Bloodstone(Boyxboy)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Smirking slightly, Satarou replied, "Oh, do I? Whoops, guess I missed a spot."

"You act as if this is normal" Leon was puzzled.

"Guess it kind of is" Satarou tells him, "I am use to the sunglasses, anyways."

A couple hours had passed since that incident and they had decided to make a fire at sunset. Yorrel had taken Leo out hunting, so Satarou was left with Leon and the princess.

Before he could stop himself, Satarou blurted out, "Leon, why did you like Satarou?"

Leon smiled softly to himself as he said, "well, no matter how spoiled he acted sometimes, he would do anything to protect his brother, Yui. Eventually, I realized he considered me a friend because he tried to protect me, too. Somewhere along the lines I began to fall for him."

Satarou frowned, "it must hurt knowing he's dead. I'm sorry for your loss." Satarou felt a huge pang of guilt hit him straight in the chest. He couldn't believe that he was putting them through that kind of pain.

"It's okay, Ketsu" Leon frowned, "my biggest regret was not being able to tell him how I feel before he passed."

Satarou smiled softly at him, "for the record, I think he liked you, too. In fact I know he did. He would always talk about you."

"He did?" Leon was surprised, "he never gave off the impression that he liked me."

Satarou let out a small sigh before lying again, "the whole time in the lab, he knew you would come to his rescue. And that's why he had to die, because he didn't want to get you involved because he was worried that you would be killed."

"That idiot" Leon shook his head in disbelief before offering Satarou a small smile, "thank you, Ketsu."

At that moment, Leo and Yorrel returned from hunting.

"Does anyone know how to cook?" Yorrel asked before shrugging, "I didn't have much time to learn cooking while I was in prison."

"I do" Satarou and Leon both answered at the same time before Leon said, "you can cook if you want to, Ketsu."

Satarou nodded and took a few sticks. With his freshly cleaned knife, he started skinning the various rabbits and chopping up the meat. Skewering the chopped up meat, he decided to make kebabs, though all he had available to put on it was the rabbit meat. He handed everyone a kebab and they all held it in the fire to cook it.

It took a decent amount of time before it was fully cooked, but once it was done, everyone happily dug into their kebab.

"Do you cook often?" Leon asked Satarou.

Satarou nodded slightly. "Not as much anymore, but I use to have to cook all of the time when I was younger."

"You certainly know what you are doing, Ketsu!" Yorrel exclaimed through a mouthful of rabbit meat, "mm, I love the taste of rabbit."

The princess didn't eat, instead looking down. "Um, it would be weird to eat this."

Yorrel froze before frowning, "oh, right. You are a bunny. I'm sorry. This was all we had to eat."

"I will be right back" Satarou finished his food and got up, leaving the group. He didn't want the princess to starve and because of all of the pain he was causing them, hunting for her was the least he could do.

Once he walked deep enough in the forest, he took off his clothing and sunglasses. It was dark enough that the sun would no longer affect him.

Sighing, he shifted into his wolf, stretching out his legs for a much needed run. It felt forever since he was in his wolf form, since he's hiding it from the group.

His vision was much sharper now, and it didn't take him long to find a squirrel. He slowly knelt into position and watched the squirrel carefully. Once the squirrel was completely at ease, he lunged at it and locked his jaws into it.

Carrying it around in his mouth, he began to walk back towards his clothes to see Leo sitting there, criss-cross. Satarou dropped the squirrel a few inches away from his clothing, and Leo kindly waited until Satarou switched back and was done changing.

"Why are you here?" Satarou watched as the younger teen stood up to glare at him.

"You can't keep lying to Leon and the others! Don't you realize how much it is affecting them?" Leo asked, beyond angry.

"But it's better this way" Satarou told Leo.

"For you, maybe! But for them, they are devastated!" Leo hissed.

"They will get over it" Satarou frowned. His eyes widened in shock when he felt a stinging sensation against his cheek, and it took him a moment to realize Leo had just slapped him.

"You still aren't even over your parents death!" Leo yelled, "how do you expect them to get over yours? They care about you, moron! Leon even has feelings for you! You idiot!"

Still in shock, Satarou managed to say, "but I can't. I'm not ready for them to know yet."

Leo was mostly calm a moment later, but still angry, he says, "fine, I will keep your secret for now. But you have until we reach Bloodstone to make up your mind as to whether you want to remain in their lives or not. Because once I am in Bloodstone, I am not going to let them think you are dead when you are not! You can either tell them yourself, or I will. So decide now. If you choose to stay out of their life, I will wait until you are gone before I tell them, but they deserve to know. Otherwise you have to tell them yourself."

"What?" Satarou asked, shocked.

"Remember, I am only giving you until we reach Bloodstone" Leo snarled, "I can't continue watching you hurt them like this!" And with that, Leo stormed off.

Sighing, Satarou grabbed the squirrel and headed back to the fire where everyone was gathered. Satarou quickly skinned the squirrel and cut it up before making it into a squirrel kebab. Once it was done cooking, he handed it to the princess and asked, "is this good?"

"Squirrel?" the princess asked before smiling slightly, "yes, it's better than eating a rabbit. Thank you." A moment later she asked, "did you catch it?"

Lying, Satarou shook his head and said, "no, Leo caught it."

The princess ate in silence as everyone else stayed silent as well.

Satarou couldn't help but to think about what Leo had said. He knew he must have messed up if he made a normally cheerful guy snap at him. The worst part was that Leo was right, too. All he was doing was running from his problems, yet he couldn't bring himself to fix it. He couldn't bring himself to tell Leon or the others the truth. He didn't want them to know. He didn't want them to think he was a monster now. He didn't want to think he was a failure because he was now disposable trash, nothing more than a science experiment. The worst part was that he was afraid of disappointing his little brother Yui.

Curling up on the ground, he decided it was time to sleep.