NOTE: The above picture is Jacey Elthalion who I chose to portray as Mat Luca. As always, ENJOY.
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I got back upstairs from the basement.
I was about to go back to our bedroom when I suddenly saw Mat smoking outside from the window.
I decided to go out and join him at the lanai.
I stood beside him while Mat continued to smoke. He doesn't even say anything when I arrived.
"I didn't know you smoke", I tell him anyways. Then I took an extra cigarette from the pocket of his polo and placed it inside my mouth.
He finally looks back at me with his right eyebrow raised and said, "I didn't know you smoke either", then he takes out his lighter and lights the cigarette for me.
He looks back at the scenery, so I did the same and looked at the large trees that were in front of us.
I inhaled and exhaled the smoke from the cigarette before saying, "Where are Romeo and Antonio?"
Mat exhaled his smoke as well and answered, "Underboss Antonio went back to the meeting room to talk to the rest of the family. Don Romeo on the other hand went back to his room to clean himself up."
"Romeo must be exhausted", I commented, and then I inhaled the smoke again.
Mat exhales and throws his cigarette away. He still doesn't look back at me as he asked, "Mentally exhausted, physically exhausted, or emotionally exhausted?"
I put the cigarette down and took a deep breath, "All three obviously."
"He's been through a lot. Ugly as it sounds but he's used to the exhaustion", Mat explains.
I chuckle and inhaled and exhaled the smoke again.
"No one can ever get use to exhaustion. Because if you were, you wouldn't be exhausted to begin with", I honestly tell him.
I looked up and realized there were actually thousands of stars above us.
"Romeo smokes too you know. He started when he was only 13", Mat suddenly says.
I turned my head and got surprised when I saw that Mat was actually looking at me now.
"He started killing people too when he was 13. It was a dark year for him. It was the year where his monster was born too", Mat explains.
I throw my cigarette away and looked back at him.
"Romeo...how was he when his monster took over him?" I asked.
Mat looks at me, then he quickly looks back at the scenery and answers, "He was cruel. He didn't care about anything else but himself. Now he's 34, and rather than caring about himself, he cares about you now. And somehow, I could see that he's slowly caring about the family too."
"I never understood why he hated this family so much", I say, suddenly making Mat chuckle, "The family never understood him, they never even tried. They just thought Romeo wasn't capable of anything so they wanted to put him away. But I won't blame them, Romeo just made trouble everywhere. He was sometimes too much for me too", he explains.
Mat sounded like he was just joking about that last statement, but I knew that there were some truth behind that too.
So I just nod my head, but I don't say anything about it.
I'm glad Romeo is slowly forgetting the hate he has with this entire family, and I'm glad I helped Romeo become a better person too, I really am. But I'm afraid that I might end up being the key to the monster that he's trying to lock up for a very long time now.
"I'll be the death of him", I tell Mat.
Mat sighs, "Then protect him", he answers, making me laugh.
"Protect him? Do you really think he needs my protection?" I asked Mat.
Mat looks back at me. And with a serious expression, he answers, "He does. More than you need his."
*****
"Romeo?" I called out as I unknowingly ended up knocking three times on my own room.
I don't wait for his answer and just went inside.
The room was dark, and the bed was empty, but the door to the balcony was open, so I automatically knew where Romeo was.
"Romeo", I called out again as I went out of the balcony.
Romeo stood near the balustrade. He doesn't say anything nor looks at me, so I walked closer to him and gently touched his shoulder, suddenly making him flinch.
He quickly blinks and turns his head to look straight at me.
"Oh, Julien. You're here now", he says.
I took a deep breath and brushed his wet hair with my fingers, "You're spacing out again. I know a lot happened today, but you don't need to stay like this. It's better if you rest."
Romeo looks straight at my eyes. He doesn't say anything, but he leans closer to give me a kiss instead. But instead of kissing me, Romeo suddenly stops midway.
"Who were you with?" he suddenly asked me.
I paused and confusingly looked back at him, "Who was I with? Well I've been in this house for days, who else would I be with?"
Romeo doesn't say anything as he leans closer. He uncomfortably sniffs me and suddenly whispered, "Mat."
"Romeo, you're being weird", I say as I quickly moved away from him. But Romeo grabs my arm and angrily asks, "Did he touch you?"
"Touch me? Mat? No, of course not. Why would Mat-"
I stopped when Romeo suddenly laughs at himself.
"Oh yeah, that's right. Matthew Luca's the good guy", he says, making me look at him confusingly.
Romeo knew that I was starting to get concerned over his actions, so he quickly shifts his expression into a serious one, and then he leans his head on my shoulder.
"Sorry", he quickly says.
What's going on with him?
"Come on, let's go inside Rome. You need to rest", I say as I tried to pull him inside the room, but Romeo doesn't even budge.
"Another bunch of my men got killed today", he now tells me, pain visible in his voice.
He sounded so hurt that my heart was starting to ache again.
"And all that was my fault because I was too stupid to see that fucking Matthew King was someone who will end up betraying me like everyone else did when my father was still alive", Romeo says.
"That's not true and you know that-"
"It hasn't even been a whole week and how many of people have already been killed? Godfather or not, I can't protect them."
I shake my head and hugged Romeo tighter.
"No, you can protect them, maybe not all of them, but you can protect the rest of them. Everything that happened...that wasn't your fault. President King...he...he was just-"
"I trusted him", Romeo quickly says, finally breaking my heart.
I closed my eyes as I was slowly feeling my shoulder getting wet.
Romeo was crying again.
TRUST. That's a very strong word.
"I was so mad that I even ended up killing someone today Julien. I pointed the gun at his forehead and pulled the trigger", Romeo says as he finally lifts his head so he could look back at me.
His gray eyes were surrounded with red as he continued, "I pulled the trigger...but you know what? I felt nothing."
"Oh Romeo..."
"Make me forget Julien. Take my pain away like what you always do", Romeo practically begged.
I don't say anything and just continued on hugging him. I knew that anything I would say right now would not make Romeo any better.
He was a mess, and he looked like he was inches away from having another mental breakdown.
So instead of telling him anything, I slide down and kneeled in front of him until my face wound directly be parallel to his crotch area.
I gulped and closed my eyes for a second.
I can't give Romeo anything with my current status. But for now, I'll just give him something that I'm good at.
"Close your eyes and let me take your pain away", I tell him, and Romeo doesn't say anything and just did what he was told.
I looked at his crotch, and then I unzipped his pants, hoping his pain would slowly just turn into pleasure.
*****
I slowly opened my eyes, the sun directly shining on my face through the window.
When my vision was clear, I saw Romeo sitting down on the edge of the bed. I sat up and crawled towards him. I touched his shoulder and whispered, "Good morning."
Romeo was startled, but he doesn't say anything.
He smiles, and then he pulls me towards him until I could sit on his lap.
I was wearing his shirt that was obviously too big for me, so my shoulder was easily being exposed. Romeo stares at me, then he slowly leans forward to gently kiss my shoulder, "Why do you look like you're seducing me this early in the morning?"
I chuckled and rested my head on his shoulder, "I'm not though."
Romeo then touches my waist and stands up, carrying me with him towards the bathroom.
He gently places me on the counter beside the sink.
Romeo takes a face towel and wets it. Then he goes back to me and started cleaning my face.
I don't say anything and just looked at him do what he was doing to me.
"Hands up", he says, and I followed him like a child.
Romeo takes off my (his) shirt and started cleaning my body next. His eyes were so serious, so focused, that it was starting to make me feel hot.
When he was done, he gently kisses my neck and puts me down from the counter. He looks straight at me and says, "Change your clothes and tell everyone to get ready for the funeral. I'll be right there in a minute, okay?"
I nodded my head and answered, "Okay."
So I quickly changed my clothes and went downstairs to see everyone already wearing black funeral suits like I was.
"Good morning Mr. Choi", someone suddenly says. I looked at my right and saw a Valentino soldier approaching me.
"Oh, hello. Good morning", I awkwardly tell him since no one really greets me a good morning here.
The man looked like he wanted to say something but didn't know how to start it. So I gently touched his shoulder and said, "It's okay, what is it?"
The man was startled, surprised that I actually touched him. So I quickly put my hand down and added, "I mean, if you're going to tell me something then just do it."
"Brother Mat", he starts.
I looked at him seriously as he continued, "He said you were the reason why Romeo decided to rescue the men who got stuck on the fire last night."
My eyes widened from shock. Why would Mat suddenly tell everyone about that detail?
"No, I didn't really-"
"The man who was injured yesterday was my real brother. I was a coward to not go after him and just left him there to die. But because of you and Don Romeo, he was rescued. So thank you", the man says, touching his chest as a sign of respect.
I was surprised so I quickly had to bow in front of him as I said, "N-No, you shouldn't be thanking me. I was just...you know...just thank Romeo. He risked his life for them, not me."
"I know, but you were one of the reasons why Don Romeo took on that risk. And, I don't think I'm allowed to personally thank him so it's best if I tell you instead."
"It hasn't even been a whole week and how many of people have already been killed? Godfather or not, I can't protect them", I suddenly remembered Romeo say from last night.
"No, I think it's best if you thank him personally. He needs his people, and he needs the assurance that his people is glad that he's their godfather," I say, and the man nods his head as an understanding.
"Well that's it I guess. Thank you, again", he tells me. But before he could leave, I said, "Hey, can you tell everyone to get ready for the funeral? Romeo said he'll be joining us soon."
The man nods his head again. He doesn't say anything anymore and just leaves to tell everyone that they should go the funeral grounds now.
I stared at the man walk away from me.
I touched my chest, surprised that it was actually beating fast. I never felt so happy hearing someone say thank you to me for something that I really didn't contribute a lot to.
"How refreshing", I whispered to myself.
When everyone else was going out of the household, I immediately followed them towards the Valentino graveyard that was just a few meters away from the household itself. But while I was walking, I saw Mat standing alone near the scene where the explosion happened.
"Mat", I called out, quickly making him turn to look at me.
"You again", he says with a playful grin.
I stood beside him and looked at the burnt cars, "You like being alone...somehow like Romeo."
"That's why Romeo and I are friends", Mat jokingly says, making both of us laugh.
"How is he by the way?" Mat asked.
I took a deep breath and answered, "He's fine. He kinda handled this situation better than the past incidents."
Mat nods his head and says, "That's good."
I glanced at Mat, and then I remembered last night, when Romeo almost flipped because he found out I hanged out with Mat.
I was supposed to tell Mat that Romeo is very protective and gets mad easily when he's going through something. I was going to tell him that he should avoid me whenever Romeo's in that stage, but I decided to just keep my mouth shut since it didn't really matter.
"I think we should go", Mat says, and I nod my head as an agreement.
Both of us were about to leave when we suddenly saw the gates being opened from a far.
Mat and I paused as five black cars drove inside.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"The guards let them in. They must be family heads", Mat says as he slowly walked forward.
The cars stopped right in front of us. Mat fixed his suit as we waited for whoever was going to come out of that car.
A man goes out and opens the back door of the car in the middle.
I looked closely as I saw a beautiful woman get out of the car. Mat even gasped when he saw whom the woman was.
She sees us and quickly stares right at me with her cold stare, suddenly making me flinch just because of it.
Antonio and a few other men suddenly arrived to greet the woman.
"What are you two doing here?" Antonio asked as he looked at us, but he doesn't wait for us to answer him.
Mat and I quickly moved aside so Romeo's uncle could do his thing. He walks towards the woman, and then he grabbed her hand and gently kissed it like a gentleman.
"It's good to see you Antonio", the woman says, her voice cold like her eyes.
"Elizabeth, what are you doing here?" I heard Antonio ask.
I quickly looked at Mat and whispered, "Who's that woman? And what is she doing here?"
Mat moved closer to me and whispered back, "That's Elizabeth Roselli."
"Elizabeth Roselli?" I asked confusingly.
Mat nods his head and says, "Yeah. That...is Romeo's mother."
What?
"Woman", someone suddenly says behind us.
Mat and I quickly turned around and saw Romeo, his eyes looking straight at her, like he was getting ready for his second kill.
"My cruel son, how are you?"
- END -