A small thud from downstairs in the otherwise completely silent house catches my attention. I place a finger between the pages and close the book I was reading, straining my ears to pick up on any other sounds. As the seconds tick by, I feel myself growing nervous.
'What was that noise?'
No one is at home at this time of the day other than me. Adrien is in college and Theo is God knows where. I pick up the bookmark from the nightstand and replace it with my finger, properly closing the book this time, and setting it next to me on the bed. I wasn't even reading thriller or horror, and yet, I find myself feeling nervous in broad daylight.
No other sound reaches my ears and everything goes back to being dead silent. Did I even hear correctly? I am sure I heard a soft sound. A silent gasp leaves my parted mouth when a sudden question comes to the forefront of my mind.
'What if it was an intruder?'
The question feels like a punch to my gut. All the air gets knocked out of my body in fear. Because I'm not lying when I say I have absolutely zero survival skills. What if it is indeed an intruder? What am I going to do now?
The sound came from downstairs and that's where the kitchen is. I can't even risk going downstairs to grab a knife. And I don't play any sports to have a baseball bat or something of the sort lying around in my room. Oh, God. Why are you doing this to me? Let me at least fully recover from the events of last night. I don't want to die yet.
I swing my legs off the bed and my feet land on the floor. I shakily get up from the bed and walk towards the door to my bedroom.
I gingerly walk down the stairs, taking each step excruciatingly slowly, and trying not to make any sound. I mentally pray to God that the sound was only a trick of my mind since I'm all alone in this big house. When I finally reach the bottom stair, I hear the sound of water running.
'This is definitely coming from the kitchen,' I think to myself and momentarily forget how to breathe. There goes my chance of grabbing a knife for self defence. And I forgot my phone in my room. Just great.
I walk around the corner and the sight that greets me is an empty living room. Nothing looks out of the ordinary. I turn around with baited breath and my eyes land on a figure in the kitchen. Back turned to me and clad in his signature black t-shirt, he is washing his hands in the sink.
I release the breath that I had been holding and clutch my chest where my heart was about ready to jump out of my ribs.
"Theo?" I ask, entering the kitchen and taking a few steps towards him.
"Princess," Theo says in a surprised tone and turns his head to look at me. His expression soon changes to a neutral one as he turns off the water. "Why aren't you in school?
"I, uh, didn't feel like going today," I quietly tell him, fidgeting with my thumbs. "What are you doing here? I thought you were away for—"
I stop short in my sentence when I notice a small trail of blood running down the side of his temple.
"Theo?" I gasp and he gives me a puzzled look. "What happened? Who did this to you?"
I immediately rush closer to him and hold his face in my hands. I turn his face to look for other injuries, but find none.
"How did this happen?" I ask again, letting go of his face and stepping back.
"It's fine. I'm not hurt," Theo replies simply. He tears a small piece from the paper towel and wipes his face where my eyes are trained.
"How can you say that you're fine?" I look down at his t-shirt and find some dirt on it. His jeans look relatively cleaner.
"Where were you?" My voice rises just the slightest and my heart starts to beat faster than normal. Theo avoids my eyes as he discards the used tissue.
"You went out early in the morning, and return at noon covered in dirt and blood. And now you're saying that you're fine?" My voice wavers and I struggle to breathe at a steady pace.
"Hey, look at me." Theo cups my face in both his hands and makes me meet his eyes. "I'm completely fine, Princess. Are you okay?"
"Me? Of course I'm okay. I'm not the one covered in blood!"
Theo is really testing my patience now. Is he sane? Why would he ask me that? And why isn't he answering my questions sincerely? He looked surprised at finding me at home. Is he hiding something from me? Theo is still relatively new here. He couldn't have possibly made any enemies.
"It's not my blood," Theo says calmly.
I blink several times in quick succession, feeling shocked at what I just heard. He is kidding, right?
I remove his hands from my face and take a step back from him. Theo notices it and sighs deeply.
"Is that supposed to calm me or something? Because it didn't help my nerves in the slightest."
Theo remains silent and my heart drops to my stomach.
"Theo..." I trail off, looking at him with tears in my eyes.
He averts his eyes from my face and his gaze falls down to the floor underneath. "He deserved it," Theo mutters under his breath.
'He? Who is he talking about?'
"Noah," Theo says, as if reading my mind. "That's his name, isn't it?" He still doesn't look up at me.
My eyes widen and I open and close my mouth like a fish out of water. Theo's eyes find mine and I take another step back involuntarily. He raises his arm in my direction but then retracts it immediately.
How did he know about Noah?
"What did you do?" I ask him shakily, not entirely sure if I want to hear the answer.
"What did you do, Theo?" I nearly shout when he doesn't reply.
"I didn't kill him, if that's what you're wondering," he says. "I'm not stupid."
'Oh, because stupidity is equivalent to killing someone?'
He looks so composed that it unnerves me. How could he say that so casually? He looks eerily calm right now and I am having a hard time believing him. But no one would lie about something like this, would they?
"What did you do to Noah?"
"I just told yo—"
"That didn't help my nerves in the slightest, Theo!" I shout, growing frustrated now. "Just saying you didn't kill him is supposed to, what, help me feel better?" I ask incredulously.
"Yes, I could've done worse," he replies plainly. "I wanted to do worse."
He says the last part in almost a whisper, but I hear him nonetheless. Is this the same Theo that I fell in love with? His demeanor has changed completely. His boyish smile gone, face now hardened with a cold expression. I gulp, not knowing what to say.
"Don't look at me like that," Theo says, and I knit my eyebrows. "Like what?"
"Like you're scared of me," he says with a pained voice, a hurtful expression crossing his face. And I feel bad for making him think that way. "Nothing's changed. I'm still your Theo."
My heart flutters when I hear him claiming himself as mine, but the feeling soon gets replaced with worry.
"I'm not scared of you," I tell him honestly. And as twisted as it may sound, it is true. I can't find it in me to be scared of him. Theo didn't raise his voice at me, even though I shouted at him, demanding answers.
"I'm scared for you. Because what if you get caught? What if the cops get involved? What if his parents—"
"Hey, hey, it's okay." Theo takes a step forward but still maintains his distance from me. Maybe he is afraid of accidentally alarming me. "Nothing like that would happen."
"You can't say that for sure."
"I can." He gives me a reassuring smile. "He wouldn't dare speak a word about it to anyone."
"But what if something happens to you?" Tears brim the corner of my eyes. "Why would you do something like that in the first place?"
"I don't care about the consequences," Theo says firmly. "I will hurt anyone that makes you cry. Including myself."
My heart gets stuck in my throat and I suck in a sharp breath. What do I even say to that? The way he said it so earnestly has rendered me speechless. Completely at a loss for words.
"How did you know about last night?" I end up asking him after a long pause.
"That doesn't matter, Princess. Will you answer me something first?" He replies with a question of his own. "Were you even going to tell me about it?"
I want to tell him "yes" but then it would be a lie. And I don't want to lie to him. I was nervous enough about how Theo would react if I told him what happened. And now seeing him like this makes me realise I wasn't so wrong to assume his reaction.
My silence must have given him the answer he knew he'd be getting, because Theo says, "I figured."
I remain quiet and chew the inside of my bottom lip. Will he get mad at me now? Is he disappointed in me? God, I hope not.
Theo draws in a deep breath and I prepare myself for his outburst. Adrien and Theo aren't so different, after all. And now I'm wondering if my brother would have done something innocuous compared to whatever Theo did. Probably not. My palms start to sweat as the silence stretches on.
"Why didn't you want to tell me?"
I blink at his surprisingly gentle tone.
"Don't you trust me?" He speaks up again.
"Of course I do," I mutter.
"Then why would you—"
"Because," I cut him off mid sentence. "The last time you saw Noah drop me off at home and kiss me on the forehead, you didn't talk to me for a week," I say. "A whole week, Theo." My voice breaks towards the end.
"Things were different back then," Theo replies quietly. He opens his mouth to speak again but I continue before he could.
"Do you know how much it hurt me to be ignored by you? A whole week of you giving me a cold shoulder?"
There. I said it. I admitted it to him out loud. There's no going back now. My eyes well with more tears as I continue to voice out my feelings.
"And if I told you that he kissed me on the lips last night, you wouldn't have talked to me for, what, a month this time?"
Theo immediately closes the gap between us and wipes my tears with his thumbs as soon as they escape my eyes. He cups my face softly and kisses me on the forehead.
"I'm so sorry, Princess," he whispers against my skin. "I promise not to do that again."
I close my eyes and nod, revelling in the comforting feeling of him holding me close. My breathing evens out and I relax into his touch.
"But I also need you to promise something."
I open my eyes to look up at him, awaiting what he has to say next.
"Promise not to keep anything from me from now on," Theo says. "Because I want to be there for you. And solve all your problems." He grazes his thumb against my cheekbone and continues, "How am I supposed to do that if you don't tell me what's wrong?"
He would says things like this to me and expect me to not fall for him? Does he even realise how much weight his words carry?
Theo shakes his head when I nod. "I need your words, Princess."
"I... I promise."
"Good." He smiles down at me, causing a small smile to form on my lips.
I place my hands on top of his and gently squeeze, before removing them from my face. Holding them in my hands, I look down and a deep frown soon replaces my smile.
"Your knuckles are bruised." I look up at his blue eyes and he just smiles warmly at me. "Does it hurt?"
"Nope." He grins and I keep the eye roll to myself.
I bring up his hands closer to my mouth and drop a kiss on his knuckles on both his hands. Theo's eyes widen for a moment at the gesture, before he quickly wraps me in a tight hug. I return the embrace and wrap my arms around his torso, shutting my eyes closed and burying my face in his chest.
I don't know for how long we stood like this–in the middle of the kitchen and not exchanging a single word–but Theo breaks away from the hug after a while, his hands lingering on my arms.
"Now, do you want to tell me what happened last night?" He asks softly and I find myself nodding before I could think twice.
Telling Theo doesn't sound so bad. I mean, he had already reacted before I even said anything. What more would he do? And maybe if I told him and got it off my chest, I would feel better. I couldn't say anything to my brother this morning. And I don't see any point in hiding it from Theo anymore.
"Yeah, okay."
———
A/N: what are your thoughts on Theo so far?
Also, I just wanted to say that a lot of you answered "both" on the question that I asked about spicy chapter. But I'm not sure if you meant it as in a 3rd person POV or alternating POVs. So I'm just gonna go with the latter, because I'm not confident in writing in 3rd person. I hope that's okay.
And if you couldn't already tell, you'll be getting a spicy chapter very soon :D
Anyways, don't forget to drop a vote (☆). It would make me happy!