Good Intentions

11

"Maybe you could shut me up with a kiss like you did last night," Nick said smugly.

"I'm being very passive right now so unless you want me to be a brat, please shut up. I'm sleepy and I don't want to make the effort to actively bicker with you right now," Leo said and yawned.

"I was going to show you the ropes of your new job after breakfast, but you can take a nap if you'd like."

"I might take you up on that offer."

Breakfast came quickly, and Leo couldn't help but smile with glee as the room filled with the scent of shrimp and okonomiyaki sauce. He could never afford the good seafood to make it himself, so this was going to be a treat. It was served in front of him on a gold china plate, steaming and still slightly sizzling. Nick was given a bowl filled generously with fruit, a colourful poke bowl, and a whole teapot of tea. Leo didn't think Nick would be able to finish everything, but he was horribly wrong and judged incorrectly. Nick, though not sloppy, scarfed down his food as if he were in a hurry. Leo was surprised that the blond man was so skillful with chopsticks.

After finishing breakfast, Nick guided Leo to his office where they were going to spend a lot of time today. It looked like something out of the movies. The last time Leo was in here, he had just attempted to run away from Nick only to be dragged back and get yelled at. The only difference now was that there was a day bed pushed to the edge of the room with multiple pillows, blankets, and quilts. Leo didn't notice this last time.

"I'm going to do some quick paperwork and you can nap here," Nick told him.

"Why can't I sleep in my room?"

"Because I don't want you to. "

"I don't want to-"

"Leo, please for the love of god can you stop arguing with me for five minutes? I need you to be here with me. I need you close. It's already driving me crazy having to sleep in a separate room from you. Just do this one favour for me," Nick interrupted with a big sigh as he walked over to his desk.

"You're going to do something perverted," Leo said with a huff of his chest.

Nick sighed again and got up from his desk to approach Leo who was standing near the door. He took his hands in his and raised one to leave a lingering kiss on every single finger. Leo didn't pull away, not wanting to annoy him any further.

"I would never do anything you wouldn't want me to do."

Leo wanted to tell him, 'oh but you would. I didn't want to be kidnapped, but you kidnapped me anyways' but decided against it.

"But stay here with me, okay? Please?" He lifted Leo's hand and pressed it to his own cheek.

"Fine, but wake me up in an hour."

He pulled his hands away and marched grumpily to the day bed where he immediately lay himself down and pulled a blanket over his shoulders and turned facing the wall. With a full stomach and the soothing sounds of Nick writing down on paper and tapping away at his laptop, it wasn't long before slumber took over him again

---

It was happening again, the same dream he's been having for the last five years.

It was a crisp October night, and he was walking home from his parttime job at the convenience store. In one hand he carried a plastic bag filled to the brim with bento boxes and premade sandwiches nearing their best-by dates. They weren't expired so they were still safe to eat, and Leo needed to feed himself and his little sister. The parttime job helped, but it was only enough to pay the monthly rent and the water and electrical bill. Luckily for him when his parents died, they left behind a large sum of money that would be enough to send both of them to school. Leo often worried about what he was going to do after the money ran out, but he tried to focus on other things for now. He was just glad he was able to find a job that let him work at the age of fourteen. His job was only a fifteen-minute walk from home, but he always walked very fast so that he could get back to his sister sooner. She was only ten, and she didn't like being left alone in the house for too long.

"I'm home," he announced as he unlocked the front door and entered the genkan. He slipped off his shoes and walked to the kitchen to set down the groceries on the table but immediately his veins ran cold when he noticed that his little sister wasn't there to greet him like she usually did. He looked down at his wristwatch to see that it was almost midnight, he had been asked to work overtime. It was a school night so she was probably asleep, he thought. She usually had to wake up early to make breakfast for the two of them. Leo always insisted she didn't have to, but she would always complain to hin that she felt useless not helping him since she didn't have a parttime job. He carried a few bento boxes and sandwiches in his arms to put them away in the fridge but dropped all of them the moment he opened it. Rice and sauce fell on the floor, but what was inside made him forget about the mess.

Inside the fridge was his little sister, her neck snapped so that her head was angled abnormally to one side. Her limbs were tied together with red rope, bounding them together and marking her skin with blood and angry red marks. Her eyes were rolled so that only the whites were visible. On her face was a crimson stamp depicting a koi fish. He recognized that symbol anywhere: it belonged to Japan's most infamous and notorious gang.

His heart fell to his stomach and his immediate thought was to run to the sink and throw up his insides, but he found himself glued to the spot, his eyes fixed on his little sister's pale and lifeless face, her mouth frozen open in eternal terror and the way her own blood painted her body like a portrait of horror. He screamed, screamed until his lungs felt like they were going to rip apart if he didn't stop. It was all he could do. There were no tears. No sadness, for it was going to hit him later. All that was present now was virgin fear and anger. When it finally occurred to him that his sister was dead, Leo backed away from the fridge and fell on his behind, his mouth open from sheer shock.

He screamed once more when his sister's eyes blinked open, her eyeballs pure obsidian.

"You should've come sooner."