alex voice shivered in somewhat of a horror.

Ian didn't answer but Alex had already concluded what he meant, there was a horror upon both their faces.

"To..his...own...how could he..like that" Alex clenched upon his chest tightly, his breathing elevated.

"Brother? Are you okay? Hey breathe, breathe" Ian got hold of him "Hey stop breathe"

"Alex?" Aoi entered the room and rushed to him.

"I don't know why just suddenly he!!!"

Ian spoke with shivering hands.

"Call the doctor!" Aoi told him and he got up running out of the ward.

"Hey hey buddy, look at me, calm down"

Alex had quite the attack, though he passed out when the doctor came in.

"Help me get him up" The doctor said, Aoi and Ian both held him up by arms on their shoulders.

"Please go out for a little" The doctor said after Ian had laid him on a bed.

"But-" Ian was about to argue but Aoi grabbed his shoulder, asking him to accompany her.

For some reason Ian complied, probably because he felt guilty.

He stood there thinking for a while.

"He hasn't had that kind of attack in a while now" Aoi mumbled.

"He's had it before???!!" Ian asked.

"Do you know, I have never seen him cry, he keeps things bottled up to the point where it can only get out with a panic attack"

Ian had a worried look on his face while hearing that, he felt a bit responsible.

"Aoi san" he mumbled getting her attention.

"Hmm?" Aoi stood against the wall with her usual poker face.

"You already know who has the information don't you?" Ian asked looking at her directly.

"Even if I do, until they are willing to trust us with that information, there's no point" Aoi replied to him.

"Then how are you going to get them to trust you?" Ian asked her

"I'm letting them test me" Aoi replied.

"What does that mean?" Ian asked her.

"I'm sorry I eavesdropped on you both, it wasn't my intention" Aoi derailed the subject.

"I think there's no point in hiding my f--kd up family secrets any longer" Ian admitted.

"I wasn't risking on Lian" Aoi clarified "Like you said, Mr Strauss has an unhealthy obsession with you, he isn't necessarily interested in others"

"Even if he himself didn't but that Aiba, you should have stopped her" Ian spoke somewhat angrily.

"To tell you a secret, I've never felt weaker in my life" Aoi mumbled.

"There you go not making any sense again" Ian rolled eyes.

"In that single moment as I opened the door, all I felt was my mind going blank and a violent desire to tear someone apart, which is why I dared not go near Aiba, fearing we'd both have a mad fight to death, she'd lost to her pheromones and I was having a hard time controlling mine" Aoi explained herself.

"Eh..? What pheromones do you mean?"

"Ian Strauss"

"Yeah?"

"I think Lian Strauss is the fated pair of my child"