Heartbreak hotel

Chapter 34

It was a rather chilly day for summer, and when evening had rolled around, everyone had slowly begun to gather in the Romans’ home. It was their turn to feed the rest of them after all. They had held the excuse of having no home before, and now that they had one and everything was officially set up, they couldn’t lie out of it this time.

Rick and Roman were hiding away in the kitchen, cooking. Ravi said his uncle’s cooking was the best, but Soren wholeheartedly believed the man was biased. Soren’s eyes caught Seth, Lillian and Ghost. The trio were near the entryway into the kitchen, all leaning on the wall. Ghost looked to be arguing with Lillian about something, while Seth had his eyes glued on Alex and Nathaniel, who were talking to one another, and Alex was grinning.

Even though Alex and Nathaniel had been keeping their distance from Seth, it didn’t stop the man from trying to talk to Alex or even staring at him. When he first arrived, the two went on an impromptu vacation, and Alex said it had nothing to do with Seth magically coming back from the dead, but they all knew it did, and no one had commented on it.

Soren had overheard Ash and Alex talking, and he knew Alex had expected them to go by now. He was upset to hear that they would still be here for a few more weeks, at the minimum, just until they had gotten off of The Cleaner’s list, and he still couldn’t take their name seriously enough. He snickered to himself as he stared down at the black wooden flooring. He knew Rick must have had control over the decor choices because black floors and almost dark blood-red walls were not exactly Roman’s more sophisticated style.

Movement caught Soren’s eye as he saw Seth push himself off the wall and walk straight for Alex and Nathaniel, who were still talking to one another on the black couches, but when Alex spotted him, he not so discreetly stood up and walked away. Lillian hid her laugh behind a cough but said nothing. Seth was about to follow after Alex, but Nathaniel stood up and stared the man in the eye as he grabbed his wrist.

“I’ll go after my husband; you'd better stay here with the rest of them, so they can keep an eye on you,” Nathaniel deadpanned as he cleared his throat and walked away in the same direction that Alex had left in.

Ash cleared his throat a little, staring up from the book he was holding before glaring at Seth, and when the man sighed, he walked back to the wall. Ash smiled, cosying back up in Sebastian’s arms and focusing his attention back on it. Soren stared at his adoptive parents, a small smile appearing. Sebastian had been lying about on the couch when Ash had appeared, and he had climbed into his husband’s arms, lying on his chest and grabbed his book, Sebastian had his arms over Ash’s shoulders, his phone on the man’s stomach, Soren wasn’t sure how Sebastian could see what he was doing, but they had been like that for the past fifteen minutes so he didn’t question it.

“Do you think Uncle Sebastian can even see what he’s doing?” Silas muttered, leaning slightly toward Soren. Soren had just been wondering the same thing, and he was sure the man couldn’t.

“No, I think Ash is just comfortable, and he doesn’t want to do anything to annoy him.”

“He’s not a cat.”

“Could be.”

Soren rolled his eyes and didn’t answer.

When the food was ready, Ravi was the first one to be in the kitchen, Soren and Silas were next, and Soren not so subtly judged the amount of food Ravi had on his plate, surely he wouldn’t be able to finish what looked like three people’s portions of mac and cheese, two potions of mashed potatoes, four mozzarella sticks, some gravy and tater tots. A lot of them.

Chatter began as usual when everyone had their food and had gathered in the rather large lounge room. But Soren had zoned out from the conversation, and his eyes were on Isaiah, Royal and Midnight. As usual, the three were stoned but snickering as they tried to eat. Midnight tried to eat his mashed potatoes with a knife, and of course, he wasn’t picking up much, and instead of telling him to stop, the other two were cheering him on.

All the noise from that corner had led to some others looking over, and when Gabriel realised what Midnight was doing, he stood up and stormed over, snatching the knife from him and then whacking Isaiah and Royal over the head. “Instead of egging him on, tell him to stop. He could be hurt.”

“Don’t give him a knife when he’s stoned,” Luca muttered, “noted.”

“Don’t give him a knife at all,” Nathaniel deadpanned. “Do we really want a repeat of what happened last time?”

“It was soft, I knew it wouldn’t cut,” Midnight deadpanned, rolling his eyes.

Ravi had made his way over somewhere along the way and taken a seat with him and Soren, but so far, he hadn’t said anything.

“What did he do last time?” he asked, looking at Soren with a raised eyebrow.

“Nothing you need to know about.”

“I want to know,” Ghost added, frowning a little, as he walked over and finished the small circle that had been created. Soren jumped a little; he hadn’t heard the man come over, even with his heavy shoes. Ghost had his eyes on Midnight, who was giggling at something Royal had just said.

“He tried to cut himself to see if he would bleed,” Soren deadpanned.

“Ghost,” Ash said, looking down at him. His eyes widened in surprise when he realised who he had sat with, but he didn’t say anything. “These two fuckers won’t tell me, but will you?” he said, pointing at Seth and Lilian.

“Tell you what?” he asked.

“Who put us on that list?”

Ghost was quiet for a moment, “It was me. Some washed-up detective came to me; he gave me this massive folder he had on you and everyone here, and looking through it, it was enough to have you on there.”

Ash stared at Rick and Roman. “How long until your cleaning crew gets here?”

Soren sighed as he stared down at his plate of food. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying their food. Hell, Ravi had almost finished all of his food, and so he ate some. He wouldn’t give the man the satisfaction of knowing he had been right. This was the best mac and cheese he had ever had. Soren caught Ravi staring at him with a grin as he continued to eat, and when he glared at the man, he smiled but looked away. He didn’t bother listening to what else was happening until the voice beside him spoke up.

“I can do it,” Ravi said, putting his knife and fork down and staring at the men. “I’m trained for this. But then, you owe my uncles a favour.”

“I can do it myself,” Ash deadpanned, staring at him.

Sebastian cleared his throat. “I agree with Ravi, Romeo. You should let him do it.”

Ash looked at his husband, and Soren wasn’t sure what made him back down, but he sighed and nodded slowly, leaning over and pecking his husband. “Fine. A favour for a favour.”

Ravi nodded, and Soren didn’t say anything as the man finished his food in record time before standing up; Soren’s eyes followed him as he went to the kitchen and reappeared a few moments later. “I’ll go get changed.”

~*~