Bonus Chapter | Crossover (Part 2)
Aaron glanced back, and, of course, Leo's arm was stuck between the boards of the wooden fence.
"He's fast! I swear it's so hard to keep up with him," Adelaide said. "But don't worry." She sounded pretty worried. "We can get him out."
Beside her, Leo was on his knees, trying to pull his arm back out in vain. Clearly he'd reached in to try and pluck some flowers. Maybe even grass. Or just to touch soil. Aaron couldn't predict Leo's intentions with this stuff.
Aaron sighed. "I've got an eye on him," he muttered as he walked towards Leo. "Don't worry."
"Dude..." Adelaide watched him pass by her. "You're really grumpy today..."
Aaron knelt down on one knee beside Leo while he tested how hard it would be to get his arm out. He tried tugging once. The wood of the fence was old and splintered, so he knew it was possible, but it would hurt.
"What were you trying to get?" Aaron asked.
"Flowers," Leo said, refusing to meet Aaron's eyes.
"That's someone's field, Leo. You can't take flowers just like that."
"But I wanted to make a flowercrown and put it on your head..."
Aaron crinkled his nose. "Why in the world would you wanna do that?"
Leo shrugged one shoulder. "Because that way Adelaide's joke will make sense."
Aaron gave Adelaide a flat look over his shoulder.
"Oh my gosh." Adelaide covered her face, embarrassed. "He just... He won't forget what I said, will he? Besides, if Aaron was actually a king it literally wouldn't be a joke, so..." She waved her hands. "You know what! It doesn't matter! Let's get him out of there."
Kneeling down by Leo's other side, she looked at his arm, and she must have noticed that it was turning red under the pressure, squeezed too tightly between the vertical boards. Aaron wondered how Leo managed to fit his arm in there at all.
"His arm is turning red," Adelaide said. "We need to hurry." She looked at Leo with a pitiful frown, and she gently put a hand over his. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay," Leo said, slipping his fingers out from beneath hers. He hid his hand behind his back.
Aaron noticed the hurt expression on Adelaide's face. "Don't take it personally," he said. "It's just that holding hands is his ultimate sign of trust, so he doesn't do it easily."
Adelaide shook her head. "It's fine. I understand."
Aaron caught Leo's arm and tugged again, but this time the wood cut into his skin, and a thin line of blood trickled out. Aaron quickly stopped. Leo didn't say a word, didn't wince, didn't complain. He just stayed put as he looked at the blood. It broke Aaron's heart. Leo could whine about anything and everything, but when it came to physical pain, his reactions were always so terribly passive.
"He's bleeding," Adelaide said, worry laced in her voice. Aaron wanted to try pulling Leo's arm out one more time, but Adelaide swatted his hand off. "Dude! He's hurt. Stop pulling his arm."
"And what do you want me to do? Leave him here?" Aaron asked, then he pulled at Leo's arm one more time. The rough edge of the fence scraped against his skin, and a few more lines of blood became visible.
Restless, Leo started shifting on his knees, glancing back, looking around at the people behind, probably envying the fact that their arm wasn't stuck in the fence.
"Leo?" Adelaide said. "Poor boy is so scared he's trying not to look at the blood."
Aaron shook his head. "Not even close. He's just bored. He hates staying still."
"Same, Leo. Same," Nathan said, sitting down cross-legged next to Leo. He broke a piece of the chocolate bar in his hand and offered it to Leo.
Leo stared at Nathan for a moment, then he opened his mouth and blinked expectantly.
It took Nathan a second to understand. When Aaron noticed this, he fought against an amused smile and shook his head. All this time and Leo still accidentally assumed people would feed him like that when they offered him food.
"Leo," Aaron said. "Close your mouth. He's not trying to feed you. You have a free hand." He tapped it. "Use it."
But Nathan had already put the food in Leo's mouth, and Leo turned to Aaron with guilty eyes. When he noticed the stern look on Aaron's face, slowly he leaned towards his free hand, intending to spit it out again.
Aaron's eyes widened. "No! Don't spit it out! Just swallow it now, it's fine."
Nathan couldn't stop laughing to himself. "You should've seen his expression when I offered him the chocolate. He was looking at me like feed me, peasant."
"Nathan," Aaron said. "Please don't encourage him. I could barely break this habit and now he'll think it's okay and he'll expect people to feed him all the time."
Leo looked at Nathan. "Peasant."
"Okay," Aaron sighed. He gave Nathan a tight-lipped smile. "Thanks for teaching Leo a new word. Enjoy him calling you a peasant for the rest of the day."
Nathan looked as relaxed as ever. "Aaron, my guy," he said, holding back his laughter, "I really don't mind."
"Uh, hello?" Adelaide said. "Leo is still stuck, if you forgot about that... It probably hurts a lot so let us just help him out."
"It doesn't hurt," Leo said.
Adelaide gave Leo her best empathetic smile, although Aaron could see the pity in it. He could also tell she completely misunderstood the situation. "Leo," she said, "it's okay to tell us if it hurts. And it's okay to complain. No one will judge you here, you know that, right?"
Leo stared at her emptily, then turned his face away, uninterested.
"Oh, gosh. He's reminding of Nate," Adelaide mumbled, looking at Aaron. "Nate had this entire I-think-I'm-not allowed-to-complain complex too. Does Leo's therapist know about this? I just... It's so sad, seeing him try to act like--"
"Adelaide," Aaron sighed. "It's not that deep. He means it literally. It literally doesn't hurt. He's got a blunted sense of pain."
"A blunted sense of what?"
"Pain," Leo said. "The doctors said it's how my body adapted to thirteen years of torture."
Aaron was so used to this idea, that for a split second, he couldn't tell why everyone fell silent.
"Oh, uh..." Adelaide looked pretty traumatized. "I... I-I'm sorry? You, uh, didn't deserve that. But on the bright side, no one can torture you for information or something, 'cause you're basically immune..."
Aaron gave Adelaide a look. "Well, isn't this a delightful thought?"
"But they can torture me with words," Leo said. "Words hurt a lot. They just have to say one word and I'll start sobbing."
"...So, need help getting his arm out, Aaron?"
"No."
Aaron grabbed Leo's arm a little tighter and pulled it out, finally freeing Leo. He winced when he heard the scratch of Leo's skin against the wood, then winced again when he noticed thin lines of blood trickling along his arm.
Leo stood up, then Aaron. Leo stared at his arm for a second, then lowered it to his side, nearly smearing his shirt. Aaron grabbed his wrist and kept it away from his torso. "Don't wipe it on your shirt," Aaron told him, then looked up, only to find Adelaide gaping at them. "What?"
"That's... That's a lot of blood," she said.
Aaron shook his head. It really wasn't. There were just a few long scratches--Leo wasn't bleeding, but Adelaide was staring like he was about to die any minute.
Elio offered a tissue paper. Aaron nodded gratefully at him as he took it and patted the blood off Leo's arm. When he was done, he noticed that everyone was staring, and then he realized what they were staring at--Leo's old scars. The ones criss-crossing along his enitre arms. Leo was never self-conscious about them, unlike Aaron.
After a few heartbeats of silence, Leslie pursed her lips and said, "So we should get going." She looked at Aaron for a second with desperate, curious eyes, and Aaron could tell there were so many questions in her head. "Good luck. Bye."
"Ask," Aaron said.
Leslie had begun spinning around, but she quickly turned around and faced Aaron again. "What?"
"Just ask whatever you wanna ask me," Aaron said. "You've been staring the whole time. I'm not stupid."
Leslie continued staring, wide-eyed, then she gave in to her curiosity, and she took a few steps closer to Aaron. "I promise I won't try to get details out of you. I just have one general question," she rambled. "But I don't wanna make you uncomfortable, so it's totally fine if you don't--"
"Just spit it out please."
"Do you think your captors actually cared about your happiness and wellbeing, even if it's in a psychotic way? Did they genuinely care about your comfort? Or was the entire thing just a selfish way to fullfill their psycho fantasies? I have my theories, but no one would have a better idea than you, that's why I'm asking."
Well. Aaron hadn't expected a profound question. He let out a breath, then shrugged. "Both," he said. "I think. To some extent, they thought they could make me happy. They thought I'd like their care because of the way I grew up. But you know they're selfish when they still forced me into it even after I told them that I hated it. Even after I literally told one of them I'd rather have them beat me with a belt." He sighed. "I can't be sure. I can't read their minds, so that's just my opinion. And I think the percentage of selfishness vs. actually caring about me is different between the three captors, by the way. So yeah."
Leslie nodded at him, and the interest in her expression was startling for some reason. Aaron might have expected her to mock him. He didn't even know why.
"That makes a lot of sense," Leslie said. "Thanks for answering. Sorry for bothering you again."
"You didn't bother me." Aaron gave her a small, assuring smile. Then he noticed Matt staring at him staring with his mouth open. "What?"
"Three captors," Matt repeated. "You had three captors? I didn't know that."
"Yeah."
"Oh, man," Matt mumbled. "I would've..." He made a swiping motion over his throat.
Aaron subconsciously touched his throat too, and his fingertips brushed over the scar he created there. The night he ran with Leo across the forest... He could recall it like it happened yesterday. The terror and the exhaustion and the pain.
"Don't say that," Aaron told Matt. "You never know how you'll react until it happens. I always thought I would die before letting someone screw with me like that, and the next thing I know..."
Aaron didn't want to say it out loud, but the next thing he knew he was calling a grown ass man daddy and letting a psycho touchy obsessive woman bottle-feed him.
"I actually knew how I'd react," Adelaide said. "I always thought I would just cry the whole time if I ever got kidnapped, and that's exactly what I did!"
Nathan let out a quiet chuckle.
"You guys were kidnapped too?" Leslie asked, looking at Nathan and Adelaide.
Nathan nodded. "Yeah, but we weren't with Aaron. We had a different psycho to deal with."
"Oh, man," Matt mumbled. "How did you all even survive that?"
"Who said we did?" Nathan asked.
Aaron nodded. "We didn't." He tapped his temple. "Not here."
"And not here," Leo said, pointing at his heart.
Looking over at Leo, Aaron grabbed his wrist and moved it a little so he was actually pointing at his heart.
"And how do you know each other?" Leslie asked. "Abduction victims support group... ?"
Erika snorted. "So bold of you to assume Aaron would ever share his feelings with an entire group of people. He couldn't even tolerate talking to a therapist, which is literally legally confidential."
"We went to the same high school," Nathan said.
"Oh." Leslie nodded. "That's one cursed high school."
"Yeah." Nathan chuckled. "Erika, watch out. You might be next."
"You know what's funny?" Adelaide said. "I read somewhere that people who've been kidnapped once are at a higher risk of getting kidnapped again than people who haven't been kidnapped at all. So it's really us"--she pointed at herself then Nathan and Aaron and Leo--"that should be watching out."
Nathan smiled nervously. "Well... at least we have experience this time."
Aaron did not look amused. "Are you guys trying to make me cry?"
Erika leant towards Nathan and Adelaide. "Guys," she said, "if you can make him cry, do it. He's starting to bottle everything up again."
Aaron frowned. "Erika!"
"Just kidding!"
"But he's not doing that," Leo said. "Last time, when he visited his real dad, he cr--"
Aaron clamped a hand on Leo's mouth. Then he gave Nathan and Adelaide a look. "Heard anything?"
They shook their heads.
Aaron nodded. "Good."
"So we should really get going now," Leslie said. "It was nice meeting you guys." She smiled and waved at Leo. "Bye."
Leo waved back shyly, then waved at Elio too. Elio looked a little shocked at Leo's acknowledgement but he quickly reciprocated. And then Matt--Leo only watched him leave. He refused to wave at him.
"No goodbye for Matt?" Erika said.
Leo shook his head.
"Let's go." Aaron moved towards the car, and everyone followed. Except Nathan. Craning his neck, Aaron glanced at him. "Hey. You good?"
Nathan nodded slowly. "Yeah. But thanks to Adelaide here," he said, patting Adelaide's shoulder, "I'm getting paranoid about someone kidnapping all of us right now."
Adelaide laughed nervously. "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry," she said. "But on the bright side, we're safe if Aaron gets kidnapped with us! He'll come up with an escape plan for us."
"For me and Leo," Aaron said. "You two on your own."
Nathan raised a playful brow. "Ahh, I love when he acts all cold and shit." He poked Aaron chest, over his heart. "I know you're a real softy deep down, because otherwise, you wouldn't be with Leo right now. You wouldn't have cared so much about him."
Aaron shook his head, hating that he had to hold back a smile.
Leo swatted Adelaide's arm, looking at her with a frown. "We're not using Aar to make a plan for us. I wouldn't let him do all the work again," he said. "This time... This time I'll come up with a plan. Aar can rest or sleep or something in the meantime. And then when it's time, we'll wake him up."
Aaron stared at Leo's side-profile apprehensively for a second. "Let's stop fantasizing about us getting kidnapped again, how about that?" His brows furrowed, and disapproval glinted in his eyes. "And I didn't like the 'I won't make him do all the work again' part, Leo. You're making it sound like it was a burden. But it wasn't. You being with me back then..." He sighed. "It was comforting. You entire presence was comforting. I don't know why. It just was."
Leo didn't look convinced. "...Really?"
"Yeah. Really. And it's actually pretty selfish of me." Aaron gently pushed Leo forward. "Let's go now."
"Selfish?" Leo moved along towards the car, face set in a puzzled expression.
"Leave it to Aaron to find a way to shit on himself," Nathan said.
"I'm not--It's not like that. I'm not trying to shit on myself." Aaron waved his hand dimissively. "Just forget it."
"I think I understand what you mean," Leo said after pondering for a while. He smiled at Aaron. "And I think I'm selfish too, then."
Aaron smiled back, then he slung an arm around Leo's shoulder. It used to be slightly easier, he realized. Leo quickly pushed himself closer to Aaron like it was an instinct.
"Hey," Aaron mumbled. "Don't you dare get taller than me."
Leo shrugged, pretending to be nonchalant, but there was amusement in his eyes. "I might. My doctor told me I still have enough time to catch-up even more! So maybe one day." He looked up at Aaron with a playful frown. "Maybe one day you will have to look up at me."
"Not happening."
*_*_*_*_*_*_*
Helloo. It took me forever to figure out how to end this chapter lmao which is why it took me so long to post it. Thank you so much for reading/voting/commenting! Hope you enjoyed the crossover. Aaron and Leo will forever be my favorites out of all the characters i ever created 🥺❤️
(Random note: i'm in the middle of planning a new book, and i realized halfway through that i created a character who is a mix of Aaron and Leo. He has Aaron's looks and Leo's personality lmao 💀💀)