moaned

blake thought about it, he really did. giving mia a break would be a good thing, she would probably be grateful, but all he could think about was all the free product she had already gotten and she was already asking him for more. now she was looking at him like he was the crazy one, like she wasn't the one trying to score free drugs from her drug dealer. "i'm dead serious." he said, shrugging his shoulders.

At his crude words, though, she regained some of her footing. "Okay you can't keep changing the terms," she demanded, though she did know that she had very little to stand on. It was enough to have her make a decision, and negotiate with him at the same time. "– But .. Fine. I'll suck you off, but we're not gonna fuck," she said, trying to sound confident and in charge. "And I don't swallow."

But then more words fill the room, and Mia's jaw just about drops. "– What?" She'd heard him just fine. "Fritz, you can't be ..." she doesn't finish her sentence, still processing what he'd just said. With a deep breath, she finally looks at him for longer than a second, and shakes her head. "Is this a joke?"

“You’re worried if I’m dating someone?” Fen’s gaze is curious in a way that’s nearly teetering on disbelief. Their audacity has always been so astounding and their jealousy even more so. Fen’s lured them into his web and he cannot believe how easily he’s gotten them to settle beneath his thumb. He thinks the other would like it if Fen demanded that they never leave his sight. “You’re so fucking sick. Isn’t that man in there your husband?”

With a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, an officer stood off to the side talking with her parents when she'd heard the ringing of the doorbell. At first thought, probably some local journalist wanting to cash in on a connection to her or her parents for the inside scoop, but that voice… that voice that spoke lowly with the second officer…

"Mitch?" Jordan spoke up, loudly for the first time, as she rose from the couch to get a better look. Dressed in the same clothes she'd worn the night of her disappearance, seeing him, all grown up, it caused her bottom lip to tremble, a flood of emotions threatening with all their might to spill over.

Oh. Her voice.

She said his name, and it was like a weight lifted off his shoulders, one he'd forgotten that he was carrying because it'd become his new normal. "Jordan," he called out, almost in a trance, pushing the door open further and completely ignoring the police man. There was only one thing on his mind, he needed to see her. Now.

Still, the moment he did, he froze. She was there. Right in front of him. Looking almost exactly like she had in his memory – her beautiful blonde hair, those loving blue eyes ... But she looked worn down. Burdened by what had happened to her, and the guilt of it overwhelmed him so much, it's as if he was back in that first night, when a search party had been frantically put together and Mitch had spent hours in the police station, first being interrogated as a suspect and then later, when they'd cleared him, running point for the volunteers who'd shown up to help find her.

But they hadn't, and still, she was here. Teary-eyed, he could only stare, the wind completely knocked out of him as he took her in. There she was. "You're .. Home."

he leaned back on the couch, sighing deeply. "you can say no, but then you won't be getting your drugs until you pay me what you owe." he said with a shrug. "or, you can get what you want today, and all you have to do is put out. the choice is yours."

"You cannot be serious," she still said, trying to find some way out of here, one where she wouldn't have to humiliate herself for his pleasure but also get what she wanted. "Look, I told you, I can pay you back next week. Just .. Give me one more chance. Please?"

" i'm still me, baby... i'm still me. " it was a desperate promise, a plea on his lips that begged for her forgiveness in the curvature of their frown. knitted brows pulled above his eyes, and he pet her hair with both hands, smoothing it down across the side of her head. planting a kiss to the top of it, angel sucked in a stabilizing breath, and repeated himself. it was for both of their benefits. " i'm still your angel. "

but he had to get her home. promising the full story, everything she could want to know, angel got her back to his apartment and started a bath for her. while the water was running and filling the soapy tub, angel returned to her side. it was hard to be apart from her, knowing how scared and unsure she was, but he needed to get her safe, and calm, and clean, and reassured.

he needed her to know that he wasn't an evil man.

he needed her to know that if she left him, he'd break.

" come on. i got a bath ready for you. " he slid his hands down her sides, gripping the hem of her bloodied shirt to help slide it from her body. " what do you want to know first? "

His words rang true in her ears, all the way to his home and even while he got the bath ready for her. It had been a bit of a joke between them at first, using his first name to talk about how he'd saved her from the life of nothingness she'd gotten stuck in, how he'd given her meaning again. Now, all she could do was stand there, silent tears still rolling down her cheeks every few moments as she waited for him to guide her.

Even now, being in his apartment felt like coming home, and when he was once again close to her, she looked up at him with red, swollen eyes, but then mindlessly let him undress her anyway, questions forming in her mind that she didn't know how to ask without making this whole ordeal reality. "Who .. " she began as he nudged her, looking back down to watch him as he helped her out of her pants. "Who were those people?" Her voice sounded foreign to her – weak and scared, but still her eyes never stopped searching for his gaze, searching for answer in his face and reassurance that he was, in fact, still her angel. "How did you know them?"

His words could've been taken as an insult, but Midas only chuckled and then shook his head, not bothered in the slightest. As a matter of fact, he took a sliver of pride in his laziness, even if it was a source of contemption between him and his father. Naturally, that laziness didn't always benefit him, especially not when the other raised his sword and Midas barely missed the blade by an inch – and only because Eloi hadn't had any actual intention of getting him.

blake arched an eyebrow at her reaction. he didn't think it was that big of an issue. "no, i'm not joking." he said finally, shaking his head slightly. "you want more drugs, then you need to earn it or pay for it. and since you've already snaked me out of drugs without paying these past few instances, this is how you'll repay me for those times and then be able to get these." he said, shaking the baggy in front of her face.

She looked at the little baggie in his hand, then once more at him, but before she could talk herself into it, she sprung up from the couch for some distance between them and then defiantly crossed her arms across her chest. "You're insane," she chided, doing her damned best to keep her feet planted firmly on the ground and make herself look a lot more self-assured.

As Mia finally looked up Hayden studied her face, his dark eyes sweeping over her pretty features. The muscles in his jaw and neck flexed when he looked away, exhaling with a breath of feigned humor. Trying to ease the tension. "Suppose I'm the only single one, huh," he said, eyes moving over to their friends and a couple made sounds of their agreement. Hayden licked his lips, flashing another grin as he brought his cocktail to his mouth and drained what was left inside the glass.

In any other situation, one where they weren't surrounded by friends, maybe Hayden would have made a big deal, been an asshole like how he wanted now. He didn't like the deception but by the pleading in her eyes she obviously had a reason. He couldn't judge but that didn't mean his knee-jerk reaction was to do just that. With a little grin that was more than just friendly, Hayden leaned back to catch their waitresses attention as she set down their appetizers. "I'll take another drink when you get the chance, thank you," he said, smiling at her, then turned his attention to the food, taking a couple things.

He wasn't sure what he'd do when this boyfriend got there, keeping his cool wasn't exactly something Hayden did when it came to acts of the heart. But then again, it had been a one time thing. Too bad it was the best thing he'd had in ages. Keeping it casual was his usual routine for this exact reason, there was just something about Mia that had been so intoxicating, even now he buzzed with the desire to touch her just to see if she'd react the same way she had that night. His eyes fixed on her again and they promised a conversation or confrontation later. In private. That was, if he didn't lose his composure because the jealousy burning in his veins was rattling him more than the news that she had a boyfriend.

It hadn't been until the next morning, before the first light had even started to shine into his room, that she'd come to the realization of what she'd done – and more importantly, that she needed to never see him again if she didn't want it to happen again. Even though they'd been strangers, he'd been so attuned to her body's needs, so delicate yet confident in his own advances, and even now, it made her shudder to think about as her body remembered every touch.

Instead, she twiddled with her metal straw and tried her best not to lose her mind, so far gone in thought that the hand on her upper back startled her too much to be casual. She hadn't even noticed Jude coming in and greeting the group, but she quickly recovered and looked up at him while he took a seat next to her, giving him a quick smile but then immediately looking back at Hayden, trying to gauge his reaction.

"Hm hm, yeah, I'm fine," she told Jude in reply to him whispering if she was okay, and once more she forced herself to look at her boyfriend and give (what she hoped was) a reassuring smile. She just had to get through brunch, and then both her and Hayden could go their separate ways. Just one brunch. Except, her boyfriend then put his hand on her thigh under the table, and the touch nearly burned her, making her push her chair back in an instant so she could stand up, to the confusion of Jude. "Sorry, I - Just need to use the bathroom," she lied, nodding once more to him and then casting a quick, barely-there look at Hayden before she made a beeline to the hallway in the back of the restaurant.

"What?" she asked, incredulously, surely she must've heard wrong. "You're .. joking." So sure was she that he wasn't serious, that she even laughed. A little humorlessly, but it was definitely a scoff.