The next day came surprisingly fast. John had set the table to include finger sandwiches and black tea in an old teapot. Now the only thing to do was to get Evan prepared and grab Lawrence from their meet up spot.

John went through his house, ignoring some of the doors in the hallways, and unlocked the ten locks on Evan’s door. He could see his boy was sitting on his small lounge chair, annoyed because he could hardly move from the muscle relaxant still in his system. John had moved him there because he asked politely, and he didn’t want to deny his son being able to sit in his chair. He closed the door behind him and looked to Evan with a wide smile.

“Evan! Honey, I’m going to meet with our new friend downstairs today. Do you remember?” John asked, walking over to his boy’s small sofa and sitting down on one of the arm rests.

Evan only huffed and grumbled lowly. “Oh, right, you can’t speak right now.” John mumbled. He forgot that the relaxant was pretty strong. “Well, it doesn’t matter. The relaxant should be wearing off in around twenty minutes or so, so you’ll be as chatty as a parrot when it does! However,” He stated, grabbing Evan’s jaw in his hands and squeezing as he tilted his head towards his gaze. John could feel the intensity of Evan’s glare, but he glared right back. “Do not try to escape your room. I will not risk you being in danger of a possible murderous psychopath. I’m warning you now, Evan. Blink twice if you understand.”

John could feel that Evan wanted to hiss and scream at him, but opted for an intense stare and blinked twice as hard as he could. John let go of his boy’s chin and rubbed the red marks that emerged from his squeezing. “Good. Remember, the relaxant wears off in twenty minutes and if you try to leave, you will be severely punished.

John sat up from the chair and promptly left the room, closing the door behind him without locking it up first. He was sure that Evan had noticed the lack of the locking noises and figured that his boy would think that John would let his guard down and allow the door to be unlocked since Evan couldn’t move. But unfortunately for Evan this was a test, for him, and Lawrence if he bumped into him inside of his grand house.

Speaking of Lawrence, it was about time to meet up with him.

————

Lawrence was already there, humming some tune John didn’t recognize. As soon as the blond heard his footsteps crunch against the leaves, he looked over at him. John waved with a strained, small smile, the gesture forced. Lawrence nodded, his grin widening.

The two men walked for a while in silence, Lawrence occasionally looking over at the other man. When John didn’t respond to his gaze, he would just look back ahead.

It was spent in somehow more silence than yesterday’s walk. There was no small talk, and though it wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, it was clear something was on his mind.

“You live here?” Lawrence was in a little disbelief as he set eyes on the large home, much larger than his own. When John curtly nodded, Lawrence chuckled. “And here I was thinking it was just some tiny cabin, or somethin’.”

“Well, a bigger house is much more convenient for me.” John mumbled with a dry laugh. “I need a lot of space. Although it does get tiring trying to navigate everywhere. I swear, sometimes I need to use a map to get around.”

“Hah, I can understand that!” Lawrence replied with a snicker as John unlocked the several locks on his door. Lawrence wondered to himself why this man needed so many locks on one door, even in their strange line of “work” it seemed excessive. But he wasn’t a man to judge. When the door finally swung open and John let Lawrence inside, he was blown away by how spacious yet empty the place was. The dining room was gray and dull, with only a sofa, a coffee table and a television on a stand. Lawrence looked back at John in confusion as he shut the door behind him. “Why do you live in such a drab environment? Surely with such a big home you can afford more…lively decorations? Or decor at all?”

John looked up, perplexed, before looking around the dining room. “Oh, yes, well, I don’t really like decorations anymore. They take up too much space. And the dull colors of everything is less straining to my eyes.” He explained swiftly. “But I can assure you my cooking skills are much better than my decor.” That made both of them quietly snicker before John gestured to Lawrence to follow him. “Come on, you might get lost if I don’t accompany you.”

Lawrence briefly wondered if John was joking, but considering it took three hallways to get to the kitchen, he figured he was not. The kitchen was just as drab as the dining room, mostly gray and black appliances with a bright fluorescent ceiling light brightening up the room. John didn’t seem to mind as much as Lawrence and sat down at the kitchen table while looking up at John with a cheerfully forced smile. “Well, don’t just stand there. Let's eat!”

Lawrence sat down across from John and dug into the finger sandwiches prepared. All of them were of varying flavors, from ham and cheese to cucumber to peanut butter. The black tea was also rich in caffeine, almost as much as coffee. Lawrence complemented John on that as they talked, but that tea had to go somewhere.

“Oh, boy, I think I drank too much.” Lawrence said as he belched. “Do you mind if I use your bathroom? Or, well, one of your bathrooms?” He asked with a light smile.

John didn’t reciprocate and handed Lawrence a piece of folded up paper. He took it in confusion and opened it up to see it was a crudely drawn map clearly drawn in crayon, although readable. “What is…”

“It’s a map of my house. Use it to go to the bathroom.” John explained, albeit muffled. “Don’t go to the places marked with a red X, obviously.” When Lawrence looked up he saw that John was shoving small sandwiches in his face, too focused on his food to care about Lawrence at that moment. He blinked at John for a few moments before getting up from his chair and leaving the kitchen, looking at the map in his hands in confusion.

John waited until he couldn’t hear Lawrence’s footsteps anymore to stop shoving food in his mouth. Sure, letting Lawrence go through his house without watching him would surely raise suspicions and risk the man going through his things. But something told him that Lawrence wasn’t the type to do that. He waited a full two minutes, checking his watch for the time, before getting up from his chair. Now to see if Evan was walking about.

___

Evan stared at his door knob anxiously. The muscle relaxant had indeed worn off in twenty minutes, but he didn’t dare try to get up immediately, he didn’t want John to be secretly outside of the door waiting to pounce on him. So he waited a while until his bones felt like they couldn’t wait anymore and he decided to try and open the door.

He was wobbling slightly on his feet. He could tell the relaxant was still in his system a bit, since he felt sluggish, but if he could get to a window or something and open it he would be home free. Sure, they might be in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of the woods. But forests means he would be well hidden and harder to spot, and that would be a fair price to pay. But he had to get to a window or a door first, which meant opening his own door.

He hadn’t heard John lock the door like he usually did, so he knew it was unlocked. Probably. He still didn’t know if John was waiting outside of the door or not. He could have been lying about meeting up with another murderous psycho so he could make Evan put his guard down and jump him the second he tried to get out. But at the same time, that couldn’t be true at all, and Evan would have wasted his only opportunity being paranoid.

So he took a deep breath, grabbed the doorknob, and turned it. It turned and the door swung open with ease.

Without stopping to celebrate his victory, Evan bolted out of the room and into the hallway, making as many left turns as he could. He heard somewhere once that if you made only left turns in a maze you would find an exit, and he figured that had to be true here since the house seemed huge. Hallways and hallways of doors, leading to rooms he had no possible idea of which they could hold. But he didn’t want to think about the possibilities, he had to get the hell out of-

He slammed into a wall and dropped to the floor. He groaned and glanced up to see it was not a wall, it was a person. A very confused person with a paper in his hand that looked like it was drawn in crayon. But more importantly, this person was NOT John.

Evan threw out any rational thought in his head and quickly scrambled up to his feet, grabbing the man by the collar of his shirt to pull him down to his level. “Look, mister, you need to help me.” Evan begged. “This psychopath named John kidnapped me and is keeping me locked up here! You need to help me, please, please help me get out of here!”

The man looked up and down at Evan. his white shirt with pink stripes and his long pink pajama pants before the sound of boots stomping up the stairs made it to them, making both of them turn around to see the source of the noise. To Evan’s disdain, it was John, panting heavily as he glared at Evan. Evan glared right back at him.

“Lawrence. I see you’ve met Evan.” John panted.

Though Evan saw shock on the older man’s face, he was baffled when it turned back to its normal smile. In fact, he looked giddy.

As soon as Lawrence reached out a hand, John tensed, ready to attack him for thinking of hurting his boy, but then Lawrence just… patted Evan on the head.

John relaxed slightly, but confusion was running through his veins still. Was it normal for him to be this relaxed about this situation? Unless… Lawrence really was like him? Surely not.

Immediately, Evan went rigid as he felt the hand in his hair. He backed away, slapping his hand. Despite the gesture, he was still trying to give himself hope that this guy was just acting.

Lawrence turned to John. “I think we’re a little more alike than I thought.” Looking back at Evan, Lawrence crooned, “So your name is Evan, huh? I have a kid just about your age! Your dad never told me he has a son!”

The words “dad” and “son” made Evan feel uneasy, but he shook it off, assuming these were just the man’s terms for how he saw the situation.

“No, he’s—he’s not my dad! And I’m not a kid, I’m literally an adult! He kidnapped me!” Evan argued.

John glared at Evan. “Watch it. Lawrence, I’m sorry, he must’ve hit his head too hard—” He stepped forward to grab Evan, to which the young man flinched away, behind Lawrence.

“John, it’s okay, I understand now.” Lawrence chuckled, waving his hand. “Remember running into my son? Well, some could argue he’s not… really mine. Biologically. Just like how some could argue this little one isn’t yours either, right?” He ruffled Evan’s hair. “My kiddo just started warming up to me. How long have you had this one?” He looked down at the dumbfounded Evan fondly.

John was clearly shocked that this was Lawrence’s reaction, despite what he saw yesterday, but he only cleared his throat and picked at his nails. “Well, it’s been only a month or so now, but-”

He didn’t get to finish because Evan had decided to bolt in the opposite direction. Now that he knew both of them were fucking nuts, he had to get out of there. He didn’t know where he was going, but it had to be anywhere but there.

Lawrence watched him run off with a curious look. “Are you going to-” he started.

“Yeah, I got it.” John interrupted. He chased after Evan, his boots stomping hard against the wooden hallway. He quickly grabbed the shirt collar of his boy and yanked him into his chest, holding him tight. Evan squirmed in his hold and scratched at John’s arms to try and make him let go.

“Get off me!” Evan hissed.

“You are going to be punished for this, Evan.” John growled, pulling a needle out of his trench coat. “You shouldn’t have left your room. I’m disappointed in you.”

Evan yelped as the needle was stabbed into his neck, trying to get out of John’s grasp as he pushed in the plunger. He could feel Evan getting weaker in his hold as the small sedative kicked in. He finally looked back at Lawrence with an apologetic look on his face. “Sorry about that, Lawrence, Evan usually knows better.”

Lawrence nodded, waving a hand. “Don’t worry about it, it happens to the best of us. Marshall and I went through the same ordeal more times than you can believe. But it’s all worth it in the end, yeah?”

John smiled slightly, though still confused and shocked. He lifted Evan up with an arm under his legs, holding him up like a baby. The boy didn’t protest, having passed out from the drug. Lawrence followed the two as they headed back to the bedroom.

Watching John put Evan back in bed, Lawrence only smiled. For a moment, John just stared at Evan before finally meeting Lawrence’s gaze. “So…” John cleared his throat. “How long have you had…”

“Marshall?”

“Yeah.”

Lawrence tapped his chin. “Since January, so… four months now! Wow, it’s been longer than I thought. He can be a handful at times, but he can be so sweet when he wants to.” Seeing John’s slightly saddened expression, he sympathetically put a hand on his shoulder, to which John didn’t recoil like he normally would. “The first month is always the hardest.”

John nodded stiffly. He knew that all too well. “I am working on it, but it’s hard to do this when I don’t have help…” he mumbled.

Lawrence perked up at that. “Oh don’t worry, I live close by! If you ever need any assistance, I’ll be more than happy to help! Not to critique your parenting skills, but everyone needs help once in a while.” he slapped John’s back lightly with a grin, although John didn’t share his enthusiasm.

“I don’t know…” he muttered.

“Come on, John, we dads need to stick together! Especially in situations where our children won’t listen to us.” Lawrence said, gesturing to Evan’s unconscious body on the bed. “How about this? We can set up a playdate for Marshall and Evan!”

John looked up at Lawrence in pure confusion. “Huh?”

“Yeah! A playdate! We can see how well they’ll get along and you’ll have to admit asking for help won’t be so bad. I’m sure Marshall and Evan will get along great!” He exclaimed with delight.

John only grumbled. “Well, it’ll have to be at my house. Evan isn’t ready to leave the house yet…”

“Of course, of course!” Lawrence said happily. “We can do it tomorrow! Ooo, Marshall having a friend is going to be great!”

John stood up from the floor and gave Lawrence a tight smile, although he himself could feel a bit of excitement in his body as they left the room and headed back downstairs. The thought of Evan having a friend was very enticing. He would get more social stimulation and have someone else to talk to.

He held the door open for Lawrence as he left. “We’ll see each other tomorrow, then!” Lawrence chirped.

John gave a rare real smile, holding out his hand for Lawrence to shake. “Yes, we will.”