You heard two pairs of rapid footsteps heading towards you.
"Huh? Is someone runnin—" turning around completely was a mistake.
"Argh!" Tam and Thomas ran up to you and crashed their heads onto your stomach. "Goddamn, you pieces of shit!" You hissed at them.
The twins giggled at your reaction.
Vasilios widened his eyes. "(Y/n), you shouldn't speak such profanity in front of children." He scolded you. Tam and Thomas realize the intimidating male is right next to you.
"Yeah, yeah." Satisfied with your reply, he then turned his focus to the two children.
"As for the both of you—" they cower under his glare.
"—That was certainly not a polite and welcoming gesture. It was rude, barbaric and definitely inappropriate. Apologize to miss (y/n) this instant." He crossed his arms.
"Sorry." Tam and Thomas muttered simultaneously.
"Just a pathetic 'sorry'? How insincere, apologize properly. Now." The twins jolted at his harshness.
"We're sorry, miss (y/n). We promise we won't do it again. Please forgive us." They hung their heads low as they mumbled the full apology.
"Wow! How are they so in sync?"
"Unacceptable. I've taught you better than this, Say it again, clearly." You whipped your head to Vasilios.
"He whines about kids not liking him, but he makes himself so damn unlikable to kids."
"We're sorry, miss (y/n). We promise we won't do it again. Please forgive us." Their voices were clear and polite, you felt bad for them.
"Hey, no biggie. It's cool, you guys don't— don't need to cut your pinky or something." You tried to improve the situation by laughing it off. Unfortunately, the siblings and Vasilios weren't laughing along.
"Thank you for your apology, Tam, Thomas. You may now leave." They immediately scurried off somewhere else.
"What... what—"
"I babysit Tam, Thomas and..." He huffed before continuing.
"...Thor, when Mr and Mrs Smith are both busy. I was concerned that they weren't receiving enough discipline. Hence, I did the Smiths a favour and trained the twins to be proper, functional human beings for years." He tucked a strand of hair behind his ear.
Vasilios sighed dejectedly, "How unfortunate, that... degenerate just wouldn't change no matter how hard I try."
"Wait, that shit doesn't add up. Tam and Thomas said he eats kids but... he's been babysitting them? Why would they think of him that way if he's their nanny for like... years?"
"Wait a second, what...? They were piss scared when they came to your home. But... huh?" You couldn't piece it together. Vasilios tilted his head to the side.
"Yes?"
"No wait, they said some bullshit about their parents telling them you 'eat kids'... and thanks to your 'markings'—" you briefly rolled the turtleneck down to show the bite marks.
"—I had to tell them I'm your damn dentist." Vasilios looked away in embarrassment. He shouldn't have done that, especially he's deciding to make you stay in his life.
Of which... includes the whole neighbourhood and their children.
He exhaled forcefully through his nose, explaining to Tam and Thomas his true relationship between you is going to be a challenge since... you 'creatively' twisted their reality.
"You're their nanny for years, why do they treat you like some kinda dangerous pedo?" Hearing that made him feel like a needle pierced through his heart.
"Hey! Don't get me wrong, I ain't calling you a pedo!" You exclaimed.
He sighed. "It's a common... um, practice for the parents to paint me as this horrible monster that hurts misbehaving children." Vasilios tugged on his own turtleneck collar.
"I've heard childish rumours on how I would burn their hair, drown them in the toilet, peel their fingernails off one by one, remove their teeth using a pair of tongs..." He closed his eyes momentarily.
"...Parents who had to deal with rowdy and rebellious teenagers threatened to send them to a place 'worse than army boot camp'. Which is—" He stopped to take a breath.
"—my very own home. Some even went far enough to pay me to discipline their child. I... helped to correct some of their bad behaviours, but I did not accept any payment, thinking that they're genuinely in need of help." Vasilios shook his head and chuckled sadly.
"Oh, what a fool I am. They're just lazy, good for nothing, irresponsible imbeciles. Only seeing children as objects, a status symbol and not real human beings to be respected." You couldn't see his eyes as they were covered by his hair.
"They just... reproduce and reproduce and reproduce without caring about its effects towards the world, economy or the feelings of the children themselves."
"Why did you agree to give Thor a counselling session?" You asked cautiously.
There was a long pause.
"Shit! Did I say something wrong!?"
You were about to apologize, however, it was cut short by Vasilios's bitter chuckling.
"Why? Why am I still doing this? Why did I allow this parasitism to continue? Why am I allowing myself to be taken advantage of? Why..." your blood ran cold as you hear sniffles from him.
"...why am I so weak?" It was a mere whisper, you looked around you.
Luckily Thor's bedroom door was in a secluded area of the house, so none of his friends can see him break down in tears.
He chuckled again. "...Maybe it's because—" he sobbed.
"—I wanted that 'American Dream' so badly. To comfortably settle in the suburbs with my lawn as green as it could be. Friendly neighbours that would invite me to barbeque cookouts every Saturday..." He looked at you with red, watery eyes. You cringed.
"...I finally had it in my hands. To that, I needed to pay a price. For me to receive, I must give. And I gave away my..." he gulped.
"...reputation. I would play along so I won't be excluded from any... neighbourhood gatherings. I didn't want to be alone, I—" He brought his hand up to his face to cover his eyes.
"Oh boy..." you mumbled as you pulled on your hair.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't uhh, cry yet. Go home and do it."
"I feel so alone, (y/n)." He replied.
"Okay, good to know. Suck those tears back up, cry later, damn it!" Vasilios ignored you and he allows a stream of tears to flow down his cheeks.
"Shit!" You knew if anyone finds him vulnerable like this, it will cause so much drama that you might even get roped into it.
"They're going to think I'm the reason he's goin' crazy! Hmm..." You don't want to hug him either, If someone spots you and him doing that, you'll have some explaining to do and awkwardness to face. Plus, there are children and teenagers around.
They're going to ask so much stupid questions that fuel your shame.
Also, you wouldn't want to make him fall for you deeper. What should you do?
"What if I try to distract him by saying some stupid shit? If it works for Thor, It'll work for him." At the corner of your eye, you saw Thor's personal flatscreen TV in his room showing the news. It says: "Bank robbery in Jakarta, 3 injured and one dead."
"That'll do."
"Hey, hey, hey, stop that shit! Every time your tap's loose, a disaster happens in Jakarta!" It worked. He stopped crying and furrowed his eyebrows.
"What are you talking about...?" Though, his voice was still wavering and tight.
"Look at that! Three injured and one dead! They wouldn't have shown that if you didn't cry!" You pointed at the flatscreen TV. He gave you an incredulous look before flipping his hair back, freeing his face from it.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous. That is completely unrelated to my crying."
"Yes, it is! It caused it, that's why it happened! You cried!" He rested his hands on his hips.
"What's gotten into you?" Vasilios placed the back of his hand to your forehead, checking if you have a fever.
"Well shit, bitch! What's gotten into you!? Cryin' every fricking time I blink." You snapped at him. He was taken aback by your sudden outburst.
"If you wanna be weak, be weak at home. Don't— don't show this shit to the public, man!"
"(Y/n)—"
"Imagin' if Thor actually came back seein you pissin' through your eyes, how are ya gonna lecture him on getting his shit together when you can't even get yours together!?"
"I... see. You've made a valid point—"
"Hell yeah, that's right! Pack it up, sort your trauma later at your own house. It's Thor's birthday party and it's his turn to cry in his house!"
Vasilios stared at you in disbelief.
You stared back with frustration and fear in your eyes, the adrenaline rush is still making your heart pump quickly, making you breathe heavily.
Vasilios closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Finally, he regained his cool composure all thanks to you.
Meanwhile, you felt like you just ran a 10-mile marathon in two minutes.
"Thank you, my darling." He caressed your cheek and pecked you on the forehead.
You were hoping that your sudden explosion made him lose some, if not, most feelings for you.
Unfortunately for you, no. Instead, you gained more of his love and affection. Why? It's because of your method of wording.
You didn't brush his feelings away, you didn't invalidate them. You just told him to continue it later.
He also believes that you truly cared for him. Because you took his situation with Thor in consideration and used it in your reasoning as opposed to just telling him to stop because it's 'unlike' him.
Vasilios smiled and embraced you.
For the first time, he doesn't feel lonely. He has someone to love and care.
And someone to 'sincerely' return the favour.
Only if you had mind-reading abilities, then you would see how your actions made your issue so much worse than before.
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A/n:
How Vasilios acts at the start of the book:
How Vasilios acts in the later chapters of the book: