Rivals 🌈 ✔

32 - Impossible

Juice felt so much pain he was convinced that he was lying in a hospital bed. He must have been in a terrible accident, for he couldn't think of one body part that didn't hurt. There however were no beeps he would expect to hear in a hospital; in the distance there were sounds but around him there was silence. He tried to open his eyes. His eyelids felt heavy, he suspected them to be swollen. 

The room was dark, he didn't see much — only shadows. 

His other senses neither were very helpful; he thought to smell a mix of cigarettes, leather and clotted blood, but breathing through his nose was hard; it felt like he was having a cold. There was quite a chance he was just imagining things. 

He tried to sit, his ribs however protested loudly and a groan slipped his lips. Quickly he lied down again. 

Next to him something was moving. Or more likely, someone. 

Where the hell was he? Despite seeing so little, he knew he wasn't in his apartment or in his club room. Had he been so drunk last night? At least it would explain his headache and the nausea. Maybe he had fallen off a roof? Although there was someone lying next to him. Was all this the result of very rough sex? It was hard to believe. Firstly he wasn't a big fan of torture — much less in such a degree that he could barely move. And apart from that, he hadn't had sex in weeks. Raine and he...

Raine!

The name was like a password giving access to his memories. Raine's father was missing and he'd asked Juice to pick up his niece. Juice had done so, but he was overpowered by a Mayan who had dragged him to the clubhouse. His wrists were aching as he saw himself bounded to a chair.

A baseball bat — they had manhandled him with a baseball bat. Raine had run inside, had been furious, had untied him and had carried him to his room. 

Yeah — that's where he was now. In his boyfriend's room. 

Vaguely, he remembered how the man had laid him in bed before he left to explain to his brothers why he had sent a Son to pick up his niece. 

I want to marry you. 

Words he'd thought, yesterday. 

Or had he said it out loud? 

A new sort of panic hived through his body. No — he hadn't said that to Raine, right? They weren't together for long — they hadn't even had sex! When Raine knew that Juice wanted to marry him already, he would probably run for the hills!

With great effort, he opened his eyes. Carefully he touched his face. Everything was swollen; from his jaws to his eyelids. No wonder he barely saw something... He groaned as he slowly rolled on his side so he could inspect the bed next to him. Yeah... there he was. Warm skin glowed against his fingertips. Juice stroked his fingers up and down, although Raine began to move soon. 

"Juice?" Raine's voice sounded hoarse.

Through small cracks, Juice looked up. Raine's face was suddenly very close, his breathing ghosted the bruised skin.

"How do you feel? Are you in a lot of pain?"

"Yeah," he groaned. "Every fucking bone hurts man."

"You think something's broken?"

Step by step, Raine told him to bend his body parts until they concluded that nothing was broken. 

Clenching his jaw, he sat up straight. Worried, his glance slid across Raine's body. After how roughly they'd treated him, he'd expected his boyfriend to be beaten up as well. To his relief, no such thing had happened.