Better Let Them Know Who's Boss {mxm}

19.

Maddox was a tricky thing indeed.

He always knew what to say to get my mind rolling.

He always knew what to say and what to do to get me questioning everything I had ever known in my life.

There was just something about him that seemed to put me at ease. It was such an oxymoron: someone so powerful and ruthless but so calming and soothing all the same. I had been down here for two and half weeks and in that time, I begrudgingly came to realize that this experience had been the best highlight of my life. It wasn't the fact that I knew information about what was happening because I didn't. I was still in the dark on that one. Though I wanted to know every single thing, I could not deny that some part of me felt enraptured by his enigmatic nature. I couldn't describe it, but despite everything that it took to get me here, I knew that I had come to make a place here.

I didn't know it then, but the smell of Hot Cheetos was ingrained into my very being until the end of my time.

"How's everything going up there with Sir Alistair?" Maria peered into my face, watching me scarf down a big bowl of Lucky Charms. "What do you mean?" I slurped. "Everything is just fine and dandy. He's still the same old piece of crap. Only difference is he becomes more tolerable each day," I raised a brow as she fixed my father's shirt. "I don't know why people are so afraid of them," I chewed on my cereal, realizing that even his own people were deathly terrified of even saying the wrong thing because he got so angry. "The only thing I see when I look at him is an oversized golden retriever." I rolled my eyes, pushing the remaining milk aside as I listened to the bustle of humans doing their job in this spacious and lavish bunker.

"I don't think you understand how mesmerized he is by you, Troy," My mother giggled, covering her mouth as if she had something to say but she wasn't going to say it. "Maddox is just that way because he's never had someone tell him like it is," I smirked and she slowly sighed, knowing full well that I was right. I could tell that he had never dealt with someone who defied every single thing he said, talked back to him like he was some mere being, and stood on the same level with him. "He's never had someone keep him on his toes," I felt oddly proud of being the first and only person to do so.

That would teach him to try and tell me what to do. He only had that privilege if he was using those sinful hands to touch my body. Hehe.

"That could be why he feels so taken with you," My father mumbled as if I could hear him and I completely disregarded what he said. "And how do you two know how we are with each other? You guys always stay down here!" I groaned, completely exasperated with how my parents seemed so relaxed and calm despite the big man upstairs. "Oh, you didn't know?" Maria tilted her head, a soft smile playing at her lips as she looked from me to her husband, who seemed to be sharing the same feelings she had. "Sir Alistair comes down here to spend time with us." She beamed and I narrowed my eyes.

"Maddox does what?" My mouth frowned at the sound of his actual name, preparing to tell me that I should address him like so, but we all knew I wasn't. "What for?" I grimaced, wondering this lord decided to finally grow a heart and share it with my parents. "He comes to listen us talk about stories of you growing up and things like that," I was too taken aback to formulate a response, so she kept talking. "He had never done that before, but I guess he wanted to know more about you when you came."

I couldn't believe it. What was the bastard trying to get at?

"Speaking of such," I turned to the piped up voice, trying to reel my mind around the new facts. "What do you want for your birthday, Troy?" Vasily asked and I shrugged, knowing that everything that I ever wanted was standing in front of me, looking at me with a soft smile that told me that everything was okay. "That dang lord already asked me that and I told him I'd be fine with you guys, Jade and Avery here," I explained and my father nodded, a gleam in his brown eyes.