Chapter 71

He made no comments about this though, also biting back the urge to ask about Jaxie.

Asking either of those questions was basically admitting to something being wrong, he wasn't doing that.

Training barely did anything to fix his state of mind, all he managed to do was give himself a day off so there would be no training the next day, just his luck huh.

He dreaded returning back to the apartment because while Darian thankfully stayed away from deep or curious conversations, he doubted Jaxon would be so inclined.

He and Darian walked in to an entirely different situation though, it wasn't really surprising to not find Jaxon in the living room.

If he wasn't here, he was most likely curled up in the bed with a book.

Darian returned after a brief peek though, Leon not far behind him. "He's not in there."

For a split second, Leon could swear his heart stopped beating but then something caught his attention. "Wait, what's that sound?"

Darian's eyes went wide. "Oh shit." He cursed, starting in the direction of the kitchen with Leon hot on his tails.

"Jaxie?" Darian called when he stepped in.

Leon just gaped at the nightmarish scene before him, guess he wasn't the only one with the skills to effortlessly fuck up a room.

"Oh hi!" Jaxon grinned, pausing to cough up a couple puffs of flour clouds. "...you guys are back and just in time too…" He started to ramble, calmly carrying a tray of actually not so bad looking pancakes like the kitchen wasn't in shambles behind him.

"What the fuck happened?" Leon finally found his voice. "Did a flour bomb go off in here?"

Jaxon just wiped flour covered hands on his flour covered apron. "Oh this?" He gestured vaguely around, wiping a cheek. "I just made a little mess while cooking, ignore it, I'll clean it up afterwards."

"It's like asking us to ignore the sun on a sunny day, alrigh..." Darian stepped forward, taking control of the situation.

"Come here," He caught Jaxon before he could skip out of range.

"But I'm not done cutting up fruits." He protested.

Leon just remained in his corner, trying hard not to snicker, his first real smile all day showing up on his face.

"I'll take care of it, let's get you out of this…" he said gruffly, helping him take off the apron as carefully as possible but a small cloud of flour still went up.

By the time he had dusted most of the flour off Jaxon, a thin layer of flour was covering Darian.

He didn't look irritated, if anything endearment was shining in his dim eyes.

Leon could understand that.

"Leo, take the pancakes to the living room so they don't get ruined and you..." he patted Jaxon's sides one last time. "...are going straight to the shower."

"Need help?" Leon peeked in after safekeeping the pancakes.

"Sure, you're good with knives, why don't you dice up the fruits so I can get started on cleaning?"

Leon stepped forward to grab a knife and get to work, it was surprisingly soothing to peacefully do domestic chores with Darian.

At the end of it all, they all had to shower but there was pancake so really it was a win - Jaxon's words.

Leon was just impressed at how easily and effectively that Darian had cleaned up all the flour, almost like he had had practice at it.

Leon desperately wanted to freeze this moment in time, Darian was forcing a whole pancake in his mouth and Jaxon was drinking down the syrup because they had refused to share and Leon was laughing so hard he choked on a grape...

The universe didn't give any fucks about no one though...

So, less than an hour later, he was making his way out of the Park House, Ethan waiting rather impatiently for him in his car.

He was barely in the car before Ethan was all over him, a hand burying snugly in his hair to viciously pull on it.

He might chop it off just to spite him...

Another hand grabbed his side, his fingers digging in.

It was evident that Ethan lived off his pain and while he wasn't one to be the masochist, he preferred this over him being sappy.

It seemed fitting.

Leon closed his eyes and let the pain wash over him, it would never be enough, he knew that but it didn't stop him from struggling to atone.

Hoping to be a better person in some way after each punishment.

Ethan breathed deeply, placing his head gently against Leon's shoulder. "I don't like people being around you."

Leon had to bite his quip to stop the snarky reply that was about to fall past his lips, he couldn't risk too many bruises.

Instead he remained quiet, sitting stiffly while Ethan sorted himself out.

Ethan remained in that position for a couple more minutes and then he was sitting upright, his civil mask back in place.

"Go out on a date with me." He said while starting up the car, a soft smile on his coldly handsome face.

Leon glanced over. "That doesn't sound like an invite." He pointed out, they both knew what his answer would be if it was.

"It's not." Ethan half growled, putting the car into gear and flooring it out of the parking lot.

"Why are you so mad then? You didn't even give me a chance to reject you."

Leon felt his heart actually thump when he caught Ethan's icy glare in the rear view mirror, he might not want to mess around with a psycho now.

Ethan abruptly parked on the side of the road, thankfully there wasn't a lot of traffic or cars for that matter.

Yeah Leon should have kept his big mouth shut...

He was genuinely caught off guard when Ethan practically yanked him across the divide between their seats and Leon was forced to make some calculations.

Ethan was unnaturally strong, what the actual fuck?

Leon could easily gauge people's strength, it was one of the things that gave him the upper hand in a spar or fight.

He could almost accurately guess how strong his opponents were while he was mostly always underestimated but Ethan...

Ethan had literally lifted him with a hand on his arm, in a confined space such as this one.

His frantic thoughts were halted when Ethan kissed him violently, he wasn't exaggerating about that.

He tasted blood a number of times and when Ethan broke off, he was sure that when he swiped his tongue across his lower lip, it was to get rid of more blood.

For someone who seemed very cold, it didn't take a lot to rile him up.