Did he actually believe Ani would hurt himself again? The problem was he hadn’t seen it coming the first time, so could he really trust his own judgment on this? Perhaps almost dying had knocked some sense into the younger guy, but perhaps not. There really was no way to be certain.
And therein lay the issue.
There was no way to be certain.
Did Flix simply take his word for it so they could move forward, or did he cling to this fear?
“Why are you even afraid, dipshit?” he quietly scolded himself. It was true he’d always wanted Ani for himself, but it was also true he’d never believed that was a real possibility. Now that things had come to this, he was struggling with accepting it and adjusting to their new roles.
Flix was no longer the guy who had to keep his distance to protect him. Since Ani was his Onus, staying as close as possible was the best way to keep him safe now. He’d been trying to buy himself some time to figure out how many people he wanted to know about this, knowing the second he announced it, it’d be the same as painting a target on Aneski’s back, but…
Hiding him away like some big secret wouldn’t work in the long term. He knew that. Eventually, Ani really would start to resent him, and then he might do something stupid again purely out of spite.
If Flix’s goal was to keep him safe, Rabbit was right. He needed to give him a reason to want to stick around, to not want to put his own life in danger again.
And the best way he could do that was to make sure he tied Ani so tightly to him he wouldn’t be able to escape even if he tried.
Flix returned to the dresser and picked up Aneski’s multi-slate, turning the device on. He’d shut it down when he’d taken it off of Ani but now seemed like the right time to offer it back to him and let him contact his friends. They were probably—
A flood of missed messages came in, dinging one after the other with little pause. There were too many to count, which Flix had been expecting, many of them from Gannon and Rexton.
Even when he’d only come around as Russ’s friend, Flix had noticed the way Gannon had felt toward Aneski. It’d become clear as time passed that neither Ani or Rexton had picked up on it themselves, which was strange considering how obvious it was.
He didn’t plan on reading the messages, seeing no need to invade Aneski’s privacy to that extent, but then another name he was familiar with popped up, and he stiffened. Flix opened the device and went straight to the message, something dark and demanding twisting inside of him.
Yuze:Hey, sorry again for the other night! Did you end up finding a replacement? If not, I’m all good to film this weekend if you still need me. Let me know!
Why was a member of the Brumal texting Ani? And why was he talking about filming? As far as Flix knew, there was only one thing Ani filmed in his free time. He thought back on the past Bind films he’d watched. At the time, he’d been so focused on Aneski on screen, he hadn’t really paid much attention to his “acting” partner, but now…
It’d been Yuze. The blond hair, the broad shoulders…That overly cocky half grin he gave whenever he was pleased with himself.
A bitter laugh escaped Flix before he could help it, his hand tightening on the device. All that effort to keep Aneski away from the Brumal, only to learn he’d been screwing one of them behind Flix’s back anyway?
Yuze was younger than the both of them. Was that the sort of thing Ani was actually into? Did he get off on younger guys? Was Flix merely areplacement, as Yuze had put it in his message?
Before he fully understood what he intended, Flix switched to his own device and shot off a couple of messages. Then, he went back to Ani’s and sent one from there. He’d only just replaced them both on the dresser surface when the Tiny Terror—hisTiny Terror—poked his head from the bathroom.
Ani had a towel wrapped low around his waist and was clutching it against his hip to keep it closed. He looked at Flix with an odd expression, a mixture of doubt and eagerness,seemingly working himself up to finally asking, “Are you coming? You said you were coming…”
“Change of plans,” Flix announced. “Let’s go out.”
Aneski blinked at him. “What?”
“Why?” he inquired. “You don’t want to?”
“No, it’s not that,” he quickly said. “I do.”
“That eager to get out of this house, Ani?” He tipped his head. “Or is it you can’t wait to try and get away from me?”
Aneski huffed and stepped further into the bedroom. “How many times do you need me to prove that Iwantto be with you, Flix?”
“You asked what you have to do to get me to loosen the reigns fully,” Flix said. “Are you willing to do whatever I ask?”
“Yes,” there was no hesitation in his reply.
“Put your clothes back on and meet me downstairs.”
“Where are we going?”
