If I ever mention a place or country, just know its not accurate to the real version.
~ ~ ~
The drive to Altheo's place was actually pretty long. It took atleast over an hour to get there.
I fell asleep like three times, I kept waking up since he would randomly speed up out if nowhere.
The estate was huge. It wasn't a palace but it was a mansion built like one. Nothing extravagantly modern like Nicholas's house. It was a mix of modern luxury tuscan style.
The garage door slowly raised up. Showing off the ridiculous amount of cars Altheo's family owns.
"Wait outside" He says. I head out of his car and walk to the front door. Waiting for Theo to park.
His house was located in the remote mountains of Avignon. He had an amazing view of the towns below.
There was so much to take in yet so little time to even glance at everything.
"Do you own the land around here?" I ask once he returns.
"Yeah, just till the nearby villages."
"What do your parents do for a living?" I ask, stupidly forgetting.
"Run a country? Did you forget Athena?" Theo says in a teasing tone. "Only my mother stays here with Saffron and I."
I nod as I listen.
"Saffron won't be coming back today, She's probably over in Italy right now." He reassures me.
"Italy?" I ask.
"Yeah, whenever she doesn't want to deal with the life she has here, she runs away to our grandparents." He answers.
"You guys can just afford random trips to countries anyday" I mutter, still in awe with my surroundings.
"Kade? Who have you brought home this time" I look around to the source.
A lady walks into the light.
"Solo un amico mama" Theo says.
("Just a friend mama")
"Si, solo un amico. Ti credo Kade" She replies in a sarcastic tone.
("Yes just a friend, I believe you kade." )
Altheo rolls his eyes and sighs as she comes closer to us.
She holds her hand out, I shake it in return. I look at Altheo for help.
"Mama meet Athena, Athena meet my mother" Altheo finally helps out. I smile at her. She returns it.
Their mothers look so young. Just like lady Elena.
"Nice to meet you Athena." She says.
"Nice to meet you too ma'am" I reply.
She smiles at me once more then walks off. Theo sighing loudly in the back.
"Don't mind her, She's usually like that to everyone." Altheo explains.
"Even you?" I ask, knowing the answer already. He nods.
"Also kade?" I ask him. "Its my second name. My mum always likes to use it from time to time."He explains. "This way." He says, walking off.
We end up passing multiple rooms, walking into different sections of the mansion. If a person tried robbing this house they'll probably get lost.
So far I've been looking through the photo albums he has in his room. He let me look through it as he changed out of his uniform.
In his bathroom.
One photo was him posing at the beach next to a girl which looks like Niña.
Others was him with Nicholas riding horses, playing the drums, on a cruise with Thomas, posing with his grandparents and basically living life to the fullest.
I have to admit, I'm quite envious of people who get to live a fun life in their teenage years.
"Hold on I have to take this." Altheo says getting up from the bed. "I'll be right back." He adds before leaving.
I was left to die of boredom. My phone died and Altheo left his charger at Nicholas's house.
"This is my last warning, I'm telling you. Stop playing around. I am done seeing sixteen different girls here each week!" I hear someone yell outside.
I ran to open the door quietly.
Altheo's mother stood in front of him looking stressed. He just looks unbothered and used to it.
"16 is an exaggeration mama. It's barely 5" Altheo retorts.
"You say that as if it makes anything better." She adds.
Theo stays quiet, its almost like he just wants it done and over with.
"How can you be like this? Your sister keeps running away because you can't take care of her! For Goddess sakes Kade grow up!" She continues.
Altheo takes a deep breath in, placing his hands inside his pockets.
I hold onto the door frame as I watch. Trying to stay hidden. Though his mother catches a glimpse of me.
She looks at me with pitiful eyes. Shaking her head before turning around.
Altheo turns to my direction, his mouth opening slightly to say something but he just kept quiet, his stare moving to the floor.
"I can leave if there's a problem." I address, walking up to him cautiously.
"It's fine." He says.
"Do you really have five girls over each week?" I ask trying to lighten the mood but it seems to have ruined my own
He scoffs, chuckling.
"No," He laughs. "I don't actually bring any girls over, It's just my sister inviting random girls to annoy me.
She does it every time I annoy her."
"And you annoy her more than five times a week?" I ask slowly.
He was opening his mouth to speak but instead grinned as he looks back on the things he has done.
"Yes.." He answered quite guilty. "I can't even tell my mother about it or else she'll take the both of us down for messing around too much. Sibling Rules." He explains.
I smiled, not knowing what to say but I still found it amusing.
The weird bond he has with Saffron is something I'll never understand.
You could never have guessed that they were siblings even with the way they act around each other. They barely interact with each other and the fact they don't share the same last name really makes you think that they don't want to be known as siblings.
He narrows his eyes, tilting his head, moving closer to my face. His eyes moving to my lips and back to my eyes.
I find myself doing the same.
"Altheo?" I simply say, breaking the silence.
"Yeah?"
"Do not mess with me right now, It's too easy to uppercut you from this height." I whisper with a calm threatening tone.
He slightly chuckled, a short huff of air out his nose. A faint smile landing on his face.
Right after, he places a kiss on top of my head. Bear hugging me.
"I can stay like this for a while."
Only if time stopped.
"Thirsty?"
"Oh defitnetly." I tease. He grins at me and gestures for me to follow him.
His kitchen would be the size of an apartment.
"Drinks? Do you drink?" He asks. "Sometimes?" I answer.
"Beer?"
"No."
"You're a Champagne kind of person aren't you?" He guessed.
A smile appeared on my face and he knew right away.
"Red or white?" He askes. "Sparkling." I reply. "Sparkling white wine it is then." He says enthusiastically.
"Does Saffron have any interest in James?" I say trying to get rid of the silence in the room.
"James and Saffron are best friends. They've always been. Things got chaotic when Nicholas moved in. He was staying with his dad in Greece but their family decided to reunite." He explains while pouring a glass of wine.
The word best friends seems to be just thrown around by these lot.
"Saffron loves James as a best friend..or more but who knows. She isn't mentally stable, I don't even know how I could be related to her." He adds while popping a cap of a bottle of beer with ease using a ring on his finger.
"Sibling love." Azula comments.
"Tell me, Which one is it"
"Hm?" I hum. "Nick or James" He adds, still not making any sense.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Who did you fall for?" He askes.
Oh..
"I haven't fallen for anyone yet.." I responded slowly.
Altheo hums in response.
"Why didn't you hang out with Niña?" I ask, sipping on the wine.
"Not overly fond of her." He says suddenly downing his glass of alcohol. I get slightly taken back because of it.
"I saw her in those photo albums." I exclaim.
"Was meant to burn those photos a while ago." He says pouring himself another glass. "She was my old bestfriend." He explained.
"And now?"
He sighed after downing another glass.
"When Nicholas arrived, she moved onto him. She got obsessed with him just like Saffron. All she ever talked about was Nick this, Nick that.
She became a whole different person. Niña focused more on impressing Nicholas than anything." He says now drinking straight from the bottle.
I frowned on hearing his tone as he spoke. It slowly became more upsetting to continue hearing him talk.
"I'm sure you saw his mark. She did that to him. Although he never marked her."
"What happened to you?" I asked, careless about Nicholas.
"There were times when I needed her but she was out with Nicholas. I still carry scars from those times. Literally look" He starts to lift up his shirt. Showing a large scar that ran diagonally across his eight pack abs.
"What happened.." I whisper. Slowly running my fingers over the scar.
"I participated in illegal racing and got into a really bad crash." He scratches his head. "But it wasn't that bad since I'm still alive." He shrugs.
He finishes the last bottle, dropping it into the kitchen sink. Then collapsing onto me.
Luckily his head landed right on my shoulder and I managed to catch him.
Well shit.
"Hello? Mrs Ramirez? Hello anyone there!" I shout. Not too loud though
It was like 1 am in the morning.
"My lady, You are still here?" I hear someone gasp. I turn around and see one of the maids rushing towards me.
"Where is his room?" I ask her. "I'll take care of him ma'am" she says. "I can help, I insist." I say when she tries to reject my offer.
I forgot his damn room was on the opposite side of the house. Up several flights of stairs.
This man weighed like two sacks of rice.
"I can take over from here thank you" I tell the lady. She bows her head and leaves.
I place the perfect prince onto his bed.
"Why is it so hot in here" He mutters taking off his shirt with his eyes closed.
Altheo starts shivering.
I throw the covers over him.
"Athena, are you still here?" He whines.
"Yes" I groan.
He opens one eye and grins, then closes it back. "Stay." He says yawning into a pillow
"I have to go." I complain.
"Do you even know the way back?" He argues as he finds a comfortable position on his bed.
That's a good point.
"Fine, move over. You better leave space for the Moon Goddess." I joke, shuffling onto the bed. It was like a double sized king bed.
"So I can't have what you gave to Nicholas?" He whispers into my ear.
"Go to sleep."
I was grateful the lights were off, Altheo wouldn't be able to see my blushing face. I felt him playing with my hair, stopping after a while, I assume he fell asleep.
It was silent all over again.
I turned around, unable to resist peaking at him.
Theo looked so peaceful as he slept on his back. His chest rising and falling. His eyelashes made him look graceful somehow. Everything else like his defined cheekbones and jawline added to his masculine appearance.
I must admit I had a little jealousy in me. I couldn't comprehend how someone can look that good asleep.
"Something keeping you up?"
I almost jump as Altheo looked down to me with a curious gaze. He looked tired but amused.
My eyes couldn't find anything to rest on. I didn't want Theo thinking I was staring at his body now. Eventually I ended up staring back at him.
I shook my head instead.
"Must just be me then." He smiles to himself. Closing his eyes once again.
I furrow my eyebrows, having no clue what he had meant.
"Your heartbeat Athena."
oh.
~ ~ ~
YALL have no idea how much I wanted I wanted to add smut in this chapter.
But I'm just assuming you're all for Nick and Athena.
#secondmaleleadsyndrome
-Andræ