Ironies of life

Chapter 14: Freedom.

“How dare you, Dante!?” Naoki shouted as soon as he heard the front door close.

“You said you didn’t wanted me to do it, and if you do it you’ll just hurt yourself more, so I asked her to come. You’re welcome.” Dante seemed bored of talking with him. He didn’t even raise his voice to speak, so Naoki was having a hard time hearing it from the second floor.

“You know I’m not talking about that. How dare you say that!” Naoki stood up and walked downstairs to go and yell in his face. “How dare you tell her I’m not good with women right next to me. Do you want to die or what?”

“What are you doing down here? Go back to your bed. I just told her that to go easy on you, she is really clingy and...”

“To go easy on me? Are you even hearing yourself? You are the most cruel person I’ve ever met in my life! I hate you Dante Hartell, I hate you so much to the po… point…” Everything around Naoki was turning fuzzy and suddenly the world tilted around him. Fortunately, Dante was expecting it and grabbed him just before he could collide with the floor. His shoulder started burning with pain once again.

“Naoki, you are an idiot.” Dante tried to make him sit on the kitchen island, grabbing the uninjured arm for leverage, but Naoki was swinging like a rag puppet. His eyes were still open, but it was obvious that he was losing consciousness.

Dante placed himself between Naoki’s legs and tried to pull him onto his back.

“You are no help, Hiro.”

It took a while, but he finally left Naoki on his bed, again murmuring things that didn’t make any sense at all. Dante opened Naoki’s shirt and made sure the bandage was alright.

Naoki was trying to adjust his vision, trying to say something, but his body wasn’t obeying. He kept babbling things a bit longer until the fuzzy effect was gone.

“What… happened?”

“You are sedated i***t. I told you not to stand up.”

“You…” Naoki was trying to clear his head, feeling the dizziness disappear slowly. “You touched me.”

Dante looked away as if staring at a camera, and with a loud sigh, he facepalmed before looking at the irritating and injured male in front of him.

“Did you want me to just let you fall? That doesn’t count. You should be saying ‘Thank you so much, Dante. I’ll be dying of pain right now if you didn’t catch me on time, Dante. You are my hero.’” The fact that he said it so serious made it more funny.

“Like I’m going to ever say that to you… or to anyone. The point is that you broke the deal.”

“No I didn’t. I helped you from hurting yourself. Naoki, don’t be a child about this.”

“I’m not talking about grabbing me and bringing me here. You opened my shirt.”

“I was checking your shoulder. You were so heavy that I couldn’t control if you were moving it or not.”

“I don’t care, I don’t want excuses.”

Dante clenched his jaw tight and jumped on Naoki’s bed. His knees locked in on both sides of Naoki’s body as he grabbed Naoki’s shirt and brought his face unnervingly close.

“Listen to me.” Dante’s eyes narrowed and he glared intimidatingly. “I’m paying extra to my therapist to make her come here and apply some stupid cream on your shoulder. It’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever done in my entire life, and it was just to prove that I’m serious about this deal. Understand?”

“O-okay…” Dante dropped Naoki’s shirt. “I get it. I’ll let it be for this time, but if you touch me again, I’m dead serious, I’ll leave the house.” He was trying to look calm, but the truth was that he was very scared of Dante at that moment.

Not to mention that the blond was sitting on him while he lay on his own bed almost shirtless, given that his shirt was fully open in the front. Just like the night before, the point were his skin was touching Dante’s pants was really hot, that guy probably had temperature problems.

“Dante, you’re hot.”

“I know, I get that a lot.”

“I MEANT GET OFF MY BED, IDIOT.” Naoki pushed him with his good hand and the freckled dude got down from the bed to stand in front of him. “You’re annoying me.”

“So is the deal still on? You aren’t going to run away?” Dante just wanted to confirm.

Naoki wasn’t really planning on carrying out his promise, but in the moment he couldn’t move anyway.

“Yes, it’s still on.”

“Okay. I’m going to go downstairs and do some exercise. If you need something yell at me, you know, since that’s your specialty. And if it’s something stupid don’t even bother me or I’m going to get angry. You’ve been warned.”

Naoki shrugged. Dante was Dante again. The arrogant stupid prince replaced the concerned caretaker in less than four seconds.

‘At least he can do exercise here. All I want is to be able to go to the swimming pool and drown all my problems there. But now with this shoulder and the deal… I’m really locked here with Dante Hartell.’

But, surprisingly, it wasn’t all that bad. Dante still had to act like a servant and bring him all the food to the bed and he was enjoying messing around with the blond guy like that. He also had some time to sleep and he wasn’t all that bored because he was planning the next excuse to bother Dante.

Also at some point he asked Dante to get his computer back just in case he knew where was it hidden.

“Your mother said you are forbidden to use the computer or the phone.”

“That was before I got stuck on this bed, remember? Do you expect me to spend all this time here doing nothing?”

“Fine. As long as you don’t text anyone or get in contact with people outside I guess you can use it. Where is it?”

“I have no clue.”

Watching Dante go all around the house searching everywhere for his laptop was fun and once he found it being able to watch movies and videos was a nice distraction.

He almost spent the whole night watching a series on Netflix and the next morning he wasn’t feeling dizzy or in pain at all so he decided to go downstairs and have some breakfast. Going down the stairs wasn’t an issue. He felt completely fine and rested that he almost forgot he was sharing the house with someone.

Dante was in the living room doing push ups with a kind of plastic thing behind each hand. He was shirtless, only wearing sport shorts and socks. Naoki could see his back going up and down with each push up from the open kitchen. Drops of sweat were running down his back, following the grooves between the muscles and he could hear the irregular breathing coming from the blond’s mouth. Dante crossed his legs and kept doing push ups with one side of the body, then with the other one.

‘No wonder he is so fit. Who else would do all that stuff during vacation? And early in the morning… ugh so much work, my laziness would kill me if I tried to do that.’

Naoki stared at him from the kitchen, just looking at Dante’s body. He always knew Dante was like the God of Sports if there was such a god, but he never thought Dante would look so good while training.

‘Wait… what am I thinking? Why am I still looking? I don’t care about this jerk. I’m going to stop looking now… Naoki I said now.’ His mind reproached him. Internally, Naoki sighed at himself.

Dante changed his movement. He put the plastic things aside and began doing push ups with a small jump between them. So that the palm of his hand was not in contact with the floor for two seconds each time. For the sound of his breathing that required more effort from him but he was obviously so into it that he didn’t even see Naoki so he kept watching his physically advantaged enemy from the kitchen without moving, to avoid making any noise. And at the last push up the muscles of his legs flexed and he stood up to take a small white towel and get rid out some sweat. The only thing Naoki could see was his back, the shorts unfolding themselves to settle down again in their corresponding place.

“Good morning, Naoki,” said Dante, but he didn’t turn so it was impossible for him to see Naoki’s surprised expression as he quickly looked aside and sat down at the kitchen table.

‘Did he notice I was looking?’ Naoki felt his face rising in heat. ‘What is wrong with me?’

“It would be a good morning if you weren’t here.” He managed to answer, trying to think of a way to cover his face.

“Wow, you always wake up in a good mood, don’t you?” He left the towel hanging from his shoulders and walked into the kitchen. “Did you stay up late watching something?” Dante asked while looking inside the cabinets for a glass and Naoki could glimpse purple and green marks all over his abs and chest. He raised his eyebrow in confusion but looked away quickly in fear of being caught staring.

“Are you my mom now?”

“If I was your mom would you have your laptop?” He poured water for himself.

“Oh sorry, my bad, I forgot you were my good friend.” Naoki quipped back sarcastically.

“My intention has never been to be your friend.” Dante clarified.

Naoki blushed again. ‘I don’t want to blush. What is wrong with me?’

“Quit that.”

“Quit what?” Dante tilted his head back and quickly finished the glass.

“Quit throwing those kinds of lines. It makes me feel uncomfortable.”

“Wow, so I can’t touch you, I can’t watch you and now I can’t talk to you. Are you going to ask me to stop breathing next to you?”

“Most likely.”

“Doesn’t it seems a bit strict given all the freedom I’m giving to you?” Dante set the glass inside the dishwasher.

“Freedom? Do you call this freedom? I would be free if I could go out and swim.”

“You have A. An injured shoulder and B. An express order from your mother to stay in the house. So quit being a child about this. Do you want me to pass you the cereal?”

“I can do it myself.” Naoki stood up and opened the cabinet to take the cereal he wanted only to find that he needed two hands, one to hold the door open because it was the kind of door that closed easily, and the other one to grab the box from the highest shelf.

“Do you want me to pass you the cereal?” Dante repeated through his laughter.

“I said I can do it myself, leave me alone.” Naoki glared at Dante.

“Okay, okay. Whatever you do finish before 12:30. April is going to come help you with the anti-inflammatory cream again. Did you apply it to yourself before going to sleep too? I’m guessing you didn’t.”

“I don’t know how to, and I don’t want to hurt myself. Plus applying it is not all that easy, it’s painful. I wouldn’t do that to my poor shoulder.”

“It’s for the greater good, Naoki.”

“See? You even say the sentences bad guys will say in movies.”

Dante shook his head and shrugged as he walked back to the living room to continue with his training. April showed at the scheduled time, but Dante was still at it so Naoki had to go and face her again.

“Good morning, April.”

“Good morning Mr. Injured. I forgot your name I’m sorry. I’m bad with those things” She entered in the house and left her stuff on the living room table. “Good morning, Dante. I like to see that you are training.”

“I know you do. I get that a lot.”

She laughed “Stuck-up brat. We see people like you every day.”

Dante glanced without stopping, he was smiling. “I’m unique. You will never find someone like me.”

“You’re definitely a piece of work…” She turned her attention back to Naoki. “Could you please show me that shoulder?” She seemed all polite and nice again, as if Dante’s interruption had never happened.

Naoki unbuttoned his shirt while she was looking for the lotion and let April do her job right in the kitchen.

“Well, this looks so much better. I was a bit concern at the beginning, but now I know for sure that it’ll be gone in one week. Just make sure you apply the lotion as I do. Okay?”

“Er… I… I don’t know if…”

“Hold on, sweetie.” She interrupted and stood up looking at Dante over the kitchen table. “Hartell come here.”

“Am I allowed?” He joked, leaning on the door frame.

“Look, I’m not going to come every single day just to put some cream on him and leave. This is not that bad to take a look all those times and I’m not going to accept that much money from you again so learn how to do it and help your friend, you fool.”

Dante stared at Naoki for a second and then approached April to pay attention to the process. Naoki made sure he contained all the moans, whimpers and whines this time. No way was he going to show Dante his weakness, even if he was burning in pain. He put all his effort into staying quiet and completed the process with a couple of sighs and low sounds.

“See? It sounds like it’s getting less painful for you.” April pointed out optimistically. Naoki did his best to smile back to her. “Now I have to go and I think you can manage this yourself, Dante. But if there is any problem for some reason just call me. I’ll try to skip work and come.”