The lavender-haired captured his lips right after, feeling content and hugging his chest. “I missed you so much…! If it wasn't for little Leo keeping my company, I would’ve gone insane.”

“...You’re the one who put me in there in the first place.” Max pierced.

“... so I did. But I won't be doing that again. That was a bad decision.” Jason confessed, embracing him tighter. Although the blond doubted that. Jason was the one who needed help, but he refused to acknowledge it. And he would get in trouble if he mentioned it.

The blond’s thoughts were interrupted by a cool hand crawling up under his shirt. He shrugged away, trying to put some distance between them. The last thing he was in the mood for was intimacy. Jason ignores the pushbacks and continues to enforce his hand and lean his face forward for a kiss, to the point where Max had to exclaim. “Don’t touch me!”

The lavender-haired inched back, staring at him stunned by the sudden, uncharacteristic outburst. The door knocked open, and their small child peered in. “Mom?” he blankly called out. The blond was already up and walking towards him, leaving Jason be. Forcing a smile and fixing his shirt, he hoisted the child up. “Hey baby, why are you still up?” He carried him away without even looking back.

Jason’s jaw tightened, his expression unchanged and stern, but eyes darker by the second. He’ll let it be. For now. Max will come around; he always does, he told himself. 

However, their rapport didn’t get any better. Max would pretty much ignore Jason’s presence unless he was called out. He mostly tended to Leon’s needs and used the child as a shield. The lavender-haired still made him kiss him goodbye, but it was obvious to anyone that Max was just a lifeless body standing there, giving a bleak, emotionless kiss.

It was beginning to agitate Jason.

Max was positioning his pillow and blankets on one of the longer couches in the living room. “…What the hell is this?” A sharp voice startled him from the end of the room. It was Jason.

“I’m going to sleep here.”

“You can’t seriously be thinking of sleeping here?” The taller man’s face was distorted.

“I am.”

“No. You’re sleeping with me.”

“I don’t want to sleep with you on the bed.” Max rebelled.

“Max. We agreed, no matter what, we would sleep together. It has to be in our bedroom.” Jason’s voice was dark and serious, but the blond tried not to cower.

“That’s when you kept your part of the agreement.” The blond stared back at him, eye to eye, with vengeance and hurt. Jason’s jaw visibly clenched, standing closer to him now and glowering down.

“Don’t make me force you.”

Max’s shoulders relaxed; he was not afraid anymore. “Then force me. What’s stopping you? Isn’t that how you’ve always done it?” He choked the last part out, every flashback ever replaying in his mind, bringing silent tears to his eyes all on their own. He didn’t even realize the thin stream of tears coming down his cheeks.

‘Why was he crying? He was supposed to be keeping a strong, unrelenting front.’ The blond wiped his face after Jason noticed them too. The lavender-haired, to his surprise, left with haste, storming out. The blond believed somewhere deep in Jason’s heart that he knew he was wrong. About everything. All the lies, abuse, deception, force, and so on. 

Sure, from Jason’s perspective, he could easily force the blond but, dammit. He wanted to at least try to go back to how they were. Furthermore, Max already attempted to run away from this house, injuring himself and almost Leon in the process. The last thing Jason wanted was to aggravate his lover’s doubt.

Jason resorted to their room and dumped himself on the bed with spite, pulling the sheets over him in one go.

However, hours clocked away before Jason could gain anything close to sleep. This was their bed. It felt so empty; there was nothing and no one within arm’s length for him to hold. This was the same bed they made love to so many times, Max crying out loud, in pain, in pleasure, and in fear. The lavender rolled over to his stomach, but eventually he sat up, planting a hand over his forehead and heaving a sigh.

‘This feels like déjà vu.’

Jason dragged himself out of bed and trudged to the living room, where the blond was sleeping soundlessly. He stared down at the blond's curled body before climbing over him, his silhouette shadowing over the sleeping figure. Max stirred, rolling over and laying more on his back. Jason’s hand found the other’s neck and gripped it loosely. “Why are you doing this to me? Then you hate it when I act a certain way…”

The blond twitched before cracking an eye open, instantly alarmed to see a pitch-black face in the dark staring down at him with piercing, glowing turquoise eyes. Before he could panic, the grip on his throat tightened, and he began choking.

 The blond gawked, but Jason continued. “Why won’t you look at me? Why do you force me to hurt you?” He glowered. Max could only choke under his grasp, clawing at his hand.

“Mmmh.” The sleeping blond mumbled. The lavender hair blinked; he hadn’t moved at all. That was all in his head. Meh.  

Max woke up in the morning, with thin streams of sunlight sneaking through the dark purple curtains of their bedroom and a weight behind him.

‘Wait, bedroom?’ The blond attempted to jerk up but suddenly noticed an arm locking him in place. He peered over his shoulder to find his husband sleeping against his back. The blond sighed. ‘Of course.’ At this point, he couldn’t tell whether to be pointlessly angry again or just stop caring. Ultimately, he briskly freed himself from the other’s hold, waking him up in the process. Max was tired of questioning and arguing with him, so he simply decided to climb out, but a hand stopped him.

“Where are you going?” Jason blurted, his voice demanding but his eyes missing him. “Stay.”

Max tried to shake his hand off, which irritated Jason even more. "Just how long do you plan to ignore me like this?”

“Let go.”

“Answer me. I’m not letting you go.” Jason pulls him in closer and cages him in his arms from behind.

"Dammit, Jason—is it so hard to understand? I don’t want to deal with you more than I have to—stop! Let me go!” Max began struggling under the iron cage, which felt suffocating. He couldn’t believe these same arms were all his security. In the midst of his thrashing, Max managed to slip an arm out but ended up accidentally slapping him.

The lavender-haired paused, eyes wide. The blond staggered away when he was finally outside the lion’s grip. The blond would lie if he said he didn’t feel at all guilty. However, in one swift motion, Jason grabbed him by the elbow and threw him on the bed, forcibly taking his lips. The lavender-haired held him down roughly and bit his tongue.

“Mh!” Max gagged and shut his eyes until a knock on the door interrupted them.

“Master Jason. Your secretary is on the phone.”

“Che.” Jason audibly clicked his tongue. On any other day, he’d ignore his secretary, but the fact that he was calling Jason in the first place was already a rarity, so it must’ve been a serious situation back at the company. “I’ll deal with you later.” He mumbled under his breath before climbing off. He followed the maid out the door while Max took a moment to gather himself mentally and physically, wiping his mouth.

Jason had to report back to the company, so he quickly wordlessly got dressed, pulled on his blazer, and skipped out on breakfast thanks to his new foul mood. In fact, for once, he didn’t even force Max to see him off at the door as he normally always would. 

After combating the task at hand, for the rest of the day, Jason sat in his office, skimming through and signing documents. He eventually took a break, staring into space in silence while his finger autonomously tapped the desk. As thoughts played in his head, his eyes appeared to get darker and darker.

‘My patience is running out.’ It was beginning to get on his nerves. He was trying to give Max some time, but this wasn’t working. ‘Dammit.’

Since that time, Jason had increased the security around the manor, and Max also wasn’t allowed to work anymore, at least for now. He couldn’t risk the blond running away from him again. Max was much more serious this time; he’s never attempted eloping before. ‘But then again, who wouldn’t after learning what the he did…’

“-ir. Sir.” Jason didn’t even realize when his secretary was calling out to him. The lavender-haired didn’t budge, and that was beginning to irritate the secretary. He was too used to this. “Ja—”

“Is there a way to wipe someone’s memories?” Jason abruptly imposed looking up at the man in his room.