Chapter 69

He changed into more comfortable clothes when he was out of the bathroom, wearing a loose shirt that he didn't remember bringing along and sweats.

Now that he was in it, he realised that it was much bigger than he had pictured it to be.

The sleeves were well past his wrists and covering about half of his fingers, that wasn't right...

How did Darian's clothes get into his stuff?

Was it even Darian's? Did it matter? It covered up his bruises and was comfy and he thought he looked pretty badass with the dark shirt on.

It was time to face them, it was still a couple hours before dinner and although he had barely eaten anything all day, he wasn't hungry.

Jaxon would fuss and insist that he ate and he would.

Taking a deep breath, he unlocked the door, the resounding click startlingly loud.

Well, he couldn't stay holed up in the room forever.

He made his way to the living room first, sure he was chickening out but he would put off having to face Jaxon and Darian until he absolutely had to.

Instead, he walked right out to them.

Darian was lying on his back on a couch, tapping mindlessly on his phone while Jaxon was fast asleep on him, an opened book discarded to the side.

Darian's eyes immediately whipped to his direction when he stepped in, sharp dark blue eyes scanning him over.

There was an indecipherable look in his eyes that Leon preferred not to dissect.

"Food first." He said gruffly, looking back into his phone. "There's food in the kitchen, go eat." He directed, leaving no room for discussions.

Leon preferred this actually, he didn't realize how much harder pretending in front of Darian would be.

It just hit then as he wordlessly made his way to the kitchen that he never had to act tame around him, he wanted to get rid of him even by irritating the hell out of him but Darian had just taken it in stride, not batting an eyelid.

With Jaxon it might be easier to hide everything he felt, that would barely solve any of the problems he had on his plate though.

He ate absently at the dining table in the kitchen, dinner was in a couple hours and he wondered if he could skip out on it but no, that would attract too much attention.

His plans of acting like everything was just fine wasn't getting off to a good start.

Maybe it was because the inevitable fact that he was going to lose Jaxon was pressing down so hard on him.

At least Jaxon had Darian... he thought with a wince.

Ah this fucking hurts and there was nothing he could do about it.

He was trying really hard to not think about it but he would have to address it eventually, what exactly did Ethan plan to do? Lock him up in his basement for the rest of his life?

He was bound to get tired of him eventually, Leon highly doubted that though...

"Got something on your mind?" Darian's voice interrupted his wandering thoughts.

Leon jolted at this, cursing when he knocked his knee on a table leg. "You get your kicks jumping people?" He fired back.

"You've been staring at your plate for the past five minutes..." Darian started to say, a serious look on his face.

Leon looked utterly disgusted. "You've been sneakily watching me?" He accused.

Darian gave him a look. "Stop sidestepping the conversation and I was literally standing in front of you, you've barely eaten too." He added unhappily.

"Well I just got lost in thoughts making plans for the next training." He pulled out of his ass, returning to eating the meal in front of him with gusto.

Darian was obviously not expecting this turn of events, he frowned a bit. "You make actual plans?"

Leon slowly lifted his head up at this. "What do you mean?"

"You mean you don't just make shit up at training?" Darian clarified, looking like he was having a hard time wrapping his head around it.

Well technically he did but he wasn't about to admit that to Darian, that should give him something to think about. "Why are you interrogating me at lunch?"

"Technically that's not lunch." Darian said dryly.

"Well I'm never going to get to finish it at this rate so it doesn't matter."

Darian heaved a sigh of breath, of course this was getting nowhere, what did he expect? That he would ask Leon what was going on and get a coherent response?

"I'm off to take a walk in the woods." He said stiffly, a piercing gaze directed at Leon just before he left.

It made Leon bite his lip in worry, he had expected this kind of reaction from Jaxon but not Darian, when did they even become friends?

He was coming to a stark realisation, initially, he thought he could spend as much time as possible with them before it became evident that he was drifting apart from them.

Would that make it hurt less? He didn't think so but he was a selfish bastard who would take as much as he could get before he had to leave the one he loved and his friend, it would sting even more when they returned to Pine Creek.

He finished up with eating and cleared the dishes, absentminded the entire time.

There was just so much going on all at once, so much to lose in such little time.

He flopped face down on the couch when he was done, exhausted in a way that even sleep couldn't fix.

He could hear his own heartbeat in his head, the steadily increasing thumping sound adding to the chaos already going on in there.

He felt someone climb over him and his heart rate slowed down, the soothing scent of white orchids surrounding him.

"Hey." He muttered a slight smile in his voice.

"I thought you were asleep." Jaxon said sleepily, holding him tight. "Are you good?" He asked immediately, concern peeking through his drowsy voice.

"I am now." He answered truthfully.

If only it could remain that way.